Did Yehshua Eat Leaven Bread or Unleavened Bread on the Night He was betrayed?

Joseph F. Dumond

Isa 6:9-12 And He said, Go, and tell this people, You hear indeed, but do not understand; and seeing you see, but do not know. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn back, and be healed. Then I said, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities are wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land laid waste, a desolation, and until Jehovah has moved men far away, and the desolation in the midst of the land is great.
Published: Apr 4, 2012

News Letter 5848-004
13th day of the 1st month 5848 years after the creation of Adam
The Day of Yehshua’s Memorial
The 1st Month in the Third year of the third Sabbatical Cycle
The Third Sabbatical Cycle of the 119th Jubilee Cycle
The Sabbatical Cycle of Earthquakes Famines, and Pestilences

April 5, 2012

 

Shalom Brethren, I have been inundated with articles to read this week. I have not had time to read them all. One Sister wrote in about the controversy that has been going on amongst Ephramites.

As you may recall from the two News letters this past Shabbat. I will have more to say about this in this coming News Letter. But I just want to once again assure you all of the order of events.

This Thursday evening April 5 is the end of the 13th day and the beginning of the 14th of Aviv. This is the night Yehshua held a supper with the apostles and created or reintroduced the symbols of foot washing and the wine and bread as a memorial of Himself. This is not the Passover.

Friday April 6 will be the 14th day when the Passover Lamb was killed and Yehshua the Passover Lamb for us was also killed at the same time at three in the afternoon. In the days of the Exodus this same after noon is when the Lambs were killed and the blood then placed on the door post and lintels. Then this night which begins the 15th of Aviv is when the lambs that they had just killed and smeared their blood on the door posts, on this night the 15th is when the Passover meal is eaten and on this night at Midnight is when the angel PASSED OVER the Israelites.

I have been cursed out and told off by many a so called Brethren this week for saying this. It has been an interesting week to say the least.

I did get this following two emails from one sister who has shared something that maybe you all can consider before this meal tonight or discuss it tomorrow or this week of Unleavened Bread. I have not had time to research this myself, but I think we should all consider it as we all are striving for perfection. May it be a blessing to you.

Hello Joe – where do we find that se’or is equated with sin? Not in Torah or Tanak. And matzot is equated to affliction (not sinlessness) – to remind them of their affliction in, and bondage to Egypt.

Artos – by definition, is literally a fermented, risen product. But as the word minchah is in some translations rendered “meat”, while it means meal or grain, so artos is used in the phrase “break bread” to mean sit down and have a meal served, or to eat food. We find artos refering to food in general throughout the Apostolic Writings, just as we find lechem doing so at times in Tanak. The text that comes into question, is answered when we see this. Lk 24:30 Noticed when i was using BlueLetter Bible search on “bread”, how vividly the difference between what was being talked about stands out – you have a verse with azumos related and the next verse given is artos, both refering to bread, with the matzah being specifically named when of the unfermented variety .

Something that helped me better grasp what was intended in the matzot instructions was a really deep study into the process of se’or, it is a fermentation process, not a leavening (from levain, rising up, levitating, leverage) process, tho it does cause enlargement of dough due to its spreading/growing/expanding. Then i went to how baking soda and powder work, they do not ferment, or spread of their own volition, you have to mix them in and if not mixed well you get a lumpy looking product. The only common thing with se’or is that the end, baked product has increased in size. So i was left with understanding that it has to be a yeast/fermenting process that the “leaven of Pharisees, Herodians and their doctrine, of hypocrisy, malice and wickedness” being what YHVH is trying to teach us. We have said se’or/chamets/zyme represent sin, and seek to draw that understanding from the AW. But it isn’t there. What is addressed is getting rid of what might lead to sin, what spreads, to nip it before it gets there. Think we in the WW organization limited our understanding, limited the lesson of YHVH, by honing in on the “sin” aspect. Yes it is there, but we can avoid that if we stop the process leading to it. Interesting, just as se’or is all around us in the air, the influences of misguided religion, specifically Judaism and christianity, and secular government fly all around us. Our YHVH knew we would be surrounded in these end times by the same influences ancient Israel lived in and Believers in the time of Y’shua lived in. As Brad Scott is wont to say, “YHVH is smarter than we are!” (In reviewing what is written in this paragraph, need to spend some more time on the “finished product”, bread, matzot lechem or chametz lechem, a project for during the festival 🙂

So what is the leaven/doctrine of the Pharisees – their oral Torah, one possibility? And of the Herodians (not a religious sect, one site says they were the “politically correct Jews”. That’s a good term) their style of government that leaves out YHVH, i would say. We must turn from similar ideologies in our time. Today’s lesson of what was given soooooo many years ago.

With that in mind, does matzot represent Y’shua being sinless? We know He was, does matzot teach us that? Does it represent Y’shua at all? Perhaps in His affliction, (it is a type of bread) that happened after that last meal. He is called the Bread of Life. Matzot “bread” never had/has a living organism in it. Chametz bread did/does. That is how it was able to grow. The Word is called the Bread of Life. Y’shua is the Living Word. The cycle all ties together, and bread of affliction isn’t a part of the circle. So i can see matzot as affliction, it lacks life in it’s preparation. But does it also symbolize “without out sin”? Maybe that answer will come next week.

Anyway, this is a small part of the studies i started back in 2002, and continue in, to now. i do not want to be a stumbling block to anyone, with whatever truth or error might be found in this study. So, this is shared with you personally because i expect you will read and check up on without stumbling. Hope you find some good study subjects from the sometimes very “out of the box” things presented. Am i rigid in these things, no because every year more is added, some might be taken away. But this is where my understanding is at this time. (plus a myriad of more notes :).

Cleaning is almost done, without children at home (i had 4) find the cleaning must easier. Don’t have to check the chest of drawers and under beds as i used to. 🙂

What type of bread did Y’shua break at the last meal with His disciples?

First we need to go to the original instruction, because this is what Torah observing Y’shua and His Torah observing disciples would be eating. The full instruction for the first Passover and Days of Matzah is found in Ex. 12. Here are the verses that connect with our subject of “what kind of bread was served” that night with His disciples.

12:18 ‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening (when the day began to close), you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 ‘Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses ; for whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an alien or a native of the land.
To understand when the “evening” of a day occurs, see http://www.hope-of-israel.org/arbayim.htm The Mystery of Ben ha Arbayim.

Lev 23:5 ‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is YHVH’s Passover. 6 ‘Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.

Deut 16:2 “You shall sacrifice the Passover to YHVH your God from the flock and the herd, in the place where YHVH chooses to establish His name. 3 “You shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste ), so that you may remember all the days of your life the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. 4 “For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory,

The admonition is to have in your possession, and to eat only unfermented for seven days, not eight days, not six days, but seven days. Do we think that our Torah observant Messiah would do anything different than the instructions given?

If you have been studying the language used in scripture for awhile, you are familiar with the terms used at this season. A review:

Hebrew – Strong’s English Meaning
Lechem 3899 Bread Bread, food, sustenance
Se’or 7603 Leaven Fermenting (agent)
Chametz 2557 Leaven, leavened Ferment, fermented
Matzah 4682 Unleavened Without fermentation

Greek English Meaning
Artos 740 bread Bread, food, sustenance
Zyme, zumo 2219 Leaven Metaph: corruption, tendency to spread
Azymos 106 Unleavened Negative of zyme

Do note, both the Hebrew and Greek words used have to do with fermenting, spreading, not rising up. Yeast works by spreading throughout the product, in the process it does cause a rising up. Yeast is a type of what we call leavening (there are other types also), but its lesson is in its spreading. The word “leaven”, chosen to translate these words for us does not give a correct understanding for us, especially in our day, because we have other types of leavening that don’t work the same way, that don’t teach the intended lesson. Leaven has to do with rising up, lifting. The Latin is levain (late Latin levamen) from which we get levitate, lever-age. The words used in scripture address the process of spreading/growing/increasing, not rising.

So now to Y’shua’s last meal:

Y’shua said, at that meal, “ And while they were eating, Y’shua took the bread and after having blessed, He broke and gave to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body‘” Mat 26:26; Lk 22:19 adds “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

He was going to be a living sacrifice for them, [and all mankind]. The bread He gave to them was a bread, that symbolized something living, i.e. the Word personified, His body. That bread was “artos”. How can we know whether it was fermented or not?

Y’shua was a Torah observant Jew. When He read and practiced the instructions for Chag (festival) of haMatzot (the unfermented, bread implied), He would have been very careful to do just what was instructed: to eat Matzot for seven days, from the beginning of the 15th day of the aviv, i.e. the first month, to the end of the 21st day of the same month. He would not have done so for eight days, that would have destroyed the lessons of the festival.

Paul’s teaching:

I Cor 11:20 Therefore when you meet together , it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, 21 for in your eating each one takes his own supper first ; and one is hungry and another is drunk. 22 What ! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink ? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing ? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you. 23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which 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 He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood ; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. 27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. 30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. 33 So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 34 If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment. The remaining matters I will arrange when I come.

Paul admonishes that they are not meeting to eat the Master’s Supper because they are not meeting together in unity. He gives them the example Y’shua left them on eating a meal together. It is not called a Passover, just as in the Gospels it could not have been a Passover meal. Could we have here a Love Feast?

Where does the tradition of eating “unleavened/unfermented” bread at the beginning of the 14th of the first month come from? When many keep what they call the Passover. Some possibilities:

the idea that the Passover lamb was sacrificed in the evening as the 14th began (the late 13th going into the 14th). Again, refer to the above site explaining what “between the evenings” means. Passover at this time is not a possibility, because it was sacrificed after the sun began going down on the daylight portion of the 14th. (Remember, YHVH’s days begin at sunset. Gen 1:8, Lev 23:32, end of the light period)

the idea that the Jews had combined the days into one event, feast and set the sacrifice time ahead of when it was suppose to be sacrificed. That doesn’t work either, don’t we believe that Y’shua, our Passover Lamb, died a sacrifice at the time the Passover lambs would be slain at the temple? And we are told when He died, in the afternoon. Jewish tradition says that is the time the High Priest sacrificed the lamb for all the nation, and his finishing words were, “It is finished”. Interesting.

the idea that there were two Passover sacrifices in that day: domestic (early 14th) and traditional (late 14th). Can we even consider Jews who learned Torah and the instructions would pick the wrong time of the day?
All of the above and you might think of some others.

This article does not address Lk 24:30, 35 when Y’shua is said to break artos at the home of people He met on the road. It can’t mean zuma, this happened during the feast. Is there a problem somewhere down the line with translation? Lack of knowledge by those doing the translating? This would be the only place artos means unfermented bread. All other usages are found outside Chag (festival) haMatzah and many cases could just as easily been translated “food”.

So, what kind of bread do we find broken at the Master’s Last Supper? It had to be of the fermented type, the traditional bread that “artos” means – leavened/fermented according to most sources. Search “etymology for artos”.

Why? Because Y’shua would not have His disciples keeping/eating matzot/azumos for eight days. And, generally the term artos was a leavened product, and except for Lk 24:30,35, is used outside Chag haMatzah. (We are told that the Apostolic Writings came down to translators in many “pieces”. Is it possible this event in Lk 24 might have happened after the festival, and words were added to make it fit where we find it? Stranger things have happened to our text before it got to us.

A last statement to verify, from history, that it was leavened/fermented artos that was eaten at that special meal, that symbolized the body of Y‘shua:

Unger’s Bible Dictionary makes the claim (under the “Lord’s Supper” heading) that the Latin Church changed its representation of Christ from leaven to unleavened bread in the 8th century C.E. That was 600 years after the fact.

Source?:

CATHOLIC SCHOLARS SAY THAT THE CHURCH OF ROME USED LEAVENED BREADfor the first 800 and more years.
The change to unleavened bread in Rome took place towards the end of the first millennium.

Fr. Joseph Jungman — in his The Mass of the Roman Rite — states that:
“In the West, various ordinances appeared from the ninth century on, all demanding the exclusive use of unleavened bread for the Eucharist. A growing solicitude for the Blessed Sacrament and a desire to employ only the best and whitest bread, along with various scriptural considerations — all favored this development.

“Still, the new custom did not come into exclusive vogue until the middle of the eleventh century. Particularly in Rome it was not universally accepted till after the general infiltration of various usages from the North” [Rome itself, conservative as always, did not change to unleavened bread until a few decades after the schism.] http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?p=6004317

So, why did they do that? Look up the history of “unleavened wafers“. A heads-up – it represents the sun, and is included in Baal worship. Now generally we haven’t used a wafer, but the practice information does tell us that the symbol of Y’shua’s body was changed by the Catholic Church from a leavened loaf (artos w/zumo) to an unleavened wafer, in the 800‘s CE.

From a sister in Y’shua Messiah

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