The Passover and Eucharist: A Guide

This post will be dedicated to discussing the original Passover festival as detailed in the Book of Exodus, and the Eucharist (the "Lord's Supper") as detailed in the New Testament Gospels.

The latter is derived from the former and shares some interesting differences with it in both meaning and history, so below I will cover both and any trivia associated with both.


Passover: Alternatively called "Pesach", it is a spring festival to celebrate the liberation of the Jewish people from their bondage in Egypt as depicted in the Book of Exodus.

The rite was originally celebrated in the month of Abib, which would correspond to the month of March on the contemporary Gregorian calendar used in most countries as of the writing of this post.

The month of Abib was to be the first month of the Jewish year, meaning, much like in Islam, which begin the first year of it's calendar based on the migration of the Prophet Muhammad to city of Medina, the Jewish calender's first year officially began at the time of the original Passover.

The Passover started on the fourteenth day of the month, where for seven days, bread without yeast was to be eaten. The first day was to be treated like a Sabbath, in which no regular work was to be done. The bread was to be eaten with "bitter herbs", known as maror.

The first day also required a year old male lamb without defect (from either the sheep or goats) be prepared. It was known as the "Paschal Lamb". It was to be roasted whole, nothing was to be boiled or eaten raw. None of it's bones were to broken, and it was to be eaten completely before sunrise of the next day, any remaining meat was to be burned.

The original Passover emphasized haste, as it was the day before the Israelites were to be liberated from Egypt and forced to leave after being freed. Accordingly, they were to be dressed as if for immediate departure.

The "Passover" as a term refers to the angel of death whom God sent to slay the firstborn of Egypt passing over the houses of those who painted the tops and sides of the doors of their homes with blood from the Paschal Lamb, therefore "passing over" them and not visiting a plague of death upon them. This referred to the original ceremony only, all subsequent ones were to be slaughtered and prepared at the temple of the Lord. The blood painting was also omitted from all future Passovers.





Eucharist: The Christian Eucharist takes two forms in most contemporary Christian denominations.

In it's most common form a wafer of bread and a small cup of grape juice or wine is consumed during a Sabbath service, as a reference to the bread and wine consumed at the Last Supper which Jesus commanded the discipline to consume as his "flesh and blood", which through the process of transubstantiation was to be the conversion of this metaphorical "flesh and blood" into it's literal version.

In most church services, this is done in remembrance of the commands of Jesus during this time.


Around Easter a modified version of the original Passover is performed by some denominations, and while largely similar to the original Jewish version, there are some differences.

1. Diet is largely the same as the Jewish version, though the lamb is usually derived only from sheep, not a goat, as the Jewish version allows.

This is typically done because of the association Jesus has with sheep (as his death on the cross was to be the ultimate Paschal Lamb offered for the sins of Men for all time).

2. This extended version typically celebrates both the original Jewish meanings of Passover and the changes Jesus introduced and is usually accompanied by readings of the the relevant sections of the Old and New Testament.

3. Catholics consider this ritual to be a formal sacrament, with Eastern Orthodox denominations largely similar, though the transubstantiation occurs due to the specific prayers to that effect during the service held as part of the event, while Catholics assume it to be automatic to the event itself.

Protestant denominations typically observe Eucharist to some degree (in one or both forms), but for many of them it's status as a sacrament is not as rigidly formal and the dates of it's adherence are often somewhat more irregular than it's Catholic and Eastern Orthodox contemporaries.

The degree to which the ritual holds significance varies between various Protestant and other sects, though most to all contend the rite is of direct importance to the Christian in their walk with Christ.