Hope of Israel Ministries (Ecclesia of YEHOVAH):

Philo and the Fake Pentecost!

by Arnold Bowen

For us to better understand how they counted Pentecost, let us go to the eyewitnesses that lived at the time of the Messiah, to see how it was done. Philo the Judahite, who lived at the time, shows that the 50-day count to Pentecost begins on the morrow AFTER the seventh Sabbath complete, NOT 50 days from  the Wave Sheaf Offering, and therefore the 50th day after the WAVE SHEAF is NOT Pentecost. You are to number 50 days after the 7th Sabbath and then offer the new grain offering on the day of Pentecost. The 50th day is counted from the day after the seventh Sabbath complete -- NOT from the Wave Sheaf Offering on the 16th of Nisan!

Quoting from The Works of Philo, "The Special Laws II" page 584, “The Seventh Festival" XXX. (176):

"The solemn assembly on the occasion of the festival of the [wave] sheaf having such great privileges, is the prelude to another festival of still greater importance; for from this day the fiftieth day is reckoned, making up the sacred number of seven sevens, with the addition of a unit as a seal to the whole; and this festival, being that of the first fruits of the corn [wheat], has derived its name of Pentecost from the number of fifty."

From the above we see that the waving of the sheaf was a solemn assembly Festival, and from this day (16th of Nisan) was a prelude to another Festival of greater importance, referring to the Morrow after the seventh Sabbath complete. This is because FROM IT (the Morrow after the 7th Sabbath) the 50^th day was reckoned. THE 50^th DAY WAS NOT RECKONED FROM THE WAVE SHEAF, but from the Morrow after the seventh Sabbath, and that’s why it was of greater importance. Please read the quote carefully.

The Israelites observed the 16th of the 1st month (Nisan) as a feast and solemn assembly when they waved the sheaf, and it was called a prelude or introduction to ANOTHER feast that was more important than the first feast that was held on the 16th. Why was it greater or more important? Because it was from this more important feast that the 50th day is reckoned -- which consists of seven sevens plus one making up the sacred number which equals 50, which means Pentecost. How much plainer can it be?????

This 2nd feast that is more important than the 1st feast, or 16th of Nisan, is the morrow after the seventh Sabbath complete -- and is the day that people today are keeping in error for the true Pentecost. According to chapter 30 above, they are keeping the feast that is greater or more important than that of the wave sheaf -- but it is NOT Pentecost even though it is greater, because Pentecost is numbered or reckoned from this day. The traditional feast that people are erroneously keeping today is the one that Philo says is more important than the wave sheaf because the 50th day, which is the GREATEST FEAST, is reckoned from it, and Pentecost is the GREATEST feast! This is in harmony with Leviticus 23 where it says “even unto the morrow AFTER the seventh Sabbath shall you number fifty days and then bring a new meat offering”.

Now let us look at a living EXAMPLE from Philo, where it was done as described above and where Pentecost was kept 50 days after the seventh Sabbath complete.

Quoting from The Works of Philo page 704, chapter eight (65) "On the Contemplative Life," we read about a group of Orthodox Judahites called Therapeutae and Therapeutrides. Philo says,

“they devoted their whole lives and themselves to the knowledge in contemplation of the affairs of nature in accordance with the most sacred admonitions and precepts of the Prophet Moses" (VIII (64)).

After saying this Philo continues by saying, 

“In the first place, these men assemble at the end of seven weeks, venerating not only the simple week of seven days, but also its multiplied power, for they know it to be pure and always virgin; and it is a prelude and a kind of fore-feast of the greatest feast, which is assigned to the number fifty" [i.e., Pentecost] (VIII (65)).

People today are keeping the prelude to the GREATEST FEAST which is assigned to the number 50 instead of counting to the 50th day. We have gone from the Wave Sheaf feast that was on the 16th of Aviv or Nisan to a greater feast/prelude that was on the morrow AFTER the 7th Sabbath complete to the GREATEST feast (Pentecost) which is assigned to the number 50. According to Philo, there were two feasts before Pentecost, the Wave Sheaf and the Morrow after the seventh Sabbath. And both were called preludes or introductions to another feast; the first one was the 16th (Wave Sheaf) which introduced the second feast which was the Morrow after the seventh Sabbath complete, and this second feast was of greater importance than the first because from it the GREATEST feast (Pentecost) was reckoned. According to Philo, the second feast (the one after the seventh Sabbath complete) was a kind of “fore-feast” of the GREATEST feast (Pentecost) that took place after numbering 50 days -- including the one after the 7th Sabbath.

This prelude and a kind of fore-feast is speaking of the morrow after the seventh Sabbath complete, it is NOT Pentecost which takes place 50 days from it. This fore-feast was not Pentecost. It is the feast that people are keeping for Pentecost today, but in the Messiah's time these Orthodox Judahites kept it as a prelude to the greatest feast (Pentecost) which took place on the 50th day from there. Remember that the 16th, when the Wave Sheaf is offered, is a prelude to another festival that takes place on the Morrow after the 7th Sabbath, and is of greater importance than the 16th of Nisan itself because it is from this day that the 50th day is reckoned.

Philo is not talking about the 50th day of Pentecost here, but the day the 50th day is reckoned from. Every one knows that Pentecost is greater than the 16th, he is speaking of the Morrow after the 7th Sabbath when the numbering to the 50 day begins. It is also called a prelude to Pentecost, same as the 16th/feast was called a prelude to the Morrow after the seventh Sabbath. We have record where Philo speaks of men keeping this second feast as a prelude and a kind of fore-feast to the GREATEST FEAST i.e., Pentecost. In other words, this second feast was greater than the first feast/Wave Sheaf on the 16th -- but it was not the GREATEST feast/Pentecost which took place after numbering 50 days . 

Now to prove my interpretation of Philo is correct, I will let Philo interpret Philo, the same as I let Scripture interpret Scripture. I will now quote from Colson's Translation of Philo to prove what I am saying is correct. Quoting from "The Special Laws," II Chapter 30,

“The festival of the sheaf, which has all these grounds of precedence, indicated in the Law, is also in fact, anticipatory of another greater feast For it is from it [the greater feast] that the 50th day is reckoned, [how is it reckoned?] by counting seven sevens, [not Sabbaths], which are then crowned with the sacred number by the monad, which is spent in corporal image of YHVH.” 

In speaking of the greater feast, Philo says, “for it is from it that the 50th day is reckoned.” How is it reckoned? "By counting seven sevens [not Sabbaths] which are then crowned with the sacred number by the monad [one] which is spent in the corporal image of YHVH." How much plainer could Philo have made it?

The morrow after the 7th Sabbath, is the feast of greater importance than the 16th or Wave Sheaf Offering that Philo spoke of because it is a prelude or kind of fore-feast to the GREATEST feast i.e., Pentecost. Same as the 16th or Wave Sheaf was a prelude to the 2nd feast or Morrow after the seventh Sabbath. The bottom line is that in Philo's day (and in Aaron's day), the feast of Pentecost/50th day was numbered from the morrow after the seventh Sabbath complete, as Leviticus 23 teaches.

-- Edited by John D. Keyser.

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