>Hello staff, hello students,
>
>I signed onto this group for the answer to this particular passage.
>
>Please be as detailed (technically/grammatically/exegetically)
>as you wish in your answers.
>
>It is to my understanding that in all of the following passages,
>the word "bread" is APTOS. By standard definition, one of the
>meanings of this word is "raised bread."
>
>Luke 22:19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto
>them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance
>of me.
>
>Mark 14:22 And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it,
>and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.
>
>1 Cor 10:16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of
>the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the
>body of Christ?
>
>My question to the staff/group of students is this. Was the
>bread given for communion raised bread?
A quick check of some references in the Septuagint (LXX) indicates
that the technical term for unleavened bread there is simply the adjective
AZUMOS (unleavened) with the Greek article, sometimes used in masculine, and
sometimes in neuter (the latter may refer to any sort of unleavened baked
goods). See references at Gen. 19:3 and Ex. 12:8 among others.
Nevertheless, in general reference, unleavened bread may be referred
to as ARTOS. So we find that in Gen. 18:6 that Abraham tells Sarah to
quickly prepare, from three measures of flour, bread cooked under the coals
- certainly unleavened bread - which he has referred to as ARTOS in v. 5.
There are quite a few references relating to the Last Supper that
seems to indicate that the bread was unleavened. Mark 14:12, for instance,
mentions hEMERAi TWN AZUMWN as the context of the supper.
It also appears that in reference to the loaf itself, ARTOS would be
used rather than AZUMOS alone. So, in Lev. 8:26 we have APO TOU
KANOU...ELABEN ARTON hENA AZUMON....
One would have to take into account the couple of centuries between
the LXX and the NT, but language relating to religious observance tends to
be fairly persistent, so we can probably safely use the LXX to shed light on
this matter.
David Moore
David L. Moore
Miami, Florida, USA
Southeastern Spanish District of the A/G Dept. of Education
E-mail: dvdmoore@ix.netcom.com
Home Page: http://members.aol.com/dvdmoore