There the festival of harvest is brought into a definite relation
in point of time with that of _maccoth_; it is to be celebrated
seven weeks later. This is no new ordinance, but one that rests
upon old custom, for the name, "feast of weeks," occurs in a
passage so early as Exodus xxxiv. (comp Jeremiah v. 24). Now
"seven weeks after Easter " (Deuteronomy xvi. 9) is further explained
with greater elaborateness as meaning seven weeks after the putting
of the sickle to the corn. Thus the festival of _maccoth_ is
equivalent to that of the putting of the sickle to the corn, and
thereby light is thrown on its fixed relation to Pentecost.
Pentecost celebrates the close of the reaping, which commences
with barley harvest, and ends with that of wheat; Easter its
beginning in the "month of corn ears;" and between the two
extends the duration of harvest time, computed at seven weeks. The
whole of this _tempus classicum_ is a great festal season rounded
off by the two festivals. We gain further light from Leviticus xxiii.
9-22. /1/
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1. Against this there is of course possible the objection that
the passage at present forms part of the Priestly Code.
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