Are the symbols of the bread and wine found in the New Testament Passover new? Were they ever used before ? Can we find meaning in these symbols in the pages of history, long before that last historic meal, before Christ's crucifixion (commonly called the Lord's Supper)? Did Jesus change the law by introducing new symbols of a covenant with God, which replaced the blood of the lamb and the sacrificial Paschal meal? Was the Lord's Supper taken a day preceding the Passover of Israel ? You will find the simple truth here.
If you have been confused by all the academia and their scholastic writs on the subject of Passover, here is a layman's guide: something that even the amateur theologian can understand.
Herein is the basis for the understanding of the passover. There is a relationship with this festival and the Patriarch Abraham. God first mentions footwashing, unleavened bread and wine as a religious ceremony with Abraham. There is more to the story than what we have been told so far. Jesus Christ did not implement something new and foreign to the Jews of his day. They were familiar with the story of Abraham and did not think it unusual to take of the unleavened bread and the wine. They did question the foot washing. They did not question keeping Passover on the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan. Christ did not change the law !!
Abraham and Melchizedek
Genesis 14 bread and wine (a religious ceremony)
The Physical Covenant
Genesis 15 physical blessings promised
The Spiritual Covenant
Genesis 17 spiritual covenant; walk with God; everlasting covenant; name
changed to Abraham; sign of circumcision of males on the eighth day
Abraham and the Angels
Genesis 18 hastened; foot washing; unleavened bread; reasoned with God
Example of Lot
Genesis 19 foot washing; a feast of unleavened bread
What did Abraham understand about the Plan of God ?
Abraham knew about:
1.) God the Father, the Son of God, and the Family of God;
2.) the meaning of the symbols of the spiritual covenant: footwashing, bread,
wine, and
circumcision;
3.) that a better sacrifice for mankind is needed, than that of the blood of
bulls and goats.
What day of Passover should we keep today
?
Take a look at the historical events that surround the Passover in Egypt, as
seen through the eyes of the High Priest, Flavius Josephus, as he looks back
from the first century A.D. This world-renown historian is so clear as to the
events, and the days which they fell upon. He is not confused. There are two
main accounts; one of the events, and the other of the keeping of the festivals:
Concerning the ten plagues which came upon the Egyptians
(Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews; Book II, chapter XIV, section 6.
But when God had signified, that with one more plague he would compel the Egyptians to let the Hebrews go, he commanded Moses to tell the people that they should have a sacrifice ready, and that they should prepare themselves on the tenth day of the month Xanthicus, against the fourteenth (which month is called by the Egyptians Pharmuth, and Nisan by the Hebrews; but the Macedonians call it Xanthicus) and that he should carry away the Hebrews with all they had. Accordingly, he having got the Hebrews ready for their departure , and having sorted the people into tribes, he kept them together in one place; but when the fourteenth day was come , and all were ready to depart, they offered the sacrifice , and purified their houses with the blood, using bunches of hyssop for that purpose; and when they had supped , they burnt the remainder of the flesh, as just ready to depart. Whence it is that we do still offer this sacrifice in like manner to this day, and call this festival Pascha, which signifies the feast of the passover; because on that day God passed us over , and sent the plague upon the Egyptians; for the destruction of the first-born came upon the Egyptians that night, so that many of the Egyptians who lived near the kings’s palace, persuaded Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go. Accordingly he called for Moses, and bid them begon; as supposing, that if once the Hebrews were gone out of the country, Egypt should be freed from its miseries. They also honored the Hebrews with gifts ; some, in order to get them to depart quickly, and others on account of their neighborhood, and the friendship they had with them.”
How the Hebrews, under the conduct of Moses, left Egypt
(Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews; Book II, Chapter XV, sections 1 and 2.)
“So the Hebrews went out of Egypt, while the Egyptians wept, and repented that
they had treated them so hardly. ...
They left Egypt
in the month of Xanthicus,
on the fifteenth day
of the lunar month; four hundred and thirty years after
our forefather Abraham came to Canaan...”
Concerning the Festivals; and how each day of such festival is to be observed
(Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews; Book III, Chapter X, section 5.)
In the month of Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of our year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries (for in this month it was that we were delivered from the bondage under the Egyptians, the law ordained that we should every year slay that sacrifice which I before told you we slew when we came out of Egypt, and which was called the Passover ; and so we do celebrate this passover in companies, leaving nothing of what we sacrificed till the day following. The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the passover, and falls on the fifteenth day of the month, and continues seven days, wherein they feed on unleavened bread; on every one of which days two bulls are killed, and one ram, and seven lambs.”
CONCLUSION
“In view of all the evidence , how can a Christian abstain from keeping the Passover? We may prefer to call it the ‘Lord’s Supper’ (I Cor. 11:20) although it is not altogether clear that Paul meant it that way, but Jesus clearly called it the Passover (Luke22:13-15) and instituted it on the 14th day of the first month of the Jewish calendar, the date specified in Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23. And if we, as Christians, observe this the first of God's Holy days, why stop there?” ( Ronald L. Dart , Evangelist, CEM Bible Correspondence Course, 1999.)
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Webpage updated: Tuesday, April 01, 2003
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