Deuteronomy 16:9

THE FEAST OF PENTECOST

"Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: from the time thou beginnest to put the sickle to the standing grain shalt thou begin to number seven weeks. And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto Jehovah thy God with a tribute of a freewill-offering of thy hand, which thou shalt give, according as Jehovah thy God blesseth thee: and thou shalt rejoice before Jehovah thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are in the midst of thee, in the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes."

The exact time for beginning of the calculation of the seven weeks was already given in Leviticus 23:16, where the exact day of beginning was tied to the Passover celebration. There have been many disputes about the exact manner of calculating the Pentecost. (For those who would like to explore the matter thoroughly, reference is made to Vol. 5 in our N.T. series of commentaries, pp. 31-34.) We agree with Kline that the reason for the very indefinite indication here as to when the counting should begin was due to there being "no necessity for specific instructions, because the exact day had already been indicated."[10]

CALCULATING THE PENTECOST

[@Pentecost] is a Greek word, meaning "fiftieth"; and thus the counting always ended on the day of the week that marked the beginning. If the counting began on Saturday it ended on Saturday. If it began on Sunday, it ended on Sunday, etc., because the number was counted inclusively for those first and last days.

Now the Leviticus instructions (Leviticus 23:15ff) indicated that the counting was to begin "on the morrow after the sabbath." The next day after the sabbath is Sunday, therefore the Pentecost was a Sunday! So far, it is simple enough, but here is what complicates the problem. There were always TWO sabbaths in every full week of a feast, and since the first and last days of the holy week were always counted sabbaths, that would make THREE sabbaths, if the last day was counted. Those "extra" sabbaths were counted to be especially holy and were called "high sabbaths." Now John tells us that the sabbath before which Jesus was crucified was one of those "high days" (John 19:31). All such high days could come on any given day of the week, as is true with all days numbered by the calendar (Christmas can come on any day of the week). The year Jesus was crucified (April 6,30 A.D.), the high day (sabbath) of the Passover week came on Friday, and because Christ was crucified on the day of the "preparation," that is, the day before the sabbath, therefore he was most certainly crucified on THURSDAY. There were back-to-back sabbaths on Friday and Saturday while Jesus was in the tomb as attested by the Greek text of Matthew 28:1. It is easy to see that if the counting began "on the morrow after" that first sabbath (which would have been a Saturday), then we would have had Pentecost on another Saturday fifty days later, as the Sabbatarians have always insisted. On the other hand, if the counting began on the "morrow after" the first ordinary, weekly sabbath, then it would have given a Sunday Pentecost, which we believe is the correct reckoning. (In addition to the reference to our Vol. 5 in the N.T. series, above, reference is also made to Vol. 2 in the same series, under Mark 15:42, where eight pages are given on this subject.)

The freewill-offerings mentioned in this paragraph were outlined in Leviticus and Numbers, and there was no need for Moses to add anything here. Such gifts and sacrifices were appropriate to be brought at any time, "according as Jehovah had blessed" the offerer. Specifically, Moses reminded the people over and over of the necessity of including the Levite, sojourners, widows, fatherless, etc. in the festivities of joy which were such a vital part of their religion. The reason, of course, was simply that the Israelites themselves had once been oppressed in the land of bondage.

"Tribute ..." (Deuteronomy 16:10). This word appears nowhere else in the Bible,[11] and it is of very doubtful meaning. The margin in our Cross-Reference Version gives an alternate reading of, "after the measure of."[12] The Septuagint (LXX) gives Deuteronomy 16:10 as follows: "And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks before the Lord thy God, according as thy hand has power, in as many things as the Lord thy God shall give thee."[13]