Steven Carr

1 Corinthians 11 cannot be historical.

How did Jesus get his timing so right as to institute this meal in memory of him just hours before he was betrayed?

Why did he think the people with him would not be killed as well?

Why did he expect the movement to continue after his death? Doing what?

Why would the disciples need a meal to remember Jesus by? Were they so forgetful?

On the other hand, a cultic meal where the cult can obtain access to the body and blood of its founder, conjured up in a ritual, smells myth to such an extent that even historicists would wonder if they read a similar ritual about another cult.

Just what is needed before conjuring up the body and blood of a founder in a ritual meal is not regarded as a sign of a myth?

Doug Shaver

The two time periods to which Paul refers are before and after the revealing (or coming) of faith. I don't know which translation you're using, but in the several that I checked, there is nothing in Gal. 3:23-25 about Christ coming, either to earth or to anyplace else. Your interpretation presupposes the gospel stories.