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Why Unleavened Bread?
Our congregation, as do most, uses unleavened bread for communion. The Greek Orthodox Church uses leavened bread. Quakers don’t generally use either as they don’t observe the Lord’s supper. Our question is, why should we use unleavened bread? The reason for this query is the recognized fact that every time the Bible discusses communion, the Holy Spirit chose “artos” which just means bread. Let’s look at one of the texts:
“On the first day of Unleavened Bread/azumos the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”” (CSB’17 Matthew 26:17)
“As they were eating, Jesus took bread/artos, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take and eat it; this is my body.”” (CSB’17 Matthew 26:26)
Two definitions are needed:
1. Azumos/Unleavened bread (26:17) is literally just “unleavened”. There is no Greek word for “unleavened bread”, unlike in Hebrew (think matzah).
2. Artos/Bread (26:26) just means generic bread.
Again, why should we use unleavened bread? I suggest 5 reasons:
1. Precedent (also known as pattern or example). Jesus used unleavened bread because He instituted His supper at a time when no leaven was even allowed in a Jewish house. It is inferred Jesus chose this time purposely. Since we don’t follow every example, the question becomes, is Jesus’s example enough to bind us to the use? Thankfully, Jesus precedent is not the only reason why.
2. Parallelism – In 1 Corinthians 5, Jesus is our Passover. In Luke 22, His supper is called a Passover. To use leavened bread would erase the analogy of the original to the fulfillment. Again, this goes back to Jesus’s precedent as purposeful.
3. Principle – While leaven is not always associated with sin (i.e. the kingdom is like leaven), in 1 Corinthians 5 leaven is connected to sin. In fact, the word unleavened means in the figurative sense, “uncorrupted”.
4. As stated before, the generic word for bread is used in describing the communion bread. However as seen above, the generic Greek word artos is used to specifically describe unleavened bread in Matthew 26:17-27.
That’s four reasons to use unleavened bread. But let me add one more to make five.
5. Jesus’s body was without sin, and as said above the symbolism is associated with being unleavened. The church is to purge sin as seen in 1 Corinthians 5, again associated with staying unleavened. If the physical body, and spiritual body are “unleavened”, shouldn’t the representative body in the bread likewise be unleavened?
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