Page images
PDF
EPUB

be put into the oven immediately after it is made, lest it should ferment itself *.

From the Jews, probably, the Roman Catholics have borrowed many superstitious niceties about the corn and dough, of which they make their hosts.

The punishment to be inflicted on any, who neglected to cleanse their houses from leaven against the feast, is, in the judgment of the rabbies, scourging +. But the penalty for eating leavened bread, during this festival, is, according to the law of God, to be "cut off from the congregation of Israel," Exod. xii, 19; the same punishment which is threatened to the neglect of circumcision, Gen. xvii, 14; and to several other trespasses, both against the moral and ceremonial laws, as to wilful sinning in contempt of the divine authority, Numb. xv, 30, 31; to profaning the sabbath, Exod. xxxi, 14; to the eating of fat and blood, Ley. vii, 25, 27; and to several other violations of the law. But what this n chereth, as the rabbies call it, from 5 charath, secuit, or cutting off, signified, is rather differently conjectured by various writers, than certainly determined by any. Some make it to signify excommunication; others death, to be inflicted by the magistrate; others death by the immediate hand of God. Others say it was making a man chilldess, so that his family and his name perished in Israel. Maimonides would have it be the extinction both of the soul and body, or perishing like the brutes; and Abarbanel, the loss of future happiness. But hardly any one of these senses will suit all the cases in which this punishment is threatened. It could not mean excommunication from the church of Israel when it is threatened to the neglect of circumcision, because no person was a member of that church till he was circumcised. Nor could it mean death to be immediately inflicted by the hand of God, since the Israelites neglected circumcision with impunity during their journey in the wilderness, for forty

See Buxtorf. Synag. Judaic. cap. xvii, p. 394-398, 3d edit. Basil. 1661; and Maimon. de Solennitate Paschatis, cap. ii-v, p. 843-877, Crenii Fascicul. Septimi.

+ Maimon. de Solennitate Paschatis, cap. i, p. 838-843, Crenii Fascicul. Septimi.

Abarbanel. Dissert. de Pœnâ Excidii, ad calcem Buxtorf. Dissert. de Sponsalibus et Divortiis, where these several opinions are examined.

years together, Josh. v, 5. Nor could it signify the same punishment, when threatened to the neglect of the passover, since that ordinance was shamefully neglected during several wicked reigns of the Jewish kings, till Hezekiah, and after him Josiah, revived it, 2 Chron. xxx, xxxv. It is most probable, that chereth is a general name for several sorts of punishment, which were to be determined by the nature of the offence. Sometimes it seems to import punishment by the judge, and sometimes by the more immediate hand of God*.

The first and last days of the feast of unleavened bread were to be kept as sabbaths, holy, and free from all servile work, except dressing of victuals, which was unlawful on the weekly sabbath, compare Exod. xii, 16, with chap. xxxv, 3; and they were likewise to be solemnized by a holy convocation. But we find no precept concerning the keeping the five intermediate days, besides their abstaining from leavened bread, and offering certain sacrifices on each of them, Numb. xxviii. 17-25. However, the rabbies have abundantly supplied these defects by their comments; they allow the time to be spent in mirth, and all lawful recreation; and some of them allow works of necessity to be performed, while others think it unlawful even to take up a straw, or to pick their teeth †.

One remarkable offering that was to be made at this feast was the sheaf of the first fruits of the harvest, Lev. xxiii, 10, 11. For though this feast was kept soon after the vernal equinox, yet, in that warm climate, the barley, which was usually sown in November, became ripe at this season. But if it happened that the harvest was not forward enough to be fit to cut at the middle of Nisan, they intercalated a month, which they called Veadar, and the next Nisan, and so put off the festival a month longer.

The day, on which this offering was made, is said to be "the morrow after the sabbath," Lev. xxiii, 11. By which, though some have understood the weekly sabbath that fell in the time of this festival, yet the Jews more generally understand by it the first day of the feast, according to which sense

* Mr. Selden hath treated largely on the chereth, de Jure Nat. et Gent. lib. vii, cap. ix, and de Syned. lib. i, cap. vi.

+ See these and various other particulars in Buxtorf's Synag. Judaic, cap. xix, p. 430-433, 3d edit.

See Lightfoot, Hore Hebr. Matt. xii, 1.

66

the Septuagint renders it τη επαύριον της πρώτης, "the morrow after the first." The targum of Onkelos renders it," after the feast day;" and Josephus says expressly, “Tη deutepa twv alvμar quepa," &c., on the second day of unleavened bread, which is the sixteenth of Nisan, they take of the fruits of the harvest which they have not touched before; and esteeming it their duty, first to pay due honour to God, from whom they have received their liberal supply, they offer him the first fruits of the barley*.

The rabbies inform us, that this sheaf was gathered and prepared for the offering with a great deal of ceremony, which, as we have no account of it in scripture, we pass over in silence+.

The moral signification of this title, the offering of the first fraits, was undoubtedly to be an acknowledgment of his goodness, "who gives rain, both the former and the latter rain, in its season, and reserves to men the appointed weeks of harvest," Jerem. v, 24; and also of his right to, and propriety in, those bounties of his providence, in consequence of which he may bestow, or take them away, as he pleases, Hos. ii, 8, 9; and likewise, to teach them to look up to God for his blessing to render their earthly enjoyments and possessions profitable and delightful, 1 Tim. iv, 4, 5.

There might also be a typical signification of this rite, as referring to the resurrection of Christ, whose sacrifice and death had been just before represented by that of the paschal lamb, and which is compared by our Lord himself to corn falling into the ground and dying, after which it springs up and brings forth fruit, John xii, 24. Accordingly, the apostle saith, 1 Cor. xv, 20, as it should seem in reference to this type, "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and is become the first fruits of them that slept."

*Joseph. Antiq. lib. iii, cap. x, sect. v, p. 177, 178, edit. Haverc.; see also Lightfoot. Hora Hebraic. Act. vii, 1.

+ See Ainsworth on Levit. xxiii, 10; Lightfoot's Temple Service, chap. xiv, sect. ii; Outram de Sacrificiis, lib. i, cap. vïïi, sect. vi, p. 87, London. 1677; Mishn. tit. Sotah, cap. vii, sect. iii, not. Wagenseil. tom. iii, p. 259, 260, edit. Surenhus; et tit. Menachoth. cap. x, cum not. Bartenor.; et Maimon. tom. v.

On the sheaf of the first fruits, see also Reland. Antiq. part iv, cap. iii, sect. viii, p. 464-466; Hottingeri Annot. in Godwin. lib. iii, cap. v, sect. iii, not. iii, Francof. 1716. On the feast of unleavened bread, see the authors before referred to on the passover.

CHAP. V.

OF THE FEAST OF PENTECOST.

THE pentecost was the second of the three grand festivals in the ecclesiastical year, at which all the males were to appear before the Lord at the national altar.

It is called by several names in the Old Testament; as, the feast of weeks, the feast of harvest, and the day of the first fruits. In the New Testament it is styled pentecost; and the rabbies have other names for it, calling it "the day of giving the law," and gnatsereth, the word which we render a solemn assembly."

1st, It is called "the feast of weeks," Exod. xxxiv, 22, because it was celebrated seven weeks, or a week of weeks, after the passover; or rather, after the first day of the feast of unleavened bread; for the computation of the seven weeks began with the second day of that feast, and the next day after the seven weeks were completed was the feast of pentecost. Thus it is said in Leviticus, "Ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven sabbaths shall be complete, even to the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days," Levit. xxiii, 15, 16. By the seven sabbaths here mentioned, we are to understand seven weeks; and so it is rendered in the Targum and in the Septuagint; in which sense we find the word raßßarov used in the New Testament: the pharisee in the parable saith, 5w dis T8 σaßβατο, Bara, "I fast twice a week;" that is, on the second and fifth days, on which fasting was recommended by the tradition of the elders; and which were accordingly kept every week, as fasts, by the devout Jews. And in the first verse of the twenty

eighth chapter of Matthew, av raßßarwv evidently signifies the "first day of the week."

The rabbies lay great stress upon the precept to count the seven sabbaths, or weeks. And Maimonides remarks, that it was to the honour of this festival that they were obliged to count the days of its approach from the preceding passover, as a man, expecting his best and most faithful friend at an appointed time, is accustomed to number the days and hours till his arrival*. Accordingly, the modern Jews make an act of devotion of counting the days from the passover to the pentecost, beginning the computation with a solemn prayer or benediction, in this form: "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, the Lord of the world, who hast sanctified us with thy precepts, and commanded us to number the days of the harvest; and this is the first day." Thus they go on with their prayer, or benediction, till the seventh day; then they add, "Now there is one week;" and so they proceed with the same act of devotion every day to the evening of the pentecost+.

This counting is, in some places, performed publicly in the synagogue. But whether it be thus performed or not, every master of a family is obliged to do it every evening at home+.

Now since there were seven weeks complete betwixt the first day of the feast of unleavened bread and the day of pentecost, it is made matter of inquiry, on what day of the week that remarkable pentecost fell, when the Holy Ghost was shed forth on the apostles; which is said to have been εY TW σμπληρεσθαι την ημέραν της Πεντηκοσης, the meaning of which is ambiguous, as it may either signify, when the day of pentecost was fulfilled and over; or, as it is rendered in our English version, "when it was fully come," Acts ii, 1. The former sense is most agreeable to the common meaning of the word Tλnрow, and the text is accordingly rendered in the Italian version, "when the day of pentecost was fully gone." This sense Dr. Lightfoot prefers, and not without reason§: for

* Maimon. Moreh Nebhoch. part. iii, cap. xliii, p. 471.

+ Hottinger. in Godwin. lib. iii, cap. v, sect. v, p. 575, 576.

↑ See Buxtorf. Synag. Judaic. cap. xx, p. 441, 3d edit.

§ Hora Hebr. in loc.

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »