What's the latest on Passover?

by Justin 7 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Justin

  No, not the Memorial. I'm talking about the Jewish Passover. During the periods of the first and second temples, it was necessary to have the lambs slaughtered as sacrifices at the temple. This being impossible after the final destruction in 70 C.E., the rabbis developed a passover ritual which would be entirely observed in private homes.

  I attended a class in a synagogue tonight in which the rabbi stated that the new (post-70) ritual was actually a cryptic reference to the Roman oppression of the first century, and had possibly maintained the character of a harvest festival until the rabbis made it a festival of liberation at that late date. I asked him if the Exodus account didn't indicate the passover was a home-centered celebration before the existence of a temple, so that there was actually more of a continuity between what Jews observe today and the ancient festival than when the temple was standing; that is, entirely observed in the home (but without the sacrifice). He seemed to want to avoid giving me a straight answer.

  I know critical scholars think the Passover was originally a harvest festival that was adapted to become a festival of liberation, but certainly this adaptation did not first occur in the post-70 era (did it?). What are the current theories in this regard? I'd like to know.
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  Leolaia

  Passover apparently became Temple-centered during Second Temple times and previously was an agricultural festival celebrated locally. It was not a harvest festival (that's in fall). Instead Passover itself is thought to have celebrated the birthing of livestock and the Feast of Unleavened Bread celebrated the planting of crops. The sacrifice of the lamb was to appease Resheph, the god of pestilence, who would otherwise claim the firstlings. Resheph extrudes into the Exodus story as the Destroyer killing the firstborn. I don't have material handy (I'm at an internet cafe), but that is the theory. I thought the conflation of the Exodus story and the passover festival was pre-exilic, but I'm not sure....
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  peacefulpete

  The Jewish holiday is a conflation of a Canaanite spring barley harvest festival (Unleavened Bread) and the shepards festival celebrating the birthing of stock animals (killing firstborn to Resheph). It seems it was only in the Persian period that the creative priests reinterpreted the ancient rites as related to the Moses/Egypt exodus myth.
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  Justin

  Well, thanks to both of you for that input. I guess the rabbi avoided my question because he didn't want to get into all that pagan stuff. So it looks like, if one accepts critical theories, that by the time the two motifs were conflated, the sacrificing was already taking place at the temple. But as the story of the first passover is centered in the home (with the blood on the doorposts), this made it easy for the rabbis to eventually create the current celebration once the temple was gone. But even during second temple times the liberation theme was already there.
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  JCanon

  Waitaminute here.....

  Passover apparently became Temple-centered during Second Temple times and previously was an agricultural festival celebrated locally. It was not a harvest festival (that's in fall). Instead Passover itself is thought to have celebrated the birthing of livestock and the Feast of Unleavened Bread celebrated the planting of crops.

  I don't quite understand this. Different crops were harvested at different times of the year. The grain harvests were reaped in the spring, the "firstfruits" of barley beginning April 16 and the firstfruits of wheat 49 days later on Pentecost. So, unless I'm missing something, how is this festival not a harvest festival of sorts but one of "planting"? This is the time of the barley harvest.

  Would this affect the pagan connection with Reshep? That is, did you confuse this festival with another some other time of the year when planting was actually done?

  Thanks.

  JC
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  Leolaia

  No, I did not connect it with barley harvesting....is Unleavened Bread made from barley? If it is, then I stand corrected....I was thinking in terms of the planting of wheat in spring....which from what I've read on Passover is what is relevant, the planting of wheat, and not the harvest of barley. There is a planting of wheat sown in the fall that is harvested in the late spring (i.e. Shavuot) and a planting of wheat in the spring that is harvested in the late summer of early fall. There is no harvest of wheat at the time of Passover...Resheph is appeased to ensure the good health of the young, and they are most vulnerable when they are born, in their first few months, and not at a time later in the year. And Resheph is not a "pagan" notion but a native Israelite one.
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  JCanon

  Hi Leolaia.... I'm a bit concerned about your reply since it is based partly on guessing what is going on instead of the facts? I don't understand. ???

  No, I did not connect it with barley harvesting....is Unleavened Bread made from barley? If it is, then I stand corrected....I was thinking in terms of the planting of wheat in spring

  There are two crops in the spring. The barley harvest and the wheat harvest. Lots in Jewish culture depended on these crops and sometimes the Jews would introduce an intercalary month or not depending upon the progress of the crops. At any rate, for your reference, you can research the "firstfruits" rituation related to the WAVE OFFERINGS. There were two. On the day after the 15th (sabbath) there was the Barley Harvest wave offering, the firstfruits from the barley. Then on the 50th day after the 15th, which was PENTECOST they had the WHEAT wave offering of the firstfruits of wheat, which means a harvest of wheat just 49 days later. Note, that 49 days is exactly 7 weeks.

  Where you get the idea that they were harvesting wheat in the fall I have no idea. If you have a copy of the "Insight to Bible Understanding" by JWs then there is a chart showing the harvests! OOOH! In fact, I think it's also in the back of the large-print NWT. If so I'll brief out when the various harvest seasons were.

  By the way, the second "wave offering" on Pentecost was made of the firstfruits of the wheat so the Passover unfermented cakes would be made of barley. The wave offering of Passover was of the raw grain sheaf. But at Pentecost it was of two loaves baked from the house WITH LEAVEN. The contrast thus between Pentecost and Passover is in the difference in the types of bread being focussed on. Passover is the unleavened bread and Pentecost of leavened bread.

  Leaven in Jewish allegory represented sin. Thus the unfermented cakes represented the sinless body of the Messiah which was to be sacrificed, thus Christ was the "sacrificial lamb". His sacrifice worked because he was born a perfect man, sinless. But that was the first coming. Note that bread represents the BODY.

  For the second coming, as prophesied in symbolism by the second wave offering, Christ body would not be perfect, but contain Leaven, simply indicating that he would not be in his perfect body at the second coming, but would be expected in an ordinary man's body. This is simply effected by his possessing one of his followers at the time of the second coming. His perfect body was given up "Lost to him" forever because it was provided to God as a sacrifice for mankind's sins in exchange for Adam.

  Now I'm sure that these concepts originated with the Caananites or the Egyptians and were adopted by the Jews, I suppose with a few variations and customizations as usual, so I'd think some of this would be remotely familiar to you.

  At any rate, I'll confirm the harvests. It's possible the harvest season for wheat continued for a few months, but it would seem they planted in the fall and reaped in the spring, just the opposite of what you had in mind. But a matter of research, right? No bigee.

  Thanks!!!

  JC
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  JCanon

  Hi Leolaia, okay I looked it up. Just a quick rundown.

  Note that the Jews had major festivals for the year connected with their harvesting. Passover was connected with the barley harvest, beginning Nisan 15 in the spring, the first month. Then 50 days later was the WHEAT harvest, connected with the festival of Pentecost. Then in the fall they had the week-long Festival of Booths which celebrated generally the major harvests of the summer and the end of the harvest season. Here's a basic rundown of the crops:

  Month 1-2 (April-May) Barley

  Month 3-4 (May June) Sivan, Wheat harvest, beginning Sivan 6

  June-July was wine (grapes), dates, figs, olives

  Aug-Sept were dates pomegranates summer figs and olives.

  Of passing note, when Zedekiah sent out and told the Jews to come back into Judea to harvest "wine" and "summer fruits", this must have been just before this season and the early grapes were harvested beginning in the fourth month. Jerusalem was destroyed in the 5th month. Thus it was not the same year Jerusalem was destroyed in the 19th of Nebuchadnezzar in the 7th month that Gedaliah was assasinated, but the following 7th month, in the 20th of Nebuchadnezzar. This is further confirmed because there is a 2-year gap from the destruction of Jerusalem 70 years later which dates year 2 of Darius the Mede, and 70 years after the mourning for Gedaliah which began a year after his death was in year 4 of Darius the Mede. At any rate, with the presumption that these harvests were going on or just beginning places this proclamation earlier in the year than the summer, that is, late spring and with summer approaching.

  Hope this was helpful. I know that sort of punches a hole into the planting season in the spring which might have some pagan inference, but as you can see, the Jews were doing their own thing and while some things are common among all the peoples of the regions, one is not presume that everything the Jews did came from Caanan and their customs and their festivals, though certainly the Jews were influenced by their neighbors.

  Interesting JW doctrine, though they understand the BODY of Christ is represented by unfermented cakes and he specifically fulfills the "firstfruits" he is excluded from a reference by the wave offering at Pentecost of leavened loaves of wheat, their explanation being these represent Christ's imperfect followers, one loaf representing the Jews and the other the gentiles; but that excludes Jesus having representation as the "firstfruits" of wheat, though the Bible says he represents the "fristfruits" without distinction. It also ignores that there is a first and second coming, if in the flesh, would be represented by these different wave offerings. Oh well......

  Thanks, again, for the references. Hope this was helpful.