No occasional offering of first-fruits could be made in the Temple before Pentecost {Bikhn-im, i, 3, G). Hence probably the two loaves were designated "the first of the first-fruits" (Exod. xxiii, 19), although the offering of the omer had preceded them. The proper time for offering first-fruits was the interval between Pentecost and Tabernacles {Bikk. i, 6, 10 ; comp. Exod. xxiii, 16). See First-fruits.
The connection between the omer and the two loaves of Pentecost appears never to have been lost sight of. The former was called bj' Philo, irpoeoprtoQ t-tpag toprni; /.ui'Coi'og (De Sept. § 21, v, 25 ; comp. De Decern Orac. iv, 302, ed. Tauch.). He elsewhere mentions the festival of Pentecost with the same marked re- spect. He speaks of a peculiar feast kept Vij' the The- rapeutfE as Trpoeoprtog iteyia-iii; foprr/f sc. Hii'TiiKoa- rnc; (De Vit. Contemp. v, 334). The interval between the Passover and Pentecost was evidently regarded as a religious season. The custom has probably been handed down from ancient times, which is observed by the modern Jews, of keeping a regular computation of the fift3' days by a formal observance, beginning with a short prayer on the evening of the daj' of the omer, and continued on each succeeding day by a solemn declaration of its number in the succession, at evening prayer, while the members of the family are standing
PENTECOST
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PENTECOST
with respectful attention (Buxtorf, Syn. Jud. xx, p. 440). Accordinj^ to the most generally received in- terpretation of the word StvnpoTrptiJTog (Luke vi, 1), the period was marked by a regularlj' designated succession of Sabbaths, similar to the several succes- sions of Sundajs in our own calendar. It is assumed that the day of the omer was called cturipa (in the Sept., Lev. xxiii, 11, »/ inavpiov t7]i^ 7rp(iJr;;t). The Sabbath which came next after it was termed Stvrt- pi'iTrpioTOv ; the second, otvTtpoCtvTtpov \ the third, Stv- TipoTpiTov ; and so onwards till Pentecost. This ex- planation was first proposed bj' Scaliger (Z>e Emend. Temp. lib. vi, p. 527J, and has been adopted by Frisch- muth, Petavius, Casaubon, Lightfoot, Godwyn, Carp- zov, and manj' others.
3. The Observance of this Festival to the Present Day. — This festival, like all the feasts and fasts ordained or sanctioned in the Old Test., is annually and sacred- Ij' kept by the Jews to the present daj' on the Gth and 7th of Sivan, i. e. between the second half of May and the first half of June. Thus, although, according to the law, the observance of Pentecost lasted but a sin- gle day, the Jews in foreign countries, since the Cap- tivity, have prolonged it to two days. They have treated the feast of Trumpets in the same way. The alteration appears to have been made to meet the pos- sibility of an error in calculating the true day (Light- foot, Ejercit. Ileb. Acts ii, 1; Keland, Antiq. iv, 4, 5; Selden, De Ann. Civ. c. vii). It is said by Bartenora and JMaimonides that, while the Temple was standing, though the religious rites were confined to the day, the festivities and the bringing in of gifts continued through seven days (Notes to Chagiga, ii, 4). As above noted, in accordance with the injunction in Lev. xxiii, 15, IG, the Jews regularly count every es'ening the fiftj' days from the second day of Passover until Pentecost, and they recite a prayer over it, which is given in the article Passover. As the counting (nT^SD) of these fifty days, on the first of which the sickle was brought out for cutting the corn, and on the last of which it was laid up again because the harvest was entirely finished, is not only a connecting link between Pass- over and Pentecost, but may be regarded as prepar- atory for the feast of Pentecost, we must notice the events and practices connected therewith. Owing to a fearful plague which broke out on the second day of Passover or the first of Omer, and which, after rag- ing thirty-two daj's, and carrying off between Gabath and Antiparos no less than 24,000 disciples of the cel- ebrated K. Akiba, suddenly ceased on the 18th of Jiar, the second month, i. e. the thirty-third of Omer {Hdhijlon Jebamoth, 62 b; Midrash Bereshilh Rabha, Seder n*":: iin, sec. Ixi, p. 134, ed. Stettin, 1863), it was ordained that, in memory of this calamitj', three daj's are to be kept as a time of mourning, during which no marriage is to take place, no enjoyments and pleasures are to be indulged in, nor even is the beard to be removed (Orach Chajim, Ililchoth Pesach, sec. 49.^) ; and that the thirtj'-third of Omer, on which the epiiieniic disappeared, is to be kept as a holiday, es- pecially among thfi students, for which reason it is called tlie scholars' feast. The reason which R. Jocha- nan lien-Nori assigns for regarding this period as a thiie of mourning — i. e. that the wicked are punished in hell in these days, and that judgment is passed on the produce of the land — is simplj' a modern cabalis- tic form given to an ancient usage.
The three days preceding the festival, on which, as wc shall see hereafter, the Jews conmiemorate the giving of the law on Sinai, are called ("^"2^ nC51I3 r.pnrin) the three days of s p:iration and sancVfication, because the Lord commanded Moses to set bounds around the mountain, and that the people should sanc- tify themselves ttiree daj'S prior to the giving of the law (Exod. xix, 12, 1-?., 23). On the preparation day