The revelation of Christian Science, which came to Mary Baker Eddy and was elucidated by her in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," sheds upon the inspired Biblical records the illumination of spiritual interpretation, and unfolds, for all mankind, the deep spiritual significance and practical import of the sacred Scriptures. In the light of this truth such unfoldment can be traced in relation to the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread, which were instituted by Moses in the dawn of Israelitish history.
The Passover commemorated the exemption of the children of Israel when their families were protected from the doom of the first-born of Egypt. The feast was also observed by the twelve tribes as a memorial of their release from the tyranny of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, when, under the leadership of Moses, they escaped into the wilderness and began their journeyings to the promised land, passing safely on dry land through the Red Sea. Through all the vicissitudes of their troubled history this rite was strictly observed by the Israelites as a sacred duty, in obedience to Moses' command, "Ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations."
After the lapse of centuries, the Jews had come under the rule of the Roman empire. This was, moreover, a period of great religious unrest. Some had become dissatisfied with the existing forms of religion, and the people were moved by Messianic expectations. The various schools of philosophy apparent in that age indicate a human cry for more light. In the eternal order of unfolding good, the human need was answered in the advent of the promised Messiah, whose teachings were to lift thought above and beyond merely material types and forms of religion and worship, into the spiritual realities of being.
