Pentecost (Hastings' Dictionary)

This term, adopted from the Gr., means ‘ fiftieth’ (ἡ πτεντηκοστή, scil. ἡμέρα), and was <piees by Greek-speaking Jews, as o'yDg 20 oY was by the Rabbins, to the second of the three chief Heb. festivals, because it fell (Ly 23°") on the fiftieth day after the offering of the barley-sheaf during the feast of unleavened bread (To 2', 2 Mac 12%; Jos. Ant. UL x. 6, XII. viii. 4, XIV. xiii. 4, xvul. x. 2, BJ τι. iii. 1, vi. v. 3; Philo, de Septen. § 21, see also de Decal.

οι in NT Ac 9) 20", 1 Co 165. In OT it is called ‘the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labours’ (Ex 23" yypo 25 weer N23, LXX ἑορτὴν θερισμοῦ πρωτογενημάτων τῶν ἔργων cov); ‘the feast of weeks, οἵ the first-fruits of wheat harvest’ (Ex 347 cpn vyp ‘23 πὴρτῷ 29, LXX ἑορτὴν ἑβδομάδων ; so also Dt 16,2Ch 8), and ‘the day of the first-fruits’ (Nu 28% ΟὝΣΣΟ of, LXX τῇ 140 PENTECOST ἡμέρᾳ τῶν νέων) ; while the later Jews also denom- inated it myy, Aram. xmsy, (Jos. Ant, mI. x.

6 ἴα: ἀσαρθά) ; Mishna, Arach. il. 3, Chag. ii. 4, Rosh A. i. 2; Targ. on Nu 28%), a term meaning ‘solemn see (2 Καὶ 10”, Is 10”, Jer 9? etc.), but applied in OT to the closing day of the feasts of unleavened bread and tabernacles (Ly 23”, Nu 29", Dt 168, 2 Ch 7°, Neh 8%; RVm ‘closing festival,’ not as AVm ‘restraint’), and hence sppllee also to Pentecost as the closing festival of the harvest season. Jos, inaccurately says (Ant. ΠῚ. x. 6) that nyyy, signifies (σημαίνει) Pentecost. In the Heb.

legislation, the titles ‘feast of har- vest’ and ‘day of first-fruits’ indicate that this festival was fundamentally an agricultural one, expressing gratitude to God for the returns from the labours of the field. It celebrated specificall the wheat harvest (Ex 34%), the last of the cereals to ripen in Palestine.

It marked, therefore, the closing of the grain harvest, as the feast of tabernacles (or ingathering) celebrated especially the return from oliveyards and vineyards as well as the close of the husbandman’s labours as a whole (Dt 164), This of itself implies that the feast fell in the late spring or early summer; and, since the Israelites became agricultural only after entering Canaan, it could not have been pre-Mosaic, but was established with a view to the settlement in the promised land (Ex 34 [JE], Lv 23 [Η] etc.)

On the other hand, the title ‘feast of weeks’ already aren it in Ex 34” [JE], as well as the general escription of the time of its observance in Dt 16° (‘Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: from the time thou beginnest to put the sickle to the standing corn shalt thou begin to number seven weeks,’ RV), find their definite explanation in Ly 23°31, From the latter we learn (1) that the acer 9 of the harvest season was celebrated during the feast of unleavened bread by the cere- mony of waving before the Lord ‘a sheaf (1>¥) of the first-fruits (ΠΝ) of harvest,’* together with the waving of a he-lamb and the rendering of Bppcinted meal- and drink-offerings ; and that none of the new crop could be eaten until this had been done.

Since the barley ripened first, the sheaf was understood to be of that grain (Philo, de Septen. § 20; Jos. Ant. m1. x. 5), though it is not one in OT. The ‘feast of weeks’ came on the fiftieth day after the barley-sheaf was waved (vy.1® 18, i.e. the day after the completion of seven weeks). Hence we read (Jer 5%) of ‘ the appointed weeks of harvest’ ; and Philo (de Septen. §21) says that the sheaf-waving προέορτός ἐστιν ἑτέρας ἑορτῆς μείζονος.

(2) We learn also from Lv 23 that the barley-sheaf was waved on ‘the morrow after the Sabbath’ (vv.4-1* novin AID). The meaning of this phrase, on which the computation of Pentecost depends, has been much ἀιδουϊοῦς The Jews of Christ’s time understood it to designate Nisan 16th, without re- gard to the day of the week; ‘the Sabbath’ bein Hh ls as the first day of the feast of cleaved bread (Nisan 15th) on the basis of v.7 [see Jos. Ant. mm. x.

5; LXX at Ly 23" (τῇ ἐπαύριον τῆς πρώτης) ; Targums (3p xpi 555); Mishna, Chag. il. 4, Menach. x. 1-3]. There was dissent, however, from this interpretation even at that time. The ‘Baithusians’ (Sadducees) are said to have held that ‘the morrow after the Sabbath’ meant the day following the weekly Sabbath which occurred during the feast of unleavened bread (see Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. on Lk 61; Adler, ‘Phar. ἃ. Sad. ἃ.

ihre * In the second temple, barley was cut the previous evenin to the amount of an ephah (10 omers), brotight to the ἘΣΣῚ thrashed, parched, and ground. Then one omer, mixed with oil and frankincense, was ‘ waved’ and a handful burned on the altar (Jos. Ant. mL. x. 5; Mishna, Menach. x. 4; Edersheim, The Temple, ete. p. 224). Kurtz (Sacr. Worship of OT, p. 374) thinks the sheaf iteelf should have been waved according to Ly. PENTECOST differirende Ausleg. ἃ. nawa ninco,’ in Monatschr. f. Gesch.

u. Wissensch. d. Judenth, 1878, p. 522 ff, 568 ff., 1879, p. 29 ff. ; Montet, Hssat sur les orig. des partis Sad. et Phar. 1883), and the Karaites of the 8th cent. A.D. followed the same view (see Trigland, Diatribe de secta Kar. 1703, ch. 4). There are also traces in antiquity of the view that the yhrase in question designated the last, not the first, day of the paschal festival (see Dillmann in Schenkel’s Bib.-Lex. under ‘ Pfingsten’).

Some modern scholars likewise contend that the tradi- tional interpretation was wrong, chiefly because πὶ elsewhere means the weekly Sabbath, and because, it is said, ninz¢ νον (Lv 23") can only mean weeks which ended with Sabbaths. Hence George (Die alter. Jiid. Feste, 1835) understood the ‘Sabbath’? in question to be the weekly Sabbath which fell immediately before harvest, holding the harvest festivals to have had originally no connexion with the Passover. Hitzig (Ostern u.

Pfingsten, 1837, Ost. u. Pf. im zweit. Dekalog, 1838) went so far as to maintain that in the Heb. Calendar Nisan 14 and 21 were always Sabbaths, so that the year must always haveteran (Nisan 1) with a Sunday ; and that ‘the morrow after the Sabbath’ was the day following the weekly Sabbath of the feast of un- leavened bread, and therefore always fell on Sun- day, Nisan 22. With him agreed Knobel (Com. on Lev.) and Kurtz (Sacr. Worshi; oF OT, Eng. tr.

p- 356), except that they identified the ‘Sabbath’ in question with Nisan 14, and the day of the sheaf-waving with Nisan 15. Against this unsup- ported conception of the calendar, however, is the well-known custom of beginning each month by the new moon, as well as the fact that in such a calendar there would be an incomplete week at the end of the year, which would conflict with the sanctity of the seventh day.

Hitzig’s theory, more- over, would place the sheaf-waving after the feast of unleavened bread had ended. Hence more writers have followed the Sadducean interpretation, although this also might, when Nis. 15 fell on Sun- day, throw the ceremony of sheaf-waving outside the feast of unleavened bread (Saalschiitz, Das Mos. Recht*, 1853, p. 418; Fiirst, Heb. τι. Chald. Worterb. 1863, under ποῦ; Wellhausen, Jahrb. f. deutsch. Theol. xxii. ; Proleg. p. 86; von Orelli in Herzog’s RE’, art.

‘ Pfingstfest’). The traditional inter- retation, however, may be successfully defended. here is no sufficient proof that the connexion of the sheaf-waving with the feast of unleavened bread was not original, nor can Lv 23°” be separated from the surrounding legislation, since otherwise no directions concerning the feast of weeks would be giveninitatall. If, however, the two were thus connected, the sheaf-waving may most naturally be supposed to have occurred during, not after, the feast.

This is also made probable by Jos 5'4, where it is stated that, after having kept the Pass- over on the 14th day of the month in Gilgal, ‘the did eat of the produce (RVm, not ‘old corn’ as A and RV; "ay means simply produce) of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes and parched corn in the self-same day.’ The latter clause shows that the feast of unleavened bread was notover, and ‘the morrow after the passover,’ while it may mean (as in Nu 33°) Nis. 15, may also mean Nis.

16, since the paschal meal was celebrated on Nis 15, in the evening following the 14th when the lamb was slain; but at any rate the phraseology shows that the sheaf-waving, without which the new corn could not be eaten, was regulated by the date of the Passover itself, not by any ae Sabbath. Finally, the application of nzv¥ to the first day of unleavened bread may be justified by the language used (v.**) of the day of atonement (‘In the ninth day of the month. .

shall ye keep your sabbath’), and by the application of the term to the sabbatical] PENTECOST PENTECOST 741) hd (Ly 257 * ® 26%. 4); while the use of ninz¢ in opr sense of weeks may be justified by the analogy of the Aramaic and Syriac, the interpreta- tion οἱ the LXX (τῶν ἑβδομάδων), and the use of σάββατον and σάββατα in NT, e.g. Mt 28', Lk 184 [see Biihr, Symb. ii. 619; Dillm. in Schenkel’s Bid.- Lex. (in his Com. also Dillm. regards this view as exegetically defensible); Schiirer, HJP πὶ.

ii. 37; W. H. Green, Heb. Feasts, ch. vii.J]. It is at any rate certain that the Jews celebrated the sheaf- waving on Nis. 16, and Pentecost on the fiftieth day after (usually Sivan 6), without regard in either case to the day of the week. Reland (Antig. Sacr. Vet. Heb. part iv. ch. iv.) states, indeed, that they took care that Pentecost should not fall on the third, fifth, or seventh day of the week; but this was probably only a later Rabbinical Tule (see Ideler, Handb. ὦ. Chronol. i. p.

537 ff.) The feast of weeks or Pentecost, therefore, as it ereeTein the Pent., was a joyful acknowledgment of the completion of the harvest in the land which God had given Israel. The whole harvest season was in a sense sacred time. Hence Pentecost lasted but oneday. By its prelude, the sheaf-waving, it was aap ent on Passover, commemorative of Israel’s emption ; and by the interval of seven weeks between it and Nis.

16, it was brought into the sabbatical system in accordance with which the Heb. feasts were arranged. Those modern writers who maintain the post- exilic origin of the Levitical code, consider Pente- cost, like the other agricultural feasts, to have been cxiptially a nature-festival, which in the development of the Heb. cultus was taken up into an artificial ecclesiastical system. Wellhausen (Proleg. Eng. tr. ch. iii.)

points out that in the early prophetical narrative of JE (Ex 9316 34%) the dates of the harvest festivals are vaguely de- scribed; that first in Dt (e.g. 12% 142-28 106.

16) is Pentecost, as well as the other feasts, connected with a central sanctuary, and the freewill offer- ings tend to appear as liturgical obligations, though there is still no mention of a single com- munal offering ; but that in the Levitical code (Lv 23, Nu 28, the former including, however, elements from older sources ; see also Driver, LOT® p. 56; Dillmann, Comment.)

the offerings have become mere dues, the communal offering through the priests ontranks the freewill offerings of the people, and the festival has been brought into an arbitrary system of dates and relations quite different from its primitive freedom. The ceremonies for the celebration of Pentecost are described in Ly 234%, On it no servile work could be done.

Two loaves of bread, made from two-tenths of an ephah (RV) of fine flour from the new wheat (Ex 34") harvest, were to be baked with feaven and presented by the priest before the LorpD as a wave-oflering. ‘Ye shall bring (the loaves) out of your habitations’ (oy naye>, LAX ἀπὸ τῆς κατοικίας ὑμῶν) does not mean that each house- hold was to present two loaves (as Vulg. and Luther read, ‘out of all your dwellings’; so Calvin, Osiander, George, et al.)

, but that the loaves were to be taken from the oui bread made from wheat of the land for household pur- poses. Hence also they were to be leavened,* and therefore could not come upon the altar (Ex 23", Ly 2"), but were merely waved before the Lorp and consumed by the priests.

With them two lambs were to be also waved as peace-otlerings, significant of the fellowship between J” and his people; while at the same time a burnt-offering was to be made, consisting of seven yearling * Edersheim (The Temple, eto. p lla the leaven repre- sented the sense of sin which mingled with the thanksgiving. The common explanation is that the loaves were intended to represent the τι τεστας food of the people, and this explanation appears sufficient.

lambs without blemish, one young bullock, and two rams, with the appropriate meal- and drink- offerings, and also a he-goat as a sin-offering—these latter (El SNee = men of pr bs ee which properly mingled with the e’s thanksgiving. _ nNu ogi a slightly diferent set of λέας ἠδ is directed for ‘the day of first-fruits,’ as Pentecost is there called, to be made in addition to the daily sacrifices.

Many consider this list also to refer to the offering accompanying the loaves, and either pass over the differences as unimportant or explain them as due to corruption of the text or to diverse and unharmonized sources.

The later Jews, how- ever, regarded the two lists as supplementary,— that in Nu referring to the sacrifices for Pentecost considered as a special feast-day ; that in Ly to the sacrifices directly connected with the loaves; so that on Pentecost three series of sacrifices were made: (1) the daily burnt- offerings; (2) the sped offerings for a feast-day ; (3) the waving of the loaves and lambs, and the sacrifices connected therewith. This usage appears from Jos. Ant. I. x.

6, where the offerings of both lists are added together (except that he specifies two rams, which is probably an error for three); also from the Mishna (see Menach. iv. 2, 5). Neither is there any reasonable objection to thus combining the lists, since Nu 28. 29 contain directions for sacrifices on special days without describing other ceremonies which fell on those days.

Finally, besides these communal offerings, Pentecost was celebrated by the freewill offerings of individuals both to the sanctuary and to the poor (Dt 16», Ly 23), These ceremonies emphasized the relation of Pentecost, as the close of harvest, to the sheaf- waving at its beginning. There a single sheaf of barley, here two prepared loaves of wheat-bread ; there one lamb, here two, together with accom- anying burnt- and sin-offerings. That, there- ore, was the prelude of this.

he two included the harvest period of seven weeks,* and expressed in climacteric form the increased gratitude of the porte. No voluntary offerings of first-fruits could made before Pentecost (see Ex 331»), Of course the harvest was not always finished in all the land by Pentecost; but the seven weeks covered the normal period, and brought the festival into the sabbatical system. In the second temple these ceremonies were fully observed. Maultitudes attended the feast (Jos. Ant. Xvi. x.

2, BJ π΄. iii. 1; Ac 2). In anticipation of it, a portion of the best wheat, previously selected, was cut, thrashed, brought to the temple, ground, and passed through twelve sieves to ensure its fineness. On the day before Pentecost [unless it were a Sabbath, in which case on the second day before] two omers of the flour were baked into loaves. The size of the latter is described in the Mishna as 4 handbreadths wide, 7 long, and 4 fingers high.

Soon after midnight the temple gates were opened that offerings for the day might be examined by the priests. At sunrise occurred the regular daily sacrifice, and soon afterwards the festal offerings directed in Nu 28-!| Amid the singing of the ‘ Hallel,’ the peculiar ceremonies of Pentecost began.

‘The two lambs were first waved alive; then, after their sacrifice, the breast and shoulder were laid beside * The phrase, ‘is σαββάτῳ Jeriperpérm’ found In TR of Lk δὶ ‘supported by many MSS), has been explained as meaning the rst Sab, after the second day of the feast of unleavened bread, ie. the first Sab. of the harvest period. (So, first, Soaliger, de Emend. Temp. vi. 577, followed by many. See Lightfoot, Hor, Hebd.

on the passage) The word must have originated in some known custom; and this explanation is not improtabla, since the Sabbaths between Nis. 16 and Pentecost were oare- fully noted. The adj., however, is probably a Western and τς gloss intruded into Lk's text, and is rejected by WH after XBL and other weighty authorities PENTECOST PEOPLE the loaves and ‘“‘ waved” ἀρ ται toward the East) forwards and backward, and ὯΝ and down’ (Edersheim, The Temple, p. 230).

1en followed the other appointed sacrifices, and the freewill gifts; and the rest of the day was spent in festive gatherings, to which the poor and the stranger and the Levite were invited. The attendant festivities are said to have often continued several days. The Jews of the post-biblical period held Pente- cost to celebrate the giving of the law at Sinai, which was calculated to have taken place on the 60th day after the Exodus (Ex 19").

Nosuch view of the day, however, is found in OT, Josephus, or Philo. Philo, in fact, seems to regard the feast of trumpets as commemorative of Sinai (de Septen. § 22). It was probably after the fall of Jerus. that this view originated.* Thereafter it was peo adopted by the Rabbins, and the day is described in the later liturgy as ‘the day of the giving of the law’ (Saalschiitz, Das Mos. Recht, p. 420). The same view ap among the Christian Fathers (see Jerome, Ep.

ad Fabiolam ; Augustine, contra Faustum, xxxii. 12). Maimonides (More neb, iii. 41) expressly says, ‘ festum septimanarum est dies ille, quo lex data fuit’; but Abarbanel, while admitting the fact, denies that Pentecost was a celebration of it (Bihr, Symbd. ii. 645). Modern Jews accept the tradition, and spend the previous night in reading the law and other ap- ropriate Scripture.

The later Jews also observed Pea tacodt for two days; but this custom arose in the Dispersion from the difficulty of determining exactly the Palestinian month, which was fixed by observation of the moon. See NEw Moon. In the Christian Church the importance of Pentecost was continued, and its significance emphasized, by the Sey eel 3 of the Spirit on that day (Ac 2).t The day of the week on that occasion is traditionally represented as Sunday.

Its determination, however, depends on the date assigned to Christ’s death. It is to be assumed that He died on a Friday (see e.g. Mk 1653). If, then, as many suppose the Fourth Gospel to teach, He died on Nis. 14, Nis. 16 and Pentecost fell on a Sunday; but if, as the Synoptists seem to state, He ate the passover wit His disciples at the regular time, He was crucified on Nis. 15, and Nis. 16 and Pentecost fell on Saturday [see CHRONOLOGY OF NT]. Wieseler (Chron. d. Apost.

Zeitalter, pa) plausibly suggests that the fes- tival was fixed on Sunday by the later Western Church to correspond with Easter. But, whatever the day of the week may have been, the events of that Pentecost were of funda- mental importance to the Church, and as appropri- ate to that festival as Christ’s death had been to the Passover season. They indicated the Divine origin of Christianity on its subjective side, and the Church was then endowed for its future work.

The suddenness of the manifestation indicated the supernaturalness of the endowment; the ‘sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind’ was the natural emblem of the almighty Spirit; the tongues ‘parting asunder’ or ‘distributing them- selves’ on the disciples [not ‘cloven’ as AV] symbolized the universal gift of power to proclaim the gospel; the semblance of fire indicated the purified zeal, born of faith and love, which was * Dt 1613 gives @ reason for observing the feast ae directed, τος a meses of — feast celebrated.

See 516, 1515, er in He ‘8 ν art. ‘ Pfingstfest,’ a peals for this view also to 2 Ch 1610, and even to Jn 63%; but Ei arguments are not convincing. t The ay fee of Ac 21 iv τῷ συνεληροῦσθα, ἡμίραν τῇς wivtnmecrig been understood by some (as Olshausen and Baumgarten, so also Blass) to mean that the Spirit came before the day of Pentecost ; while Lightfoot in Hor. Heb. (Ezercit. on Ac 2) interprets it of the after Pentecost. The vast psig of critics interpret it of Pentecost itself.

See Meyer's ‘on. to characterize the proclamation ; while the poly- glot (Ὁ utterances of the believers were a sign of the world-wide destination of the truth which filled their lips with praise [see TONGUES, GIFT OF]. The occurrence of these events on Pentecost was also significant. The gift of the Spirit was the first-fruit of the spiritual harvest (cf.

Ro 8% 114 Ja 118) procured through the work of Christ; and the dependence of Pentecost on Passover harmonized with the dependence of the Spirit’s work on the objective sacrifice of the Redeemer. The euchar- istic character of Pentecost harmonized also with the joy of the eps over their spiritual blessings ; while, providentially, the presence of multitudes at the feast made it a fit opportunity for the first public proclamation of the now completed gospel.

Among the early Jewish Christians observance of the Heb. feasts continued, doubtless with fresh significance derived from the new revelation. So it is noteworthy that St. Paul earnestly desired to present the gifts of the Gentile Churches to the saints in Judea at Pentecost (Ac 20%), There is no evidence, however, that the Gentile Churches of the apostolic age observed this feast; but at the close of the 2nd cent. it appears as one of the established festal periods of the Church.

The name Pentecost was at first epplipd to the whole time between Easter and the festival of the Holy Ghost (Greg. Naz. Orat. 44 de Pent.) This larger meaning of the word is abundantly shown by Tert. Idololatria, 14, de Baptismo, 19; Orig. c. Cels. viii. 22; Apost. Const. v. 20, ete. The period was one of joyfulness. As on the Lord’s ay, no fasting or kneeling in prayer were allowed (Tert. de. Cor. 3). Afterwards the term was limited to the 50th day after Easter (Apost. Const. lib. viii. cap.

33 ; Counce. Eliberis, Canon 43) ; and, at a still later period, the following days, or in some places the week, were included in the festival. The Pentecost season was especially used for baptisms. From the white robes worn by the candidates, the English term ‘ Whitsunday’ is supposed to have arisen (see Riddle, Manual of Chr. Ant. p. 681, and esp. Skeat, Htym. Dict.?, for venus explanations of the origin of the word). LrteraTuRE.—Drusius, Note Mi in Ly 2315-1 (in Crit. Sacr.)

; Lightfoot, Works (1825), iii. 186ff., viii. 40ff., 369 ff. ; Buxtorf, Syn. Jud, c. xx.; Oarpzov, Appar. Crit. lib. iii. c. δ; Reland, Antig. Sacr. Vet. Heb. iv. c. iv.; Iken, de duobus pantbus Pent. ; Spencer, de leg. Heb. τ. ix. 2, 11. viii. 2; Meyer, de temp. et fest. Heb. ; Michaelis, Com. on Laws cid sci p. 258 ff. ; zweiten Deka ra es ἘΞ ron. les Pra echt rt rane Wellpaceet, 'roleg. (Eng. tr.) οἱ ii. ; Edersheim, ‘emple, ch. xiii. ; Green, Te eb. Feasts, Lect. vii.

; articles in Herzog’s RE, and ‘ ‘igkeiten aus ἃ. Christ. Archdol. ii. 343 ff., and Handb. d. Christ. Archdol. 1. ΙΣ 654ff.; Guericke, Lehrb. d. Christ.-Kirch. Arch. p. 190 17; iddle, Manual of Christ Antiqg. p. 679ff.; Cave, Prim. Christianity, ch. vii. G. T. PURVES.