The festival of Shavuot<\/em> falls tonight on the Jewish calendar, observed through Monday sundown. Shavuot in Hebrew literally means \u201cweeks\u201d or \u201csevens,\u201d which refers to the seven weeks between Passover and what was originally a harvest<\/em> celebration on the 50th day\u2013also called the \u201cfeast of firstfruits\u201d (Exodus 34:22). In Greek the festival is known as the feast of Pentecost\u2013which literally means \u201cFifty\u201d (\u03c0\u03b5\u03bd\u03c4\u03b7\u03ba\u03bf\u03c3\u03c4\u03ae), see Acts 2:1; 20:16; 1 Corinthians 16:8). Christians observe a form of the festival, still called Pentecost, but 50 days after Easter, so no longer connected to the Passover as in the Hebrew tradition.<\/p>\n Shavuot<\/em> has a long and controversial history. It is probably the least known day of the Jewish calendar to non-Jews, who are culturally familiar with Passover, Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur, and Hanukkah. Even many Jews, other than those who regularly attend synagogue, will pay it little mind though it is considered a Sabbath or \u201crest\u201d day in the Torah (see Lev 23:21).<\/p>\n The controversy has to do with determining the proper date<\/em> for Shavuot as well as the interpretation of its significance or meaning, which has shifted and evolved through the ages.<\/p>\n The texts in the Hebrew Bible about Shavuot are few and somewhat obscure, giving rise to some of the controversy. Unlike the other Jewish festivals that fell on a fixed date<\/em> of the Jewish lunar month (e.g., Passover=15th day of the first month Nisan; Rosh HaShanah=1st day of the seventh month Tishri), there is no date specified<\/em> for Shavuot or the \u201cfeast of weeks.\u201d It had to be literally counted<\/em>\u2013falling seven weeks plus one day following the offering of the \u201csheaf of the firstfruits\u201d (called the Omer<\/em>) which represented the beginning of the grain harvest and was cut from the fields and symbolically \u201cwaved before YHVH\u201d for acceptance during Passover week. Thus we read:<\/p>\n You shall count seven full weeks [lit. \u201csevens\u201d] from the day after the Sabbath,<\/em> from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath<\/em>. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to YHVH (Leviticus 23:15-16).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In 2nd Temple times the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Essenes each interpreted when to begin this count differently. If the term \u201cSabbath\u201d was taken here to mean the normal weekly Sabbath, which fell on Saturday, then clearly Shavuot would always fall on a Sunday. But was it to be counted from the Sunday after the Sabbath that fell during Passover week, or from the first Sunday day after the Days of Unleavened Bread (Essenes). However, since the 15th day of Nisan, the first day of unleavened bread, was also understood as a \u201cSabbath\u201d or rest day, the Pharisees concluded that the offering of the \u201csheaf of the firstfruits\u201d would always be the day after this \u201cSabbath,\u201d or Nisan 16th of the lunar month. As a result Shavuot would come 50 days thereafter, and could fall on any day of the week. Ironically, though, with this method a \u201ccount\u201d is really not necessary since 50 days after Nisan 16th is always<\/em> Sivan 6th\u2013that is the 6th day of the 3rd lunar month\u2013so Shavuot ends up having a \u201cdate\u201d like all the other Jewish holy days. Nehemia Gordon has a very clear, enlightening, and compelling article on all the details of the issues involved here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Most Jews today follow the practice of the Pharisees, which was the majority decision of the rabbis of the Mishnah in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE. The Karaites <\/a>are the only major group of Judaism, and they are a tiny minority, that still adheres to the Sadducean practice of a Sunday Shavuot. In that sense one might say that Christians, in calculating Pentecost, are closer to the Sadducees, since they adhere to the \u201calways on a Sunday\u201d practice as well. They are joined in this Sunday-Shavuot practice by countless Jewish-oriented Messianic groups<\/a>, as well as various Sabbatarian Christian<\/a>, and other Hebraic-oriented groups<\/a> that are committed to a more literal reading<\/em> of the biblical texts.<\/p>\n Even more obscure than the \u201ccounting\u201d of Shavuot or Pentecost is the question of its meaning<\/em> or significance<\/em>. Passover is clearly tied to the Exodus from Egypt, Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur to the ancient day of atonement<\/em> for sins, and Sukkoth or Tabernacles to the 40 years of Israel\u2019s desert wanderings. So what does Shavuot either commemorate or celebrate?<\/p>\n We know it was one of the three<\/em> pilgrimage festivals at which all males<\/em> were commanded to go to the \u201cplace where God would choose,\u201d which was understood as Jerusalem during the time of the 1st and 2nd Temples:<\/p>\n Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks<\/em>, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed (Deuteronomy 16:16).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n But beyond that we are only told that it had something to do celebrating the beginning of the wheat or barley harvest:<\/p>\n You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest<\/em>, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year\u2019s end (Exodus 34:22).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Just as the festival of Sukkoth or \u201cTabernacles,\u201d here called the \u201cFeast of Ingathering\u201d fell in the early Fall, to celebrate the end<\/em> of the harvest, the \u201cFeast of Weeks\u201d appears to represent the beginning<\/em> or inauguration of that harvest.<\/p>\n These kinds of celebrations, tied to the land and its agricultural seasons made sense in their original contexts but for Jews outside the Land of Israel, and subsequently throughout the history of Diaspora Judaism worldwide, not to mention the millions of Christians who also celebrate Pentecost\u2013the original agricultural context of honoring God with the \u201cfirstfruits\u201d of the wheat or barley harvest could have little direct application.<\/p>\n What the Jews and the Christians did in the face of this dilemma is quite fascinating. The rabbis noticed that in Exodus 19:1 the Israelites in the time of Moses arrived at Mt Sinai at the third new moon<\/em> of the lunar year, having left Egypt on the 15th of Nisan\u2013the 1st lunar month (Exodus 12:1). They realized this would work out to approximately seven weeks<\/em> after Passover, especially since Moses is told that YHVH would descend upon Mt Sinai \u201con the third day\u201d to deliver the \u201cTen Words\u201d (literal translation), putting one into the first week of Sivan\u2013the 3rd month of the year. That was close enough to make the claim that the \u201cgiving of the Torah\u201d which came during that first week of the 3rd month, was surely on Shavuot\u2013which they were convinced fell on Sivan 6th. This gave rise to the common notion today, so widespread in Judaism, that the celebration of Shavuot has to do with remembering the \u201cgiving of the Torah\u201d at Mt Sinai. Observant Jews stay up all night studying the Torah in commemoration of this great event.<\/p>\n The early Jesus movement took another route entirely. They picked up on the biblical notion of the firstfruits<\/em> of the harvest and offered an allegorical<\/em> interpretation, alluded to by Paul who makes \u201cChrist\u201d both the sacrificial Passover lamb and the \u201cfirstfuit\u201d or \u201cwave sheaf\u201d offering\u2013as the one first raised from the dead (1 Corinthians 5:7; 15:23-24). His resurrection then inaugurates an initial \u201cearly harvest\u201d that is gathered when he returns in the clouds of heaven and those who \u201cbelong to Christ\u201d are also raised as he was. They will be gathered like ripe fields of grain as the firstfruits of a greater harvest (James 1:18; Revelation 14:4). This could then be taken to imply that subsequently, corresponding to the late fall \u201cfestival of Ingathering,\u201d also known as the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths (Sukkoth<\/em>), there would be another much greater \u201charvest\u201d involving the mass of humanity. This idea seems hinted at in Revelation 20, where the \u201crest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished,\u201d and then are subsequently tested by Satan who is released from his constraint for a limited period\u2013followed by a final \u201cGreat White Throne\u201d judgment that involves all of humanity who have ever lived, having been raised from the dead. Paul, offering less detail, but speaking of the resurrection in two stages, declares that \u201call shall be made alive,\u201d but \u201ceach in his own order.\u201d He lists three stages: Jesus raised; those belonging to him raised at his coming; followed by an indeterminate period he calls the \u201cEnd\u201d or \u201ctelos<\/em>\u201d better translated as the Completion or Perfection, when all enemies, including death itself, is defeated and destroyed and God becomes \u201ceverything to everyone\u201d (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).<\/p>\n There are similar \u201charvest\u201d motifs in the gospels. God is like a master farmer who \u201cwhen the grain is ripe, puts in the sickle because the harvest has come\u201d (Mark 4:29). Jesus tells his disciples in the Sayings Source that scholars call Q: \u201cThe harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest\u201d (Luke 10:2). In the gospel of John, with a direct reference to the agricultural cycles, Jesus says to his disciples, \u201cDo you not say, \u2018There are yet four months, then comes the harvest\u2019? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest\u201d (John 4:35). When I was growing up in a conservative Christian church there were countless old \u201cGospel hymns\u201d that we sung from \u201cBringing in the Sheaves\u201d to \u201cLord of Harvest,\u201d all tied to this evangelism theme.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jamestabor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Shavuot.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
\n
\n