The Last Supper (about 1030 - 1040) by UnknownThe J. Paul Getty Museum
Every civilization has its own staple food that forms its main source of carbohydrates (our fuel), like rice in the Far East or corn in Central America. Bread is the West's ultimate slow-burning carb, but it's not just a foodstuff like the others, it's sacred.
Its sacramental status has largely persisted in Western societies that have since become mostly secular precisely because it is omnipresent in the Judeo-Christian tradition on which this civilization is based.
Bread's Genesis
In the book of Genesis, attributed to Moses by the Jewish people (or a compilation of texts written between 1,000 and 0 BCE according to historians), grain and grape juice, the basic ingredients of bread and wine (already inseparable), are mentioned while Jacob blesses his son, Isaac.
Genesis 27:28: "… May God give you heaven's dew and earth's richness—an abundance of grain and new wine."
Raining bread … heavenly manna
The use of the word bread to mean food is often linked to the teachings of Jesus Christ and their interpretation. But in the Bible, bread appears earlier in the form of manna. It's a sign that God is keeping an eye out for the Jewish people by providing them with a never-ending supply of food, and is the origin of the expression "the Lord provides."
Exodus 16:4: Then the Lord said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day."
To believe means to believe in miracles
One of the best-known miracles is in the Gospel, where Jesus feeds a multitude of people with a few loaves of bread and fishes. This episode must have looked like some kind of magic trick. To feed the crowd that had gathered in the desert to listen to him, Jesus miraculously multiplied the food so that no one went hungry.
Luke 9:10–17: "They answered, "We have only five loaves of bread and two fish … (About 5,000 people were there.) … Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, (Jesus) gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over."
Originally, Muslims had a bread-free diet
Bread does not appear in Islam like it does in the two other major Abrahamic religions. In the Qur'an, the prophet prepares a heavenly spread for his followers with the best dishes available at the time in Arabia: pure water, fresh milk, delicious wine and pure honey (the only sweet product at the time), but no bread.
Surah Muhammad Ayat 15 (Qur'an 47:15): "in it shall be rivers of incorruptible water, rivers of milk unchanging in taste, and rivers of wine, a delight to those that drink; and rivers of pure honey."
Matzah, the bread of Passover
Jewish people eat matzah for Passover (Pesach). This unfermented, unleavened, and unsalted flatbread resembles a cracker. It is used to commemorate the passage in the Torah where the Jews leave Egypt and the end of their enslavement. It is said that since they had to flee in the middle of the night, they could only bring along bread that hadn't had the time to rise and be properly cooked as it was.
You will do that in memory of me
Bread is also part of Christian Mass. Churchgoers are called to communion, which means receiving the body of Christ in the form of a hunk of bread or a wafer (unleavened bread), which through the sacrament of the Eucharist becomes the body of Christ. This tradition re-enacts the Last Supper that Jesus held with his disciples before his crucifixion.
Matthew 26: 26–30: "While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."
Bread: a God-given gift, from Jews to Christians
In early Christianity, bread is already present as a symbol and as God's promise to provide for the needs of His people, like a shepherd watching over his sheep. The Old Testament talks of a "table prepared by God" for the faithful. In the New Testament, Jesus explains that he IS this meal, and promises eternal life for anyone who will partake.
John 6:51: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
The bread of pharaohs
Historians credit the Ancient Egyptians with the invention of fermented and leavened bread around 5,000 years ago, the modern version compared to Neolithic flatbread. This was made possible by the fertile Nile valley, the breadbasket of Antiquity. The Egyptians sold their product to the Romans, and since they also invented foie gras, you could say that the Egyptians almost invented foie gras on toast.
The modern bread of Muslims
While bread doesn't appear in early Islam, over the years it has become an important food for the table in Muslim countries. Thanks to the Early Muslim conquests, Muslims lived alongside communities that ate bread as a matter of custom, and this staple gained a reputation as one of a number of respected foods, if not sacred. In Islamic education, children are taught from an early old "not to throw bread away." Each Muslim country has its own traditional bread: batbout (Morocco), kesra and matlouh (Algeria), fried bazlama (Turkey), tabouna (Tunisia), pita (Syria and Lebanon), etc.
Superstitions around bread
A number of behaviors and gestures related to bread are linked in the West to ancient superstitions and beliefs, the origins of which have largely been lost over the years. Some that can still be observed the most frequently:
Don't put bread upside-down on the table. This superstition goes back to the distant past when the baker marked the bread for the executioner, a feared and despised character, by putting it upside-down. It is also said that eating bread upside-down was the sign that someone earned their living "lying on their back," a reference to prostitutes.
Make a cross with the knife before slicing the bread. It's like a peasant's blessing. Marking the symbol of Christ on one's precious food would bring God's blessing. This practice has mostly died out in the French countryside.
Bread should never be thrown out or wasted (see the chapter "Don't throw bread out") out of respect for this staple foodstuff. Those who throw bread out risk famine.
Vincent Ferniot
