Some
interpreters of the Last Supper narratives are baffled by the absence of any
explicit mention of the Passover lamb, let alone the consumption thereof by Jesus and the apostles in the upper room.
Scott Hahn, a Catholic scholar and apologist, has focused a lot on this,
including his recent book, The Fourth Cup
(Image, 2018) (such has been disputed by many other Catholics, including
Robert Sungenis in response to a question posed by John Salza on this issue).
Old
Testament scholar, William Propp, offered the following possibilities in his
commentary on Exodus:
As for why the lamb goes unmentioned in the
descriptions of the meal itself, three answers are possible. First, Jesus may
not have spoken memorably about the meat; i.e., he did not claim identity with
the paschal lamb. It is only in light of John and 1 Cor 5:7 that we find this
surprising. The second factor may be that, whether or not Jesus intended it
(note Luke 22:19), the eating of the Eucharist early became traditional (1 Cor
11:23-26). How expensive and inconvenient would worship have been, had Jesus
supposedly identified himself with the lamb instead of with the bread! Third,
and most likely, the presence of the main Passover dish may have been too
obvious to require mention. (William H.C. Propp, Exodus 1-18: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary [AB
2; New York: Doubleday, 1999], 460)
