Was Pentecost 50 days after the feast of unleavened bread? Christ was crucified on the beginning of the feast of unleavened bread, and I was told that it was 50 days either after his resurrection or after his crucifixion.
2 Answers
According to wikipedia counting begins from the resurrection morning. Note that 7 weeks is 49 days.
"To arrive at the correct date, Leviticus 23:15 instructs counting seven weeks from the day after the day of rest of Passover, the day that they brought the sheaf of barley for waving. Similarly, Deuteronomy 16:9 directs counting seven weeks from when they first put the sickle to the standing barley."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ki_Tissa#Shavuot
The day of rest after the Passover would have obviously been the Seventh Day Sabbath.
Christs death is very much tied in with the Old Testament Sanctuary Service...all timelines in that service exactly predict his atonement for sin...that was the entire point of the O/T sanctuary model.
I also have some additional information that is relevant here...
The magi (wise men who visited Christ the babe very early on), would have known of the time of his birth from studying the prophecies of the prophet Daniel as a result of the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar (ie the statue with the head of Gold).
They probably got this information as a result of Israelite captivity in their region 400 odd years earlier.
Whilst they wouldn't have known the exact date, the star they saw would have been significant enough to have them search their historical records seeking answers.
The bible tells us the magi were sensitive to unusual activity in the heavens as it describes how this star caught their attention and might I also add, especially the attention of King Herod once they inqquired of him the whereabouts of the new king recently born. (after their arrival in his palace weeks or months after first seeing the star and travelling to the region)
Interestingly enough, Daniel 9 gives the exact time for Christs crucifixion
Daniel 9:25Know and understand this: From the issuance of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until the Messiah,g the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of distress.
26Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing"
If you take the day=year prophetic principle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day-year_principle
this gives a little shy of 490 years from the decree the rebuild Jerusalem by the Persian king (although there are 3 possible decrees and some debate about which one it is exactly...I take the Artaxerxies decree as the starting point). https://www.perspectivedigest.org/archive/27-4/the-decree-to-restore-and-build-jerusalem1
Note the prophecy says the Messiah is cut off after the 62 weeks (69 in total when added to the first 7) and Daniel says in verse 27 he will confirm the covenant for one week and will put an end to sacrifices in the middle of the week?
This suggests he would minister for about 3.5 years and we know from the Old Testament Sanctuary Service that once atonement for sin has been made, the daily/yearly sacrifices for the israelites are done and the temple is cleansed. After Christs death, the sacrificial system began to decline eventually ceasing altogether.
My understanding of Christendom theology is that the need for the Old Testament sacrificial system is considered to have ceased after the curtain in the temple was torn in two at the hour of Christs death. However, history tells us:
"For the most part, the practice of sacrifice stopped in the year 70 C.E., when the Roman army destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, the place where sacrifices were offered. The practice was briefly resumed during the Jewish War of 132-135 C.E., but was ended permanently after that war was lost." https://www.jewfaq.org/sacrifices_and_offerings
The fascinating part for me was that during covid I did a lot of bible study...not much else to do during lockdowns. In my research I stumbled across the idea of trying to work out how the Magi knew about Israelite prophecy concerning Christ. It didn't take me long to join the dots...the Magi came from the far east...Persia or Babylon. As soon as I realised that, the light bulb lit up...Israelite captivity during Daniels time.
Given Daniel was high ranking among the wise men of Baylon, and also Persia, his writings would have been recorded in the history of both of those nations.
These days i am also considering the notion that the reason for the current scholarly claim of multiple writers of the book of Daniel might be a reflection of the fact he was a high ranking official in Nebuchadnezzars empire and thus writings of this nature in an authoritarian regime would have demanded they are attributed to the king rather than a writer such as Daniel. Thus the different style of writing in the earlier parts of this book.
Once he was moved to Medo Persia after the fall of Babylon, perhaps those writings did not hold the same esteem for the Persians and maybe Daniel was able to dictate the latter parts of the book more to himself rather than the king?
In any case, it appears to me that evidence suggests that the Magi obviously had knowledge of and access to, the writing of Daniel either from either official or religious records...thus their interest when the star appeared.
What's even more amazing...Abraham originally came from Ur of the Chadees...the far east and same region as the Magi. Could it be they (the magi) knew of Abraham and that the Israelite nation came from his lineage and their own region? We have quite accurate records from more than 1,000 years ago, i don't see why very advanced ancient civilizations such as Babylonian and Persians would not have also had records dating back quite a long time...even to Abraham. Perhaps the magi had a far greater knowledge of the historicity of the Israelite nation than we think?
I apologise if the above answer seems to go offtopic. I feel that the historicity should also be included in this answer as the Passover and the cross have links to the 3 wise men from the east, the prophecies in Daniel, and the Old Testament Sanctuary. These are all important in illustrating this topic.
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The fact that they connected a star to a Jewish king might indicate that they were aware of Balaam's prophecy from Numbers 25. Hardly proof but an interesting possibility. Commented Sep 23 at 2:20
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OP: I was told that it was 50 days either after his resurrection or after his crucifixion.
In the first 300 years of so after Christ's ascension, this was a question that was eventually settled in favor of a Sunday to Sunday, counting inclusively, 50-day count. Here is the reasoning.
The Masoretic text on which the KJV is based begins the count on the day after the weekly Sabbath.
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the [weekly] sabbath the priest shall wave it. Lev 23:10-11 KJV
The Septuagint (LXX), however, counts from the day after the first day Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
10 Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them, When ye shall enter into the land which I give you, and reap the harvest of it, then shall ye bring a sheaf, the first-fruits of your harvest, to the priest; 11 and he shall lift up the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you. On the morrow of the first day [of the Feast Sabbath] the priest shall lift it up. Lev 23:10-11 LXX
The "first day" in the LXX is a reference to this. The first day is the 15th of Nisan.
6 And on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord; seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread. 7 And the first day shall be a holy convocation to you: ye shall do no servile work. Lev 23:6-7
Applying this understanding to the two traditional references in the OP about crucifixion or resurrection, we can see that the Masoretic text counts from Sunday (resurrection) the day after the weekly Sabbath and the LXX counts from Saturday (not Good Friday crucifixion) the day after the first day the 15th of Nisan.
Is there a way to determine the final answer between the two texts? Yes, because the 50-day count both begins and ends very specifically.
And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Lev 23:15 KJV
15 And ye shall number to yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day on which ye shall offer the sheaf of the heave-offering, seven full weeks: Lev 23:15 LXX
These two verses from KJV and LXX are saying the same thing about seven Sabbaths and seven full weeks of 49 days plus 1 to get to the 50-day count. You can only get that required conclusion if you start from the first Sunday after the first weekly Sabbath within the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
For example, let's say the day after the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is a Wednesday. 50 days later is also a Wednesday. That count would include seven weekly Sabbaths, but not count the last Thursday, Friday, Sabbath. This shorts the seven full weeks counting from the first day (Sunday) to the seventh day (weekly Sabbath).
So, you have to start the 50-day Pentecost count from the day after the weekly Sabbath or on a Sunday. Seven full weeks later would be the weekly Sabbath at 49 days, but then add the 50th day to also arrive at Sunday.
OP: Was Pentecost 50 days after the feast of unleavened bread?
Pentecost was 50 days counting from the first Sunday after the weekly Sabbath within the week of Unleavened Bread. It always begins and ends on a Sunday to include seven full weeks.
