Why is Pentecost Called the Feast of Weeks?

Why is Pentecost called the Feast of Weeks? And Shavuot? And Latter Firstfruits? Whew! That’s a lot of names for one holiday.

Leviticus 23 (which we’ll get to in a moment) describes the feast, but doesn’t name it anything. It refers to the offerings as the “firstfruits,” giving us the name of Latter Firstfruits (as differentiated from Early Firstfruits). Later passages of Scripture refer to the occasion as the Feast of Weeks. In Hebrews, “weeks” is Shavuot (or Shavuoth). The counting requires counting seven sabbaths (weeks) and observing the feast on the following, or fiftieth, day. In Greek, Pentecost means “fiftieth.” So that’s how we end up with four different names for the same thing.

(I’m not sure how to pronounce Shavuot, because my sources conflict. I see some that say shuh-VOO-oht, and some that say shah-voo-AHT. I don’t know if this is due to regional preferences, or if some of them are just wrong.)

How to Celebrate the Feast of Weeks, According to Leviticus

As is the case with all of the Lord’s feasts, the Feast of Weeks is summarized in Leviticus 23 (vv. 15-21):

And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the Lord. And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs of the first year, without blemish, one young bull, and two rams. They shall be as a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord. Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats as a sin offering, and two male lambs of the first year as a sacrifice of a peace offering. The priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.

(Scripture also gives us a brief interjection here instructing less-than-thorough harvesting of the fields to leave some for gleaning.)

As is common, there’s a burnt offering made on this day (together with the corresponding grain and drink offerings). In this case, though, there are seven lambs sacrificed, not just one, along with an additional sin offering and a pair of lambs as a peace offering.

Seven weeks — or seven sevens — are to be counted down from the previous firstfruits offering, which was a grain offering, likely from the barley harvest. On the fiftieth day (likely around the time of the wheat harvest), a new grain offering is to be made. In this instance, the offering is not raw grain; it’s loaves of bread — baked with leaven.

The numbers here are significant ones in Scripture. We have seven sevens, and then a fiftieth day, resembling the seven sevens of years and the fiftieth — or Jubilee — year. (As far as I can recall, the only other“seven sevens” in Scripture is in Daniel’s Seventy Weeks prophecy, where the weeks — sevens — are divided into “seven sevens” and “sixty-two sevens.”) We also have a group of seven burnt offerings.

The Feast of Weeks Throughout the Old Testament

The feast is referred to again several times in Scripture.

And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end. (Exodus 34:22)

Also on the day of the firstfruits, when you bring a new grain offering to the Lord at your [Feast of] Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. You shall present a burnt offering as a sweet aroma to the Lord: two young bulls, one ram, and seven lambs in their first year, with their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for each bull, two-tenths for the one ram, and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs; also one kid of the goats, to make atonement for you. Be sure they are without blemish. You shall present them with their drink offerings, besides the regular burnt offering with its grain offering. (Numbers 28:26-31)

(Some of these passages are a little unclear regarding what refers to Early Firstfruits and what refers to Latter Firstfruits. You kind of have to compare them all to each other to sort it out.)

You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide….Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you…. (Deuteronomy 13:9-11, 16-17)

Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had built before the vestibule, according to the daily rate, offering according to the commandment of Moses, for the Sabbaths, the New Moons, and the three appointed yearly feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. (2 Chronicles 8:12-13)

Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty); and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field. Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God. (Exodus 23:14-17)

Note that this passage gives the feast yet another name: Feast of Harvest!

Jewish Tradition

Traditionally, certain historical events were said to have occurred on this day, including the ascent of Moses at Mt. Sinai to receive the two tablets of the Testimony (Exodus 31:18).

As far as I can tell, this is not only completely speculative, but also improbable. However, if you want to use the added symbolism of the two loaves of bread as two tablets of God’s Word, there’s a certain logic to that. Be aware, though, that there doesn’t seem to be a Biblical basis for connecting these two events.

What Does the Feast of Weeks Mean for Christians?

What does the Feast of Weeks point to, and how does it differ from the earlier Firstfruits? The fiftieth day after the Resurrection was Shavuot — or what was known in the Greek-speaking world as “Pentecost.” The men of Israel would have been gathered together once more at Jerusalem, in obedience to the passages of Scripture we’ve previously seen. And you probably remember this as the day the events of Acts 2 took place.

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language… (Acts 2:1-6, emphasis added)

Of course it goes on from here. The list of those who heard the apostles included “both Jews and proselytes” (v. 10), and Peter went on to preach a message that attributed what those gathered were hearing to the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy that “in the last days,” God would “pour out [His] Spirit on all flesh.”

The Feast of Weeks, then, is a shadow of the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit. And in contrast to the earlier celebration, which features an absence of leaven in illustration of purity, this celebration requires leaven, in illustration of the pervasiveness of the Spirit, and the inevitability of His influence in Christians, the Church as a whole, and the world overall, to bring about change by His Presence.

“A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” (1 Corinthians 5:6; Galatians 5:9) This is not a good thing when the “leaven” is sin. It’s a very good thing when the “leaven” is the Holy Spirit!

Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.” (Matthew 13:33)

“[W]e also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)

“For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy…” (Romans 11:16a)

The firstfruits of the Spirit also creates the firstfruits of the Church.

“Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” (James 1:18)

So at this time, we celebrate the coming of the Spirit and the birth (at least of a sort) of the Church.

Three Comings

I know we usually speak of a First and Second Coming of Christ. But if you’ll permit, for a moment, a non-technical use of the term “coming,” there’s one other thing I’d like to point out here.

Three of the Lord’s feasts were distinct in that they called for the men to gather at Jerusalem (or “the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide”). These seem to correspond to three “comings”:

The First Coming — the Incarnation
The “Second” Coming — the Coming of the Spirit
The Third Coming (or what we typically refer to as the Second) — the Consummation, or when Jesus bodily returns to gather His people to Himself.

If we allow for Early Firstfruits to be “part of” Passover & Unleavened Bread, they also are all harvest-related, painting a picture of the “growing season” of God’s Kingdom.