How Did The Ancient Nazarenes Celebrate Passover?

[aramaic_albion]

Shlama Friends,

Akhi Ryan and I have been having a discussion about what I'm going to call "the Eucharist". I'm certain this is not what this was called by the ancient Nazerenes, but this is the name I know it by, and am familiar with, so I'm going to use it.

This is my theory, taken from a lot of reading of many books, a lot of which were borrowed from interlibrary loan. It seems from almost the time that Yeshua ascended to the Father (in my opinion) that the Nazerene community or the Messianic Jewish community, if you like, began to celebrate Yeshua's broken body and to celebrate the blood that he shed for our Redemption on the torture stake, or cross.

Now I think this was done weekly, while I believe my friend Ryan feels that it was done only once a year, at Passover. I have found far too much evidence in far too many books about the early Jewish believers partaking of Communion, or Eucharist, weekly, for it not to be true. Okay, this could be the belief of a bunch of scholars who were living in the 20th century, and admittedly were and are far removed from the 1st century Messianic community; however, I just have a gut feeling that the act of taking the Bread and the Wine was so important to them that they did it at least once a week.

I have no PROOF of this except what I read, and you can see the words I spoke about that above, but it just makes sense to me that this was such an important thing to the early Nazerenes, that they did it as often as possible (probably weekly).

Now, I respect Ryan's opinion that it might have only been once a year at Passover. So we decided last night that we would put this question here in the Nazerene and Messianic Jewish section of the Forum, and ask you all (Ya'll) what you think about this important question.

I would like to hear from everyone that would care to write here, but I would especially like to hear from Andrew Gabriel Roth, and Paul Younan.

Please tell us what you think about this important subject, and just WHY you feel that way about it.

Thank you very much for taking part in this discussion, and adding your two pence to it. <!-- s:biggrin: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/biggrin.gif" alt=":biggrin:" title="Big Grin" /><!-- s:biggrin: -->

Shlama akhi, Albion

[Amatsyah]

Shlama Akhi Albion,

Honestly, I???m bringing a severe handicap to this issue. I???m overly under-read on the historical tracings of the Eucharist/Communion issue. It sure has captured my interest now, however! I guess I haven???t given it much thought since accommodating to the Pesakh view.

Perhaps, for starters, at least for me personally, we could approach this issue from a dichotomical angle? That is, from an Origins as opposed to Textual Evidence approach. Sort of a Historical Birth vs. Sola Scriptura methodology to the witness of corporate Communion???s birth? Evaluating all of Scripture from beginning to end, looking for any plain, unambiguous evidence to witness FOR or AGAINST the entire concept, but also allow an in-depth plumbing of the historical record (you really got me beat on that one!) to yes, actually figure out whether it belongs in our personal doctrinal lifestyle, and how exactly.

Just my two pence, for now <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/cool1.gif" alt="" title="Cool" /><!-- s -->

-Ryan

[Andrew Gabriel Roth]

Shlama Akhi Albion,

Actually in a way both you and Ryan are correct. Before explaining that though, let us define our terms:

Strong's Number: 2169 Browse Lexicon Original Word Word Origin eucaristia from (2170)
Transliterated Word TDNT Entry Eucharistia 9:407,1298 Phonetic Spelling Parts of Speech
yoo-khar-is-tee'-ah Noun Feminine Definition thankfulness the giving of thanks NAS Word Usage - Total: 15 giving of thanks 3, gratefully* 1, gratitude 2, thankfulness 1, thanks 2, thanksgiving 4, thanksgivings 2 NAS Verse Count Acts 1 1 Corinthians 1 2 Corinthians 3 Ephesians 1 Philippians 1 Colossians 2 1 Thessalonians 1 1 Timothy 3 Revelation 2 Total 15

As you know this is also a loan word brough into the Peshitta, so same meanings. Now let's look at the Scripture:

Php 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to Elohim.

This is the typical usage. EUCHARIST is not some insititutionalized thing--but merely the simple action of giving thanks to YHWH at a meal. That's it. And we know the apostles met for communal meals, including just after Shabbat, with something called "havdilah" (Acts 20:7). Let's look at some other examples:

1Co 14:16 Otherwise if you bless in the spirit only, how will the one who fills the place of the ungifted say the"Amen" at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying?

Now we are getting more specific. You see this is an expected part of the believer's sacred routine and the people doing this are both of Jewish and Gentile descent. Let's do a little more with the same word in a different form:

Mt 15:36
and He took the seven loaves and the fish; and giving thanks, He broke them and started giving them to the disciples, and the disciples {gave them} to the people.

Mt 26:27
And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave {it} to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you...".

In both cases in the Greek, the word is Eucharisteo, and here we see the precise context I spoke of, the blessing of thanks to YHWH at regular and sacred meals. Matti 26:27 is of course at the Passover Seder known as the Last Supper, a fact also confirmed by Rav Shaul:

1Co 11:24 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.

And also here:

NAS Verse Count Greek Word: Eujcaristevw Transliterated Word: eucharisteo
Ac 27:35 And having said this, he took bread and gave thanks to Elohim in the presence of all; and he broke it and began to eat.
Ac 28:15 And the brethren, when they heard about us, came from there as far as the Market of Appius and Three Inns to meet us; and when Paul saw them, he thanked Elohim and took courage.

So basically any occasion that the believers go together for and broke bread was in fact a EUCHARIST. That could therefore be a Shabbat meal, or one on the first day of the week (I would say after sunset on Saturday night) or it can be a major holiday like Passover. All these occasions in the Torah and the NT require believers to GIVE THANKS (eucharist) to YHWH for their salvation.

Finally, from a Nazarene viewpoint, Y'shua's life is a living example of all the Torah holidays. He was born between Yom Kippur and the start of Sukkot, representing a sin-offering-qorban (Matti 1:21), and that means he was conceived as the Light of the World 9 months earlier, in Hanukkah (the Festival of Lights). In fact there is a huge hint to this fact in what I call "the third nativity" in John. Of course he dies as the Paschal lamb and is resurrected on Bikurrim (first fruits) to be firstfruits from among the dead.

So on the one hand everyone 2000 years ago was in the habit of giving thanks as part of their sacred practice. On the other hand, the Torah observant Nazarenes had most certainly found the ancient occasions of Israel pregnant with new meaning and symbolism due to the example of their Master. Both dynamics are clearly going on in the Holy Writ.

Hope this helps!

Shlama w'burkate
Andrew Gabriel Roth

[distazo]

Shlama Friends,

Akhi Ryan and I have been having a discussion about what I'm going to call "the Eucharist". I'm certain this is not what this was called by the ancient Nazerenes, but this is the name I know it by, and am familiar with, so I'm going to use it.

I would like to hear from everyone that would care to write here, but I would especially like to hear from Andrew Gabriel Roth, and Paul Younan.

I'm not the well respected for their language knowledge Andrew Roth or Paul <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s -->
But I just stumbled and fell of my chair from surprise, for finding the word eucharist (eukhristya) in the Aramaic source (Peshitta), this word nowhere exists in the Greek Bible!

See Acts 2:42 and this clearly shows that they weekly took part of the eucharist.