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FULL BACKGROUND
THE FEASTS - BIBLE DICTIONARY
FEAST — as a mark of hospitality (Gen. 19:3; 2 Sam. 3:20; 2 Kings 6:23); on occasions of domestic joy (Luke 15:23; Gen. 21:8); on birthdays (Gen. 40:20; Job 1:4; Matt. 14:6); and on the occasion of a marriage (Judg. 14:10; Gen. 29:22).
Feasting was a part of the observances connected with the offering up of sacrifices (Deut. 12:6, 7; 1 Sam. 9:19; 16:3, 5), and with the annual festivals (Deut. 16:11). “It was one of the designs of the greater solemnities, which required the attendance of the people at the sacred tent, that the oneness of the nation might be maintained and cemented together, by statedly congregating in one place, and with one soul taking part in the same religious services. But that oneness was primarily and chiefly a religious and not merely a political one; the people were not merely to meet as among themselves, but with Jehovah, and to present themselves before him as one body; the meeting was in its own nature a binding of themselves in fellowship with Jehovah; so that it was not politics and commerce that had here to do, but the soul of the Mosaic dispensation, the foundation of the religious and political existence of Israel, the covenant with Jehovah. To keep the people’s consciousness alive to this, to revive, strengthen, and perpetuate it, nothing could be so well adapated as these annual feasts.” 1
FESTIVALS< RELIGIOUS — There were daily (Lev. 23), weekly, monthly, and yearly festivals, and great stress was laid on the regular observance of them in every particular (Num. 28:1–8; Ex. 29:38–42; Lev. 6:8–23; Ex. 30:7–9; 27:20).
(1.) The septenary festivals were,
(a) The weekly Sabbath (Lev. 23:1–3; Ex. 16:23–29; 20:8–11; 31:12, etc.).
(b) The seventh new moon, or the feast of Trumpets (Num. 28:11–15; 29:1–6).
(c) The Sabbatical year (Ex. 23:10, 11; Lev. 25:2–7).
(d) The year of jubilee (Lev. 25:8–16; 27:16–25).
(2.) The great feasts were,
(a) The Passover. (b) The feast of Pentecost, or of weeks. (c) The feast of Tabernacles, or of ingathering.
On each of these occasions every male Israelite was commanded “to appear before the Lord” (Deut. 27:7; Neh. 8:9–12). The attendance of women was voluntary. (Comp. Luke 2:41; 1 Sam. 1:7; 2:19.) The promise that God would protect their homes (Ex. 34:23, 24) while all the males were absent in Jerusalem at these feasts was always fulfilled. “During the whole period between Moses and Christ we never read of an enemy invading the land at the time of the three festivals. The first instance on record is thirty-three years after they had withdrawn from themselves the divine protection by imbruing their hands in the Saviour’s blood, when Cestius, the Roman general, slew fifty of the people of Lydda while all the rest had gone up to the feast of Tabernacles, A.D. 66.”
These festivals, besides their religious purpose, had an important bearing on the maintenance among the FESTIVALS people of the feeling of a national unity. The times fixed for their observance were arranged so as to interfere as little as possible with the industry of the people. The Passover was kept just before the harvest commenced, Pentecost at the conclusion of the corn harvest and before the vintage, the feast of Tabernacles after all the fruits of the ground had been gathered in.
(3.) The Day of Atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month (Lev. 16:1, 34; 23:26–32; Num. 29:7–11). (See ATONEMENT, DAY OF.)
Of the post-Exilian festivals reference is made to the feast of Dedication (John 10:22). This feast was appointed by Judas Maccabaeus in commemoration of the purification of the temple after it had been polluted by Antiochus Epiphanes. The “feast of Purim” (q.v.), Esther 9:24–32, was also instituted after the Exile. (Cf. John 5:1.) 1
ATONEMENT — This word does not occur in the Authorized Version of the New Testament except in Rom. 5:11, where in the Revised Version the word “reconciliation” is used. In the Old Testament it is of frequent occurrence.
The meaning of the word is simply at-one-ment, i.e., the state of being at one or being reconciled, so that atonement is reconciliation. Thus it is used to denote the effect which flows from the death of Christ.
But the word is also used to denote that by which this reconciliation is brought about, viz., the death of Christ itself; and when so used it means satisfaction, and in this sense to make an atonement for one is to make satisfaction for his offences (Ex. 32:30; Lev. 4:26; 5:16; Num. 6:11), and, as regards the person, to reconcile, to propitiate God in his behalf.
By the atonement of Christ we generally mean his work by which he expiated our sins. But in Scripture usage the word denotes the reconciliation itself, and not the means by which it is effected. When speaking of Christ’s saving work, the word “satisfaction,” the word used by the theologians of the Reformation, is to be preferred to the word “atonement.” Christ’s satisfaction is all he did in the room and in behalf of sinners to satisfy the demands of the law and justice of God. Christ’s work consisted of suffering and obedience, and these were vicarious, i.e., were not merely for our benefit, but were in our stead, as the suffering and obedience of our vicar, or substitute. Our guilt is expiated by the punishment which our vicar bore, and thus God is rendered propitious, i.e., it is now consistent with his justice to manifest his love to transgressors. Expiation has been made for sin, i.e., it is covered. The means by which it is covered is vicarious satisfaction, and the result of its being covered is atonement or reconciliation. To make atonement is to do that by virtue of which alienation ceases and reconciliation is brought about. Christ’s mediatorial work and sufferings are the ground or efficient cause of reconciliation with God. They rectify the disturbed relations between God and man, taking away the obstacles interposed by sin to their fellowship and concord. The reconciliation is mutual, i.e., it is not only that of sinners toward God, but also and pre-eminently that of God toward sinners, effected by the sin-offering he himself provided, so that consistently with the other attributes of his character his love might flow forth in all its fulness of blessing to men. The primary idea presented to us in different forms throughout the Scripture is that the death of Christ is a satisfaction of infinite worth rendered to the law and justice of God (q.v.), and accepted by him in room of the very penalty man had incurred. It must also be constantly kept in mind that the atonement is not the cause but the consequence of God’s love to guilty men (John 3:16; Rom. 3:24, 25; Eph. 1:7; 1 John 1:9; 4:9). The atonement may also be regarded as necessary, not in an absolute but in a relative sense, i.e., if man is to be saved, there is no other way than this which God has devised and carried out (Ex. 34:7; Josh. 24:19; Ps. 5:4; 7:11; Nahum 1:2, 6; Rom. 3:5). This is God’s plan, clearly revealed; and that is enough for us to know.
ATONEMENT, DAY OF — the great annual day of humiliation and expiation for the sins of the nation, “the fast” (Acts 27:9), and the only one commanded in the law of Moses. The mode of its observance is described in Lev. 16:3–10; 23:26–32; and Num. 29:7–11.
It was kept on the tenth day of the month Tisri, i.e., five days before the feast of Tabernacles, and lasted from sunset to sunset. (See AZAZEL.) 1
AZAZEL — (Lev. 16:8, 10, 26, Revised Version only here; rendered “scape-goat” in the Authorized Version). This word has given rise to many different views. Some Jewish interpreters regard it as the name of a place some 12 miles east of Jerusalem, in the wilderness. Others take it to be the name of an evil spirit, or even of Satan. But when we remember that the two goats together form a type of Christ, on whom the Lord “laid the iniquity of us all,” and examine into the root meaning of this word (viz., “separation”), the interpretation of those who regard the one goat as representing the atonement made, and the other, that “for Azazel,” as representing the effect of the great work of atonement (viz., the complete removal of sin), is certainly to be preferred. The one goat which was “for Jehovah” was offered as a sin-offering, by which atonement was made. But the sins must also be visibly banished, and therefore they were symbolically laid by confession on the other goat, which was then “sent away for Azazel” into the wilderness. The form of this word indicates intensity, and therefore signifies the total separation of sin: it was wholly carried away. It was important that the result of the sacrifices offered by the high priest alone in the sanctuary should be embodied in a visible transaction, and hence the dismissal of the “scape-goat.” It was of no consequence what became of it, as the whole import of the transaction lay in its being sent into the wilderness bearing away sin. As the goat “for Jehovah” was to witness to the demerit of sin and the need of the blood of atonement, so the goat “for Azazel” was to witness to the efficacy of the sacrifice and the result of the shedding of blood in the taking away of sin. 1
PASSOVER — the name given to the chief of the three great historical annual festivals of the Jews. It was kept in remembrance of the Lord’s passing over the houses of the Israelites (Ex. 12:13) when the first born of all the Egyptians were destroyed. It is called also the “feast of unleavened bread” (Ex. 23:15; Mark 14:1; Acts 12:3), because during its celebration no leavened bread was to be eaten or even kept in the household (Ex. 12:15). The word afterwards came to denote the lamb that was slain at the feast (Mark 14:12–14; 1 Cor. 5:7).
A detailed account of the institution of this feast is given in Ex. 12 and 13. It was afterwards incorporated in the ceremonial law (Lev. 23:4–8) as one of the great festivals of the nation. In after times many changes seem to have taken place as to the mode of its celebration as compared with its first celebration (comp. Deut. 16:2, 5, 6; 2 Chr. 30:16; Lev. 23:10–14; Num. 9:10, 11; 28:16–24). Again, the use of wine (Luke 22:17, 20), of sauce with the bitter herbs (John 13:26), and the service of praise were introduced.
There is recorded only one celebration of this feast between the Exodus and the entrance into Canaan, namely, that mentioned in Num. 9:5. (See JOSIAH.) It was primarily a commemorative ordinance, reminding the children of Israel of their deliverance out of Egypt; but it was, no doubt, also a type of the great deliverance wrought by the Messiah for all his people from the doom of death on account of sin, and from the bondage of sin itself, a worse than Egyptian bondage (1 Cor. 5:7; John 1:29; 19:32–36; 1 Pet. 1:19; Gal. 4:4, 5). The appearance of Jerusalem on the occasion of the Passover in the time of our Lord is thus fittingly described: “The city itself and the neighbourhood became more and more crowded as the feast approached, the narrow streets and dark arched bazaars showing the same throng of men of all nations as when Jesus had first visited Jerusalem as a boy. Even the temple offered a strange sight at this season, for in parts of the outer courts a wide space was covered with pens for sheep, goats, and cattle to be used for offerings. Sellers shouted the merits of their beasts, sheep bleated, oxen lowed. Sellers of doves also had a place set apart for them. Potters offered a choice from huge stacks of clay dishes and ovens for roasting and eating the Passover lamb. Booths for wine, oil, salt, and all else needed for sacrifices invited customers. Persons going to and from the city shortened their journey by crossing the temple grounds, often carrying burdens … Stalls to change foreign money into the shekel of the temple, which alone could be paid to the priests, were numerous, the whole confusion making the sanctuary like a noisy market” (Geikie’s Life of Christ). 1
PENTECOST — i.e., “fiftieth”, found only in the New Testament (Acts 2:1; 20:16; 1 Cor. 16:8). The festival so named is first spoken of in Ex. 23:16 as “the feast of harvest,” and again in Ex. 34:22 as “the day of the firstfruits” (Num. 28:26). From the sixteenth of the month of Nisan (the second day of the Passover), seven complete weeks, i.e., forty-nine days, were to be reckoned, and this feast was held on the fiftieth day. The manner in which it was to be kept is described in Lev. 23:15–19; Num. 28:27–29. Besides the sacrifices prescribed for the occasion, every one was to bring to the Lord his “tribute of a free-will offering” (Deut. 16:9–11). The purpose of this feast was to commemorate the completion of the grain harvest. Its distinguishing feature was the offering of “two leavened loaves” made from the new corn of the completed harvest, which, with two lambs, were waved before the Lord as a thank offering.
The day of Pentecost is noted in the Christian Church as the day on which the Spirit descended upon the apostles, and on which, under Peter’s preaching, so many thousands were converted in Jerusalem (Acts 2). 1
TABERNACLES, FEAST OF — the third of the great annual festivals of the Jews (Lev. 23:33–43). It is also called the “feast of ingathering” (Ex. 23:16; Deut. 16:13). It was celebrated immediately after the harvest, in the month Tisri, and the celebration lasted for eight days (Lev. 23:33–43). During that period the people left their homes and lived in booths formed of the branches of trees. The sacrifices offered at this time are mentioned in Num. 29:13–38. It was at the time of this feast that Solomon’s temple was dedicated (1 Kings 8:2). Mention is made of it after the return from the Captivity. This feast was designed (1) to be a memorial of the wilderness wanderings, when the people dwelt in booths (Lev. 23:43), and (2) to be a harvest thanksgiving (Neh. 8:9–18). The Jews, at a later time, introduced two appendages to the original festival, viz., (1) that of drawing water from the Pool of Siloam, and pouring it upon the altar (John 7:2, 37), as a memorial of the water from the rock in Horeb; and (2) of lighting the lamps at night, a memorial of the pillar of fire by night during their wanderings.
“The feast of Tabernacles, the harvest festival of the Jewish Church, was the most popular and important festival after the Captivity. At Jerusalem it was a gala day. It was to the autumn pilgrims, who arrived on the 14th (of the month Tisri, the feast beginning on the 15th) day, like entrance into a silvan city. Roofs and courtyards, streets and squares, roads and gardens, were green with boughs of citron and myrtle, palm and willow. The booths recalled the pilgrimage through the wilderness. The ingathering of fruits prophesied of the spiritual harvest.”, Valling’s Jesus Christ, p. 133. 1
PASSOVER. The Passover of Ex. 12 concerns (1) the original historic event of Israel’s deliverance from Egyp. bondage; (2) the later recurrent institutional commemoration of that event (Mishnah Pesah\im 9:5). Closely conjoined, though separate, are (3) the prohibition of *leaven, symbolizing the haste of that unforgettable night of exodus, and (4) the later dedication of the *firstborn, with statutory offerings, commemorating those first-born divinely spared in the blood-sprinkled houses. Moses quite possibly adapted more ancient ceremonials, Unleavened Bread being an agricultural festival, Passover nomadic and pastoral (EBr, 1974, Makropaedia, Vol. l0, pp. 219f.). Passover may have had original links with circumcision, demonism, fertility cult or the first-born oblation (cf. H. H. Rowley, Worship in Ancient Israel, 1967, pp. 47ff.). Until ad 70, Passover was celebrated in Jerusalem, in any house within the city bounds, and in small companies; the lamb was ritually slaughtered in the Temple precincts. When Temple and Palestinian nation were both destroyed by war, Passover inevitably became a domestic ceremony.
The *Samaritans still meticulously observe their ancient N Israelite Passover ritual annually on Mt *Gerizim, in close conformity to the Pentateuch, keeping Passover and Unleavened Bread entirely separate entities. Unlike the Jews, they still employ a lamb. The slopes of Gerizim are now used, as the summit is ritually defiled by a Muslim cemetery (EBr, Mikropaedia, vol. 4, p. 494). They buttress their claims by the variant reading ‘Gerizim’ in place of ‘Ebal’ in Dt. 27:4, also by referring Dt. 12:5, 14; 16:16 to Gerizim, not Zion.
There was for some time a rival Samaritan temple on Gerizim (cf. R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, E.T. 1961, pp. 342f.), though its precise dates of functioning are disputed (cf. also John Macdonald, The Theology of the Samaritans, 1964, passim).
I. In the Old Testament
Ex. 12, the natural starting-point of study, suggests the following principal considerations.
1. Passover (Heb. pesah\) comes from a verb meaning ‘to pass over’, in the sense of ‘to spare’ (Ex. 12:13, 27, etc.). This affords excellent sense; there is no need to jettison the time-honoured view that God literally passed over the blood-sprinkled Israelite houses, whilst smiting the Egyptian ones. The term is used both for the ordinance and for the sacrificial victim. BDB note another verb with the same radicals, meaning ‘to limp’, which has suggested alternative theories (cf. T. H. Gaster, Passover: Its History and Traditions, 1949, pp. 23-25); but KB modify this conclusion.
2. Abib, later called Nisan, the month of the ripening ears and of the first Passover, was made in honour the first month of the Jewish year (Ex. 12:2; Dt. 16:1; cf. Lv. 23:5; Nu. 9:1-5; 28:16).
3. Was the Paschal victim customarily a lamb, as popularly conceived? In Dt. 16:2 the choice of animal is unquestionably wider; in Ex. 12 it depends on exegesis. The Heb. word sŒeh (v. 3) is restricted by BDB to the sheep and goat categories, irrespective of age; KB restrict it further to lamb or kid. There is some controversy as to the meaning of the phrase ben-sûaµnaÆ (v. 5), lit. ‘son of a year’. Some take this to signify a yearling, 12-24 months in age, i.e. a full-grown animal (cf. Gesenius-Kautzsch-Cowley, Hebrew Grammar, section 128 v; G. B. Gray, Sacrifice in the OT, 1925, pp. 345-351). But the traditional exegesis, which takes 12 months as the upper, not the lower, age-limit, is by no means disproved. Talmudic evidence seems to limit the legitimacy of the Passover victim to the sheep and goat families, following Exodus rather than Deuteronomy (cf. Menah\oth 7:6, with Gemara). The choice of lamb or kid, lamb or goat, is several times asserted (Pesahim 8:2; 55b; 66a), yet the over-all evidence does suggest a certain preference for the lamb (Shabbath 23:1; Kelim 19:2; Pesah\im 69b; etc.). One ruling excludes a female animal, or a male which has passed the age of 2 years—which would lend tacit support to the yearling interpretation (Pesahim 9:7). Yet a contradictory passage declares categorically that a Passover offering is valid from the eighth day of its life (Parah 1:4). If the universal use of a lamb cannot be certainly demonstrated from Scripture or Talmud, it is at least clear that this acquired strong consuetudinary sanction. It is of interest and significance that the Samaritans, following age-old precedents, sacrifice a lamb on the slopes of Mt Gerizim to this very day.
4. On the Passover night in Egypt, the lintels and side-posts of all Israelite doors were smeared (apotropaically, some suggest) with the victim’s blood. This was carried in a basin, Heb. sap_, v. 22 (which could also, with slight change of exegesis, mean ‘threshold’), applied therefrom with hyssop, the foliage of the marjoram plant, a common emblem of purity. See further N. H. Snaith, The Jewish New Year Festival, 1947, pp. 21ff.
5. The phrase ‘between the two evenings’ in Ex. 12:6 (also Ex. 16:12; Lv. 23:5; Nu. 9:3, 5, 11) has been accorded two variant interpretations, according to variant community practice—either between 3 p.m. and sunset, as the Pharisees maintained and practised (cf. Pesah\im 61a; Josephus, BJ 6. 423); or, as the Samaritans and others argued, between sunset and dark. The earlier time, as Edersheim points out, allow more leeway for the slaughtering of the innumerable lambs, and is probably to be preferred.
6. Ex. 12:43-49 excludes Gentiles from participating in the Passover, but not of course proselytes, who were expected, even obliged, to conform fully.
The whole drama and inner meaning of Ex. 12 is concentrated into seventeen pregnant Gk. words in Heb. 11:28.
The Passover of Dt. 16 differs in important minor respects from that of Ex. 12. The blood emphasis has disappeared; an essentially domestic ceremony has become a more formal sacrifice at a central sanctuary with a wider choice of victim; v. 7 stipulates boiling, not roasting, the animal; Passover and Unleavened Bread, here termed the bread of affliction, are integrated more thoroughly than in Exodus. This is development, event changing to institution, not contradiction; moreover it approximates better to the NT evidence concerning Passover. It is not necessary to assume a great time-gap between the passages; the changed circumstances could have been prophetically foreseen in the wilderness period. It is further recorded that a second Passover, celebrated a month later, was instituted for the benefit of those who had been levitically unclean at the time of the first (Nu. 9:1-14).
Passover was celebrated in the plains of Jericho during the Conquest (Jos. 5:10f.). In the observances of Hezekiah (2 Ch. 30:1-27) and Josiah (2 Ch. 35:1-19), the proper place is considered to be the Jerusalem Temple. Hezekiah’s ceremony takes advantage of the legitimate second Passover mentioned above, because the people are not gathered in Jerusalem, and the priests are not in a state of levitical purity, at the earlier date. The brief reference of Ezekiel (45:21-24) deals with Passover in the ideal Temple of his conceiving. The three points of interest are the fuller participation of the secular leader, the fact of a sin-offering, and the complete change-over from family celebration to public ceremony. The victims specified include bullocks, rams and kids. The prescriptions of Deuteronomy are considerably extended, though not in any new thought-pattern.
Jewish usage in the last days of the Herodian Temple is reflected in the Mishnah tractate Pesah\im. The people gathered in the outer Temple court in companies to slaughter the Passover victims. The priests stood in two rows; in one row each man had a golden, in the other each man a silver, basin. The basin which caught the blood of the expiring victim was passed from hand to hand in continuous exchange to the end of the line, where the last priest tossed the blood in ritual manner on the altar. All this was done to the singing of the Hallel (Pss. 113-118). The celebrating companies were generally family units, but other common ties were possible, such as that which bound our Lord to his disciples.
II. In the New Testament
In NT times, all Israelite males were expected to appear in Jerusalem thrice annually, for the Feasts of Passover, of Weeks or Pentecost and of Tabernacles. Even Dispersion Jews sometimes conformed; the temporary population of the Holy City (cf. the Pentecost gathering of Acts 2) could swell to almost 3,000,000 according to Josephus (BJ 6. 425)—a figure reduced to the more realistic 180,000 by J. Jeremias (Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus, 1969, pp. 83f.). After candlelight search for the forbidden leaven, and other careful preparations (cf. Mk. 14:12-16 and parallels), the Paschal supper proper was taken reclining. It included the symbolic elements of roasted lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs, some minor condiments and four cups of wine at specified points. The stipulated ritual hand-washings were carefully observed. The table (more probably the floor) was cleared before the second cup of wine, the story of the Egyp. Passover and Exodus recounted in a dialogue between father and son (or some suitable substitutes). The dishes of food were then brought back, part of the Hallel was sung, the second cup of wine followed. Then came the breaking of bread. In the Last Supper, it was probably at this point that Judas received the sop, and departed into the night to betray his Master (Jn. 13:30). On that fateful night, it may be assumed that the institution of the Lord’s Supper or Eucharist was associated with the third cup of wine. The singing of the Hallel was completed with the fourth cup-doubtless the hymn of Mt. 26:30. It is assumed here that the Last Supper did coincide with the statutory Passover, despite the denials of certain expositors. A. Plummer, e.g. (Luke, ICC, 1896, pp. 491f.), postulates an ante-dated Passover, 20 hours before the lambs were slaughtered, maintaining that at the proper time Jesus was dying or dead. Others suggest a Passover Qiddush, or ritual purification meal in anticipation. J. N. Geldenhuys argues at length that the Last Supper was itself the Passover, that it was held on the 14th of Nisan, the day before the crucifixion, that there is no contradiction whatever between Synoptics and Fourth Gospel, when the relevant passages are correctly expounded. The Passion, he says, is to be dated on or about 6 April, ad 30. Variant views will be found in other standard commentaries.
The symbolism, ‘Christ our Passover’, ‘Lamb of God’, is familiar from NT usage. We have seen that the traditional lamb, if not provable in all instances, has widespread precedent. It is laid down in Ex. 12:46 and Nu. 9:12 that no bone of the Passover victim is to be broken. This small detail is typologically fulfilled when it is reverently applied to the crucified One (Jn. 19:36).
After the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in ad 70, any possibility of slaughtering a victim in ritual manner utterly ceased, and the Jewish Passover reverted to the family festival it had been in the earliest days—the wheel had turned full circle. Whilst church and synagogue eventually went their separate ways, the habit of celebrating Passover would continue for some time among certain Christians, particularly those of Jewish or proselyte background. But the Lord’s Supper came to replace the Jewish ordinance, just as baptism came to replace circumcision.
Bibliography. See lit. cited in article; also J. Jeremias, TDNT 5, pp. 896-904; SB, 4. 1, pp. 41-76; B. Schaller, NIDNTT 1, pp. 632-635; R. A. Stewart, ‘The Jewish Festivals’, EQ 43, 1971, pp. 149-161; G. B. Gray, Sacrifice in the OT, 1925, pp. 337-397; A. Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services as they were in the Time of Jesus Christ; J. B. Segal, The Hebrew Passover from Earliest Times to A.D. 70, 1963; A. Guilding, The Fourth Gospel and Jewish Worship, 1960; J. Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus, 1969. r.a.s. 2
PENTECOST, FEAST OF. In Lv. 23:16 lxx reads penteµkonta heµmeras for the Heb. h\amisûsûéÆm yoÆm, ‘fifty days’, referring to the number of days from the offering of the barley sheaf at the beginning of the Passover. On the 50th day was the Feast of Pentecost. Since the time elapsed was 7 weeks, it was called h\ag÷ sûaµb_uÔoÆt_, ‘feast of weeks’ (Ex. 34:22; Dt. 16:10). It marks the completion of the barley harvest, which began when the sickle was first put to the grain (Dt. 16:9), and when the sheaf was waved ‘the morrow after the sabbath’ (Lv. 23:11). It is also called h\ag÷ haqqaµs\éÆr, ‘feast of harvest’, and yoÆm habbikkuÆréÆm, ‘day of the first fruits’ (Ex. 23:16; Nu. 28:26). The feast is not limited to the times of the Pentateuch, but its observance is indicated in the days of Solomon (2 Ch. 8:13), as the second of the three annual festivals (cf. Dt. 16:16).
The feast was proclaimed as a ‘holy convocation’ on which no servile work was to be done, and at which every male Israelite was required to appear at the sanctuary (Lv. 23:21). Two baked loaves of new, fine, leavened flour were brought out of the dwellings and waved by the priest before the Lord, together with the offerings of animal sacrifice for sin- and peace-offerings (Lv. 23:17-20). As a day of joy (Dt. 16:16) it is evident that on it the devout Israelite expressed gratitude for the blessings of the grain harvest and experienced heartfelt fear of the Lord (Je. 5:24). But it was the thanksgiving and fear of a redeemed people, for the service was not without sin- and peace-offerings, and was, moreover, a reminder of their deliverance from Egypt (Dt. 16:12) as God’s covenant people (Lv. 23:22). The ground of acceptance of the offering presupposes the removal of sin and reconciliation with God.
In the intertestamental period and later, Pentecost was regarded as the anniversary of the law-giving at Sinai (Jubilees 1:1 with 6:17; TB, Pesah\im 68b; Midrash, Tanh\uma 26c). The Sadducees celebrated it on the 50th day (inclusive reckoning) from the first Sunday after Passover (taking the ‘sabbath’ of Lv. 23:15 to be the weekly sabbath); their reckoning regulated the public observance so long as the Temple stood, and the church is therefore justified in commemorating the first Christian Pentecost on a Sunday (Whit Sunday). The Pharisees, however, interpreted the ‘sabbath’ of Lv. 23:15 as the Festival of Unleavened Bread (cf. Lv. 23:7), and their reckoning became normative in Judaism after ad 70, so that in the Jewish calendar Pentecost now falls on various days of the week.
In the NT there are three references to Pentecost: (1) Acts 2:1 (Gk. teµn heµmeran teµs penteµkosteµs). On this day, after the resurrection and ascension of Christ (c. ad 30), the disciples were gathered in a house in Jerusalem, and were visited with signs from heaven. The Holy Spirit descended upon them, and new life, power and blessing was evident, which Peter explained was in fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel. (2) Acts 20:16. Paul was determined not to spend time in Asia and made speed to be in Jerusalem by the day of Pentecost (ad 57). (3) 1 Cor. 16:8. Paul purposed to stay at Ephesus until Pentecost (ad 54 or 55), because an effectual door was opened to him for his ministry.
Bibliography. Mishnah, Menah\ot_ 10. 3; Tosefta, Menah\ot_ 10. 23, 528; TB, Menah\ot_ 65a; L. Finkelstein, The Pharisees, 1946, pp. 115ff. 2
TABERNACLES, FEAST OF. Heb. h\ag÷ hassukkoÆt_, ‘festival of booths’ (Lv. 23:34; Dt. 16:13), or h\ag÷ haµÕaµséÆp_, ‘festival of ingathering’ (Ex. 23:16; 34:22). This was one of the three great pilgrimage-festivals of the Jewish year; it was kept for 7 days from the 15th to the 22nd day of the 7th month. It came at the end of the year when the labours of the field were gathered in, and was one of the three annual festivals at which every male was required to appear (Ex. 23:14-17; 34:23; Dt. 16:16). It was a time of rejoicing (Dt. 16:14). The designation ‘feast of booths (tabernacles)‘ comes from the requirement for everyone born an Israelite to live in booths made of boughs of trees and branches of palm trees for the 7 days of the feast (Lv. 23:42). Sacrifices were offered on the 7 days, beginning with thirteen bullocks and other animals on the 1st day and diminishing by one bullock each day until on the 7th seven bullocks were offered. On the 8th day there was a solemn assembly when one bullock, one ram and seven lambs were offered (Nu. 29:36). This is the last day, ‘that great day of the feast’, probably alluded to in Jn. 7:37. As a feast, divinely instituted, it was never forgotten. It was observed in the time of Solomon (2 Ch. 8:13), Hezekiah (2 Ch. 31:3; cf. Dt. 16:16), and after the Exile (Ezr. 3:4; Zc. 14:16, 18-19). The ceremony of water-pouring, associated with this festival in post-exilic times and reflected in Jesus’ proclamation in Jn. 7:37f., is not prescribed in the Pentateuch. Its recognition of rain as a gift from God, necessary to produce fruitful harvests, is implied in Zc. 14:17 (cf. 1 Sa. 7:6).
This feast had a historical reference to the Exodus from Egypt and reminded the Jews of their wandering and dwelling in booths in the wilderness (Lv. 23:43). However, this is not evidence of the conversion of the agricultural festival to a historical one. Rather it points to the truth that Israel’s life rested upon redemption which in its ultimate meaning is the forgiveness of sin.
This fact separates this feast from the harvest festivals of the neighbouring nations whose roots lay in the mythological activity of the gods.
Bibliography. N. Hillyer, TynB 21, 1970, pp. 39-51. 2
1. Easton, M. G., M. A. D. D., Easton’s Bible Dictionary, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.) 1996.
2. The New Bible Dictionary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.) 1962.
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