Exodus 12:1 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Exodus 12:1-13 P. Rules for the Passover (first set). On the history of the Passover, see pp. 102f. Most ceremonial rules are dated from Sinai or the land of Moab: so these that follow are noted in Exodus 12:1 as given in Egypt. The first month (Exodus 12:2) is in J, E, and D Abib, and later (Nehemiah 2:1) Nisan. As the Quakers dropped the names of the days of the week on account of their pagan origin, so P avoids the Canaanitish or Phœ nician names, using numbers only, as in the later Biblical books. The critical months in autumn and spring, which closed or began the harvest, were natural starting points for the year among an agricultural people. Before the Exile the autumn epoch controlled the reckoning (cf. Exodus 23:16 E, Exodus 34:22 J), and even in P a New Year's Day is to be kept on the first day of the seventh month (Leviticus 23:24); but the text, ascribing the beginning of the spring reckoning to the Exodus, reflects the later custom, perhaps under Babylonian influence. P's record, in this as in other details, is not a historical datum, but a witness to the fact that points of convenience, like the construction of the Calendar, require the co-operation of the Divine Wisdom if they are to be wisely settled. It is only the antedating of a custom by legal theorists which gives the appearance of contradiction. In fact, both reckonings were in vogue, but their relative importance changed. The animal (Exodus 12:3) might be a lamb or a kid (mg.), but must be an unblemished male yearling. It might serve for one or two households, according to the size and eating capacity of the family groups. Ten was the traditional minimum. The command is addressed to all the congregation of Israel (Exodus 12:3), the term, constantly used in P, reflecting the transformation of a nation into a Church which took place in and after the Exile. The time was to be between the two evenings (Exodus 12:6, mg.). This has been traditionally taken as practically equivalent to afternoon, but originally meant during the interval of dusk between sunset and darkness (cf. Deuteronomy 16:6, where the hour of sunset is specified). The ritual had two essential features the application of the blood to the top and sides of the door, and the hurried feast upon the roasted flesh, with unleavened biscuit and bitter herbs, no vestige being left for later eating. This use of the blood, in view of numerous parallels, ancient and modern, is thought to be a survival of an earlier rite, intended to consecrate the house or tent and protect the indwellers. From its being a night-feast (Exodus 12:8) some have conjectured that the influence of the spring full moon was dreaded. The feast bound the household to their God and to one another. The unleavened cakes (Heb. pl.) were a kind of flat biscuit quickly baked, and still commonly eaten by the Bedawin. Modern Jews make them a foot across and half an inch thick. The bitter herbs (perhaps wild lettuce or endive) served as a salad, their sharp flavour suggesting the bitterness of bondage (so Gamaliel). The flesh must not be eaten raw, as in some archaic Arabian rites, because blood, as the life-current, was too sacred to be eaten (cf. Genesis 9:4 *, Leviticus 7:26 f.*); nor must it be boiled, as the ordinary custom anciently was with sacrifices (Judges 6:19 f., 1 Samuel 2:13), and as Deuteronomy 16:7 prescribed, but roasted, as in primitive days, perhaps to provide that the internal fat might drip down into the fire and be consumed, for the fat also might not be eaten (Leviticus 7:23-25). Moreover, it was easier to roast whole (Exodus 12:9 b, its head with its legs) than to boil anything so large. Those who shared in the meal were (Exodus 12:11) to eat it in haste or (better) trepidation, girt and clad for travel, their sandals on, instead of laid aside at the door. Later Jews regarded the haste, as well as the choice of the victim on the tenth day, and the domestic sprinkling of the blood, as obsolete features, and not meant to be repeated; but the Samaritans regard all as binding. The whole was a pesah unto Yahweh (Exodus 12:11), and the term is explained in Exodus 12:12 (cf. Exodus 12:23; Exodus 12:27, Isa. 31:15) as signifying His promise to pass over, i.e. to spare Israel; but the actual etymology is uncertain, though the general idea is clear (see p. 102, and Driver's full Appendix in CB, p. 405).