Passover
Passover is Israel’s memorial meal of deliverance from Egypt through the blood of the lamb and a defining marker of covenant identity.
At a glance
Definition: Passover is Israel’s memorial meal of deliverance from Egypt through the blood of the lamb and a defining marker of covenant identity.
- Passover marks Israel's deliverance from Egypt through the blood of the lamb and the passing over of judgment.
- It is both a historical night of redemption and an instituted memorial meal.
- Read it in connection with exodus, covenant identity, and its fulfillment in Christ.
Simple explanation
Passover is Israel's memorial meal of deliverance from Egypt through the blood of the lamb.
Academic explanation
Passover is Israel’s memorial meal of deliverance from Egypt through the blood of the lamb and a defining marker of covenant identity. A good dictionary treatment identifies both the historical referent and the theological weight the canon places upon it.
Extended academic explanation
Passover is Israel’s memorial meal of deliverance from Egypt through the blood of the lamb and a defining marker of covenant identity. More fully, the entry should be read as part of Scripture’s unified history of creation, fall, covenant, kingdom, judgment, and redemption. Its significance is not exhausted by bare chronology or geography, because later biblical writers often recall persons, places, and events as theological signs within the unfolding canon.
Biblical context
Biblically, Passover belongs to the exodus narrative, later Israelite worship, and the setting in which Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper.
Historical context
Historically, Passover is rooted in Israel's final night in Egypt on the eve of the exodus, when divine judgment fell on Egypt and Israel was marked off by the blood of the lamb.
Key texts
- Exodus 12:1-14 - Institution of Passover.
- Deuteronomy 16:1-8 - Passover in covenant remembrance.
- Luke 22:7-20 - Passover setting of the Lord’s Supper.
- 1 Corinthians 5:7 - Christ our Passover.
Secondary texts
- Exodus 13:3-10 - Passover shapes Israel's ongoing remembrance of redemption.
- Numbers 9:1-14 - Passover provisions include delayed observance for the unclean and distant.
- 2 Chronicles 30:1-27 - Passover functions as a covenant-renewal event in reform.
- John 19:14, 36 - Jesus' death at Passover fulfills the lamb pattern.
Theological significance
Theologically, Passover matters because it becomes a major redemption pattern fulfilled typologically in Christ as the true Passover lamb.
Interpretive cautions
Do not detach Passover from its place in the biblical timeline or reduce it to a bare historical datum. Its significance is shaped by divine action, covenant context, and later canonical interpretation.
Practical significance
Passover trains readers to see redemption through substitution, remembrance, and covenant identity, culminating in the greater deliverance accomplished by Christ.