Post #8 of my critique of the Women's Ordination video

Post #8 of my critique of the Women's Ordination video listed below: POINT #5 from the video – Although God called the entire nation of Israel to be a kingdom of priests, only men were appointed to offer the Passover lamb and to later serve as priests.

This point seems to be a remake of point 3, except for one idea.  “Only men were appointed to offer the Passover Lamb.” I have always thought the same thing, men were the ones appointed to slaughter the Passover lamb. I’m not exactly sure where I got the idea.  I was all prepared to completely agree with this point in the video, but then I went to the text, and now I’m not so sure.  I can’t read Hebrew, so I might be missing something somewhere. However, I did follow the advice of the scholars and did the next best thing, get out all your English translations and see how the text varies in all of them to get the complete Hebrew idea.  First of all I’m assuming that this part of their argument is talking about the slaughtering of the very first Passover lamb, since it then mentions that men were “later” appointed as priests.  So let’s look at the story.  It is in Exodus 12.  If you go to Bible Gateway you can pretty much read as many versions as you want. Vs. 3, “³ Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:” KJV or, “³ Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.” NIV.  In this verse we see a directive that the men are to pick out a lamb on the 10^th day of the month. Okay, we’re good so far. But then God’s directions continue in Vs.6 “⁶ And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the WHOLE ASSEMBLY OF THE CONGREGATION OF ISRAEL shall kill it in the evening.⁷ And THEY shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein THEY shall eat it. ⁸ `And THEY have eaten the flesh in this night, roast with fire; with unleavened things and bitters they do eat it;” KJV capitalization mine.  Here is the NIV, “⁶ Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when ALL THE MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY OF ISRAEL must slaughter them at twilight.⁷ Then THEY are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where THEY eat the lambs. ⁸ That same night THEY are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.”

It seems to me that although it appears that the men are to pick out the lamb on the 10^th day of the month, the whole community of Israel was to take part in the Passover slaughter of the lambs.  Maybe some would say that the whole community of Israel only included the men, like later censuses. However it would seem that the whole community of Israel included women and children because the verse continues… they are to take the blood.  They are to eat the lamb. They are to eat the meat, bitter herbs, and matzo. We know that the whole of every family participated in these events, not just the men.  So it would seem that women and children were involved in the whole process.  I know if my son (my husband is not a firstborn) was in danger, I would have been there making sure when the lamb was killed, that every drop of blood was caught. I would have been out there in front of the house making sure every drop of that blood was used up on the doorpost. There is no power on earth, unless I had a direct word from God, that would have kept me from being involved, when my son’s life was at stake. I can’t imagine any other Father or a Mother sitting back and not being involved in that process either. 

It is possible we get the idea that only men were involved in this Passover sacrifice, from reading further on in the chapter.  “²¹ Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. ²² Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning.”  Vs. 21-22.  I assume that all of these elders of Israel were men, and here Moses is telling them to go select lambs and slaughter them.  God’s earlier words seem pretty clear that the Passover offering is a community event, Moses’ less so. But there are other things Moses leaves out, such as picking the lamb on the 10^th of the month and keeping it until the 14^th.  Is it safe to assume that even though he left somethings out when writing down his communication to the Elders, he still told them everything? Exactly the way God had decreed? I think so. Also even though Moses is only communicating with men here, he is not communicating to all of the men, only the Elders. And we know that ALL families were to offer the Passover Sacrifice.  So unless we believe that the Elders were the only ones involved, I would say that there is nothing in this passage to suggest that men were the only ones involved in the event.  Especially since God’s instructions seem pretty clear in the previous verses.