The Origins of Pesach

Pesach

The actual origins of Pesach are fairly murky, but by looking closely at the Torah and taking a bit of information from extra-biblical sources, a hypothesis can be formed that indicates two separate festivals that were later merged, and then equated with the Exodus.

The timing of the holiday is a key time in the lunar calendar.  It occurs at the first full moon following the vernal equinox.  Just like Sukkot which falls on the first full moon after the autumnal equinox.  It is not a surprising time for a holiday for any ancient society.


The Festival of Matzot

Pesach has two biblical names, one is Pesach itself and the other is the festival of Matzot.  A couple weeks ago we discussed some possible early forms of the ten commandments in Exod. 23:15

The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep; seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed in the month Abib--for in it thou camest out from Egypt; and none shall appear before Me empty;

and Exod 34:

The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed in the month Abib, for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.

In both of these places, the holiday is called specifically Hag HaMatzot, the festival of matzah, or here translated as "the feast of unleavened bread".  Pesach is not mentioned.  Both of these sections describe the holidays in purely agricultural terms, both also equate Hag HaMatzot to the Exodus from Egypt.

These point to one version of the holiday, an agricultural one, that focuses on the eating of unleavened bread, matzah.  The Torah provides a reason for the eating of matzah, which is that the Israelites had to leave quickly from Egypt and didn't have time for the bread to rise, Exod 12:39

And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual.

This story seems strongly etiological, if not for the sole reason that the festival of matzot was already commanded just a few verses earlier Exod 12:14-15, before this event occurred.

14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. 15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; howbeit the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses; for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

The real reason for eating unleavened bread probably had more to do with leaven being a sign of impurity.  For example (Lev 2:11):

No meal-offering, which ye shall bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven; for ye shall make no leaven, nor any honey, smoke as an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

Just like Sukkot, the holiday of Pesach probably started with different origins and was only later related to the Exodus.

Pesach

The second form of Pesach is the offering of the Paschal lamb.  Like the festival of matzot, this was probably a separate holiday, possibly followed by nomads and herdsman, as opposed to agriculturalists.  The holiday might have included slaughtering a lamb and using its blood as a way of warding off evil.

Also, the story in the Exodus about the Pesach lamb being used to indicate which houses were Jewish and which were Egyptian also looks etiological.  For one, the root פסח does not usually mean "pass over" as it's used in that context. It usually means something like limping.

Furthermore, the story itself has internal contradictions.  We are told repeatedly that the Israelites settle in the land of Goshen, which was spared several plagues.  For example with regard to the hail (Exod 9:26):

Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.

This is a contradiction because if the Israelites were already separate in Goshen, why would they need a distinctive marker on their houses? At different places in the story the Israelites lived entirely separate from the Egyptians in Goshen and in others they lived in mixed company with them.  But I digress from the main point.

So here we have a second version of the holiday, one observed by shepherds and pastoralists, in which the holiday was centered around animals.  Later these holidays would have been combined, possibly when the pastoralists and agriculturalists united under a single kingdom.  The two holidays then merged.

Separation in the Torah

Right now, this looks like a fine hypothesis, but it seems speculative.  However, some support can be found from the Torah itself.  If we look closer at chapter 12 of Exodus we see that the holidays appear to be separated.  It talks about Hag Hamatzot and then it talks about Pesach but never together.  It's worth reading on your own to prove to yourself what's going on, but I'll summarize:

• God tells Moshe about the Paschal lamb (Exod 12:1-13)
• God tells Moshe about Hag HaMatzot (Exod 12:14-20)
• Moshe tells the elders about the Paschal lamb, but not about Matzot (Exod 12:21-28)
• Plague of the firstborn occurs, the Israelites are commanded to leave (Exod 12:29-36)
• The Israelites leave, they don't have time to bake bread, (but did have time to go around asking the Egyptians for valuables just a couple verses earlier) (Exod 12:37-42)
• God tells Moshe more stuff about the Paschal lamb (Exod 12:43-50)
• God tells Moshe more stuff about Hag HaMatzot (Exod 13:1-10)

Amazingly, the Torah never mentions the two ideas, Pesach and Matzot in the same sentence, or even the same section.  It talks about one and then later it talks about the other. In fact in other sections of the Torah that talk about the holiday the same separation appears to be in place.  Although none talk about the holiday in more depth than this section.

The Passover Papyrus

There are a bunch of papyri that have survived from the Jewish community at Elephantine.  This is a very interesting community and we'll talk about them more later.  But for now, I'll quote the text (retrieved from here) of a papyrus discussing the holiday of Pesach. 

[To] my [brethren Yedo]niah and his colleagues the [J]ewish gar[rison], your brother Hanan[iah]. The welfare of my brothers may God [seek at all times]. Now, this year, the fifth year of King Darius, word was sent from the king to Arsa[mes saying, "Authorise a festival of unleavened bread for the Jew]ish [garrison]". So do you count fou[rteen days of the month of Nisan and] obs[erve the passover], and from the 15th to the 21st day of [Nisan observe the festival of unleavened bread]. Be (ritually) clean and take heed. [Do n]o work [on the 15th or the 21st day, no]r drink [beer, nor eat] anything [in] which the[re is] leaven [from the 14th at] sundown until the 21st of Nis[an. For seven days it shall not be seen among you. Do not br]ing it into your dwellings but seal (it) up between these date[s. By order of King Darius. To] my brethren Yedoniah and the Jewish garrison, your brother Hanani[ah].

Now the papyrus was heavily damaged, but it sure is curious that they make no mention of the Paschal lamb offering, only mentioning the unleavened bread.  It's probably not wise to lean too much on this papyrus.  For one, it was heavily damaged and it's possible that we do not have the lacunae correct.  But also, it is fairly late, in the 5th century BCE, which is probably long after the holidays should have been merged.  Nevertheless, I would be remiss if I didn't mention it in the discussion.

Conclusion

Pesach occupied a prominent place on the agricultural calendar.  It occurs on the first full moon after the vernal equinox, which was the time of the new year in the biblical calendar, and in other nearby cultures.  It was probably the chief festival in this region of the ancient near east, and it's origins are probably very old. 

Later when the Israelites were unifying into a single kingdom and their mythologies were coalescing, the agricultural festival of Matzot and the pastoral festival of Pesach merged, and gained (along with Sukkot) additional meaning with respect to the national founding mythology.  Today, Judaism knows nothing about the agricultural or pastoral holidays, we only know celebrate the later mythology that was grafted onto them.  

edit: 2018/12/25 fixed typo.