How Much Do You Know About
The Biblical Feast of Unleavened Bread? Millions of people celebrate Easter in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus never observed Easter, but He did celebrate the biblical Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread. What relevance do these days have for Christians today!
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by Gary Petty
or most of us bread is an unheralded side dish in our everyday diet. In much of the Western world meals are centered around meat, pasta or casseroles, and unless we’re eating a sandwich, bread is an afterthought. That wasn’t true of the Middle Eastern cultures of biblical times. In ancient Israel eating meals was a communal affair. Family and friends gathered to eat a meal while reclining on a floor mat. Each person would tear a piece of bread from a small loaf or thin round chunk and use it as a sort of spoon to scoop food from the various dishes offered at mealtime. This is why the Bible speaks of people eating a meal as “breaking bread.” During Roman times couches and a low table replaced the mats, but the meal was eaten in basically the same manner. Bread was made from different grains, including wheat, barley and millet, or even beans and lentils. Loaves were prepared by mixing flour with water and kneading it in troughs or bowls. Depending on where families lived or how wealthy they were, bread was baked on hot sand or flat stones over a fire, on a griddle or in an oven made of bronze, iron or, more commonly, clay. The leavening process—the process for making bread dough to rise—is fascinating. A leavening agent, which causes tiny gas bubbles to form, is introduced into a batch of dough. This leavening agent permeates every part of the dough until the entire batch is leavened. A small amount can leaven a large amount of dough. The heat of baking causes the bubbles to further expand. Today we commonly use store-bought baking soda or yeast, but that wasn’t the case then. Since bread was made daily, the easiest way to leaven it was to save a lump of
yeast-leavened dough from the previous day. This lump would be added to the dough and left to stand until the yeast had permeated the entire batch. Every spring ancient Israel observed the biblical festival of Passover and another festival over the following seven days called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Just before the Israelites were delivered from their slavery in Egypt by great miracles, they were commanded by God not to eat leavened bread during this week-long period (Exodus 13:3-10). Do these ancient observances have any meaning for Christians today? “Let us keep the feast” Many say that Christians are to live by the teachings of the New Testament and not by laws given in the Hebrew Scriptures. They forget that the only Scriptures available to the
Every spring ancient Israel observed the festivals of Passover and Unleavened Bread. Do these ancient observances have any meaning for Christians today? apostles and Church of the first century were what we call the Old Testament. As the apostle Paul told Timothy of these books: “. . . From childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:15-17). B Tm a g a z i n e . o r g
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March-April 2021
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