[320] אין מוקדם ומאוחר בתורה Salom. Iarchi. in Gen. 6. 3.
Again, here is to be observed, that the Jews, speaking of their Passover, did sometimes speak according to their civil computation, wherein they measured their days from Sun-rising to Sun-rising: sometimes according to their sacred computation, which was from Sun-set to Sun-set. This serveth for the reconciliation of that, Numb. 12. 18. which seemeth to make the fourteenth day of the first month, the first day of unleavened bread. And Josephus[321] telleth us that they numbered eight days for that Feast. In like manner the Disciples are said to come unto Christ the first day of unleavened bread, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? Mat. 26. 17. as if the first day of unleavened bread, were before the Passover. All these are true according to the computation of their civil days, though according to the computation of their Holy-days, the feast of unleavened bread began the fifteenth day, and continued seven days only, and the Passover was before the feast of unleavend bread.
[321] Joseph. Antiq. l. 2. c. 5. p. 65.
In the last place we must know, that there was permitted a second Passover to those who could not be partakers of the first, by reason either of their uncleanness by a dead body, or of their far distance from the place where it was to be offered. This was to be observed in the second month, the fourteenth day thereof, according to all the Ordinances of the first Passover, Numb. 9. Touching that permission of a second Passover, to those that were in a journey far off: the Hebrew of this word far off, hath extraordinary pricks over it, for special consideration. Hereby the Lord might intimate, that we Gentiles which were unclean, even dead in trespasses and sins, and far off, Ephes. 2. 13. should be made nigh by the blood of Christ, and so partakers of him, the second Passover. Of this legal Ordinance the Hebrews say,[322] What is this journey far off? fifteen miles without the walls of Jerusalem, who so is distant from Jerusalem, on the fourteenth day of the first month, fifteen miles or more, when the Sun riseth, Lo, this is a journey far off; if less than this, it is not a journey far off, for he may come to Jerusalem by after midday, though he go on foot, easily. The Agreement between the Paschal Lamb and Christ standeth thus,
[322] Maimon. in Korban. Pesach c. 5. sect. 8, 9.
| Christ is our Passover, 1 Cor. 5. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Paschal Lamb was, | Christ was, | ||
| 1 | One of the flock. | 1 | Perfect man, John 1. |
| 2 | Without blemish. | 2 | Without sin. |
| 3 | To be sacrificed and roasted. | 3 | Suffered and died. |
| 4 | His bones were not broken. | 4 | They brake not his legs, John 19. 33. |
| 5 | About the Evening. | 5 | In the end of the world, Heb. 9. 26. |
| 6 | Their door-posts were to be sprinkled with the blood. | 6 | The Blood of Christ purgeth our consciences. |
| 7 | That the punishing Angel might pass over them. | 7 | That sin and death might not prevail against us. |
| 8 | It was eaten in their several families. | 8 | He is applied by Faith. |
| 9 | The whole Lamb. | 9 | According to all the Articles of the Creed. |
| 10 | Without Leaven. | 10 | Without Hypocrisie, 1 Cor. 5. |
| 11 | With bitter herbs. | 11 | With patience under the Cross. |
| 12 | In haste, and in the manner of Travellers. | 12 | With an earnest and longing expectation of life eternal. |
| 13 | Only by the Circumcised. | 13 | Only by the faithful, 1 Cor. 11. |
CHAP. V.
Of their Pentecost
This Feast was called πεντεκοστὴ, the Pentecost; which word signifieth the fiftieth day, because it was observed upon the fiftieth day after the second of the Passover, which was the sixteenth of Nisan. Here in the first place we must note, that the fourteenth of Nisan was τὸ πάσχα, the Passover; the fifteenth ἑορτὴ τοῦ πάσχα, the Feast of the Passover: or πρώτη τοῦ πάσχα,[323] the first of the Passover: the sixteenth was δευτέρα τοῦ πάσχα, the second of the Passover; or the morrow after the Passover, Levit. 23. 11. which is all one, as if it had been said, the morrow after the feast of the Passover; for in those feasts which consisted in many daies, the first and the last were termed Sabbaths. Now these fifty daies were in truth the appointed time of their Harvest, their Harvest, being bounded as it were, with two remarkable daies, the one being the beginning, the other the end thereof: the beginning was δευτέρα τοῦ πάσχα the second of the Passover; the end was πεντεκοστὴ, the fiftieth day after, called the Pentecost. Upon the δευτέρα, then they offered[324] a sheaf of the same fruits of their harvest, Levit. 23. 10. Upon the Pentecost, then they offered two wave loavs, Levit. 23. 17. the sheaf being an Oblation offered in the name of the whole Congregation, whereby all the after-fruits throughout the Land were sanctified,[325] it being from thence afterward lawful, and not before, to reap the Corn, the two loavs being not only an Eucharistical Oblation, but also a token of the Harvest finished and ended. In the second place we are to know, that they did count these fifty daies by numbring the Weeks from the δευτέρα, whence it was called a Feast of weeks. The manner how they counted the weeks, was, according to the number of the Sabbaths following the δευτέρα. Thus the first Sabbath following they called δευτερόπρωτον σάββατον: the second, δευτεροδεύτερον: the third δευτερότριτον, &c. So that[326] all the Weeks and Sabbaths, during the time of the Pentecost; as the first, second, third, and fourth, &c. took their denomination from δευτέρα, which observation giveth light to that of S. Luke, Luke 16. 1. where there is mention of a Sabbath termed δευτερόπρωτον, that is, the second first Sabbath, and by it is meant the Sabbath next after the sixteenth of Nisan, which was the δευτέρα. Seeing that these fifty daies did measure out the time of their Harvest, it will not be amiss to observe the difference betwixt their Harvest and ours, which chiefly consisted in their anticipation of time; for both the Canaanites and the Ægyptians began their Harvest about the first of April,[327] it was quite finished in May.