him what they already practiced, and what every religious Jew does to
this day. The whole story is evidently a myth, as a perusal of it with
the eye of a critic clearly demonstrates.

The _Mark_ narrator informs us that Jesus sent two of his disciples to
the city, and told them this:

"Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a
pitcher of water; follow him. And wheresoever he shall go in,
say ye to the _goodman_ of the house, The Master saith, Where
is the guest-chamber, where I shall eat the passover with my
disciples? And he will show you a large upper room _furnished
and prepared_: there make ready for us. And his disciples went
forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto
them: and they made ready the passover."[313:1]

The story of the passover or the last supper, seems to be introduced in
this unusual manner to make it manifest that a divine power is
interested in, and conducting the whole affair, parallels of which we
find in the story of Elieser and Rebecca, where Rebecca is to identify
herself in a manner pre-arranged by Elieser with God;[313:2] and also in
the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, where by God's
directions a journey is made, and the widow is found.[313:3]

It suggests itself to our mind that this style of connecting a
supernatural interest with human affairs was not entirely original with
the Mark narrator. In this connection it is interesting to note that a
man in Jerusalem should have had an unoccupied and _properly_ furnished
room just at _that_ time, when two millions of pilgrims sojourned in and
around the city. The man, it appears, was not distinguished either for
wealth or piety, for his _name_ is not mentioned; he was not present at
the supper, and no further reference is made to him. It appears rather
that the Mark narrator imagined an ordinary man who had a furnished room
to let for such purposes, and would imply that Jesus knew it
_prophetically_. He had only to pass in his mind from Elijah to his
disciple Elisha, for whom the great woman of Shunem had so richly
furnished an upper chamber, to find a like instance.[313:4] _Why should
not somebody have furnished also an upper chamber for the Messiah?_

The Matthew narrator's account is free from these embellishments, and
simply runs thus: Jesus said to some of his disciples--the number is not
given--

"Go into the city to such a man, and say un