V.HEBREW PASS-OVER, OR CROSS-OVER,SACRIFICE.
How the significance of the Hebrew passover rite stands out in the light of this primitive custom! It is not that this rite had its origin in the days of the Hebrew exodus from Egypt, but that Jehovah then and there emphasized the meaning and sacredness of a rite already familiar to Orientals. In dealing with his chosen people, God did not invent a new rite or ceremonial at every stage of his progressive revelation to them; but he took a rite with which they were already familiar, and gave to it a new and deeper significance in its new use and relations.
Long before that day, a covenant welcome was given to a guest who was to become as one of the family, or to a bride or bridegroom in marriage, by the outpouring of blood on the threshold of the door, and by staining the doorway itself with the blood of the covenant.And now Jehovah announced that he was to visit Egypt on a designated night, and that those who would welcome him should prepare a threshold covenant, or a pass-over sacrifice, as a proof of that welcome; for where no such welcome was made ready for him by a family, he must count the household as his enemy.[541]
In announcing this desire for a welcoming sacrifice by the Hebrews, God spoke of it as “Jehovah’s passover,” as if the pass-over rite was a familiar one, which was now to be observed as a welcome to Jehovah.[542]Moses, in reporting the Lord’s message to the Hebrews, did not speak of the proposed sacrifice as something of which they knew nothing until now, but he first said to them, “Draw out, and take you lambs according to your families, and kill the passover”–or the threshold cross-over;[543]and then he added details of special instruction for this new use of the old rite.
A lamb was the chosen sacrifice in the welcome to Jehovah. Each household, or family, was to take one lamb for this offering. No directions were given as to the place or manner of its sacrifice; for that seems to have been understood by all, because of the veryterm “pass-over,” or threshold cross-over. This is implied, indeed, in the directions for the use of the blood when it was poured out: “Kill the passover,” in the usual place; “and ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is at thethreshold[Hebrew,saph], and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is at thethreshold.”[544]
In that welcome with blood there was covenant protection from Jehovah as he came into Egypt to execute judgment on his enemies. The Egyptians had already refused him allegiance, and put themselves in open defiance of his authority. They were now to be visited in judgment.[545]But in order to the distinguishing of the Lord’s people from his enemies, the Hebrews were to prepare a blood welcome at their doorway, and the Lord would honor this welcome by covenanting with those who proffered it.
“And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of cattle.... But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may knowhow that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.”[546]
In furtherance of this purpose, the Lord asked for the sacrifice of the threshold cross-over by the Hebrews: “For the Lord will pass through [the land] to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts [of the Hebrew homes], the Lord will pass over [cross-over or through] the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.”[547]Obviously the figure here employed is of a sovereign accompanied by his executioner, a familiar figure in the ancient East. When he comes to a house marked by tokens of the welcoming covenant, the sovereign will covenant-cross that threshold, and enter the home as a guest, or as a member of the family; but where no such preparation has been made for him, his executioner will enter on his mission of judgment.[548]
It is strange that the Hebrew word for “threshold” (saph) in this narrative is translated “bason” in our English Bible. It is because of this that the identity of the passover sacrifice with the primitive Threshold Covenant is so generally lost sight of. This wordsaphoccurs many times in the Old Testament text, and in nine cases out of ten it is translated “threshold,” or “door,” or “door-post,” or the like.[549]It would seem that it should be so translated in this instance.
In some cases wheresaphis translated “bason,” or “cup,” the term “threshold” would be more appropriate, as when included in an enumeration of the temple furniture.[550]Bronze and silver thresholds were often mentioned in the furniture of Babylonian and Assyrian temples;[551]and they might well have had mention among the Hebrews. It is possible, however, that there was a cavity, as a blood receptacle, in the threshold of houses or temples where sacrifices were so frequent; and this would account for the use of the wordsaphas “bason,” even where it referred to the threshold of the door.
The translators of the Septuagint, living in Egypt and familiar with the customs of that land, renderedsaphbythyra, “doorway,”[552]in the story of the exodus. Jerome, with his understanding of Oriental life, giveslimen, “threshold,” forsaph, at this point.[553]Philo Judæus, out of his Egyptian Jewish experiences,describing the Jewish passover festival, speaks of it as “the feastdiabateria, which the Jews calledpaskha.”[554]“Diabateria” are “offerings before crossing a border,”[555]or threshold sacrifices. Rabbi Ishmael, a Talmudist, in explaining the passage descriptive of the institution of the passover in Egypt, says: “One dug a hole in the [earthen] threshold, and slaughtered into that,” “forsaphsignifies here nothing else than threshold.”[556]
A striking illustration of the error of translatingsaph“a bason” or “a cup,” is shown in the rendering of Zechariah 12 : 1–3 in our English Bible. The Lord is there promising to protect the borders of Jerusalem against all besiegers. “Thus saith the Lord, which ... layeth the foundation of the earth:... Behold, I will make Jerusalem athreshold[or, boundary stone, Hebrew,saph] of reeling unto all the peoples round about.... I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples.” The figure seems to be that of the besiegers staggering as they come against that foundation, or threshold stone, which the Lord has established. Yetsaphis here translated “cup,” and the passage thereby rendered meaningless.
There would seem, indeed, to be little room for doubt thatsaphshould be translated “threshold” inthe description of the pass-over sacrifice. In Assyrian, the wordsippu, from the same root as the Hebrewsaph, means only threshold, not bason or cup.[557]
The common understanding of the term “passover,” in connection with the Hebrew exodus from Egypt, is that it was, on the Lord’s part, a passing by those homes where the doorways were blood-stained, without entering them. Yet this meaning is not justified by the term itself, nor by the significance of the primitive rite. Jehovah did not merely spare his people when he visited judgment on the Egyptians. He covenanted anew with them by passing over, or crossing over, the blood-stained threshold into their homes, while his messenger of death went into the houses of the Lord’s enemies and claimed the first-born as belonging to Jehovah.[558]
This wordpesakh, translated “passover,” is a peculiar one. Its etymology and root meaning have been much in discussion. It is derived from the rootpāsăkh“to cross over,” a meaning which is still preserved in the Hebrew wordTiphsakh, the name of a city on the banks of the Euphrates,[559]the Hebrew equivalent of the classical Thapsacus.[560]Tiphsakhmeans “crossing,” apparently so called from the ford of the Euphrates at that place.
Later Jewish traditions and customs point to the meaning of the original passover rite as a crossing over the threshold of the Hebrew homes by Jehovah, and not of his passing by his people in order to their sparing. A custom by which a Hebrew slave became one of the family in a Hebrew household, through having his ear bored with an awl at the door-post of the house, and thereby blood staining the doorway,[561]is connected with the passover rite by the rabbis. “The Deity said: The door and the side-posts were my witnesses in Egypt, in the hour when I passed-over the lintel and the two side-posts, and I said that to Me the children of Israel shall be slaves, and not slaves to slaves; I brought them out from bondage to freedom; and this man who goeth and taketh alord to himself shall be bored through before these witnesses.”[562]
According to Jewish traditions, it was on a passover night when Jehovah entered into a cross-over covenant with Abraham on the boundary of his new possessions in Canaan.[563]It was on a passover night that Lot welcomed the angel visitors to his home in Sodom.[564]It was at the passover season that the Israelites crossed the threshold of their new home in Canaan, when the walls of Jericho fell down, and the blood-colored thread on the house of Rahab was a symbol of the covenant of the Hebrew spies with her and her household.[565]The protection of the Israelites against the Midianites,[566]and the Assyrians,[567]and the Medes and the Persians,[568]and again the final overthrow of Babylon,[569]all these events were said to have been at the passover season.[570]These traditions would seem to show that the pass-over covenant was deemed a cross-over covenant, and a covenant of welcome at the family and the national threshold.
In the passover rite as observed by modern Jews, at a certain stage of the feast the outer door is opened,and an extra cup and chair are arranged at the table, in the hope that God’s messenger will cross the threshold, and enter the home as a welcome guest.[571]All this points to the meaning of “cross-over,” and not of “pass-by.”
In some parts of northern and eastern Europe there is a custom still preserved among the Jews of jumping over a tub of water on passover night, which is said to be symbolic of crossing the Red Sea, but which shows that the passover feast was a feast of crossing over.[572]
It seems clear that the Egyptian passover rite was a rite of threshold covenanting, as ordered of God and as understood by the Israelites. Its sacrifice was on the threshold of the homes of the Hebrews on the threshold of a new year,[573]and on the threshold of a new nationality. Then Israel began anew in all things. Moreover, it was recognized as the rite of marriage between Jehovah and Israel; as the very Threshold Covenant had its origin in the rite of primitive marriage.
That first passover night was the night when Jehovahtook to himself in covenant union the “Virgin of Israel,” and became a Husband unto her. From that time forward any recognition of, or affiliation with, another God, is called “whoredom,” “adultery,” or “fornication.”[574]In this light it is that the prophets always speak of idolatry.
Jeremiah recognizes the first passover night as the time of this marriage covenant, when he says:
“Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah,That I will make a new covenantWith the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathersIn the day that I took them by the handTo bring them out of the land of Egypt;Which my covenant they brake,Although I was an husband unto them, saith Jehovah.”[575]
“Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah,That I will make a new covenantWith the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathersIn the day that I took them by the handTo bring them out of the land of Egypt;Which my covenant they brake,Although I was an husband unto them, saith Jehovah.”[575]
“Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah,That I will make a new covenantWith the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathersIn the day that I took them by the handTo bring them out of the land of Egypt;Which my covenant they brake,Although I was an husband unto them, saith Jehovah.”[575]
“Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah,
That I will make a new covenant
With the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers
In the day that I took them by the hand
To bring them out of the land of Egypt;
Which my covenant they brake,
Although I was an husband unto them, saith Jehovah.”[575]
And Jehovah, speaking through Ezekiel of his loving choice of the Hebrew daughter of the Amorite and the Hittite, says: “Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.”[576]
It seems to be in recognition of the truth that the Egyptian passover was the rite of marriage between Jehovah and Israel, that the Song of Songs, the epithalamium of the Hebrew Scriptures, is always read in the synagogue at the passover service. This idea of the relation of Jehovah and Israel runs through the entire Old Testament, and shows itself in the Jewish ritual of to-day.
In the primitive marriage rite the stamp of the red hand of the bridegroom is the certification of the covenant union, at the doorway of the family. But in the Egyptian passover it was the virgin of Israel who certified to the marriage covenant by the bloody stamp on the doorway. Hence it was a feminine symbol, in a bush of hyssop, that was dipped in the blood and used for this stamping.[577]The tree, or bush, is a universal symbol of the feminine in nature. This is shown, for example, in the tree or brush-topped pole as the symbol of Ashtaroth, “wife,”[578]as over against the pillar or obelisk as the symbol of Baal, or “lord,” or “husband.”[579]