EASTER and PENTECOST in the Bible
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, as God’s First-fruits Fulfilled,
And Pentecost, as Weeks Fulfilled
Among Jews and Christians (Jewish and Gentile)
Larry N. Baker
Among the biblical Jewish Holydays that the Church commemorated and continues to commemorate in the New Testament, Resurrection Sunday of Easter (and its Good Friday connection) and Pentecost are the only two. In the Bible these two are both specifically tied to the Jewish Holydays of Passover and Unleavened Bread, respectively as First-fruits and Weeks [Pentecost]. To be specific, these two Holydays, both coming after Passover and Unleavened Bread, are on the first and seventh Sundays following Passover: First-fruits [Easter Resurrection Sunday] and Weeks [Pentecost Sunday]. They are respectively called in Hebrew “Bikkurim” and then “Shavuot.” Since the date of Passover with Unleavened Bread is specified in Exodus 12:6 and 18 in what comes to be the 15th of Nisan with preparation on the 14th of Nisan, then Easter and Pentecost would come after Nisan 15. Thus, it behooves Christians who are using the Gregorian Calendar to find on their calendar each year the specific date and time of the 15th of Nisan in order to find both Easter Sunday, as the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and Pentecost Sunday, as the Birthday of The Church, seven weeks later.
Such “holydays” were described by Paul, as “a shadow of things to come” in that they had a prophetic fulfillment in the Resurrection Christ and later in the decent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday in Acts 2. These “holydays” do have a shadowing point to the yet-future things in “The Day of the LORD.” Paul explained in Colossians 2:16-17 about warnings of legalism in the celebrations of “a new moon or sabbath.” However, their remembrance and study provide times of instruction in their prophetic fulfillment for Christ and the Church, “Therefore, have no one judge you in food or in drink or on the part of a festival or a new moon or sabbath which things are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.” So then, we need not have anyone tell how we are right or wrong in what you eat or drink or how we celebrate various holydays, even the monthly and weekly holydays. These rules are a preview of the future Messianic Millennial Kingdom that will be the latter part of The Day of the LORD, however our present focus is on the Church, as the Body of Christ. Such study behooves us to learn and take the Bible seriously.
To begin with the Hebrews have a “Lunisolar Calendar” tied to one specific Solar Event each year, namely the Spring Equinox. This is in contrast to the popular “fully Solar Calendar” of our Gregorian Calendar and the “fully Lunar Calendar” of Islam, (although the traditional Chinese Calendar is also lunisolar, somewhat similar to the Hebrew Calendar but with its first month of the year shifted two months earlier). No matter how far one goes back in time or forward into time, the nice consistency of the Hebrew Calendar over the centuries has easily allowed for an exact and quite simple replication year after year, even for some 35 centuries, without extensive “retooling” of the calendar but only having a “Leap Month” every few years. The key to this concept of calendar is that the sun and the moon according to Genesis 1:14-16 were created to set “seasons” – fixed times – for agricultural…and celebrations.
THE SEVEN HOLYDAYS OF ISRAEL IN LEVITICUS 23
Moses specified Seven Annual Jewish “Holydays” in Leviticus 23. The Spring Holydays are specifically in Leviticus 23:4-22, along with Exodus 12:2-6. As to a simple summation of above, these four Spring Holydays appear on the Hebrew Calendar every year this way:
Since the First New Moon of Spring is the 1st of Nisan –
1) Pesach - Passover’s First Day is the 15th of Nisan.
Pesach Week of 7 more days is the 16th through 21st of Nisan.
2) Matza - Unleavened Bread is also the 15th of Nisan.
3) Biblical Bikkurim - First-fruits is the Yom Rishon [Sunday] of the 16th through 23rd of Nisan.
[or Rabbinic Bikkurim - First-fruits is the 16th of Nisan.]
4) Biblical Shavu‘ot – Pentecost is the Yom Rishon [Sunday] of 7th through 13th Sivan.
[or Rabbinic Shavu‘ot – Pentecost is the 6th through 7th of Sivan.]
Each year the Biblical New Year’s Day comes and goes often with little notice or fanfare among most Jews and Gentiles alike. Every year the 1st of Abib [Nisan] always comes on the First New Moon after the Spring Equinox. But this year in 2024 for this to happen there was a need for adding a “Leap Month” called Veadar/Adar II, as a 13th month, to the Jewish calendar. The last day of Veadar/Adar II ended at sunset on April 8. Notably there was a Total Solar Eclipse visible across the Heartland of the U.S. on Monday afternoon, April 8, from 1:30 pm CDT in Texas through 2:30 pm CDT in Maine [3:30 EDT]. Of course, a total eclipse is always during the phase of a New Moon, but this specific one was a Totally Dark New Moon with no sliver of light, as is often in other New Moons. Even to be more specific, this North American Total Solar Eclipse occurred at the very point of time that was about two hours after sunset into the beginning of the 1st night and then 1st day of Nisan in Jerusalem – the First Month of the Jewish Year! So, according to Exodus 12:2 this day would be a BIBLICAL NEW’S YEARS DAY in Jerusalem – “Shana Tovah!” See Exodus 12:2; 13:3-4; 23:15-16.
Exactly two weeks after this 1st day of Nisan is The Day of Passover beginning at sunset April 22 through sunset April 23 which was celebrated by Jesus in The Last Supper with His apostles. Passover continues to be celebrated for 7 days with an 8th day traditionally added [Nisan 15-22 = April 23-30] (according to Leviticus 23:4-5). Passover was not only the day of Jesus’ crucifixion but was to be fulfilled prophetically in the very crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
Over the millennia gone by there have been two popular interpretations of Lev. 23:11, 15-16 regarding First-fruits and Pentecost exactly 7 weeks later:
1) Rabbinic Judaism and many Messianic congregations take the “Sabbath” in Lev. 23:11, as a special “High Sabbath” following Unleavened Bread and thus have Bikkurim/First-fruits always on the 17th of Nisan every year, and the “Sabbath” in Lev. 23:15-16, as subsequent weekly Sabbaths, for determining Shavuot/Pentecost exactly seven weeks later.
2) Some Messianic congregations simply take “Sabbath” in Lev. 23:11, as simply the weekly Sabbath, as it is in Lev. 23:15-16, and thus have Bikkurim/First-fruits always on the Sunday after Unleavened Bread and Shavuot/Pentecost exactly seven weeks later.
So, then, if one follows the second view, the Sunday following the First Day of Passover, that is, April 28 (beginning sunset April 27), will be the Celebration of First-fruits, as Easter Sunday. It was on this Holyday that Jesus rose from the dead, as popularly called Easter, if one takes a rather natural and literal interpretation of Leviticus 23:11-16 regarding the word, “Sabbath(s)”, as simply the “Weekly Sabbath.” To be precise First-fruits, the day after the weekly Sabbath, was prophetically pointing to The Resurrection of Jesus Christ that is in 2024 would be celebrated April 28 (specifically after sunset April 27), (where Palm Sunday of the Triumphal Entry would be on April 21 and Good Friday would then be on April 26 and Maundy Thursday would then be either on April 25, traditionally, or the first evening of Passover on April 22, to be more specific biblically).
Then, Seven Weeks after First-fruits on Sunday, June 16 (beginning sunset June 15) will be “Pentecost Sunday” according to Leviticus 23:15-16. This Holyday of “Weeks” is also thus on the first day of the week, Sunday, and according to Acts 2:1ff.
FIRSTFRUITS AND PENTECOST WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INCIPIENT ANTISEMITISM AND ANTICHRISTIANITY
To broaden all of this picture, there are four methods of determining the Date of Easter (and hence Pentecost) each year. Some years two or three or all four may coincide on the same Sunday. So, since Passover with Unleavened Bread in 2024 begins at sunset April 22, for various reasons in their various traditions these are the dates for Easter and Pentecost:
1) The Western Roman Churches (Roman Catholic & Protestant) have Easter on March 31 (ignoring the 1st of Nisan) and then having Pentecost on May 19.
2) Some Messianic Churches have Easter, as Bikkurim, on April 28 and then Pentecost, as Shavuot, on June 16. [This seems more biblical.]
3) Though, many Messianic Churches follow the Rabbinic traditions popular among Jews and have their counterpart to “Easter,” as their Bikkurim, on April 24, and then Pentecost, called Shavuot, on June 12-13.
4) The Eastern Orthodox Churches have Easter, as Pascha [the Greek word for “Passover”] on May 5 (though to be after Passover but ignoring the Gregorian Calendar) and then Pentecost on June 23.
Calculating the date for Easter each year was instituted by the early church fathers in the fourth century AD, where the Council of Nicaea set the date for Easter that was not to follow “the custom of the Jews” in connection with to their dating of their Passover. After this a consensus of the Western [Roman] Church was that Easter would be simply the Sunday following the full moon following the Spring equinox (with no accounting of that month’s new moon either before or after the Spring Equinox, as done among the Jews). The Spring Equinox was determined to always be a specific point of time somewhere in March 19 through 21, and its following full moon was determined to be 14 days after the start of what the Western Church calls its “ecclesiastical” new moon. The point is that this new moon may be either BEFORE OR AFTER the Spring Equinox. There is disagreement between the Roman Catholic churches and the Eastern Orthodox churches on these issues, which has led to them observing different dates for Easter Sunday only about 75% of the time. The early church at the Council of Nicaea set the date for determining Easter with a little animosity toward the Jews and their Passover, such that they had no interest in connecting Easter to Passover (which will be the middle of April in 2024r). Their “Ecclesiastical Full Moon” did not have to be the same, as the “Pascal Full Moon” (i.e., their Ecclesiastical Month was not necessarily Nisan).
In other words, their “ecclesiastical” new moon and full moon had no need of coinciding with the Jewish month of Nisan with its “Pascal” moon and full. The determining of the date for Easter was done with no relationship to how the date for the Jewish Passover was determined. In the fourth century AD the church in the Roman Empire made a conscious decision to divorce itself from anything Jewish. The Old Testament’s appointed times of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were no longer necessary to them.
It is interesting how the Western Roman Catholic Church tradition of Easter ignores the date of Passover in determining Easter, where the Eastern Orthodox Churches work with Easter, as following the Jewish Passover. It is especially odd, when the King James Version of the Bible translated “Pascha” [Aramaic then Greek word for Passover] in Acts 12:2, as “Easter,” when most other translations use “Passover” [as they and the King James Version do in all other places in the Greek New Testament where “Pascha” occurs]. The Church in the 17th century understood this connection. However, this may reflect an incipient antisemitism within the Church that continued at times subtle and at times overt, beginning in the early 4th century (with the Roman Empire giving Christianity first legal status and then priority status, where the Church and Judaism were no longer having to “team up” against pagan Roman Empire anymore). Sadly this has continued on through to the 20th century in the middle of which the Jews were given their nationhood in the Land of Israel. Sadly, such an incipient antisemitism within the Church has produced an insipid Christianity.
THE DIVERGENCE OF CHRISTIANITY (GENTILES AND JEWS) AND RABBINIC JUDAISM HAS ONLY GROWN.
In other words, most Christian churches, especially in the West, today see themselves metaphorically but unknowingly, much as “cut flowers” severed from anything Jewish rather than as being “potted plants” with a “Hebraic rootage” of heritage. Such churches, as cut flowers, can be awkwardly shortsighted in their ignoring of their Hebrew roots, but other churches, as potted plants, can be broadly farsighted in seeing and appreciating their Hebrew roots in the Old Testament. The former have somewhat of an awkward understanding of the Old Testament, where the latter have a more traditional and literal understanding of the Old Testament.
Tyler Dawn Rosenquist in her book, The Bridge: Crossing Over Into the Fullness of Covenant Life, has an interesting Messianic observation and illustration of this Christian-Messianic-Judaic tension in Christian church/congregations and Synagogues: “To me, knowing the history of the fourth century CE – that Rome forcibly legislated the removal of Christians out of the synagogues and Torah keepers out of the assemblies of Messiah – Christians celebrating Christmas and Easter seem very much like children celebrating the consequences of having a broken home. Without the Christians, the Jews lost their Messiah and without the Jews, the Christians lost their inheritance. It’s like a child celebrating the absence of a parent who wasn’t even a bad parent. Christmas and Easter happened because of a broken home, and that grieves me – it doesn’t make me want to celebrate. At one point all believers in Yeshua were called Nazarene Jews, for hundreds of years – Rome robbed us of a stable home life.””
There appears to have been a “mutual Messianic Divergence” between Rabbinic Judaism and the Christian Church in an incipient AntiSemitism in the Church and AntiChristianized among the Jews occurring in the fourth century, as the Roman Empire became Christianized, and even a continued development of both over the centuries since. Some churches moderated this in their zeal for evangelism among the Jews; and some Jews moderated this, as they found Yeshua/Jesus, as their Messiah and Savior. Such was the earlier development of Messianic congregations, quite small in number over the centuries. They did find a biblical faith in Yeshua/Jesus and an interesting place within the Christian Church. This was more apparent in the early Church. However, Rabbinic Judaism did react and sought to avoid any special observance of “Yom Rishon” (Sunday) by reacting to an ancient interpretation of “Sabbath” in Lev. 23:11, 15-16, as being the “weekly Sabbath” and put Firstfruits as the third day of Passover Week regardless of the day of the week. On the other hand, the Church avoided Hebrew Calendar Months and Feast Holydays, except for Easter and Pentecost. Over the centuries this sad fracture between Gentile Christians and Jews (who are outside of a faith in Christ) has grown.
It seems that Jews outside of any faith in Christ have reacted both to the Church’s replacing of the Sabbath with Sunday and to sporadic antisemitism by Gentiles in the Church. Many Gentile Christians have reacted to a Judaic meticulosity of adherence to Torah-legalism found in the Law of Moses along with sporadic cultural snobbery at times found in Judaism.
CHRISTIANITY AND RABBINIC JUDAISM HAVE COMMON ROOTS
However, both groups, traditional Judaism (especially Conservative and Orthodox) and biblical Christianity, do generally agree on many things in life and culture, such as –
1) The importance of the “Tanach” – Old Testament – as God’s revelation within Israel.
2) The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, as Jehovah, with Jesus being Jewish.
3) A common Judeo-Christian moral code of right living found within the Bible.
4) The serious prioritizing of covenants, life, marriage, children, family, loyalty, love and patriotism.
5) A weekly gathering of the faithful for prayer, worship, and instruction.
6) The importance of personal freedoms within democratic republics and capitalistic free-market economies.
7) A fair and honest judicial system.
8) The evil of both antisemitism and anti-Christianism.
9) The support for the nation-state of Israel.
10) The eschewing of globalism.
11) The future judgment and Messianic glory of the Day of the LORD yet to come.
12) Periodic various commemorative dates of religious and spiritual importance.
13) A variety of “hyphenated” Jews-Christians organizations in philanthropy, common community interests, political interests, and scholarship.
14) Earlier American founders finding the “Hebrew Republic” in the Bible, as a model for founding the American Republic and offering religious freedom to Jews.
15) Being a preserved possession of God for a special purpose for His use on earth.
16) A sense of “connection” of one group with the other.
Paul was very clear in his Gospel Presentation of his book to the Romans, when he specifically repeated three times “to the Jew first, but also to the Greek” in 1:16; 2:9-10. Then he declared in Romans 3:2, “…for first indeed that they were committed with the sayings of God.” A notable hallmark of the Book of Acts is the transition from The Age of Israel to The Age of the Church. This transition can be traced through all the chapters of Acts which began with the question in Acts 2, “How do Gentiles fit into The Church?” and end with the question in Acts 28, “How to Jews fit into The Church?” So, “How do the Gentiles fit in?” In Acts the Church expands to include Gentile believers. Here in Acts 11:19 the Church is still hesitant to understand this concerning Cornelious. But finally in Acts 15, the “watershed chapter” of Acts, Luke describes the Jerusalem Council of Apostles, that dealt with “the Gentile-issue” – they were to be received in full fellowship with just four things listed in Acts 15:20 and 29 (regarding demonic, health, and fornication matters). The rest of Acts expands upon the growth of the Church to include Gentiles to the point that the Jews in Rome appear to pose a problem in Acts 28:24-29 and visited with Paul in how they are to be a part of the Church. Some believed and become a part. But some did not believe and thus having no part in the Church. So, ends the Book of Acts with “How do the Jews fit in?” Such has been the case until our present day.
In our current situation Messianic Jews and some Christian Gentiles seek to bridge this gap. Messianic Israelis and Arab-Christian Israelis, as well as various Middle Eastern Christians outside of Israel, have a geographical opportunity to work together, as bridges.
Christians both Gentile and Messianic around the world have an opportunity to come together in those bridges and encourage Jews and Jewish converts of traditional Judaism. Christianity and Judaism both share a sense of being a preserved possession of God for a special purpose for His use on earth in the notion of being a “peculiar people.” This somewhat explains the historic support of the nation of Israel by America and the Christian West and Christians around the world.
Gentile Christians might do well to find opportunities to at least commemorate, rather than celebrate, The Seven Feast Days of Leviticus 23, and remember them each year. Jews within traditional Judaism might to well to find opportunities to commemorate, rather than celebrate, the historical Jesus, as Yeshua, and remember various Christian events through the year.
Those in Christianity and Judaism see that there is more that unites us than divide us, in contrast to all other religions and (pagan) cultures around the world. Throughout history Jewish people have always found protection within Christian nations that take the Bible seriously, and Christian nations have been blessed by God in their protecting of Jewish people with secured rights.
THE COMING DAY OF THE LORD
The Bible prophesies about a future “Day of the LORD” – A Day of Yahweh – when Israel will be back in the Land, their land, with an understanding the Jesus Christ, their Yeshua HaMashiach, much as the Church had taught before they are taken to heaven, when this Day begins. This will be a future time, when the Last Three Holydays in the fall, when the Feasts of Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles will be historically fulfilled. Anything of any kind of antisemitism in the Church will be totally gone. However, for a brief seven years the lost around the world will mount a time of antisemitism greater than any time before in history. But God will place within the hands of that future Israel His “Stewardship of Evangelism” to take the “gospel of the kingdom” around the world for the end to come just before the beginning of the Messianic Kingdom Age of Christ for 1,000 years!
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The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, as God’s Firstfruits Fulfilled, in 2024
The Total Solar Eclipse to be seen across the Heartland of the US will be visible Monday afternoon, April 8, from 1:30 pm CDT in Texas through 2:30 pm CDT in Maine [3:30 EDT]. Of course, a total eclipse is always during the phase of a New Moon, but this specifically will be Totally Dark, no sliver of light, as in other New Moons.
However, there is another unusual, even providential, twist, with this Total Solar Eclipse: It will occur in the US, when it is sunset in Jerusalem, the point beginning the 1st night/day of Nisan, the first month of the Jewish Year, specifically The Jewish New Year’s Day! You see, sunset April 8 through April 9 will actually be the First Day of the First Month of the Jewish Year, the 1st of Abib [also called Nisan] that is described in Exodus 12:2; 13:3-4; 23:15-16).
Each year this Biblical New Year’s Day comes and goes often with little notice or fanfare among most Jews and Gentiles alike. The 1st of Abib [Nisan] always comes on the First New Moon after the Spring Equinox. (But this year of our 2024 there will be a leap month added, as a 13th month of Adar II, to the Jewish calendar whose year is coming to a close, and then will come the Biblical New Year’s Day at sunset April 8, called the 1st of Nisan [or Abib, as in the Bible].)
Exactly two weeks later will be The Day of Passover that will begin at sunset April 21 through April 22 which was celebrated by Jesus in The Last Supper with His apostles. It is then celebrated for 7 days with an 8th day traditionally added.
The Sunday following the First Day of Passover, April 28 (beginning sunset April 27), will be the Celebration of Firstfruits. It was at this Holyday that Jesus rose from the dead, as Easter, if one takes a rather literal interpretation of Leviticus 23:9-14. (Firstfruits [Bikkurim], the day after the weekly Sabbath, was prophetically pointing to The Resurrection of Jesus Christ.)
Then, Seven Weeks later on Sunday, June 16 (beginning sunset June 15) will be “Pentecost Sunday” (called Shavuot in Hebrew) according to Leviticus 23:15-16. This "Holyday of Weeks” is also then on the first day of the week and according to Acts 2:1ff became the “Birthday” of the Church of Jesus Christ.
There are three methods of determining the Date of Easter each year. Some years two or all three coincide on the same Sunday, but for 2024:
The Western Roman Catholic (& Protestant) Churches have March 31 (ignoring the 1st & 14th of Abib – Hebrew New Year’s Day & Passover).
Some Messianic Churches have sunset April 27 to sunset April 28.
The Eastern Orthodox Churches have May 5 (ignoring the Gregorian Calendar).
It is interesting how the Western Roman Catholic Church tradition of Easter ignores the date of Passover in determining Easter, where the Eastern Orthodox Churches work with Easter following the Jewish Passover. It is especially odd, when the King James Version of the Bible translated “Pascha” [Passover] in Acts 12:2, as “Easter.” The Church in the 17th century did understand this connection.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ was God’s Firstfruits Fulfilled
The Total Solar Eclipse to be seen across the Heartland of the US will be visible Monday afternoon, April 8, from 1:30 pm CDT in Texas through 2:30 pm CDT in Maine [3:30 EDT]. Of course, a total eclipse is always during the phase of a New Moon but specifically Totally Dark, no sliver of light, as in other New Moons.
However, there is another unusual, even providential, twist, with this Total Solar Eclipse: It will occur in the US, when it is around sunset in Jerusalem specifically on the 1st of Nisan – The Jewish New Year’s Day! You see, sunset April 8 through April 9 will be the First Day of the First Month of the Jewish Year, the 1st of Abib [also called Nisan] described in Exodus 12:2; 13:3-4; 23:15-16).
Each year this Biblical New Year’s Day comes and goes often with little notice or fanfare among most Jews and Gentiles alike. The 1st of Abib [Nisan] always comes on the First New Moon after the Spring Equinox. But this year, our 2024, there will be a leap month added, as a 13th month of Adar II, to the Jewish calendar whose year is coming to a close, and then will come the Biblical New Year’s Day at sunset April 8, called the 1st of Nisan [or Abib in the Bible].
Exactly two weeks later will be The Day of Passover [the 14th of Nisan] beginning at sunset April 21 through April 22 which was celebrated by Jesus in The Last Supper with His apostles. It is then celebrated for 7 days with an 8th day traditionally added.
The Sunday following the First Day of Passover, April 28 (beginning sunset April 27), will be the Celebration of Firstfruits. It was at this Holyday that Jesus rose from the dead, as Easter, if one takes a rather literal interpretation of Leviticus 23:9-14. (Firstfruits [Bikkurim], the day after the weekly Sabbath, was pointing to The Resurrection of Jesus Christ.)
Then, Seven Weeks later on Sunday, June 16 (beginning sunset June 15) will be “Pentecost Sunday” (called Shavuot in Hebrew) according to Leviticus 23:15-16. This Holyday of "Weeks" is also then on the first day of the week and according to Acts 2 became The “Birthday” of the Church of Jesus Christ.
The traditions of The Western (Roman Catholic and Protestant) Church and The Eastern (Orthodox) Church calculate these dates differently by ignoring this “Jewish New Year’s Day” on the 1st of Abib (Nisan), however those who would take Jesus’ Last Supper, as a celebration of the annual Jewish Passover with Firstfruits being celebrated on the following Sunday would see it with these dates.
The Biblical Jewish New Year’s Day is often ignored by both Jews and Gentiles alike, but Moses specified this day in Exodus 12:2 and mentioned its month in Exodus 13:4; 23:15; 34:18; Deuteronomy 16:1 regarding the Exodus and Passover celebration –
Exodus 12:2 - “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.”
Exodus 13:3-4 - “And Moses said to the people: ‘Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. 4On this day you are going out, in the month Abib.’”
Exodus 23:15-16 - “You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty); and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.”
Exodus 34:18 - “The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.:
Deuteronomy 16:1 - “Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.”
There are three methods of determining the Date of Easter each year. Some years two or all three coincide on the same Sunday, but for 2024:
The Western Roman Catholic (& Protestant) Churches have March 31 (ignoring the 1st of Abib).
Some Messianic Churches have sunset April 27 to sunset April 28.
The Eastern Orthodox Churches have May 5 (ignoring the Gregorian Calendar).
THE MESSIANIC FULFILLMENT OF
THE SEVEN ANNUAL JEWISH “HOLYDAYS” OF
LEVITICUS 23 for 2024
“Clean out the old yeast, in order that you might be a new lump,
accordingly as you are yeast-free;
for Christ, our Passover, was slain for us.
So then let us keep the festival not with the old yeast
nor with the yeast of evil and wickedness
but with the yeast-free things of sincerity and truth.”
1 Corinthians 5:7-8.
1) April 22, Wednesday at sunset through April 23, Thursday at sunset is Passover’s First Day [Nisan (aka Abib) 14-20 = April 22-30] (Leviticus 23:4-5), fulfilled prophetically in the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
2) April 23, Thursday at sunset through April 24, Friday at sunset is Unleavened Bread [Nisan (aka Abib) 15] (Leviticus 23:6-8), fulfilled prophetically by Jesus Christ in His burial.
3) April 27 at sunset on Saturday through April 28 at sunset on Sunday the first day of the week is Day of First-Fruits (Leviticus 23:9-14, where verse 11 refers to the normal Weekly Sabbath that begins sunset on Friday, April 26, as it also does in Leviticus 23:15), fulfilled prophetically by Jesus Christ in His resurrection. Interestingly, the Sunday of March 31 will be celebrated by the Western Church, as Easter – Resurrection Sunday. However, Sunday, May 5, will be celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox Church, as “Pascha” – their Orthodox Easter. Traditional Judaism will celebrate their Jewish First-Fruits beginning at sunset on Wednesday, April 24, through sunset of Thursday, April 25, (with their 8th day of Passover beginning May 1 at sunset through May 2 at sunset).
4) June 15 at sunset on Saturday through June 16 at sunset on Sunday the first day of the week [**Sivan 6] is The Holyday of Weeks, i.e., Pentecost and “Shavu’ot” (Leviticus 23:15-22), fulfilled prophetically with the Church began in Acts 2. Interestingly, the Sunday of May 19 will be celebrated by the Western Church, as Pentecost Sunday. However, the Sunday of June 23 will be celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox Church, as their Pentecost Sunday. Traditional Judaism will celebrate their Jewish Pentecost beginning at sunset on Tuesday, June 11, through sunset of Thursday, June 13.
5) October 2, Wednesday at sunset through October 3, Thursday at sunset [Tishrei 1] is The Holyday of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:23-25), that will be fulfilled prophetically with the ingathering of Israelis at the beginning of the Jewish Seven-Year Tribulation. [The Jewish Tradition is to begin their civil year on the date and call it Rosh HaShanah for the beginning of their year of 5785.]
6) October 11, Friday at sunset through October 12, Saturday at sunset [Tishrei 10] is Day of Atonement “Yom Kippur” (Leviticus 23:26-32), that will be fulfilled prophetically during the future Second Coming of Christ described in Revelation 19:11-21. On the cross He atoned for man’s sin (v.13). He will then complete His work about man’s sins by “setting the record straight” at Armageddon.
7) October 16, Wednesday at sunset through October 23, Wednesday at sunset [Tishrei 15-21] is The Holyday of Tabernacles or Booths (or Ingathering) (Leviticus 23:33-44), that will be fulfilled prophetically at the Second Coming of Christ in the Millennial Messianic Kingdom.
Also, along with these Seven Annual Jewish “Holydays”, there three other notable “Holydays” –
March 23, Sunday at sunset to March 24, Monday at sunset [Adar 14] is Purim from the Book of Esther described in Esther 9:23-28. Shushan Purim is March 25 at sunset.
April 8, Monday at sunset through April 9, Tuesday at sunset [Nisan (Abib) 1] is Biblical “New Year’s Day” specified in Exodus 12:2, as the first day of the first month of the year to count the days to Passover. (Traditional Judaism has this in the midyear point of their present year of 5783.) It is the 14-day countdown to Passover from New Moon to Full Moon. Oddly, little is done to celebrate it any more than the monthly celebration of “Rosh Chodesh Nisan” (Head [First] of New Nisan). It could be called Rosh HaShannah Torah [“Head of the Year of the Torah (Law of Moses)”].
December 25, Wednesday at sunset through January 2, Thursday at sunset [Kislev 25 through Tevet 2] is Hanukkah which is an intertestamental event that is specifically mentioned in John 10:22.
– Here are the Details –
The Passover is on the 14th of Nisan (aka Abib) through the 20th and is called “Pesach” in Hebrew and “Pascha” in Aramaic and Greek. It is described in Leviticus 23:4-5, “These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. ‘On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the LORD's Passover.’” (Also, see further details in Exodus 12:1-20; 23:14-19; 34:18-26; Matthew 26:17-30 and Luke 22:13-20.)
Though with the focus on the first day of Passover, the 7-day Passover festival continues to sunset on Nisan 21for Reform and progressive Jews living inside Israel who follow the Biblical text. For Orthodox, Hasidic, and generally Jews outside Israel the festival lasts 8 days ending at sunset on Nisan 22.
The Messianic significance of the Holyday of Passover was prophetically fulfilled in the crucifixion and death of Yeshua HaMashiach (Hebrew for Jesus Christ) on the Cross, according to 1 Cor. 5:6-8, “Clean out the old yeast, in order that you might be a new lump, accordingly as you are yeast-free; for Christ, our Passover, was slain for us. So then let us keep the festival not with the old yeast nor with the yeast of evil and wickedness but with the yeast-free things of sincerity and truth.”
Unleavened Bread is the 15th of Nisan (aka Abib) and is called “Matzah” in Hebrew, the day following Passover. It is described in Leviticus 23:6-8, “6And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 7On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it. 8But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.” This is explained historically in Exodus 12:14-20, “15'Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses…. 16'On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you…. 20'You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.”
The messianic significance of Holyday of Unleavened Bread was prophetically fulfilled by Yeshua HaMashiach in His burial in the borrowed tomb for three days and nights, according to 1 Corinthians 5:6-8. Yeshua is pictured, as the Yachatz (or Afikoman) in the Passover Seder. The Afikoman is “the One of the Three” hidden in the box or bag.
The Day of First-Fruits begins at sunset of the following weekly Sabbath to sunset of Sunday, the first day of the week and is called “Yom HaBikkurim” in Hebrew. Thus, its calendar-date varies from year to year. It is described in Leviticus 23:9-14, “9And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 10‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: “When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest to the priest. 11He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the LORD. 13Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the LORD, for a sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin. 14You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.” Here in verse 11 Moses was referring to the normal, weekly Sabbath, as did in Leviticus 23:15 counting the weeks to Pentecost: “And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed.” Hence, both the Day of First Fruits and Pentecost each year would both always biblically be on the first day of the week, Sunday (“first day of the week.”) This festival is the reason for Sunday-observance noted in Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 16:2 and the basis of Revelation 1:10. The careful biblical understanding of “Sabbath” in Leviticus 23:11, 15-16 explains how that, though the Church began totally Jewish in Acts 2, Sunday became to the focus of a weekly time of gathering and worshiping in replacing the Sabbath.
The Messianic significance of the Holyday of First-Fruits was prophetically fulfilled by Yeshua HaMashiach in His resurrection on the first day of the week, according to 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead—He became the first-fruits of the ones having fallen asleep. For, since death came through a man, even the resurrection of the dead came through a man. For just as all men die in Adam, thus even all men will be made alive in Christ. But each one in his own order: first-fruits Christ, then the ones of Christ at His return.” Paul explained the Holy Spirit’s part in Yeshua’s resurrection and ours in Romans 8:11, “but if the Spirit of the One raising Jesus out of the dead dwell in you, the one raising Christ out of the dead will make alive even your moral bodies because of his indwelling Spirit in you.” Then he explained the Spirit’s part in us, as His “first-fruits” in Romans 8:23, “and not only this but also they themselves having the first-fruits of the Spirit and we ourselves groan within ourselves, awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our body.”.
Thus, the Eastern Orthodox Church connects Easter, which they call “Pascha” (Greek for Passover) to Passover and First-Fruits and celebrates Orthodox Easter on the Sunday after the Saturday after Passover, in what could be called “Passover Sunday” or “Paschal Sunday.”
It is also interesting to note that Rabbinic Judaism and Messianic Judaism annually celebrate First-Fruits on the 16th of Nisan (Abib), two days after Passover.
The Holyday of Weeks is exactly seven weeks after First-Fruits at the close of the seventh subsequent Sabbath at sunset through Sunday (the first day of the week) at sunset The Hebrew word for “weeks” is “Shavu’ot,” so it is a “Week of Weeks.” Thus, its calendar-date also varies from year to year. It is described in Leviticus 23:15-21, “15And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 16Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD. 17You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the first-fruits to the LORD. … 20The priest shall wave them with the bread of the first-fruits as a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the LORD for the priest. 21 'And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.” “Week of Weeks” means seven times seven days, specifically 49 days, where the next day would be 50 days, hence the Greek word for “50,” “Pentecost,” is used in Acts 2:1, “And with the arrival of the day of Pentecost, they all were of like-feeling in the same place.” So, First-Fruits and Pentecost are always on Sunday (“the first day of the week”). Paul noted its importance in Acts 20:16. Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 16:2 reflect this idea of Sunday-observance which is the basis of Revelation 1:10. For more details see Exodus 34:22 and Numbers 28:26-31 and Deuteronomy 16:9, 10.
The Messianic significance of the Holyday of Weeks was prophetically fulfilled by the Age of Israel being brought to a temporal close, where the Church began in Acts 2 at Pentecost Sunday, as the Birthday of the Church, with a special working of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Thus, the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates their Orthodox Pentecost on this same Sunday. [Rabbinic Judaism and Messianic Judaism celebrate their Pentecost (their Shavu’ot) on Sivan 6, that is, 50 days after the Holydays of Unleavened Bread and First-Fruits. Often Western (Roman Catholic) Church celebrates their Pentecost on Sunday near this date.]
The Holyday of Trumpets is on the 1st of Tishrei (the 7th month) and is called “Yom HaTeruah” in Hebrew meaning a “day of blowing of a ram’s horn.” It is described in Leviticus 23:23-25, “23Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 24‘Speak to the children of Israel, saying: “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.”’” This holyday is the first day of the seventh month, Tishrei, however Jewish tradition has taken this, as New Year’s Day, called “Rosh HaShannah” (“head of the year”) and celebrates for two day, 1st and 2nd of Tishrei. It is mentioned in Nehemiah 8:2, 9-12, where Israel is back in their land and begins studying and heeding the Bible under Ezra.
The Messianic significance of The Holyday of Trumpets this will be that this prophetically signifies the trumpet call of the future Harpagmos (Rapture). This begins “The Day of LORD.” This trumpet call will signal a special ingathering of Israelis in a Jewish revival of Yeshua being their Mashiach at the beginning of the Jewish Seven-Year Tribulation in Revelation 6-19. The prophecy in Zechariah 12:1-12 describes this very Seven-Year period of time: Zechariah 12:6-11 – 6 "In that day I will make the governors of Judah like a firepan in the woodpile, and like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they shall devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left, but Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place -- Jerusalem. 7 " The LORD will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall not become greater than that of Judah. 8 "In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the LORD before them. 9 "It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10 " And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. 11 "In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.” (This is why the Harpage (Rapture) will initiate the Tribulation, however the imminency requires that it may occur at anytime and not just on the specific Holyday of Trumpets during the year that it occurs.)
The Day of Atonement is on the 10th of Tishrei and is called “Yom Kippur” in Hebrew (specifically “Yom HaKippurim” that means, “Day of the Coverings” literally). It is described in Leviticus 23:26-32, “26And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: ‘27Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. 28And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God. 29For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. 30And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. 31You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 32It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.’” It is also described further in Leviticus 16:1-34 and Numbers 29:7-11.
The Messianic significance of The Day of Atonement will prophetically be fulfilled during the future Second Coming of Christ, as He comes dressed in a robe dipped in blood to the Battle of Armageddon, as prophesied in Revelation 19:11-21. This understanding is particularly detailed out in Hebrews 9:24-28, “26He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”
In regards to the Battle of Armageddon and the Millennial Kingdom of the Earth, Jesus called it The Regeneration in Matthew 19:28, “Truly I say to you that you who follow Me, in The Regeneration when the Son of man might sit upon the throne of his glory, you yourselves also will sit upon the twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Yeshua will bring the ultimate fulfillment of God’s Plan of Atonement that began on the Cross, thus fulfilling Romans 11:26, “And thus all Israel will be saved; accordingly as it stands written, ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.’” This is all prophesied in Zechariah 13:1-14:15.
On the Cross with the Passover, Jesus propitiated and atoned for the personal sins of the whole of humanity. At the Battle of Armageddon, Jesus will finish His Atoning Work by Setting the Record Straight about Sin and its Consequences in the world throughout all of human history. In the second half of the 7-year Tribulation, the worldwide sin of humanity will reach its height…its depth…as no other time in history, and the wrath of God’s Judgment, as the first part of The Day of Yahweh, will culminate in the Battle of Armageddon, when Jesus will single-handedly fight and defeat all of the unbelieving and ungodly descendants of sinful humanity through the ages, depicted in Babel on through Babylon the Harlot.
The Holydays of Tabernacles (or Booths or Ingathering) is on the 15th through the 21st of Tishrei and is called “Sukkot” in Hebrew. It is described in Leviticus 23:33, 39-44, “33Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 34‘Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the LORD. 35On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it… 39Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the LORD for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest. 40And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days… 42You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 43that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”’” It is described in Neh. 8; Zech. 14:1-19.
The Messianic significance of The Holydays of Tabernacles will prophetically be fulfilled at the Second Coming of Yeshua, at the close of the future Jewish Seven-Year Tribulation, as described in Rev.19:11-21, when He comes and “tabernacles” among men for 1,000 years in His Messianic Millennial Kingdom in Zechariah 14:16-18, “16And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain. 18If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.” This will fulfill John 1:14 again, “14And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the one-of-a-kind from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Yeshua taught during this Holyday in John 7 of its future spirituality in verses 37-39, “37On the last day, that great day of the feast [of Tabernacles], Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ 39But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” [in His resurrection]. Joel had prophesied about this Millennial Kingdom in Joel 2:27-32, “27Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: I am the LORD your God, and there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame. 28And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. 29And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. 30And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. 31The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. 32And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the LORD has said, Among the remnant whom the LORD calls.”
Biblical “New Year’s Day” is on the 1st of Nisan (aka Abib). One may call this Rosh HaShanna Torah. The Bible mentions this in Exodus 12:2, as the first day of the first month of the year, hence this would be considered the Biblical New Year’s Day. It is always the first full day after the first New Moon after the first day of Spring. It is the 14-day “countdown” to Passover from New Moon to Full Moon. This was the date of the beginning of the Tabernacle in Exodus 40:2ff. In the future Millennial Messianic Kingdom there will be four feasts celebrated in Ezekiel 45:18, where the first one in v. 18 will be “In the first day of the first month.” (There is first annual monthly celebration of “Rosh Chodesh Nisan” (Head [First] of New Nisan) that is on this day. It could be called Rosh HaShannah Torah [“Head of the Year of the Torah (Law of Moses)”]. This is not to be confused with the traditional date of Rosh HaShannah, popularly called the Jewish New Year’s Day (of the civil calendar). This date for Rosh HaShannah is really the first day of the Seventh Month in the Bible and is called The Holyday of Trumpets.
Purim is Adar (II) 14-15 and commemorates the story of Esther with God’s Providence incognito. The Jews in Persia were distant from Him in their religion of “Judaism” [Esther 8:17] (somewhat, as Judaism is today), and they were unknowingly protected by Him. In the canonical text there is no reference to “God” or “LORD/Yahweh” nor “prayer.” The details of this commemoration are found in Esther 9:23-28, “23…the Jews accepted the custom which they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them, 24because Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to annihilate them, and had cast Pur (that is, the lot), to consume them and destroy them… 26So they called these days Purim, after the name Pur.…27that without fail they should celebrate these two days every year… 28that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews, and that the memory of them should not perish among their descendants.”
Hanukkah on Kislev 25 through Tevet 2 is an intertestamental event in 1 Maccabees 4:36-39, 54-56; 5:1; 2 Maccabees 10:1-8, that was prophesied in Daniel 8:13; 9:27; 11:21 and mentioned in John 10:22, “And it was the holiday of the Rededication in Jerusalem, and it was winter.”
A convenient source of information of these dates and for the future is Hebcal which is a free Jewish calendar and holiday web site – https://www.hebcal.com
Newsletter
“Clean out the old yeast, in order that you might be a new lump,
accordingly as you are yeast-free;
for Christ, our Passover, was slain for us.
So then let us keep the festival not with the old yeast
nor with the yeast of evil and wickedness
but with the yeast-free things of sincerity and truth.”
1 Corinthians 5:7-8.
1) April 5, Wednesday at sunset through April 13, Thursday at sunset is Passover [Nisan (aka Abib) 14-20] (Leviticus 23:4-5), fulfilled prophetically in the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
2) April 6, Thursday at sunset through April 7, Friday at sunset is Unleavened Bread [Nisan (aka Abib) 15] (Leviticus 23:6-8), fulfilled prophetically by Jesus Christ in His burial.
3) April 8 at sunset on Saturday through April 9 at sunset on Sunday the first day of the week is Day of First-Fruits (Leviticus 23:9-14, where verse 11 refers to the normal Weekly Sabbath that begins sunset on Friday, April 7, as it also does in Leviticus 23:15), fulfilled prophetically by Jesus Christ in His resurrection. Interestingly, the Sunday of April 9 will be celebrated by the Western Church, as Easter – Resurrection Sunday. [However, Sunday, April 16, will be celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox Church, as “Pascha” – their Orthodox Easter. Traditional Judaism will celebrate their Jewish First-Fruits beginning at sunset on Sunday, April 7, through sunset of Monday, April 8, (with their 8th day of Passover beginning April 12 at sunset through April 13 at sunset).]
4) May 27 at sunset on Saturday through May 28 at sunset on Sunday the first day of the week [Sivan 6] is The Holyday of Weeks, i.e., Pentecost and “Shavu’ot” (Leviticus 23:15-22), fulfilled prophetically with the Church began in Acts 2. Interestingly, the Sunday of May 28 will be celebrated by the Western Church, as Pentecost Sunday. [However, the Sunday of June 4 will be celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox Church, as their Pentecost Sunday. Traditional Judaism will celebrate their Jewish Pentecost beginning at sunset on Thursday, May 25, through sunset of Saturday, May 27.]
5) September 15, Friday at sunset through September 17, Sunday at sunset [Tishrei 1] is The Holyday of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:23-25), that will be fulfilled prophetically with the ingathering of Israelis at the beginning of the Jewish Seven-Year Tribulation. [The Jewish Tradition is to begin their civil year on the date and call it Rosh HaShannah for the beginning of their year of 5783.]
6) September 24, Sunday at sunset through September 25, Monday at sunset [Tishrei 10] is Day of Atonement “Yom Kippur” (Leviticus 23:26-32), that will be fulfilled prophetically during the future Second Coming of Christ described in Revelation 19:11-21. On the cross He atoned for man’s sin (v.13). He will then complete His work about man’s sins by “setting the record straight” at Armageddon.
7) September 29, Friday at sunset through October 6, Friday at sunset [Tishrei 15-21] is The Holyday of Tabernacles (or Ingathering) (Leviticus 23:33-44), that will be fulfilled prophetically at the Second Coming of Christ in the Millennial Messianic Kingdom.
March 6 at sunset to March 7 at sunset [Adar 14] is Purim from the Book of Esther described in Esther 9:23-28. Shushan Purim is March 8 at sunset.
March 22, Wednesday at sunset through March 23, Thursday at sunset [Nisan (Abib) 1] is Biblical “New Year’s Day” specified in Exodus 12:2, as the first day of the first month of the year to count the days to Passover. (Traditional Judaism has this in the midyear point of their present year of 5783.) It is the 14-day countdown to Passover from New Moon to Full Moon. Oddly, little is done to celebrate it any more than the monthly celebration of “Rosh Chodesh Nisan” (Head [First] of New Nisan). It could be called Rosh HaShannah Torah [“Head of the Year of the Torah (Law of Moses)”].
December 7, Thursday at sunset through December 15, Friday at sunset [Kislev 25 through Tevet 2] is Hanukkah which is an intertestamental event that is specifically mentioned in John 10:22.
– Here are the Details –
The Passover is on the 14th of Nisan (aka Abib) through the 20th and is called “Pesach” in Hebrew and “Pascha” in Aramaic and Greek. It is described in Leviticus 23:4-5, “These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. ‘On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the LORD's Passover.’” (Also, see further details in Exodus 12:1-20; 23:14-19; 34:18-26; Matthew 26:17-30 and Luke 22:13-20.)
The Messianic significance of the Holyday of Passover was prophetically fulfilled in the crucifixion and death of Yeshua HaMashiach (Hebrew for Jesus Christ) on the Cross, according to 1 Cor. 5:6-8, “Clean out the old yeast, in order that you might be a new lump, accordingly as you are yeast-free; for Christ, our Passover, was slain for us. So then let us keep the festival not with the old yeast nor with the yeast of evil and wickedness but with the yeast-free things of sincerity and truth.”
Unleavened Bread is the 15th of Nisan (aka Abib) and is called “Matzah” in Hebrew, the day following Passover. It is described in Leviticus 23:6-8, “6And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 7On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it. 8But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.” This is explained historically in Exodus 12:14-20, “15'Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses…. 16'On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you…. 20'You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.”
The messianic significance of Holyday of Unleavened Bread was prophetically fulfilled by Yeshua HaMashiach in His burial in the borrowed tomb for three days and nights, according to 1 Corinthians 5:6-8. Yeshua is pictured, as the Yachatz (or Afikoman) in the Passover Seder. The Afikoman is “the One of the Three” hidden in the box or bag.
The Day of First-Fruits begins at sunset of the following weekly Sabbath to sunset of Sunday, the first day of the week and is called “Yom HaBikkurim” in Hebrew. Thus, its calendar-date varies from year to year. It is described in Leviticus 23:9-14, “9And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 10‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: “When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest to the priest. 11He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the LORD. 13Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the LORD, for a sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin. 14You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.” Here in verse 11 Moses was referring to the normal, weekly Sabbath, as did in Leviticus 23:15 counting the weeks to Pentecost: “And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed.” Hence, both the Day of First Fruits and Pentecost each year would both always biblically be on the first day of the week, Sunday (“first day of the week.”) This festival is the reason for Sunday-observance noted in Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 16:2 and the basis of Revelation 1:10. The careful biblical understanding of “Sabbath” in Leviticus 23:11, 15-16 explains how that, though the Church began totally Jewish in Acts 2, Sunday became to the focus of a weekly time of gathering and worshiping in replacing the Sabbath.
The Messianic significance of the Holyday of First-Fruits was prophetically fulfilled by Yeshua HaMashiach in His resurrection on the first day of the week, according to 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead—He became the first-fruits of the ones having fallen asleep. For, since death came through a man, even the resurrection of the dead came through a man. For just as all men die in Adam, thus even all men will be made alive in Christ. But each one in his own order: first-fruits Christ, then the ones of Christ at His return.” Paul explained the Holy Spirit’s part in Yeshua’s resurrection and ours in Romans 8:11, “but if the Spirit of the One raising Jesus out of the dead dwell in you, the one raising Christ out of the dead will make alive even your moral bodies because of his indwelling Spirit in you.” Then he explained the Spirit’s part in us, as His “first-fruits” in Romans 8:23, “and not only this but also they themselves having the first-fruits of the Spirit and we ourselves groan within ourselves, awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our body.”.
Thus, the Eastern Orthodox Church connects Easter, which they call “Pascha” (Greek for Passover) to Passover and First-Fruits and celebrates Orthodox Easter on the Sunday after the Saturday after Passover, in what could be called “Passover Sunday” or “Paschal Sunday.”
It is also interesting to note that Rabbinic Judaism and Messianic Judaism annually celebrate First-Fruits on the 16th of Nisan (Abib), two days after Passover.
The Holyday of Weeks [Pentecost] is exactly seven weeks after First-Fruits at the close of the seventh subsequent Sabbath at sunset through Sunday (the first day of the week) at sunset The Hebrew word for “weeks” is “Shavu’ot,” so it is a “Week of Weeks.” Thus, its calendar-date also varies from year to year. It is described in Leviticus 23:15-21, “15And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 16Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD. 17You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the first-fruits to the LORD. … 20The priest shall wave them with the bread of the first-fruits as a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the LORD for the priest. 21 'And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.” “Week of Weeks” means seven times seven days, specifically 49 days, where the next day would be 50 days, hence the Greek word for “50,” “Pentecost,” is used in Acts 2:1, “And with the arrival of the day of Pentecost, they all were of like-feeling in the same place.” So, First-Fruits and Pentecost are always on Sunday (“the first day of the week”). Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 16:2 reflect this idea of Sunday-observance which is the basis of Revelation 1:10. For more details see Exodus 34:22 and Numbers 28:26-31 and Deuteronomy 16:9, 10.
The Messianic significance of the Holyday of Weeks was prophetically fulfilled by the Age of Israel being brought to a temporal close, where the Church began in Acts 2 at Pentecost Sunday, as the Birthday of the Church, with a special working of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Thus, the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates their Orthodox Pentecost on this same Sunday. [Rabbinic Judaism and Messianic Judaism celebrate their Pentecost (their Shavu’ot) on Sivan 6, that is, 50 days after the Holydays of Unleavened Bread and First-Fruits. Often Western (Roman Catholic) Church celebrates their Pentecost on Sunday near this date.]
The Holyday of Trumpets is on the 1st of Tishrei (the 7th month) and is called “Yom HaTeruah” in Hebrew meaning a “day of blowing of a ram’s horn.” It is described in Leviticus 23:23-25, “23Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 24‘Speak to the children of Israel, saying: “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.”’” This holyday is the first day of the seventh month, Tishrei, however Jewish tradition has taken this, as New Year’s Day, called “Rosh HaShannah” (“head of the year”). It is mentioned in Nehemiah 8:2, 9-12, where Israel is back in their land and begins studying and heeding the Bible under Ezra.
The Messianic significance of The Holyday of Trumpets this will be that this prophetically signifies the trumpet call of the future Harpagmos (Rapture). This begins “The Day of LORD.” This trumpet call will signal a special ingathering of Israelis in a Jewish revival of Yeshua being their Mashiach at the beginning of the Jewish Seven-Year Tribulation in Revelation 6-19. The prophecy in Zechariah 12:1-12 describes this very Seven-Year period of time: Zechariah 12:6-11 – 6 "In that day I will make the governors of Judah like a firepan in the woodpile, and like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they shall devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left, but Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place -- Jerusalem. 7 " The LORD will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall not become greater than that of Judah. 8 "In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the LORD before them. 9 "It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10 " And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. 11 "In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.” (This is why the Harpage (Rapture) will initiate the Tribulation, however the imminency requires that it may occur at anytime and not just on the specific Holyday of Trumpets during the year that it occurs.)
The Day of Atonement is on the 10th of Tishrei and is called “Yom Kippur” in Hebrew (specifically “Yom HaKippurim” that means, “Day of the Coverings” literally). It is described in Leviticus 23:26-32, “26And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: ‘27Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. 28And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God. 29For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. 30And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. 31You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 32It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.’” It is also described further in Leviticus 16:1-34 and Numbers 29:7-11.
The Messianic significance of The Day of Atonement will prophetically be fulfilled during the future Second Coming of Christ, as He comes dressed in a robe dipped in blood to the Battle of Armageddon, as prophesied in Revelation 19:11-21. With the Battle of Armageddon and the Millennial Regeneration of the Earth (“But Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I say to you that you who follow Me, in The Regeneration when the Son of man might sit upon the throne of his glory, you yourselves also will sit upon the twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.’” – Matthew 19:28), Yeshua will bring the ultimate fulfillment of God’s Plan of Atonement that began on the Cross, thus fulfilling Romans 11:26, “And thus all Israel will be saved; accordingly as it stands written, ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.’” This is all prophesied in Zechariah 13:1-14:15.
The Holydays of Tabernacles (or Booths or Ingathering) is on the 15th through the 21st of Tishrei and is called “Sukkot” in Hebrew. It is described in Leviticus 23:33, 39-44, “33Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 34‘Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the LORD. 35On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it… 39Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the LORD for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest. 40And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days… 42You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 43that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”’” It is described in Neh. 8; Zech. 14:1-19.
The Messianic significance of The Holydays of Tabernacles will prophetically be fulfilled at the Second Coming of Yeshua, at the close of the future Jewish Seven-Year Tribulation, as described in Rev.19:11-21, when He comes and “tabernacles” among men for 1,000 years in His Messianic Millennial Kingdom in Zechariah 14:16-18, “16And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain. 18If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.” This will fulfill John 1:14 again, “14And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the one-of-a-kind from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Yeshua taught during this Holyday in John 7 of its future spirituality in verses 37-39, “37On the last day, that great day of the feast [of Tabernacles], Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ 39But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” [in His resurrection]. Joel had prophesied about this Millennial Kingdom in Joel 2:27-32, “27Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: I am the LORD your God, and there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame. 28And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. 29And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. 30And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. 31The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. 32And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the LORD has said, Among the remnant whom the LORD calls.”
Biblical “New Year’s Day” is on the 1st of Nisan (aka Abib). One may call this Rosh HaShanna Torah. The Bible mentions this in Exodus 12:2, as the first day of the first month of the year, hence this would be considered the Biblical New Year’s Day. It is always the first full day after the first New Moon after the first day of Spring. It is the 14-day “countdown” to Passover from New Moon to Full Moon. This was the date of the beginning of the Tabernacle in Exodus 40:2ff. In the future Millennial Messianic Kingdom there will be four feasts celebrated in Ezekiel 45:18, where the first one in v. 18 will be “In the first day of the first month.” (There is first annual monthly celebration of “Rosh Chodesh Nisan” (Head [First] of New Nisan) that is on this day. It could be called Rosh HaShannah Torah [“Head of the Year of the Torah (Law of Moses)”]. This is not to be confused with the traditional date of Rosh HaShannah, popularly called the Jewish New Year’s Day (of the civil calendar). This date for Rosh HaShannah is really the first day of the Seventh Month in the Bible and is called The Holyday of Trumpets.
Hanukkah on Kislev 25 through Tevet 2 is an intertestamental event in 1 Maccabees 4:36-39, 54-56; 5:1; 2 Maccabees 10:1-8, that was prophesied in Daniel 8:13; 9:27; 11:21 and mentioned in John 10:22, “And it was the holiday of the Rededication in Jerusalem, and it was winter.”
Purim is Adar (II) 14-15 and commemorates the story of Esther with God’s Providence incognito. The Jews in Persia were distant from Him in their religion of “Judaism” [Esther 8:17] (somewhat, as Judaism is today), and they were unknowingly protected by Him. In the canonical text there is no reference to “God” or “LORD/Yahweh” nor “prayer.” The details of this commemoration are found in Esther 9:23-28, “23…the Jews accepted the custom which they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them, 24because Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to annihilate them, and had cast Pur (that is, the lot), to consume them and destroy them… 26So they called these days Purim, after the name Pur.…27that without fail they should celebrate these two days every year… 28that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews, and that the memory of them should not perish among their descendants.”
A convenient source of information of these dates and for the future is Hebcal which is a free Jewish calendar and holiday web site – https://www.hebcal.com
