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Seder
SAY-der
noun
Hebrew seder (סֵדֶר) — "order," the ritual order of the Passover meal.

📖 Biblical Definition

The ordered Passover meal commanded in Exodus 12 and retold annually by Jewish families across the Diaspora. Hebrew seder (order) names the prescribed sequence: the meal follows a fixed structure with specific elements eaten in specific order, each carrying symbolic significance. The Mosaic essentials — bitter herbs (recalling the bitterness of Egyptian slavery), unleavened bread (the haste of departure), roasted lamb (the substitutionary blood sprinkled on the doorposts) — were elaborated in post-biblical Jewish tradition into the fifteen-step modern Seder with its four cups of wine, the asking of the four questions by the youngest child, the recitation of the Haggadah (the story of the exodus), the closing prayer Next year in Jerusalem. Christ instituted the Lord's Supper at a Passover Seder (Matt 26; Mark 14; Luke 22; the precise chronology between Synoptics and John has been long discussed), specifically reframing two of its elements: the bread became His body broken, the cup became His blood of the new covenant. The continuity is theologically loaded: the meal that commemorated the original deliverance becomes the meal that commemorates the greater deliverance accomplished through the true Passover Lamb.

📜 Webster 1828 Definition

The ordered Passover meal.

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The ordered ritual Passover meal traced to Exodus 12 — bitter herbs, unleavened bread, roast lamb, four cups of wine — retelling the deliverance from Egypt and forming the framework of the Last Supper that Jesus transformed into the Lord's Supper.

📖 Key Scripture

Exodus 12:14"And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations."

Luke 22:15-16"With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God."

1 Corinthians 5:7"For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us."

⚠️ Modern Corruption

Christianized away from its Jewish roots, losing the rich typology that ties the Last Supper to Exodus.

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The Lord's Supper is a transformed seder. The four cups, the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs — Jesus uses each to declare Himself the true Passover. To lose the seder background is to lose half the meaning of communion.

🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots

Hebrew seder — order.

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['Hebrew', 'H5468', 'seder', 'order']

['Hebrew', 'H6453', 'Pesach', 'Passover']

Usage

"Read the seder to deepen the Lord's Supper."

"Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us."

Related Words