How to Count Pentecost when the second Holy Day[DUB] is the Sabbath«Return to Passover Paper Directory | Printer Friendly
SUBJECT: Pentecost
QUESTION: How do you count Pentecost when, during the Days of Unleavened
Bread, the second Holy Day is the Sabbath and there is no Sabbath
Day during the Days of Unleavened Bread? Such is the case for years
2001, 2005 and now 2008.
ANSWER:
Regarding when to begin the count for Pentecost, the
Scriptures specifically state the count must always begin FROM
the morrow after the Sabbath
(Leviticus 23:15). The Hebrew term moh-ghorahth (Strong's #
4283) is found in the original text, can also be understood as ON
THE MORROW after the Sabbath. The term generally means tomorrow.
Stating tomorrow after the Sabbath is clearly understood. This
specific day, on the morrow
after the Sabbath, is also the wave sheaf offering day
(Leviticus 23:11).
Regarding the meaning of Sabbath and which Sabbath to
refer to in order to begin the count, going back to the
intertestamental period and even while Jesus Christ walked the
earth, there was a controversy among the competing Jewish parties.
The Sadducees regarded the Sabbath as the weekly Sabbath whereas the
Pharisees regarded the Sabbath as the Holy Day, the First Day of
Unleavened Bread and consequently the count would begin on the 16th
day of the first month.
The word Sabbath as found in Leviticus 23:11, 15 and
16 is translated from the Hebrew shabahth (Strong's # 7676)
which is specifically the weekly seventh day, Sabbath. Also found
within the Leviticus 23 legislation is the Hebrew word
shabahthohn (Strong's # 7677) which refers to a High day. Shabahthohn
is clearly different from shabahth. You will not find the
Hebrew word shabahthohn associated with the phrase
on the morrow. Therefore the counting for Pentecost is
never to begin on the
16th day of the first month, as the Jews currently
practice. We are only to refer to a weekly Sabbath when locating
the morrow on which to
begin the count for Pentecost. The
morrow after the Sabbath
will always be on the first day of the week or a Sunday (as we call
it today). The first day of the week is the key day, the day on
which to begin the count.
Regarding any idea that the count has to begin within
the Days of Unleavened Bread, the Scriptures specifically say no
such thing. Both the Sadducees and the Pharisees understood the
association with the Days of Unleavened Bread and this association
is correct, but once again from actual, recorded Scriptural
legislation, the Bible is silent pertaining to a requirement that
the count has to begin within the Days of Unleavened Bread. Most
every year however it will and rightly so!
Now, in the year 2008, the First Day of Unleavened
Bread is on a Sunday and the Last Day of Unleavened Bread is on the
weekly Sabbath. Technically, there is no combination of a Sabbath
and the morrow after the Sabbath (wave sheaf offering day)
within the Days of Unleavened Bread in the year 2008. What day
then does one use to begin the count for Pentecost? Is it correct to
begin the count (which must begin on a Sunday - the first day of the
week) on the First Day of Unleavened Bread in the year 2008 and not
on the Sunday after the Last Day of Unleavened Bread?
It is correct to begin the count for Pentecost on the
First Day of Unleavened Bread. The Scriptures reveal a precedent
setting occurrence similar to what will occur in 2008. Refer to
Joshua 5:10-11.
To understand these verses, let us first read a
command (Leviticus 23:14) God gave to the Children of Israel. The
Children of Israel could not eat any bread, nor the parched corn,
green ears (barley) of the land (which they now occupied (which was
given to them by God, cf. Leviticus 23:10))
until the self same day they brought forth an offering (the
wave sheaf).
The children of Israel could only start eating the
corn of the land after they offered the wave sheaf. On that selfsame
day as they offered the wave sheaf they could then begin to eat the
produce of the land. With that said notice now the chronology of
events in Gilgal as they are associated with this Levitical
legislation.
First, Joshua 5:10 specifies the Passover sacrifice
at even. The Passover is the 14th day of the first month.
Next, Joshua 5:11 specifies the 15th day of the first
month or the First Day of Unleavened Bread. This day is called by
Joshua the morrow after the
Passover and rightly so. The 15th is one day after
the 14th. Naturally, on the First Day of Unleavened Bread
unleavened cakes and
parched corn could only be eaten.
However notice also that on this 15th day
of the first month, the First Day of Unleavened Bread, the children
of Israel under Joshua not only began to eat UNLEAVENED cakes, etc.,
but they also began to eat the old parched corn, etc., of the land
in THE SELFSAME DAY as Joshua 5:11 states. Two events were
accomplished that same day.
What's the significance of this statement? We can
clearly learn that the wave sheaf offering was also performed on
that First Day of Unleavened Bread. The Children of Israel began to
eat the old corn of the land (which they could only do after the
wave sheaf offering was accomplished) and that old corn was
unleavened (as it had to be) on the First Day of Unleavened Bread.
On that particular calendar year, the Children of
Israel under Joshua's command offered the wave sheaf and began to
eat both the old corn of the land and unleavened cakes and parches
corn in that selfsame
day (once again a reference to Leviticus 23:14). That selfsame day
that year saw the wave sheaf performed on the First Day of
Unleavened Bread, the 15th day of the first month, which
of course would have been the first day of the week (a Sunday). This
year a calendar configuration parallels that which exactly occurred
for the Children of Israel under Joshua when they first entered the
Promised Land.
To conclude: Joshua 5:10-11 sets the precedent that
the First Day of Unleavened Bread and the Wave Sheaf offering day
can occur on the same day. The Wave Sheaf offering day is the day to
begin the count for Pentecost. The Wave Sheaf offering day will
always occur on a Sunday (the first day of the week - the morrow
after the Sabbath). The First Day of Unleavened Bread can occur on a
Sunday and when it does, it is on that First Day of Unleavened Bread
when the count for Pentecost begins. Therefore the ICG is correct to
start the count for Pentecost on April 20th, 2008.
Count fifty [50] days from 20
April 2008 and you arrive at Sunday, 8 June 2008. 8 June is
Pentecost in 2008.
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