Memorial Observances
“For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
Eight “Questions” about the observance of Memorial were treated in earlier articles, February 1996 and August 2008. Here follows a Ninth Question in this series.
Question Nine – How do the Temple Festivals relate to the Passover-Memorial service?
The cycle of Temple festivals provided much of the same joyful anticipation for the Lord’s people under the Law Covenant that we, the Lord’s people today, enjoy in our various regular conventions. Whereas it is customary to highlight the three major feasts or “appointed times,” there were actually seven that were enjoined upon Israel by the LORD, through Moses. All seven are outlined in Leviticus chapter 23, with the first four occurring in the spring, and the remaining three six months later in the autumn of the year. The first three, “the LORD’s Passover” (Leviticus 23:5), “the Feast of Unleavened Bread” (Leviticus 23:6), and “the Feast of the Firstfruits” (Leviticus 23:10, 11), all related directly to the Passover and were to be observed during the Jewish month Nisan, which was the first month of the religious year. This month corresponds to March/April in our Gregorian calendar. The fourth feast was to be celebrated fifty days later, during the Jewish month Iyar, and was called “the Festival of Weeks,” or “Pentecost” (Leviticus 23:15-21); it thus is also related to the Passover, but more indirectly.
The final three festivals occurred in the autumn, beginning with “Rosh Hashanah,” New Year’s Day in the civil calendar, also called “the Feast of Trumpets” (Leviticus 23:24); this was on the first day of the seventh month, Tishri, corresponding to our September/October. The Jewish high holy days are observed during the ten-day period that follows. The sixth festival, “Yom Kippur,” also known as “the Day of Atonement” (Leviticus 23:27), occurs on the tenth day of this month and is a time of humble introspection for the pious Jew. Overall, this period of the year is a joyful one, culminating in the seventh festival, “the Feast of Tabernacles,” also known as “the Feast of Ingathering” or “Booths” (Leviticus 23:34), which begins on the fifteenth day of the same month Tishri. (See “Rosh Hashanah and the Civil New Year,” The Dawn Magazine, Oct. 2006, article based largely on Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services at the Time of Christ, 1874.)
Jesus, our Passover Lamb
Retracing our steps now for a closer look, we find the first Temple festival, “the LORD’s Passover,” pertained to the sacrificial feature of the ceremony which involved the slaying of a lamb. This was a reminder of how the blood of the lamb, sprinkled on the doorposts and lintels of the Jewish houses, acted as a deterrent to the death angel and caused him to “pass over” and spare them from the tenth plague of death on the firstborn of all Egypt. Pesach is used in the Hebrew to describe the offering that was made on this day – the 14th day of Nisan – and this remained the unvarying practice of the Israelites throughout the course of their history until the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD.
The second festival, “the Feast of Unleavened bread,” was the holiday of Passover which in the Hebrew is called Chag Hamatzos. The holiday of Passover was consistently observed on the 15th day of Nisan throughout Jewish history, with festivities continuing for seven days (eight days outside Israel). The chief activity of the holiday consisted of eating the Paschal lamb which had been slaughtered on the eve of the festival (on the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan) and roasted for the feast. After the destruction of the Temple, only the home celebration (called the Seder) of the first night was retained and the Haggadah read (a recital of the original Passover narrative). Since the lamb was no longer slain, the only aspect of the festive meal still valid was the eating of unleavened bread with the bitter herbs. (See Jewish Encyclopedia, “Passover Sacrifice,” and Standard Jewish Encyclopedia, “Haggadah, Passover.”)
In relating these first two festivals to our Memorial observance, we note that the subject of when Christ died on the cross and when the Last Supper was observed, has been a matter of unending controversy among scholars in the field as well as some Bible Students. Alfred Edersheim (1825-1889), cited above, believed that “the Lord instituted His Supper on the very night of the Paschal Feast [as it was observed by the Jews] and that consequently His crucifixion took place on the first day of the 15th of Nisan.” In opposition to this, Dr. Fredrick W. Ferrar (1831-1903) wrote that “Jesus ate His last supper with the disciples on the evening of Thursday, Nisan 13, i.e. at the time when, according to Jewish reckoning, the 14th of Nisan began.” He thus believed “the crucifixion took place on the 14th [of] Nisan, ‘between the evenings’ of which the Paschal lamb was slain,” and based this largely on the statements made in the Gospel of John. He also wrote that there was a “sense of inherent and symbolical fitness in the dispensation which ordained that Christ should be slain on the day and at the hour appointed for the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb.” (See Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services at the Time of Christ, Appendix.)
We would certainly agree with Dr. Ferrar, noting the force of the type/antitype relationship and the clear intent of the Apostle Paul’s statement that “Christ our Passover [Lamb] is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). In regard to the exact time of day on the 14th of Nisan that the lamb was slain in the type, a continuing controversy has arisen among Bible Students which requires more space to fully consider than can be allocated here. This subject is fully treated in the book, Charles Redeker, Foregleams of the Messiah: Old Testament Passover Type Sheds Light on Identity of the Messiah, with both points of view (whether the lamb was slain at the beginning or toward the end of the 14th day) being examined. (A printout of the book may be obtained from the web site of Zion’s Tower of the Morning: www.zionstower.com or the “Bible Students Library” computer data base.)1
The third and final of the festivals to be enlarged upon here, “the Feast of the Firstfruits,” presents an interesting tie-in of the first agricultural harvest with the Passover events. The priest was to bring a wave offering of the barley “on the morrow after the Sabbath.” This Sabbath was understood by Rabbinical judgment and the Pharisees (but not the Sadducees) to pertain to the Feast Day of the Passover, the 15th day, and thus the firstfruits were offered on the 16th day of Nisan. To Bible Students, such a sequence becomes a precise type of the resurrection of Jesus on “the third day” (counting inclusively); and it offers strong confirmation that our Lord was not in the tomb for three full twenty-four-hour days, but for parts of three days. Thus Jesus was crucified and died on the 14th day of Nisan, was in the tomb for all of the 15th, and was raised early in the morning on the 16th day – perhaps just minutes after sunrise. (See Reprints, page 5191 and footnote; also Smith’s Bible Dictionary, “First-fruits.”)
– Charles Redeker
(1) Editor’s footnote: Three points of view are offered in the PBI booklet, “The Last Supper, a Dialogue,” accessible at www.heraldmag.org/bookstore/booklet lastsupper.htm