From Bread to Wine: Toward a More Biblical Liturgical Theology

by James B. Jordan

Jordan lays out all of the theological and typological issues connected to worship, and more specifically to the Lord's Supper itself.

Genres: Theology, Christian

131 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

James B. Jordan is a Calvinist theologian and author. He is director of Biblical Horizons ministries, a think tank in Niceville, Florida that publishes books, essays and other media dealing with Bible commentary, Biblical Theology, and liturgy.

Jordan was born in Athens, Georgia, and he attended the University of Georgia, where he received a B.A. in comparative literature and participated in Campus Crusade for Christ. He served as a military historian in the United States Air Force and attended Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi but ultimately earned an M.A. and Th.M. from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with a master's thesis on slavery in the Bible. In 1993, he received a D.Litt. from the Central School of Religion for his dissertation on the dietary laws of Moses. From 1980 to 1990 Jordan was an associate pastor of a Presbyterian church in Tyler, Texas.

Reviews

[J. Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some incredible stuff. Some confusing JBJ stuff. Overall, great book. Highly recommend if you are familiar with Jordan’s teaching and writing. Wouldn’t recommend as one’s first book by Jordan.

[Becky Pliego · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great in many ways, but weird in many other ways too. I could not follow some of his arguments, especially on the role of the Trinity in our salvation, from a plain reading of the text.

[William Schrecengost · Rating 4 out of 5]

2023 Review:
A lot of what I said before still stands. His chapters on the internal workings of the trinity are based on social trinitarianism and his appendix on the 15 avenues of revelation was a stretch at times. I found the avenues of revelation more helpful this time through, more as a way to broaden your perception of the ways God has revealed himself. I think he’s fairly uncharitable toward the special and general view and I think it still stands. They make up the two witnesses of God’s revelation and his 15 can all be subsumed under those two.
I really like his work on maturity and growth, I think it’s a really helpful way to view how man grows and matures in sanctification through his life. I see more of the scriptural basis for the “death and resurrection” events in the peoples lives in scripture, though I disagreed on some of his formulations of them.

2021 Review:
This started out really well and had a couple of good and interesting parts, but most of it was a deeper dive into Jordan weirdness. He started with the ritual of the Lord's Supper, breaking down the central elements of it and the movement of the ritual (for this in itself, I see myself returning to the book for reference) emphasizing the need to stick with what is clearly laid out in the ritual. He then proceeds to try to figure out how the persons of the trinity relate to one another and one of the appendices is an essay on all the 15 different ways God reveals himself to us. (Special and General isn't good enough cuz the number 2 doesn't jive with the 3 of trinity, 15 is better) I really don't see his sequences and this kind of theology in scripture and it smells a lot like trying to look into the secret things of God. He really likes the proverb "it's the glory of kings to search out a matter" and sometimes I think he takes it too far.
His thoughts on maturity are interesting. I found is 3 death/resurrection trials to be really helpful and applicable, especially more in a pastoral sense. I didn't like that he tried to use it as an exegetical tool. One of my biggest problems with Jordan is just that he "finds" something, then he manages to make a lot of other things "prove" his point, when it simply doesn't. I like to read his thoughts on things, he's definitely helped me to love the scriptures more and to seek to understand the Bible better.

[Daniel Bouchoc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good.

[Tyler Turdici · Rating 4 out of 5]

Takes a few chapters to James Jordan to really hit his stride but then it's a very good and even practical read. Appendix A is worth the price of the book alone.

[Josh Shelton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy Smokes! Great Book.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some really beautiful and helpful insights about the progression in life from priest to king to prophet but the overall booklet is a bit jumbled and repetitive. I struggle to see how applicable some of the schematics are when we can look at historical, biographical, and liturgical acts as a series of 5, 7 or 10 stages. Multiperspectivalism is fine and dandy but also lends itself to flights of fancy.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were many wonderful new ideas in this book. My biggest takeaways are 1) maturation from priest to king to prophet in the Bible overall, individual Bible characters, and in our own lives, 2) seeing "memorial" as something for God more than for us, and 3) seeing more significance in each part of the Lord's supper, which as churches and individuals, we ought to work harder to understand. There were also several things that I was unable to follow well. For example, he kept focusing on the six-fold action in the ritual sequence which I was not able to fully grasp - I think I was confused because sometimes the number in the sequence changed from 3 to 5 to 6 or more.

[Cory A Byrum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jordan's work is a wonderfully refreshing look at the Christian's growth in life and maturity by comparison to the levitical sacrifices and their culmination in the Lord's Supper. While some may disagree with the chapter on God's life in Himself, the rest of the book is thoroughly beneficial and practical.

[Grant Van Brimmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jordan doing his Jordan thing. Sweet book. Blows your mind. A work like this shows you how practical deep rich theology can be. In a fascinating way Jordan shows God's work in biography, history, and ritual.

[Caleb Levi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Readers familiar with Jordan know him as a pioneer in biblical theology. This book checks all those boxes and more. Jordan also proves in this book that he is much more pastoral and “applicable” than he is known for.

[John Funnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read with lots of unique thoughts, some requiring you take larger allegorical steps than others! Lots of solid truth as well!

[Adam Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Jordan seeks to demonstrate that the Eucharist replicates the deep patterns of human history, human life, and human ritual. As a result, the book is more focused on the huge, sweeping patterns of Scripture than on Communion itself. This was absolutely fascinating, but not what I was looking for nor expecting. Jordan is right on the money, of course, but I was looking for more exposition of the Eucharist passages and their OT backgrounds. He does have several chapters on this stuff, though, which was extremely helpful. He also links the move from bread to broken bread, wine to poured wine to the growth of the human person and human society from priest to king to prophet, and shows that the transition from these always involve suffering and crises. Thus, priesthood spans childhood from birth to the creation of a new home in marriage, kingship spans from marriage to the mid-life crisis, and out of this crisis the renewal of life as a prophet, a king-maker and world-maker. The benefit of all this for understanding and processing human struggle in life and for counseling those currently in the midst of such crises, cannot be overestimated. So many give up and depart from their husbands or wives, abandon their hope, etc, because they don't understand the need to persevere in this state until God gives renewal and a third stage of new creation.

Jordan also links these stages to faith, hope, and love, in that order. The priest simply performs what is heard in faith. The transition from priest to king is typically hopeful - when you get married you are full of hope in the future. The transition from king to prophet must be focused on love and loyalty, because it is a dark suffering, a dark night of the soul, and only love in perseverance will see you through. Which is why for Paul, love is the greatest of these three. It completes the transformation of human life and human society.

All of this gets put together to show that the Eucharist spans all of these patterns, and therefore is the grounding needed to survive them. It makes a new world every week when it is celebrated, and it takes you through a microcosom of the span of human life, programming your liturgical rhythms to progress through these stages, so that every Sunday you are pulled apart by God and put back together into a new creation more and more.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does James Jordan like numbered lists and chiastic formations? Why, yes he does and this book is replete with them. We go from 3-fold sequences to 5-fold sequences to 7-fold sequences in a dizzying display of Jordan’s interesting way of analyzing the Scriptures, in this case an analysis of the significance of bread and wine as it relates to creation, worship and Christian maturity. I wish I could tell you that I retained a lot of it, but you have to be a special kind of person to read the cramming of ideas into lists and then be able to spit it back out again later. So I’m going to resort to copying out below some of the information on the back of the book:

“Biblical rituals are not strange practices or obscure formalities but correspond to the stages of human life, revealing God’s design for how we can emulate His ways. …James B. Jordan explores how sin disrupts the rhythms of human life and how biblical rituals restore us to our place in God’s historical plan with special emphasis on the motifs of brad and wine throughout the Scriptures.

“In the Bible, bread is priestly while wine is kingly and prophetic. Bread comes first and wine later. You eat bread in the morning and drink wine at night. Bread is suitable for children while wine is for adults. Bread is made quickly, but wine takes much longer to ferment and mature. The entire Old Creation, the childhood of humanity (Galatians 4), is the time of bread, while the New Covenant, our maturity in Christ, is the time of bread and wine. Between the two comes the breaking of the bread, the death of Jesus Christ.”

There ya go!