Philologos
Bible Prophecy Research
Title: Passover Lamb
Submitted by: research-bpr@philologos.org
Date: December 18, 1998
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr/files/p004.htm
Passover Lamb
In my reading today, I came across this information on the ceremony surrounding the Passover lamb that seems to allude to happenings in Revelation (vials, no one able to enter Temple until plagues are fulfilled, etc):
"I. A lamb was to be bought, approved, and fit for the Passover.
"II. This lamb was to be brought by them into the court where the altar was.
"'The Passover was to be killed only in the court where the other sacrifices were slain: and it was to be killed on the fourteenth day after noon, after the daily sacrifice, after the offering of the incense,' &c. The manner of bringing the Passover into the court, and of killing it, you have in Pesachin, in these words: 'The Passover is killed in three companies; according as it is said, [Exo 12:6] "and all the assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it (the Passover); assembly, congregation, and Israel." The first company enters and fills the whole court: they lock the doors of the court: the trumpets sound: the priests stand in order, having golden and silver vials in their hands: one row silver, and the other gold; and they are not intermingled: the vials had no brims, lest the blood should stay upon them, and be congealed or thickened: an Israelite kills it, and a priest receives the blood, and gives it to him that stands next, and he to the next, who, taking the vial that was full, gives him an empty one. The priest who stands next to the altar sprinkles the blood at one sprinkling against the bottom of the altar: that company goes out, and the second comes in,' &c...
"IV. The blood being sprinkled at the foot of the altar, the lamb flayed, his belly cut up, the fat taken out and thrown into the fire upon the altar, the body is carried back to the place where they sup: the flesh is roasted, and the skin given to the landlord."
( A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica, John Lightfoot)