"Then Jesus instituted the sacrament."
Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with that statement - except it more accurately could have said:
"Then Jesus re-instituted, or restored, the sacrament in its original form."
I always believed that it was the first time it had been broadly taught until I went to Sabbath prayer at my Jewish friend's house that I wrote about earlier:
(LINK LATER - CANNOT FIND IT....)
This earlier post seems to indicate that Joseph's wife (Asenath) was also given the sacrament as part of her induction into the faith of her husband-to-be:
http://woodyoubelieveit.blogspot.com/2011/10/christianity-as-outgrowth-of-judiaism.html
Here is an earlier recorded occurrence that shows that it was general in the old world and probably went back to Adam and Eve. Note that one of the first things that Noah did after getting off the ark was to plant a vinyard - most likely to produce the grapes for the sacrament. It was after doing so that Noah got tipsy and Ham ended up stealing his garment (the one passed down from Adam - that was placed on him in the Garden of Eden) that showed birthright and patriarchal authority. This was not to be so, as the blessings came thru his brother, Shem - the father of the Semitic peoples (including Abraham). Shem is Melchizedek - by most accounts including Joseph Smith. Here is the Genesis 14 account of the encounter between Abraham and Noah's son:
18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth,
Yes, and if you read Margaret Barker, she talks about the Shewbread and wine in the temple/tabernacle as a sacrament too. It's been part of every dispensation.
ReplyDelete