Matthew 2:19-23 – Out of Egypt to Nazareth

Matthew 2:19-23 – Out of Egypt to Nazareth

MT2:19 Now when Herod finally deceased, look! an angel of YHWH appeared to Joseph in a dream while in Egypt, MT2:20 saying, “Get up and take along the young child and its mother and be on your way into the land of Israel, for those seeking the soul of the young child have died.” MT2:21 And so Joseph got up and took along the young child and its mother and entered the land of Israel. MT2:22 Joseph became afraid to depart when he heard that Archelaus[1] was reigning in Judea after Herod his father. But, after a divine warning in a dream Joseph finally withdrew into the area of Galilee.[2] MT2:23 Upon arriving Joseph[3] settled in a town called Nazareth so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled that [the young child] would be called a Nazarene.[4] [Isaiah 11:1]

[1] Archelaus: It means “ruler of the people.” (Jewish Antiquities, by F. Josephus, XVII, 194, 195 [viii, 2]).

[2] Galilee: The place name occurs 78 times in the Christian Bible and becomes the most productive area of Jesus’ ministry.

[3] Joseph: It is interesting in this account only Joseph is named and the object of attention, whereas Mary the mother of Jesus is not named.

[4] Called a Nazarene: There are several opinions on the meaning here. Some wish to parallel the word NAZORAIOS with the Hebrew Nazrite. Most see the meaning of Nazareth as “branch-town” (or, sprout-town) and so it is a play on the words root or branch applied to the Messiah. It is possible the name is from the Hebrew netser, meaning “sprout.” Compare Isaiah 11:1 and elsewhere. The word “Nazarene” becomes part of Jesus’ name. Even after his resurrection, and later appearance to Saul of Tarsus, Jesus identifies himself with the term “Nazarene.” Even the demons called him Nazarene. The early Christians were first called by the opposers “Nazarenes.” See Matthew 26:71; Mark 1:24; 10:47; 14:67; 16:6; Luke 4:34; 18:37; 24:19; John 18:5, 7; 19:19; Acts 2:22; 3:6; 4:10; 6:14; 22:8; 24:5; 26:9. Surely Jesus was, indeed, called a Nazarene.

Mark Heber Miller 21^st Century Version of the Christian Scriptures [NCMM] or Nazarene Commentary, 2000©

*

Additional BS notes:

Herod the Great (74/73 BCE – 4 BCE), Roman client king of Judea

Herod born around 74 BCE in Idumea, south of Judea, had been apointed governor of Galilee at 25, and his elder brother, Phasael, governor of Jerusalem, by his father Antipater the Idumaean. He had captured Jerusalem and executed Antigonus. Herod took the role as sole ruler of Judea and the title of basileus (Βασιλεύς, “king”) for himself, ushering in the Herodian Dynasty and ending the Hasmonean Dynasty. He was granted the title of “King of Judea” by the Roman Senate, and took on an authoritarian attitude, having a secret police to keep everything under control.

Herod was responsible for the construction of the palace of Masada and the rebuilding of the temple on Temple Mount, a portion of which remains today as the Western Wall and re-established the Sanhedrin. In addition, Herod also built the harbor at Caesarea.

In the attempt to destroy the infant Jesus children of Bethlehem “from two years old and under,” were killed by his order. The Innocents have been venerated in the Christian Church as martyrs since ancient times. In the Eastern Church they are known as the Holy Children. The remembrance of this Infanticide in Bethlehem, venerated in the Christian Church as martyrs since ancient times, are known in the Eastern Church as the Holy Children, , in Belgium known as “Onnozele kinderen” (Innocent children) is celebrated on Holy Innocents’ Day, December 28, in England known as Holy Innocents formerly remembered on Childermas, celebrated in Spain and parts of Latin America in a similar way to April Fools’ Day.

Herod the Great divided his kingdom among his sons Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Philip. Archelaus (d. after 6 CE) ruled Palestine south of the Vale of Jezreel from 4 BCE to 6 CE; he was removed by Augustus after complaints by the Jews. Herod Antipas (d. after 39 CE), tetrarch of Galilee (4 BCE–39 CE) and Peraea, repudiated his wife, daughter of Aretas, to marry his niece Herodias, wife of his half-brother Herod Philip, whom she divorced to marry Herod Antipas and was the Herod who executed John the Baptist and who was ruling at the time of Jesus’ death.

Herod the Great disregarded many of the demands the Pharisees for the construction of the temple, which caught their anger. Simultaneously, the Sadducees, who were known for their priestly responsibilities in the Temple, were opposed to Herod because he replaced the high priests with priests from Babylonia and Alexandria (in an attempt to gain support from Jews in the diaspora).

At the end of Herod’s reign, anger and dissatisfaction were common feelings amongst the Jews. Heavy outbreaks of violence (such as riots) followed Herod’s death (4 BCE), in many cities including Jerusalem. All the grievances the Jews had toward Herod’s actions during his reign, such as heavy taxes and violating the rules, built up during the years before he died. Because of the treatment the Jews were receiving, they were ready to break free from Roman Rule. Herod’s leadership sparked such anger, that eventually it became one of the causes driving the Great Revolt of 70 C.E.

The Division of Herod’s Kingdom:Light green Tetrarchy (Judea) under Herod Archelaus,

Mauve Territory under Herod Antipas

Orange Territory under Herod Philip II

Grey Salome I (cities of Jabneh, Azotas, Phaesalis)

Dark green Roman province of Syria

Yelow Autonomous cities (Decapolis)

There’s no pre-birth travel involved for Joseph and Mary, and indeed the elaborate story of Archelaus’ rule over Judaea is later told to explain why the couple went to Nazareth. Joseph heard that Archelaus ethnarch of Samaria, Judea, and Idumea (biblical Edom) from 4 BC to 6 CE, the son of Herod the Great and Malthace the Samaritan, the brother of Herod Antipas, and the half-brother of Herod Philip I had come to power after the death of his father, Herod the Great.

Herod Archelaus from Guillaume Rouillé’s Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum (16th century depiction)

Archelaus appeared to be kind to the populace in Jerusalem in order to appease their desires for lower taxes and an end to the (political) imprisonment of Herod’s enemies. Archelaus acted in every manner a King, before such title had been given by Caesar. He thought of himself highly and is said to have committed suicide after being banished. Archelaus received the Tetrarchy of Judea last will of his father, though a previous will had bequeathed it to his brother Antipas. He was proclaimed king by the army, but declined to assume the title until he had submitted his claims to Caesar Augustus in Rome. In Rome he was opposed by Antipas and by many of the Jews, who feared his cruelty, based on the murder of 3000; but in 4 BCE Augustus allotted to him the greater part of the kingdom (Samaria, Judea, and Idumea) with the title of ethnarch (not king).

Archelaus held, in honour of Zeus, nine days of games in Dion, a small Macedonian village on the slopes of Mount Olympus. Mount Olympus, in Greek mythology, was the home of the gods. While Archelaus’ games were not the famed Olympics, they are an example of the value the ancient Greeks placed on the connections between body, mind and spirit.

Dynasty of herod (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Vrouwen en kinderen van Herodes de Grote) – Women and children of Herod the great (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

+

Preceding articles:

1. The Advent of the saviour to Roman oppression
2. Story of Jesus’ birth begins long before the New Testament
3. Nazarene Commentary to Zechariah and Elizabeth
4. Nazarene Commentary to An Angel Appearing to a Priest
5. Nazarene Commentary to Struck Dumb For Disbelief
6. Nazarene Commentary to Elizabeth Pregnant
7. Nazarene Commentary Luke 1:46-56 – Mary Magnifies God
8. Nazarene Commentary Luke 1:57-66 – Elizabeth Gives Birth To John
9. Nazarene Commentary Luke 1:67-80 – Zechariah’s Prophecy
10. With child and righteousness greater than the law
11. Matthew 1:1-17 The Genealogy of Jesus Christ
12. Matthew 1:18-25 – Genesis of Jesus Christ
13. Matthew 2:1-6 – Astrologers and Priests in a Satanic Plot
14. Matthew 2:7-12 – Pawns of Herod, the Magi Find the ‘Child’
15. Matthew 2:13-15 – Escaping the Slaughter by a Flight to Egypt
16. Matthew 2:16-18 – Slaughter of the Innocents
17. Nazarene Commentary Luke 2:8-14 – Angels and Shepherds in the Night
18. Nazarene Commentary Luke 2:15-20 – Shepherds Find the Infant Christ
19. Nazarene Commentary Luke 2:21-24 – Presenting the Baby to God
20. Nazarene Commentary Luke 2:25-35 – Simeon’s Blessing and Warning
21. Nazarene Commentary Luke 2:36-38 – Anna’s Thanks before Those Waiting
22. Nazarene Commentary Luke 2:39-40 – The Young Child Grows
23. Nazarene Commentary Luke 2:41-50 – Twelve Year Old Jesus in the Temple

++

Additional reading:

1. On the Nature of Christ
2. In the death of Christ, the son of God, is glorification
3. Counterfeit Gospels
4. Irminsul, dies natalis solis invicti, birthday of light, Christmas and Saturnalia
5. Nazarene Acts of the Apostles Chapter 1
6. Writers needed to preach to non-believers
7. Entry to Herodian Hilltop Palace unearthed

+++

Further related articles:

1. Herod: King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans
2. Herod Family and Pilate
3. Herod dynasty reigning in Palestine at the time of Jesus
4. Away in a Manger
5. The Flight to Egypt; Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23
6. Herod’s Opinion of Jesus
7. Herod’s Opinion of Jesus; Luke 9:7-9
8. Simply Irresistible: Augustus, Herod, and the Empire
9. Unearthed after 2,000 Years, the Tomb of Herod
10. Historians, Fans Defend the ‘Real King Herod’
11. Trip through Time / Merciless Ruler with a Grand Vision: Herod the Great…
12. Caesarea Mazaca
13. Spiritualism of the Games
14. Jesus and the Village Scribes: Galilean Conflicts and the Setting of Q
15. Reflections Today; Herod’s Opinion of Jesus; the Death of John the…
16. 2,000-year-old Palace Entryway Found in Judea

+++

Related articles

• Gateway to King Herod’s palace unearthed by archaeologists (ibtimes.co.uk)
  The entrance to King Herod’s 2,000-year-old palace has been discovered in Israel.

  Archaeologists have uncovered the colossal arched corridor leading to a magnificent entrance hall covered with frescoes during excavations at Herodium.

  The main feature is a 20-metre-high royal corridor with a complex system of arches, which would have allowed the king and his entourage direct passage into the palace courtyard.

  The Herodian Hilltop Palace, 10 miles south of Jerusalem, was built to celebrate Herod’s victory over the Parthian Empire from what is now modern-day Iran, according to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

  The excavations also found evidence of the vestibule occupied by Jewish rebels during the Great Revolt of 66CE-71CE. The arched corridor contained hidden tunnels dug by rebels from the second century CE as they conducted guerilla war against the Romans.

• Jesus or Herod? (mydelightandmycounsellors.wordpress.com) > Jesus Or Herod?
  In Matthew’s second chapter, we see that Jesus’ birth creates a conflict about who is King. It was in the time period of the reign of Herod the Great. Herod endowed his realm with massive fortresses and splendid cities, as well as a new Temple.
  +
  Consider what has become of these two kings. Herod the Great is dead and his rule is over. Conversely, Jesus is alive and well; sitting at the right hand of God. The Bethlehem child rules “over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:33 ESV) Men love to play God, but it is Jesus Christ who reigns.
• today’s birthday: Jesus (c. 4 BCE) (euzicasa.wordpress.com)
  The primary sources for the life and teachings of Jesus—the central figure of Christianity—are the Gospels, but references to his life also appear in the works of non-Christian writers of antiquity, including Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, and Josephus. Most scholars agree that Jesus was born just before the death of King Herod the Great in 4 BCE.
• A Christmas Wish For Leah (todaysanewday.wordpress.com)
• Archaeologists Unearth Spectacular Entryway to Herod the Great’s Palace in Israel (spd.rss.ac)
  Towards the end of last week, archaeologists in Israel announced the discovery of a spectacular entryway to King Herod the Great’s palace not far from the city of Jerusalem.
  +
  What’s interesting is that, by the looks of it, this entryway was never used by King Herod the Great or his subjects. On the contrary, researchers say that Herod ordered workers to backfill it when he decided to turn the complex into a royal burial monument and memorial mound.
• Herodium: The Palace and Tomb of King Herod (amusingplanet.com)
  Located 12 km south of Jerusalem, in the Judean desert, Herodium looks like an extinct volcano, but it really is a fort built by King Herod the Great between 23 and 15 BC. King Herod’s palace and fortress was built atop a natural hill, raised to a greater height by heaping earth around the walls, creating a cone-shaped mountain. The complex was surrounded by double walls seven stories high, within which Herod built a palace that included halls, courtyards and opulent bathhouses. At the base of the fortress was an impressive royal compound with magnificent gardens. A special aqueduct brought water to the desert from the area of Solomon’s Pools near Bethlehem. Being the highest peak in the Judean desert, Herodium commanded a breath taking view, overlooking the desert with the mountains of Moab to the east, and the Judean Hills to the west.

  

• Archaeologists Find Royal Entryway To King Herod’s Hilltop Palace (io9.com)
  According to the archaeologists who discovered Heordium’s royal entryway, it is “an impressive corridor with a complex system of arches spanning its width on three separate levels.” The entrance led to a vestibule covered with elaborate, painted frescoes, while the arches buttressed the corridor’s massive sidewalls, permitting King Herod and his entourage direct passage into the palace’s courtyard. The 65-foot-long and 20-foot wide corridor has been preserved to a height of 65 feet by the entryway’s supporting arches.
• CiF Watch prompts correction to Indy claim that Western Wall is Judaism’s holiest site (cifwatch.com)
  We noted that the Temple Mount (where the First and Second Jewish Temples stood) is in fact the holiest site, while the Western Wall is merely the holiest site where Jews are currently allowed to pray.
  +
  
• 2,000-year-old Palace Entryway Found in Judea (israelnationalnews.com)
  By unearthing the corridor entryway, the original Palace vestibule was also exposed in all its glory, replete with painted frescoes. Also found was evidence, such as Jewish Revolt coinage and temporary structures, testifying to how Jews fighting the cruel Roman occupation in the Great Revolt (66-71 CE) used the site.

  Evidence of a later rebellion was also found in the corridor, in the form of hidden tunnels dug on the site during the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135/6 CE) by Jewish rebels as part of their guerilla warfare against the Romans.

  These tunnels, which were partially supported by wooden beams, exited the fortress through the walls in openings hidden in the corridor.

  Shaul Goldstein, Director of Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority, said that in the future the corridor will be used to allow visitors to directly access the Herodium palace-fortress in the same way Herod entered it around 2,000 years ago.

• Despite the Headlines, It Is Safe to Visit Israel! (theoslotimes.com)
  Built on a rocky base that had previously served the Hasmoneans and Herod the Great, the Ottoman walls remain solid even today. Walking atop the ramparts one overlooks the Old City of Jerusalem, holy to three of the world’s major religions, and on the other side, the busy, modern thoroughfares.

Matthew 2:13-15 – Escaping the Slaughter by a Flight to Egypt

Matthew 2:13-15 – Escaping the Slaughter by a Flight to Egypt

MT2:13 After the magi had withdrawn, look! an angel of YHWH appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying: “Get up and take along the young child and its mother. Flee into Egypt![1] Remain there until I speak to you again. For Herod is about to seek the young child to destroy it.” MT2:14 So Joseph took along the young child and its mother and withdrew by night into Egypt. MT2:15 They remained there until the decease of Herod so that the word of YHWH by the prophet [Hosea] might be fulfilled, which says, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”[2]

[1] Egypt: There was a large Jewish community in Alexandria Egypt with its magnificent library and Hebrew shivas. This was a long journey by the classic trade route. Over fifteen centuries before the nation of Israel escaped out of Egypt and now its future King does the same.

[2] My Son: The Son of Yahweh as at Psalm 2:1-6. Hosea 11:1 (“When Israel was a boy, then I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”) is not a prophecy in the strictest since the context shows the prophet speaks of Israel as a “young man.” In Israel’s youth, the new nation was called out of Egypt. The whole experience was something of a parable which pointed to another “Son” who would go into Egypt and then be called back out. Matthew borrows the phrasing and applies it to young Jesus. Clearly the Son is not the same as Yahweh the one calling. The quote is from the Hebrew text and not the Septuagint, for the Greek reads: “… out of Egypt have I called (Israel’s) children.” One of those later children proved to be also Jesus.

Pieter Bruegel de Oude (1525–1569), Kindermoord te Bethlehem, olieverf op doek (111×160 cm) — 1566-1567. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wenen – Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569), Infanticide in Bethlehem, oil on canvas (111 × 160 cm) – 1566 to 1567. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Text of the Gospel of Matthew in the 21^st Century Version of the Christian Scriptures [NCMM] or Nazarene Commentary 2000©. This rendering by Mark Heber Miller may be considered a literal version with limited paraphrase.

+

Preceding articles:

1. The Advent of the saviour to Roman oppression
2. Story of Jesus’ birth begins long before the New Testament
3. Nazarene Commentary to Zechariah and Elizabeth
4. Nazarene Commentary to An Angel Appearing to a Priest
5. Nazarene Commentary to Struck Dumb For Disbelief
6. Nazarene Commentary to Elizabeth Pregnant
7. Nazarene Commentary Luke 1:46-56 – Mary Magnifies God
8. Nazarene Commentary Luke 1:57-66 – Elizabeth Gives Birth To John
9. Nazarene Commentary Luke 1:67-80 – Zechariah’s Prophecy
10. With child and righteousness greater than the law
11. Matthew 1:1-17 The Genealogy of Jesus Christ
12. Matthew 1:18-25 – Genesis of Jesus Christ
13. Matthew 2:1-6 – Astrologers and Priests in a Satanic Plot
14. Nazarene Commentary Luke 2:8-14 – Angels and Shepherds in the Night
15. Nazarene Commentary Luke 2:15-20 – Shepherds Find the Infant Christ
16. Nazarene Commentary Luke 2:21-24 – Presenting the Baby to God
17. Nazarene Commentary Luke 2:25-35 – Simeon’s Blessing and Warning
18. Nazarene Commentary Luke 2:36-38 – Anna’s Thanks before Those Waiting
19. Nazarene Commentary Luke 2:39-40 – The Young Child Grows
20. Nazarene Commentary Luke 2:41-50 – Twelve Year Old Jesus in the Temple

Upcoming article:

• Matthew 2:16-18 – Slaughter of the Innocents

 

+++

Related articles

• The depiction of Mary in Western art (timesunion.com)
  The first images that I showed were of the Virgin Mary, sculptures from the 12^th and 13^th centuries.  I mentioned that it was only in the 12^th century that images of Christ and Mary began to appear often in Western art. From this time on, they would be the dominant religious images in the Christian world, one male and the other female. The 12^th-century images that I showed  began with a hieratic Mary, a mother who held a child in her lap, with whom there was no personal contact, no intimacy.  This changed in 13^th-century images. There is interplay between the Virgin and infant Jesus, playful contact between a mother and her child.  I then turned from preliminary medieval images of Mary to scenes of the Nativity from the 16^th and 17^th centuries.
• Massacre of the Innocents (nation.com.pk)
  The Gospel of Matthews narrates the horrific Biblical account of the killing of infants by the then Roman appointed Jewish king of Israel, Herod, at the time of the birth of Jesus. As it turns out, a prophecy in the Old Testament, made by Jeremiah the prophet, spoke of the birth of a new king of Jews (Hazrat Isa A.S.), ‘who would be born on the night that a star comes out of Jacob’. When Jewish astrologers of the time, the Magi, informed Herod of the coming of this event, he ordered that every child under the age of two be killed in and around the town of Bethlehem. Herod had hoped that this Massacre of the Innocents would achieve two goals: 1) it would preserve the future reign of Herod’s progeny, and 2) it would wipe out the existence, message, and purpose of the promised Messiah. Herod failed in achieving both these objectives. Per the Divine Will, just before the Massacre of Innocents started, Joseph and Mary (Hazrat Maryam A.S.) took the child, and escaped to Egypt. And thus the prophet and his mission were preserved, only to return to Israel ten years later and proclaim the truth of God.
  Two thousand years later, five thousand kilometers away from the towns of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, in the Army Public School, Peshawar, another Massacre of the Innocents took place on Tuesday.
• The Nativity According to Matthew (davidscommonplacebook.wordpress.com)
  It is also not clear just what the Star of Bethlehem actually was. There have been several theories presented, but none of them are entirely satisfactory. The star might have been a supernova, perhaps in a nearby galaxy. There is no way to know for certain since any supernova remnant so far away would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to detect. It might also have been a comet. This is rather unlikely. Although a comet would behave much as the star is said to behave, hanging in the sky over a certain location for several nights, comets were universally perceived as being harbingers of disaster in ancient, and not so ancient, times. The most likely explanation is a conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. The astronomer Keppler discovered that there was indeed such a conjunction in the year 7 BC. The following year there was another conjunction of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. This might have been very impressive to the Magi. It may also be that the Star was a supernatural phenomenon and one that cannot be studied today.
• Prophecy in Israel and the Ancient Near East (reformedreader.wordpress.com)
  Is prophetism in ancient Israel simply one form of ancient Near Eastern prophecy among many? Is it distinct from other forms of ANE prophecy? If so, how? In his newly published Interpreting the Prophetic Books: An Exegetical Handbook, Gary V. Smith notes some similarities, but also some key differences between biblical and ANE prophecy. He also explains the frustration the true prophets of God felt when people disregarded their messages for the messages of the false prophets:
• Why Mary and her Immaculate Conception matter (manilatimes.net)
  Scripture tells of no supernatural feats by the Blessed Virgin, who lived simply as a mother and a spouse, caring for her Son, and accompanying Him in life and death.
• Being Spiritually Grounded (transformationlifestyle.wordpress.com)
  I want it to be known that lasting healing comes from God (YHWH), it is a gift to the believer paid for by the stripes on Yahushah’s back. (Isa. 53:5)
• Jesus… the Ubermensch? (existentialanswers.wordpress.com)
  I made a pretty bold claim that I believe Jesus of Nazareth is the best possible candidate to rightfully hold the title “Ubermensch.”
  +
  we must understand the assumption that Jesus believed in the Hebrew, monotheistic God (Yahweh, or, in Hebrew, YHWH). A monotheistic God is a divine, maximally great being, that is a single entity, and has the power to interact in the world. Jesus was not a polytheist (belief in multiple gods), a pantheist (belief that everything is part of an impersonal god), or an atheist (belief in no gods). I shall write from the assumption that a monotheistic God (YHWH) exists, because one cannot truly understand Jesus without this first assumption.
• Prophecy Fulfilled: Flight Into Egypt (born2bfree.wordpress.com)
  Herod instructed the wise men to return to him and let him know where Jesus was, so that he might “come and worship Him also.”  Herod had nodesire to worship Him.  Hisdesire was to destroy Him.  However, the wise men were warned by God in a dream to return home another way,rather than returning to Herod.  And God intervened also to warn Joseph.  The account of the family’s departure and returnis filled with prophecies fulfilled:Prophecy:

  Hosea 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

• Jerry Hwang on The Missio Dei in the Book of the Twelve (bibleandmission.redcliffe.org)
  Recent OT scholarship has increasingly recognised that the Minor Prophets were compiled by Hebrew scribes to be read as a cohesive anthology. While acknowledging that each book of the Minor Prophets exhibits a distinctive individuality, scholars continue to debate how to interpret the collection as a coherent whole. In this vein, I propose that the major themes of the Minor Prophets – land, kingship, the move from judgement to salvation, and the relationship of Israel to the nations – fine a unifying link in the missio Dei. The plan of God to redeem his entire creation is progressively unfolded in the Minor Prophets, in that the apostasy of God’s people in God’s land (Hosea; Joel) is but the first step in a history of redemption which culminates with the recognition by all nations that YHWH alone is worthy
• Hosea Say What? (christianreformedink.wordpress.com)
  It looks like Matthew is connecting the prophetic dots by the slimmest of connections.
  +
  Those who suggest Matthew is playing free association with Biblical prophecy–“Jesus came out of Egypt; here’s something in the prophets about coming out of Egypt; let’s put these two things together”–haven’t looked closely at how Matthew uses the Old Testament in his Gospel. More than any gospel writer, Matthew goes to great lengths to show that Jesus’ birth, life, and death, are rooted firmly in the Old Testament. Jesus was born of a virgin (fulfilling Isaiah 7:14). He was born in Bethlehem (fulfilling Micah 5:1-2). He was sought out to be killed by Herod (fulfilling Jeremiah 31:15). He was preceded by John preparing the way (fulfilling Isaiah 40:3). He healed diseases (fulfilling Isaiah 53:4). He spoke through parables (fulfilling Psalm 78:2). He came to Jerusalem riding on a donkey (fulfilling Zechariah 9:9). Matthew is very deliberate with his use of the Old Testament. So his citing of Hosea 11 must be more than just a loosey-goosey connection with the word Egypt.

14 Nisan a day to remember #5 The Day to celebrate

God’s Passover is to be held on the fourteenth day of the first month

The Bible tells us that Passover is always on Nisan 14. Numbers 28:16-17 says: “In the first month on the 14th day of the month is Adonai’s Pesach (Passover). On the 15th day of the month is to be a feast.” The Scriptures verify this several times. On the 14th, as Jehovah instructed, His people were to slaughter the lamb toward twilight/dusk toward the evening and eat it “that same night” – because the 15th was to be a feast.

The Jews’ Passover, by James Tissot (1836–1902) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So on the night when the 14th Nisan begins we as believers come together to commemorate the last moments of the life of Jesus Christ. The days afterwards we can gather with family and friends and celebrate the liberation of God’s people. When it is still day light it would be still the 14th of Nisan but as soon the sun goes under the 15th of Nisan begins and the evening meal can be taken full of joy, because the people who could leave Egypt was the way to the Land of God for the Jews. And the death of Christ was the liberation of all people so that everybody could receive the opportunity to come closer to God and would be able to enter the Kingdom of God.

We should always remember that Jesus himself said to the apostles, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;” (Luke 22:15 NAS) Jeshua died on the first evening of Passover, and Passover seders are to be held on the evening (sunset) of Nisan 14th, for the 15th (which starts immediately after sunset) is to be a feast (Numbers 28:16-17).

As such we are happy to invite everybody to gather with those who believe in Christ his death and resurrection for becoming our mediator between God and man and would like to find them in prayer and worship on 14 Nisan at the memorial table.

“”For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite [you.]” (Exodus 12:23 NAS)

“”You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. And none shall appear before Me empty-handed.” (Exodus 23:15 NAS)

“”You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.” (Exodus 34:18 NAS)

“3  “You shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), in order that you may remember all the days of your life the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. 4  “For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory, and none of the flesh which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall remain overnight until morning. 5  “You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your towns which the LORD your God is giving you; 6  but at the place where the LORD your God chooses to establish His name, you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the time that you came out of Egypt. 7  “And you shall cook and eat it in the place which the LORD your God chooses. And in the morning you are to return to your tents. 8  “Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God; you shall do no work on it.” (Deuteronomy 16:3-8 NAS)

2013 Confusion or controversy

This year there were many controversies on which day to hold the Memorial Meal. We take the gospel of John in consideration where is spoken of the 14th of Nisan as “the preparation of the Passover.” The next morning, after the final supper Jeshua had with his disciples, after the Jews had apprehended Jeshua and interrogated him, early that morning, they led him to the hall of judgement be judged by Pontius Pilate, Roman governor. The Jews themselves, however, would not go into the Roman judgement hall, “lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the Passover” (John 18:28). Clearly Passover had not yet come. So for sure the 14 Nisan or our Memorial Meal service would have to take place one evening before the night the Jews would take their Pesach seder.

According to certain Jewish groups Erev Pesach (‘Eve of Passover’) – First Seder would be on Monday March 25, 14 Nissan, 5773.
The Torah (Exodus 12:15, as per Talmud, Pesachim 5a) sets midday of Nissan 14—for 2013 on Monday March 25^th –as the deadline for the destruction and/or removal of all leavened foods (“chametz”) from their possession in preparation for the festival of Passover, which begins that evening at nightfall. In practice, Torah law mandates that we desist from eating chametz two hours before midday, and that no leaven remain in our possession an hour before midday. These are not clock hours but “proportional hours”, defined by Jewish law as a 12th part of the time between sunrise and sunset.
When the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, the Passover offering was brought there on the afternoon of Nissan 14 which would mean on the afternoon Tuesday 26. That day it is commemorated by the Jews their recitation of the “Order of the Passover Offering” in the afternoon of Tuesday 26 March, by the “shankbone” placed on the seder plate this evening, and the afikoman — a portion of matzah eaten in its stead at the end of the seder meal.

The Jewish calendar date begins at sundown of the night beforehand. Thus all holiday observances begin at sundown on the secular dates listed, with the following day being the first full day of the holiday. (Thus, the first Passover seder is held on the evening of the first date listed.) Jewish calendar dates conclude at nightfall.

The first two days of Passover (from sundown of the first date listed, until nightfall two days later) are full-fledged, no-work-allowed holiday days. The subsequent four days are Chol Hamoed, when work is allowed, albeit with restrictions. Chol Hamoed is followed by another two full holiday days.

According Chabad the holiday of Pesach, or Passover, falling on the Hebrew calendar dates of Nissan 15-22.

Here are coinciding secular dates for the upcoming years:

2013:   March 25-April 2

First Seder – Night of Monday, March 25, 2013
First Day – Tuesday March 26, 2013
Second Seder – Night of Tuesday March 26, 2013
Second Day – Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Seventh Day – Monday, April 1, 2013
Eighth Day – Tuesday, April 2, 2013

2014:   April 14-22

2015:   April 3-11

2016:   April 22-30

2017:   April 10-18

According to The Premier Kosher Information Source on the Internet Passover begins with the first Seder on the eve of the 15^th day of Nisan, corresponding (according to them) to Monday evening, March 25, 2013, and ends outside of Israel at the conclusion of the 22^nd day of Nisan, corresponding to Tuesday evening, April 2, 2013.

Festive Seder table with wine, matza and Seder plate. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

According to us we have to take in account the difference of timing of the East (Jerusalem), Europe and the United States (even there the East and West coast).

For 2013 we had New Moon on March the 11^th and Full Moon on March 27, so 14 Nisan should be on the evening of 26 March this year.

Therefore we kindly invite you to join us on Tuesday night for the Memorial of Jesus’ death, the Pesach or Lamb of God. On that evening we shall meet to commemorate the greatest man on earth and we shall examine what makes Jesus—and his sacrifice—so vitally important.

+

Preceding articles: 14 Nisan a day to remember #4 A Lamb slain

14 Nisan a day to remember #3 Before the Passover-feast

14 Nisan a day to remember #2 Time of Jesus

14 Nisan a day to remember #1 Inception

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: 14 Nisan een dag om te herinneren #5 De te vieren dag

++

Please do find also other related articles:

Articles on 14 Nisan and Pesach/Pascha:

1. 1 -15 Nisan
2. Day of remembrance coming near
3. Around the feast of Unleavened Bread
4. Pesach
5. Korban Pesach
6. Seven days of Passover
7. Day of remembrance coming near
8. Observance of a day to Remember
9. Jesus memorial
10. Bread and Wine
11. Deliverance and establishement of a theocracy
12. High Holidays not only for Israel
13. Festival of Freedom and persecutions

About Jesus his death:

1. About a man who changed history of humankind
2. How is it that Christ pleased God so perfectly?
3. God showing how far He is willing to go to save His children
4. Grace and beloved by God
5. The meek one riding on an ass
6. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross?
7. A new exodus and offering of a Lamb
8. Ransom for all
9. Swedish theologian finds historical proof Jesus did not die on a cross
10. Impaled until death overtook him
11. The day Jesus died
12. Jesus three days in hell
13. The redemption of man by Christ Jesus
14. The one who makes us well and gives life

About Easter:

1. Peter Cottontail and a Bunny laying Eastereggs
2. Altered to fit a Trinity
3. Jesus is risen
4. Risen With Him
5. Christ has indeed been raised from the dead
6. A season of gifts
7. Wishing lanterns and Christmas

+++

Related articles

• How long was Jesus in the grave? (wnd.com)
  For centuries, Christians have observed the crucifixion of Jesus as being on Friday afternoon and the resurrection at dawn the following Sunday. This is only a period of about  40 hours and certainly does not fit Jesus’ prediction of three days and three nights?
  “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a whale, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth,”  Matthew 12:40. The problem is neither with Jesus’ prediction nor with the Bible. The problem is with our tradition that misses a very important fact of the events of that week in Jesus’ ministry. The Bible tells us that Jesus was crucified on the Day of Preparation for the Passover Sabbath (Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54, John 19:14, 31). The Hebrew calendar begins each day at the evening twilight of the previous day. For example, the Jewish Friday begins at what would be the beginning of Thursday evening on our calendars. The Day of Preparation for Passover was always the 14^th of the Hebrew month Abib (also known as Nisan). Passover began that evening, the 15^th.

• Preparations for the Passover Meal – Luke 22: 7-13 (shalommysticwind.wordpress.com)
  The synoptic want to emphasize the Passover significance of the Last Supper and therefore they date it to the night of 14^th or 15^th of Nisan when the Jews celebrate their Passover Meal. Here the Last Supper is presented as Jesus’ own Passover, the new Passover Meal of his own body and blood. In gospel of John, however, the death of Jesus is connected with the Passover and not the Last Supper. Jesus the Lamb of God is sacrificed on the Cross at a time when the Passover lambs are slaughtered in preparation for the Passover Meal.

• Passover and the Feast of First Fruits (thebereanstand.wordpress.com)
  At the end of this month Christians around the world will be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the week before Jews will be observing the Passover. What most Christians do not know is that these two “Holy-days” are related to each other. The story of the preparations for the Passover Meal is itself introductory to the account of the Last Supper in Luke 22: 14-23.
  +
  The parallel passages in Matthew 26: 17-19 and Mark 14: 12-16 also present Jesus’ meal with his disciples as a Passover Meal held on the 14^th or 15^th night of Nisan. The same night Jesus was arrested and the following day, namely, on 15^th of Nisan he was crucified. It is also interesting to note that the three synoptic evangelists explicitly mention that day as the day of preparation, that is, the day before a Sabbath (cf. Mk 15: 42; Mt 27: 62; Lk 23; 54-56). The fourth evangelist (John) is also in agreement with the synoptic on this point.

• Our Passover Lamb (eternalchrist.wordpress.com)
  What does it mean that Christ is the fulfillment of the Law and prophets?One of the ways we can see this is by examining the Feasts ofIsrael. YHWH established appointed times that the nation of Israel wouldmeet with Him in worship and thanksgiving. There were three feasts in the Spring (Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits); one in the Summer (Pentecost); and three in the Fall (Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacle).
  Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of these feasts, or appointed times.

• Faith Without Obidience (ioan17.wordpress.com)
   Special care was to be taken of this lamb until the 14th of the month, the Passover, when the lamb would be slaughtered at twilight.  On the original Passover, the blood of the  lamb was smeared on the doorposts of every Hebrew home to distinguish them from the Egyptians and to protect them from the destroyer.

• Happy Passover 2013 (/aksyrin.wordpress.com)
  Much of the symbolism of Jesus’ last Passover week is lost to us because we are unaware of the customs of the time.
  +
  The day Jesus was crucified was the day of the Passover celebration and the day that the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed. For the previous 1,200 years, the priest would blow the shophar (ram’s horn) at 3:00 p.m. – the moment the lamb was sacrificed, and all the people would pause to contemplate the sacrifice for sins on behalf of the people of Israel.At 3:00, when Jesus was being crucified, He said, “It is finished” – at the moment that the Passover lamb was sacrificed and the shophar was blown from the Temple. The sacrifice of the lamb of God was fulfilled at the hour that the symbolic animal sacrifice usually took place. At the same time, the veil of the Temple (a three-inch thick, several  story high cloth that demarked the Holy of Holies) tore from top to bottom – representing a removal of the separation between God and man. Fifty days later, on the  anniversary of the giving of the law (Pentecost), God left the earthly temple to inhabit those who call on the name of Jesus through His Holy Spirit.
• The Lamb of God (calvinistview.com)
  One source tells us that around the time of Christ, 256,000 lambs were slain in Jerusalem for just one Passover. According to ancient Jewish law, there were ten people required for every one lamb. So that puts the population in Jerusalem for Passover at roughly 2.5 million people plus!

• The Passover Lamb has Gone Missing (waynehilsden.com)
  After sunset we join Jews around the world in a “seder” meal.
  +
  The lamb has gone missing. Yet the lamb of God was essential to Israel‘s redemption. As followers of Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah we behold with the Jewish prophet John “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).  And we celebrate Passover knowing that Jesus is the reason for the season. In the words of Rabbi Saul/Paul, “For indeed Messiah, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” (1 Corinthians 5:7)

14 Nisan a day to remember #1 Inception

14 Nisan a day to remember

The last day in the life of Jeshua, Jesus Christ

The day Jesus (the Nazarene Jeshua) was led from Caiaphas into the Praetorium  the Jewish priests didn’t enter into the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover (Pesach/Pessah). (John 18:28) Earlier in the day, when darkness had come to enter Jesus and his closest friends had come together in an upperroom in the city Jerusalem. Between the two evenings Jesus and his disciples had kept to the tradition and to the Law of God to prepare to slay the Passover Lamb.

Giotto’s depiction of Jesus before Caiaphas in the morning based on Luke 22 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jesus had remembered that Jehovah had spoken to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt that this month Nisan had to be to them the beginning of months. So for the People of God it became the first month of the year. On the tenth day of this month, the people in the time of Moses when they were still slaves in Egypt had take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household; and if the household was too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbour next to his house to take one according to the number of the souls. The people of Moses had to choose a lamb without blemish, a male a year old. They had to keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel then had to kill it at evening. Next they had to take some of the blood, and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they were going to eat the flesh, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. It was not eaten raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; with its head, its legs and its inner parts and nothing of it was to remain until the morning. That which remained of it until the morning had to be burned with fire or put on the Sheol (hell, the burning place for corpses out of a town).

“1 And Jehovah spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth [day] of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household: 4 and if the household be too little for a lamb, then shall he and his neighbor next unto his house take one according to the number of the souls; according to every man’s eating ye shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old: ye shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats: 6 and ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at even. 7 And they shall take of the blood, and put it on the two side-posts and on the lintel, upon the houses wherein they shall eat it. 8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Eat not of it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roast with fire; its head with its legs and with the inwards thereof. 10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.” (Exodus 12:1-10 ASV)

The Call of the Most High to evade the plague of death

God had ordered Moses to call for all the elders of Israel, and to tell them to draw out and to take lambs according to their families, and kill the lambs as a Passover. Because God had to pass those doors which had the strip of the bunch of hyssop, dipped in the lamb’s blood, at the lintel and the two doorposts. The blood of the Lamb was the sign for Jehovah that those houses could be passes through to strike the Egyptians. When he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two doorposts, Jehovah passed over the door, and did not allow the destroyer to come in to their houses to strike them.

The Egyptian Firstborn Destroyed (illustration from the 1728 Figures de la Bible) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For all God’s People it is important to remember that night when God saved the children of Israel. Jehovah demanded to observe this thing for an ordinance to them and to their sons forever. Being it “forever” means that it still should happen today in the 21st century. God told them at the time of Moses that it shall happen when they had come to the land which Jehovah was going to give them, according as He had promised, that they shall keep this service. He told them that it will happen, when their children ask them, ‘What do you mean by this service?’  That they shall say, ‘it is the sacrifice of Jehovah’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians, and spared our houses.’”

“21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out, and take you lambs according to your families, and kill the Passover. 22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side-posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. 23 For Jehovah will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side-posts, Jehovah will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. 24 And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. 25 And it shall come to pass, when ye are come to the land which Jehovah will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. 26 And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? 27 that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of Jehovah’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.” (Exodus 12:21-27 ASV)

God went through the land of Egypt in that night of the first month of the new year, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal, at places where there was no blood on the houses were killed. No plague came onto the people who listened to the ordinance of God.

A commandment by the Most High for a day to remember

“You shall observe this rite as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children.” (Exodus 12:24 NRSV)

Because God demanded to be that day to be for a memorial, which every believer had to keep it, a feast to Jehovah, the only One God. Throughout their generations they kept it a feast by an ordinance forever, and as such Jesus also celebrated on the 14th of Nisan. The first day there had to be to them a holy convocation not to eat leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day. Jesus his family and his disciples observed the feast of unleavened bread. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, they did not consume unleavened bread.

The Passover lambs were to be killed in the evening of Nisan 14. That means toward the end of Nisan 14, or late afternoon. The “evening” of a day is not its beginning, but its ending, before sunset (see Exodus 12:18, Leviticus 23:32). In these verses, notice that the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins at the “evening” of the 14th of Nisan (leading into the high holy day of the 15th); likewise, the Day of Atonement, which is the tenth day of Tishri, began “in the ninth day of the month at even” (Leviticus 23:32).

“In the first [month], on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.” (Exodus 12:18 ASV

“12 “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.’” 13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat.” (Exodus 16:12-15 NIV)

The Angel of Death and the First Passover (illustration from the 1897 Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us by Charles Foster) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“27 “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. 28 Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD your God. 29 Anyone who does not deny himself on that day must be cut off from his people. 30 I will destroy from among his people anyone who does any work on that day. 31 You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. 32 It is a sabbath of rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath.” 33 The LORD said to Moses, 34 “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the LORD’s Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. 35 The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. 36 For seven days present offerings made to the LORD by fire, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. It is the closing assembly; do no regular work. 37 (“‘These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for bringing offerings made to the LORD by fire—the burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings required for each day.” (Leviticus 23:27-37 NIV)

+

Continues: 14 Nisan a day to remember #2 Time of Jesus

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: 14 Nisan een dag om te herinneren #1 Oorsprong

++

Please also do find:

1. 1 -15 Nisan
2. Day of remembrance coming near
3. Observance of a day to Remember
4. Around the feast of Unleavened Bread
5. A new exodus and offering of a Lamb
6. A Great Gift commemorated
7. Not making a runner
8. Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ
9. No Other Name (But Jesus)
10. Bread and Wine
11. Peter Cottontail and a Bunny laying Eastereggs

+++

Additional reading:

Dough baked it into matzah, unleavened bread

1. Pesach
   Pesach, or Passover, is a major holiday in Jewish tradition, and is one of the three pilgrimage holidays, along with Sukkot and Shavuot. These are the holidays on which the whole Jewish people would come to Jerusalem in ancient times, when the Holy Temple was there, and would offer animal and grain sacrifices. Since the destruction of the Temple, a few of the holiday traditions have been retained, without the pilgrimage and the sacrifices, and many new traditions have been added.Pesach, which starts on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan (usually in April), lasts for seven days and is celebrated to commemorate the exodus from Egypt – one of the main stories in the history of the Jewish people and in western culture in general.
   +
   Another name for Pesach is the Holiday of Unleavened Bread. The story of the exodus from Egypt relates that the Israelites left Egypt hurriedly and the dough they had prepared had no time to rise, so they baked it into matzah, unleavened bread.
2. Pesach: Passover 
   Pesach, known in English as Passover, is one of the most commonly observed Jewish holidays, even by otherwise non-observant Jews. According to the 2000-01 National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS), 67% of Jews routinely hold or attend a Pesach seder, while only 46% belong to a synagogue.Pesach begins on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nissan. It is the first of the three major festivals with both historical and agricultural significance (the other two are Shavu’ot and Sukkot). Agriculturally, it represents the beginning of the harvest season in Israel, but little attention is paid to this aspect of the holiday. The primary observances of Pesach are related to the Exodus from Egypt after generations of slavery. This story is told in Exodus, Ch. 1-15. Many of the Pesach observances are instituted in Chs. 12-15.
   +
   “Pesach” is also the name of the sacrificial offering (a lamb) that was made in the Temple on this holiday. The holiday is also referred to as Chag he-Aviv , (the Spring Festival), Chag ha-Matzot , (the Festival of Matzahs), and Z’man Cheiruteinu , (the Time of Our Freedom) (again, all with those Scottish “ch”s).
3. Korban PesachThe Passover sacrifice (Hebrew: korban Pesakh קרבן פסח ), also known as the “sacrifice of Passover“, the Paschal Lamb, or the Passover Lamb, is the sacrifice that the Torah mandates to be brought on the eve of Passover, and eaten on the first night of the holiday with bitter herbs and matzo. According to the Torah, it was first offered on the night of the Israelites‘ Exodus from Egypt. Although practiced by Jews in ancient times, the ritual is today only practiced by Samaritans at Mount Gerizim.
4. Jewish Encyclopedia article on the Passover Offering
5. What is PassoverThe eight-day festival of Passover is celebrated in the early spring, from the 15th through the 22nd of the Hebrew month of Nissan. It commemorates the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt.
   +
   At the stroke of midnight of 15 Nissan in the year 2448 from creation (1313 BCE), G‑d visited the last of the ten plagues on the Egyptians, killing all their firstborn. While doing so, G‑d spared the Children of Israel, “passing over” their homes—hence the name of the holiday. Pharaoh’s resistance was broken, and he virtually chased his former slaves out of the land. The Israelites left in such a hurry, in fact, that the bread they baked as provisions for the way did not have time to rise. Six hundred thousand adult males, plus many more women and children, left Egypt on that day, and began the trek to Mount Sinai and their birth as G‑d’s chosen people.
   +
   search for chametz + burning of the chametz + matzah + recitation of the Haggadah, a liturgy that describes in detail the story of the Exodus from Egypt. The Haggadah is the fulfillment of the biblical obligation to recount to our children the story of the Exodus on the night of Passover.
6. Making the Seder Memorable
   Seder night is the family education experience par excellence.
7. The Passover Seder
8. Matzah
9. People in History:  Moses MO’SES (mo’zez). The deliverer, leader, lawgiver, and prophet of Israel. The name in Heb. is mosheh (“drawn out”), but the original is Egyptian ms’, a “child,” a “son,” reflecting that Pharaoh’s daughter simply named him “child” (cf. Thutmose, Ahmose, etc., in which the same element appears frequently in Egyptian names). Thutmose “Son of Thot,” etc. Moses belonged to the tribe of Levi, and was the son of Amram by his wife Jochebed. The other members of the family were Aaron and Miriam, his elder brother and sister.
   +
   Moses was a leader so inspired by God that he was able to build a united nation from a race of oppressed and weary slaves. In the covenant ceremony at Mount Sinai, where the Ten Commandments were given, he founded the religious community known as Israel. As the interpreter of these covenant laws, he was the organizer of the community’s religious and civil traditions. His story is told in the Old Testament– in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
   
10. Moses Leads the People Out of Egypt (Exodus 14)God made a promise to Abraham that he would have an uncountable number of descendants – more than the stars in the sky! For exactly 430 years, Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites, had been slaves in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh was the ruler of Egypt. God sent Moses to Pharaoh to tell him to let God’s people go.
    +
    Pharaoh would not listen to God. God sent terrible plagues upon the land of Egypt.
    +
    The last plague that God sent was by far the worse plague. God sent the death angel to kill the first-born child of every family and the firstborn of every animal. The Bible says that there was loud crying in Egypt for there was not a household without someone dead. During the night, Pharaoh summoned Moses and told him to leave Egypt. This is exactly what God said would happen. Moses and all the Israelites left in a hurry. Their bread did not even rise, and this is why Jewish people today still celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
11. Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement, holiest and most important holiday in Judaism
    It is a day of fasting and prayer that is celebrated on the 10th of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, 10 days after Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Yom Kippur marks the end of the “Ten Days of Repentance” or the “High Holidays,” and grants Jews a last opportunity to obtain forgiveness and absolution for their sins in the previous year.
    +
    Yom Kippur is not directly connected with any specific historical event, although some believe that on this day Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the second set of tablets engraved with the Ten Commandments and God forgave the Israelites for the sin of the Golden Calf. This is a holiday ordained in the Torah, where it is called a Shabbat of Solemn Rest, a day on which no productive work can be done, just like on Shabbat.

+++

Related articles

• Preparations for the Passover Meal – Luke 22: 7-13 (shalommysticwind.wordpress.com)
  Except for certain redaction changes, the Lukan passage is a reproduction of its parallel in Mark 14: 12-16. Already in Luke 22: 1 the evangelist had identified the feast of the Unleavened Bread and the feast of the Passover, an identification which is not entirely wrong.
  +
  The present Lukan periscope (Lk 22: 7-13) clearly indicates that the Last Supper is a Passover Meal (cf. Lk 22: 7, 8, 11, and 13). The parallel passages in Matthew 26: 17-19 and Mark 14: 12-16 also present Jesus’ meal with his disciples as a Passover Meal held on the 14^th or 15^th night of Nisan.
• Conspiracy of Jews against Jesus – Luke 22: 1-2 (shalommysticwind.wordpress.com)
  According to the evangelists, the events of Jesus’ passion are connected with the national Jewish feast of the Passover. The Christian expression “Paschal Mystery” in reference to the mystery of Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection, is derived from the Greek word for ‘Passover’ – “Pascha.” The Passion of Jesus is thus understood as his own Passover, his ‘exodus’ from this world to the Father (God) (cf. Lk 9: 31).
• Symbols and Signs – The First Month (cfcspn.com)
  According to the plan of God for His people, and as a symbol of the Lord’s Day, God told Israel they are to sacrifice the lamb on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, and that they are to eat unleavened bread for seven days. The eight day would have been a Sabbath, and on that day, they were to rest from all their labor.Rest was the symbol of God’s coming day of redemption, rest from the fear of death and deliverance from the power of sin. The Passover celebration is a sign to the nation, that through the memorial of the day they may identify their Messiah. However, as a part of God’s plan, and that He might bring the Gentiles into the relationship, and covenant of Israel, and fulfilling the promise  made to Abraham, Israel rejected their savior, and we as Gentiles accepting Christ has become the sons of Abraham.
• Exodus Chapter 12 (maryrubow.wordpress.com)
  The Lord instructs Moses and Aaron, as the priesthood leaders of the Israelites, to consider this time the first month of their year, also known as Abib (according to the footnote, which references Exodus 34:18 and Exodus 13:4). They probably had been marking time as the Egyptians did, so this was how the Lord wanted time to be recognized and recorded for the Israelites.
  +
  As someone who is not Jewish, but who has been adopted into a tribe of Israel, through my own covenants with God, I wonder why I have never thought to recognize the dates which celebrate these amazing things. I believe that the law of Moses was fulfilled through the atonement of Jesus Christ, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t still recognize the glorious deliverance that the Lord provided for these people.
• Exodus 12. God establishes the passover (bummyla.wordpress.com)
  And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
• Signs and Symbols – A Table in the Desert (cfcspn.com)
  Due to the fall of humanity Judgment came upon the world, and no one is safe from this universal judgment as we are all descendants of Adam the first man created in the image of God, and a man who rebelled against the will of God. And thrown out of the kingdom, he was sentenced to death; and as his children born in his house, we are counted as cursed children falling under the curse and judgment of death that was passed unto Adam our ancestor. However, God had promised to deliver him from this judgment, God declaring on behalf of man grace and mercy; however, for the enemy there would be no recall of judgment, he will remain under the curse forever.
• Exodus Chapter 13 (maryrubow.wordpress.com)
  The Israelites began their journey from Egypt, with Moses as their prophet and leader. They had been given some instruction as far as the passover and how to handle the pascal lamb and unleavened bread. This was a time for the Lord to establish His laws with his people, who had been in bondage for over 400 years.
• Red Letter Year: 2/22 (mikeraburn.com)
  Like Hemingway, Mark’s brevity contributes to the tension. An anonymous woman pours out her life savings onto Jesus’ head (nard came in an lidless alabaster container, it only opened by breaking, an early example of one-time use disposable packaging). Not because she knows he is about to die. Jesus provides that interpretation of her act.

Politics and power first priority #2

The early days of Christianity

2.2.2. Politics and power first priority #2

Between ‘first-born’[1] indicating being the first one of the New Covenant period, the first born of the New Creation which was pre-eminent for the followers of the Messiah[2] , the New Adam opening the gateway for the new people of God, became under fire because certain people started to believe that Jesus was the first person born, even before Adam, the first man was created. This idea entered in the second period of the 2^nd century and developed further in the 3^rd century with Clement of Alexandria [c. 150- c. 214 CE] who used the term “protoktistos” in his Stromata[3] but later on calls Jesus “protoktistos”, [first-created][4] Clement uses the term first-created, as though it was first-born, to Clement and others, the two meant the same thing and were interchangeable and in fact, if we look at Clements same work [Stromata] just a little later on in chapter 14, page 465, we come across the expression, “tes sophias tes protoktistou tw thew”, which means, “Wisdom, which was the first of the creation of God”, here we clearly see the [genitive] “protoktistou” [of the creation]! Clement repeatedly identifies the Word with the Wisdom of God, and yet he refers to Wisdom as the first created of God; while in one passage he attaches the epithet “First-created,” and in another “First-begotten,” to the Word.

To the church fathers [pre-Nicene] the terms “prototokos” and “protoktistos” were naturally synonymous and interchangeable terms, they treat both equally and with the same meaning!

Icon depicting the First Council of Nicaea. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There was a partnership formed (harmonia, syymphonia) wich became one of the foundations of the Christian Empire.[5] Because the religious peace of the East was threatened the Roman Emperor Constantine I convoked (325) the first ecumenical council (see Nicaea, First Council of Nicaea) to solve the problems raised by Arianism. Arianism as the theological view that Jesus was divine, but was created by and is lesser than God the Father, was officially condemned as incorrect by the Council of Nicaea in 325, which gave its seal of authority to the established trinitarian view. The Nicene Creed was formed and taken up in catechisms that require students to memorize the Nicene Creed. The Greek term homoousios [consubstantial, of the same substance] used by the council to define the Son’s relationship to the Father was not universally popular: it had been used before by the heretic Sabellius. Some, like Marcellus of Ancyra the Galatian churchman, the most violent opponent of Arianism in Asia Minor, developed the theory that the Trinity was the result of emanations from God that would ultimately revert to God in the final judgement. In attacking Arianism, lapsed into Sabellianism (Sabellius). The voices of orthodoxy, however, were not silent. In the West St. Hilary of Poitiers and in the East St. Basil the Great ( c.330–379, Greek prelate, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, Doctor of the Church and one of the Four Fathers of the Greek Church with the Cappadocian theologian St. Gregory Nazianzen ( c.330–390) and St. Gregory of Nyssa ( d. 394?) continued to defend and interpret the Nicene formula. By 364 the West had a Catholic emperor in Valentinian I, and when the Catholic Theodosius I(346?–395, Roman emperor of the East (379–95) and emperor of the West (394–95), son of Theodosius, the general of Valentinian I) became emperor of the East (379), Arianism was outlawed.

St. Gregory of Nyssa (eastern ortodox icon) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The second ecumenical council was convoked to reaffirm the Nicene formula (Constantinople, First Council of 381, second ecumenical council). It was convened by Theodosius I, then emperor of the East and a recent convert, to confirm the victory over Arianism. Arianism within the empire seems to have expired at once. However, Ulfilas or Wulfila [Gothic,=little wolf], (c.311–383, Gothic bishop, translator of the Bible into Gothic) was converted to Christianity at Constantinople and was consecrated bishop (341) by the Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia and carried (c.340) Homoean Arianism to the Goths living in what is now Hungary and the NW Balkan Peninsula with such success that the Visigoths and other Germanic tribes became staunch Arians. Arianism was thus carried over Western Europe and into Africa. The Vandals remained Arians until their defeat by Belisarius (c.534). Among the Lombards the efforts of Pope St. Gregory I and the Lombard queen were successful, and Arianism finally disappeared (c.650) there. In Burgundy the Catholic Franks broke up Arianism by conquest in the 6^th cent. In Spain, where the conquering Visigoths were Arians, Catholicism was not established until the mid-6^th cent. (by Recared), and Arian ideas survived for at least another century. Arianism brought many results — the ecumenical council, the Catholic Christological system, and even Nestorianism, and, by reaction, Monophysitism. Nestorianism on the one hand saying Jesus was to be two distinct persons, and Monophystium on the other, closely and inseparably uniteophysitism [Gr.,=belief in one nature], a heresy of the 5^th and 6^th cent., which grew out of a reaction against Nestorianism. It was anticipated by Apollinarianism and was continuous with the principles of Eutyches, whose doctrine had been rejected in 451 at Chalcedon (see Chalcedon, Council of ) fourth ecumenical council. [6]

The emperor Constantine completed what Paul had begun to some —a world hostile to the faith in which Jesus had lived and died. The Council of Nice in 325 determined that Church and Synagogue should have nothing in common, and that whatever smacked of the unity of God and of the freedom of man, or offered a Jewish aspect of worship, must be eliminated from Catholic Christendom.

The transfer of the seat of power from Rome to Constantinople, and the founding of the East Roman empire under Constantine I. gave to Asia Minor, and especially to Constantinople, a commanding importance in the history of the Church for several centuries. The seven oecumenical Councils from 325 to 787 were all held in that city or its neighborhood, and the doctrinal controversies on the Trinity and the person of Christ were carried on chiefly in Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt.

---

[1] “who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;” (Colossians 1:15 ASV)

[2] “The Greek for firstborn is proto with tikto: firstborn. The Greek for first created would be proto with ktizo: first created. Paul did not use the second but the first. Second, the biblical use of the word “firstborn” is most interesting. It can mean the first born child in a family (Luke 2:7), but it can also mean “pre-eminence.” In Psalm 89:20, 27 it says, “I have found David My servant; with My holy oil I have anointed him…I also shall make him My first-born” (NASB). As you can see, David, who was the last one born in his family was called the firstborn by God. This is a title of preeminence here.” CARM(Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry)

[3] Book, 5 chapter 6, section 35, and book 5, chapter 14, section 89

[4] Stromata in ANF 2, chapter 6, page 452

[5] June, 325. (First Council of Nicaea) plus fourteen councils, held between 341 and 360

[6] H. M. Gwatkin, Studies of Arianism (2d ed. 1900); J. H. Newman, The Arians of the Fourth Century (1933, repr. 1968); J. Pelikan, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (1971).

W. H. Frend, The Rise of the Monophysite Movement (1972); J. Pelikan, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (1971) and The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (1974).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia® Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/

+

Previous: Politics and power first priority #1

Next: Politics and power first priority #3

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie:  Politiek en macht eerste prioriteit #2

+++

 

Related articles

• The Top Ten Most Important Church Councils (catholicexchange.com)
  To be deep into history, John Henry Newman wrote, is to cease to be a Protestant. Put another way, to be deep into history is to become stronger in the Catholic faith—something we are all called to do in this Year of Faith.
  +
  one key to understanding the orthodox teachings of these councils is heresy. The councils, especially the earliest ones, were essentially anti-heresy conventions, called to sort the wheat of dogma from the chaff of heresy.
  +
  In all, there were 21 ecumenical councils.
• From Lofty Words to Faithful Action (lifegivingwater.wordpress.com)
  Arius believed that people were putting too much emphasis on the Jesus’ divinity that they were forgetting his humanity. After all, does it not say in John 3:16 that Jesus was God’s only begotten son, explicitly stating that Jesus was brought into existence by the Father?  Yet, Alexander felt that to emphasize Christ’s humanity was to strip Christ of his divinity and to make him less than fully divine.