Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings

We read of various sacrifices/offerings throughout the Old Testament (OT) history.  There were five main types of offerings.  They are described in Leviticus: #1 Burnt (ref Le.1, 6:8-13), #2 Grain (Le.2, 6:14-23), #3 Peace (Le.3, 7:11-34), #4 Sin (Le.4, 5:1-13, 6:24-30, 16:3-22), #5 Guilt/Trespass (Le.5:14-19, 6:1-7, 7:1-7).

This topic mostly discusses burnt offerings.  Peace offerings are discussed in the topic “Passover and Peace Offerings”.  Sin and guilt offerings, and blood sacrifice (and Christ’s sacrificial death) are discussed in “Day of Atonement (1)”.

New Age advocates have sought self-enlightenment through their own efforts, and ignore the necessary sacrifice of Jesus.  Most Islamics, Deists and other non-Christians also disregard His shed blood.

After mankind (Adam & Eve) sinned in the Garden of Eden, the only Way to God’s forgiveness and reconciliation was through shed lifeblood.  He.9:22 “Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”  Sin is atoned for by life/blood.

The first sin of Adam & Eve and the ramifications are discussed in the topic “Tree Symbolism in Scripture”.  Ge.3:7 “Then their [Adam & Eve] eyes were opened and they knew they were naked; they sewed fig leaves together and made loin coverings.”  Nakedness can be both physical and spiritual, being unclothed or symbolic of sin and shame.  Sin brought guilt and shame to their psyche.

Adam & Eve tried to cover their physical nakedness and their sin themselves with fig leaves.  Sewn fig leaves, or human devices/ways, are inadequate to cover sin.  Ge.3:21 “The Lord God made garments of skin [Strongs h5785, Hebrew] for Adam and his wife, and clothed [h3847] them.”  God Himself covered them with animal skins, perhaps leather garments of calfskin or kidskin.  In so doing, the Lord showed that to cover the nakedness symbolic of sin and their diminished condition, humans must be “clothed” by means of the death of another!  (also see “Skins Made For Adam Were Passed Down?”.)

After they sinned, Adam & Eve were expelled from the Garden, from God’s Presence (Ge.3:22-24).  The Way (cf. Ge.3:24, Ac.24:14, 22) back to the Presence would mainly be God’s doing and according to God’s plan, not man’s.  It continually required blood.

Most Bible teachers think those first skins were taken from an animal sacrifice.  It foreshadowed the (temporary) animal sacrificial system, and ultimately Jesus the Lamb of God’s perfect final sacrifice to cover or atone for humanity’s sins.  Cambridge Bible Ge.3:21 “The first mention of death among animals is implied in this provision for man’s clothing.”  Ellicott Commentary Ge.3:21 “Animals were killed even in Paradise….Adam must in some way, immediately after the fall, have been taught that without shedding of blood is no remission of sin, but that God will accept a vicarious sacrifice.”  JFB Commentary “This implies the institution of animal sacrifice, which was undoubtedly of divine appointment.”  It appears that animal sacrifice was an institution authored by God.

Throughout his life, Adam probably followed God’s example/lead or mimicked His action.  And Adam & Eve would’ve told their Garden experience to their sons Cain and Abel.

Consequently, Ge.4:3-5 “In the course of time, Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the ground. Abel brought the firstlings of his flock.”  This is the first offering (h4503 mincháh) recorded in the Bible.  Abel brought a burnt offering, less likely a peace offering.  Bible Bay Why Did People Sacrifice Animals? “Ge.4:3-5 Scholars tell us the Hebrew of the first phrase, ‘In the course of time’, suggests this offering of sacrifices was a recurring event.”  Perhaps, though we don’t read of God commanding offerings that early.  However, it’s very unlikely that Abel and Cain invented sacrifice on their own.

Abel must have known of and believed his parents’ Garden experience/covering, and he offered a lamb.  Gill Exposition Ge.4:5 “Firstlings of these, lambs were first brought forth.”  Barnes Notes Ge.4:5 “Blood was therefore shed, life was taken away.”  Cain brought a form of grain offering (no blood) from common produce he’d grown.  (After Adam’s sin, God had cursed his ground, Ge.3:17.)  He.11:4 “By faith, Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain. He [Abel] was approved as righteous.”  But Cain tried to atone via his own cultivation works.  (Adam/Eve had attempted fig leaves as covering.)  Cain murdered Abel, and wandered lost from God (Ge.4:6-16).

Knowledge of animal sacrifice was passed down from Adam and his other offspring to the generations of the antediluvian age.  After the Flood, history shows that ancient peoples practiced animal sacrifice.

Claude Mariottini Why Did God Ask For Animal Sacrifice? “The origins of animal sacrifice are lost in antiquity. As early as the 4^th millennium BC, animal sacrifices were offered in Egypt at the temples at Abýdos, Thebes, and On. Among the animals sacrificed were oxen, wild goats, geese, and even pigs. Babylon had centers of worship at Éridu, Níppur, Érech, Ur, and other places that can be dated from the 4^th and the 3^rd millenniums BC. Babylonian records give evidence of an elaborate system of worship and sacrifices at these temples. One document says that the animals offered in sacrifice by King Gudea included oxen, sheep, goats, lambs, and birds. As for animal sacrifice in the Bible, the biblical record is very clear that animal sacrifice goes back to the earliest days of biblical history. For instance, the garments of skins for Adam and Eve (Ge.3:21) were made from animals slain in sacrifice.”

The second animal sacrifice recorded in the Bible is in Ge.8:20-21.  After the Flood, Noah built an altar and offered burnt offerings…oláh h5930, Greek LXX holocaust g3646.  (The ground curse ended.)  Bible Encyclopedia: Burnt Offering “It was the most frequent form of sacrifice, and apparently the only one mentioned in the book of Genesis.”  (Again, it seems Abel’s sacrifice was a form of burnt offering.)

Animal sacrifice was continued by the post-Flood patriarchs.  Abram was from Mesopotámia (Ge.11:31).  Ge.12:7 & 13:4 Abram built an altar and called on the Lord.  Ge.13:18 Abram built another altar at a different location.  Ge.15:9-11, 17-18, here the Lord commanded a covenantal sacrifice from Abram.  This was the first single offering commanded by God in the Bible.  Ge.22:1-13 later the Lord told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering.  But God then substituted a ram in place of Isaac…the burning of human offspring/children as sacrifice wasn’t God’s will.

Ungodly peoples vainly sacrificed children at heathen temples, while drinking blood mixed with wine.  God strictly forbad sacrifices to idols and the human consumption of blood.  ref Ge.9:4, Le.7:26-27, 17:12, Ac.15:29.  see “Sacrifices To Idols and Romans 14”.  (After departing Egypt, even Israel would offer burnt & peace offerings to the golden calf idol they made, Ex.32:1-6.)

After Abraham died, Isaac built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord (Ge.26:25).  Ge.31:54-55 Jacob and his father-in-law Laban offered a sacrifice and shared a meal at Mizpáh in Gileád.  This is the first occurrence of the actual term sacrifice (h2077 zébach) in the Bible.  Later, Jacob sacrificed at Beersheba (Ge.46:1), enroute to Egypt to be with his son Joseph the Prime Minister.  Joseph’s father-in-law was an Egyptian priest at On/Heliópolis (Ge.41:44-45).

Jb.1:5 the patriarch Job offered burnt offerings at Uz in the East.  Family heads often served as priests.  Jb.42:8 the Lord commanded Job’s three friends to sacrifice a one-time burnt offering of bulls and rams (clean domestic animals).

Balaám was from Pethór on the Euphrates River in N. Mesopotamia.  Balák was the king of Moab.  Nu.23:1-4 Balaam & Balak sacrificed bulls and rams as burnt offerings.  Then God met with Balaam.

When the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, the Lord had commanded Moses to tell Pharaoh that Israel must go offer sacrifices.  Ex.3:18 “The Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.”  Ex.10:25-27 Moses/Israel asked permission to go sacrifice burnt offerings (denied).  Ex.18:12 after the exodus, Moses’ father-in-law Jethró, the priest of Midián (Ex.18:1), made a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God.

Burnt offerings represented a tribute to God, submission to His will, and a desire to fellowship with Him.  An individual, recognizing that he is weak & commits sin, and wanting to renew his relationship with God, could generally give a burnt offering at any time.  In a basic sense, it made atonement for his sin nature (Le.1:4), but not for specific sins.  The Jewish Encyclopedia article Burnt Offering indicates that burnt offerings weren’t distinctively expiatory (unlike sin/guilt offerings).

Ex.20:24-26 Israelites would be allowed to erect individual altars for burnt & peace offerings.  Ex.24:4-8 “He [Moses] sent young men of Israel to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings.”  Moses sprinkled the blood of that offering on an altar at Mt. Sinai.  This was to ratify God’s Old Covenant with Israel.

Ex.29:38-43 the Lord instituted the daily morning & evening burnt offering, offered every day of the year at the tabernacle/temple.  A grain offering was required to accompany this twice-daily sacrifice.

Voluntary salted unleavened grain offerings (KJV “meat” offering is from the Middle English for grain/cereal/meal/food) accompanied other burnt & peace offerings.  Or grain offerings were brought alone by the poor.  But they didn’t accompany sin/guilt/trespass offerings.  (However, the Lord did allow the very poor to offer grain as a sin offering, Le.5:11.)  The priest ate a portion of the grain offerings (Le.2:3, 6:16.)  Perhaps grain symbolized God’s harvest blessings.

Nu.28–29 shows the extensive sequence of sacrifices that were to be repeated at the tabernacle/temple throughout the year and over the centuries.  Why Did God Require Animal Sacrifices in the Old Testament? “The animal served as a substitute—that is, the animal died in place of the sinner, but only temporarily, which is why the sacrifices needed to be offered over and over.”

Burnt offerings were from clean domestic animals…cattle, sheep, goats.  The poor could offer birds.  Le.1:1-17 the offerer slaughtered the animal.  The priest splashed/sprinkled the blood on the altar.  The animal was skinned and cut in pieces.  The priest arranged the pieces on the altar.  The entire animal was burned, except for the hide.  The priest kept the hide for himself.  Le.7:8 “The priest who presents any man’s burnt offering shall have the skin [h5285].” (cf. Adam)  None of the burnt offering was eaten.

De.27:4-7 entering the Holy Land after 40 years in the wilderness, Israel was to offer burnt & peace offerings on an altar at Mt. Ebál.  This was a renewal of the Old Covenant with burnt/peace offerings (Ex.24:5-7).

Simple common altars were allowed for the private worship of YHVH, if they weren’t made from stones cut by the hand of man (ref De.16:21 & Ex.20:25).  God honored the offering.  We read of them elsewhere in the OT.  Jg.6:19-21 supernatural fire consumed Gideón’s offering in the presence of the Messenger of the Lord.  Jg.13:18-21 the Messenger of YHVH ascended in the flame of Manóah’s (Samson’s father) offering.  God’s Messenger or Name was there for those two offerings.  (Ge.4:4-5 possibly fire had fallen on Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s.)

1Ch.21:26 fire from heaven fell upon the altar of David’s burnt & peace offerings on Mt. Moriáh at the site of Ornán’s/Araunáh’s threshing floor.  In 1Ki.18:30-39, fire fell from heaven and consumed Elijah’s burnt offering on an altar at Mt. Carmél.  God showed up!  (see “Fire From Heaven!”)

However, no Bible verse commands anyone to do recurring animal sacrifices away from the Lord’s tabernacle/temple…the place of God’s Name.  All sin and guilt offerings…and most burnt, grain and peace offerings…must be sacrificed at the altar of the tabernacle/temple.  That one altar with holy fire!  Those offerings there, and the altar, were most holy (ref Ex.40:10, Le.2:10, 6:17, 14:13).

Centuries later, the Lord sent the kingdoms of Israel and Judah into captivity for their disobedience; to Assyria and Babylon respectively.  Ezr.6:3-9 afterwards, the Jewish returnees to the Land from Babylon were to offer burnt offerings (h5928 Aramaic, v.9) at the altar of Zerubbabél’s temple in Jerusalem.

Burnt offerings were the most common type of sacrifice.  They may be voluntary korbán (h7133, ref Le.1:2-3), which was an offering in general for worship/fellowship with God.  But in Mk.7:9-13, Jesus criticized those Jews’ oral tradition…they dedicated/claimed that one’s wealth would pass to the temple, while using it selfishly until death.  Those Jews were claiming “It is korban” (Mk.7:11).  They tried to excuse themselves from using their means to rightly care for the needs of their elderly parents.

Again, only clean domestic animals (and clean birds) were allowed by God for sacrifices.  Clean wild animals/game, unclean creatures, and fish weren’t allowed.  Those cost the offerer comparatively nothing!  It is meaningful that sin and sacrifices exact a cost.  2Sm.24:24-25 David understood there should be a price to pay.  e.g. a more expensive animal, a ram, was required as a guilt offering to atone for a person or family’s intentional non-capital sin (Le.6:1-7).

The Jews continued to offer burnt offerings and other sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem, until it was destroyed in 70 AD.  Blood was sprinkled on the altar there.  The Old Covenant was a blood covenant (Ex.24:4-8).  Throughout OT times, blood was offered.

Then the promised Seed of the first woman (Ge.3:15) came to earth 2,000 years ago…and shed His perfect blood on the cross!  (see “Jesus’ Virgin Birth”.)  Jesus the Son of God died once for all mankind.  1Pe.1:18-19 Jesus’ precious blood!  Mt.27:50-51 the temple veil of separation tore at Jesus’ death.  Jesus entered into the Presence of God, into the greater and more perfect heavenly tabernacle, on our behalf.  ref He.9:8-16.

No more Old Covenant sacrifices are necessary!  The temple has been gone for 2,000 years.  After Father God watched His Son die on the cross, there’s no need to revert to inferior animal sacrifices!  They are finished.  Jesus fulfilled the burnt offerings…and all the OT sacrificial types.

{Sidelight: Le.14 is about cleansing the leper.  v.1-8 two (clean) birds and cedar wood were involved.  One bird was slain.  The live bird and the cedar wood were dipped in the blood of the slain bird.  The live bird was set free.  Then the priest sprinkled the leper with the blood.  The blood “cleansed” (g2511 LXX) the leper.  Even the typology of this ceremony to cleanse the leper is fulfilled.  The slain bird symbolized the blood of Jesus crucified.  The cedar wood symbolized His cross, and the live bird the resurrected Jesus.  (also ref the slain goat and the live goat in Le.16, discussed in “Day of Atonement (1)”.)  1Jn.1:7 we too are figuratively “cleansed” (g2511) from sin by His blood.}

1Co.11:23-25 the New Covenant is in Jesus’ blood.  He.13:20 we’re in this eternal Covenant.  Re.1:5 mankind is released from our sins by His blood.  Ep.1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”  Col.1:20 the blood of the cross reconciles us to the Father and brings peace.  1Co.6:20 “You have been bought with a price.”  God paid the highest price to redeem us…His lifeblood (Ac.20:28)!  Jesus said in Jn.19:30, “It is finished”!

Adam & Eve were cast out of the Garden.  God provided them with clothing from an animal sacrifice.  Re.19:13 the garment of Jesus, our ultimate sacrifice, was stained with His own blood.  (Mt.27:35 the Roman soldiers even cast lots for His garment at His crucifixion.)  Animal sacrifices, including burnt offerings, are now unnecessary.

The separation from God is ended!  Jesus’ blood makes it possible for us to come before God and be in His Presence again (He.10:19)!  The blood of Christ is a must for our salvation!  There’s no other Way to God (contrary to New Age theories and false religions).  As the song goes…Don’t Forget The Blood!

Passover and Peace Offerings

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 1^st 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 1^st 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 2^nd 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 14^th 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 24^th day of the first month”.  The date of Passover, the 14^th day of the 1^st 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 1^st 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 7^th 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 1^st 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!