THE
OMER is the name of a measurement which is the tenth
part of an ephah. (Ex 16:36) An Ephah is about three-eighths to
two-thirds of a bushel. (Plaut, HT, p569) 1 ephah = 1 bath = 3 seahs,
Ezek 45:11. (Grossfeld, Targums, Vol 7, p47) The term "Omer" is
used to describe the first sheaf of freshly cut barley from the new
crop
each year, and also the meal offerings that were made from it. It was
the Rabbi's who ruled the use of barley. (Plaut, p499) The Mishna says
that "Wheat, barley, spelt, goat-grass and oats were not to be reaped
before the Omer". (Men 10:7, Danby p506-7) None of the new crop each
year was allowed to be eaten
until the first-fruits of the new harvest had been waved and offered to
God by the Levitical priests for our acceptance. (Leviticus 23:9-21).
The Sages said that this new produce was to be brought only from within
the land [of Israel]. (Mishna, Parah 2:1, Danby p687), they said that
they may not bring the Omer from any other land. (Kelim 1:6, Danby
p605), "only from fresh produce and from within the land". (Men 8:1,
Danby p501). If the barley crop near Jerusalem was not yet ripe in time
for the Wave sheaf day then "it could be brought from any place". (Men,
10:2). It was said that there were three main places in Israel which
had the best produce, Michmas, Zenoha and Hapharaim, near Jerico. (Men
8:1), "the produce from any land was valid, but they used to bring it
[only] from these places". The Omer was purchased by the priests using
public contributions. (Shek 4:1, Danby p155) so that non-Levites were
free to eat it. The sheaf was usually cut at night, (Meg 2:6,
Danby p204, Men 10:9 p507) Before the use of the fixed
calendar the Wave-sheaf Day
according to the Sadducees method could fall on any date between the 15th to
the
21st of the month of Nisan but
according to the Pharisees
beliefs the
Wave-sheaf Day was the
16th of Nisan. The Encyclopaedia Judaica says that the Samaritans,
Sadducees and
Boethusians all used different calendars, (Cal' p50) so it seems
that several different systems were in use and continued
together
until the fall of the temple in AD70. The ceremony carried out by the
Pharisees is recorded in the Mishna. (Menahoth 10:1-9, Danby p505-7)
There is no record of the Sadducees practice. This fresh sheaf of
barley was parched with fire (Men
10:4, p506) and had enough ears of grain to make three seahs of flour,
thought to be about 1 1/2 pints. The Interlinear O.T. says it was about
2 quarts or 2 liters. (p191), Plaut says "about 6 1/2 pints". (p499)
This was rubbed 300 times and beaten 500 times, (Men 6:5), it was
sifted through 13 sieves (Men 6:7), from what was left after this, a
handful of this sifted flour (Sotah 2:1 p295) was brought by the
priests and offered (Men 6:1) with oil and frankincense (Men 5:3) on
the Day of the Wave-sheaf. Josephus says they used a handful.
(Ant
3:10:5) The Mishna says it was a "Handful" (Men 10:4) As the Omer was
offered during the Feast of Unleavened Bread it was also unleavened. A
drink offering of wine was offered with it as well, but no frankincense
is mentioned. (Lev 23:13).
Some have questioned the Jewish practice of making
the
unleavened bread for the Feast from wheat instead of barley. The reason
the Omer is made from barley is because the barley was ripening at the
time of the Exodus. (Ex 9:31) Although they chose to use barley there
is no bible command that
requires that the omer, or the unleavened bread that is eaten during
the feast is to be made from barley. The symbolism of barley is significant and meaningful in biblical revelation but not rigidly necessary. Leviticus 23:14-15 says "you shall
eat neither bread nor
grain parched or fresh until - you have brought the offering of your
God: it is a statute for ever -". This restriction only refers to the
NEW crop. The produce of the new crop is not to be eaten until after
the Wave-sheaf has been offered which is during the Days of Unleavened
Bread. The Israelites were told to observe the night they came out from
Egypt (Ex 12:42), the night to be much observed or remembered, which
was
at the
start of the Days of Unleavened Bread on the 15th of Nisan. It was
commanded that this meal on the night to be much observed was to be
eaten with unleavened bread (Ex 12:8) so as this
was before the Wave-sheaf of the new harvest had been offered they had
no option than to eat bread that was made from the crops of previous
years, otherwise it would result in there being no unleavened bread
from the new crop being available to eat until the Wave-sheaf day,
which would prevent the Israelites from obeying the requirement to eat
unleavened bread at the Passover on the evening of the 14th and also it
would prevent them from obeying the instruction to eat unleavened bread
for the whole seven days as they were told to do. In other words they
were told not to eat any of the new crop until they offered the
first fruits but they could eat unleavened bread made from any kinds of
grains of older crops. According to the Pharisees method as recorded in
the Mishna, those who "lived far off" were only permitted to eat of the
new crop after midday on the 16th of Nisan. (Men 10:5, Danby p506)
DID THEY "DELAY" Some
who
follow the practice of the Pharisees think that to get
around the problem of not being able to eat of the new crop until after
the offering was made on the 16th that there was a difference
between the day
the first fruits were "brought" to the temple and the day they were
"offered", (Lev 23:14-15) which then permitted people to eat of the
new crop on the 15th before the Wave-sheaf was offered. This view may
have resulted from the Mishna that records the Pharisees Wave-sheaf
ritual and says that they cut the Wave-sheaf as soon as the sun had set
on the sabbath or after the sabbath, but as the Pharisees method was
contrary
to the Sadducees this ritual they recorded was probably a provocative
account in which the sabbath they are referring to was actually the
ANNUAL holy day of the 15th of Nisan.
The timing of the ceremony carried on by the
Priests of
cutting and offering the Wave-sheaf determined the start of the fifty
day count. Deut 16:9 says "Begin to number the seven weeks from when
you begin to put the sickle to the corn." Who was the "you" in this
verse? Was it any madman who cut a sheaf of barley, rye or some other
crop regardless of how early before the Passover they did it? Was it
the Samaritans who had their own temple on Mount Gerizim, (John 4:20)
the Essenes at Qumran or the Falashas in Ethiopia, or some modern day,
self appointed religious leaders using their various calendar dating
and methods of counting? Just because the
Pharisees cut a sheaf prior to the Sadducees Wave-sheaf Sunday didn't
make that the Wave-sheaf day. It was the duty of the priests who were
in charge of the Jerusalem temple to both cut and offer the Wave-sheaf
and the other specified offerings
that they had been instructed and it was the Sadducees, who were descendants of Zadok (Ez 48:11) who were in
control of the practices in the temple at Jerusalem up until its
destruction in AD70. Deuteronomy 16:9 says "BEGIN to number the seven
weeks from when you BEGIN to put the sickle to the
corn." Leviticus 23:14-15 says "you shall eat neither bread
nor
grain parched or fresh until - you have brought the offering of your
God: it is a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your
dwellings. And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the
sabbath, FROM THE DAY THAT YE BROUGHT the sheaf of the wave offering;
seven sabbaths shall be complete:", so the day that they CUT the sheaf
with a sickle was the same day that they "BROUGHT" the sheaf to the
temple and was the same day that they "OFFERED" the sheaf to God, and
was the same day to "BEGIN" the 50 day count to Pentecost. These four
procedures were all to occur on THE SAME DAY! There should not have
been any delay because verse 15 says "-FROM the day that ye BROUGHT the
sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:" (Lev
23:15) This implies that the day it was "BROUGHT" was the same day it
was "offered" and the bible says that they were not to "delay" to give
their offerings. (Ex 22:29)
The
account recorded in the bible suggests that there was
a choice of which weekly "sabbath" day it was that proceeded the day they would cut the sheaf, while
if as
the provocative Pharisees asserted, it was referring to the annual
"sabbath" on the 15th then there was no alternative choice. Josephus
who was a Pharisee says, "the second day of unleavened
bread - - before that day they do not touch them. (Ant 3:10:5) If they
did
not "touch" them until the 16th then how could they have eaten them on
the 15th and if they ate unleavened bread made from the crops of
previous years on the 15th then they could also eat unleavened bread
made from the old produce until the Sunday that fell during the days of
Unleavened Bread as was the practice of the Sadducees who did not eat
the new crop until they had offered the Wave-sheaf on that day. Without
a temple in
Jerusalem it is no longer possible for
Israelites to offer the firstfruits from their fields or gardens and as
David and his soldiers were not condemned by Ahimelech the priest
nor Jesus for eating the showbread (Lev 24:5-9) at Nob, (=
prophecy, to
view) 1 Sam 21:1-6, Matt 12:4-5 it is presently impracticable, although
some
may make a token offering of produce or money on the Wave-sheaf day.
(Prov 3:9) "many citizens of the modern State of Israel maintain the
spirit of the ancient sacrifice by selling the firstfruits of their
harvest and donating the proceeds to the Jewish National Fund."
(Hatikvah, May 1999 p7)
CHRISTIAN TYPOLOGY Several
bible stories are set in this time of year, The Creation, Cain and
Abel, Lot in Sodom, The Exodus, Joshua at Jerico, Samson and the
Philistines, Ruth and Boaz, the Song of Solomon and Elisha at Gilgal. The three pilgrim harvest festivals convey meaning
from
the physical to the spiritual, for Israel, the church, individuals
and world society,
in the past, the present and future, and reveal a biblical purpose or
plan in world events. According to Samuele Bacchiocchi their typology
can be
applied to the eschatological (chronological order of events in
history) and also contain Christological, Ecclesiastical and
Soteriological meanings. The typology of Jesus being born on
the first day of the
Feast of Tabernacles, dying on the Passover, and the giving of the holy
Spirit on the day of Pentecost, can be extended to him being offered as
the Firstfruits from the dead on the day of the
Wavesheaf, (1Cor 15:20) which was a Sunday. Jesus was likened to the Omer
of
Firstfruits that were not to be eaten or "touched" until they had been
offered to God. Jesus is recorded as saying on the day after his
resurrection "do not hold me for I have not yet ascended to the Father:
but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I am ascending to my father -
Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, 'I have seen the Lord';
and she told them that he had said these things unto her" (John
20:17-18). If Jesus didn't ascend, then why did he tell Mary to tell
them "I ascend". (v17) Did he really lie to Mary and then tell
Mary to lie to his brethren, for this is what she told them, (v18)
later the same day his followers were no longer prevented from touching
him, (Matt 28:9, Luke 24:38) showing that he had ascended to his Father
that morning and had returned the same day, which was the Wavesheaf
day, the day after the sabbath, the first day of the week, Sunday, the
day when the Firstfruits were waved, and from which the 50 days to
Pentecost began to be counted.
THE 50 DAYS These
seven
weeks of barley harvest are thought to represent or picture the
spiritual harvesting or gathering of Gods saints between the time of
the first coming of Jesus, and the time of his second coming, when the
"first" resurrection is to occur, which will apparently include all the
earlier believers like Noach, Abraham, David etc. (Heb Ch 11) Some say
the 50 days are symbolic of the time given to the church to preach the
gospel and some say the ripening wheat crop represents the maturing of
these Christians. The saints who are "born again" on the day
of
Jesus' return are represented by the barley harvest of which Jesus is
the firstfruits and they are also like the firstfruits of the wheat
harvest when they are resurrected. (Rom 8:23, James 1:18, Rev 14:4). In
the book of Exodus the "firstborn" of the
Israelites were consecrated to God (Ex 13:2, Hos 9:10), Jesus is called
"the firstfruits of them that slept." (1 Cor 15:20) The elect
Christians who have the firstfruits of the spirit are called
"firstfruits" (Rom 8:23, James 1:18) as are the 144,000. (Rev 14:4) "A
nation of kings and priests" (Rev 1:6, 5:10) In the bible God calls both physical and spiritual Israel
his
firstfruits. (Jer 2:3) These "firstfruits" are not literal kings on thrones or priests of the order of Melchisedek ruling
somewhere on earth today but are those promised future rulership after the "first"
resurrection. Leviticus 23 says that the 50 days to
Pentecost are to be counted beginning from the day of the Wave-sheaf
offering, which some say does not mean that it should to be counted
from the day after the weekly sabbath that falls during the days of
Unleavened Bread from the
15th to 21st of Nisan (or Abib), but only from the time when the
harvest
became ripe enough to present as an offering at the tabernacle or
temple and which may not necessarily have occurred by the day following
the weekly sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread, in fact it
would only be a fluke if the barley ripened conveniently each year
after the equinox in the third week of the lunar month. Philo who lived
at the same time as Jesus, said "- when the feast is held, the fruit of
the corn has not reached its perfection, for the fields are in the ear
stage and not yet mature for harvest." (The Special Laws 2:158, Loeb
Vol 7, p403) The day that the Wave-sheaf was cut was regarded
as a
work day by the Sadducees, but the Pharisees gave permission for the
Omer to be
cut even on the sabbath as would sometimes result by their method of
determination, (S. Zeitlin, The Rise and Fall of the Judaean State, Vol
1, p233) The Mishna shows whenever the
Pharisees Wavesheaf day on the 16th of Nisan co-incided with a weekly
sabbath they reduced the measurements and their activities. (Men 10:1)
so in the days of the temple when the Sadducees were in charge
and the Wave-sheaf day fell on a Sabbath or in a Sabbatical
year, the Sadducees may
have only made a token sickle cut or the cutting of the Wave-sheaf by
the
Sadducees may have even been delayed
until the Sunday of the following week which was after the days of
Unleavened Bread, unless it was sufficient for the Sadducees to enact a
ceremonial cutting of the Wave-sheaf when the annual holy day on the 15th of Nisan fell
on a Sunday, as was probably the case
as the practice of the Samaritans shows.
COUNTING FROM THE SABBATH Leviticus
23:11,15, says that the 50 days to Pentecost are to be counted
from "the morrow after the Sabbath". The Bible does not give
a
calendar date for either the day the Wave-sheaf is to be
offered
or for Pentecost, so today like the Sadducees and Pharisees some
believe it is the WEEKLY Sabbath while others
think it means one of the two ANNUAL holy days of the Feast of
Unleavened Bread. In the laws of
Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 the seventh day of the week is שבת spelt
"SBT", "a sabbath", as well as השבת "HSBT", "the sabbath".
In Leviticus 23:3
the seventh
day is called "SBT SBTVN", sabbath sabbaton which is translated by
Gunther Plaut as a sabbath of complete rest. The annual holy
days
are not called "HSBT", "the sabbath" in the Hebrew bible. While the
annual holy days are not called "HSBT", "the sabbath", they are
described in a similar way. In Leviticus 23:24 the Hebrew word
"sabbathon" is used in referring to the consecration of the first day
of
the seventh month. (Bab' Talmud, New Year) In Leviticus 16:31
and
23:32 the Day of Atonements is a
"SBT SBTVN", a sabbath sabbaton, which is translated in Plaut as "a
sabbath of complete rest for you". The "Day of Atonements" is like a
sabbath because unlike the other annual holy days on which food is
permitted to be prepared, the "Day of Atonements", being a fast day,
when
food is not eaten, is a day of complete rest, like the weekly sabbath
day is. Verse 32 concludes with "your sabbath" which is translated from
"SBTKM". Sabbaton is also used in Lev 23:39 referring to the
first day of the Feast of Succot and the "Eighth" day and to the
sabbatical year (Lev
25:4-5) The Hebrew word "HSBT", "the sabbath", means the weekly sabbath
and does not mean to refer to any one of the annual holy
days. In
Lev 23:11 and 23:15, the Hebrew word is "HSBT", the sabbath. It
is not referring to any annual holy day, although those who argue that
the 50 days to Pentecost begin from Nisan 16, disagree with this, and
claim that it does refer to the ANNUAL holy day, and not to the WEEKLY
sabbath. W. Gunther Plaut commenting in support of the Pharisees
method says, "nowhere else is the term shabbat applied to a festival"
(The Torah, A Modern Commentary, p923) but as the Caldwell Church of
God
point out, "the morrow after the sabbath" and "seven sabbaths shall be
complete" in verse 15 both use the same word "HSBT", for "the sabbath",
so if the first one is an annual sabbath, then the second one would
also refer to the seventh annual sabbath, and how silly it would be for
Pentecost
to fall
after seven ANNUAL sabbaths were complete, which would be following the
15th of Nisan the next year, which certainly would not be 50 days later. The
bible clearly gives the date for the Passover to be on the 14th of Nisan and
that the holy day is to be on the 15th, so if the Wave-sheaf day was to be on the
16th it could have clearly given us that date as well. After choosing to accept that
the Wave-sheaf Day follows a
"weekly"
sabbath rather than the "annual" sabbath, Bernie
Monsalvo
lists three variables. 1)
Which calendar is to be used. 2) Is the Wave-sheaf Sunday within or
outside the days of Unleavened Bread. 3) Should the 50 day count
include or exclude the Wave-sheaf day. (The Journal, April 2001,
p6) For those unsure whether
the counting was exclusive or
inclusive of the first or last days, not only could it be counted by using the number of
days but it could also be counted by the number of "weeks".
COUNTING WEEKS The
Hebrew word for weeks (shavuot) comes
from the word "sabbaths" and "seven", and
the word week means a week ending on the sabbath, not just any seven
days, it is derived from the Hebrew verb "shevet" which means to cease,
to terminate, to be at an end. "shavat" means to rest, cease or desist, and refers to the weekly sabbath. If you
count from any other day than the day following the weekly sabbath
(Sunday) then only six full weeks or six sabbaths can be complete until
the 50th day, but Leviticus 23:15 says seven full weeks or sabbaths
shall be complete, and this can only be done by beginning to count from
a Sunday "the day following the (weekly) sabbath". Lev 23:16 says "to
the morrow after the seventh sabbath-". "Not only were they instructed
how to BEGIN the count, they were also told how to END the count, with
a "morrow after the seventh Sabbath," - (How to count Pentecost,
p4) Anciently the Pharisees method of counting from the 16th of Nisan resulted in
Pentecost falling on any day of the week but since the introduction of
the calculated
calendar in use today, it now only results in a Sunday,
Monday, Wednesday or Friday for "shavuot" or "Pentecost", which is not always "the morrow after
the seventh SABBATH." This supports the view that Lev 23:15 can only
mean the
WEEKLY
sabbath and does not mean it is counted from any ANNUAL holy day. 5
Maccabees 21:23 says that "Pentecost immediately
follows the sabbath". Josephus who held and supported the Pharisees
beliefs and practices quotes Nicolas of Damascus who explained why the
Jews had not marched out with Antiochus saying "the festival of
Pentecost had come around, following the sabbath and we are not
permitted to march either on the sabbath or on a festival". (Ant
13:8:4)
This is clearly after the WEEKLY sabbath as there is no alternative
annual sabbath at this time of year. Both of these historical records
show that Pentecost followed a weekly sabbath. If it was true
that
"Pentecost was always counted from
Nisan 16 and not from the weekly sabbaths", as some claim, (The
Journal, Nov, 2000, p13) then Pentecost would not have always fallen
"immediately" following the sabbath but would have sometimes fallen on
or before the sabbath as well, and so further shows that the Pharisees
method of
counting
from Nisan 16 was not "always" used at all. The first indication of a
divergence from Pentecost being
kept on a Sunday is in the Septuagint version of Leviticus 23:15,
written in about 270BC that translates the wavesheaf day as being "the
morrow of the first day". It appears that before about the time of
Antiochus, about 135BC, that Pentecost was kept by many or
perhaps most Jews
on a Sunday, but from about sometime after the writing of the Book of 1
Enoch, probably around 170BC, which contains the first 364 day
calendar, the Pharisees method of counting from the 16th of Nisan seems
to have grown in acceptance.
THE JUBILEE A
parallel can be
drawn for the counting of Pentecost with the sabbatical rest for the
land every seven years in Leviticus 25:8-10. After seven times seven
years they were to proclaim a Jubilee on the 50th year. The Jubilee
followed the seventh sabbatical rest year, the 49th year, making two
rest years together on the 49th and 50th years, in like manner the day
of Pentecost follows the seventh sabbath making the 49th and 50th days
two rest days in a row. This pattern is often broken counting from the
16th of Nisan.
OTHER SABBATHS There
is no rule, law or command in the bible that says that either the
"sabbath" or the "Wave-sheaf" Day must fall within the Days of
Unleavened Bread. The
Wave-sheaf day is the day after the sabbath (Lev
23:11,15) but which weekly "morrow after the sabbath"
in Nisan (also
called Abib) is
the
correct Wave-sheaf Sunday to begin the 50 day count to Pentecost from?
Couldn't it be counted from any one of
the other 3 or 4 weekly sabbaths in Abib/Nisan? Can we know which
sabbath day the bible wants us to use? The bible does not say that the 50 day
count to Pentecost should start during the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
"- the numbering of the seven weeks was to begin 'from such time as you
begin to put the sickle to the grain'. Once we realize that the
counting of Pentecost is not directly connected with the
Passover/Unleavened Bread festival then the 'sabbath' mentioned in
Leviticus 23:15-16 must be the weekly sabbath." (Vance Stinson, Should
we observe Pentecost on Sivan 6, p29) Although the bible does not
specify that the
Wavesheaf was to be offered during the days of Unleavened Bread, the 50
day count in Exodus Ch's 12-19 began from this time. By
counting
the
days from the Exodus, (Ex 12:6) to the giving of the law at Mount
Sinai,
shows that the 50 day count began from the day following the night that
the Israelites crossed the sea, which was on the Wave-sheaf Sunday.
This account shows the "Wave-sheaf" Day was the day after the
weekly sabbath during the Days of
Unleavened Bread and this is the same pattern following the
death
of
Jesus on the Passover and his appearance on the Wave-sheaf Sunday. Paul
Yoos in the Journal (June 30 1999, p18 and Nov 30
1999, p2) said the Wavesheaf Day is the day after the weekly Sabbath
that falls within the Days of Unleavened Bread, so in the years when
the 14th of Nisan falls on a weekly Sabbath, he claims that the
Wavesheaf Day follows the Sabbath at the end of the Days of Unleavened
Bread, (Nisan 22) and that this was changed by the WCG in 1974 and also
that Joshua 5:10-11 cannot be used to support the change.
THE
ACCOUNT IN JOSHUA 5 The
circumcising at
Gilgal in Joshua 5:8 should not have caused anyone from keeping the
Passover which was on the 14th of the FIRST month. (Josh 4:19, 5:10)
Joshua
5:11 shows the Israelites ate unleavened cakes on the day after the
Passover on the 14th, which appears to have made the Wave Sheaf Day to have been on Sunday the 15th of Nisan, (which was the Sadducees method.) The example of Jesus being pictured as the typical
Wavesheaf,
ascending to his Father and returning on the first day of "the weeks",
shows that both before and while the temple existed it was observed
this
way, and should be kept this way today and so now when the temple no
longer exists and the priests no longer offer the Wave-sheaf, whenever
the passover
day falls on the weekly sabbath as it also would have in the first month of
creation, the 50 day count to Pentecost begins on Sunday the 15th of
Nisan which is the only Sunday during the Days of Unleavened Bread in
these years.
| Saturday |
Sunday |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
|
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
| Crossed
Jordan |
|
|
|
Passover |
Unleavened cakes |
Manna ceased |
| Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
Monday |
In years like 2001 when the Passover was on a Friday eve/Saturday, the only weekly Sabbath day during the seven days of
the Feast of Unleavened Bread is the last day, right at the end of the
seven day feast. Because of this some people believe that the
Wave-sheaf day should be kept on the Sunday after the Days of
Unleavened Bread because they say that the counting of the 50 days
must begin from the Sunday that follows the weekly sabbath
WITHIN the Days of Unleavened Bread rather than those who
say we should count from the Sunday that follows the weekly
sabbath which
falls the day before the beginning of the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened
Bread and
that it is the
Wave-sheaf day that is to fall WITHIN the days of Unleavened
Bread. Garner
Ted Armstrong makes this difference clear when he says that Lev 23:15
includes two
days, the "MORROW" and the "SABBATH" and that the emphasis should be
that "the morrow" should be within the days of Unleavened Bread rather
than emphasizing that "the Sabbath" should fall within them. (When is
Pentecost, p7) In the bible account of the Exodus from Egypt we are given some
of the dates following the Passover on 14 Nisan, and so we are able to
count forward up to Pentecost and backwards from "the fifteenth day of
the second month -" (Exodus 16:1) We can see that the evening following
the 15th day was the
beginning of the six days they were given manna to collect. (Ex 16:5,
v22) The seventh day was a sabbath day, (Ex 16:23) and so by counting
forwards to Pentecost and counting backwards from this day will show us that
the 50 days to
Pentecost began to be counted from the Sunday morning when the
Israelites had crossed the Sea. As this Sunday was the fourth day
of the feast (18 Nisan) then we can see
the 50 day count to Pentecost began with the Sunday that fell during
the Days of Unleavened Bread. (In Joshua 4:19 it was different. They
crossed the Jordan river on the 10th of Nisan.) But what about in years
like the year 2001? Although the bible does not give a date or say if the Wave-sheaf day is to fall within the Days of
Unleavened Bread or not, we are told that the month of the harvest
offering is to be the first
month of the year. (Ex 9:31-32, 12:2, 23:5) The right day for Pentecost all hinges
upon counting from the correct day for offering the Wave-sheaf and this was
done by the Sadducean priests who had control of the temple. When the Passover on the 14th
coincides with the sabbath day the Samaritans, the Karaites and most of the Churchs of God follow the Sadducees practice and begin
counting with Sunday the 15th of Nisan, the day following the weekly
sabbath at the beginning
of the seven day feast. If this is not done, then because the bible
commanded
that
the new crop could not be eaten before the firstfruits had been offered
to God, then none of the new crop could be eaten during the Feast of
Unleavened Bread which is unlike the practice in any other normal year.
Also Exodus 22:29 says "Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy
ripe fruits. -" Waiting until the Sunday following the sabbath day at
the end of the feast could be taken as an unnecessary "delay" which is
against the bible instruction.
The chronological order of the typology of the
Passover,
the resurrection and the Wave-sheaf day does not have a fixed number of
days between the Passover and the Wave-sheaf day. When the Passover
falls on a Friday then the Wave-sheaf day is only two days later. In
years like 2001 when the Passover was on a Saturday it is only one day
later, (the day of the resurrection which occured on a weekly sabbath
day is not
represented by any of the annual holy days) so why delay until the
eighth day when there is no commandment given in the bible to do this
and when it causes the Wave-sheaf day to fall outside the Days of
Unleavened Bread which in the holy day typology symbolizes freedom from
sin and so becomes contrary to the Christian typology of a sinless
offering in these years. According to the Mishna (Men 10:3, 9, 11:3)
the Pharisees could cut the Wave-sheaf on a weekly sabbath because they
believed cutting their Wave-sheaf "overrides the sabbath". For the Sadducees the
Wave-sheaf day was usually a work
day but in
these special years when the Wave-sheaf day co-incides with the annual
holy day on the 15th of Nisan, although it was little different for the
Sadducees from the practice
in normal years when the reapers of the harvest had to rest from
gathering the harvest on the weekly sabbath days and annual holy
days, being prevented from reaping on this particular annual holy
day
was really no different than the practice on any other sabbath day
during the 50 day count, although it would mean that the Sadducees
would
have to cut the Wave-sheaf on the annual holy day of the 15th of
Nisan. As the Levites were instructed to do the work of offering
sacrifices, even on sabbaths, as mentioned in Matt 12:5, then why
shouldn't cutting the Wave-sheaf on the 15th of Nisan by the Levitical priests similarly be permittable work. This shows that it was a man made decision as
to when they chose "to put the sickle to the corn." and that possibly
it was not always necessarily dependent upon either "the sabbath" or
"days of Unleavened Bread". The bible does not say that either
the
Sabbath or the Wavesheaf Day is required to fall within the Days of
Unleavened Bread but considering: 1) The practice of the Samaritans
(and Sadducees) who offered the Wave-sheaf only between the 15th to 21st of Nisan, which predates the time of Jesus. 2)
The pictorial message and sequence of the Holy Days which show that
just as Jesus was killed on the 14th before he ascended on the
Wave-sheaf Day, so the sabbath days in Nisan before the 14th would not
fit the typological pattern but any of the seven days following the
14th do, for the Wavesheaf was to be offered without "delay" following
the Passover, not eight days later. Offering the Wavesheaf and the
Unleavened bread of the Firstfruits (Lev 23:13) on the eighth day
suggests
an additional eighth day of Unleavened Bread which is contrary to the
completion of the Days of Unleavened Bread in seven days. (Ex 34:18,
Lev
13:6, Nu 28:17) and if the Wave sheaf day was delayed until after the
Days of Unleavened Bread then none of the new crop could be eaten
during the feast, and would be unlike the situation in any normal
years.
By counting the days from the Exodus, (Ex 12:6) to
the
giving of the law at Mount Sinai shows that the 50 day count began from
the day following the night that the Israelites crossed the sea, which
was on the Wave-sheaf Sunday, so this example shows that it was the
sabbath during the Days of Unleavened Bread and this is the same
pattern following the death of Jesus on the Passover and his appearance
on the Wave-sheaf day. In the years when the 14th of Nisan falls on the
weekly sabbath there is no bible conforming alternative than for: 1) the unleavened
bread that is eaten on "the night to be much remembered" to be made
from the produce of the crops from previous years and 2) for the
wave-sheaf firstfruits to be cut on the wave-sheaf day which coincides
with the annual holy day. As there is no alternative in these years,
why quibble about this practice in the other years? The
Israelites crossed the Jordan "on the tenth of the first month" (Josh
4:19)
Some think this was identical to the pattern at the time of the Exodus of a
Wednesday Passover but as they carried stones from the Jordan on this
day (4:5) and the priests carried the ark, (4:16) it suggests that this
was not a sabbath day. The manna ceased on "the morrow after
they had eaten of the old corn of the land;" (5:12) it appears to imply
that
the manna stopped on Monday the 16th. There is no record of manna
falling on any of the holy days especially like the day of Atonement
and "ceased" could mean it fell for
the last time rather than it did not fall at all on that day?
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Why did they wait until the
15th before eating "the old
corn of the land" when they could have eaten it anytime from when they
crossed over on the 10th? Joshua 5:11 presents problems for
both
methods of determining the day of the Wavesheaf used by the Pharisees
and the Sadducees. The bread eaten at the beginning of the Days of
Unleavened Bread could only be made from the crops of previous years
and the Israelites were told that when they entered the land they were
to offer the Wavesheaf (Lev 23:10). Josh 5:11 shows that they ate
"from the produce of the land" on the day after the Passover. It is
doubtful that the
Sadducees would do the work of reaping the Wavesheaf on the
15th
of
Nisan which was the annual holy day, while Pharisees would need to have
waited until the 16th before offering the Wavesheaf but perhaps they
did not offer a wavesheaf on this occasion. The meaning of the
term "old" corn is questionable. The Complete Wordstudy of the OT says
the Hebrew word "abuwr" in v11 is "used only of stored grain". We are
told that they ate "unleavened cakes and parched grain" on the morrow
after the Passover. As the calendar has a 19 year cycle, then saying
the Passover in the first year at Sinai was a Wednesday we could expect
that after the end of 2 cycles of 19 years which are 6939.6 days long,
plus 2 more years of 354 days
each (354+354=708) would make a total of 2083 weeks and 6 days, and so
would result in the Passover falling on a Monday in the 41st year, or
if one was a leap year (354+384=738) the total would be 2088 weeks and
1 day, resulting
in the Passover in Joshua falling on a Wednesday, although this could
vary by a day or two as the Passover in the first year may have been on
a Thursday, the 39th and 40th years could have been a day longer or
shorter, and a leap
month could be 29 or 30 days, so we are faced with some uncertainties.
In latter practice the Mishna shows that the first month of the year,
the month in
which the wavesheaf was offered, was in fact roughly calculated in some
way because in Megillat Ta'anit it says that the regular crops took 6
months to grow, they were planted in Heshvan and harvested in Nisan.
(Malter p50 & p194) The produce in Babylon ripened
later than
in Palestine, (p46) but there was some barley that was specially
planted 70 days before the day of the Wavesheaf for the Omer. (Mishna,
Menahoth, {meal offerings} 8:2, Danby p502). This appears to have been
on the first Sunday on or after the 6th of Shebat (or Adar in leap
years) by the "Sadduceean" method which would have been between 116 to
120 days before Pentecost. If it had been a Pharisaic idea they would
have found that sometimes the 70th day before their Wavesheaf day would
have fallen on the weekly sabbath and they would not have been free to
plant the crop.
The firstfruits of this specially grown crop were
harvested on the 70th day, which was apparently regardless of whether
the crop was ripe or still green. The Mishna, Menahoth 10:9 says that
the Omer could be fresh or dried, which shows that there was still some
degree of human choice, regardless of the state of the barley crop in
deciding which month was to begin the year, they may have considered
the equinox or the Babylonian calendar leap cycle as this shows that
they knew ahead whether or not the coming year would have a leap month
added to it or not. They already knew beforehand which Sunday it would
be that they would plant the crop, which was 10 weeks or 70 days before
the day of the Wavesheaf, which could not have been otherwise predicted
if the Pharisees method using the fixed date of Nisan 16 was being
followed in conjunction with the length of the months being determined
by visual sighting alone, in fact multiple long months could have even
resulted in the situation of the Wavesheaf being offered before the
first day of Unleavened
Bread had arrived, when the sequence of the festivals in Leviticus 23
shows the
Wavesheaf was offered during the time after the commencement of the
days of Unleavened Bread. From this day after the sabbath in which they had
put the
sickle to the standing grain, and offered the Omer, the fifty days to
Pentecost began to be counted. (Deut 16:9-12). "the entire period of
the counting became known as the Sefirat HaOmer, the Counting of the
Omer, and is referred to as the period of the Sefira (the Counting)."
(Hatikvah, May 1999 p6)
THE ASCENSION
The account in the book of Acts says that the ascension of Jesus took
place after "being seen of them forty days," (Acts 1:3) which is taken to have been on a
Thursday, making it ten days before the Sunday of
Pentecost but was it on the 40th day, at the end of the 40th day or sometime after, possibly on Friday evening or Saturday, (the Sabbath, eight Hebrew days before Pentecost). When they were assembled together the disciples were told "not to depart from Jerusalem" (Acts 1:4 ) but Acts 1:6 appears to refer to a later meeting on the mount of Olives, "When they therefore were come together", (which was usually on the sabbath)
from where Jesus was "taken up", after which "returned they unto Jerusalem
from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's
journey." Luke's mention of "a sabbath days journey" suggests they returned either in the
evening at the beginning of the sabbath or more likely after the
sabbath had more fully come, during the daytime, eight days before
Pentecost.
PENTECOST is
the third feast
day of the seven annual festivals listed in Leviticus 23. It has
several other names in Hebrew: Shavuot which
means the Feast of Weeks, from the method of counting off seven "weeks"
to determine when it is to be held, Bikkurim, the Day of
Firstfruits, because the "firstfruits" were offered on that day, as
well as Chag Hakatzir, the Festival of the Harvest (Ex 23:16) or the
Festival Day, it is also called the Feast of Oaths, (shvuoth) and with
various English spellings it is known as Atseres, Atzeret, Atzereth or
Azereth meaning the "conclusion" of the barley harvest which is also
used to refer to the last day of Unleavened Bread and of Tabernacles.
The Greek
word Pentecost is first found in the book of Tobit (2:1) which was written
in about 200BC. In Greek
Pentecost means fiftieth, the fiftieth day after the Omer, a sheaf of
the firstfruits of the barley harvest, was waved before the Lord.
THE MORROW AFTER THE
SEVENTH SABBATH: The Radio Church of God began by
keeping Pentecost on the
6th of Sivan before changing to a Monday Pentecost. Robert Macdonald
says this was because Chloe Schippert and her family thought they had
been visited by an angel named James Messenger in 1934, who told them
that Pentecost is always on a Monday. (Journal, May 2000, p4). GTA says
it was because of some womans dream. The WCG changed to a Sunday
Pentecost after a ministerial conference in 1974. Paul Yoos
says the change began in May 1974 (The Journal, June
1999, p18) with the added refinement which is the ancient practice of
the Samaritans and was later adopted by the Karaites from them, that
when the Passover on Nisan 14 falls on a weekly sabbath day, then the
next day (Sunday Nisan 15) is to be observed as the Omer or Wavesheaf
day (not Nisan 22) as their calendar shows.
Some
think that Pentecost or Weeks is a name for the entire 50 day period
from the day of the Wavesheaf offering called "Sefirat Ha'Omer",
"counting the Omer", and that the term in Acts 2:1 that it had "fully
come" means that the 50th day had arrived, others think that the
daylight part had arrived. "fully come" probably means the "Sadduceen"
Pentecost on Sunday May 20 or June 17 rather than the Pharisees
"Pentecost" on Friday May 15 or if it was in the next month was
probably Friday June 15, this also supports the view that the Passover
in AD31 was not on a Friday otherwise the Pharisees Pentecost would
have been on the same day as the Sadducees when the calendar shows it
was not.
Pentecost marks the end of the spring barley
harvest in
Israel and the beginning of the summer wheat harvest when the
firstfruits of the wheat harvest were offered, other summer fruits were
also offered on this day which was the beginning of the fruit harvest.
Syrian firstfruits were treated as if they came from the outskirts of
Jerusalem. (Hallah 4:1, Danby p88). Some said olives could be brought
from beyond Jordan, others disagreed "since that is not the land
flowing with milk and honey". (Bikk 1:1, Danby p95). On the
day of
Pentecost two loaves of bread made from the firstfruits of the new
wheat harvest were to be offered by a priest to the Lord. (Lev
23:17) These are thought to represent the church, and also two
lambs were to be slaughtered. (Menahoth 7:3) Pentecost is
connected to
circumcision, baptism and marriage. In prophecy Ronald Dart connects
Pentecost to the sixth seal of Revelation, the sealing of the 144,000
and also couples it with the Day of the Lord. (Joel 2:28-32, Acts
2:17-21) Pentecost commemorates both the traditional season of when God
gave the law at Sinai, (Zeman matan toratenu) which is also called the
birthday of Israel, and the day on which the Apostles were given the
Power of the holy Spirit, (Acts 2:1-4) and is the reason why some Christians call
the day of
Pentecost, the birthday of the church.
PENTECOST DATING
Amongst
Jews and Christians various calendars and methods are used to determine
which day to observe Pentecost on. The Sadducees using the Sanhedrins
calendar counted the 50 days to Pentecost from the day of the Wavesheaf
offering, which was the Sunday following the WEEKLY sabbath during the
days of Unleavened Bread. The Pharisees kept it 50 days after the 16th
of Nisan, the day following the first day of Unleavened Bread.
364 DAY SOLAR CALENDAR The
book of 1 Enoch, written in about 170BC contains a solar calendar with
a 364 day year starting from the equinox in March, "And during this
period the day becomes daily longer and the night nightly shorter-"
(72:6-9, 82:15). The first day of the first month is said to begin when
"the night is equal to the day." (72:32) This occurs in Jerusalem about
5 days before the date of the equinox, but it is unlikely they knew
this or could determine which day had equal day and night, so they
probably used the date of the equinox. Both the first and second months
of this calendar have 30 days each.
The book of Jubilees was written in about 107BC or
in the
first century after Christ according to Schodde, and it also has a 364
day
calendar.
Solomon Zeitlin quotes Jubilees 2:2 "For the first
day--",
and says the Jubilees calendar began on a Sunday each year. (Jewish
Quarterly Review 57-58, 1966-68 p41). Thus the 364 day Jubilees
calendar began each year on the first Sunday following the northern
spring equinox. Robert Charles the translator of the book of Jubilees
commenting in his notes says, "the effect of a solar year reckoned at
364 days would be that the festivals would always be celebrated on the
same day of the week. Nisan 14 would always fall on a sabbath, Nisan 22
(when the wave sheaf was to be offered) on a Sunday, and the Feast of
Weeks, Sivan 15, on a Sunday. (The Book of Jubilees, Note 1
p65) but this calendar is apparently contradictory, for if it contained
30 days in Nisan and Iyar as Jubilees Ch 6 suggests, then the 50th day
following Nisan 22 would make Pentecost fall on Sunday Sivan 11 and not
on Sivan 15 which would be a Thursday, and the sixteenth of Sivan, when
it is said that Moses went to collect the stone tablets, would be a
Friday. It seems that this is the reason it is claimed that Nisan and
Iyar only have 28 days each, making the 50 days from Sunday Nisan 22 to
be Sunday Sivan 15.
The Dead Sea scrolls also contain a calendar with
a 364
day solar year which began "on the first day of the seventh month, a
Wednesday. (Chronology, Jack Finegan p49), although on p118 of an early
edition of the Temple Scroll, by Yigael Yadin the first month begins
with Nisan, which also begins on a Wednesday each year. Both Nisan and
Iyar have 30 days. The wavesheaf was offered on the 26th of the first
month (Nisan) which was the first Sunday following the Days of
Unleavened Bread, and so Pentecost which is called the Feast of
Firstfruits, was always held on the 15th of the third month, (Sivan)
and was always a Sunday. This Dead Sea Scroll calendar is apparently
based upon the calendar in the Book of Jubilees as Finegan points out
in his "Principals of Chronology" p48, that this is what the Zadokite
fragment suggests, but mysteriously the two calendars begin on
different days of the week. It is not clear how closely this
Qumran calendar ran to the Sanhedrins calendar, but as Nisan began from
the equinox, which was about March 22nd O/S at this time, there may
have been up to about a two week difference between the two systems.
The Qumran calendar begins the 50 day count to Pentecost from Nisan 26,
which was the first Sunday after the Days of Unleavened
Bread. This calendar may never have been used in practice, for
as
Solomon Zeitlin says, "the theory that some Judaeans during the Second
Commonwealth began the week with Wednesday is a fantasy. (Jewish
Quarterly Review 57-58, 1966-8 p41)
The Therapeutae who are believed to be allied to
the
Qumran sect held a meeting every 7 weeks which was a prelude to the
50th day which they regarded as the greatest festival related to the
sacred number of the square of the sides of the primal right-angled
triangle when raised to the second power. [3x3 + 4x4 + 5x5 = 50].
(Philo of Alexandria, The Contemplative Life 8:66 and The Special Laws
2:177-8).
The Pentecontad calendar of the western Semites
"divides
the year into seven periods of seven weeks (7 x 7 = 49 days) followed
by a fiftieth or pentecontad festival day. (Schurer p600) In the 1997 edition of the Temple Scroll by Yigael
Yadin
(p96) he shows how the 364 day calendar, which began on a Wednesday,
was divided into 50 day periods which began and finished on a festival;
BARLEY FIRSTFRUITS - Sunday 26th of the First month.
WHEAT FIRSTFRUITS - Sunday 15th of the Third month.
WINE FIRSTFRUITS - Sunday 3rd
of the Fifth month.
OIL FIRSTFRUITS - Sunday 22nd
of the Sixth month.
showing "the calendar used by the author of the Temple scroll was
identical with the one followed by the Qumran community" (p100). There
were others who had similar practices but with slight variations
perhaps using lunar dating.
This system of including the 50th day as the first
day of
the next 50 day cycle may have derived from, or contributed to the
practice of using the same 7 x 7 = 49 cycle for counting the sabbatic
years as well.
New members to the Qumran sect were told "not to
advance
their times or to lag behind any of their seasons" (The Manual of
Discipline, 1QS, I 14-15 Pl 6, Finegan p45) which seems to suggest
there were alternative practices being followed by some. Apparently
there are some today who use a sundial to determine the equinox and
follow a 364 day year and have "ignored the moon reckoning altogether."
(Sacred Name article) This method eliminates the need for
having a
fixed system to add on the 1 1/4 days approximately, that the 364 day
calendar is short of each year, which amounts to one week in 7 years,
with another additional week every 28 years.
As Spring in the southern hemisphere begins in
September,
those using the solar calendar say Pentecost is held 6 months later
than it is in the northern hemisphere, but this introduces the problem
of those living on the equator or crossing the equator during this
time, keeping it twice a year or perhaps not keeping it at all. The
High Priest could only enter the Holy of holies once a year, not twice.
As Y.N.C.A. magazine points out, the bible does not say anything about
varying the Feasts to suit the climate, such as in the Arctic where
there is no harvest, or for the Southern hemisphere, where the seasons
are the opposite of those in Israel. Zechariah 14:16-19 says that "all
the nations" will keep the Feast of Tabernacles at Jerusalem, and it is
kept there in the month of Tishri, not Nisan. (Q&A March/April
1996
p31)
FALASHAS The
Falashas of
Abyssinia (the black Jews) count the 50 days to Pentecost from the 22nd
of Nisan, the day following the last day of the Feast of Unleavened
Bread. The Falashas calendar has 30 days in Nisan and 29 days in Iyar,
so they observe Pentecost, the Festival of Harvest, on Sivan 12
according to their calendar. Schauss says the Omer was offered on the
twenty second day of Nisan by both the Falashas and also the book of
Jubilees, "The difference between them is entirely a matter of the
calendar. According to the Book of Jubilees the months of Nisan and
Iyar each have twenty eight days; according to the Falashas these
months have 30 and 29 days. So
Shavous according to the Book of Jubilees comes on the 15th day of
Sivan and according to the Falashas on the 12th day of the month" (The
Jewish Festivals, p296-297) Although theoretically both
calendars
arrive at the same Sunday for Pentecost there is no certainty that they
began the year on the same day as each other. The Falashas also use a
different system of intercalation than the Hebrew calendar every 3 or 4
years and the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol 2, says that between
the communities they occasionally celebrate on different days.
SAMARITANS
The Samaritans today
keep the practice of the Sadducees by counting from the day following
the weekly sabbath until the day after the seventh sabbath or week and
then celebrate Pentecost on the 50th day after the day of the
Wave-sheaf offering, which is always a Sunday. They follow this pattern
using their conjunction based calendar which differs from the Hebrew
calendar of AD801 that is currently in use and also has different
intercalations than those of the Jewish calendar.
KARAITES The
Karaites also use
the Sadduceen method but on a differently calculated calendar which
closely follows the appearance of each new moon.
MAINSTREAM JEWS TODAY
The
majority of practicing Jews use a fixed calculated calendar based on a
system of rules laid out in AD801 and celebrate Pentecost according to
the Pharisaic method, on the fixed date of Sivan 6.
CHRISTIANS
Most of the Churches
of God use the fixed calendar of AD801 and use the Sadducees method of
counting to Pentecost. There are others who use a Babylonian based
calendar in which the first month must only begin after the equinox
(about March 20 N/S), while the Church of God Seventh Day in
Salem West Virginia begin the year with the new moon that is the
closest to (either before or after) the
equinox.
Some count from when the barley in Israel has
"green
ears". The Church of God, O'Beirn in Cleveland Ohio keep it only from
when the harvest in Israel becomes naturally ripe and is ready to mill
for flour to make bread, regardless of which month it is. The Church of
God the Eternal follow the old Radio Church of God belief and
count from
the day following the Wave-sheaf offering, which results in Pentecost
falling on a Monday 50 days later,
Richard Nickels of Giving and Sharing who claimed to use "inclusive"
counting also arrived at the same Monday, but began the count from the
Wavesheaf day until the day following the 50th day, the 51st day,
(Journal, June 30-2001 p4) but just as the first year is from 0 to 1,
so the 50th year begins from the completion of the 49th year and ends with the 50th.
A fiftieth birthday is the start
of the 51st year. Gary Miller says that in sabbatical years when no
harvesting is to be done, that there is no count, and therefore there
is no Pentecost in these years, (The Land Sabbath that made History,
p13-14), he also thinks that Pentecost was a solstice festival and that
it should be held within just a few days of the (northern) summer
solstice, about June 21 N/S, (Counting to Pentecost p9), but as the
barley harvest marked the first month of the Hebrew calendar called
Abib or Aviv, (Ex 12:2) when the barley was "in the ear" (Ex 9:31) and
in which the Passover was to be kept, (Ex 13:4, 34:18) and as the
reaping of the harvest and Wavesheaf is intrinsically a part of this
first month, and as Pentecost falls only 50 days after the offering of
the
Omer, which was no later than the end of April, then Pentecost could
not be that late, so it is not a solstice celebration, which would fall
about 90 days after the March equinox. Henk Jens thinks that Pentecost
is on Sivan 7.
CATHOLIC &
ORTHODOX In
AD325 at the Council of Nicea, the basis for counting to Pentecost was
changed by the rejection of the Jewish calendar and the adoption of the
Julian calendar. Emperor Constantine declared that the Pasche, which
they thought was the day of the resurrection, was to be kept on the
first Sunday after the full moon following the equinox. They thought
that the equinox was fixed on the 21st of March. This is more
accurately defined as "the Sunday following the 'Ecclesiastical' full
moon that falls on or after March 21." (The
Astronomical Almanac) They also said that the Pasche (Easter Sunday)
was never to be observed before or coincide with the Passover but was
to follow it "and that we should have nothing in common with the Jews"
(Post Nicene, Vol 14, p55) Most Orthodox churches still follow this
Nicene rule that Easter is to follow after the Jewish Passover. The epact (the difference between the solar and lunar cycle ) was introduced which uses the phase of the
moon expressed in whole days on January 1. (S&T Nov '82 p419)
The reason that the Orthodox sometimes observe
Easter
later than Catholics is because Catholics and the Armenian Apostolic
Church which is Oriental Orthodox use the Gregorian (N/S) calendar to
determine the date for "Easter", while the Orthodox use the Julian
calendar. The Orthodox Easter can be several weeks later than the
Catholic Easter, it can "fall one, four, or five weeks later." (Brit,
Easter) This is because Julian calendar dates presently fall 13 days
later than they do on the Gregorian calendar and so for the Orthodox
who use the Julian calendar the 21st of March (O/S) does not fall until
the 3rd of April (N/S). "Thus if the full moon occurs between 21 March
and 2 April
(Gregorian) it is not a paschal moon for Eastern Christians -- if,
between 21 March and 3 April (New Style) there is no full moon, the
Paschal moon will be for all Christians that which occurs after April
3. On these occasions, the dates for Pascha either coincide
or
are a week apart. This latter possibility is accounted for by the fact
that in the Paschal Tables (still adhered to by the Orthodox), the
dates of the phases of the moon are behind the real dates by up to 3 or
4 days. If - the full moon occurs at the end of the week, it falls at
the beginning of the next week according to these tables. Pascha will
then fall a week later in the East than in the West" (Sourozh, p47-9,
Greek Orthodox Journal, May 1987.) "- lunar tables for the Paschalia, -
are lagging by five days, it was further noted that this discrepancy
will increase in time." (GOTR 1990 p341) This is explained in Chambers
Encyclopedia, (Easter, p173) "-it is not the actual moon, nor
even
the mean moon -but an altogether imaginary moon whose periods are so
contrived that the new (calendar) moon always follows the real new moon
(sometimes by two, or even three days)". This is because dividing the
Metonic cycle of 6939.69 days by 19 = 365.2468 but the Julian year is
365.25 days or 0.0032 days longer. A lunar correction divides 2500 by 8
which is one day every 312.5 years. (Duncan Steel, Eclipse, p323-4)
There are plans by "officials" in the Church of
England
and "endorsed by the World Council of Churches" to change to "an
astronomically exact version of the formula agreed nearly 2,000 years
ago at the Council of Nicaea." (SMH Aug 2 1999, p8) These differences
cause "Pentecost" to fall on different Sundays than that of those who
follow the Catholic system using the Gregorian calendar but sometimes
these varying methods co-incide with each other.
SUMMARY So
today the Karaites,
Samaritans, and the Christian Church of God who also use a conjunction
based calendar, and some of the other churches of God, follow the
Sadducees method, and count from the day after the weekly sabbath.
Mainstream Jews and others using the Pharisees
method,
count from Nisan 16, the day after the annual holy day as did Ellen
White of the Seventh day Adventists who also believed that Pentecost
was counted the way the Pharisees did, from Nisan 16 "On the second day
of the feast, the firstfruits of the years harvest, a sheaf of barley,
was presented before the Lord"- (Desire of Ages, The Passover Visit),
the Falashas count from the day following the last day of the Feast of
Unleavened Bread, and there are a variety of other systems that people
use to determine the day of Pentecost.
TRADITIONAL DATING
The book of
Jubilees says that Pentecost "was celebrated in heaven from the day of
creation". (Ch 6:18), and that Noach left the ark "on the new moon of
the third month." God then made a covenant with Noach and his three
sons. It was for this reason that God made his covenant with the
children of Israel in this month. (v11) "and that they should celebrate
the Feast of Weeks in this month once a year, to renew the covenant
every year" (v17). Jubilees 15:1 says "in the third month in the
beginning of the month, Abram celebrated the festival of the first of
the grain harvest". Ch 16:1 says "in the third month in the middle of
the month, in the days which the Lord had said to Abraham, on the
festival of the first of harvest, Isaac was born."
Some think that the annual holy days, as shadows
of things
to come, were not made known until the time of the Exodus.
It is believed that it was on the day of Pentecost
that
God proclaimed the commandments to the Israelites from Mt Sinai, in the
third month after they had escaped from their slavery in Egypt. The sons of Israel came into the Wilderness of
Sinai "in
the third month" (Ex 19:1). "And in the third month from the children
of Israels departure from Egypt, on the sixth day thereof, the Lord
gave to Israel the ten commandments on Mount Sinai." (Jasher 82:6), but
in the Babylonian Talmud, R. Jose b. Halafta, who was one of the
writers of the Seder Olam (Talmudic and Rabbinic Chronology, p51) says the law was given on
Sivan 7. (Megillah Ta'anit, Malter p440).
This difference of opinion could easily occur
using the
Pharisees method of counting Pentecost from Nisan 16, for, although
Exodus 16:1-23 shows that the 15th of the second month was a sabbath,
we cannot be absolutely sure if Nisan and Iyar had 29 or 30 days each,
so depending upon whether the
16th of Nisan fell on the Friday or on the Sabbath, it could cause the
day of Pentecost calculated by the Pharisees, to occur on a Friday or
Sabbath in Sivan which could have been the 5th, 6th or 7th of
the
month - -
| Nisan |
S |
Iyar |
|
|
S |
|
|
|
|
|
|
S |
|
|
|
|
|
|
S |
|
|
|
|
|
|
S |
|
Sivan |
F |
S |
| 29 |
30 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
| 28 |
29 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
As we can see the first of Iyar was a Sabbath, so
counting backwards shows us that the the
selection of the lamb on the 10th of Nisan could have been done on
either a Sabbath or Sunday, (Ex 12:3) depending upon whether Nisan had 29 or 30 days in that year.
| S |
Nisan |
|
|
|
|
|
S |
|
|
|
|
|
|
S |
|
|
|
|
|
|
S |
| 10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
1 |
| 9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
1 |
- BUT as Ex 19:1 says that the Israelites arrived at Sinai
on
the "same day" as the Exodus had occurred, which would have been on
either a Thursday or a Friday, and as Pentecost was at least 2 days
later (Ex 19:10) which would have been on either Saturday or Sunday, then this would have made the day of the Exodus according
to the Pharisees method to have been on Friday Nisan 15, making the
Wavesheaf day to have been on Saturday Nisan 16 and Pentecost to have
been on Saturday Sivan 6. In BT "Sabbath
86a3, 86b3 and 87a1"
the Pharisees falsely claimed that "all agreed" that the law was
given on the sabbath day when it is obvious the Sadducees did not
agree with this opinion.
If the law had been given on Saturday the 6th of Sivan, as those
pushing this belief say, then the Wave-sheaf day 50 days earlier would
have been on Saturday the 16th of Nisan which is clearly wrong as it
would have made the day they departed to have been on Friday which
is not the same day of the week that they arrived at Sinai as Ex 19
shows.
In Ex 19:10-11 Moses is told to "sanctify them to day and tomorrow, and
let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day: for
the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people
upon mount Sinai." As they could only have arrived sometime during
either a Thursday or Friday according to the calendar, it is unlikely
that by either the Pharisees or Sadducees reckoning that they would
have had enough time left on Thursday to have got their washing done
and dry or else would have gone to
bed wearing wet clothes on
Thursday night, so then it appears they
would have washed their clothes on the Friday, the Pharisees saying the
third day was counted from their arrival at Sinai on Thursday and their
sanctification (the order to abstain) from Thursday up to Saturday
while
the Sadducees would count to the third day from the day they washed
their clothes, being from Friday up to Sunday. By either belief this
would reinforce that they left Egypt in the darkness of Thursday morning
and then arrived 50 days later at Sinai on a Thursday.
If according to the Pharisees method the Israelites arrived on the Thursday then they must have left on Thursday
the 15th of Nisan which made Friday the 16th of Nisan to be the
Pharisees Wave-sheaf day so consequently their Pentecost would have
been on Friday the 5th or 6th of Sivan. This shows that the Phaisees
method of counting is faulty. What we can learn from this look at the calendar is
that as the Israelites left Egypt on Thursday the 15th of Nisan with Friday the
16th being the Pharisees Wave-sheaf day, then the Pharisees Pentecost
would have been on Friday the 5th of Sivan! Using the Sadducees method
of counting Pentecost
from the
day after the weekly sabbath means that Pentecost could only have
fallen on
Sunday the 7th or 8th of Sivan in the year of the Exodus, but not on
the 6th of Sivan.
Another interpretation of the meaning of "the same day" given in
"Chronology of the Old Testament" by Floyd Jones (p56, p276) is that
"the same day" means it was "the third day of the third month".
This figuring would have made the arrival at Sinai on the 3rd of Sivan
to have been on either Tuesday or Wednesday and counting back
50 days would mean the Exodus on the 15th of Nisan occured on either a
Tuesday or Wednesday which is not consistant with the calendar
that shows the Exodus was either on a Thursday or Friday. Also
if "the same day" meant it was the
15th of
the
month rather than the same day of the week, then Pentecost would
not
have occurred until at least Wednesday or Thursday Sivan 17, which
again is
not agreeable to the details of the calendar given in Ex 19. What led
Henk Jens to believe that Pentecost should be held on Sivan 7 was
because he accepted the false teaching of Garner Ted’s father
that the Exodus Passover was held at the beginning of the 14th of Nisan
instead of at the end of the 14th, this led Henk to believe that the
day they arrived at Sinai was on a Wednesday instead of Thursday which
led him to juggle the events leading up to Pentecost to fit in with
Pentecost falling on the following Saturday instead of Sunday and
resulted in him believing Pentecost was on Saturday Sivan 7.
Pentecost was on Sivan 7, but Sivan 7 was not on Saturday but was on
Sunday. Henk also believed the Wave-sheaf Day followed the annual holy day on the
15th of Nisan instead of it following the weekly Sabbath day during the
Days of Unleavened Bread and that the modern calculated calendar was being used back then.
It was after God had declared the commandments
from Sinai
that "the Lord said to Moses "come up to me on the mountain, and wait
there; and I will give you the tables of stone-" (Ex 24:12). The Book of Jubilees says that it was "in the
third month,
on the 16th of the month, and the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Ascend to
me here on the mountain, and I will give to you the two stone tablets
of the law". (Ch1:1) According to the Jubilees calendar this was either
a Monday or a Friday.
THE SIXTH OF SIVAN If
Pentecost is to be held on the sixth of Sivan why does Leviticus 23
tell us to count the 50 days and not give us the date of the sixth of
Sivan as it so easily could? Philo of Alexandria who lived between 20BC
to AD50
said
the feast of the "Sheaf" followed "directly after the first day" of the
Feast of Unleavened Bread. (The Special Laws 2:39:162, Loeb Vol 7,
p405) Philo appears to have accepted the Septuagint translators
rendering and Pharisees method but still he does not say the date
of Pentecost was Sivan 6.
Josephus (AD37-100) also follows this method of
counting
from Nisan 16. (Ant 3:10:5) Josephus who was a Pharisee wrote his book
of Antiquities in about AD93-4 and says, "on the second day of
Unleavened Bread, which is the sixteenth day of the month they first
partake of the fruits of the earth, for before that day they do not
touch them" v6 "-when a week of weeks has passed over after this
sacrifice (which week contains forty and nine days) on the fiftieth day
which is Pentecost - but is called by the Hebrews Asartha
which signifies Pentecost they bring to God a loaf". Josephus
does
not say the date of Pentecost was Sivan 6 either.
The Mishna says the Omer was cut in the night
following
the "Festival-day" and offered on the "second day of Passover" (Tannaim
Men 65b, Ency Judaica - calendar p50) and that they did this "Because
of the Boethuseans who used to say: The Omer may not be reaped at the
close of a Festival-day." The Pharisees said "the reaping [of the Omer]
overrides the sabbath" (Men 10:9, Danby p507) It should be
remembered that the Mishna and Talmuds were compiled from the Pharisees
viewpoint and excludes any favourable references to the Sadducees and
their Hasmonean ancestors because of their long held rivalry. After the death of the sons of Herod the Great,
only
Hasmoneans ruled Judah. (The Star p226) The Pharisees called the Sadducees,
Boethuseans (Men 10:3, Danby p506) and heretics (Ber 9:5, Note 7 JQR 6,
1915 p314) Funnily enough Josephus said he was descended
from the Hasmoneans. (Life 1:1)
In Hagigah 2:4 it says that if the Pharisees Feast of
Pentecost fell on the eve of a sabbath the High Priests refuse to wear
vestments - "to lend no support to the words of them that say
'Pentecost falls on the day after the sabbath'" (Danby p 213) as the
Sadducees Essenes and Samaritans did.
The Code of Jewish Law, (Kitzur Shulhan Akukh
103:14) says
"at the time when the Temple was in existence, if this festival
occurred
on the Sabbath, the sacrifices were offered the following day," showing
that in some years the Pharisees who counted from Nisan 16, waited
until the same day as the Sadducees before offering the sacrifices, so
the cutting of the wavesheaf was permitted if it was the sabbath but
when the 50th day arrived, the
killing of the sacrifices for Pentecost were delayed and not eaten
until the following day which was a Sunday.
The Babylonian Talmud tells of a Pharisee called
Johanan
ben Zakkai, (AD10-80) who argued against those who kept the Feast of
Weeks on the day after the sabbath. He said that the counting
of the
seven full weeks only applied to when the Wavesheaf day fell on a
sabbath, while counting the 50 days was when it fell on a week-day, as
the Pharisees believed. (Men 65 a-b)
Some think that because the Pharisees were in the
majority, that they controlled Jewish practice. Josephus who was a
Pharisee claimed "-if a Sadducee was appointed to some office he had to
submit to all the formulas promulgated by the Pharisees." (Ant 18:1:4),
but in the first century AD while the temple was still standing, it was
the Sadducees who controlled the temple and its services. The high
priest responsible for the death of James the Just in about AD62, was a
Sadducee. (Ant 20:9:1, Eusebius 2:23)
The Sadducees counted the 50 days to Pentecost
from the
day after the weekly sabbath, but after the war against the Romans in
AD70, due to so many of them being killed trying to defend the temple,
and because the temple was destroyed, although they continued in name,
they lost their influence,
which resulted in their teachings and practices giving way to the
Pharisees beliefs. Hippolytus mentions them in about AD200 in his
Refutation of all Heresies, Book 9 Ch24, (A-N Vol 5, p137).
If Pentecost was counted from the day after the
ANNUAL
holy day, the 16th of Nisan, then it is thought that the fiftieth day
would always be the 6th of Sivan and that the bible could have given
the date, but being counted from the day following the WEEKLY sabbath,
the 50th day would always be a Sunday but the date would be different
from year to year. If Pentecost was to be held on the fixed date of
Sivan 6,
there would be no need to count the days. As the bible does not give
the sixth of Sivan as the date to observe Pentecost on, it lends weight
to the view that it is intended that we count the fifty days after the
weekly sabbath as the Samaritans do. The giving of the law could be said to have been
on Sivan
6 (although this is not true) but Pentecost could not be given the
fixed calendar date of Sivan 6 until the calendar which the Pharisees
used had itself become fixed. We know that the Sadducees used a lunar calendar
and that
they kept Pentecost on a Sunday, so we know they did not use the 364
day solar calendar which fixed Pentecost on the 15th of Sivan which was
a Sunday, the sixth of the third month using this calendar would be a
Friday each year. Any
declaration to observe Pentecost on Sivan 6 could not have been made
firm until after the lunar months of Nisan and Iyar had been given the
fixed length of 30 and 29 days, so the practice of keeping Pentecost on
Sivan 6 had to be after it was "fixed", but the lunar calendar used by
the Pharisees and Sadducees was not "fixed" until at least the time
between the calculated calendar of Mar Samuele in about AD250 and the
publishing of the fixed method by Hillel II in the Seleucid year 670,
about AD359.
The Mishna shows that there was no need to send
out
Messengers to proclaim the month of Sivan, (R.S. 1:3, Danby p 188)
which shows that during the temple period and up to the time of the
compilation of the Mishna in about AD200 that Pentecost was counted not
dated.
Anatolius of Alexandria does not use the fixed
lunar cycle
in his tables written in AD270, so the practice of giving Pentecost the
date of Sivan 6 appears to have begun sometime after this, and probably
not until AD359.
THE FIXED CALENDAR
The moon
takes an average of 29.5305879 days to go around the Earth, Using the
method of visual sighting of the new moon to begin the calendar months,
the months would approximately alternate between 29 and 30 days, but
because the moon accelerates and slows down on an elliptical orbit and
also wobbles in its motion, as seen from Earth, (Ency' Brit, Moon) and
other factors, the lengths of the months vary, and because the length
is about 0.0305879 days more than 29 1/2 days, this time accumulates
and an extra day needs to be added every 2 1/2 years approximately. On the fixed calendar of AD801 these extra days
are added
to the months of Marcheshvan and Kislev, also the length of Adar is
lengthened from 29 to 30 days in the years when an embolistic
thirteenth leap month is added. "In the days of Ulla (third century
C.E.) the festivals were intentionally shifted around to prevent them
from coming on certain days of the week. (Menachem Raab [22], Plaut p1221) Mar Samuele (AD165-254) devised a
calculated calendar in about AD250, but it has been lost from history.
(RH 20b)
In AD359 Hillel II fixed Tishri 21 (called Hoshana
Rabbah,
Great Hosanna, the day of many Hoshanoth.) to never fall on sabbaths.
(Yer Suk 4:1, this is the Jerusalem Talmud, sometimes called the
Palestinian.) Before this time the length of the months were not known
to be fixed, and there was no system to which months these extra days
were added onto.
In the Mishna, second division called Moed
(Feasts),
Erubin 3:7 it shows that these extra days could be added to Elul, the
sixth month (Danby p125), but it could be added to Nisan or Iyar which
would result in Pentecost, the 50th day after the Wavesheaf offering to
fall on Sivan 5.
In the Hebrew calendar of AD801 which is presently
in
general use, the month of Nisan is given the artificially
fixed
number of 30 days regardless of the actual scientific length of the lunar month of
approximately 29.5306 days.
The variation of 29 or 30 day months is fixed to
only
occur in the months of (Mar) Cheshvan, Kislev and Adar, but in Jesus'
day using the earlier system of visual sighting, Nisan and Iyar could
contain only 29 days each or both could have 30 days, which could make
counting the 50 days to
Pentecost from Nisan 16 result in a variation of Pentecost falling on
Sivan 5 (if the two months had 30 days) or on Sivan 7, (if the two
months had only 29 days)
This is confirmed in the Babylonian Talmud, New
Year, Ch
1, and also in the Tosefta (Ar 1:6), where following the Pharisees
method Shemaiah said "Pentecost
falls on the fifth, sixth, or seventh of Sivan." This not only explains
why the bible does not date Pentecost as Sivan 6 but also shows why it
should be counted. As the Mishna shows, the Sanhedrin sometimes delayed
the beginning of some months, but there is no evidence that they ever
deliberately began any months before the new moon became visible. This
also supports the view that Pentecost could fall before Sivan 6, and
all this is only if they were counting from the day following the first
day of Unleavened Bread, Nisan 16, as the Pharisees did, but it was the
Sadducees method which was used in the days of Jesus, who offered the
Wavesheaf on the day after the weekly
sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread and from which they counted
the 50 days, which allowed Pentecost to fall from Sivan 4 to Sivan 12
and possibly even later depending upon the date of the Wave-sheaf and
whether there were 29 or 30 days months. Jens shows that according to the Sadducees method, Pentecost today is
"fixed" on the calculated calendar dates of Sivan 5, 6, 8, or 10.
Some think it is inconsistant for Christians to accept the calculated
calendar but not to also keep Pentecost on Sivan 6 because
Jesus said to obey the Pharisees because they sit in Moses seat! Is
that what Matt 23:2-3 really says? "The scribes and the Pharisees sit
in Moses seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, observe
and do, but do not ye after their works: for they say and do
not." Not all of the scribes were Pharisees so it is mere
presumption to believe that we are required to observe the Pharisees
beliefs when on the other hand
the Sadducees among the Sanhedrin could order us
to accept the Sadducees beliefs. When was the last time any scribe or
Pharisee told us to do anything? Jesus also says, "-do ye not
after their works", would that not also include not following the
Pharisees false Pentecost?
We can see the original bible
method used at the time of the Exodus was the same as the way
of
the Sadducees and it is backed up by other historical accounts that
also support their system. In the case of the calendar it was the
Sanhedrins responsibility to determine difficult matters and it would
be wrong for us to not accept their choice to use the calculated
calendar.
PENTECOST IN THE N.T. Luke
6:1 shows that it was during this time of year when the grain was
ripening that the disciples plucked and ate some of the ears of grain,
some translate that it was on "a sabbath", "one sabbath" or "the
sabbath" but it says more than this in the Greek
language, "Egeneto de en sabbaton diaporeuestai auton dia
sporimon," the KJV says "on the second sabbath after the first". Some
think it may be related to a Jewish practice "And if the moon be not
visible, they do not hold the sabbath, which is called the first;"
(Clement of Alexandria 6:5, A-N Vol 2, p489)
According to Ernest Martin in his book "The Star
That
Astonished The World" the term "diaporeuestai" refers to the order of
the 24 priestly courses each sabbath. "Their courses started with the
sabbath just before the beginning of Nisan-", and this was "their
second cycle beginning with Tishri One-", (p72), "the first weekly
sabbath of the month of Tishri", (p248), but this seems unlikely
because Jesus was baptized when he was about 30, then he fasted for 40
days and chose his disciples before his ministry got underway. This event which is also mentioned in Matt 12:1
and Mark
2:23 appears to have occurred near harvest time, probably on Saturday
Nisan 17 in AD29, (April 21) and it would seem doubtful that any of the
grain would still be standing by Tishri, near October, which was 6
months later. It may refer to the sabbath that followed after the Great
sabbath or even the second Great sabbath during the ministry. Martin
suggests that Luke 4:16 may refer to Pentecost as the "day of sabbaths"
(te emera ton sabbaton) p246. It could mean that this sabbath was the
second sabbath or week of the seven weeks counting to Pentecost, which
would have been two weeks after the Wavesheaf day.
Epiphanius explains that it was the weekly sabbath following the first
day of the days of Unleavened Bread. (Epiphanius Sect' 2, 32:6, Brill
p149)
PENTECOST IN AD31
Writing in
the first century AD Josephus said that the Passover was held in Nisan
"when the sun is in Aries" (Antiquities 10:3:5) This requires that the
month of Nisan began with the new moon that was nearest, either before
or after the date of the equinox. If Nisan only began after the
equinox,
as some think, then it would cause the Passover to sometimes fall in
the sign following Aries, called Taurus, so Josephus shows that the
Babylonian calendar with its 19 year cycle which began each year only
after the equinox, was not being used, even though the Sanhedrin had
the right to delay the start of the month or add a 13th month to a year if they thought it was
necessary. Between AD1 and AD100 the date of the equinox which was the
beginning of the sign of Aries, only fell on either March the 22nd or
23rd on the Julian (O/S) calendar. This shows that the Passover was
held in March or before April 23 each year at this time, and as the
Wavesheaf was intrinsically a part of the first month of Nisan as shown
in Exodus and at the time of Jesus' death and ascension, the countdown
to Pentecost began no later than April 30 each year. With a ministry of
3 years and 6 months rather than 3 years and 7 months it indicates that
the lunar month of Jesus' death on the Passover (Nisan 14 in AD31) was
in March not April, and so Pentecost in AD31 was unlikely to have been
on Sunday June 17, but was probably in the month before, on Sunday May
20 on the O/S Julian calendar, but the Pharisees would have celebrated
it two days earlier on Friday May 18 (O/S), because they offered their
Wavesheaf on Nisan 16 which would have made this a Thursday in May
according to the Babylonian calendar but accepting that Nisan was
postponed a day, it could have been a Friday in both May and June of
AD31, so their 50 day countdown would have resulted in Pentecost
falling on the first Friday in Sivan which could have been the 5th, 6th
or 7th. The 6th of Sivan in AD31 could have been on a Thursday, Friday
or Saturday in May, or using the Babylonian calendar dating to begin
Nisan it could have been a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday but
considering the symbolism of Jesus being the "firstfruits of them that
slept" (1Cor 15:20), and that he was "offered" to God on the
"Sadduceen" Wavesheaf day, and not on the Thursday or Friday a few days
earlier, as determined by the Pharisees, then it is the "Sadduceen"
method that Christians should follow. The Essenes who kept Pentecost on
the 15th of the third
month of the 364 day calendar they used, probably kept it three weeks
after this.
It appears that Jesus followed the system of
Aristobulus
of the Passover being in "Aries" as described by Josephus but it
appears the only way to reconcile the data for the year AD31, is that
additionally the month of Nisan (which is Adar with 29 days in the
Babylonian calendar) was postponed a day being just before apogee which
was on March 18, when the moon travels at its slowest and is less
likely to have been seen, but this would also result in both the
previous months of Teveth and Shevat also having been postponed as
well, while probably Iyar (April 13 to May 11) only had 29 days
and as the conjunction for Sivan was at 2.53am on Thursday the 10th of
May it is quite possible for the first crescent to have been visible by
Friday evening, making Saturday the 12th of May the first
day of Sivan, although if for any reason the "Aries" system was not
used by the Sanhedrin in AD31 then the Passover was probably in April
and Pentecost in June which is the generally accepted view but is not
absolutely certain and is contary to the historical evidence.
|
PROPOSED
POSSIBLE "ARIES" ALTERNATIVE TO BABYLONIAN CALENDAR FOR AD31 |
|
BABYLONIAN
CALENDAR |
SUGGESTED "ARIES" CONFIGURATION |
NISAN
(TH 12 APR) |
IYAR
(SA 12 MAY) |
SIVAN
(MON 11 JN) |
NISAN
(THU 15 MAR) |
IYAR
(FR 13 APR) |
SIVAN
(SA 12 MAY) |
|
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
|
3 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
|
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
|
5 |
5 |
Fri 5 Pent (Pha) |
5 |
5 |
5 |
|
6 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
|
7 |
7 |
Su 7 Pent (Sad) |
7 |
7 |
Fri 7 Pent (Pha) |
|
8 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
|
9 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
Sun 9 Pent (Sad) |
| 10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
| 11 |
11 |
11 |
11 |
11 |
11 |
| 12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
| 13 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
| 14 |
14 |
14 |
14 |
14 |
14 |
| 15 |
15 |
15 |
15 |
15 |
15 |
| Fri 16 W/S (Ph) |
16 |
16 |
Fri 16 W/S (Pha) |
16 |
16 |
| 17 |
17 |
17 |
17 |
17 |
17 |
| Su 18 W/S (Sad) |
18 |
18 |
Su 18 W/S (Sad) |
18 |
18 |
| 19 |
19 |
19 |
19 |
19 |
19 |
| 25 |
20 |
20 |
20 |
20 |
20 |
| 21 |
21 |
21 |
21 |
21 |
21 |
| 22 |
22 |
22 |
22 |
22 |
22 |
| 23 |
23 |
23 |
23 |
23 |
23 |
| 24 |
24 |
24 |
24 |
24 |
24 |
| 25 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
| 26 |
26 |
26 |
26 |
26 |
26 |
| 27 |
27 |
27 |
27 |
27 |
27 |
| 28 |
28 |
28 |
28 |
28 |
28 |
| 30 |
29 |
29 |
29 |
29 |
29 |
| 30 |
30 |
- |
- |
- |
30 |
The likely dates for the Pharisees 5th, 6th or 7th
of Sivan Pentecost are;
AD29 Wednesday the 8th of June. (Sivan 7)
AD30 Sunday the 28th of May. (Sivan 6)
AD31 Friday the 18th of May (Sivan 7) [or Friday
the 15th of June. (Sivan 5)]
AD32 Wednesday the 4th of June. (Sivan 6)
AD33 Sunday the 24th of May (Sivan 6) [or Monday
the 22nd of June. (Sivan 6)]
"ONE" OF THE SABBATHS There is some speculation
also as to what
the N.T. writers meant when they mention the first day of the week. The
Sunday following the death of
Jesus on the Passover, was not only the first day of the week, but it
was also the "Sadduceean" Wavesheaf day. John 20:1 begins "Now on the
first day of the week-" in Greek this is; "Te de mia ton
sabbaton"
which literally says, "on the one of the sabbaths" "ie on the
first day of the sabbaths" (Whitelaw p422) Some think that
this
simply means that it was Sunday, while others wonder if it perhaps has
a special meaning because it is in the plural "meaning more
than
one sabbath" (Word study Dictionary p1270) This was the Wavesheaf day
and John's intended meaning that this was the "first of the weeks" may
not have primarily been that this was the first day of the week or
"Sunday", but that this was the first of the seven weeks counting to
Pentecost. Luke 24:1 says exactly the same thing; "te de mia
ton
sabbaton", on number one of the sabbaths.
In Genesis 1 the first day of creation is
similarly not
called "yom rishon" or "first day " but is called "ehud", day "one"
(Hipp' Frag' A-N p163) Acts 20:6-7 is similar "En de te mia ton
sabbatone". "Mia, the cardinal number is here used for prote, the
ordinal number. Sabbaton in the plural,-" (Gloag, Vol 2 p234)
(Cardinal shows how many, ordinal shows the order.)
Alexander comments on this too "Cranmers version, 'upon
one of the sabbath-days' seems at first sight more exact, but it is not
even grammatical, the Greek numeral and noun being of different
genders. Equally incorrect is Tyndale's version, 'on the morrow after
the sabbath day', except that it retains the reference to the first day
of the week." "Even in Hebrew weeks and sabbaths are convertible
terms." Alexander, Vol 2, p227)
Richard Nickels points out "the Hebrew word for sabbath never means
weeks" ("Pentecost is NOT on Sivan 6", 4.5.3), but this is Greek. So word for word in English it can be translated
to say
"(number) one of the sabbaths", not meaning it was the sabbath, but
that it was the first of the weeks to Pentecost.
This meeting in Acts 20, appears to have been an
extended
sabbath day meeting being "assembled" or "gathered together" as usual
for a meal by which time the evening had come, and it was now the start
of the "Jewish" first day of the week, otherwise this meeting which was
being held at night would not have been on the first "Jewish" day of
the week, but on the second. The context shows that it was "after the days of
Unleavened Bread" (v6) and Paul was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if
possible on the day of Pentecost.(v16). This appears to show
that
Paul began counting the 50 days sometime after the Feast of Unleavened
Bread. (Gary Miller, Counting to Pentecost. p13) Taking Lev 23
as
the chronological order of the Feasts, it seems to suggest that the
Wavesheaf day fell in this case, sometime after the Days of Unleavened
Bread, but still within the month of Nisan, which was when the
Firstfruits of the barley was to be offered. (Ex 9:31) It appears that
by using the information that Luke gives us and working backwards, that
Paul left Philippi on Wednesday Nisan 22, and arrived at Troas five
days later on Sunday Nisan 26, but to be consistent with its use in
referring to the day after the resurrection, this would have made the
following Sunday which is the one termed "one of the sabbaths" to have
been on the 3rd or 4th of the next month of Iyar, and not within the
first month, so it seems it should not be understood this way. The term
"one (day) of the sabbaths" cannot mean the sabbath day and neither can
it mean the Wave-sheaf day because the seventh "one (day) of the
sabbaths" would end only 43 days later but Lev 23:16 clearly says that
Pentecost is the day following the seventh sabbath, which is
50
days later, not 43 days. Acts 20 shows the term
cannot be a later sabbath because the count would have begun in the
second month of Iyar when Lev 23 shows the count is to begin from the
day of the Wave-sheaf which was offered in the first month called Abib,
not in the second month.
APOSTASY It
was not long after
the time of the Apostles that the "Christian" church began adopting
numerous non biblical additions to the observance of Pentecost. The Essenes were known to wear white garments
(Josephus,
Wars, 2:8:3, and Hippolytus, Refutation 9:14, A-N Vol 5 p134) the
Therapeutae did too. (The Contemplative Life by Philo of Alexandria, Ch
8). Moses was said to have worn a white frock (Meg' Ta'anit, Malter p
160) and by the time of Hippolytus presbyters in the church were also
expected to wear white. (A-N Vol 5 p257)
In about AD200 Tertullian writing on baptism said
"The
Passover affords a more than usually solemn day for baptism; - After
that, Pentecost is a most joyous space for conferring
baptisms; -
They who are about to enter baptism ought to pray with repeated
prayers, fasts, and bendings of the knee, and vigils all the night
through,-" (On Baptism Ch 19-20, A-N Vol 3, p678)
The new converts to "Christianity" who were
wanting
baptism were called catechumens and they also wore white clothes for
the occasion, like Seventh Day Adventists do today. The last week of
Lent became known as "white week" and the baptism of the catechumens
was delayed until the Saturday before Easter Sunday, others delayed
their baptism until Pentecost. It was from the practice of wearing
white garments for baptism on the day of Pentecost that Pentecost
became known as White Sunday or Whitsunday. In Bedes Church History he
shows how the first Northumbrians were baptized on Pentecost. (Book 2,
Ch 9) and mentions that two of king Edwins sons, Osfrid and Eadfrid
"were snatched from life while still wearing their baptismal robes"
(Book 2, Ch 14, Penguin p13). After baptism the new converts were called
Neophytes,
newly planted. Like the followers of Mithra, they were then admitted
into the "mysteries". (Constitutions, Book 7, Ch 40, Rev
17:5) "All the mysteries of religion-"
(Recognitions of
Clement, Book 7, Ch 38, A-N Vol 8, p165.) In about AD300 Arnobius asks "- what is the
meaning of
these relics connected with the arts of the Magi which the pontifical
mysteries have restored to a place among the secret laws of the sacred
rites, and have mixed up with religious affairs?" (Arnobius 7:24, A-N
Vol 6 p527) Mystery water, mystery oil, mystery ointment, mystery piety
etc, these became the "holy mysteries". (Bedes Church History Book 2,
Ch 8, Penguin p117) The mysteries of our Lord's resurrection (5:21,
p315), these were not "the mysteries of the kingdom" (Luke 8:10) of
which the church are stewards. (1 Cor 4:1, Eph 3:10) To still be
"mysteries" denies their manifestation. Irenaeus said that "if the apostles had known
hidden
mysteries which they were in the habit of imparting to 'the perfect'
apart and privily from the rest, they would have delivered them
especially to those to whom they were also committing the churches
themselves, for they were desirous that these men should be perfect and
blameless in all things, whom also they were leaving behind as their
successors," (New Eusebius p114)
The "mysteries" of the bible were revealed! they
were made
known to the world (Eph 6:19, Col 2:2) "things kept
secret
from the foundation of the world (Matt 13:35) "-the revelation of the
mystery which was kept secret for long ages but now is disclosed and
through the prophetic writings is
made known to all nations-" (Rom 16:25-26). Paul tells us why Israel
was hardened (Rom 11:25), he revealed the understanding of Gods plan
through those that he gave His spirit to on Pentecost. (1Cor 2:7-16)
which is Gods plan for the unity of man with God as his family, "he has
made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will - to
unite all things" (Eph 1:9-12). He wrote about the "mystery" of how
Gentiles become fellow heirs (Eph 3:10). This is revealed through the
"mystery" of marriage. (Eph 5:31-32) The "mystery" hidden for ages -
but NOW MADE MANIFEST (Col 1:26-27) Paul
explained the "mystery" of the resurrection. (1Cor 15:51) the
opportunity for all men to become glorified spirit sons of God for
eternity (Matt 13:43). He explained the "mystery" of iniquity or
lawlessness (2 Thes 2:7-9) which he
revealed to be another spirit whose name is Satan that works through
society, through false ministers, and the false church called "Mystery
Babylon" (Rev 17:5-18). It holds the "mystery" of the Rosary, the
"mystery" of the "trinity", the "mystery of the "holy mass" (Bedes,
Letter to Egbert. Ch 17, Penguin p350) It calls its false teachings
"the mystery of the faith" (Bedes Church
History, Book 5 Ch 24. Penguin p327) Its bishops are unmarried and
disqualified, "if a man does not know how to manage his own household,
how can he care for Gods church." (1 Tim 3:5) The Epistle of Ignatius
says "Peter, and Paul, and the rest of the apostles, that were married
men." (Philadelphians, Ch 6, A-N Vol 1, p81) and Clement also refers to
Paul as having had a wife. (Eusebius, 3:30, Penguin p93) Paul warned of
some who would hold a
form of Godliness but deny Gods power. (2 Tim 3:5) (Roman Calendar)
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