Where Was the Passover Sacrificed?

Was the Temple in Jerusalem the only Jewish temple in ancient times? Was it acceptable to sacrifice the Passover lambs just anywhere? Was the Passover a “home sacrifice,” as some contend? Correct answers to these questions can help us have a more complete understanding of the history of the Passover institution and how it was administered under the Old Covenant.

The Temple in Samaria

During the latter days of Solomon’s reign, the kingdom of Israel was led into idolatry, as Solomon built “high places” (places of worship) for foreign gods of his wives, and his heart was turned from faith in the true Creator God of Israel, to the worship of false gods. As a result God pronounced that the kingdom would be divided, with ten of the tribes of Israel being given to Solomon’s servant Jeroboam, who became the first king of the northern kingdom (I Kings 11:1-39). The division occurred shortly after the death of Solomon (c. 930 B.C.). Its capital was eventually established in the city of Samaria, built by a later king, Omri (c. 879 B.C.; I Kings 16:23-24). The northern kingdom established under Jeroboam retained the name “kingdom of Israel.” The southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and most of the Levites, remained as the kingdom of Judah, under Solomon’s son Rehoboam, and his successors, with its capital in Jerusalem.

The religion of the northern tribes remained an apostate, syncretized religion blending the name of Yahweh with idol worship (I Kings 11:26-36; 12:25-33; II Kings 17:7-22). This continued after most of the Israelites of the northern kingdom had been deported and replaced by peoples of other nations by around 721 B.C. (II Kings 17:24-41). Afterward, most of the inhabitants of the area were Gentiles, and the district became known as “Samaria,” and its inhabitants were called Samaritans.

According to Josephus the Samaritan temple at mount Gerizim was built about 332 B.C., though some scholars think it was built earlier (Antiquités, XI.VIII.4; see Jérusalem à l'époque de Jésus, Joachim Jeremias, Fortress Press, 1969, p. 352 n.). It was initially presided over by the son of a Jewish high-priest who had been cast out because of intermarriage with a Samaritan woman. “…the rival worship was now established at Samaria, and attracted a great number of priests and other Jews from the distracted capital of Judea” (Manuel de la Bible Angus-Green, p. 598). The Samaritan Passover tradition is believed to have continued unbroken from the time of the building of the Gerizim temple, and is said to be “probably the oldest religious rite that has been continuously kept up” (Encyclopédie Britannica, 11th edition, ”Passover”).

The infusion of Jewish influence is evident in the Samaritan religion as it existed in the time of Christ and later, but it retained many falsehoods. Jewish attitudes toward the Samaritans varied with the times. Leading up to and during the time of Christ Jews scorned the Samaritans as a mixed race of apostates. Jesus did not recognize the validity of the Samaritan religion (John 4:22).

The Temple at Elephantine

Near the time of Jerusalem’s fall to the Babylonian kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar (c. 586 B.C.), long before the temple in Samaria was built, “Jewish refugees flocked to Egypt, where Pharaoh…settled them in colonies extending as far upstream as Elephantine” (Ancient Egypt, J. E. Manchip White, Dover, 1970, pp. 199-200). There Jewish settlers built a temple. Its existence is known from papyri found at Elephantine and written in Aramaic. According to the letters, it had been built before the Persian conquest, “in the days of the kings of Egypt” (L'archéologie et le monde de l'Ancien Testament, John Gray, Harper Torchbooks, pp. 195, 196). It most likely was built sometime between the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple and the conquest of Egypt by the Persian ruler Cambyses (525 B.C.).

The preponderance of evidence indicates that the Passover was not sacrificed at the Elephantine temple. One of the letters, dating from the fifth year of Darius II (c. 419 B.C.), instructs the Jews there how and when to keep Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Nothing is mentioned in the letter about sacrificing a lamb, but instructions are given about remaining ritually clean and avoiding leavening. Had the colony been in the habit of keeping Passover and Unleavened Bread it seems unlikely it would have been necessary to send such instructions under the king’s authority. Hence, the comment, “It would appear that the Elephantine colony had not observed this spring festival hitherto, and the reason for this can only be surmised” (Documents de l'époque de l'Ancien Testament, D. Winton Thomas, ed., Harper Torchbooks, p. 258).

After the Elephantine temple was destroyed in 410 B.C. by the Egyptians, the leaders there appealed to the Persian governor and the priestly authorities in Jerusalem for permission to rebuild. They were ignored and hence appealed for help again to the Persian governor in Jerusalem and simultaneously to the Persian authorities in Samaria. The contributor comments, “It is perhaps significant that his appeal was no longer addressed to the priestly authorities in Jerusalem, and it may be that the Elephantine Jews had reason to think that they were not sympathetic” (ibid., p. 260). In their appeal the Elephantine Jews proposed rebuilding the temple, “as it was built before, and let meal-offering, incense and burnt-offering be offered.” Eventually the Persian authorities gave permission to rebuild, “that meal-offering and incense be offered upon that altar as was formerly done.” Note that “burnt-offering” is conspicuously absent in the reply. In another letter referring to the rebuilding of this temple it is stated, “sheep and oxen and goats are [no]t offered there, but incense and meal-offering” (ibid., pp. 263, 266, 268).

Papyri texts from the area confirm that the Jews in Elephantine continued the apostate, syncretistic religious practices that had resulted in the destruction of their homeland. Alongside Yahu (a variation of Yahweh), the texts indicate other deities were worshiped. Bethel (God’s house) is found hyphenated with the names of pagan deities, including Anath. And Anath, the name of a Canaanite goddess, is also found hyphenated with Yahu (ibid, p. 257). Anath was “the most active goddess in the fertility-cult, in Palestine, and at Bethshan [about 25 miles northeast of Samaria, in the Jordan valley] in one of the five Late Bronze Age temples a basalt panel was found with a dedication in Egyptian hieroglyphics to ‘Antit, Queen of Heaven and Mistress of the Gods’” (Gray, p. 118). “Antit” is a variation of Anath.

God had warned the people of Judah not to flee to Egypt (Jeremiah 42-44). God pronounced punishment on the Jews who fled to Egypt, saying, “…you provoke Me to wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have gone to dwell…” (Jeremiah 44:8). Notably those who dwelt in “Pathros,” derived from Egyptian and meaning region of the south, refused to give up their syncretistic worship, including the worship of the “queen of heaven” (Jeremiah 44:15-19). Elephantine was a city in the southern region, Upper Egypt. In partial fulfillment of the prophecy of Jeremiah 44:26-28, the Jewish colony there disappeared from the pages of history soon after the destruction of their temple.

The Temple at Leontopolis

The hereditary High Priest Onias III was forced to flee to Egypt in 169 B.C., when the Seleucid ruler Antiochus recaptured Jerusalem. In Egypt Onias obtained permission from the government (Ptolemy VI Philometor and Cleopatra) to build a temple in Leontopolis in the district of Heliopolis on a scaled down pattern of the Temple in Jerusalem. There the Zadokite line continued to exercise the priestly functions until their temple was destroyed in 73 A.D. by order of the Roman Emperor, Vespasian.

Onias used Isaiah 19:19 as justification for building a rival Jewish temple in Egypt (Josephus, Antiquités, XIII.III.1). But at best the Leontopolis temple was only a typical fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah. This prophecy is given in the context of Egypt turning to God as a nation, and that has certainly never happened yet.

Apparently the Passover was sacrificed in Leontopolis, yet, “The temple of Onias at Leontopolis in Egypt (c. 170 BC-AD 73) was totally unimportant; the Temple of Jerusalem in fact remained the single holy place in the world for Jews” (Jeremias, p. 29). The Encyclopédie Britannica comments further that the temple at Leontopolis “never really offered a challenge to the one in Jerusalem.” It “made little impact upon Egyptian Jewry” (15th edition, 1978, vol. 10, “Judaism, History Of,” p. 313).

Where God’s Law Says the Passover was to be Sacrificed

The priesthood had not been formally established at the time of the Exodus. Perhaps for that and other reasons the first Passover lambs may not have been sacrificed at a central location. Indeed, inasmuch as blood from the sacrificial lambs was to be smeared on the doorposts and on the lintel of each house (Exodus 12:7), each lamb must have been slain in close proximity to the house where the blood was to be applied. However, when God gave the law to Moses at Mt. Sinai he clearly indicated that henceforth the Passover was to be sacrificed at a central location (Exodus 23:14-19; 34:18, 24-25). The Passover was the first of three times in the year Israelite males were to “go up to appear before the Lord your God.”

After the Tabernacle was built the Israelites were commanded to take all oxen, goats and lambs that were killed to the door of the Tabernacle and offer an offering to ensure against offering sacrifices to idols (Leviticus 17:2-9). When Israel went into the land of promise the law was amended to permit the slaughter of such animals “within your gates,” but sacrifices were to be taken to the central place of worship (Deuteronomy 12:11-15, 21, 26-27). The Israelites were specifically commanded, “You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which the Lord your God gives you; but at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time [KJV: “season”] you came out of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 16:5-6). The blood of the Passover lambs slain at the sanctuary was sprinkled on the alter of sacrifice or tossed at its base at the central place of worship, i.e., the Tabernacle or Temple (II Chronicles 30:15-17; 35:10-13; cf. The Temple: Its Ministry and Services, Alfred Edersheim, Ages Digital Library edition, 1997, p. 147).

When the Temple was built God said, “I…have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice” (2 Chronicles 7:12). After this time we read in Scripture of no other place that God approved for the regular offering of physical sacrifices. Samaritans, the Leontopolis priests, and the Galilean zealots sacrificed apart. The Essenes did not offer animal sacrifices. Other than these, Jews who were able journeyed to Jerusalem for Passover. Those who could not go to Jerusalem observed Passover without the sacrifice, as Jews do worldwide today.

The idea advanced by some that many Jews killed the Passover at their homes instead of the Temple is complete fiction, there is no truth to it. Neither Philo nor Josephus nor any other authoritative source states that the Jews killed the Passover in their homes.

In three places Philo mentions that the Passover sacrifice is killed by the celebrants, “…every separate individual on this occasion bringing forward and offering up with his own hands the sacrifice due on his own behalf” (On the Life of Moses, II, 224; cf. The Decalogue, 159; The Special Laws, II, 146). This has been used as “proof” of the imaginary “domestic sacrifice” by some misguided individuals. However, these passages say nothing about the Passover being sacrificed at home, but only tell us who killed the sacrifice. Each offerer (representing his company), and not the priest, killed the sacrifice (cf. Le Temple, Alfred Edersheim, p. 175). In the context of the above quotation, Philo discussed certain ones who could not offer the Passover, because being unclean they were “repelled from the sacred precincts [of the Tabernacle]” (On the Life of Moses, II, 231; cf. Numbers 9:6-7). Moreover, Philo specifically states, “…he [God] does not permit those who desire to perform sacrifices in their own houses to do so, but he orders all men to rise up, even from the furthest boundaries of the earth, and to come to his temple…” (The Special Laws, I, 68).

Another abused passage of Philo states, “And each house is at that [Passover] time invested with the character and dignity of a temple…” (The Special Laws, II, 148). This passage does not say the Passover was sacrificed in the houses, and it does not mean that. It refers instead to where the Passover sacrifice was eaten. God’s law required all sacrifices to be slain at the altar at the door of the Temple (Leviticus 1:2-3, 11; 17:3-4; Deuteronomy 12:20-28). Those portions of sacrifices eaten by priests had to be consumed within the Temple courts (Leviticus 6:26; 7:6). However, “…because of the large number of participants, the paschal animal was killed at the Temple place, but boiled [sic] and eaten in the houses of Jerusalem (e.g., Pes. 5:10; 7:12)” (Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 13, “Passover,” p. 170; cf. The Hebrew Passover from the Earliest Times to A.D. 70, J.B. Segal, pp. 133-134; Jeremias, pp. 57, 78-79, 101 n.; Edersheim, p. 16).

Josephus states that the priests reported to the Roman government 256,500 sacrifices at a Passover during the reign of Nero (54-68 A.D.; Guerres, VI.IX.3). This would have been more than enough to provide for the typical 3,000,000 celebrants gathered at Jerusalem, as each lamb could be divided by a company of up to 100, though more typical were groups of ten to twenty. Edersheim remarks, “These computations, being derived from official documents, can scarcely have been much exaggerated” (The Temple, p. 168 n.).

The Temple courts could accommodate more than 200,000 people at once, and likely thousands of priests were on hand to facilitate the killing of the sacrifices. Similar numbers were faced on other occasions, such as the fifteenth, when most celebrants would have followed the Pharisaic tradition of offering an obligatory peace offering (Edersheim, pp. 170-171, 199; cf. I Kings 8:62-64; II Kings 23:21-23; II Chronicles 35:1-19; the obligatory peace offerings mandated by Pharisaic tradition was imposed as an addition to the requirements of Scripture, although it was customary to offer peace offerings during the festivals, cf. p. 11, Quand a lieu la Pâque biblique ?, available at cogmessenger.org).

As Jesus grew up, “His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. …according to the custom of the feast” (Luke 2:41-42). Jesus, like his parents and most of the Jews of Palestine, and as many of the diaspora as were able, kept the Passover every year — or almost every year — in Jerusalem. For each of the four Passovers of his public ministry, except for the third, Jesus went to Jerusalem (John 2:13; 5:1; Luke 22:7-10). The third Passover (mentioned in John 6:4), Jesus remained in Galilee, because Jewish leaders in Jerusalem wanted to kill him (John 7:1). The details of Jesus last Passover meal accord with the Jewish custom based on Deuteronomy 16:5-6. Jesus, though staying at Bethany, went into Jerusalem with his disciples to eat the Passover meal (John 12:1; Luke 22:7-11). This is one of several indications pointing to the fact that the last Passover meal of Jesus included the paschal sacrifice.

After the death of Jesus Christ, who is our Passover (I Corinthians 5:7), the Levitical priesthood with its physical Temple and animal sacrifices was superseded by the reality of which those were only a figure (Hebrews 8:1-6; 9:23-24). Now “we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come” (Hebrews 13:14). For the Passover of the New Covenant Jesus placed renewed meaning in the symbols of unleavened bread and wine (Matthew 26:26-28). For these symbols there was never any requirement that they had to be partaken of only in a particular physical location. Hence, the example of the apostolic Church is that local churches come together to partake of the Passover symbols (I Corinthians 11:17-33). This is the example that we follow today in the Messenger Church of God.

Baptized members of the Church who cannot assemble with a congregation for the Passover service may take the Passover at home. We offer instructions for guidance on how to take the Passover at home by request.

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Sauf indication contraire, les citations de la Bible sont tirées de la Sainte Bible, traduction Louis Segond.

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