But though the canonical Scriptures speak of Pen- tecost as simply a harvest festival, yet the non-canon- ical documents show, beyond the shadow of a doubt.
that the Jews, at least as early as the days of Christ, connected with it, and commemorated on the Gth of Si- van, the third month, the giving of the Decalogue. It is made out from Exod. xix that the law was deliv- ered on the fiftieth day after the deliverance fnnn Egypt (Selden, De Jur. Nat. et Gent, iii, 11). It has been conjectured that a connection between the event and the festival may possibly be hinted at in the ref- erence to the observance of the law in Deut. xvi, 12. But neither Philo nor Josephus has a word on the subject. Philo expressl}' states that it was at the feast of Trumpets that the giving of the law was com- memorated {De Sept. c. 22). See TnnjiPETs, Feast OF. There is, however, a tradition of a custom which Schottgen supposes to be at least as ancient as the apostolic times, that the night before Pentecost was a time especially appropriated for thanking God for the gift of the law (f/or. Hebr. ad Act. ii, 1). The Talmud declares that "the rabbins propounded that the Dec- alogue was given to Israel on the Gth of Sivan" (^Sab- bath, 8G b), and this is deduced from Exod. xix, for, according to tradition, Moses ascended the mountain on the 2d of Sivan, the third month (Exod. xix, 1-3) ; received the answer of the people on the 3d (ver. 7) ; reascended the mountain on the 4th (ver. 8) ; com- manded the people to sanctify themselves three days, which were the 4th, 5th, and Gth (vers. 12, 14, 2i5) ; and on the third of these three days of sanctitication, which was the sixth daj' of the month, delivered the Decalogue to them (vers. 10, 11, 15, IG). This is the unanimous voice of Jewish tradition. It is given in the lilechilta on Exod. xix (p. 83-90, ed. AVilna, 1844 [see Midrash]); in the Chaldee paraphrase of Jona- than ben-Uzziel, which renders ^'w^^wH Z.^'^Z ''W^^
(Exod. xix, 16) by Nni'js nxn^bn x^i^n mm
XnT^l, and it came to pass on the third day, on the sixth of the month, i. e. Sivan; by Rashi (Comment, on Exod. xix, 1-lG) ; and by Maimonides, who remarks : " Pentecost is the day on which the law was given, and in order to magnify this day, the days are counted from the first festival (i. e. Passover) to it, just as one who is expecting the most faithful of his friends is ac- customed to count the days and hours of his arrival; for this is the reason of counting the omer from the day of our Exodus from Egypt to the day of the giv- ing of the law, which was the ultimate object of the exodus, as it is said, ' I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.' And because this great manifestation did not last more than one day, therefore we annually commemorate it only one day" {More Nebochhn, iii, 43). To this effect is R. Jehudah (born circa 1086), in his celebrated work Cnsari, iii, 10 ; Nachmanides (born about 1195), in his commentary on the Pentateuch (Exod. xix, 1-25; Lev. xxiii, 17), and all the Jewish commentators, as well as the ritual for this festival. Even Abrabanel, who denies that the primary object in the institution of this festival was to celebrate the gift of the law, most emphatically declares that the Decalogue was given on Mount Si- nai on Pentecost, as may be seen from the following remark: "The law was not given with a design to this festival, so that it should commemorate the gift of the law, since the festival was not instituted to com- memorate the giving of the law ; as our divine law and the prophecy are their own witnesses, and did not require a day to be sanctified to commemorate them ; but the design of the feast of weeks was to commence the wheat harvest. For just as the feast of Tabernacles was intended to finish the ingathering of the produce, so the festival of weeks was intended to begin the har- vest, as it was the will of the Lord that at the com- mencement of the ingathering of the fruits w hich are the food of man, the first of which is the wheat, and which began to be cut on the feast of weeks, a festival should be celebrated to render praise to him who giv- eth food to all flesh ; and that another festival should
PENTECOST
929
PENTECOST
be celebrated at the end of the ingathering of the fruits. Still, there is no doubt that the law was given on the day of the feast of weeks, altliough this festival was not instituted to commemorate it" {Commentary on the Pentateuch, Parshath "il^X, p. 211 a, ed. Hanau, 1710). Those early fathers who were best acquainted with the Jewish tradition testify to the same thing, that the law was given on Pentecost, and that the Jews com- memorate the event on this festival. It was therefore on this day, when the apostles, in common with their Jewish brethren, were assembled to commemorate the anniversary of the giving of the law from Sinai, and were engaged in the study of Hoi}' Writ, in accordance with the custom of the day, that the Holy Spirit de- scended upon them, and sent them forth to proclaim " the wonderful works of God," as revealed in the Gos- pel (Acts ii). Thus, St. Jerome tells us, '' Supputemus numerum, et inveniemus quinquagesimo die egressio- nis Israel ex yEgypto in vertice mentis Sinay legem datam. Unde et Pentecostes celebratur solcninitas, et postea evangelii sacramentum in Spiritus Sancti de- scensione completur" {Epist. ad Fahiolam, xii; in 02)p. i, 1074, ed. Par. 1G09). Similarly St. Augus- tine, " Pentecosten etiam, id est, a passione et resur- rectione Domini, quinquagesimum diem celebramus, quo nobis Sanctum Spiritum Paracletum quem promis- erat misit ; quod futurum etiam per Judaeorum pascha significatum est, cum quinquagesimo die post celebra- tionem ovis occisse, IMoyses digito Dei scriptam legem accepit in monte" (Contra Faustum, lib. xxxiii, c. 12). Comp. also De Lyra, Comment, on Lev. xxiii; Bishop Patrick on Erod. xix. It is very curious that the apocryphal Book of Jubilees, which was written in the first century before Christ (see Jubilees, Book of), should connect this festival, which was celebrated on the third month, with the third month of Noah's leav- ing the ark, and maintain that it was ordained to be celebrated in this month, to renew annually the cov- enant which God made with this patriarch not to de- stroy the world again by a flood (ch. vi, 57 sq.). Such an opinion would hardly have been hazarded bj-a Jew if it had not been believed liy many of his co-religion- ists that this festival had a pre-Mosaic existence. Since the destruction of Jerusalem, and the impossibility of giving prominence to that part of the festival whicli bears on the Palestinian harvest, the Jews have al- most entirely made Pentecost to commemorate the giving of the law, and the onl}' references they make in the ritual to the harvest, which was the primary object of its institution, is in the reading of the book of Ruth, wherein the harvest is described.