the one element which did not feature prominently in Greco-Roman symposia. This suggests that the meals in the two cultures remained more distinct than those scholars acknowledge who want to interpret the Gospel banquets as symposia. The frequent appeal to ‘reclining’ as the telltale sign of a symposium reads far more into that single word than it can bear. It is likewise improbable that the format of the symposium had substantially influenced the developing concept of the eschatological banquet.