'Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.

For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.'--1 Corinthians 5:7

The cycle of Temple -festivals appropriately opens with 'the Passover' and 'Feast of

Unleavened Bread.' For, properly speaking, these two are quite distinct (Lev 23:5,6; Num

28:16,17; 2 Chron 30:15,21; Ezra 6:19,22; Mark 14:1), the 'Passover' taking place on the

14th of Nisan, and the 'Feast of Unleavened Bread' commencing on the 15th, and lasting

for seven days, to the 21st of the month (Exo 12:15). But from their close connection

they are generally treated as one, both in the Old and in the New Testament (Matt 26:17;

Mark 14:12; Luke 22:1); and Josephus, on one occasion, even describes it as 'a feast for

eight days' (Antiq. ii. 15, 1; but comp. iii. 10, 5; ix. 13, 3).

There are peculiarities about the Passover which mark it as the most important, and,

indeed, take it out of the rank of the other festivals. It was the first of the three feasts on

which all males in Israel were bound to appear before the Lord in the place which He

would choose (the two others being the Feast of Weeks and that of Tabernacles [Exo

23:14; 34:18-23; Lev 23:4-22; Deut 16:16]). All the three great festivals bore a threefold

reference. They pointed, first, to the season of the year, or rather to the enjoyment of the

fruits of the good land which the Lord had given to His people in possession, but of

which He claimed for Himself the real ownership (Lev 25:23; Psa 85:1; Isa 8:8; 14:2;

Hosea 9:3). This reference to nature is expressly stated in regard to the Feast of Weeks

and that of Tabernacles (Exo 23:14-16; 34:22), but, though not less distinct, it is omitted

in connection with the feast of unleavened bread. On the other hand, great prominence

is given to the historical bearing of the Passover, while it is not mentioned in the other

two festivals, although it could not have been wholly wanting. But the feast of

unleavened bread celebrated the one grand event which underlay the whole history of

Israel, and marked alike their miraculous deliverance from destruction and from bondage,

and the commencement of their existence as a nation. For in the night of the Passover

the children of Israel, miraculously preserved and set free, for the first time became a

people, and that by the direct interposition of God. The third bearing of all the festivals,

but especially of the Passover, is typical. Every reader of the New Testament knows

how frequent are such allusions to the Exodus, the Paschal Lamb, the Paschal Supper,

and the feast of unleavened bread. And that this meaning was intended from the first,

not only in reference to the Passover, but to all the feasts, appears from the whole

design of the Old Testament, and from the exact correspondence between the types and

the antitypes. Indeed, it is, so to speak, impressed upon the Old Testament by a law of

internal necessity. For when God bound up the future of all nations in the history of

Abraham and his seed (Gen 12:3), He made that history prophetic; and each event and

every rite became, as it were, a bud, destined to open in blossom and ripen into fruit on

that tree under the shadow of which all nations were to be gathered.