Leavened Bread and its Symbolical Significance

This presentation is on why the Orthodox Church uses Leavened Bread for the Eucharist. Many Churches in the west and even some in the east (like Armenians) either use unleavened bread or accept both leavened and unleavened bread. We need to remember that one of the reasons for the Great Schism was in fact on the issue of the unleavened bread, in which the west thought this problem was too insignificant to even entertain.

But it isn't! There are many theological, symbolic and even christological aspects to the usage of the leavened bread in the Liturgy. This video will help explain that in a non-exhaustive way that hopefully generates proper discussion on this issue.

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[BigChief_]

"Today I wanted to *BAKE* a video on leavened bread."

[SB-qetb]

I could not agree with you more, it is not talked about nearly as much as it should. What a fantastic and very educational video David. I appreciate this video so much and I am so glad you took the time to create it. This is dismissed as a legalistic item then the symbolism and meaning that it actually brings representing Christ.

[willtheperson]

I like to think that the Leavened Bread for us is a fulfillment of the Unleavened Bread from the OT. Anyone else agree?

[darklord]

Thank you for this video. I especially hate it when the monophysites use the culture copout as if culture cancels out the theology behind leavened bread

[NJP]

2:20 “make the bread eatable”. Thank you. 😂

[starcityoldy]

“Comment some cool stuff?”
*leaves the chat*

[jeremyfirth]

Overall, I am enjoying this video, but yeast is not a bacteria. Yeast is a fungus.

[sidpan]

Would love to see a video on long hair in the Orthodox clergy and 1 Corinthians 11 thanks. Good video here 👍🏻

[heylelbenshachar]

I kind of suspect that the Latins transitioned their liturgy to missa (unleavened) at some point in the 5th century. A lot of things were going wrong in the West with the Vandals, Goths, Huns etc and the collapse of the Western Roman system. So, I could see why otherwise Orthodox priests there would consider a celebratory liturgy to be inappropriate and instead call for something penitent. Then maybe enough time passed that they forgot. I've also heard a theory that the loss of grain shipments from Africa meant that they had to start making bread with local winter wheat which would need starter to leaven, as opposed to Egyptian grain which already had natural yeast on it. So the cutting off of trade might have made unleavened a simple matter.

[DUNC]

Does anyone have the source for the St. Peter of Antioch quotes? I cannot find them online (everything shows St. Peter the Apostle) and this book David uses I also cannot find online, or any information on the author. I know this video is "dead" at the time of this comment but I figured I'd just throw out the request anyway.

[bvsjgqg]

Just an FYI, yeast is a type of fungi, not bacteria.

[bethelshiloh]

Yes. Leavened bread used at the Last Supper.

[opabinnier]

I hate to break it to you, but yeast (leaven) is not a bacterium but a fungud. It is a unicellular fungus but it is still a fungus. You really should get this basic information right. (PS why does everyone overuse the term "bacterium" and why use the plural (bacteria) inappropriately- unless talking of different types of bacteria?)

[balukuroben]

Leaven symbolises sinfulness, Christ used unleavened & at Passover unleavened bread was used, so I go with unleavened bread .1 Corinthians 5:6-8
[6]It is not right for you to be proud! You know the saying, “A little bit of yeast makes the whole batch of dough rise.”
[7]You must remove the old yeast of sin so that you will be entirely pure. Then you will be like a new batch of dough without any yeast, as indeed I know you actually are. For our Passover Festival is ready, now that Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
[8]Let us celebrate our Passover, then, not with bread having the old yeast of sin and wickedness, but with the bread that has no yeast, the bread of purity and truth.

[i-LBelarus]

i wonder if jesus wanted us to focus so much on yeast (something poorly understood in the general population then and now) when he said to remember him and that the bread was his body.

[i-LBelarus]

yeast is not a bacteria. yeast is fungus

[redlander]

You can generate symbolism from theology, but you cannot generate theology from symbolism, i.e., say that some symbolic connections are doctrine, i.e., you cannot say that for the whole church leavened bread is ok and unleavened bread is not ok because of symbolic reasons. Each tradition is free to to generate symbolism as it wishes and this might result in different approaches. This seems to be just a difference in rite.

Symbolically you can go both ways, right? Sunday is a day for celebrating the resurrection, a day of joy, so you can go for a bread which symbolizes this, i.e., leavened bread. But also the Eucharist is a commemoration of Christ's death for us, so you can go for a bread which symbolizes our powerlessness, i.e., unleavened bread. Even more so, since in the Eucharist the people eat and drink the body and blood of Christ crucified, the image is more that of death, sacrifice, not resurrection, so maybe one would actually expect the Church to go for the unleavened bread.

Canon 11 of Trullo can be interpreted in different ways, I think. The same for similar canons. Also canon 11 of Trullo sounds so antisemitic. It's not a canon that can be simply and easily be brought to the table.

Now, maybe there are other reasons for the Church to reject unleavened bread, but the fact that she usually talks of the symbolic argument is a bit concerning.

The biblical artos argument is nice, if it is true -- though I think this is debatable.

The historical argument, i.e., the Catholics changed universal Church tradition such that they switched from leavened to unleavened bread, is a much better approach than the symbolical argument, though it, too, has some flaws. Although the exclusive usage in the West of unleavened bread came close to the schism, the practice was present in some Western regions much earlier and the East had enough time to rebuke the West, but it didn't. Also, ancient practices, viewed as inspired, even symbolic ones, were changed by the Church in some places due to specific reasons, so even when symbolism seems to be set in stone by the Church, it isn't.

[balukuroben]

1 Corinthians 5:6-8
[6]It is not right for you to be proud! You know the saying, “A little bit of yeast makes the whole batch of dough rise.”
[7]You must remove the old yeast of sin so that you will be entirely pure. Then you will be like a new batch of dough without any yeast, as indeed I know you actually are. For our Passover Festival is ready, now that Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
[8]Let us celebrate our Passover, then, not with bread having the old yeast of sin and wickedness, but with the bread that has no yeast, the bread of purity and truth.