Has Tradition obscured the dates of the Feasts of Weeks and Firstfruits? What does the Bible say?
If you believe the Feast of Weeks, Shavuot, is the Pentecost in Acts 2, you have to consider the new wine accusation in Acts 2:13. This is significant because in antiquity, new wine (still sweet and not fully fermented) was only available while grapes were being harvested and processed. In other words, the holiday appears to have been late enough in the year to meet with the grape harvest.*
I was puzzled as to how that would work with the 50-day count in Lev. 23, as well as the fact that Weeks is also referred to as “firstfruits.” But after spending quite a bit of time studying these two feasts, I have some suggestions that answer these questions as well as many others:
First of all, you need to date Firstfruits correctly in order to date Feast of Weeks correctly, since Weeks is counted off of Firstfruits.
I looked up Firstfruits and was surprised to see that we have made some assumptions. Nowhere is it dated from Passover as tradition says.** The only dates I could find were agricultural dates (Deut. 16:9, Lev. 23:10), not fixed calendar dates. So my first thought was, maybe we’re not figuring Weeks incorrectly, we’re figuring Firstfruits incorrectly.
Then I noted that nowhere does it say the Firstfruits were that of barley. We assume so because it ripens earlier.
But what if Firstfruits celebrated not the first of the barley but of the wheat? A lot of things click into place if this is the case.
Consider this: part of the Firstfruits offering was “fine flour,” (Lev 23:13) which comes from wheat, not barley, an inferior grain: 2 Kings 7:1.
The bread for the subsequent Feast of Weeks may have been made out of the very same grain that they offered at Firstfruits seven weeks earlier. And that’s what is meant by “of the firstfruits” in Exo. 34:22 and Num. 28:26, and “bread of the firstfruits” in Lev 23:20. Notice that there were no sheaves waved at Weeks as there were at Firstfruits, like you’d expect if they were parallel feasts for the two grains. The firstfruits being waved were now in the loaves: Lev 23:17. Also notice that the loaves contained the exact same measurement of flour that was offered at Firstfruits: Lev 23:13, 17.
That would be some pretty cool typology, and frankly more logical than viewing the church as one type of grain and Christ a different and lesser one. He is the firstfruits OF THEM that slept, not another species: I Cor. 15:20, 23, I Cor 10:16-17.
Since the Israeli wheat harvest begins in late spring (when Weeks is traditionally thought to occur), a Firstfruits at this point would allow for a 50-day count with a later Feast of Weeks that would butt up to the time of grape harvest: Lev 26:5, Ruth 3:7, Acts 2:13. There is no need to find a new feast to explain the availability of new wine at Pentecost.
Research suggests that the wheat harvest lasted “about six weeks” = seven sabbaths. Barley harvest is shorter as it is a quicker-growing grain. Incidentally, the growing season for wheat is four months, the same length of time Jesus mentioned in John 4:35.
This dating would also place the Feast of Weeks solidly in astronomical summer every year, a season with many prophetic implications: Mt. 24:32, Amos 8:1-2, Micah 7:1-2, Pr. 10:5.
If this premise is correct, there is a good chance that Ascension Day was Feast of Firstfruits. Christ likely rose from the dead in April. Forty-ish days later*** (ascension, Acts 1:3) brings you into late spring, when the wheat harvest began. Fifty days after that brings you into mid-summer, when the wheat finished, and the grape harvest began.
Interestingly, Christ did not technically ascend on Ascension Day. He was “received up,” “carried up,” and “taken up.” A rapture preview, or an example of the church’s catching up: I Thes 4:17
*Regarding the timing of the grape harvest, Scripture indicates that it was in the summer, and after the grain harvest: Lev. 26:5, Jer. 40:12, Jer. 48:32, Micah 7:1. Gideon was able to hide wheat in a winepress as it was not being used at that time: Judg 6:11. Some have attempted to validate the spring Pentecost date by pointing out that new wine is available in Israel this early; however this is only possible with modern agricultural practices which were not available to ancient Israel.
**The theory of Firstfruits falling on the first Sunday after Passover is often linked to I Cor 15:20: “But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept” and equates Resurrection Day with Firstfruits. However, to date Firstfruits this way superimposes one feast on another already existing one–Unleavened Bread.
There are two problems with this. One is that Lev 23:4 and 23:37 suggest each feast had its own “season” and “day.”
The other problem is extremely significant: during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Israel was instructed to eat the bread every day of the weeklong holiday: Lev 23:6. For Firstfruits, they were to abstain from bread from the day the harvest began until the Sunday offering could be observed: Lev 23:14 – Thus, it is impossible that these feasts occurred the same week. Firstfruits must be placed elsewhere.
While the church will experience resurrection and catching-up as one event, Christ experienced them on two separate days so He could represent both the resurrection of the dead and the catching-up of the living. Together they make Him the Firstfruits of the church.
(And, just for fun, Luke 1:26 points to Jesus’ birthday occurring during this time of new wheat. Was He “raptured” on His birthday?)
***Remember, the Bible doesn’t say the Ascension was exactly 40 days after the Resurrection, but that Jesus was seen for 40 days. Also, the Feast of Firstfruits was adjustable to fall on the first Sunday after harvest began. There is some wiggle-room here for placing the Ascension, but neither can we be dogmatic.
One of the things I like about this theory is that these two feast dates are purely agricultural and simple to understand, unlike the others. There is no figuring out which calendar is correct, or sighting of the moon, or lining up the stars, etc, etc, etc.
“But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.”
“Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.”
Other thoughts:
A summertime Feast of Weeks would place it in the center of the calendar of the seven feasts of Lev. 23, a similar arrangement to a Menorah.
Ruth married Boaz after the end of the wheat harvest: Ruth 2:23
A Feast of Weeks at the beginning of grapes/new wine would make it a good candidate for the feast of the Lord where the Benjamite brides got snatched in the vineyards: Judg 21:19
Jesus referred to Himself as wheat, not barley in Jn 12:24.
Jesus also referred to Himself as both the bread and the vine: Jn 6:35, 15:1 The beautiful symbolism of bread and wine together signify the body and blood of Christ and the Church’s covenant with Him, as well as her (and His) anticipation of His return: I Cor 10:16, 11:23-26, Mt 26:29 And Jesus says when we drink together the wine will be new!
