PASSOVER, a Hebrew spring festival, celebrated by the Jews in commemoration of the exodus from Egypt by a family feast in the home on the first evening, and by abstaining from leaven during the seven days of the feast. According to tradition, the first Passover (“The Passover of Egypt”), was preordained by Moses at the command of God. The Israelites were commanded to select on the tenth of Abib (Nisan) a he-lamb of the first year, without blemish, to kill it on the eve of the fourteenth and to sprinkle with its blood the lintel and sidepost of the doors of their dwellings so that the Lord should “pass over” them when he went forth to slay the first-born of the Egyptians. The lamb thus drained of blood was to be roasted and entirely consumed by the Israelites, who should be ready with loins girded, shoes on feet and staff in hand so as to be prepared for the exodus. In memory of this the Israelites were for all time to eat unleavened bread (maẓẓoth) for seven days, as well as keep the sacrifice of the Passover on the eve between the fourteenth and the fifteenth of Nisan. This evening meal was not to be attended by any stranger or uncircumcised person. “On the morrow of the Sabbath” a wave offering of a sheaf of barley was to be made. Those who were unable to perform the sacrifice of the Passover owing to impurity at the appointed time, were permitted to do so a month later.
Various theories have been from time to time proposed to account for this complex of enactments. J. Spencer in his De legibus Hebraeorum saw in the Passover a practical protest against the Egyptian worship of Apis. Vatke considered it a celebration of the spring solstice, Baur a means of removing the impurity of the old year. Lengerke recognized a double motive: the lamb for atonement, the unleavened bread as a trace of the haste of the early harvest. Ewald regarded the Passover as an original pre-Mosaic spring festival made to serve the interest of purity and atonement.
All these views have, however, been cast in the shade by more recent investigations based on minute literary analysis of the Pentateuch, begun by Graf, continued by Kuenen, and culminating in the work of Wellhausen and Robertson Smith. This view claims to determine the respective ages and relative chronological position of the various passages in which the Passover is referred to in the Pentateuch, and assumes that each successive stratum represents the practice in ancient Israel at the time of composition, laying great stress upon omissions as implying non-existence. The main passages and their contents are arranged chronologically in the following way:—
A. In the Elohist Book of the Covenant (Exod. xxiii.). The feast of unleavened bread to be kept seven days at the time appointed in the month Abib.
B. In the Yahwist Source (Exod. xxxiv. 18–21, 25). The feast of unleavened bread to be kept seven days, &c. All first lings to be the Lord’s. First-born sons to be redeemed; none to appear before the Lord empty; six days’ work, seventh day rest, in the harvest; the sacrifice of the Passover shall not remain until the morning.
C. In the Yahwistic History (Exod. xii. 21–27, 29–36, 38–39, xiii. 3–16). Moses summons the elders of Israel and orders them to kill the Passover and be sprinkle the lintel and sideposts with a bunch of hyssop dipped in blood so that the Lord will pass over the door. In later days when the children shall ask what this means it shall be said that this is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover. At midnight all the first-born of the Egyptians are slain and Pharaoh sends the Israelites out of Egypt in haste, and the people took the dough before it was leavened upon kneading troughs upon their shoulders.
D. The Deuteronomist (Deut. xvi. 1–8, 16–17). Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover because in that month God brought out the Israelites from Egypt. The sacrifice of the Passover of the flock and the herd shall be done in the place where God shall cause His name to dwell. No leaven shall be eaten with it for seven days, and bread of affliction shall be eaten because they came forth from Egypt in haste. Flesh shall not remain until the morning; the sacrifice must not be within their gates but in the place where the Lord shall cause His name to dwell. It shall be sodden and eaten, and in the morning they should go to their tents. Six days eat unleavened bread, on the seventh a solemn assembly. Reckon seven weeks from the time of putting the sickle to the standing corn.
E. In the Holiness Code (Lev. xxiii. 4–8, 9–14). The 14th of the first month at even is the Passover of the Lord; on the 15th of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread for seven days. First and seventh days shall be holy assembly, but a re-offering for seven days. On the morrow after the sabbath a wave offering and also a burnt offering of the he-lamb (with the corresponding meal and drink offering). Neither bread nor parched corn nor fresh ears shall be eaten until the oblation is made.
F. In the Priestly History (Exod. xii. 1–20, 28–31, xiii. 1–2). On the 10th day of the month every household shall take a first ling male without blemish, of sheep or goat, and should kill it on the 14th at even, and sprinkle the two sideposts and lintel with the blood, and eat the roasted flesh, not sodden, including head, legs and inwards; all remaining over until the morning to be burnt by fire. It should be eaten with loins girded, shoes on feet, and staff in hand because in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover; when He sees the blood He will pass over you and there will be no plague upon you. As a memorial of this you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, on the 14th day at eve until the 21st day at eve; when children shall ask what this service means, you shall say that it is the Passover of the Lord.
G. In the Secondary Sources of the Priestly Code (Exod. xii. 40–41, 43–50, ix. 1–14, xiv. 16–25). No alien, sojourner or hired servant shall eat thereof, but a bought servant, if circumcised. It shall be eaten in haste; none of the flesh shall be carried forth, neither shall a bone be broken. If a sojourner should wish to keep the Passover, all his male shall be circumcised and he will be as one born in the land. The Passover was kept in the first month on the 14th day of the month at even in the wilderness of Sinai; but certain men, unclean by touching a dead body, asked what they should do; they were to keep it on the second month on the 14th day, eating it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, leaving none of it until the morning, nor breaking a bone. The first month on the 14th day of the month is the Passover; the 15th day of this month shall be a feast; seven days unleavened bread to be eaten; first day a holy assembly with fire offering, two young bullocks and one lamb and seven firstling he-lambs without blemish, with appropriate meal offering and one he-goat for sin-offering; on the seventh day another holy assembly.
Many discrepancies have been observed among critics in the different portions of this series of enactments. Thus in the Elohist and in Deuteronomy the date of the festival is only vaguely stated to be in the month of Abib, while in the Holiness Code and in the Priestly History the exact date is given. In the Yahwist and Deuteronomist a solemn assembly is to be held on the seventh day, but in the Holiness Code and in the secondary sources of the Priestly Code both the first and the seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread are to be solemn assemblies. In the Deuteronomist the Passover sacrifice can be from either flock or herd, whereas in the Holiness Code only lamb is mentioned, and in the Priestly Code either kid or lamb. In the Deuteronomist the lamb is to be sodden or boiled, whereas in the Priestly Code this is expressly forbidden. A still more vital contrast occurs concerning the place of sacrificing the Passover; as enjoined in Deuteronomy this is to be by the males of the family at Jerusalem, whereas both in the presumably earlier Yahwist and in the later Priestly Code the whole household joins in the festival which can be celebrated wherever the Israelites are settled. These discrepancies however are chiefly of interest in their bearing upon the problem of the Pentateuch, and really throw little light upon the origin of the two feasts connected together under the name of the Passover, to which the present remarks must be mainly confined. It may be observed however that the absence of a definite date in Deuteronomy must be accidental, since a common pilgrimage feast must be on a fixed day, and the reference to the seven weeks elapsing between Passover and Pentecost also implies the fixing of the date. So too even in the Elohist the time is appointed.
Reverting to the origin and the meaning of the feast, modern criticism draws attention to the different nature of the two observances combined with the name Passover, the pastoral sacrifice of the paschal lamb and the agricultural observance of a seven days’ abstention from unleavened bread. It is assumed that the former arose during the pastoral period of Israelite history before or during the stay in Egypt, while the latter was adopted from the Canaanites after the settlement in Palestine. Against this may be urged that, according to the latest inquiries into the pastoral life, there is always connected with it some form of agriculture and a use of cereals, while, historically speaking, the Israelites while in Egypt were dependent on its corn. There is, further, the objection that no distinctive crisis in the agricultural era can be associated with the date of the Passover. The
