PENTECOST, a feast of the Jews, is celebrated on the soth day after the Passover (hence its name "Pentecost," a Greek word meaning "fiftieth"), and now on the following day also, i.e., Sivan 6 and 7. In the Bible, where a festival of one day only is referred to, it is described as "the feast of Harvest" (Ex. xxiii. 16), and "the day of the First-Fruits" (Num. xxviii. 26). It really marked the close of the grain-harvest which in Palestine lasted seven weeks (from Passover to Pentecost). Hence the name Feast of Weeks.
The agricultural character of this feast clearly reveals its Canaanite origin (see HEBREW RELIGION ) . It does not, however, rank equal in importance with the other two agricultural festivals of pre-exilian Israel, viz., the Masseith or feast of unleav ened cakes (which marked the beginning of the corn harvest), and the Asiph ("ingathering" later called succ5th, "booths") which marked the close of all the year's ingathering of vegetable products. This is clear in the ideal scheme of Ezekiel (xlv. 21
seq.) in which, according to the original text, Pentecost is omitted (see Cornill's revised text and his note ad loc.). It is a later hand that has inscribed a reference to the "feast of weeks" which is found in our Massoretic Hebrew text. Nevertheless occasional allusions to this feast, though secondary, are to be found in He brew literature, e.g., Isa. ix. 3 and Ps. iv. 7. In the earliest codes, viz., Ex. xxiii. 16 (Elohist) and in Ex. xxxiv. 22 (Yahwist), no explicit statement about the time of celebration is given ; but in Deut. xvi. 9 the time is defined as an interval of seven weeks from the beginning of the corn-harvest at the end of which the feast was celebrated. For the later elaboration of sacrifices and ritual, see Lev. xxiii. Num. xxviii. 26 seq.
See further SADDUCEES and compare generally the article "Pentecost" in D. B. Hastings, Ency. Bib. and Jew. Enc. (G. H. B.)