counting Pentecost - the Feast of Weeks
Lev 23:15 ¶ ‘And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed.
16 ‘Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD.
Deut 16:9 “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain.
10 “Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you.
the commandment for the observance of Pentecost seems very simple and straight forward, but the controversy continues over which day is Pentecost.
regarding this controversy, there seems to be two primary "camps" - those that observe Pentecost on a sunday (the first day of the week), and those that observe it on a monday (the second day of the week).
recently pointed out to me is yet another camp which says Pentecost should always be on Sivan 6. this concept doesn't make sense because Lev 23 and Deut 16 explains how to count Pentecost. why go through all the explanation of counting when the Word of God could simply say, "Sivan 6"? other annual holy days have specific days, but there is no Biblical support to observe Pentecost on Sivan 6.
the "Sivan 6" theory aside, it seems that the fundamental "pro-monday" assertion is based on the usage and meanings of the words "from" and "to". take for example:
Lev 23:15 - "And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath..."
i have heard it said from the "pro-monday camp" that since it says "from", one cannot include that day as part of the count - that when someone counts from a certain day, the count is to begin on the next day, that next day being day "one" in the count. on its heels, a similar argument is based upon verse 16:
Lev 23:16 "Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD."
i have heard it said that this means to count to, and include the day after the seventh Sabbath (which is unquestionably a sunday) and then observe Pentecost on the next day, or monday.
the argument has been presented in a much more detailed and convoluted way, but from what i can muster, the main "pro-monday" argument stands on the assertion that 50 days of the count must be completed before observing Pentecost.
however, this argument seems to overlook the fact that the word "unto" in Lev 23:16 is the Hebrew word "ad" which means "up to" or "even to", not "through" or "including".
regardless, after being puzzled for quite some time over why this issue continues, i decided to read the pertinent scriptures again in attempts of a fresh approach, while requesting the guidance of the Holy Spirit... and something occurred to me:
Lev 23:15 ¶ ‘And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed.
16 ‘Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD.
Deut 16:9 “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain.
10 “Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you.
what jumps out at me in these scriptures is not the counting from or to a specified number of days. while one might argue over the definitions of "from" & "to", it seems more appropriate to rather focus on the phrases, "seven weeks" and "seven Sabbaths", to determine the Day of Pentecost. these are emphasized through repetition, while the counting of 50 days is only mentioned once, and even then is directly related to the "day after the seventh Sabbath".
also, in the Deuteronomy scripture, this event was originally called the Feast of Weeks, not Pentecost, which further emphasizes the counting of weeks, rather than days.
so temporarily forgetting about convoluted arguments, i believe it to be apparent that the pertinent scriptures on this subject plainly says to count seven weeks. if 7 weeks are counted, 7 weeks shall be completed.
if 7 weeks are completed and then we are to keep the Feast of Weeks, can it be logically reasoned to observe any other day than the day after the 7 week count is completed?
we know that 7 weeks = 49 days, therefore, if a 7 week count is to be completed and then the Feast of Weeks be observed, that day would have to be the 50th day. and since we are told "seven Sabbaths shall be completed", we know that the seven week count ends coinciding with a weekly Sabbath. we also know that the day after any given weekly Sabbath is always the first day of the week.
therefore, the observation day of the Feast of Weeks (aka: Pentecost) will always fall on a "sunday". the context of the scripture suggests no other logical reasoning in coming to this determination.
i now believe that the main reason for this continued issue that has apparently plagued many brethren in the Church for quite sometime is that the brethren have been focusing on the wrong thing (counting 50 days), when we should have been focusing on what the scripture is really emphasizing, which is counting seven weeks.
8-)
bernard baruch carman
www.SeedsOfTruth.org
7/05
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