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 Jerusalem cultic center.

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 [ Egypt ] to avoid a drought, where they ended up settling for hundreds of years. A new king arises and subjects “ Israel ” to forced labor, oppressing them. The Egyptians, trying to keep the male population down, tell the midwives to kill any male children born. Mosheh is born and placed in a basket, put on the Nile river, where Pharaohs daughter finds him and adopts him. Mosheh is raised in the royal court, ends up killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew laborer and has to flee to Midyan, where Mosheh has an encounter with YHWH in a burning bush, who sends him back to Egpyt to set Yisrael free from their bondage. After a number of attempts to get Pharaoh to release them, through various incentive packages like plagues of blood, frogs, gnats, flies, hail, locusts, darkness, there is finally the plague of the death of the firstborn. Whew. If you knew me, that is extremely condensed.

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 midnight i am going out into the midst of mitsrayim, 5 and all the firstborn in the land of mitsrayim will die, from the firstborn of the faraoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstones; all the firstborn of the cattle as well. 6 moreover, there will be a great cry in all the land of mitsrayim, such as there has not been before and such as will never be again. 7 but against any of the sons of yisrael a dog will not even bark, whether against man or beast, that you may understand how YHWH makes a distinction between mitsrayim and yisrael. 8 all these your servants will come down to me and bow themselves before me, saying, go out, you and all the people who follow you, and after that i will go out. and he went out from faraoh in hot anger. 9 then YHWH said to mosheh, faraoh will not listen to you, so that my wonders will be multiplied in the land of mitsrayim. 10 mosheh and aharon performed all these wonders before faraoh; yet YHWH hardened the heart of faraoh, and he did not let the sons of yisrael go out of his land.”

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 Jerusalem , where they tried to consolidate all the worship practices. In the previous Shemoth passage 12:3,4 it states to take a lamb for each family and even to combine families if one was too small for a whole lamb. This was a family event and was done by the family. But the Jerusalem temple priesthood took the event over and said that you could not sacrifice in your own gates but had to bring it to the temple and have the priests do it.

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 Egypt for Kenaan, using that opportunity to explain the origins and legitimize it.

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 Israel , that many may not have noticed in the Tanak, is the verse in Yechezqel [Ezekiel] 16:3, “and say, so says adonay YHWH to yerushalem, the place of your origin and the place of your birth is of the land of the kenaaniy [canaanite]. your father, the amoriy [amarru, amorite] and your mother, chiththiyth [female suffix with hittite, basically hittitess].” If you take the word of the post-exilic Jewish editors of the Tanak, then you would get the impression that the Amoriy are a pre-Israelite inhabitant of the land of Kenaan [ Canaan ]. But the land was not called Kenaan then, it was called the land of the Amoriy / Amurru by the nations surrounding it. A verse in Yahusha [Joshua] 24:15 shows Yahusha reaffirming the covenant with the people and states, “And if it seems evil in your eyes to serve YHWH, choose for you today whom you will serve, whether the elohiym [gods] whom your fathers served beyond the river or the elohey of the Amoriy whose land you are dwelling, but as for me and my house, we will serve YHWH.” Notice it does not state Canaan and Canaanites, but Amoriy, who were the Amurru.

There was a confederacy between the Amorites and the Hittites, as evidenced by a treaty between the two nations, about 1230 BCE [The Hittites, J. G. Macqueen, 1986, pg. 40]. This is prior to the supposed time of the Israelite Exodus. These good relations are apparent in the book of Bereshiyth [Genesis] in reference to Abraham, the father of our faith, who is an Amoriy. He marries Sarah, who according to the verse in Yechezqel mentioned above, is a Hiththiy [Hittite]. This may have been a political marriage or treaty marriage. Abraham entered the land of Kenaan from Harran , and later settled in the territory of the Amurru / Amorites, and made an alliance with Mamre, Aner and Eshkol [Bereshiyth – Genesis 14:13]. At the point that Sarah dies, they are living in Hittite territory, of which Sarah is, if you believe the verse in Yechezqel. Abraham secures land from the Hittites, who state that Abraham is a mighty prince among them, with a cave for burial. This becomes the family tomb, explained further on [Ber. 23]. If these Amorites and Hittites were as vile as later biblical editors would have you to believe, then why was the “Father” of this faith “consorting with the enemy” and making covenants with them? Why were Abraham and Sarah listed as Amoriy and Chiththiy, unless they actually were?

At no point in history were all these Amoriy just wiped out or evacuated. Even archaeologically the evidence for this mass exodus from Egypt to Kenaan, with hoards of Israelites taking over land and creating settlements, as is presented in the Tanak [Old Testament], did not occur. Therefore, it stands to reason, if we are to understand the foundation of the Tanak, that we need to take a look at the nomadic shepherd peoples, the Amoriy, to better define the later term of Canaanites [one of the divisions of the Amoriy].

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] 7:14 even includes the Felishthiym [Philistines] in the Amoriy designation. This subject is too detailed to be covered here and is not the thrust of this study. Please see the Yisrael’s Origins and the People of YHWH study for further information. There is also the matter that Yahwism borrowed many Canaanite motifs, which is covered in the Worthless Deities study. Below is a general map of the kingdoms, from just prior 2000 BCE to nearly 1000 BCE . What the map cannot show is all the territorial expansion and wars, like the Hittite sacking of Babel and expanding their territory that far east for a period, or the Amurru territory which butted up to the Hittites, extended west, encompassing Harran, Mari and over to Ashur [what became Assyria later], also making conquests of Babel and farther south, for a time. The map is just to give you a general idea of who was where and how that proximity relates to the religions and their influence on what came to be Canaanite/Israelite in the early formative years of this history.

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 Palestine . The festival of Passover signalized the beginning of the barley harvest in Palestine .” The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, 1942, Vol. 8, pg. 408, under Passover (Pesach).

“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 Ebla , Mari, Gasur (later Nuzi), Abu Salabikh, and Esnunna. Pettinato has labeled this calendar the ‘Semitic calendar of the third millennium’, stating ‘this designation took rise from the names of the months which are Semitic and for the most part West Semitic, and from the diffusion of this calendar throughout the whole Near East during the period from circa 2600 to 2200 B.C.’ It may be significant that the Early Semitic calendar month names do not contain theophoric (deity names) elements, but rather are agricultural in nature (with month names meaning ‘Sheep,’ ‘Plowing,’ or ‘Ghee’), a feature which enabled this early Semitic calendar to be somewhat universal in its application. This calendar eventually fell into disuse around the Ur III period (ca. 2100), when at Ebla and Mari native calendars, reflecting the local cult, replaced this early Semitic calendar.” The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East, pg. 8.

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 Sippar , to incorporate Amorite month names in their local calendars. In other sites, such as at Esnunna, calendars almost entirely of Amorite influence were utilized, which, on the basis of year-end accounting, clearly began in the spring.” The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East, pgs. 17, 18.

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 Jerusalem , the later biblical editors added passages stating that sacrifices needed to be done in the temple, not in the local family and village settings. This centralization of the temple also centralized the redemption process, enriching the priesthood.

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 mountain of YHWH it will be seen. 15 then the malak of YHWH called to abraham a second time from heaven, 16 and said, by myself i have sworn, declares YHWH, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 indeed i will greatly bless you, and i will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed will possess the gate of their enemies. 18 in your seed all the goyiy of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

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 [ jerusalem ]. so says YHWH tsebaoth, the elohey of yisrael, look, i will bring evil on this place by which all who hear it will have tingling ears. 4 because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other elohiym [gods] whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of yahudah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents. 5 they have also built the high places of baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to baal, which i never commanded nor spoke, nor did it come into my heart. 6 so, look, the days come, says YHWH, that this place will be no more called thofeth, or the valley of ben hinnom, but valley of hahargah [the slaughter/murder].”

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 Byblos , The Phoenician History, Atridge and Oden, pg. 61, 63. In the Sea Peoples myths, Kronos actually killed more than just his only son. But Sanchuniathon relates that this is an account of El, who is a Canaanite deity, the head of the pantheon in fact, adopted by the invading Sea Peoples when they came to Kenaan and assimilated their accounts. Please see the Phoenician section for further information. Whether this is a Phoenician or Canaanite based practice of the only son, we may not know until more writings become public or are found.

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 [ Jerusalem ] where children were burned, the name has been used for other such sites. In Carthage it was used for the area of the temple to Tanit/Anat and the necropolis. Lawrence E. Stager, Professor of Archaeology of Israel and Director of the Semitic Museum at Harvard University , directed excavations of the Carthage Tophet in the 1970’s. Stager and Samuel R. Wolff documented their data in an article titled, “Child Sacrifice At Carthage – Religious Rite or Population Control?” The site was first discovered in the 1920’s. The burials covered a 600 year time period. The archaeologists discovered 9 layers of sacrificial urns, estimated to be 20,000, from 750 BCE – 146 BCE . These urns contained the charred remains of children and animals, mostly sheep [lamb] and goats [kids]. While some have tried to say that these children died of natural causes, Stager had them tested and they were healthy, up to the point of being burned. Also, the fact that animal bones, used for substitutions, are also there, there is no doubt that this was for sacrificial purposes. Stager states that in the early samples of urns, one out of every three urns contained the charred remains of an animal, usually sheep or goat. But in the samples from the later period of time, only one in ten urns contained the remains of animals, showing that the Carthaginians increased the child sacrifice, not diminished it using animal substitutions as time passed, until the time that the Romans put a stop to it, finding the practice abhorrent. Many of the inscriptions on the urns and monuments describe vows made to the deities, mostly Tanit and/or Baal, by the people. One of the inscriptions for the substitute from a tophet was, “vita pro vita, sanguis prosanguine, agnum pro vikario,” - meaning life for life, blood for blood, a lamb for a substitute.

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 Egypt . Later accounts of Pesach have that a household shares a lamb or kid or calf, and if that house is too small, to have others join to share in the pesach offering, which by the way, has to be roasted over a fire. Please see the Origins of Pesach study for further information. 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.

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 BCE at Mari, in 2300 BCE at Ebla and 1300 BCE at Ugarit . Hammurapi [the Amorite spelling, Hammurabi is the Akkadian], an Amorite, gives credit for the subjugation of the settlements along the Euphrates River to Dagan, his creator. A number of personal names with Dagan as the theophoric element appear in the texts from Mari, an Amorite center. There were major temples to Dagan at four major Amorite cities: Mari, Ebla , Emar and Ugarit . Dagan was the chief god of the Ebla pantheon, also having one of the four gates named for him. He was also the chief deity of Emar where a major festival, similar to Pesach / Passover was performed. The worship of Dagan spread from the east westward, to Syria and through Canaan . At the time of the Ugaritic texts, Dagan was new to the scene and does not appear prominently in their texts, though there is a temple to him there. He was adopted by the Felishthiym [Philistines] and was the patron deity of the city of Ashdod , having temples in other cities of the Felishthiym pentapolis.

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 Aleppo citadel stone has an inscription stating Dagan as the Father of Gods. He also sites in the same note that a Mari [Amorite city] text A. 1258+ :9 calls Dagan, “the great mountain, father of the gods.” On pg. 91 he states, “Even under the zukru festival’s royal sponsorship, Dagan is not celebrated as the king of the gods but as their parent.” This father of the gods aspect ties in with the fact that the Emar zukru text mention the gods as amounting to 70, just as the number of the offspring of El and Asherah at Ugarit.

The Amorite / Canaanite Zukru Festival

As a quick note, the author of Time at Emar, Daniel Fleming, frequently uses Syria as a place of reference for location and traditions. Syria is the current country location for the excavation of Emar, but at the time of Emar, the location was not called Syria , but was part of the land of the Amoriy / Amurru. Therefore, when Fleming states that a practice was Syrian, it should be more accurately read as Amorite / Canaanite, for that time period.

“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 Syria display the seven-day interval in a variety of ritual and narrative settings. Mari letters mention a seven-day vigil in Dagan’s temple, “ Time at Emar, pg. 74.

“The definition of Emar’s calendar by lunar cycles partakes of a tradition that is attested much earlier in southern Mesopotamia . When the moon thus dominates the measurement of time, especially for cult, its principal phases easily come to receive regular attention. By the Ur III period, the Sumerians were celebrating every new moon, first quarter (or crescent), and full moon. Nilsson notes that the new moon and the full moon are most often celebrated in cultures manifesting ‘primitive’ time-reckoning and that religious festivals are often reserved for the full moon. ‘This is due not only to the full light of the moon but also to the world-wide idea that everything which is to prosper belongs to the time of the waxing moon, and above all to the days when it has reached its complete phase.’ In Mesopotamian thought, the full moon also represents a time when both sun and moon may be visible together at full strength.” Time at Emar, pg. 159.

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 Qumran texts of HaDebariym 32:8 have beney elohiym – sons of the elohiym. The Greek Septuagint also uses sons of God in that verse. So here we see the Amorite 70 gods of the Emar pantheon, the Ugaritic 70 gods born to Asherah / Athirat and El and the 70 sons of Yisrael / Yaaqob, also reckoned as gods in three other language texts of the same passage. This is not a coincidence. To make matters worse, the traditions of Judaism have continued this theme with the 70 elders of Yisrael in Shemoth [Exodus] 24:1.

“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 Ugarit is a chthonic deity because the sun goes down and to their beliefs, traveled through the land of the dead before rising in the morning. Dagan, according to the tablets at Mari, another Amorite city, is titled “Bel-pagre, Lord of the Corpses”, very much showing his chthonic character, as well as all his seed sowing, grain aspects. – Eblaitica: Essays on the Ebla Archives and Eblaite Language, Vol. 2, edited by Cyrus Gordon and Gary Rendsburg, Eisenbrauns, 1990, USA . Essay written by Robert Stieglitz, pg. 84.

According to Ziony Zevit, in The Religions of Ancient Israel , A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches, Continuum, 2001, London , pgs. 280-281, in comparing different types of sacrifices he found a formula, so to speak. He refers to the Olympian gods as those that are celestial, and states that YHWH was perceived essentially as a celestial deity, managing affairs from on high. Zevit states that no imagery makes him a, “denizen of subterranean habitations.” Then Zevit proceeds to list 4 comparisons of the sacrifice:

deities, face down. Animals dedicated to Olympians were slaughtered face up; those to chthonicface 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 Israel and replaced them with conquered peoples from other nations, these became the Shomroniym / Samaritans. The Shromroniym, state otherwise, that not all the peoples were carted off and they have remained in the land ever since. This is not the place to discuss all the heritage of the Shomroniym, but I will throw out, that the Jewish editors of the Tanak, have a nasty habit of deriding anyone and everyone that did not tow the line of their Jerusalem cultic center or accept and submit to the Judaic kingship. Also, concerning the mass genetic studies that have been done, the ancestry of the Samaritans, shows a common ancestry of Samaritan and Jewish paternal lines.

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 Damascus . During my late journey with the Prince of Wales, I was enabled myself to be present at its celebration, and I am induced to give a full account of it, the more so as it is evident that the ceremonial has been considerably modified since the time when it was first recounted to me. Even to that lonely community the influences of Western change have extended; and this is perhaps the last generation which will have the opportunity of witnessing this vestige of the earliest Jewish ritual.” “The Samaritan Passover is celebrated at the same time as the Jewish, namely, on the fuIl moon of the month Nisan.” “In the blood the young men dipped their fingers, and a small spot was marked on the foreheads and noses of the children. A few years ago, the red stain was placed on all. But this had now dwindled away into the present practice, preserved, we were told, as a relic or emblem of the whole.” Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Scribner, Armstrong and Co., 1877, pgs. 559, 561.

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 American School for Oriental Study and Research in Palestine , Journal of Biblical Literature, 1903, pg. 190. This account confirms the previous one, mentioning about the boys with the blood on the forehead and nose, only this account indicates a continuous mark being made with the blood.

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 Middle East , while hyssop is not. Also, many passages dealing with ezob put it in conjunction with scarlet wool. The red blossoms of the hyssop are not used for dyes, but the red blossoms of the wild marjoram are. Both have medicinal properties, though marjoram seems to have more attributed to antiseptic. Due to the fact that marjoram is native and produces a red dye, I am inclined to believe that ezob is marjoram.

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 Mecca . The feast of Sacrifice lasts for four days and commemorates Ibrahim’s (Abraham’s) obedience to God in all things, even to sacrifice his own son Ishmael if such was required. God intervened at the moment of Ibrahim’s sacrifice, providing a ram in place of the beloved son so that Ishmael might live. The Feast of Sacrifice requires every of household to sacrifice a goat, sheep, or other domestic ruminant, in memory of Ibrahim’s devotion to God if he or she can possibly afford to do so. A third of the meat is eaten by the sacrificer’s family during the Id holiday, a third is given to relatives, and the remaining third is given to the poor.” Id al-Adha, Sacrifice and Henna Traditions, Catherine Cartwright-Jones, TapDancing Lizard , USA , 2001, pg. 3.

“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 w