The last supper took place on April Fool’s Day ... and it’s no joke
They say that in the year 33AD, Tiberius founded a credit bank and Rome experienced a financial crisis.
As the value of land hit rock bottom and the aristocracy were hardest hit in that part of the world, China saw a huge rebellion and wars break out.
And on what we know of today as April Fool’s Day, some historians believe the Last Supper took place.
Not everyone knows it as that. Some faiths call it the Lord’s Supper, others the Mystical Supper or even Secret Supper and there are various other views on the precise date.
The gathering isn’t even referred to as the Last Supper in the New Testament, but Christianity today sees it as the last meal Jesus shared with his Apostles before the Crucifixion.
Not everyone, though, even agrees on where it took place.
The Room of the Last Supper on Mount Zion, just outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls, also known as the Upper Room, is one location put forward as the definitive spot.
St Mark’s Syrian Orthodox Church, also in Jerusalem, is another, and it features a stone with an inscription stating that people have shown reverence there for the Last Supper from way back.
The Last Supper, of course, is the basis for the Eucharist, also known as Holy Communion.
During the most famous meal of all time, Jesus predicted he would be betrayed by one of the Apostles eating with him. He foresaw that Peter would three times deny knowing him, before the rooster crowed the following morning.
Sure enough, after the arrest of Jesus, Peter fulfilled the prediction, and after his third and final denial the rooster crowed. Jesus turned to look at him and Peter wept bitter tears.
All of this moved the ordinary as well as the not-so-ordinary, not least many great artists through the ages. The most famous work, of course, is the magnificent mural by Leonardo da Vinci.
Completed in the late 15th Century at the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie’s refectory, Milan, it rivals the Mona Lisa as one of the world’s best-known paintings. If you’ve ever stood in front of it, you’ll know it has a real aura. This is probably why so many imagine the scene da Vinci depicted is pretty accurate.
Some artists, however, have positioned Peter on the right, others on the left, and Salvador Dali’s version of this well-known scene is downright surreal, as only he could be.
If you had seen the Italian Renaissance artist’s famed work in the 1970s, badly faded and marked, you’d have been underwhelmed. Thanks to amazing restorers, not now.