For over 3,350 years, Jewish tradition has preserved a powerful narrative about the lamb in the Exodus story—a narrative starkly different from the Christian and Messianic interpretation that identifies Jesus (Yeshua) as the “Lamb of God.” Christians assert that the Passover lamb prefigures Jesus’ sacrificial death, drawing a typological link between the lamb’s blood in Exodus and salvation through Christ. In contrast, Jewish oral tradition, as recorded in the Midrash, Talmud, Mishnah, and Zohar, teaches that the lamb was not a symbol of redemption in the Christian sense but rather the god of the Egyptians, which the Israelites killed to affirm their loyalty to Hashem. This essay explores this Jewish understanding, rooted in the events of the Exodus, and highlights the divergence in oral traditions surrounding Passover.

The Lamb as Egypt’s God: A Test of Faith

The story of the Passover lamb begins in Exodus 12:3-6, where Hashem commands the Israelites: “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb… and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the month… and kill it at twilight.’” For Jews, this act was not merely a ritual prelude to liberation but a radical rejection of Egyptian idolatry. The Midrash, specifically Shemot Rabbah 16:2, explains that the Egyptians worshipped the lamb as a deity, often associated with the zodiac sign Aries or gods like Khnum, the ram-headed creator. By taking and slaughtering this lamb—publicly, before Egyptian eyes—the Israelites defied their oppressors’ religion, proving their exclusive devotion to Hashem.

The Talmud amplifies this interpretation. In Shabbat 87b, it notes that the 10th of Nisan, when the lambs were selected, fell on a Shabbat that year, making the act a double affirmation of faith: honoring Shabbat while rejecting idolatry. The Tosafot (medieval Talmudic commentators) add that this provoked the Egyptian firstborn, who questioned their parents’ inaction as their sacred animal was prepared for slaughter. This aligns with Exodus 8:26, where Moses tells Pharaoh, “It would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God are an abomination (to‘evat) to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us?” Here, to‘evah (abomination) suggests something taboo or sacred to Egypt, not merely repulsive, reinforcing the lamb’s divine status in their culture.

Stone Us!

For 3,350 years, Jewish oral tradition has framed this slaughter as an act of obedience, not atonement. The Mishnah Pesachim 10:5 details the Passover sacrifice’s meticulous execution, emphasizing its role as a communal affirmation of the covenant with Hashem. Unlike the Christian view of a sin-offering lamb, the Jewish Korban Pesach (Passover offering) was a celebration of liberation, not a mechanism for forgiveness. The Zohar (Bo 36b) adds a mystical layer, suggesting the lamb’s blood on the doorposts symbolized the destruction of Egypt’s spiritual power, channeling divine judgment against their gods, as stated in Exodus 12:12: “I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt.”

Rashi, the 11th-century commentator, ties this to Exodus 12:23, noting that the blood was a sign for the Israelites—not to appease God, but to mark their allegiance amid divine wrath. The Mechilta de’Rabbi Ishmael (a halakhic midrash on Exodus) further stresses that the command to kill the lamb tested the Israelites’ courage after centuries of enslavement, asking: Would they risk Egyptian retaliation to obey Hashem? This narrative, preserved orally since 1313 BCE and later written in these sources, underscores a triumph over idolatry, not a prefiguration of a savior.

The Christian Claim: Jesus as the Passover Lamb

In contrast, Christians and Messianics interpret the Passover lamb through a lens absent from Jewish tradition. The New Testament, particularly John 1:29 (“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”) and 1 Corinthians 5:7 (“For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed”), casts Jesus as the ultimate sacrificial lamb. This draws on the timing of his crucifixion during Passover and the idea of his blood redeeming humanity, akin to the lamb’s blood sparing the Israelites. The Book of Revelation 5:6 reinforces this with the image of a slain lamb, linking it to atonement—a concept foreign to the Jewish Korban Pesach.

This interpretation emerged centuries after the Exodus, rooted in Christian theology rather than the Jewish oral tradition present at the event. While Jews see the lamb as a historical and cultural defiance of Egypt, Christians overlay a typological framework, retroactively assigning messianic significance. Jewish tradition, however, knows no such figure in the Passover narrative—our redemption came through Hashem alone, not a mediator.

The Oral Tradition Divide

The Jewish oral tradition, codified in the Talmud, Midrash, and beyond, reflects what “Jews have known and taught since going out of Egypt”—that the lamb was a means to an end, not an end itself. The Tanchuma (Bo 4) recounts how the Israelites’ act shattered Egyptian morale, fulfilling Exodus 11:7: “But against any of the children of Israel not a dog shall sharpen its tongue.” This was about divine supremacy, not substitutionary sacrifice. Conversely, Christian oral tradition, developing post-Second Temple, reimagines Passover as a shadow of Christ’s mission, a narrative absent from the Jewish experience of the original event.

The Sfat Emet (19th-century Hasidic commentary) ties the lamb to Shabbat HaGadol—the Shabbat before Passover—calling it the moment Jews first observed Shabbat by rejecting Egypt’s gods, a national coming-of-age. No hint of a messianic lamb appears here or in earlier sources like the Mishnah or Gemara. For Jews, the Exodus lamb remains a historical symbol of liberation and loyalty, not a theological precursor to a figure 1,300 years later.

Conclusion: Two Lambs, Two Truths

For 3,350 years, Jewish tradition has held that the Passover lamb was the Egyptian god, killed to prove obedience to Hashem—a story of defiance and deliverance preserved in our oral law. Christians see a different lamb, one tied to Jesus and atonement, a perspective born from a later tradition. The Exodus pictures—lambs selected, slain, and marked on doorposts—tell a Jewish story of faith in action, not foreshadowing. As the Midrash, Talmud, and Zohar affirm, our lamb was no savior; it was a statement: Hashem alone is God.