So what is leavened or unleavened bread. Leaven is another name for yeast. That is fine, but why not eat it. In Exodus, Moses keep going on and on about unleavened bread. I am not a biblical scholar, so I Googled it. I came across more information than I could read through. I did find a very informative and indepth article on the subject. Check this out. To summarize, the use of leaven can be found in may different places in the bible. Let’s start with the passages in question:
3 Then Moses said to the people, "Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the LORD brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast. 4 Today, in the month of Abib, you are leaving. 5 When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites—the land he swore to your forefathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey—you are to observe this ceremony in this month: 6 For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the LORD. 7 Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. 8 On that day tell your son, 'I do this because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.' 9 This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the law of the LORD is to be on your lips. For the LORD brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand. 10 You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year. Exodus 13:3-9 (NIV)
Let’s go back to how they used to make leavened bread. They did not know that yeast was responsible for making the bread rise….they knew that if they mixed flour and water and put it in a cool place for a long time, the bread would rise. Then if they kept back a small piece, it could be seeded into a new batch to speed up the process. It was a way of continuing the use of past yeast to make new bread.
In this passage Moses tells them not to use leavened bread. Do not use the past to make bread of a new day. The Lord has just delivered them from Egypt and has promised them a new day, the past is in the past.
As the author of the article describes:
We can see the different symbolism that an ancient writer might use from bread baking to represent certain concepts: leavening represents a connection with the past, a flavoring when it becomes old, a force that invisibly spreads, a change that is also unseen, complexity, activity/festivity and involves labor. Dough without leaven represents haste, a break with the past, an absence of extra flavor, simplicity, inactivity, powerlessness and a lack of labor.
The use of leaven is used all throughout the bible. Here are a couple of examples:
6"Be careful," Jesus said to them. "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Matthew 16:6
33He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount[b] of flour until it worked all through the dough." Matthew 13:33 (NIV)
This is just another example of how much I do not know about the bible, but that I am learning through my readings. Very cool.
