Description
Over the past few decades an increasing number of Christians have sought to celebrate the Last Supper, which was a Passover seder, as a way of better understanding Easter. Several Passover haggadahs aimed at Christians are presently on the market. But all have sought to celebrate the Passover outside of the context of the Old Testament itself. The seders resulting from using these haggadahs are rewrites of the authentic haggadahs and do not recapture either the usage that the Jewish people have experienced throughout the ages or the Last Supper that Jesus celebrated with his Disciples.
Yet the authentic seder is greatly to be preferred, because it includes the historic context of the Last Supper and, consequently, the real base for understanding Easter.
In A Passover Haggadah for Christians, Bruce Fingerhut, president of St. Augustine’s Press, presents a haggadah for a Passover seder similar to the one that Jesus Himself celebrated. And it presents a commentary that shows the important divergences that Jesus presented in the Last Supper (e.g., washing the feet of the Disciples, leaving the room for Gethsemene after the third cup of wine, speaking of his betrayal in terms of the one who dips his bread with Him, and, of course, presenting Himself as the bread and wine of the celebration).
By employing a complete and authentic seder service, A Passover Haggadah for Christians allows participants to discover for themselves the great preparation that the Last Supper, a Passover seder, was for Easter and to take in the beauty, inspiration, and “flavor” of Passover on their own terms, and not simply as an event on the way to a final position already foreseen, as a looking at the past with the eye of the future.
But the service itself is so bountifully important and prescient for Christians, the little “aha moments” that one gets by being led by the hand become “AHA MOMENTS” when one is given the actual words Jesus spoke, has seen the significance of it in light of His own life, and participates in the service as a disciple.
A Passover Haggadah for Christians comes complete with full explanations of the celebration itself and their meaning for Easter, Biblical references, facing Hebrew and, for the main prayers said by all, transliteration of the Hebrew, a glossary, and musical scores.
In fact, a Jewish family could use A Passover Haggadah for Christians by ignoring the Christian explanation (which is in color) for the seder itself, but reading it at a later time. By doing so, they would understand a great deal about Christianity too. After all, our ignorance of one another goes both ways.
