3. The lith of Nisan. — On this daA", which, as we have seen, was till the evening called the preparation for the Passovei; and which was also called the first day of Passover or of unleavened bread (Lev. xxiii, 5, G; Numb, ix, 3; xxviii, IG; Josh, v, 10; Ezek. xlv, 21; 2 Chron. xxx, 15; xxxv, 1; Joseph. War, v, 3, 1), for the reason stated under the 13th of Nisan, handicraftsmen, with the exception of tailors, barbers, and laundresses, were obliged to relinquish their work either from morning or from noon, according to the custom of the different places in Palestine (Mishna, Pesachim, iv, 1-8). Leaven was only allowed to be eaten till mid-day, when all leaven collected on the previous evening and discovered on this day had to be burned. The time for desisting from eating and burn- ing the leaven was thus indicated : " Two desecrated cakes of thanksgiving-off'ering were placed on a bench in the Temple: as long as they were thus exposed all the people ate leaven ; when one of them was removed they abstained from eating, but did not burn it; and when the other was removed all the people began burn- ing the leaven" (ib. i, 5). It was on this day that every Israelite who was not infirm, ceremonially im- pure, uncircumcised, or who was on this day fifteen miles without the walls of Jerusalem (Mishna, Pesach- im, ix, 2 ; IMaimonides, Hilchoth Korban Pesach. v, 89), appeared before the Lord in Jerusalem with an offering in proportion to his means (Exod. xxiii, 15; Deut. xvl; 16, 17). Though women were not legally obliged to appear in the sanctuary, yet they were not excluded from it (1 Sam. i, 7; Luke ii. 41, 42). The Israelites who came from tlie country to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover were gratuitously accommodated by the inhabitants with the necessary apartments (Luke xxii, 10-12; Matt, xxvi, 18); and the guests left in return to their hosts the skins of the paschal lambs, and the vessels which they had used in their religious cere- monies {Joma, 12 a). It was, however, impossible to house all the pilgrims in Jerusalem itself, since the cir- cumference of the city was little more than one league, and the number of the visitors was exceedingly great. Josephus tells us that there were 3,000,000 Jews at the Passover A.D. Go {War, ii, 14, 3), and that at the Passover in the reign of Nero there were 2,700,000, when 250,500 lambs were slain {ib. vi, 9, 3), and most of them must therefore have encamped in tents without the walls of the town, as the Mohammedan pilgrims now do at Mecca. It is therefore not surprising that sedi- tions broke out on these occasions, and that the Ro- ' mans, fearing lest these myriads of pilgrims should cre- ate a disturbance, and try to shake oft" the foreign yoke when thus massed together, took all the precautionary measures of both force and conciliation during the fes- tival (Joseph. Ant. xvii, 9, 3; War, i, 3, etc.; Matt
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Svi, 5; Luke xiii, 1). In confirmation of Josephus's statement, wlucli lias been impugned by sundry writers, it is to be remarked that ancient Baraitha, preserved in Tosiftha Pesachim, cap. iv (s. f.), and the Babylon Pesachim, 64 b, relate as follows: Agrippa was anxious to ascertain the number of the Jewish population. He therefore ordered the priests to put down the number of the paschal lambs, which were found to be 1,200,000 ; and as there was to every lamb a company of no less than ten persons, the number of Jews must have been tenfold.
4. The Offering of the Paschal Lamh. — Having select- ed the Iamb, which was neither to be one day above a year nor less than eight days old (Maimonides, Hilchoth Korhan, i, 12. 13) — being an extension of the law about firstlings and burnt-offerings (Exod. xxii, 30 ; Lev. xxii, 27) — and agreed as to the exact number of those who were to join for one lamb, the representatives of each company went to the Temple. The daily evening sacri- fice (Exod. xxix, 38, 39), which was usually killed at the eighth hour and a half (= 2 30 P.M.), and offered up at the ninth hour and a half (= 3 30 P.M.), was on this day killed at 1 30, and offered at 2 30 P.M., an hour earlier; and if the 14th of Nisan happened on a Friday, it was killed at 12 30 and offered at 1 30 P.jM., two hours earlier than usual (Mishna, Pesachim, v, 1 ; Maimonides, Hilchoth Korhan Pcsach. i, 4). All the representatives of the respective companies were divided into three bands or divisions. "The first division then entered with the paschal sacrifices, until the court of the Temple was filled, when the doors of the court were closed, and the trumpets were sounded three times, differing in the notes ('l"pn'l 1"'i"irn 1"pri). The priests immedi- ately placed themselves iu two rows, holding bowls of silver and gold in their hands, i. e. one row holding silver bowls and the other gold ones. These bowls were not mixed up, nor had they stands underneath, in order that they might not be put down and the blood beccme coagulated. The Israelites themselves killed their own paschal sacrifices, the nearest priest caught the blood, handed it to his fellow-priest, and he again passed it on to his fellow-priest, each receiving a full bowl and returning an empty one, while the priest nearest to the altar sprinkled it in one jet towards the base of the altar. Thereupon the first division went out, and the second division entered ; and when the second again went out, the third entered ; the second and third divisions acting in exactly the same way as the first. The Hallel was recited [see Hali.el] the whole time, and if it was finished before all the paschal animals were slain, it might be repeated a second and even a third time. . . . The paschal sacrifice was then suspended on iron hooks, which were affixed to the walls and pillars, and its skin taken off. Those who could not find a place for suspending and skinning it had pieces of wood provided for them, which they put on their own shoulders and on the shoulders of their neighbor, and on these they suspended the paschal sac- rifice, and thus took oft" its skin. When the 14th of Nisan happened on a Sabbath, on which it was not law- ful to use these sticks, one of the offerers put his left hand on the right shoulder of his fellow-offerer, while the lat- ter put his right hand on the shoulder of the former, whereon they suspended the paschal sacrifice, and took off its skin." As soon as it was opened, the viscera were taken out with the internal fat. The fat was carefully separated and collected in the large dish, and the viscera were washed and replaced in tlie body of the lamb, like those of the burnt sacrifices (Lev. i, 'J; iii, 3-5; comp. Pesachim, vi, 1). Maimonides says that the tail was put with the fat {Not. in J'esach.v, 10). The fat was burned on the altar, with incense, that same evening. On the Sabbath, the first division, after leaving the court, remained on tlie Temple Mountain, the second between the ramparts (i.e. the open space between the walls of the court of the women and the trellis-work in