Jesus fulfilled all requirements of the Passover sacrifice. The Bible shows He was inspected and found to be without defect. He was the Lamb chosen by God for His household. He was presented at the Temple and was accepted when the priests laid hands on his head. He cleaned the leaven from His house, the Temple. Jesus’ blood was placed on the doorposts of His house, from which His cross was made. He was sacrificed in the presence of Yahweh north of the altar. His blood was sprinkled around the altar. The group He celebrated Passover with consumed His body. He was washed, oiled, salted, and roasted over the fire. The next day fire consumed all that remained uneaten of His sacrifice.
Copyright Ó2010 Bruce Alan Killian April 2, 2010 A.D. Email: bakillian at earthlink.net
Updated July 29, 2020
To index file: www.scripturescholar.com/JesusOurPassover.pdf
This is one in a series of articles about Jesus fulfilling the required sacrifices in the Old Testament. When Jesus offered up His life as a sacrifice to God, He fulfilled Scripture. This topic is complex because Jesus fulfilled the requirements for many sacrifices simultaneously. The New Testament gives us many hints as to what He fulfilled—Jesus fulfilled the Passover[1] He fulfilled the Atonement[2]. He fulfilled the Firstfruits offering.[3] He fulfilled the Red Heifer offering[4]. He was anointed, High Priest.[5] This list does not exhaust what Jesus fulfilled because He was also the Temple being anointed.[6] Each sacrifice was complete in relation to the Levitical priests of Israel or Jesus as the priest being anointed. Also, Jesus was doing all of the requirements in relation to the Temple in Jerusalem and with His own body, the Temple. So each topic will be broken down and handled individually. Some times, there is out of order information required for a different part of this article that is relevant at a particular point. Correctly understood each sacrificial requirement gives insight into God/Jesus and His ways. Many of the events in Jesus’ first and last days relate., It is important even if this subject has not been previously brought to the light.
Table of Contents
Each man to select a lamb for his family/household
Select defect free year old male sheep or goat
Slaughter them on the 14th day of the first month between the evenings
Put its blood on top and sides of the door frame where they eat lamb
Eat it (roasted over a fire) whole with bitter herbs and bread without yeast
Any left until morning must be burned up
Eat it in haste with tucked in cloak and sandals on feet
Blood on the house will protect from the destructive plague
Use hyssop to put the passover’s blood on top and sides of the doorframe
Eat inside one house and don’t break Passovers bones
General Sacrifice Rules Mandated by the Scriptures
Presented at the entrance to the Temple
Priest accept by putting hands on the head
Blood of sacrifice sprinkled around altar
Sacrificed in the presence of Yahweh
Sacrifice to be slain north of the altar
Sacrifice to be arranged on the wood on the altar
Consumed or burned up by next or following day
Sacrifice only from the flock or the herd
Sacrifice (in the land of Israel) to include a fine flour and oil offering.
Sacrifice (in the land) to include a wine offering
Sacrifice to include a salt, oil and incense offering
Sacrifice fat of animal and kidneys to be offered
Feast of Firstfruits Fulfilled
Timing the dedication of the Temple and the Priest to Passover Time
The next article on this topic is http://www.scripturescholar.com/JesusPriest.htm
A primary passage showing that Jesus fulfilled the Passover is:
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:6-8)
As we go through the requirements, it will become clear how someone knowledgeable of the sacrificial system like Paul could recognize this truth and make this assertion. Yeast and leaven are two different words for the same thing.
The requirements for the Passover sacrifice are given in Exodus 12:3-14, 22-24, 42, 46, so this article will proceed verse by verse and sometimes phrase by phrase to show how Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the Passover sacrifice. There are also general requirements for sacrifices. These will be dealt with in the next section.
Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. (Exodus 12:3-4)
At least twice, Jesus was chosen as the Passover lamb. The whole community chose Jesus as their king on Palm Sunday. It was late in the day when Jesus entered the Temple and looked around, so Sunday evening, the tenth of Nissan/Abib (Mark 11:11). In the year Jesus died, the tenth day of the month ran (by the official reckoning) from Sunday evening until Monday evening. The leaders of the community also chose Jesus (without realizing it) for the Passover when they paid Judas the thirty pieces of silver to betray Jesus. They bought Jesus planning to kill Him, not realizing that by slaying Him, they offered Him as a sacrifice.
God also chose Jesus for His family’s Passover Lamb. Each man is to take a lamb for his family. God, the Father, chose Jesus. There was to be only one lamb for the whole household of God.
The church is the household of God. You will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. (1 Timothy 3:15). But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast. (Hebrews 3:6)
There is no mention of a household being too large for a whole lamb, so no family needs more than one lamb.
God the Father made His selection when He set in motion the Star of Bethlehem. The Star of Bethlehem pointed out Jesus on Passover in his first year. The choice was indicated when the wise men came to Bethlehem. Magi probably arrived in Jerusalem on 10 Abib the day the Passover lambs were to be selected. In Jesus’ day, everyone had to buy a lamb for Passover, because the lamb must be inspected, and the only lambs that would pass the inspection came from the chief priest’s supply. (John the Baptist also identified Jesus as the Lamb of God just before the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry). God the Father chose Jesus for His Passover Lamb, if Jesus is our Passover, then we are God’s children (1John 3:1), members of His house.
A problem with the lamb chosen is Jesus was firstborn, and a firstborn son must be redeemed not offered to God. Joseph redeemed Jesus when he presented Him at the Temple and the required sacrifice offered. Jesus was redeemed when King Herod tried to kill Him. The price paid was the lives of the boys of Bethlehem that were killed.
Jesus was firstborn, therefore as a lamb, He already belonged to the Lord and therefore must be sacrificed. Unclean animals could be redeemed. Because Jesus was the Lamb, it was required that He be sacrificed. Jesus was both redeemed and sacrificed, meeting both requirements.
You are to give over to Yahweh the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to Yahweh. Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons. “In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand Yahweh brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, Yahweh killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal. This is why I sacrifice to Yahweh the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.’ (Exodus13:12-15)
“Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. You must give me the firstborn of your sons. Do the same with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, but give them to me on the eighth day.” (Exodus 22:29-30)
“No one, however, may dedicate the firstborn of an animal, since the firstborn already belongs to Yahweh; whether an ox or a sheep, it is Yahweh’s. If it is one of the unclean animals, he may buy it back at its set value, adding a fifth of the value to it. If he does not redeem it, it is to be sold at its set value. “But nothing that a man owns and devotes to Yahweh --whether man or animal or family land--may be sold or redeemed; everything so devoted is most holy to Yahweh.” (Leviticus 27:26-28)
This is the first requirement of the first sacrifice in the law (Genesis as part of the law only records the promise and those parts of the law not having specific sacrifices associated with then such as circumcision.
The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. (Exodus 12: 3-24, 42)
The Star of Bethlehem pointed out Jesus when he was still in his first year; the age lambs were chosen. God put the sign in the heavens to reveal His choice. That a lamb was chosen was made when the magi came to Jerusalem. That Jesus was the choice was indicated when the star guided the wise men to Jesus’ home in Bethlehem.[7] Jesus was selected by the Creator before the foundation of the world when He set the stars in motion. Passover occurred in the fourth month after Jesus’ birth, so this would be in His first year. Jesus was chosen at the right age but was not immediately sacrificed. Jesus was the correct sex male. One can tell how the Jews interpreted a lamb in his first year because the normal minimum quantity of people for a lamb was set at ten. It was a young lamb, between eight days and a year old.
Jesus was the Lamb of God—John the Baptist. John 1:29, 36; Genesis 22:8.
Levitical shepherds inspected Jesus on the day he was born.[8] He was without defect. Jesus was counted as a sheep because he was without sin. He was also from among the goats because he was counted with sinners. The righteous people are sheep, and sinners are goats. (Matthew 25:31-46). The Passover lamb could be selected from either the sheep or the goats. Jesus was both. This will be discussed later in this article. The high priest, as the representative of all the people, supervised the slaying of Jesus. He did so at the time the Israelites were slaying their Passover sacrifices.
Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at between the evenings. (Exodus 12:6)
Jesus was cared for by his captors (quite harshly) until he was offered up at precisely the date and time as interpreted by the priests that the Passover was to be slain. Jesus was crucified on Friday the fourteenth of Abib/Nisan and died at 3 PM the time set for the start of the slaying of the Passover lambs. Jesus was in the care of the chief priests from the time he was arrested in the garden on Wednesday morning.
Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. (Exodus 12:7)
Three times the Bible requires the blood is to be put on the two sides and the lintel of the doorframe (Exodus 12:7, 22 and 23). Since Jesus had no home, it would be His Father’s home. When was Jesus’ blood put on the doorpost of His Father’s home? The answer is not immediately obvious, but it appears that the wood of Jesus’ cross must have been taken from the side-posts and lintel or top-post of a door. His blood was placed on the sides and top of that doorframe by contact with his bloody body. But the doorframe needs to be from Jesus’ Father’s house, and Jesus’ house is the house of God, which was the Temple. How could this be? Also, the cross on which Jesus was crucified had to be clean (undefiled) wood, or Jesus (the sacrifice) would have become unclean by contact. Therefore his cross was previously never used for execution.[9] From a study of the requirements for the red heifer sacrifice, it appears that Jesus’ cross was made from cedar wood.[10] Also, the doorframe had to be from the place where the Passover lamb was eaten, but since Jesus is the Passover lamb, where was He eaten?
The short answer is the door came from the door of the house of God, the Temple, where the priests ate the most holy sacrifices north or south of the altar in the courtyard of the Priests.[11] Jesus was also the bread of the face or presence from the room where the priests ate the bread in the holy place (Leviticus 10). The Temple proper was surrounded by rooms, which were part of the Temple. These outer rooms had walls covered inside and outside with cedar and carved into the cedar were cherubim, lilies, and palm trees, and open flowers (1Kings 6:29). Cherubim overshadowed the ark in the holy of holies.
Jesus’ flesh was consumed as the unleavened bread. The meat must be eaten that night (the fifteenth of Abib). In Jesus’ last week, there were two fifteenth of Abib, so it was possible to eat his body on one night and yet die later on the same day in the afternoon.[12]
Jesus’ body was eaten at the Passover Seder, so all other requirements of the Passover meal (bitter herbs, etc. were met at that meal.) Jesus participated in the all-night watch, starting with three hours in the garden on the Mount of Olives.
The Seder has many specifics regarding Jesus. They include selecting the middle piece of bread/matzoth, breaking, wrapping, and hiding it. Later, searching for and eating it and the four cups of wine with each cup at a specific time and name.[13]
The longer answer: the logic behind Jesus’ cross being previously a doorframe from the room where the priests ate the most holy sacrifices being used:
1. The Temple was under construction for 46 years at the start of Jesus’ ministry (John 2:20), so things were changing at the Temple.
2. The wood had to be cedar to meet the requirements of the red heifer.[14]
3. Cedar was expensive imported wood and used only for public buildings.[15] Cedar was required to be burned for the red heifer, and leprosy sacrifices, so used wood would be preserved for those occasions.
4. Cedar was the primary wood used in the construction of Solomon’s Temple and the Second Temple built under Cyrus, Darius, and Zerubbabel.
5. A doorframe would be the right size, shape, and material for the cross.
6. Cedar of Lebanon is aromatic and highly resistant to rot and insects. It is soft, so it would get scratched and dinged up in the nearly five hundred years since the Temple was constructed.
7. The cross had to be clean, anything unclean would have defiled Jesus. There was not some stake in the ground to which Jesus’ cross-beam was added, so Jesus carried His entire cross, not just a portion of a cross.
8. Question: People were crucified in Jerusalem, why not use the existing equipment? Answer: At Passover time, Jerusalem was crowded with people from out of town. The law required those participating in the Passover to be clean that is ritually purified from anything unclean. Contact with something unclean made a person unclean. To this end, Jerusalem was cleaned, tombs were whitewashed, etc. Anything that would cause someone to become unclean was removed or marked if it could not be removed. So there were no used crosses, anything that contacted a dead body was unclean. Any crosses would have been removed by at least a week earlier to prevent contact with the people camping everywhere.
9. Jesus’ trial took longer than anticipated by the Sanhedrin because of the restriction that the Roman governor must approve all capital cases. Pilate was reluctant to execute Jesus.
10. The chief priests pushed Pilate to crucify Jesus. Still, near the end of the trial, Pilate unexpectedly turned over the crucifixion to the chief priests.
As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.” (John 19:6)
John 19:16-17 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).
11. The chief priests were not in the business of crucifixion, so they had to come up with a cross for Jesus on short notice. The time was short, and Jesus needed to be crucified immediately. (By the rules of the Sanhedrin, the execution could not be postponed and could not occur on a Sabbath, which was coming in less than twelve hours). Second, crucifixion is a slow process; it could take several days to take the life of the victim. By breaking the legs of a victim, the process could be over in ten minutes.
12. The Temple had an ample supply of firewood for burning the sacrifices. It was cut too small to be useful for a cross. With time at a premium, the chief priests used the wood that they had available.
13. The chief priests were in a hurry to have Jesus crucified, so they provided the wood for the cross so there would be no further reason to delay getting Jesus crucified. The wood they had handy was a doorframe from a room in the Temple that had recently been replaced. The door frame would include the threshold, which would be replaced at the same time. The threshold was made from pine and was likely heavily worn.
14. Jesus carried his cross from the Judgment hall/Praetorium/Antonia Fortress, which was adjacent to the Temple court.
15. Calling the place where Jesus was crucified, the place of the skull would have made people avoid it because it sounds like a place that would make one unclean by contact with the dead, a bone, or a grave.
16. The Temple was under construction from c. 16 B.C. until 70 A.D. Zerubbabel started the second temple, but it was poor in comparison to Solomon’s temple (Ezra 3:10-12 c. 460 B.C.). It was a time of poverty, small population. Herod the Great had undertaken to beautify the Temple, and his renovations continued into Jesus’ day.
The shortage of time is evident in that Jesus’ trial continued throughout the night the first night. The construction was halted during the Passover, so what remained would be something considered valuable enough to be worth recycling. Cedar us an excellent wood for an enduring project because it resists insects and rot, but it is soft and brittle. Something like a doorpost would get beat up, scratched, dented, chipped, etc. and look ratty over time so it would be logical to replace it. Also, because it was exposed to the elements for centuries, its beautiful red color would have become gray.
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of Yahweh spoken by Jeremiah, Yahweh moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing: “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: “Yahweh, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you—may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of Yahweh, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. (Ezra 1:1-3)
Cyrus, the Persian king, paid for the cedar to be used to build the Temple
Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters, and gave food and drink and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar logs by sea from Lebanon to Joppa, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia. (Ezra 3:7)
Do not interfere with the work on this temple of God. Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders rebuild this house of God on its site. Moreover, I hereby decree what you are to do for these elders of the Jews in the construction of this house of God: The expenses of these men are to be fully paid out of the royal treasury, from the revenues of Trans-Euphrates, so that the work will not stop. Whatever is needed--young bulls, rams, male lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, and wheat, salt, wine and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem--must be given them daily without fail, So that they may offer sacrifices pleasing to the God of heaven and pray for the well-being of the king and his sons. Furthermore, I decree that if anyone changes this edict, a beam is to be pulled from his house and he is to be lifted up and impaled [nailed][16] on it. And for this crime, his house is to be made a pile of rubble. (Ezra 6:7-11)
Darius provided the animals, grain, oil, etc. sacrifices for the Temple. He proclaimed that anyone who changed the edict should have a beam pulled from his house, and he should be impaled on it. Jesus did change the sacrifice when he fulfilled the sacrifices offering up a better sacrifice. A beam was pulled from his house (His Father’s house, the Temple), he was raised up (when crucified and also when resurrected), and he was nailed to that beam. And his house was pulled down (in August 70 A.D.) (and laid barren as a pile of rubble).
Neither the Passover lamb nor the unleavened bread, eaten in the homes of Israel, represented Jesus (except in the case of the Last Supper). While all Israel was to be a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6), Israel still had a consecrated priesthood to offer sacrifices. The same is true today for Christians. We are to be a kingdom of priests (Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6), but we need a consecrated priest to consecrate the sacrifice. The Levitical priests abstained from sex during the week when they ministered, every six months. So also, Catholic priests abstain during their continuous ministry.
The Temple was Jesus’ house because he had no other house, and he called the Temple His Father’s house (and therefore His house). Matthew 8:20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (also Luke 9:58) Matthew 21:13 “It is written,” he said to them,” ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.’” (also Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46; Isaiah 56:7)
Rev 3:20 Behold I stand at the doorway and knock—the cross as the doorway[17], come in and eat—the Eucharist. Rev 3:8 I have set before you an open door. While the doorway is in the shape of a cross, the door cannot be closed. The threshold was used to connect the three other pieces to make the cross into one unit. Jesus could knock at the doorway while standing crucified by rapping his knuckles against the doorpost to which His hands were nailed.
There are many other interesting links not directly connected with the Passover sacrifice but associated with one’s doorways, e.g., Deuteronomy 6:9; 20:11, so there was a mezuzah on Jesus’ cross. There were many things carved in every available space around in the wood of the Temple and so were carved into the wood of the cross, cherubim, palm trees, open flowers (1 Kings 6:29). Since the Messiah sits enthroned between the cherubim, there were probably cherubim carved into the cross beam of the cross (Isaiah 37:16).
That night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. (Exodus 12:8)
No one ate the flesh of Jesus’ physical body. One who participates in the sacrificial meal participates in the altar (and therefore the sacrifice) (1 Corinthians 10:18). So all who participate by eating of the sacrificial meal (the unleavened bread), participate in the sacrifice. Because it was required to eat the Passover sacrifice, the unleavened bread must be the body of the Passover because Jesus said, “This is My body.”
Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire--head, legs and inner parts. (Exodus 12:9)
The Passover lamb was roasted whole, not cut up like most other sacrifices. Jesus’ body was not cut up, but the Passover is a covenant meal, the “breaking of the bread” is “cutting” the sacrifice. The priests participated in the Passover sacrifice, but they did not get any of the lamb to eat only the accompanying unleavened bread and wine. Today we participate in the Eucharist as the priests participated in the Passover of other families.[18]
Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. (Exodus 12:10)
Any of Jesus’ body that remained until the next day (all of it) was to be burned. But it could not be immediately burned because it was the Sabbath. No one was allowed to kindle a fire on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:3). So the burning had to wait until the next day, when kindling a fire was permitted, Easter Sunday. (but the sacrifice would become unclean if left until the third day, so the burning of the body preceded dawn on the third day. At the resurrection, Jesus’ body, as required, was consumed by fire (in this case holy fire). The requirements for the sacrifice confirm the day and the time of Jesus’ resurrection (The eighth day=Sunday). That is before dawn, but on the third day so sometime after midnight.
The shroud of Turin indicates Jesus’ body was burned up at the resurrection. [19]
Luke 24:44-46 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. Jesus is conflating many Scriptures in His statement. The smoke of an offering rises or goes up. Moses said He would rise on the third day.
Do not assume that since Jesus had the marks of crucifixion on His body that He was resurrected in His same body. No, His body was different. Mary Magdalene thought He was the gardener; the disciples on the road to Emmaus did not recognize Him. Jesus was also able to pass through a locked door without hindrance. His new body had the marks of His crucifixion so His disciples could recognize Him, not because they remained from the healing of His body.
This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is Yahweh’s Passover. “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn--both men and animals--and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Yahweh. (Exodus 12:11-12)
One was to eat the Passover prepared to depart. The Passover prepared for and led to the Exodus:
The author believes that Jesus’ return will likely occur on a Passover—this can be discerned from Jesus’ command to keep watch because we don’t know the day or the hour of His return. Only on one night was there a command to keep watch and that night is Passover. Jesus did not ask us to stay awake every moment of every night.
Matthew 24:36 “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Matthew 24:50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. Matthew 25:13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. Mark 13:32 “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Luke 12:46 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.
All of these passages speak of not knowing the day or the hour, but even if one knows it is Passover, one does not know the year, and around the world, the hour would vary depending on where one was living. Second, the watch spans two days, the day the Passover is celebrated and the period after midnight, which is the following day. Third, which watch is to be kept the watch of Passover by the lunar-solar calendar, by the solar calendar or on the night following the commemoration of the last supper on Holy Thursday? And even Holy Thursday varies according to the Roman Catholic or Orthodox calendar. This does imply that the Passover watch lasts all night.
Jesus further illustrated departure on Passover. On the original Passover, Israel departed from Egypt. Jesus was conceived on Passover, so His first Passover He departed from heaven.[20] Jesus’ first Passover at three months old, shortly after the Magi departed, He and His family departed for Egypt[21], and at Jesus’ final Passover, He departed the land of the living also the Veil of the Temple was rent, the glory departed from the Temple. Further, the Exodus or departure was discussed a year earlier on the mount of Transfiguration around Passover time.[22] The ultimate departure is the departure from life, which Jesus fulfilled.
The cloak tucked into one’s belt, and sandals on one’s feet and staff in hand all indicate that the departure is going to be in a great hurry and take a long time. Before our modern era, sandals were often reserved for special occasions, like battle or church. One did not tuck in one’s clock to walk, but to work or to run, and the staff was not needed for a short journey, but the long hard journey.
The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. (Exodus 12:13)
When Yahweh goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. (Exodus 12:23)
The blood of Jesus protects the whole household or family of God from being struck down.
The blood would also appear to protect from the curse of one hung on a tree. This answers the question, why are we saved by His blood? Because God will see His blood and let no destructive plague come on us. The Israelites in Egypt were affected by many of the plagues but were protected from the destructive force of the later plagues.
Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. (Exodus 12:21-22)
Part of this verse is a repeat of the requirements in Exodus 12:7. At this point, Jesus’ blood, the blood of the sacrifice, is already on the top and sides of the doorframe, which is the cross, but there was a door that could be marked with hyssop.
A man at the very end of Jesus’ crucifixion took a sponge, dipped it in a pot of sour wine near the cross, put it on a hyssop stick, and brought that sponge to Jesus’ mouth where he drank the wine. He said, “It is finished,” and died.
Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of sour wine was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:28-30)
The pot of wine was a basin. The wine was not put on the cross (as a doorframe), but it was brought to Jesus’ mouth. (Some of the wine could have got on the cross because hyssop makes a natural sprinkler).
Jesus’ body was a house, but it was dark, or rather when he died, it stopped being dark, so Jesus left the house of his body in the morning when He died. It appears that Jesus’ mouth is a door. How can Jesus’ mouth be a door? At the transfiguration, when Jesus had been discussing His exodus or departure, the Father said, “Listen to Him.” The words of Jesus are the door to eternal life. Jesus’ mouth is the location that things entered and exited Jesus’ body.
No one is to go out of the house until morning. Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron just after midnight, and the whole company left in the night, so at least in the context of Passover, the morning starts at midnight. Jesus went out of the house after celebrating the last supper at midnight. Judas left earlier, but after it was dark and before midnight and he died. Was Judas a firstborn?
In Jesus’ day, the blood of the Passover lambs was not put on the doorposts. They collected it and poured it out at the base of the altar in the Temple. Later in this article, how this was fulfilled will be shown.
“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Yahweh—a lasting ordinance. (Exodus 12:14)
“Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. (Exodus 12:24)
Since 70 A.D., it has not been possible to keep the requirements of the Passover because there has been no place where the Passover could be offered as a sacrifice. Did God give a command that can not be obeyed? Seven hundred years before Jesus, God was disgusted with Israel and made a promise that all the Israelite festivals would stop. Yahweh said “I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days—all her appointed feasts.” (Hosea 2:11). Yet Passover was a perpetual feast. God did this by morphing this celebration from the Passover to the Mass and the Eucharist. The feast was changed from a Jewish to a Catholic feast as it was fulfilled. God stopped the Jewish celebration and fulfilled it because it was to be perpetual. He instituted the Catholic celebration.
Because Yahweh kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor Yahweh for the generations to come. (Exodus 12:42)
Jesus kept vigil in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36, Mark 14:32; Luke 22:39; John 18:1). He did not sleep the entire night. Jesus was watching He saw the cohort as it was on the way to arrest Him, and He announced its arrival to His disciples.
“It must be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. (Exodus 12:46)
Judas is the only one who went out before midnight. Jesus had no broken bones (John 19:33, 36). The mention by John that Jesus had no broken bones and that it was to fulfilled Exodus 12:46 and Num 9:12. The reason that a lamb’s bones were broken would be because that was a rebellious lamb that continued to wander off from the flock. The shepherd would bread the lamb’s shank bone and then carry the lamb on his shoulders during the healing process. When the bone healed, the lamb would no longer wander off. Jesus was not rebellious and never had a broken bone.
Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” (John 19:31-36)
So Moses told the Israelites to celebrate the Passover, and they did so in the Desert of Sinai at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites did everything just as Yahweh commanded Moses. But some of them could not celebrate the Passover on that day because they were ceremonially unclean on account of a dead body. So they came to Moses and Aaron that same day and said to Moses, “We have become unclean because of a dead body, but why should we be kept from presenting Yahweh’s offering with the other Israelites at the appointed time?” Moses answered them, “Wait until I find out what Yahweh commands concerning you.” Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites: ‘When any of you or your descendants are unclean because of a dead body or are away on a journey, they may still celebrate Yahweh’s Passover. They are to celebrate it on the fourteenth day of the second month at twilight. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They must not leave any of it till morning or break any of its bones. When they celebrate the Passover, they must follow all the regulations. But if a man who is ceremonially clean and not on a journey fails to celebrate the Passover, that person must be cut off from his people because he did not present Yahweh’s offering at the appointed time. That man will bear the consequences of his sin. (Numbers 9:4-13)
The allowance for celebrating the Passover in the second month allowed Jesus to not celebrate Passover at the usual time when He was traveling to Tyre and Sidon. This allowed Jesus not to have to cleanse the Temple for a third time, which surely would have brought retribution. He was also not In Jerusalem when the Galileans were killed.
Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? (Luke 13:1-2)
He was away at Caesarea Philippi, the transfiguration, and the feeding of the 4000 gentiles. These are three other events that have links to the Passover.
The cross had to raise Jesus’ head eighteen inches above the heads of everyone else, or it would not be necessary to put the sponge on a hyssop branch to raise it to his mouth (unless the man was short). This fits well with the cross being from a Temple doorway about five cubits (7.5 feet) high if we assume that Christ’s head was at about the height of the cross beam.[23]
There is much more that Jesus fulfilled on Passover, but the fulfillment is not according to the Scriptures, but according to the tradition of the Seder meal handed down at least since the time of King David. For more on this, see “Messianic Passover Haggadah,”[24] a Haggadah is the telling and gives the order for the Seder meal, where Seder means order.
See also Scott Hahn’s “The Fourth Cup,” where he documents how Jesus took the wine on the cross as He died fulfills the fourth and final cup of wine required at the Seder. Jesus at the Last Supper said He would not drink of the fruit of the vine until He drank it new in His Fathers Kingdom or until the kingdom of God comes.[25]
For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat--that is all you may do. “Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.” (Exodus 12:15-20)
The feast of unleavened bread is not a sacrifice. The Bible links yeast and sin. Exodus 12:15-20 deals with the Feast of Unleavened bread rather than the Passover sacrifice.
Jesus was affected by the feast of unleavened bread because of the command to remove the yeast from one’s house. Jesus’ house was the Temple in Jerusalem. Each time Jesus came to Jerusalem for normal Passover as an adult, he cleansed the Temple, once at the beginning of his ministry, and once at the end of his ministry. This cleansing was removing the yeast from his house that is removing the thieves who were soiling the courtyard of the gentiles.[26]
The Bread Jesus consecrated as His Body was bread without yeast. Essentially all the bread offered at the Temple for sacrifice was required to be unleavened. There is a strong symbolism linking leaven or yeast and sin. To link Jesus with sin would be to cut oneself off from the community. Community in Greek is the word ecclesia from which we get the word church.
Yahweh called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting. He said, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When any of you brings an offering to Yahweh, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock. (Leviticus 1:1-2)
“If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he is to offer a male without defect. He must present it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting so that it will be acceptable to Yahweh. He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. He is to slaughter the young bull before Yahweh, and then Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and sprinkle it against the altar on all sides at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He is to skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. The sons of Aaron the priest are to put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. Then Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, including the head and the fat, on the burning wood that is on the altar. He is to wash the inner parts and the legs with water, and the priest is to burn all of it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to Yahweh. (Leviticus 1:3-9)
“If the offering is a burnt offering from the flock, from either the sheep or the goats, he is to offer a male without defect. He is to slaughter it at the north side of the altar before Yahweh, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall sprinkle its blood against the altar on all sides. He is to cut it into pieces, and the priest shall arrange them, including the head and the fat, on the burning wood that is on the altar. He is to wash the inner parts and the legs with water, and the priest is to bring all of it and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to Yahweh. (Leviticus 1:10-13)
“If the offering to Yahweh is a burnt offering of birds, he is to offer a dove or a young pigeon. The priest shall bring it to the altar, wring off the head and burn it on the altar; its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar. He is to remove the crop with its contents and throw it to the east side of the altar, where the ashes are. He shall tear it open by the wings, not severing it completely, and then the priest shall burn it on the wood that is on the fire on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to Yahweh. (Leviticus 1:14-17)
A sacrifice must be without defect Exodus 12:5; 29:1, Leviticus 1:3, 10; Leviticus 3:1, etc.
Jesus was without defect called a lamb without defect (1 Peter 1:19). On the day Jesus was born, Levitical shepherds inspected Him. Part of their job was to certify sacrifices were without defect.[27]
He was presented at the entrance to the Temple (Leviticus 1:3; Leviticus 17:4-9).
Jesus was presented at the Temple at 40 days old, so in his first year. Jesus was also presented at the Temple on Palm Sunday at the triumphal entry, and He was presented at the Temple when He was tried in the Sanhedrin because the Sanhedrin had an entryway directly into the courtyard of the priests.
In Jesus’ day, there was a second gate into the Temple courtyard directly from the Sanhedrin chambers in the wall of the Temple directly south of the courtyard of Israel (where the altar of sacrifice was). The Sanhedrin chambers were called the Chamber of Hewn Stone. This allowed the chief priests access.
He was accepted by a priest, laying his hands on the head of the sacrifice (Leviticus 1:4).
Jesus was accepted as the sacrifice when the Sanhedrin convicted Him of blasphemy. The law required they place their hands on Jesus’ head.
“Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. (Leviticus 24:14)
This had to happen when He was convicted of blasphemy in the Chambers Thursday, April 2, 33 A.D. The chamber was destroyed 40 years before Jerusalem and relocated to a different place. All who heard the blasphemer, so all who convicted Jesus had to lay their hands on His head.
The Passover lamb was an exception to the requirement to lay hands on the head; it did not have to have the laying on of hands.[28]
Jesus may have laid his own hands on his head when he wept over Jerusalem during the triumphal entry because Jerusalem was not able to recognize what would bring her peace (Luke 19:41). This may have been necessary because Jesus is also the priest who was offering himself as the sacrifice.
The blood of all sacrifices was sprinkled on the ground around the altar in front of the Temple (Leviticus 1:5).
Blood sprinkled on the four sides of the altar.
Gethsemane—to the east—when Jesus sweat drops of blood (Luke 22:44).
Beating at Annas’—Annas’ palace—to the west (John 18:13, 22)
Sanhedrin—Chamber of hewn stone—to the south
He was scourged—Praetorium/Antonia Fortress—to the north (or crowned with thorns).
Slaughter the sacrifice before the Lord’s presence Leviticus 1:5
Yahweh’s presence was shown by the earthquake and darkness—dark cloud.[29]
The centurion said, surely this was the son of God.
Sacrifice to be slain north of the altar (Leviticus 1:6).
Both proposals for the location of Calvary/Golgotha, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and Gordon’s Calvary fit this description of being north of the altar. Gordon’s Calvary is more north than the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Both are also outside the walls and, therefore, outside the camp of Israel.
Sacrifice is to be skinned (Leviticus 1:6).
Not every sacrifice was to be skinned; some sacrifices like the red heifer were specifically required to be burned up whole, including the hide.
Jesus was skinned: When his clothes were removed (happened several times: Herod, Praetorium, and Golgotha. When He was scourged—the surface of much of his skin was removed. Yet Jesus retained his hide—so God was delicately balancing two conflicting requirements.
Sacrifice to be cut into pieces (Leviticus 1:12).
Jesus’ body, in one sense, was not divided, and the Passover needed to be roasted whole, but most sacrifices needed to be cut. There was always an unleavened bread requirement for all sacrifices.
The unleavened bread was Jesus’ body when it was broken; the covenant was cut, and Jesus’ body was cut into pieces.
The division of his clothes or the dislocations of his joints may count as being cut/divided.
It was arranged on wood on the altar (Leviticus 1:8, 12).
This required the body of Jesus to be placed on wood.
Like Isaac, Jesus carried the wood of His own sacrifice.[30]
Jewish burial practice had the body buried with any blood lost that could be collected because the life was in the blood. If the tomb was small and all things that had blood on them had to be buried with the body, it is logical that the cross containing Jesus’ blood was laid out under His body wrapped in the shroud. This would mean Jesus’ body was placed on the wood, and it would indicate that the place where his body was interred was an altar.
The shroud hints this happened, because the body appeared to be levitating when the body was burned up. This would seem to imply that the wood of the cross was burned up immediately before the resurrection of Jesus and the wood was burned so quickly that the body did not have time to fall the few inches and the burning was so quick that it did not destroy the shroud, but the body was burned up.
Sacrifice arranged on the altar by Aaron’s sons (Leviticus 1:7-8).
Either Joseph of Aramathea or Nicodemus was a son of Aaron (Probably the reason we are told who did the burial).
Nicodemus was a Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin, which was composed of the chief priests and Pharisees. Jesus calls Nicodemus the teacher of Israel. The office of the teacher was a priestly function. From this, we can discern that Nicodemus may have been a priest. Because being Pharisee was a way of life, there is nothing that would prevent one from also being a priest. He would still be a son of Aaron even if he were over the age of priesthood, fifty years of age.
After the sacrifice was slain, the inner parts and legs of sacrifice were to be washed with water (Leviticus 1:9, 13).
Shroud of Turin shows the Body of Jesus was washed before being placed in the shroud.[31]
This can be discerned because dried blood would not stick to the shroud and so would not transfer to the shroud. The fine details of Jesus’ injuries, particularly those from the scourging, reveal that fresh blood came out after the body was washed.
Consumed or burned-up by the second or third day (Leviticus 8:32; 19:6).
Jesus’ body was burned (resurrected) to go up as the smoke of the sacrifice before dawn on the third day from his death.[32] Because this is a significant topic, a separate article was written. The summary is that the image on the shroud of Turin appears to be a scorch image, from the body inside being burned. All sacrifices must be burned, so the evidence points to Jesus’ body of flesh and blood, being burned up at the time of His resurrection. A new body of flesh and bone being nearly simultaneously generated. The Hebrew word for whole burnt offering holah means to go up as the smoke rising from an offering. We get our word holocaust from this word. The Greek word anastasia, frequently translated resurrection, also means to go up. Jesus’ body did not come back to life. The body He had, was consumed, and the smoke of that burning rose to the Father. The reason the marks on the shroud of Turin have defied explanation is Jesus’ body was burned with holy fire, as are required of the sacrifices in the Temple.
Sacrifices from the flock or the herd and usually male
Jesus called the Lamb of God by John the Baptist (John 1:29, 36).
Christ’s death does meet the Old Testament requirements for a sacrifice, and therefore not only obeys the law but fulfills the law, and so caused the law to pass away.
There is no mention of removing the skin or blood of the Passover initially except putting the blood on the door. Later all sacrifices were drained of blood, and the blood spread around the altar.
The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. (Exodus 12:13)
In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. (Exodus 12:18)
Yahweh said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘After you enter the land I am giving you as a home And you present to Yahweh offerings made by fire, from the herd or the flock, as an aroma pleasing to Yahweh—whether burnt offerings or sacrifices, for special vows or freewill offerings or festival offerings-- Then the one who brings his offering shall present to Yahweh a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil.
Jesus transformed the unleavened bread at Passover into His body. There is a clear link between Jesus’ body and the grain/flour offering. (Numbers 15:1-4)
For the oil offering, Jesus’ body was anointed with oil at Bethany on Saturday evening. Here might be the explanation of why such a large quantity of oil was needed. Jesus was a lamb, so He would need a quarter hin of oil define.com says a hin is about five liters, by this, it would appear a hin is less than half that amount.
Since the Holy Spirit is often represented by oil (1Sam 16:13)
With each lamb for the burnt offering or the sacrifice, prepare a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering. “With a ram prepare a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil, And a third of a hin of wine as a drink offering. Offer it as an aroma pleasing to Yahweh. “When you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice, for a special vow or a fellowship offering to Yahweh, Bring with the bull a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil. Also bring half a hin of wine as a drink offering. It will be an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to Yahweh. Each bull or ram, each lamb or young goat, is to be prepared in this manner. Do this for each one, for as many as you prepare. (Numbers 15:5-12)
There was a wine portion to every offering once they entered the land, so Jesus’ sacrifice was also required to provide a wine portion. At the foot of the cross there was a clay pot full of sour wine—could this have been provided by family or friends to quench Jesus’ thirst, but because of His vow at the end of the Last Supper, he was not able to drink from the pot until His death.
Since in the land, all blood was left at the Temple when the Passover was sacrificed, but in the land, the sacrifice included blood. There is a prefiguring link between wine and blood in this requirement.
Each offering offered in the land was to contain a grain offering. All grain offerings were to contain salt, so all offerings were to include salt, oil, and incense.
“Every grain offering you bring to Yahweh must be made without yeast, for you are not to burn any yeast or honey in an offering made to Yahweh by fire. You may bring them to Yahweh as an offering of the firstfruits, but they are not to be offered on the altar as a pleasing aroma. Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings. (Leviticus 2:11-13)
Jesus indicated that men could be salt if they are insulted and persecuted falsely.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. (Matthew 5:11-13)
So where Jesus was insulted and falsely persecuted on the cross, he was salted. Physically both his sweat and blood with which He as liberally covered contained salt. There probably should not be a paragraph mark before Matthew 5:13.
Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads And saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him. (Matthew 27:39-44)
Jesus did include oil offering because Mary in Bethany anointed Jesus with a pound of oil
Both incense and perfume are the work of a perfumer (Exod. 30:25, 35; 37:29). The perfumed oil that was poured on Jesus’ head probably contained the incense required for a grain offering.
Nearly all offerings were to have the fat covering the inner parts (that is in the gut) and the kidneys offered on the altar and consumed by fire.
“From the fellowship offering he is to bring a sacrifice made to Yahweh by fire: all the fat that covers the inner parts or is connected to them, both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver, which he will remove with the kidneys. Then Aaron’s sons are to burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering that is on the burning wood, as an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to Yahweh. “If he offers an animal from the flock as a fellowship offering to Yahweh, he is to offer a male or female without defect. If he offers a lamb, he is to present it before Yahweh. He is to lay his hand on the head of his offering and slaughter it in front of the Tent of Meeting. Then Aaron’s sons shall sprinkle its blood against the altar on all sides. From the fellowship offering he is to bring a sacrifice made to Yahweh by fire: its fat, the entire fat tail cut off close to the backbone, all the fat that covers the inner parts or is connected to them, Both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver, which he will remove with the kidneys. The priest shall burn them on the altar as food, an offering made to Yahweh by fire. … From what he offers he is to make this offering to Yahweh by fire: all the fat that covers the inner parts or is connected to them, Both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver, which he will remove with the kidneys. The priest shall burn them on the altar as food, an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma. All the fat is Yahweh’s. “This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live: You must not eat any fat or any blood.” (Leviticus 3:3-16)
The fat in Jesus’ inner parts was not offered on the altar at the Temple in Jerusalem. This requirement was completed when Jesus’ body was burned up at His resurrection. He was the priest offering Himself. It could not occur until He had finished being anointed as a priest. Everything was accomplished, but not everything occurred in the standard order. Because it appears that His body was burned up in the place where it rested in the tomb, that place was an altar of His sacrifice. This required burning on top of the wood is further evidence that Jesus’ cross was in His tomb and was burned up when he was burned up.
The first feast of firstfruits occurred on Easter
On the fifteenth day of that month Yahweh’s Feast of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. For seven days present an offering made to Yahweh by fire. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.” Yahweh said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before Yahweh so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to Yahweh a lamb a year old without defect, Together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil—an offering made to Yahweh by fire, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine. You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. (Leviticus 23:6-14)
“When someone brings a grain offering to Yahweh, his offering is to be of fine flour. He is to pour oil on it, put incense on it and take it to Aaron’s sons the priests. The priest shall take a handful of the fine flour and oil, together with all the incense, and burn this as a memorial portion on the altar, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to Yahweh. The rest of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the offerings made to Yahweh by fire. “If you bring a grain offering baked in an oven, it is to consist of fine flour: cakes made without yeast and mixed with oil, or wafers made without yeast and spread with oil. If your grain offering is prepared on a griddle, it is to be made of fine flour mixed with oil, and without yeast. Crumble it and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering. If your grain offering is cooked in a pan, it is to be made of fine flour and oil. Bring the grain offering made of these things to Yahweh; present it to the priest, who shall take it to the altar. He shall take out the memorial portion from the grain offering and burn it on the altar as an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to Yahweh. The rest of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the offerings made to Yahweh by fire. “Every grain offering you bring to Yahweh must be made without yeast, for you are not to burn any yeast or honey in an offering made to Yahweh by fire. You may bring them to Yahweh as an offering of the firstfruits, but they are not to be offered on the altar as a pleasing aroma. Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings. “If you bring a grain offering of firstfruits to Yahweh, offer crushed heads of new grain roasted in the fire. Put oil and incense on it; it is a grain offering. The priest shall burn the memorial portion of the crushed grain and the oil, together with all the incense, as an offering made to Yahweh by fire. (Leviticus 2:1-16)
The firstfruits offering was to be offered on the day after Sabbath that that follows Passover. There were several different authoritative positions on when this occurred. The Sadducees, who were officially in charge of determining this date, had it always occurred on the Sunday immediately following Passover. The Pharisees took the Passover to be a Sabbath, so they had this day always be the day following the Passover. By interpretation of how it was fulfilled, it was to be the day following the Sabbath after Passover.
Since in the week that Jesus died, there was the correct and the official Passover, and the official Passover was on a Sabbath. This particular day met all three definitions of the day of firstfruits. There are two different first fruit celebrations; this first one that Jesus fulfilled was the omer firstfruits. Until this event happened, nothing was allowed to be harvested by anyone. Once this event happened, the harvest could start. This was the barley harvest. The later harvest the second first fruits occurred on Pentecost fifty days later. The Pharisees had the second first fruits always on the fifty-first day after Passover. The Sadducees had this event fifty days after Easter. The Essens had this day follow Pentecost by eight days.
Jesus is the firstborn of the dead, the first of the harvest to God from humanity. Others also came to life on this same day
Matthew 27:51-53 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. 52 The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
This is also interesting because grain represents Jesus, and Jesus presented Himself as the Eucharist. The one challenge is that this first grain would be barley the lesser grain. The better grain wheat would come fifty days later.
The Passover was roasted whole. When a man brought his lamb to the Temple to be sacrificed, the priest who made the offering received the hide of the lamb (or goat). The priests also kept the accompanying grain or unleavened bread offering and wine offering.
Jesus was drinking the cup of the wrath of God. A squad of four Roman soldiers shared a sponge on a stick for cleaning themselves after using the toilet. Jesus humbled Himself and was willing to bear any indignity.
Isaiah 53:10 Yahweh makes his life a guilt offering. … So among the sacrifices Jesus offered as himself, one was a guilt offering. This passage is also interesting because it shows that a man could be a sacrificial offering (in did not always have to be an animal).
The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. Then the people of Israel—the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy. (Ezra 6:15-16)
Adar is the twelfth month of the year, so the Second Temple was dedicated some time in the last month of the year and the first half of the first month.
On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles celebrated the Passover. (Ezra 6:19)
After these things, during the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, (Ezra 7:1)
Praise be to Yahweh, the God of our fathers, who has put it into the king’s heart to bring honor to the house of Yahweh in Jerusalem in this way. (Ezra 7:27)
Moses set up the Tabernacle in the wilderness at the beginning of the first month. Exodus 40:2 “Set up the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the first month.”
We have found that Jesus met the requirements of the Passover sacrifice, but why does that matter? It matters because we are no longer required to meet the requirements of the Passover sacrifice, but we have new requirements we must complete in our age.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. 19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-20)
What does it mean to fulfill the law? A man fulfilled his duty to his brother’s widow when he produced a son by her, and a vow was fulfilled when it was completed. If the man died before producing an offspring, the duty passes to the next nearest relative. So to fulfill the requirements of the law, the duty and purpose of the law had to be completed or continuously met. If the required offspring was produced, and one of the parties to the covenant died, the requirement was fulfilled. But when it is fulfilled, does it pass away? The law was instituted as a covenant, and a covenant lasts only until one of the two parties in the covenant died. If the covenant was between God and a group such as the sons of Israel, the covenant continued from generation to generation.
Does fulfilling the law mean that we no longer need to keep the law? Yes and No. Why? There are laws from God that have been superseded and laws that remain in effect. A law like “You shall not murder remains in effect,” because it is still possible to murder, but a law requiring one to offer a Passover lamb at the Temple is not possible to do. God in His wisdom has made it no longer possible to keep the law, because the Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. and the Temple in Jerusalem was the only legitimate place to perform sacrifices. So since 70 A.D. it has not been possible to keep the requirements of many of the laws as specified in the Torah. The law was instituted by Jesus as Yahweh; He is the one who made the covenant with Israel. When He died, the covenant did not pass away, but its requirements were annulled. It was no longer necessary to keep the covenant because it was no longer in effect.
Paul said that Jesus, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. The Passover sacrifice was completed indicating Jesus fulfilled all the requirements (1 Corinthians 5:7). When one looks at the requirements for this feast, one can only fulfill this feast by fulfilling it for the whole household of God. All sacrifices were required to be inspected by Levites and certified to be without defect. Jesus was so certified by the Levitical shepherds of Bethlehem when they came to visit the day He was born. So God needed to select Jesus as His Passover lamb. An objection is Jesus is a man, not a lamb. God, through John the Baptist called Jesus the Lamb of God and God did choose Jesus as a lamb just before Passover in Jesus’ first year. The lamb was to be selected on the 10 of Abib and kept until Abib 14 when it was to be slaughtered between the evenings. Jesus was selected by God the Father before the foundation of the world, but His selection was announced when the Magi came to Jerusalem and revealed the star or Bethlehem on Abib 10, A.D. 1. When Jesus was an adult, He was again selected to be the one slain rather than all die by the High Priest for the people. “You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish” (John 11:50). So the High Priest confirmed the people’s choice when he agreed that Jesus must die for the people and paid for His betrayal.
The house of each family celebrating the Passover must be cleaned of all leaven. Leaven or yeast is equated to sin in the Scriptures; Jesus cleaned the sin by cleaning the sinners from His Father’s house, thus cleaning the leaven from His house. The lamb needed to presented at the gate of the Temple with the whole congregation of Israel in attendance. All male Israelites were required to be at the Jerusalem at Passover. Jesus was presented at the Temple when He came riding on a donkey’s foal. He was also presented at the Temple when He was forty days old. The priests laid hands on Jesus to accept Him as the sacrifice when the Sanhedrin convicted Jesus of blasphemy because it was required in the law that all who heard the blasphemer lay their hands on the head of the convicted person. The Sanhedrin had an entrance into the court of the priests, so it also occurred at the proper place. The blood of all sacrifices was to be sprinkled on the ground on the four sides of the altar. Jesus’ blood was sprinkled on the east in when He sweat blood in the garden of Gethsemane, it was sprinkled on the West at Caiaphas’ palace, It was sprinkled on the north when He was scourged at the Praetorium, and it was probably sprinkled on the south in the Sanhedrin chambers. The blood of the Passover (in Egypt) was to be applied to the doorpost and lintel with a hyssop branch. The wine was applied to Jesus’ mouth with a hyssop branch.
All sacrifices in the land were required to be accompanied by unleavened bread or grain offering and a wine offering. All grain offerings were to be salted. Jesus was salted when He was persecuted and falsely accused of evil at His trial and crucifixion( spitting and drawing blood both containing salt). Jesus’ blood was placed on a doorpost of His Father’s house when He carried His cross and when He was crucified. His cross was taken from a door frame of the room where the priests ate the sacrifices in the Temple. Jesus was crucified north of the altar, meeting another requirement. Most sacrifices needed to be skinned, for the Passover, there is no specific requirement, but the first clothes were skins, and Jesus was stripped of His clothes, secondly, by being scourged, He lost much of His skin. The Passover needed to be roasted whole, so it was not cut into pieces, but other sacrifices were required to be cut into pieces. This was accomplished when Jesus broke the bread, which was his body establishing the New Covenant. Jesus died before it was necessary to break any of His bones to hurry His death meeting an additional requirement. The sacrifice had to be washed, and Jesus’ body was washed as testified by the shroud before he was wrapped in the tomb. At His resurrection, He met an additional requirement that is that any of the Passover that remained until the following day was burned up, in this case by holy fire as the shroud of Turin testifies. The final requirement is that this remains a lasting ordinance, and here the celebration of the Eucharist continues, so the Passover celebration never ends. It is continuously celebrated around the world. Sacrifices were to be offered in the presence of Yahweh, and His presence was indicated by several things, the earthquakes at Jesus’ death and resurrection, and the holy fire that consumed His body. Sacrifices were to be arranged on top of the wood by a son of Aaron; Jesus’ body was apparently placed on the wood of His cross in the tomb, because of the limited space. The wood was burned up in the process of His resurrection.
The firstfruits offering was also fulfilled. The firstfruits offering was a portion of the first harvested grain that was waved in the presence of God on the day following the Sabbath following Passover. It always occurred on the Sunday following Passover. The grain that was waved was then burned up. This offering was required before any other harvesting of grain could take place. A lamb was offered as a burnt offering with the firstfruits offering. The harvesting of the saints immediately followed this offering.
This topic is expanded and continued in The next article on this topic is
[1] 1 Corinthians 5:7.
[2] Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 2:2; 4:10
[3] 1 Corinthians 15:20-23
[4] Hebrews 9:13-14
[5] Hebrews 6:20; 9:11
[6] John 2:19
[7] Bruce Killian, “Venus Star of Bethlehem,” 2020.
[8] The shepherds in Bethlehem were Levites who inspected and raised the lambs and sheep needed for sacrifices in Jerusalem.
[9] Bruce Killian, “The Immaculate Conception,” 2020, http://www.scripturescholar.com/ImmaculateConception.htm
[10] Red heifer sacrifice required cedar wood be burned with the sacrifice (Numbers 19:6).
[11] The priest’s ate the sacrifices offered outside the Temple in a room directly north of the altar of Sacrifice. The priest’s ate the sacrifices taken into the Temple (the bread of the presence or the show bread) in a room directly south of the altar. I am not certain which of these two rooms the doorposts came from.
[12] Annie Jaubert, The Date of the Last Supper. The Essenes a sect of Judaism in first century Judah rejected the lunar-solar calendar of the Sadducees as unbiblical. The Essenes used a solar calendar. In that calendar, major feast days like Passover always occurred on Wednesday.
[13] Bruce Killian, “Messianic Passover Haggadah,” 2004.
[14] Red Heifer requires cedar—The priest was to take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool and throw them onto the burning heifer (Numbers 19:6).
[15] Nili Liphschitz and Gideon Biger, “Building in Israel Throughout the Ages” 2004, http://www.springerlink.com/content/k355322r146825p4/
[16] Brown, Driver, Briggs, Hebrew English Lexicon of the Old Testament, מְחָא p. 1099, Let him be smitten (nailed).
Blue Letter Bible Gesenius’s Lexicon, מְחָא Chald. Ithpael, to be fastened upon with nails.
[17] Blue Letter Bible. “Dictionary and Word Search for thyra (Strong’s 2374),” 1996-2010, 30 Jan 2010.
[18] Just as Israel was a kingdom of priests, but needed an ordained priesthood to offer sacrifice, so today Christians are a kingdom of priests, but we need an ordained priesthood to offer our sacrifice.
[19] Bruce Killian, “Shroud of Turin Shows Jesus’ Body was Offered as a Holocaust at His Resurrection,” 2002.
[20] Bruce Killian, “Dionysius Exeguus Got it Right,” 2000, http://www.scripturescholar.com/DionysiusExiguus.htm.
[21] Bruce Killian, “Venus The Star of Bethlehem,” 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y3326t9l.
[22] Bruce Killian “The Time and Place of the Transfiguration,” 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y5ykzyj9.
[23] Temple door beams size near 5 cubits or 7.5feet or 2.5 meters, 1 Kings 6:10 And he built the side rooms all along the temple. The height of each was five cubits, and they were attached to the temple by beams of cedar.
[24] Bruce Killian, “Messianic Passover Haggadah,” 2004.
[25] Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18. He drank and He died.
[26] Matthew 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-17; Luke 19:45-46; John 2:13-16.
[27] Alfred Edersheim, "The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1883) ," cites ancient Jewish sources to the effect that flocks of sheep "remain in the open alike in the hottest days and in the rainy season – i.e. all the year round" (Book 2, p. 186). There was also a special class of Levitical shepherds who kept sacrificial lambs in the field all year round because they were used for sacrifice every month of the year.
[28] Wikipedia, “Korban Pesach,” semikah
[29] Psalm 114:7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.
[30] Also Abraham carried the fire so also God the Father had the fire to burn up the body of His son. It is speculation, but Abraham brought the wood for the sacrifice of Isaac from Beersheba, could he have done that because he was using cedar wood, something that was available in the Negev.
Was the wood Abraham took from Beersheba Cedar/Juniper (some red wood)? Likely else why carry your wood from the Sinai when going three days away.
[31] Frederick T. Zugibe, M.D., Ph.D., “The Man Of The Shroud Was Washed,” 1989.
[32] Bruce Killian, “Shroud of Turin Shows Jesus’ Body was Offered as a Holocaust at His Resurrection,” 2001.