Feast of Weeks

Biblical Text and Content

The Feast of Weeks was one of the three festivals for which the men of Israel went up to the sanctuary each year (Deuteronomy 16:16). The other two were the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles. Scripture refers to this festival by several names:

• Feast of Harvest: This name appears in Exodus 23:16, which describes it as "the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field."
• Feast of Weeks: This name appears in Exodus 34:22 and Deuteronomy 16:10. Exodus 34:22 also calls it the feast "of the firstfruits of wheat harvest," that is, the festival at which the firstfruits of the barley and wheat harvest were offered.
• Day of the firstfruits: This name appears in Numbers 28:26.

Leviticus 23:15-21 sets the date and the offerings. Israel was to count seven sabbaths from the day the first sheaf of grain was waved (the wave offering) and, on the fiftieth day, present two loaves baked with leaven as an offering of new grain. Deuteronomy 16:9-12 calls for a freewill offering according to one's means. It also instructs the people to rejoice together with their children, servants, the Levites, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and to remember that they had been bondmen in Egypt. Leviticus 23:22 adds that at harvest the corners of the field and the gleanings were to be left for the poor and the stranger.

Background

The Hebrew name Shavuot means "weeks," that is, the seven weeks. The grain harvest began with the barley harvest around Passover and concluded seven weeks later with the wheat harvest; the Feast of Weeks fell at this concluding period, usually in May or June on the Gregorian calendar. Greek-speaking Jews called the festival Pentekostē, meaning "fiftieth." Korean Bibles render this as Osunjeol (五旬節), "the feast of the fiftieth day"; English Bibles render it "Pentecost."

Continuation in the New Testament

Acts 2:1-4 records the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples gathered in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost). At that time Jews from many regions were staying in Jerusalem (Acts 2:5-11). Paul also planned his travels with reference to Pentecost (Acts 20:16; 1 Corinthians 16:8). In commemoration of this event, the church observes Pentecost Sunday on the fiftieth day after Easter.

Interpretations and Debates

• Calculating the date: The date varied depending on how one read "the morrow after the sabbath" in Leviticus 23:11, 15. The Pharisees and later rabbinic tradition took it as the day after the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Sadducees, by contrast, are reported to have taken it as the day after the weekly Sabbath, that is, a Sunday.
• Connection with the giving of the Law: Later Judaism commemorates the Feast of Weeks as the day the Law was received at Mount Sinai, and the Book of Ruth is read in the synagogue on this day. This tradition is based on Exodus 19:1, which states that Israel arrived at Sinai in the third month. The Old Testament itself does not directly connect the Feast of Weeks with the giving of the Law.
• Christian typological reading: Typological reading is an interpretive approach that views Old Testament events as foreshadowings of New Testament events. Some interpreters use this approach to contrast the Law given at Sinai with the Spirit given at Pentecost. Some also pair the death of about three thousand people at the time of the golden calf incident (Exodus 32:28) with the baptism of three thousand at Pentecost (Acts 2:41). These interpretations are not stated directly in the text, and the degree to which they are accepted varies among scholars and traditions.

In the Korean Church

The Korean church's Harvest Thanksgiving Day (Maekchu Gamsajeol) takes its name from the "Feast of Harvest" (Maekchujeol) of Exodus 23:16. Many churches observe it around the first Sunday of July as a day of thanksgiving for God's grace during the first half of the year. The biblical Feast of Harvest, however, is the same festival as Pentecost and falls at a different time. For this reason, some have proposed observing Harvest Thanksgiving together with Pentecost Sunday or renaming it. The name of Pentecostalism, which emphasizes the experience of the Holy Spirit, also derives from the Pentecost of Acts 2.