6. Whether in pre-Mosaic times there was a sacrificial cultus practised at fixed, frequently re- curring periods, cannot be determined. An observ- ance of the Sabbath is extremely improbable, although its sacred character is carried back in
Gn 2 (P) to the very beginning of the world.
More conceivable—and here again combined with the fear of demonic influences—is it that there should have been a celebration of the New Moon, seeing that there are the clearest traces of this (see below, p. 662%) till far down in the monarchical period, without any recognizable connexion with Jahwism. As to the later annual festivals, it is self-evident that those which depend upon agri- culture and vine-growing cannot be taken into account for the nomad period of Israel’s history ; they are one and all of Canaanite origin. On the other hand, the ancient tradition clearly assumes that the Passover festival (of course with its original significance, and quite independent of the Feast of Unleavened Bread) was already kept in pre-Mosaic times. When Moses and Aaron (Ex 53) make the demand of Pharaoh, ‘Let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, to offer sacrifice to Jahweh, our God,’ and repeat this demand before each plague (71° 8! etc.), it is assumed that they wish to celebrate in the wilderness a long - established sacrificial festival. For Moses (826) assigns as motive for going outside the land of Egypt that they are accustomed to offer sacri- fices that are an abomination to the Egyptians, and in 10° he says expressly, ‘We have to keep the feast of Jahweh.’ Again in 1274 (J) the direc- tion runs, ‘ Kill the Passover.’ Here, too, accord- ingly, it is assumed (as even in 12" [P] ‘It is a Passover for Jahweh’) as something that has been long familiar,—in opposition to the directions of v.22 which make the ritual to have first taken its
* Cf, the very instructive remarks of Schwally in the above- cited ‘Der heilige Krieg im alten Israel,’ esp. p. 45 ff., on the hallowing of war (Jos 35, Mic 3°, Jer 64 et al.) also by anointing the shield (2 8 12!) and consecrating the weapons (Jer 227), as well as by burnt-offerings which in the earliest times repre- sented also the most solemn form of guilt-offering (18 79139. 12), Again, the allowing of the hair to grow long (if Jg 52 is to be rendered ‘with long streaming locks,’ etc. [see Moore, ad loc.], and if this implies a general warlike custom) marked the warrior as nazir or ‘consecrated.’ Schwally appears to the present writer to go too far when (p. 74 ff.) he discovers the peril to the newly married man in the circumstance that by taking part in war he was guilty of turning aside to another cultus. The explanation rather commends itself that by such conduct he would expose himself to the curses of his wife, or that the con- secration of a new house appeared indispensable for the expul- sion of hostile demons.
622 RELIGION OF ISRAEL
RELIGION OF ISRAEL
rise upon the occasion of the Exodus, and to the derivation of the name pesah (nds) from pdsah ‘to pass over.’ This explanation of the word from the sparing action of Jahweh in passing by the houses of the Israelites when He smote the firstborn of the Egyptians (so Ex 127’), cannot be reconciled with the circumstance that in the oldest usage of language pesah appears to stand for the so-called Paschal lamb or (Dt 16?) other animals used for the sacrifice (cf. the expressions ‘kill or burn or eat the Passover’). This fact shatters also the derivation of the name from pdsah, ‘to limp’ * (cf. the limping of the prophets of Baal around the altar, 1 K 18°, and the limping—undoubtedly a custom derived from very early times—of the Mecca pilgrims around the sacred stone of the Kaaba), although in itself it is favoured by the analogy of hagag, prop. ‘to dance or circle round,’ then ‘to celebrate a festival.’ Even if the attempt to fix the etymology of the word must be given up, there are still sufficient starting-points to enable us to get at the original character of the Passover. + Ex 34!® shows that in the month Abib, in which the Exodus fell, the firstlings of cattle, or, more strictly, the first male offspring of sheep and cows, were offered. According to 5° these sacrifices are to be offered in the wilderness, lest Jahweh visit the people with pestilence or the sword. That is to say, they are guilt- or pro- pitiatory-offerings. But quite the same is the character of the Paschal meal, however later theo- logical motives may have transformed its original meaning, or the Priests’ Code have entirely given up its sacrificial character.t The eating of the Paschal lamb (whether originally one of the first- lings used for this purpose, while the rest were sacrificed as burnt- or whole-offerings, or no) is, beyond question, a sacrificial meal celebrated by the family as the sacral body; for the flesh is holy, and none of it is to be left till the morning, while the blood is to be smeared on the lintel and the doorposts to guard those within from pesti- lence. From the later point of view this part of the ritual amounts to nothing more than a memorial of a former deliverance from a par- ticular danger. But originally, as is shown by numerous primitive heathen analogies, it was sought by an annual smearing with blood to rotect house and herd from demonic influences, in particular from the plague or other diseases. The Mazzéth festival, which immediately fol- lowed the Passover, might be brought into close connexion with the latter, only if, with Beer (Theol, Ltztg. 1901, col. 588), following Holzinger, we could see in the mazzéth simply a memorial of the nomad period, during which Israel in Bedawin fashion ate unleavened bread. When the nomad life was given up (Gn 4%), the mazgéth, on Beer’s theory, became ‘ bread of affliction’ (Dt 16°). The view that the mazzgéth represented the bread