PELEG. — Mentioned as a link in our Lord's genealogy (Lk 3^, A\' Phalec).
PENITENCE.— See Repextance.
PENNY.— See Moxey.
PENTECOST (t7 TTiVT-qKoffT-i}) was one of the three
I great national festivals of Israel at which all the
j males of the people were required to present them-
1 selves eveiy year before the Lord their God. witli
an ofiering according to their means (Ex 23'" 34-*,
Dt le'"- 1'. 2 Ch 813). There is evidence that in
332
PENTECOST
PENTECOST
the time of Christ multitudes assembled for the P'east of the Passover, the Feast of Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, not only from all pr.rts of the Holy Land, but also from the Jewish com- munities scattered throughout the Poman Empire. The attendance at the Passover "would probably be the largest, while the numbers at Pentecost -would embrace more Jews from foreign countries, the season being more favourable for travel. All three feasts have (1) a basis in the agricultural life of Canaan, (2) a reference to the history of the nation, and (3) a spiritual and typical significance. Of the three, the Feast of the Passover came hrst in the natural year, signalizing the commencement of the barley harvest and the dedication of tlie first ripe sheaf by waving it befoie the Lord ; com- memorating the deliverance of the people from Egyptian bondage; and pointing forM'ard, liy the lamb -without blemish sacrificed on the occasion, to the Lamb of God Avhicli taketh away the sin of the world. Of the series, the Feast of Tabernacles was the last, celebrating with great rejoicings the comi)letion of harvest and vintage ; commemorat- ing, l)y the erection of booths in -which the people dwelt for the -week, the wanderings of their fatliers in the Avilderness on the -way to settled life in Canaan ; and having its antitype in the rest that remaineth for the people of God, or, better perhaps, in that great Harvest Home yet to come, Avhen there shall be gathered before the throne a multi- tude Avhich no man can number, out of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, clothed in white robes and with palms in their hands.
Between these two national festivals came Pentecost. As Passover signalized the commence- ment of tlie grain harvest, Pentecost marked its conclusion ; and as Tabernacles was a great national thanksgiving for the completed vintage and fruit harvest of the year, Pentecost was a thanksgiving for the completed grain harvest.
1. Names. — The actual word ' Pentecost ' does not occur in the canonical books of the OT, but it is found in To 2' and 2 Mac 12^-. Neither does it occur in the Gospels, where the Feast itself is not mentioned. It occurs in NT three times outside the Gospels (Ac 2^ 20'^, and 1 Co 16^), and in these passages it is employed not as a numeral adjective, but as a substantive. The Feast is called Pente- cost because it fell on the fiftieth day counted from Nisan 16, the day after the Passover Sabbath (or festival day), and fulfilled the ancient com- mand : ' Ye shall count imto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave - offering : seven sabbaths (or weeks) shall be complete : even unto the mor- row after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days, and ye shall offer a new meal-offering unto the Lord ' (Lv 23'5-'6, cf. Dt 16»). The names by which the Feast is known in the OT proper exhibit its basis in the agricultural life of the people. It is the ' Feast of Weeks,' called from the seven weeks reckoned from the morrow after the Passover when they began ' to put the sickle to the corn' (Ex 34-^^ Dt W-''>, 2 Ch 8^^) ; the 'Feast of Harvest,' 'the firstfruits of thy labours which thou hast sowed in the field' (Ex 23'«) ; the ' Day of First Fruits,' a day of rest and holy convocation (Nu 282«, cf. Ex 23^8 34-'=), although, like the other Feasts, it was actually of a week's duration. By later Judaism it was styled Azercth ('conclusion '), which appears in Josephus as 'Aaaped ; and ' Day of the Giving of the Law ' in commemoration of the revelation of the Divine ^Yill to the people at Sinai (Hamburger, RE, ' Wochenfest ' ; Edersheim, The Temple, p. 227).
2. Agricultural basis.— The distinctive features of the ritual observed at Pentecost are those of a harvest thanksgiving. When barley harvest Avas
begun at Passover tiiue, the omer or sheaf was brought to the pi'iest to be waved by him before the Lord ; and this was followed by a burnt-offering of a ' he-lamb without blemish of the lirst year,' with appropriate meat- and di'ink-offerings (Lv 23^""^^). When the grain harvest which had been proceed- ing through the following seven weeks reached its completion at Pentecost and the thanksgiving cele- bration for it took place, a larger offering was pre- scribed. Instead of t!ie omer of barley— whether [iresented in the sheaf or, as would appear from later practice, threshed and parched and made into flour — there -were now tM'o wave-loaves of the finest wheaten flour to be brought by the people out of their habitations and offered as a new meal- oHering unto the Lord. In contrast to the Pass- over bread, which was unleavened, these two loaves, forming the peculiar oflering of the Day of Pentecost, were ' baken with leaven,' which, as the Mishna informs us, was the case in all thank- offerings. These loaves are declared to be ' the firstfruits unto the Lord ' (Lv 23'®- "), and formed with the peace-offering of two lambs the public thank-offering of the nation to God for His good- ness. Instead of the single lamb of the Passover, there were now to be presented as a burnt-ofl'ering ' seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams,' with ap- propriate meat- and drink-ott'erings ; whilst a kid of the goats Avas to be sacrificed as a sin-offering (Lv 23'**- ''-'). It was in keeping with an occasion of national thanksgiving that freewill ott'erings were to be brought by the people, each as the Lord had prospered him : 'And tliou shalt rejoice before the Lord, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidser- vant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widoAv, that are among you. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egj-pt : and thou shalt observe and do these statutes' (Dt IG'^- ^-). Although the festival proper, as we have seen, was confined to one day, it continued in a minor degree for a whole week, and Mas celebrated with glad- ness and rejoicing. All this made it peculiarly jjopular ; and the season of the year being favour- able, as we have seen, for travel, it seems from notices in Josephus, and from references in the Acts of the Apostles, to have been frequented by a large concourse of pilgrims from all the lands of the Jewish Dispersion. It is now the custom among the Jews to decorate the synagogue at Pentecost with trees and plants and flowers, — a modern sub- stitute for the harvest festival of former times (see Jewish Ennjc, art. 'Pentecost'; Rosenau, Jewish Ceremonial Institutions, p. 86).