24-04-2025
Archaeologists Discovered Hidden Messages at the Site of Jesus' Last Supper
This story is a collaboration with Popular Mechanics.
The Last Supper is one of the most venerated events in the story of the Christian faith.
Depicted in all three Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as well as the Gospel of John (though this latter account creates issues with the established timeline), it's at this meal that Jesus Christ purportedly reveals his foreknowledge of Judas Iscariot's betrayal, and where, through the symbolic consumption of bread and wine, Jesus establishes the tradition of the Eucharist:
'The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.'' 1 Corinthians 11:23–25
Although no Gospel provides a precise location for the site of The Last Supper—only that disciples were led by a man in the city to 'a large upper room furnished and ready' (Mark 14:13–15)—later tradition would hold that the event occurred on Mount Sinai, outside the Old City of Jerusalem.
The site of Jesus's Last Supper was likely held a synagogue. But after what Heritage Daily describes as 'cycles of destruction and reconstruction,' there came to be, in the time of the Crusades, a structure built referred to as the Cenacle, which still stands to this day.
The Cenacle has attracted religious pilgrims for centuries, from impoverished worshippers to kings and conquerors. And now, a study published in Studium Biblicum Franciscanum has revealed that some of those pilgrims left messages behind on the very walls that surround this sacred site.
In the study, scientists deployed advanced digital photography within the confines of the Cenacle and discovered 'hidden inscriptions, coats of arms, and sketches etched into the Cenacle's centuries-old stone,' per Heritage Daily.
The inscriptions included one that belonged to Johannes Poloner of Regensburg, sometimes written as John Poloner. He is known to have visited the site, having chronicled his travels in the 1421–1422 work John Poloner's Description of the Holy Land, wherein he wrote of the Cenacle:
'Now in the church of Mount Sion where the high altar now stands in that very place Christ supped with His disciples giving them His own body and blood wherefore it was called by Christ the Great Supper room.'
The scientists also identified 'coats of arms belonging to Tristram von Teuffenbach, a Styrian nobleman who was part of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1436, led by Archduke Frederick of Habsburg (later the Holy Roman Emperor),' according to Heritage Daily, as well as an inscription that read 'Christmas 1300.' They assessed it as being written 'in a style typical of Armenian nobility.'
If true, this lends credence to the widely held belief that the Armenian king Het'um II and his forces entered Jerusalem after fighting alongside the Kingdom of Georgia and the Mongol Ilkhanate to defeat the Mamluks in Syria on December 22, 1299, in the Battle of Wad al-Khaznadar.
None of these inscriptions definitively prove that this site was the location of the Last Supper; the area's history of relentless destruction and reconstruction makes that practically impossible to confirm. But, as study co-author Ilya Berkovich points out, a discovery like this can broaden our understanding of the places made sacred by centuries of tradition.
'These graffiti shed new light on the geographical diversity and international pilgrimage movement to Jerusalem in the Middle Ages,' Berkovich told Heritage Daily, 'far beyond the Western-dominated research perspective.'
You Might Also Like
Nicole Richie's Surprising Adoption Story
The Story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Her Mother
Queen Camilla's Life in Photos
