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When celebrating the Passover, our Lord Jesus, Himself a Jew, used unleavened bread. Why does the Coptic Orthodox Church, for Holy Communion, use leavened bread instead?

The bread at the Last Supper was leavened bread. We know it to be so because in the Greek original manuscripts of the Gospels, it is referred to as 'artos', not as 'aksimon' (unleavened bread).

Here is the order of the events:

First the Lord ate the Passover with unleavened bread (this is the Last Supper).

Then after washing the disciples' feet, He instituted the Eucharist with leavened bread (this is the Mystical Supper).

How did the Lord use leavened bread although it was not allowed for the Jews to keep any leaven during the Passover? Actually there are many opinions regarding this point. The most acceptable opinion is the following:

The Passover is a lunar feast (calculated based on the moon). Usually there is no consensus about the first day of the lunar month (as it happens every year with the Muslims' feasts being lunar feasts). This was the case with Jewish feasts too. So on the year of the Lord's crucifixion, some people calculated the Passover Day to have been Thursday and others Friday. So, when the Lord ate the Passover on Thursday, He followed the group that celebrated the Passover on Thursday and when He used leavened bread for the Mystical Supper, he was not breaking the Law because of those celebrating the Passover on Friday. Also, on a denotation level, it was very meaningful; because Christ offered His Body and Blood in the Mystical Supper during the slaying of the Passover Lamb. On the next day, He offered Himself also on the Cross during the slaying of the Passover Lamb, thus He became our Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Why did the Lord use leavened bread?

1. Leaven is a symbol of sin (1 Corinthians 5:7,8) and our Lord is the Lamb of God Who carried the sin of the whole world (John 1:29).


2. Leavened bread is living bread representing the rising of Christ.