The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D., late Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge such as were, and such as never before were printed : in two volumes : with the authors life and large and useful tables to each volume : also three maps : one of the temple drawn by the author himself, the others of Jervsalem and the Holy Land drawn according to the author's chorography, with a description collected out of his writings.

§. 1. The time, and nature of the Feast of Pentecost.

THE expression of the Evangelist hath bred some scruple; how it can be said, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the day to be compleated, or fulfilled, when it was now but newly begun: and the sight of this scruple it is like hath moved the Syrian Translater, and the Vulgar Latine, to read it in the plural number, When the days of Pentecost were fulfilled: Calvin saith, compleri is taken for advenire, to be fulfilled, for to be now come: Beza accounts the fulness of it to be, for that the night, which is to be reckoned for some part of it, was now past; and some part of the day also. In which exposition he saith something toward the explanation of the scruple, but not enough.

Luke therefore, in relating a story of the feast of Pentecost, useth an expression agree∣able to that of Moses, in relating the institution of it, Lev. 23. 13. And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath; from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave-of∣fering; seven Sabbaths shall be compleat: Even unto the morrow after the seven Sabbath, shall ye number fifty days.

It will not be amiss to open these words a little, for the better understanding and fix∣ing the time of Pentecost.

First, The Sabbath that is first mentioned in the Text, in these words, Ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, is to be understood of the first day of the Passover week, or the fifteenth day of the month Nisan; the Passover having been slain on the day before. And so it is well interpreted by the Chaldee Paraphrast, that goeth under the name of Jonathan, and by Rabbi Solomon upon this Chapter, at the 11 verse; And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord after the holy day, the first day of the Passover.

And it was called a Sabbath, be it on what day of the week it would, (as it was on the Friday at our Saviours death) because no servile work was to be done in it; but an holy convocation to be held unto the Lord, vers. 7. and the Passover Bullock, Deut. 16. 2, 7. 2 Chron. 30. 24. & 35. 8. to be eaten on it, Joh. 18. 28. as the Lamb had been eaten the night before; and this Bullock was also called a Passover, and the day the preparation of the Passover, Joh. 19. 14. as well as the Lamb, and the day before had been.

This helpeth to understand that difficult phrase, Matth. 28. 1. about which there is such difference and difficulty of expounding, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, In the evening of the Sabbath, saith the Syriack and the Vulgar: And o utinam! for then would the Lords day be clearly called the Sabbath, the Sabbath of the Jews being ended before the evening or night of which he speaketh, did begin. In the end of the Sabbath, saith Beza, and our English, but the Sabbath was ended at Sun-setting before. It is therefore to be rendred, after the Sabbaths, for so signifieth * 1.1 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, after, in Greek Writers, as well as the Evening: and the plural number of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, is to have its due interpretation, Sabbaths. Now there were two Sabbaths that fell together in that Passover week in which our Saviour suffered; this Convocational or Festival Sabbath, the first day of the Passover week, and the ordinary weekly Sabbath, which was the very next day after: the former was a Friday, and on that our Saviour suffered, the latter a Saturday, or the Jewish Sabbath, and on that he rested in the grave, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, after these Sabbaths; early in the morning on the first day of the week he rose again.

Secondly, The morrow after this Sabbath of which we have spoken, or the sixteenth day of the month Nisan, was the solemn day of waving the sheaf of the first fruits be∣fore the Lord, and the day from which they began to count their seven weeks to Pente∣cost, Lev. 23. 11. Deut. 16. 9.

This day then being the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or second day in the Passover week, and being the date from whence they counted to Pentecost, all the Sabbaths from hence thither, were named in relation to this day: as the first Sabbath after it is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Luke 6. 1. Not as it is rendred, the second Sabbath after the first, but the first Sabbath after this second day: the next Sabbath after was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: the third 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and so the rest accordingly.

Thirdly, Now in their counting from this morrow after the Sabbath, or this day of their first-fruit sheaf, to Pentecost, seven Sabbaths or Weeks were to be compleat: whereupon R. Solomon doth very well observe, that the count must then begin at an evening; and so this day after the Sabbath was none of the fifty; but they were begun to be counted at Even when that day was done: so that from the time of waving the

first-fruit sheaf, Pentecost was indeed the one and fiftieth day; but counting seven weeks compleat, when an evening must begin the account, it is but the fiftieth.

Fourthly, To this therefore it is that the phrase of the Evangelist speaketh, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which our English hath very well uttered, the day of Pentecost was ful∣ly come; thereby giving an exact notice how to fix the day that is now spoken of from our Saviours death, and to observe that he speaketh of the time of the day indeed, and not of the night which was now over, and the day fully come.

The dependence of Pentecost upon this day of waving the first-fruit sheaf, was upon this reason; because on this second day of the Passover, barley harvest began; and from thence forward they might eat parched corn, or corn in the ear; but by Pentecost their corn was inned and seasoned, and ready to make bread, and now they offered the first of their bread. This relation had this Festival in the common practise, but something more did it bear in it as a memorial; for it recorded the delivering of the Law at Mount Sinai, which was given at the very same time: And thus the giving of the Law at Sinai, for the bringing of the Jews into a Church, and the gift of the Holy Ghost at Sion for the like of the Gentiles, did so nearly agree in the manner of their giving, both in fire, and in the time, both at Pentecost. Only, as the Christian Sabbath was one day in the week, beyond the Jewish Sabbath; so this Pentecost when the Holy Ghost was given, was one in the month beyond the Pentecost at the giving of the Law, that being on the sixth day of the month Sivan, and this on the seventh.

Notes

• * 1.1

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Plutarch▪ post regls tempora. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, post tem∣pora Trojana. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, post noctem, &c.