SECT. I. Of the Solemnity and Rites of the first day in the Passover Week of the Hagigah, and Peace Offering of rejoycing.
THE next day after the Passover was eaten was holy, and no servile work to be done in it, but it was accounted and kept as a Sabbath, and so it is called, Lev. 23. 6, 7, 15. a 1.1 On this day all the Males were to appear in the Court of the Temple, and to bring with them a burnt offering for their appearance, and a double peace offering, one for the solemnity, and another for the joy of the times The offering for their appearance was called Corban Raajah, and they conclude it due from these words, None of you shall appear before me empty, Exod. 23. 15. Yet if any one failed of bringing such a gift, his shame and his conscience go with it, but there was no penalty upon him, because though he had broken a Negative Precept, yet there was no work nor action done by him in it.
The peace offerings for the solemnity of the time were called the Hagigah, and they were to be of some Beast, Bullock or Sheep. Hereupon in 2 Chron. 30. 24. & 35. 7. 8. there is mention of Bullocks and Oxen for the Passover; and in Deut. 16. 2. there is speech of sacrificing the Passover of the herd; which cannot be understood of the Passover that was to be eaten on the fourteenth day at Even, for that was punctually, and determinately appointed to be of Lambs or Kids, Exod. 12. 5. but it is to be construed of these peace offerings which were for the solemnity of the time. And this is that which the Evangelist John calleth the Passover, when he saith, The Jews went not into Pilates judgment Hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover, Joh. 18. 28. For they had eat∣en the Paschal Lamb the night before.
They held themselves obliged by the Law, as to appear at the three solemn festivals, and to pay their offerings and their services then due, so to make merry and to rejoyce, and cheer up one another, because it is said, Thou shalt rejoyce before the Lord, Deut. 16. 11, 14, &c. And hereupon they took up the use of Wine at the Passover Supper, as was ob∣served before; and hereupon they took up other peace offerings besides the Hagigah at the Passover solemnity, and called them 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The peace offerings of rejoycing And by the offering of these two sorts of peace offerings, it is like they thought them∣selves the better discharged though they brought not the offering of their appearance; for if they brought these, they might the better think they appeared not empty. And so Levi Gershom construeth that passage concerning Elkanah, that he went up yearly from his City to Shiloh, to sacrifice to the Lord, in application to these sorts of peace offerings, rather than any other offering, for it meaneth (saith he) that b 1.2 he sacrificed his peace offerings of rejoycing, and his peace offerings for the Hagigah.
The time for the offering of these they accounted the first day of the Festival to be most proper, and they strove to dispatch upon it that they might return home the soon∣er, but if these Sacrifices were offered in any day of the Festival, it served the turn.
On this first day of the Feast, when these great matters were to be in hand, namely their appearing in the Court and offering these their Sacrifices of solemnity and rejoycing at the last Passover of our Saviour, they shewed themselves otherwise employed, for on this day they crucified the Lord of Life.
In reference to whose judging, condemning, and executing, though it be somewhat be∣side the bent of the present discourse, let the Reader scan two or three of their Tra∣ditions.
- 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 c 1.3 They might begin no judgments in the night, nor re∣ceived they any witness in the night, but the judgments were to be in the day only: yet were they in the examination and judgment of our Saviour all night long.
- 2. d 1.4 The judging of a false Prophet was only to be by the great Sanhedrin of seventy and one: Under this notion they blasphemously accused and arraigned our Saviour, Joh. 18. 19. Luke 23. 2. and unto this, those words of his refer, Luke 13. 33. It cannot be that a Prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
- 3. e 1.5 They put not an Elder that transgresseth against the determination of the great San∣hedrin to death, neither at the Sanhedrin that was in his own City, nor at the Sanhedrin that was at Jabneh, but they bring him up to the great Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, and keep him till a solemn festival, and execute him at the Feast; according to what is said, That all the People may hear and fear, &c.