Jesus: I Am the Bread of Life Part II

Introduction:

In the first part of this study, we looked at the significance of the name I AM, the name the Jews recognized as God's name and the name Jesus used to identify Himself as being God.  In this part of the study we will look at a second name, the Bread of Life.

Bread is the principle food of the East.  It is estimated that three-quarters of the people of the Orient depend entirely on bread or products made from wheat or barley flour as their food.

In this culture, the term, "eating bread", is equivalent to eating a meal.  To the religious Jew of Jesus' time, there was an attitude of sacredness to bread.  Bread is always broken, never sliced.  To cut bread would be cutting life.
Although leavened bread is the usual form eaten, unleavened bread is also common place.  Leaven is considered a symbol of sin, so when purity was demanded, the religious Jews always ate "unleavened" bread, going so far as to cleanse their houses of any leaven.

In the Orient, those who share a meal are bound together by a solemn covenant of peace and loyalty.  Thus the expression "bread and salt" becomes sacred.  This helps us understand why the religious leaders were so upset with Jesus for eating with "sinners."

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