The wave sheaf offering is found in Leviticus 23:9-14.  It is a ceremony that starts the fifty-day count to “the Feast of Weeks”.  The Feast of Weeks is called Shavuot by the Jews and also referred to in the New Testament as Pentecost (from the Greek meaning fiftieth).

Of the various Jewish groups and Christian churches who keep the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, sadly, there is very little agreement on when the wave sheaf should be offered and consequently when the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost (occurring fifty days later) is. 

This article seeks to answer the question, “When exactly is the wave sheaf offering?” 

The instruction about the wave sheaf offering occurs immediately after that of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Leviticus 23.

Lev 23:9  And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 23:10  “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest.
Lev 23:11  He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
Lev 23:12  And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the LORD.
Lev 23:13  Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the LORD, for a sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin.
Lev 23:14  You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

The timing of the wave sheaf offering determines the Feast of Weeks, as the next two verses make clear.

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 23:21  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.

Verses 11 and 15 of Leviticus 23 instruct that the wave sheaf is “the day after the Sabbath”.  But which Sabbath?

If you select the first day of Unleavened Bread (which is an annual Sabbath) you end up with Pentecost on the 6^th of Sivan, which is the day most Jews keep.

If you select the last day of Unleavened Bread (which is an annual Sabbath) you end up with Pentecost on the 12^th of Sivan, which is the day some Jews keep.

If you select the weekly Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread, you end up with Pentecost always being on a Sunday, which is what most churches of God do.  There is usually the additional argument that in those years when the weekly Sabbath is the last day of Unleavened Bread, it should not be chosen but instead the previous weekly Sabbath so that that wave sheaf occurs during the days of Unleavened Bread.

However, if you read the above verses carefully you will see that nowhere is the wave sheaf offering constrained to be within the days of Unleavened Bread. The only constraining factor is when the harvest is ripe, which could be before, during, or after the days of Unleavened Bread.  So the Jews and the various churches of God are not following the Bible to the letter.

How did the Jews end up with a fixed date for Pentecost (Shavuot) rather than relying on when the harvest is ripe?  At some point, maybe at the time of the diaspora, the rabbis realised their scattered brethren would have a problem.  Should they rely on when the harvest was ready in the holy land?  In which case how would they know when this took place as communication of this would take weeks, maybe months.  Or should they rely on the harvest in the region where they lived?  In which case that region may not have such a harvest and even if it does, does God sanction multiple wave sheaf offerings at various times and places?   The whole situation is very confusing.  To avoid such confusion, the rabbis settled on a way of calculating Pentecost by determining the day of the wave sheaf offering which did not rely on the harvest.  They made an administrative decision which saw the majority of Jews select the first day of Unleavened Bread (resulting in Sivan 6 as Pentecost), and others the last day of Unleavened Bread (resulting in Sivan 12).  These are reasonable choices for fixing the date as the harvest is ripe in the vicinity of Passover time.

Most churches of God eschew the Jewish tradition and instead select the weekly Sabbath within the days of Unleavened Bread.  The reason for this stems from the following.

1. The understanding that the wave sheaf offering pictures the ascension of Jesus Christ which leads to the conclusion that His ascension occurred on the day of the wave sheaf offering.  (See “What is the meaning of the wave sheaf offering?”.)
2. The ascension occurred on the first day of the week.  (See below.)
3. The day preceding the ascension, the weekly Sabbath, was in the middle of the days of Unleavened Bread. (See “Was Jesus resurrected on Sunday?”.)

From the above three points, it is clear that in the year of Jesus’s crucifixion, the wave sheaf offering occurred the day after the weekly Sabbath in the middle of the days of Unleavened Bread.  From this the churches of God conclude that the first and last days of Unleavened Bread are incorrect choices for the Sabbath immediately preceding the wave sheaf offering.

The ascension occurred on the first day of the week

We know that Jesus ascended to His Father on the first day of the week from the gospel accounts of Matthew and John.  John records that early on the first day of the week Jesus did not allow Mary to touch Him because He had not yet ascended to His Father.  But Matthew records His disciples holding His feet on the first day of the week, clearly showing by that later on in the day He had ascended to His Father and returned.

Joh 20:1  Now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
…
Joh 20:17  Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ “

Mat 28:1  Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.
…
Mat 28:9  And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him.

Conclusion

So where does all of this leave us?  When exactly is the wave sheaf offering?  According to Scripture it is the day after the Sabbath as soon as the harvest is ripe, and since the harvest might ripen after the days of Unleavened Bread, the Sabbath in question is obviously the weekly Sabbath. 

The churches of God have made an administrative decision (even though some may not admit it), based on the events in the New Testament regarding Jesus’s crucifixion and ascension, to select the day after the weekly Sabbath within the days of Unleavened Bread.  

Is this justified?  That may be a very difficult question to answer.  The problem the ancient rabbis faced of communicating when the wave sheaf occurred to the rest of the world is no longer a problem with modern technology.  But it is certainly more convenient for the purposes of planning and making calendars to be able to determine the wave sheaf day in advance rather than waiting for the harvest.