What is the meaning of "breaking bread" in Acts?

 

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42)

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (2:46-47)

On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. (20:7)

These three passages were proof-texts I often used to show to people why I observed the Lord’s Supper in the manner that I did. For the most part when I read of these disciples being “devoted to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42), breaking bread in their homes (Acts 2:46-47) and gathering to break bread (Acts 20:7) I assumed that what they were doing was what I did along with my local congregation every Sunday. But was it?

The first thing we need to realize is that this text, we call the book of Acts, is actually the second of two letters written by Luke to a man named Theophilus, the first being what we call the Gospel of Luke. It is important to consider what Theophilus would have understood when he read of the early church “breaking bread” in the passages we call Acts 2:42, 2:46-47 and 20:7. In order to see what Luke means when he writes of Jesus’ followers breaking bread, we will trace the subject of bread and table throughout his first volume (The Gospel of Luke).

In 5:27-32 we find him at a banquet at Levi’s house, surrounding himself with tax collectors and sinners. Then in 7:36-50 He is invited to have dinner at the home of a Pharisee where he reclines at the table until a woman comes in crying on his feet, wiping them with her hair and pouring oil on them. Later in 9:10-17 the crowds, which included 5000 men, following Jesus were hungry and he made them satisfied with five loaves of bread and two fish. In the next chapter, Jesus is welcomed into the home of Mary and Martha for a meal (10:38-42). 11:37-54 is where it is recorded that a Pharisee invited him to eat with him, Jesus reclined at the table, and refused to wash before the meal. Turn the pages to 14:1-24 and find that on a certain Sabbath, at the house of a prominent Pharisee, there was a meal where Jesus healed a man and taught two parables about wedding feasts. Then of course there is the Last Supper, a Passover meal where Jesus breaks bread (22:7-38). In 24:13-35 Jesus was eating with two disciples after he was resurrected and was “made known to them in the breaking of the bread.” And then, in the final meal scene in Luke’s first book, he ate a piece of broiled fish in the presence of more of his disciples (24:36-53).

When I saw this for the first time, I must say, it was kind of shocking. It suddenly seemed very clear to me that Jesus’ favorite place to teach was not from a pulpit, behind a lectern, it wasn’t in a special religious building that he had constructed, it wasn’t even in the temple…It was at the table!

He healed and spoke parables at the table.

Although that might seem strange to our ears in our rushed, disconnected modern lives, it was very appropriate considering the world in which Jesus lived. The table was where stories were told and lives were shared. The table was where certain groups decided who was included and who was not. This is what was so remarkable about Luke mentioning Jesus “eating with tax collectors and sinners” (Luke 5:30, 7:34), and why that was so appalling in the eyes of the scribes and Pharisees.

In his first volume, Luke presents the meals of Jesus as having the atmosphere of festival meals, bringing to mind the Messianic banquet written about by Isaiah (Isaiah 25:6-8). These are described as being community forming events that broke the accepted social boundaries and formed new ones.

Jesus was claiming to be the Anointed One of God, giving a taste of the Messianic banquet and he was including all of the rejects of society (all of the people the scribes and Pharisees, as well as the community at Qumran, rejected), the poor, crippled, the lame and blind.

John Mark Hicks had this to say regarding Luke’s theme of the table:

 In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus compassionately “broke bread” with five thousand males as he proclaimed “the kingdom of God” to them (Luke 9:11, 16). As Jesus ate his last Passsover with his disciples, he “broke” bread with them while at the same time declaring that he would not eat this meal with them again until the kingdom of God had come (Luke 22:16, 19). And, then, after his resurrection, Jesus “breaks bread” with two disciples at Emmaus (Luke 24:30) and the church continues to “break bread” as a community in the book of Acts (Acts 2:42, 46; 20:7, 11)…The early church, as a community, celebrated the presence of Christ through the breaking of bread.

The following chart is from Hicks’ book, Come to the Table:

  The Gospel of Luke                       Hinge Text                           The Book of Acts

Luke 9:16 Jesus took bread, blessed, broke and gave it.		Acts 2:42 The disciples continued in the breaking of bread
Luke 22:19 Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke and gave it.	Luke 24:35 Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of the bread”	Acts 2:46 The disciples broke bread daily in their homes
Luke 24:30 Jesus took bread, blessed, broke and gave it.		Acts 20:7 The disciples gathered to break bread

Ok, so, imagine you are living in the first century, you are somewhat familiar with Jesus of Nazareth and the movement that has spread like wildfire since he was crucified on a Roman cross and his followers claimed he was raised from the dead. And so you don’t have the preconceived ideas, prejudices or traditional beliefs that we have today. But you do have this acquaintance named Luke, and Luke has written two long letters to you, the first telling you about some of the things Jesus of Nazareth did and taught and the story surrounding his death and resurrection, the second telling you about some of the things he continues to do even after he has been “taken up.” And you read, in the first letter, about all of the time Jesus spent around the table, you read of him breaking bread at the Last Supper, and then being known to his disciples while they were breaking bread after he was resurrected. And then you begin the second letter, you come to the end of the second chapter when thousands of people have just decided to follow Jesus and became part of the community of Jesus’ followers there in Jerusalem, and “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer”…What are you going to think about the phrase “breaking of bread?” What was it that they were they doing? Was it a mysterious, sacred ritual that consists of eating a microscopic piece of cracker and drinking a thimble of juice (Which by the way did not even begin until at least a hundred years after Luke wrote about this)? Of course not!

No doubt you would see these events as following in the line of Jesus’ meals (banquets) with his followers. Meal events that celebrated God coming and dwelling with man, and his ultimate victory of redeeming his people once and for all.

So are we to conclude that they did not take the Lord’s Supper in Jerusalem?

Certainly not. This WAS what Paul called the kyriakon deipnon or Lord’s supper in 1 Corinthians 11:20, part of a passage we will examine in the next post.

Sources

The Holy Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2011.

The Mishnah, Translated from the Hebrew with Introduction and Brief Explanatory Notes by Herbert Danby. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933.

The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament by Craig Keener. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1993.

The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English by Geza Vermes. London, England: Penguin Classics, 2004.

From Symposium To Eucharist by Dennis E. Smith. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress Press, 2003.

Come To The Table by John Mark Hicks. Abilene, Texas: Leafwood, 2002.

Making a Meal of It by Ben Witherington III. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2007.

The Challenge of Jesus by N.T. Wright. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1999.

The Eucharistic Words of Jesus by Joachim Jeremias translated by Norman Perrin. London: SCM Press, 1990.

The Last Supper

The words in Luke 22:7-22 have been cherished by Christians for many years. One reason for this is that this night has been said to be when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, just hours before being nailed to a cross. Most Christians are well aware that Jesus “took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:19-20). But what was Jesus doing when he said these things? What did his disciples hear when he said these words? What did it mean to them? It might be a shock to most Christians to learn that when Jesus said those words, he was not in a church building, standing behind an altar or communion table, and probably more of a shock to learn that when he said those words there was a lot more food on the table than just unleavened bread and fruit of the vine. I would suggest that we put this event and these words back in their historical and cultural context as much as possible. I believe this to be the context of a Jewish Passover meal.

At this point, I think it would be appropriate to ask two questions: 1) What was the Passover celebration all about? And, 2) What did it mean to the people participating? I believe this passage from Exodus helps us to get an understanding of where the Passover originated:

²⁴ “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. ²⁵ When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. ²⁶ And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ²⁷ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. ²⁸ The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron. (Exodus 12:24-28)

From the beginning, The Passover was to be an annual celebration, remembering YHWH and his deliverance of Israel from Egypt and sparing their houses while striking down the Egyptians. This passage from the Mishnah gives us insight into the mindset of Israelites during this celebration:

In every generation a man must so regard himself as if he came forth himself out of Egypt, for it is written… “It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt” (Exodus 13:8). Therefore we are bound to give thanks…and to bless him who wrought all these wonders for our fathers and for us. He brought us out from bondage to freedom, from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning to a Festival-day, and from darkness to great light, and from servitude to redemption; so let us say before him the Hallelujah. (Mishnah, Pesahim 10:5)

From these words we can see, that the Israelite people saw each annual celebration of the Passover as a way of participating in the first exodus. This gives us an idea of the atmosphere during the Passover and some of the things that would have been on the minds of Peter and John as they made preparations to eat the Passover. The Passover was a time not only to celebrate the first exodus, the first Passover, the first deliverance, but it was a time to look forward to the coming deliverance, their future redemption, and the coming of the Messiah.

But what actually happened during the Passover meal? According to the most ancient descriptions we have outside the Bible, the Jewish Passover meal seems to have been organized around four cups of wine. The meal itself would begin in the evening. At this time the father of the Jewish family would gather his household together and they would recline around the table. The following is an outline of the meal organized around the four cups of wine.

The 1^st Cup

Once they were all there, the wine would be mixed (with water) and poured. Then the father began by saying a formal blessing over the cup of wine and the feast day. After the thanks were given, the food would be brought to the table. It consisted of at least 4 key dishes: several cakes of unleavened bread, a dish of bitter herbs, a bowl of sauce and the roasted Passover lamb, which was referred to as “the body”. They would eat some of the bitter herbs dipped in the sauce (sort of as appetizers) before the meal actually began.

The 2^nd Cup

Then the second cup of wine would be mixed, but not drunk yet. The father would then proclaim what the Lord had done for Israel when he set them free from Egypt in the exodus and explain the meaning of the various parts of the Passover meal. The following is the Haggaadah narrative from the Mishnah that describes a traditional practice during the Passover meal:

    "The son asks his father (and if the son has not enough understanding his father instructs [how to ask]), 'Why is this night different from other nights?  For on other nights we eat seasoned food once, but this night twice; on other nights we eat leavened or unleavened bread, but this night all is unleavened; on other nights we eat flesh roast, stewed, or cooked, but this night all is roast.'  And according to the understanding of the son his father instructs him.  He begins with the disgrace and ends with the glory; and he expounds from "A wandering Aramean was my father... [Dt. 26:5-11] until he finishes the whole section.

    Rabban Gamaliel used to say:  Whosoever has not said [the verses concerning] these three things at Passover has not fulfilled his obligation.  And these are they:  Passover, unleavened bread and bitter herbs:  'Passover'--because God passed over the houses of our fathers in Egypt; 'unleavened bread'--because our fathers were redeemed from Egypt; 'bitter herbs'--because the Egyptians embittered the lives of our fathers in Egypt.  In every generation a man must so regard himself as if he came forth himself out of Egypt, for it is written, 'And thou shalt tell thy son in that day, saying, It is because of that which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt.'  Therefore are we bound to give thanks, to praise, to glorify, to honor, to exalt, to extol, and to bless him who wrought all these wonders for our fathers and for us.  He brought us out from bondage to freedom, from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning to a Festival-day, and from darkness to great light, and from servitude to redemption; so let us say before him the 'Hallelujah'."

The father would speak of the event as if it were something he himself had experienced, after all, they were to recognize these events as something “God did for me”, “as if he himself came out of Egypt.” In other words, ancient Jewish celebrants did not just remember the exodus; they actively participated in it.

In response, all of the people at the meal were “bound to give thanks” for what God had done for them. To express a spirit of thanksgiving, they would then sing Psalms 113 and 114, which praised the Lord for his goodness and thanked him for saving Israel from the Egyptians.

3^rd Cup

Next, a third cup of wine would be mixed, another blessing would have been said over the unleavened bread, which would be served with the bowl of sauce, and finally, the main meal would be eaten. Once the meal was finished, the father would say another blessing over the third cup of wine, and they would drink that cup.

4^th Cup

They would then sing Psalms 115-118. After finishing Psalm 118, the fourth cup of wine would be drunk, and when it was, the Passover meal was complete.

I think it is important to mention that this is not intended to give every exact detail of what happened that night, rather it is to reconstruct to the best of our knowledge what a general Passover meal was like. That being said, I believe this information gives us tremendously valuable insight into what Jesus was actually doing when he said those words that night and what his disciples would have understood him to be doing. Notice that at the time when the host of the meal would answer the questions about the Passover and explain the significance of each item of food on the table…Jesus, “took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” When we read these words in a church building somewhere in America in the year 2011 we often see the common practice of what we call the Lord’s Supper: Silver or gold plates containing small wafers and thimbles of Welch’s juice being taken pew by pew as we struggle to think about the sins we committed last week and visualize Jesus hanging on the cross. I believe this interpretation is heavily influenced by our current practices and is not an accurate portrayal of Jesus’ actions, words or the meal that the early communities of Jesus’ followers enjoyed in the inaugurated kingdom.

However, when we read what Jesus did and said in context, that is the context of a Jewish Passover meal, I believe that we see that Jesus was symbolically declaring that the redemption of Israel and the world would be accomplished through his death. The exile was over; true restoration was no longer a future hope but a present reality. Jesus the unblemished lamb would be put to death so that others might live!

Note: This is meant not meant to be the end of studying this topic, but the beginning. Here are some resources that will, I believe, help lead us to a better understanding through our study.

Sources

The Holy Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2011.

The Mishnah, Translated from the Hebrew with Introduction and Brief Explanatory Notes by Herbert Danby. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933.

The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament by Craig Keener. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1993.

Come To The Table by John Mark Hicks. Abilene, Texas: Leafwood, 2002.

Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by Brant Pitre. New York: Doubleday Religion, 2011.

Making a Meal of It by Ben Witherington III. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2007.

The Challenge of Jesus by N.T. Wright. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1999.

The Eucharistic Words of Jesus by Joachim Jeremias translated by Norman Perrin. London: SCM Press, 1990.

The Lord's Supper

I plan on writing a series of posts on the Lord’s Supper. My plan is for the first post to be an examination of the setting of the Last Supper, and the texts recording this event in the synoptic gospels (We will mainly be focusing on Luke’s account). The following is from Luke:

⁷ Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. ⁸ Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”  ⁹ “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.  ¹⁰ He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, ¹¹ and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ ¹² He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.”  ¹³ They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.  ¹⁴ When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. ¹⁵ And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. ¹⁶ For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”  ¹⁷ After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. ¹⁸ For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”  ¹⁹ And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  ²⁰ In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. ²¹ But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. ²² The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed. But woe to that man who betrays him!” ²³ They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this. (Luke 22:7-22)

I am thinking the second post will be on the meaning of “breaking bread” in Acts, taking a look at the following verses:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42)

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (2:46-47)

On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. (20:7)

The plan is for the third post to be an examination of 1 Corinthians 11:17-34:

¹⁷ In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. ¹⁸ In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. ¹⁹ No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. ²⁰ So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, ²¹ for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. ²² Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!  ²³ For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.  ²⁷ So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸ Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. ²⁹ For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. ³⁰ That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. ³¹ But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. ³² Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.  ³³ So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. ³⁴ Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.  And when I come I will give further directions.

After that, I might include a post briefly tracing the history of the Lord’s Supper, and maybe some words on what this all means for us today. I welcome any discussion on this topic as we grow in understanding. Thank you for reading.