From The Ascension To Pentecost- The Ten Days
From The AscensionTo Pentecost: The Ten Days Victor Paul Wierwille Pentecost was a feast of the Judean people. In the Old Testament three other names are given for the feast: It was called the “Feast of Harvest,” the “Day of the Firstfruits,” and the “Feast of Weeks.” By New Testament times the Greek word pentekoste, translated “Pentecost,” became the popular term used for this feast. The derivation of all four of these names is actually simple to understand. We can understand the term ‘‘Pentecost”, by observing its timing in relation to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. During the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread one weekly sabbath would always be included. The day after that weekly sabbath (the date would vary from year to year) would be the first day in the counting of fifty days toward Pentecost. The first day of counting was also the day of the firstfruits wave-offering. The feast is called “Pentecost,” because of the fifty days of counting. The Judeans would count seven weeks or forty-nine days: then the next day, the fiftieth, which would always be a Sunday in our time-reckoning, was the Feast of Pentecost. Because of this method of counting, it was called the “Feast of Weeks.” In the Old Testament there were three major times in the year when Israel celebrated a harvest. The first harvest was observed in Nisan during the Feast of Unleavened Bread when the Hebrews brought a sheaf of barley for the wave-offering of firstfruits of the barley harvest. Barley was the spring harvest which marked the time the Judeans began counting toward Pentecost. The second harvest celebration was the wheat harvest at the Feast of Harvest, Pentecost. It occurred in the third month, in the summer of the year. This celebration was also called the Day of Firstfruits because the first fruits of the wheat harvest were being dedicated. The third harvest celebration was designated as the Feast of Tabernacles in the middle of the seventh month. This final harvest, including the harvest
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grapes, was at the end of the agricultural year, before winter. It was also known as the Feast of In-Gathering. Not only did these three major feasts celebrate the three times of harvest, they also commemorated three great events in the history of Israel. The first, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, celebrated the exodus of Israel from the bondage of Egypt. The second, Pentecost, was traditionally believed to mark the time when God gave the law at Mount Sinai. That Pentecost and the giving of the law were both in the third month is indicated by scripture.1 The *************************************************************************************** 1 Exodus 19:1 states that the children of Israel arrived at Sinai “in the third month.” Shortly thereafter, probably that same month, the law was given as recorded in Exodus 20. Since Pentecost was fifty days from the middle of Nisan, it also would