Claim 24

Christ, our Passover

Paul explicitly calls Christ ‘our Passover lamb.’ That is a strong Christian link—but what kind?

The Old Testament text

Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and told them, “Go at once and select for yourselves a lamb for each family, and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and brush the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. When the LORD passes through to strike down the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway; so He will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. And you are to keep this command as a permanent statute for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as He promised, you are to keep this service. When your children ask you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’ you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck down the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.

Translation note:

The claimed New Testament fulfilment

Paul explicitly calls Christ ‘our Passover lamb.’ Christians therefore understand the Passover rite as a pattern fulfilled in Jesus's death.

1 Cor 5:7 · BSB

Get rid of the old leaven, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

Why Christians see a prophecy

1 Corinthians 5:7 directly identifies Christ as the sacrificed Passover lamb. Paul carries the feast image into verse 8, asking the church to live with sincerity instead of malice. Christians are not inventing the link after the fact; a New Testament writer makes it deliberately.

Why it is less convincing

Exodus 12 itself explains Passover as a memory of homes spared in Egypt and commands Israel to repeat the rite. It does not forecast a particular future death. Paul applies the older ritual to Jesus and his church’s conduct, which is typology rather than a prior prediction.

Our assessment

Plausible typology, not prediction

Explicit typology, not prediction

The Passover–Christ connection is strongly supported as Paul's own theological reading. It does not show that Exodus 12:21–27 originally predicted Jesus.

Sources and further reading

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5. Bible Hub electronic edition; comment on 1 Corinthians 5:7.
S. R. Driver, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges: Exodus 12. Cambridge University Press; Bible Hub electronic edition; notes on Exodus 12:21–28.
BSB Publishing, Berean Standard Bible v5.9. BSB Publishing; Exodus 12:21–27; 1 Corinthians 5:6–8.
Bible Hub interlinear editors, Greek interlinear text of 1 Corinthians 5:7. Bible Hub; 1 Corinthians 5:7, to pascha hēmōn.

Biblical quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain.