Feasts and Festivals of Israel

The major festivals of Old Testament Israel were, in calendar order, Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles or Ingathering). After the exile, the Jews added memorial days for the fall of Jerusalem (eventually fixed as the Ninth of Ab), Purim, and the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah). In addition, the Israelites observed the Sabbath every week and the feast of the New Moon every lunar month.

Israel's festivals were communal and commemorative as well as theological and typological. They were communal in that they drew the nation together for celebration and worship as they recalled the common origin and experience of the people. They were commemorative in that they kept alive the story of what God had done in the exodus and during the sojourn. They were theological in that the observance of the festivals presented the participants with lessons on the reality of sin, judgment, and forgiveness, on the need for thanksgiving to God, and on the importance of trusting God rather than hoarding possessions. They were typological in that they anticipated a greater fulfillment of the symbolism of the feasts. It is not surprising that each of the major feasts is in some way alluded to in the New Testament. On the other hand, the festivals could become meaningless rituals and were subject to the criticism of the prophets ( Isa 1:13-14 ).

The Five Major Feasts. The Passover. The Bible traces the origin of Passover to the exodus. According to Exodus 12, on the evening of the 14th of the first month (Abib; later called Nisan), the Israelites gathered in family units to sacrifice a yearling sheep or goat. They used hyssop to apply blood from the lambs to the sides and tops of the door frames of their homes and roasted the lambs. They also prepared bitter herbs and bread without yeast. They ate the food hastily and with their sandals on their feet as a sign of their readiness for a quick departure. That night, the Lord killed Egypt's firstborn but spared Israel.

The subsequent festival was called pesah [j;s,P], generally rendered "Passover" in reference to God's passing over or sparing of the Israelites, although the precise origin of the word is unknown. In Exodus 12:21, Moses tells the Israelites to "sacrifice the pesah [j;s,P]" without defining the term. This is evidence that some kind of Passover festival was already known and practiced by the Israelites prior to the exodus. Even if this is so, the events of the exodus redefined forever the significance of the festival. According to Exodus 12:26-27, when subsequent generations inquired about the meaning of the Passover, they were to be told that it commemorated the Lord's sparing (pasah [h'f'P]) of the Israelites on the night he struck down the Egyptians.

Throughout Israelite history Passover continued to be a festival of supreme importance. Chronicles records in detail two great celebrations of Passover, one in Hezekiah's reign (2 Chron. 30), and one in Josiah's reign ( 2 Chron 35:1-19 ).

Of all of Israel's festivals, Passover is of the greatest importance to the New Testament because the Lord's Supper was a Passover meal ( Matt 26:17-27 ; Mark 14:12-25 ; Luke 22:7-22 ; notwithstanding problems posed by the Johannine chronology, as in John 18:28 ; see the major commentaries on John ). In passing the bread to the disciples and telling them that it was his body and that they should eat of it, Jesus was perhaps presenting himself as the Passover lamb. Christ is thus described as "our Passover lamb" in 1 Corinthians 5:7 and as "the Lamb who was slain" in Revelation 5:12. John's Gospel points out that none of Jesus' bones were broken in his crucifixion in allusion to the requirement that none of the Passover lamb's bones be broken ( John 19:33-37 ; cf. Exod 12:46 ).

The Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Feast of Unleavened Bread lasted for one week and followed immediately after Passover. For that week, the Israelites not only ate no bread with yeast, but they also removed all yeast from their homes. They held a sacred assembly on the first and seventh days of the week, and for the whole week they did no work except for the preparation of food.

In the context of the exodus, eating bread without yeast signified the haste of their preparation to depart. Because yeast was studiously avoided during this festival, however, it soon became a symbol for the pervasive influence of evil. Yeast was not used in most grain offerings to God (see, for example, Lev 2:11 ).