What is Pascha?

πάσχα. Simply 'the Passover,' Acts 12:4, as the word is elsewhere translated.

At the council of Nice was also determined the day on which Easter should commence. Although this would be considered by many a matter of small consequence, it had been hotly contested, and one bishop of Rome attempted to excommunicate whole districts for not observing Easter on the right day!

The word "Easter" occurs once in the Authorised Version (Acts 12:4), where the word is pascha, which is elsewhere translated "Passover," and is so translated here in the Revised Version. This shews that in the translators' minds Easter and the Passover corresponded. But the Passover is associated with the crucifixion: "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Cor. 5:7); and the Passover fell on the 14th day of Nisan, and might occur on any day of the week; whereas Easter is generally accepted to refer to the resurrection, and commences on a Sunday. The former mode of reckoning was mostly adopted in the east, and the latter in the west. At the council of Nice it was settled for the latter.

This was instituted when the Israelites were in Egypt. Jehovah being about to cut off all the firstborn of Egypt, the Israelites were ordered to sprinkle the blood of a lamb, taken for each house, on the lintel and two side posts of their houses, and the promise was given, "The Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you." The Israelites obeyed, and in perfect safety fed upon the lamb, under shelter of the blood. When they should come to the promised land they were enjoined to keep the Passover, as one of their yearly feasts. Ex. 12:3-28; Lev. 23:4-8. See FEASTS.

The Passover sets forth typically the offering of Christ as that in which the righteousness of God in regard of sin has been declared. The blood was a witness of death, that is, of the removal from under the eye of God of the man, or order of man, that had sinned against God. This removal was brought to pass vicariously in the person of the righteous One who gave Himself a ransom for all. In the eating of the lamb roast with fire the people were to enter into the solemnity of what had been effected.

A lamb without blemish had to be killed, its blood put into a basin, and with a bunch of hyssop the lintel and door posts of the houses where the Israelites were had to be sprinkled by blood, and Jehovah pledged His word that when He saw the blood He would pass over, hence the word, Passover. But in type it prefigures a righteous pass over. The blood of the lamb was but a type of the precious blood of Christ, which cleanses from all sin. So we read in the New Testament, "Christ OUR PASSOVER is sacrificed for us" (1 Cor. 5:7) "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:18-19).

In previous chapters we have written about the Passover, so will add no more here.

Verses 1-14 give the instructions concerning the Passover, and verses 15-20 those concerning the feast of unleavened bread. The Passover Lamb is a most blessed type of the Lord Jesus Christ in His work. He is the Lamb of God and our Passover (John 1:29; 1 Cor. 5:6, 7; 1 Peter 1:18, 19). The chapter is extremely rich in typical foreshadowing and spiritual truth. The spotless character of our Lord is indicated in that the lamb had to be without blemish. Taken out, separated, and a male; all has a meaning. For four days the lamb had to be set aside before it was to be killed. This was done to discover if there would be a flaw, some defect in it, which would unfit the lamb for the sacrifice. Here we are reminded of the four Gospel records in which the holy, spotless life of Him is told out who gave His life for a ransom. The lamb was to be killed by the whole congregation, even as it was with Christ. It was to be killed "between the evenings." That is between noon and the night, the afternoon; that is when Christ died. And what more could we say of the roasting with fire and other instructions, which all foreshadow the death and suffering of the Lamb of God? We call attention to the fact that Satan did not want to have the Lord Jesus put to death on the Passover feast. Satan knew He was the true Lamb, and he tried to prevent His death at the predicted time (Matt. 26:5; Mark 14:2). But the Lamb of God, the true Passover, died at the very time appointed, thus fulfilling the Scriptures. The shedding of the blood and its application is the prominent thing in the Passover. The word "pesach" means to "pass through," and "to pass over." God passed through Egypt in judgment; it was also liable to fall upon the people Israel . They were guilty before God and had deserved the same judgment which was about to fall upon Egypt . But Jehovah provided a sacrifice and in the shed blood a shelter and complete deliverance. The blood secured all they needed as a sinful people and as it was sprinkled in obedience to Jehovah's command perfect peace and rest was obtained. "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." The blood was the token for Jehovah. They were not to see the blood, but He in passing through saw the blood. Faith in what Jehovah had said and what had been done gave peace to all in the dwellings. The blood of Christ is thus blessedly foreshadowed. Peace has been made in the blood of the cross. Upon the Lamb of God, the holy Substitute, the sentence of death was executed and now whenever God sees the blood there He passes by, no more condemnation, but perfect justification. Wherever there is faith in the blood, there is the enjoyment of perfect peace. The blood of the Lamb and the assuring word of Jehovah, "When I see the blood I will pass over you," were the solid foundations of Israel 's shelter and peace in that awful night of death and judgment. And they are our solid foundations too. We quote helpful words from another.

The word "passover" occurs for the first time in Scripture at the end of verse 11. We are told that the Hebrew word thus translated means to pass over protectively, rather like a bird stretching its wings over its young, and not merely the negative idea of omitting to notice when it is a question of judgment. On that fateful night Jehovah was going to smite the firstborn and execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, but, wherever the token of death was seen on the house, over it His wings of protection should be spread and the plague should not enter to destroy.

Connected with the Passover is the FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD. It was kept for seven days, during which all leaven had to be put away. The first day and the seventh day were holy convocations, on which no servile work was to be done. This feast was intimately connected with the Passover: "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness: but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." The unleavened bread sets forth that sense of grace, through faith, in the Christian, in which, apart from influences of the flesh and old associations, he can be habitually in the appreciation of, and in communion with the sacrifice of Christ, so that his whole life is consistent therewith.

It appears evident that the term 'passover' was also applied to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, as in Deut. 16:2: "Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover unto the Lord thy God, of the flock and the herd." The 'herd' here must refer to the seven days' feast; and this may account for the Jews refusing to go into the judgement hall "lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the passover," John 18:28, though they had eaten the paschal lamb the night before.

528 Luke 22:1. — "Which is called Passover." Cf. Joseph. "Antiqq.," xiv. 2, 1, from which we learn that the name was by this time applied to the whole season. The Paschal Feast and the Feast of Unleavened Bread had long been blended. Cf. Lev. 23: 5 f. and Num. 28:16 f., where they are distinguished, with Deut. 16:1, 3 in which they coalesce, as here.

The Passover was the first of the yearly feasts to Jehovah. It was observed on the fourteenth day of the first month, — the month of Abib. (Deut. 16:1). The Passover brought to remembrance every year the Redemption and deliverance from Egypt. Christ our Passover, is sacrificed for us. (1 Cor. 5:7). The passover Lamb was a type of Christ. Each time it was sacrificed, it pointed onward to Him who was to come, — the Lamb of God, "in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." (Col. 1:14)

So we turn now to these seven yearly returning feasts in Israel most of which are well-known especially the first one, the passover of which we have read in verse 4 "These are the set feasts of Jehovah, holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons; In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, between the two evenings, is the passover to Jehovah." All these Israelites who received this commandment probably had celebrated this first passover already in Egypt. We all know that what was the occasion of this passover, this as it is in Hebrew and the English translation is even in phonetically a little bit in accord with the Hebrew which is not the case in German and in French, because it really means, passing over. The occasion was the judgement of God on all the first born, representatives of the whole people in Egypt. And for every Israelite there was this possibility of being spared of this judgement by slaughtering the passover lamb, taking the blood of this lamb and putting it on the door posts and the lintel of the door and by that means being saved from the judgement. And the wonderful thing which also has a very touching voice for us is that not the Israelites, the first born, had to see the blood, it was to be on the outside of the house. And God said 'When I see the blood I will pass over you'. It is not our appreciation of the blood of Christ - which will never reach that height which God has for it - but it is His appreciation of the precious blood of Christ.