VI. Origin and Import of the Feast of Passover. — 1, Naturalistic Interpretation. — Each of the three great fes- tivals contained a reference to the annual course of nature. Two, at least, of them — the first and the last — also com- memorated events in the history of the chosen people. The coincidence of the times of their observance with the most marked periods in the process of gathering in the fruits of the earth has not unnaturally suggested the notion that their agricultural significance is the more ancient ; that, in fact, they were originally harv^est feasts observed by the patriarchs, and that their historical meaning was superadded in later times (Ewald).
Hupfcld has devised an arrangement of the passages in the Pentateuch bearing on the Passover so as to show, according to this theory, their relative antiquity. The order is as follows: (1) Exod. xxiii, 14-17; (2) Exod.xxxiv, 18-26; (3) Exod. xiii, 3-10; (4) Exod. xii, 15-20 ; (5) Exod. xii, 1-14 ; (6) Exod. xii, 43-50 ; Numb. ix, 10-14.
It may seem at first sight as if some countenance were given to the notion that the feast of unleavened bread was originally a distinct festival from the Pass- over, by such passages as Lev. xxiii, 5, 6 : " In the four- teenth day of the first month at even is the Lord's Pass- over; and on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord : seven days ye must eat unleavened bread" (see also Numb, xxviii, 16, 17). Josephus, in like manner, speaks of the feast of unleavened bread as "following the Passover" (Ant. iii, 10, 5). But such language may mean no more than the distinction between the paschal supper and the seven days of unleavened bread, which is so obviously implied in the fact that the eating of unleavened bread was observed by the country Jews who were at home, though they could not partake of the paschal lamb without going to Jerusalem. Every member of the household had to abstain from leavened bread, but some only went up to the paschal meal (see Maimonides, De Fermentato et Azymo, vi, 1). It is evident that the common usage, in later times at least, was to employ, as equivalent terms, the feast of the Passover, and the feast of unleavened bread (Matt, xxvi, 17; Mark xiv, 12; Luke xxii, 1 ; Josephus, Ant. xiv, 2, 1 ; War, ii, 1, 3),
That the feast of Passover, as such, was instituted to commemorate the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt will be admitted by all who give credence to the historical veracity of the Pentateuch. Its institution, however, to commemorate this great historical fact has been thought by some by no means to preclude the idea that a festival, of somewhat similar rites, was celebrated by the Jews at this season, in common with other na- tions of antiquity, containing a reference to the annual course of nature. The following circumstances are ad- duced to sustain this view. When the first appeal was made to Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, it was that they might celebrate an approaching festival (Exod. iii, 19; V. 1). Moreover, it is a well-known fact that all the Eastern nations, who were dependent upon the course of the sun, celebrated two principal annual festi- vals referring to the seasons : viz. the spring festival, at the time when the sun passes over (1103) into the sign.
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of Aricp, and when the corn began to ripen ; and the other, the autumn festival, when the last fruits were gathered in, which is identical with the feast of Taber- nacles (nSD). We are told that, since the time of this spring festival was both an occasion of gratitude and anxietj' — inasmuch as not only was the barley gathered, but it decided the fertility or the barrenness of the year — the spring festival was celebrated in a double manner: («) As a token of gratitude, the fresh grains of barley were quickly ground into Hour, bread was made of the dough at once, before it had time to leaven, and thus offered ; and (b) as an expression of anxiety, and of a desire to conciliate the divine favor, an expiatory sacrifice was offered for the transgressions of the past year. Indeed Epiphanius declares {A dr. Hmr. cap. xix, 3) that the Egyptians on this occasion marked their sheep with red, because of the general conflagration which once raged at the time when the sun passed over into the sign of Aries, thereby to sym- bolize the fiery death of those animals which were not actually offered up ; while Von Bohlen assures us that the ancient Peruvians marked with blood the doors of the temples, royal residences, and private dwellings, to symbolize the triumph of the sun over the winter {Altes Indien, i, 140; also Gentral Infroduction to the Penta- teuch, p. 1-10 ; comp. Kalisch, Commentary on Exodus, p. 184 ; Ewald, A Iterthiimer, p. 390). Now it is admitted that two of the three great Jewish festivals — viz. Pen- tecost and Tabernacles — refer to the annual course of nature [see Festival], and that the festival of New Moon, which existed prior to the Mosaic legislation, was introduced by the inspired legislator into the cycle of Jewish festivals. See New Moon, Feast ok the. There can therefore be no difficulty in admitting that the third festival was also celebrated in the patriarchal age as a barley-harvest festival, which is indicated by the very name, Abib (3"'3X), of this month, and that God in his infinite wisdom and goodness chose to re- deem Israel at the time of this festival, and thus con- nected with the celebration of the regeneration of nat- ure the celebration of the birth of the nation (Isa. xliii, 1, 15-17; Ezek. xvi, 4; Hos. ii, 5), superadding there- to rites and ceremonies commemorative of the histor- ical event, as well as assigning to some already ex- isting ceremonies a spiritual and original significance. This explains the fact why the unleavened bread, which was undoubtedly connected with sacrifices before the institution of the Passover, and which was enjoined to be eaten with the paschal sacrifices, without giving to it any significance in the original ordinance (Exod. xii, 1-20), was aftei-icards made to symbolize the haste in which the children of Israel had to leave Egypt (Exod. sii, 34; Dent, xvi, 3). That the unleavened bread could not from the first have been the symbol of the fact that there was no time for the dough to leaven (Exod. xii, 33, 34, 39) is evident from Exod. xii, 8, 15. where the Israelites were commanded to eat unleavened bread before their departure, and when there was plenty of time for the dough to leaven. Moreover, the ''aii that this primeval festival has been divested of n?iiy old superstitions, and invested with new ideas cf a niost exalting tendency, in being made to commemo-a^a the exodus as well as the barley harvest, sets a'iidt <'ne ar- guments brought against the possibility of itPi having been celebrated at tlie exodus, inasmuch ai the people were quite prepared for the cclebratio.i, jo /ar as ar- rangements and cattle were concerned.