Origins of Pesach
Origins of Passover
Intro
This study is going to upset a lot of people, for different reasons. Some of you will be upset because of the exposing of the origins of a well established religious holy day that you view as sacred. Some may even scream anti-Semitic, but before you do, realize that many of the scholars sources for this study are Jews themselves, as well as the passages being from the Tanak. And if your relationship with YHWH is solely based on a religious observance, that questioning this observance is such a threat, you might want to look closer at what it is you really believe in – the holy day or YHWH? Some are going to freak at the application to the New Testament, which touches on another sacred cow for Christians. Others will be upset because they have, like I have, practiced this holy day, in various ways, based on your particular religious beliefs, all their lives, or others only for a number of years. My family has observed Pesach [ Passover ] for over ten years before I came across some research when I began the Perpetual Idolatry and Worthless Deities studies in fall of 2008. This research opened my eyes to the pagan origins and made me take another look at all the contradicting verses about pesach. I am hoping that this subject will not frighten you, nor the questions being asked and you will view this as a sincere effort to seek YHWH in all things.
While dealing with some archaeological research, a number of the scholars kept making ambiguous comments about the origins of Pesach [ Passover ] being a spring fertility festival, a first lambs and new grain festival, a nomadic shepherding springtime festival, but not one of them had a single quote that documented a source, a text, an inscription – nothing. I kept trying to find what these scholars sources were. I could understand those that compared some ancient, pre-Islamic nomadic shepherding groups to some of the current traditions that are practiced by these nomadic groups, which are very similar to Pesach, but still there was no archaeological documentation, only speculation. During some of my research I noticed a correlation between various deities and the establishment of religious calendars. To better understand the religious calendars and its influence on the biblical calendars, I started researching the archaeology of these texts. Mind you, I was not seeking the origins of Pesach / Passover in any of these books. One of the books that I found was from the texts uncovered at Emar, which is referenced below and is the primary comparison text. I had read nearly 2/3rds of the book when I realized what I had in my hands, my missing link to the origins of Pesach. I had to start the book over and begin taking my notes.
This is a difficult study to begin, not knowing whether it
is better to begin in the beginning with the more ancient Amorite / Canaanite
practice or to begin at the end with the passages in the Tanak [Hebrew Bible].
It is also difficult to know what studies you have previously read and whether
of not we are all on the same page as a result. So forgive me if you have read my
other studies and some of this information is old news, but for the sake of
thoroughness, I think it is a necessity. Since most of you have a bible, I am
going to begin with what you have available, before introducing you to what you
probably wont have access to, the historical and archaeological texts. At least
this way, opening each segment with the biblical portion, you will be familiar
with the key biblical elements and see them for what they are when the
archaeology is introduced beside it. Also, because different editors have
handled portions of the bible, we will see the contradictions that the biblical
editors have created when assimilating ancient practices to a patriarchal
priesthood system by the
The primary Amorite / Canaanite texts that I will be comparing Pesach with are the texts excavated from Emar (please see map below in the Amorite / Canaanite section), in the 1970’s. Emar’s texts are from the 14th century BCE to 1187 BCE when the city fell and was not rebuilt. The primary festival being compared is Emar’s zukru festival, which occurs at the head of the year, spring, on the 14th/15th day of the month, the full moon. The specifics of this festival will be relayed in the proper sections with the biblical comparisons.
Pesach Passages
Some scholars believe that the definition of pesach is lost in time. There is nothing comparable to it in any other older Semitic language. Modern definitions use the context and say that pesach means to skip over, pass over, exemption. English readers are more familiar with the term Passover for the designation of the first holy day, in the Hebrew calendar, beginning with the spring equinox.
To set the stage, according to the Tanak, the sons of Yaaqob
[Jacob] and their families went to Mitsrayim [
Before getting into the verses, I would like to point out one of the first contradictions and an indicator of a separate element being inserted into an account by an editor. Before all of the other plagues YHWH directs Mosheh to speak to Faraoh and then begin the plague. But before the incident with the firstborn, the writing style changes and the incident begins with YHWH directing Mosheh to speak to Yisrael first. Then in 11:4, the speaking to Faraoh appears to be taking place with no set up as in the other cases. You only determine that Faraoh is being spoken to at the end of the passage when Mosheh leaves the presence of Faraoh. Then again the speaking to Yisrael, with the commands of how to observe Pesach [ Passover ], with all the regulations that are inserted by a later editors hands. So that takes us to the Passover, in the book of Exodus.
Shemoth [Exodus] 11, “1 now YHWH said to mosheh, one more plague i will bring on faraoh
[pharaoh] and on mitsrayim [egypt]; after that he will let you go from here. when he lets you go, he will surely drive you out from here
completely. 2 speak now in
the hearing of the people that each man ask from his
neighbor and each woman from her neighbor for articles of silver and articles
of gold. 3 YHWH gave the
people favor in the sight of mitsrayim. furthermore,
the man mosheh himself was greatly honored in the land of mitsrayim, both in
the sight of the servants of faraoh and in the sight of the people. 4 mosheh said, so says YHWH, about
Shemoth [Exodus] 12:1-14,
“now YHWH said
to mosheh and aharon in the land of mitsrayim,
2 this month will be the beginning of months for you; it is
to be the first month of the year to you.
3 speak to all the assembly of yisrael, saying, on the tenth
of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to the
house of their fathers, a lamb for each house.
4 now if the house is too small for a lamb, then he and his
neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of
persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the
lamb. 5 your lamb will be an
unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the
goats. 6 you will keep it
until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the
whole assembly of the assembly of yisrael is to kill it at twilight. 7 moreover, they will take some of
the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in
which they eat it. 8 they
will eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they will eat it
with matstsoth [unleavened bread] and bitter herbs. 9 do not eat any of it raw or
boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its
legs along with its entrails. 10
and you will not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it
until morning, you will burn with fire. 11
now you will eat it in this manner, with your loins girded, your sandals on
your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you will eat it in haste it is pesach to YHWH. 12for
i will go through the land of mitsrayim on that night, and will strike down all
the firstborn in the land of mitsrayim, both man and beast; and against all the
elohey [gods] of mitsrayim i will execute judgments i am YHWH. 13 the blood will be a sign for
you on the houses where you live; and when i see the blood i will pass over
you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when i strike the land of
mitsrayim. 14 now this day
will be a memorial to you, and you will celebrate it as a feast to YHWH;
throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as an eternal rule.”
12:21-29,
“then mosheh called for all the elders
of yisrael and said to them, go and take for yourselves lambs according to your
families, and slay the pesach lamb. 22
you will take a bunch of ezob [marjoram] and dip it in the blood which is in
the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and
the two doorposts; and none of you will go outside the door of his beyth until
morning. 23 for YHWH will
pass through to strike mitsrayim; and when he sees the blood on the lintel and
on the two doorposts, YHWH will pass over the door and will not allow the
destroyer to come in to your houses to strike you. 24 and you will observe this event
as a rule for you and your children forever.
25 when you enter the land which YHWH will
give you, as he has promised, you will observe this rite. 26 and when your children say to
you, what does this rite mean to you? 27
you will say, it is a pesach slaughtering to YHWH who
passed over the houses of the sons of yisrael in mitsrayim when he struck mitsrayim,
but spared our homes. and the people bowed low and
worshiped. 28 then the sons
of yisrael went and did so; just as YHWH had commanded mosheh and aharon, so
they did. 29 now it came
about at midnight that YHWH struck all the firstborn in the land of mitsrayim,
from the firstborn of faraoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the
captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle.”
Notice that 12:23 states
for no one to leave the door of their house until the morning, yet 12:31 states
that Faraoh
called Mosheh and Aharon by night, to tell them to gather everyone to leave.
This shows a later editors hand, adding the directions to not leave the house.
This not leaving the house direction is common to a number of Rabbinic Judaism
directions, including Shabbath.
12:42-49,
“it is a night
to be observed for YHWH for having brought them out from the land of mitsrayim;
this night is for YHWH, to be observed by all the sons of yisrael throughout their
generations. 43 YHWH said to
mosheh and aharon, this is the rule of the pesach, no foreigner is to eat of it; 44 but
every slave of a man, purchased with money, after you have circumcised him,
then he may eat of it. 45 a settler or a hired servant will not eat
of it. 46 it is to be eaten
in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the
house, nor are you to break any bone of it.
47 all the assembly of yisrael are to celebrate this. 48 but if a ger stays with you,
and celebrates the pesach to YHWH, let all his males
be circumcised, and then let him come near to celebrate it; and he will be like
a native of the land. but no uncircumcised person may
eat of it. 49 the same thorah
[teaching] will apply to the native as to the ger who stays among you.”
Another contradiction
appears with the following passage, which was written by the Deuteronomist
editors, after the establishment of the temple in
HaDebariym [Deuteronomy] 16:1-6, " observe the month abib, and perform the pesach
to YHWH your elohey. for in the month of abib YHWH
your elohey brought you out of mitsrayim by night. 2 and you will sacrifice a pesach to YHWH your elohey of the flock, and of the herd, in
the place which he will choose to cause his name to dwell there. 3 you will eat with it no leaven. you will eat matstsoth with it seven days, even the bread of
affliction. for you came out of the land of mitsrayim
in haste, so that you may remember the day that you came out of the land of
mitsrayim all the days of your life. 4
and there will be no leaven seen with you in your borders seven days; nor will
any of the flesh which you sacrificed the first day at evening remain all night
until the morning. 5 you may
not sacrifice the pesach offering inside any of your
gates, which YHWH your elohey gives you.
6 but at the place which he will choose to cause his name to
dwell there, you will sacrifice the pesach offering at evening, at the going of
the sun, at the time when you came out of mitsrayim."
Yet another
contradiction involves what animals are being sacrificed. The traditionally
accepted accounts state male lambs or kids, but another account has calves
listed as well. II Dibrey HaYamiym
[Chronicles] 35:7, “and yoshiyahu lifted up to the sons of
the people a flock of lambs and young goats, all for pesach offerings, for everyone
who was found, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand oxen; these
were from the king's substance. “ This verse from the Greek Septuagint [I
Esdras 1] has calves, “And Josias gave as an offering to the children of
the people, sheep, and lambs, and kids of the young of the goats, all for the
passover, even for all that
were found, in number amounting to thirty
thousand, and three thousand calves, these were of the substance of the king.” Many scholars believe that the
Passover, as it was related in the Tanak, was not kept in the related times of
the exodus, but actually began when the Torah scroll was “discovered” in the
temple, during the time of YoshiYahu [Josiah] the king of Yahudah. Later
editors then added an account of pesach to a group of
Hebrews leaving
The reason that the
calves are important will be explained further on in the study. Just keep this
in mind.
These are the basic passages about Pesach / Passover, explaining its origin, the requirements and the establishment as a perpetual holy day for generations. There are a number of fundamental points that need to be addressed in these passages, that have a correlation to the more ancient archaeology: the Amorite / Canaanite connection, the Timing of the Pesach, Spring – the Beginning of the Year in the Amorite / Canaanite Calendar, the Firstborn Sacrifice and the Later Substitution, Abraham’s Sacrifice, Amorite / Canaanite Lord of the Firstborn and Offspring, Amorite / Canaanite Zukru Festival, Zukru Timing, Dagan…, Sacrifice Before Evening, Blood on Gateway / Doorposts, Later Association with Chag HaMatstsoth / Feast of Unleavened Bread, Shomroniym / Samaritan Passover, New Testament Application, Pre-Islamic and Islamic Application, Concluding Points of Comparisons, and Sacrificing to YHWH, which are addressed below.
The Amorite / Canaanite Connection
An important factor in the identity of
There was a confederacy between the Amorites and the
Hittites, as evidenced by a treaty between the two nations, about 1230
At no point in history were all these Amoriy just wiped out
or evacuated. Even archaeologically the evidence for this mass exodus from
There are instances in the Tanak where Amoriy is used to
represent all of Kenaan, such as Yahusha [Joshua] 7:7. Another verse in I
Shmuel [Samuel]
So when I speak of Amorite,
it is the same as Canaanite for the purposes of this study. The reason this is
so important is that the origins of Pesach lie in the Amorite / Canaanite
practices and you need to understand just who and what Amorite is. Abraham is
Amorite. And this comes up again later in the study.
Timing of the Pesach
“It was this significant
event that was commemorated at the Spring Festival, which became known as
the Pesach / Passover, celebrated at the full moon nearest to the vernal equinox
when the firstlings of the lambing season were offered, no doubt originally
to the fertility-god of the flocks in a lunar context. Although the origins
of the festival and its original purpose are obscure (at the time that James
wrote this in 1960, the excavations (1970’s) had not occurred, uncovering
a myriad of texts which would cast much light on Canaanite / Amorite traditions),’the
one thing that looms clear through the haze of this weird tradition,’ as Frazer
says, ‘is the memory of a great massacre of firstborn,’ for its outstanding
feature is the annual commemoration of the historic night on which the angel
of Yahweh was alleged to have set forth on his bloody campaign against the
Egyptians. But the various accounts of the festival have been so overlaid
with later ideas brought into relation with the Exodus tradition,
that it is by no means easy to separate the several strands in the
complex pattern that has emerged. That it was connected primarily with the
sacrifice of the firstlings is highly probable, as is indicated by the injunction
to slay a male lamb, kid or goat without blemish on the 14th of
Nisan at the opening of the rainy season in the spring.” The
Ancient Gods, E.O. James, pgs. 148,149.
“In the Biblical Period
Passover was likewise celebrated as the first of three pilgrimage festivals
which were connected with the harvests and harvest-life in ancient
“The
calendar of Deut. 16. 1-17,
very likely a product of the late monarchy (late 7th century BCE),
manifests several interesting shifts and adds much detail to the two rather
reticent earlier calendars. The festival of Unleavened Bread began with the
sacrifice of the pesach (either from the flock or
herd) to YHWH on the eve of the first day. (The Jewish day begins at sunset.)
Both the meaning and origin of the word pesach are
obscure. The pesach sacrifice, not mentioned in the
earlier calendars, was to be boiled according to this text (contrast Exod.
12.9, where it is to be roasted), unleavened bread was to be eaten throughout
the festival, and all leaven was avoided. The pesach
sacrifice was to be performed at the central sanctuary – Deuteronomy’s major
innovation is cult centralization – and the rest of the festival was to be
observed at home.” Religions of the Ancient World, Sarah Iles
Johnston, pg. 257.
As the religious
practices gained an astronomical and astrological element, these aspects were
also added to the explanations of the rituals. “But before that passage (Exodus
20) was written the source of the seven-day week had been forgotten, just as
the origin of the Passover, a sun festival, of the pagan bull and lamb cults,
which resulted from the position of the vernal equinox in Taurus and Aries. So
a new reason was found. In fact, two explanations were given, the cosmological
in Exodus 20, 9-11, and the humanitarian in Deuteronomy 5, 12-15, each an
attempt to interpret a custom whose true origin had melted from the Hebrew
memory.” Popular Astronomy, Leland S. Copeland, pg.180. Due to other evidence by later editors hands in compiling the Tanak, I do not necessarily
agree that the origins were forgotten, but may have been to cover over a
blatant pagan practice and merge the beliefs with the newly created image of
YHWH that the editors made.
Pesach
/ Passover takes place at the first month of the calendar year, a calendar which is established by Shemoth 12:2.
The key, if you were not familiar with
other Semitic ancient calendars and what the first month was, is listed in Shemoth 13:4 and in HaDebariym 16:1, stating
that the month name is Abib. Abib begins with the first light of the new moon
that occurs closest to the spring [vernal] equinox. The other dating information
for the Pesach is on what day it occurs. This is listed in all the passages
as occurring on the 14th of the month, which correlates with the
full moon, sometimes occurring on the 15th of the month, depending
on whether it is a 29 or 30 day lunar month. This calendar is an Amorite calendar,
which will be explained further on. The other aspect of this festival is that
it has been merged with the Chag HaMatstsoth / Feast of Unleavened Bread and
by doing so, makes the feast a 7 day long event.
Shemoth [Exodus] 13:3-5,
“mosheh said to
the people, ‘remember this
day in which you went out from mitsrayim, from the house of slavery; for by a
powerful hand YHWH brought you out from this place. and
nothing leavened will be eaten. 4
on this day in the month of abib, you are about to go
forth. 5 it will be when YHWH
brings you to the land of the kenaaniy, the chiththiy, the amoriy, the chiwwiy
and the yebusiy, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing
with milk and honey, that you will observe this rite in this month.”
Wayiqqra [Leviticus] 23:5, ” in the first month,
on the fourteenth of the month, between the evenings is the pesach to YHWH. ”
BeMidbar [Numbers] 9:1-3, ” YHWH spoke to mosheh, in the wilderness of siynay, in the second year of
their going out of the land of mitsrayim, in the first month, saying, 2 and, the sons of yisrael prepare
the pesach in its appointed season. 3
in the fourteenth day of this month, between the evenings you will prepare it
in its appointed season; according to all its rules, and according to all its
judgements you prepare it. ”
BeMidbar 28:16, ”and in the first month,
in the fourteenth day of the month, the
pesach to YHWH. ”
BeMidbar 33:3, ”and they journeyed from rameses in the first month, on
the fifteenth day of the first month, on the morrow of the pesach did the sons
of yisrael go out with a high hand, before the eyes of all the mitsrayim. ”
HaDebariym [Deuteronomy] 16:1, ”observe the month abib, and perform the pesach to YHWH
your elohey. for in the month of abib YHWH your elohey
brought you out of mitsrayim by night. ”
Yahusha` [Joshua] 5:10,11, ”and
the sons of yisrael camped in gilgal, and prepared the pesach on the fourteenth
day of the month, at evening, in the plains of yeriycho. 11 and they ate the old grain of
the land on the morrow of the pesach, matstsoth and
roasted grain, in this same day. ”
II Dibrey HaYamiym 35:1,2,6-9,11,13,16-19, ”and
yoshiyahu performed a pesach in yerushalaim to YHWH, and they killed the pesach
offering on the fourteenth of the first month. ”
Ezra 6:19, ” and the sons of the exile performed the pesach
on the fourteenth of the first month.
”
Yechezqel 45:21, ”in
the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, the pesach will be to you,
a feast of seven days, matstsoth is eaten. ”
Spring, the Beginning of the Year in the Amorite
Calendar
“Until the closing
centuries of the first millennium B.C. there were only two instances which
reasonably present the possibility of a New Year other than during the spring –
at the summer solstice at Sargonic Umma and at the autumnal equinox at pre-Old
Babylonian Sippar. Aside from this, the evidence overwhelmingly indicates a
‘universal’ spring New Year.” The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East,
Mark Cohen, pg.14.
“During the middle of
the third millennium B.C., an early Semitic calendar was in use across much of
the northern and central Mesopotamia, being attested on tablets from
This naming of months by
agriculture is important. The later standardized Mesopotamian calendar used the
names of the deities for the month names, which was adopted by Judaism during
the time of the exile, along with the autumn new year – hence Rosh Hoshshanh in
the 7th month. But in the earlier passages of the Tanak, you see
months that are numbered, not named and the one that is named is Abib, not a
deity name, is thought to be an agriculture designation. “Exodus and
Deuteronomy refer to a spring month (March/April) as Abib (Exodus 13:4, 23:15,
34:18, Deuteronomy 16:1), a month unknown from any other source. The month
hodes (chodesh) ha abib is attested in more than one
section of the Bible, although always in the same context, i.e., laws
concerning the festivals of the spring. One unusual aspect of the term is the
form hodes ha abib, rather than hodes abib. If hodes
is the Judean term for month, then this might be a month from the Judean
calendar. However, the form ha abib does raise the
possibility that this is not a month name, but rather a reference to an
agricultural or seasonal event, ‘the month of the…,’ a practice in many
cuneiform documents of the Old Babylonian period.” Cultic
Calendars, pg. 385. Modern
translators say that it refers to the greening of the barley, which is planted
in the fall. They translate it as young ears of grain. In Mishnaic and New
Hebrew it means spring. There is no ancient Semitic equivalent in any other
culture.
There is also the association of the Hittite connection, associated with Sarah, wife of Amorite Abraham, for calendar month naming. “The Hittite calendar found in the texts from Hattusa counts months by number, not religious occasion. “ Time at Emar, pg. 230, note 107.
Amorite
“Although there is no
conclusive evidence that the new calendars were introduced by the immigrating
Amorite tribes, the appearance of a new calendar at the same period as the
introduction of a new, large, dominating population suggests just such a
relationship.” The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near
East, pg. 12.
“The last century of the
third millennium saw the beginning of the migration of the Amorites into
central and southern Mesopotamia, causing some calendars, such as those at Mari
and
Firstborn Sacrifice and Later Substitution
If you look at the Shemoth
[Exodus] verses at the beginning of this study, a person may believe that that the killing
of the firstborn only applied to the Egyptians and their animals and that
it was just a judgment against them, but these accounts have been edited to
remove the earlier elements of an outright sacrifice of firstborn to the deity,
which included humans and did not apply to just an exodus account. Below are
two passages from Shemoth that speak about the firstborn belonging to YHWH.
Shemoth 13:1-16, “then YHWH spoke to mosheh, saying,
2 set-apart to me every firstborn, the first offspring of
every womb among the sons of yisrael, both of man and beast; it belongs to me.
3 mosheh said to the people,
remember this day in which you went out from mitsrayim, from the house of
slavery; for by a powerful hand YHWH brought you out from this place. and nothing leavened will be eaten. 4 on this day in the month of abib, you are about to go forth. 5 it will be when YHWH brings you
to the land of the kenaaniy, the chiththiy, the amoriy, the chiwwiy and the
yebusiy, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk
and honey, that you will observe this rite in this month. 6 seven days you will eat
matstsoth [unleavened bread], and on the seventh day a feast to YHWH. 7 matstsoth will be eaten the
seven days; and nothing leavened will be seen belonging to you, nor will any
leaven be seen belonging to you in all your borders. 8 you will tell your son on that
day, saying, it is because of what YHWH did for me when i came out of
mitsrayim. 9 and it will
serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead, that
the thorah [teachings] of YHWH may be in your mouth; for with a powerful hand
YHWH brought you out of mitsrayim. 10 therefore,
you will keep this decree at its appointed time from year to year. 11 now when YHWH brings you to the
land of the kenaaniy, as he swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to
you, 12 you will devote to
YHWH the first offspring of every womb, and the first offspring of every beast
that you own; the males belong to YHWH. 13
but every first offspring of a donkey you will redeem with a lamb, but if you
do not redeem it, then you will break its neck; and every firstborn of man
among your sons you will redeem. 14
and it will be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, what is this? then you will say to him, with a powerful hand YHWH brought
us out of mitsrayim, from the house of slavery.
15 it came about, when faraoh was stubborn about letting us
go, that YHWH killed every firstborn in the land of mitsrayim, both the
firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. therefore,
i slaughter to YHWH the males, the first offspring of every womb, but every
firstborn of my sons i redeem. 16
so it will serve as a sign on your hand and as a band on your forehead, for
with a powerful hand YHWH brought us out of mitsrayim.”
Shemoth [Exodus] 34:19,20, “the first offspring from every womb belongs to me, and all your male livestock, the first offspring from cattle and sheep. 20 you will redeem with a lamb the first offspring from a donkey; and if you do not redeem it, then you will break its neck. you will redeem all the firstborn of your sons. none will appear before me empty-handed.”
This next example is from Wayyiqra and deals with vows in general. Wayyiqra [Leviticus] 27:28,29, “but any devoted thing which a man devotes to YHWH from all which belongs to him, of man or of animal, or of the field of his possession, it will not be sold nor redeemed. every devoted thing to YHWH is set apart of the set apart. 29 no devoted thing which is dedicated by man will be ransomed, dying it will die.” The Hebrew word for devoted is cherem, devoted to destruction.
Now look back at the passage of Shemoth 34, just above. The writer clearly states that the first offspring of every womb belongs to YHWH, is devoted in a sense and has to be redeemed. But redemption or the concept of substitution is not the original concept, it is the response to a situation of sacrificing the firstborn to the deity, perhaps after the waves of the warrior patriarchal systems needed more men to replenish their fallen troops. This concept of a substitution is an ancient one, appearing in Sumerian cuneiform texts. Ea is an ancient Sumerian deity, considered the Lord of Men. In the Akkadian he is called Enki, whose patron city was Eridu. In a text labeled A1, we see the doctrine of substitution involving a lamb dedicated to Ea.
“ To the wise man he spoke: a lamb is a substitute for a man, a lamb he gives for his life, The head of the lamb he gives for the head of the man, the neck of the lamb he gives for the neck of the man, the breast of the lamb he gives for the breast of the man.” Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament, pg. 195.
While the original
setting of pesach was of families and one sacrifice
per household, after the establishment of the temple in
HaDebariym [Deuteronomy] 16:1-6, ”observe the month abib, and perform the pesach to YHWH
your elohey. for in the month of abib YHWH your elohey
brought you out of mitsrayim by night. 2
and you will sacrifice a pesach to YHWH your elohey of
the flock, and of the herd, in the place which he will choose to cause his name
to dwell there. 3 you will
eat with it no leaven. you will eat matstsoth with it
seven days, even the bread of affliction. for you came
out of the land of mitsrayim in haste, so that you may remember the day that
you came out of the land of mitsrayim all the days of your life. 4 and there will be no leaven seen
with you in your borders seven days; nor will any of the flesh which you
sacrificed the first day at evening remain all night until the morning. 5 you may not sacrifice the pesach offering inside any of your gates, which YHWH your
elohey gives you. 6 but at
the place which he will choose to cause his name to dwell there, you will
sacrifice the pesach offering at evening, at the going of the sun, at the time
when you came out of mitsrayim. ”
“Bible scholars regard
the offering of the paschal lamb as probably being the recasting of an ancient
feast of the first-born.” Universal Jewish Encyclopedia,
1942, Vol. 8, pg. 406 under Paschal Lamb.
Abraham’s Sacrifice
Bereshiyth [Genesis] 22:1-18, “now
it came about after these things, that elohiym tested abraham,
and said to him, abraham. and he said, here i am. 2 he said, take now your son, your
only [yechiyd] son, whom you love, yitschaq, and go to the land of moriyah, and
offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which i will
tell you. 3 so abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey,
and took two of his young men with him and yitschaq his son; and he split wood
for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which elohiym had
told him. 4 on the third day abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a
distance. 5 abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey,
and i and the youth will go over there; and we will worship and return to you. 6 abraham
took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on yitschaq his son, and he
took in his hand the fire and the knife. so the two of
them walked on together. 7
yitschaq spoke to abraham his father and said, my
father." and he said, here i am, my son. and he
said, look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt
offering? 8 abraham said, elohiym will provide for himself the lamb for
the burnt offering, my son. so the two of them walked
on together. 9 then they came
to the place of which elohiym had told him; and abraham
built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son yitschaq and
laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
10 abraham stretched out his hand
and took the knife to slay his son. 11
but the malak of YHWH called to him from heaven and said, abraham,
abraham. and he said, here i am. 12 he said, do not stretch out
your hand against the youth, and do nothing to him; for now i know that you
fear elohiym, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from
me." 13 then abraham raised his eyes and looked, and look, behind him a
ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and abraham went and took the ram and
offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. 14 abraham
called the name of that place YHWH yireh, as it is said to this day, in the
Lets break this down.
1. Yes,
this is Genesis and in the book order Genesis occurs before the book of
Jeremiah, but number order has no bearing on the character of YHWH, nor on origination, since we are constantly dealing with
various editors through time. The book of Bereshiyth [Genesis] is also one of
the books with the most Canaanite practices recorded in it. YirmeYahu [Jer.] 19:3-6 “and say, hear
the word of YHWH, kings of yahudah, and those living in yerushalaim [
2. Verse 1 states that Elohiym wanted to test Abraham, yet YirmeYahu has YHWH stating that this is an abomination, He never commanded it, nor spoke it, not did it enter His heart.
3. Verse 2 states that Abraham was to take his son, his only son, Yitschaq. Yitschaq was not Abrahams only son, according to Bereshiyth. Yishmael is recorded as being Abrahams firstborn when he was 86 years old, Ber. 16.
4. The
Hebrew for only son is yechiyd. In the Greek, it is Ieoud. Philo of Byblos
records an earlier historical account of Sanchuniathon of Berytus [Beruit],
concerning the Phoenicians, “Shortly afterward he says, ‘Among ancient peoples
in critically dangerous situations it was customary for the rulers of a city or
nation, rather than lose everyone, to provide the dearest of their children as
a propitiatory sacrifice to the avenging deities. The children thus given up
were slaughtered according to the secret ritual. Now Kronos, whom the
Phoenicians call El, who was in their land and who was later divinized after
his death as the star [Saturn] Kronos, had an only son by a local bride named
Anobret, and therefore they called him Ieoud. Even now among the Phoenicians
the only son is given this name. When wars gravest dangers gripped the land,
Kronos dressed his son in royal attire, prepared an altar and sacrificed him.’ “ – Philo of
5. While Abraham is not listed as a king [melek], he is considered a prince among his people and among other tribes around him. Therefore, he is in the appropriate position for offering a son to gain an advantage with the deities.
6. The Abraham account mentions that a ram was provided in the place of the son, as a substitute burnt offering. Many scholars believe that this portion was added by later editors to explain that they no longer sacrificed children in this manner and used lambs as a substitution instead. The Carthaginians used lambs and kids as substitutes for the children they sacrificed.
Though Topheth, in the Bible, is
a place outside of Yerushalaim [
7. On
the topic of lambs or kids for substitutes, let us look at the redemption in
the law. If a man makes a vow, dedicating an item, the priest makes a valuation
and the one who vowed can redeem the vowed item with silver or a lamb,
depending on the situation, except for firstborns. This first passage in
Shemoth deals with Pesach/Passover. Remember that the supposed last plague was
on the firstborn of
This is not a misunderstanding that these devoted firstborns of people and animals are being killed and cannot be redeemed. There are other similar passages which reveal the ancient sacrificial practices that occurred during the whole time of the Tanak/Bible. The Romans, when they ruled, put a stop to this practice. So under these “laws”, there is no way that Abraham could have redeemed his “only” son, if he had been an only son, with a ram.
Amorite / Canaanite Lord
of Firstborn and Offspring
Dagan / Dagaan / Daganu – is an Amorite/Canaanite/Ugaritic/Syrian/Mesopotamian god of fertility. Some scholars believe that Dagan is another name for El. The two names do occur together as do Baal / Bel and Dagan. The belief that his name means fish because of the Felishthiym [Philistine] association with the sea is not likely. The fact that the Semitic word for grain is dagan is more likely. Some scholars question which came first. Did grain come to be called by the deity that he was over or the other way around? Another possible confirmation of that name meaning grain/corn is from an account handed down over many years by several authors. The supposed original author is Sanchuniathon – a Phoenician, who then is translated by Philo of Bylos, who then is copied by Eusebius. The following are the two quotes involving Dagon and grain. “...Dagon, which signifies Siton (grain/corn in Greek)...” and, “And Dagon, after he had found out bread-corn, and the plough, was called Zeus Arotrius.” The idea that his name is associated with fish has no basis in any Semitic language. It is a later rabbinic tradition that Dagon means fish.
The name Dagan is frequently a theophoric element in Amorite
names from numerous kingdoms. On Hammurabi’s Code, Hammurabi writes that he is
a warrior of Dagan. Dagan first appears in 2500
In the book, Time at Emar by, Daniel Fleming, the ritual
texts dealing with the Zukru Festival have a number of names that bear witness
to the fertility aspect of Dagan: Dagan, Lord of the Seed, Dagan, Lord of the
Offspring, Dagan Lord of the Firstborn, Dagan, and Lord of Creation. Fleming
writes in note 178, pg 90, that the
The Amorite / Canaanite
Zukru Festival
As a quick note, the author of Time at Emar, Daniel Fleming,
frequently uses
“The cluster of references in a Mari letter shows that Emar’s zukru comes from an older and more widespread religious tradition. Because the Mari tablet is not a ritual text, there is bound to be less information about the zukru in it, but even the scant detail found there provides points of both similarity and difference. Definition of a general Syrian practice must both account for this variety and focus on the small set of commonalities yielded by the comparison. All of the evidence suggests the zukru was a prominent public rite that attended to the chief god of each region where it was practiced.” Time At Emar, pgs. 98,99.
“Beneath the very different expressions of the zukru in these distant settings, the constant use of an idiom with the verb ‘to give’ (nadanu[m]) suggests that we are dealing with the same ritual act that persisted through time. Definition of an essential zukru common to both the Mari and the Emar texts ultimately depends on the meaning of the word itself, evaluated within the two ritual settings. The most promising derivation of the word zukru is the common Semitic root zkr ‘to name, mention, remember’. Based on this etymology zukru is probably a verbal complement to offering, an invocation to the gods.” Time at Emar, pgs. 122, 123. “The verb zakaru means first of all ‘to name’. When worshipers name a god, they acknowledge divine power and invite the god’s presence in hope of some benefit. In general, this act does not initiate a relationship, but assumes an existing one. In both zukru settings, the ritual speech was addressed to the chief god by the full community. The Emar rite would have celebrated a spoken approach to Dagan, a prayer that renewed the link between the people and the god who was ultimately responsible for its survival as a community.” Time at Emar, pg. 124.
This aspect of remembering is also part of the pesach ritual as explained in Shemoth[Exodus] 12:14, “now this day will be a memorial [zikar] to you, and you will celebrate it as a feast to YHWH; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as an eternal rule.” Also Shemoth 12:24-27, “and you will observe this event as a rule for you and your children forever. 25 when you enter the land which YHWH will give you, as he has promised, you will observe this rite. 26 and when your children say to you, what does this rite mean to you? 27 you will say, it is a pesach slaughtering to YHWH who passed over the houses of the sons of yisrael in mitsrayim when he struck mitsrayim, but spared our homes. and the people bowed low and worshiped.”
Zukru Timing
“Emar’s temple archive preserves dozens of fragments and a smaller number of long descriptions of rituals, along with a variety of lists of offerings and deities (Emar 369-535 in Arnaud’s transliterations of the Akkadian texts). This collection includes at least three types of calendar-based texts. Only one text (Emar 373) treats a single event, the zukru ‘festival’ (Sumerian ezen), celebrated for seven days every seven years at the full moon of a month called ‘the head of the year’ (sag.mu).” Time at Emar, pg. 9. “…by a long list of deities that is introduced by the heading ‘For the seven days of the zukru festival they serve all of the gods of Emar.’ This period began on the 15th of sag.mu, as set forth in line 44.” Time at Emar, pg. 69.
This festival, which may have begun as being observed every
seven years, came to be observed every year. “The expansion of the zukru’s core
procession into a seven-day festival represents the first enhancement of its
effect by extending its duration. “If two principle modes of zukru celebration
survive in the Emar archive, they are distinguishable first of all by their
calendars. The shorter text shows no hint of observance apart from the annual
cycle. Every aspect of the annual zukru suggests a simpler event, and some elements
of my hypothetical expansions in the seven-year festival are confirmed by their
absence from the shorter zukru text. Identification of a core zukru custom at
Emar depends on distilling from the two separate practices what belongs to
both.” Time at Emar, pg. 98. Outside of Emar, texts
from
“The definition of Emar’s calendar by lunar cycles partakes
of a tradition that is attested much earlier in southern
Dagan, Father of Gods
“The pantheon of 70
gods appears to be a Syrian convention, attested also in the Ugaritic Baal myth
as the 70 children of Athirat (KTU 1.4 VI:46).” Time at Emar, pg. 57, note 29. The 70 gods of Emar (pg. 59) not
only ties in with the Amorite / Canaanite Ugaritic myth of children born to the
Canaanite goddess Athirat / Asherah and El, but also connects with the biblical
account in HaDebariym [Deuteronomy].
Chapter 32:8, “when the most high
divided to the nations their inheritance; when he separated the sons of adam, he set up the bounds of the peoples, according to the
number of the sons of yisrael.” In
the Hebrew Masoretic text, it states that the Most High divided the nations
into their inheritance and that He set their number according to the beney
Yisrael [sons of Yisrael] which is attributed to be 70, according to Shemoth
[Exodus] 1:5. Remember, that Yaaqob and Yisrael are
the same person. The Aramaic and
“Although the monumental
script on the basalt may tend toward archaized forms, the stone should be from
at least the early second millennium, Nergal, Sin, Isharat, and Samas follow
Dagan a-bi dingir, (‘the father of the gods’) in a list of curses. Whatever
preceded the curses is entirely lost, and what follows is too broken to read.
Mari text A. 1258=:9 calls Dagan ‘the great mountain, father of the great gods’
(a-a dingir-gal-gal-e-ne-, a-bi dingir ra-bu-tim]).” Time at
Emar, pg. 90, note 178. “Even
under the zukru festival’s royal sponsorship, Dagan is not celebrated as the
king of the gods, but as their parent.” Pg. 91. In
line 98, pg. 243, of the zukru festival text, Dagan is also called the Lord of
Creation.
“Both the Mari and Emar
zukru are public rites for the entire communities, but only at Emar did the
event clearly belong to the regular cycle of ritual associated with the
calendar. At Emar, Dagan was invoked, not for any evident seasonal needs of
agriculture or animals, but for some purpose that reflected the identity of the
city itself. The entire populace brought its chief god out of the city to
invoke him at a shrine of stones in the presence of the whole pantheon. There
may have been some precise nuance to this sacred speech, but the inclusiveness
and centrality of the public rite suggests that it involved a sweeping
acknowledgement of Dagan’s relation to the city and request for his presence
and care. “ Time at Emar, pg. 126. “This novel procedure (involving clods of
earth) adds to the sense we have from both versions that the zukru celebrated
the foundational relationship between the people of Emar and Dagan, whom the
city worshipped as its chief god and ultimate patron.” “In its simpler guise,
the zukru was still given by Emar to Dagan, and the shrine of sikkanu stones
was always the ritual center, the place where divine and human population
gathered around the god who in the shorter text is called ‘Head of the zukru.’ “ Time at Emar, pg. 109.
Dagan, Lord of BU-KA-RI (Firstborn, Offspring)
“Every title of Dagan in
the offering lists should represent a separate shrine and resident image or
symbol dedicated to him. In its festival form, the zukru is devoted to Dagan
under these specific titles, en bu-ka-ri ‘Lord of the bu-ka-ri’. The
introduction to part II uses this epithet: ‘When the sons of Emar give the
zukru festival to Dagan Lord of the bu-ka-ri during the seventh year…’ This is
his standard processional name,” Time at Emar, pg. 88. “Akkadian, Ugaritic and
Biblical Hebrew offer the most prominent early Semitic comparisons but do not
exhaust all cognates. Akkadian: bukru (‘son, child’), bukurtu (‘daughter’, only
goddesses), bakru (‘first-born’, MB, only in personal names). CAD (s.v. bukru)
observes that bukru and feminine bukurtu are chiefly poetic terms used
primarily for gods. Akkadian bkr shows no hint of meaning ‘early’ or
‘firstborn’, and the plural of bukru refers to children of the same father.
Ugaritic: bkr as noun (‘[firstborn] child’), bkr as verb (‘to treat as
firstborn’ or ‘to treat as ones own child’); see KTU I.14 III:40;
KTU I.15 III:16. Hebrew: bekor (‘firstborn’, human or animal), bkr as verb (‘to
bear early, to make [legally] firstborn’). “ Time at
Emar, pg. 90, note 176.
Since offspring does not apply to just human beings, I am including the calves and lambs of sheep and goats application under this title. Please remember the previous verse of the Tanak, concerning Pesach, that had calves, as well as lambs of sheep or goats being sacrificed. According to line 48 of the Zukru festival, pg. 239, a number of calves and lambs, which are of sheep and goats, proceed in front of Dagan in the procession. “Dagan received an additional bullock under his special festival title, Lord of the Offspring (bel bukari, line 41). “ Time at Emar, pg. 57, note 28. “The sheep is specified as a lamb in line 39: udu.sila.” Time at Emar, pg. 57, note 29.
Dagan, Lord of the Seed
“The focus on planting
appears to begin on the same 15th day in the text for six months,
when the diviner scatters seed after an offering to Dagan as Lord of the Seed
(be-el numun).” Time at Emar, pg. 103 and note 236. “Dagan Lord of the Seed represents the
fertility needs of the grain fields, the foundation for sustenance. This title
highlights Dagan’s early association with grain, an association that the Hebrew
term dagan has long suggested.” Time
at Emar, pg. 158.
Separating the Pure Sacrifice
Time
at Emar, pg. 61. “The zukru
festival usually specifies calves and lambs (amar/buru and sila/puhadu) for
sacrifice. According to the zukru texts, the animals to be sacrificed were
separated one day in advance, before the events. The word pa’adu is used to
designate this separation, being used in Mari texts as well for “enclosure.”
Fleming states that the purpose of the enclosing, separation of the sacrifices
is most likely for the purpose of purification. “The purified animals,
particularly the young ones, will provide the offerings for the zukru and its
preparations.” Time at Emar, pg. 65. This is an
important comparison note, considering that yet another aspect of the pesach is also Amorite / Canaanite. Shemoth [Exodus] 12:3-6,
“speak to all the
assembly of yisrael, saying, on the tenth of this month they are each one to
take a lamb for themselves, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for
each house. 4 now if the house
is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to
take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man
should eat, you are to divide the lamb. 5
your lamb will be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the
sheep or from the goats. 6
you will keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole
assembly of the assembly of yisrael is to kill it at twilight.” In this case, Yisrael was to enclose, separate
the pesach sacrifice from the 10th, to the
14th day of the sacrifice. This is not 4 complete days. If you
separate one on the 10th and slaughter on the 14th, you
have two complete days in between and parts of two other days. At any rate, the
principal of separation for purification is the same. Another aspect of
similarity is the fact that verse 5 states the pesach
is to be unblemished. On page 235 of Time At Emar, the zukru festival states,
line 7, that
the lamb is to be pure. And on pg. 249, line 183 states they release the pure
calves and lambs.
Sacrifice before Evening
In the Zukru text, it
states that after they do the sacrificing, some eating and drinking, they
anoint the upright stones with oil and blood. Then just before evening, they
bring the gods back up into the city. They perform another sacrifice, “burn”
for all the gods and take the barley mash loaves, the breads and beverages and
the meat and go back up into the city. While not exact, by the wording in the
Hebrew text of the Tanak, it is similar to the Peasch directions in Shemoth
[Exodus] 12:6-11, “you will keep
it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then
the whole assembly of the assembly of yisrael is to kill it at twilight. 7 moreover, they will take some of
the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in
which they eat it. 8 they
will eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they will eat it
with matstsoth [unleavened bread] and bitter herbs. 9 do not eat any of it raw or
boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its
legs along with its entrails. 10
and you will not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it
until morning, you will burn with fire. 11
now you will eat it in this manner, with your loins girded, your sandals on
your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you will eat it in haste it is pesach to YHWH.”
The Pesach is sacrificed
before twilight, the meat is roasted by fire. Notice
that the Pesach directions list that this sacrifice is to be eaten with your
loins girded and sandals on your feet, with a staff in hand. This proscription
could be because the original feast involved going to the gate of the city,
which, for me anyway, would entail being dressed with shoes on my feet.
Another aspect of this
evening feast would involve that it be consumed before sunrise. While the Emar
texts are not complete and broken off in places, we do not have all the
details, sadly. But there is another matter that might help
to explain this precept, whether it is mentioned or not. This involves
Dagan, who is the chief deity of this festival. Dagan is what is termed a
chthonic deity. Chthonic is a Greek term that means in, under or beneath the
earth. This does not apply just to deities of the underworld, but to the earth.
Therefore, a deity of planting is a chthonic deity. Shapash, the Canaanite sun
goddess of
According to Ziony Zevit,
in The Religions of Ancient
- Animals dedicated to Olympians were
slaughtered face up; those to chthonic deities,
face down.
- Animals were sacrificed to Olympians, on an
altar built up of stones (bomos); to chthonic deities, on the ground or on
a slightly raised mound (eschara) into which a pit that drained into the
ground (bothros) was excavated.
- Olympians were worshipped in temples built
on high spots or on a three-stepped base; chthonic deities were sometimes
worshipped in caves or dark recesses.
- Olympian sacrifices were made in the
daylight and the meat to be consumed had to be apportioned before sundown;
sacrifices to chthonic deities were made at night, and, if meat was
consumed, it had to be consumed before sunrise.
Sacrifices
were offered to chthonic deities in the classical world, not so much for
worship as for placation, the aversion of evil, and for obtaining dreams or
other signs for divinatory purposes.
For those of you who
have paid attention to the Pesach requirements, verse 10 states, “and you will not leave any of it
over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you will burn
with fire.” If you apply these Olympian versus chthonic deities parameters to the pesach, it appears very strongly,
that this sacrifice is to a chthonic deity. Another aspect of this is that the
original sacrifice was among the family at their house, which means there was
no altar, so to speak. The blood was caught in a basin or in the earth and
spread on the lintel and door posts.
This clearly makes it another chthonic element. Add to that the fact
that this sacrifice was not for worship, but placation to avoid an evil and you
have four elements that make this a chthonic sacrifice.
Blood on Gateway /
Doorposts
At Emar, during the
spring Zukru festival, ”32. After eating and drinking,
they streak all the shrines (at the gateway) with the fat and blood (from the
offerings). “ Shemoth 12:7, “moreover, they will take some of the
blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which
they eat it. “ A shrine, in most of the Semitic speaking
cultures, is called a beyth /beth, which means house. Now lets
look at the context of the houses. 12:3-4, “speak to all the assembly of yisrael, saying, on the
tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according
to the house of their fathers, a lamb for each house. 4 now if the house is too small
for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one
according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should
eat, you are to divide the lamb. “ Many homes of the “Fathers” had their own built in
shrines, as proven in the Worthless Deity study. This is part of the
patriarchal, ancestral worship. So the original practice evidenced in the Zukru
festival, may have been altered by later editors to imply a living domicle, not
the shrine that was located there.
“The sprinkling of the
blood on the lintel and door-posts of the houses where the fugitive Israelites
were supposed to have concealed themselves was also a latter addition, derived
from the practice of smearing houses with blood as a protective device to repel
demons. This rite clearly has nothing to do with the Paschal festival as such
and the explanations given for it are inconsistent,
the ‘destroyer’ and Yahweh being confused. Furthermore, it is not clear whether
it was to be a sign to the Israelites or to the ‘angel’. As Buchanan Gray has
pointed out, ‘either the story is intended to correct a popular conception of
Yahweh, or to counteract a popular recognition of other divine powers than
Yahweh.’ In any case, the apotropaic function of the Paschal blood ritual is
hardly in doubt.” The Ancient Gods, E. O. James, pg. 149. At the time that James wrote this, the
excavation of the tablets of Emar and the zukru festival were
not available to him.
“Many investigators believe that Passover may originally have been a festival by means of which the house was to be protected against pestilence; they base their view on the rite of sprinkling the threshold and the door-post with blood, as a result of which a closer communion with the protecting deity was believed to be achieved. It is quite possible that the pre-Canaanite period a festival of this character, containing also elements of other festivals, was merged with an original festival of the sacrifice of the first-born.” The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, 1942, Vol. 8, pg. 409.
In the zukru festival, two different kinds of bread are given to the gods and to the people as part of the feasting, along with wine. There is barley bread and mashed bread. Sorry, there are no recipes, so I have no way of knowing if one of the two is made specifically without leaven to possibly correlate with the feast of unleavened bread, which was merged with pesach.
Later Association
with Chag HaMatstsoth / Feast of Unleavened Bread
“Pesach. This feast probably originated in the old
Canaanite spring pastoral feast that featured the sacrifice of young lambs. In
Israel, Pesach (etymology possibly ‘protect)’) was combined with an old ‘feast
of unleavened bread,’ then ‘historicized’ by connecting it with traditions of
the Passover in Egypt, when the angel of death spared Israel’s firstborn
because of the lamb’s blood smeared on the doorways.” Did God Have a Wife,
William Dever, pg. 108.
HaDebariym [Deuteronomy] 16:1-6, ”observe the month abib, and perform the pesach to YHWH
your elohey. for in the month of abib YHWH your elohey
brought you out of mitsrayim by night. 2
and you will sacrifice a pesach to YHWH your elohey of
the flock, and of the herd, in the place which he will choose to cause his name
to dwell there. 3 you will
eat with it no leaven. you will eat matstsoth with it
seven days, even the bread of affliction. for you came
out of the land of mitsrayim in haste, so that you may remember the day that
you came out of the land of mitsrayim all the days of your life. 4 and there will be no leaven seen
with you in your borders seven days; nor will any of the flesh which you
sacrificed the first day at evening remain all night until the morning. 5 you may not sacrifice the pesach offering inside any of your gates, which YHWH your
elohey gives you. 6 but at
the place which he will choose to cause his name to dwell there, you will
sacrifice the pesach offering at evening, at the going of the sun, at the time
when you came out of mitsrayim. ”
This passage is not in relation to the Chag HaMatstsoth (Feast of Unleavened Bread), these are directions about the Pesach, showing the aspect of the bread is part of the Pesach and that it was a 7 day feast.
“As indicated by the two names for Passover, i.e. hag hapesah and hag hamatzoth, ‘festival of the Passover offering’ and ‘festival of the unleavened bread,’ the festival presumably had a two-fold origin. As the festival of the unleavened bread, which was made from the new grain which could not be eaten before that and was therefore made quickly and hence without the use of leaven, it points to an agricultural civilization which was already in existence, hence to the period after the entrance of the Hebrews into Palestine. The festival of the Passover offering, on the other hand, which was subsequently merged with the former, indicates a nomadic period as the time of origin. The original character of this latter Passover festival is obscure. According to the view of many scholars, it was a lunar festival (connected with the worship of the moon) because it began with the nocturnal celebration; according to others, however, it was a solar festival (connected with the worship of the sun) which was related to the entrance of the sun into the zodiacal sign of the ram in the spring; a solar festival of this kind was observed by the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians.” The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, 1942, Vol. 8, pg. 408, under Passover (Pesach).
Shomroniym / Samaritan Pesach / Passover
The Shomroniym / Samaritans are a rival tribe to those of
the Yahudiym / Jews. The Jews state in their Tanak, that when the Assyrians
carted of the northern tribes of
Unlike the Jews, who when their temple was destroyed in 70 CE, stopped sacrificing, the Shomroniym never stopped sacrificing the pesach. For the Shomroniym, it has always been a community sacrifice. The community gathers together in a particular area of the mountain, a trough is dug in the soil where they are going to slaughter the lambs. They lie the lams on their sides, with their heads hanging into the troughs and when their necks are slit, the blood runs into the trough. Basins are used to catch some of the blood. This clearly indicates an earth, chthonic orientation for the sacrifice, not on an altar. Below are some quotes from historians who either had first or second hand testimony of the observance. I am not quoting the whole ceremony, which resembles the statutes in the Tanak, just points that correlate to this study.
“The illustration which I have endeavored to furnish of the
original Jewish Passover, from the institution of the Samaritan Passover, was
drawn from a description given to me in 1854 by Mr. Rogers,now
Consul at
In the above quotes, please note that the Passover of the Samaritans did not have a fixed date of the 14th that the Jews have. They actually have the proper association with that of the full moon, which as I stated at the beginning of this study will sometimes be on the 14th of the month and sometimes on the 15th, depending on the month length. The other interesting bit of information is the application of the lambs blood on the foreheads of the children, which used to be placed on all the community members. While the Shomroniym observe Pesach in an out doors setting, they have no doorway and lintel to apply the blood to, but the purpose of the blood was for the protection of the firstborn and if those are outside, it would seem logical to apply it to what needs protecting, the people, not a building.
“On the other hand, he says that he saw boys marking
themselves with the sacrificial blood by making a stripe which extended from
the forehead to the end of the nose. Fathers and mothers were seen marking
their children, and even their babies, in like manner. Subsequent observers
report seeing blood caught in basins to be used for such a purpose and for
sprinkling tents.” Papers on the
New Testament
Application
I hope, that many of you are asking this next question, seeing the progression of this practice into the New Testament. It is relevant to this continued mindset that a deity demands a human sacrifice, a firstborn or only born, originally male, to right a situation or provide for fertility. So does this apply to Yahusha / Jesus? Well, yes it does.
The biblical Greek of the New Testament does not use the ancient term ieoud for only offspring, it uses the more modern Greek monogenes, which literally means one and only offspring, mono being one and genos being offspring. This is used of Yahusha in Yahuchanan [John] 3:16, the famous passage stating that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believed in him would not perish but have everlasting life. You have all the necessary elements of the ancient sacrifice. You have the male deity, the only and firstborn son, the father sacrificing, so that others do not die from some calamity, a placation. In this case, the deity is also the father/king. The only thing lacking is the fire, which, as you will remember, the Romans who are ruling at this time, are not allowing, so the sacrifice was applied to the crucifixion execution. In the book of Hebrews:11:28, the author does not describe it as a plague against the firstborn of Egypt, but describes it as the Destroyer of the Firstborn, showing the more prevalent view of what is actually taking place.
You have the fertility aspect of these festivals as well in that the seed (firstborn) that was planted in the earth, then bears more (Colossians 1:18 calls Yahusha/Jesus the Firstborn from among the dead.). In the book of John, which many scholars have stated has numerous Jewish Gnostic elements, we see in chapter 12 the belief that Yahusha was foretelling his own death., “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be honored. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it will produce many seeds.” In the other gospels the parables of seeds are likened to the teachings, the words of YHWH, not to a pagan dying/resurrected god of fertility that is killed and sown into the ground only to be resurrected and stronger than ever.
New
Testament Pesach Passages
Matthew 26:17-29, “and on the first day of the matstsoth [unleavened bread] came the students near to yahusha, saying to him, 'where do you want that we may prepare for you to eat the pesach [passover]?' and he said, 'go away to the city, to such a one, and say to him, “the teacher says, ‘my time is near; with you i will keep the pesach, with my students;' “ ‘ and the students did as yahusha appointed them, and prepared the pesach. and evening came, he was reclining with the twelve, and while they were eating, he said, 'truly i say to you, that one of you will deliver me up.' and being grieved exceedingly, they began to say to him, each of them, 'is it i, master?' and he answering said, 'he who dips with me the hand in the dish, he will deliver me up; the son of man will go, as it has been written concerning him, but woe to that man through whom the son of man is delivered up. good it were for him if that man had not been born.' and yahudah [judas], he who delivered him up, answering said, 'is it i, teacher?' he said to him, 'you have said.' and while they were eating, yahusha having taken the bread, and having blessed, did brake, and gave to the students, and said, 'take, eat, this is my body;' and having taken the cup, and having given thanks, he gave to them, saying, 'drink you of it all; for this is my blood of the restored covenant, that for many is being poured out, for forgiveness [pardon] of sins; and i say to you, that i will not drink again on this produce of the vine, till that day when i may drink it with you new in the kingdom of my father.' “
Mark 14:12-25, “and the first day of the matstsoth [unleavened bread], when the yahudiym [jews] were slaughtering the pesach [passover], his students said to him, 'where will you, having gone, we may prepare, that you eat the pesach?' and he sent forth two of his students, and said to them, 'go away to the city, and there you will meet a man bearing a pitcher of water, follow him; and wherever he may go in, say you to the master of the house, “the teacher says, ‘where is the guest chamber, where the pesach, with my students, i may eat?’ “ and he will show you a large upper room, furnished, prepared. there make ready for us.' and his students went forth, and came to the city, and found as he said to them, and they made ready the pesach. and when evening came, he came with the twelve, and as they were reclining, and eating, yahusha said, 'truly i say to you, one of you, who is eating with me, will deliver me up.' and they began to be sorrowful, and said to him, one by one, 'is it i?' and another, 'is it i?' and he answered, saying to them, 'one of the twelve who is dipping with me in the dish; the son of man will indeed go, as it has been written concerning him, but woe to that man through whom the son of man is delivered up; good were it to him if that man had not been born.' and as they were eating, yahusha took bread, blessed, broke, and gave to them, and said, 'take, eat; this is my body.' and having taken the cup, gave thanks, he gave to them, and they drank of it all; and he said to them, 'this is my blood of the restored covenant, which for many is being poured out; truly i say to you, that no more may i drink of the produce of the vine till that day when i may drink it new in the kingdom of elohiym.' “
These two accounts are virtually the same, except that the account in Mark gives a better rendering of the two students being sent to have the Pesach prepared, as well as the timing, that of the slaughtering of the Pesach.
There are several aspects that are applied to Yahusha, as the pesach lamb, showing that the New Testament writers felt the need for the continuation of the sacrifice of the firstborn and redemption. John 1:26-31, ‘yahuchanan [john] answered them, saying, 'i immerse with water, but in midst of you he has stood whom you have not known, this one it is who is coming after me, who has been before me, of whom i am not worthy that i may loose the cord of his sandal.' these things came to pass in bethabara, beyond the yarden, where yahuchanan was immersing, on the morrow yahuchanan saw yahusha coming to him, and said, 'look, the lamb of the elohiym, who is taking away the sin of the world; this is he concerning whom i said, after me will come a man, who has come before me, because he was before me: and i knew him not, but, that he might be manifested to yisrael, because of this i came with the water immersing.’ “
The following verses show a comparison with the Pesach requirements from the Tanak and the firstborn sacrifice belief system carried into the New Testament.
Male without blemish : I Kefa [Peter] 1:18-21, “ ‘having known that, not with corruptible things, silver or gold, were you redeemed from your foolish behavior delivered by fathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and unspotted, the mashiyach’s [messiah’s], foreknown, indeed, before the foundation of the world, and manifested in the last times because of you, who through him do believe in elohiym, who did raise out of the dead, and honor to him did give, so that your faith and your hope may be in elohiym.’ “ Ibriym [Hebrews] 9:14, “ ‘how much more will the blood of the mashiyach [messiah] who by the eternal ruach did offer himself unblemished to elohiym to purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living elohiym?’ “
No broken bones: Yahuchanan [John]
19:32-36, “the
soldiers, therefore, came, and of the first indeed they did break the legs, and
of the other who was crucified with him, and having come to yahusha, when they
saw him already having been dead, they did not break his legs; but one of the
soldiers with a spear did pierce his side, and immediately there came forth
blood and water; and he who saw has testified, and his testimony is true, and
that one has known that true things he speaks, that you also may believe. for
these things came to pass, that the writing may be fulfilled, 'a bone of him
will not be broken;' “
Thehillah [Psalm] 34:19, 20, “a
righteous man may have many troubles, but yhwh delivers him from them all; he
protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.”
BeMidbar
[Numbers] 9:12, “they do not leave of till morning; and a bone they do
not break in it; according to all the rule of the pesach
they prepare it.”
Blood applied with “hyssop”: The Hebrew word in the passages concerning pesach,
as well as others that translate it as hyssop, is ezob. Kleins Etymological
Dictionary of the Hebrew Language says that it is marjoram, that others
identify it with hyssop. I research and use edible, medicinal and useful wild
plants, as well as what people refer to as herbs. In looking these two plants
up in all my books, a number made the same statement that it was probably
marjoram, but did not state why. It seems that marjoram is native to the
With that said,
Hebrews 9:19-22, “for every command having been spoken, according to thorah, by mosheh [moses], to all the people, having taken the blood of the calves and goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and ezob [moarjoram], he both the book itself and all the people did sprinkle, saying, 'this is the blood of the covenant that elohiym joined to you,' and both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the service with blood in like manner he sprinkled, and with blood almost all things are purified according to the thorah, and apart from blood shedding forgiveness does not come.”
Thehillah
[Psalm] 51:7, “purge
me with ezob [marjoram], and i will be clean; wash me, and i will be whiter
than snow.”
Eaten with matstsoth [no yeast]: Shemoth
[Exodus] 34:25, “
‘you will not offer the blood of my slaughter
with leavened bread, nor is the slaughtering of chag hapesach [feast of passover] to be left over
until morning.’ “ wayyiqra [leviticus] 10:8-12, “8
and YHWH spoke to aharon, saying, 9
‘you will not drink wine and fermented drink, you nor your
sons with you, as you go into the tent of meeting, and you will not die; a
eternal rule throughout your generations;
10 and to make a distinction between the set apart and
profane, and between the unclean and the clean;
11 and to teach the sons of yisrael all the rules which YHWH
has spoken to them by the hand of mosheh.’ 12 and mosheh spoke to aharon, and
to eleazar, and to iythamar, his sons who were left, take the food offering
that remains from the fire offerings of YHWH, and eat it unleavened near the altar,
for it is set apart of the set apart.”
MaththiYahu [Mathew] 16:5-12, “and his students having come to the other side, forgot to take loaves, and yahusha said to them, 'beware, and take heed of the leaven of the farushiym [Pharisees] and tseduqqiym [Sadducees];' and they were reasoning in themselves, saying, 'because we took no loaves.' and yahusha having known, said to them, 'why reason yourselves, you of little faith, because you took no loaves? do you not yet understand, nor remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many hand-baskets you took up? nor the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? how do you not understand that i did not speak to you of bread. to watch for the leaven of the farushiym and tseduqqiym?' then they understood that he did not say to watch for the leaven of the bread, but of the teaching, of the farushiym and tseduqqiym.”
Luke 12:1-3, “at which time the myriads of the multitude having been gathered together, so as to tread on one another, he began to say unto his students, first, 'take heed to yourselves of the leaven of the farushiym [pharisees], which is hypocrisy; and there is nothing covered, that will not be revealed; and hid, that will not be known; because whatever in the darkness you have said, in the light will be heard: and what to the ear you speak in the inner-chambers, will be proclaimed on the house tops.’ “
I
Corinthians 5:6-8, “ ‘not good your glorying; have you not known that a
little leaven the whole lump does leaven? cleanse out, therefore, the old
leaven, that you may be a new lump, according as you are unleavened, for also
our pesach [passover] for us was slaughtered, mashiyach [messiah], so that we
may keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of evil and
wickedness, but with unleavened food of sincerity and truth.’ “
Do not leave any of it till morning: Shemoth [Exodus] 12:10, “ ‘and you will not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you will burn with fire.’ ” Shemoth 34:25, “you will not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, nor is the slaughtering of chag hapesach to be left over until morning.” BeMidbar [Numbers] 9:12, “they do not leave of till morning; and a bone they do not break in it; according to all the rule of the pesach they prepare it.”
Mark 15:42-46, “And, as it was the eve of preparation, which precedes the shabbath, Yahusef of Ramath, an honorable counselor, who also himself waited for the kingdom of El, came, and assuming courage, went to Pilate, and begged the body of Yahusha. And Pilate wondered that he should be already dead. And he called the centurion, and inquired if he had been any time dead. And when he learned it, he gave his body to Yahusef. And Yahusef bought fine linen, and took it down, and wrapped it in the linen, and deposited it in a tomb that was hewed in a rock, and rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.”
New Testament
Conclusion
The above passage comparisons are not unique to my research, they have been made by numerous authors, including Paul, since the time of Yahusha. Continuity of religious practices, even in light of religious revolutions, is crucial to the priesthood, and if that means that you assimilate some or all of the practices of a rival, then it is done and has been done. The writer of the letters associated with Paul uses heavy Mithras associations, which was a very common sun/son worship, from the Persians and adopted by many Romans, loving the warrior aspect. Since the New Testament assimilated the Mithras rival characteristics, is it too far fetched that they carried on the torch of the older Canaanite fertility and firstborn festival that had been practiced for a far longer period of time than the Mithras worship did?
Pre-Islamic
Application
Shortly after the New Testament period, another Semitic group had the same Canaanite / Amorite background and foundation. These peoples have continued their traditions, even with the adoption of Islam.
In the Chronology of the Nations by Abu-Raihan Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Albiruni (written before 440 CE), translated into English by Edward Sachau (in 1879), Albiruni has a chapter, “On the Festivals of the Arabs in the Time of Heathendom.” (This “heathendom” is pre-Islamic. The current Islamic calendar is strictly lunar with no intercalation to line it up with the solar calendar.) “We have already mentioned that the Arabs had 12 months, that they used to intercalate them so as to make them revolve with the solar year in one and the same order, that the significations of the names of the months seem to indicate the reasons why they agreed among each other regarding this order, some of them indicating the corresponding times of the year, others indicating what the people did during them.” This is important to note, because the ancient Semitic calendars used intercalation to balance the lunar and the solar calendar, otherwise you will have certain feasts, such as a harvest feast occurring in winter with nothing to harvest. This is what has happened to the current Islamic calendar.
“Eid (Id) al-Adha is the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice, the
holiest and grandest festival of the Mulsim calendar. The feast falls on the 12th
month of he calendar, Tho El Hija, the month of the
annual pilgrimage to
“Henna is an important part of this Id sacrifice, and has
been significant in many celebrations since the pre-monotheistic Bronze Age.
The Ugaritic Canaanites used henna in association with their ritual associated
with spring fertility sacrifices of domestic ruminants, as well as harvest
festivals, as noted in the Ugaritic Myth of Baal, in the version of Ilimilku
(de Moor, 1971:85). In this epic myth,
young women gather fresh henna leaves when the rainy season ends and the warm
season begins in late March or early April, when the Pleiades are visible in
the early evening western sky. They applied the henna to their hands and feet,
as is documented the Ugaritic text and in the Apocrypha, “The Second Book of
Adam and Eve’ chapter 20 verse 31. During the period from 3000 BCE to 1200 BCE,
ceramic pieces from Minos, the Cyclades,
The Spring sacrifice was incorporated into Judaism as Abraham’s intended sacrifice of Isaac (Maccoby, 1983:74-86). A 6th century CE mosaic on the floor of the Beth Alpha synagogue in Galilea shows God hennaed hand reaching forth to stay Abraham’s knife (Campbell, 1988:84). The sacrifice was integrated into Christianity via the crucifixion of Christ (the lamb of god) at Easter (Maccoby, 1983:97-106).” Id al-Adha, Sacrifice and Henna Traditions, Catherine Cartwright-Jones, pg. 3. On the Beth Alpha Synagogue Floor mosaic shown below, you can clearly see that the circle behind the head of Abraham, with the hand extending toward him, has red henna painted on it.
Quran Quotes On Ibrahim’s Sacrificing
Yishmael
[37.100] My Lord! grant me
of the doers of good deeds.
[37.101] So We gave him the good news of a boy,
possessing forbearance.
[37.102] And when he attained to working with
him, he said: O my son! surely I have seen in a dream
that I should sacrifice you; consider then what you see. He said: O my father! do what you are commanded; if Allah please, you will find me
of the patient ones.
[37.103] So when they both submitted and he threw him down upon his
forehead,
[37.104] And We called out to him saying: O Ibrahim!
[37.105] You have indeed shown the truth of the vision; surely thus do
We reward the doers of good:
[37.106] Most surely this is a manifest trial.
[37.107] And We ransomed him with a Feat sacrifice.
[37.108] And We perpetuated (praise) to him among the later generations.
[37.109] Peace be on Ibrahim.
[37.110] Thus do We reward the doers of good.
This Quran quote is very important for a number of reasons.
Not only does it affirm the account of Ibrahim [Abraham] sacrificing his son,
the Arab account states that it is Ishmael that is the son that is bound for
the sacrifice. Remember the contradiction in the previous section of Abrahams
sacrificing the firstborn? The account in Bereshiyth [Genesis] stated that
Yishmael was the firstborn, not Yitschaq [Isaac]? This may be a confirmation
that the firstborn and intended sacrifice was Yishmael. It would not be the
first time where Judaism supplanted another tribe with themselves to take the dominate, favored position. Another important factor here, is that of the position of the sacrifice. No other
account in the Tanak / Old Testament describes how the pesach
is performed. Remember the comparison study by Ziony Zevit, of the Olympian
style celestial gods versus the chthonic style deities and their sacrifices?
Comparison no. 1 states: “Animals dedicated
to Olympians were slaughtered face up; those to chthonic deities,
face down.” This is yet another confirmation that the pesach
of firstborns was a chthonic sacrifice, with Yismael being placed, with his
forehead down. Also, previously mentioned in the Eid al-Adha (Feast of
Sacrifice) paragraph, that pesach type feast is
directly related to Ibrahim’s sacrificing of his firstborn son and then a
ransom is provided. The account from Judaism does not connect the two
situations directly, but scholars knew they were connected by context.
Another Arab / Muslim connection is the alternate name for
the Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) in Turkey and other Urdu speaking peoples
(the modern day location of several of the Amorite / Canaanite centers, such as
Emar.) is Baqri-Eid – Cattle Feast (though it includes other ruminants such as
goats and sheep). Baqar, in Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac is cattle, herd
or oxen, derived from the root BQR to cleave, or split, to plow. This very much
has the necessary fertility agriculture overtones of the springtime fertility
festivals of old. In other Urdu dialects, baqri means goat. While the Semitic K and Q have similar sounds,
they are written differently. The Zukru texts from Emar, bu-ka-ri (as in Dagan Lord of the Offspring)
is always signed with the ka, not the qa, which is why Fleming translates as
offspring, rather than cattle, as some authors have chosen. That does not mean
that verbally, they could not be interchangeable in a culture, hence the fact
that baqri is cattle to
Concluding Points of
Comparison Between Pesach and Zukru
While I know that all points are not exactly alike, over hundreds of years, nothing ever is. One of the differences of the Zukru festival was that portions of it were celebrated once every seven years and yet there is another portion of text showing that a version was celebrated every year. This is not dissimilar to the fact that the Hebrews celebrated Pesach once a year, yet when it was adopted by Christianity, the practice was changed a bit and celebrated every Sunday in the form of the Eucharist, by the Catholic church, the blood being the wine and the bread being the body of their Christ. Another comparison is that of the Hebrew miqweh (mikveh) – immersion, which was then adopted as baptism and even infant baptism. Things change, but the essence is still there.
- Zukru meaning remember and Pesach requirement to remember for generations
- Spring festivals in the 1st month of the year on the mid-month (14th or 15th) full moon
- 7 day festival
- Community sacrifice
- Sacrifices of calves, lambs and kids
- Sacrifices of firstborn
- Sacrifices that were pure, unblemished
- Sacrifices separated before festival for purification
- Blood of sacrifices painted on posts and lintels of gateway/door
- Festival belonging to deity who claims firstborns
- Bread for the community
Sacrificing to YHWH
Again, the following passages of YirmeYahu bear repeating – YHWH did not institute sacrifices to appease or feed Him. YHWH does not need or require this in order to have a relationship with Him.
YirmeYahu
[Jer.] 19:3-6 “and
say, hear the word of YHWH, kings of yahudah, and those living in yerushalaim [
YirmeYahu 7:21-28, “so says YHWH
tsebaoth, the elohey of yisrael, add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices
and eat flesh. 22 for i did
not speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that i brought them out
from the land of mitsrayim [
YeshaYahu [Isaiah]
66:1-6, “so
says YHWH, the heavens are my throne, and the earth the stool of my feet. where then is the house that you build for me? and where then is the place of my rest? 2 and all these my hand has made
and all these things exist, says YHWH. and to this one i will regard/look on, to the needy and
injured of breath, and trembling at my word. 3 ritually slaughtering
the bull is as striking a man; sacrificing the lamb is as breaking the neck of
a dog; offering the grain/ meal offering is as blood of swine; recording/
remembering the moon is as blessing vanity/evil, also they have chosen their
way and in their abominations their being delights. 4 i also will
choose/assay/examine in their mischievous deeds and their terror i will bring
to them because i called and no one cohabited/marital rights;
i spoke and they did not observe, but they did evil in my eyes and that which i
did not delight, they chose. 5 observe the word of YHWH, those who
tremble at his word. your brothers have said, hating
you, banishing you for the sake of my name, YHWH is honored. but
he will appear in your joy and they will be ashamed. 6 a roaring
voice from the city, a voice from the heykal [temple/palace], the voice of YHWH
completing recompense to his enemy.”
The YeshaYahu passage is
instrumental in showing that the religious system that man has set up is evil
in the eyes of YHWH. Here we see that YHWH mocks them about the house they have
built, as if it could contain the Creator, who made everything. He says that
the heavens are His throne and the earth is His footstool. What is that tiny house
they have built in Yerushalim to house Him? Nothing.
He then goes on to
compare their religious practices of the temple to those of the idolatrous
nations: the slaughtering of the bull is the same as striking and killing a
man; the sacrificing of a lamb is the same as the Canaanite practice of
breaking a dogs neck for religious purposes;
the grain/meal offering is the same as sacrificed blood of pigs, another
idolatrous practice of the Sea Peoples; and recording/remembering the moon
[lunar calculation instead of sighting] is the same as blessing an evil thing,
instead of denouncing it as unrighteous. YHWH states that they have chosen
their own way contrary to the Way of YHWH; that they delight in their
abominations instead of being ashamed of them. As a result, YHWH is going to
assay them.
Assay is a metallurgical term. An assayer determines the purity of a metal, whether or not it has impurities, what kind and at what levels. This term is used in the book of YirmeYahu [Jeremiah] as well. YirmeYahu is appointed an assayer of the people by YHWH. YHWH says that no matter how many times they are heated up to refine, they remain impure, and therefore they are rejected silver – dross, and are cast out.
Ask yourself these questions: Why does a Creator advocate the systematic sacrifice of firstborns, whether from men or animals? How does that benefit Him or creation? It does not. In fact, in the matter of herds, if you are constantly culling your herd of the pure, unblemished males to sacrifice, you will leave yourself with a weakened herd. In nature, the weakest are removed by predators, disease, etc., causing the strongest to breed and the herd becomes stronger, more viable. Why would YHWH, as Creator, create a system that goes contrary to everything He has created and intentionally weaken a portion of it? He would not. But a king/priesthood system that wants to tax you of your best would. I Shmuel [Samuel] 8:10-18, “and shemuel spoke all the words of YHWH to the people who were asking a melek [king] from him. 11 and he said, this is the judgment of the melek [king] who will reign over you. he will take your sons and will appoint them for himself among his chariots, and among his horsemen. and they will run before his chariots. 12 and he will appoint for himself heads of thousands, and heads of fifties; and to plow his plowing, and to reap his reaping; and to make weapons for war for him, and weapons for his charioteer. 13 and he will take your daughters for perfumers, and for cooks, and for bakers. 14 and he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive yards, the best, and give them to his servants. 15 and he will tithe your seed and your vineyards, and will give them to his eunuchs and to his servants. 16 and he will take your male slaves and your slave girls, and the best of your young men, and your asses, and will use them for his own work. 17 he will tithe your flock, and you will be servants to him. 18 and you will cry out in that day because of your melek [king] whom you have chosen for yourselves. and YHWH will not answer you in that day.”
I believe people need to question everything. Don’t take anything for granted or blindly follow a practice just because it has always been done that way. For those of you who have adopted this walking with YHWH, don’t take the word of written texts, heavy with assimilated pagan practices, that are offensive to a relationship with Him. YHWH does not need to be fed or appeased, not with your firstborn, not with your ransom / substitutes, not with a perfect son as a sacrifice lamb of god. Yahusha was not killed because it was his destiny as a dying/resurrected springtime fertility god that was sown into the ground to produce more seed. He was killed because he opposed a corrupt patriarchal religious system that was deceiving the people with age old lies and practices. He was killed because he pointed the way to a more basic, holistic (emphasizing the whole), life affirming way of the Creator.
I pretty much despise the contradictory teachings of Paul in his letters, but there is a passage that resonates so strongly. Romans 8:19-21, “for all the creation hopes and waits for the discovery of the sons of the elohiym. for the creation has been subjected to vanity, not willingly, but on account of him who subjected her, on the hope that the creation herself also will be made free from the servitude of corruption into the freedom of the honor of the sons of the elohiym.” We need to stop being destroyers of what YHWH has created to support a patriarchal religious system and start being protectors and nurturers of Creation.
Reference Sources
The Ancient Gods, E. O. James, Castle Books, NJ, 2004, This copy is a reprint of the 1960 edition
Chronology of the Nations by Abu-Raihan Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Albiruni (written before 440 CE), translated into English by Edward Sachau, 1879, publisher William H. Allen and Co.
The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near
East, Mark Cohen, CDL Press,
Cuneiform Parallels to the New Testament, Robert William
Rogers, Eaton and Mains,
Did God Have a Wife, Archaeology and Folk Religion in
Ancient Israel, William Dever, Eerdmans Publishing Co.,
Eblaitica: Essays on the
Id al-Adha, Sacrifice and Henna Traditions, Catherine
Cartwright-Jones, TapDancing Lizard LLC,
Popular Astronomy, Sources of the Seven-Day Week, Leland S. Copeland, Vol. XLVII, No. 4, April 1939
The Religions of Ancient
Religions of the Ancient World, Sarah Iles Johnston, Belknap
Press of
Time at Emar, The Cultic Calendar
and the Rituals From the Diviners Archive, Daniel Fleming,
The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Inc.,
Kathryn QannaYahu
