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John Commits the Fallacy of Irrelevant Conclusion

The fallacy of irrelevant conclusion is committed when a writer draws a conclusion that is not supported by the points that are presented.  After previously suggesting that the Passover observance in Joshua 5:10 may have been kept on the fourteenth day of the second month, John now asserts that it was not the Passover at all, but the first High Sabbath of Unleavened Bread:

“The WCG and many of its offshoots say Joshua 5:10-12 can only mean that the eating of unleavened cakes and parched corn, “on the morrow after the Passover” (they assume this to be Nisan 15), could occur only if this day were wavesheaf Sunday. Thus, they assume that what is called Passover was Nisan 14 and that it occurred on a weekly Sabbath in the year that the Israelites crossed over the Jordan River.

“Consider what is implied in the vast number of people involved in Israel’s crossing into the land and the WCG’s conclusion that Joshua 5:10-12 reveals a Sabbath Passover. The eating of unleavened cakes and parched corn on the morrow after the Passover means that on the first day of Unleavened Bread, a Sabbath—just after perhaps a million males had been circumcised—they worked to reap, thresh and winnow the grain; ground it into flour; kneaded the dough; and baked it into loaves for two to three million people! It would also have been necessary for them to have gathered wood for their fires and tote a great deal of water to make bread. Did Joshua and Israel’s leadership grossly overlook the strict Sabbath work laws enforced in the wilderness?

“But let us discern what Joshua 5:10-12 really records. First, notice Exodus 12:18: “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening [ba’ereb] you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the months at evening [ba’ereb].” Leviticus 23:32 also uses ba’ereb in relation to when the Day of Atonement is to be observed, and confirms that ba’ereb refers to the end of a day. Now compare this with Joshua 5:10: Israel “kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight [ba’ereb].” This describes a festival kept at the end of Nisan 14. This is not the Passover we know from Exodus 12 but the feast held on the first day of Unleavened Bread, what we call the Night to Be Much Observed. They were keeping the holy day Sabbath!

“What has happened is that “Passover”—the general term Jews commonly used for both Passover and Unleavened Bread—was written instead of the more specific Feast of Unleavened Bread. This has occurred elsewhere in both the Old (Ezekiel 45:21) and New Testaments (Luke 22:1). We must determine from the context what specific festival the writer meant.

“We can also see this clearly in Deuteronomy 16. Verse 1 contains the term, “Passover.” However, within the verse is a clue that something is amiss, as it mentions God bringing Israel out of Egypt by night. Israel did not leave Egypt on Passover but on the first day of Unleavened Bread (see Exodus 12:42; Numbers 33:3). Verse 2 speaks of sacrificing the Passover “from the flock and the herd” and “in the place where the LORD chooses to put His name.” Comparing this to Exodus 12:5 reveals that true Passover sacrifices came only from flocks of sheep or goats, not from herds of cattle. Also, verses 7 and 13 specify that the Passover was to be sacrificed and eaten at home, not where God had placed His name, referring to the Tabernacle or Temple.

“Deuteronomy 16:3 again refers to leaving Egypt in haste and eating unleavened bread seven days. Verse 4 also mentions seven days, implying Unleavened Bread, not Passover. In addition, the term “first day” refers to the first day of Unleavened Bread. In verse 5 God specifically commands them not to sacrifice the Passover within their gates, directly contradicting Exodus 12 but perfectly agreeing with Deuteronomy 12:13-14 and His instructions for regular and holy day sacrifices “in the land.”

“The word “roast” (Strong’s #1310) in Deuteronomy 16:7 is incorrectly translated; it should be rendered “boil” or “seethe.” The Hebrew word for “roast” (Strong’s #6748) appears in the Exodus 12:8-9 Passover lamb instructions, where God specifically prohibits boiling the Passover lamb. However, it was proper to boil a sacrifice for the first day of Unleavened Bread. Finally, Deuteronomy 16:8 tells them to eat Unleavened Bread six (more) days, clearly indicating that the real subject of these verses is the first day of Unleavened Bread, not Passover.

“This should warn us to be careful when we come across the word ‘Passover’ in our study. We need to look beyond the word to other details in the context to understand whether it truly means Passover or Unleavened Bread. Joshua 5:10-12 contains not one solid piece of information to show that they even kept Passover those first few days in the land. What the Bible records Israel keeping in Joshua 5:10-12 is the first day of Unleavened Bread, referred to by the common misnomer, ‘Passover.’ ”

John states that it is an assumption to view the Passover of Joshua 5 as a Nisan 14 observance.  He maintains that this observance did not take place on the fourteenth but at the beginning of the fifteenth, and that it was not the Passover ceremony but the opening celebration of the Days of Unleavened Bread.  He refers to Leviticus 23:32 to support his interpretation of “on the fourteenth day of the month at even [ba ereb]” as the end of the fourteenth. John argues that the Hebrew ba ereb refers to the end of a day, overlooking the fact that this Hebrew term, meaning “sunset,” is also used to refer to the beginning of a day.  Whether it refers to the beginning or the end of a day must be determined by the context.

In asserting that “on the fourteenth day of the month at even” in Joshua 5:10 refers to the end of the fourteenth, John ignores the fact that this wording is also used in Numbers 9:5 to describe the observance of the Passover at the beginning of the fourteenth.  There is no question that the Passover in Numbers 9:5 was kept at the beginning of the fourteenth day of the first month, according to all the ordinances that God had commanded (Num. 9:2-3).  Every verse in Numbers 9 concerns the observance of the Passover ceremony, and no mention is made of the observance of the Feast of Unleavened Bread on the fifteenth. Since the same wording that is found in Numbers 9:5 is used in Joshua 5:10, there is no justification for the interpretation of this Passover as the celebration of the Feast on the following night.

John commits a further error in logic when he argues that Joshua 5:10 is not describing a fourteenth Passover but an observance on the night of the fifteenth.  After his earlier argument that Israel could not keep the Passover because the men were not able to slay the lambs, John asserts that only one night later the men were able to sacrifice not only lambs but bullocks and oxen, all of which were offered on the night of the fifteenth.  Furthermore, the Passover lambs were slain by the heads of the households, and no man was required to slay more than one lamb.  But the peace offerings for the night of the fifteenth were slain by the priests, who each were required to slay many lambs, as well as many oxen and bullocks.  It is illogical to claim that each head of a household could not slay one lamb on the fourteenth, but on the following night each priest was able to slay dozens of lambs and oxen and bullocks, especially after John’s previous statement that the priests were probably the last men to be circumcised.

John commits a third error in logic by claiming that the account in Joshua 5 relates only to the Days of Unleavened Bread and does not include the Passover.  There is no support for this claim anywhere in the Old Testament.  Every other account in the Old Testament clearly shows that the Days of Unleavened Bread were never observed without first observing the Passover.  Whether these observances were held in the first month or in the second month, the Passover was always kept before celebrating the night of the fifteenth.

The account in Joshua 5:10-12 clearly records the observance of the Passover when Israel first entered the land.  The very reason for circumcising the men was to prepare them for the Passover.  As the first Passover in Egypt initiated the fulfillment of God’s promise to lead Israel to the Promised Land, so the first Passover in Canaan initiated the fulfillment of His promise to give them the land for an inheritance.  The following verses in Joshua 5 show that the conquest of the land began immediately afterward, commencing with the siege of Jericho.

John Commits the Fallacy of Irrelevant Conclusion

The fallacy of irrelevant conclusion is committed when a writer draws a conclusion that is not supported by the points that are presented.  In the following paragraphs, John draws a number of conclusions that are completely unfounded:

“Armed with this information, we may know the dates on which these events occurred, but they in no way reveal on which days of the week they fell. Assuming these events occurred in the month of Nisan, Joshua 5:10 tells us that the Israelites rested and kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread as the 15^th of Nisan began. They continued on the 16^th (called “the morrow” or “day after the Passover”), by preparing and eating unleavened cakes and parched corn. They used the old corn confiscated from the storage places of the Canaanites on the east side of Jordan or perhaps gathered a sufficient amount from the people of the land on the west side who fled as the Israelites flooded in.

“The Israelites rested on the holy day and ate manna that day (remember double portions of manna fell on preparation days, which the 14^th was). On Nisan 16, the second day of Unleavened Bread—called “the day after the Passover” (Joshua 5:11)—manna again fell. This they ate, and they also prepared “old corn” into unleavened cakes and parched corn. The 17^th, the third day of Unleavened Bread, the manna stopped and they began eating only the fruit of the land. All the labor involved in preparing the “old corn” for consumption was entirely lawful to do from the second day on. Moreover, as we shall see, it was perfectly lawful for them to harvest and eat a Canaanite crop without having a wavesheaf offering.

“The “old corn,” as translated in the KJV, is ‘abuwr (Strong’s #5669), meaning “passed, i.e. kept over; used only of stored grain: old corn.” This word is specifically used; it appears only here in the Scriptures. It describes what has been carried over from the previous year’s harvest or carried over from the east side of the Jordan (see Joshua 1:11). Either way, this “old corn” is not necessarily newly harvested grain. Modern translations change this word to “produce.” While this is not technically wrong, since even “old corn” is produce, the translators do us no favor because “produce” hides chronological and labor nuances that help clarify the events as they happened.

“Leviticus 23:10 contains some pertinent information: “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest.” Many in the church of God believe the Israelites fulfilled this command in that first week after they crossed the Jordan. But did they? Notice also Exodus 23:15-16:

“ ‘You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty); and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field. . . .’ ”

“ ‘None shall appear before Me empty’ indicates offerings, which would include the offerings for Unleavened Bread, the wavesheaf and Pentecost. In Leviticus 23:10 and Exodus 23:15-16, notice how clear the instructions are regarding the requirements for these offerings: “bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest” “which you have sown.”

“As recorded in Joshua 5, the Israelites could not meet these qualifications when they came into the land. They may have been able to reap a harvest, but they certainly could not have reaped what they had sown. They probably reaped what the Canaanites had sown. However, if they had offered what the Canaanites had sown, they would have been guilty of essentially the same offense that resulted in Nadab and Abihu’s execution by lightning bolts in Leviticus 10! Would Joshua do such a thing?

“Leviticus 22:2, 24-25 adds an important detail:

“ ‘Speak to Aaron and his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, and that they do not profane My holy name in those things which they sanctify to Me; I am the LORD. . . . You shall not offer to the LORD what is bruised or crushed, or torn or cut; nor shall you make any offering of them in your land. Nor from a foreigner’s hand shall you offer any of these as the bread of your God, because their corruption is in them, and defects are in them. They shall not be accepted on your behalf.’ ”

“This is very clear, but Leviticus 18:24-30 is even more pointed: God considers even the land to be defiled!

“When Israel came into the land on the tenth day of the first month, regulations that had not been in effect in the wilderness became the law of the land. Notice Deuteronomy 12:10-11, 13-14:

“ ‘But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, then there will be the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the LORD. . . . Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; but in the place which the LORD chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.’ ”

“Numbers 33:50-54 along with Deuteronomy 3:18-20 and 26:1-3 reveal that God required the Israelites to accomplish certain steps before they were free to make offerings such as the wavesheaf. Once the land was secure and the people had rest, then and only then could they do all that the Lord commanded. God imposed limits on where they could bring their offerings. The Israelites had to wait, not only until the land was secure, but also until God declared where He wanted the Tabernacle and the brazen altar erected.”

“In addition, notice Leviticus 23:11-13:

“ ‘He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the LORD. Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the LORD, for a sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-forth of a hin.’ ”

“God commands the wavesheaf offering to be accompanied by an animal sacrifice and a meal offering. Immediately after Israel crossed over the Jordan, there was no altar, no Tabernacle, and no produce from the Israelites’ sowing and reaping. All of these elements were necessary once Israel was in the land. We must conclude, therefore, that no wavesheaf offering was made in Joshua 5. Joshua could meet none of its requirements!

“Joshua 18:1 records the erection of the Tabernacle and altar. This is considerably later than Joshua 5. How much time had passed between them? Joshua 14:6-7, 10 state that Caleb was the first to receive his inheritance in the land, when he was 85. At age 40, he spied out the land, about two years after Israel left Egypt. He was thus 78 years old when the events of Joshua 5 occurred 38 years later. Therefore, about seven years elapsed between Joshua 5 and Joshua 14—and Israel still could not meet the requirements to offer a wavesheaf offering.

“Finally, in Joshua 21:43-45:

“ ‘So the LORD gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. The LORD gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand. Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.’ ”

“Only at this point could Israel make offerings as God commanded.

“Conclusion: Joshua 5 cannot be used to establish a first day of Unleavened Bread waving of the sheaf. First, the wavesheaf is not even mentioned. Second, the produce they ate were provisions carried over, not a harvest of their own cultivation. Third, they could in no way meet the requirements to make an offering God could accept, thus they made none. Joshua 5 contains no authority to support a first day of Unleavened Bread wavesheaf day when Passover falls on a weekly Sabbath.”

Based on his misinterpretation of the Passover observance in Joshua 5:10, John places this event on Nisan 15 and the “morrow after the Passover” on Nisan 16.  He then asserts that eating the “old corn of the land” does not refer to grain from the fields but was either the previous year’s harvest or had been carried into the land.  He offers Strong’s definition of the Hebrew word translated “old corn” in Joshua 5:11 to support his arguments.

John fails to consider that Israel could not have obtained grain from the storehouses of the land because the people had not yet entered any of the cities.  The storehouses were always built within the walled cities where the grain could be protected.  Thus it is not possible that the grain eaten by the Israelites was taken from the previous harvest.  The translation “old corn” in Joshua 5:11 is misleading.  The New Englishman’s Hebrew Concordance tells us that the Hebrew word in this verse is pronounced gavoor (Wigram, p. 895).  This word is defined by Brown, Driver and Briggs as “produce, yield” (Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, p. 721).  Gesenius gives a more precise definition by translating it “produce, or offering” (Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon of the Old Testament, p. 600). 

There is no evidence in the Hebrew text to support the claim that the grain eaten by Israel was not gathered from the fields.  Furthermore, the Hebrew text makes it clear that the grain was not carried into the land but was gathered from the land itself.  The Hebrew word gavoor in Joshua 5:11 is used in construct with “the land” (Owens, Analytical Key to the Old Testament, p. 929).  This structure of the text shows that the grain eaten by Israel was “owned” or “possessed” by the land.  It could not have been grown outside the land and carried in.

John argues that Israel did not have to offer the wave sheaf before eating the grain of the land because they had not sown it.  He confuses God’s command for the wave sheaf in Leviticus 23:10, which refers only to the reaping of the grain, with the command in Exodus 23:15-16, which specifically refers to the “feast of harvest,” now known as the Feast of Pentecost.  The phrase “which you have sown” in Exodus 23:16 was not a requirement for offering the wave sheaf.  The only requirements were 1) entering the land, and 2) reaping the harvest. 

The commands in Exodus 23:15-16 do not apply to entering the land but to the observance of the three festival seasons after Israel had conquered the land and had been given rest.  The phrase “none shall appear before Me empty” in Verse 15 refers to assembling before God at the place He would choose (Deut. 12:10-11).  John overlooks this fact when he applies Deuteronomy 12:10-11 to the entering of the land and the offering of the wave sheaf.

It is misleading to argue that the events in Joshua 5:10-11 did not include the wave sheaf when Leviticus 23:10 clearly commands that the wave sheaf be offered upon entering the land.  It was to be offered from the harvest of the land, which was there when Israel arrived.  Israel did not sow this harvest. God gave the land and all its bounty to Israel (Deut. 6:10-12). 

John attempts to show that God’s prohibition in Leviticus 22:2, 24-25 against defective offerings would prevent offering the wave sheaf from grain that had been sown by the Canaanites.  He asserts that the harvest of the land was defiled, and refers to Leviticus 18:24-30 to show that the land itself was defiled.

An examination of the commands against defective offerings does not support John’s conclusions.  The context of the commands in Leviticus 22:2, 24-25 shows that these commands specifically refer to animal sacrifices “of the beefs, of the sheep, or of the goats” (v. 19).  The animals that were offered to God were required to be without blemish or defect (vs. 21-23).  The chapter makes no reference to offerings of grain and therefore cannot be used to support John’s argument that the grain of the land was defiled.  Neither does Leviticus 18:24-30 support John’s claim that the grain grown by the Canaanites was defiled.  If the defilement of the land applied to the harvest that was grown on it, then the defilement of the land would also apply to the herds and flocks that were raised on the land.  However, the records that we find in the book of Joshua show otherwise.  When the people of Israel conquered the city of Ai, they were commanded by God not to destroy the cattle but to take them into possession (Josh. 8:2).  Joshua records that the people fulfilled this command of God (v. 27).  If the cattle of the Canaanites had been defiled, God would have commanded the Israelites to destroy them to prevent mixing and interbreeding with their own herds and flocks, from which sacrificial animals would be selected as offerings to God.  The fact that the cattle of the Canaanites were preserved by Israel and allowed to interbreed with their own animals shows that the defilement of the land did not extend to that which was raised on it.

John has grossly misrepresented the statements in Leviticus 18:24-30 concerning the defilement of the land.  These words were written before Israel had entered the land, and were a warning to the people not to defile themselves with the abominations of the heathen whose land they would inherit (vs. 26-27, 29-30).  The commands in these verses do not relate to the possessions of the Canaanites, whether grain or livestock, but to their abominable customs (vs. 24-25).

When we examine John’s references to Numbers 33:50-54 and Deuteronomy 3:18-20 and 26:1-3, we find that these passages do not relate to Israel’s entering the land but to the end of the conquest.  Numbers 33:50-54 records God’s commands for dividing the land among the tribes of Israel.  Deuteronomy 3:18-20 was a command to the tribes that had inherited land on the east side of the Jordan River to assist the other tribes until all had received an inheritance in the land.  Deuteronomy 26:1-3 concerns an offering that was to be made after the land had been taken into possession.  Since this offering was to be brought in a basket and was to include “the first of all the fruit of the earth,” this command does not pertain to the wave sheaf.

John commits his most glaring error in logic when he asserts that the wave sheaf could not have been offered when Israel entered the land because the altar and the tabernacle had not been set up.  John presents this argument despite his previous assertion that Israel observed the Feast of Unleavened Bread upon entering the land, and despite his emphasis upon the fact that this observance required peace offerings to God from the herd and the flock (see pages 38-40).  Since the blood of the peace offerings had to be sprinkled on the altar (Lev. 3:1-2), it is evident that the tabernacle was set up in the plains of Jericho soon after Israel had crossed the Jordan.  The account in Joshua 18:1 does not record the first time the tabernacle was set up in the land but the fulfillment of God’s words in Deuteronomy 12:10-12 after the conquest of the land.  Verse 10 of Deuteronomy 12 shows that this command did not apply to entering the land but to the time of “rest from all your enemies.” When the land had been subdued before Israel, God chose a permanent place for the tabernacle, which had until that time been moved from place to place as they journeyed.  All the heads of households in Israel were commanded to assemble at the place chosen by God to offer sacrifices to Him three times in the year (Deut. 12:10-12, 16:16).

The observance of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Joshua 5 demonstrates that the tabernacle was set up from the time that Israel entered the land.  Although John mistakenly interprets the Passover in Joshua 5:10 as the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, it is evident that Israel did observe the seven-day feast after keeping the Passover on Nisan 14.  Joshua 5:11 records that the people ate “unleavened cakes” on the day after the Passover.  The observance of this feast required sacrifices to be offered to God on each of the seven days (Lev. 23:6-8).  Since these offerings had to be burnt on the altar, it is evident that the tabernacle had been set up and that the priests were prepared to carry out their customary duties, in fulfillment of God’s commands.

A careful examination of the Scriptural references that John uses has demonstrated that there is no basis for his claim that the children of Israel did not offer the wave sheaf when they entered the Promised Land.  The account in Joshua 5:10-11 records their observance of the Passover on Nisan 14 and their observance of the Feast of Unleavened Bread on Nisan 15.  Because the unleavened bread they ate was baked with grain from the harvest of the land, it is evident that they had offered the wave sheaf on the morning of Nisan 15.  For further verification of this fact, see Understanding God’s Command for the Wave Sheaf by Dwight Blevins.

Previous analysis renders any comment on John’s summary material completely unnecessary.

“The following points summarize the reasons for our conclusion on when the count should begin:

“1. The Bible states a definite rule regarding when to wave the sheaf. Leviticus 23:11, 15 plainly declares that the count begins on the day after the Sabbath.

“2. This Sabbath must be a weekly Sabbath, as established by its movable date, from which counting to Pentecost is required. Additionally, but less importantly, the definite article appearing before “Sabbath” suggests a weekly Sabbath. John 20:1, 17 shows conclusively that Christ was “waved” before the Father on a Sunday following a weekly Sabbath. The contexts of Leviticus 23:11, 15; Deuteronomy 16:8-9; John 20:17 and biblical history corroborate that this Sabbath will always be within the Days of Unleavened Bread. Without this Sabbath link, the beginning of the count to Pentecost loses its anchor point.

“3. The Bible nowhere says that wavesheaf day must be within the Days of Unleavened Bread. To force it within them in a year in which Passover falls on a weekly Sabbath, one must needlessly alter the instruction of Leviticus 23:11, 15. Doing this forces one to begin counting toward Pentecost from a morrow after a Sabbath not within the Days of Unleavened Bread.

“4.Although Leviticus 23:11, 15 puts some emphasis on “the day after,” we cannot locate that day unless we first locate the Sabbath in question. Every historical record of those using these verses to count to Pentecost—except for the WCG after 1974—has acknowledged wavesheaf day as a workday. To place wavesheaf day on a holy day Sabbath following a weekly Sabbath Passover just to keep it within the Days of Unleavened Bread violates the record of history. In addition, Leviticus 23:10, 14 suggests that as soon as the wavesheaf offering was made, the Israelites were free to harvest, thresh, grind and bake bread made of the grain of that harvest the same day. Therefore, wavesheaf day must be a workday, not a holy day Sabbath.

“5. Only symbolism ties the wavesheaf to Passover and Unleavened Bread. Its harvest symbolism ties wavesheaf day directly to Pentecost, but less directly to Passover and far less directly to Unleavened Bread (which does not depict a harvest at all). We believe that the command to count from the morrow after the weekly Sabbath should take precedence over symbolism. Otherwise, why have a rule? Symbolism is an instructive teaching device, but it is essentially analogous—and analogies ultimately prove nothing. Attempting to coordinate the symbolism of the wavesheaf with all three festivals in an orderly chronological sequence, considering the four days when Passover can fall, produces highly inconsistent results and is practically useless. In no case should symbolism override a law in determining when to keep the feasts in their appointed times (see Deuteronomy 17:8-13, particularly verse 11).

“6. The Bible and the record of history show no disagreement between Jesus and the early church with the Sadducees who controlled the Temple and thus religious life during the time of Christ and the early church. Historical records show the Sadducees observed it as we advocate in this article. In addition, even modern calendars occasionally acknowledge that some Jews today still count to Pentecost as did the Sadducees of old.

“7. Joshua 5, far from confirming a wavesheaf within the Days of Unleavened Bread, actually does not support it at all. In fact, there is no evidence that the Israelites even kept the Passover that year. Scriptures in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua show that meeting commanded requirements for a lawful offering was impossible at the time of Joshua 5. Israel could not meet those requirements until at least seven years later. Joshua 5 gives absolutely no authority to establish a Sunday, first day of Unleavened Bread wavesheaf day to begin the count to Pentecost.

In summary, we feel we should faithfully follow the command recorded in Leviticus 23:11, 15 and used by Herbert Armstrong before 1974—whether the wavesheaf day falls within or without the Days of Unleavened Bread—because insufficient scriptural evidence exists to justify an exception. The cumulative evidence of the Bible and history substantiates that the weekly Sabbath falling within the Days of Unleavened Bread is of greater importance than the wavesheaf offering occasionally occurring outside them.”