Let's look now at Quentin Quesnell's work on the last supper. It's in a book entitled "Political Issues in Luke — Acts"
Here are some extracts from Quesnell's article:
The who
It has been commonly assumed that only the Twelve were with Jesus at the Last Supper. So secure does this reading of the Gospel seem that it has for centuries underlain artistic depictions of the Last Supper. Yet in the 1955 edition of The Eucharist Words of Jesus, Joachim Jeremias expressed his surprise at the absence of the women who appear elsewhere in the Gospels, and in his 1966 edition he questioned whether the explicit statements of Matthew, Mark and Luke reflected the full historical fact.
This study will lay out all evidence in the Gospel and in Acts pointing to the fact (1) that Luke thought a larger group than just the Twelve were at the Supper with Jesus; and (2) that within that larger group Luke included women.
By the time of the arrival at Jerusalem, the group contains at least the Twelve, the Seventy-two, the women (of whom only three are named, but "many others" noted), and the mother and brothers of Jesus. Luke thinks the group is large enough to deserve being called "the entire multitude of his disciples" (19:37), though it is presumably not much larger than the figure he gives in Acts 1:15 "about 120 persons" - "and when they came in, they went up to the upper room, where there were dwelling Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas… These were all persevering together in prayer with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers" (Acts 1:13) "…the number of persons together was about one hundred and twenty".
The where
Next, let us take a close look at the places Luke refers to in the last chapters of the Gospel and the early chapters of Acts. Luke says that after entering Jerusalem with "the entire multitude of disciples" (19:37) Jesus is offered a "large upper room furnished" The Greek words used indicate "furnished with … anything spread or laid out for lying or sitting upon, mattress, bed… bed-clothes, coverings or a dinner-couch." At any rate, Luke describes the room chosen for the Supper as one in which people might spend a longer time.
The same picture underlies Acts 2:2. Luke's Greek uses the word 'kathemenoi.' All the standard translations confuse Luke's image by referring to this as "where they were sitting." Kathemenoi does mean sitting when used in conjunction with a chair, but not when used with reference to a house. Linked with mention of a house, the normal sense of kathemai is "to stay, dwell, abide." To speak of the house where people were sitting would make sense only if their posture played some essential role in the story. Here it does not. Luke uses kathemai to mean "stay, abide, dwell" in Luke 1:79 and 21:35. The construction here is again emphasising that their residing was ongoing, habitual.
The women
Our next specific concern is to show, if possible, that Luke intends us to include the women among that larger group. The first step is to establish the fact that when Luke says "disciples" he includes the women under that term.
In Luke 8: 1-3 it is said that Jesus "journeyed from city to city, town to town, preaching and evangelising the kingdom of God; and the Twelve with him; and certain women …" Thus not only the Twelve journeyed, preached and evangelised, but also the women. If we look systematically at all references to the group of disciples in the course of the Gospel, we find that nothing is ever said to exclude women, and that many things are said which demand that we include women in the group.
The evidence indicates that Luke thought the women returned, after the burial, to the place they had been the night before the crucifixion. There they remained over the Sabbath and prepared their ointments (23:56). Sunday morning they went to the tomb (24:1) from that same place. After seeing the angels, they returned to that same place and reported to the Eleven and the rest (24:9), who had themselves been there all the time.
Finally we must return to the words Jesus spoke at the Supper in Luke. They give us our last and most important set of arguments. There is no doubt that some of these words are especially appropriate if spoken to the women and are very strange if the women are omitted. The exclusion of women would be all the more puzzling in that "to eat the passover" would normally be done in a family, with parts of the ritual assigned to women and children. In Luke 22:26-27 Jesus says, "let the greater among you be as the younger and the leader as the one who serves." The younger ones and those who serve were hard to identify among the Twelve. But the only persons in Luke who are said to serve Jesus or the rest of the group are Peter's mother-in-law (4:39), the women from Galilee (8:3), and Martha (10:40). All of these are women.
Conclusion
The conclusion then is that Luke did think in terms of a larger group at the Supper than just the Twelve. Specifically, he thought of the Christian community he had been at pains to build up around Jesus through the course of the Gospel, and around which he would develop the church of Acts. Further Luke thought of the women as part of that community, sharing in all its life and actions. When he showed that community gathered for the Last Supper, he never imagined future readers might doubt that the women were present.
Go back to the questions about the Last Supper at the beginning of this example. How would you answer them now on the basis of Quesnell's arguments?
Quesnell, of course, may himself be misinterpreting Luke. Let's assume, for the purpose of argument, that he is right. What do you think are some of the implications for the life and ministry of the church today?
How might we begin to assess Quesnell's interpretation of the text? What do you think would we have to do to find out if he is right or off beam? Make a list and then have a look at Methods and processes to see if you're on the right track.