Commentaria in Exodum
Tropologically, by the unleavened bread, says Theodoret, is signified not only diligence and urgency in setting out, and ease and readiness in preparing food, but also that it did not become them to retain any trace of the Egyptian life: hence Christ says, Matthew 16: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.” Of the seven days of unleavened bread the Venerable Bede gives this tropological reason on Luke chap. 22: “Because Christ,” he says, “suffered once for us in the flesh in the fulness of time, He has commanded that through all the time of this world, which is passed in seven days, we live in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, and that with all our effort we flee the desires of the world as the bonds of Egypt, and He admonishes us as it were to enter, away from worldly conversation, upon a secluded solitude, the journey of the virtues.” Note: Josephus relates that the Hebrews going out of Egypt ate unleavened bread for 30 days; so long they ate the dough which they had carried out with them, of which at Socoth and afterwards they baked hearth-cakes, and when this failed God gave them manna from heaven; as conversely the manna failed when the children of Israel, having entered Chanaan, ate of the fruits of the land, as is said in Josue 5. For God is not wanting to man in necessity, nor on the other hand is there a surplus or superfluity where there is no need; for it was not fitting that heavenly food should be mingled with earthly. Hence also those who seek carnal delights are deprived of heavenly ones, and the contrary.
From this also, and from verse 14, it is plain that these seven days of unleavened bread did not pertain to this first phase celebrated in Egypt, but to all the others to be celebrated every year afterwards. Where note that the things which are here prescribed concerning the celebration of the phase up to verse 14 pertained to, and were observed in, that first Egyptian phase; but the rest which follow pertained not to that first phase but to those to be celebrated every year thereafter. These thirty days of unleavened bread, then, which the Hebrews ate on their going out, they themselves represented every year by eating unleavened bread for seven days at the Pasch: for the number seven is the symbol of multitude and totality; as God commanded the sojourning in the desert, in which for 40 years they dwelt in tabernacles, to be represented every year for seven days of the feast of Tabernacles.
You will say: The days of unleavened bread began on the fourteenth day and ended on the twenty-first; therefore they lasted eight days, not seven. So Rupert.
I answer, the fourteenth day ought to be excluded; for the days of unleavened bread began on the fourteenth day, not in the morning, as Rupert holds, but at evening, namely when the fifteenth day was beginning, which is therefore called the first of unleavened bread. Where note that the days of unleavened bread began with the pasch: whence, since the evening of the pasch could be referred to the 14th day, of which it was the end, and also to the 15th, of which it was the beginning, therefore here, verse 18, and by the Evangelists describing the last supper of Christ, the fourteenth day is called the first of unleavened bread; but in Leviticus 23, verse 6, and elsewhere, the fifteenth day is called the first of unleavened bread. Hence it is also said here: “You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread: for in this same day I will bring forth your army out of the land of Egypt”; and it is plain from Numbers 33, 3, that the Hebrews went out of Egypt on the 15th day of the first month. But because the lamb, though immolated and roasted before, was not eaten except by night, which properly belonged to the 15th day, and with the eating of the lamb began also the eating of unleavened bread, therefore, speaking precisely, the eating of unleavened bread began not on the 14th but on the 15th day, which is therefore commonly called the first day of unleavened bread. Tostatus is mistaken, then, who thinks that unleavened bread began from the immolation of the lamb, and consequently on the 14th day, not the 15th; for, as I said, the eating of unleavened bread began not from the immolation of the lamb, which was done on the 14th day at evening, but from the eating of the lamb, which was done by night, the 15th day already beginning, as is plain from verse 8. Hence it is plain that Christ, most observant of the law, instituted the Eucharist in unleavened bread; for He instituted it after the supper of the lamb, in which began the eating of unleavened bread, which lasted seven days. Rightly, therefore, and after the example of Christ, the Latin Church prescribes to her people to celebrate the Eucharist in unleavened bread.
WHOSOEVER SHALL EAT ANY THING LEAVENED, THAT SOUL SHALL PERISH OUT OF ISRAEL.—“Shall perish,” namely by the sentence of the judges, if the matter be established, as if He said: Let him be condemned to death by the judges; if they neglect or do not know it, I, God the avenger, will punish him with death, either present or eternal, or both.
Hence it is plain that it was a capital offence to eat leaven in the days of unleavened bread: for although this matter seemed in itself small, and in itself not evil but indifferent, yet God forbidding it so severely, it was a mortal sin.
16. THE FIRST DAY SHALL BE HOLY AND SOLEMN, AND THE SEVENTH DAY SHALL BE KEPT WITH THE LIKE SOLEMNITY: YOU SHALL DO NO WORK IN THEM.—Hence it is plain that of the seven days of unleavened bread, on each of which various sacrifices were offered, as is plain from Numbers 28, 24, the first and the last were the more celebrated, and these alone were properly feasts, and equally, or in an equal degree and worship, as is here said; for on these it was not lawful to work, which on the other five intermediate days was lawful; hence the first day is called holy, that is, dedicated to the worship of God: the Sabbath, however, was holier, because on it it was not lawful to cook food nor to kindle a fire, as is said in Numbers 15, 32, which nevertheless was lawful on all the days of unleavened bread and on any other feasts. This first day is also called solemn, because it was a feast on account of the public and solemn sacrifices which were made on that day, as is plain from Numbers chap. 28, verse 16 and following; whence also the Jews then used finer dress and more sumptuous food. Hence Nehemias says to them, book 2 of Esdras, chap. 8: “Go, eat fat meats, and drink sweet wine, and send portions to them that have not prepared for themselves, because it is the holy day of the Lord, and be not sad: for the joy of the Lord is our strength.” For holy and solemn the Hebrew is micra codesh, that is, a holy convocation, namely a holy solemnity, to which the people is called together to hear the law of God and for the sacrifices.
AND THE SEVENTH DAY SHALL BE KEPT WITH THE LIKE SOLEMNITY.—For then was the feast of the assembly, or collection, of which I shall speak on Leviticus 23, 36.
17. YOU SHALL KEEP THIS DAY IN YOUR GENERATIONS BY A PERPETUAL OBSERVANCE,—as long, namely, as the rite, worship and religion of your generation and of the Jewish nation, that is, Judaism, shall endure: for when that shall be abolished by the other religion of Christ coming after, then the rite of the phase also shall be abolished. See Canon 4. This rite therefore lasted for 1530 years; for so many are there from the going out of Egypt to the passion of Christ, who fulfilled and abolished this and the other ancient rites. Whence St. Justin against Trypho: “That the precept of the paschal lamb was temporary,” he says, “appears from this, that God did not permit it to be immolated except in the place in which His name is invoked,” namely at Jerusalem, where the temple was; “for He knew indeed the days to come, and to abstain from the leaven of sin. The first day of unleavened bread, that is, of conversion from sin, is festal and celebrated before God and the angels, Matthew 18, 13 and 14; likewise also the last, when the penitent passes from this mortal life to the eternal in heaven. ‘For blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.’” So Rupert, and the Apostle, 1 Corinthians chap. 5, verse 7 and following.
20. IN ALL YOUR HABITATIONS YOU SHALL EAT UNLEAVENED BREAD.—Note “habitations,” because when set on a journey they could not always have, and consequently not eat, unleavened bread. So Cajetan.
21. TAKE A LAMB.—The Hebrew is, draw out, take a beast of the flock, namely from the fold; behold, not the lamb alone, but the kid also (for this in Hebrew is called seh, like the lamb) could be immolated in place of the lamb.
22. AND DIP A BUNCH OF HYSSOP IN THE BLOOD THAT IS AT THE DOOR,—the Septuagint, that is at the gate. The lamb had to be slain, says St. Augustine, either near the door of the house, or rather its blood carried to the entrance, that in it, fresh and liquid, they might dip the hyssop with which to sprinkle the posts and the lintel. For the hyssop was here in place of a sprinkler, as I shall say on Leviticus 14, 4. The Hebrew saph signifies not only the threshold but also a basin: whence some, with the Chaldee, render, in the blood that is in the vessel or basin in which it was received when the lamb was slain. Better, however, our translator renders saph threshold; for this commonly signifies it, from the root meaning to end: not otherwise than with the Latins the threshold (limen) is called as it were the boundary of light (luminis limes), that is, its end and term, and cause of shadow; although by Festus limen is said to be from limus, that is oblique, or after the passion of Christ, when Jerusalem was to be delivered to enemies, all victims ceasing at once.
Otherwise Abulensis and St. Augustine answer, that the phase and the ancient ceremonies are called eternal, not because the signs themselves, but because the thing which is signified by those signs, namely Christ and the mysteries of Christ, would be eternal. But this answer is mystical, not literal.
The Armenian Christians err, therefore, who sacrifice a lamb, anoint the thresholds with its blood, burn the bones, and keep the ashes with the blood for expiation, as St. Nicon relates in his book On the Errors of the Armenians.