• "Im in Lt 2S'0 retere to the ' liberty ' of Sabbatical year, in Jer 34*- '*■ " to the liberty of slaves in 7th year of service, in Ezk 46" prob. to Jubilee. In Is 61" its use is fl({urative.
♦ The distinctive feature of these D'jn is that they are not merely religious festivals like those of the 'sacred seasons' (D'^Hto), but imply, like the Arab. /ia;(«ame word), apUgrimage «o a tancttutry (tee Driver, DexU. 188 B.).
Mk 14'- ", Lk 22' they are practically identified. ' The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread form a double festival, just as the Day of Atonemen* and the Feast of Tabernacles do. It is undoubtedly as a direct preparation for the F. of Unleavened Bread that the Passover is celebrated on the evening before the latter feast begins ' (Schultz, OT Thcol. vol. i. p. 364) [Lv 23'" (P) '"■'♦ (H), Nu 9=-'* (P) 28'«-s» (P) 33» (P), Dt lG'-«- '»]. The parallelism between the feast of the first montli and the feast of the seventh month should be noticed. The tenth day of the first montli, for choosing the Lamb, is parallel to the tenth day of the seventli month, the Day of Atonement. "The Passover on tlie fourteenth day of the first month and the seven days' F. of MazzGth are parallel to the eight days of the F. of Tabernacles. The Passover, which was a sacrificial feast (Ex 12"), was observed on the fourteenth day of the first month, Abib (the month of ears, because in it tlie ears of wheat first appear), later Nisan (Est 3', Neh 2'). The Feast of Unleavened Bread was the opening as Pentecost was tlie closing festivitj' of the seven weeks' 'joy of harvest' (Dt 16', Lv '23" (H)). Passover and MazzGth must be distinguished. Wellhausen (Prolegomena, 87 ff.) has shown how the Passover np5 points back to the sacrifice of the firstlings (Ex 34"»- (JE) IS'-"- (JE), Dt IS""- 16'"-). It is because J" smote the firstborn of Egypt and spared those of Israel that the latter tliencefurward are lield sacred to Him. Because Pharaoh refuses to allow the Hebrews to offer to their God the firstlings of cattle that are His due, J" seizes from him the firstborn of men. On the origin of the Paschal ritual and its connexion with Arabian and other customs, see W. R. Smith, RS, 227, 280, 344, 345, 406, 431, 464, 465 ; Schultz, OT Theol. i. p. 364 : Cobb, Origines Judaicce, 138. ' In the three great festivals we can plainly discern relics of the cus- toms which preceded their legal institution. In the first (the Passover) we can distinguish the earlier belief, out of which the offering of the firstlings of the flock sprang, from the enactments which are proper to the institution of the Pass- over.' Cf. also for the feasts generally W. R. Smith, The Prophets of Israel, new ed. pp. 56, 384 tf., where he clearly, after Wellhausen,* proves that the chief occasions of worship in Israel (MazzCith, Pentecost, and Tabernacles) were the agricultural feasts, just as among the Canaanites and otbT ancient nations. The real starting-point for a study of Jewish sacred feasts is Gn i'^- (J), ' Abel was a shepherd, and Cain was a linsbandman. And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of thefntit of the ground an offering unto the Lord ; and Abel also brought an ofl'ering of the firstlings of his sheej).' ' It is,' says Wellhausen (Prolcg. p. 89), 'out of the simplest, most natural, and most widespread ofl'erings, those of the first- fruits of the flock, herd, and field, the occasions for which recur regularly with the seasons of the year, that the annual festivals took their rise. The Passover corresponds with the firstlings of Abel the shepherd, the other three (MazzCth, Pentecost, and Tabernacles) with the fruits pre- sented by Cain the husbandman ; apart from this difference, in e.ssence and foundation they are all precisely alike.' Thus the Pas.sover in its origin must be distinguished from the three agricultural feasts. It was a sacrificial feast, and had nothing to do with agriculture or harvest. The name 'sacrifice' (nji) is distinctly applied to it (Ex 12'^ (JE) 34«> (JE), cf. 1 Co 5'). In Nu 9'-'» (P) it is a Korban or offering (|5"|B). Like the peace-ofl'erings, the chief part of it was eaten by the worshippers j
• ' Not only in the Jahwistic but also in the Deuteronomifl le^rislation the festivals rest upon agriculture, the bajjis at onc« of life and of religion ' (ProUg. p. 91).
FEASTS A:^D fasts
FEASTS AND FASTS
861
like the Ein-ofTermes, there was an element of atonement in it (2 Ch 30" 35" refer to the spriuk- ling of the blood of the Passover) ; like the bumt- oB'erinj^, it was whole — no bone of it was broken ; it was roast with fire — anything left was burnt with fire. In the two accounts of the Passover in Ex 12, several points of importance are omitted in the first, e.g. tue character of the lamb, and the manner in which it was to be eaten ; fresh points are added in the second, e.g. the hyssop, the Dasin, and that none were to leave their houses till the morning.
On each of the seven days of the F. of Mazzuth, which followed the Pas.sover, 2 young bullocks and 1 ram and 7 lambs of the first 3'ear were ottered as bumt-ofl'erings, with their meal and drink-oflierings, together with a goat for a sin- offerinc and the continual, i.e. daily bumt-ofTering (Nu 2S'»-» (P)). On the second day of MazzOth— Abib (Nisan) 16th — a sheaf of the new com was ofTered as a wave-offering, together with a lamb of the first year for a bumt-ottering (Lv 23'»-" (H)). The first and last days of the fea.st — the 15th and 21st days of the month — were days of ' holj- con- vocation,' in which no servile work might be done (Lv 23' (P)).