From various books I have in my library, we can obtain some
facts and some fiction as to the truths we have or do not have
concerning the great Feast of Firstfruits or Weeks (as it is
called in the OT) and known in the NT as Pentecost.
All capital lettering for emphasis is by myself, Keith Hunt.
From the book "Jewish Holy Days" by Coulson Shepherd,
chapter called "SHABUOTH - Feast of Pentecost."
"Shabuoth.....It falls on Sivan 6 and 7 in the Jewish
calendar (The Jewish month Sivan corresponds to May and sometimes
takes in the early part of June. Sivan 6 for Pentecost was the
Pharisees' calculation as to when to observe it. The Sadducees
and Samaritans did not agree with the Pharisees. According to the
Bible the Sadducees were correct. All the technicalities of HOW
to count to Pentecost is covered in-depth in my other studies on
the subject of Pentecost - Keith Hunt). This festival day is also
called FEAST OF WEEKS (Ex.34: 22) as Shabuoth means WEEKS. It is
also known as the Feast of Pentecost, because it falls fifty days
after FIRSTFRUITS, and the word Pentecost means FIFTY or FIFTY
DAYS.
In Bible times, the FIRST fruits of the fields and orchards
from the SPRING harvest were brought to the Temple as an offering
to the Lord. It is celebrated today in synagogues and Jewish
homes as a thanksgiving festival. Because the beautiful story of
RUTH is laid in the time of the BARLEY harvest, the book of Ruth
is read in synagogues on the second day......
TRADITIONALLY, the holiday is also the commemoration of the
giving of the Ten Commandments. It is the zeman mattan torathena,
the time of the giving of the law. That is why the eve of the
first day, Sivan 6, is observed by many Jewish people with the
reading of the Scriptures. In some synagogues the entire NIGHT is
spent in such study......(It will be noted that the writer says
"Traditionally" because as we shall see in more detail later,
this was a tradition introduced by the Pharisaical Jews after 70
A.D. to give more meaning to Pentecost as it was only a minor
festival in the Jewish calendar. They added that tradition to put
Pentecost on the same level with Passover and Trumpets, Atonement
and Tabernacles. There is no proof from the Bible that the Ten
Commandments were given to Israel on the day or feast of
Pentecost. If it had always been a known fact that such had been
the case, it hardly seems possible that Moses or some other
writer of either the OT or the NT would not have mentioned the
fact, but such a fact cannot be found being mentioned anywhere in
the Bible - Keith Hunt).
Continuing with the words of Coulson Shepherd:
"The Biblical basis for this happy holiday is found in
Leviticus, chapter 23, where the SEVEN FEASTS of Jehovah are
given.....Just as Passover and Unleavened Bread have PROPHETIC
significance, and look to 'Christ our PASSOVER sacrificed for us'
(1 Cor.5: 7); and Firstfruits points to His RESURRECTION (The
cutting of the first sheaf of the firstfruits of the Barley
harvest was done immediately AFTER the weekly Sabbath by
the Sadducees. contrary to what most teach and believe, Jesus was
not put in the tomb until AFTER the 14th day had ended and the
Sabbath of the 15th day, the first day of the feast of Unleavened
Bread had begun. Hence three days and three nights later, Jesus
came out of the tomb, was resurrected, not on or at the end of
the weekly Sabbath, but AFTER the Sabbath was over, and so His
resurrection fulfilled the typology of the cutting of the wave
sheaf which was also cut after the weekly Sabbath was over. All
this is fully explained in my studies called "When was Jesus
placed in the Tomb" and "How the NT uses the word 'evening' "
together with my study called "The truth about Luke 23: 54" -
Keith Hunt).
Shepherd continues:
"The Day of Pentecost was the BIRTHDAY of the Church when
the Holy Spirit, the Ruach K'doshen, came to unite the Jewish
believers of that day into one loaf or body. The scriptural
account of the fulfillment of Shabuoth is found in the beginning
of the book of Acts.....
Shabuoth points to Christ as the HEAD of the Church that
came into existence on the Day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit
united the believers in that body and, since then, all true
Jewish and Gentile believers are not only indwelt by the Holy
Spirit, but are baptized into that same body.
In the Passover preparations, all leaven had to be
removed....the second Feast of Jehovah, Unleavened Bread, is
combined with the Passover observance....(correctly from
the Scriptures, the Passover on the 14th day, at the beginning of
the 14th, was eaten with unleavened bread, but the feast of
Unleavened Bread came a day later, on the 15th until the 21st
day. All leaven was to be out of the homes by the beginning of
the 15th. Unleavened bread was to be eaten for 7 days, from the
15th until the 21st. All of this truth is covered in my many
studies on the Passover Feast - Keith Hunt).
We shall finish quoting from Mr. Shepherd with these words:
" .....in the Feast of Pentecost, they were specifically
instructed to bake the wave- loaves WITH leaven. there is NO SIN
in the HEAD of the Church; but who can deny that there is sin in
the MEMBERS. And there will be sin in the members of His body
until we will be made like Him (Phil.3: 20-21; 1 John 3:
2)....."
From the book "God's Appointed Times" by Barney Kasdan,
chapter 4, called "Shavuot":
"......This holy day is better known by TWO other names.
Jewish people know it as SHAVUOT (Weeks) because it occurs SEVEN
WEEKS after a SPECIFIC event (Deut. 16: 10). Geek-speaking Jews
and many non-Jewish Christians called this day 'Pentecost'
(fiftieth) because it occurs fifty days after the given day
(Lev.23: 16).
Shavuot is designated as a time of thanksgiving for the
EARLY harvest......Traditional Jewish observance of Shavuot is
MULTI-faceted, and has EVOLVED somewhat from Biblical times. As
recorded in the Torah, Biblical observance centered around grain
and animal offerings. Part of the WHEAT offering was baked into
TWO LOAVES of LEAVENED bread, a striking CONTRAST to the matzah a
few weeks before. LEAVEN symbolically represents SIN. These two
loaves were brought into the Temple and, with GREAT ceremony,
waved in every direction before the Lord. This act was a public
statement of GOD'S PROVISION for all His people (Mishna Bikkurim
3: 2).......
Since the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E., MODERN
Jewish observance of Shavuot has CHANGED. It is still a time to
remember God's faithfulness; however, and ADDITIONAL, fascinating
TRADITION has EVOLVED. Rabbis discovered that the Israelites came
to Mount Sinai in the THIRD month after Passover (Ex. 19: 1).
Shavuot is the day Moses received the Law to deliver to the
people....." (This writer and again later, from other writers, we
have admission that this idea that God gave the law to Israel
on Shabuot, or Pentecost, was an ADDED tradition that EVOLVED
AFTER 70 A.D. More interesting facts of why this tradition was
added by the descendants of the Pharisees we shall see shortly -
Keith Hunt).
Continuing with Kasdan's words:
"This conviction effects the customs of this holy day. The
synagogue is usually decorated in greener, flowers and baskets of
fruit to symbolize the harvest aspects of shavuot. The Scripture
reading is Exodus 19 - 20 (the giving of the Law), and Ezekiel
1 (the prophet's vision of God's glory). The scroll of Ruth is
also read since it takes place during the spring harvest.
Another special CUSTOM, Tikun Leil Shavuot (Preparing for
the Arrival of Shavuot), DEVELOPED from the Jewish people's love
for the Torah. Traditional Jews stay up the first night of this
holy day studying the Torah....." (We are seeing a number
of customs and traditions, such as observing this feast for TWO
days and not one day as given by the Lord, introduced and added
by the Jews over the centuries. We shall yet see more they added
to this Feast day - Keith Hunt).
"Talmudic Rabbis attributed a Messianic significance to
Shavuot. In Tractate Sanhedrin 93b of the Talmud an interesting
discussion is recorded concerning some of the details in the
scroll of Ruth. Spiritual significance is ascribed to the six
measure of barley Ruth presented to Boaz (Ruth 3: 15). Some
Rabbis considered these six measures representative of six famous
descendants of Ruth.....these six include David, Daniel and
King Messiah......
Home celebration of Shavuot follows many of the same customs
of other Biblical holy days.....
A traditional holiday dinner with foods symbolizing Shavuot
is then served. Milk products are appropriate because Scripture
is often described as 'the milk of the word' (1 Pete 2:2...)"
New Testament Observance
Continuing with what Mr. Kasdan writes:
"This festival is mentioned a number of times in the NT New
Testament). Rabbi Saul of Tarsus planned his travels in
correlation with Shavuot (1 Cor. 16: 8). The most famous record
of this holy day appears in the book of Acts....Acts 2: 1-5, 12).
This account is interesting considering the background of
Pentecost. To the traditional Jewish community it has always been
a day of thanking God for the EARLY harvest, trusting in a LATTER
harvest.....
Acts 2 reveals amazing details that confirm the Jewish
background of this NT Pentecost. Ezekiel 1 is the traditional
reading from the prophets for the day of shavuot....the glory of
God....Ezek.1: 4. Imagine thousands of Jewish worshippers
leaving the Temple after the morning service (at the third hour,
Acts 2: 15) having just read the passage from Ezekiel 1. Suddenly
some of the same manifestations of the Holy Spirit started to
appear before their eyes! No wonder they were amazed and
perplexed by the windstorm and the fire. It certainly got their
attention! .....
These Jewish pilgrims, who had come from all over the
dispersion, were hearing the impossible.....Having received their
undivided attention through these acts of God, Peter was able to
preach a powerful sermon about Messiah Yeshua, and 3000 Jews
responded to salvation. the FIRSTFRUITS of believers had come in
a wonder-full way!
The apostle James, in his letter to the Jewish believers
(James 1: 1), emphasizes this historical fact as he reminds his
readers: 'Having made his decision, He gave birth to us through a
word that can be relied upon, in order that we should be a kind
of FIRSTFRUITS of all that He created' (James 1: 18).
The theme of Shavuot can best be summed up by the word
REVIVAL. Israel was called to praise God for the first fruits of
the ground, knowing that these early fruits assured the latter
harvest. This also applies to the spiritual Kingdom of God. The
first fruits of believers at Shavuot virtually guarantees a
REVIVAL in the LATTER-DAY spiritual harvest for Messiah. Now we
can understand why God included Shavuot in the THREE required
festivals......As Passover speaks of REDEMPTION, Shavuot speaks
of REVIVAL, especially during this era. The message of Shavuot is
one of great hope and joy. May the day come soon when the Holy
Spirit will be POURED OUT on the house of David, and they will
all look, in faith, to the one who was pierced (Zech.12: 10).....
End of quotes from Barney Kasdan.
From the book "The Jewish Festivals - History and
Observance" by Hayyim Schauss, chapter ten called "The Festival
of Shavuos."
".....The word Shavuos means weeks, and was therefore used
to designate the festival that ended the weeks of the grain
harvest....The grain harvest started with the reaping of the
BARLEY and after seven weeks ended with the cutting of the
WHEAT.....The beginning of the grain harvest was marked by the
sacrifice, at the sanctuary, of the OMER, the FIRST-SHEAF of the
newly cut BARLEY; fifty days later, at the close of the harvest
period, TWO loaves of bread, baked from the WHEAT of the new
crop, were offered as a sacrifice.....
There was NO EFFORT made, EVEN IN LATER Biblical times, to
TIE UP the festival with a HISTORIC EVENT; it remained, through
all that time, an AGRICULTURAL holiday, a festival of the
COMPLETION of the GRAIN harvest. In none of the books of
the Bible is there ANY TRACE or MENTION of Shavuos in CONNECTION
with the GIVING of the Torah."
(Here it is repeated once more by a Jewish man. On the
cover of his book it states that he taught for over quarter of a
century at the Jewish Teachers Seminary in New York, and, in Los
Angeles, at the College of Jewish studies and the University of
Judaism. He was the author of many books and articles on the
Jewish religion, its customs, ceremonies and folklore. We have
already seen that this idea of God giving the Law to Israel on
the feast of Pentecost, was an added idea, an idea that evolved
from the minds of the descendants of the Pharisees, after 70 A.D.
to put the feast of Pentecost on par with the other Feasts of the
Lord, and not just as festival of harvest thanksgiving, for
the firstfruits harvest of the promised land, which it had been
from the time of Joshua, when Israel inherited the land of
promise and tilled and sowed and harvested the land -
Keith Hunt).
Continuing with the words of Schauss:
"Without a fixed date...Shavuos is the only festival for
which there is no fixed date, and it was therefore a matter of
great discussion in the period of the second Temple. The
Pentateuch does not state on what day of the month Shavuos is to
be observed. It says only that it is to be celebrated FIFTY days
after the offering of the OMER, the FIRST sheaf of the BARLEY
harvest, which was to be offered on 'the morrow after the
Sabbath.' Thus, the Sadducees, the party of conservative priests,
interpreted this as meaning that the OMER was to be offered the
first Sunday of Pesach, and that Shavuos, therefore,
would always fall on the SEVENTH SUNDAY after Pesach. However,
the Pharisees, who sought to interpret the Torah in accordance
with the CONDITIONS OF THE DAY, interpreted the word Sabbath, in
that case, as meaning not Saturday, but the day of rest, the
first day of the festival. According to the Pharisees, therefore,
it was necessary to offer the OMER on the SIXTEENTH day of Nisan;
Shavuos, therefore, coming on the SIXTH day of Sivan.
The Pharisaic TENDENCY BECAME STANDARDIZED as the procedure
for ORTHODOX Judaism, and to this very day Orthodox Jews begin
'counting' S'firoh, on the SECOND day of Pesach (The S'firoh is a
form of benediction in connection with which the fifty days
between the supposed offering of the omer and the observance of
Shavuos are counted. Daily, after the evening prayers, the days
and weeks are counted off and the fiftieth day is Shavuos).
Among the SAMARITANS and the KARAITES the time for the
observance as RECOMMENDED by the SADDUCEES is followed, and
Shavuos is always observed on a SUNDAY.
The FALASHAS, the black Jews of Abyssinia, have still a
THIRD date for Shavuos. They observe the TWELFTH day of
sivan....In ancient days there was still a FOURTH date for the
observance of the festival. The Book of Jubilees, a product of
the days of the second temple, orders the observance of Shavuos
in the MIDDLE of Sivan, that is, the FIFTEENTH day of the month.
(Again, let me state that the Bible itself shows the correct
way to count to Pentecost. In this case, and on that particular
point, the Sadducees were correct. I have presented a full
detailed study explanation of the correct counting to Pentecost
in other studies - Keith Hunt).
Back to the words of Hayyim Schauss:
"The Giving of the Torah...Shavuos retained its character
as a NATURE festival LONGER than ANY other of the Jewish
holidays, but it could NOT REMAIN SO FOREVER. It took on, IN
TIME, a NEW, HISTORIC significance and a NEW SPIRITUAL content.
It appears that as far back as the days of the SECOND
Temple, Shavuos was a TWOFOLD festival. It was the festival of
the WHEAT harvest, when a sacrifice was offered from the NEW
WHEAT crop; it was also considered the observance of the PACT
entered into between God and mankind. At LEAST, that is the
INTERPRETATION presented in the previously mentioned 'Book of
Jubilees.' The festival is celebrated, ACCORDING TO THIS BOOK,
as a symbol that the pact God made with Noah, in which He
promised no further general flood, is renewed each year.
HOW WIDESPREAD this interpretation of Shavuos was in the
days of the second Temple we DO NOT KNOW, for we cannot tell if
the above presents the thoughts of the MASSES of the folk or just
a SMALL GROUP. But the book does show us that in the days of the
second Temple there was already a DEMAND fro a NEW INTERPRETATION
of Shavuos on an HISTORICAL basis.
At any rate, Shavuos DID NOT PALY A GREAT ROLE in the Jewish
life of those days. It was obviously a festival observed ONLY IN
THE TEMPLE, and not to any NOTICEABLE EXTENT OUTSIDE of
Jerusalem.
The holiday first ATTAINED IMPORTANCE when it BECAME the
festival of the giving of the Torah, of God revealing Himself on
Mount Sinai. Through this ASSOCIATION with the giving of the
Torah, Shavuos ATTAINED a great importance and BECAME an exalted,
spiritual festival; a festival no longer associated with
AGRICULTURE and NATURE, but symbolic of the spiritual TREASURES
and CULTURE that the Jewish people posses."
(Let me stop here and comment. What we have seen is the
Jewish mind commenting on a Jewish feast that at one time was
looked upon as not that great, when compared to Passover and
Tabernacles. A Feast that was outside of the Temple and
outside of the city of Jerusalem, not that well celebrated. It
was hard for the Jews to understand this feast of firstfruits in
any real spiritual way. They could relate Passover and
Unleavened Bread to the coming of Israel out of Egypt, being
delivered from bondage into freedom. They could sure understand
spiritual insights from that feast, especially as they
were under the Roman heel during much of the period of the second
Temple. They had a hard time to understand the feast of
Firstfruits, Pentecost, in any other way but as a thanksgiving
feast for all the blessing of the new harvest of the land. So
some, through the book of Jubilees, had tried to put a little
more into the feast by inventing and tying the feast with God and
Noah and the promise of seedtime and harvest....really still a
nature festival, but with some historical connection to add a
little spice to it, well adding some spice as they thought it
would, and as they thought it needed. What the mind of men will
do to try to improve on what God has given, when they do not
understand the mind and plan of God. Instead of waiting on the
Lord to reveal His secrets in His time, they feel they must do it
their way and invent and add to God's ways and feasts, make
things up as they go along, to please and satisfy their
pleasures. Of course these inventions and additions to the feast
of Pentecost were setting the stage for the biggest invention and
addition to Pentecost that arose from the minds of the Pharisees
descendants after 70 A.D. that being the idea that God gave the
Ten Commandments and the law on the feast day of Pentecost to
Israel.
The NT Christians had no need to invent such an addition to
Pentecost. The coming of the Holy Spirit to fill them with power,
might, and the very NATURE of God as a BEGETTAL, to form the very
spiritual body of Christ, the very NT Church of God, was
then forever the spiritual reality of a truth and mystery of the
Kingdom of God. It was forever then the BIRTHDAY of the NT
Church. It was a day of SPIRITUAL REVIVAL. A day of the WORKING
and the POWER of the Spirit of God, a forever REMINDER of what
the Spirit of the Lord can do on this earth and in the personal
lives of individuals, making them into the VERY CHILDREN of the
Father, very brothers and sisters of Christ Jesus, and the
enlargement of the FAMILY of God - Keith Hunt).
Back-tracking a little and then continuing with Mr. Schauss'
comments:
"This holiday FIRST ATTAINED IMPORTANCE when it BECAME the
festival of the giving of the Torah, of God revealing Himself on
Mount Sinai. Through THIS ASSOCIATION with the giving of the
Torah, Shavuos ATTAINED a great importance and BECAME
EXALTED......
In the nineteenth century Shavuos was given NEW significance
by REFORMED Jews, as a day of CONFIRMATION. Till the beginning of
the nineteenth century (and amongst Orthodox Jews to this very
day) only BOYS went through the BAR MITSVAH ceremony,
individually, on the sabbath nearest to their thirteenth
birthday. This was mainly a private family celebration. REFORM
Jews, when they modified the synagogue worship, also CHANGED Bar
Mitsvoh to CONFORMATION. They included GIRLS in the ceremony, set
aside a DEFINITE day of the year for it, and made it a COMMUNITY
FESTIVAL. The early leaders of Reform Judaism selected SHAVUOS as
the day of CONFIRMATION, because it is the holiday of the
confirmation of the Jewish people in their faith by Moses. It is
also the day on which the Book of Ruth is read in the synagogue,
telling of Ruth's acceptance into the fold of Israel.
This INNOVATION was accepted into the PROGRESSIVE
communities and gave NEW vitality and life to this old
festival....."
End of quotes from the book "The Jewish Festivals" by Hayyim
Schauss.
We have seen the perpetual proclivity of the Jewish people
and religious leaders in particular, to be constantly modifying,
introducing and adding variations to God's original Festivals of
the Bible, to somehow make them ever more popular and relevant
to Jewish life, to supposedly give them new meaning and new life.
The truth is that the festivals of God need no additions,
adoptions, or inventing historical events to hook up with them
that are not directly revealed to be part of them as
given in the Bible itself (Keith Hunt).
We finish this "Points on Pentecost" study by quoting from
Theodor Gaster's book "Festivals of the Jewish Year - a modern
interpretation and guide." Dr. Theodor Gaster was a well known
scholar of religion and civilizations of the Near East and wrote
numerous books on those subjects. The following is taken from
chapter 5 called, "The Feast of Weeks."
"In the Bible, the Feast of Weeks plays a somewhat minor
role beside the major seasonal festivals of Passover on the one
hand and Booths (or Ingathering) on the other. It is simply the
end of the barley harvest, and its distinctive feature is the
presentation to Jehovah (apart from special sacrifices) of an
offering consisting, according to one version of the Law
(Deut.16: 10), of whatever one feels prompted to give, or,
according to another (Lev. 23: 17), of two loaves made out of the
new corn. The festival we are told, is to take place a full seven
weeks after the sickle has been first applied to the standing
grain (Deut. 16: 9).
It is easy to dismiss this early phase of the festival as
nothing but the product of a crude, unsophisticated age, and to
think one has explained the presentation of firstfruits by
collecting parallels from other parts of the world, without
stopping to penetrate to their significance. The truth is,
however.....the underlying meaning of the festival is at once
SUBTLE and PROFOUND. Two ideas are combined, and each is capable
of an extension and development of far-reaching import.
The FIRST is based on the common Oriental principle that
land belong to him who 'quickens' it, or brings it under
cultivation. Since, it is here affirmed, the earth obviously
depends for its fertility not only on the lobors of MEN but ALSO
on the co-operation of GOD, who furnishes it with RAIN, WIND and
SUNLIGHT, HE too is necessarily a part owner of it. The
presentation of FIRSTFRUITS is thus no mere taken of THANKSGIVING
or mere submissive rendering of tribute.....It is the PAYMENT to
God of the DIVIDEND on His INVESTMENT. To withhold that payment
is an act not of impiety but of EMBEZZLEMENT.
Translated into broader terms, what is here proclaimed is
that the relation between GOD and MAN is NOT one of master and
servant but of MUTUAL DEPENDANT PARTNERS in a JOINT ENTERPRISE of
CONTINUOUS CREATION......
The SECOND idea....stems from the fact that primitive man
regards anything new and unused as being fraught with potential
peril, much as an infant might regard a new toy. The FIRSTFRUITS
of the harvest....are therefore consigned.....that the newness
may be taken away and the rest thereby rendered 'safe.' (This we
have seen is the type in analogy of the consecrating of the part
to consecrate the whole, a little leaven leavening the whole lump
principle. As the firstfruits is consecrated and made holy to
God, so the rest of the harvest is holy to God and put into His
safe-keeping - Keith Hunt).....
The important thing, however, is not so much the why as the
how of the ritual; the danger of the new thing is removed by
bringing it into contact with some ETERNAL BEING to whom it is
NOT new, inasmuch as He transcends the limitations of our own
temporal existence. Behind the symbolism of the primitive
procedure, therefore, there lies once again a PERMANENT,
UNIVERSAL MESSAGE: the ONLY immunity against the terror of the
new things is to try to see them in the light of ETERNITY, and
the only protection against the perils of human existence is to
dedicate the prime portion of it to God. Thus, even in its
rudimentary stage, the Feast of Weeks possessed its own
SPIRITUAL VALUES." (Now, as they say, that was quite the mouth
full. Putting it in less sophisticated words, we here have the
truth being spoken about of the new creation of mankind, but not
new to the creator as such in the eternal plan of things created,
yet new for a special purpose in His plan of creation. The
firstfruits of the new is dedicated to God and so the whole of
the firstfruits harvest is made holy. As we see all this in the
light of the eternal plan of the Almighty, the new is no terror
but a happy rejoicing in that which God is bringing forth on the
earth, as He deals with the human race - Keith Hunt).
Back to the words of Mr. Gaster:
"For JUDAISM, however - especially after it had outgrown
its Palestinian origins - these ALONE were NOT SUFFICIENT. The
presence and activity of God had to be recognized at this season
NOT ONLY in the phenomena of NATURE but also, and on
parallel lines, in SOME crucial EVENT of HISTORY.
Accordingly, IN THE FIRST CENTURIES OF THE COMMON ERA,
inspiration and INGENUITY combined to produce the necessary
development.
The Scriptural narrative states clearly (Ex.19: 1) that the
children of Israel reached Mount Sinai in the THIRD month, to the
day, after departing from Egypt. This, it was now argued, does
NOT MEAN that a full three months elapsed, but ONLY that the
event took place IN THE THIRD MONTH OF THE YEAR, and in that case
the giving of the Ten Commandments MIGHT (WITH A LITTLE LATITUDE
AND FANCY) be MADE to coincide with the Feast of Weeks. The
festival THUS BECAME the birthday of Israel, the anniversary of
the day on which the Covenant had been concluded between God and
His people and the Law first revealed. Such, ever since, has been
its PRIMARY significance....."
End of quotes from Theodor Gaster.
I will finish this study by saying: Once more we see how the
Jewish mind can and once did, relate to the significant spiritual
harvest festival understanding of the first harvest gathered in
starting with the first Wave Sheaf offering during the Feast of
Unleavened Bread and finishing with the one day Feast of
Pentecost, 50 days later, or 7 weeks later. But, as we have also
seen, this was not enough for the Jews to bring this Feast Day up
to the prominence and festive splendor as was already practiced
in the first celebrated Feast of Passover/Unleavened Bread and in
the fall Festivals which had the Feast of Tabernacles at its
center. To bring Pentecost up to par with the other two
festive seasons an HISTORICAL event would have to be added.
Within the first few centuries of THIS ERA, this age of A.D. it
was relatively easy to invent the idea that the giving of the Law
and Old Covenant was presented to Israel on this VERY DAY, the
50th day from the Wave Sheaf offering, the day that came to be
known in the NT age as Pentecost.
We have seen admitted, by these Jewish scholars, that such
an added invention was never a part of Jewish teaching BEFORE 70
A.D. for as we have seen noted, there is not one book, or one
verse, anywhere in the entire Bible that speaks of the day of
Pentecost or Feast of Weeks, as the day that the Law was given to
Israel, a note or a mention of such a fact, as being the truth,
could hardly go un-mentioned by all writers of the books of the
Bible, if such was the historical truth handed down from the time
of Moses.
While it may be nice and may be convenient to so add this
invention of the later than 70 A.D. Jews, to our celebration of
Pentecost, and while it may make good sermonizing to add to the
truth of the Holy Spirit coming on the Day of Pentecost, as the
Bible does record in a clearly specific manner, as it may sound
logical to say the Law was given on Pentecost and the Holy Spirit
came on Pentecost to help us fulfil the that law, the truth of
the matter still remains that while we can prove from the Bible
the Spirit did come on Pentecost, we cannot prove that God gave
the law to Israel on Pentecost day. As we have seen even the Jews
up to and not until AFTER 70 A.D. had any teaching that the Old
Covenant was given on the Feast of Weeks or Firstfruits.
There is plenty within the Bible itself for us to sermonize
with, concerning the Festival of Pentecost, and its meaning as to
spiritual realities, both from the Old Testament and from the New
Testament. I have presented one such study on the meaning of
Pentecost from the old to the new, and I will present another
such study as to the meanings of the Pentecost season and the
very day itself, as taken from book one on the Spring Festivals
by Dr. Samuel Bacchiocchi, called, "God's Festivals - in
Scripture and History" (his book two covers the Fall Festivals of
God). Dr. Bacchiocchi presents some good insights to the meanings
of this great Festival of the Lord, enough meanings to keep any
minister busy for many years, as they preach "in season and out
of season" (2 Tim.4: 1-2).
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