THE BREAKING OF BREAD?
by
Keith Hunt
"And they continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine
and fellowship, and in the BREAKING OF BREAD, and prayers ... And
they continued daily with one accord in the temple, and BREAKING
OF BREAD FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE..." (Acts 2:42,46).
There you have it say some - the apostolic Church kept the
Lord's Supper/ the Communion Service - DAILY, and from house to
house!
The above parts of verses 42, 46, are the only parts usually
quoted to try to prove that point to you.
There is one more verse that is often used to claim the
FIRST day of the week was kept as the Lord's Day Sabbath with the
"Communion Service" taking place: "And upon the first day of the
week, when the disciples came together to BREAK BREAD...." (Acts
20:7). You may like to request my article "The First Day - Is it
really the Lord's Day?"
Now does the phrase "to break bread" really mean to partake
of the Lord's Supper or Communion Service as some call it (taking
of the bread and wine to commemorate the death of Christ)?
Turn to Mark 6:41, "And when He (Jesus) had taken the five
loaves and two fishes, He looked up to heaven, and blessed, and
BRAKE the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before
them..."
Here was the "breaking of bread" done by Jesus. Now notice
the next verses, "and they did all eat and were filled ... they
that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men" (verses
42,44).
This was a COMMON MEAL! People filling their stomachs, and
BREAKING BREAD WAS DONE!
Next, turn to Luke 24:30-35. Jesus appeared to two men while
on the way to the village Emmaus. While He sat at MEAT - FOOD - a
MEAL with them, "He took bread, and blessed it, and BREAK, and
gave to them." Then they knew that it was Jesus - they ran to the
eleven and told them they had seen the Lord and had come to
perceive it was Him in "breaking of bread" (verse 35).
Now let us look at Acts 27:33-38. Paul and all the others
are on a ship during a storm. After fourteen days of fasting Paul
encourages them to, "...take some MEAT (food)...and when he had
thus spoken, he took BREAD...and when he had BROKEN it, he began
to eat. Then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some
meat (food)... And when they had eaten enough, they left the
ship..."
This was again a MEAL which Paul and the others were having
after a two week fast - bread was BROKEN!
It should be very clear now that "to break bread" was just a
common everyday expression for having a MEAL.
In Acts 20:7 it would be very natural for the disciples to
gather together with a travelling evangelist and have a good
celebrating MEAL together, and then a preaching service to
follow.
Turn to Acts 2:42-46 and let us read the part of verse 46
that is often not read or quoted. "And they continued daily with
one accord in the temple, and BREAKING BREAD from house to house,
DID EAT THEIR MEAT (food) with gladness and singleness of heart."
What were the believers DOING? Why, they were eating MEALS
together, fellowshipping together, rejoicing together in the
Christian faith they had recently found. Once more, under the
circumstances, quite a natural thing to be doing. This "breaking
of bread" was also just partaking of common meals together.
The people back then LITERALLY did BRAKE the bread with
their hands when eating a meal. You see there was no packaged
SLICED bread in those days.
In conjunction with this article, please study the study called
"Bread and Wine - How Often Should We Observe It?"
.................
Written in 1981
