CHAPTER III. THE SACRED FEASTS—
III.I.1. In JE and D there is a rotation of three festivals. Easter and Pentecost mark the beginning and the end of the corn-harvest, and the autumn feast the vintage and the bringing home the corn from the threshing-floor. With the feast of unleavened bread (Massoth) is conjoined, especially in D, the feast of the sacrifice of the male firstborn of cattle (Pesah).
III.I.2. The feasts based on the offering of firstlings of the field and of the herd. Significance of the land and of agriculture for religion
III.II.1. In the historical and prophetical books, the autumn feast only is distinctly attested, and it is the most important in JE and D also: of the others there are only faint traces .
III.II.2. But the nature of the festivals is the same as in JE and D
III.III.1. In RQ the feasts have lost their reference to harvest and the first fruits; and this essentially changes their nature
III.III.2. The metamorphosis was due to the centralisation of worship, and may he traced down through Deuteronomy and Ezekiel to RQ,
III.III.3. To the three festivals RQ adds the great day of atonement, which arose out of the fast-days of the exile
III.IV.1. The Sabbath, which is connected with the new moon, was originally a lunar festival Exaggeration of the Sabbath rest in the Priestly Code
III.IV.2. Sabbatical year, and year of Jubilee