Remembering Pentecost

Last weekend was the Jewish Pentecost (or Feast of Weeks). Next weekend is the Christian version of Pentecost. I thought it appropriate to insert this post between the two.

Why two different dates for what should be a similar celebration?

Because a few hundred years after Jesus died, his Gentile followers started severing all contact with their Jewish brethren. Though the Apostles never stopped being Jewish, never stopped attending Synagogue, never stopped celebrating the feasts as God originally scheduled them, Gentile believers felt the need to develop an entirely separate identity. Christians would no longer be considered part of the Hebrew faith. Beginning with Constantine, we were classified as a whole new religion, totally distinct from the Judaic roots of our faith.

We’ve done ourselves (and our Jewish brethren) a great disservice in this separation. The feasts of the Lord, their rituals and symbols, still proclaim the truth of the Gospel today. We’ve altered the dates of the feasts we do recognize from their original lunar Hebrew calendar so they fit on our solar, Gregorian calendar. We’ve changed their names from Passover or the Feast of the Sheaf of First Fruits to Easter and have established non-biblical customs to go along with them.

So, Pentecost is the Greekified name for the Feast of Weeks or Shavuot. The Jews would have been counting the days and weeks since Passover to get to it. So, if we want to more thoroughly understand what God was accomplishing with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, we need to consider where this feast came from in the first place.

I created a series of four blogs on Pentecost, which I hope will give you some insight into what was happening on that Jerusalem rooftop so long ago. The first of the series begins here, with Pentecost 1.0. I hope you enjoy them. Shalom.

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