The Origins of the Biblical Pesach

Pesach and Matzah were originally two different festivals that later combined. See Michael Satlow, “Passover and the Festival of Matzot: Synthesizing Two Holidays,” TheTorah (2014).

Scholars have long recognized the disjunctive nature of the text in Exodus 12, and have assigned it to different sources. See the discussion by Brevard Childs and Naomi Steinberg (Brevard Childs, Exodus [Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1974], 184-195; and Naomi Steinberg, “Exodus 12 in Light of Ancestral Cult Practices” in The Family in Life and in Death[ed. Patricia Dutcher-Walls; New York: T & T Clark, 2009], 89-90).

I follow Steinberg, Childs and Noth who see Exodus 12:21-23 as the original pagan rite that was later reinterpreted by P in Exodus 12:1-20.

Pamela Tamarkin Reis, “Eating the Blood: Saul and the Witch of Endor.” JSOT 73 (1997): 3-23.

Leonhard Rost, “Weidewechsel und altisraleischer Festkalender,” ZDPV 66 (1943): 205-15; Martin Noth, Exodus (Old Testament Library; Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962); Childs, Exodus.

Pesach can also mean “to be lame” (2 Sam 4:4), which leads David Silber (public lectures) to the interesting suggestion that the meaning of Pesach in the biblical story is “hover over”, i.e., stay in one place like a lame person. Support for this translation, he argues, comes from the famous statement of Elijah (1 Kings 18:21): “How long will you stand upon two boughs?!” Thus, in our story, YHWH will hover over the houses of the Israelites and keep the משחית out of it.

Dianne Bergant, “An Anthropological Approach to Biblical Interpretation; The Passover Supper In Exodus 12:1-20 as a case study.” Semeia 67(1994) 43-62; Steinberg, “Exodus 12.”

Elizabeth Bloch Smith, Judahite burial practices and beliefs about the dead (JSOT Supp; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992); Karel van der Toorn, Family religion in Babylonia, Syria, and Israel : continuity and changes in the forms of religious life (Leiden; New York: Brill, 1996), 225.

Throughout Your Generations Forever: Sacrifice Religion and Paternity (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1994), 46. “Thus, cross-culturally, ancestral worship is a term used to refer to the rituals and beliefs concerning the dead kinsmen. Since ancestor worship underscores notion of continuity and preservation of social order in society, sacrificial offerings should be understood not as gifts to the ancestors, but rather as the fulfillment of the obligations of the living to the dead” (Steinberg, “Exodus 12,” 92).

Ziony Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel (London: Continuum, 2001), 280-81. This is in stark opposition to sacrifices made to YHWH, which are made on altars in order to go up to the heavens, where YHWH abides (Exod. 19; 20:22; Deut. 33:26, Pss. 115.

Karel van der Toorn, Family religion, 212-18; Steinberg, “Exodus 12,” 93; Brian B. Schmidt, Israel’s Beneficent Dead: Ancestor Cult and Necromancy in Ancient Israelite Religion and Tradition (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1994).

Walter Farber, “Magic at the Cradle: Babylonian and Assyrian Lullabies,” Anthropos 85 (1990): 139-148; Walter Farber, Schlaf, Kindchen, Schlaf! (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1989), 34-39.

She appears in the The Alphabet of Ben Sira in the fifth conversation between Nebuchadnezzar and Ben Sira. Seee also http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/lilith/ accessed 1/15/15.

Karel van der Toorn, “Magic at the Cradle: A Reassessment,” in Mesopotamian Magic: Textual Historical and Interpretative Perspectives (ed. Tzvi Abusch and Karel van Der Toorn; Groningen: Styx, 1999), 139-141.