Similarly, the Jewish observance of Pesah (Passover) which often coincides with Lent, begins with the meticulous search for, clearing out and destruction of old leaven, called hametz, to commemorate the flight from Egypt - which was undertaken by the Jewish people in such haste they could not wait for the bread dough to rise. The bread later cooked from the dough brought out of Egypt is unleavened bread - matzoh.

It's Lent that often coincides with Passover, not the other way around. More accurately, it's Easter that often coincides with the 15th of Abib or Nisan, the first Day of Unleavened Bread, not the other way around. It's what became the Roman Catholic Church that distanced itself from, then set up a complex calendrical dance around, the "Jewish" Passover (which was, originally and biblically, on Abib 14 and not Abib 15) and Unleavened Bread (Abib 15-21). That (along with the basic difference between the lunisolar Hebrew and the solar Gregorian calendars) accounts for the chaotic overlaps or avoidances year by year between Lent/Easter and Passover/Unleavened Bread.

The Passover season (in the Hebrew Bible and for the apostolic Christian Church) is neither about self-denial nor about penance (it's about repentance, forgiveness and resulting freedom, which are much deeper), and it is preceded neither by a Carnival nor by a Lent. But let us start with some background. The reason why the bread was unleavened during the Exodus had nothing to do with self-denial as such. It had to do with the fact Israel was fleeing as fast as humanly possible from Egypt and its ways (maybe across the whole Sinai Peninsula to the Gulf of Aqaba, according to one fascinating theory). For that reason, it was "the bread of affliction" - not that the bread afflicted, but that the trial of the hurried flight caused the affliction and lack of rest that kept the bread unleavened.

In Hebrew Scripture, unleavened bread (especially in association with sacrifices) symbolizes sinlessness -- and one could argue thus with the apostle Peter that "he who has suffered in the flesh [in a particular way, as in the Exodus] has ceased from sin". For the original Christian Church, Paul points out that the symbolism of the bread (which Christians were still eating as part of their observance of Passover and Unleavened Bread) is not self-denial, but something quite other:

(1 Corinthians 5:6 KJV) Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

(1 Corinthians 5:7 KJV) Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

(1 Corinthians 5:8 KJV) Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Bengel observes about the meaning of the Greek words: "Sincerity takes care not to admit evil with the good; truth, not to admit evil instead of good." So Proverbs 20:27's principle does apply, but it does not involve simply "giving up something". This comes from the pagan idea of penance - just as Lent and Easter originally came from paganism.

Out of respect for some here, and meaning no irony, I won't dwell on how the Lent/Easter season was subtly and then forcibily substituted (on pain of anathema and death) for Passover and Unleavened Bread in the Christian world via the Council of Nicea - other than to say just that much about what anyone can find out if so minded.

And one last quibble: why, oh why are the ancient Israelites called "the Jewish people" by so many? There weren't any "Jews" back then! The first time "Jews" are mentioned in the Bible, the "Jews" were fighting against "the House of Israel" and its Syrian allies. "Jew" began as a term for a citizen of "the House of Judah", in the latter days of the Divided Kingdom. The meaning of "Jew" changed step by step even in the Bible, and eventually included all the faithful in Israel that had returned from the House of Judah's Babylonian Captivity; but nowhere before latter-day Judaism (which reads its norms into the biblical past) does the term refer to the ancient Israelites or the keepers of their national religion.

(2 Kings 16:5 KJV) Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.

(2 Kings 16:6 KJV) At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day.

I must be in a temper tonight - I'd better direct it to other pursuits.

wr ()()