Weeks, Feast of

The Feast of Weeks (Hebrew chag shavu'ot) was the second of the three great annual pilgrimage festivals of Israel, celebrated fifty days after the Passover Sabbath — hence its Greek name Pentecost ("fiftieth"). The law in Leviticus 23:15–21 and Deuteronomy 16:9–12 required counting seven complete weeks from the day after the Passover Sabbath, then on the fiftieth day presenting a new grain offering from the first wheat harvest, including two leavened loaves as a wave offering — uniquely leavened, unlike most offerings. The festival was a joyful celebration of the completed wheat harvest, and Deuteronomy emphasized the inclusion of servants, Levites, strangers, orphans, and widows in the celebration. The Feast of Weeks acquired new significance in the New Testament: it was on the day of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit descended on the assembled disciples in Jerusalem, the promised gift of the risen Christ (Acts 2:1–4), an event the church has understood as the spiritual harvest corresponding to the physical harvest celebrated that day.