"Azymes" (plural of ''azyme'') is an

archaic English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th cen ...

word for the Jewish matzah, derived from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

word ἄζυμος ( ἄρτος) ''ázymos (ártos)'', "unleavened (bread)", for unfermented bread in Biblical times; the more accepted term in modern English is simply

unleavened bread Unleavened bread is any of a wide variety of breads which are prepared without using rising agents such as yeast. Unleavened breads are generally flat breads; however, not all flat breads are unleavened. Unleavened breads, such as the tortilla ...

or matzah, but cognates of the Greek term are still used in many

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...

(Spanish ''pan ácimo'', French ''pain azyme'', Italian ''azzimo'', Portuguese ''pão ázimo'' and Romanian ''azimă''). The term does not appear frequently in modern Bible translations, but was the usual word for unleavened bread in the early

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

English Douay–Rheims Bible. The adjectival form "

azymite Azymite (from Ancient Greek '' ázymos'', unleavened bread) is a term of reproach used by the Eastern Orthodox Church since the eleventh century against the Latin Church, who, together with the Armenians and the Maronites, celebrate the Eucharist w ...

" was used as a term of abuse by

Byzantine Rite The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, identifies the wide range of cultural, liturgical, and canonical practices that developed in the Eastern Christianity, Eastern Christian Church of Constantinople. Th ...

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

against

Roman Rite The Roman Rite ( la, Ritus Romanus) is the primary liturgical rite of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. It developed in the Latin language in the city of Rome and, while dist ...

Christians. The

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...

has continued the ancient Eastern practice of using leavened bread for the Lamb (Host) in the

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

. After serious theological disputes between Rome and the churches of the East, Latin use of unleavened bread, ''azymes'', for the Eucharist—a point of liturgical difference—became also a point of

theological Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

difference between the two, and was one of several disputes which led eventually to the Great Schism between Eastern and Western Christianity in 1054.

References

Septuagint words and phrases Archaic English words and phrases East–West Schism Eucharist Matzo {{RC-stub

See Also

References