Lesson 19 – Passover

1.     Nothing

  • Reading the Scripture
  • Study Questions
    • Why is it called, "Passover?"
    • What do we think of God 's killing children?
    • What do you see as the main point of the story?
    • How does this story relate to your life?
    • Why do Jew's celebrate this every year?
    • Does the celebration of Passover have any meaning for us?
    • What is the relationship between the  Passover and Jesus?

 

  • Memory verse: Exodus 15:2a

Yahweh is my strength and my might, and has become my salvation.

 

Bible Background (taken from Journey through the Bible, Christian Board of Publications, 1995, p. 63)

1These two chapters of Exodus are very important to the story of Israel's redemption from slavery. They record the last of the plagues: a death plague that would appear especially dangerous to young children. We know that God does not send an angel of death to destroy little children, not even to show that slavery is intolerable. But it may very well be that, at the critical moment in Moses' struggle with Pharaoh, an epidemic struck the Egyptian delta region, and the Israelites, living separately from the Egyptians, were largely spared, while many Egyptian children died. We cannot know anything about the historical details that actually lie behind this last plague. One thing seems clear: The Israelites, in telling of this terrible and glorious night, preserved in the Passover story the recognition that it was a night of fear and trembling, of readiness for flight, a solemn time for all.

2Woven together with this story of the last plague are instructions on how to observe two distinct spring festivals. The first described is the shepherd festival that commemorates the birth of the new lambs and kids. Some very ancient way of giving thanks to God for the new lambs and kids must lie behind the requirement that the lamb be roasted, eaten entirely during the Passover evening, and all the remaining parts that are inedible be burned the next day. The purpose of the blood sprinkled on the lintels and the doorposts must have been to ward off demons that would try to destroy the lives of the rest of the flock. The second spring festival is a farmer's festival, intended to celebrate the coming of the first spring crop of grain, the barley. It too must preserve very ancient customs. The leavened bread of the prior year must not touch the newly harvested barley. Unleavened bread, then, must be eaten in order to keep the new grain free of contamination by the old.

3The dedication of the firstborn males, both human and animals, must have arisen in a similar way: to give thanks for this gift of life, but also to ward off any danger to the mother of the male child or the bearer of the male animal, seeking to safe-guard the fertility of the mother and the female animal.

4The storytellers have done their job well. See how powerfully these two spring festivals have been woven into a single ceremony? And both have been connected for all time with the last of the plagues in Egypt and the preparation for leaving the land of Israel's slavery. Why are there bitter herbs eaten at Passover? Why unleavened bread? Why eat with sandals on, with robes hitched up, with staff in hand, and with haste? Because on this dark night when freedom was born, all of Israel waited inside, behind closed doors with blood on the portals, as Death passed them by and they were saved. It was the birth-night of the nation. God's word proved true. Israel had been promised freedom and a land of their own, and when Passover morning came, they were on their way.

5The third element woven into Passover and Unleavened Bread ceremonies is the offering of the firstborn male children and firstborn male live-stock. The offering of male children may have behind it, as many scholars suggest, the practice of human sacrifice of a firstborn child-a practice that may lie behind the story of Abraham's readiness to offer Isaac as a human sacrifice. But by the time of Abraham and Moses, human sacrifice was rare indeed, among Israel's neighbors as well as within Israel. Children were redeemed by the offering of an animal in gratitude to God for the gift of the child.

6The Passover ceremony is a family celebration performed in the home. One child is appointed to ask the question given in Exodus 12:26, "What do you mean by this observance?" The answer given is that Passover refers to God's having "passed over" the Israelite houses, but having brought punishment on the Egyptian households. To this6day, Jewish families try to arrange for non-Jews to celebrate the festival with them, as a reminder that God intends freedom for all the families of earth.

7We should note that Passover is listed as taking place in the first month of the lunar year, the month of Abib. The more common name for this month is Nisan. We know, hpwever, that the Jewish New Year's Day celebration comes in the fall of the year, in the month of Tishri. The explanation is that two calendars were in use in the Jewish community, one beginning the year in the spring (the so-called secular calendar) and the other beginning the year in the fall, the religious calendar. The first calendar was retained, but New Year's Day as a fall festivity was also retained, though it comes in the seventh month, not the first.

81t was a remarkable achievement of the early Israelites that they were able to take these nature festivals, common among farmers and shepherds, and tie them to central events in their history. The festivals thus become a part of the theme of God's promise on the way to fulfillment. They remain nature festivals; they come once a year, at the right season of the year. But they also are acts of commemoration, of holy remembrance.

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 Scripture

1 YHWH (Yahweh) said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:

2 This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 

3 Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. 

4 If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. 

5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 

6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. 

7 They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 

8 They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 

9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. 

10 You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 

11 This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of YHWH. 

12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments:  I am YHWH. 

13 The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 

14 This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to YHWH; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance. 

15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day shall be cut off from Israel. 

16 On the first day you shall hold a solemn assembly, and on the seventh day a solemn assembly; no work shall be done on those days;  only what everyone must eat, that alone may be prepared by you. 

17 You shall observe the festival of unleavened bread, for on this very day I brought your companies out of the land of Egypt: you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a perpetual ordinance. 

18 In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day, you shall eat unleavened bread. 

19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether an alien or a native of the land. 

20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your settlements you shall eat unleavened bread. 

21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover lamb. 

22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning. 

23 For YHWH will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, YHWH will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down. 

24 You shall observe this rite as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children. 

25 When you come to the land that YHWH will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this observance. 

26 And when your children ask you, 'What do you mean by this observance?' 

27 you shall say, 'It is the passover sacrifice to YHWH, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.'" And the people bowed down and worshiped. 

28 The Israelites went and did just as YHWH had commanded Moses and Aaron. 

29 At midnight YHWH struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. 

30 Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his officials and all the Egyptians; and there was a loud cry in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. 

31 Then he summoned Moses and Aaron in the night, and said, "Rise up, go away from my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, worship YHWH, as you said. 

32 Take your flocks and your herds, as you said, and be gone. And bring a blessing on me too!" 

33 The Egyptians urged the people to hasten their departure from the land, for they said, "We shall all be dead." 

34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped up in their cloaks on their shoulders. 

35 The Israelites had done as Moses told them; they had asked the Egyptians for jewelry of silver and gold, and for clothing,

36 and YHWH had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. And so they plundered the Egyptians. 

37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. 

38 A mixed crowd also went up with them, and livestock in great numbers, both flocks and herds. 

39 They baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt; it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves. 

40 The time that the Israelites had lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years. 

41 At the end of four hundred thirty years, on that very day, all the companies of YHWH went out from the land of Egypt. 

42 That was for YHWH a night of vigil, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That same night is a vigil to be kept for YHWH by all the Israelites throughout their generations. 

43 YHWH said to Moses and Aaron: This is the ordinance for the passover: no foreigner shall eat of it,

44 but any slave who has been purchased may eat of it after he has been circumcised; 

45 no bound or hired servant may eat of it.

46 It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the animal outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. 

47 The whole congregation of Israel shall celebrate it.

48 If an alien who resides with you wants to celebrate the passover to YHWH, all his males shall be circumcised; then he may draw near to celebrate it; he shall be regarded as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it; 

49 there shall be one law for the native and for the alien who resides among you. 

50 All the Israelites did just as YHWH had commanded Moses and Aaron. 

51 That very day YHWH brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, company by company. 

 

 

                                                                                       CHAPTER 13                                                                                     

 

 

1 YHWH said to Moses:

2 Consecrate to me all the firstborn; whatever is the first to open the womb among the Israelites, of human beings and animals, is mine. 

3 Moses said to the people, "Remember this day on which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, because YHWH brought you out from there by strength of hand; no leavened bread shall be eaten. 

4 Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out.

5 When YHWH brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this observance in this month. 

6 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a festival to YHWH. 

7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen in your possession, and no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory. 

8 You shall tell your child on that day, 'It is because of what YHWH did for me when I came out of Egypt.' 

9 It shall serve for you as a sign on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead, so that the teaching of YHWH may be on your lips;  for with a strong hand YHWH brought you out of Egypt. 

10 You shall keep this ordinance at its proper time from year to year. 

 

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Jesus And the Passover (from Encyclopedia Britannica)

Jesus' decision to go to Jerusalem is the turning point in his story. The events it set in motion soon came to have decisive significance for the faith of his followers. It is not coincidental that the Gospels narrate this period of his life in disproportionate breadth. Despite the many points of agreement among the Gospels, there also are considerable discrepancies within the tradition of the Passion. Thus, one cannot expect the tradition of the Passion to provide historically accurate reports, for it has been formed from the viewpoint of the church and its faith in Christ. The most important theological motifs in the narratives include the intention of presenting Jesus' sufferings and death as the fulfillment of God's will, the decision, in conformity with the words of the Old Testament Prophets and Psalms, to proclaim him as Messiah and Son of God, despite his brutal end. Nevertheless, important historical facts may be inferred from the texts.

Jesus probably went to Jerusalem with his disciples for the Passover in order to call the people of Israel gathered there to a final decision in view of the dawning Kingdom of God. He must have been aware of the heavy conflicts with the Jewish rulers that lay ahead of him. The story of the cleansing of the Temple, in particular, shows that Jesus did not avoid these conflicts. The later tradition, stylizing the story, gives as Jesus' sole motive for going to Jerusalem his desire to die there and to rise again in accordance with the will of God (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:32ff.). The best clue for a reconstruction of the outward course of Jesus' Passion is given by his Crucifixion. It proves that he was condemned and executed under Roman law as a political rebel. All reports agree that he died on Friday (Mark 15:42; Matt. 27:62; Luke 23:54; John 19:31). They differ, however, in that, according to the Synoptics, this was the 15th of Nisan (March/April); i.e., the first day of the Passover. But, according to John, it was the previous day; i.e., the one on which the Passover lambs were slaughtered and on which the festival was begun in the evening (in accordance with the Jewish division of days) with a common meal. Thus, according to John, Jesus' last meal with the disciples was not itself a Passover meal but took place earlier. Each of these datings may be theologically motivated, whether it be that the Eucharist is to be represented as the Passover meal (Synoptics) or whether Jesus himself is to be shown as the true Passover lamb, who died at the hour when the lambs were slaughtered (John). Historically, the Johannine dating is to be preferred, and the 14th Nisan (April 7) is to be regarded as the day of Jesus' death. The question of the occasion for Jesus' execution and the role that the Jews played is thereby more difficult and more important.

The way the Gospels present the facts of the case, Jesus was actually condemned to death by the supreme Jewish tribunal (Mark 14:55ff.). Pilate, on the other hand, was convinced of Jesus' innocence and made vain attempts to release him but finally yielded to the Jews' pressure against his better judgment (Mark 15:22ff.). The historical reliability of this account has rightly been questioned. First, the Synoptic reports differ among themselves. According to Mark and Matthew, the Jewish supreme court had already gathered in the home of the High Priest after Jesus' arrest in the night of Holy Thursday to Friday and condemned him to death as a blasphemer at that point (Mark 14:64). Thereafter, they resolved to hand Jesus over to Pilate in a new session in the early morning (Mark 15:1). Luke knows of only one session and has the interrogation take place in the morning (Luke 22:66), but he says nothing about Jesus' condemnation (Luke 22:71). John deviates even more; here, only the high priests Annas and Caiaphas are involved in the interrogation of Jesus (John 18:13ff.). Secondly, with regard to all the Gospel accounts, the question arises, what earwitness can be supposed later to have given the disciples an exact report? Thirdly, the jurisdictional competency of the Jewish Sanhedrin is disputed. In the opinion of some scholars, the Jewish authorities were permitted to pronounce sentence of death and to carry it out by stoning in the case of serious religious offenses (blasphemy). In the opinion of others, though, this required the confirmation of the Roman procurator. Also, trials of this kind were not to be conducted during the period of the festival.

The strongest argument against the Synoptic presentation is, however, that it is styled throughout in a Christian, and not in a Jewish, way; i.e., on the basis of scriptural proof and the Christian confession to the messiahship and divine Sonship of Jesus. The High Priest's question, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" (Mark 14:61), is unthinkable from the viewpoint of Jewish premises, because Son of God was not a Jewish title for the Messiah. Thus, the account reflects the controversies of the later church with the Judaism of its day.

There also is in the Gospels a tendency to exonerate Pilate at the Jews' expense. His behaviour, however, does not match the picture that nonbiblical sources have handed down about him. But everything speaks for Jesus' having been arrested as a troublemaker, informally interrogated, and handed over to Pilate as the leader of a political revolt by the pro-Roman priestly and Sadducean members of the Sanhedrin, who were dominant in Jerusalem society in those days. The cleansing of the Temple and a prophetic, apocalyptic saying of Jesus (John 2:19; cf. Mark 14:58; Acts 6:14) about the destruction of the Temple may thereby have played a role. It can hardly be assumed that each and all of the Pharisees, who were without political influence at that time, were involved in the plot. Nor are they mentioned as a separate group in the Passion narratives alongside the priests, elders, and scribes.

The other scenes in the Passion story do not need to be listed here separately. They relate more to the theological meaning of Jesus' Passion and are, to a large measure, formed in an edifying cultic manner, even though they refer to events that are certainly historical; e.g., Judas' betrayal, Jesus' last meal with his disciples, and Peter's denial of Jesus. The traces of an eyewitness account are perhaps still recognizable at certain points (Mark 14:52; 15:21).

The accounts differ in their presentation of Jesus' death, especially in their rendering of his last words. It is only in Mark and Matthew that Jesus dies crying out the prayer from Psalm 22: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" The distinction between the repentant and the defiant thief is only found in Luke. Jesus' last words are given differently in Luke ("Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!") and John ("It is finished"). Each of these accounts, as also the testimony of the Roman centurion ("Truly this man was the Son of God!"; Mark 15:39), gives expression to the significance of Jesus and his story.

Copyright © 1994-2001 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

 

 

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