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Passover and Firstfruits Chronology

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Passover and Firstfruits Chronology PASSOVER AND FIRSTFRUITS CHRONOLOGY Three Views Dating the Events From Yeshua’s Last Passover to Pentecost by Michael Rudolph Bikkurim: Plan or Coincidence? In the covenant given through Moses, God commanded the Israelites that when they came into the land God had given them, they were to sacrifice a sheaf of their bikkurim1 – their first fruits of the harvest – as a wave offering: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of its firstfruits of your harvest to the priest.’” (Leviticus 23:9-10) This was to be done on “the day after the Sabbath,” and was to be accompanied by a burnt offering of an unblemished male lamb: “He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord.” (Leviticus 23:11-12) Then, in the New Covenant Scriptures, we read: “But now Messiah is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Messiah all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Messiah the firstfruits, afterward those who are Messiah’s at His coming.” (1 Corinthians 15:20-23) Are the references to “firstfruits” in both the New and Old Covenants coincidental, or are they God’s intricate plan for relating events across the span of centuries? In the sections which follow, this paper demonstrates that they are no coincidence, and that understanding the offering of firstfruits is prophetically important in the dating the events from Yeshua’s last Passover to the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Bikkurim: A Season of Firstfruits In examining these questions, we note that the Bikkurim (firstfruits) offering of Leviticus 23:10 is positioned in the Scriptures after the commandment to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Exodus 23: 4-8), and prior to the commandment to observe the firstfruits offering known as 1 Bikkurim is the Hebrew word for “firstfruits.” “The Feast of Weeks,” “Shavuot,” or “Pentecost” (Exodus 23:15-22). Because these two firstfruits offerings are separated by a fixed number of days, this writer views them as the two ends of a single feast season rather than as two independent feasts.2 About This Paper The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke present a consistent timetable of events from just before Yeshua’s last Passover meal to his death and resurrection. The Book of John, however, presents what appears to be an inconsistency in dating the Passover, and will be dealt with in later sections of this paper. For clarity, this paper presents the chronology of Matthew and is supplemented by the other Gospels and Torah Scriptures as applicable. Verse quotations are from the New King James Version (with “Messiah” substituted for “Christ”), and references to calendar days and months are according to the Biblical lunar calendar. This paper presumes that the word “day” as translated from the Scriptures most often refers to a Biblical day. The Biblical day begins at sundown and ends at sundown,3 whereas the civil day begins at midnight and ends at midnight. As a consequence, each Biblical day leads its corresponding civil day by a number of hours which varies according to the time of year. In some cases, “day” also means “daytime”, ie. the time of day which is light. Because each “day” begins when it is dark, “morning” begins during the dark hours, and “early in the day” includes the dark hours as well. Also, the word which is translated “evening” can mean any time from mid-afternoon to after sundown. Throughout this paper, “Nisan” refers to the first month of the Biblical calendar year,4,5 and Bikkurim refers to the first wave offering of firstfruits – the first day of a firstfruits season which ends with Shavuot.6 Although only three views are presented, the reader should be aware that other chronologies have been theorized and published. Determining the Dates of Bikkurim and Shavuot 2 Rabbinical authority recognizes the first wave offering as the day to begin counting 50 days to Shavuot. It is referred to as “day one of counting the Omer” and is not considered to be a separate feast. Note that the two firstfruits wave offerings are different in nature. At the beginning of the 50 day period, the offering is a sheaf of grain. At the end of the period (Shavuot), the offering is two baked loaves made with flour and leaven (processed grain). 3 For an explanation of a “sunrise to sunrise” theory, see Samuele Bacchiocchi, The Time of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, pp. 66-89, (Berrien Springs, Michigan: Biblical Perspectives, 1991). 4 In contrast to the Biblical calendar, the first month of the Jewish calendar is Tishri. Nisan is either the 7th or 8th month depending upon whether a given year has one or two months of Adar. 5 For a concise explanation of the Jewish luni-solar calendar, see Arthur Spier, The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar, 3rd revised ed., pp. 1-22, (Jerusalem / New York: Feldheim Publishers, 1986). 6 In Rabbinical literature, the word bikkurim does not refer to a particular day; it is rather a term which refers to firstfruits offerings generally. That Notwithstanding, in his Sefer HaMitzvot, Maimonides identifies the “Offering of The Firstfruits” as his Positive Commandment #44. -2- The key to placing the Firstfruits season in time, is our knowing which Sabbath is intended in Leviticus 23:11: “He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.” There are four Sabbaths in close proximity to the Feast of Unleavened Bread; they are: • The first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:7) • The last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:8) • The weekly Sabbath which falls during the seven days of Unleavened Bread • The weekly Sabbath which follows the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread The key Scripture to consider is: “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.” (Leviticus 23:15-16) The counting method prescribed for arriving at Shavuot would appear to eliminate the first two Sabbaths in the above list because, in order for the fifty-day count to end after the completion of seven Sabbaths (49 days), the count must begin the day after a weekly Sabbath (i.e. on a Sunday). As between the two remaining possibilities, this writer prefers the third on the list – the weekly Sabbath which falls within the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This Sabbath is the more distinctive of the two in that it is always within the Feast period, while the Sabbath which follows the Feast has little distinction and would not warrant the recognition of being called “the” Sabbath.7 Furthermore, it is shown later in this paper that only this Sabbath is consistent with Yeshua having risen on Bikkurim which, if true, has profound prophetic importance. Because Bikkurim is defined relative to a weekly Sabbath, neither it nor Shavuot (which is defined relative to Bikkurim) falls on the same calendar date each year.8 The Events of Nisan 14 7 Modern Rabbinical authority has proclaimed the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15) as the Sabbath referred to in Leviticus 23:11. This interpretation has required explaining away the seven Sabbath requirement of verse 15. Baruch A. Levine, in the JPS Commentary to Leviticus, p. 158, (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989), suggests several approaches, including defining “sabbath” as a week-long period rather than a single day. The Karaites, on the other hand, believed that the intended “Sabbath” was the seventh day Sabbath which immediately followed Passover. See Menachoth (Men.) 65a-65b, and also David M. Feldman, “Omer”, Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. 12, p. 1383, (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House Jerusalem Ltd., 1972). 8 According to Rabbinical teaching, Bikkurim (day 1 of counting the omer) is always on Nisan 16, and Shavuot is always on Sivan 6. This can be verified by perusing the calendar pages of Arthur Spier, The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar, supra. -3- “Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, ...” (Mark 14:12) On what calendar date was the Passover lamb killed? We find our answer in Exodus 12:6 which states: “Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the Congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.” This rendering of the Hebrew as “twilight” in the NKJV and similar translations creates an ambiguity as to whether the lamb was killed prior to sundown in the late hours of Nisan 14, or after sundown in the early hours of Nisan 15. A literal reading of the Hebrew cures the ambiguty, however, for it states that the lamb was to be kept until the 14th day and killed “between the evenings.” It is clear, therefore, that the lamb was killed on Nisan 14.
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