On the other hand, the above v>ew of liaor, that the Passover was an astronomical festival and the lamb a i3'mbol of the sign Aries, and that of Von IJohlen, that it resembled the sun-feast cf the Peruvians, are well exposed Ijy Biihr {St/mboUk). Spe'icer has endeavored in his usual manner to show that many details of the festival were derived from heathen sources, though he admits *,he o'-iginaUty of Ihe whole. It must be ad- mitted that ihe relation to the natural year expressed
in the Passover was less marked than that in Pente- cost or Tabernacles, while its historical import was deeper and more pointed. It seems hardly possible to study the history of the Passover with candor and at- tention, as it stands in the Scriptures, without being driven to the conclusion that it was, at the very first, essentially the commemoration of a great historical fact. That part of its ceremonies which has a direct agri- cultural reference — the offering of the omer — holds a very subordinate place. But as regards the whole of the feasts, it is not very easy to imagine that the rites which belonged to them connected with the harvest were of patriarchal origin. Such rites were adapted for the religion of an agricultural people, not for that of shepherds like the patriarchs. It would seem, there- fore, that we gain but little by speculating on the sim- ple impression conveyed in the Pentateuch, that the feasts were ordained by Moses in their integrity, and that they were arranged with a view to the religious wants of the people when they were to be settled in the Land of Promise.
2. Historical Siijnificance of the Festival as a Whole. — The deliverance Irom Egypt was regarded as the starting-point of the Hebrew nation. The Israelites were then raised from the condition of bondmen under a foreign tyrant to that of a free people owing alle- giance to no one but Jehovah. " Ye have seen," said the Lord, '• what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings and brought you luito my- self" (Exod. xix, 4). The prophet in a later age spoke of the event as a creation and a redemption of the na- tion. God declares himself to be "the creator of Is- rael," in immediate connection with evident allusions to his having brought them out of Egypt ; such as his having made '-a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters," and liis having overthrown " the char- iot and horse, the army and the power" (Isa. xliii, 1, 15-17). The exodus was thus looked upon as the birth of the nation; the Passover was its annual birth- day feast. Nearly all the rites of the festival, if ex- plained in the most natural manner, appear to point to this as its primary meaning. It was the yearly me- morial of the dedication of the people to him who had saved their first-born from the destroyer, in order that they might be made holy to himself. This was the lesson which they were to teach to their children throughout all generations. When the young Hebrew asked his father regarding the paschal lamb, " What is thisV" the answer prescribed was, "By strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the honse of bondage : and it came to pass, when Pharaoh wruld hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the first- brrn in the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man aud the first-born of beast; therefore I sacrifice to the i TiOrd all that openeth the womb, being males; but all '-lie first-born of my children I redeem" (Exod. xiii, 14, I 15). Hence, in the periods of great national restoration 1 m the times of Joshua, Hezekiah, Josiah, and Ezra, the ' Passover was observed in a special manner, to remind the people of their true position, and to mark their re- ' newal of the covenant which their fathers had made. j 3. Impot't of the Details. — (1.) The paschal kanb must of course be regarded as the leading feature in the cer- j emonial of the festival. Some Protestant divines dur- ing the last two centuries (Calov, Carpzov), laying great ! stress on the fact that nothing is said in the law re- j specting either the imposition of the bands of the priest I on the head of the Iamb, or the bestowing of any por- I tion of the flesh on the priest, have denied that it was a sacrilicc in the proper sense of the word. They ap- pear to have been tempted to take this view, in order to deprive the Komanists of an analogical argument bearing on the Koniisli doctrine of the Lord's Supper. They aftirmed tliat the lamb was a sacramenlum, not a sa- crificiian. Hut most of their contemjioraries (Cudworth, Bochart, Vitringa), and nearly all modern critics, have held that it was in the strictest sense a sacrifice. The
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chief characteristics of a sacrifice are all distinctly as- cribed to it. It was offered in the holy place (Deut. xvi, 5, G) ; the blood was sprinkled on the altar, and the fat was burned (2 Chron. xxx, IG ; xxxv, 11). Fhilo and Josephus commonly call it Bvfia or Bvaia. The language of Exod. xii, 27; xxiii, 18; Numb, ix, 7; Deut. xvi, 2. 5, together with 1 Cor. v, 7, would seem to decide the question beyond the reach of doubt.