50 Reasons Pentecost is on Sivan 6, Not Sunday! (Part 2)
This is the second part of a 4-part miniseries on the Biblical date of Pentecost.
Section 2: Count Seven Sabbaths or Seven Weeks?
Having seen that “the day after the Sabbath” in Leviticus 23 best applies to the second day of Unleavened Bread, here’s the next question: What does it mean to count seven sabbaths, as God instructed in Lev. 23:15-16? Does this mean “seven Sabbath days,” or something else?
Reason 12: Seven Sabbaths = Seven Weeks
Notice what God said: “You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the LORD” (Lev. 23:15-16; NASB).
The “seven sabbaths” add up to 49 days and the next day, the 50th day, is Pentecost. If seven sabbaths = 49 days, and 49 days = seven weeks, then seven sabbaths = seven weeks.
Notice this phrase, too: “seven complete sabbaths,” or, as YLT reads, “seven perfect sabbaths.” You might describe a week, or seven weeks, as complete or perfect, but you wouldn’t describe a series of Sabbath days as complete or perfect.
Let's compare Deut. 16:9, where God said, “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain.” The “seven sabbaths” of Leviticus 23 are interchangeable with the “seven weeks” of Deuteronomy 16.
Reason 13: It’s the Feast of Weeks, Not the Feast of Sabbaths
Further notice that the Old Testament never speaks of Pentecost as the Feast of Sabbaths, but rather as the Feast of Weeks (Ex. 34:22; Deut. 16:10, 16; 2 Chron. 8:13). This, too, indicates that the intended meaning of “seven sabbaths” is seven weeks.
Reason 14: Seven Sabbath Days Don’t Equal 49 Days
Both Lev. 23:16 and Deut. 16:9 show that “seven sabbaths” are 49 days. You can count seven Sabbath days without counting 49 days, depending on what day you start counting, but you can never count seven weeks without counting 49 days.
Reason 15: Seven Sabbaths of Years
Elsewhere, the Bible defines “seven sabbaths” simply as seven sevens. In Lev. 25:8, God told the Israelites, “And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years.”
Notice that God didn’t say, “Count seven Sabbath years.” He said, “Count seven sabbaths of years.” And then the verse adds that seven sabbaths of years = 7x7 years, or 49 years. If we apply this to the “seven sabbaths” in Leviticus 23, then seven sabbaths (of days) = 7x7 days, or 49 days, just as we’ve already seen.
If we let God’s Word define its own phrase, it’s clear that “seven sabbaths,” in this context, means “seven sevens” or “seven times seven.” A total of 49, whether days or years.
Reason 16: The Bible Can Use “Sabbaths” and “Weeks” Interchangeably
The Bible can use “sabbaths” and “weeks” interchangeably, just as it also, in Hebrew, uses “moons” and “months” interchangeably (yerakh, Strong’s # H3391). Context is key. A “Sabbath” can mean either a Sabbath day or sometimes a week (defined by the seventh day Sabbath), just as a “moon” can mean either the moon or a month (determined by the moon).
We saw, for instance, how Leviticus 25 defined “seven sabbaths of years” simply as 49 years. And we see it in the New Testament, too. In the New Testament, only one Greek word means “week,” and that’s sabbaton (Strong’s # G4521), or “sabbath”! Context always determines whether it’s translated as “Sabbath” or “week.”
For instance, when Jesus entered the synagogue and taught on the Sabbath (sabbaton; Mark 1:21), it’s clear that the sabbaton was the seventh day Sabbath. But when Jesus told a parable about a Pharisee who boasted of fasting twice a week (sabbaton; Luke 18:12), it’s obvious that a sabbaton is a “week,” for one doesn’t fast twice on a Sabbath day.
So in both Old and New Testaments, God’s Word offers examples of “sabbath” and “week” being used interchangeably. Context determines the intended meaning — and it usually isn’t hard to figure out!
Reason 17: There Are EIGHT Sabbath Days During the Count
There’s another good reason why we shouldn’t interpret the “seven sabbaths” in Leviticus 23 as “seven Sabbath days.” By any count, between wave sheaf day and Pentecost there are usually eight Sabbath days. The Seventh Day of Unleavened Bread — a high Sabbath — falls during those seven weeks, so there are seven weekly Sabbath days plus one annual Sabbath day. Seven plus one equals eight!
But God didn’t say to count eight Sabbaths, He said to count seven! Those seven sabbaths must be exactly 49 days. Thus, the intended meaning can only be “seven weeks” and not “seven Sabbath days.”
Section 3: What is a Week?
This section is short and simple. Having determined that “the day after the Sabbath,” when we start counting, should be understood as the second day of Unleavened Bread, and that the “seven sabbaths” can only be seven weeks, then the next question is, “What is a week?”
Reason 18: A Week Can Be Any Period of 7 Days
In Scripture, just as in modern English, any period of seven days can be called a week. For example, in Gen. 29:27, Laban told Jacob, “Fulfill her week, and we will give you this one also for the service which you will serve with me still another seven years.” And in Lev. 12:5, God instructed, “But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her customary impurity, and she shall continue in the blood of her purification sixty-six days.”
Both verses show that any period of seven days can be called a week. Now, a week is usually seven days from Sunday through Sabbath, just as a month is usually a month of the year, such as Abib or Nisan. But if you say, “I’ll see you in a month” (or a moon), you mean roughly 30 days from today, no matter what day of the month this is. And if you say, “I’ll see you in a week” (or a sabbath), you mean seven days from today, no matter what day of the week this is.
Likewise, “seven sabbaths” or seven weeks from “the day after the Sabbath” simply means 49 days from the second day of Unleavened Bread. On the day after the “seventh sabbath,” the seventh week, is the 50th day: Pentecost.
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