AFIQOMEN (Hebr. rabbinical 'afiqimōn “food after the meal”; perhaps from 'afaq in the hifil form: “strengthening”). — A special unleavened bread (v.), and the related rite, in the present-day Passover meal of the Jews.
Three unleavened breads prepared separately (called shimūrim), of a denser and whiter dough, pricked as though with pinpricks, are placed before the meal in the middle of the table, enclosed in the basket in which, among the herbs, lies the raw leg of lamb (which is not eaten); each shimūr (“custody”) has a name: Kohen, Levi, Israel. At Seder (v.) the head of the family uncovers the basket, silently takes the middle shimūr (Levi) and divides it (this is the iahaz rite, “fractio”) into two pieces, the larger of which, the a., he conceals beneath the tablecloth. The Hagadā is then read, after which the herbs and some pieces of shimūr (the first, Kohen, and part of the half of Levi) haroseth (v.). After the meal, once the table has been cleared, hallel (v.) or final hymn, the head of the family takes the a., raises it without saying the blessing, breaks it, and gives a fragment (saying: “in memory of the paschal lamb”) to each diner, who consumes it in silence and may eat nothing else until the following day.
The Jew R. Eisler derives a. from the Greek ἀφιούμενος, “he who has come,” but then, contradicting himself, interprets it in the future: “the bread that will come” (that is, “of the world to come”), attributing a messianic-eschatological meaning to the rite. According to Eisler, Jesus pronounced “This is my body” over the a., intending to signify: “The Messiah who has already come but has not been recognized, that am I (ὁ ἀφιούμενος ἐγώ εἰμι).”
The external analogy between the rite performed by Jesus and the rite of the a. is undeniable. But R. Eisler reverses the relationship. The Jewish rite appears to date from after A.D. 70. The Talmūd itself does not mention it, limiting itself to recording a single unleavened bread (maṣṣāḥ) for the end of the Passover meal. The a. and the iahaz are mentioned only in the late ritual Haggadah šel pēsaḥ. Moreover, Jesus added to it, “after the supper” (Lc. 22:20; I Cor. 11:25), the consecration of the cup.
The rite of the a. thus represents “the mysterious presence of the Messiah hidden in the world,” as Eisler attests, but it seems to have been introduced by the rabbis (Tannaim?) as participation (communion) in that presence. The a. is a “strengthening substance” hidden in a “custody.” The converted Jew Rocca d'Adria (Algranati) maintains that this is an attempt, by the use of magic, to take possession of the Redemption of Jesus, “that is, taking the blood of a creature redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and feeding upon that blood: the blood hidden in the a. is human blood, Christian blood.”