The Sabbath School

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 21, 1881

The Sabbath School.

LESSON COMMENTS.

THE lesson for Sabbath, April 23, found in Instructor No. 14, is a review of the leading events in the life of Christ from the time of his visit to Jerusalem to attend the Passover at the age of twelve to his second visit after commencing his public ministry. As this includes at least three Passover visits it may be interesting to know something more about the way in which this, the most important of all Jewish festivals, was celebrated. We quote as follows from the “Life and Words of Christ,” by Dr. C. Geikie, pp. 149–153:—

“The vast multitudes coming to the Passover arranged to reach Jerusalem, at the latest, on the 14th of Nisan, the day on the evening of which the feast was celebrated. So far back as from the 15th of the preceding month, all the bridges and roads, far and near, had been begun to be repaired. All graves near the lines of travel, or round Jerusalem, had been either fenced in, or the head-stones had been whitewashed, that they might be seen from a distance, and thus warn off the pilgrims, whom they might otherwise have defiled, and made unfit for the feast. . . . . The fourteenth day, which began at sunset of the 13th, was also the first day of the feast of ‘Unleavened Bread,’ and was hence known as the ‘preparation day.’ No particle of leaven could be left in any house. The head of each family, as the evening closed, began the household purification with the prayer—‘Blessed art thou, O Lord, our God, King of the universe, who hast sanctified us with thy commandments, and requirest us to remove the leaven,’ and then proceeded, in rigorous silence, to search every room, gathering every crumb that could be found, and finally tying all up till the following morning. A further search, which must end before noon, was then made for any liquid or solid product of fermented grain, and for all dishes or vessels that had held it. All were taken out of the house, and the crumbs and dough carefully burned, with a repetition of prescribed prayers. The house itself was then cleansed in every part, and no one could enter the unpurified house of a heathen, henceforth, during the feast, without being defiled. Nothing leavened could be eaten or permitted in the house during the next seven days,—for defilement, bringing with it unfitness to eat the Passover, would follow in either case.

“This purification of the house, however, was by no means all. Vessels of any kind, to be used at the feast, were cleansed with prescribed rites, in a settled mode. Metal dishes, etc., after being scoured, must be first dipped in boiling water—in a pot used for no other purpose—and then into cold. Iron vessels must be made red-hot; then washed in the same way. Iron mortars, for crushing grain for baking, were filled with red coals, till a thread, tied outside, was burned through. Wooden vessels, after being wetted, were rubbed with a red-hot stone. No clay dish could be used at all if not quite new, and it had to be first dipped thrice in running water, and consecrated by a special prayer. Personal purity was as strictly enforced. Every one had to cut his hair and nails, and to take a bath.

“The baking of the unleavened bread was accompanied with equally formal care. On the evening of the 13th, ‘before the stars appeared,’ the head of each household went out and drew water for the purpose, uttering the words as he did so, ‘This is the water for the unleavened bread,’ and covering the vessel that contained it, for fear of any defilement. After baking, one loaf, to be taken to the priest at the temple, was laid aside with another prescribed prayer.

“The afternoon of the 14th was a time of the intensest bustle, for the ram’s horn trumpets would presently announce, from the temple, the beginning of the feast. At the sound, every one took his lamb to the temple, the court walls of which were gaily hung with many-colored carpets and tapestries, in honor of the day. The countless victims must be first examined by the priests, to see if they were without blemish, then prepared for roasting, in the forecourts of the temple, by the heads of the different households, or by men deputed by them, or by the Levites in attendance, with indescribable haste and confusion, for there was more than work enough for all, to kill, almost at the same time, the 256,000 lambs sometimes required.

“As soon as the courts were full, the gates were shut on the multitude within, each holding his lamb. Three blasts of trumpets then announced the beginning of the heavy task. Long rows of priests, with gold and silver bowls, stood ranged between the altar and the victims, to catch the blood, and pass it on from one to the other, till the last poured it on the altar, from which it ran off, through pipes beneath. When the lamb had been drained of blood, the head of the family to which it belonged took it to the hooks on the walls and pillars round, where it was opened and skinned. It was now ready to be carried away, and was borne off by the family head in its skin, which was afterwards to be given to the host in whose house the feast might be held.

“Not fewer than ten, but as many as twenty, might sit down at a company. Women were allowed to join their households, though it was not required that they should eat the Passover, and lads from fourteen, and even slaves and foreigners, if circumcised, sat down with the rest. Everything was hurried, for the lambs were required to be killed, roasted, and eaten, between three in the afternoon and nine or twelve at night. They were, properly, to be eaten in the courts of the Temple, but this, after a time, having become impossible, they might be eaten anywhere within the Rabbinic limits of the city. Thousands of fires, in special ovens, prepared them; for they must be roasted only, not boiled, or cooked except in this way. It was trussed with spits of pomegranate wood, inserted in the form of a cross, and the whole creature roasted entire.

“The feast itself must have impressed a child like Jesus no less than the preparations. Not a bone of the lamb must be broken, under a penalty of forty stripes, nor must any part of it touch the oven; and if any fat dropped back on it, the part on which it dropped was cut off. The company having assembled, after the lamps were lighted, arranged themselves in due order, on couches, round the tables, reclining on their left side. A cup of red wine, mixed with water, was filled for every one, and drank, after a touching benediction, by the head man of the group. A basin of water and a towel were then brought in, that each might wash his hands, and then another blessing was pronounced.

“A table was then carried into the open space between the couches, and bitter herbs, and unleavened bread, with a dish—made of dates, raisins, and other fruits, mixed with vinegar to the consistency of lime, in commemoration of the mortar with which their fathers worked in Egypt,—set on it, along with the paschal lamb. The head man took some of the bitter herbs, dipped them in the dish, and, after giving thanks to God for creating the fruits of the earth, ate a small piece, and gave one to each of the company. A second cup of wine and water was then poured out, and the son of the house, or the youngest boy present, asked the meaning of the feast. The questions to be put had been minutely fixed by the Rabbis, and were as formally and minutely answered in appointed words, the whole story of the deliverance from Egypt being thus repeated, year after year, at every Passover table, in the very same terms, throughout all Israel.

“The first part of the great Hallelujah—Ps. 113, and 114,—was now chanted, and was followed by a prayer, beginning, ‘Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast redeemed us and our forefathers from Egypt.’ A third cup was now poured out, and then came the grace after meals. A fourth and last cup followed, and then Ps. 115, 116, 117, and 118, which formed the rest of the Hallelujah, and another prayer, closed the feast.

“The whole week was full of interest. The 15th was kept like a Sabbath. It was one of the six days of the year on which the law prohibited all servile work.

“It was on the third day that the first-fruits of the harvest were brought from the Kidron valley to the temple, to be waved before God in solemn acknowledgment of his bounty in giving the kindly fruits of the earth.

“From the 17th to the 20th the days were only half holy. The last day, the 21st, like the first, was kept as a Sabbath. Only necessary work was permitted, and it closed with a rehearsal of the Passover supper, for the sake of those who could not come up on the first great day of the feast.”