‘Being Shed for You/Many’: Time-Sense and Consequences in the Synoptic Cup Citations

Abstract

All three Synoptic accounts of the Last Supper describe a cup offering in which Jesus refers to an act done for beneficiaries. This act, expressed by the present passive participle ἐκχυννόμενον is rendered by most modern translations with present tense verb forms and has been treated by source and historical critical researchers as denoting a ‘pouring out’ taking place at the supper table. Nevertheless, biblical Greek usage indicates that a participle’s time-sense was determined not by tense but by verbal aspect derived from content. If, as this essay proposes, verbal aspect establishes a future time sense for ἐκχυννόμενον, it would indicate that the Synoptic Gospels, like John’s Gospel, are describing a Passover supper on the eve of the Day of Preparation and portraying Jesus as speaking of the shedding of blood on the cross, not the libation at the table.