The Passover is a fascinating institution. But frankly, it has become somewhat of a misnomer in churches. Jews today, both religious & non-religious, do a ritual séder (order) for a traditional retelling of ancient Israel’s exodus from Egypt. The séder isn’t an actual Passover (nor is it meant to be), as the scriptures define Passover. Neither is the so-called ‘Passover’ that some churches claim they keep.
In the 1st century, scrolls of Moses were read every sabbath in the many synagogues (Ac.15:21). Jews, proselytes and gentile God-fearers heard those readings. Likewise in the primitive church the apostle Paul instructed Timothy to attend to the public reading of Old Testament (OT) scriptures (1Ti.4:13). 2Ti.3:15-16 all scripture is of God. But the oral traditions of the Pharisees aren’t scripture. And although the later writings of ‘church fathers’ so-called are of much value, they aren’t scripture either.
Passover represented Israel’s liberation from Egypt 3,600 years ago, and was the beginning of their ritual worship. Ex.12:23-24 the Word/Christ would “pass over”/pawsákh (Strongs h6452, Hebrew verb; the English rendering ”passover” was coined by Tyndale in 1530 AD), and keep alive all Israel’s firstborn males just prior to the exodus. (also see the topic, “Passover and the Exodus Timing”.)
Prior to Moses and the exodus, more ancient gentiles/non-Israelites such as Enoch, Noah, Abraham (the father of the faithful, Ga.3:7) who lived before Ex.12…didn’t have Passover.
Today there are misconceptions about Passover. And Passover misconceptions have contributed to division in the church. Passover was only for Israel, being one of three annual pilgrim feasts in the Holy Land.
The Lord’s initial Passover was in Góshen of Egypt (ref Ge.47:27), during the 1st month of Abíb. The account is in Ex.12. It was unlike any succeeding Passover celebration. e.g. Ex.12:11 that first Passover was eaten in haste with their bags packed and staff in their hand, and the only kind of Passover animals here was a lamb/kid…it was the so-called military Passover.
An annual Passover observance was of such importance…God thereafter made allowance for it to be kept in the 2nd month, if necessary. Nu.9:10-14 a year after departing Egypt, Passover was kept in the wilderness (only). Later, Israelites in the Land who’d fail to keep Passover would be cut off by God! A recurring individual purification immersion was done prior to keeping Passover (cf. Le.7:21, Jn.11:55).
Ex.12:43-49 the Lord didn’t allow males who aren’t physically circumcised to partake of the Passover! Ex.12:48 “No uncircumcised person may eat it.” (Females aren’t so circumcised.) Jsh.5:6-10 those males leaving the wilderness became circumcised, and therefore could eat the Passover in the Land of Canáan at Gilgál, where the tabernacle rested after their wilderness wanderings.
God authorized the Passover to be sacrificed annually at the only location on earth where the Lord’s Name was…never at two or more places simultaneously. ref De.12:5, 11, 17-18, 14:23-25, 2Sm.6:2. Christ dwelt at the sanctuary Most Holy Place between the cherubim; His Name YHVH was on the high priest’s golden mitre plate there (Ex.25:21-22, 28:36-38). They were to keep God–ordained pilgrim feasts at only one place at a time (De.16:16)!
De.16:1, 5-6 “Celebrate the Passover (péhsakh h6453, noun)….You aren’t allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your towns, but at the place where the Lord chooses to establish His Name.” Passover wasn’t allowed in their various towns away from the tabernacle/temple. Many today are unaware that this prohibition existed!
The Lord said in Ex.12:1-2, “This month is the first month of the year to you”. v.5-8 the Passover lamb or kid was killed “on the 14th day of the same month…They shall eat the flesh that night.”
But centuries later in Babylon, Daniel fasted during a Passover season. Da.10:1-5, 13 Daniel fasted for 3 weeks or 21 days until “the 24th day of the first month”. The date of Passover, the 14th day of the 1st month, fell within Daniel’s 3-week fast. However, it would’ve been disobedience for Daniel to sacrifice the Passover away from the environs of the tabernacle or temple where the Lord’s Name had been in Jerusalem! Since God had no central sanctuary in Babylon…no Passover! So Daniel could fast during that season without being disobedient. And Ezekiel named Daniel, Noah, Job as three righteous men (Ezk.14:14, 20). Interestingly, none of the three kept any Passovers (in the East/Mesopotámia).
Approximately 80 years later (457 BC), in the Persian Empire, Ezra the priest made the four-month trip from near the Euphrates River to Jerusalem. ref Ezr.7:8-9, 15, 8:15, 21, 31-33. Ezra’s group departed in the 1st month just 2-3 days before Passover. As with Daniel, a Passover at the Euphrates wasn’t allowed! So there was no need for Ezra to delay their departure until after Passover. And God’s word didn’t authorize Ezra’s group to keep Passover elsewhere en route either!
In the New Testament (NT), Lk.2:41-42 tells of young Jesus at Passovers. “His parents went up to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when He became 12, they went up….” Only in Jerusalem! Every year. Jesus didn’t observe Passover at some unauthorized location such as Galilee, and thereby sin. If He’d ever sinned, we’d have no Savior!
Likewise, there is no OT or NT example of saints with the Holy Spirit keeping a Passover in towns of their choosing. Not Elijah, Elisha, Samson, Isaiah, Nathan the prophet, not Paul, Apollos, not the church at Thessalonica, Colóssae, etc. Rather, Passover was authorized only in Jerusalem from the time of Solomon’s temple, and even in Paul’s day (ref Ac.18:21 KJV, 20:16).
De.16:2 “You shall sacrifice the Passover from the flock and the herd in the place where the Lord chooses to establish His Name.” Not just from the flock! God commanded for Passover animals to be killed annually from both the flock and the herd. Lambs, kids, and bulls too were Passover animals. Animal blood was sprinkled on the altar before eating the holy meals; ref 2Ch.35:6-13. They couldn’t kill the Passover anywhere other than at the central sanctuary (where the Lord’s Name and altar was)!
The Lord didn’t command wine at Passover. Else Nazarites for life, being forbidden to drink wine, would’ve been cut off by God for not keeping Passover! (ref Nu.6:2-3, 9:13.) Wine was added as a traditional custom in the Roman Empire. From the Talmud Pésachim tract concerning Passover rituals, “They should not give him [a man] less than four cups of wine”.
Jesus didn’t say bread & wine replaced the Passover meal! In all Last Supper passages, the Greek term for bread is ártos, never the ázumos/unleavened which was required for Passover. (However, Jesus and His Jewish disciples would’ve obediently eaten unleavened bread at Passover, cf. Ex.12:8, 17-18.)
David Stern Jewish New Testament Commentary, Appendix, p.931 contains the Dead Sea Scrolls account of frequent regular bread & wine meals shared decades before Jesus walked the earth. Jesus is of the order of Melchisedek (ref Ps.110:1-4; Ge.14:18-20), not the Levitical order. (see the topics “Melchisedek Order Priesthood” and “Jesus’ Last Supper Timing”.)
Jn.1:29 John the Baptizer referred to Jesus as “The Lamb (Strongs g286, Greek) of God who takes away the sins of the world”. In Le.14:13, 19, a male lamb (Septúagint/LXX g286) was for a sin offering. Also the Is.53:7 LXX prophecy about Jesus, “He was led as a sheep to slaughter, and as a lamb [g286] before its shearer is silent”. (cf. Ac.8:32.) Jesus became a guilt offering for sin (Is.53:10). The great Shepherd became as a sheep.
But Jesus is never referred to as the ‘Passover Lamb’ in the Bible! The Passover lamb wasn’t a sin offering to expiate sins! (More on types of sacrifices below.) Yet Jesus is the submissive humble King, and one spring season in Jerusalem He became the Jews’ Passover fulfillment too….
Jewish Christian Alfred Edersheim wrote of the Mt.26:26-28 bread & wine. “With this celebration and new institution, the Jewish Passover forever ended!” (The necessary temple was destroyed in 70 AD.) Again, most Jews today call their commemorative spring celebration a seder, not a Passover.
Passover had existed for approximately 1,600 years of human history for Israel/Judah (cf. Jn.6:4). Writers have said the Samaritans didn’t do their Passover or seder in various towns away from their supposed holy site of Mt. Gerizím in the holyland (cf. De.16:5-6; Jn.4:7, 20-21).
Our friends the 7th Day Baptist Statement of Beliefs: “We believe the Lord’s Supper commemorates the suffering and death of our Redeemer.” 1Co.10:16-17 break bread here refers to the Lord’s Supper. 1Co.11:23-28 Paul doesn’t call it the “Passover”. For that matter, in Ac.20:6, 11, this occasion of breaking bread was a couple weeks after the Passover date. (see “Bread and Wine in the Church”.)
{Sidelight: Ac.18:17 Sosthénes was the leader of the synagogue at Corinth; he became a Jewish Christian. 1Co.1:1-3 is the greeting from the Jewish Christians Paul and Sosthenes to the church at Corinth (composed of Jews & gentiles). 1Co.5:6-9 the church was exhorted. “Purge out the old leaven. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened sincerity and truth. I wrote to you not to associate with immoral people.” Yeshúa/Jesus was the Passover of Jews Paul and Sosthenes (“our Passover”), and the other Jewish Christians. (Yeshua died on the cross when the Passover from the herd was being eaten or sacrificed.) The old leaven metaphorically was immoral sex (1Co.5:1, 9).
JFB Commentary “The image is taken from the extreme care of the Jews purging out every particle of leaven from the time of killing the lamb before Passover.” Barnes Notes “It does not mean literally the paschal supper here.” Gill Exposition “Not the feast of the Passover, though this is said in allusion to it.” Robertson’s Commentary “It is quite possible Paul is writing about the time of the Jewish Passover. But, if so, that is merely incidental.” Cambridge Bible “Keep the feast, referring to the perpetual feast the Christian church keeps.” Others link this exhortation to the church love feasts (ref Jude 1:12).
Perhaps many gentiles among Jewish Christians refrained from eating leaven for seven days. Paul’s mídrash in 1Co.5 doesn’t refer to a literal Passover feast, but is figurative. The incestuous man having his father’s wife, “malice and wickedness”, is likened to old leaven…whereas “sincerity and truth” is likened to unleavened. Geneva Study Bible “By alluding to the ceremony of the Passover, he [Paul] exhorts them to cast out that unclean person from among them.” God’s Old Covenant temple was never in Corinth…so Passover never could be kept in Corinth. Neither were uncircumcised Christian gentiles lawfully keeping Passover there, or anywhere else! Pulpit Commentary “Gentile Christians certainly weren’t keeping the Jewish Passover.”}
The Passover blood had saved the Israelite firstborn sons (e.g. Aaron) from death in Egypt. Ex.12:5-6 the lamb/kid must be killed on Abíb 14. Ex.12:7-10 Israelites were to eat it in one meal only.
It was a peace offering, not a sin offering. It was eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The Passover “from the herd” (De.16:2) became known as the Chagigáh in Hebrew parlance.
Le.7:11-21 the lamb was a thank type peace offering (LXX “deliverance” offering). Cameron Walker Historical Backgrounds of the Holy Communion “The Passover Lamb was a Peace offering.” Jewish Encyclopedia “Among the thank-offerings might be included the páschal lamb.”
The annual Passover may be called the national peace offering for Israel. It is thought the Passover Chagigah from the herd was a freewill type peace offering, varying in quantity and number of days eaten at the sanctuary city.
Peace offerings (meals with God) were the only type of offerings which the offerer was allowed to eat some of during the year, and share with the needy.
It’s not coincidental, peace offerings had a place in instituting both the Old Covenant (Ex.24:5-8) at Mt. Sinai, and the New Covenant at Passover time in Jerusalem (e.g. Lk.22:19-20).
Le.7:29-30, 34 the offerer could give portions to the priest as a consecrated gift to God. The priest ate the breast and shoulder/thigh. Le.3:6-8 the officiating priest must sprinkle the blood on the altar of burnt offering at the central sanctuary. 2Ch.35:7-8, 11 those priests in King Josiah’s day sprinkled the Passover animals’ blood…as temple priests must sprinkle the blood of the lamb brought by Jesus’ disciples for His last Passover meal! The Passover meals were only authorized at the sanctuary city.
Jesus didn’t violate God’s command of the Abib 14 date; He didn’t have His lamb killed somewhere a day early on Abib 13 without blood being sprinkled! Rather, His lamb was killed at the time when all the other Passover lambs were being killed at the temple…Lk.22:7-8; Mk.14:12.
De.4:2 was an admonition not to add to nor take away from God’s written word. “It is written.” Jn.10:35 the scripture cannot be broken. Jesus didn’t disobey God’s written word.
But a man wasn’t allowed to eat his sin offering (which he took to the priest) for his own sin. ref Le.6:24-26, 29-30. Israelites/Jews ate the Passover. So eating Passover peace offerings from the flock & herd scripturally doesn’t fit Jesus dying as a ‘Passover Lamb’ for everyone’s “sins”. That would be co-mingling different types of sacrifices. (also see “Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings”.)
Note: Le.23:27 a fast was commanded on the annual national sin offering Day of Atonement! Blood was brought into the Most Holy Place on that holiest day of the year. Le.16:15, 27 the slain goat wasn’t to be eaten, unlike the Passover animals. (see the topic “Day of Atonement”.) Jesus also fulfills both atonement goats of Yom Kíppur…and Passovers of the flock & the herd…and all OT sacrifices!
He.13:10-14 the 1st century AD Levites at the temple who didn’t believe in Jesus’ sacrifice weren’t worthy to eat the Lord’s Supper being celebrated in the churches…it’s not Passover. God never authorized His Passover to be celebrated in various (church) locations simultaneously, nor by physically uncircumcised gentiles! (For more on feast regulations, see “Feasts of the Lord and the Jews”.)
Conclusion: The ancient institution of Passover and its timing shouldn’t be a cause of division in the body of Christ! Neither should it confuse the partaking of the Lord’s Supper. May we in the church continue to believe and trust in Jesus’ precious blood (1Pe.1:18-19), shed for our sins!
Bible Topic Exposition 