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Episode: ISRAEL

“The Last Supper”

Over 2000 years ago a group of Jewish men joined together in a secret location, hidden from the searching eyes of the authorities, to celebrate the traditional Passover meal. It was a meal that had a special significance to this group, because one of them was to soon be tortured and executed in a most horrible way. But his death was to begin one of the greatest religions of the world. As we know, that man was Jesus Christ. But what did he and his disciples eat at the Last Supper, how was it prepared and how different is it to the food that is eaten today at the Jewish Passover? And how did food become an integral part of spreading a fledgling religion throughout Western Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Western Asia within 100 years?

To understand this we must discover what people were eating in Jerusalem in the times of Jesus, a city founded in the inspiring hills overlooking the Dead Sea, where an eclectic mix of Jews, Samaritans, Romans, Arabs, Africans, Nomadic Desert tribes and countless other ethnic groups brought in their own crops, herded animals, fished the Sea of Galilee and gathered wild herbs and spices in the hills. All with their own recipes! With a mix of Biblical Archaeology and Middle Eastern cooking we see how ancient foods took on a mystic element in the creation of a new religion – Christianity

Working closely with archaeologists from the Israeli Antiquities Authority we visit numerous excavations throughout Israel, including Bethsaida (an ancient fishing village on the Sea of Galilee believed to be where Jesus walked on water to the fishing boat of St Peter); Capernaum (referred to as “Jesus’ own city” in the Gospel of Matthew); the Church of Tabgha (where Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes); and of course numerous archaeological sites around the old city of Jerusalem. Through these sites, we explore the idea that food became a central figure in not only spreading Christianity, but in representing its central themes.

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