I’ve been writing quite a bit about unleavened bread in the 2×2 Fellowship lately. In the process of typing on my vexatiously small desktop Mac keyboard, if I miss a single keystroke the autocorrect function always changes it to “unlearned”. Perhaps it is for good reason in this case.

Regarding the use of the emblems in meeting, Telling the Truth has a copy of statements made by the late Eldon Tenniswood, who was Overseer of California, Nevada, Arizona and Pacific Islands from 1974 to 2003. In 1975 Mr. Tenniswood held a meeting for the elders in order to educate them on proper procedures for holding meeting in their homes. He addressed many issues in this meeting including the qualifications and responsibilities for an elder, the order and content of meeting and the preparation and use of the emblems including the fourth part of meeting which is the breaking of the bread. The following table was provided in his comments as proof-texts:

According to Mr. Tenniswood the emblems are “the most important thing in the little Sunday Morning Meeting, as the bread reminds us of the broken body of Jesus”. In answer to the question why don’t 2×2s use unleavened bread in the emblems his answer is documented as follows:

“Unleavened bread was used for the Passover because all leaven was put out of the house, Exo. 12:15. Jesus ate the last Passover with His disciples.  In Lev. 23:15-17, which was on the first day of the week, the Feast of Pentecost, Acts 2, they were to have leaven in the loaves they baked.”

Unleavened bread was indeed used for the Passover. All leaven was required to be “put out of the house” as Exodus 12:15 puts it clearly, “For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. From the very first day you shall have your houses clear of all leaven”. Historically speaking, the Israelites left Egypt in such a hurry that they could not wait for their leavened bread dough to ferment and rise, so they baked flat, unleavened bread (matzah) instead. For the Passover seder meal, removing leaven ensures that the home physically reflects the haste and reliance on God during the original Exodus. In Jewish tradition, leaven is viewed as a symbol of puffiness, arrogance, and ego, because it causes dough to expand and rise whereas unleavened matzah represents humility and sincerity. Ridding the house of leaven represents the shedding of old, negative character traits as the festival begins.

Unlike other dietary laws where forbidden foods are simply not eaten, the prohibition on leaven (chametz) requires that it cannot even be owned or seen in the house. This total removal serves as an immersive spiritual reset for the household, and this requirement was so serious that “Whoever gets leavened bread from the first day to the seventh shall be cut off from Israel” (Ex 12:15). Even today some Jews take this mitzvah (command) so seriously that they clean the house thoroughly so that no crumb of leavened bread remains, and they use dedicated Passover dishes and utensils. Pots and sinks are carefully scrubbed. After the seder meal is completed, any remaining matzah crumbs are ceremoniously collected and burned in a fire outside. There is a Jewish prayer contained within the guide to the seder meal which emphasizes the importance of this practice:

“May it be Your will, Lord our God and God of our ancestors, that just as I have removed the chametz from my house and properties, so too, should You remove all of the forces of evil, and the spirit of impurity shall be removed from the earth. May our evil inclination be removed from us and may you grant us a pure heart in truth. May all the forces of the ‘Other Side’ [sitra achra] and the k’lipot [wickedness] vanish like smoke and the kingdom of the wicked be eradicated. May You destroy all those who challenge the Divine Presence with vengeance and judgment, just as you destroyed the Egyptians and their idols in those days at that season.” (The Breslov Haggadah)

Although Mr. Tenniswood seems to understand the connection of unleavened bread with the Passover by referencing Leviticus 23:5-6 and also affirming that the Last Supper was indeed a Passover meal, he doesn’t actually answer the question regarding why 2×2s don’t use unleavened bread in their emblems. Immediately after acknowledging this connection he cites the bread of Leviticus 23:15-17. In essence, he appears to be confusing the Passover Feast with the Feast of Pentecost, which is an entirely different festival.

It should be easy to understand that Feast of Pentecost in Acts 2 is not the same as the Last Supper as fulfillment of the Passover. In his answer Tenniswood refers to the bread in Leviticus 23:15-17; however, that bread is not for the Passover, it is for the festival of Shavuot which means “weeks” (שבועות, in Hebrew). This feast marks the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest, which is seven weeks counted between Passover and this festival. Shavuot is considered a highly joyous and happy holiday celebrating two major milestones: the ancient wheat harvest and the giving of the Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai. It is traditionally marked by festive meals, eating dairy foods like cheesecake and decorating homes with flowers. The word Shavuot itself stems from the Hebrew root for the number seven ( שבע, pronounced sheh-VAH) , referring to the seven-day weekly cycle. So, this holiday Shavuot translates to "weeks," as it is celebrated exactly seven weeks after Passover, “on the day after the seventh week, the fiftieth day” (Lev 23:16). Accordingly, the word "Pentecost" translates to “fiftieth day” from the Koine Greek word pentēkostē (πεντηκοστή).

On the other hand, in their Passover seder meal Jews literally eat bitter herbs like fresh horseradish root to tangibly symbolize the harshness of the pain of their enslavement in ancient Egypt. The unleavened bread in the Passover represents urgency and suffering. It was also called “the bread of affliction” (Deut 16:3) to remind them of their time of slavery. This is in stark contrast to the leavened bread at Pentecost (Shavuot) which represents sustenance and completion. It was eaten “with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people” (Acts 2:47)

The feast at Pentecost concluded seven weeks (the 50th day) after Passover, where the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples, giving birth to the Christian church. Shavuot and Pentecost are the exact same biblical holiday but they are distinct from the Passover/Last Supper. In the case of the leavened bread of Pentecost, it highlights the transition from a hurried Jewish escape to a complete, unified Christian community. In fact, Christian theologians view the two separate loaves as symbolizing the bringing together of the Jews and Gentiles, presented together equally and accepted equally by God as a single offering.

Clearly the prohibition of leavened bread was (and is) extremely important to the Jews. Jesus, as an observant Jew, used the same unleavened bread at the Last Supper which was unadulterated by sin, corruption or decay. Furthermore, in Exodus 12:14 Moses said that the Passover meal was meant to be continued forever, “this day shall be a memorial feast for you, with all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the Lord, as a perpetual institution”. This perpetual institution is not simply a casual remembrance, either - the original events become present and real at each subsequent Passover. And since this is indeed a “perpetual institution”, it is meant to be continued in the same way after the prophesies of the Old Testament reached their completion and fulfillment in Jesus.

Rather than answering the question of why the 2×2 Fellowship does not use unleavened bread in its eucharistic observance, Mr. Tenniswood merely reiterated that unleavened bread was used at the Passover meal. This fact was never in dispute. The real question concerns why a movement that claims to reproduce the practices of the apostolic Church nevertheless departs from the important religious symbolism in the type of bread that Jesus Himself used at the Last Supper. As Tenniswood himself indicated, the emblems are “the most important thing in the little Sunday Morning Meeting”. It is so important that he describes a 2×2 home that he was “ashamed to go to for meeting” because it was in such disrepair. As he tells the story, he and his companion repaired the broken porch, painted the house, cleaned the front and back yard and hauled away all the old junk including an old couch with its cushions that had been ripped open by a dog. They also helped them clean up the inside of the house because, “we like the breaking of bread in a home that is clean and orderly, a prepared home”, and because a 2×2. home “must be clean and orderly, even if it has a dirt floor”. Because the owners had too much difficulty keeping it clean, they ultimately ended up removing meeting from that home.

Despite the typical 2×2 preoccupation with appearances, Tenniswood never answers this crucial question - since the emblems are so special, why would the 2×2 Fellowship not want to follow more closely the example of Jesus for this consequential memorial? By confusing the Feast of Shavuot with the Passover meal and simply restating an uncontested point, he failed to address the issue altogether. Frankly, such a basic conflation of two distinct Jewish feasts raises serious questions about his familiarity with the biblical narrative and suggests a certain degree of biblical illiteracy.