Matthew 26:20 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Now when the even was come— When the Jews celebrated the passover, they assembled together from ten to twenty in number, at some private house, or more properly speaking, laid down, and ate the lamb with unleavened bread. After this repast was finished, they washed again, and, lying down the second time, they had for the second course, a dish of sallad, consisting of bitter herbs, into which they put a kind of sauce named haroseth, made of palm-tree branches, or raisins and berries, bruised and mixed with vinegar and seasoning, to represent the clay of which their fathers made bricks in Egypt; for haras, is the Hebrew word for a brick. Then the master of the family, dividing the bread into two parts, is said to have blessed one of them in the following form of words: "Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, the king of the whole world, in the eating of unleavened bread;" but he hid the other part under the napkin till the feast was ended. Afterwards he took the piece of bread that was hidden, and having divided it into as many parts as there were persons present, distributed to every one of them, using these words; "This is the bread of affliction which our fathers ate in theland of affliction. Let him that is hungry come, and eat the passover; let him that hath need come, and eat the passover." Then taking the cup he first tasted it himself, and afterwards presented it to each of them, saying, "Blessed be thou, O Lord, who hast created the fruit of the vine." We should observe, that after eating the unleavened bread and bitter herbs, one of the younger persons present (generally a child) asked the reason of what was peculiar in that feast, according to Exodus 12:26; Exodus 12:51 which introduced the haggadah, that is to say, the shewing forth or declaration of it: in allusion to which we read of shewing forth the Lord's death, 1 Corinthians 11:26. After these things they sung Psalm, cxiii,and the five Psalms following, which they called the greathallelujah; and thus the feast ended. See the authors above quoted, Josephus's war, b. 6: ch. 9: and the Religious Ceremonies, vol. 1 p. 215.