Institution of Passover

The night God commanded Israel to mark their doorposts with lamb’s blood so that the plague of death would pass over them while striking Egypt’s firstborn. This founding event became Judaism’s most important festival, a perpetual memorial of redemption, and in Christianity, the backdrop for understanding Christ’s sacrifice as the ultimate Passover Lamb.

The Biblical Account

God’s Instructions

A New Beginning (Exodus 12:1-2):

• “This month shall be for you the beginning of months”
• First month of religious calendar (Nisan/Abib)
• New year beginning with redemption
• Time itself reordered by God’s deliverance

The Lamb (Exodus 12:3-6):

• Tenth day of month: Each household select a lamb
• Year-old male without blemish
• One lamb per household (or share with neighbor if too small)
• Keep until fourteenth day
• Slaughter at twilight (“between the evenings”)
• Communal timing—all Israel together

The Blood (Exodus 12:7, 13, 22-23):

• Take blood, put on doorposts and lintel
• Use hyssop branch to apply
• “When I see the blood, I will pass over you”
• Blood as sign of protection
• Death angel passes over marked houses
• No plague to destroy
• Physical sign of faith and obedience

The Meal

How to Eat the Lamb (Exodus 12:8-11):

• Roast with fire, not boil
• Eat with unleavened bread and bitter herbs
• Dressed for travel: belt fastened, sandals on, staff in hand
• Eat in haste
• “It is the LORD’s Passover”
• Readiness to leave Egypt

Unleavened Bread (Exodus 12:15-20):

• Seven days eating bread without yeast
• Remove all leaven from houses
• First and seventh days: sacred assembly, no work
• Whoever eats leavened bread: cut off from Israel
• Perpetual ordinance
• Bread of affliction, bread of haste

Bitter Herbs:

• Reminder of bitter slavery
• No sweetness in bondage
• Taste of suffering
• Memory preserved in food

The Night of Passover

The Tenth Plague (Exodus 12:29-30):

• Midnight: LORD struck every firstborn in Egypt
• Pharaoh’s firstborn to prisoner’s firstborn
• All firstborn of livestock
• Great cry in Egypt
• No house without dead
• But Israelite houses passed over

Immediate Exodus (Exodus 12:31-36):

• Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron at night
• “Up! Go! Leave my people!”
• Egyptians urged them to hurry
• Israelites took dough before leavened
• Asked Egyptians for silver, gold, clothing
• LORD gave them favor
• Plundered Egypt

The Ordinance Established

Perpetual Memorial (Exodus 12:14, 17, 24-27):

• “This day shall be for you a memorial”
• Keep as feast to the LORD throughout generations
• Forever statute
• When children ask, “What does this rite mean?”
• Tell them: “It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover”
• “He passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt”
• Remembrance through reenactment

Regulations (Exodus 12:43-49):

• No foreigner eats it
• Circumcised slaves and sojourners may eat
• Eaten in one house, no bone broken
• Whole community of Israel keeps it
• One law for native and sojourner
• Unity in observance

Theological Significance in Judaism

The Defining Festival

Chag HaMatzot (Feast of Unleavened Bread):

• Eight days (seven in Israel, eight in diaspora)
• First night: Seder meal
• Retelling the Exodus story
• Haggadah (“telling”) guides the evening
• Four cups of wine
• Matzah, bitter herbs, charoset, shank bone

The Seder Ritual:

• “In every generation, each person should see themselves as if they personally went out from Egypt”
• Not just remembering—reliving
• Children ask “Four Questions”
• Telling answers: “We were slaves…the LORD brought us out”
• Songs: Dayenu, Chad Gadya
• Living liturgy, 3,000+ years old

Removal of Chametz (Leaven):

• Before Passover, search house for all leavened products
• Symbolic cleansing
• Leaven represents sin, pride, corruption
• Fresh start, purification
• Readiness for redemption

Redemption by Blood

The Lamb’s Blood:

• Protection from judgment
• Substitutionary death (lamb dies, firstborn lives)
• Blood creates boundary between death and life
• Faith demonstrated by obedience
• God provides the means of salvation

Paschal Lamb:

• Unblemished—perfection required
• Chosen ahead, examined for four days
• No bone broken
• Shared communally
• Points forward to greater sacrifice (in Christian interpretation)

Identity and Memory

Am Yisrael (People of Israel):

• Passover defines Jewish identity more than any event
• “We were slaves in Egypt”
• Corporate memory
• Every Jewish child learns the story
• Shapes worldview: God liberates the oppressed

Zikaron (Remembrance):

• Not mere mental recall
• Active participation
• Making past present
• Living tradition
• Continuity across generations

Christian Perspective

Christ Our Passover

Typology Fulfilled:

• 1 Corinthians 5:7: “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed”
• Unblemished Lamb: Jesus sinless
• Blood on doorposts: Christ’s blood covers believers
• Death passes over: Eternal death defeated
• Exodus from Egypt: Exodus from sin
• Same pattern, ultimate reality

Timing of Crucifixion:

• Jesus crucified during Passover week
• Last Supper on Passover (Synoptic Gospels) or eve of Passover (John)
• Died as Passover lambs being slaughtered
• “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)
• No accident—divine orchestration

No Bone Broken:

• John 19:33-36: Soldiers didn’t break Jesus’s legs
• “Not one of his bones will be broken”
• Fulfillment of Passover lamb regulations (Exodus 12:46)
• Psalm 34:20 also fulfilled
• Perfect Passover Lamb

The Last Supper

Institution of Eucharist:

• Jesus took Passover bread (matzah): “This is my body”
• Took cup: “This is my blood of the covenant”
• New Passover meal for new covenant
• From lamb to Christ
• From Egypt to sin’s bondage
• From physical to spiritual deliverance

“Do This in Remembrance”:

• Just as Passover remembers Exodus
• Communion remembers Christ’s death
• “As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death” (1 Corinthians 11:26)
• Christian Seder reenacting redemption

Greater Exodus:

• Old Passover delivered from Egypt
• Christ delivers from sin and death
• Old Passover: temporal freedom
• Christ’s Passover: eternal freedom
• Old lamb: animal sacrifice
• Christ: God’s own Son

Islamic Perspective

The Quranic Account

Musa and Fir’awn:

• Quran mentions plagues against Egypt
• Israelites delivered from bondage
• Less detail on Passover specifically
• More focus on confrontation and exodus
• Same core narrative of divine deliverance

Sacrifice Tradition:

• Eid al-Adha commemorates Ibrahim’s (Abraham’s) willingness to sacrifice
• Lamb sacrificed, blood shed
• Submission to Allah
• Similar themes: obedience, substitution, blood, redemption
• Different event, related symbolism

No Passover Observance:

• Islam honors the exodus but doesn’t observe Passover
• Recognizes Musa’s significance
• Quran affirms deliverance from Egypt
• Different liturgical calendar

Historical and Critical Questions

Historicity**:

• No Egyptian records of Passover or tenth plague
• Egyptians didn’t record defeats or disasters
• Core tradition very ancient in Israel
• Central to identity from earliest times
• Whether historical or not, defines Jewish consciousness

Origins**:

• Possible pre-Israelite spring festival adapted
• Nomadic pastoralist traditions (lamb sacrifice, unleavened bread)
• Infused with Exodus meaning
• Historical event + ritual observance combined
• Or instituted entirely as described

The Numbers**:

• All firstborn in Egypt dying would be massive death toll
• Miracle or hyperbole?
• Symbolic truth vs. literal history
• Faith tradition doesn’t require proving every detail
• Core message: God delivered His people

The Symbolism

Blood Protection**:

• Blood marks boundary between death and life
• Faith demonstrated by obedience (applying blood)
• God provides means of salvation (lamb)
• Substitution: lamb dies, family lives
• Covers and protects

Unleavened Bread**:

• Bread of haste: no time to let rise
• Bread of affliction: reminds of slavery
• Purity: no leaven (corruption/sin)
• Simple, humble
• Reliance on God not preparation

Bitter Herbs**:

• Taste of slavery
• Suffering remembered
• Bondage not forgotten
• Sweet freedom born from bitter oppression

The Whole Lamb**:

• Nothing wasted
• Roasted with fire (God’s judgment)
• All eaten or burned
• Communal meal
• Shared redemption

Modern Observance

Jewish Passover Today**:

• Most widely observed Jewish holiday
• Even secular Jews often attend Seder
• Retelling keeps tradition alive
• Haggadah evolved over centuries
• Core elements unchanged: matzah, bitter herbs, lamb shank (symbolic), four cups
• Afikomen hidden, children search
• Songs, ritual, family, memory

Christian Observance**:

• Holy Week culminates in Easter
• Maundy Thursday: Last Supper remembered
• Good Friday: Crucifixion of Lamb of God
• Communion/Eucharist as ongoing Passover
• Some Christians host Passover Seders to understand roots
• Lectionary readings connect Old and New Testament Passovers

Messianic Jewish Seders**:

• Blend Jewish tradition with Christian faith
• See Jesus in Passover symbols
• Three matzot: Trinity
• Broken middle matzah: Christ’s body
• Hidden and found afikomen: death and resurrection
• Cup of redemption: Christ’s blood

Significance

On the tenth day of the month, each household in Egypt chose a lamb. For four days they watched it, examined it, made sure it was without blemish. On the fourteenth day, at twilight, they killed it. They caught its blood in a basin, dipped a hyssop branch, and painted their doorposts and lintel red. Then they roasted the lamb, made bread without yeast, gathered bitter herbs, and ate the meal dressed and ready to travel.

That night, the angel of death swept through Egypt. Every house, from Pharaoh’s palace to the prisoner’s dungeon, lost its firstborn. The wail that rose from Egypt was like nothing ever heard—a nation’s grief, a judgment executed, an empire brought to its knees. But where the angel saw blood on the doorposts, he passed over. The Israelite firstborn slept safely while Egypt mourned. Blood was the boundary between death and life.

This was the first Passover. This was the night God delivered on His promise, broke Pharaoh’s will, and freed His people. And He commanded: Never forget this night. Tell your children. Eat this meal every year. Taste the bitter herbs and remember slavery. Eat unleavened bread and remember haste. Retell the story and remember deliverance. “In every generation, see yourself as if you personally came out of Egypt.”

For over three thousand years, Jewish families have gathered for the Seder. They ask the Four Questions: Why is this night different? And they answer: Because we were slaves in Egypt, and the LORD brought us out with a mighty hand. The Haggadah is read, the matzah broken, the bitter herbs tasted, the wine drunk, the songs sung. Passover is not history—it’s living memory, present reality, ongoing identity.

For Christians, everything changed when Jesus celebrated Passover with His disciples the night before His crucifixion. He took the bread and said “This is my body.” He took the cup and said “This is my blood of the covenant.” He was about to become the Passover Lamb—unblemished, chosen, sacrificed at the exact time lambs were being slaughtered in the Temple. His blood would mark a new boundary between death and life. Those covered by it would be passed over in the final judgment. The lamb on the Seder plate pointed to the Lamb of God.

“Christ our Passover has been sacrificed,” Paul wrote. The pattern established in Egypt found its fulfillment on Calvary. The blood on doorposts foreshadowed blood on a cross. The lamb without blemish was the sinless Son of God. The exodus from Egypt became the exodus from sin. The meal of remembrance became communion. And the promise “when I see the blood, I will pass over you” became “whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The Passover lamb had to be perfect. It had to be examined. It couldn’t have broken bones. It had to be roasted with fire. Its blood had to be applied for protection. All of it—every detail—points to Christ. God was teaching the lesson for centuries before the lesson’s fullness came. Every Passover Seder from Moses to Jesus was preparing the way to understand what it meant when John the Baptist saw Jesus and declared: “Behold the Lamb of God!”

Today, Jews gather for Seder and Christians gather for communion, and both are celebrating Passover—one looking back to Egypt, one looking back to Calvary, both proclaiming redemption by blood, deliverance from bondage, salvation by God’s provision. The lamb dies. The firstborn lives. Death passes over. Freedom comes. And the people of God remember: We were slaves. We were marked for death. But God provided a lamb, its blood covered us, judgment passed over, and we went free.

The doorposts in Egypt don’t bear blood anymore. But the story endures. The meal continues. The memory lives. And the message echoes through every generation: Where there is blood applied in faith, death passes over. Where there is a lamb sacrificed, there is redemption. Where God acts to deliver, bondage ends and freedom begins.

“When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” That night in Egypt. That day on Calvary. That promise forever. Passover: the night death passed over and life broke through.