The Road to Pentecost

Pentecost

NOTES:

Leviticus: An Introduction and Commentary d. Consecration of Seasons (23:1–44)

The festival of pentecost (weeks) occurred at the termination of the harvest season, and was regarded by later Jewish authorities as the complement or conclusion of the passover celebrations, since it followed the latter by seven weeks. This interval gave rise to the name ‘pentecost’ or ‘fiftieth’. The celebration lasted for one day only (Deut. 16:9–12), and was a joyous occasion in which the entire nation gave thanks to a provident heavenly Father for his abundant gifts of food. This latter was symbolized by two loaves which were baked with leaven (17) and presented to the Lord, along with sacrificial animals, cereal gifts and drink offerings. No hard work was to be done during this period of holy convocation (21), and the needs of the poor and the stranger were remembered at this time (22). The feast reminded the Israelites that God’s care and control reached into every area of life, making no false distinction between material and spiritual blessings. Christ taught that not merely does our heavenly Father give us the things of which we have need, but that he will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (Luke 11:13). It was on the feast of pentecost that the Holy Spirit was first poured out upon the apostles (Acts 2:1–4).

1. Pentecost is the New Testament name for the Feast of Weeks, when the wheat harvest was celebrated by a one-day festival during which special sacrifices were offered (Exod. 23:16; Lev. 23:15–21; Deut. 16:9–12). Just as other festivals were associated with important events in Israel’s history (e.g. Passover with the exodus from Egypt), so in Judaism the festival was associated with the renewal of the covenant made with Noah and then with Moses (Jubilees 6); in second-century Judaism Pentecost was regarded as the day when the law was given at Sinai. It is interesting that there was a rabbinic tradition that the law was promulgated by God in the languages of the seventy nations of the world, but we cannot be certain that this tradition was current in the first century. The disciples were still in Jerusalem; some scholars think that they were in the temple, in view of the word ‘house’ in verse 2, but ‘house’, used on its own like this, cannot mean the temple. The whole company of 120 people is doubtless meant, and not just the reconstituted twelve apostles.

I. Howard Marshall, Acts: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 5, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1980), 73.