2. Refutation of the Opinion

378. But in the issue at hand both the antecedent [n.375] and the consequence are false, for the first consequence [n.376] is nothing and the second is not necessary [n.377]. For that he suffered on the fifteenth day and consequently that he had the cena on the fourteenth is expressly proved by Matthew 26.17, “On the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples asked, ‘Where do you wish us to prepare for you to eat the pasch?’,” and Mark 14.12, “On the first day of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the pasch, they asked, ‘Where do you wish us to go and prepare to eat the pasch?’,” and Luke 22.7-8, “The day of unleavened bread arrived, on which it was necessary to eat the pasch, and he sent two, Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and prepare for us to eat the pasch.’”

379. From these it is plain that on the first day of unleavened bread, namely on the fourteenth day, he ate the paschal lamb, and this in accord with the place in Numbers that was just cited [n.377]; and “on the fifteenth day there will be a solemnity,” that is, the first complete day of the solemn Pasch, and on that day Christ suffered. And thus at the hour on which the paschal lamb had to be eaten according to the Law, namely the fourteenth day of the first month, the disciples ate the true lamb.

380. As to their proofs, which they adduce for the antecedent [nn.378-379], the answer is plain from a distinction set down by Innocent III On the Sacrament of the Altar IV ch.4, that ‘Pasch’ is said in five ways: in one way for the solemnity of the day of unleavened bread, which was the fifteenth day; in another way for the day on the evening of which the lamb was eaten, which was the fourteenth day; third for the hour of the sacrificing of the lamb, which was part of the fourteenth day; in the fourth way for the lamb that was eaten or sacrificed; in the fifth way for unleavened bread.

381. As to the issue at hand, one member of the distinction suffices for solving the first authority from John 18 [n.377], and likewise for solving the second authority from John [ibid.].The solution is that ‘pasch’ refers sometimes to the day of unleavened bread, and sometimes to the day of the paschal sacrifice, so that Christ could institute the Eucharist on one day (the Thursday) and suffer on the next (the Friday) and both days be days of the pasch. Nevertheless the timing of the cena (the Last Supper) and the institution of the Eucharist in the Gospels is puzzling, and Scotus’ treatment does not entirely solve that puzzle (even if his answer is sufficient against the Greeks). The Gospels put the cena on Thursday evening and suppose that the paschal sacrifice proper, which the Chief Priests and Pharisees celebrated, was later on Friday afternoon. Consequently the cena took place before the paschal sacrifice, and Christ himself suffered and died after the cena, at the same time as that sacrifice (being himself, of course, the true Lamb of God). Now in Jewish reckoning each day begins on the previous evening, so that Friday begins on Thursday evening and ends at Friday evening (when Saturday begins). So the cena, though it occurred on the Thursday evening, did occur on the fourteenth day; it just occurred much earlier in that day than the paschal sacrifice proper. The cena, then, could have used leavened bread since it occurred before the legal requirement for unleavened bread came into effect, but it could have used unleavened bread if it was an anticipation of the paschal sacrifice. So, from this point of view, the requirement that the bread for the Eucharist be leavened or unleavened does seem a matter of choice, to be determined by the Church’s law. ³⁶