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The Wavesheaf was cut just after the sun went down at the end of the weekly Sabbath and
the end of the first day of Unleavened Bread (i.e. the 15th of Nisan) -- which was the beginning of
the 16th of Nisan. Then this offering of the Wavesheaf was presented on the altar to God ON THE
FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK (16th of Nisan) -- and this, then, is the day to BEGIN the count to
Pentecost. This "DAY" is called in the New Testament "The First of the Weeks" -- see Matthew
28:1, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1, John 20:1 and others. A number of Bible versions show the word
"weeks" in the singular, which is an error. This word is in the PLURAL in the original Greek. The
word "day" has been added to these scriptures and is NOT, once again, in the original Greek. The
term "The First of the Weeks" is a Hebrew idiom meaning the "first day in the count to Pentecost."
It DOES NOT mean the first day of the week -- even though this count always begins on the first
day of the week. In other words, this term ("the first of the weeks") could not be used to define any
other first day of the week during the year.
When seven Sabbaths -- SEVEN COMPLETE WEEKS -- are counted as we are told to do
(Leviticus 23:15-16), we cannot come to any other day of the week but the FIRST. (Remember, the
Jews of 1st-century Palestine did not name the days as we do today -- they just said "first day of
the week", "second day of the week," etc.). In Strong's Concordance (#8549) the Hebrew word
for "complete" means PERFECT, WITHOUT BLEMISH; and unless a week begins on the first day
of the week and ends on the Sabbath it has a blemish by definition. Counting 50 days to Pentecost
ALWAYS begins and ends on the first day of the week!
Learning to count in Hebrew Biblical idiom is the KEY that unlocks the solution to these
and a number of other controversies. The failure to properly count as the Bible authors counted is a
major reason why there is so much CONFUSION surrounding the life and death of Jesus Christ.
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