Shavuot in Early Judaism

Shavuot marks the beginning of the wheat harvest, which follows the barley harvest. The name Shavuot, meaning “weeks,” is one of the biblical names for the festival and refers to the seven weeks counted from the start of the barley harvest to determine the festival’s date (Exodus 34:22; Deuteronomy 16:9–10, 16). Shavuot is also called the Festival of the Harvest (Exodus 23:16) and the Day of Firstfruits (Numbers 28:26). In the Greek Septuagint translation, Shavuot is called Pentecost, meaning “count fifty,” based on Leviticus 23:15–16, which sets the date of the festival as the fiftieth day after the barley harvest (the day after the seven full weeks).

The testimonies from 2 Maccabees and Josephus refer to Jews desisting from fighting on this festival day, and Josephus mentions an episode of political unrest that occurred in Jerusalem when pilgrims gathered in the city for the festival. Philo sees great importance in the counting of seven weeks of seven days in order to arrive at the date of this festival and the fact that it is observed on the “perfect” fiftieth day.

Rabbinic literature reflects on the sectarian calendrical disputes occasioned by the ambiguity in scripture’s directive to begin counting from “the day after the Sabbath” (Leviticus 23:15): does this mean the day after the first day of the Passover festival or the day after the Sabbath that occurs during the festival week (so that Shavuot would always fall on a Sunday)? The rabbis associate this festival with the day on which the Torah was given at Mount Sinai, while early Christian tradition associates it with the giving of the Holy Spirit to the apostles in the book of Acts. Both of these traditions occur amid flames of fire.