But the
collection of laws embraced in Leviticus xvii.-xxvi, it is well
known, has merely been redacted and incorporated by the author of
the Priestly Code, and originally was an independent corpus
marking the transition from Deuteronomy to the Priestly Code,
sometimes approximating more to the one, and at other times
to the other, and the use of Leviticus xxiii. 9-22 in this
connection is completely justified by the consideration that
only in this way do the rites it describes find meaning and vitality.
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The Easter point is here, as in Deuteronomy, fixed as being
the beginning of harvest, but is still more definitely determined
as the day after the first Sabbath falling within harvest time,
and Pentecost follows the same reckoning. And the special Easter
ritual consists in the offering of a barley sheaf; before this it
is not lawful to taste of the new crop; and the corresponding
Pentecostal rite is the offering of ordinary wheaten loaves. The
corn harvest begins with barley and ends with wheat; at the
beginning the first-fruits are presented in their crude state as a
sheaf, just as men in like manner partake of the new growth
in the form of parched ears (Leviticus xxiii.
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