THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
observance fifty days after the offering of the first sheaves and after Easter respectively.
I. Jewish: For the ancient Israelites Pentecost was the second of their three pilgrimage festivals, and formed a religious close for the harvest time, so that it was called " the feast of harvest " in Ex. xxiii. 16. More often, however, it was termed " the feast of weeks " (Ex. xxxiv. 22; Deut. xvi. 10), since seven weeks were counted from the solemn act of the opening of the harvest, the offering of the first sheaves, to the closing festival of thanksgiving. Like the offering of the first sheaves, this harvest festival, fifty days later, was to be held on the morrow after the Sabbath (Lev. xxiii. 11, 15-16), and consequently on the first day of the week. In Josephus' time, the offering of the first sheaves was fixed on the sixteenth day of Nisan; at a later period Pentecost was observed on the sixth of Siwan, regardless of the day of the week.
In Ex. xxiii. 16-17 (cf. Ex. xxxiv. 22-23) Pentecost was counted among the three principal feasts on which every male must come to the place of worship. It was a joyful festival in which the poor, the Levites, and the strangers were not forgotten. A more definite idea of the celebration is gained from the regulations in Lev. xxiii. 15-21; Num. xxviii. 26-31. One of the principal offerings was that of two loaves, made of fine flour and leavened. This bread must be offered from " your habitations " (Lev. xxiii. 17), i.e., from grain grown on the sacrificer's own land, since it was a symbolic offering of the whole community, like that of the first sheaves. Besides the bread, there was to be a burnt offering of seven lambs, one bullock, and two rams, as an accompaniment to the meat and drink offerings. One kid was also to be sacrificed as a sin offering, and two lambs as peace offerings; these latter were to be waved like the bread, and, like this leavened bread, did not belong to the altar, but to the priests.
Besides these sacrifices of the whole community, individuals brought voluntary offerings according to the size of their harvest (Deut. xvi. 10). The day was to be marked by Sabbath rest and festive assemblies (Lev. xxiii. 21; Num. xxviii. 26; Deut. xvi. 11). In later times, since the date of the Passover, upon which that of Pentecost depended, could be known only after the appearance of the new moon, and as the news of this could not always reach the distant diaspora in time, a second holiday was added, so that all should celebrate at least one day in common.
Pentecost, which is mentioned only once in the historical books (II Chron. viii. 13), was originally an agrarian festival, a thanksgiving for the completion of the harvest. At a later period, however, a historical basis was ascribed to it. In Jubilees, vi. 17 sqq., Noah is commanded to observe the feast as a memorial of the covenant made with him after the flood. A theory formed in Talmudic times, which was accepted by Maimonides (Moreh Nebukim, iii. 43) and gained general recognition, was that Pentecost was a memorial feast of the giving of the law on Sinai. (C. von Orblli.)
II.' Christian: Pentecost, the fiftieth day after Easter, is the third great annual Christian festival
and the last in the cycle of the festivals associated with our Lord. It appears to be not only essentially connected with the Hebrew feast of firstfruits by the historical event recorded in Acts ii., but the Christian festival of thanksgiving for the first-fruits of the Spirit also corresponds to the Jewish festival of the first-fruits of nature (Rom. viii. 23), a view advanced as early as Augustine. In Christian literature the name Pentecost originally signified the whole period of fifty days from the first Easter to the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, and was so understood by Tertullian, Origen, Basil the Great, the Apostolic Constitutions, the Ordo Romanus, and other sources. During this time fasting was forbidden, prayer was offered standing, the theaters were closed and games were suspended in the circus, the book of Acts was read in the liturgy, and the Hallelujah was frequently sung.
The name Pentecost was first used in its restricted sense of the closing day of the fifty days' festival in the canons of the Council of Elvira, in 305, where the occasional custom of celebrating the feast of Pentecost on Ascension Day, the fortieth day after Easter, was forbidden as heretical. At an early date the feast of Pentecost became one of the most important in the calendar. Its vigil was soon observed with fasting, and became a favorite time for the administration of baptism. In like manner the entire octave of Pentecost came to be honored much as was the octave of Easter; but from the eighth century, in order to limit the number of holidays, this celebration was often abridged, so that it first ended on Thursday, then on Wednesday, and was finally confined to three days. In the Anglican and Lutheran Churches only the Monday and Tuesday in Whitsun Week are now observed. The name Whitsunday, frequently applied to Pentecost, is derived from the custom of wearing white garments at this festival. (O. ZocKLERf.)
Bibliography: Add to the pertinent literature for I. given under Easter, Feasts and Festivals, and Passover, F. Hitzig, Ostern und Pfingsten, Heidelberg, 1837; C. C. W. F. Bahr, Symbolik des mosaischen Cultus, iii. 613 sqq., 645 sqq., Heidelberg, 1839; Vigouroux, Dictionnaire, fasc. xxxi., cols. 119-123; JE, ix. 592-595; DB, iii. 739-742; EB, iii. 3649-53 (these deal also with the feast in the N. T.). For II.: Bingham, Origines, XI., vi. 7, XIV., iii. 3, and especially XX., vi.; J. C. W. Augusti, Denkwiirdigkeiten, ii. 343 sqq., 384-385, Leipsic, 1818; J. E. Riddle, Manual of Christian Antiquities, pp. 679 sqq., London, 1843; H. E. F. Guericke, Lehrbuch der christlich-kirchlichen Archaologie, pp. 190-196, Leipsic, 1847; N. Nilles, Kalendarium manuale, ii. 279-280, 431-432, Innsbruck, 1897; K. A. H. Kellner, Heortologie, pp. 72-76, Freiburg, 1901.
PENTECOST, GEORGE FREDERICK: Presbyterian; b. at Albion, 111., Sept. 23, 1841. He was educated at Georgetown College, Georgetown, Ky., leaving college in 1862, before taking his degree, entering the Eighth Kentucky (Union) Cavalry as chaplain, and leaving the service in 1864 with the rank of captain. In 1864 he entered the Baptist ministry, and held pastorates at Greencastle, Ind. (1864-66), Evansville, Ind. (1866-67), Covington, Ky. (1867-68), Hanson Place Baptist Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. (1868-71), and Warren Avenue Baptist Church, Boston (1871-77); he was engaged in evangelistic work (1877-81), and in 1881 became pastor of Tompkins Avenue Congregational Church,