The formalized written Haggadah, codified sometime around AD 200-400, has 14 parts (and one pre-part).
I have listed them below, along with a brief description of Scriptural justification for the probable inclusion of that part in the Passover celebration at the time of Christ.
- Removal of the Chametz-removal of leaven was mandated by Old Testament law
- Kadesh–
- Urchatz-handwashing at all meals was Rabbinic tradition by the time of Christ (as evidenced by the arguments the Pharisees had with Jesus over handwashing)
- Karpas-bitter herbs are found in the account of the first Passover
- Yachatz
- Maggid-the retelling of the story of the Exodus was commanded in Old Testament law
- Rachtzah-a second, more ritualized handwashing by the time of Christ is probable considering the high value the Pharisees placed on ritual purity (although Jesus clearly disagreed with the Pharisees regarding this practice)
- Motzi Matzah-that Jesus blessed the meal and the matzah is highly likely considering that Jesus is noted to bless food all throughout his ministry (I’m not positive, but I think he blesses the food prior to every occasion of his eating or distributing food)
- Maror-the bitter herbs of the first Passover were consumed and continued to be consumed in Passovers throughout the Old Testament
- Korech-the description of the Last Supper indicates that Jesus and his disciples dipped bread at their Passover celebration
- Shulchan Orech-the Passover lamb was consumed at the Passover meal from the first Passover onward
- Tzafun-Jesus blessed, broke, and distributed a piece of bread during or at the end of the meal, declaring it to be his body (this is apparently distinct from the bread that was dipped-as in “he who dips his bread with mine is the one who will betray me”)
- Barech-the cup after supper is one of the most definitive segments in Jesus’ last supper. Luke and Paul make a special point of noting that the cup Jesus pronounced to be the new covenant in his blood was the cup after supper (as opposed to before or during).
- Hallel-Jesus and his disciples are noted to have sung a hymn prior to concluding their Passover
- Nirtzah
There are three parts of the Haggadah that do not have at least implicit Scriptural support for their inclusion in the Passover at the time of Christ. They are Kaddesh (the blessing that opens the Seder and the first cup), Yachetz (the display of the three pieces of Matzo and the breaking of the center Matzo into two unequal pieces, one of which is hidden), and Nirtzah (the closing proclamation, which, among other things, declares “Next Year in Jerusalem!”)
I am willing to think that the Nirtzah (at least as we know it today) would not have been performed during Jesus’ Seder, if only because He and His disciples were already present in Jerusalem. They may, however, have still proclaimed that they “have fulfilled the Passover with all its customs and laws”. Scripture simply doesn’t say one way or the other.
I am inclined to think that the Kaddesh (and the consumption of three of the four cups) was performed at Jesus’ Seder because the tradition of four cups has a strong Scriptural justification and because of the emphasis that Luke and Paul place on the “cup after supper” being the one that Jesus called the New Covenant in His blood. This, I believe, supports the idea that, even at the time of Christ, there was a progression of cups, each with different meaning.
I am inclined to think that the Yachetz (the display of the three pieces of Matzo and the breaking of the center Matzo into two unequal pieces, one of which is hidden) was part of Jewish ritual at the time of Christ for the exact opposite reason as the reason I believe the four cups were already a part of Jewish ritual. Yachetz has no solid Old Testament underpinning, and rabbis since the formalization of the Haggadah ~ AD 200-400 have been debating why this ritual is included in the Seder. Every Haggadah tries to find a meaning in it, but none can find a satisfactory one. Except for the Christian Haggadah, that is. I find it hard to believe that the rabbis would invent something (after the time of Christ) that they are completely at a loss to explain, and that Christian theology can explain much better than they.
From my studies I agree with the points you have made about about the formal Haggadah. I would like to see a copy of the Haggadah your family uses in the Seder. I would like to observe a Seder myself and was looking for a Haggadah but was not able to find one I thought was fully scriptural. I am willing to write my own based on what is available and adjust it to the scriptures but I don’t feel I have the time to make those preparations this year and my idea was not to just make my own.
It must not be forgotten that Jesus was a Jew and an observant Jew. He was circumsized, celebrated the equivalent of his Bar Mitzvah at the age of 12, when he became a Man of Israel, authorized to enter the Court of the Israelites in the Temple alone, unaccompanied by his father.
Passover and Haggadah would have been part of his very psychology, and its meaning as a deliverance from slavery and bondage would have been painful when celebrating it under another kind of bondage, the Roman occupation of the Jewish homeland.
Jesus was not anti-Jewish, but he did oppose the political puppets set up by Rome and he also opposed the rigid and narrow Shamma-ite Pharisees, who looked upon themselves as the only true interpreters of Torah and the final authorities on halakah: Jewish law and practice.
He came of course to found a Church so that the Salvation given to Judaism would now b given to all the peoples of thde world, but that was not a rejection of Judaism, only the carrying out and completion of his plan for the salvation of the world.
“I have come not to destroy, but to fulfill”.
His Passover celebration would have been the full Seder ceremony, with all of the historic and symnolic meaning bound up in
the Seder service.
He added much, of course, as the long discourses in the Gospel of John demonstrate, and he did open up a new era and a new dimension to human salvation.
But one must not understand his bitter and almost violent language to the Sanhedrin, the High Priesthood or the “Pharisees” as directed at Jews and Judaism, and sometimes St. John’s use of the word “Jews” in his Gospel does not refer to “Jews” as we understand it today. It means’ “Judeans” in contrast to “Galileans”, and the one who wrote those words was a Galilean.
Father Clifford Stevens
Boys Town, Nebraska