Exodus 12a: The Meaning of “Passover”
The holiday of Passover commemorates the Lord’s “passing over” the Israelite families as He struck down the firstborn sons of Egypt. We might assume that the word “Passover” is drawn from the “passing over” of the Israelites, but some think the case is not that clear.
The word “Passover” comes from the Hebrew word פֶּסַח (pesach). This is not the same Hebrew word for “pass through/over” in Exodus 12:12; however, it is coming from the same root as the verb used in Exodus 12:13, 23, and 27. Exodus 12:27 is a good example of how both words are used together: “You shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of Yahweh’s Passover (pesach), for he passed over (pasach) the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’”
It may seem like a no-brainer how these two words are connected, but scholars still find themselves arguing over the proper etymology of the word “Passover” (pesach). Etymology is the study of word origins, meanings, and how those meanings have changed over time. There are a few possibilities of the meaning of “Passover” in Exodus 12.
1) The root letters are used in other parts of the Bible to refer to someone limping, stumbling, or leaping. For instance, in Leviticus 21:18, it is translated “lame man.” In 1 Kings 18:26 it is used to describe the priests of Baal leaping around the altar, desperately trying to set it ablaze. The word is used of Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s crippled son, in 2 Samuel 4, 9, and 19. So some scholars, noting this usage in biblical literature, have suggested that maybe the Passover is named such because this is where God jumped around or skipped house to house. As a man who is limping appears to lurch forward every other step, so God did this from house to house in Egypt, leaping/limping over the Israelite homes.
2) Others connect “Passover” to an Akkadian word (another Semitic or “sister” language of Hebrew) that means “to appease, to placate” (Enns, Exodus, 248; NET Bible Notes on Ex 12:11). The ritual is named “Passover” because the lamb appeased the bloodthirsty wrath of God as He went from house to house. I find that this doesn’t fit the context of the verbal usage of the word in Exodus 12 though.
3) Some have pointed to Isaiah 31:5 for clues. The verse reads (arranged poetically):
Like birds hovering
So Yahweh of hosts will defend Jerusalem
He will defend and deliver it
He will pasach and rescue it
We see here in the verse the root word pasach is used verbally to describe God’s protection and deliverance of His city and people when enemies attack. Because of the parallelism in the verse, some have argued that “defense” or “deliverance” is the proper etymology of the Exodus word as well. But what is likely happening here is that Isaiah is using the word purposefully to show that the deliverance he was referring to is similar to the deliverance God shows Moses in the days of Israel. So this verse may not be as helpful as it seems.
4) The other option is that “Passover” means just that: a passing over. Clearly in the context of Exodus 12, that is what the verb means. Why do scholars have such a hard time connecting the verb with the proper noun? Mainly because the other usages in Scripture and the parallel in Akkadian point in a different direction. However, it is here that I think liberal scholarship has had undue influence on this discussion. Liberal scholars believe that both Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were originally independent celebrations that antedate the events described in Exodus. In other words, the holidays were updated and changed to fit with the non-historical story (which is how they take the events of Exodus) that later came to be written down in the book of Exodus.
To give an analogy, it would be like celebrating a holiday for hundreds of years where we decorate a tree, give each other gifts, and hang stockings on our chimneys. Then, a non-historical story about Jesus’s birth comes along, and we retrofit our tree/gift/stocking holiday to the celebration of this non-historical Jesus and call it “Christmas.”
That’s what the Exodus is to liberals.
Makes perfect sense, right?
Liberal scholars who begin with a twisted view of Scripture and its history have a need to disassociate the meaning of the word “Passover” from the event itself. It cannot say what it sounds like it’s saying because the text doesn’t mean what it says in the first place.
All that to say, I think the best way to understand the meaning of “Passover” is the same way the text seems to describe it: God’s “passing over” the houses of the Israelites with lamb’s blood on them.
Bonus Discussion: Deuteronomy 6 and Passover
Deuteronomy 6 is where we find what the Jews call the Shema, one of the great creedal statements of Israel’s faith. Here is the text in full from the ESV:
Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
There are a few links with this text and Exodus 12. First, in verse 9 we see the command to “write [God’s words] on the doorposts of your house.” This may be an allusion to the command to paint the blood on the doorposts of the house during the first Passover (Ex 12:7). Moses is telling the Israelites to replace the blood with the word of God. Both represent the faith of the one living inside the house. You are declaring to all who enter that the residents inside are protected and redeemed by Yahweh God.
To strengthen this link with Deut 6/Exod 12, we see further that these words should be “on your heart” (Deut 6:6). Part of the issue with Exodus was that the heart of Pharaoh was hardened; that’s what got the Egyptians and Israelites to the situation they were in at that time. Further, verse 7 of Deuteronomy 6 is particularly striking. It is a command to teach God’s words diligently to your children, to the next generation. We saw in Exodus 12 a strong emphasis on enacting the Passover for the reason of passing down and explaining the faith to the younger members of the family (see esp. 12:26-27). The blood on the doorposts and the words on the doorposts both have the function of explaining the faith to the children.
So before Passover was transformed by the Christians into communion, it was used to metaphorically (and even literally) represent the word of God in our homes.
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