Happy Shavuot!!!!

Today is the day! It is Pentecost! I know many of you church going folks may scratch your head and say, "Pentecost is on Sunday. Today is Wednesday. What are you talking about?" I used to think this way too until recently.

A few weeks ago as I was in my room enjoying another beautiful Shabbat service via live streaming video, the rabbi talked about the Jewish tradition of counting the omer. The Jews count from the Feast of Unleavened Bread 50 days, with the 50th day being pentecost. The omer count would increase by one with each passing day. On the 50th day of the omer, the wheat would be ripe to harvest. Thus, Pentecost was a celebration of the wheat harvest, with the Jews giving the best of their harvest to the LORD as an offering.

As I was looking at the calendar, I noticed the count was off. When the 50th omer was to be counted, marking the Feast of Shavuot (or Feast of Weeks or Pentecost), it fell four days before Pentecost on the Christian calendar. Wait! I am confused. Isn't the Christian Pentecost a celebration of when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples, which happened during the Jewish Feast of Shavuot (see Acts 2: "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place...")? Why is the Jetwish Pentecost different from the Christian Pentecost? If the Christian Pentecost happened during the time of the Jewish Pentecost, why are these two different days on the calendar?

A Short Explanation:
The Feast of Shavuot has no date given in the Torah, but it must be inferred from Leviticus 23:11 and 23:15: "And from the day on which you bring the omer offering--the day after the sabbath--you shall count off seven weeks." The important phrase is mi-machorat ha-shabbat translated as "the day after the sabbath". The controversy arises because the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15)  is considered a sabbath (i.e., a day of work restrictions). Does the first day of counting the omer start after this sabbath (on the second day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread on Nisan 16) or on the day after the regular sabbath (i.e., on Sunday)? Since the date of Shavuot depends on when the first day of the omer is counted, starting the count on the wrong day would imply that the festival would be observed at the wrong time.

Two Views:
The Sadducees believed that the word "sabbath" used in the text implied the regular sabbath celebrated on the seventh day of the week. Thus, they began the count of the omer on the first Sunday after Passover. Since Shavuot occurs 50 days later, this implies that Shavuot would always be celebrated on a Sunday.

The Pharisees believed that the word "sabbath" referred not to the weekly sabbath but to the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15). They then began the count of the omer the next day (Nisan 16). This would establish Pentecost as a fixed date of Sivan 6 on the Jewish calendar. This date is supported by Joshua 5:10-12 when the nation of Israel first enters the land of Canaan and the manna ceases to fall from heaven: "When some of Isarel camped at Gilgal they observed the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the desert plains of Jericho. On the day after Passover, on that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. The manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the yield of the land of the land of Cannan during that year." The Jews enjoyed the first day of Unleavened Bread by eating the bread from God's land. The second day of Unleavened Bread, the manna from heaven stopped falling, symbolizing it was now time for the Jews to harvest their own produce and start offering their bounty to the LORD.

Historically, the Pharisee's view has prevailed. The Feast of Shavuot (Pentecost) is celebrated on the fixed date of Sivan 6, exactly 50 days after the sabbath on the first day of Unleavened Bread. The first century historians, Josephus and Philo, both state that the "day after the sabbath" meant the second day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 16). Since the Pharisees ruled during the time of Jesus in the first century, it seems very likely that when the Jews gathered together to celebrate Pentecost at Jerusalem, they gathered at the time appointed by the Pharisees, Sivan 6. Since Acts chapter 2 states: "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place" I do believe it is talking about the only Pentecost celebrated at that time, which was on Sivan 6. Happy Pentecost!