Pentecost
that is, the fiftieth day (from a Greek word meaning fiftieth), or Harvest Feast, or Feast of Weeks, may be regarded as a supplement to the Passover. It lasted for but one day. From the sixteenth of Nisan seven weeks were reckoned inclusively, and the next or fiftieth day was the day of Pentecost, which fell on the sixth of Sivan (about the end of May). (Exodus 23:16; 34:22; Leviticus 23:15,22; Numbers 28) See Jewish calendar at the end of this volume.
The Pentecost was the Jewish harvest-home, and the people were especially exhorted to rejoice before Jehovah with their families their servants, the Levite within their gates, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow in the place chosen by God for his name, as they brought a free-will offering of their hand to Jehovah their God. (16:10,11) The great feature of the celebration was the presentation of the two loaves made from the first-fruits of the wheat harvest.
With the loaves two lambs were offered as a peace offering and all were waved before Jehovah and given to the priests; the leaves being leavened, could not be offered on the altar. The other sacrifices were, a burnt offering of a young bullock, two, rams and seven lambs with a meat and drink offering, and a kid for a sin offering. (Leviticus 23:18,19) Till the pentecostal leaves were offered, the produce of the harvest might not be eaten, nor could any other firstfruits be offered.
The whole ceremony was the completion of that dedication of the harvest to God as its giver, and to whom both the land and the people were holy, which was begun by the offering of the wave-sheaf at the Passover. The interval is still regarded as a religious season.
The Pentecost is the only one of the three great feasts which is not mentioned as the memorial of events in the history of the Jews; but such a significance has been found in the fact that the law was given from Sinai on the fiftieth day after the deliverance from Egypt. Comp. Exod 12 and 19. In the exodus the people were offered to God as living first fruits; at Sinai their consecration to him as a nation was completed.
The typical significance of the Pentecost is made clear from the events of the day recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. Acts 2. Just as the appearance of God on Sinai was the birthday of the Jewish nation, so was the Pentecost the birthday of the Christian Church.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia on Pentecost
Pentecost pen'-te-kost: ⇒See a list of verses on PENTECOST in the Bible. 1. In the Old Testament: As the name indicates (pentekoste), this second of the great Jewish national festivals was observed on the 50th day, or 7 weeks, from the Paschal Feast, and therefore in the Old Testament it was called "the feast of weeks." It is but once mentioned in the historical books of the Old Testament (2Ch 8:12-13), from which reference it is plain, however, that the people of Israel, in Solomon's day, were perfectly familiar with it: "offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the set feasts, three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles." The requirements of the three great festivals were then well understood at this time, and their authority was founded in the Mosaic Law and unquestioned. The festival and its ritual were minutely described in this Law. Every male in Israel was on that day required to appear before the Lord at the sanctuary (Ex 34:22-23). It was the fi…
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible on Pentecost
This term, adopted from the Gr., means ‘ fiftieth’ (ἡ πτεντηκοστή, scil. ἡμέρα), and was ¥) 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…
Fausset's Bible Dictionary on Pentecost
("fiftieth".) (See FEASTS.) Exo 23:16; Exo 34:22; Num 28:26-31; Deu 16:9-14; Lev 23:15-22. The first sheaf offered at the Passover and the two leavened loaves at Pentecost marked the beginning and ending of the grain harvest, and sanctified the interval between as the whole harvest or Pentecostal season. The lesson to Israel was, "Jehovah maketh peace in thy borders, He filleth thee with the finest of the wheat" (Psa 147:14). Pentecost commemorated the giving of the law on Sinai (Exo 12:2; Exo 12:19), the 50th day after the Exodus, 50th from "the morrow after the sabbath" (i.e. the first day of holy convocation, 15th Nisan); the day after was more fit for cutting the sheaf, the 16th day. It was also the birthday of the Christian church (Act 2:1; Act 20:16; 1Co 16:8) through the Holy Spirit, who writes Christ's new law on the heart. It was the last Jewish feast Paul observed, and the first which, as Whitsunday, Christians kept. "The feast of weeks" (a week of weeks between Passover and Pentecost), "the day of firstfruits." The sixth day of Sivan, lasting only one day; but the Jews in…
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- Easton, M.G. (1893) Easton's Bible Dictionary. 3rd edn. Thomas Nelson. [Public Domain]
- Nave, O.J. (1897) Nave's Topical Bible. Topical Bible Publishing Co.. [Public Domain]
- Hastings, J. (ed.) (1909) A Dictionary of the Bible. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. [Public Domain]
- Smith, W. (ed.) (1884) Smith's Bible Dictionary. London: John Murray. [Public Domain]
- Fausset, A.R. (1878) Fausset's Bible Dictionary. [Public Domain]A Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopaedia