The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

APPENDIX I - CALCULATING THE DAY OF PENTECOST IN A.D. 31 ¹

Three annual feasts and seven annual sabbaths marked the first seven months of each sacred Jewish year, during the operation of the ancient typical sanctuary service. Each annual festival in the series fell on a given day of a given month, but not on a uniform day of the week. PFF4 1245.1

Picture 1: 50 DAYS FROM WAVE SHEAF TO PENTECOST IN A.D. 31

Picture 2: ANNUAL CYCLE OF TYPICAL SET FEASTS IN A.D. 31

The day on which it was celebrated therefore varied from year to year never coming on the same day of the week two years in succession. PFF4 1247.1

The table on the opposite page (constructed on the Biblical stipulations as to sequence and dating) is based on a year in which the Passover (Nisan 14) fell on a Friday, as in A.D. 31. The three feasts and their component parts appear in the left column, their dating in the narrow center column, and the seven annual sabbaths, with their stipulations, to the right. The references for authority appear throughout. PFF4 1247.2

All computations of successive festivals, or solemnities, were based on the initial Passover feast, or Nisan 14. With the Passover, in A.D. 31, thus tied to Friday, the date of the Wave Sheaf (always on Nisan 16), with Pentecost following later, can quickly and accurately be computed. PFF4 1247.3

The first day of Unleavened Bread, always falling on the 15th of Nisan (see Biblical references on the chart), was followed by the day of the Wave Sheaf, which in turn determined the day of the week for Pentecost—falling just fifty days thereafter—and therefore always on the same day of the week as that of Nisan 16. Thus in A.D. 31 Pentecost similarly fell on the first day of the week, as indicated by the diagram on page 1245—numbering the fifty days from Nisan 16, according to the Mosaic stipulation. On this chart, the last part of Nisan, the first month, the whole of Iyar, the second month, and a portion of Sivan, the third month, in which the Day of Pentecost came, is given. The fifty days are numbered for checking, with the chart likewise keyed to a Friday Passover for Nisan 14. PFF4 1247.4