Roasted Shankbone of a Lamb

(Instead of the 14th day Chagigah)

(Instead of the Paschal Lamb)

Bitter Herbs

(To represent the mortar of Egypt)

Salt Water

Chervil and Parsley

But, unfortunately, the analogy does not hold good. As the present Passover liturgy

contains comparatively very few relics from New Testament times, so also the present

arrangement of the Paschal table evidently dates from a time when sacrifices had ceased.

On the other hand, however, by far the greater number of the usages observed in our

own days are precisely the same as eighteen hundred years ago. A feeling, not of

gratified curiosity, but of holy awe, comes over us, as thus we are able to pass back

through those many centuries into the upper chamber where the Lord Jesus partook of

that Passover which, with the loving desire of a Saviour's heart, He had desired to eat

with His disciples. The leading incidents of the feast are all vividly before us--the

handling of 'the sop dipped in the dish,' 'the breaking of bread,' 'the giving thanks,' 'the

distributing of the cup,' and 'the concluding hymn.' Even the exact posture at the Supper

is known to us. But the words associated with those sacred memories come with a

strange sound when we find in Rabbinical writings the 'Passover lamb'123 designated as

'His body,' or when our special attention is called to the cup known as 'the cup of

blessing, which we bless'; nay, when the very term for the Passover liturgy itself, the

in describing the service of the Lord's Supper! (1 Cor 11:23-29)

Before proceeding further we may state that, according to Jewish ordinance, the Paschal

lamb was roasted on a spit made of pomegranate wood, the spit passing right through

from mouth to vent. Special care was to be taken that in roasting the lamb did not touch

the oven, otherwise the part touched had to be cut away. This can scarcely be regarded

as an instance of Rabbinical punctiliousness. It was intended to carry out the idea that

the lamb was to be undefiled by any contact with foreign matter, which might otherwise

have adhered to it. For everything here was significant, and the slightest deviation

would mar the harmony of the whole. If it had been said, that not a bone of the Paschal

lamb was to be broken, that it was not to be 'sodden at all with water, but roast with

fire--his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof,' and that none of it was to

'remain until the morning,' all that had not been eaten being burnt with fire (Exo 12:8-

10)--such ordinances had each a typical object. Of all other sacrifices, even the most

holy (Lev 6:21), it alone was not to be 'sodden,' because the flesh must remain pure,

without the admixture even of water. Then, no bone of the lamb was to be broken: it was

to be served up entire --none of it was to be left over; and those who gathered around it

were to form one family. All this was intended to express that it was to be a complete

and unbroken sacrifice, on the ground of which there was complete and unbroken

fellowship with the God who had passed by the blood-sprinkled doors, and with those

who together formed but one family and one body. 'The cup of blessing which we bless,

is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the

communion of the body of Christ? For we, being many, are one bread and one body; for

we are all partakers of that one bread' (1 Cor 10:16,17).