St. Paul, however, who divined most accurately the true genius of Christianity as a religion with universal aims, evidently disapproved of the con- tinuance of Judaism as a system crippling the spiritual energies of the Church, the new liberty in Clirist. He explicitly deprecated the observance of Jewish feasts (Gal 4'-") on the part of purely Gentile converts. Col 2" is equally decided. Though he was, as he himself proudly claimed, ' a Hebrew of Hebrews,' it is more than questionable if he kept the Passover after his conversion and after he had grasped the meaning of Christianity for the Gentile world. And when he makes an allusion to the feast in writing to the Corintliians (1 Co 5°"*), it shows only that the feast juer se has no longer any interest for him. It may, indeed, show incidentally that it was somewhere about the time of its celebration that he was writing his Epistle; but his allusions are purely symbolic. He gives to the Paschal lamb and to the unleavened bread a meaning of which his forefathers never dreamed. To St. Paul more than to any other is it due that Christianity broke away from the swaddling-clothes of Judaism and became a faith with a far more glorious redemption than the Exodus to commemorate.
As L. Duchesne remarks, ' There was no reason why Christians should observe the feasts and fasts
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PASSOVER
of the Jewish calendar. They were alluwcil to drop out of use. Nevertheless, each j'ear one of these holy days, the Fasehal Feast or the Keast of the Azyiues, recalled the memory of the I'assion of the Saviour. The meuiories which Israel had connected, and still connected, with this anniver- sary mi^rlit no lonf,'er be of interest ; but it was impo,--.>ible to forget that Our Lord had died . . . on one of those days. The IVscli was tliercfore retained, though the ritual iletails of the Jewish observance were omitted' (Enrly Histunj of tke Ckristian Church, Eng. tr. of 4th ed., i. [London, 1909]i2O7f.).
4. 'Christ our Passover.' — We liave already referred in jjassinj; to 1 Co .'>''■'', but both liere and in lo'-"-^ there are allusion.s to l\assover ('the lirstfruits,' dTrapx'j) which call for a rather more extended notice. For they show us better than anything else how the tran-sition from the Jewish to the Christian Pasch was made, how the new interest and couimemoration swallowed up and superseded the old. Once again Passover was in all probability being celebrated in the Jewish community. JSut St. Paul, perhaps for the very first time, was quick to see an illustration of Christ and His redeeming work in the sacrifice of the lamb, and in the complete removal of leaven which preceded the feast (E.\ 12'*) an illustration of the moral purification which Christianity calls for. He sees, again, in the lirst-fruits olfered at the Passover an illustration of what Christ is in His resurrection to the harvest field of the dead.
{(() Til Trdax"- Vf-^" '• 'our Pasclial lamb,' i.e. of Christians as distinct from Jews. It is altogether unnecessary to see in the lamb of the original institution an actual prototype of our Lord. To see in the Paschal lamb ' the preliguration of Jesus Christ whose death is the sacrifice which averts the wrath of God from His community ' (C. von Orelli, art. 'Passover' in Schatl-Herzog, viii. 370) is to go beyond what is warranted. Tlie refer- ence is too casual for so much to be built upon it. The Apostle never again speaks of Clirist as a lamb. The lamb of the Passover, moreover, was partaken of in a festal meal, and St. Paul was probably thinking specially of this. For he immediately follows with ' Therefore let us keep festival ' (fop-rds'w^ei') ; not with a reference to any feast in particular, but to the new life of joj-ousness Christians are to live, in w'liich ' sincerity and truth ' are essential (so Chrysostom, Horn, in 1 Cor. XV. 3. 8). Again we have Christ compared to a 'lamb without blemish and without spot '(1 P 1"), absolute purity, however, being a general requirement in any sacrilice oft'ei'ed to God (Dt 17'). Allegory soon became busy with these representations of the Lord. He was ' the Lamb of God ' (Jn P") rather in antithesis to the whole sacrificial system of the Jews. The majestic apocalyptic figure of the Lamb which is all-prominent in Rev. is the outgrowth of tliis conception, and is mainly re- sponsible for the Agnu.s Dei of Christian art.
(6) aTTapxh, LXX for Heb. re'shith (Lv 23"'), ' firstfruits.' It is almost impossible that St. Paul sliould use this particular term without having in mind a reference to the offering of first- fruits at Passover, especially when we take it in connexion with 5". It. F. Weymoutli (The NT in Modern Speech', London, 1909, p. 469) translates (no doubt advisedly) 1 Co 15-", ' being the first to do so of those who are asleep' ; and again v.^, 'Christ having been the first to rise': but this entirely obscures the beautiful figure of the harvest field. As used by St. Paul, the gathering of first- fruits and the presenting of them to God is a pledge that the whole harvest shall be reaped.
S. PassoYer and the Eucharist. — Is there any connexion between the Passover of the Jews and