III. The 3Ian7ier in which this Festival uias Celebrated. — Xot to confound the practices which obtained in the course of time, and which were called forth by the ever-shifting circumstances of the Jewish nation, we shall divide the description of the manner in which this festival was and still is celebrated into three sec- tions.
1. The Pentat'uchal Ordinances. — The Mosaic enact- ments about the manner in which this festival is to be celebrated are as follows : On the day of Pentecost there is to be a holy convocation ; no manner of work is to be done on this festival (Lev. xxiii, 21 : Numb. xxviii, 26) ; all the able-bodied male members of the congregation, who are not legally precluded from it, are to appear in the place of the national sanctuarj^, as on the Passover and Tabernacles (Exod. xxiii, 14, 17; xxxiv, 23), where "a new mcat-off"ering" (nnj'a iTJ'in) of the new Palestine crop (Lev. xxiii, 16 ; Numb, xxviii, 26 ; Deut. xvi, 10), consisting of two unleavened loaves, made respectively of the tenth of an ephah (=about 3| quarts) of the finest wheaten flour (Exod. xxxiv, ]8 ; Lev. xxiii, 17), is to be offered before the Lord as firstlings (Qilisn, Exod. xxxiv, 17), whence this festival derived its name, the day of firstlings {p•'^^Z1 C'r, Numb, xxviii, 26).
In the above prescription, the phrase " Out of your habitations," d3''ri2dl33'3 (Lev. xxiii, 17), has been explained by the Jewish canons, which obtained dur- ing the time of the second Temple, as an ellipsis for CDTIS'ri'a "j'-iX-a (Numb. XV, 2), the land of your habitations, i. e. Palestine QMenachoth, 77 b, with Mish- na, Menachoth, viii, 1) ; hence the rendering of Jon- athan b.-Uzziel's reputed Chaldee paraphrase, "PX''3 ")l3''32ni^, the Sept. unb riji; KaroticiaQ vi-Uuv,from your habitation, in the singular referring to Palestine ; the remark of Rashi,")ni<b niiin-Q xbl 2Z^r2'1^1'C'2, from, nhere your habitations are, but not from any part outside the land, i.e. of Israel ; Pashban (ad loc.) and Maimonides (lad Ha - Chezaka, I/i'choth Tamidin U-Mosuphin, viii, 2), who rightly distinguish between
CDTn'ji^-a as here used, and a^Ti'^rjiia bra
(Exod. xii, 20; xxxv, 3; Lev. iii, 17; vii, 26; xxiii, 3, 14, 21 ; Numl). xxxv, 29), the former referring to injunctions which are binding in the land of Canaan, and the latter to commandments to lie observed in ev- erj' place, or wherever the Jews might reside; comp. Rashban on Lev. xxiii, 16. The rendering of the
Vulgate (ex omnibus habitaculis vesfris), therefore, which is followed bj' Luther (aus cdkn eueren [Voknun- (jeii), inserting 522, is most arbitrarj' and unjustifiable. Inadmissible, too, is the opinion of Calvin, Osiander, George (Die altenjikl. Feste, p. ISO, 273), etc., that two loaves were brouglit out of every house, or at least out of every town, based upon the plural DZ'ir-'^'l''2M ; or the view of Vaihinger (in Herzog's lieal-Encyldopa- die, s. V. Pfingstfest, p. 479) and Keil (on Lev. xxiii, 17), that the plural DSinaw"U is used in a singular sense, i.e.fi-om one of your habitations (comp. Gen. viii, 4; Judg. xii, 7 ; Neh.vi, 2; Eccl.x, 1); and de- notes that the two loaves are to be offered from the habitations of the Israelites, and not from those pre- pared for the sanctuary or from its treasury.
With the two loaves were to be oflfered as a burnt- offering seven lambs of the first year and without blemish, one j'oung bullock, and two lambs, with the usual meat and drink offerings ; while a goat is to be offered as a sin-offering, and two lambs of the first year are to be offered as a thanksgiving or peace offer- ing (Lev. xxiii, 18-20). The peace-offering, consist- ing of the two lambs with the two firstling loaves, are to be waved before the Lord by the priests. These are to be additions to the two loaves, and must not be confounded with the proper festival sacrifice appointed for Pentecost, which is given in Numb, xxviii, 27, and which is to be a burnt-offering, consisting of two bul- locks, one ram, and seven lambs. That these two pas- sages are not contradictor^', as is maintained by Kno- bel (Comment, on Lev. xxiii, 15-22), Vaihinger (in Herzog's Real-Encyklop. s. v. Pfingstfest, p. 480), and others, but refer to two distinct sacrifices, viz. one to accompany the wave-loaves (cnpn ?", Lev. xxiii, 18), and the other the properly appointed sacrifice for the festival (Numb, xxviii, 27), is evident from the context and design of the enactments in the respec- tive passages, as well as from the practice of the Jews in the Temple, where both prescriptions were obeyed. Hence Josephus (Ant. iii, 10, 6), in summing up the number of animal sacrifices on this festival, says that there were fourteen lambs, three j'oung bullocks, and three goats; the number two, instead of three goats, being manifestly a transcriber's error, as Vaihinger himself admits. When Vaihinger characterizes tliis statement of Josephus "as one of the many exegetical and historical blunders of the Jewish historian," and maintains that it does not follow from Menachcth, iv, 2, we can only saj' that — 1. Josephus simply describes what he himself saw in the Temple, and what every ancient Jewish document on the same subject de- clares ; 2. The third section of the verj' Mishna (Me- nachoth, iv, 3) which Vaihinger quotes distinctly de- clares, " The kind of sacrifice prescribed in Numbers [xxviii, 27] was offered in the wilderness, and the kind of sacrifice enjoined in Leviticus [xxiii, 18] was not offered in the wilderness ; but when they [i. e. the Isra- elites] entered the I'romised Land they sacrificed both kinds ;'' see also tlie Gemara on this Mishna (Bidiylon Menarhoth, 45 b), where the reasons are given more largely than in the Mishna whj' the former kind of sacrifice was not offered in the wilderness ; and 3. Maimonides, who also summarizes the ancient canons on these two kinds of sacrifices for Pentecost, shows beyond the shadow of a doubt how these enactments were carried out in the second Temple. He saj'S : "On the fiftieth day, counting from the offering of theomer, is the feast of Pentecost and Azereth (nili'). Now on this day additional sacrifices are offered, like the additional ones for new moon [see New Moon, THE Feast of], consisting of two bullocks, one ram, and seven lambs, all of them being burnt-offerings, and of a goat as sin-offering. These are sacrifices or- dered in Numb, xxviii, 26, 27, 30, and the}' constitute the addition for the day. Besides this addition, how-