The Last Supper (1495 – 1498)

There’s another conundrum we can clear up by referring back to the Gospel of Mary. Because the Beloved Disciple is usually ascribed to John (especially in the Gospel of John), there is an misconception that he sat next to Jesus during the Last Supper. Here’s the passage from the Gospel of Mary which tells us the Truth:

35:7 THE COMPANION, WHOM YESHUA LOVED, WAS AT THE TABLE, LEANING AGAINST YESHUA’S BREAST. SHIMON KEFA THEREFORE BECKONED TO HER AND SAID TO HER, “TELL US WHO IT IS OF WHOM HE SPEAKS.” SHE, LEANING BACK AS SHE WAS, ON YESHUA’S BREAST, ASKED HIM, “RABBOUNI, WHO IS IT?” YESHUA THEREFORE ANSWERED, “IT IS HE TO WHOM I WILL GIVE THIS PIECE OF BREAD WHEN I HAVE DIPPED IT.” SO WHEN HE HAD DIPPED THE PIECE OF BREAD, HE GAVE IT TO JUDA, THE SON OF SHIMON OF KERIOTH. THEN YESHUA SAID TO HIM, “WHAT YOU MUST DO, DO QUICKLY.”

Quillan, Jehanne de. The Gospel of the Beloved Companion: The Complete Gospel of Mary Magdalene (pp. 63-64). Éditions Athara. Kindle Edition.

Da Vinci’s painting captures this precise moment when Simon Peter asks Mary to find out to whom Jesus was referring when he said that one of them would betray him. Judas Iscariot is the one siting to the left (facing) of Peter in the painting. He is also placed slightly lower than the rest of the disciples.

As was noted in “The Da Vinci Code” the shape that surrounds the figures of Mary and Jesus forms a capital “M”. Can there be any mistaking who the Beloved Disciple is now?