Ancient Israel’s agricultural year began with the planting in the month Cheshvan (November) shortly after the Feast of Tabernacles. The wheat and barley seed needed to be in the ground as the fall rains or “former rains” ( Jer. 5:24; Hos. 6:3; Joel 2:23) began falling._1 The “former rains” are the showers of October and early November. The “latter rains” of Nissan (April-May) help promote the growth of the barley and wheat so that they are ready for harvest by the time of First Fruits and Pentecost. This rains were considered a blessing from God: It is “God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season.” (Jer. 5:24).
Barley was grown primarily to feed the livestock_2 though it was not uncommon for poorer people to eat barley (John 6:9, 13). The barley crop would normally ripen sometime in April, several weeks ahead of the wheat. It took about two months to harvest both crops. The barley and wheat harvest were accompanied by two major feasts. Passover, frequently referred to as Unleavened Bread, coincided with the barley harvest. The celebration started with selection of a lamb on the 10th of Nissan_3 (Ex. 12:3). This lamb was watched for signs of imperfections which would make him ineligible for use as the Passover lamb (Ex. 12:5). The Passover lamb was slain on the 14th of Nissan before sundown (Lev. 23:4-5). At sundown, the new day on the Hebrew lunar calendar,_4 15 Nissan, begins. This was the first day of the week long festival of Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:6-8) which ends on 21 Nissan. The Passover lamb was eaten with the unleavened bread as part of the meal eaten in the evening, sometime around 6PM, as 15 Nissan was beginning.
The next celebration on the festival calendar was the feasts of First Fruits (Lev. 23:9-11). There is considerable disagreement as to the exact day of this feast. Leviticus 23:11 says that it was to take place, “on the morrow after the sabbath.” Was this the Sabbath which was observed on the first day of Unleavened Bread (15 Nissan) in accordance with Leviticus 23:7? Or was it the first weekly Sabbath that took place during the week of Unleavened Bread? This later possibility would mean that First Fruits always occurred on a Sunday. By the time of the Second Temple the Pharisees argued for the first possibility while the Sadducees argued for the second.
First Fruits provided the Israeli harvesters with the opportunity to express their thankfulness to God for a bountiful barley harvest. Once the barely crop was ready for harvest, the farmer would collect an omer_5 of barley and take it to the priest, who was to wave it before the Lord. They were not to eat any bread or roasted grains of the new corn till they had presented the offering of their God (Lev_23:14)_6.
The Mishnah, written a few centuries after the time of the first century church, describes how a messenger would go out and bind the standing stalks of grain into sheaves so that it would be easy to cut. The priest, followed by his entourage, would come to the field, sickle in hand, and ask, “Is the sun set?”, to which the people would answer, “Yes!!” “Shall I reap?” “Reap!!” The priest then cut off a standing stalk of grain, then took it to be prepared for the offering the next morning._7
The next event on the agricultural calendar was the Festival of Weeks or what Christians call “Pentecost.” The word Pentecost comes from the Greek phrase pentekoste hemerameaning “fiftieth day.” Leviticus 23:15-16 commands Israel to, “count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths (49 days) shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.” So the counting of the Omer starts the day of First Fruits. Reflecting the controversy over which day First Fruits, “the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering,” is to be observed, to this day, Rabbinic Jews,_7 start the Counting of the Omer on the second day of Passover (the 16th of Nissan) Karaite Jews,_7 start counting the day after the weekly Shabbat during Passover viagraspills.com. Both groups count for 49 days, the day before the festival of Shavuot, which is the ‘fiftieth day.’_8
The description of the Festival of Weeks can be found in Leviticus 23:15-21. The wheat takes longer then the barley to ripen for harvest. By the third month, the month of Sivan, of the festival calendar, the wheat is ready for harvest. It has been fifty days since the first fruits of the barley harvest were offered to the Lord. Now, the first fruits of the wheat harvest must be offered. This offering is to take place before the wheat is harvested. However, unlike the barley harvest were the raw uncooked grain was to be offered, two cakes were to be baked from the wheat with leaven_9 (Lev 23:17). This was to be a wave offering. The priests would
The wheat harvest is now coming to an end, with harvesters cutting the stalks and binding them into sheaves. Others are busy at the threshing floor, located on a windy hillock where crops do not grow. Oxen drag a threshing board over the unbound sheaves to separate the grains from the stalks. Winnowers toss the chopped-up mixture in the air so the wind can blow the chaff to the side while the heavier grains fall straight down.
1. Joel 2:23 says that “the latter rain” comes “in the first month.” The first month on the Jewish festive calendar is Nissan.
2. the ordinary food of cattle in Palestine and the southern lands, where oats are not cultivated;” 1Kings 4:27-28, Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament. According to the public domain 1915 edition of the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Barley was “grown chiefly as provender for horses and asses (1Kings 4:28), oats being practically unknown, but it was, as it now is, to some extent, the food of the poor in country districts (Ruth 2:17; 2Kings 4:42; John 6:9, John 6:13).
3. Nissan is the first month of the Jewish festive (religious) calendar (Ex 12:6,Lev 23:4; Lev 23:5; Num 9:2,5, Num 9:3,5, Num 28:16)
4. On the Hebrew calendar, the new day started and sundown, not at midnight. This is in accordnace with Gen. 1:5 “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”
5. “The omer was a small vessel, cup, or bowl, which formed part of the furniture of every house, and being always of the same size, could be used as a measure in case of need.” Exo 16:36, Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament, Johann (C.F.) Keil (1807-1888) & Franz Delitzsch (1813-1890) According to the ISBE “A dry measure, the tenth of an ephah, equal to about 7 1/2 pints.”
6. Lev. 23:5-14, Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament, Johann (C.F.) Keil (1807-1888) & Franz Delitzsch (1813-1890)
7. The Wave Sheaf Offering — The Forgotten Holy Day? by Jack M. Lane, http://livingtheway.org/wave2.html 29/12/2010
Karaite is a Jewish movement characterized by the recognition of the Tanakh alone as its supreme legal authority in Halakha, as well as in theology. It is distinct from Rabbinic Judaism, which considers the Oral law, the legal decisions of the Sanhedrin as codified in the Talmud, and subsequent works to be authoritative interpretations of the Torah. Karaite Judaism, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaites, 28/12/2010.
8. Counting of the Omer, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counting_of_the_Omer, 28/12/2010.
9. “…leaven consisted of a lump of old dough in a high state of fermentation, which was mixed into the mass of dough prepared for baking.” Leaven, Smith’s Bible Dictionary by Dr. William Smith (1884)