Bread was the meal. Edersheim calls it “the mainstay of life, without which no entertainment was considered as a meal”, the head of the house took the loaf and spoke the blessing (the Mishnah’s formula: “Who brings forth bread from the earth”), and that one blessing covered all the food that followed, as the wine-blessing covered the drinks. The bread was then commonly dipped into salt. After eating came a spoken grace, three who ate together were bound to say it together. That is the scene each time Jesus “took bread, and blessed, and brake it.”
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Bread & the blessing
Food & meals
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- Matthew 26:26bsb
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, spoke a blessing and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is My body.”
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