– This word immediately refers us to the Eucharist. Paul, in the First Letter to the Corinthians:
1Cor 11,23-33 : Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread […], broke it and said: “This is my body”.
– Around 54 AD, therefore before the first three Gospels (written between 70 and 80 AD), he writes that the Lord Jesus took bread and said: “This is my body”.
– For this reason, in the early Church the Holy Mass was called for some time “the breaking of bread”:
Acts 2:42 : They persevered in the apostles’ doctrine, in common meetings, in the breaking of bread and in prayers.
Acts 20:7: On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread.
1Cor 10:16 : And the bread which we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ?
– The Eucharistic Bread was prefigured by manna:
Ex 16:35 : The Israelites ate the manna for forty years, until their arrival in an inhabited land.
Dt 8,3 : He humbled you with hunger; He gave you manna for sustenance.
Josh 5:12 : And the manna ceased (from falling) on the day following that on which they ate the produce of the earth.
Ne 9,20 : You did not withhold your manna for their food.
Ps 77:24 : He made manna rain to satisfy them, he gave them the wheat from heaven.
Jn 6:31 : Our fathers ate manna in the desert.
Heb 9,4 : The ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold; inside it, the golden urn containing the manna.
Revelation 2:17 : To the victor I will give the hidden manna and I will give him a white stone.
– For the mysterious bread that God sent to Elijah and gave him strength to walk forty days and forty nights:
1Kings 19,1-8 : Elijah got up, ate and drank; and on the strength of that food he walked forty days and forty nights.
– For the flour that never ended in the pan of the widow of Sarepta, as the Lord had said by the mouth of Elijah:
1Kings 17,7-17 : Go to Sarepta of Sidon and settle there. I ordered a widow of that place to support you.
– For the multiplication of the twenty loaves that Elisha ordered to give to a hundred men:
2Kings 4,42-44 : A man came from Baal-Shalisa, who brought twenty barley loaves to the man of God by way of firstfruits.
– For the multiplications of loaves performed by Jesus:
Mt 14:17 : “But”, they said, “we have only five loaves and two fish here”.
Mt 15,29-39 : Jesus asks them: “How many loaves do you have?” –“Seven, and some small fish”, they replied.
Mc 6,30-44 : “How many loaves do you have? Go see.” When they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”
Mk 8,1-10 : His disciples answered him: “How can anyone satisfy them with bread here in the desert?”.
Lc 9,10-17 : Then Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven, blessed them.
Jn 6,1-15 : There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish… but what is this to so many people?
– Jesus is the Bread of Life:
Mt 6:11 : Give us this day our daily bread.
Jn 6,22-69 : Jesus replied: “I am the bread of life: he who comes to me will never hunger”.
– In the AT, at the institution of Passover, the Israelites ate unleavened bread:
Ex 12,8.11.15.39 : That night they will eat the meat roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
– Bread is a sign of divine blessing:
1Kings 19,6-7 : Elijah looked and saw beside his head a piece of bread baked in ashes and a vessel of water.
Ps 36:25 : I was young and I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor their children begging for bread.
Ps 103,14-15 : You make grass to sprout for the cattle, and plants useful to man, so that the earth can extract bread.
Ps 131 : 15 : I will abundantly bless their livelihood, I will satisfy their poor with bread.
Ecclesiastes 9:7: So eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with joy.
– Promotes fraternity and friendship:
Gen 18.5 : Rest awhile under this tree. I will bring you some bread, and thus you will restore your strength.
Ps 40:10 : Even the friend I trusted, who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.
Ecclesiastes 9:7: So eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with joy.
Tb 4,16 : Take care never to do to others what you would not want done to you.
Ez 18,7.16 : Who oppresses no one, […] who gives his bread to the hungry, and covers the naked with clothing.
– On the other hand, the lack of it is considered punishment:
Jer 5:17 : It will devour your crops and your bread, it will devour your sons and your daughters, it will devour your flocks and your herds.
Ez 4,16-17 : Son of man, I will make Jerusalem desperate with hunger. There, in anguish, a strictly heavy bread will be eaten.
Amos 4 :6 : Therefore I have allowed you famine in all your towns, a shortage of bread in all your towns.
– The Word of God is spiritual bread:
Jer 18:18 : For lack of a priest the Law will not perish, […] or for lack of a prophet, the divine word.
Ez 7,26 : Oracles will be asked of the prophet, the law will fail for the priest, and advice for the elders.
Lam 2.9 : There are no more oracles. Even prophets no longer receive visions from the Lord.
Am 8,11 : The days will come […] when I will send famine upon the land […] but (hunger and thirst) from hearing the word of the Lord.
