THE FEAST OF THE SECOND GREAT PENTECOST

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Then never let anyone criticize you for what you eat or drink, or about observance of annual festivals, New Moons or Sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what was coming: the reality is the body of Christ. Colossians 2:16, NJB

The old covenant holy day of obligation known as the Feast of Weeks, Shavuot in Hebrew, was known in Jesus's time as the Feast of Pentecost (from the Greek he penetkoste, meaning the fiftieth day). Yahweh established it in the covenant formation at Mt. Sinai before the sin of the Golden Calf.

At the beginning of the great adventure at the crossroads of salvation history known as the "Sinai Covenant," God ordained that the Israelites would assemble at God's holy altar to commemorate three of the seven annual feasts. At those assemblies, they would relive the themes of mercy and redemption played out in the Exodus experience. The three "pilgrim feasts," in which every man of the covenant must present himself before Yahweh's holy altar of sacrifice, were designated in Exodus: Three times a year you will hold a festival in my honor. You will observe the feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you will eat unleavened bread, as I have commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. No one will appear before me empty-handed. You will also observe the feast of Harvest, of the first-fruits of your labors in sowing the fields, and the feast of Ingathering, at the end of the year, once you have brought the fruits of your labors in from the field. Three times a year all your menfolk will appear before Lord Yahweh (Ex 23:14-17 NJB).¹

The Feast of Unleavened Bread began at sundown on the day of the Passover commemoration on the 14^th day of the first month of the liturgical year and lasted seven days. The Jewish day ended at sunset, and the next day began. The "Feast of the Harvest" was the Feast of Seven Weeks, Shavuot, also known as the Feast of Weeks, or in Jesus's time, the Feast of Pentecost. The "Feast of Ingathering" at the end of the liturgical year was the Feast of Shelters (the Hebrew word for "shelters," Sukkoth, is also translated as "tabernacles" or "booths").

After the sin of the Golden Calf, the instructions for the pilgrim feasts were repeated as part of the covenant renewal in Exodus 34:18-23. In addition to the three pilgrim feasts, four more remembrance feasts were added to the annual feasts in Leviticus 23:5-44.² The command to keep the pilgrim feasts as part of Israel's covenant obligations was so crucial that during Moses's last homily to the Israelites, before the covenant people's mission to take possession of the Promised Land, he repeated the pilgrim feast obligations (Dt 16:16-17).

According to the instructions for the pilgrim feast of Pentecost in Leviticus 23:15-21 and Numbers 28:26-31, after taking possession of the Promised Land, Israel was to commemorate the blessings of Yahweh to His covenant people in the richness of the land by offering God the first portion of the annual wheat harvest. It was also a celebration in which Israel as a covenant community was to relive with thanksgiving the birth of the covenant people as a nation and the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai. Finally, it was the day when God came down in holy fire on the mountain and took Israel to be His holy possession, a witness to the pagan nations of the earth, and to testify to the existence of the One True God.

In the period of the united monarchy, Israel's kings continued to be committed to the covenant obligation of the pilgrim feasts of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and the Feast Shelters. In 2 Chronicles 8:13, Scripture records that King Solomon made the sacrifices for these feasts on the altar of the Jerusalem Temple. The annual pilgrim feasts were festivals of great joy, and despite only the men being required to appear before Yahweh, families often made the journey to the beautiful Temple to fulfill their covenant obligation (Lk 2:41; Jn 7:2-4).³

In the designation of the dates for each holy feast day in Leviticus 23, only two of the seven annual feast days do not have a specific celebration date. Passover was to be commemorated in the first month of the liturgical year on the 14^th of Abib, with the Feast of Unleavened Bread lasting seven days from Abib 15^th through the 21^st. The Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hosannah), the feast which began the civil "new year," was to be celebrated annually on the 1^st day of the seventh month, followed on the 10^th by the Feast of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and then from the 15^th to the 21^st of the same month Israel was to celebrate the Feast of Shelters (Sukkoth). God commanded the celebration of each annual feast on a specific date except for the Feast of Firstfruits and the Feast of Pentecost.

The instructions in Leviticus 23 concerning the Feast of Firstfruits dictated that the sacrificial offering of the first fruits of the barley harvest, along with the whole burnt sacrifice of a yearling lamb together with a baked wheat cake and red wine libation, was to fall within the holy week of the first of the pilgrim feasts, the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Ex 23:14-15). Yahweh gave instructions to Moses concerning the Feast of Firstfruits after enumerating the requirements for the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread: Speak to the Israelites and say: "When you enter the country which I am giving you and reap the harvest there, you will bring the priest the first sheaf of your harvest, and he will present it to Yahweh with the gesture of offering for you to be acceptable. The priest will make this offering on the day after the Sabbath, and on the same day as you make this offering, you will offer Yahweh an unblemished lamb one year old as a burnt offering. The cereal offering for that day will be two-tenths of wheaten flour mixed with oil, as food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yahweh. The libation will be a quarter of a hin of wine. You will eat no bread, roasted ears of wheat or fresh produce before this day, before making the offering to your God. This is perpetual law for all your descendants, wherever you live" (Lev 23:10-11 NJB; underlining in the quotation added for emphasis).

The offering for the Feast of Firstfruits was to be presented on the day after the Saturday Sabbath during the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread, indicating that this feast was always intended to fall on the same day of the week every year, on what we call Sunday, the first day of the week. It would be a perpetual sacrifice as long as the covenant with Yahweh endured. The command for a perpetual statute is found in Leviticus 23:14, 21, 31, and 41 and only applies to four of the seven feasts: Firstfruits, Pentecost, Atonement, and Shelters.

The date of the Feast of Pentecost and the giving of the first fruits of the wheat harvest was determined by counting fifty days from the celebration of the Feast of Firstfruits: From the day after the Sabbath, the day on which you bring the sheaf of offering, you will count seven full weeks. You will count fifty days, to the day after the seventh Sabbath ... (Lev 23:15-16; underlining added for emphasis). It was commanded that the Feast of Pentecost would always fall on the same day annually and be celebrated on the first day of the week, our Sunday, the day after the Jewish Saturday Sabbath. Counting seven weeks from the Feast of Firstfruits (Sunday to Sunday) until the fiftieth day. The ancients counted without the concept of a zero place value, counting the first day in the sequence as day #1, just as the days of Creation were counted in Genesis 1:1-2:2.⁴

Sometime after Jesus's Resurrection, the Pharisees changed the celebration day of this feast by interpreting Leviticus 23:11 to mean not the Saturday Sabbath of the holy week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Instead, they said that the word "Sabbath" in Leviticus 23:11, where the passage indicated the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread on Abib the 15^th, was commemorated as a "day of rest." Therefore, the date of the barley harvest offering, which was also the celebration in remembrance of the Exodus crossing of the Red Sea, was altered and changed to the 16^th day of Abib (called the month of Nisan from the 6^th century BC forward). The celebration date was changed to the day after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on a day of the week which would change from year to year. Since the sacrifice of a Passover lamb or goat kid is no longer possible, modern Jews celebrate their Seder meal on the 15^th of Abib/Nisan, and they refer to the entire seven days of what was the Feast of Unleavened Bread as "Passover."

The problem with the interpretation of Abib/Nisan the 16^th as the Feast of Firstfruits is that the instruction for the seven annual feasts and their sacrifices in Leviticus chapter 23 lists the requirement of each feast to fall on a particular date in the month (according to the lunar calendar), except for the two feasts of Firstfruits and Weeks/Pentecost. If the Feast of Firstfruits was intended to always fall on the day after the Sabbath of the weeklong Feast of Unleavened Bread, why didn't the passage in Leviticus 23:11 simply record the required date for this feast? It was because God commanded the covenant people to use a lunar calendar, and the Passover and Unleavened Bread festivals, which occurred mid-month Nisan 14 and 15-21, changed yearly according to the first full moon after the Spring equinox (Lev 23:5-8; Num 28:16-25). Significantly, the feasts of Firstfruits and Pentecost are deliberately not given a specific date, so they moved each year to fall on a particular day of the week "the first day of the week, our Sunday.

The Karaites, a sect of Judaism claiming descent from the Sadducees, have continued celebrating the Feast of the Firstfruits annually on a Sunday. However, they are the only Jews who continue to celebrate the Feast of Firstfruits.⁵ Both Orthodox and Reform Jews count Pentecost as fifty days from the 16^th of Abib instead of counting seven full weeks from the first day of the week (Sunday) of the holy week of Unleavened Bread. They also do not list the first fruits of the barley harvest as a liturgical feast, even though that feast, like the others, has required blood sacrifices and grain and wine offerings unique to its celebration and commanded to be a perpetual observance: This is to be a perpetual law for all your descendants, wherever you live (Lev 23:14). In celebrating the Feast of Firstfruits, the Karaites insist that they continue the ancient traditions of this "feast of remembrance" in commemorating the crossing of the Red Sea in the Exodus experience and the first offering of the annual barley harvest of the Promised Land. They continue to celebrate this feast, as their ancestors did, on the day after the first Sabbath of the holy week of the feast of Unleavened Bread, celebrating the Feast of Firstfruits always on a Sunday. They also celebrate Pentecost on a Sunday fifty days later, just as it was commanded in Leviticus 23:11, counting Firstfruits as day #1, just as the ancients counted.

Verification of the change in the long tradition of celebrating the feasts of Firstfruits and Pentecost on a Sunday appear in the writings of the Jewish priest Yoshef ben Matthias (37-100AD). Known to history by his adopted Roman name Flavius Josephus, the works of this first century AD Jewish historian and member of the old covenant priesthood are the principal source for the history of the Jews from the time of Greek Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes (175-163BC) to the fall of Masada at the end of the First Jewish Revolt in AD 73. Josephus was a descendant of the Hasmoneans, the ruling family of Judah before the Roman conquest, and was educated to be a high priest of Yahweh in the Jerusalem Temple. Joining the sect of the Pharisees at age nineteen, he was in a unique position to understand the practice of the religious rites of the old covenant Jews. In his history of the Jews, Josephus wrote about the Feast of Pentecost. His testimony offers evidence that the festival of Pentecost used to fall on a Sunday, the day next to the Jewish Saturday Sabbath, but at some point, the day of the feast was changed: And truly he did not speak falsely in saying so; for the festival, which we call Pentecost, did then fall out to be the next day to the Sabbath (Antiquities of the Jews 13.8.4 [252], underlining added for emphasis). Flavius Josephus's statement that the day of the celebration of the Feast Pentecost was initially celebrated on a Sunday by inference also indicates that the change included the day for the celebration of the Feast of Firstfruits.

Why would the Pharisees find it necessary to change the day of the week on which these two feasts fell? The dramatic events of the year AD 30 provide the answer. During the week-long feast of Unleavened Bread, in the spring of AD 30, Jesus gave up His life on a Roman cross during the daytime sacrificial services of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:7; Num 28:17-24)), the sacred meal of the Passover victim having been eaten the night before in the meal Christians call "the Last Supper." The Gospels record that it was "preparation day" for the Sabbath on Friday when Jesus died (Mat 27:62; Mk 15:42; Lk 23:54; Jn 19:31). Immediately after giving up His spirit, Jesus descended to the abode of the dead to preach the Gospel of salvation, liberating those souls who believed in Him (1 Pet 3:18-19; 4:6). Jesus "rested" from His work in the tomb on the Saturday Sabbath, as God the Father had rested on the seventh day of the old creation. Three days after His crucifixion (as the ancients counted), Jesus arose from the dead on the first day of the week (Mat 28:1), on the day after the Saturday Sabbath "on a Sunday. It was on the first day after the Sabbath of the holy week of the feasts of Passover/Unleavened Bread, on the day designated as the Feast of Firstfruits (Lev 23:11). He arose on the annual feast that celebrated the giving of the first fruits of the barley harvest and commemorated the crossing over of the Red Sea by the children of Israel, as they passed from a life of slavery and death to new life as children of God. Just as the Israelites had "crossed over" from bondage to slavery and death to renewed life in the miracle of the Red Sea crossing (Ex 14:21-22), Jesus, as the "first fruits" of the Father, had "crossed over" the barrier of sin from death to eternal life. Sunday was also the first day of the old Creation event, with Saturday being the seventh day when God "rested" (Gen 2:2).

The Feast of Firstfruits was also the only one of the seven annual remembrance feasts that required the blood sacrifice of a single unblemished male lamb, offered with an unleavened wheat cake and red wine "a foreshadowing of the Eucharist.⁶ On the Feast of Firstfruits Jesus conquered sin and death through His resurrection, offering all who believed in Him the promise of eternal life in Heaven. Jesus was the "Firstfruits" of the resurrected dead, as St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 NJB: In fact, however, Christ has been raised from the dead, as the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep. As it was by one man that death came, so through one man has come the resurrection of the dead. Just as all die in Adam, so in Christ all will be brought to life; but all of them in their proper order: Christ the first-fruits, and next, at his coming, those who belong to him.

God commanded that the Feast of Pentecost be celebrated fifty days after the Feast of Firstfruits, which counted as day #1 in the count (Lev 23:15-16). After the Resurrection, Jesus taught the Church for forty days until His Ascension (Acts 1:3). Before His Ascension, Jesus instructed the Apostles and disciples to return to Jerusalem and wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist told the people, I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who comes after me is more powerful than ... He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire (John 3:11). And at His Ascension, Jesus said, John baptized with water but, not many days from now, you are going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5). The Apostles and the disciples were obedient to Jesus's command. They returned to Jerusalem and prayed together with the Virgin Mary as one community for ten days until fifty days after the Feast of Firstfruits, until the Sunday of the Jewish feast of Pentecost that commemorated the birth of the old covenant Church at Mt. Sinai (Acts 1:14).

On the Feast of Pentecost, AD 30, God the Holy Spirit baptized the New Covenant people of God: When Pentecost day came round, they had all met together, when suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a violent wind which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and there appeared to them tongues as of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak different languages as the Spirit gave them power to express themselves (Acts 2:1-4 NJB). On the holy feast commemorating God's descent in fire upon Mt. Sinai to call Israel to become His covenant family, God the Holy Spirit descended with fire to take possession of the faithful remnant of the New Israel, called to become the New Covenant people of God. Since this was a pilgrim feast, there were Jews present in Jerusalem from across the Roman Empire: Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, and at this sound they all assembled, and each one was bewildered to hear these men speaking in his own language. They were amazed and astonished. Surely,' they said, all these men speaking are Galileans? How does it happen that each of us hears them in his own native language? (Acts 2:5-8 NJB).

The New Israel of the New Covenant Church wasn't limited to one ethnic group, as the old Church had been limited to the twelve tribes of Israel, ten of which had been lost and scattered among the Gentile nations since the 8^th century BC (2 Kng 17:5-6). Instead, the New Covenant family of God was to encompass all the nations of the earth "calling the ten lost tribes and all humanity back into a universal family "an extended family who hadn't existed since the disbursal of humanity's children in the sin of the Tower of Babel, when their tongues became confused, and the people were scattered across the face of the earth (Gen 11:1-9). In the birth of the New Covenant Church, the rupture caused by the disbursal of the human family was mended. God calls all people into a covenant union with the One True God, and all will speak one language "the language of the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Consider the perfection of God's plan that the new "Day of the Lord" set aside for worship in the New Covenant was the first day of the week. It was the first day of the old creation (Genesis 1:1; 2:1-2), which now signified the first day of a new creation in Jesus the Redeemer-Messiah, the Christ: Then the one sitting on the throne spoke. "Look, I am making the whole of creation new" (Rev 21:5 NJB).

The command in Leviticus 23:11 and 15 establishes the first day of the week as the day of celebration for the feasts of Firstfruits and Pentecost fifty days later, which is part of God's plan for the redemption of humanity. Orthodox 1st-century AD Jews did not miss Christ's fulfillment of these feasts. As St. James, the first Christian bishop of Jerusalem, told St. Paul: You see, brother, how thousands of Jews have now become believers, all of them staunch upholders of the Law (Acts 21:20b NJB). As St. Paul wrote: Then never let anyone criticize you for what you eat or drink, or about observance of annual festivals, New Moons or Sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what was coming: the reality is the body of Christ (Colossians 2:16 NJB, underlining added for emphasis). The prescribed celebration of these feasts on the first day of the week was a foreshadowing of God's plan that Jesus Christ would be resurrected on the Feast of Firstfruits on a Sunday, and the birth of the New Covenant Church would also fall fifty days later on the Sunday of the Feast of the Second Great Pentecost when God again revealed Himself to His holy covenant people.

Footnotes:
1. See the same command repeated in Exodus 34:18-24, 2 Chronicles 8:13, and Deuteronomy 16:16.

2. The seven annual feasts were Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Feast of Atonement, and Feast of Shelters (Tabernacles).

3. It has been estimated that in the 1^st century AD, the population of Jerusalem would swell to hold from 2-3 million worshippers. Flavius Josephus recorded three million attendees at the Feast of Passover/Unleavened Bread in AD 65 (The Wars of the Jews 2.14.3 [280]) and that the number of lambs and kids slain during the feast of Passover a year later was 256,500, with one lamb for every 10 to 20 people: So these high priests, upon the coming of their feast which is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices, from the ninth hour till the eleventh, but so that a company not less than ten belong to every sacrifice (for it is not lawful for them to feast singly by themselves), and many of us are twenty in a company, found the number of sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand, five hundred; which, upon the allowance of no more than ten that feast together, amounts to two million seven hundred thousand and two hundred persons that were pure and holy (The Wars of the Jews 6.83 [423-426]).

4. The ancient Israelites and the 1^st century AD Jews, like most ancient peoples, did not have the concept of a zero place-value, and therefore, the first of any sequence counted as number 1. This is why it is written in Scripture that Jesus was in the tomb three days from Friday to Sunday instead of two days as we would count it; see Christianity and the Roman Empire, Ralph Novak, page 282.

5. This sect of Judaism calls themselves the Karaim, which means "adherents to Mikra." Mikra is the Hebrew word for the Bible. The Karaites rejected Rabbinic Judaism, which was the attempt to re-invent the old covenant faith after the destruction of the Temple in AD 70 when sacrifices could no longer be offered, and the rites of the Sinai Covenant were no longer observed. Instead, the Karaites claim to be descendants of Sadducees who formed the legitimate priesthood; they reject rabbinic law introduced by the Pharisees and deny the authority of the Talmud (The Jewish Book of Why, volume I, pages 37-39).

6. The Feast of Firstfruits was the only annual remembrance feast that required the exclusive blood sacrifice of a single, unblemished male lamb. The Passover sacrifice required thousands of yearling males from the flock, either a kid or a lamb: On the tenth day of this month each man must take an animal from the flock for his family: one animal for each household (Ex 12:3; also see Dt 16:2 NJB). The Feast of Unleavened Bread required the blood sacrifice of two young bulls, a ram, seven yearling lambs and a goat, offered in sacrifice every day for seven days. The Feast of Trumpets required a young bull, one ram, seven yearling lambs, and a goat. The Feast of Atonement required the blood sacrifice of a young bull, two male goats, seven yearling lambs, and a ram. The Feast of Shelters required the blood sacrifice of seventy bulls over 8 days. For 7 days, two rams, fourteen lambs, and a goat were offered daily; on the 8^th day, a ram, seven lambs, and a goat were offered in sacrifice. The only other class of blood sacrifice that required (exclusively) an unblemished male lamb was the whole burnt offering twice daily for the atonement and sanctification of the covenant community known as the Tamid. See the book "Jesus and the Mystery of the Tamid Sacrifice," www.amazon.com/dp/B01DCUQYMC?ref_=pe_2427780_160035660. For Scripture references on the blood sacrifice of the Tamid and the annual feasts, see Ex 23:26-32; 29:38-42; Lev 16:1-34; 23:3-44; Num 28: 1-39; Dt 16:1-16.

Resources:

1. Christianity and the Roman Empire, Ralph Novak, Trinity Press International, 2001.
2. The Works of Josephus, translated by William Whiston, Hendrickson Publications, 1998.
3. A History of Israel, John Bright, Westminster John Knox Press, 2000
4. Offerings, Sacrifices and Worship in the Old Testament, J. H. Kurtz, Hendrickson, 1998.
5. The Jewish Feasts, Hayyim Schauss, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1938.
6. The Jewish Book of Why, volume I, Alfred J. Kolatch, Jonathan David Publishers, Inc. 1981, revised edition 1995.
7. The Feasts of the Lord, Kevin Howard and Marvin Rosenthal, Thomas Nelson, Inc. 1997.
8. The New Jerusalem Bible, Doubleday, 1985.

Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2008, revised 2023, revised 2024 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.