On what day did Pentecost fall? In Leviticus 23 it is stated that the Passover was on the fourteenth, or Friday; the next day, the fifteenth, was the first day of unleavened bread. I suppose the Sabbath to be mentioned in verses 11 and 15, which made the Sabbath that Christ lay in the grave, an high day; and the next day, verse 11, Sunday, the wave sheaf was offered, a type of the resurrection of Christ, the first-fruits of them that slept; and counting fifty days, verses 15, 16, would throw Pentecost on Sunday. M. T. C.
There is nothing in Leviticus 23 which intimates that the fourteenth day of the first month fell on Friday. The Passover was governed by the moon; whatever the date the paschal full moon came on, then the passover was killed. It of course fell on Friday some of the time, as it did on every other day of the week; but the Passover did not conform to the week; it was not a weekly feast, but a yearly feast. If any of the great days of the Passover fell on the Sabbath, as of course they did, as also on other days, they were Sabbaths of special importance and could be called high days.
It is a serious question whether the time of Pentecost can be fixed. Did the Passover fall on the day that Christ ate it with His disciples or the day following when He was crucified? Did Jesus meet the type when He ate it with His disciples, as regards time, or did He meet it as regards time when He died upon the cross. These are questions over which Bible students have been puzzled for centuries. Some have held that the Jews themselves were divided between the two times of eating the Passover. If the eating of the Passover by our Lord and His disciples was at the right time, Pentecost probably fell on the seventh day, as Kitto admits, and some other authorities. If our Lord was crucified on the day of the Passover, Pentecost probably fell on the first day of the week.
But mark this, that the fulfilment of any of these types did not in any way or manner emphasize the day of the week. Had that been the question the Lord would certainly have mentioned the day of the week. He would have told us that when the sixth day came, or the fifth day came, or when the first day came, then the Pentecost came; but nothing of the kind occurs in the sacred writings. If it had been the day of the week the Lord designed to honor or emphasize, He would not have passed over in silence one first day between the ascension and the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost. There is no question regarding the days of the week that hinges in any way upon any of those annual feasts.