LORD'S SUPPER---A MEAL?

 1  CORINTHIANS  11:20.....LORD'S SUPPER

THE GREEK WORD IS DEIPNON

The  Strongest Strong's Concordance says...  "...banquet, supper,  evening meal.."

Thayer's Lexicon says basically the same thing; "....1. supper, esp. a formal meal usually held at evening.....used of the Messiah's feast, symbolizing salvation in the Kingdom of heaven; Rev. 19: 9, 17..... 2. univ. food taken at evening 1 Cor. 11:21

The  Englishman's Greek Concordance gives every place it is used, which are:

Mat. 23:6 love the uttermost rooms at feasts

Mar. 6:21 made a supper to his lords, high captains

        12:39 the uppermost rooms at feasts

Lk. 14:12 When you make a dinner or supper

           16 And a certain man made a great supper

           17 sent his servants at supper time

           24 were bidden shall taste of my supper

       20:46 the chief rooms at feasts

Jon. 12:2 There they made him a supper

        13:2 supper being ended, the devil having

             4 He arose from supper, and laid arside

1 Cor. 11:20 (this) is not to eat the Lord's supper

                21 one takes before (other) his own supper

Rev. 19:9 unto the marriage supper of the Lamb

             17 unto the supper of the great God

So a meal, a banquet, a feast, an evening meal or supper. The Greek word can be used in all those contexts.

The Passover was an evening meal, the Old Testament Passover with a Lamb eaten, and with un-leavended bread and bitter herbs, as directed by the OT law of God (Ex. 12:5-8 etc.).

Wine or fruit of the vine was part of this Passover evening meal by the time of Christ.

1 Corinthians 11:17-34.

We see Paul had  taught them how to observe the memorial of the Lord's death (v. 23).

Now there was division.

We see some were continuing to make a meal of it, and a selfish and un-righteous manner in doing so; some were left out, some got drunk (v. 21).

Verse 20, as in the margin reference. "When you come together therefore into one place, YOU CANNOT EAT THE LORD'S SUPPER."

Paul goes on to tell them not only can they not eat the Lord's evening meal [as He did with his disciples at the Passover; which was the Lord's Passover meal] as a New Testament memorial, but many were even trying to do it, and with selfishness [not sharing] and drunkenness [some getting drunk]. 

All of this was a double whammy;  a  triple  whammy  -  a  meal  when  it  was  no  longer  to  be  a  meal,  and  doing  this  meal  in  a  way  that  Paul  says  he  certainly  could  not  praise.  "What! Have you not houses to eat and drink in? Or despise you the Church of God, and shame them who have not. What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not!" (v. 22).

THEN  PAUL  TELLS  THEM  WHAT  HE  HAD  ALREADY  TAUGHT  THEM:

"For I have received of the Lord that which also I  DELIVERED  UNTO  YOU......"

Paul  tells  them  again  Jesus  took  bread  and  the  cup  and  blessed  both  and  told  them  what  they  represented  for  the  New Testament  Passover (vs. 23-26).

IT  IS  CLEAR  WHAT  JESUS  INSTITUTED  THAT  LAST  PASSOVER  NIGHT  TO  BE  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  PASSOVER.

IT  IS  CLEAR  PAUL  WAS  INSTRUCTED  TO  TELL  THE  CORINTHIANS  AND  EVERYONE,  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  PASSOVER  WAS  NOT  TO  BE  A  "LORD'S  SUPPER"  MEAL.....THEY  WERE  TO  EAT  AN  EVENING  MEAL  IN  THEIR  HOUSES. 

THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  PASSOVER  EVENING  WAS  TO  BE  UN-LEAVENED  BREAD  AND  THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  VINE.  AND  IN  THE  GOSPEL  OF  JOHN  THE  FOOT  WASHING  SERVICE.

THERE  IS  ALSO  THE  RECORD  OF  HISTORY  -  CALLED  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY  "THE  QUARTODECIMIN  CONTROVERSY"  -  THE  14TH  OF  THE  MONTH [of  Nisan or Abib - first month in God's canendar].  

THE  ROMAN  CHURCH  WENT  WITH  THE  ADOPTION  OF  "EASTER"  SUNDAY  MASS  SERVICE,  AS  IT  CAME  INTO  THEIR  TRADITIONS.  BUT  SOME  STAYED  WITH  THE  PASSOVER  OBSERVANCE  ON  THE  EVENING  OF  THE  14TH.  THE  ROMAN  CHURCH  EVENTUALLY  CALLED  THEM  "HERETICS"  AND  CONDEMNED  THE  PRACTICE.  ALL  THIS  I  HAVE  FULLY  EXPLAINED  IN  OTHER  STUDIES.

THERE  IS  NO  RECORD  AT  ALL  OF  THESE  14TH  OBSERVERS,  KEEPING  AN  EVENING  MEAL  AS  WAS  DONE  FOR  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  OBSERVANCE   OF  THE  PASSOVER.

AS  PAUL  SAID,  ".....YOU  CANNOT  NOT  EAT  THE  LORD'S  MEAL [SUPPER]"  IT  WAS  NO  LONGER  TO  BE  A  LORD'S  PASSOVER  EVENING  MEAL.

FOR  AT  LEAST  500  YEARS  THESE  14TH  OBSERVERS  AND  THE  "EASTER  SUNDAY"  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  OBSERVERS  CLASH  HORNS  ON  WHEN  AND  HOW  TO  REMEMBER  THE  LORD'S  DEATH.

THE  TRUE  14TH  CHRISTIANS  NEVER  OBSERVED  IT  AS  AN  EVENING  MEAL.   THEY  FOLLOWED  THE  INSTRUCTIONS  OF  PAUL  TO  THE  CORINTHIANS.

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