“Let us keep the feast” : some perspectives on the form and symbolism of the eucharistic bread in the early and Medieval West

Abstract

To begin with, we should clarify the form of the Eucharistic bread before the Western resumption of unleavened bread (azymes). The use of artos instead of azyma in the four New Testament accounts of the Last Supper probably tells us that the type of bread used was not considered sufficiently important to merit specification, although Andrew McGowan believes that such a use “might reflect the assimilation of the institution narratives to meal practices of a more everyday nature... or may conversely be a remnant of a non-paschal tradition embedded in the Gospel accounts” – even though any such tradition, if it existed, would have been superseded well before the end of the first Christian century. Thus, leavened bread was considered acceptable for Eucharistic use.