Philo’s Explanation of Shavuot

Josephus

On the Special Laws 2.176–187 (selections)

First Half of 1st Century

The festival of the Sheaf, which has all these grounds of precedence, indicated in the law, is also in fact anticipatory of another greater feast. For it is from it that the fiftieth day is reckoned, by counting seven sevens, which are then crowned with the sacred number by the monad, which is an incorporeal image of God, Whom it resembles because…

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Philo’s explanation of Shavuot addresses the significance of the fifty days between the offering of the sheaf of barley (‘omer) and Shavuot, why the name Feast of Firstfruits (or “first-products”) is given to a festival celebrating the wheat harvest, and the offering of two leavened loaves of wheat (Leviticus 23:17).

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Creator Bio

Josephus

37–100

Flavius Josephus was born into a prominent Jewish priestly family and served as a general stationed in the Galilee during the First Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE). He was captured by the Romans and eventually integrated into the Flavian imperial aristocracy, who commissioned him to compose chronicles of the Jewish–Roman war and the history of the Jews. Josephus’ works, all written in Greek, include The Jewish War, Jewish Antiquities, Against Apion, and his autobiography, Life of Josephus. These writings provide important insights into the Judaisms of the Second Temple period and include one of the few surviving accounts of the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.

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