In the New Testament, Passover and Easter are tied together. Jesus enters Jerusalem and gathers his disciples to celebrate the Passover meal, memorialized by Christians as the Last Supper. Soon, he is arrested, tried and executed on the cross, dying just before the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath.
Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.” Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb .
As the Israelites partook of the Passover sacrifice by eating it, most Christians commemorate Jesus ‘ death by taking part in the Lord’s Supper , which Jesus is said to have instituted (1Corinthians 11:15–34, Luke 22:19–20).
In Christian theology the Lamb of God is viewed as both foundational and integral to the message of Christianity. A lion-like lamb that rises to deliver victory after being slain appears several times in the Book of Revelation.
Passover commemorates the Biblical story of Exodus — where God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The celebration of Passover is prescribed in the book of Exodus in the Old Testament (in Judaism, the first five books of Moses are called the Torah).
Passover , Hebrew Pesaḥ, or Pesach , in Judaism, holiday commemorating the Hebrews’ liberation from slavery in Egypt and the “passing over” of the forces of destruction, or the sparing of the firstborn of the Israelites, when the Lord “smote the land of Egypt” on the eve of the Exodus.
All four Gospels agree to within about a day that the crucifixion was at the time of Passover , and all four Gospels agree that Jesus died a few hours before the commencement of the Jewish Sabbath, i.e. he died before nightfall on a Friday (Matt 27:62; 28:1; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31, 42).
The Passover story is from the Biblical book of Exodus, which discusses the ancient Hebrews’ enslavement in Egypt and how they were freed.
Of all Jewish holiday traditions, the most popular remains the Passover seder —the festive ritual meal , celebrated next week, at which family and friends gather to recount the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt and deliverance from bondage to freedom. The Passover seder’s embrace by Christians seems an unlikely phenomenon.
Chronology. There is no consensus regarding the exact date of the crucifixion of Jesus, although it is generally agreed by biblical scholars that it was on a Friday on or near Passover (Nisan 14), during the governorship of Pontius Pilate (who ruled AD 26–36).
Jesus ‘ last meal was Wednesday night, and he was crucified on Thursday, the 14th of the Hebrew month Nisan. The Passover meal itself was eaten Thursday night, at sundown, as the 15th of Nisan began. Jesus never ate that Passover meal.
Is Passover the most important day in the Jewish tradition? No. Yom Kippur , or the Day of Atonement , is typically considered the holiest day of the year in Judaism.
While there has been theological debate over the nature of Jesus , Trinitarian Christians believe that Jesus is the Logos, God incarnate, God the Son, and “true God and true man”—both fully divine and fully human.
Lamb of God , you take away the sin of the world, grant us peace. O Lamb of God , that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. O Lamb of God , that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. O Lamb of God , that takest away the sins of the world, grant us thy peace.
The symbol is used in both Christianity and Judaism to represent the Messianic Age. In addition, in Christianity, according to a sermon by Augustine, the lion stands for Christ resurrected, the lamb for Christ’s sacrifice (“He endured death as a lamb ; he devoured it as a lion .”—Augustine, Sermon 375A).