the same time also another offering with them (Exo 34:18-20; Deut 16:2,16,17). Lastly, it

was also ordered that if any man were unclean at the time of the regular Passover, or 'in a

journey afar off,' he should celebrate it a month later (Num 9:9-11).

The Mishnah (Pes. ix. 5) contains the fo llowing, as the distinctions between the

'Egyptian' and the 'Permanent' Passover: 'The Egyptian Passover was selected on the

10th, and the blood was to be sprinkled with a sprig of hyssop on the lintel and the two

door-posts, and it was to be eaten in haste in the first night; but the Permanent Passover

is observed all the seven days'; i.e. the use of unleavened cakes was, on its first

observance, enjoined only for that one night, though, from Israel's haste, it must, for

several days, have been the only available bread; while afterwards its exclusive use was

ordered during the whole week. Similarly, also, the journey of the children of Israel

commenced on the 15th of Nisan, while in after-times that day as observed as a festival

like a Sabbath (Exo 12:16; Lev 23:7; Num 28:18). To these distinctions the following are

also added (Tos. Pes. viii): In Egypt the Passover was selected on the 10th, and killed on

the 14th, and they did not, on account of the Passover, incur the penalty of 'cutting off,'

as in later generations; of the Egyptian Passover it was said, 'Let him and his neighbour

next unto his house take it,' while afterwards the Passover-companies might be

indiscriminately chosen; in Egypt it was not ordered to sprinkle the blood and burn the

fat on the altar, as afterwards; at the firs Passover it was said, 'None of you shall go out

of the door of his house until the morning,' which did not apply to later times; in Egypt it

was slain by every one in his own house, while afterwards it was slain by all Israel in

one place; lastly, formerly where they ate the Passover, there they lodged, but

afterwards they might eat it in one, and lodge in another place.

Scripture records that the Passover was kept the second year after the Exodus (Num 9:1-

5), and then not again till the Israelites actually reached the promised land (Josh 5:10);

but, as the Jewish commentators rightly observe, this intermission was directed by God

Himself (Exo 12:25; 13:5). After that, public celebrations of the Passover are only

mentioned once during the reign of Solomon (2 Chron 8:13), again under that of

Hezekiah (2 Chron 30:15), at the time of Josiah (2 Kings 23:21), and once more after the

return from Babylon under Ezra (Ezra 6:19). On the other hand, a most significant

allusion to the typical meaning of the Passover-blood, as securing immunity from

destruction, occurs in the prophecies of Ezekiel (Eze 9:4-6), where 'the man clothed with

linen' is directed to 'set a mark upon the foreheads' of the godly (like the first Passover-

mark), so that they who were to 'slay utterly old and young' might not 'come near any' of

them. The same symbolic reference and command occur in the Book of Revelation (Rev

7:2,3; 9:4), in regard to those who have been 'sealed as the servants of our God in their

But the inference that the Passover was only celebrated on the occasions actually

mentioned in Scripture seems the less warranted, that in later times it was so

punctiliously and universally observed. We can form a sufficiently accurate idea of all

the circumstances attending it at the time of our Lord. On the 14th of Nisan every

Israelite who was physically able, not in a state of Levitical uncleanness, nor further

distant from the city than fifteen miles, was to appear in Jerusalem. Though women were

not legally obliged to go up, we know from Scripture (1 Sam 1:3-7; Luke 2:41,42), and