Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

PENTECOST

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 124 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

PENTECOST , a feast of the See also:

Jews, in its See also:original meaning a " See also:harvest feast, " as consisting of the first-fruits of human toil (Exod. See also:xxiii. 16), extending over the seven See also:weeks which fairly correspond with the duration of the Canaanite harvest. Hence it was the closing feast of the harvest gladness. The agricultural See also:character of this feast clearly reveals its Canaanite origin (see See also:HEBREW See also:RELIGION). It does not, however, See also:rank equal in importance with the other two agricultural festivals of pre-exilian See also:Israel, viz. the Massoth or feast of unleavened cakes (which marked the beginning of the See also:corn-harvest), and the Asiph (" ingathering," later called succoth, " booths ") which marked the See also:close of all the See also:year's ingathering of See also:vegetable products. This is clear in the ideal See also:scheme of See also:Ezekiel (xlv. 21 seq.) in which according to the original See also:text, Pentecost is omitted (see Cornill's revised text and his See also:note ad loc.). It is a later See also:hand that has inscribed a reference to the " feast of weeks " which is found in our Massoretic Hebrew text. Nevertheless occasional allusions to this feast, though secondary, are to be found in Hebrew literature, e.g. Isa. ix. 3 (2 Heb.) and Ps . iv. 7 (8 Heb.).

In both the See also:

early codes, viz. in Exod. xxiii. 16 (E) and in Exod. xxxiv 22 (J, in which the harvest festival is called " feast of weeks ") we have only a See also:bare statement that the harvest festival took See also:place some weeks after the opening See also:spring festival called Massoth. It is in Deut. xvi. 9 that we find it explicitly stated that seven weeks elapsed between the beginning of the corn-harvest (" when See also:thou puttest the sickle to the corn ") and the celebration of the harvest festival (Kasir). We also note the same generous inclusion of the See also:household slaves and of the See also:resident See also:alien as well as the fatherless and widow that characterizes the autumnal festival of " Booths." But when we pass to the See also:post-exilian legislation (Lev. xxiii. Io—21; cf. Num. See also:xxviii. 26 seq.) we enter upon a far more detailed and specific See also:series of See also:ritual instructions. (I) A See also:special ceremonial is described as taking place on " the morrow after the See also:Sabbath," i.e. in the See also:week of unleavened cakes. The first-fruits of the harvest here take the See also:form of a sheaf which is waved by the See also:priest before Yahweh. (2) There is the offering of a male See also:lamb of the first year without blemish and also a See also:meal offering of See also:fine See also:flour and oil mixed in defined proportions as well as a drink-offering of See also:wine of a certain measure. After this " morrow after the Sabbath " seven weeks are to be reckoned, and when we reach the morrow after the seventh Sabbath fifty days have been enumerated.

Here we must See also:

bear in mind that Hebrew numeration always includes the See also:day which is the See also:terminus a quo as well as that which is See also:term. ad quem. On this fiftieth day two See also:wave-loaves made from the produce of the See also:fields occupied by the worshipper (" your habitations ") are offered together with seven unblemished See also:lambs of the first year as well as one See also:young See also:bullock and two rams as a burnt offering. We have further precise details respecting the See also:sin-offering and the See also:peace-offerings which were also presented.' This elaborate ceremonial connected with the wave-offering (See also:developed in the post-See also:exile See also:period) took place on the morrow of the seventh Sabbath called ' On the See also:critical questions involved in these ritual details of Lev. xxiii. 18 as compared with Num. xxviii. 27—30 ci. See also:Driver and See also:White in S. B. O. T., note on Lev. xxiii. 18. a " day of See also:holy See also:convocation " on which no servile See also:work was to be done. It was called a " fiftieth-day feast." Pentecost or " Fiftieth " day is only a See also:Greek See also:equivalent of the last name (ir vrnKOVrii) in the Apocrypha and New Testament.

The orthodox later Jews reckoned the fifty days from the 16th of Nisan, but on this there has been considerable controversy among Jews themselves. The orthodox later Jews assumed that the Sabbath in Lev. xxiii. 11, 15 is the 15th Nisan, or the first day of the feast of Massoth. See also:

Hitzig maintained that in See also:Blois, a descendant of this See also:family, married See also:Jean de Brosse, and the Hebrew See also:calendar 14th and 21st Nisan were always Sabbaths, and that 1st Nisan was always a See also:Sunday, which was the opening day of the year. " The morrow after the Sabbath " means, according to Hitzig, the day after the weekly Sabbath, viz. 22nd Nisan. Knobel (Comment. on See also:Leviticus) and See also:Kurtz agree with Hitzig's premises but differ from his See also:identification of the Sabbath. They identify it with the 14th Nisan. Accordingly the " day after " falls on the 15th. (See Purves's See also:article, " Pentecost," in See also:Hastings's See also:Diet. of the See also:Bible, and also See also:Ginsburg's article in See also:Kitto's Cyclopaedia). Like the other See also:great feasts, it came to be celebrated by fixed special sacrifices. The amount of these is differently expressed in the earlier and later priestly See also:law (Lev. xxiii.

18 seq.; Num. xxviii. 26 seq.); the discrepancy was met by adding the two lists. The later Jews also extended the one day of the feast to two. Further, in accordance with the tendency to substitute See also:

historical for economic explanations of the great feasts, Pentecost came to be regarded as the feast commemorative of the Sinaitic legislation. To the See also:Christian See also:Church Pentecost acquired a new significance through the outpouring of the Spirit (Acts ii.). (See WHIT-SUNDAY.) It is not easy to find definite See also:parallels to this festival in other See also:ancient religious cults. The Akitu festival to See also:Marduk was a spring festival at the beginning of the Babylonian year (Nisan). It therefore comes near in See also:time to the feast of unleavened cakes rather than to the later harvest festival in the See also:month Sivan called " feast of weeks." Zimmern indeed connects the Akitu festival with that of See also:Purim on the 15th Adar (See also:March); see K.A.T 3 p. 514 seq. Also the See also:Roman Cerealia of See also:April 12th—19th rather correspond to Massoth than to IC¢See also:sir. (0. C.

End of Article: PENTECOST

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
PENTATEUCH 		[next]
PENTELICUS (Bpr.Anvvbs, or Ilevee LKOv opoc from th...

Site © 2006 - Net Industries