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Bible Dictionaries
Bread
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or BREAD.—In Syria and Palestine there are certain shrines and groves that have been preserved undisturbed through times of political change, and are to-day venerated by all the religions of the country. Such also has been the unchanged history of bread in Bible lands. It is to-day practically what it has always been with regard to (1) the materials of which it is made, (2) the way in which it is prepared, (3) its importance and use as an article of food, and (4) the symbolism and sanctity suggested by its value.
1. Materials.—Bread is usually made of wheat flour, the wheat of the Syrian plains being remarkable for its nutritious quality. An inferior and cheaper kind of bread is also made from barley flour, and less frequently the meal of Indian corn is used.
2. Modes of preparation.—The most primitive way is that of making a hollow in the ground, burning twigs, thorn-bushes, thistles and dry grass upon it, and then laying the flat cakes of dough upon the hot ashes. These loaves are about seven inches in diameter and from half an inch to an inch in thickness. The upper surface is frequently studded with seeds of Indian corn, and they are generally turned in the process of baking (Hosea 7:8). They are ‘cakes upon the hearth’ (Genesis 18:6), ‘baken upon the coals’ (1 Kings 17:12-13). Such probably were the barley loaves brought to Christ at the feeding of the five thousand (John 6:9; John 6:13). Out of this custom, prevailing among the pastoral tribes and the poorest of the peasantry, were developed several improved methods made possible by more civilized conditions of life. (a) Large smooth pebbles were laid over the hollow in the ground, and when the fire had been kept up for a sufficient time, the ashes were removed and the loaves were laid upon the hot stones.—(b) Thinner cakes of both leavened and unleavened bread were made upon a flat pan or convex griddle. These are now made especially at times of religious festival, and are coated on the upper surface with olive oil and sprinkled with aromatic seeds. They recall the ‘oiled bread’ of Leviticus 8:26, and the ‘wafers anointed with oil’ of Exodus 29:2 and Leviticus 2:4.—(c) The cavity for the fire is deepened, and a cylindrical hole about the size of half a flour barrel is made of stone and lime with a facing of plaster. The pebbles are still left at the bottom for the better preservation of the heat, and the same fuel is applied till the oven has been sufficiently heated. The dough is then rolled out into broad thin cakes, and each disc, after being still further distended by being passed with a quick rotatory motion between the hands of the female baker, is laid on a convex cushion or pad, and is thus transferred evenly to the hot wall of the cavity. In a moment it is fired, and as it begins to peel off it is lifted and laid above the others at her side.—(d) The most developed form is that of the public oven in the village or town. Here features of the more primitive types still survive, but the cavity now becomes a low vaulted recess about twelve feet in length, and the pebbles are changed into a pavement of smoothed and squared stones. On it wood and lighter fuel of thorns are burnt, and the glowing ashes are finally brushed to each side of the vault. When the oven has been thus prepared the discs of dough are laid in rows upon long thin boards like canoe paddles, and are inserted by these into the oven, and by a quick jerk of the arm slipped off and placed upon the hot pavement to be fired. These loaves, when fired, are about an inch in thickness and about eight inches in diameter, and when newly baked are soft and flexible.
3. Use and importance of bread.—In the West bread is eaten more or less along with the other articles of food that chiefly constitute the meal; but in the East those other articles are rather eaten along with bread, and are regarded as merely accessory to it. When the farmer, carpenter, blacksmith or mason leaves the house for the day’s labour, or the messenger or muleteer sets out on his journey, he wraps his other articles of food in the thin loaves of home-made bread. In the case of loaves fired in the public oven, these, owing to the glutinous adhesiveness and elasticity of the dough, and the sudden formation within them of vapour on the hot pavement, pull out into air-tight balls. They can then be opened a little at one side, and the loaf thus forms a natural pouch enclosing the meat, cheese, raisins or olives to be eaten with it by the labourer. As the loaf thus literally includes everything, so bread represents generally the food of man. A great exclusion was expressed in ‘Man shall not live by bread alone’ (Luke 4:4). In the miraculous feeding of the multitude (Matthew 14:15 ff. ||) it was enough to provide them with bread. It was three loaves of bread that the man asked from his neighbour to put before his guest (Luke 11:5). Two would have been sufficient for his actual needs; but even in such an emergency a third loaf was required to represent that superabundant something which as a touch of grace, often passing into tyrannical imposition, so deeply affects Oriental social life.
In the act of eating, Oriental bread is broken or torn apart by the hand. This is easily done with the bread of the public oven, as it can be separated into two thin layers. The thin home-made bread is named both in Hebrew and Arabic from its thinness, and is translated ‘wafer’ in Exodus 29:23, Leviticus 8:26, Numbers 6:19, 1 Chronicles 23:29 ( Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885). Such bread is called רָקיק (râkîk; Arab. [Note: Arabic.] markûk, from warak, ‘foliage,’ ‘paper’). At a meal a small piece of such bread is torn off, and with the ease and skill of long habit is folded over at the end held in the hand. It thus makes a spoon, which is eaten along with whatever is lifted by it out of the common dish. This is the dipping in the dish (Matthew 26:23), and is accomplished without allowing the contents of the dish to be touched by the fingers or by anything that has previously been in contact with the lips of those who sit at meat.
4. Symbolism and sanctity of bread.—In a land where communication with other sources of supply was difficult, everything depended upon the local wheat and barley harvest. As this in turn depended upon the rain in its season, which was beyond the control of the sower, a special sanctity attached itself to what was peculiarly a gift of God, and a reminder of His continual and often undeserved care (Matthew 5:45). To the disciples of Jesus, ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ would seem a very natural petition. An Oriental seeing a scrap of bread on the road will usually lift it up and throw it to a street dog, or place it in a crevice of the wall or on a tree branch where the birds may find it. It should not be trodden under foot in the common dust. Thus the most familiar article of food, so constantly in the hands of all, both rich and poor, and used alike by the evil and the good, had in it an element of mystery and nobility as having been touched by the unseen Giver of all good. How deeply this feeling of reverence possessed the mind of the Lord Jesus is evidenced by the fact that He was recognized in the breaking of bread (Luke 24:35).
In the social customs of the East, the giving and receiving of bread has always been the principal factor in establishing a bond of peace between the host and the guest at his table. It was a gravely unnatural offence to violate that law of hospitality. Of this offence Judas Iscariot was guilty at the Last Supper.
In travelling through Palestine and partaking of the hospitality of the peasantry, one may notice in the bread the indentations of the pebbles, and small patches of grey ash, with here and there an inlaid attachment of singed grass or charred thorn, the result of the simple baking process. It is bread, however, the best that the poor can give, and it is given with gladness and the dignity of a high duty towards the guest. When Christ sent forth His disciples to tell of His approach, He charged them to take no bread with them (Mark 6:8). It would have been a serious discourtesy to have set aside as unlit for their use that which was offered to them willingly by their own people, and would have hindered the reception of the good tidings of the Kingdom.
To the crowd that selfishly followed Christ the giving of bread as by Moses was the sordid summary of Messianic hope (John 6:31). God’s gift of natural food to His people enters into the praises of the Magnificat (Luke 1:53). When Christ called Himself ‘the bread of life’ (John 6:35), He could confidently appeal to all the endeared and sacred associations connected in the East with the meaning and use of bread. In the initiation of the Passover, and in its commemoration afterwards, bread was regarded by the Israelites as the most general and effective symbol of their life in Egypt. In the initiation of the new covenant also the same humble article of food was adopted at the Lord’s Supper, to be, with wine, the token of fellowship between Himself and His Church, and the symbol among His disciples of the Communion of Saints. The use of a symbol so familiar and accessible to all, and so representative of common life, seems to suggest that to the mind of Christ some realized and visible communion among the members of His Church was possible and to be expected.
G. M. Mackie.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Bread'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/b/bread.html. 1906-1918.
