What Old Testament connections are evident in Luke 22:7 regarding Passover? Setting the Scene Luke 22:7: “Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.” Passover in the Torah: Foundational Texts • Exodus 12:1-14—original institution: “You are to take a lamb… and slaughter it at twilight.” • Exodus 12:15-20—command to remove leaven for seven days. • Exodus 13:3-10—memorial of deliverance: “Remember this day…” • Leviticus 23:4-8—feast calendar listing Passover and Unleavened Bread together. • Numbers 9:1-14—regulations for observance and a “second Passover” for the ceremonially unclean. • Deuteronomy 16:1-8—centralization of sacrifice: “You may not sacrifice the Passover in any of your towns… but at the place the LORD chooses.” Elements Echoed in Luke 22:7 • “Day of Unleavened Bread” – OT link: Exodus 12:18; Leviticus 23:6. – Significance: removing leaven symbolizes separation from sin and haste of exodus. • “Passover lamb had to be sacrificed” – OT link: Exodus 12:6, “the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.” – Language of necessity (“had to be”) underscores divine appointment, echoing God’s fixed command in Exodus. • Timing – The Synoptic timeline mirrors the original twilight slaughter (Exodus 12:6) that began the 14th day rolling into the 15th. • Single combined feast – By Second-Temple times, Passover and Unleavened Bread functioned as one eight-day festival, reflecting Deuteronomy 16:3’s merging language; Luke uses that common shorthand exactly like the Torah progression. • Community involvement – In both Exodus 12:47 and Luke 22, the whole covenant community participates; Luke’s “had to be” signals a nation-wide act now centered on Jesus. Prophetic and Messianic Overtones • Exodus 12’s spotless lamb foreshadows Isaiah 53:7’s silent, sacrificial Servant; Luke sets the stage for Jesus to fulfill both images. • Psalm 34:20, applied in John 19:36, flows from Passover regulations about unbroken bones (Exodus 12:46). • Zechariah 9:9 (“your king comes to you… riding on a donkey”)—triumphal-entry timing places the Lamb before Jerusalem four days prior, matching Exodus 12:3-6’s inspection period. Continuity and Fulfillment • Jesus obeys every detail of the Law, upholding Exodus 12 while preparing to embody it (Matthew 5:17). • The phrase “had to be sacrificed” ties Luke 22:7 to Luke 24:26, “Was it not necessary that the Christ suffer…?”—showing the Passover pattern determines the Messiah’s path. • Paul later clarifies: “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7), affirming the direct trajectory from Exodus to Luke’s narrative climax. |
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