The Feast of Pentecost, or the Day of Pentecost, is mentioned in the books of Acts and 1 Corinthians.  It’s also known as the Feast of Weeks (Leviticus 23:15-17, Deuteronomy 16:10, 16), the Feast of Harvest (Exodus 23:16), the Day of the Firstfruits (Numbers 28:26), and Shavuot by the Jews.

The word Pentecost comes from the Greek pentekoste which means fiftieth.  It is so named because Pentecost is determined by counting fifty days from the wave sheaf offering.

In trying to answer the question, “What is the meaning of Feast of Pentecost?”, it is helpful to look at the instructions for keeping it.

The date for the Feast of Pentecost is determined by counting fifty days from the wave sheaf offering.  (For more information on the wave sheaf offering, see “When exactly is the wave sheaf offering?” and “What is the meaning of the wave sheaf offering?”.)

Lev 23:15  ‘And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed.
Lev 23:16  Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD.
Lev 23:17  You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the LORD.
Lev 23:18  And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs of the first year, without blemish, one young bull, and two rams. They shall be as a burnt offering to the LORD, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the LORD.
Lev 23:19  Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats as a sin offering, and two male lambs of the first year as a sacrifice of a peace offering.
Lev 23:20  The priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.
Lev 23:21  And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.

In ancient Israel there were three harvests, two in the spring (barley and wheat), and the third in late summer stretching into early autumn.  The barley spring harvest comes first as is made clear in Exodus. 

Exo 9:31  Now the flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was in the head and the flax was in bud.
Exo 9:32  But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they are late crops.

So the wave sheaf offering was from the barley harvest, and the two loaves of the Pentecost offering were from the wheat harvest.  What do the two wheat loaves baked with leaven offered as firstfruits represent?

We find in the New Testament that God views His church as firstborn and a kind of firstfruits.

James 1:18  Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

Heb 12:23  to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,

Moreover, in the parable of the tares, the wheat is pictured as God’s people.

Mat 13:29  “But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.
Mat 13:38  “The field is the world, the good seeds [wheat] are the sons of the kingdom, …

This leads to the understanding that the two loaves with leaven picture God’s people.  To fully understand the implication of this, we need to understand there are three Feast seasons.

Exo 23:14  “Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year:
Exo 23:15  You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty);
Exo 23:16  and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.
Exo 23:17  “Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

Deu 16:16  “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.

2Ch 8:12  Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of the LORD which he had built before the vestibule,
2Ch 8:13  according to the daily rate, offering according to the commandment of Moses, for the Sabbaths, the New Moons, and the three appointed yearly feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles.

Leviticus 23 gives more detail of these three Feast seasons. 

1. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is immediately preceded by Passover, has two annual Sabbaths (holy days) on the first and last days of Unleavened Bread, and has the wave sheaf offering within or close to it. 
2. The Feast of Pentecost (the Feast of Weeks) is seven weeks later and is the third annual Sabbath. 
3. The Feast of Tabernacles (the Feast of Ingathering) is three to four months later, has two annual Sabbaths on the first and last days of the Feast but it is closely preceded by the Feasts of Trumpets and Atonement (both annual Sabbaths).

In the Bible, particularly in the New Testament, grain harvests symbolise a “harvesting” of souls to eternal life.  For example:

Mat 9:37  Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Joh 12:24  Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat [Jesus Christ] falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it [Jesus Christ] dies, it produces much grain [resurrected saints].

The parable of the Sower, Matthew 13:1-9.

The parable of the Weeds, Matthew 13:24-30.

Putting the pieces of the puzzle together we see that the three Feast seasons symbolise three “harvests” of souls.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread:  the first harvest of souls – the resurrection of Jesus Christ

The Feast of Unleavened Bread contains the wave sheaf offering which pictures the resurrected Jesus Christ.  (See “What is the meaning of the wave sheaf offering?”) 

The Feast of Pentecost: the second harvest of souls – the resurrection of the saints (God’s people)

The Feast of Pentecost pictures the resurrection of the saints (God’s people). (See “What is the meaning of the Feast of Pentecost?”) 

1Co 15:52  in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

1Th 4:16  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
1Th 4:17  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

The Feast of Tabernacles: the second harvest of souls – the resurrection of the rest of the dead

The Feast of Tabernacles contains the last day (the eighth day) of the Feast which pictures the resurrection of the rest of the dead.  The rest of the dead is the vast majority of humanity.  They are resurrected to a physical life and offered salvation.

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

The first resurrection mentioned in verses 5 and 6 refers to those who live and reign with Christ for a thousand years, not to the “rest of the dead”.

The meaning of Feast of Pentecost should now be clear.  It pictures the “first resurrection”, the first “harvest” of humanity for eternal life.

It is also significant that God chose to pour out His Holy Spirit on the Feast of Pentecost when God’s church began.

Act 2:1  When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Act 2:2  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
Act 2:3  Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.
Act 2:4  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

There is an interesting parallel between the Jubilee year (which occurs every fifty years) and the fifty days from the wave sheaf offering to Pentecost.  On a Jubilee year all debt is released.  On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was given, which enables us to break free from the bondage of iniquity (by Christ living in us through His Holy Spirit).

The ceremony of Pentecost involved various sacrifices and offerings.  Below are listed some of the aspects of the ceremony and their likely meaning.

The two loaves were made from fine flour.  Fine flour is made by beating or grinding the grain and pictures the trials and tribulations God’s people go through to become more like Jesus Christ.

The two loaves were also made with leaven.  What does the leaven picture?  Leaven can picture sin.  Jesus likened the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Sadducees to leaven.

Mat 16:11  How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?—but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Mat 16:12  Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Luk 12:1  In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Paul spoke of leaven being like malice and wickedness.

1Co 5:6  Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
1Co 5:7  Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
1Co 5:8  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Paul also likened not obeying the truth to leaven.

Gal 5:7  You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
Gal 5:8  This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you.
Gal 5:9  A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

So, one possibility is that the leaven pictures sin, because even God’s people are not without sin.  However, 1 Corinthians 5:7, which we read above, states that God’s people are truly unleavened (because they have accepted Christ’s sacrifice for their sins).  So perhaps the leaven in the two loaves does not picture sin.  There is another possibility.  The parable of the leaven likens leaven to the kingdom of God.

Mat 13:33  Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”

Luk 13:20  And again He said, “To what shall I liken the kingdom of God?
Luk 13:21  It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”

Just as leaven spreads throughout the whole lump of dough so the kingdom of God will spread and grow.  Using this symbolism of leaven we see that the leaven in the two loaves pictures the expanding kingdom of God.  When the saints are resurrected, the kingdom of God experiences an expansion. 

Conclusion

The Feast of Pentecost pictures the “first resurrection”, the first “harvest” of humanity for eternal life.