10
(mizwt), the duty of paschal sacrifice and the duty of circumcision, which they
should perform so as to be worthy of redemption."
35
If in Jewish interpretation the Passover blood-smearing functioned roughly
like a "national circumcision," it is not difficult to see why Melito might be led to
view it like a baptism. The early Christian tradition saw continuity between
circumcision and baptism (Col 2:11-12; Odes of Solomon 11; Justin Dialogue
43.2). Both were called "seals" (circumcision in Rom 4:11;
Barn 9.6; baptism in 2
Clement 7.6; 8.6; Hermas Similitude 9.16.3-4) and both were necessary
procedures for outsiders to enter the community of faith.
36
(3) The Blood-Smearing as an Amulet
Although the Lord says in Exod 12:13 "I will pass (
psh
) over you" (MT) (cf. v.
23: "the Lord will pass over"; v. 27: "for he passed over"),
37
in the passages
below, the emphasis is on the lambs blood protection from something being
other than God. Jewish interpreters of Exod 12 were drawn to the notion that the
Passover lambs blood could function as an amulet and ward off evil from a
distance.
(a) The LXX of Exodus substitutes parerchomai
("pass over") with
skepazo
("I
will protect you," v. 13; "he defended," v. 27).
38
The effect of this reading is that
God can be viewed as a protector against some "destroyer" (
ton olothreuonta, v.
23) other than himself.
(b) This reading is reflected in the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, which reads
substitutes "protect" (
ngn
) in v. 23. (It uses "spare" [
hws] in v. 13 and v. 27,
which is close in thought to "pass over").
39
35
For Aramaic text and English translation, see Lauterbach 33-34. The emphasis on
religious duties perhaps indicate a date close to the Bar Kochba Revolt (D 132-135), as the
rabbis may have magnified the i
mportance of circumcision in response to the Hadrians edict
prohibiting circumcision.
36
Some have argued that the early Christian practice of infant baptism arose out of the
conviction that baptism was the new covenant continuation of the old covenant rite of
circumcision.
37
For the Hebrew text, see R. Kittel, Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (Stuttgart: Deutsche
Bibelgesellschaft, 1966)
38
However, the substitution does not occur at v. 23. For the Greek text, see Septuaginta:
Vetus Testamentum Graecum auctoritate Societatis Litterarum Gottingensis editum, vol 2,1:
Exodus, ed. John W. Wevers (Gottingen: Vanderhoeck & Ruprecht, 1991). For the English
translation, see Lancelot C. L. Brenton, The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English
(reprint from 1851 London edition, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986).
39
For the English translation, see McNamara, Hayward and Maher, Pseudo-Jonathan.
Targum Neofiti and Targum Ha-Hodesh
have "pass over" and "protect" in v. 13 and 27, as if to