Paschal Lamb
A lamb which the Israelites were commanded to eat with
peculiar rites as a part of the Passover celebration.
The Divine ordinance is first recorded in Exodus, xii,
3-11, where Yahweh is represented as giving
instructions to Moses to preserve the Hebrews from the
last of the plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians, viz.
the death of the firstborn. On the tenth day of the
first month each family (or group of families, if they
are small) is commanded to take a lamb without blemish,
male, of one year, and keep it until the fourteenth day
of the month, and sacrifice it in the evening. The
blood of the lamb must be sprinkled on the transom and
doorposts of the houses in which the paschal meal is
taken. The lamb should be roasted and eaten with
unleavened bread and wild lettuce.
The whole of the lamb must be consumed -- head, feet,
and entrails -- and if any thing remain of it until
morning it must be burned with fire. The Israelites are
commanded to eat the meal in haste, with girded loins,
shoes on their feet, and staves in their hands "for it
is the Phase (that is, Passage) of the Lord." The blood
of the lamb on the doorposts served as a sign of
immunity or protection against the destroying hand of
the Lord, who smote in one night all the first-born in
the land of Egypt, both man and beast. This ordinance
is repeated in abridged form in Numbers xix, 11, 12,
and again in Deuteronomy, xvi, 2-6, where sheep and
oxen are mentioned instead of the lamb.
That the Paschal Lamb prefigured symbolically Christ,
"the Lamb of God", who redeemed the world by the
shedding of His blood, and particularly the Eucharistic
banquet, or new Passover, has always remained the
constant belief of Christian tradition.
JAMES F. DRISCOLL Transcribed by Michael C. Tinkler
[New Advent Catholic Website]
http://www.knight.org/advent
From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright �
1996 by New Advent, Inc., P.O. Box 281096, Denver,
Colorado, USA, 80228. (
[email protected])
If you would like to contribute to this worthwhile
project, please contact Kevin Knight by e-mail at
(knight.org/advent). For more information please
download the file cathen.txt/.zip.
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