The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 374

the presence of witnesses, cut the ears of memomted the dual gathering in of all the corn before marked, and brought them into fruits of the year, specially of the olives the t.emple. On the next day, Nisan 16, and the grapes. It was observed by 11, this corn, whether in the form of a sheaf or general dwelling in booths made of the of flour, was offered to the Lord by being branches of palms, willows, olives, pines, waved before him, and then consigned to myrtles, and other olose-growing trees (ver. the priest. Here, by the presentation of 40; Neh. viii. 15), in whioh all the Israelite the firstfruits of the year, an a.cknowledg- ma.lea, with the exception of the sick, lived ment is ma.de that the products of the earth for seven days, e.nd kept he.rvest home. a.re by right God's. This is one of the 2. The second aspect in which to regard objects of the Feast of the Passover. the annual festive.ls is the historical one, Secondly, as to Pentecost. After the sheaf, The Passcn,er is characterized by its histori- or omer, had been offered on Nisan 16, it was cal associations- to e. greater degree than allowable to make the new year's barley either of the other festivals. The whole into bread, but the dedication of the grain national life of the Israelites received its crops was not complete until a portion of character from the Egyptian Exodus, and ac- the wheat crop had also been offered. Thie cordingly the anniverse.ries of their religious was done a week of weeks later, at the year began with its commemoration. It was :Feast of Pentecost, forty-nine days after the events which had taken place in Egypt the presentation of the barley, and which gave to the Paschal sacrifice and the fifty days after the first day of Unleavened Paschal feast their primary signification ; Bread. On this day, two leavened loaves, and while to us the Passover festival serves of the same size as the shewbread loaves, e.s a proof of the truth of those events, to were waved before the Lord, and then de- the Jew it served as a memorial of them, livered to the priest. These loaves were preventing them from ever being forgotten made out of ears of corn selected e.nd reaped or disregarded (cf. Exod. xiii. 8-16). The as the barley had been seven weeks before, e.noient Christinn Fathers suggested that e.nd then threshed and ground in the the Feast of Pentecost commemorated the temple. They were regarded e.s the first- institution of the old dispensation at Sinai, fruits of the wheat harvest, though they e.s, to Christians, it recalled the institution were not made of the first cut wheat; e.nd of the new Law by the gift of the fiery from their presentation the festive.I has tongues at Jerusalem. This suggestion was tho name of the Feast of Harvest (Exod. adopted by Maimonides and the later school xxiii. 16); the Feast of the Firstfruits of of Hebrew commentators, and it is 11, very the Wheat Harvest (Exod. xxiv. 22); the probable conjecture; but e.s •no appearance Day of the Firstfruits (Numb. xxviii. 26); of it is found in the Old or New Testaments, while, from it&...de.te relatively to the Pe.ss- nor even in early Hebrew writers, it cannot over, it is called the Feast of Weeks (Exod. be regarded e.s e. certainty. Historically, the xxxiv. 22; Dent. xvi. 10). The name, Feas of Tabernacles is generally considered Feast of Pentecost, is found only in the to commemorate the dwelling in tents Apocrypha (Tobit ii. I ; 2 Mace. xii. 32), throughout the forty years' wandering in and in the New Testament (Acts ii. 1; the wilderness; but if this were so, it would :u. 16; 1 Cor. xvi. 8). The meat offerings have been oe.lled the Feast of Tents, for tho might not be made of the new year's dour words "tent" and "tabernacle" differ, until these two loaves had been offered. and the Israelites did not dwell in taber- Thirdly, with regard to the Feast of nncles in the wilderness. Rather, it com- Tabernacles. The festivals connected with memorates the drat enoBmpment of the the seasons of the year and the products of Israelites after setting forth from Egypt, the soil were not ended until the Feast of which took place at " Succoth," the meaning Ingathering (Exod. xxiii. 16; xxriv. 22), of which word is " tabernacle" (Exod. xii. or Tabernacles (ver. 34; Dent. xvi 13; 37). Thus, as the event historice.lly BBsoci- Ezra iii. 4; Zech. :riv. 16; Jer. vii. 2), had e.ted with the first harvest festival, the been celebrated. This festive.I occurred PaBBover, was the setting forth from Egypt, about the beginning of October, and com- that asBOOiated with the last, the Fe1111t of 011. x.xm. 1-5.) TH~ llOOK OF LEVITICUS.