The very first expression used to designate the Eucharist seems to have been "the breaking of the bread." Saint Luke uses the following words to describe the life of the first Christians immediately after Pentecost: "They devoted themsleves to the apostle's instruction and communal life, to the breaking of bread and prayers...They went to the temple area together every day, while in their homes they broke bread" (Acts 2.42,46). "On the first day of the week when we gathered for the breaking of bread, Paul preached to them" (Acts 20.7). There is probably a eucharistic allusion in Luke's report of the supper at Emmaus, "...He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread" (Lk. 24.35).
Saint Paul also uses a form of this expression to designate the Eucharist: "Is not the bread that we break a sharing in the body of Christ?" (1 Cor 10.16).
In Jewish writings of the first century, the expression "to break bread" was used with reference to the introductory rite of a meal, not to the entire meal. It was this initial act of breaking and sharing bread that Jesus made an effective sign of communion with Him and with one another.
Saint Paul refers to the Eucharist as "the Lord's Supper" (1 Cor 11.20) and "the Table of the Lord" (1 Cor 10.21), but there is no evidence to suggest that these were commonly used names for the Eucharist in the early Church.
Sincerely in Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
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