πάσχα

See also: Πάσχα

Ancient Greek

FWOTD – 21 April 2019

Alternative forms

• πάσκα (páska)

Etymology

Borrowed from Aramaic פַּסְחָא (pasḥā), from Hebrew פֶּסַח (pesaḥ).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ˈpas.xa/ → /ˈpas.xa/

• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈpas.kʰa/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈpas.xa/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈpas.xa/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈpas.xa/

Noun

πάσχα • (páskha) n (indeclinable)

1. Passover
   • Septuaginta, Exodus, 12, 11.

     οὕτως δὲ φάγεσθε αὐτό· […] καὶ ἔδεσθε αὐτὸ μετὰ σπουδῆς· πασχα ἐστὶν κυρίῳ.

     hoútōs dè phágesthe autó; […] kaì édesthe autò metà spoudês; paskha estìn kuríōi.

     You will eat it this way: […] and you will eat it with haste: it is the Passover of the Lord.

   • Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 10, 70, in Ralph Marcus (tr. & ed.), Josephus with an English translation, vol. 6 (Jewish Antiquities, books IX–XI), LCL, pages 194-197. Translation by Marcus.

     καὶ καθαρίσας οὕτω τὴν χώραν ἅπασαν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα τὸν λαὸν συνεκάλεσε κἀκεῖ τὴν ἀζύμων ἑορτὴν καὶ τὴν πάσχα λεγομένην ἤγαγεν: ἐδωρήσατό τε τῷ λαῷ τὸ πάσχα νεογνοὺς ἐρίφους καὶ ἄρνας δισμυρίους, βοῦς δ’ εἰς ὁλοκαυτώματα τρισχιλίους.

     kaì katharísas hoútō tḕn khṓran hápasan eis Hierosóluma tòn laòn sunekálese kakeî tḕn azúmōn heortḕn kaì tḕn páskha legoménēn ḗgagen: edōrḗsató te tôi laôi tò páskha neognoùs eríphous kaì árnas dismuríous, boûs d’ eis holokautṓmata triskhilíous.

     and having thus purified the entire country, he called the people together at Jerusalem and there celebrated the festival of Unleavened Bread and that called Passover (Pascha). He also presented gifts to the people for the Passover (consisting of) thirty thousand kids and lambs, and three thousand oxen for the whole burnt-offerings.

2. Paschal dinner, Passover meal
   • Scrivener New Testament, Mark 14,16, 1894.

     Καὶ ἐξῆλθον οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἦλθον εἰς τὴν πόλιν καὶ εὗρον καθὼς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς καὶ ἡτοίμασαν τὸ πάσχα.

     Kaì exêlthon hoi mathētaì autoû kaì êlthon eis tḕn pólin kaì heûron kathṑs eîpen autoîs kaì hētoímasan tò páskha.

     His disciples went out, went to the city and found it as he said to them and they prepared the Passover meal.

3. (Christianity) Easter
4. Paschal Lamb
   • Septuaginta, Exodus, 12, 27.

     καὶ ἐρεῖτε αὐτοῖς θυσία τὸ πασχα τοῦτο κυρίῳ, ὡς ἐσκέπασεν τοὺς οἴκους τῶν υἱῶν Ισραηλ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ, ἡνίκα ἐπάταξεν τοὺς Αἰγυπτίους, τοὺς δὲ οἴκους ἡμῶν ἐρρύσατο.

     kaì ereîte autoîs thusía tò paskha toûto kuríōi, hōs esképasen toùs oíkous tôn huiôn Israēl en Aigúptōi, hēníka epátaxen toùs Aiguptíous, toùs dè oíkous hēmôn errhúsato.

     And you will say to them: "This paschal lamb is a sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the homes of the Israelites in Egypt, when he slew the Egyptians, yet our homes he spared."

   • Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 11, 110, in Ralph Marcus (tr. & ed.), Josephus with an English translation, vol. 6 (Jewish Antiquities, books IX–XI), LCL, pages 366-369. Translation by Marcus, comment in square brackets not his.

     καὶ τὴν πάσχα προσαγορευομένην θυσίαν τῇ τετράδι καὶ δεκάτῃ τοῦ αὐτοῦ μηνὸς ἐπιτελέσαντες κατευωχήθησαν ἐπὶ ἡμέρας ἑπτὰ μηδεμιᾶς φειδόμενοι πολυτελείας, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰς ὁλοκαυτώσεις ἐπιφέροντες τῷ θεῷ καὶ χαριστηρίους θυσίας ἱερουργοῦντες ἀνθ’ ὧν αὐτοὺς ποθοῦν τὸ θεῖον πάλιν εἰς τὴν πάτριον γῆν καὶ τοὺς ἐν αὐτῇ νόμους ἤγαγεν καὶ τὴν τοῦ Περσῶν βασιλέως διάνοιαν εὐμενῆ κατέστησεν αὐτοῖς.

     kaì tḕn páskha prosagoreuoménēn thusían têi tetrádi kaì dekátēi toû autoû mēnòs epitelésantes kateuōkhḗthēsan epì hēméras heptà mēdemiâs pheidómenoi poluteleías, allà kaì tàs holokautṓseis epiphérontes tôi theôi kaì kharistēríous thusías hierourgoûntes anth’ hôn autoùs pothoûn tò theîon pálin eis tḕn pátrion gên kaì toùs en autêi nómous ḗgagen kaì tḕn toû Persôn basiléōs diánoian eumenê katéstēsen autoîs.

     and, after offering the sacrifice called Pascha on the fourteenth of the same month [Nisan], they feasted for seven days, sparing no expense but bringing the whole burnt-offerings to God and performing the sacrifices of thanksgiving because the Deity had brought them back to the land of their fathers and to its laws, and had disposed the mind of the Persian king favourably to them.

Derived terms

• πάσχα ἀναστάσιμον (páskha anastásimon, “resurrectional pascha”)
• πάσχα σταυρώσιμον (páskha staurṓsimon, “crucifixional pascha”)

Descendants

• Greek: Πάσχα (Páscha)
  • ⇒ Greek: Πασχαλιά (Paschaliá)
    • → Crimean Tatar: Pashalya
    • → Gagauz: paskellä
    • → Ottoman Turkish: پاسقالیه (paskalya)
      • Turkish: paskalya
    • → Zazaki: paskalya
• → Belarusian: Пасха (Pasxa)
• → Gothic: 𐍀𐌰𐍃𐌺𐌰 (paska)
• → Latin: pascha (see there for further descendants)
• → Old Armenian: պասքա (paskʻa)
• → Old Georgian: პასქაჲ (ṗaskay)
  • Georgian: პასქა (ṗaska) (possibly learned)
• → Polish: Pascha
• → Romanian: pască
• → Russian: Пасха (Pasxa)
  • → Alutiiq: Paas'kaaq
  • → Azerbaijani: Pasxa
  • → Kazakh: Пасха (Pasxa)
  • → Yiddish: פּאַסכע (paskhe)
  • → Yup'ik: Paaskaaq
  • ⇒ Russian: пасха (pasxa), па́ска (páska)
    • → English: paskha
    • → Finnish: pasha
    • → Polish: pascha
• → Ukrainian: паска (paska)
  • → English: paska

Further reading

• “πάσχα”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “πάσχα”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• πάσχα in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• G3957 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible