A Pre-Denominational Ministry.

First Fruits

The feast of First Fruits (Wave Sheaf Offering), which is the starting point for the count to Pentecost (+50 days), did not occur during Passover as claimed by the Jewish Mainstream, but according to the narrative thread of Leviticus 23 / Deuteronomy 16 immediately after the Passover Week, on Abib 23:

  • The narrative thread in both chapters advances from the beginning to the end of the year. Lev 23:8 includes Day 7 of Passover, followed by Lev 23:9-15 with the Wave Sheaf Offering, and then continues with the later feasts. To now inject 'First Fruits' in the midst of the Passover Week, would turn the biblical narrative upside down.

  • The offering occurred on 'the day after the Sabbaths' - the original text uses plural (Lev 23:15). A plural 'Sabbaths' usually refers to a specific 'week'. When it says 'after the week' with the explicit article 'the', then which week is meant? Is it the rather unimportant week before the Passover Week, or much rather referring to the Passover Week? It would indeed require much mental acrobatics to make this week refer to the previous week leading to the Passover, but to our surprise this particular interpretation has been widely accepted, often while not being aware of the plural.

  • Barley was still green at the 7th plague in Egypt (see Exo 9:31-32) and therefore at the beginning of the month of Abib (Exo 13:4, Strong's H24), and could only be harvested weeks later (usually ~4 week between green and golden heads), earliest after the Passover Week.

  • The Israelites did certainly not begin their harvest during the Passover feast, when most people travelled to and from Jerusalem. The harvesting operation still requires today many hours of overtime, being the busiest season of the year for a farmer.

  • It would interrupt as a day dedicated to bread the partial fasting of leaven (Unleavened Bread lastet one entire week)!!

  • IESOUS died in the time of the unleavened bread and resurrected when leavened bread was eaten again (Abib 23th), being the First Fruit and the -absolute- bread of life. It would not make any sense if IESOUS would have been resurrected during the time of unleavened bread. Read also Lev 23:14 and Mat 9:17. This commonly accepted schedule is nonsensical and takes away significance from His greatest sacrifice. See also the study 'CHRISTOS IESOUS 〣 Passover Chronology · Refutation of Fast-Track Trial'.
  • The most evident point is the fact that CHRISTOS would have impossibly risen and resurrected in a time biblically declared as time of affliction. He died in the time of affliction and resurrected immediately after this time. Deut 16:3 says: "You shall not eat with it anything leavened; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread of affliction [Strong's G2561 KAKⲰCEⲰC; depression, that is, misery: - afflicted (-ion), trouble, ill-treatment, oppression.], because in haste you went out from the land of Egypt, so that you will remember the day of your going out from the land of Egypt all the days of your life."

B - Who is Beta Israel?

Beta Israel (literally, 'house of Israel' in Ge'ez) are a significant community of Jews who emigrated earliest with the Queen of Saba (10th c. BC), many during Babylon (6th c. BC) and some as late as 4th c. BC., and who preserved the biblical traditions of ancient Israel much better than Mainstream Judaism in Israel.

They had for centuries not even been aware of the 2nd fallen temple and do (or did) not know the 2nd c. Talmud, Mishna and other contextual theology (adaption to modern age). They are probably the best reference for many practices related to Ancient Judaism, but scholarship has sadly given very little attention to them.

Aliyah of Beta Israel: From 1948 until 2013, a total of 3.121.000 Ethiopian Jews evacuated / immigrated to Israel through sometimes spectacular operations involving hundreds of airlifts often done in secret, and had been widely forced to conform to Mainstream Judaism and to lose (part of) their biblical traditions. Rabbi Yosef decreed a pro forma conversion to Judaism of all Beta Israel upon their arrival in the State of Israel and a declaration of submission to the way of life of Halacha, or doctrine and practice of Orthodox Rabbinic Judaism .

C, D, E, F - Why did the Essenes, Pharisees and Karaite Jews loose track of the Wave Sheaf Offering?

Their 'misinterpretation' can probably be attributed to the highly irregular observance of the Passover - with some gaps of hundreds of years. The correct interpretation of Scripture would have been easily lost, if the biblically based custom would not have been handed down from generation to generation.

  • [715 BC HEZEKIAH'S PASSOVER] "And it happened that the runners were passing from city to city in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and up to Zebulun, but they were laughing at them and mocking them. Only men from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. [...] And they rose up and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem. [...] And they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month." 2Chr 30:10-15
  • [623 BC JOSIAH'S PASSOVER - the greatest Passover ever celebrated] ... "And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the Passover to KYRIOS your THEOS, as it is written in the book of this covenant. 22 For a Passover such as this had not been kept from the days of the judges who judged Israel, even all the days of the kings of Israel, and of the kings of Juda. 23 But in the eighteenth year of king Josias, was the Passover kept to KYRIOS in Jerusalem." 2Kin 23:21-23 
  • "... Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of KYRIOS given through Moses. [...] And when the king [Josias] heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes. [...] our fathers have not kept the word of KYRIOS ..." 2Chr 34:14-21
  • [135 AD BAR KOCHBA REVOLT AND THE RESULTING 1700-YEAR VOID; POST-ROMAN DIASPORA] After the Bar Kochba revolt, which lasted from 132 - 135 AD and cost the life of probably more than 600.000 Jews, the very few remaining Jews were banned for centuries from entering Jerusalem. The Aliyah started only in 1881 AD with the first Jews returning to the former land of Israel. This and several reforms in Jewish calendars made it very difficult to determine the date of Passover, let alone to define the precise date of the Wave Sheaf Offering.

Other possible reasons: 

A) in order to distract from the Resurrection of CHRISTOS on this precise day of First Fruits only hours before the Wave Sheaf Offering took place

B) simply extrapolating this date from the earlier crucifixion date erroneously based on a fast-track-trial. 

Fact: The interpretation of the phrase "the morrow after the Sabbaths" has been debated for thousands of years.

The following study includes on page 4 more details and biblical passages clarifying the correct dating of the Wave Sheaf Offering:

CHRISTOS' PASSOVER · FULL STUDY
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