BIBLE SCHOLAR: LAST SUPPER CHALICE LIKELY
A SIMPLE CLAY CUP Associated Press, April 11, 1998
By Karin Laub
JERUSALEM—In the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the hero stands before rows of goblets and in a life-or-death moment must decide which one is the Holy Grail—the wine cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper and invested with miraculous powers.
Ignoring richly adorned chalices, Indiana Jones carefully lifts a plain vessel and says, "That’s the cup of a carpenter."
This fantasy is close to reality, according to American Bible scholar Stephen Pfann who, based on new archaeological clues, says the Holy Grail probably was a simple clay cup.
Pfann has taken a fresh look at the pottery of the Essenes, a sect of devout Jews who lived in isolation in the cliffs above the Dead Sea at the time of Jesus and are believed to have had some influence on the world of Jesus and his followers.
Pfann found similarities between the Essenes’ ritual meals and the Last Supper and concludes that the communal wine cup they passed around likely was similar to the sacred vessel Jesus used.
The Essenes communal cup, made of wafer-thin clay and just a little taller than a coffee mug, "is the only parallel we have for a communal cup contemporary with the time of the Last Supper," said Pfann, of San Jose, Calif., head of the Center for the Study of Early Christianity.
Pfann’s theory has drawn mixed reviews form fellow scholars.
Joe Zias, a former curator of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said the Last Supper was a Jewish Passover seder in which the finest table wares would have been used, not a clay cup.
"It’s such a pedestrian piece of pottery that you definitely wouldn’t use it for any type of ceremonial function," Zias said.
However archaeologist Jerome Murphy O’Connor said that while wealthy Jews might have used more ornate tableware, perhaps made of glass or metal, Jesus and his followers had little money.
"In nine out of 10 cases, pottery would have been the favorite for poor people," said Murphy O’Connor, a scholar at Ecole Biblique, the archaeological institute that first excavated Qumran.
The Holy Grail has fascinated believers for centuries. Legend says it was brought to England by a follower of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea, in the year 63. In stories about King Arthur and his knights, the search for the lost grail became a central theme.
Despite the wealth of stories, little was ever said about what the Holy Grail looked like. Some say it was a chipped wooden bowl, while others described it as an onyx goblet.
Pfann believes the most reliable clues come from the Essenes—authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls—whose Qumran compound was first excavated in the 1950s.
Pfann is working on an English translation and a classification of the Qumran pottery. In reviewing the excavation notes of French archaeologist Roland de Vaux, he found the same ratio of cups, bowls and plates in two sealed pantries in the compound.
From this he concluded that each sect member had a bowl, each three or four shared a plate and nine or 10 shared a wine cup.
Israeli archaeologist Hanan Eshel, who has excavated at Qumran, said it’s impossible to determine the purpose of each piece of pottery, but Pfann said wine cups are easily distinguishable because of their thin rim.
About half the pottery pieces in the pantries had a beige rim, possibly a mark they were restricted for ritual use, Pfann said.
The discovery fit accounts by Jewish historian Josephus indicating that the Essenes’ meals were centerpieces of their sacred rituals.
After working for five hours after daybreak, sect members immersed themselves in ritual baths and changed from grubby work clothes to white garments for a late breakfast. As they sat on mats in groups of 10, a prayer leader said grace over bread and wine. The ritual was repeated at nightfall.
The Last Supper had similar elements, Pfann said.
At the banquet, a blend of a Passover meal and new ritual, the disciples sat around a table and Jesus blessed the wine before a cup was passed around. "And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, ‘Take this and divide it among yourselves,’" according to Luke. At least two people shared a dipping dish.
Some Qumran pottery is on display at the Israel Museum. Other pieces are still being patched together at the Ecole Biblique. In the institute’s pottery room, two reddish-brown clay cups stood on a shelf in a corner during a recent visit.
