PENTECOST - 1998

“Pentecost Never on Monday—Always on Sunday”

Fred Coulter - May 16, 1998

You’d think by now after all the years we’ve gone through it that people would know how to count Pentecost. And yet there are still some who believe in a Monday Pentecost as well as those who believe in a sixth of Sivan Pentecost, which still is creating problems for people and so I promised that I would do one more on counting Pentecost.  This is kind of like when we were going through the Passover when we had ba evev and ben ha arbayim and ba erev and ben ha arbayim forever and ever.  So if anyone wants to know how to count Pentecost hereafter we’re going to give them about six tapes and three or four charts and say go figure it out.  (Laughter)   So, we’ll do that.

Let’s just give a little history on a Monday Pentecost.  Nope, before we do that let’s see how to count it right first.  Ok, let’s go to Leviticus 23.  And in this case I’m going to read out of the Schocken Bible because he has an excellent translation of that part.  This continues the story right from the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  And at least every one in the Church of God, well I won’t say that, not everyone.  The Sabbath that we begin counting from is the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  So let’s do this, let’s take the chart, which says “Count Pentecost”.  I have two of them.  One for the year Christ died, on the backside.  And the other one, “Count Pentecost”.  And what we’re going to see, we’re going to see that the same sequence of days occurred during the Exodus as it did when Jesus was crucified.

Now, let’s look at the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is the 17^th day of the first month.  That is the Sabbath, that is then the Sabbath when you start counting the day after.  Now, let’s ask the question as we’re beginning here.  When does the morrow after the Sabbath begin?  Cause we have to deal in whole days.  The morrow after the Sabbath begins right at sunset, doesn’t it?  It ends the Sabbath and the first day of the week begins.  Let’s also understand something else.  Sunday is not an inherently pagan day.  Pagans did not create Sunday.  God created the first day of the week and Sunday is a day of worship which Pagans use as well as Protestants, and most of the Protestants are not as pagan as others, but never the less it is their own religion.  So people have it…one man has an aversion to it saying that, “Well, Sunday is a pagan day and God wouldn’t do anything on a pagan day.”  Well what are you going to do when the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread falls on a Sunday?  And Pentecost always falls on a Sunday as we will see.

Now first before we understand how not to count, let’s first understand how to count, alright.  Leviticus 23.  Let’s turn there now and we’ll begin in verse 10.  Yes, it is a rare occurrence for the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread to occur on a Sunday, but it does happen on rare occasions.  We’ll cover that when we get to Joshua 5.

Ok, verse 10, Leviticus 23, “Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them…”  Now let’s just mention here that anything that Moses says is not his sayings.  The law of Moses is the law of God.  The Jews take their laws and say that their laws are the law of Moses.  So you need to understand that there is a distinction.  And he says, “…When you enter the land that I am giving you, and you harvest its harvest…”  Now the crops were already planted so when they came in they harvested the harvest that was there, because when they took the land it became their land, their harvest, their crop.   Now continuing on, “…you are to bring the premier sheaf…”  Now this one, I like the translation here, the premier sheaf, and we know this is a type of Christ.  So the premier sheaf or the very first one that is cut, which is the one that represents Christ, “…the premier sheaf of your harvest to the priest.  He is to elevate the sheaf before the presence of [the LORD], for acceptance for you…” (Lev. 23:10-11, Schocken).  And I think that’s interesting how he would…we think in terms of just waving, but what he would do was elevate it so it’s more like typifying a resurrection than just waving back and forth.  He would pick it up and then wave it, I’m sure once he got it up, but he elevated it.

Now notice when he is to do it, “…on the morrow of the Sabbath…”,  so it is ha shabbath, meaning “the weekly Sabbath”.  It cannot mean the holy day Sabbath and we’ll show you why in a little bit when we go through here.  “…The priest is to elevate it.  You are to perform-a-sacrifice on the day of your elevating the sheaf: a sheep, wholly-sound, in its (first) year, as an offering-up to [the LORD], and its grain-gift: two tenth-measured of flour mixed with oil, a fire-offering to [the LORD], of soothing savor; and its poured-offering of wine: a fourth of a hin.  Now bread or parched-grain or groats, you are not to eat, until that same day, until you have brought the near-offering of your God -- (it is) a law for the ages, into your generations, throughout all your settlements” (vs. 11-14).  Now all during the Exodus they ate no bread.  They ate no grain.  They had manna.  Now let’s continue on counting cause we’ll come back to Joshua 5 where it talks about that in just a minute.  Now let’s understand something about a harvest.  Not all grain is ripe at the same time, and so that’s why there are seven weeks of harvest and this the barley harvest.

Now let’s continue on here in verse 15 so we get the count.  “Now you are to number for yourselves, from the morrow of the Sabbath, from the day that you bring the elevated sheaf, seven Sabbaths-of-days, whole (weeks) are they to be…”  Now that means it has to run from the first day to the seventh day for a week.  Anything that does not run from the first day to the seventh day is a deficient week, and we’ll see what happens with that.

Now, how many here are acquainted with double entry bookkeeping.  Ok, most of you are one way or the other.  That is so you have a check and a balance so you know what is correct.  Well in counting Pentecost we have the same equivalent of double entry bookkeeping but we actually have three checkpoints to go by, and we will see those, ok.

Let’s continue, “…until the morrow of the seventh Sabbath you are to number—fifty days…” (vs. 16).  Now let’s drop down to verse 21 so that we get this very clear.  “And you are to make-proclamation on that same day [which then is the 50^th day], a proclamation of holiness shall there be for you, any-kind of servile work you are not to do—a law for the ages, throughout your settlements, into your generations.”

Now let’s go back and let’s look at this and let’s count it, ok.  How many here work from Monday to Friday?  How would you feel if your boss paid you Tuesday through Friday?  You wouldn’t be working there very long would you?  And you would come to him and say, “Look, you shorted me a day.”  He says, “No you worked from Monday to Friday but we don’t count Monday.”  Now that’s how silly the argument is on counting Pentecost.  So when it says from the morrow after the Sabbath it means including that day.  You must include that day.  Now let’s look at these checkpoints we have.

1)   You are to have seven Sabbaths of days.  In other words seven weeks.  That’s the first checkpoint, seven weeks.

2)   Next checkpoint is, they are to be whole weeks.

3)   Verse 16, after the seventh Sabbath you are to have the 50^th day. So that’s number 3.

All three of these must agree.  Alright now, let’s understand something in counting.  Counting is different than addition or subtraction.  If you have nine plus three, that equals twelve, does it not?  If you take three away from 12 you have nine.  But when you go to high school you have how many grades?  Nine, ten, eleven, twelve.  You have four years, right?  See, so when you count, counting is always different than adding or subtracting, and all computer people know this because zero is a number and you must count zero, correct?  If you don’t count zero you’re in trouble.

Now let’s see how to count this.  Let’s take the chart “Count to Pentecost” the one of the year of the Exodus and let’s begin.  Let’s see that we have all three checkpoints.  On the morrow after the Sabbath, which is the 18^th, and notice we’ve got seven days.  One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and it ends in a Sabbath.  Now notice on the column, I have a big bold number one.  So we count seven complete weeks: one, two, three, four.  Now at the fourth Sabbath notice I’ve got a gray black and dark here.  The reason that that is, is because this is the 15^th day of the seventh month, which we find in Exodus 16, which tells us that this day is a Sabbath.  So therefore you can count backward from this day and find the sequence of events during the week of the Exodus.  So that’s how we’re able to determine it very accurately, ok.  So there’s the fourth Sabbath.  Fifth Sabbath, sixth Sabbath, then the seventh Sabbath.  Now notice we must have on the morrow after the seventh Sabbath.  So then we have Pentecost, Ten Commandments given on the day of Pentecost or the 50^th day.

Now let’s go back and count differently, ok.  Let’s go back and count differently.  Let’s do it the way the Jews do it for sixth of Sivan, ok.  Which then, they count beginning on the day after the holy day.  So the holy day is the 15^th day of the first month.  We go back up there and then come to the 16^th, and that is day number 1.  Then they have their first Sabbath.  So they have to ignore it, so they go by weeks.  So let’s just come straight down by weeks and let’s see what happens.  Sixteen, twenty-three, thirty.  You all got that, coming straight down?  Then we come to the second month, seven, fourteen, twenty-one, twenty-eight, and five.  Now what is the checkpoint that is missing that cannot work in this event?  That can’t have the morrow after the Sabbath because the day before it is on a Thursday, and Thursday is not a Sabbath.  So there’s one checkpoint that is missing.  The other checkpoint that is missing, you have what?  You have deficient weeks.  Now you may have the 50^th day, but you do not have all three checkpoints.  So you need all three.  It’s like in bookkeeping.  Auditor came in and he was looking at the books and here was this large account that said ESP, ESP account.  He says, “Well, my.  All your books balance but I have a question about this ESP account.  What is this account?”  “Oh, it’s very simple.  Whenever we have an error, we just put it over there.  Error Some Place, that’s what ESP means.”  (Laughter)  Yes, and so this is what happens with that kind of thing, ok.

Now, now that we know how to count it correctly, let’s go to Joshua 5 and then we’ll come back and we’ll look at some other things just so we can understand.  Joshua 5, and this tells us about when the entered into the land.  Now we have three booklets on counting Pentecost.

1)   “How to count Pentecost”.

2)   “From Which Sabbath to count Pentecost”, dealing specifically with the Joshua 5 problem, and then we have the one…

3)   “The True Meaning of Acts 2:1”.  And the true meaning of Acts 2:1 becomes very important as we’ll see later when we get into the New Testament.

Now, let’s pick it up here in Joshua 5:10 (King James), “And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover…” (Jos. 5:10-12).  Now what’s the day after the Passover?  The 15^th .  They could not eat of it until when?  What was the instruction back in Leviticus 23?  Until the wave sheaf.  So this shows that this wave sheaf was on the holy day, in this particular case because the 15^th day fell on a Sunday.  The Passover was on a Sabbath, 15^th day was on a Sunday. So you must begin with the day after the Passover because if you do not, as we go in great detail explain in the booklet, then you start counting Pentecost outside of the days of Unleavened Bread.  Because when you have the first day of Unleavened Bread on a Sunday, the seventh day of Unleavened Bread is on a weekly Sabbath, and if you use that weekly Sabbath, the last day, then the Feast of Unleavened Bread is all over with.  So the way that you count Pentecost in that event is, since Passover day is an unleavened bread day, then you use that Sabbath and begin counting on the first day of the week right after that Sabbath, and that’s when on rare occasions the first holy day is the first day toward the count.  On rare occasions.

So notice verse 12, “And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land…”  So they probably had a combination of old corn and new corn combined together.  “…Neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.”  So in that case then what you have is this…  Let’s go back and look at that.  I’m going to do another chart to mail it out.  I’ll do one for Joshua 5 but we’ll do it right here.   That means…now let’s come back and we’ll look at it here.  This means that the 14^th day would come on a Friday, so let’s come up here and look at it on a Friday.  And in this case just to show how it would be, it would be the 16^th, but it’s actually the 14^th because there’s a two-day difference there, you understand that?  I’ll work up a chart to show it, Friday the 14^th and Sabbath the 15^th, ok.  And if Sabbath were the 15^th then, no, 14^th is the Sabbath, 15^th is the first day of the week, and that’s the first day for the count.  That way they you have the count all the way down so that it comes out on the morrow after the seventh Sabbath, and you must use that Sabbath, being the Passover day as the Sabbath for counting toward Pentecost to get it on the right day.  So I’ll have a chart made when we mail this out we’ll have it all figured out for Joshua 5 there.

Now, I want to read to you something here, and I want you to listen very carefully to some of these sections.  But first I’m going to give you a little history on Monday Pentecost within the Worldwide Church of God.  Now it was explained that the way that you count, the way that they counted to get to a Monday Pentecost was, they did not count the first day.  And they said you must deal in whole days, and since the wave sheaf was waved in the morning therefore you don’t have a whole day.  Well that’s philatious reasoning because the whole day begins at sunset.  They did have a whole day.  And then they said to justify it, you count the way bankers count.  You count away from.  Just like I said on this Monday through Friday thing.  So they avoided counting the first day of the week, and then they counted and they ended up with a deficient count.  So they would have the first day being on Monday, so then the 50^th day would be on a Monday but they had the two things wrong that we saw.  Number one, they didn’t have complete weeks, and number two it wasn’t the 50^th day after the seventh Sabbath.  So those two things were wrong.

Now when they had a big flap concerning it, in Worldwide Church of God in 1952, 53, or 54, I forget exactly which year it was, the whole original congregation up in Eugene had come to the conclusion, with the exception of Grandma Romer, that Pentecost should be on a Sunday if you counted it properly.  Well, Herbert Armstrong asked Hermon Hoeh to get this situation squared around and to prove that it was on a Monday.  So what Hermon Hoeh did was this…he went to Leviticus 23 and he took the word sabbat, which means “Sabbath” and can never mean weeks, and said it meant “week”.  So therefore you can have it “on the morrow after the seventh week”.  So that’s how they justified it.  So it was very poor scholarship.

Then what happened, Herbert Armstrong sent Raymond Cole up to Eugene to enforce the law and they lost almost the whole congregation up there except for Grandma Romer.  Well with that really being so hard in it, and another justification was this…well since Herbert Armstrong is God’s apostle, God must have inspired it to be so, so therefore we will find out why it is so.  And I really believe that if Herbert Armstrong would have been shown the truth at that time instead of not told the truth by the researchers, that he would have accepted it properly at that time and we wouldn’t have had all of the difficulties through the years that we had with Pentecost.  And I also, some people say, “Well, we were blessed all the years that we kept it.”  And I remember Herbert Armstrong said, “Well, God bound a Monday Pentecost for 40 years because we declared it.”  Well, no God didn’t bind it for 40 years, He just overlooked the error for 40 years.  And it came out many, many times during those 40 years.

Finally when it came to a head, when it looked like it was going to split the church, then they finally in 1974 got around to doing it correctly.  Ernest Martin is the one who forced the problem.  And I remember reading his paper, and I told him directly, I said, “I can understand why Herbert Armstrong would never listen to you.  In the first two chapters of what you wrote you just attacked him as stupid, an idiot.”  And I said, “What you should have done was started in the third chapter, what was done in the days of Jesus, and he would have listened to you.”  And he tried to persuade me in other things, but I wasn’t persuaded by him, but never the less, anyway.  That’s when Herman Hoeh confessed what he did.  That he said, “Well he was God’s apostle so I justified it.  And I changed “Sabbath” to “weeks”.  So that’s how we ended up with a legacy of a Monday Pentecost.

Now then there are still some people who believe in it and they send out things and print it out.  And this is by “Giving and Sharing” by Richard Nichols and it’s entitled, “Why I Believe In A Monday Pentecost”.  And I thought it was interesting that he could not use the title “Why The Scriptures Teach A Monday Pentecost” because it doesn’t.  So let’s…I want you to listen to what he says here, and I want you to listen how the slight of hand takes place in his presentation and his thinking.

Now he says here about numbering, he’s got that correct.  Let me read it here, about numbering.  Yes, he has that it is to count or to number.  Now then he goes to Leviticus 15.  Let’s go to Leviticus 15.  That’s why I started in Leviticus 23.  You must go to where the source is first and then look at the others.  Leviticus 15, now this has to do with counting, sure enough.  And it has to do…but not with Pentecost…it has to do with being unclean.  Leviticus 15:13-14, let’s pick it up here.  Now it says, verse 13, “And when he that hath an issue is cleaned of his issue; then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing…”  In other words if he’s got a wound and it’s running and it’s healed, then after it’s healed and it’s cleansed then he’s to number seven days.

Alright, let’s just do this.  Let’s take a look at our chart.  Let’s just take the week beginning with day 18 and we’ll go seven days, even though in this case it could be any day of the week that it would take place, ok.   One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, ok.  He shall number seven days.  “…And wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean.”  So he would do that then on the seventh day.  “And on the eighth day he shall take to him two turtledoves [which then is over here on the 25^th], or two young pigeons, and come before the LORD unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and give them unto the priest: and the priest shall offer them, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the LORD for his issue” (vs.13-15).

Now let me read what he says.  “Notice the instruction.  Count seven days then come before the Lord.”  Now that’s a correct statement to that point.  Now here comes the slight of hand.  “In Leviticus 23 we are told to count from the morrow after the Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, even unto the morrow after the seven Sabbaths we are to number 50 days and you shall offer a new meal offering unto the Lord.  Count 50 days, then come before the Lord.”  Now did you see what he did?  He actually trapped himself in his own logic and didn’t even realize it, because what he really did was prove a 50^th day Pentecost by, if you count seven weeks and then the morrow after, then you come before the Lord.  But he is saying now you do this by counting 50 days first and then come before the Lord.  Now it does not say that.  It says on the self-same day you shall proclaim it to be a holy convocation, not the next day.  So that’s how he comes to it.

Now notice.  “Count 50 days then come before the Lord.  The question is, do you count a day before it starts, or when it is completed?”  You count the day as it is occurring.  He didn’t ask the right question.  You don’t count it before it starts.  Obviously when it’s completed you count it but you’re into the next day, correct?  Notice his reasoning, “In baseball…”  Now what does baseball have to do with Pentecost?  (Laughter)  “In baseball do you score a run when the base runner starts to run the bases or when he touches home plate?”  But you see baseball has nothing to do with counting Pentecost.  “Our family sometimes plays board games tallying, that is counting the points with four marks and then a fifth mark cross over the four.  One, two, three, four, five.  One, two, three, four, five.  When you earn a point you make a tally.  God counts days the same way.  In Genesis 1, time after time, days are counted as follows:  the evening and morning were the first day.”  When was the day counted?  Beginning with the evening and then the day and when it’s finished that’s the first day.”  But it’s the first day all the way through from beginning to end of the first day, correct?  Yes.

Now notice, then he says, “Days are counted at the end of the day when they are completed.  Likewise in the Pentecost count in Leviticus 23, each of the 50 days are counted at the end of the day then after the completion of the 50^th day count we are to come before the Lord and it’s simple and scripturally correct to count 50 days then keep Pentecost.”  It is not simple and it’s not scripturally correct because it says in Leviticus 23, on the selfsame day you shall proclaim a holy convocation, which is the 50^th day.

Now there’s some other things that he gets into here.  Here’s another one concerning circumcision.  “A baby is eight days old when he has lived eight days, which is the ninth day of his life in progress.  I am 50 years old, 51^st year in progress.”  So what he’s saying is this.  When a baby is circumcised it’s the ninth day not the eighth day, when God says he’ll be circumcised on the eighth day.  See, “…a baby boy is eight days old when he’s lived for eight days, which is the ninth day of his life in progress.”   No, the day you are born, do you count the day that you are born?  Why certainly you do.  What is your birthday?  “Well let’s see.  I was born on the 21^st so my birthday is the 22^nd.”   See, no, if you’re born on the 21^st it’s the 21^st.  So you count it.  So when they’re circumcised they’re circumcised on the eighth day, not the ninth day.  So notice how his reasoning is here.

Then he mentions something else that Dr. Hoeh wrote concerning the year 161 and the calendar, which is another one of Dr. Hoeh’s slight of hand.  Ok, let’s see what else he has here.  Let’s come to Deuteronomy 16:9. “Seven weeks shalt thou number  unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.”  Now when would they put the sickle to the corn?  The morrow after the Sabbath.  They had a special ritual that they would do, which was this…   Out on the Mt. of Olives they had a special barley patch where they grew the barley for the premier sheaf.  And during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it came to the regular Sabbath during Unleavened Bread, you can find this in Edersheim, they would have a procession that would go out to this special patch where they would have the ceremonial cutting of the very first sheaf.  That’s the premier sheaf.  That’s when they began to cut the grain.  And what they would do they would go out right toward the end of the Sabbath, and they would have men stationed up on top of the hill, and they would call out three times, “Has the sun gone down?  Has the sun gone down?  Has the sun gone down?”  As soon as they go affirmative the sun had gone down, they cut the sheaf, wrapped it with a special tie, and brought it into the temple area to be waved the next morning.

So when that was cut, that’s the beginning of the harvest.  So then you have seven weeks.  But what is missing here in Deuteronomy 16?  You don’t have the 50^th day.  So this is talking about the harvest.  And it says, “And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks…”   Now the feast of Pentecost is also called the Feast of Weeks because you count seven weeks and then the next day is the Feast of Weeks.  “…Unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee” (vs. 10)  And all of the rest of it there pertains to it.

Now let’s notice what they’re saying here.  “Deuteronomy 16:9 refers to the putting of the sickle to the corn.  This phrase includes harvesting for oneself.”  Well, I suppose it could but it’s primarily referring to the wave sheaf offering.  “One could not harvest for oneself without first offering the wave sheaf.”  Well we know that but they could cut the next day, couldn’t they?  Yes they could.  As soon as that was cut that evening, the next morning they could be out harvesting.  “So there is a day devoted to the offering of the wave sheaf, the wave sheaf Sunday as we refer to it.  The next day is the day when the harvest is for oneself and this could be what is referred to in Deuteronomy 16:9.”  So there again he’s…everything that he says is to justify a Monday Pentecost. The main thing that he says that you count 50 days and then you keep the 51^st day.  But that’s not what the scriptures tell us.

Now, this harvest was barley harvest, and the barley harvest is…barley always ripens before everything else.  And the firstfruits of this harvest was right there during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  The harvest continued down until the finality of the harvest on the 50^th day.  There were other things being harvested as things went along, which you will see there in…let’s to to 2 Chronicles 32, where that they brought their firstfruits of the other things whenever they came in.  But that had nothing to do with the barley harvest.  The barley harvest is a special grain harvest.

2 Chronicles 32…I beg your pardon…31.  2 Chronicles 31.  Let’s pick it up here in verse 1, “Now when all this was finished…”,  that is the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month that they had there, “…all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all.  Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.”  And then king Hezekiah appointed the priests, verse 3, gave portions for morning offerings, Sabbath offerings, new moon and feasts, verse 3.  Verse 4, he commanded the portions be given to the Levites and so forth.

Verse 5, “And as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field; and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly.”  So those things would come along in different times.  “And concerning the children of Israel and Judah, that dwelt in the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of holy things which were consecrated unto the LORD their God, and laid them by heaps.  In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps…”  So here’s when the main harvest starts coming in, after the third month.  See it’s the barley harvest, the very first is the harvest for Pentecost, so all the other firstfruits are not counted in this firstfruit harvest because that is a type of the church, as we will see.  So you’ll have to stick around for Pentecost to get the rest of the story on that, ok.  But all of the others harvested.  And notice they brought them in, “…third month they began to lay the foundation of heaps, and finished them in the seventh month” (vs. 5-7)  So here all the things were brought in and they had to made the temporary… they had to build a foundation and then cover them so that they would be able to store them.  And so they finished it in the seventh month, which then was obviously the Feast of Tabernacles.  So all the firstfruits of the different crops come in at different time but since barley is a very first ripe of anything that comes in that is why the feast of Pentecost is keyed to the barley harvest.

Now let’s go on, let’s see the…let’s turn it to the other one now, turn it to the other side, and we’re going to see a progression as we come along here.  Let’s first of all go to Mark 16.  Let’s come to the New Testament, and we’re going to see that there is a counting.  Mark 16:1.  Now the first day of the week is the wave sheaf offering day.  Let’s pick it up here in verse 1, Mark 16, “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had brought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him.  And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.”  We’re going to see a little later that Mary Magdalene actually left her house while it was still yet a little dark.  But while this is going on the sun is rising.  “And they said among themselves, ‘Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?’  And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.  And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.  And he saith unto them, ‘Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: He is risen; He is not here: behold the place where they laid Him.’” (Mark 16:1-6).  Now we’re going to see that the angels also moved around.  We are going to see, in this case, one angel appeared, in another case we’re going to see where there were two angels that appeared.  Both are correct. “‘But go your way, tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see Him, as He said unto you.’”  So they went away quickly and so forth.

Now let’s come down here to verse 9. “Now when Jesus was risen…” , and actually this is in the past tense and could read, “Now after Jesus had risen” would be the correct translation.  Had risen “…early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene…”  This is where they get where Jesus rose the first day of the week.  But He was already raised as we will see when we look at the chart here, because He was in the grave three days and three nights.  “…Out of whom He had cast seven devils.  And she went and told them that had been with Him, as they mourned and wept.  And they, when they had heard that He was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not” (vs. 9-11).

Now let’s come to the account in the book of Luke.  Let’s come to Luke 24:1, “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.  And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.  And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: and as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, ‘Why seek ye the living among the dead?  He is not here, but is risen: remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee…” (Luke 24:1-6).  And so then they finally remembered the words.

Now let’s come to John 20 and we’ll go through almost…