Pentecost

In the OT, the feast of Weeks(Exod. 34:22), an agricultural festival on which work was forbidden (Lev. 23:21). Later, the festival was incorporated into Israel's national consciousness of its history and became associated first with the covenant made with Noah (Gen. 8:20–2) and then with the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. Because the interval between the first Passover and the arrival at Sinai was reckoned as fifty days (Exod. 19:1), the feast became established after that interval, as is seen from the NT (Acts 2:1–42), where the Greek word ‘Pentecost’ is current. The narrative in Acts 2 resounds with echoes of the giving of the Law at Sinai. First there is the contrast, for Christians, as Paul taught, now live under the Spirit [[➝ spirit]] rather than the Law. Secondly, there is the resemblance: the visible gift [[➝ gifts]] of the Spirit was in the form of tongues of fire, and the author of Acts is recalling the descent of the Lord in fire on Sinai (Exod. 19:18). Thirdly, the ‘harvest’ of 3,000 converts recalled the harvest of the old OT agricultural context of the feast (Exod. 23:16). The gift of languages, as the glossolalia is interpreted, marks the reversal of the scattering of nations at Babel (Gen. 11:1–9). Therefore Pentecost continued to have special significance in the Church (1 Cor. 16:8; Acts 20:16) as the festival of unity (1 Cor. 12:13), a foretaste and promise of a unity among all the nations of the world through the gospel (Acts 1:8; 10:45).