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285 so similar to those by the prophet Elijah—at first wondered whether Jesus was Elijah reappeared. Not saying no, Jesus challenged his closest disciples: “What say you that I am? And Peter answered and said unto him: Thou art the Anointed One” (Mark 8: 28-29). If so, he was asked, where is Elijah, who had to appear first? And Jesus answered: Yes, of course, but he has already come! And they asked him, saying: Why say the scribes that Elias must first? And he answered and told them: Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things . . . But I say unto you That Elias has indeed come. This was an audacious statement, the test of which was about to come: for if Elijah has in fact returned to Earth, “is indeed come,’ thereby fulfilling the prerequisite for the Messiah’s coming—then he had to show up at the Seder and drink from his cup of wine! As custom and tradition required, the Cup of Elijah, filled with wine, was set on the Seder table of Jesus and his disci- ples. The ceremonial meal is described in Mark, Chapter 14. Conducting the Seder, Jesus took the unleavened bread (now called Matzoh) and made the blessing, and broke it, and gave pieces of it to his disciples. “And he took the cup, and when he had thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it” (Mark 14: 23). So, without doubt, the Cup of Elijah was there, but Da Vinci chose not to show it. In this The Last Supper painting, which could only be based on the New Testament passages, Jesus is not holding the crucial cup, and nowhere is there a wine cup on the table! Instead there is an inexplicable gap to the right of Jesus (Fig. 125), and the disciple to his right is bending sideways as if to allow someone unseen to come between them: Jerusalem: A Chalice, Vanished Mark 9: [1,13