PENTECOST, a feast of the Jews, was in its original meaning, as has been explained in Pentateuch (supra, p. 511), the closing feast of the harvest gladness, at which, according to Lev. xxiii. 17, leavened bread was presented at the sanctuary as the firstfruits of the new cereal store. Hence the names “Feast of Harvest” (Exod. xxiii. 16), “Day of Firstfruits” (Num. xxviii. 26); but the commoner Old Testament name (Exod. xxxiv. 22; Deut. xvi. 10, 16; 2 Chron. viii. 13) is “Feast of Weeks,” because it fell exactly seven weeks (Deut. xvi. 9), or, on the Jewish way of reckoning an interval by counting in both termini, just fifty days (Lev. xxiii. 16) after the offering of the first sheaf of the harvest at the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Pentecost or “Fiftieth” day is only a Greek equivalent of the last name (πeντηκoστη in the Apocrypha and New Testament). The orthodox later Jews reckoned the fifty days from the sixteenth of Nisan, cutting the ritual sheaf on the night of (that is, on our division of days, the night preceding) that day (see Passover). In Deuteronomy Pentecost, like the other two great annual feasts, is a pilgrimage feast (Deut. xvi. 16), and so it was observed in later times; but, unlike the others, it lasts but one day, agreeably to its character (expressed in the name ΓΠ∙¾ ’Acrapöá, given to it by Josephus and the later Jews) as merely the solemn closing day of harvest-time. Like the other great feasts, it came to be celebrated by fixed special sacrifices. The amount of these is differently expressed in the earlier and later priestly law (Lev. xxiii. 18 sq.; Num. xxviii. 26 sqf); the discrepancy was met by adding the two lists. The later Jews also extended the one day of the feast to two. Further, in accordance with the ...

Πεντεκοϛὴ, a solemn festival of the Jews; so called, because it was celebrated on the fiftieth day after the sixteenth of Nisan, which was the second day of the passover. The Hebrews call it the feast of weeks, because it was kept seven weeks after the passover. They then offered the first fruits of the wheat harvest, which was then completed; beside which, they presented at the temple seven lambs of that year, one calf, and two rams for a burnt-offering; two lambs for a peace-offering; and a goat for a sin-offering, Lev. xxiii, 15, 16; Exod. xxxiv, 22; Deut. xvi, 9, 10. The feast of pentecost was instituted among the Israelites, first, to oblige them to repair to the temple of the Lord, there to acknowledge his absolute dominion over the whole country, by offering him the first fruits of the harvest; and, secondly, to commemorate and give thanks to God for the law which he had given them from Sinai, on the fiftieth day after their coming out of Egypt. The modern Jews celebrate the pentecost for two days. They deck the synagogues, where the law is read, and their own houses, with garlands of flowers. They hear an oration in praise of the law, and read from the Pentateuch and prophets lessons which have a relation to this festival, and accommodate their prayers to the same occasion. It was on the feast of pentecost that the Holy Ghost descended in the miraculous manner related, Acts ii.