Feast of Firstfruits

Biblical Text

The name means "the feast of first fruits." It refers to the rite prescribed in Leviticus 23:9-14. Once Israel had entered the land of Canaan and reaped its grain, the people were to bring the first sheaf of the harvest to the priest, who would wave it before the LORD "on the morrow after the sabbath" (Leviticus 23:11). The following offerings accompanied it on that day:

• A burnt offering of a male lamb of the first year without blemish
• A grain offering (KJV "meat offering") of fine flour mingled with oil
• A drink offering of wine

Until these offerings had been made, the people were forbidden to eat bread or parched grain from the new harvest (Leviticus 23:14). The text itself does not use the name "Feast of Firstfruits"; the designation is one applied by Bible dictionaries and the church.

Background

Leviticus 23 introduces this rite after Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It took place around the start of the spring barley harvest. In Israel barley ripens before wheat, and the phrase "in the beginning of barley harvest" in Ruth 1:22 refers to this same season. The rite acknowledged that the year's harvest came from God, and it belongs to the same context as other laws commanding the offering of the first produce (Exodus 23:19; Deuteronomy 26:1-11).

The Feast of Firstfruits served as the reference point for the Feast of Weeks, since the people were to count seven sabbaths from the day the sheaf was waved and present a grain offering from the new harvest on the fiftieth day (Leviticus 23:15-16). In Judaism the sheaf rite ceased after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, but the custom of counting these fifty days one by one, known as the "Counting of the Omer," continues to this day.

Connection to the New Testament

The name Feast of Firstfruits does not appear in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 15:20 Paul calls Christ "the firstfruits of them that slept," and in 15:23 he writes, "Christ the firstfruits." Many interpreters understand this language as follows: just as the first sheaf guaranteed the whole harvest to come, Christ's resurrection guarantees the resurrection of believers. These interpreters also connect Jesus' rising on "the first day of the week" (Matthew 28:1) with the Feast of Firstfruits. The term "firstfruits" is also applied to the Spirit (Romans 8:23) and to believers (James 1:18; Revelation 14:4).

Interpretations and Debates

• The meaning of "the morrow after the sabbath": The Pharisaic tradition and later Rabbinic Judaism understood this sabbath to be the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and therefore observed the rite on the following day, the 16th of Nisan. Some among the Sadducees and the later Karaites understood it as the weekly Sabbath falling within the Feast of Unleavened Bread and observed the rite on the following day, a Sunday. This difference directly affects the date of the Feast of Weeks as well.
• Typological interpretation: Some interpreters read the entire sequence of feasts in Leviticus 23 as an outline of Christ's work, an approach common among dispensationalist interpreters. In this reading Passover corresponds to the cross, the Feast of Firstfruits to the resurrection, and the Feast of Weeks to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Scholars disagree, however, about whether Paul had the Feast of Firstfruits in mind in 1 Corinthians, and the text does not say so directly.
• Observance of the feast: Most Protestant denominations regard the Old Testament feasts as "a shadow of good things to come" (Hebrews 10:1) fulfilled in Christ and therefore do not treat them as obligatory, citing passages such as Galatians 4:9-11. Some groups, by contrast, teach the observance of the Old Testament feasts as doctrine. Among them, the World Mission Society Church of God is known to observe the Feast of Firstfruits in connection with Easter.

In the Korean Church

Korean churches rarely observe the Feast of Firstfruits as a separate feast. It is mainly introduced in Easter sermons alongside the "firstfruits" of 1 Corinthians 15. It is also sometimes mentioned when explaining the meaning of offering the first produce at Maekchu Thanksgiving (the early-summer harvest thanksgiving) or at Thanksgiving.