Why did The Orthodox Church "change" or "innovate" The Eucharist?

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For thousands of years, Christians used unleavened bread to celebrate The Thanksgiving Meal.

Why did The Orthodox Church “change” The Eucharist to fit their unorthodox Christian beliefs?**

**And Orthodox polemicists have accused Rome of “changing” to unleavened bread.

Most of the Eastern Churches, including those in communion with Rome, use leavened bread.

Questions like yours accomplish nothing and merely stir up strife.**
 
Nick “said” that they didn’t change The Eucharist, but he hasn’t proven how they haven’t changed it when scripture tells us that Jesus used unleavened bread.

  • W * R * O * N * G * !!!***
If you read the accounts of the Mystical Supper in the original Greek of the NT, they all say that Jesus took ARTOS, which always means LEAVENED bread, when He said “Take, eat…”, not AZYMOS, which means unleavened.
 
Not on Passover, he didn’t.
He spent that Passover on a Cross.
The words “goyischer kopf” come irresistably to mind, though it’s technically a religious/racial slur.😃
I might have (or not) a goyischer kopf, but I have yidishe blut.
But I have always been told that the Orthodox interpretation was that the rising of the yeast symbolized the rising from the dead, among other mystical interpretations. Using leavened bread in the Eucharist has always been kosher, so to speak (though, again, not for Passover;) ) in the East, though it’s not licit in the West (it’s still valid, and you can do it in an emergency).
Khristos voskrese.
Yes, living bread is the standard explanation.

Btw the Assyrians claim that their Eucharist is made from the leaven from the Last Supper: they number it as one of their sacraments.
 
A few admissions on the leavened Eucharist:

The requirement of unleavened bread is for liceity. In the early centuries, both Eastern and Western Churches used leavened bread for the Eucharist, but in the eighth and ninth centuries the use of unleavened bread became the general custom in the West. In keeping with the scope of the Code, the canon properly addresses only the practice of the Latin Rite… (“The Code of Canon Law, Text and Commentary,” page 659).
dioceseofgfb.org/Diocesan_%20Policies/ref_eucharistic_bread.htm

Fr. Joseph Jungman – in his book The Mass of the Roman Rite – states that:

"In the West, various ordinances appeared from the ninth century on, all demanding the exclusive use of unleavened bread for the Eucharist. A growing solicitude for the Blessed Sacrament and a desire to employ only the best and whitest bread, along with various scriptural considerations – all favored this development.

“Still, the new custom did not come into exclusive vogue until the middle of the eleventh century. Particularly in Rome it was not universally accepted till after the general infiltration of various usages from the North” [Joseph Jungman, The Mass of the Roman Rite, volume II, pages 33-34]

Fr. Jungman goes on to say that, “. . . the opinion put forward by J. Mabillon, Dissertatio de pane eucharistia, in his answer to the Jesuit J. Sirmond, Disquisitio de azymo, namely, that in the West it was always the practice to use only unleavened bread, is no longer tenable” [Jungman, The Mass of the Roman Rite, volume II, page 33]

"Now, the fact that the West changed its practice and began using unleavened bread in the 8th and 9th century – instead of the traditional leavened bread – is confirmed by the research of Fr. William O’Shea, who noted that along with various other innovative practices from Northern Europe, the use of unleavened bread began to infiltrate into the Roman liturgy at the end of the first millennium, because as he put it, “Another change introduced into the Roman Rite in France and Germany at the time * was the use of unleavened bread and of thin white wafers or hosts instead of the loaves of leavened bread used hitherto” [Fr. William O’Shea, The Worship of the Church, page 128].

"Moreover, this change in Western liturgical practice was also noted by Dr. Johannes H. Emminghaus in his book, The Eucharist: Essence, Form, Celebration, because as he said: “The Eucharistic bread has been unleavened in the Latin rite since the 8th century – that is, it is prepared simply from flour and water, without the addition of leaven or yeast. . . . in the first millennium of the Church’s history, both in East and West, the bread normally used for the Eucharist was ordinary ‘daily bread,’ that is, leavened bread, and the Eastern Church uses it still today; for the most part, they strictly forbid the use of unleavened bread. The Latin Church, by contrast, has not considered this question very important.” [Dr. Johannes H. Emminghaus, The Eucharist: Essence, Form, Celebration, page 162]

“Thus, with the foregoing information in mind, it is clear that the use of leavened bread by the Eastern Churches represents the ancient practice of the undivided Church, while the use of unleavened bread by the Western Church was an innovation introduced near the end of the first millennium.”*
 
They didn’t “change” anything… by the way your Eastern Catholic bretheren use leavened bread, so you might want to watch out calling fellow Catholics “unorthodox”.
Our eastern catholic bretheren love the Pope, and are not unorthodox.
 
Did He use the very same kind of bread you find in the orthodox church today made in the same way? I don’t think so.
The orthodox bread looks like a pound cake. Not that that is bad.
But I think if the apostles had that they would have taken a bite and said, where’s the bread?
 
Did He use the very same kind of bread you find in the orthodox church today made in the same way? I don’t think so.
Oh? Why not?
The orthodox bread looks like a pound cake. But I think if the apostles had that they would have taken a bite and said, where’s the bread?
Having had Him, (and the antidoron, same loaf, not consecrated), and I can assure you it’s bread (the antidoron that is, the Lamb tastes like bread).
 
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**I’ve made prosphora (altar bread) more times than I care to count.

The recipe is basically flour, water (3:1), yeast, and a dash of salt.

No similarity to pound cake.

If you have ever seen SONG OF BERNADETTE, early in the movie a baker pulls out round loaves looking very much like prosphora.**
 
Did He use the very same kind of bread you find in the orthodox church today made in the same way? I don’t think so.
The orthodox bread looks like a pound cake. Not that that is bad.
But I think if the apostles had that they would have taken a bite and said, where’s the bread?
What are you trying to say here? Do you think a modern Roman Catholic Host looks closer to what Our Lord used?

http://www.mccrimmons.com/catalog/images/AB18web.jpg http://www.mccrimmons.com/catalog/images/AB14web.jpg

I can assure you, the Lamb does not resemble pound cake.

stseraphimschurch.org/images/articlesimages/Proskomedia2.jpg
 
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**I’ve made prosphora (altar bread) more times than I care to count.

The recipe is basically flour, water (3:1), yeast, and a dash of salt.

No similarity to pound cake.

If you have ever seen SONG OF BERNADETTE, early in the movie a baker pulls out round loaves looking very much like prosphora.**
What type of flour do you use?
 
http://serko.net/index.php/wiki/8e1b69c75a85f2ac418ee81b6ee283d1/
What type of flour do you use?
It should be 100% wheat (some brands of flour are not, I have seen one with barley added). Yeast and water (sometimes a bit of salt) complete the list. No oils inside or out.

This recipe is typical…

Ingredients
  • 1 tsp active dry yeast (i.e. Fleischmann’s)
  • 1 3/4 - 2 cups warm water (110-120°F)
  • 7 cups flour (preferably Gold Medal Globe A-1 bleached pre-sifted All
    Purpose Flour)
  • (Special note: to modify this recipe, remember to increase or decrease the yeast in proportion, and remember the for every cup of flour you should need approximately 1/4 cup of water)
    Instructions
    1. Combine yeast with the warm water until it foams a little.
    2. In a bowl, mix 3 cups of flour with the yeast/water and mix with spoon
      or hands.
    3. Keep adding one cup of flour at a time until all 7 cups have been added.
    4. Knead dough until done - i.e. when dough feels “springy” (if using Kitchen machine, keep on lowest speed and split recipe in half in order not to ruin machine while kneading).
    5. Roll dough out with rolling pin to 1/4 inch thickness.
    6. Cut out 30 large pieces with large biscuit cutter and place them on a
      cookie sheet that is covered with aluminum foil, then cover with towel.
    7. Cut out 30 small pieces with small biscuit cutter and place them on a cookie sheet that is covered with aluminum foil, then stamp them with prosphora seal and cover with towel.
    8. Let both cookie sheets stand for 1 hour to let dough rise (either in oven or in an undrafted room. If the room is cold, they may need to rise longer).
    9. After 1 hour, remove towels from over prosphora, fill a small cup with water and cover the tops of the large pieces with water (do not drench them) and the bottoms of the small pieces and affix to each other. Make sure there isn’t an air bubble between the two pieces
    10. Prick the prosphora seal (making the sign of the cross, then piercing the center) - make sure needle insertion goes through the bottom half.
    11. Allow the loaves to rest (covered) for ten minutes so that the pieces “glue” together.
    12. Place in an oven to bake at 340° F for 30 minutes or until lightly golden.
      See also here for photos 🙂
    Michael
 
http://serko.net/index.php/wiki/8e1b69c75a85f2ac418ee81b6ee283d1/

It should be 100% wheat (some brands of flour are not, I have seen one with barley added). Yeast and water (sometimes a bit of salt) complete the list. No oils inside or out.

This recipe is typical…

Ingredients
  • 1 tsp active dry yeast (i.e. Fleischmann’s)
  • 1 3/4 - 2 cups warm water (110-120°F)
  • 7 cups flour (preferably Gold Medal Globe A-1 bleached pre-sifted All
    Purpose Flour)
  • (Special note: to modify this recipe, remember to increase or decrease the yeast in proportion, and remember the for every cup of flour you should need approximately 1/4 cup of water)
    Instructions
    1. Combine yeast with the warm water until it foams a little.
    2. In a bowl, mix 3 cups of flour with the yeast/water and mix with spoon
      or hands.
    3. Keep adding one cup of flour at a time until all 7 cups have been added.
    4. Knead dough until done - i.e. when dough feels “springy” (if using Kitchen machine, keep on lowest speed and split recipe in half in order not to ruin machine while kneading).
    5. Roll dough out with rolling pin to 1/4 inch thickness.
    6. Cut out 30 large pieces with large biscuit cutter and place them on a
      cookie sheet that is covered with aluminum foil, then cover with towel.
    7. Cut out 30 small pieces with small biscuit cutter and place them on a cookie sheet that is covered with aluminum foil, then stamp them with prosphora seal and cover with towel.
    8. Let both cookie sheets stand for 1 hour to let dough rise (either in oven or in an undrafted room. If the room is cold, they may need to rise longer).
    9. After 1 hour, remove towels from over prosphora, fill a small cup with water and cover the tops of the large pieces with water (do not drench them) and the bottoms of the small pieces and affix to each other. Make sure there isn’t an air bubble between the two pieces
    10. Prick the prosphora seal (making the sign of the cross, then piercing the center) - make sure needle insertion goes through the bottom half.
    11. Allow the loaves to rest (covered) for ten minutes so that the pieces “glue” together.
    12. Place in an oven to bake at 340° F for 30 minutes or until lightly golden.
      See also here for photos 🙂
    Michael

  • Thank you for supplying this info on the making of “altar bread”
    This must give you a real sense of participation when making it.
 
<<What type of flour do you use?>>

What works the best for me is plain old white flour.

Some use unbleached, and others use whole wheat, and yet others a mixture.

The idea is use the best you can find. Some people feel that whole wheat is intrinsically more nourishing as bread, and hence more fitting to be used to become the Body of Christ, and I can’t deny that point.
 
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