The Biblical Feast of Shavuot
(The Feast of Sevens)
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Introduction to Second Edition
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§589.07        Shavuot, or the feast of 'weeks' as it is sometimes called, falls 50 days after Passover.  Beginning on the day after the Passover Sabbath, 50 days are counted to the day of Shavuot.  This feast often goes by its better known name outside Jewish circles as Pentecost:   The key text is Lev. 23:15-16:
        And you shall count for yourselves from time after  the rest  (from the day of bringing the sheaf of the wave offering) seven complete rests there shall be till from time after the seventh rest counting fifty days.
 
        Notice that I have rendered 'shabbat' literally as 'the rest';  Now the question arises as to which rest is meant.  Since the text says 'the rest,' we are to look for a definite 'rest' mentioned in the preceeding context.   There are three options in the preceeding context. (1) the weekly sabbath, [Sadducees, Karaites]  (2) the first day of unleavened bread [Rabbis; Josephus; Philo], (3) the last day of unleavened bread [Falashas].   The Falasha viewpoint we can rule out immediately on the basis of Joshua 5:11, even though the last day of unleavened bread is the most immediately mentioned 'rest.'   The next 'rest' in line for 'the rest' would be the first day of unleavened bread.  This is the next logical choice.   Finally, when we consider  the first choice: the weekly sabbath, it is not only more remote in the context than the first day of unleavened bread, but there are too many choices (a) the sabbath before unleavened bread, (b) the sabbath in unleavened bread, (c) afterward, or (d) a sabbath on which ripe barley is found, or (e) a random sabbath in the spring.   We cannot expect the text to be so ambiguous.   And indeed, one could not suggest the weekly sabbath without admitting the possibility of the other choices, which means that if that were the case, then we should be compelled to appeal to the oral Torah to settle the issue, since our people preserve the oracles of YHWH.
        We should notice also that in this case the weekly sabbath is mentioned as 'complete rest.'  Why is that?  Perhaps it is to distinguish it from the festival rest on which cooking was allowed?    So, after the festival rest, you are to find seven complete rests (regular sabbath days on which cooking is not allowed) and count them  one by one --- first of the sabbaths, second of the sabbaths, third of the sabbaths, fourth of the sabbaths, fifth of the sabbaths, sixth of the sabbaths, and seventh of the sabbaths.   We are then to pass up the seventh sabbath by counting all the days from the time after the festival rest to the time after the seventh sabbath when the count equals fifty days.
        For an example, I give the year of the Exodus:
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        The first day of unleavened bread (blue) is followed by seven sabbaths (green, numbered with purple numerals), and also followed by fifty days (red numerals).   The first of the sabbaths, is therefore the very first sabbath after the Passover.  This day is the anniversary of Yayshua's resurrection.   The reason for the fifty day count is that this is the time it took us to go from Egypt to Sinai.   Moshe told Pharoah that we must go a three day journey into the wilderness [of Sinai --- though he didn't tell him that part of it] to serve him [at the holy mountain --- he didn't mention that to Pharoah either] as per the instructions of YHWH.   The counting of the seven sabbaths emphasizes the sabbath day, that the Law was given on the sabbath day;  that is the reason for counting them.

Daniel,  1999 c.e. (6138 A.H. Tishri basis).

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Introduction
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§589.1         A great many Messianic groups, and Feast Keeping groups such as the World Wide Church of God and its offshoots error in placing Pentecost always on a Sunday.  The Roman Church also places Pentecost on a Sunday.   On the other hand, Messianic Congregations well educated in Judaism observe Pentecost at its biblical set time 50 days after Passover as marking the day that God gave the Law to Israel 50 days after the Exodus.
         In the first century, Pentecost was not always on a Sunday (see §617-18), because the Pharisees saw to it that it was observed in the Biblical manner.  Not only that, but the Messiah himself fully endorsed the Pharisees' legal authority (Mt. 23:1-3), over and above that of the Sadducees who would have imposed a Sunday Pentecost if they could have.  The Sunday Pentecost was also pushed by heretical groups such as the Karaites and the Samaritans, and finally by the Church of Rome which saw in it a chance to make Sunday even more significant in their theology.
         The introduction of the Sunday Pentecost into Judaism is one of the oldest theological heresies on record.  Not only that, but its introduction divided Israel and has created division and dissension to this day.
§589.2         Ironically, the single most devastating evidence against the Sunday Pentecost is the Resurrection account  itself (see §589.3ff).  To this is added the testimony of  Exodus 19-24 (see §§590-607), and finally Biblical Chronology, in conjunction with Astronomy testifies against the Sunday Pentecost (see §600, §607).  To this we add an explantion of Joshua 5:11ff, and a refutation of the arguments based on Lev. 23:11 and Lev. 23:15-16 (see §§612-616) and above §589.07
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The First of the Sabbaths and the Wave Sheaf
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§589.3         Now the resurrection was upon the Sabbath day.  If the reader has jumped ahead in this book, it will be necessary to go back and read the proof of this, since we are simply assuming it here, and it forms the foundation for the refutation of the Sunday Pentecost.  The fact that Yayshua rose on the first of the sabbaths forms the strongest argument against the Sunday Pentecost.  It is also an argument that there is no way to escape, as there are weak ways to get out of some of the other arguments.
         Matthew says that it was , i.e. later of Sabbaths, which means the latter of the two sabbaths in Passover week, the former being the Passover Sabbath (Wednesday sunset to Thursday sunset), and the latter being the weekly Sabbath.
§589.4         Then he proceeds to say it was  one of sabbaths, which is expanded by the other accounts as first of the sabbaths.  If the wave sheaf had been waved on the next day, Sunday, on which the counting is supposed to begin according to the Sadducees, the Karaites, the Samaritans, and Coulter, then Why does it appear that the counting has already begun?  The first of the sabbaths in the Karaite enumeration comes a whole week later.    So it is evident that the gospel accounts side with the Pharisees on the question of counting the seven sabbaths of Lev. 23:15-16 (see §70).  It is also clear then, that the Nazarenes observed Pentecost 50 days after the Passover Sabbath, and not perpetually on Sunday as the Sadducees taught.
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The Testimony of Exodus 19-24
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§590         Fred Coulter errors when he states that the 'wave sheaf was offered on the morrow after the weekly Sabbath' (page 170, The Christian Passover), which means he starts counting the 50 days to Shavuoth (Pentecost) from Sunday, the first day of the week.  The mistake is in confusing the weekly Sabbath with the Passover Sabbath, which usually falls on another day of the week.  For the text speaking of the wave sheaf only says "the sabbath," without specifying if it means the feast Sabbath or the weekly seventh day Sabbath.  Orthodox Jews, from the remotest antiquity to the present have always understood that the wave sheaf was offered in relation to the Passover Sabbath.  So, Pentecost is not traditionally computed from the 'weekly Sabbath,' but from the Passover Sabbath, which is the Sabbath mentioned in Lev. 23:11 & 15.
§591         The Sunday Pentecost theory was propounded by the Sadducees.  Among other things they also did not believe in angels, demons, or the resurrection of the dead.  That does not make them candidates for legitimate spiritual authority, which explains why the am-ha-arets (people of the land) did not listen to them.  The Pharisees vigorously opposed their mistaken Sunday Pentecost, and made sure that they did not tamper with the calendar.  Yayshua rebuked the Sadducees on a number of occasions.  When it came to legal interpretations of the Torah, he endorsed the Pharisees (Mt. 23:2-3a).
§592         Pentecost, or the feast of Shavuot (sevens), by its more accurate title, is the feast that was ordained to remember the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai.  Remember that Moshe told Pharoah that we must go three days journey into the wilderness to keep a feast to Yahweh? (Exodus 8:23, 10:9).  He wasn't bluffing.  He wasn't lying.  And the feast did take place.  He said, for a feast of Yahweh [it is] to us ().  So they entered the wilderness of Sinai on the first day of the third month (Exodus 19:1).  It took them the stated three days to arrive at Sinai, which were Sivan 1, Sivan 2, and Sivan 3, the first three days of the third month, and then Yahweh instructs them to cleanse themselves and be ready for the third day, which would be Sivan 4, Sivan 5, and Sivan 6, which was the third day (Exodus 19:10-11), and which was the 50th day from the Exodus (16th-29th of Aviv = 14 days; Ziv = 30 days; Sivan = 6 days: 14+30+6 = 50).§597.6  And on this day Yahweh gave the two tablets of the Law.
§593         So the ten words (commandments) were given 50 days after the Exodus!  Remarkable!  And then God gave them the feast of Shavuoth (Pentecost) to commemorate the event.
§597.5         Exodus 19 has three days of travel (see §592), plus two days of preparation (washing clothes, Exodus 19:10), and then they were ready the third day when the law was given.  There is no room to skip over the Sabbath day, without making it one of the preparation days or travel days.  Hence, the Law could not be given on during a five day stretch: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.  Every day between Sunday and Thursday, inclusive, requires them to violate the Sabbath.  Therefore, the law had to be given on a Friday, or on the Sabbath.  And this is based only on the internal evidence of Exodus 19.
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§597.51         Now, the Sabbath was the day sanctified (made holy) by God, which means it was set apart as holy time.  On it he instructed the people to call an assembly, a holy convocation, to meet with God in prayer, worship, and reading his Law (Lev. 23:1-3).  Therefore, does it not stand to reason that He would give us his Law on the Sabbath, during holy time, set apart for meeting with God?  Did just Moshe receive the Law on the Sabbath and give it to the people on "Sunday"?  No, Yahweh Elohim Himself spoke out loud to the people the ten words, so that the people thought they would die (Exodus 20:19), then Moshe went up the mountain and received further instructions, which he wrote and spoke to the people on the same day (see §599.1).
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End Notes
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§597.6         The Sunday theorists would compute the 50 days as, 16-30 Aviv for 15 days, plus 29 days in Ziv, for 44 days, plus 6 days in Sivan, and Sivan 6 would be a Sunday, but also note that this places the 15th of Ziv on a Monday.  Or they could compute 16-29 Aviv for 14 days, plus 30 days in Ziv, for 44 days, plus 6 days in Sivan, and Sivan 6  would be on a Sunday, but also note that the 15th of Ziv would fall on a Sunday.  However both of these combinations are negated by the argument in §597.5.  On the other hand, if we want Friday to be the date of Pentecost that year (Sivan 6), then Sivan 1 is a Sunday, making Ziv 29/30 a Sabbath, which makes Ziv 15/16 a Sabbath.  These are only  theoretical considerations which are negated by the actual astronomy of the case (see §607).
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Desecration of the Sabbath
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§599         The more serious matter, however, is neglecting the holiness of the Sabbath by having God give the Sabbath command on Sunday, and then celebrating it forever after on a Sunday Pentecost!  The appropriate day for giving the law is the Sabbath, which is when the law was given.  If the law was given on Sunday, then Coulter would have the people washing their clothes on Friday and the Sabbath (Exodus 19:10), only to have a holy convocation with God on Sunday!
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The First Pentecost was on the Sabbath
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§600         It can be proven that  Sivan 6, which was when the law was given, fell on the Sabbath.  It can also be proven that Sivan 6 that year was exactly 50 days after the Passover (i.e. Aviv 16 - Sivan 6 = 50 days). I will start from the year of Hezekiah's Passover revival, which was in his first year.  The first year of Hezekiah was [724.25] 725 b.c.e to [723.25] 724 b.c.e. (see §630).  This is confirmed by the fact that Shalmaneser laid seige to Samaria in [721.25] 722 b.c.e., which was the beginning of Hezekiah's 4th year.  But it is known that Shalmaneser died in December 722 b.c.e. [721 1/12], and that his son Sargon II finished it. (See David L. Cooper, Messiah: His First Coming Scheduled, pg. 291, c. 1939 Biblical Research Society)
§601         It is also known that the sinful apostacies of Israel took up 390 years (Ezekiel 4:5, see §631), but that after Israel was exiled, Judah's sinful apostacies took up only 40 years after her sister's exile (see §631.1).   Israel's  apostacy ended at Hezekiah's passover revival, because it is recorded that Israel repented (II Chron. 29-31), and became a major force in the removal of idolatry.
§602         The 390 years of sin include all the years of the oppressions in the book of Judges, as well as all the years of the wicked kings of Israel.  Israel's years of righteousness are counted up to the 4.5th [5th] year of Solomon as being 480 years (I Kings 6:1), which figure does not include the years of oppressions.  (For proof of this see  §627).
§603         God had two clocks you see.  One for righteousness, and one for wickedness.  We are told the reading of the the righteousness clock in the 4th year of Solomon (480 years), and we are told the final reading of the wickedness clock for Israel (which includes Judah prior to Israel's exile), viz 390 years.  When one clock was running, the other was not.
§604         The Righteousness years were counted starting with the Exodus, but that clock stopped with the first oppression, and the wickedness clock started running.  With the first judge the righteousness clock started up again, but when Israel went astray again, God sent another oppressor and started his wickedness clock again.  And so the process went on.
§605         We know that the righteousness clock did not stop in Solomon's 4th year, because the nation was righteous, and served God faithfully until  Rehoboam's 4 year, when Jeroboam was able to lead Israel into idolatry (II Chron. 11:17).  The wickedness clock runs on the civil year, viz. fall to fall, but the righteousnes clock runs spring to spring by the religious year.  The judges and kings of Israel always computed their years on a fall to fall basis, hence Solomon's 4th year actually began the 480th year in the fall, meaning that year ended precisely after he reigned 4.5 years.
             So that leaves 35.5 years for Solomon, plus 3 years that the nation walked with God after the division of the kingdom.  After that, the majority of the nation apostacized until Hezekiah's revival.
             Therefore, we have a total number of years as:
 480 + 390 + 35.5 + 3 =  908.5 years.

         But the Passover was in the middle of Hezekiah's first year, i.e. 723.75 [724] b.c.e., and the fall to fall sin clock shows the enumerated 390th year, but since this last part of a year is counted as a whole year, it is evident that it was precisely 389.5 years, the last half year being enumerated the 390th, so we must correct our calculation:

 480 + 389.5 + 35.5 + 3 = 908.0 years.

         So adding Hezekiah's passover to the number of righteousness and wickedness years elapsed gives us the exact time of the Exodus:

 908.0 + 723.75 = [1631.75] 1632  b.c.e.

         Which by notation means 3/4 of a year back from Jan 1, 1631 b.c.e, which would be spring 1632 b.c.e.!!
§606         Now this calculation is further confirmed by many facts and datum.  First there is an even number of Jubilees between the entry into the land, when the cycle beings (1631.75 - 40 = 1591.75 [1592] b.c.e.) and Hezekiah's Jubilee: 709.25 [710] b.c.e., II Kings 19:29., viz 1591.25 - 709.25 = 882 = 49 * 18, i.e. there are exactly 18 Jubilees between the entry into the land and Yahweh's instructions to Hezekiah not to sow and plant in the sabbatical and Jubilee years of his 15th and 16th years.
         Furthermore, all the reigns of the kings and judges fit exactly into the time periods just stated.   The Year 1632 b.c.e. submits a conquest date of 1592 b.c.e., which brings the archaeological evidence from Jericho into harmony with the scripture.  The burn layer can no longer be claimed to belong to an earlier destruction.
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The First Pentecost: Astronomical Check
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§607         Now that we know that 1632 b.c.e. was the year of the Exodus, we can calculate the dates of Passover and Pentecost with the aid of a computer.  (See §126-144 for details).
 

        So we see that Sivan 6 was a Sabbath by astronomical calculation.  This
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Joshua 5:10-12 and the Wave Sheaf
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§608         I have briefly mentioned the date of the entry into the land as 1591.75 [1592] b.c.e.  Astronomical calculation shows that the 15th of Aviv for 1592 b.c.e. was on a Sunday (4/19), viz. Saturday (4/18) sunset to Sunday (4/19) sunset.  . Joshua 5:10 mentions "the passover," which can only mean the killing of the lamb, since the definite article is used (§538, 555).  Hence Joshua 5:11 refers to the afternoon of the 14th of Aviv, which must be the weekly Sabbath day.   Then the text proceeds to say:
And they ate out of the produce of the land in the time after the passover (Joshua 5:11a).
         When was the "time after"?  The same word is rendered, "in the time to come," elsewhere (cf. §615).  It at least means after the passover, but how long?  We have already established that the counting must begin with the waving of the sheaf after the rest day sabbath, viz. the 15th of Aviv.  Now it is evident that the 16th is that day after the 15th rest day, and that the 16th is two days after the 14th.  So "time after" in Joshua 5:11 means two days after the killing of the lamb.
         On the other hand, vs. 11a could be read such that "ate" modifies the word "passover": "And they ate out of the produce of the land following [eating] the passover."  But the Passover is eaten on the 15th, and hence the time following would be the 16th of Aviv, 1 day after the eating of it.
         Or, the 14th could be given a common day definition (cf. §40), and the time following could be one day after the killing, viz. on the common day 15th after sunset, which is equivalent to the night portion of the standard 16th of Aviv.  I would submit then, that the sheaf was reaped just after sunset on the common 15th (beginning the standard 16th), and waved immediately, so that the people could eat the new grain that evening.
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                 Now, the rest day of that year would be the the first day of the week, since the 15th fell on that day.  So the time after that special sabbath would be the second day of the week, which is the 16th of Aviv.  We have already shown that Pentecost is to be counted after the Passover Sabbath, and not the weekly Sabbath, hence, "the time after the Passover," is equivalent to "the time after the [Passover] Sabbath" in Lev. 23:11, but we can now see that the time after the killing of the lamb was two standard days, but the time after the rest day (when they ate it) was one standard day.   And the time after the killing of it was one common day.
         We can also see that the manna was ended on the same day that it began: a monday (cf. §521).  But, if the text takes note of the manna ceasing, it appears that they had to have manna the day before, or the ceasing statement would be attached to the day before, if no manna was on that day.  Why wait two days to tell us that it had ceased?  Hence, the day before it ceased could not be a sabbath.  For there was no manna that day.  This would be a normal interpretation, but I know that the Sunday-Pentecost people will try to say "it had ceased," on Sunday the 15th, even though it would "have ceased" on the Sabbath before, and should have been noted then.  The only problem with such a view is that the verb form is imperfect.  Since manna cannot progressively cease, it follows that the sense of the imperfect is "first began to cease," not "had ceased," which would require a perfect.
         So, there had to be manna the day before, proving that that day was not a sabbath, and hence the new grain was not eaten on Sunday, but on Monday the 16th of Aviv.

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Key Passages In Leviticus 23
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§612.1         The key passage for the timing of Pentecost is found in Lev. 23:11 (see below quotation).  The translation is a literal one.  The time following the rest is traditionally set on the 16th of Aviv [Nisan], which is the day immediately following the Passover Rest day.  Usually, though, the Passover Rest is called "The Sabbath," or "The Passover Sabbath."  The Hebrew word for "sabbath" actually means "rest" or "cessation," and insofar as the language is concerned can be applied to any day of the week.  "Sabbath" is not a technical word for the seventh day.  That is why it is necessary to specify the "seventh day" when the weekly Sabbath is meant, because other Sabbaths are possible.
 
        And he shall wave the sheaf before Yahweh for your acceptance  following the rest the priest shall wave it (Lev. 23:11).
§612.2         The "rest" refered to is the first day of unleavened bread mentioned in vs. 7.  This is the traditional interpretation.  In fact, the LXX (Septuagint) translates the underlined portion of Lev. 23:11 (see above quote) as "the day after the first day," obviously meaning the day after the first day of unleavened bread, so it is clear how the passage was interpreted ca. 250 b.c.e.  The passage itself, however, is ambiguous, and might lend itself to being interpreted as a weekly Sabbath.
             The ambiguity is removed by the gospel accounts (see §589.3-589.4).
        And you shall count for yourself,  following the 1rest, from the day of the bringing of the sheaf of the wave offering seven rests 2complete they will be; until  a day following the rest, the seventh  counting fifty days (Lev. 23:15-16).
§613         "The rest" (note 1) refers to the rest in Lev. 23:11, which in turn refers to the rest commanded on the first day of unleavened bread in Lev. 23:7.  It is necessary to translate the Hebrew word 'shabbat' literally as the rest because the connection will be missed between it and the first day of unleavened bread by English ears.
§614         The seven rests are called complete (note 2) because unlike the festival sabbath upon which cooking work is allowed, these are seventh day rests upon which no work whatsoever is permitted, hence they are complete rests, and it is necessary to distinguish them from the festival rest.  The Sabbaths are counted because the law was given on the eighth sabbath day after counting exactly seven sabbaths from the Exodus.
§615         At the same time as counting the sabbaths, fifty days are counted, and even when the seventh sabbath is finished, we are to continue up to fifty days.  The words while in the time following in Hebrew (note 3) are . Most of the time this is translated as the morrow, but that is really not the basic meaning of the Hebrew, which is why I did not translate it that way in vs. 11 or 15 either.  The word   is simply the feminine gender of   which means time to come, time after, time following, and hence it is not limited to  just one day after, which is another reason the passage is ambiguous.  Recall that the gospel accounts resolve the ambiguity (see §589.3-589.4).
§615.1         It is easy to be led astray by modern translations on Lev. 23:16, viz. the morrow of the seventh sabbath, because this can only mean Sunday, and this sense is argued by some to resolve the ambiguity.  However, the translation the morrow of is more precise than the Hebrew, which merely means  following.  The word  is based upon the Hebrew root  which means "after" (Langenscheidt's Pocket Hebrew Dictionary).  The difference between the two words has to be something like the difference between our "after" and "afterward."
                The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew and English Lexicon under the entry for  has has " on the morrow of (=after) the sabbath, Lv. 2311.15.16"  BDB's "after the sabbath" will do nicely, since we would have "until after the sabbath counting fifty days," which does not point to the day after the sabbath, but the period of time after the seventh sabbath.
§616         Modern translators also try to render the word sabbaths (rests) in this passage as 'weeks,' but Hebrew already has a words for weeks (really it means sevens), which is used in the parallel passage of Deut. 16:9: shavuot from which Pentecost gets its name, the feast of weeks (sevens).  The word shavuot indicates to count 49 days (7 x 7) up to the day of Pentecost.  Leviticus does not confuse the issue with the sabbatical year either:
        You shall have counted for yourself seven rests, seven occurances, so that it shall have been for you days of seven rests of years: nine and forty years. (Lev. 25:8).
§616.1         It should be noted that a literal translation of Deut. 16:9 is:
        Seven sevens you shall count for yourself; from the time that it becomes legal to harvest the grain you shall count seven sevens.
         This is explained in Lev. 23:15-16 to mean seven sabbaths and sevens days seven times plus one for fifty days.  Like sabbatical years, it is very probable that sevens refers to the sabbaths as well as to the counting of 49 days.
§616.2         It might be interesting to note just how much scripture would need to be trashed in order to have Pentecost the Sadducees way:  If Pentecost is counted from Sunday after the weekly Sabbath, then first of the sabbaths in the gospel accounts cannot mean first of the sabbaths.  Neither can the same phrase have that meaning in Acts 20:7 or I Cor. 16:2.   If these cannot mean this then, the resurrection could not have been on the sabbath, but then if it could not have been on the sabbath, then it could not have been in three days and three nights, nor could it have been after three days.  Furthermore, Daniel's prophecy would be royally messed up as well as Astronomy, the Sabbatical year, and with it all of Biblical Chronology.
§616.3         On the other hand, if the Sign of Jonah is to have any validity at all the resurrection must be on the Sabbath;  as I have pointed out, Messiah died at the time of the Passover lambs;  he rose at the legal end of the day of firstfruits.  He rose on the first of the Sabbaths for counting to Shavuot.  Messiah then establishes the timing of Passover as the afternoon the the 14th, and the timing of Shavuot as counting from the day after the Passover.  He also establishes the Sabbath day as the day of rest and redemption.  Messiah Yayshua is therefore the restorer of Torah against all heresy and corruption;  he fixes the Passover, Shavuot, and the Sabbath day.   He also establishes the saying that YHWH desires mercy rather than sacrifice and the knowledge of Elohim (Hosea 6:6).

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Who Controlled the Temple Calendar?
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§617         Coulter and others make the claim, 'The Sadducees were in charge of the temple during the days of Jesus Christ' (pg. 34).   This preposterous assertion is only made by those who are in total ignorance of the religious politics of the Jews in the first century, or by those who wish to lead us astray.  Joachim Jeremias puts the k'bosh on this theory:
        §618 Generally speaking, however the Pharisees' influence on politics and the administration of justice in Palestine before AD 66 must not be exaggerated66 (footnote 66: with the outbreak of the revolt against Rome they suceeded in breaking into the administration of justice.  The Sadducean penal code was now abolished and that day celebrated as a national day ...) Their only real importance during this time was in the realm of religion, and here they, not the Sadducees, were supreme.  The religious life, and especially the liturgy, was ordered by Pharisaic laws (Ant. 18.15).  The last Jewish king, Agrippa I (AD 41-44) himself lived according to Pharisaic rules (Ant. 19.331).
        The Sadducean high priests, however unwillingly, had to fulfil the liturgical ceremonies according to the Pharisaic interpretation of the Torah;  for example, the drawing of lots for the two goats ... and the burning of incense on the Day of Atonement, ... the libation of water at Tabernacles ... and the rite of the Red Heifer;  this was true even with rites which had no biblical foundation, such as the libation of water at Tabernacles.  The complete calendar, especially the feast of Pentecost, was fixed according to Pharisaic reckoning.  About 20 BC Hillel had already established that the Paschal lamb could be slain even on the sabbath day, and so on this point too he had abolished the Sadducean practice hitherto in use.  The following facts shows how powerless the Sadducees were: they once tried by a trick to fix the calendar according to their calculation for the feast of Pentecost, and to do this they sought through false witness to mislead the commission appointed by the Sanhedrin to deal with the calendar (pg.  264-65, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus).
§619         Jeremias goes on another three pages demonstrating the points already stated.  The truth is that the Sadducees were in charge of NOTHING in the Temple without the oversight and control of the Pharisees!  Coulter's bold assertion is without foundation.   And what is the lame excuse that we get from modern proponents of the Sunday Pentecost, who have not a shred of historical evidence to bolster their claim?  They claim that the Pharisees rewrote history to suit their religious viewpoint.   So they add assumption to assumption.   And do they have any proof that the Pharisees rewrote history other than what it was?  Not at all.    It is truly said that the Jews preserve the oracles of YHWH, and if YHWH Elohim had not left us a remnant we would have become like Sodom and Gommorah;  It is therefore YHWH himself who preserves the knowledge of the truth among the Jewish People.   Is any matter too hard for you to judge among yourselves?  Go and ask the priests and the levites.  And that is the command of Torah.
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Paul the Pharisee
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§620         Paul tells us that he was a Pharisee and that he was blameless according to the righteousness of the Law (Phil. 3:6).  Now why would he say he was blameless if he didn't observe it correctly?  Paul said he was educated according to the exactness of the law of our fathers (Acts 22:3).  Why would he say 1exactness if he did not believe he had learned the observances rightly? (note 1: akribeia, BAG).  Paul did not hesitate to use his upbringing as a Pharisee in his own defense (Acts 22:6-9).  And why would he follow the Sadducees regarding a Sunday Pentecost when they showed their spiritual bankruptcy and ineptitute by denying the resurrection of the dead, which is much more clearly set forth in the scriptures than the timing of Pentecost?
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End Notes
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§620.01        I have revised my translation of the verse after exhaustive research (again) on the Hebrew word .   The rigor of linguistic analysis often requires me to refine the technicalities of my translation.   In this case the end result is the same, but the argument much  more persuasive.   First a few observations.  The English translation of this word 'morrow' or 'tomorrow'  is very misleading, because 'morrow' in English connects us with the English root 'morn'  'morning,'  which does not allow the flexibility found in the Hebrew root in context.   The second consideration is that the fem. noun derived from the root must have the same basic linguistic meaning as the root, the masc noun., the adv., and construct states in other contexts.   My former translation appeared to stretch this rule on Lev. 23:16 too much.   Furthermore, I had to rely on the assumption that the word was a defective spelling of .  This is no longer necessary.
§620.02        Our first clue that the root does not mean 'tomorrow' is found in Gen. 30:33, where the meaning of the phrase is clearly not 'tomorrow,' but 'later,' or literally, 'on a day afterward.'   Our second clue comes from the use of the root to mean 'in time to come' (cf. BDB), and Exodus 13:14.    Several derivations have been proposed for the root , but the most promising are suggested in Koehler.   The one I favor  is the first suggestion: .   That is to say,  machar < yom achar.   And the root fits our unusual contexts (Gen. 30:33; Exod. 13:14; and Lev. 23:16) well because the root means 'after,' 'following.'  Therefore, the meaning is not necessarily 'the day after,' but 'a day after,' which could be, if the context so requires, 'after' by quite a bit.
§620.03        The use of the Hebrew word 'yom' () to to mean 'time,' e.g. 'day of YHWH,'   'in the day he created them' (Gen. 2:4) is well known.   That seems to be the case with , which well explains the meaning 'time to come' given in Brown-Driver-Briggs.  Therefore, I translate the phrase in its primary significance as 'time after,' and the prep. min, 'from time after,' with the proviso that this means as soon after as the context will allow, so that all our context where the resultant meaning is 'morrow after,' (without contradiction) is left unambiguous.  

 

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