It is Passover, as it is called in the Jewish tradition of what the English equivalent would be Easter.  There is good reason not to use the word Easter for this most sacred Feast on the Christian calendar.  

As we have written already, it is the transliteration of a word used in ancient Mesopotamia, Ishtar, a goddess worshipped with the symbols of fertility which are bunnies or rabbits, known for their high rate of birthing their many babies and eggs, the symbol of new life growing.  The same goddess also ruled over sexual love and warfare.  Mostly female priestesses served in the temples over the ritual offerings of cakes, beer, wine and sex.  In the rituals performed during the festival, that often coincided with the new year festivities, traditional gender roles were extensively subverted through the active simulation of androgyny, cross-dressing, and the institutionalization of a “third gender”. The cult of Ishtar mirrored the goddess’s own nature as a deity who could, according to Sumerian poetry, “turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man”. 

No wonder we read in Ecclesiastes  (1:9-10) that there is nothing new under the sun.  When God created the heavens and the earth according to the Genesis-account, He named only two of all the living things He made, the rest of the naming was up to Adam. He created mankind and named them male and female, (Genesis 1:27) to represent the fullness of God in humanity.  That is why we regard the creation of male and female as an absolute truth, while only sin can divert from the original plan as in all other things when the beauty and order of God’s plan are distorted and made destructive.

Whatever the world and the active evil in it twist and misrepresent, the Feast of Passover can redeem and restore.  It is in this feast that we celebrate the amazing magnificence of God’s redemption, against all the overwhelming disruption of the order of creation.  In the Cross of Jesus the perversion of the splendour of all God’s creatures is redeemed and put in place again.  That is essentially the message and powerful working of Passover.

It is in this frame of mind that we can go back to the original meaning of the word that English gave us as Passover and see the true meaning to deepen our understanding and transform our thinking to elevate the Feast to the heights of glory it is supposed to inhabit.

The Hebrew word for Passover is Pesach.  The English word Passover could be confusing, although not strictly speaking wrong.  One might perhaps think “to pass over” means that something is avoided, being excluded.  In Hebrew it was always interpreted as the Destroyer that would pass over the house with the blood on the doorposts and therefore the people are to escape death.

It is meaningful to trace the root letters.  The word is also used in Isaiah 31:5:

Like birds flying about,
So will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem.
Defending, He will also deliver it;
Passing over, He will preserve it.”

…and 1 Kings 18:21: 

And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.

It was clear that the Jewish Septuagint translators (the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek before the time of Jesus on earth) understood that the meaning implies a very commanding and prevailing hovering and protective presence. 

The Hebrew word consists of three root letters: Peh, Samech, Chet. 

The picture created by the word is God stationing Himself at your doorway and refusing to let the destroyer enter. This is a Passover teaching for the Year of the Peh (5786/ 2026). 

The protection is activated by the first letter. Peh refers to the mouth.

And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’ ” So the people bowed their heads and worshiped. (Exodus 12:26,27)

In Exodus 12:12,13, Yahweh tells Israel that when he sees the blood on the doorpost, he will pass over them.

¹² ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. ¹³ Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

One might think Passover means to skip, go past. The death moves through Egypt, but it passes over the house with the blood. 

But then in Isaiah 3:15, the same God uses the exact same Hebrew word. (Quoted above)  The word is more descriptive picturing birds hovering, so will Yahweh protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will pasawa and preserve it. 

One verse says He passes by, the other says he hovers over. One sounds like absence. The other sounds like presence. One says He skips. The other says He covers it like a bird protecting its nest. 

The Hebrew word is very clear.  The Jewish scholars translating the Septuagent needed a Greek word for pesach. They chose skippato, which means to cover, to shelter, to protect, not to skip, not to pass by but to hover over.

Centuries later, when English translators got to work, they went a completely different direction. They chose pass over. Two words as if Yahweh is walking down the street, sees the blood and just keeps walking.

The Greek was translated by Jews, who spoke Hebrew, who understood the meaning.  

The word pesach is built on three root letters. Every Hebrew word is built on a root and the root tells you what the word actually carries beneath the surface. Let’s take these one at a time.

The first letter is Peh the mouth.

Passover begins with the mouth. Why? Because the entire Passover narrative is activated by speech. Yahweh speaks the instructions to Moshe. Moshe speaks them to the people. The people obey and speak the story to their children – not only physical children but the children of ministry, the hearers of the testimony. From the very first Passover to this day, Pesach has been an act of the mouth.  

It is with our mouth that we speak the promises of God into active intervention in our lives.  Read the Word and speak it out. David declares his mouth to be filled with the character of God.

Let my mouth be filled with Your praise
And with Your glory all the day.  

My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness
And Your salvation all the day,

My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You,
And my soul, which You have redeemed.
My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long;

(Psalms 71:8,15,23,24)

Now the second letter is sami.

This letter means to support, to uphold, to surround. Its ancient pictograph was a shield. Therabbinical tradition teaches that samk represents the simikha of Yahweh, his sustaining support, his surrounding protection. It’s the same root in the word suka, the temporary dwelling, the booth of protection during the Feast of the Tabernacles. [The word Tabernacle implies the Presence of God – therefore with everyone individually from the earliest times.]

It is only in the Presence of the Most High that we are safe and protected.  It is God who invites Noah into the Ark, the psalmist who dwells in the Shadow of the Almighty, the High Priest that enters the Holy of Holies behind the veil to be surrounded by the Presence of the Almighty.

It is our deliverance as we reflect on the torn veil over Pesach, the hours of darkness when the physical Temple in Jerusalem transformed to be the Body of Christ, the dwelling place of God.  It was in the darkening of the sun when the Sun of Righteousness died and opened the way into the Most Holy place, where we now can enter through our acceptance of the sacrificial death of Jesus.  His blood not only covers sin like the blood of animals, but it also takes sin away as the words of John the Baptist teaches us. (John 1:29)  Forever the order of worship changed and became centred in the body of Christ, the Temple.

Speech and protection are joined.

The third letter is chet and it means fence, enclosure, private, separated.

The letter’s pictograph was a wall or a barrier. It carries the idea of something being enclosed, set apart, walled off from what is outside.  Read together it becomes the mouth that commands a shield to become a wall around.

In 1 Kings 18:21, Elijah confronts the people of Israel on Mount Carmel. He says, “How long will you falter between two opinions?” This could mean waiver or limp or halt. 

But here it describes a person leaning back and forth, hovering between two positions, unable to commit to one side. The image of hovering, staying over something, is the root action.

This is the wonder of the Passover story.  God said He will hover over. station Himself at the door, lean into this position and not move.

It is in the face of God himself, the Almighty Creator-God that the Destroyer shall pass by. The sign of the Blood on the doorposts of your life saves you from all harm.

The telling of the story is a function of the mouth – tell it over and over.  Tell it to the new generations so that they will not be ignorant about the great deeds of God.  (Judges 2:10)

As the mountains surround Jerusalem, So the Lord surrounds His people From this time forth and forever.  (Psalms 125:2)

You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.  (Psalms 139:5) …and for that matter the whole 139^th Psalm – a joy to read – a Pesach prayer.