3 Bason, or Threshold
It is strange that the Hebrew word for “threshold” (saph) in this narrative is translated “bason” in our English Bible. It is because of this that the identity of the passover sacrifice with the primitive Threshold Covenant is so generally lost sight of. This word saph occurs many times in the Old Testament text, and in nine cases out of ten it is translated “threshold,” or “door,” or “door-post,” or the like.549 It would seem that it should be so translated in this instance.
In some cases where saph is translated “bason,” or “cup,” the term “threshold” would be more appropriate, as when included in an enumeration of the temple furniture.550 Bronze and silver thresholds were often mentioned in the furniture of Babylonian and Assyrian temples;551 and they might well have had mention among the Hebrews. It is possible, however, that there was a cavity, as a blood receptacle, in the threshold of houses or temples where sacrifices were so frequent; and this would account for the use of the word saph as “bason,” even where it referred to the threshold of the door.
The translators of the Septuagint, living in Egypt and familiar with the customs of that land, rendered saph by thyra, “doorway,”552 in the story of the exodus. Jerome, with his understanding of Oriental life, gives limen, “threshold,” for saph, at this point.553 Philo Judæus, out of his Egyptian Jewish experiences, describing the Jewish passover festival, speaks of it as “the feast diabateria, which the Jews called paskha.”554 “Diabateria” are “offerings before crossing a border,”555 or threshold sacrifices. Rabbi Ishmael, a Talmudist, in explaining the passage descriptive of the institution of the passover in Egypt, says: “One dug a hole in the [earthen] threshold, and slaughtered into that,” “for saph signifies here nothing else than threshold.”556
A striking illustration of the error of translating saph “a bason” or “a cup,” is shown in the rendering of Zechariah 12: 1–3 in our English Bible. The Lord is there promising to protect the borders of Jerusalem against all besiegers. “Thus saith the Lord, which... layeth the foundation of the earth:... Behold, I will make Jerusalem a threshold [or, boundary stone, Hebrew, saph] of reeling unto all the peoples round about.... I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples.” The figure seems to be that of the besiegers staggering as they come against that foundation, or threshold stone, which the Lord has established. Yet saph is here translated “cup,” and the passage thereby rendered meaningless.
There would seem, indeed, to be little room for doubt that saph should be translated “threshold” in the description of the pass-over sacrifice. In Assyrian, the word sippu, from the same root as the Hebrew saph, means only threshold, not bason or cup.557