Such a curious feature as the opening of the door is of uncertain date, but, though most likely later than the 1st cent. A.D., is yet of considerable age. The expansions are mostly seen in the Haggiidic matter — the long narrative sections which are so conspicuous a feature of the observance. The com- positions, * How many are the benelits which God lias conferred upon us?' 'And it came to pass at midnight,' ' Ye shall say, " It is the sacrifice of Passover,"' 'To Him praise has ever been and ever will be due,' and others, must be dated long after apostolic times. On the other hand, the Hallel and other portions of the Psalms are most probably amongst the oldest features.
One feature of the celebration on the second night of the Passover carries us back uninter- ruptedly to the primitive times when the Jews were settled in Canaan and were an agricultural people. It is the counting of the omer, and it most particularly reminds us that here we have originally a celebration of the recurring seasons of the year and the yearly ingathering of the earth's fruits. The tirst-fruils of barley harvest were ottered on the second day of Passover, and from then seven weeks were counted by primitive methods of calculation ; this brought them to Pentecost and the beginning of wheat harvest. ' Though one ephali, or ten omers, of barley was cut down, only one omer of flour, or about 5'1 pints of our measure, was ofl'ered in the Temple on the second Paschal' (Edersheim, op. cit. p. 259). Ages have passed, the Jews are scattered through- out the world, there is no longer flour to be offered, there is no omer ; still at the evening service in the synagogue and on the second night of the festival in the home, as regularly as the Passover comes round, the words are said: 'Blessed art Thou, 0 Lord our God, King of the univer.se, who hast sanctified us with Thy precepts and commanded us concerning the counting of the Omer. This is the first day of the Omer. May it be Thy will, 0 Lord our God and the God of our fathers, to rebuild thy Teiiijile speedily, in our days, and to make Thy law our portion.' And at evening service in the syn.agogue daily the counting goes on until the night before Pentecost (see art. Pentecost).
Whenever the custom may have originated, it is curious to think that still in every Jewish home, just after the third cup, or cup of ble.ssing, has been drunk, the door is opened to admit the prophet Elijah, for whom a spare cup of wine is alwM}-s set, as the forerunner of the Messiah. ' May the All-merciful send us Elijah the prophet . . . who shall give us good tidings, salvation, and consolation.' We think of the question : ' Why then say the scribes that Elijah must first come? (Mt 17'°), and of the answer: 'Elijah is come already.' That which ditlerentiates between Jew and Christian is mainly the recognition of Jesus as
the Christ. How can we fail to feel the pathos in the impassioned prayers with which the Paschal service closes ? ' O mighty God, rebuild Thy house speedily, speedily even in our days, rebuilcf it. O God, rebuild Thy Temple speedily!' and in the aspiration repeated more than once, but especially before the fourth cup : ' Next year in Jerusalem ! ' We woniler how far these words really express the yearning of the .Jewish heart. Words and formula; often live on and survive the original desire, very intense and sincere, which prompted them.
The question arises, as in the matter of keeping Sabbath on the seventh day, whether the early Christians continued to observe these festivals just the same as the Jews. They did not at once break away from the practices in which they had been broug"ht up (see, e.g., Ac 3'). ' The Christian Churches in Judn;a existed as Jewish sects' (C. von Weizsacker, The Apostolic Age, i.^ [London, 1897] 175), and it is with Jewish Christians that we are first of all concerned. In all probabilitj' they went on for years observing the festivals with their old Jewish significance as they also complied with other traditional u.sages. J. Bingham, indeed, on very slender grounds holds that the ' first Cliristians of Jerusalem . . . did not keep Easter with the Jews on what day of the week soever it fell, but on the Sunday following in honour of our Saviour's resurrection (Ant. XX. v. 4 [in Works, Oxford, 1855, vol. vii.]). Apart even from the loose wording here, when we come to look into matters we see that he has little, if any, authority for the belief. The ' first day of the week,' the Lord's Day, was the regular, weekly commemoration of our Lord's resurrection. It is more than doubtful if there was an annual com- memoration (' Easter ') in apostolic times.
But the old runs into the new. Even though still marking events by ' the days of unleavened bread ' (Ac 12^), they might well invest the season with a new significance as time went on, and associate it with a new commemoration. ' When the apostles came to write of the bondage of sin and the new liberty and life in Christ, their teach- ing would be all the more easily understood and more lovingly accepted, because to many of their readers it recalled the Passover table of the family and the sound of silent voices' (G. M. Mackie, ' The Jewish Passover in the Christian Church,' ExpT xiii. [1901-02] 392).