Be that as it may, in the Dispersion of Israel both the sheaf and the measure liave long since ceased to have any significance ; but the counting of the omer goes on still from Passover to Pente- cost to the very eve of the feast ('This is the forty-ninth day, making seven weeks of the Omer),' and secures the regular observance of the feast. Every evening at prayers in the synagogue the counting duly takes place, with the addition of the formula : ' Blessed art Thou, O Lord, King of the universe, who hast sanctified us by Thy command- ments, and hast given us comnland concerning the counting of the Omer.' The brief ceremony closes with Ps 67 and a prayer that ' the teni|>le may be speedily rebuilt in our days,' and, with still the backward look, ' there we will serve Thee with awe, as in the d.ays of old, and as in ancient years.'
Thus is retained a relic of a long-jiast Jay. When the Jews were a people settled in their own land, an agricultural people, it was a comparatively
VOL. 11. — II
simple matter to keep the festival as the procession of the seasons went on year by j-ear. The Feast of Maifjflth marked the opening of harvest with the early barley crop ; I he Feast of Weeks marked its close with theingalhering of the wheat ; the Feast of Booths crowned the cycle with the "athering of the vintage and the ' fruits of the land (Lv 23"") in general. The climatic conditions of Palestine made those seasons timely and appropriate. The count- ing of theomer wasaquaint expedient for enabling the fanners to appear at the central sanctuary at the ap|iointed time for the Feast of Weeks. The primitive proclamation of new moon, which the authorities announced by messengers, who went through the land as .soon as the faint sickle was seen in the sky, could not be relied upon in this instance. Those who dwelt in the borders of the little land would be belated. But all could count from ' the morrow after the sabbath ' from the second day of Ma?^Otli, when the ceremony of waving the omer (of barley) took place. And all could jirrange to apjjcar on tlie appointed day at the end of seven weeks. But all this has long since become antiquated. The counting of the omer is entirelj' useless. Still the feast is celebrated in the .synagogue for one day or two, but all that links it to the festival of the Pentateuch is the counting of the omer (though no omer has been ' waved '), and such dim recollections of a harvest festival in Palestine as can be secured by dressing the syna- gogue with Howers.
Because the tokens of the actual observance of this feast are few and far between, some have argued a late origin for it. But the argnmentum. e silentio is always risky. What is settled and customary may go on for generations without remark. The Law at any rate was very explicit : 'Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose ; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles' (Dt 16"). As an intermediary festi- val, however, and one lasting originally only for one day, there was an inevitable tendency to make the Feast of Weeks less conspicuous than the other two. Passover marked the beginning of harvest ; Tabernacles celebrated the very crown and con- summation of the year, when all the fruits of tlie earth had at length been gathered in ; but Pente- cost was a brief pause of joy and thankfulness for the close of harvest proper and the gathered store of ' bread that strengtheneth man's heart.'
This is seen especially in the dearth of com- memorative matter associated with Pentecost. In connexion with P.assover, e.g., in the course of time there gathered a considerable number of his- torical associations, not only with the Exodus, Imt with all sorts of other great happenings in Jewish history, with or without foundation. Afterwards, however, and at a late date, Pentecost was supplied with one notable historical association, and it became the festival at which the giving of the Law on Sinai was commemorated. The special lessons of the synagogue for Pentecost are all designed to glorify the Law. Once the connexion was made, Talnnidie .authorities had, by the use of ing(Miious methods of calculation, no difliculty in proving that this indeed was the very time when this august event took place (Ex lO, 20). This association persists after Pentecost becomes a Christian festival, and provokes the contrast which Keble makes the basis of his hymn for Whit- sundayin the Chrutinn Kcrer (London, 1904, p. 120). lint see also long before this Jerome [Ep. Ixxviii., 'ad Fabiolam ' [PL xxii.]).
In the few instances wherein we have historical reference to the F'east of Pentecost there is one noticeable thing : stress is laid on its being a time
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PENTECOST
wlien crowds were gathered togetlier at Jerusalem. A|i|iareiitly in the 1st cent. A.U. the festival was well kept as a lyig in accord with the ancient lej;is- lation. Joseplius refers to it more than once (UJ II. iii. 1, VI. V. 3; Ant. III. x. 6, XIII. viii. 4, XIV. xiii. 4). In those days of growing distress and on- CDniing doom, indeed, he says that the adversaries of the Jews deliberately chose such times when crowds were fjathered at Jerusalem to work them some mischief. 'The enemy waited for the com- ing of the multitude out of the country to Pente- cost, a feast of ours so called : and when the day was come, numy ten thousands of the people were gathered together,' etc. {Ant. XIV. xiii. 4).