PASSOVER, a solemn festival of the Jews, instituted in commemoration of their exod from Egypt, because, the night before their departure, the destroying angel, who put to death all the first-born of the Egyptians, passed over the houses of the Hebrews without entering therein, as they were marked with the blood of the lamb which had been killed the evening before, and which, for this reason, was called the paschal lamb. This feast was called pascha by the Greeks and Romans, not, we presume, from πασχω, I suffer, as Chrysostom, Irenaeus, and Tertullian suppose, but from the Hebrew word pesah, signifying passage. What God ordained concerning the passover of the Jews is contained in Exodus (c.xii.). The month of the departure from Egypt was looked upon, from this time, as the first month of the sacred or ecclesiastical year; and on the fourteenth day of this month, between the two vespers, that is, between the sun’s decline and his setting, or rather, according to our manner of reckoning, between two o’clock in the afternoon and six o’clock in the evening, at the equinox, they were required to kill the paschal lamb, and to abstain from leavened bread. The day following, being the fifteenth, reckoning from six o’clock of the foregoing evening, which concluded the fourteenth day, was the grand feast of the passover, which continued seven days. But it was only the first and the seventh day that were solemn. The lamb killed was to be without any defect, a male, and yeaned that year. If no lamb could be found, they might take a kid. They killed a lamb or a kid in every family; and if the number of those who lived in the house was not sufficient to eat a lamb, two houses might join together. With the blood of the paschal lamb they sprinkled the doorposts and lintels of every house, that the destroying angel, at the sight of the blood, might pass over them, and thus spare the Hebrew children. They were required to eat the lamb the same night that followed the sacrifice. They ate it roasted, with unleavened bread, and a salad of wild lettuce; the Hebrew says literally, with bitter things, as mustard, or any thing of this nature, to give it a relish. It was forbidden to eat any part of it raw, or boiled in water, nor were they to break a bone of the victim;^[1. Exodus, vii. 46; Numbers, ix. 12; John, xix. 36. ] and if any thing remained until the day following, it was thrown into the fire. They who ate of it were to be in the posture of travellers, having their loins girt, their shoes on their feet, their staves in their hands, and eating in a hurry. But this last part of the ceremony was little observed, at least it was of no obligation, excepting only on that night when they went forth out of Egypt. During the whole eight days of the passover no leavened bread was to be used; and whoever should eat any, was threatened with being cut off from his people.

The Jews observed the firstand last day of the feast, yet so as that it was allowed to dress victuals, which was forbidden on the Sabbath-day. The obligation of keeping the passover was so strict, that whoever neglected to do it was condemned to death.^[2. Numbers, ix. 13. ] But those who had any lawful impediment, as a journey, sickness, or any uncleanness, voluntary or involuntary, as, for example, those who had been present at a funeral, or by any other accident had been defiled, were to defer the celebration of the passover till the second month of the ecclesiasticaLyear, or till the fourteenth day of the month Jair, which answers to April and May. It was thus that the Lord ordered Moses, upon the occasion of an inquiry by some Israelites, who had been obliged to pay the last offices to some of their relations, and who being thus polluted, were not capable of partaking of the paschal sacrifice.^[3. Chronicles, χχχ, 1, 2, Ac. ] The modern Jews observe in general the same ceremonies which were practised by their ancestors in the celebration of the passover. Upon the fourteenth of Nisan, the first-born fast in memory of God’s smiting the first-born of the Egyptians; but the morning prayers are the same with those which are said on other festivals. They take the roll of the Pentateuch out of the chest, and read as far as the end of the twelfth chapter of Exodus, and also what is contained in the eighteenth chapter of Numbers, relating to the passover. The matron of the family then spreads a table, and sets on it two unleavened cakes, and two pieces of the lamb, a shoulder boiled and another roasted, to put them in mind that God had de-’ livered them with a stretched-out arm. To this they add some small fishes, because of the leviathan; a hard egg, because of the ziz; some meal, because of the behemoth, these three animals being appointed for the feast of the elect in the other life; and pease and nuts for the children, to provoke their curiosity to inquire into the reason of the ceremony. They likewise use a kind of mustard, which has the appearance of mortar, to represent their making bricks in Egypt. The father of the family sits down [7:17:112]along with his children and slaves, because upon this day all are free. Being seated, he takes bitter herbs, and dips them in the mustard, then eats, and distributes to the rest. All then partake of the lamb, the history and institution of which is at the same time recited by the master of the family. The whole repast is attended with hymns and prayers. They pray for the prince under whose dominion they live, according to the advice of Jeremiah (xxix. 7), “Seck the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.” The same things are put in practice during the two following days; and the festival is concluded by the ceremony called habdala, or distinction. This ceremony is performed at the close of the Sabbath-day, at which time the master of the house usually pronounces certain benedictions, accompanied with certain formalities, requesting that everything may succeed well the week following. After going out of the synagogue, they eat leavened bread for the last time.^[4. See Leo of Modena, iii. c. 3, and the Rabbin. ] Whilst the temple remained, they brought thither their lambs, and there sacrificed them, offering the blood to the priest, who poured it out at the foot of the altar. The passover was typically predictive of Christ, who is the Christian passover.^[5. Corinthians, v. 7. ] As the destroying angel passed over the houses marked with the blood of the paschal lamb, so the wrath of God passes over those whose souls have been sprinkled with the blood of Christ. The paschal lamb was killed before Israel was delivered; so it was necessary that Christ should suffer before we could be redeemed. It was killed before Moses’s law or Aaron’s sacrifices were enjoined, to show that deliverance comes to mankind by none of them, but only by the true passover, that Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world.^[6. Romans, iii. 25; Hebrews, ix. 14. ] It was killed the first month of the year, which prefigured that Christ should suffer death in this month.^[7. John, xviii. 28. ] It was killed in the evening;^[8. Exodus, xii. 6. ] and so Christ suffered in the last days, and at this period of the day.^[9. Matthew, xxvii. 46; Hebrews, i. 2. ] At evening also the sun sets, which shows that it was the Son of righteousness who was to suffer and die, and that at his passion universal darkness should overshadow the earth.^[10. Luke, xxiii. 44. ] The passover was roasted with fire, to denote the sharp and dreadful pains which Christ should suffer, not only from men, but also from God. It was to be eaten with bitter herbs, not only to putthem in remembrance of their bitter bondage in Egypt, but also to typify our mortification to sin, and readiness to undergo afflictions for Christ.^[11. Colossians, i. 24. ] Many persons erroneously imagine that the passover was instituted in memory of the Israelites having passed the Red Sea; although it is certain the feast was held, and received its name, before the Israelites left Egypt, and consequently several days before they passed the Red Sea. Besides the passover celebrated on the fourteenth of the first month, there was a second passover, held on the fourteenth of the second month after the equinox, instituted by God in favour of travellers and sick persons, who could not attend at the first, nor be present at Jerusalem on the day. The Greeks, and even some of the Catholic doctors, take occasion, from the thirteenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth chapters of St John, to conclude, that Jesus anticipated the day marked for the passover in the law; but the authority of three evangelists seems to establish the contrary.