Proposition 3

On the Lord's Table There Is Necessarily Only One Loaf

The necessity is not that of a positive law requiring one loaf and only one, as the ritual of Moses required twelve loaves. But it is a necessity arising from the meaning of the Institution as explained by the Apostles. Just as there is only one literal body, and only one mystical or figurative body with many members; so there must be only one loaf. The Apostle emphasizes this, "Because there is one loaf, we, the many, are one body; for we all partake of that one loaf."⁸ The Greek word artos, especially when combined with numbers, says Dr. Macknight, always means a loaf, and is translated that way in our Bibles, "Do you not remember the five loaves?"⁹ There are many similar examples. Dr. Campbell says, "that in the plural it should always be translated loaves;" but when there is a number before it, it must be translated a loaf or loaves. Thus we say one loaf, seven loaves; not one bread, seven breads. "Because there is one loaf," says Paul, we must consider the whole congregation as one body. Here the Apostle reasons from what is clearer to what is less clear; from what was established to what was not yet fully established in the minds of the Corinthians. There was no dispute about the one loaf; therefore, there should be none about the one body. This way of reasoning makes it as certain as a positive law: because what an Apostle reasons from must be an established fact or principle. To have argued from an assumption or possibility to establish the unity of the body of Christ would have been ridiculous for a logician, and how unworthy of an Apostle! It was, then, an established institution that there is only one loaf, since the Apostle bases his argument on an established fact. Our third proposition is, then, supported: on the Lord's table there is necessarily only one loaf.