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G rain has long been the staple of the human diet across the globe, and in the land of Israel it was no different. Many of us associate rice with the Mediterranean diet, but in Bible times the two staple grains were wheat and barley. The Bible contains 253 references to the word bread, and while barley loaves are mentioned, most of those references signify bread made with wheat, the more flavorful and versatile grain. Making bread was one of the most important daily tasks of the women of the Bible.
In her book, Food at the Time of the Bible, Miriam Feinberg Vamosh writes, “The preparation of bread was one of the hardest and most time-consuming of first-century household activities. In order to have the bread baked and ready to take to the field, the housewife (Prov. 31:15) would have to rise long before dawn” (v. 26). This time-consuming activity involved grinding the grain, making and kneading the dough, leaving it to rise, and then shaping and baking it over a fire or in an oven. But bread was the staple of the diet, the “staff of life,” so the work needed to be done.
 In the biblical literature, bread has a rich variety of symbolic meanings. “Breaking bread” together, or sharing a meal, was a way to express friendship, loyalty, and trust. To show how truly dejected he is, the Psalmist writes, “Even my closest friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me” (Psa. 41:9). Breaking bread seems to have been a powerful witness for Jesus, too, as it was only when he finally sat down to eat (“break bread”) with them, that the two disciples on their way to Emmaus recognized who he was (Luke 24:30-31).
We also get a sense of the meaningful experience of eating together from the description in Acts of the early community of Jesus-followers. Not only did they continue to meet together, share their possessions, and distribute aid to the needy among them, they also, “broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts” (Acts 2:46).
How bread is eaten also reflects the people’s relationship with God. When God brought the children of Israel out of slavery in the land of Egypt, he taught them to be dependent on them by miraculously providing ‘bread’—manna—fromheaven for them each night as they traveled for 40 years in the wilderness. In recounting these years, Moses tells the Israelites, “[God] humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna…to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut. 8:3). In other words, God was using this experience to teach them how utterly dependent they were on him.
Moses continues that if they obey God’s commands, God will bring them into a prosperous land that, among other things, is a place “where bread will not be scarce” (v. 9). However, they must continue to remember that it is God who has given them all these things or they will begin to trust in their own work and forget God. Moses admonishes them: “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you” (v. 10).
In contrast, bread can also be used as a symbol of punishment. Among other consequences for disobedience to the covenant with God, the children of Israel are warned that their supply of bread will be cut off, and that “ten women will be able to bake your bread in one oven, and they will dole it out by weight. You will eat, but you will not be satisfied” (Lev. 26:26). To have the staple of the diet rationed this way is indeed a harsh punishment! Later, the prophet Isaiah also uses the symbol of bread as punishment, as in the Lord giving the people, “the bread of adversity and the water of affliction” (Isa. 30:20).
 When the law was given to Moses by God on the mountain, there were very specific instructions about the use of breads in certain feasts, as well as in its use in the tabernacle. Prior to the Feast of Pesach (Passover) houses were to be completely free of any yeast, and during the whole week-long feast, the people were to eat only unleavened bread (see Ex. 12:14-20). We understand that the yeast in this context represents sin. In fact none of the grain offerings brought before the Lord were to contain any yeast (Lev. 6:14-18). The law also gives instructions about the showbread that is to be set before the Lord, along with oil and incense, each Sabbath. There are to be twelve loaves (for the twelve tribes) which will be replaced each week, with the old ones being eaten by the priests; the bread is “a most holy part of their regular share of the offerings made to the Lord by fire” (see Lev. 24:1-9).
More than 1000 years later, in reference to Jesus, the fourth chapter of the gospel of John records a fascinating—if somewhat gruesome—symbolic account in which Jesus says people should eat his flesh and drink his blood. After feeding more than 5,000 people in a miraculous display, Jesus withdrew to Capernaum. The crowds followed, and Jesus engaged them in a discussion about miraculous signs, food, and belief. He chided them for following him saying, “You are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (v. 26).
It wasn’t clear. The people wanted to know what that work is. Jesus spoke to them of believing in the One sent by God. Rather insultingly they respond to this by saying, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you” (v. 30)? As if he hadn’t just fed 5,000 people from five barley loaves and two fishes! Then they remind Jesus about what God did in the wilderness by giving them manna. “It was not Moses who gave the bread but God,’ Jesus said, “and God’s true bread is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (v. 33). He further explained that he is the true bread of life: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (v. 53). At this, many people turned away from Jesus because it was such a hard teaching (see John 6: 60-66).
 That story is not the only one in which Jesus talks symbolically about being bread and wine. When he is eating the Passover meal with his disciples before his death, Jesus repeats these words (see Mk. 14: 22-24; Matt. 26: 26-28; Luke 22: 19-20). From the showbread that sits as a memorial before the Lord and is eaten by the priests to the Passover meal which signifies the remembrance of God’s deliverance from oppressive Egypt, Jesus takes upon himself the symbolism of bread that is holy to the Lord. This bread is broken and eaten as is the Passover sacrifice, in gratefulness to God for his deliverance and provision.
Bread was a common, simple, yet essential element of daily life. Jesus asked his disciples to continue eating together, in remembrance of him and of the sacrifice he made of himself on their behalf. By using the symbolism of his own body as “bread” he is also reminding them, in a way, of his place in their lives: “I am the staple of your life—you need me to survive.”
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F ood, Genesis 2:9 tells us, is God’s gift to humankind. Food plays an important role in all civilizations, with some of the most fascinating differences among cultures measured in terms of the availability and variety (or lack thereof) of food, how it is prepared, and even how it is eaten.
Biblical history virtually begins with an act of eating: Adam’s and Eve’s tastes of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. And throughout the Bible, food continues to play an essential role.
 Although the various biblical festivals are essentially spiritual occasions, in their earliest form they were agricultural festivals that centered on the need of human beings to ensure the success of their crops by asking God’s intervention. The period we are now in, the 50 days between Passover and the Feast of Weeks, the weather in the Holy Land can be fickle, with a last downpour of the rainy season, or an early heat wave destroying the crop. Thus, each day was counted as the farmer worriedly surveyed his field. To this day, Orthodox Jews observe the custom of counting the days, and saying special prayers.
The act of eating was often much more than a matter of nourishing the body; it was imbued with sanctity. This might be difficult to imagine sometimes, especially if, like Abraham who “hurried” and “ran” to feed his angelic visitors (Gen. 18:6-7) you find yourself rushing to put the finishing touches on some all-important feast, or just to get supper on the table on time!
Let’s remember some memorable scriptural meals: At Mount Sinai, Moses and the elders dined together to seal their covenant with God (Ex. 24:11). Jacob and his father-in-law Laban also shared a meal to seal a pact (Gen. 31:54). And of course, As Anita Rhodes has so beautifully expressed it here, the Last Supper is rich in covenant significance.
The story of Joseph and his brothers teaches us how important food was in the Bible. Because the rain-watered land of Israel could be fickle in its productivity, its people looked to Egypt, where the Nile never failed to flood, as their breadbasket. And so, in a famine year, the sons of Jacob migrated to Egypt, where they found their brother Joseph that they had left for dead, now in charge of the Pharaoh’s food stores! Here the brothers and their extended families grew and flourished until eventually, the Pharaoh who “knew not Joseph” enslaved them. Later, the people – now known as the Children of Israel – left Egypt under Moses, enacting one of humanity’s greatest liberation stories. And it all started because food was not available in a certain year in Canaan. Food was indeed a mover and a shaker in biblical history!
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