PASSOVER LAMB

The animal sacrificed annually at Passover and consumed in the ritual meal.

In the Old Testament, the ancient Priestly law of Ex 12.3–10 probably reflects an earlier custom of sacrifice among shepherd peoples. The victim, taken from the flock, could be either a lamb or a kid, male, unblemished, and born within the preceding year, hence the first fruits representing the whole flock. It was to be separated from the flock in advance to mark it as a sacred victim set apart for the divinity. The animal was immolated by having its throat cut at twilight, then roasted whole over an open fire. None of its bones could be broken (Ex 12.46). Its flesh was consumed in a ritual Passover meal during the night. Since Passover was a family feast, the sacrificial slaying was originally performed by the father of the family.

The Deuteronomic law, which transformed the Feast of passover into a pilgrimage feast, permitted the use of the young of oxen as well as of smaller animals (Dt 16.2), an updating resulting from the change from a pastoral to an agrarian economy. The ritual sacrifice thenceforth had to be performed at the Jerusalem Temple and was eventually assimilated to the regulations of Leviticus ch. 3 for communion sacrifices: the immolation could be performed only by priests, and the fat pieces were burned on the altar (2 Chr 35.10–14). The immolation was performed at sunset.

In New Testament times, the evening sacrifice was anticipated by an hour to provide time for the immolation of the lambs, which had to be completed by sunset. The owner of the lamb slew it himself, but the priests dashed the blood at the foot of the altar and burned the fat, to the sound of trumpets and the singing of the Hallel. Then each Israelite took his lamb home and roasted it whole on a spit made of pomegranate wood (PesaḤim 5.1–7). Since the destruction of the Temple, the Jews celebrate Passover without the lamb; only the Samaritans retain the ancient usage.

The comparison of Jesus to the Passover lamb is the result of the reflection of the early Christian community upon the circumstances of His death at Passover. Paul is the first to express it, in 1 Cor 5.7: as the sacrifice of the lamb is a memorial of the deliverance from Egypt and in later times was regarded as expiatory, so Christ's sacrificial death at Passover has redeemed mankind from the slavery of sin. The theme occurs also in Jn 19.36, where the prohibition against breaking a bone is applied to Jesus on the cross, and also in the Johannine chronology, which places the Crucifixion on the preparation day, when the lambs were sacrificed in the Temple.

See Also: lamb of god.

Bibliography: Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible, tr. and adap. by l. hartman (New York 1963) 1751. j. blinzler, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 8:137. g. walther, Jesus, das Passalamm des Neuen Bundes (Gütersloh 1950).

[c. j. peifer]