The feast is connected both in later Jewish tradition and among the Samaritans with the sacro-sanctity of the first-born. Hebrew tradition further connects the revelation of the sacred name of the God of the Hebrews with the festival, and thus connects it with the Exodus, the beginning of the theocratic life of the na tion. There seems no direct connection between the Paschal sacri fice and an agricultural festival; the Hebrew tradition, to some extent, dissociates them by making the sacrifice on 14th of Nisan and beginning the Feast of Unleavened Bread on 15th.
Wellhausen and Robertson Smith suggested that the Passover was, in its original form, connected with the sacrifice of the first lings, and the latter points to the Arabic annual sacrifices called 'atair, which some of the lexicographers interpret as firstlings. These were presented in the month of Rajab, corresponding to Nisan (Smith, Religion of Semites). But the real Arabic sacri fice of firstlings was called fara; it might be sacrificed at any time, as was also the case with the Hebrews (Exod. xxii. 3o). The paschal lamb was not necessarily a firstling, but only in the first year of its life (Exod. xii. 5). The suggestion of Wellhausen and Robertson Smith confuses the offering of firstlings (Arabic fara) and that of the first yearlings of the year in the spring (Arabic 'atair). It is possible that the Passover was originally connected with the latter (cf. Wellhausen, Reste arab. Heidentums). As re gards the feast of Unleavened Bread, now indissolubly connected with the Paschal sacrifice, no satisfactory explanation has been given either of its original intention or of its connection with the Passover. It has been suggested that it was originally a hag (hajj) or pilgrimage feast to Jerusalem, of which there were three in the year connected with the agricultural festivals (Exod. xxxiv. 17 seq.). But the real agricultural occasion was not the eating of unleavened bread but the offering of the first sheaf of the barley harvest on the "morrow of the Sabbath" in the Passover week (Lev. xxiii. 10 seq.). This occasion determined the second agri cultural festival, the Feast of Weeks, fifty days later (Deut. xvi. 9; Lev. xxiii. 16; see PENTECOST). It still remains possible there fore, that the seven days' eating of unleavened bread (and bitter herbs) is an historical reminiscence of the incidents of the Exodus where the normal commissariat did not begin until a week after the first exit. On the other hand, the absence of leaven may recall primitive practice before its introduction as a domestic luxury. According to Robertson Smith, the development of the various institutions connected with the Passover was as follows. In Egypt the Israelites, as a pastoral people, sacrificed the firstlings of their flocks in the spring, and, according to tradition, it was a refusal to permit a general gathering for this purpose that caused the Exodus. When the Israelites settled in Canaan they found there an agri cultural festival connected with the beginnings of the barley harvest, which coincided in point of date with the Passover and was accordingly associated with it. At the time of the reformation
under Josiah, represented by Deuteronomy, the attempt was made to turn the family thank-offering of firstlings into a sacrificial rite performed by the priests in the Temple with the aid of the males of each household, who had to come up to Jerusalem but left the next morning to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread in their homes. During the exile this was found impossible, and the old home ceremonial was revived and was kept up even after the return from the exile. There appears to have been at first consid erable variety in the mode of keeping the Passover, but the earliest mention in the historical narratives (Josh. v. I I) connects the Paschal sacrifice with the eating of unleavened bread.
At any rate the Samaritans have throughout their history ob served the Passover with all its Pentateuchal ceremonial and still observe it down to the present day. They sacrifice the paschal lamb, which is probably the oldest religious rite that has been con tinuously kept up. In two important points they differ from later Jewish interpretation. The term "between the evenings" (Lev. xxiii. 5) they take as the time between sunset and dark, and "the morrow of the Sabbath" (v. I I) they take literally as the first Sunday in the Passover week; wherein they agree with the Sad ducees, Boethusians, Karaites and other Jewish sectaries. The Paschal Lamb is no longer eaten, but represented by the shank bone of a lamb roasted in the ashes ; unleavened bread and bitter herbs (haroseth) are eaten; four cups of wine are drunk before and after the repast, and a certain number of Psalms are recited.
The Passover among the Jews is regarded as the Festival of Freedom. It seems probable in any case that the ritual. of the Mass has grown out of that of the Passover service (see Bickell, Messe and Pascha, trans. W. F. Skene, Edinburgh, 1891). Up to the Nicene Council the Church kept Easter (q.v.) coincident with the Jewish Passover, but after that period took elaborate pre cautions to dissociate the two.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—The commentaries on Exodus and Leviticus ; that of Kalisch on the latter book (vol. ii., London, 1871) anticipates much of the critical position. The article in Winer's Bibl. Realworterbuch gives a succinct account of the older views. A not altogether unsuccess ful attempt to defend the Jewish orthodox position is made by Hoff mann in his Commentary on Leviticus (Berlin, 1906). Wellhausen's views are given in his Prolegomena. A critical yet conservative view of the whole question is given by R. Schaefer, Das Passah-Mazzoth Fest (Gutersloh, 1900) which has been partly followed above. For the general attitude towards the comparative claims of institutional archae ology and literary criticism adopted above see J. Jacobs, Studies in Biblical Archaeology (London, 1895). See also I. Abrahams, Annotated Jewish Prayer Book (London, 1914), and Oesterley, Jewish Back ground of the early Christian liturgy (London, 1926).