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IS THE LORD'S SUPPER A COMMON MEAL ? |
QUESTION"Is the Lord's Supper a common meal?"
"How come the Lord's Supper is held in the morning (isn't supper an evening meal?) and doesn't even constitute a proper meal, but just a sip and a morsel?"
ANSWER [Greek text is in Microsoft SYMBOL font.]The Lord did not ask us to remember him by having an ordinary meal.The Lord's supper was turned into a common meal by some and Paul severely rebuked them for this [1.Corinthians 11:20-22], telling them they had houses in which to eat their ordinary meals [v.22[, and reminded them that the Lord asked us to remember him in drinking from the cup of grape juice and eating from the unleavened loaf [vv.23-29. cp. 1.Corinthians 10:16-17, Matthew 26:26-29 and Mark 14:22-25]. Doing that is what he termed "the Lord's supper" [1.Corinthians 11:20]. The Lord's supper is the primary reason why all the whole church should come together into one place on 'the first day of the week' and not in order to eat an ordinary meal [1.Corinthians 11:20].
I agree that a sip and a morsel is not exactly eating. It should be enough to drink and to chew but just enough since the one cup and the one loaf had to serve the whole gathering.
The early church observed the 'Lord's supper' [ kuriakon deipnon 1.Corinthians 11:20] on 'the first day of the week' [Acts 20:7] known as 'the Lord's Day' [ te kuriake ' emera Revelation 1:10]. These are the only two places where the word 'Lord's' [ kuriake] is used in the Bible.
The phrase 'the first day of the week.' was a Hebrew idiom for the day after the Sabbath. It lasted from Saturday evening to Sunday evening.
When Paul visited the church in Troas they came together on a Saturday evening in order to 'break a loaf' [ klasai arton]. Paul's message ended abruptly when a young man fell through a window[Acts 20:11]. They satisfied themselves that the boy was all right. Then Paul ate his meal [ klasaV arton kai geusamenoV]. If the 'Lord's Supper' was a fully fledged, physically satisfying, common meal, why did Paul eat again?
In English the word 'supper' means the evening meal but in the New Testament the word translated supper [ deipnon] means either the main meal of the day [John 12:2] or a feast celebrating a special occasion [Luke 14:16, 17, 24, 20:46, Revelation 19:9, 17]. Although the main meal of the day was usually taken in the evening, feasts would often last most of the day.
So the significance of 'the Lord's supper' is not the time of day but the importance of the occasion.
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