Sorry, Michael I just realised that I had misinterpreted this statement. You were asking me for evidence that Jesus used fermented wine and unleavened bread at the last supper.

The most obvious evidence would be :

1. The use of the word *oinos*, which is never used to mean anything else except fermented wine.

2. The unvaried Jewish practise before and since the time of Jesus of the Jews using unleavend bread and fermented wine for the passover meal.

3. The fact that the passover/last supper/ etc. took place in Spring, 6 months after the harvest, and people in the ancient world did not have the technology to preserve grape juice unfermented for that long. It would have been either wine or vinegar.

There may be other things, but any one of these, let alone all three, seems to indicate that Jesus was almost certainly using fermented wine and unleavened bread when he said “do this in remembrance of me…”.

I do not say that we are obliged to follow what Jesus did at the last supper. I have never celebrated the Eucharist with unfermented wine, but I have on occasion been known to use leavened bread, either because it was the local custom, for convenience, or because using a ‘loaf’ seemed appropriate for the gathering in question. I do not even suggest that people who use leavened bread and unfermented wine for Communion all the time are ‘invalid’ or disobeying the Lord’s command.

The only reason I raise this matter is to point out the absurdity of you (and others) saying that Baptism must be dome by immersion because that is the way the Lord and the early Church did it, when a) that is not necessarily so, and b) you do not apply the same standards yourself to Holy Communion.

Nigel B. Mitchell