{"id":86509,"date":"2025-04-09T17:04:34","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T22:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=86509"},"modified":"2025-04-09T17:04:34","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T22:04:34","slug":"why-was-the-bread-offered-at-pentecost-to-be-made-with-leaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-was-the-bread-offered-at-pentecost-to-be-made-with-leaven\/","title":{"rendered":"Why was the bread offered at Pentecost to be made with leaven?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\nHi Jeffrey,\n
\n“You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the LORD<\/em>” (Leviticus 23:17 NKJV)\n<\/blockquote>\nHere, God says the leaven is needed when Jews were baking the loaves of bread sacrificed to God. Why is leaven needed in the bread? Doesn’t the leaven symbolize the sin?\u00a0Is there any special meaning for the “leaven” here?\n\t

Answer:<\/h2>\n

Just because a leaven is used to represent sin in some of Paul’s illustrations, it doesn’t mean that every use of leaven is done to represent sin.<\/p>\n

The Passover meal occurred during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The lack of leavening was to commemorate the rush Israel had in leaving Egypt. They couldn’t use leavening because waiting for bread to rise would have taken too long. “You shall sacrifice the Passover to the LORD your God from the flock and the herd, in the place where the LORD chooses to establish His name. You shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), so that you may remember all the days of your life the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory, and none of the flesh which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall remain overnight until morning<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 16:2-4).<\/p>\n

The Feast of Pentecost was to celebrate the first harvest. This is a remembrance of how God brought them into a bountiful land, which was celebrated with food from the home. “You shall bring in from your dwelling places<\/strong> two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the LORD<\/em>” (Leviticus 23:17). Thus, it is a celebration of thankfulness for what the Lord provided them. Bread is used because the Feast of Pentecost comes at the beginning of the wheat harvest (Exodus 34:22).<\/p>\n

Thus, Passover reminded the Israelites of the hardships endured to travel to freedom, and Pentecost is to remind them of the blessings they received on arriving in the promised land.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: Hi Jeffrey, “You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the LORD” (Leviticus 23:17 NKJV) Here, God says the leaven is needed when Jews were baking the loaves of bread sacrificed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1186,115,210],"class_list":["post-86509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-offerings","tag-old-law","tag-symbolism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32082,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-salt-be-used-in-unleavened-bread\/","url_meta":{"origin":86509,"position":0},"title":"Can salt be used in unleavened bread?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This morning I was talking with a fellow Christian when she mentioned that we need to be careful about the unleavened bread used in the Lord's Supper because several months ago someone had purchased what was stated on the box as \"For Passover Use,\" but it was not completely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18280,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-fermented-grape-juice-wine-be-used-in-the-lords-supper\/","url_meta":{"origin":86509,"position":1},"title":"Can fermented grape juice (wine) be used in the Lord’s Supper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please answer me with biblical texts the following questions or doubts I have: Which kind of wine (intoxicating fermented wine or non-fermented wine) should be used during Lord's Supper celebration? Can we commit sin by using fermented or alcoholic wine during the Lord's Supper celebration? It is alleged that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53840,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-unleavened-bread\/","url_meta":{"origin":86509,"position":2},"title":"Why Unleavened Bread?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Why do we use unleavened bread when we partake of the Lord's Supper? At the first level of understanding, we recognize that Jesus used unleavened bread when giving instructions for the Lord's Supper (Matthew 26:26). We know this because it was on the occasion of the Passover\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/unleavened-bread-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":37901,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-leavened-or-unleavened-bread-be-used-in-the-lords-supper\/","url_meta":{"origin":86509,"position":3},"title":"Should leavened or unleavened bread be used in the Lord’s Supper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Our congregation uses ordinary bread (very likely leavened) for Lord's Supper. The minister, after admitting that unleavened bread was used during the Passover meal when Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, tried to justify the use of ordinary bread this way: 1. The elements of the Lord's Supper are the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91194,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-i-incorrectly-teach-the-parable-of-the-yeast\/","url_meta":{"origin":86509,"position":4},"title":"Did I incorrectly teach the parable of the yeast?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 12, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, brother Jeffrey. I led a study during our Mid-Week Service about the Parable of the Yeast. I made a disclaimer in my lesson that even though the majority of the usage of the word \"yeast\" in the Bible carries a negative connotation but the way Jesus used\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41022,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/unleavened-bread\/","url_meta":{"origin":86509,"position":5},"title":"Unleavened Bread","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 26, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Exodus 12:14-20 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes you can\u2019t wait \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Lot invited men to spend the night at his home, he didn\u2019t have time wait for bread dough to rise, so his feast was served with unleavened bread - Genesis 19:3 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When it was time for Israel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}