The evidence for the origin and significance of the various religious festivals of the Israelite people has been studied in detail but it is not necessary for us to go into these findings in great depth. It is suggested that the idea of animal sacrifice had been maintained among the Israelite people since the times of their nomadic life so that what was commanded by Moses about the sacrifice of a young animal on the night of the Exodus was not a new idea. We have already considered the general reasons for animal sacrifice in connection with Abraham. But a new significance comes into the Passover sacrifice because the blood that was shed is synonymous with deliverance. The ritual set out in 12: 1-11 is to be in remembrance of the deliverance which takes place after the final plague.

It is suggested that the festival of unleavened bread originated in an agricultural festival, specifically a harvest festival, when the first gathering of the grain harvest was presented as a religious offering. But this idea is taken and given a new form and new significance when it is related to the unleavened dough which the Israelite women prepared hastily for their journey, unable to wait for the dough to rise before they made their bread.

In the first two verses of chapter 13 we find that the Israelites are commanded to perform another rite as part of the remembrance of their deliverance. 'The Lord said to Moses, "Dedicate all the first-born males to me, for every first-born male Israelite and every first-born male animal belongs to me." In the future all first-born sons and animals were to be thought of as belonging to God, for God's power had saved the first-born of the Israelites when the first-born of the Egyptians died on the night of deliverance.

We should note that the Passover was to be observed by the Israelite community alone: 'No foreigner shall eat the Passover meal.' 'The whole community of Israel must celebrate this festival, but no uncircumcised man may eat it. If a foreigner has settled among you and wants to celebrate Passover to honour the Lord, you must first circumcise all the males of his household. He is then to be treated like a native-born Israelite and may join in the festival.' The Passover festival commemorated the emergence of God's people into history; those who were not of God's people had no part in it.

The name 'Passover' is derived from the Hebrew verb pasah, meaning 'to pass over' with the sense of 'to spare' or 'to protect'. The first born of the Israelites were spared when the Angel of Death destroyed the first-born of the Egyptians.