Passover
Who they were
Passover is one of the major Jewish festivals, instituted by God to commemorate the Israelites' deliverance from slavery in Egypt. It is observed annually on the 14th day of the first month, Nisan (Exodus 12:11; Leviticus 23:5; Numbers 28:16).
The festival's name derives from the event in which the Lord "passed over" the houses of the Israelites during the tenth plague, sparing their firstborn while striking down those of the Egyptians (Exodus 12:27). This night marked the beginning of the Exodus, the foundational event of Israelite identity (Exodus 12:43,48).
The Passover celebration includes the sacrifice of a lamb without blemish, whose blood was originally applied to the doorposts and lintels of Israelite homes (Exodus 12:21). The meal involves eating the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, symbolizing haste and suffering (Exodus 12:8).
Detailed instructions for observing Passover are found in Deuteronomy (Deu.16.1-6), and it was to be celebrated in the place God chose, later understood to be Jerusalem (Deu.16.2,6). The festival was central to Israelite worship and identity, with significant observances noted during the reigns of kings Hezekiah and Josiah (2Ch.30.1-2, 35:1,18).
Notable Passover celebrations include those led by Joshua after entering the Promised Land (Joshua 5:10-11), during King Josiah's reforms (2Ki.23.21-23), and as described in Ezra during the return from exile (Ezra 6:19-20).
In the New Testament, Passover plays a significant role in the narratives surrounding Jesus' crucifixion, which occurred during the festival. Jesus shared a Passover meal with His disciples, known as the Last Supper, which Christians commemorate as the institution of the Lord's Supper (Matthew 26:17-19; Mrk.14.12-16; Luke 22:7-15). The apostle Paul refers to Christ as "our Passover lamb" who has been sacrificed (1Co.5.7).
The festival's significance extends into Christian theology, symbolizing redemption and deliverance from sin, as noted in the epistle to the Hebrews, which highlights its faith aspect (Hebrews 11:28).
Article: STEPBible, Tyndale House Cambridge · CC BY 4.0
Every mention
73 references, counted from STEPBible, Tyndale House Cambridge · CC BY 4.0 · verse text: World English Bible (public domain)
Exodus6 mentions
Exodus 12:11This is how you shall eat it: with your belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Yahweh’s Passover.Exodus 12:21Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them, “Draw out, and take lambs according to your families, and kill the Passover.Exodus 12:27that you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of Yahweh’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians, and spared our houses.’” The…Exodus 12:43Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner shall eat of it,Exodus 12:48When a stranger lives as a foreigner with you, and would like to keep the Passover to Yahweh, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it. He shall be as one…Exodus 34:25“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. The sacrifice of the feast of the Passover shall not be left to the morning.
Leviticus1 mention
Numbers10 mentions
Numbers 9:2“Let the children of Israel keep the Passover in its appointed season.Numbers 9:4Moses told the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover.Numbers 9:5They kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so the children of…Numbers 9:6There were certain men who were unclean because of the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day.Numbers 9:10“Say to the children of Israel, ‘If any man of you or of your generations is unclean by reason of a dead body, or is on a journey far away, he shall still keep the Passover to Yahweh.Numbers 9:12They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break a bone of it. According to all the statute of the Passover they shall keep it.Numbers 9:13But the man who is clean, and is not on a journey, and fails to keep the Passover, that soul shall be cut off from his people. Because he didn’t offer the offering of Yahweh in its…Numbers 9:14“‘If a foreigner lives among you and desires to keep the Passover to Yahweh, then he shall do so according to the statute of the Passover, and according to its ordinance. You shall have…Numbers 28:16“‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, is Yahweh’s Passover.Numbers 33:3They traveled from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the next day after the Passover, the children of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of…
Deuteronomy4 mentions
Deuteronomy 16:1Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to Yahweh your God; for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you out of Egypt by night.Deuteronomy 16:2You shall sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which Yahweh shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.Deuteronomy 16:5You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which Yahweh your God gives you;Deuteronomy 16:6but at the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at evening, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you…
Joshua2 mentions
2 Kings3 mentions
2 Kings 23:21The king commanded all the people, saying, “Keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.”2 Kings 23:22Surely there was not kept such a Passover from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;2 Kings 23:23but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept to Yahweh in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles17 mentions
2 Chronicles 30:1Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to Yahweh’s house at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to Yahweh, the God of…2 Chronicles 30:2For the king had taken counsel with his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem to keep the Passover in the second month.2 Chronicles 30:5So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to Yahweh, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem…2 Chronicles 30:15Then they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought burnt offerings into Yahweh’s house.2 Chronicles 30:17For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves; therefore the Levites were in charge of killing the Passovers for everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to…2 Chronicles 30:18For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover other than the way it is written. For Hezekiah…2 Chronicles 35:1Josiah kept a Passover to Yahweh in Jerusalem. They killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.2 Chronicles 35:6Kill the Passover lamb, sanctify yourselves, and prepare for your brothers, to do according to Yahweh’s word by Moses.”2 Chronicles 35:7Josiah gave to the children of the people, of the flock, lambs and young goats, all of them for the Passover offerings, to all who were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three…2 Chronicles 35:8His princes gave a free will offering to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the rulers of God’s house, gave to the priests for the Passover…2 Chronicles 35:9Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave to the Levites for the Passover offerings five thousand small…2 Chronicles 35:11They killed the Passover lambs, and the priests sprinkled the blood which they received from their hands, and the Levites skinned them.2 Chronicles 35:13They roasted the Passover with fire according to the ordinance. They boiled the holy offerings in pots, in cauldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the children of the people.2 Chronicles 35:16So all the service of Yahweh was prepared the same day, to keep the Passover, and to offer burnt offerings on Yahweh’s altar, according to the commandment of King Josiah.2 Chronicles 35:17The children of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days.2 Chronicles 35:18There was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet, nor did any of the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept—with the priests, the Levites…2 Chronicles 35:19This Passover was kept in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah.
Ezra2 mentions
Matthew4 mentions
Matthew 26:2“You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”Matthew 26:17Now on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying to him, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?”Matthew 26:18He said, “Go into the city to a certain person, and tell him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.”’”Matthew 26:19The disciples did as Jesus commanded them, and they prepared the Passover.
Mark4 mentions
Mark 14:1It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might seize him by deception and kill him.Mark 14:12On the first day of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Passover, his disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare that you may eat the Passover?”Mark 14:14and wherever he enters in, tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’Mark 14:16His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found things as he had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.
Luke7 mentions
Luke 2:41His parents went every year to Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover.Luke 22:1Now the feast of unleavened bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching.Luke 22:7The day of unleavened bread came, on which the Passover must be sacrificed.Luke 22:8Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.”Luke 22:11Tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’Luke 22:13They went, found things as Jesus had told them, and they prepared the Passover.Luke 22:15He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer,
John9 mentions
John 2:13The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.John 2:23Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name, observing his signs which he did.John 6:4Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.John 11:55Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand. Many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves.John 12:1Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, who had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.John 13:1Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his time had come that he would depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to…John 18:28They led Jesus therefore from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. It was early, and they themselves didn’t enter into the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.John 18:39But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Therefore, do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”John 19:14Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, at about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!”
1 Corinthians1 mention
What the dictionary says
The name given to the chief of the three great historical annual festivals of the Jews.
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
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- STEPBible TIPNR · Translators Individualised Proper Names with all References · CC BY 4.0 · github.com/STEPBible/STEPBible-Data