Passover lamb

“ The children of Israel were commanded to keep the passover each year as a memorial of their preservation in Egypt.
The passover was also a type of Christ, the Lamb of God. As the blood of the passover lamb upon the door-posts saved those in the house from death, so all will be saved now who confess their sins, believing that the blood of Jesus was shed to save sinners just as surely as the blood of the passover lamb saved those who trusted in it. ”

“ The paschal lamb was an illustrious type of Christ, who became a sacrifice for the redemption of a lost world from sin and misery; but resemblances between the type and antitype have been strained by many writers into a great number of fanciful particulars. It is enough for us to be assured, that as Christ is called our passover;” and the Lamb of God,” without spot,” by the sprinkling of whose blood” we are delivered from guilt and punishment; and as faith in him is represented to us as eating the flesh of Christ,” with evident allusion to the eating of the paschal sacrifice ”

“ He who can believe such a congeries of absurdities, cannot be said to be a volunteer in faith; for it is evident, the man can neither have faith nor reason, as to this subject.
Let it be observed, if any thing farther is necessary on this point, that the paschal lamb, is called the passover, because it represented the destroying angel's passing over the children of Israel, while he slew the firstborn of the Egyptians; and our Lord and his disciples call this lamb the passover, several times in this chapter ”

“ This was the original sacrifice of the passover. In commemoration of it, the Jews observed the annual festival of the passover, when all the males of Judea assembled before the Lord in Jerusalem. A lamb was slain for every house, the representative of that whose blood had been sprinkled in the night of the escape from Egypt. After the blood was poured under the altar by the priests, the lambs were carried home to be eaten by the people in their tents or houses at a domestic feast, where every master of a family took the cup of thanksgiving, and gave thanks with his family to the God of Israel. ”

“ He has also provided a Lamb for us—a Lamb without spot or blemish, "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." "Even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." On his guiltless head our guilt was laid. And having provided a Lamb for us, he will provide anything else. "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." As the greater includes the less, so the unspeakable gift embosoms all minor blessings. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?" ”

“ Is it reasonable that a man should be asked to strike his tent and leave everything behind him in disorder in order to undertake a long journey on the eve of Passover? Therefore, I say that Rabh's proposition to defile him with a dead reptile is sufficient."
MISHNA: If, after the blood of the paschal sacrifice had been sprinkled on the altar, it became known that it (the blood or the flesh thereof) was unclean, the plate of gold (of the high-priest) atones for the sin; but if the body (of the owner) of the sacrifice had been defiled, the plate of the high-priest does not atone for the sin ”

“ We have learned in a Boraitha: Anonymous teachers say: "If, when slaughtering the Passover-sacrifice, the intention originally was that it serve for the uncircumcised and subsequently for the circumcised, it is valid. If the reverse was the case, it is not valid."
MISHNA: If a man offer the Passover-sacrifice while still having leaven in his possession, he thereby transgresses a negative commandment. R. Jehudah says: "The same rule applies to the continual daily offering (of that evening) ." ”

“ Do we not know that if that sacrifice were brought at any other time of the year in silence it would be considered a peace-offering, and a peace-offering brought on the Passover with leaven would certainly make one culpable? Thus, we infer from R. Simeon's teaching to the effect that he is not culpable; that if a paschal lamb is brought without comment, it remains just what it is, and if it is intended for a peace-offering, it must be distinctly stated. ”

“ The next day while Jesus stayed quietly in Bethany, Peter and John were very busy, for Jesus had sent them to Jerusalem to get ready for the Passover. They had to take a lamb to the Temple to be killed by the priests, and they had to find a house in which to eat the Passover supper.
Once every year the Jews used to kill a lamb, and pour out its blood before God, to show that they remembered God's goodness to them when they were in Egypt, in letting his angel pass over their houses. ”

“ Pallas (Spicilegia Zoologica, Fasc. xi. p. 79.) speaks of the beautiful lamb-skins from Bucharia, as being admired for their curled gray wool.
By the Law of Moses the sheep was a clean animal, and might consequently be eaten or sacrificed. A lamb or kid, roasted whole, was the principal and characteristic dish at the feast of the passover. The rich man kills a lamb to entertain his guest in the beautiful parable of Nathan. (2 Sam. xii. 4.) Sheep were killed on the festive occasion of shearing the very numerous flocks of Nabal. ”

“ Whence it was that the price of a lamb in the Paschal week was more than three times as much as at any time of the year, and the poorer people murmured greatly.
Thus it happened that upon this day, when Jesus came into the courts of the Temple, these were crowded with all the householders of Jerusalem, and much chaffering and haggling was going on in the purchase of the lambs for the Passover. But Jesus, with the favor he had won from the people, was for this day at least Ruler of Jerusalem, and men wondered what he would do with regard to this sale and purchase of the beasts of sacrifice ”

“ The lamb appearing at the foot of the cross is mentioned by Paulinus, who wrote about the year 400. Beneath the ensanguined cross stands Christ in the form of a snow-white lamb: as an innocent victim is the lamb consigned to unmerited death.
From the 82nd canon of the Quinisextan council, held A.D. 706, we learn at what time the change from the lamb to the victim in human form was generally adopted. "We ordain that the representation in human form of Christ our God, who takes away the sin of the world, be henceforward set up, and painted in the place of the ancient lamb." ”

“ It is those who are young in Christian experience whom the Savior calls lambs. The shepherds that are to feed them are his ministers. A lamb is one of the most meek, tender, and tractable of all the young animals, and very fittingly represents one who has received the meek and tender spirit of Christ. Christianity in its nature is meek and mild. It converts the wolf into a lamb and the leopard into a kid. Young Christians are, therefore, beautifully spoken of as lambs, whose nature is mild and gentle. Christ's lambs are those who have received into their hearts his lamb-like spirit. ”

“ Such as those Borametz in Scythia bred
Of slender seeds, and with green fodder fed;
Although their bodies, noses, mouths, and eyes,
Of new-yeaned lambs have full the form and guise,
And should be very lambs, save that for foot
Within the ground they fix a living root
Which at their navel grows, and dies that day
That they have browzed the neighbouring grass away.
Oh! wondrous nature of God only good,
The beast hath root, the plant hath flesh and blood. ”

“ They abound throughout the Old Testament, where we learn that a lamb was selected by the Israelites for their sin and burnt offerings, and in the New, where the word lamb is almost constantly employed as synonymous with innocence. "The paschal lamb," says Didron, "which was eaten by the Israelites on the night preceding their departure, is the type of that other divine Lamb, of whom Christians are to partake at Easter, in order thereby to free themselves from the bondage in which they are held by vice." ”

“ A tradition has also been preserved that under the altar of the first Christian churches a lamb was usually buried, which imparted security and duration to the edifice. This was an emblem of the true church lamb—the Saviour, [p 33] who is the corner stone of His church. When anyone enters a church at a time when there is no service, he may chance to see a little lamb spring across the choir and vanish. This is the church-lamb. When it appears to a person in the churchyard, particularly to the grave-digger, it is said to forbode the death of a child that shall be next laid in the earth. ”

“ The original directions not being sufficiently minute to meet all the practical difficulties which might hinder the correct performance of the rite, a vast number of directions are given by the Rabbinical writers. In order, for example, to guard against the destruction of any part of the animal by careless cooking over a fire, or the possible fracture of a bone by a sudden jet of flame, the Paschal lamb was rather baked than roasted, being placed in an earthen oven from which the ashes had been removed. ”

“ He knows that you will never be able to keep your pet from harm, although you love it so tenderly; and he bade me say to you, that he is willing to take your lamb to be one of his flock, to feed in that green pasture and drink from the clear stream that is ever flowing there. It shall be safely gathered to his fold when the storms of winter beat, and shall be guarded from all cruel beasts. You can see it every day, and caress it, though you must never try to lead it away from him. Shall we go together and lead the little lamb to the kind shepherd? ”

“ When this discourse, which is at times of great length, is over, the people rise, each places a leaf on or by the circle of stones, and then they depart with signs of great joy. The lamb's skull is hung on a tree near the stones, and its flesh is eaten by the poor. This ceremony is observed on a small scale at other times. If a family is in any great trouble, through illness or bereavement, their friends and neighbours come together and a lamb is killed ”

“ The earliest cross bearing a human being is of the eighth century. For a long time a lamb with a cross, or on a cross, was the Christian symbol, and it is a lamb which we see entombed in the "holy sepulchre." In more than one mosaic of early Christian times, it is not Jesus, but a lamb, which is bleeding for the salvation of the world. How a lamb came to play so important a role in Christianity is variously explained. ”

“ This is not the point of variance, because all agree, that one who breaks a bone in a paschal lamb which was still raw incurs the penalty, as the lamb may be roasted and then be eaten. They do differ, however, concerning a man who breaks the tail of the lamb, which must not be eaten, but offered up on the altar. Those who hold that the sacrifice is a valid one hold him to the penalty, while the others claim that, as the tail must not be eaten, the man is exempt. ”

“ Nay; how canst thou compare the paschal lamb to other sacrifices? (Is it not a fact that, if any ordinary sacrifice is offered up not for its originally intended purpose, the sacrifice itself is nevertheless valid, and the man who brings it must only offer up another to carry out his original purpose, while a paschal lamb, if brought for any other but its actual purpose, becomes absolutely useless and cannot be sacrificed at all.) ”

“ In connection with the ceremony of purification, every mother was required to furnish a yearling lamb for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or dove for a sin offering; but in the case of any woman who was unable to provide a lamb, a pair of doves or pigeons might be offered. ”

“ The manner in which the Israelites eat the paschal lamb, indicates the detachment of heart which those should have who receive the - holy eucharist — the immaculate Lamb of God prefigured by the paschal lamb. The Israelites always eat the paschal lamb standing, and with their staffs in their hands, as pilgrims ready to leave all, who have no earthly attachment ”

“ And supper he has not.
Mary.—But then he is so useful, Beth,
His masters love him so!
Dear creatures, they do all they can,
And are content with snow. THE PET LAMB
The dew was falling fast, the stars began to blink;
I heard a voice; it said, “Drink, pretty creature, drink!”
And looking o’er the hedge, before me I espied
A snow-white mountain lamb with a maiden by its side.
Nor sheep nor kine were near; the lamb was all alone,
And by a slender cord was tethered to a stone;
With one knee on the grass did the little maiden kneel,
While to that mountain lamb she gave its evening meal. ”

“ I think not a lion, Though his strength is such; But an innocent loving lamb May have done as much. If the dove preached from her bough And the lamb from his sod, The lamb and the dove Were preachers sent from God. [208] EVE. "While I sit at the door, Sick to gaze within, Mine eye weepeth sore For sorrow and sin: As a tree my sin stands To darken all lands; Death is the fruit it bore. "How have Eden bowers grown Without Adam to bend them! How have Eden flowers blown, Squandering their sweet breath, Without me to tend them! ”

“ We thought he had killed the lamb as well, but he only took the ewe, and the lamb thou bringest me tidings of will be dead before evening. My thanks to thee, shepherd, for thy pains. But, said Jesus, thou'lt sell me the lamb that runs bleating after ewe, on the chance that I shall rear him? Whereat the villager smiled and said: it seems hard to take thy money for naught, for thou hast a pleasant face; but who knows what luck may be with thee. For a shekel thou shalt have the lamb. ”

“ Regarding the Passover in the wilderness, difficulties have been raised on the ground that a sufficient number of lambs, males of the first year, could scarcely have been provided, and that the sacrificing of the lambs by Aaron and his two sons within the prescribed time would have been impossible. The second point of difficulty disappears if this Passover was, as we have seen reason to believe, a family festival like that observed on the occasion of the exodus. Again, the number of yearling male lambs required would depend on the number who partook of the feast. ”