PASSOVER (r1pD, a passing over, or sparing, scisxa), also called the feast of unleavened bread, one of the three great annual festivals of the was established to commemorate God's passing over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he slew the first-born of the Egyptians (Exod. xii. 27). It was first observed in Egypt on the night before the Exodus,. It began on the evening after the 14th day of the month Abib, or Mean, which was the first month of the sacred year, and lasted seven days, the first and last of which were observed as especially holy by abstinence from all labour, and by a convocation of the people for worship. After the settlement of the Israelites in Palestine, it was incumbent on all their males to go up to the Temple to keep this feast. The following were the ceremonies observed in its celebration :—A lamb, or kid, a male of the first year, without blemish, was selected by each household (or if the households were small, by two conjointly) on the 10th day of the month, and it was kept till the 14th day of the month, when it was killed in the evening (literally, "between the two evenings," an expression which is variously inter preted), and roasted, and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. None of it was to be left till the next day : all that was not eaten was to be burnt. They were to eat it in haste, standing, with their loins girt, their shoes on their feet, and their staves in their bands, as those prepared for a journey. None, whether Israelites or strangers, were to
partake of it unless they had been circumcised. Not a bone of the paschal lamb was to be broken, and all of it was to be eaten in the same house. When the lamb was killed, its blood was sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop on the lintel and doorposts of the houses, which was intended, in the original institution of the feast, as a sign to distinguish the houses of the Israelites from those of the Egyptians; and no one was to go out of doors till the morning.
During the seven days for which the feast lasted none but unleavened bread was to be eaten, on penalty of being cut off from the people. Sacrifices were appointed to be offered on each of the seven days (Numb. xxviii. 17-25). On the second day of the feast a sheaf of corn was to be brought, as the first-fruits of the harvest, and the priest was to wave it before the Lord. (Levit. xxiii. 10; Joseph., ' Ant.; iii. 10, 5).
The word passover is used not only for the feast, but also repeatedly for the paschal lamb itself.
This institution was typical of the death of Christ for the salvation of his people (1 Cor. v. 7); and it was at the passover that the Lord's supper was instituted.
(Winer's Biblisches Realwbrterbach, under Pa-sells;' Lightfoot's Temple Serriee, C. 12.)