Exodus 12:1-14
Revised Common Lectionary, Year A, Proper 18 (series reading)
The Revised Common Lectionary appoints Exodus 12:1-14 as its OT series reading for this coming Sunday. It is part of a nine week series from the book of Exodus that began two weeks ago with the description of the Israelite’s slavery in Egypt and the birth of Moses. It continues through the deliverance at the Sea of Reeds, the journey to Sinai, the giving of the law, and the golden calf incident.
This passage, which comes from HS, is set as an interruption to the story of the final plague - the killing of the firstborn. It provides the law for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, placing the instructions for the feast in the middle of the story of Passover. It is immediately followed by the command to leave Egypt.
These instructions show the standard Priestly concern with the calendar. It sets up the month of Passover as the first month of the year. This places the beginning of the year in the Spring around the vernal equinox. This would later be changed in the Jewish calendar, which moved the beginning of the year to Rosh Hashannah in the Fall, near the autumnal equinox. 1 The theology of connecting the new year with the Passover is clear: just as the final plague and deliverance from Egypt begin Israel’s new life with God, so does the remembrance of that event mark the beginning of the new year.
The Israelites are commanded to slaughter a lamb and place the blood on the lintel of the door. The requirement of the lamb and the command that it be entirely eaten before the morning suggests that the lamb is intended as a peace / fellowship offering offered for giving thanks (Leviticus 7:11-15).2 In no way is it viewed as a sin offering. Although this passage does not describe the lamb as a sacrifice, the Priestly layers in the Pentateuch viewed all killing of animals as a sacrifice (a view which the Deuteronomists did not share). Of course, the picturing of the Passover according to the Priestly sacrificial scheme is a later interpretation of an earlier feast.
On September 8th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Thanks for the post.
I have not studied what scholars say about the calendar, but I think that Rosh Hoshanah was a new year in the sense that it kicked off the agricultural cycle, not in the sense that it was in the very first month. Even in the passages about Rosh Hoshanah, the holiday is said to be in the seventh month, not the first.
On September 8th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
The two passages that cover the laws for Rosh Hashanah (Lev.23:23-25; Num.29:1-6) do not refer to it as a new year’s festival. They both consider it to fall in the seventh month. Of course, both of these passages are from P. The term rosh hashanah is not found until the exilic or post-exilic period in Ezekiel 40:1.
The Babylonian new year’s festival was held in the spring, which has led some to suggest that the Israelites to move their own new year from the fall to the spring. Personally, I can’t see the Priestly writers making such a change, especially since Genesis 1 seems to be set up in part as a polemic against Babylonian creation myths and pictures the timing of the Israelite festivals as being rooted in creation. P seems more likely to try to preserve an original Israelite festival instead of giving in to the Babylonians.
On September 15th, 2007 at 10:13 am
[…] wanted to start the commentary on this week’s lectionary reading by apologizing for last week’s post on the Revised Common Lectionary. My brain was apparently on vacation, and I posted on the reading […]