Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christian holiday that takes place on the 49th day (50th day when inclusive counting is used) after Easter. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles of Jesus, Mary, and other followers of Christ, while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1–31). Pentecost marks the "Birthday of the Church".
Pentecost is one of the Great feasts in the Eastern Orthodox Church, a Solemnity in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, a Festival in the Lutheran Churches, and a Principal Feast in the Anglican Communion. Many Christian denominations provide a special liturgy for this holy celebration. Since its date depends on the date of Easter, Pentecost is a "moveable feast". The Monday after Pentecost is a legal holiday in many European, African and Caribbean countries.
Etymology The term Pentecost comes from . One of the meanings of "Pentecost" in the Septuagint, the Koine translation of the Hebrew Bible, refers to the festival of Shavuot, one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, which is celebrated on the fiftieth day after Passover according to Deuteronomy 16:10, and Exodus 34:22, where it is referred to as the "Festival of Weeks" (). The Septuagint uses the term in this context in the Book of Tobit and 2 Maccabees.
The translators of the Septuagint also used the word in two other senses: to signify the year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:10) an event that occurs every 50th year, and in several passages of chronology as an ordinal number. The term has also been used in the literature of Hellenistic Judaism by Philo of Alexandria and Josephus to refer to Shavuot.
Background
In Judaism, Shavuot is a harvest festival that is celebrated seven weeks and one day after the first day of Passover in Deuteronomy 16:9, or seven weeks and one day after the Sabbath according to Leviticus 23:16. It is discussed in the Mishnah and the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Arakhin.Mishnah Arakhin 7:1–9:8; Tosefta Arakhin 5:1–19; Babylonian Talmud Arakhin 24a–34a. The actual mention of fifty days comes from Leviticus 23:16.
The Festival of Weeks is also known as the Feast of Harvest in Exodus 23:16 and the Day of First Fruits in Numbers 28:26. In Exodus 34:22, it is called the "first fruits of the wheat harvest."
Sometime during the Hellenistic period, the ancient harvest festival also became a day of renewing the Noahic covenant, described in Genesis 9:17, which is established between God and "all flesh that is upon the earth". After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, offerings could no longer be brought to the Temple in Jerusalem and the focus of the festival shifted from agriculture to the Israelites receiving the Torah.
By this time, some Jews were already living in the Diaspora. According to there were Jews from "every nation under heaven" in Jerusalem, possibly visiting the city as pilgrims during Pentecost.
New Testament
The narrative in Acts 2 of the Pentecost includes numerous references to earlier biblical narratives like the Tower of Babel, and the flood and creation narratives from the Book of Genesis. It also includes references to certain theophanies, with certain emphasis on God's incarnate appearance on biblical Mount Sinai when the Ten Commandments were presented to Moses. Theologian Stephen Wilson has described the narrative as "exceptionally obscure" and various points of disagreement persist among bible scholars.
There is no literary evidence to confirm the location of the ("house"), given as the location of the events in Acts 2:2. Some semantic details suggest that the "house" could be the "upper room" () mentioned in , but there is no textual evidence to confirm the location with certainty and it remains a subject of debate among biblical commentators.
The events of Acts Chapter 2 are set against the backdrop of the celebration of Pentecost in Jerusalem. There are several major features to the Pentecost narrative presented in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. The author begins by noting that the disciples of Jesus "were all together in one place" on the "day of Pentecost" (). The verb used in Acts 2:1 to indicate the arrival of the day of Pentecost carries a connotation of fulfillment.
There is a "mighty rushing wind" (wind is a common symbol for the Holy Spirit) and "tongues as of fire" appear. The gathered disciples were "filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance". Some scholars have interpreted the passage as a reference to the multitude of languages spoken by the gathered disciples, while others have taken the reference to "tongues" () to signify ecstatic speech.
In Christian tradition, this event represents fulfillment of the promise that Christ will baptize his followers with the Holy Spirit., Out of the four New Testament gospels, the distinction between baptism by water and the baptism by Christ with "Holy Spirit and fire" is only found in Matthew and Luke.Expositor's Bible Commentary
The narrative in Acts evokes the symbolism of Jesus's baptism in the Jordan River, and the start of his ministry, by explicitly connecting the earlier prophecy of John the Baptist to the baptism of the disciples with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost., The timing of the narrative during the law giving festival of Pentecost symbolizes both continuity with the giving of the law, but also the central role of the Holy Spirit for the early church. The central role of Christ in Christian faith signified a fundamental theological separation from the traditional Jewish faith, which was grounded in the Torah and Mosaic Law.
Peter's sermon in stresses the resurrection and exaltation. In his sermon, Peter quotes Joel 2:28–32 and Psalm 16 to indicate that first Pentecost marks the start of the Messianic Age. About one hundred and twenty followers of Christ (Acts 1:15) were present, including the Twelve Apostles (Matthias was Judas's replacement) (Acts 1:13, 26), Jesus's mother Mary, other female disciples and his brothers (). While those on whom the Spirit had descended were speaking in many languages, the Apostle Peter stood up with the eleven and proclaimed to the crowd that this event was the fulfillment of the prophecy.
In Acts 2:17, it reads: "'And in the last days,' God says, 'I will pour out My Spirit upon every sort of flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy and your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams." He also mentions (Acts 2:15) that it was the third hour of the day (about 9:00 A.M). Acts 2:41 then reports: "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls."
Some critical scholars believe some features of the narrative are theological constructions. They believe that even if the Pentecost narrative is not literally true, it does signify an important event in the history of the early church which enabled the rapid spread of Christianity. Within a few decades important congregations had been established in all major cities of the Roman Empire.
Concerning Acts 2, Gerd Lüdemann considers the Pentecost gathering as very possible,‘Although doubting that the specification "Pentecost" belongs to the tradition, Lüdemann supposes, on the basis of references to glossolalia in Paul's letters and the ecstatic prophecy of Philip's daughters (Acts 21:9), that "we may certainly regard a happening of the kind described by the tradition behind vv.1–4 as very possible."’, Lüdemann quoted by Matthews, ‘Acts and the History of the Earliest Jerusalem Church’, in Cameron & Miller (eds.), ‘Redescribing Christian origins’, p. 166 (2004) and the apostolic instruction to be historically credible.‘"The instruction by the apostles is also to be accepted as historical, since in the early period of the Jerusalem community the apostles had a leading role. So Paul can speak of those who were apostles before him (in Jerusalem!, Gal. 1.17)" (40.)’, Lüdemann quoted by Matthews, ‘Acts and the History of the Earliest Jerusalem Church’, in Cameron & Miller (eds.), ‘Redescribing Christian origins’, p. 166 (2004). Wedderburn acknowledges the possibility of a ‘mass ecstatic experience’,‘It is also possible that at some point of time, though not necessarily on this day, some mass ecstatic experience took place.’, Wedderburn, ‘A History of the First Christians’, p. 26 (2004). and notes it is difficult to explain why early Christians later adopted this Jewish festival if there had not been an original Pentecost event as described in Acts.‘At any rate, as Weiser and Jervell point out,39 it needs to be explained why early Christians adopted Pentecost as one of their festivals, assuming that the Acts account was not reason enough.’, Wedderburn, ‘A History of the First Christians’, p. 27 (2004). He also holds the description of the early community in Acts 2 to be reliable.‘Many features of them are too intrinsically probable to be lightly dismissed as the invention of the author. It is, for instance, highly probable that the earliest community was taught by the apostles (2:42)—at least by them among others.’, Wedderburn, ‘A History of the First Christians’, p. 30 (2004).‘Again, if communal meals had played an important part in Jesus’ ministry and had indeed served then as a demonstration of the inclusive nature of God’s kingly rule, then it is only to be expected that such meals would continue to form a prominent part of the life of his followers (Acts 2:42, 46), even if they and their symbolic and theological importance were a theme particularly dear to ‘Luke’s’ heart.47 It is equally probable that such meals took place, indeed had to take place, in private houses or in a private house (2:46) and that this community was therefore dependent, as the Pauline churches would be at a later stage, upon the generosity of at least one member or sympathizer who had a house in Jerusalem which could be placed at the disposal of the group. At the same time it might seem unnecessary to deny another feature of the account in Acts, namely that the first followers of Jesus also attended the worship of the Temple (2:46; 3:1; 5:21, 25, 42), even if they also used the opportunity of their visits to the shrine to spread their message among their fellow-worshippers. For without question they would have felt themselves to be still part of Israel.’, Wedderburn, ‘A History of the First Christians’, p. 30 (2004).