William F. Dankenbring
The festival of Shavuot -- or Pentecost, which means "fiftieth day" -- is the most mysterious of all God's annual holy days. It is cloaked in mystery -- and even the date of its observance is highly controversial!Why is there more argument over this holy day than any other -- with the possible exception of Passover?
The ancient Sadducees claimed this holy day always fell on a Sunday -- counted fifty days from the weekly Sabbath falling within the seven-day festival of Unleavened Bread. The Pharisees, however, claimed it fell on the fiftieth day after the Passover holy day -- the first day of Unleavened Bread! Modern end-time remnants of God's Church get all mixed up on both how to count, and when to count from -- so most of them wind up observing this day on a Sunday every year -- the very day the Roman Catholic Church observes "Whitsunday," their Pentecost, counting fifty days from Easter Sunday! The pagan influence of such a practice should be obvious from the very bare facts!
I have written many articles showing that the Sunday-Sadducee reckoning of Pentecost cannot be right -- it is totally in error. To summarize the evidence that this is actual fact, consider the following evidence:
Proof as to the Date of Pentecost
Jesus Christ said the Sadducees were, on the whole, ignorant of the Scriptures. He admonished them, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God" (Matt.22:29). Should God's people then follow the Sadduccean reasoning?Jesus further said we should not look to the Sadducees for guidance in spiritual matters -- at no time and in no place did He ever sanction or approve of the Sadducees! But, on the contrary, He plainly said of the Pharisees: "The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: ALL THEREFORE whatsoever they bid you observe, THAT OBSERVE and do; but do not ye after their works [their hypocrisy and vain traditions]: for they say [keep the Law], and do not" (Matt.23:2-3).
Jesus plainly showed the Pharisees had authority which came down from Moses' time and authority. They were the official, sanctioned interpreters of the Law. Therefore, when it comes to God's Law, the dates of holy days, and the calendar, their rule was the official word -- except where their determinations clearly differed with and conflicted with the words of Christ Himself! This passage would clearly imply that the Pharisees are the ones we should follow when it comes to observing the date of Pentecost!
In support of this conclusion, the apostle Paul also points out that he himself was a Pharisee, and had been taught "according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers" (Acts 22:3). He had, in fact, been brought up "at the feet of Gamaliel," one of the most highly respected Pharisee "rabbans," or chief rabbis (same verse). Paul later told the church at Philippi, in all candor and honesty, that he was "an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee . . . touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless" (Phil.3:5-6).
The only question, then, is what day did the Pharisees sanction for Pentecost, or Shavuot?
The answer is very clear in all historical references. The Pharisees counted fifty days from the Passover! Therefore, the correct date for Pentecost would be fifty days from Nisan 16. During ancient times, when the months of the Hebrew year could have 29 or 30 days, therefore, Pentecost could fall on either Sivan 5, 6, or 7! Today, with the Jewish calendar now in use, it always falls on Sivan 6, and whatever day of the week Sivan 6 falls upon!
Josephus, the Jewish historian of the first century, makes this plain. He wrote in Antiquities of the Jews: "But 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. And while they suppose it proper to honor God, from whom they obtain this plentiful provision, in the first place, they offer the first fruits of their barley, and that in the manner following: They take a handful of the ears, and dry them, then beat them small, and purge the barley from the bran; they then bring one tenth deal to the altar, to God: and, casting one handful of it upon the fire, they leave the rest for the use of the priest; and after this it is that they may publicly or privately reap their harvest They also at this participation of the first-fruits of the earth, sacrifice a lamb, as a burnt offering to God.
"When a week of weeks has passed over after this sacrifice, (which weeks contain forty and nine days,) on the fiftieth day, which is Pentecost . . . ." (Josephus, Ant., 3,x, 5-6).
Alfred Edersheim, in The Temple: Its Ministry and Services, declares, "The expression, 'the morrow after the Sabbath,' has sometimes been misunderstood as implying that the presentation of the so-called 'first sheaf' was to be always made on the day following the weekly Sabbath of the Passover-week. This view, adopted by the 'Boethusians,' and the Sadducees of the time of Christ . . . rests on a misinterpretation of the word 'Sabbath.' As in analogous allusions to the other feasts in the same chapter [Leviticus 23], it means not the weekly Sabbath, but the day of the festival. The testimony of Josephus, Philo, and of Jewish tradition, leaves no room to doubt that in this instance we are to understand by the 'Sabbath' the 15th of Nisan, on whatever day of the week it may fall" (p.257).
Finally, as a proof that indeed the fifty days are counted from the day after the Passover holy day, Nisan 15, we can cite the evidence from the Septuagint (LXX), which was translated from the Hebrew into Greek by leading orthodox Jewish scholars around 250 years before the time of Christ. More and more, in recent years, scholars have come to see that the Septuagint is actually based on an ancient version of the Hebrew Scriptures much in use during the time of Christ. In fact, most quotations in the New Testament are from the Septuagint! Since this translation was made long before there were any Sadducees or Pharisees in existence (those schools of religious teaching did not develop until after the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, circa 165 B.C.), its authority in this matter is of very ancient authenticity and credibility.
In the passage dealing with the offering of the wave sheaf, and the counting of the days after that till Pentecost, found in Leviticus 23, the Septuagint translates as follows: "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, between the evening times is the Lord's passover. And on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast of unleavened bread. And the first day shall be a holy convocation to you . . . And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying . . . When ye shall enter into the land which I give you, and reap the harvest of it, then shall ye bring a sheaf, the first-fruits of your harvest to the priest; and he shall lift up the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you. On the morrow of the FIRST DAY the priest shall lift it up. . . . And ye shall number to yourselves FROM the day after the sabbath, FROM the day on which ye shall offer the sheaf of the heave-offering, SEVEN FULL WEEKS: until the morrow after the last week ye shall number FIFTY DAYS. . ." (LXX, Lev.23:5-16). The "first day" mentioned in this passage obviously refers to the first day of Unleavened Bread -- Nisan 15. The "morrow" after this day would have to be Nisan 16. Thus the "count" to Shavuot or Pentecost begins Nisan 16. Fifty days later, on the Jewish calendar, brings us to Sivan 6, and whatever day of the week that occurs upon!
So much for the "Sunday" Pentecosters! They are barking up the wrong tree. They have ignored or never looked at all this clear cut evidence which proves them wrong. Or, on the other hand, they have blinded themselves to the truth in order to maintain their own human (church) "traditions" of men! Jesus Christ says to them, "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? . . . But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Matt.15:3, 9).
Observing Pentecost -- a New Look
[SIZE=14pt]But Pentecost is not only observed on the wrong day, by most Messianic Jewish believers, as well as most Christian groups, [/SIZE]
