1. Name

Exod. 12:13, 23, 27 relates the name of the Passover feast to the verb pāsaḥ, “pass over, spare.” When Yahweh saw the sign of blood on the houses of the Israelites, he would pass by and not cause the plague to strike them as it would the Egyptians. This comment seems to be a later explanation. Thus far, however, no clear etymological derivation has been found for the term. Originally, perhaps, the blood rite was significant from the standpoint of protection against the power of the judgment, which ran …