Language Studies

Hebrew Thoughts

Pesach - פּסח (Strong's #6453)
Passover

"...'It is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.'" (BibleRef) is the noun behind the word for 'Passover' and comes from the verb פּסח pâsach 'to pass over, spring/leap over' (Strong's #6452). From a numerological point of view and that of biblical neatness it is rather amazing that the word for probably the most important Jewish festival celebrating the Exodus redemption occurs exactly 49 times. Essentially 7x7, symbolic of perfection, a week of weeks leading up to a Pentecost (50 days later) or a jubilee year. Furthermore, the root verb occurs exactly 7 times.

The first use of the noun is in Exodus 12:11 of the eating of the Exodus lamb "...with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's Passover.". It is immediately followed by the explanation, "'For I will pass through [a different Hebrew verb] the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD." (v.12) but "'Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt" (v.13).

So Pesach, or 'Passover', commemorated in early Spring Israel's deliverance from Egypt in which God "passed over" them and preserved them from His judgement on Egypt. This was not an atonement sacrifice. The Israelites had not sinned. This was pure deliverance from circumstance. The yoke of Egypt and slavery was about to be thrown off and the demonic gods and human kings of Egypt judged.

Although the Greek Septuagint text of Exodus 12 uses the word πασχα pascha (Strong's #3957) of the Passover this is not related to the Greek verb πασχω paschô 'to suffer' (Strong's #3958). It is in fact a transliteration of the Aramaic פּסחא pascha'. Paschal lamb and Passover lamb mean different things. Whether this is a wordplay or later linguistic oddity the Passover lamb (Exodus 12) and the suffering lamb (Isaiah 53) are met together in Jesus.

פּסח pesach does not mean 'lamb' but simply the event of being passed over, the word came to stand for the lamb itself so that one did not have to say 'Passover lamb' but merely 'the Passover' for it to be understood that the symbolic lamb was meant.

The verb פּסח pâsach 'to pass over, spring/leap over' is more disputed. There are four clear occasions when it appears to have the meaning of passing over or protecting from harm, three in the Passover narrative (Exodus 12:13, 23, 27) and once in Isaiah "He will pass over and deliver it [Jerusalem]" (Isaiah 31:5). Some have connected the Passover with an alternate meaning of the root 'to limp' and bizarrely suggested it refers to a cultic dance. Others go further and look at a similar Akkadian word 'to appease', in the sense of keeping a god happy. Finally, some turn to Egypt and look at a similar sounding word meaning 'strike, blow' and refer it to the tenth plague, the striking of the firstborn. All this academic cleverness, though, seems irrelevant given the simpler explanation 'to pass by/over'. (See further TWOT 1786a).

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Meet the Author

Charles Loder has an MA in Jewish Studies from Rutgers University. His work is in Biblical Hebrew and comparative semitic linguistics, along with a focus on digital humanities. His work can be found on his Academia page and Github.