The Temple Service in the Days of our Savior Described, Chapter 14
CHAP. XIV.
Sect. 1. Of the Solemnity and Rites of the first day in the Passeover weeke of the Hagigah, and Peace-offerings of rejoycing.
THE next day after the Passeover was eaten was holy, and no servile work to be done in it, but it was accounted and kept as a Sabbath, and so it is called Lev. 23.6, 7, 15.[a]Talm. in Hagigah per. 1. Maym. in Hagig. per. 1. On this day all the males were to appear in the Court of the Temple, and to bring with them a burnt offering for their appearance, and a double peace offering, one for the solemnity, and another for the joy of the time. The offering for their appearance was called Corban Ranjah, & they conclude it due from these words, None of you shall appear before me empty, Exod. 23.15. Yet if any one failed of bringing such a gift, his shame and his conscience goe with it, but there was no penalty upon him, because though he had broken a Negative Precept, yet there was no worke nor action done by him in it.
The peace offerings for the solemnity of the time were called the Hagigah, and they were to be of some beast, Bullocke or Sheep. Hereupon in 2 Chron. 30.24. & 35.7, 8. there is mention of Bullocks and Oxen for the Passeover; and in Deut. 16.2. there is speech of sacrificing the Passeover of the heard; which cannot be understood of the Passeover that was to be eaten on the fourteenth day at Even, for that was punctually, and determinately appointed to be of Lambs or Kids, Exod. 12.5. but it is to be construed of these peace offerings which were for the solemnity of the time. And this is that which the Evangelist John calleth the Passeover, when he saith, The Jewes went not into Pilates judgement Hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passeover, Joh. 18.28. For they had eaten the Paschall Lamb the night before.
They held themselves obliged by the Law, as to appear at the three solemne festivals, and to pay their offerings and their services then due, so to make merry and to rejoyce, and cheere up one another, because it is said, Thou shalt rejoyce before the Lord, Deut. 16.11, 14, &c. And hereupon they took up the use of wine at the Passeover supper, as was observed before; and hereupon they took up other peace offerings besides the Hagigah at the Passeover solemnity and called them foreign The peace offerings of rejoycing. And by the offering of these two sorts of peace offerings, it is like they thought themselves the better discharged though they brought not the offering of their appearance; for if they brought these, they might the better thinke they appeared not empty. And so Levi Gershom construeth that passage concerning Elkanah, that he went up yearly from his City to Shiloh to sacrifice to the Lord, in application to these sorts of peace offerings, rather then any other offering, for it meaneth (saith he) that [b]R. Lev. Gersom in 1 Sam. 1.he sacrificed his peace offerings of rejoycing, and his peace offerings for the Hagigah.
The time for the offering of these they accounted the first day of the festivall to be most proper, and they strove to dispatch upon it that they might returne home the sooner, but if these Sacrifices were offered in any day of the festivall, it served the turne.
On this first day of the feast, when these great matters were to be in hand, namely their appearing in the Court and offering these their Sacrifices of solemnity and rejoicing at the last Passeover of our Saviour, they shewed themselves otherwise imployed, for on this day they crucified the Lord of life.
In reference to whose judging, condemning, and executing, though it be somewhat beside the bent of the present discourse, let the Reader scan two or three of their Traditions.
1. foreign [c]Maym. in Sanhedr. per. 6.They might begin no judgements in the night, nor received they any witnesse in the night; but the judgements were to be in the day onelyonly: yet were they in the examination and judgement of our Saviour all night long.
2.[d]Talm. in Sanhedr. per. 1. The judging of a false Prophet was onelyonly to be by the great Sanhedrin of seventy and one: Under this notion they blasphemously acccused and arraigned our Saviour, Joh. 18.19. Luk. 23.2. and unto this, those words of his refer, Luk. 13.33. It cannot be that a Prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
[d]Ib. per. 11.3. [e] They put not an Elder that transgresseth against the determination of the great Sanhedrin to death, neither at the Sanhedrin that was in his owne City, nor at the Sanhedrin that was at Jabneh, but they bring him up te the great Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, and keep him till a solemne festivall, and execute him at the feast; according to what is said, That all the people may heare and feare, &c.
Sect. 2. The second day in the Passeover weeke. The gathering and offering of the first fruits Omer.
THe first and last dayes of the solemne festivall weeks, were called foreign Holy dayes, or good dayes; and the observation of them differed little in strictnesse from the observation of the Sabbath. See Lev. 23.7, 8, &c. Now the dayes between them were called foreign Moed Katon, or the lesser solemnity; [a]Talm. in Moed Katon. per. 1. &c.in which, although there were not the like strictnesse of observance that there was of the Holy dayes, yet was there a distinction made betwixt them and other ordinary times; and divers things were prohibited, especially by their Traditions to be done in them, which were permitted to be done on other dayes. And as for the service and imployment in the Temple, there was commonly more work and sacrificing on these dayes then on other ordinary dayes, because the peace offerings due or reserved to that time, could not all be dispatched on the other dayes, but did take up much of these dayes, and did finde the Priests more then ordinary attendance and imployment about the Altar.
On this day that we have in hand, namely, the second day of the Passeover week, whatsoever else of extraordinary offering was on it, there never failed to be the offering and waving of the first fruit sheafe before the Lord: The Law for this is given in Lev. 23.10, 11. When ye be come into the Land which I give unto you, and shall reap the Harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheafe of the first fruits of your harvest unto the Priest; and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: the morrow after the Sabbath the Priest shall wave it: Where by the word Sabbath is to be understood, not the Sabbath day in the proper sense, but the first day in the Passeover week, of which we have spoken, which was so solemn an holy day: And so the Chaldee Paraphrast and severall other Jewes doe well interpret it.
The rites about gathering and offering this first fruits sheaf are largely described by Tosaphta ad Menachoth to be after this manner[a]Tosaphta ad Menachoth. per. 10.: Rabbi Ismael saith, The Omer or first fruits sheaf, if it came on the Sabbath day, (properly so called, as it did that very day that our Saviour rested in the grave) it came in three Seahs, but if on another day it came in five: but the wise men say, whether Sabbath or other day all was one, it came in three Seahs: Aba Saul said, On the Sabbath it was reaped by one man, and with one sickle, and in one basket: but on another day it was reaped by three men and in three baskets, and with three sickles: But the wise men said, Sabbath or other day it was all one, it was by three men, and in three baskets, and with three sickles: The first fruits sheaf came out of the vale of the ashes by the Brook Kidron, &c. The day of waving it lighting on the Sabbath, the Sabbath was dispensed with for the reaping of it: And how was it done? Those that the Sanhedrin sent about it, went out, at the Evening of the holy day, (the first day of the Passeover weeke) they took baskets and sickles, &c. They went out on the holy day when it began to be dark, and a great company went out with them: when it was now dark one said to them, On this Sabbath, on this Sabbath, on this Sabbath; In this basket, in this basket, in this basket; R. Eliezer, the son of Zadok saith, With this sickle, with this sickle, with this sickle, every particular three times over. And they answer him, well, well, well, I will reap, and he bids them reap. And why do they thus? Because of the Barthusaeans (the Sadducers) who said that the reaping of the first fruit sheaf is not on the end of the holy day. They reap it, and put it into the baskets, and bring it into the Court: and passe it through the fire: that they might answer the command about parched corn. The words of Rabbi Meir, But the wise men say, That is not to be meant so, but there was a hollow vessell full of holes, so that the fire might go quite through it in the Court, and the wind blew on it, (in which they put the Corn sodainly to dry it that it might grind) and they put it on a Mill to get out a tenth deal, &c. One takes the tenth deal and puts its oile and frankincense on it, and mingles them, and waves it and takes out a handfull and puts it on the Altar, and the rest is for the Priest to eat. As soon as the Omer is offered, they goe out and find Jerusalem streets full of Meal and parched Corn: which was not according to the mind of the wise men. The words of R. Meir: But the wise men say, that it was according to the mind of the wise men, for as soon as the Omer was offered new Corn was permitted.
Sect. 4. The Feast of Pentecost, foreign.
FRom this day and occasion, namely from the offering of the first fruits Omer they began to count the weekes to Pentecost, even seven weeks forward. This day was the first of the number, and the next day after the expiring of seven weeks, being the fiftieth day from hence, was Pentecost day, as is imported in the very word. It was dated from the offering of the first Corn, because that solemnity and this festivall had some relation one to another: The presenting of the first sheaf, was an introduction to harvest, and the feast of Pentecost was a return or offering of their harvest: by that they had liberty to begin to put the sickle into the corn and to reap: and at this they offered an offering of their Corn now reaped and inned. Therefore this solemnity is sometimes called in Scripture the Feast of Harvest, Exod. 23.16. and sometimes the feast of weekes, Deut. 16.10. because of the reckoning of the seven weekes from that day to it, and sometimes Pentecost, Act. 2.1. because it was the fiftieth day from that: and so the Jews themselves call it foreign [a]Maym. in Talmid per. 8. R. Sol. in Lev. 23.The fiftieth day or Pentecost.
But the Jews in their writings do most commonly cal this feast, by the name foreign Atsereth, and so do the Chaldee Paraphrast use it in Numb. 28.26. although[b]Abarb. in Lev. 23. Abarbimel doth observe that this feast alone of al the three is not called foreign Atsereth in the Scripture. The word doth properly signifie a refraining or a shutting up, and from that signification it is taken to signifie a solemn holy day, or assembling, as being interdicted and restrained from work. 2 King. 10.20. Joel 1.4. Amos 5.21, &c. But whether this feast were so called by them in so singular a manner, because that was the time of the restraining of rains, it being the very middle of harvest, or because the offering of their first fruits was restrained till this time, or because the festivall joy of harvest was yet restrained, and not as yet full, or for what cause else, I shall not be much solicitous to determine; but certainly some of the Rabbins give such intimations as might seem to give some strength to the supposall upon one of the two later. For Maimony relateth[c]Maym. in Biccurim. per. 2 that that they brought not any first fruits before foreign Pentecost, because it is said, the feast of Harvest, the first fruits of thy labours: And if they brought any, they received them not from them, but laid them by till Pentecost. And Baal Hatturim hath this saying,[d]Baal. Turim in Deut. 16 There is no rejoycing spoken of at the Passeover, because the fruits were yet in the field: But a foreign Pentecost when Corn is now reaped and wine is now in the Grapes, there is one rjoycing spoken of, Deut. 16.11. But at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all is inned, then rejoycing is twice mentioned. Deut. 16.14, 15.
The solemnity of this day and feast was: 1.[e]Exod. 23.16. That all the Males were to appear at it, as at the Passeover and Feast of Tabernacles. 2.[f]Ier. 23.16.17. They were to offer two cakes bak't with leaven, of the Corn of the harvest now reaped, or of new Corn: and if it be questioned why with leaven now, seeing there was so expresse commands against leaven at the Passeover, some of the Jews do give this pertinent reason:[g]Abarb. ubi supr. because these loaves or cakes were an offering in behalfe of the bread which they were ordinarily to eat, (for these were first fruits of their Wheat) but their bread at the Passeover was commemorative of their hasty departing out of Egypt, when they could not stay to have their bread leavened: Their Passeover bread was for a memoriall, their Pentecost cakes were not. At Passeover they could only say, foreign Here is unleavened bread foreign. But at Pentecost, Here is unleavened bread (for the meat offering) and leavened too (for the two cakes)[h]Talm. Iervus. in Succah, per. 5. as the Gemarists descant upon this matter. These cakes were made square, each cake seven hand-breadth long, foure broad, and foure high.
3. With these cakes, were also offered seven Lambes, and one Bullock, and two Rammes for a burnt offering, a Kid for a sin offering, and two Lambes for a Peace offering. And these two Lambes were the only Peace offerings that the Congregation offered: and these Peace offerings only were reckoned in the rank of the most holy offerings.
Now these Lambes being Peace offerings were to be waved up and down with the two cakes, for so is the command expresse, Lev. 23.20. and the manner of that action was thus:[i]Maym. ubi supr. The Priest first waved the Lambs up and down whilest they were yet alive, and then slew them: and having fleaed them, he took out the breast and shoulder of either of them, and laid them close besides the two cakes, and putting his hand under them he waved them all together, upwards and downwards, and this way and that way, and all towards the East; and afterwards burnt their inwards, and the Priest ate the rest of the flesh. And as for the Calves, the High-Priest took the one, and the other was divided among all the courses who were then present.
It was not so much the solemnity or multitude of the Sacrifices of this day that challenged the appearance of all the people in the whole Land, though the offerings were many and solemn, but it was the memoriall which the Feast carried with it, namely of the Law being given to Israel, at that time of the year from Mount Sinai.
On this day was the Hallel sung, as was intimated before, and on this day was the great gift of tongues visibly bestowed upon the Disciples.