Seven days you shall eat Unleavened Bread

Published on Diet

Was the eating of bread mandatory for Jewish people? Or optional? The Bible seems to say it is mandatory. But what if they are gluten-intolerant?

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Is the eating of bread was mandatory or optional for Jewish people? The Bible seems to say it is mandatory. It says they “shall” eat unleavened bread.

But what if a Jewish person is gluten-intolerant? Or has celiac disease? Can they still live their Jewish life?

The Hebrew word for flour is סֹ֖לֶת (“sō·leṯ”). It was a finely ground flour of wheat.

This mandatory flour offering puts a person with celiac disease in a precarious position. They are not able to have wheat.

Nor can a person with celiac disease be in a location strewn with flour particles, such as the sacrificial area would have been.

 

BIBLE VERSES

 

Exodus 34:18. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib; for in the month Abib you came out of Egypt.

Leviticus 2:1. When anyone offers an offering of a meal offering to the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour. He shall pour oil on it, and put frankincense on it.

Leviticus 6:16. That which is left of it Aaron and his sons shall eat. It shall be eaten without yeast in a holy place. They shall eat it in the court of the Tent of Meeting.

Numbers 7:13. and his offering was: one silver platter, the weight of which was one hundred thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering;

 

Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.