Most scholars agree that the Lord’s Supper was originally taken as a meal"
So why today is the Lord's Supper only a snack?
Read the following item and share your comments:
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The Last Supper & the Feast to Come
The Lord’s Supper (yes, I am getting to the point now) was instituted in the context of a feast. The Last Supper was the time Christ and His disciples celebrated the “feast” of the Passover. This is made clear in Luke 22:15. So, in the context of the Passover festive meal, Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper.
But Jesus and His disciples were not only looking back to the deliverance of Israel at the Exodus, they also were looking forward. Jesus inaugurated the new covenant at this meal, and he also looked forward to the time when he would feast with his disciples again in the kingdom of God. Luke’s Gospel makes this connection especially clear:
Luke 22:15-18 And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
And then after the Supper…
Luke 22:28-30 “You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
So the context of the giving of the Lord’s Supper involves a look back at the feast of the Passover and a look forward to a future feast: the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Apparently most scholars agree that the Lord’s Supper was originally taken as a meal. Let me provide a few quotes regarding this:
Donald Guthrie: “in the early days the Lord’s Supper took place in the course of a communal meal.” (The Lion Handbook of the Bible) [6a]
John Drane: “Throughout the New Testament period the Lord’s Supper was an actual meal shared in the homes of Christians. It was only much later that [it] was moved to a special building…”. (The New Lion Encyclopedia) [6b]
J.G. Simpson: “the name Lord’s Supper…derived from 1 Corinthians 11:20, is not there applied to the sacrament itself but to the Love Feast or Agape, a meal commemorating the Last Supper, and not yet separated from the Eucharist when St. Paul wrote.” (The Dictionary of the Bible) [6c]
Merrill F. Unger: “Apparently the Lord’s Supper and the Agape were originally one (1 Cor. 11:17-34). The common conservative view unites a simple repast with the Lord’s Supper on the general plan of the Last Supper.” (The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary) [7]
Hulitt Gloer: “By the second century the word agapai had become a technical term for such a common meal which seems to have been separated from the ceremonial observance of the Lord’s Supper sometime after the New Testament period.” (Holman Bible Dictionary) [8]
As the giving of the Lord’s Supper became more formal and sacramentally oriented, the agape feast was separated from the Lord’s Supper. And both continued to be practiced for some time, although the Agape Feast was condemned, due to excesses and problems, at a church council in the 300s. Yet the practice continued in some places until as late as the 15th century. [9]
Before moving on, I should mention that the love feast is directly mentioned by name in Jude 12, and it is possibly referred to in a parallel passage in 2 Pet. 2:13. And as mentioned above, what we see in Acts 2 and 20, and also in 1 Cor. 11 seems very similar to the love feast.
http://fundyreformed.wordpress.com/2006/09/22/snack-or-feast/
Read the following item and share your comments:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Last Supper & the Feast to Come
The Lord’s Supper (yes, I am getting to the point now) was instituted in the context of a feast. The Last Supper was the time Christ and His disciples celebrated the “feast” of the Passover. This is made clear in Luke 22:15. So, in the context of the Passover festive meal, Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper.
But Jesus and His disciples were not only looking back to the deliverance of Israel at the Exodus, they also were looking forward. Jesus inaugurated the new covenant at this meal, and he also looked forward to the time when he would feast with his disciples again in the kingdom of God. Luke’s Gospel makes this connection especially clear:
Luke 22:15-18 And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
And then after the Supper…
Luke 22:28-30 “You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
So the context of the giving of the Lord’s Supper involves a look back at the feast of the Passover and a look forward to a future feast: the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Apparently most scholars agree that the Lord’s Supper was originally taken as a meal. Let me provide a few quotes regarding this:
Donald Guthrie: “in the early days the Lord’s Supper took place in the course of a communal meal.” (The Lion Handbook of the Bible) [6a]
John Drane: “Throughout the New Testament period the Lord’s Supper was an actual meal shared in the homes of Christians. It was only much later that [it] was moved to a special building…”. (The New Lion Encyclopedia) [6b]
J.G. Simpson: “the name Lord’s Supper…derived from 1 Corinthians 11:20, is not there applied to the sacrament itself but to the Love Feast or Agape, a meal commemorating the Last Supper, and not yet separated from the Eucharist when St. Paul wrote.” (The Dictionary of the Bible) [6c]
Merrill F. Unger: “Apparently the Lord’s Supper and the Agape were originally one (1 Cor. 11:17-34). The common conservative view unites a simple repast with the Lord’s Supper on the general plan of the Last Supper.” (The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary) [7]
Hulitt Gloer: “By the second century the word agapai had become a technical term for such a common meal which seems to have been separated from the ceremonial observance of the Lord’s Supper sometime after the New Testament period.” (Holman Bible Dictionary) [8]
As the giving of the Lord’s Supper became more formal and sacramentally oriented, the agape feast was separated from the Lord’s Supper. And both continued to be practiced for some time, although the Agape Feast was condemned, due to excesses and problems, at a church council in the 300s. Yet the practice continued in some places until as late as the 15th century. [9]
Before moving on, I should mention that the love feast is directly mentioned by name in Jude 12, and it is possibly referred to in a parallel passage in 2 Pet. 2:13. And as mentioned above, what we see in Acts 2 and 20, and also in 1 Cor. 11 seems very similar to the love feast.
http://fundyreformed.wordpress.com/2006/09/22/snack-or-feast/
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