AFIQŌMEN (Hebrew rabbinic 'afiqmōn «food after the meal»; perhaps from 'afaq in the hifil form: «strengthening»). — A special unleavened bread, and its related rite, in the current Jewish Passover meal.
Three unleavened loaves prepared separately (called shimūrīm), of more compact and whiter dough, pricked like pinpricks, are placed before the meal in the center of the table, standing in the basket where the raw lamb shank (which is not eaten) lies among the herbs; each shimūr («custody») has a name: Kohen, Levi, Israel. At the fourth section of the Seder (q.v.), the head of the household uncovers the basket, silently takes the middle shimūr (Levi) and divides it (this is the tahaz rite, «broken») into two pieces, hiding the larger one, which is the afiqōmen, under the tablecloth. The Haggadah is then read, after which the herbs and some pieces of shimūr (the first, Kohen, and part of the half of Levi) with haroseth (q.v.) are eaten. After dinner, before the Hallel (q.v.) or final hymn, the head of the household takes the afiqōmen, raises it without saying the blessing, breaks it, and gives a fragment to each diner (saying: «in memory of the Passover lamb»), which they consume in silence and may not eat anything else until the next day.
The Jewish scholar R. Eisler derives afiqōmen from the Greek ἀφιχόμενος «he who has come», but then, contradicting himself, interprets it as future: «the bread that is to come» (i.e., «of the world to come»), attributing a messianic-eschatological meaning to the rite. According to Eisler, Jesus pronounced «This is my body» over the afiqōmen, intending to signify: «The Messiah already come but not recognized, I am (ἀφιχόμενος ἐγώ εἶμι)».
The external analogy between the rite performed by Jesus and the rite of the afiqōmen is undeniable. But R. Eisler reverses the relationship. The Jewish rite seems to be later than A.D. 70. The Talmud itself does not mention it, limiting itself to mandating a single unleavened loaf (maṣṣāḥ) for the end of the Passover meal. The afiqōmen and the tahaz rite are mentioned only in the late ritual of the Hagadah šel pēṣaḥ. Moreover, Jesus added, «after supper» (Lk 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25), the consecration of the cup.
The rite of the afiqōmen thus represents «the mysterious presence of the hidden Messiah in the world», as attested by Eisler, but it seems to have been introduced by the rabbis (Tannaites?) as a participation (communion) in that presence. The afiqōmen is a «strengthening» hidden in a «custody». The Jewish convert Rocca d’Adria (Algranati) argues that it is an attempt, using magic, to take possession of the Redemption of Jesus, «by taking the blood of a creature redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and eating that blood: the blood hidden in the afiqōmen is human blood, Christian blood».