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===The Annual Passover===
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In Jesus' time, the '''Jewish Passover''' ({{he icon}}: פֶּסַח, ''Pesach'') brought the faithful of [[Moses]] together to Jerusalem for the purpose of offering and consuming the paschal lamb. This commemorated the [[Exodus]] which liberated the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery. <ref group="note">The Jewish Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of [[w:Nisan|Nisan]] in the Jewish calendar, which is in spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and is celebrated for seven or eight days.</ref>
Today the '''[[Pascha|Christian Passover]]''' ({{el icon}} Πάσχα, ''Pascha'') unites [[Jesus Christ|Christ's ]] disciples in communion with their Lord, the true [[Lamb of God]]. It associates them with His death and resurrection [[Resurrection]] which have freed them from [[sin ]] and [[death]].
There is an obvious continuity from one festival to the other, but the perspective has been changed in passing from the old to the new covenant through the intermediary of [[Jesus]]' Passover.
==The Israelite Passover==
===The Early Passover - Nomadic and Domestic===
At the outset, the Passover was a family festival. It was celebrated at night, at the full moon of the vernal equinox, the 14th of the month of Abib or of the corn (called Nisan after the exile). A young animal, born that year, was offered to Yahweh in order to draw down divine blessings upon the flocks. The victim was a lamb or kid, male, without blemish;<ref>Exodus 12:3-6.</ref> not a bone of him must be broken.<ref>12:46; Numbers 9:12.</ref> His [[Blood in the Bible|blood ]] was placed, as a sign of preservation, on the entrance of each dwelling.<ref>Exodus 12:7-,22.</ref> His flesh was eaten during the course of a rapid meal, taken in the manner of guests about to go on a journey.<ref>12:8-11.</ref> These nomadic and domestic traits suggest a very ancient origin for the Passover: it could have been the sacrifice which the Israelites asked of Pharoah to celebrate in the desert.<ref>3:18; 5:1ff.</ref> It thus goes back beyond [[Moses ]] and the departure from Egypt. But it is the [[Exodus ]] which gave it its definitive meaning.
===Passover and Exodus===
The great springtime of [[Israel ]] occurred when God liberated His people from the Egyptian yoke by a series of providential interventions, the most striking of which is expressed in the tenth plague: the killing of the first-born of the Egyptians.<ref>Exodus 11:5; 12:12-,29ff.</ref> To this event, tradition later joined the offering of the first-born of the flock and the redeeming of the first-born Israelite.<ref>13:11f.,11-15; Numbers 3:13; 8:17.</ref> But this parallel comparison remains secondary. What matters is that the Passover coincides with the deliverance of the Israelites: it became the memorial of the [[Exodus]], the greatest event of their history. It recalled that [[God]] had struck Egypt and spared His faithful.<ref>12:2626f.; 13:8ff.</ref> From now on such will be the meaning of the Passover and the new meaning of its name.
''Pasch'' is the equivalent of the Greek ''[[Pascha]]'', derived from the [[Aramaic ]] ''Pasha'' and the Hebrew ''Pesah''. The origin of this name is disputed. Some give it a foreign etymology, Assyrian (''pasahu'', to appease) or Egyptian (''pa-sh'', the remembrance; ''pe-sah'', the blow); but none of these hypotheses is compelling. The Bible associates ''pesah'' with the verb ''pasah,'' which mean either to limp, or perform a ritual dance around a sacrifice,<ref>1 Kings 18:21-,26.</ref> or figuratively, "to jump", "to pass", "to spare". The Passover is the ''Passage'' of Yahweh who ''passed over'' the Israelite houses while He struck those of the Egyptians.<ref>Exodus 12:13,23-,27; Isaiah 31:5.</ref>
===Passover and Unleavened Bread===
In time, another feast was fused with the Passover. This feast of the Unleavened Bread was originally distinct but became associated because of its springtime date.<ref>Exodus 12:15-20.</ref> The Passover was celebrated on the 14th of the month; the Unleavened Bread was finally fixed from the 15th to the 21st. These unleavened loaves accompanied the offering of the first-fruits of the harvest.<ref>Leviticus 23:5-14; Deuteronomy 26:1.</ref> The removal of the old leaven was a rite of purity and of annual renewal, whose origin is thought to be either nomadic or agricultural. Whatever it may be, Israelite tradition also associated this rite with the departure from Egypt.<ref>Exodus 23:15; 34:18.</ref> It recalled the haste of the departure, so swift that the Israelites had to carry off their dough before it was leavened.<ref>Exodus 12:34,39.</ref> In the liturgical calendars, the feasts of the Passover and Unleavened Bread are sometimes distinguished<ref>Leviticus 23:5-8; Ezra 6:19-22; 2 Chronicles 35:17.</ref> and sometimes confused.<ref>Deuteronomy 16:1-8; 2 Chronicles 30:1-13.</ref>
At any rate, it is the deliverance of the Exodus which is made present in the annual passovers, and this profound meaning of the festival is felt with more intensity at the important stages of Israelite history: that of Sinai<ref>Numbers 9.</ref> and of the entrance into Canaan;<ref>Joshua 5.</ref>; that of the reforms of Hezekiah around 716,<ref>2Chronicles 30.</ref> and of Josiah around 622;<ref>2 Kings 23:21ff.</ref> that of the post-exilic re-establishment in 515.<ref>Ezra 6:19-22.</ref> The return from the exile is presented by Second Isaiah as a new Exodus,<ref>Isaiah 63:7-64:11.</ref> and the reunion of the dispersed<ref>Isaiah 49:6.</ref> is seen as the work of the Lamb-Servant<ref>Isaiah 53:7.</ref> who must become the light of the nations and who, with the paschal lamb, will serve as a figure of the [[Messiah ]] to come.
===The Passover - Festival of the Temple===
Thus, the Passover has evolved through the centuries. Some qualifications, some modifications took place. The most important was the innovation of Deuteronomy which transformed the old family celebration into a feast of the temple.<ref>Deuteronomy 16:1-8.</ref> Perhaps this legislation saw a beginning of realization under Hezekiah.<ref>2 Chronicles 30; Isaiah 30:29.</ref> In any case, it is established as a fact under Josiah.<ref>2 Kings 23:21ff.; 2 Chronicles 35.</ref> The Passover thus takes its place within the general centralization of worship. Its rite is adapted: [[Blood in the Bible|blood]] is poured out over the altar<ref>2 Chronicles 35:11.</ref> and priests and Levites and the principal ministers in the ceremony.
After the exile, the Passover became the festival ''par excellence''; its omission entailed a veritable [[excommunication ]] for the Jews.<ref>Numbers 9:13.</ref> All the circumcised, and they alone, must take part in it;<ref>Exodus 12:43-49.</ref> in case of necessity, it can be put off for a month.<ref>Numbers 9:9-13; 2 Chronicles 30:2ff.</ref> These qualifications of priestly legislation fixed a jurisprudence henceforth unchangeable. Outside the holy city, the Passover was doubtless celebrated here and there in family style, as was certainly the case with the Jewish colony at Elephantine in Egypt, according to a document of the year 419. But the sacrificing of the lamb was progressively eliminated from these private celebrations, which from now on were eclipsed by the solemnity in Jerusalem.
The Passover became one of the great [[Pilgrimage|pilgrimages]], one of the culminating points of the liturgical year. By means of the recall of the deliverance from Egypt, the feast sustained the hope of the liberation to come. There was here a risk of awakening nationalism: it was frequently at the time of the Passover that political movements came to the fore<ref>Luke 13:1ff.</ref> or religious passions were inflamed.<ref>Acts 12:1-4.</ref> In the Roman period, the administration took care to maintain order during the paschal festivities, and each year at that time the procurator went up to [[Jerusalem]]. But religious faith could also see beyond this agitation and keep itself free from compromise. The Passover was a feast of hope, since, as it was currently said, it was during this night that the [[Messiah ]] would come.
==The Passover of Jesus==
Indeed the Messiah did come. To begin with, Jesus took part in the Jewish Passover; His aim was to perfect it. He would finally supplant and fulfill it.
At the time of the Passover, Jesus uttered words and performed actions which little by little changed its meaning. Thus we have the Passover of the only ''Son'', who stays behind close to the Holy of Holies because He knows that there He is close to His Father;<ref>Luke 2:41-51.</ref> the Passover of the ''new temple'', where Jesus purified the temporary sanctuary and announced the definitive sanctuary, His risen body;<ref>John 2:13-23; 1:14,51; 4:21-24.</ref> the Passover of the multiplied ''bread'', which will be His body offered in sacrifice;<ref>John 6.</ref> finally, and above all the Passover of the new Lamb, in which Jesus takes the place of the paschal victim, institutes the new paschal meal, and effects His own exodus, the "passage" from this sinful world to the kingdom of the Father.<ref>John 13:1.</ref>
The evangelists understood well Jesus' intentions and, with various nuances, cast light upon them. The [[Synoptic gospels|synoptics ]] describe the last meal of Jesus (even if it was consumed on the eve of the Passover) as a paschal meal: the supper is taken within the walls of Jerusalem and it is set in a liturgy which includes, among other things, the recitation of the [[w:Hallel|Hallel]].<ref>Mark 14:26.</ref> But it is the meal of a new Passover: onto the ritual blessings intended for bread and wine, Jesus grafts the institution of the [[Eucharist]]. In giving His body to eat and His blood poured out to drink, He describes His death as the sacrifice of the Passover of which He is the new Lamb.<ref>Mark 14:22-24.</ref> John prefers to emphasize this fact by inserting several allusions to Jesus the Lamb into his [[gospel]],<ref>John 1:29,36.</ref> and in making coincide, on the afternoon of the 14th Nisan, the sacrificing of the lamb<ref>18:28; 19:14,31,42.</ref> and the death on the [[cross ]] of the true paschal victim.<ref>19:36.</ref>
==The Christian Passover==
===The Sunday Passover===
Crucified on the eve of a [[Sabbath]] day,<ref>Mark 15:42; John 19:31.</ref> Jesus arose on the day after this same Sabbath; the first day of the week.<ref>Mark 16:2.</ref> It is also on the first day that the apostles find their arisen Lord in the course of a meal which is a new version ofthe supper.<ref>Luke 24:30,42; Mark 16:14; John 20:19-26; 21:1-14; Acts 1:4.</ref> And so, on the first day of the week the assembled Christians are going to join together for the breaking of the bread.<ref>Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2.</ref> This day would soon receive a new name: the [[Lord's Day|Day of the Lord]], ''Dies Domini'', [[Sunday]].<ref>[[Book of Revelation|Apocalypse]] 1:10.</ref> It recalls to Christians the [[Resurrection]] of [[Christ]], unites them to Him in His [[Eucharist]], turns them toward the hope of His parousia.<ref>1 Corinthians 11:26.</ref>
===The Annual Passover===
Besides the Sunday [[Pascha]], there is also a new content: the Jews celebrated their deliverance from a foreign yoke, and awaited a national Messiah-liberator while Christians celebrate their liberation from [[sin]] and [[death]], uniting themselves to Christ crucified and risen by sharing life eternal with Him, and turn their hope toward His glorious parousia.
On that night, which shines like the day, to prepare for their encounter in the holy supper with the Lamb of God who bears and carries away the sins of the world, they replace the Jewish paschal meal by a fast and a vigil where the account of the Exodus is read to them with a new depth;<ref>1 Peter 1:13-21.</ref> baptized, they constitute the people of God in exile,<ref>17.</ref> they go forward with loins girded,<ref>13.</ref> delivered from evil, toward the promised land of the Kingdom of Heaven. Since Christ, their paschal victim, has been sacrificed, they ought to celebrate the festival not with the old leaven of wicked conduct, but with the unleavened bread of purity and truth.<ref>1 Corinthians 5:6 ff.</ref> With Christ, they have personally lived the mystery of Easter by dying to sin and rising to a new life.<ref>Romans 6:3-11; Colossians 2:12.</ref> This is why the feast of the resurrection very soon became the priviledged date of baptism, the resurrection of Christians in whom the paschal mystery is relived. The controversy of the 2nd century over the celebration of [[Pascha|Easter]] left intact this profound meaning which underlines the final passing of the Jewish feast.
===The Eschatological Passover===
The Paschal mystery will be achieved by Christians through death, resurrection, encounter with the Lord. The earthly Passover prepares them for this last "passage", that Passover of the hereafter. In fact, the word ''Passover'' designates not only the mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ, nor the weekly or annual Eucharistic rite, but it indicates also the Heavenly Banquet toward which we are all journeying. The [[Book of Revelation|Apocalypse]] lifts our eyes toward the Lamb still marked by His torments, but living and standing upright. Invested with glory, He draws His [[Martyr|martyrs]] to Himself.<ref>[[Book of Revelation|Apocalypse]] 5:6-12; 12:11.</ref> According to His own words, Jesus has truly fulfilled the Passover by the Eucharistic oblation of His death, by His resurrection, by the permanent sacrament of His sacrifice, and finally by His parousia,<ref>Luke 22:16.</ref> which is to unite us in the joy of the final banquet in the Kingdom of His Father.<ref>Matthew 26:29.</ref>
==See also==
* [[Eucharist]].
==Further readingNotes==<references group="note" />
==References==
==External Links==
'''Wikipedia'''
* [[w:Passover|Passover]]. (''Jewish holiday'')
* [[w:Passover (Christian holiday)|Passover (Christian holiday)]]
==Sources==
