📖 Biblical Definition
The lintel is the horizontal beam above a doorway. In Scripture it is most famously the place where Israel was commanded to brush the blood of the Passover lamb on the night of the tenth plague (Exodus 12:7, 22): "And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses... And when I see the blood, I will pass over you." The threefold mark — two doorposts and the lintel — formed a sign of mercy over every household. The angel of death passed by every blood-marked door. Christ is the Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7); His blood marks the lintel of every believing heart, and judgment passes over.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
The horizontal piece of timber or stone over a door, window, or other opening.
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LINTEL, n. The piece of timber or stone laid horizontally over a door or window to support the weight of the wall above.
Architecturally indispensable, the lintel is also the first surface of the doorway visible from outside — and so, in Israel's Passover, the most public location for the lamb's blood.
📖 Key Scripture
Exodus 12:7 — "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."
Exodus 12:22 — "Strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning."
Exodus 12:23 — "When he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in."
Amos 9:1 — "I saw the LORD standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
The Passover lintel is forgotten as architecture; the doorway has become invisible, and so has the blood that once marked it.
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Exodus 12 turns every doorway in Goshen into a sermon. The blood on the lintel and doorposts said to the destroyer: this household is covered. The shape of the cross was prefigured in the shape of the door.
Modern households cross their doorways without noticing them. The Passover-lintel image asks: under what blood does my doorway stand? Whose covering does my house claim? The lintel is the household's public testimony — visible from the street — of who has spoken peace over it.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew has a word for the lintel proper, distinct from the doorposts and the threshold.
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H4947 — מַשְׁקוֹף (mashqoph) — lintel, the upper door-beam (Exodus 12:7,22-23).
Note: lintel + two doorposts + threshold form a complete ‘framed doorway’; Passover applied blood to three of the four — the threshold remained clean for crossing.
Usage
"The blood was on the lintel because the household's testimony belongs out where strangers can see it."
"Bless the lintel of your house; the destroyer still walks at night."
"The shape of the doorway is the shape of the cross."