Pentecost

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fiftiet
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary


("fiftieth".) (See FEASTS.) Exo_23:16; Exo_34:22; Num_28:26-31; Deu_16:9-14; Lev_23:15-22. The first sheaf offered at the Passover and the two leavened loaves at Pentecost marked the beginning and ending of the grain harvest, and sanctified the interval between as the whole harvest or Pentecostal season. The lesson to Israel was, "Jehovah maketh peace in thy borders, He filleth thee with the finest of the wheat" (Psa_147:14). Pentecost commemorated the giving of the law on Sinai (Exo_12:2; Exo_12:19), the 50th day after the Exodus, 50th from "the morrow after the sabbath" (i.e. the first day of holy convocation, 15th Nisan); the day after was more fit for cutting the sheaf, the 16th day. It was also the birthday of the Christian church (Act_2:1; Act_20:16; 1Co_16:8) through the Holy Spirit, who writes Christ's new law on the heart. It was the last Jewish feast Paul observed, and the first which, as Whitsunday, Christians kept.
"The feast of weeks" (a week of weeks between Passover and Pentecost), "the day of firstfruits." The sixth day of Sivan, lasting only one day; but the Jews in foreign countries have added a second day. Each of the two loaves was the tenth of an ephah (about three quarts and a half) of finest wheat flour. Waved Before Jehovah with a peace offering of the two lambs of the first year, and given to the priests. Seven lambs of the first year were sacrificed, one bullock and two rams as a burnt offering with meat and drink offering, and a kid sin offering. Each brought a free will offering. The Levite, stranger, fatherless, and widow were invited. As the Passover was a family gathering, Pentecost was a social feast. The people were reminded of their Egyptian bondage and of their duty to obey the law. The concourse at Pentecost was very great (Acts 2; Josephus Ant. 14:13, section 14, 17:10, section 2; B. J. 2:3, section 1). In Exo_23:16; Exo_23:19, "the first (i.e. chief) of the firstfruits" are the two wave loaves of Pentecost (Lev_23:17).
The omer offering at Passover was the prelude to the greater harvest offering at Pentecost, before which no other firstfruits could be offered. The interval between Pentecost and tabernacles was the time for offering firstfruits. The Jews called Pentecost "the concluding assembly of the Passover" ('atsereth). If the last supper was on the legal day, the 14th Nisan, and the Sabbath of Jesus' lying in the grave was the day of the omer, the Pentecost of Acts 2, 50 days after, must have been on the Jewish Saturday Sabbath. Others make the 13th that of the supper; 14th the crucifixion, the Passover day; 15th the day of Jesus' sleep, the Saturday Sabbath, the holy convocation; our Sunday, first day, the omer day; 50th day from that would be Pentecost, on our Lord's day. The tongues symbolized Christianity proclaimed by preaching; the antithesis to Babel's confusion of tongues and gathering of peoples under one ambitious will. Jerusalem, the mount of the Lord, is the center of God's spiritual kingdom of peace and righteousness; Babel, the center of Satan's kingdom and of human rebellion, ignores God the true bond of union, and so is the city of confusion, in the low dead level of Shinar. As Babel's sin disunited, so by the Spirit of God given on Pentecost believers are one, "keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph_4:1-16).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Pen'tecost. Pentecost, that is, the fiftieth day, (from a Greek word, meaning fiftieth), or Harvest Feast, or Feast of Weeks, may be regarded as a supplement to the Passover. It lasted for but one day. From the sixteenth of Nisan, seven weeks were reckoned inclusively, and the next or fiftieth day was the Day of Pentecost, which fell on the sixth of Sivan, (about the end of May). Exo_23:16; Exo_34:22; Lev_23:15; Lev_23:22; Numbers 28. See the Jewish Calendar at the end of this volume.
The Pentecost was the Jewish harvest-home, and the people were especially exhorted to rejoice before Jehovah with their families their servants, the Levite within their gates, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, in the place chosen by God, for his name, as they brought a free-will offering, of their hand to Jehovah their God. Deu_16:10-11.
The great feature of the celebration was the presentation of the two loaves made from the first-fruits of the wheat harvest. With the loaves, two lambs were offered as a Peace Offering, and all were waved before Jehovah, and given to the priests; the leaves being leavened, could not be offered on the altar.
The other sacrifices were, a Burnt Offering of a young bullock, two rams, and seven lambs, with a meat and drink offering, and a kid for a Sin Offering. Lev_23:18-19. Till the Pentecostal, leaves were offered, the produce of the harvest might not be eaten, nor could any other firstfruits be offered. The whole ceremony was the completion, of that dedication of the harvest, to God as its giver, and to whom both the land, and the people were holy, which was begun by the offering of the wave-sheaf at the Passover. The interval is still regarded as a religious season.
The Pentecost is the only one of the three great feasts, which is not mentioned as the memorial of events, in the history of the Jews; but such a significance has been found in the fact, that the law was given from Sinai, on the fiftieth day after the deliverance from Egypt. Compare Exodus 12 and Exodus 19. In the Exodus, the people were offered to God as living first fruits; at Sinai, their consecration to him as a nation was completed. The typical significance of the Pentecost is made clear, from the events of the day recorded, in the Acts of the Apostles. Acts 2. Just as the appearance of God on Sinai was the birthday of the Jewish nation, so was the Pentecost, the birthday of the Christian Church.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

Πεντεκοστη, a solemn festival of the Jews; so called, because it was celebrated on the fiftieth day after the sixteenth of Nisan, which was the second day of the passover. The Hebrews call it the feast of weeks, because it was kept seven weeks after the passover. They then offered the first fruits of the wheat harvest, which was then completed; beside which, they presented at the temple seven lambs of that year, one calf, and two rams for a burnt-offering; two lambs for a peace-offering; and a goat for a sin-offering, Lev_23:15-16; Exo_34:22; Deu_16:9-10. The feast of pentecost was instituted among the Israelites, first to oblige them to repair to the temple of the Lord, there to acknowledge his absolute dominion over the whole country, by offering him the first fruits of the harvest; and, secondly, to commemorate and give thanks to God for the law which he had given them from Sinai, on the fiftieth day after their coming out of Egypt. The modern Jews celebrate the pentecost for two days. They deck the synagogues, where the law is read, and their own houses, with garlands of flowers. They hear an oration in praise of the law, and read from the Pentateuch and prophets lessons which have a relation to this festival, and accommodate their prayers to the same occasion. It was on the feast of pentecost that the Holy Ghost descended in the miraculous manner related, Acts 2.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

The word ‘pentecost’ means ‘fifty’, and comes from the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It refers to the Israelite harvest festival that was held fifty days after Passover. In the Old Testament this festival is called the Feast of Harvest, the Feast of Firstfruits and the Feast of Weeks. In the New Testament it is called the Feast of Pentecost (Lev_23:5-6; Lev_23:15-16; Act_2:1; Act_20:16; 1Co_16:8; for details see FEASTS).
Pentecost is significant in the New Testament story because on that day the church was born. Christ the Passover lamb had been sacrificed; then, fifty days later, God poured out his Spirit on that small group of disciples who were the firstfruits of his new people, the church of Jesus Christ (Act_2:1-4; cf. 1Co_5:7). (Concerning the extraordinary happenings that day see BAPTISM WITH THE SPIRIT; TONGUES.)
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.

pen?tḗ-kost.

1. In the Old Testament:
As the name indicates (πεντηκοστή, pentēkostḗ), this second of the great Jewish national festivals was observed on the 50th day, or 7 weeks, from the Paschal Feast, and therefore in the Old Testament it was called ?the feast of weeks.? It is but once mentioned in the historical books of the Old Testament (2Ch_8:12, 2Ch_8:13), from which reference it is plain, however, that the people of Israel, in Solomon's day, were perfectly familiar with it: ?offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the set feasts, three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.? The requirements of the three great festivals were then well understood at this time, and their authority was founded in the Mosaic Law and unquestioned. The festival and its ritual were minutely described in this Law. Every male in Israel was on that day required to appear before the Lord at the sanctuary (Exo_34:22, Exo_34:23). It was the first of the two agrarian festivals of Israel and signified the completion of the barley-harvest (Lev_23:15, Lev_23:16; Deu_16:9, Deu_16:10), which had begun at the time of the waving of the first ripe sheaf of the first-fruits (Lev_23:11). Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks, therefore fell on the 50th day after this occurrence. The wheat was then also nearly everywhere harvested (Exo_23:16; Exo_34:22; Num_28:26), and the general character of the festival was that of a harvest-home celebration. The day was observed as a Sabbath day, all labor was suspended, and the people appeared before Yahweh to express their gratitude (Lev_23:21; Num_28:26). The central feature of the day was the presentation of two loaves of leavened, salted bread unto the Lord (Lev_23:17, Lev_23:20; Exo_34:22; Num_28:26; Deu_16:10). The size of each loaf was fixed by law. It must contain the tenth of an ephah, about three quarts and a half, of the finest wheat flour of the new harvest (Lev_23:17). Later Jewish writers are very minute in their description of the preparation of these two loaves (Josephus, Ant., III, x, 6). According to the Mishna (Menāḥōth, xi. 4), the length of the loaf was 7 handbreadths, its width 4, its depth 7 fingers. Lev_23:18 describes the additional sacrifices required on this occasion. It was a festival of good cheer, a day of joy. Free-will offerings were to be made to the Lord (Deu_16:10), and it was to be marked by a liberal spirit toward the Levite, the stranger, and orphans and widows (Deu_16:11, Deu_16:14). Perhaps the command against gleaning harvest-fields has a bearing on this custom (Lev_23:22).
The Old Testament does not give it the historical significance which later Jewish writers have ascribed to it. The Israelites were admonished to remember their bondage on that day and to reconsecrate themselves to the Lord (Deu_16:12), but it does not yet commemorate the giving of the Law at Sinai or the birth of the national existence, in the Old Testament conception (Ex 19). Philo, Josephus, and the earlier Talmud are all ignorant of this new meaning which was given to the day in later Jewish history. It originated with the great Jewish rabbi Maimonides and has been copied by Christian writers. And thus a view of the Jewish Pentecost has been originated, which is wholly foreign to the scope of the ancient institution.

2. In the New Testament:
The old Jewish festival obtained a new significance, for the Christian church, by the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Joh_16:7, Joh_16:13). The incidents of that memorable day, in the history of Christianity, are told in a marvelously vivid and dramatic way in the Acts of the Apostles. The old rendering of sumplēroústhai (Act_2:1) by ?was fully come? was taken by Lightfoot (Hor. Heb.) to signify that the Christian Pentecost did not coincide with the Jewish, just as Christ's last meal with His disciples was considered not to have coincided with the Jewish Passover, on Nisan 14. The bearing of the one on the other is obvious; they stand and fall together. the Revised Version (British and American) translates the obnoxious word simply ?was now come.? Meyer, in his commentary on the Acts, treats this question at length. The tradition of the ancient church placed the first Christian Pentecost on a Sunday. According to John, the Passover that year occurred on Friday, Nisan 14 (Joh_18:28). But according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Passover that year occurred on Thursday, Nisan 14, and hence, Pentecost fell on Saturday. The Karaites explained the shabbāth of Lev_23:15 as pointing to the Sabbath of the paschal week and therefore always celebrated Pentecost on Sunday. But it is very uncertain whether the custom existed in Christ's day, and moreover it would be impossible to prove that the disciples followed this custom, if it could be proved to have existed. Meyer follows the Johannic reckoning and openly states that the other evangelists made a mistake in their reckoning. No off-hand decision is possible, and it is but candid to admit that here we are confronted with one of the knottiest problems in the harmonizing of the Gospels. See CHRONOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
The occurrences of the first pentecostal day after the resurrection of Christ set it apart as a Christian festival and invested it, together with the commemoration of the resurrection, with a new meaning. We will not enter here upon a discussion of the significance of the events of the pentecostal day described in Acts 2. That is discussed in the article under TONGUES (which see). The Lutherans, in their endeavor to prove the inherent power of the Word, claim that ?the effects then exhibited were due to the divine power inherent in the words of Christ; and that they had resisted that power up to the day of Pentecost and then yielded to its influence.? This is well described as ?an incredible hypothesis? (Hodge, Systematic Theology, III, 484). The Holy Spirit descended in answer to the explicit promise of the glorified Lord, and the disciples had been prayerfully waiting for its fulfillment (Act_1:4, Act_1:14). The Spirit came upon them as ?a power from on high.? God the Holy Spirit proved on Pentecost His personal existence, and the intellects, the hearts, the lives of the apostles were on that day miraculously changed. By that day they were fitted for the arduous work that lay before them. There is some difference of opinion as to what is the significance of Pentecost for the church as an institution. The almost universal opinion among theologians and exegetes is this: that Pentecost marks the rounding of the Christian church as an institution. This day is said to mark the dividing line between the ministry of the Lord and the ministry of the Spirit. The later Dutch theologians have advanced the idea that the origin of the church, as an institution, is to be found in the establishment of the apostolate, in the selection of the Twelve. Dr. A. Kuyper holds that the church as an institution was founded when the Master selected the Twelve, and that these men were ?qualified for their calling by the power of the Holy Spirit.? He distinguishes between the institution and the constitution of the church. Dr. H. Bavinck says: ?Christ gathers a church about Himself, rules it directly so long as He is on the earth, and appoints twelve apostles who later on will be His witnesses. The institution of the apostolate is an especially strong proof of the institutionary character which Christ gave to His church on the earth? (Geref. Dogm., IV, 64).
Whatever we may think of this matter, the fact remains that Pentecost completely changed the apostles, and that the enduement with the Holy Spirit enabled them to become witnesses of the resurrection of Christ as the fundamental fact in historic Christianity, and to extend the church according to Christ's commandment. Jerome has an especially elegant passage in which Pentecost is compared with the beginning of the Jewish national life on Mt. Sinai (Ad Tabiol, section 7): ?There is Sinai, here Sion; there the trembling mountain, here the trembling house; there the flaming mountain, here the flaming tongues; there the noisy thunderings, here the sounds of many tongues; there the clangor of the ramshorn, here the notes of the gospel-trumpet.? This vivid passage shows the close analogy between the Jewish and Christian Pentecost.

3. Later Christian Observance:
In the post-apostolic Christian church Pentecost belonged to the so-called ?Semestre Domini,? as distinct from the ?Semestre Ecclesiae? the church festivals properly so called. As yet there was no trace of Christmas, which began to appear about 360 AD. Easter, the beginning of the pentecostal period, closed the ?Quadragesima,? or ?Lent,? the entire period of which had been marked by self-denial and humiliation. On the contrary, the entire pentecostal period, the so-called ?Quinquagesima,? was marked by joyfulness, daily communion, absence of fasts, standing in prayer, etc. Ascension Day, the 40th day of the period, ushered in the climax of this joyfulness, which burst forth in its fullest volume on Pentecost. It was highly esteemed by the Fathers. Chrysostom calls it ?the metropolis of the festivals? (De Pentec., Hom. ii); Gregory of Nazianzen calls it ?the day of the Spirit? (De Pentec., Orat. 44). All the Fathers sound its praises. For they fully understood, with the church of the ages, that on that day the dispensation of the Spirit was begun, a dispensation of greater privileges and of a broader horizon and of greater power than had hitherto been vouchsafed to the church of the living God. The festival ?Octaves,? which, in accordance with the Jewish custom, devoted a whole week to the celebration of the festival, from the 8th century, gave place to a two days' festival, a custom still preserved by the Roman church and such Protestant bodies as follow the ecclesiastical year. The habit of dressing in white and of seeking baptism on Pentecost gave it the name ?Whitsunday,? by which it is popularly known all over the world.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

Pen?tecost, the name (signifying fiftieth) given in the New Testament to the Feast of Weeks, or of Ingathering, which was celebrated on the fiftieth day from the festival of unleavened bread, or the Passover; or seven weeks from the 16th day of Nisan. It was a festival of thanks for the harvest, and commenced immediately after the Passover [FESTIVALS]. It was one of the three great yearly festivals, in which all the males were required to appear before God at the place of his sanctuary. Josephus states that in his time great numbers of Jews resorted from every quarter to Jerusalem to keep this festival. This testimony affords interesting corroboration of Act_2:1; Act_2:9-11; Act_20:16; 1Co_16:8, in which the same fact appears. The commencement of the Christian church on the day of Pentecost, preceded as it was by our Lord's ascension, attached a peculiar interest to this season, and eventually led to its being set apart for the commemoration of these great events. It was not, however, established as one of the great festivals until the fourth century. The combination of two events (the Ascension and the descent of the Holy Ghost) in one festival has a parallel in the original Jewish feast, which is held to have included the feast of first-fruits, and of the delivering of the law (Exo_23:16; Lev_23:14-21; Num_28:26). Indeed, this festival in some respects bears a close analogy to the Jewish one; and is evidently little more than a modification of it. The converts of that day, on which the Holy Ghost descended, were the first fruits of the Spirit. This festival became one of the three baptismal seasons, and it derives its name of Whitsunday, or white-Sunday, from so many being clad in white on this the day of their baptism.




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Pentecost
(Πεντηκοστή, scil. ἡμέρα), the second of the three great annual festivals on which all the males were required to appear before the Lord in the national sanctuary, the other two being the feasts of Passover and Tabernacles. It fell in due course on the sixth day of Sivan, and its rites, according to the Law, were restricted to a single day. The most important passages relating to it are Exo_23:16; Lev_23:15-22; Num_28:26-31; Deu_16:9-12; The following article treats of its observance from a Scriptural as well as Talmudical point of view. SEE FESTIVAL.
I. Name and its Signification. —
1. This festival is called, חִג הִשָּׁבוּעוֹתἑορτὴ ἑβδομάδων, solemnitas hebdomadorum, the Festival of Weeks (Exo_34:22; Deu_16:10; Deu_16:16; 2Ch_8:13), because it was celebrated seven complete weeks, or fifty days, after the Passover (Lev_23:15-16).
2. For this reason it is also called in the Jewish writings חִג חֲמַשַּׁים יוֹם, the feast of the fifty days (comp. Joseph. War, 2:3, 1), whence ἡμέρα τῆς Πεντηκοστῆς (Joseph. Ant. 3:10, 6; Tob_2:1; 2Ma_12:32; Act_2:1; Act_20:16; 1Co_16:8), the Latin Pentecoste, and our appellation Pentecost.
3. חִג הִקָּצַיר, the festival of the harvest (Exo_23:16), because it concluded the harvest of the later grains.
4. יוֹם הִבַּכּוּרַיםἡμέρα τῶν νέων, dies prinitivorum, “the day of first- fruits” (Num_28:26), because the first loaves made from the new corn were then offered on the altar (Lev_23:17), for which reason Philo (Opp. 2:294) calls it ἑορτὴ πρωτογεννημάτων.
5. It is also denominated in the postcanonical Jewish writings חִג הָעֲצֶרֶת, the festival of conclusion (or assembly), i.e. of the Passover, or simply עֲצֶרֶת (comp. πεντηκοστή, ἣν ῾Εβραῖοι Α᾿σαρθά [—=עצרתא, Chaldee] καλοῦσι, σημαίνει δὲ τοῦτο πεντηκοστήν, Joseph. Ant. 3:10, 6; Mishna, Bikkurim, 1:3, 7, 10; Rosh Ha-Shana, 1:2; Chagiga, 2:4), because it completed what the Passover commenced; and 6, מִתִּן תּוֹרָתֵנוּ
זְמִן, the time of the giving of our law, because the Jews believe that on this day the revelation of the Decalogue took place.
II. The Time at which this Festival was celebrated. — The time fixed for the celebration of Pentecost is the fiftieth day reckoning from “the morrow after the Sabbath” (מַמָּחַרִת הִשִּׁבָּת) of the Passover (Lev_23:11; Lev_23:15-16.) The precise meaning, however, of the word שׁבתin this connection, which determines the date for celebrating this festival, has been matter of dispute from time immemorial. The Boethusians (ביתוַסים) and the Sadducees in the time of the second Temple (Mishna, Menachoth, 10:3), and the Karaites since the 8th century of the Christian era (comp. Jehudah Hedessi, Eshkol Ha-Kopher, Alphab. p. 221-224; ibid. p. 85 b), took תה שׁךנ its literal and ordinary sense as denoting the seventh day of the week, or the Sabbath of creation), and maintained that the omer was offered on the day following that weekly Sabbath which might happen to fall within the seven days of the Passover, so that Pentecost would always be on the first day of the week. But against this it is urged
(a.) that Jos_5:11, where ממחרת הפסחis used for thממהרת הש, shows that תה שךנ Lev_23:11 denotes the first day of Passover, which was to be a day of rest.
(b.) The definite article in תה השךנ Lev_23:11 refers to one of the preceding festival days.
(c.) The expression תה שךס also used for the Day of Atonement (Lev_23:32), and the abstract שבתון is applied to the first and eighth days of Tabernacle Lev_23:39) and the Feast of Trumpets (Lev_23:24), as well as to week (Lev_23:15; Lev_25:8); hence this use of σάββατον in the N.T. (Mar_16:2; Mar_16:9; Luk_18:12).
(d.) According to Lev_23:15 the seventh week, at the end of which Pentecost is to be celebrated, is to be reckoned from this Sabbath. Now, if this Sabbath were not fixed, but could happen on any one of the seven Passover days, possibly on the fifth or sixth day of the festival, the Passover would in ,the course of time be displaced from the fundamental position which it occupies in the order of the annual festivals.
(e.) The Sabbatic idea which underlies all the festivals, and which is scrupulously observed in all of them, shows that the reckoning could not have been left to the fifth or sixth day of the festival, but must have fixedly begun on the 16th of Nisan. Thus, each Sabbath comes after six even periods: 1. the Sabbath of days, after six days; 2. the Sabbath of months, after six months; 3. the Sabbath of years, after six years; 4. the Sabbath of Sabbatic years, after six Sabbatic years; 5. the Sabbath of festivals = the Day of Atonement, after six festivals, SEE JUBILEE, THE YEAR OF; hence the Sabbath of weeks, i.e. Pentecost, must also be at the end of six common weeks after Passover, which could be obtained only by reckoning from the 16th of Nisan, as this alone yields six common weeks; for the first week during which the counting goes on belongs to the feast of Passover, and is not common.
(f.) The Sept. (ἡ ἐοπαύριον τῆς πρώτης), Josephus (τῇ δευτέρᾷ τῶν ἀζύμων ἡμέρᾷ, Ant. 3:10, 5, 6), Philo (Opp. 2:294), Onkelos (מבתר יומא טבא), and the synagogue have understood it in this way, and most Christian commentators espouse the traditional interpretation. SEE SABBATH. Still more objectionable is the hypothesis of Hitzig (Ostern und Pfingsten, Heidelberg, 1837), defended by Hupfeld (De primit. et vera festorum ap. Hebraeos ratione, 2:3 sq.), and Knobel (Die Bacher Exodus und Leviticus, Leipsic, 1857, p. 544), that the sacred or festival year of the Hebrews always began on the Sabbath, so that the 7th (i.e. the first day of Passover), the 14th (i.e. the last day of the festival), and the 21st of Nisan, were always Sabbath days; and that the omer was offered on the 22d day of the month, which was “the morrow after the Sabbath” terminating the festival, and from which the fifty days were reckoned (Hitzig, Hupfield), or that the omer was offered on the 8th of the month, which was also “the morrow after the Sabbath,” thus preventing it from being post festum (Knobel). It will be seen that this hypothesis, in order to obtain Sabbaths for the 14th and 21st days of the month as the beginning and termination of Passover, is always obliged to make the religious new year begin on a Sabbath day, and hence has to assume a stereotyped form of the Jewish year, which as a rule terminated with an incomplete week. Now this assumption —
1. Is utterly at variance with the unsettled state of the Jewish calendar, which was constantly regulated by the appearance of the disk of the new moon, SEE NEW MOON, DAY OF THE;
2. It rudely disturbs the weekly division, which is based upon the works of creation, and which the Jews regarded with the utmost sanctity; and
3. It is inconceivable that the Mosaic law, which, as we have seen, regarded the Sabbatic division of time as so peculiarly sacred that it made it the basis of the whole cycle of festivals, would adopt a plan for fixing the time for celebrating the Passover whereby the last week of almost every expiring year is to be cut short, and the hebdomadal cycle, as well as the celebration of the Sabbath, interrupted (comp. Keil, On Lev_23:11).
It is therefore argued that the Jews, who during the second Temple kept Pentecost fifty days after the 16th of Nisan, rightly interpreted the injunction contained in Lev_23:15-22. The fiftieth day, or the feast of Pentecost, according to the Jewish canons, may fall on the 5th, 6th, or 7th of Sivan (סיון), the third month of the year from the new moon of May to the new moon of June (Rosh Ha-Shana, 6 b; Sabbath, 87 b). The fifty days formally included the period of grain-harvest, commencing with the offering of the first sheaf of the barley-harvest in the Passover, and ending with that of the first two loaves which were made front the wheat-harvest, at this festival. It was the offering of these two loaves which was the distinguishing rite of the day of Pentecost. SEE WAVE-OFFERING.
III. The Manner in which this Festival was Celebrated. — Not to confound the practices which obtained in the course of time, and which were called forth by the ever-shifting circumstances of the Jewish nation, we shall divide the description of the manner in which this festival was and still is celebrated into three sections.
1. The Pentateuchal Ordinances. — The Mosaic enactments about the manner in which this festival is to be celebrated are as follows: On the day of Pentecost there is to be a holy convocation; no manner of work is to be done on this festival (Lev_23:21 : Num_28:26); all the able- bodied male members of the congregation, who are not legally precluded from it are to appear in the place of the national sanctuary, as on the Passover and Tabernacles (Exo_23:14; Exo_23:17; Exo_34:23), where “a new meat-offering” (חדשה מנחה) of the new Palestine crop (Lev_23:16; Num_28:26; Deu_16:10), consisting of two unleavened loaves, made respectively of the tenth of an ephah (=about 3.5 quarts) of the finest wheaten flour (Exo_34:18; Lev_23:17), is to be offered before the Lord as firstlings (בכורים, Exo_34:17), whence this festival derived its name, the day of firstlings (יוֹם בכורים, Num_28:26).
In the above prescription, the phrase “Out of your habitations,” מַמּוֹשְׁבֹתֵיכֶם (Lev_23:17), has been explained by the Jewish canons, which obtained during the time of the second Temple, as an ellipsis for מארוֹ מושבותיכם (Num_15:2), the land of your habitations, i.e. Palestine (Menachoth, 77 b, with Mishna, Menachoth, 8:1); hence the rendering of Jonathan b. — Uzziel's reputed Chaldee paraphrase, מאתר מותבניכין, the Sept. ἀπὸ τῆς κατοικίας ὑμῶν, from your habitation, in the singular referring to Palestine; the remark ofRashi, ממושבתיכם ילא מחוצה לארוֹ, from where your habitations are, but not from any part outside the land, i.e. of Israel; Rashban (ad loc.) and Maimnonides (lad Ha - Chezaka, tilchoth Tamidin U-Mosaphin, 8:2), who rightly distinguish between ממושבתיכםas here used, and בכל מושבתיכם (Exo_12:20; Exo_35:3; Lev_3:17; Lev_7:26; Lev_23:3; Lev_23:14; Lev_23:21; Num_35:29), the former referring to injunctions which are binding in the land of Canaan, and the latter to commandments to be observed in every place, or wherever the Jews might reside; comp. Rashban on Lev_23:16. The rendering of the Vulgate (ex omnibus habitaculis vestris), therefore which is followed by Luther (aus alien eueren Wohnungen), inserting בכל, is most arbitrary and unjustifiable. Inadmissible, too, is the opinion of Calvin, Osiander, George (Die altenjiud. Feste, p. 130, 273), etc., that two loaves were brought out of every house, or at least out of every town, based upon the plural ממושבתיכם; or the view of Vaihinger (in Herzog's Real-Encyklopdie, s.v. Pfingstfest, p. 479) and Keil (on Lev_23:17), that the plural משבתיכםis used in a singular sense, i.e. from one of your habitations (comp. Gen_8:4; Jdg_12:7; Neh_6:2; Ecc_10:1); and denotes that the two loaves are to be offered from the habitations of the Israelites, and not from those prepared for the sanctuary or from its treasury.
With the two loaves were to be offered as a burnt offering seven lambs of the first year and without blemish, one young bullock, and two lambs, with the usual meat and drink offerings; while a goat is to be offered as a sin- offering, and two lambs of the first year are to be offered as a thanksgiving or peace offering (Lev_23:18-20). The peace-offering, consisting of the two lambs with the two firstling loaves, are to be waved before the Lord by the priests. These are to be additions to the two loaves, and must not be confounded with the proper festival sacrifice appointed for Pentecost. which is given in Num_28:27, and which is to be a burnt- offering, consisting of two bullocks, one ram, and seven lambs. That these two passages are not contradictory, as is maintained by Knobel (Comment. on Lev_23:15-22), Vaihinger (in Herzog's Real-Encyklop. s.v. Pfingstfest, p. 480), and others, but refer to two distinct sacrifices, viz. one to accompany the wave-loaves (על הלחם, Lev_23:18), and the other the properly appointed sacrifice for the festival (Num_28:27), is evident from the context and design of the enactments in the respective passages, as well as from the practice of the Jews in the Temple, where both prescriptions were obeyed.
Hence Josephus (Ant. 3:10, 6), in summing up the number of animal sacrifices on this festival, says that there were fourteen lambs, three young bullocks, and three goats; the number two, instead of three goats, being manifestly a transcriber's error, as Vaihinger himself admits. When Vaihinger characterizes this statement of Josephus “as one of the many exegetical and historical blunders of the Jewish historian,” and maintains that it does not follow from Menachoth, 4:2, we can only say that — 1. Josephus simply describes what he himself saw in the Temple, and what every ancient Jewish document on the same subject declares; 2. The third section of the very Mishna (Menachoth, 4:3) which Vaihinger quotes distinctly declares, “The kind of sacrifice prescribed in Num_28:27 was offered in the wilderness, and the kind of sacrifice enjoined in Lev_23:18 was not offered in the wilderness; but when they [i.e. the Israelites] entered the Promised Land they sacrificed both kinds; “see also the Gemara on this Mishna (Babylon Menachoth, 45 b), where the reasons are given more largely than in the Mishna why the former kind of sacrifice was not offered in the wilderness; and 3. Maimonides, who also summarizes the ancient canons on these two kinds of sacrifices for Pentecost, shows beyond the shadow of a doubt how these enactments were carried out in the second Temple. He says: “On the fiftieth day, counting from the offering of the omer, is the feast of Pentecost and Azereth (צצרת). Now on this day additional sacrifices are offered, like the additional ones for new moon, SEE NEW MOON, THE FEAST OF, consisting of two bullocks, one ram, and seven lambs, ail of them being burnt-offerings, and of a goat as sin-offering. These are sacrifices ordered in Num_28:26-27; Num_28:30, and they constitute the addition for the day. Besides this addition, however, a new meat-offering of two loaves is also brought, and with the loaves are offered one bullock, two rams, and seven lambs, all burnt-offerings; a goat for a sin-offering, and two lambs for a peace-offering. These are the sacrifices ordered in Lev_23:18. Hence the sacrifice on this day exceeds the two daily sacrifices by three bullocks, three rams, fourteen lambs (all these twenty animals being a burnt-offering); two goats for a sin-offering, which are eaten; and two lambs for a peace-offering, which are not eaten” (lad la- Chezaka, Hilchoth Tamidin U-Mosaphin, 8:1).
Besides the two loaves with their accompanying sacrifices, and the special festival sacrifices which were offered for the whole nation, each individual who came to the sanctuary was expected to bring, on this festival, as on Passover and the feast of Tabernacles, a free-will offering according to his circumstances (Deu_16:10-12), a portion of which was given to the priests and Levites, and the rest was eaten by the respective families, who invited the poor and strangers to share it. It would seem that the character of this festival partook of a more free and hospitable liberality than that of the Passover, which was rather of the kind that belongs to the mere family gathering. In this respect it resembled the feast of Tabernacles. The Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow were to be brought within its influence (Deu_16:11; Deu_16:14). The mention of the gleanings to be left in the fields at harvest for “‘the poor and the stranger,” in connection with Pentecost, may perhaps have a bearing on the liberality which belonged to the festival (Lev_23:22). At Pentecost (as at the Passover) the people were to be reminded of their bondage in Egypt, and they were especially admonished of their obligation to keep the divine law (Deu_16:12).
2. The Post-exilian Observance of this Festival. — More minute is the information in the non-canonical documents about the preparation of the sacrifices and the observance of this festival in and before the time of Christ. The pilgrims went up to Jerusalem the day previous to the commencement of the festival, when they prepared everything necessary for its solemn observance; and the approach of the holy convocation was proclaimed in the evening by blasts of the trumpets. The altar of the burnt- sacrifice was cleansed in the first night-watch of the preparation-day, and the gates of the Temple, as well as those of the inner court, were opened immediately after midnight for the convenience of the priests, who resided in the city, and for the people, who filled the court before the cock crew, to have their burnt-sacrifices and thanksgiving offerings duly examined by the priests. When the time of sacrifice arrived, the daily morning sacrifice was first offered, then the festival sacrifices prescribed in Num_28:26-27; Num_28:30, while the Levites were chanting the Great Hallel (q.v.), in which the people joined; whereupon the congregation solemnly and heartily thanked God for the successful harvest, and the loaves of the new corn, with the accompanying sacrifices prescribed in Lev_23:18, were offered to the Lord. The two loaves for the wave-offering were prepared in the following manner: “Three seahs of new wheat were brought into the court of the Temple; they were beaten and trodden like all meat-offerings, and ground into flour, two omers of which were sifted through twelve sieves, and the remainder was redeemed and eaten by any one.
The two omers of flour, of which the two loaves were made, were respectively obtained from a seah and a half... kneaded separately and baked separately. Like all meat-offerings, they were kneaded and prepared outside, but baked inside the Temple, and did not set aside the festival, much less the Sabbath, so that they were baked on the day preceding the festival. Hence, if the preparation-day (ערב יום טוב) happened to be on a Sabbath, the loaves were baked on Friday (שבה ערב), and eaten on the third day after they were baked, which was the feast day.” They were leavened loaves according to the declaration of the law, and made as follows: “The leaven was fetched from some other place, put into the omer, the omer filled with flour, which was leavened with the said leaven. The length of each loaf was seven hand-breadths; the breadth, four hand-breadths; and the height, four fingers” (Maimonides, lad Ha-Chezaka, Hilchoth Tamidin U-Mosaphin, 8:3-10, with Mishna, Menachoth, 6:6, 7; 11:2; 4:9). The two loaves thus prepared were then offered as wave-offerings, with two lambs, constituting the peace-offering, in the following manner: “The two lambs were brought into the Temple and waved together by the priest while yet alive, as it is written, ‘And he shall wave them... a wave-offering' (Lev_23:20); but if he waved each one separately, it was also valid, whereupon they were slain and flayed. The priest then took the breast and the shoulder of each one (comp. Lev_7:30; Lev_7:32), laid them down by the side of the two loaves, put both his hands under them, and waved them all together as if they were one, towards the east side — the place of all wave offering — doing it forwards and backwards, up and down; but it was also valid if he waved each separately. Hereupon he burned the fat of the two lambs, and the remainder of the flesh was eaten by the priests. As to the two loaves, the high-priest took one of them, and the second was divided among all the officiating priests (המשמרות), and both of them were eaten up within the same day and half the following night, just as the flesh of the most holy things” (Maimonides, lad Ita-Chezaka, Hilchoth Tamidin U-Mosaphin, 8:11. See Mishna, Menachoth, v. 6; Joseph. Ant. 3:10, 6; War, 6:5, 3). After the prescribed daily sacrifice, the festival and the harvest sacrifice were offered for the whole nation. Each individual brought the free-will offering, which formed the cheerful and hospitable meal of the family, and to which the Levite, the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the stranger were invited. The festival in a minor degree continued for a whole week, during which time those who did not offer on the first day repaired their defects or negligence (Rosh Ha-Shana, 4 b). The offering of the first fruits also began at this time (Mishna, Bikkurim, 1:7, 10); and it was for this reason, as well as for the joyous semi-festival days which followed the day of Holy Convocation, that we find so large a concourse of Jews attending Pentecost (Acts 2; Joseph. Ant. 14:13, 14; 17:10, 2; far, 2:3, 1).
No occasional offering of first-fruits could be made in the Temple before Pentecost (Bikkurim, 1:3, 6). Hence probably the two loaves were designated “the first of the first-fruits” (Exo_23:19), although the offering of the omer had preceded them. The proper time for offering first- fruits was the interval between Pentecost and Tabernacles (Bikk. 1:6, 10; comp. Exo_23:16). SEE FIRST-FRUITS.
The connection between the omer and the two loaves of Pentecost appears never to have been lost sight of. The former was called by Philo, προεότριος ἑτέρας ἑορτῆς μείζονος (De Sept. § 21, v. 25; comp. De Decem Orac. 4:302, ed. Tauch.). He elsewhere mentions the festival of Pentecost with the same marked respect. He speaks of a peculiar feast kept by the Therapeutse as προεόρτιος μεγίστης ἑορτῆς sc. Πεντηκοστῆς (De Vit. Contemp. v. 334). The interval between the Passover and Pentecost was evidently regarded as a religious season. The custom has probably been handed down from ancient times, which is observed by the modern Jews, of keeping a regular computation of the fifty days by a formal observance, beginning with a short prayer on the evening of the day of the omer, and continued on each succeeding day by a solemn declaration of its number in the succession, at evening prayer, while the members of the family are standing with respectful attention (Buxtorf, Syn. Jud_1:20, p. 440). According to the most generally received interpretation of the word δευτερόπρωτος (Luk_6:1), the period was marked by a regularly designated succession of Sabbaths, similar to the several successions of Sundays in our own calendar. It is assumed that the day of the omer was called δεύτερα (in the Sept., Lev_23:11, ἡ ἐπαύριον τῆς πρώτης). The Sabbath which came next after it was termed δευτερόπρωτον; the second, δευτεροδεύτερον; the third, δευτεροτριτον; and so onwards till Pentecost. This explanation was first proposed by Scaliger (De Emend. Temp. lib. 6, p. 527), and has been adopted by Frischmuth, Petavius, Casaubon, Lightfoot, Godwyn, Carpzov, and many others.
3. The Observance of this Festival to the Present Day. — This festival, like all the feasts and fasts ordained or sanctioned in the Old Test., is annually and sacredly kept by the Jews to the present day on the 6th and 7th of Sivan, i.e. between the second half of May and the first half of June. Thus, although, according to the law, the observance of Pentecost lasted but a single day, the Jews in foreign countries, since the Captivity, have prolonged it to two days. They have treated the feast of Trumpets in the same way. The alteration appears to have been made to meet the possibility of an error in calculating the true day (Lightfoot, Exercit. Heb. Act_2:1; Reland, Antig. 4:4, 5; Selden, De Ann. Civ. c. vii). It is said by Bartenora and Maimonides that, while the Temple was standing, though the religious rites were confined to the day, the festivities and the bringing in of gifts continued through seven days (Notes to Chagiga, 2:4). As above noted, in accordance with the injunction in Lev_23:15-16, the Jews regularly count every evening the fifty days from the second day of Passover until Pentecost, and they recite a prayer over it, which is given in the article PASSOVER SEE PASSOVER . As the counting (ספירה) of these fifty days, on the first of which the sickle was brought out for cutting the corn, and on the last of which it was laid up again because the harvest was entirely finished, is not only a connecting link between Passover and Pentecost, but may be regarded as preparatory for the feast of Pentecost, we must notice the events and practices connected therewith. Owing to a fearful plague which broke out on the second day of Passover or the first of Omer, and which, after raging thirty-two days, and carrying off between Gabath and Antiparos no less than 24,000 disciples of the celebrated R. Akiba, suddenly ceased on the 18th of Jiar, the second month, i.e. the thirty-third of Omer (Babylon Jebamoth, 62 b; Midrash Bereshith Rabba, Seder חיי שרה, sec. 61, p. 134, ed. Stettin, 1863), it was ordained that, in memory of this calamity, three days are to be kept as a time of mourning, during which no marriage is to take place, no enjoyments and pleasures are to be indulged in, nor even is the beard to be removed (Orach Chajim, Hilchoth Pesach, sec. 493); and that the thirty-third of Omer, on which the epidemic disappeared, is to be kept as a holiday, especially among the students, for which reason it is called the scholars' feast. The reason which R. Jochanan ben-Nori assigns for regarding this period as a time of mourning — i.e. that the wicked are punished in hell in these days, and that judgment is passed on the produce of the land — is simply a modern cabalistic form given to an ancient usage.
The three days preceding the festival, on which, as we shall see hereafter, the Jews commemorate the giving of the law on Sinai, are called (ימי הגבלה שלשת8) the three days of separation and sanctification, because the Lord commanded Moses to set bounds around the mountain, and that the people should sanctify themselves three days prior to the giving of the law (Exo_19:12; Exo_19:14; Exo_19:23). On the preparation day (ערב שברעות) the synagogues and the private houses are adorned with flowers and odoriferous herbs; the male members of the community purify themselves by immersion and confession of sins, put on their festive garments, and resort to the synagogue, where, after the evening prayer (מעריב), the hallowed nature of the festival is proclaimed by the cantor in the blessing pronounced over a cup of wine (קידוש), which is also done by every head of the family at home before the evening repast. After supper both the learned and the illiterate are either to go again into the synagogue or to congregate in private houses and read all night:
(a) The first three and the last three verses of every book in the Hebrew Scriptures, but some portions have to be read entire;
(b) the first and last Mishna of every tractate in the Talmud;
(c) the beginning and end of the book Jezirah;
(d) passages from the Sohar;
(e) the 613 commandments into which the Mosaic law is divided, SEE SCHOOL; and
(f) the Song of Songs.
The whole must be recited in thirteen divisions, so that the prayer Kadish (קדיש) might be said between each division, and the letters of the word אחד(the unity in the Deity) = 4+8+1 -13, be obtained (comp. Magen Abraham, Orach Chajim, sec. 494). The reason for this watching all night, given by R. Abraham, the author of the Magen Abraham, is as follows: When God was about to reveal his law to Israel, he had to wake them up from their sleep. Hence, to remove the sin of that sleep, the Jews are now to wake all night (comp. Brick, Rabbinische Ceremonial gebrduche [Breslau, 1837], p. 8-22, and the ritual for this night, entitled שבועות תיקון ליל). In the general festival service of the morning special prayers are inserted for this day, which set forth the glory of the Lawgiver and Israel, the glory of the Lord in creating the universe, etc., and in which the Decalogue is interwoven, the great Hallel is recited, Exo_19:1; Exo_20:26 is read as the lesson from the law, Num_18:26-31 as Maphtir, and Eze_1:1-28; Eze_3:12, as the lesson from the prophets, SEE HAPHTARAH; whereupon the Musajh is offered, and the priests, after having their hands washed by the Levites, pronounce chantingly the benediction (Num_6:23-27) on the congregation, who receive it with their heads covered by the fringed wrapper. SEE FRINGE. On the second evening they again resort to the synagogue, use the ritual for the festivals, in which are again inserted special prayers for this occasion, being chiefly on the greatness of God and the giving of the law and the Decalogue; the sanctification of the festival (קידוש) is again pronounced, both by the praelector in the synagogue and the heads of families at home; and prayers different from those of the first day, also celebrating the giving of the law, are intermingled with the ordinary festival prayers; the Hallel is recited, as well as the book of Ruth; Deu_15:19 to Deu_16:17, with Num_28:26-31 is read as the lesson from the law; Habbakuk 2:20- 3:19, as the lesson from the prophets; the prayer is offered for depaited relatives; the Musaph Ritual is recited; the priests pronounce the benediction as on the former day; and the festival concludes after the afternoon service, as soon as the stars appear or darkness sets in. It must be remarked that milk and honey form an essential part of the meals during this festival, which is of a particularly joyous character, to symbolize “the honey and milk which are under the tongue” of the spouse (Son_4:11), by virtue of the law which the bridegroom gave her.
The less educated of the modern Jews regard the fifty days with strange superstition, and, it would seem, are always impatient for them to come to an end. During their continuance they have a dread of sudden death, of the effect of malaria, and of the influence of evil spirits over children. They relate with gross exaggeration the above-mentioned case of a great mortality which, during the first twenty-three days of the period, befell the pupils of Akiba, the great Mishnical doctor of the second century, at Jaffa. They do not ride, or drive, or go on the water, unless they are impelled by absolute necessity. They are careful not to whistle in the evening, lest it should bring ill-luck. They scrupulously put off marriages till Pentecost (Stauben, La Vie Juive en Alsace [Paris, 1860], p. 124; Mills, British Jews, p. 207).
IV. Origin and Import of this Festival. — There is no clear notice in the Scriptures of any historical significance belonging to Pentecost. Yet, looking simply at the text of the Bible, there can be little doubt that Pentecost owes its origin entirely and exclusively to the harvest which terminated at this time. It is to be expected that, in common with other nations of antiquity who celebrated the ingathering of the corn by offering to the Deity, among other firstling offerings, the fine flour of wheat as θαλύσιος ἄρτος (Eustath. Ad Iliad. 9:530; Athen. 3:80; Theocrit. 7:3), the Jews, as an agricultural people, would thankfully acknowledge the goodness of God in giving them the fruits of the earth, by offering to the Bountiful Giver of all good things the first-fruits of their harvest. That this was primarily the origin and import of Pentecost is most unquestionably indicated by its very names, e.g. the festival of (הקציר) the cut-off corn, i.e. end of the harvest (Exo_23:16), which commenced on the morrow of the Passover, when the sickle was first brought into the field (Deu_16:9); and so intimately connected are the beginning of the harvest at Passover with the termination of it at this festival, that Pentecost was actually denominated, during the time of the second Temple, and is called in the Jewish literature to the present day, עצרת, the conclusion, or, עצרת של פסח, the termination of Passover. To the same effect is the name חג השבועות, the festival of weeks, which, as Bahr rightly remarks, would be a very strange and enigmatical designation of a festival, simply because of the intervening time between it and a preceding festival, if it did not stand in a fixed and essential relationship to this intervening time, and if in its nature it did not belong thereto, since the weeks themselves have nothing which could be the subject of a religious festival, except the harvest that took place in these weeks (Symbolik, 2:647). Being the culmination of Passover, and agrarian in its character, the pre-Mosaic celebration of this festival among the Jews will hardly be questioned; for it will not be supposed that the patriarchs, who in common with other nations were devoted to agriculture, would yet be behind these nations in not celebrating the harvest festival, to acknowledge the goodness of God in giving them the fruits of the earth, which obtained among the heathen nations to the remotest times. Indeed, the Book of Jubilees, as will be seen in the sequel, actually ascribes a pre-Mosaic existence to it. In incorporating this festival into the cycle of the canonical feasts, the Mosaic legislation, as usual, divested it of all idolatrous rites, consecrated it in an especial manner to him who filleth us with the finest of wheat (Psa_147:14), by enjoining the Hebrews to impart liberally to the needy from that which they have been permitted to reap, and to remember that they themselves were once needy and oppressed in Egypt, and were now in the possession of liberty and of the bounties of Providence (Deu_16:11-12). The Mosaic code, moreover, constituted it a member of the Hebrew family of festivals, by putting Pentecost on the sacred basis of seven, which, as we have seen, underlies the whole organism of the feasts.
But though the canonical Scriptures speak of Pentecost as simply a harvest festival, yet the non-canonical documents show, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the Jews, at least as early as the days of Christ, connected with it, and commemorated on the 6th of Sivan, the third month, the giving of the Decalogue. It is made out from Exodus 19 that the law was delivered on the fiftieth day after the deliverance from Egypt (Selden, De Jur. Nat. et Gent. 3:11). It has been conjectured that a connection between the event and the festival may possibly be hinted at in the reference to the observance of the law in Deu_16:12. But neither Philo nor Josephus has a word on the subject. Philo expressly states that it was at the feast of Trumpets that the giving of the law was commemorated (De Sept. c. 22). SEE TRUMPETS, FEAST OF.
There is, however, a tradition of a custom which Schottgen supposes to be at least as ancient as the apostolic times, that the night before Pentecost was a time especially appropriated for thanking God for the gift of the law (Hor. Hebr. ad Act_2:1). The Talmud declares that “the rabbins propounded that the Decalogue was given to Israel on the 6th of Sivan” (Sabbath, 86 b), and this is deduced from Exodus 19, for, according to tradition, Moses ascended the mountain on the 2d of Sivan, the third month (Exo_19:1-3); received the answer of the people on the Exo_19:7); reascended the mountain on the Exo_19:8); commanded the people to sanctify themselves three days, which were the 4th, 5th, and 6th (Exo_19:12; Exo_19:14; Exo_19:23); and on the third of these three days of sanctification, which was the sixth day of the month, delivered the Decalogue to them (Exo_19:10-11; Exo_19:15-16). This is the unanimous voice of Jewish tradition. It is given in the Mechilta on Exodus 19 (p. 83-90, ed. Wilna, 1844, SEE MIDRASH ); in the Chaldee paraphrase of Jonathan ben-Uzziel, which renders ויהי ביום השלישי(Exo_19:16) by בירחא והוה ביומא תליתאה בשיתא, and it came to pass on the third day, on the sixth of the month, i.e. Sivan; by Rashi (Comment. on Exo_19:1-16); and by Maimonides, who remarks: “Pentecost is the day on which the law was given, and in order to magnify this day, the days are counted from the first festival (i.e. Passover) to it, just as one who is expecting the most faithful of his friends is accustomed to count the days and hours of his arrival; for this is the reason of counting the omer from the day of our Exodus from Egypt to the day of the giving of the law, which was the ultimate object of the exodus, as it is said, I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.' And because this great manifestation did not last more than one day, therefore we annually commemorate it only one day” (More Nebochim, 3:43). To this effect is R. Jehudah (born circa 1086), in his celebrated work Cusari, 3:10; Nachmanides (born about 1195), in his commentary on the Pentateuch (Exo_19:1-25; Lev_23:17), and all the Jewish commentators, as well as the ritual for this festival. Even Abrabanel, who denies that the primary object in the institution of this festival was to celebrate the gift of the law, most emphatically declares that the Decalogue was given on Mount Sinai on Pentecost, as may be seen from the following remark: “The law was not given with a design to this festival, so that it should commemorate the gift of the law, since the festival was not instituted to commemorate the giving of the law; as our divine law and the prophecy are their own witnesses, and did not require a day to be sanctified to commemorate them; but the design of the feast of weeks was to commence the wheat harvest. For just as the feast of Tabernacles was intended to finish the ingathering of the produce, so the festival of weeks was intended to begin the harvest, as it was the will of the Lord that at the commencement of the ingathering of the fruits which are the food of man, the first of which is the wheat, and which began to be cut on the feast of weeks, a festival should be celebrated to render praise to him who giveth food to all flesh; and that another festival should be celebrated at the end of the ingathering of the fruits. Still, there is no doubt that the law was given on the day of the feast of weeks, although this festival was not instituted to commemorate it” (Commentary on the Pentateuch, Parshath אמור, p. 211 a, ed. Hanau, 1710).
Those early fathers who were best acquainted with the Jewish tradition testify to the same thing, that the law was given on Pentecost, and that the Jews commemorate the event on this festival. It was therefore on this day, when the apostles, in common with their Jewish brethren, were assembled to commemorate the anniversary of the giving of the law from Sinai, and were engaged in the study of Holy Writ, in accordance with the custom of the day, that the Holy Spirit descended upon them, and sent them forth to proclaim “the wonderful works of God,” as revealed in the Gospel (Acts 2). Thus, St. Jerome tells us, “Supputemus numerum, et inveniemus quinquagesimo die egressionis Israel ex AEgypto in vertice montis Sinay legem datam. Unde et Pentecostes celebratur solemnitas, et postea evangelii sacramentum in Spiritus Sancti descensione completur” (Epist. ad Fabiolam, 12; in Opp. 1:1074, ed. Par. 1609). Similarly St. Augustine, “Pentecosten etiaim, id est, a passione et resurrectione Domini, quinquagesimum diem celebramus, quo nobis Sanctum Spiritum Paracletum quem promiserat misit; quod futurum etiam per Judaeorum pascha significatum est, cum quinquagesimo die post celebrationem ovis occisee, Moyses digito Dei scriptam legem accepit in monte” (Contra Faustzum, lib. 33, c. 12). Comp. also De Lyra, Comment. on Leviticus 23; Bishop Patrick on Erod. 19. It is very curious that the apocryphal Book of Jubilees, which was written in the first century before Christ, SEE JUBILEES, BOOK OF, should connect this festival, which was celebrated on the third month, with the third month of Noah's leaving the ark, and maintain that it was ordained to be celebrated in this month, to renew annually the covenant which God made with this patriarch not to destroy the world again by a flood (ch. 6:57 sq.). Such an opinion would hardly have been hazarded by a Jew if it had not. been believed by many of his co-religionists that this festival had a pre-Mosaic existence. Since the destruction of Jerusalem, and the impossibility of giving prominence to that part of the festival which bears on the Palestinian harvest, the Jews have almost entirely made Pentecost to commemorate the giving of the law, and the only references they make in the ritual to the harvest, which was the primary object of its institution, is in the reading of the book of Ruth, wherein the harvest is described.
If the feast of Pentecost stood without an organic connection with any other rites, we should have no certain warrant in the Old Testament for regarding it as more than the divinely appointed solemn thanksgiving for the yearly supply of the most useful sort of food. Every reference to its meaning seems to bear immediately upon the completion of the grain harvest. It might have been a Gentile festival, having no proper reference to the election of the chosen race. It might have taken a place in the religion of any people who merely felt that it is God who gives rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, and who fills our hearts with food and gladness (Act_14:17). But it was, as we have seen, essentially linked to the Passover — that festival which, above all others, expressed the fact of a race chosen and separated from other nations. It was not an insulated day. It stood as the culminating point of the Pentecostal season. If the offering of the omer was a supplication for the divine blessing on the harvest which was just commencing, and the offering of the two loaves was a thanksgiving for its completion, each rite was brought into a higher significance in consequence of the omer forming an integral part of the Passover. It was thus set forth that He who had delivered his people from Egypt, who had raised them from the condition of slaves to that of free men in immediate covenant with himself, was the same that was sustaining them with bread from year to year. The inspired teacher declared to God's chosen one, “He maketh peace in thy borders, he filleth thee with the finest of the wheat” (Psa_147:14). If we thus regard the day of Pentecost as the solemn termination of the consecrated period, intended, as the seasons came round, to teach this lesson to the people, we may see the fitness of the name by which the Jews have mostly called it, עֲצֶרֶת, the concluding assembly.
As the two loaves were leavened, they could not be offered on the altar, like the unleavened sacrificial bread. Abrabanel (in Leviticus 23) has proposed a reason for their being leavened which seems hardly to admit of a doubt. He thinks that they were intended to represent the best produce of the earth in' the actual condition in which it ministers to the support of human life. Thus they express, in the most significant manner, what is evidently the idea of the festival. We need not suppose that the grain harvest in the Holy Land was in all years precisely completed between the Passover and Pentecost. The period of seven weeks was evidently appointed in conformity with the Sabbatical number, which so frequently recurs in the arrangements of the Mosaic law. SEE FEASTS; SEE JUBILEE. Hence, probably, the prevailing use of the name, “The Feast of Weeks,” which might always have suggested the close religious connection in which the festival stood to the Passover.
It is not surprising that, without any direct authority in the O.T., the coincidence of the day on which the festival was observed with that on which the law appears to have been given to Moses, should have strongly impressed the minds of Christians in the early ages of the Church. The divine Providence had ordained that the Holy Spirit should come down in a special manner, to give spiritual life and unity to the Church, on that very same day in the year on which the law had been bestowed on the children of Israel which gave to them national life and unity. They must have seen that, as the possession of the law had completed the deliverance of the Hebrew race wrought by the hand of Moses, so the gift of the Spirit perfected the work of Christ in the establishment of his kingdom upon earth.
It may have been on this account that Pentecost was the last Jewish festival (so far as we know) which the apostle Paul was anxious to observe (Act_20:16; 1Co_16:8), and that Whitsuntide came to be the first annual festival instituted in the Christian Church (Hessey, Bampton Lectures, p. 88, 96). It was rightly regarded as the Church's birthday, and the Pentecostal season, the period between it and Easter, bearing as it does such a clear analogy to the fifty days of the old law, thus became the ordinary time for the baptism of converts (Tertullian, De Bapt. c. 19; Jerome, in Zec_14:8). SEE PENTECOSTAL EFFUSION.
V. Literature. — Mishna, Menachoth and Bikkurim; Joseph. Ant. 14:13, 4; 17:12. 2; War, 2:3, 1; faimonides, Iad Ha-Chezaka, Hilchoth Tamidin U- Mosaphin, c. 8; Abrabanel, Commentary on the Pentateuch, p. 211 (ed. Hanau, 1710); Meyer, De Fest. Heb_2:13; Bahr, Symbolik des Mosaischen Cultus, 2:619 sq., 645 sq.; Diedricli, in Ersch and Gruber's Encyklopadie, s.v. Pfingsten, sec. iii, vol. xx, p. 418-431; The Jewish Ritual called Derach Ha-Chajim (Vienna, 1859), p. 253 b, sq.; The Ritual for the Cycle of Festivals, entitled (מחזור) Machsor on ( שבועות) the Festival of Weeks; Carpzov, App. Crit. 3:5; Reland, Antiq. 4:4; Lightfoot, Temple Service, sec. 3; Exercit. in Act_2:1; Spencer, De Leg. Heb. I, 9:2; III, 8:2; Hupfeld, De Fest. Heb. ii; Iken, De Duobus Panibus Pentecost. (Brem. 1729); Drusius, Notoe Majores in Lev_23:15; Lev_23:21 (Crit. Sac.); Otho, Lex. Rab. s.v. Festa; Buxtorf, Synagogal. Judenthum, c. 20. SEE FESTIVAL.

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