- Section IX
- Was Passover Even Kept?
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.
- Section X
- Did Israel Offer the Wave Sheaf?
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 15th
of Nisan began. They continued on the 16th (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 14th 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 17th, 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.
- Section XI
- Wave Sheaf
Summary
“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.”
