For those who like to deal with the facts of the matter, to understand if the 'last supper' was an actual Passover Seder we need to understand and agree to certain things.
1. That Yeshua was sinless, therefore he would have kept Torah which includes the instructions on how to keep the Passover.
2. That what he did would have been to the letter and not what was Tradition at the time. He was clear on how the Pharisees choose tradition over Torah and he was adamant about that not being the right way.
3. The Statistics--If we are to go by what was being done and what should have been done we will find ourselves in an entanglement that is never ending, thus proving out why this subject comes up every year in this forum.
So we need to take into account that Yeshua was keeping the Passover as it was to be kept, not how it was being kept by the 'establishment'.
The reconciliation between what is written in the gospels is to acknowledge that some parts of the account are based on what was truly correct in keep in with Torah and what was being kept by Tradition by those ruling over the people. Once we realize that it becomes easier to say if the Last Supper was a Seder.
Now based on that I would say it's easy now to see that the 'last supper'
was a Seder. Let's see if Yeshua kept it according to Torah.
- It is to be done each year in remembrance of the freedom from Egypt.
- It was to be done in Jerusalem.
- All men were to come to Jerusalem to keep it before the L-RD
- The lamb was to be slaughtered at even (as the sun goes down)
- It was to be eaten with bitter herbs and unleavened bread
- One lamb per family or group
1. In order to be sinless Yeshua would have to keep the Passover that year so he was without blemish up until the very last.
2. He came to Jerusalem very publicly so he would have many witnesses he was there (riding on a colt)
3. He was keeping this commandment even though he knew what awaited him.
4. This information is missing but Yeshua told his disciples to go and prepare the Passover which included the lamb.
5. Now most compare the translation of 'sop' to be like a gravy to dip bread in, but I propose that this was something similar to the maror we have today. A dish of chopped up bitter herbs, could be something like the chopped horseradish we use today. They didn't use forks or spoons back then, they actually used the bread to scoop up things. This is still done in many parts of the Middle East today. So I propose that when Yeshua spoke of his betrayal and said that ", "He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me" was speaking of Judas. The bitter herbs represented on the Seder plate the bitterness that the enslavement of sin gives us so it was a very good reference to the bitter herbs and Judas, so this part of the Passover we see he kept.
6.The group was the twelve with Yeshua.