Commentaria in Exodum
So Tornielli. Whence it follows that the Hebrews immolated this their first typical phase on the previous day, namely on Thursday, just as Christ celebrated His phase and the Eucharist on Thursday a little before His death.
THIS IS THAT OBSERVABLE NIGHT OF THE LORD, WHEN HE BROUGHT THEM FORTH OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT.—The Hebrew is lel shimmurim, that is, a night of watchings, that is, to be watched, which all must watch, that is, observe and celebrate. “When he brought them forth,” that is, when He caused them to be brought forth, namely when by the slaughter of the firstborn He forced Pharao to let the Hebrews go; for in the night messengers were sent to all the Hebrews that they should go out; and then they themselves, packing up their baggage already prepared and collected, got themselves ready for the departure, so that about dawn all might assemble, as had been ordered, at the city of Ramesses: for already before, as Josephus says, Moses had warned them to be ready for the departure; whence they from all Egypt, about the 14th day, gathered themselves round the city of Ramesses, and there were distributed by troops and companies by the officers and heads of families, and from thence, the signal being given, at once set out in ordered array in the morning, going out of Egypt; for that they went out in the morning, not by night, is clearly said in Numbers chap. 33, verse 3: “And they departed,” it says, “from Ramesses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month, on the morrow after the phase (the pasch), in the sight of all the Egyptians who were burying their firstborn,” which was certainly done in the morning, not at night: by night, therefore, they went out inchoately, that is, began to go out, got ready for the departure; but in the morning they in fact completely went out.
Mystically, by this night was signified that Christ would transfer the people of God out of the kingdom of night, that is, of sin and death, into the kingdom of light and eternal life.
At Ramesses, then, all the Hebrews arrived on the 15th day; and there they halted some hours. Hence by St. Jerome it is set down as the first halting-place or station. Then on the same 15th day they went out thence to Socoth, Numbers chap. 33, verse 5.
They had therefore abundant time, on the same day on which they immolated the lamb, both to pack up their goods, and to assemble at Ramesses, and to set out thence, so that some have been moved without cause to place the immolation of the lamb at the thirteenth moon in the evening, or at the beginning of the evening of the fourteenth moon.
You will say, Deuteronomy chap. 16, verse 6, it is said: “Thou shalt sacrifice the phase in the evening, at the going down of the sun, when thou camest out of Egypt”: therefore they went out neither by night nor in the morning, but at sunset.
I answer: the word “when” is taken confusedly, namely for the same time broadly taken, and therefore signifies the night of the same evening of the fourteenth day; for that the Hebrews went out by night He had said in verse 4. Hence verse 6 only gives the reason why the lamb was immolated in the evening: for this was done in order that by this lamb the going out of the Hebrews by night might be provided for in this first year of their going out, and in the following years be signified; for all these things could not be done suddenly in the same hour of the night, namely the lamb be slain, flayed, washed, roasted and eaten, etc.; so that evening and night here are as one and the same time, confusedly understood under the little word “when,” so that the Hebrews may rightly be said to have slain the lamb and eaten it, and by it to have been saved from the death of the firstborn, to have been ordered to go out of Egypt, and at once to have begun to go out: for to this going out the immolation of the lamb and all the rest were directed as preambles; and so this going out of the Hebrews was reckoned as beginning in the immolation of the lamb, namely in the evening of the fourteenth day.
43. AND THE LORD SAID TO MOSES AND AARON,—some time after the going out.
THIS IS THE SERVICE,—this is the rite of the phase: so the Chaldee; or, as the Septuagint, this is the law of the phase.
NO STRANGER,—who is of another nation, who is not a Hebrew. The Chaldee here judaizes: for he renders, every son destroyed, that is, every Christian. For the Jews call destroyed those who are converted from Judaism to Christ.
SHALL EAT OF IT,—unless by circumcision he pass over into your settlement and nation, and become a proselyte; for such a one could eat the phase, as is plain from verse 48.
Note: As the Eucharist is not given except to the baptized, so no one ate the phase unless circumcised; for the phase was the chief Sacrament of the Jews, as the Eucharist is of Christians: whence, as this is not given except to Christians initiated into Christianity by baptism, so that was not given except to Jews initiated into Judaism by circumcision; for by the phase they recalled that great benefit of the Egyptian redemption conferred on their nation. Hence those who celebrated the phase in the year following the going out, Numbers chap. 9, were all already circumcised in Egypt: but thence, journeying through the desert for 39 years, they did not celebrate the phase, because all who were born afterwards remained uncircumcised until they came into Chanaan, and there in Galgal were circumcised, and ate the phase, as is plain from Josue chap. 5. Except the women; for these were not circumcised, and yet ate the phase together with the men. Wherefore Paul of Burgos thinks that before this first paschal lamb was eaten a general circumcision was made of the Hebrews who through negligence or another cause had not been circumcised; and that this is called the first circumcision; but the second that which was made in Josue chap. 5, verse 4, as is said there, of which matter we shall have to treat in that place.
44. EVERY BOUGHT SERVANT SHALL BE CIRCUMCISED,—that is, ought to be circumcised, I command that he be circumcised, and so eat of the lamb. That this is so is plain; for Scripture here distinguishes the servant from the stranger and the hireling, as Abulensis rightly noted, although Pererius denies it, and ordains that the servant eat of the lamb, but not the hireling: it therefore commands the servant to be circumcised, but not the stranger or the hireling;
for if it were left to the servant’s choice to be circumcised (as Pererius holds), and consequently to partake of the lamb, there would be no difference here between the servant and the stranger and hireling, who, though not circumcised, could become proselytes by asking to be circumcised, and so could eat of the lamb, as is plain from verse 49. Next, because in Genesis chap. 17, verse 12, this is expressly stated, especially in the Hebrew text, which reads thus: “Every home-born servant and he that is bought with money, who is not of your seed, shall be circumcised with circumcision (circumcide-”
who commanded these rites to the Hebrews, could also command the same to their servants, or slaves, especially since a servant is, as Aristotle says, book 5 of the Ethics, the possession of his lord, and, as the Hebrew here has, the price or possession of the lord’s money, as one who, bought with money, is possessed by the lord as money is. See what was said on Genesis chap. 17, verse 12. Circumcision, therefore, was not free and optional for servants or slaves, as some hold, but commanded and necessarily to be undergone, and that not only in so far as it was the cutting away of the foreskin and a distinguishing sign of the people of God, namely of the Jews from those nations, as Cajetan holds, but also in so far as it was a Sacrament and a profession of Judaism; for these two cannot in fact be divided or separated, though Cajetan too subtly tries to divide and separate them.
45. THE STRANGER (a Gentile, a merchant, for example a Chananite, who sojourns among you) AND THE HIRELING (a servant, or labourer, who lets out his work to you) SHALL NOT EAT THEREOF,—unless they wish to be circumcised; for to these circumcision is free and optional.
46. IN ONE HOUSE SHALL IT BE EATEN, NEITHER SHALL YOU CARRY FORTH OF THE FLESH THEREOF OUT OF THE HOUSE.—Hence it is plain that the lamb was immolated not in the temple but in the house, both this first time and afterwards. The lamb had to be eaten whole in that house in which it had been immolated and roasted; nor could any part of it be sent to those who were in other houses, and that in sign that on that night, while the striking angel passed by, no one went out of the house, as Scripture teaches:
Allegorically, however, to signify that the true Lamb, namely Christ in the Eucharist, is to be eaten in one Church, and that it is not lawful for those who are outside the Church, or are separated from it by schism or excommunication, to partake of and enjoy this sacred communion. So St. Cyprian, book On the Unity of the Church, after the beginning; Procopius, Rabanus, Rupert.
NEITHER SHALL YOU BREAK A BONE THEREOF.—Take bone, or bones, literally of the lamb, not of Christ the Lord, as some have held: for all this discourse is literally of the lamb.