I previously referred to this regular celebration of the
Church as communion. You might call
it the Lord’s Table or the Lord’s Supper. Many call it Breaking of Bread; and of course some refer to it as the Eucharist. By its nature it is either
referred to as a Church sacrament or
an ordinance. It can be conducted weekly, monthly or even
annually by some well-intentioned worshipers.
In 1
Corinthians 11:20 (NIV), (20 So
then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat.) it is
called the Lord’s Supper. In Greek that
is Κυριακον δειπνον,
which means “belonging or relating to the Lord; and it means “supper” or feast,
taken in the evening. Ironically, I
heard of a Christian man who would not participate in the Supper of the Lord,
unless it was at nightfall. The context
in 1 Corinthians 11 doesn’t appear to be “evening”; and coupled with Paul’s admonition
“… whenever you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
(1 Corinthians 11:26,
NIV), I don’t think we will hold hard and fast to an evening meal.
Paul also speaks of it this way: “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we
give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that
we break a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16, NIV). He refers to it as “participation”; or in
the Greek: κοινωνία meaning
fellowship, participation, or even communion.
In 1 Corinthians 10:21
(NIV), it is referred to as the “Lord’s table”.
If we think that Luke was referring to this even in Acts 2
when he wrote, “They
devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking
of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42, NIV), then it might be called τῇ κλάσει τοῦ ἄρτου, which is indeed breaking of bread.
The term Eucharist comes
from the Greek by way of Latin, and it means "thanksgiving." The earliest use of the term is found in the
Didache[1]. Of course we cannot directly glean it from
Scripture except if we were somehow to extrapolate the words of Jesus “For I received from the Lord what I
also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took
bread, 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.”” (1 Corinthians 11:23–24, NIV). [Emphasis mine]
So it would seem that the apostolic writers most clearly
described this celebration as The Lord’s Supper or The Lord’s Table. It very well may have been called Breaking of
Bread, also. To the plain reader of Scripture it becomes a stretch to refer it
as Communion, although the context bears testimony to that as being the
nature. It may well be used more
accurately as an adjective, than noun.
To call this event The Eucharist and to beg to Scriptural clarity is a longer
stretch.
In keeping with the approach of this study I think to refer
to this event as the Lord’s Supper is most appropriate. So what of these things like bread and wine?
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