292 NOTES. 



5), on the aflernoon of which the paschal lamb was always 

 sacrificed, to be eaten at evening, on "the first of unleavened 

 bread." {Deut. xvi. 6, 7; Exod. xii. 8.) Friday was the 15th, 

 "the first day of unleavened bread/' {Matt. xxvi. 17 ; Levit. 

 xxiii. 6.) This festival continued one week (extending from 

 the 15th oiAhib to the 21st, inclusive — Exod. xii. 18), of which 

 week the first and last days (the 15th and 21st) were both 

 accounted "sabbaths.'' {Levit. xxiii. 7, 8; Exod. xii. 16.) 

 Saturday was the 16th (the day after the first "sabbath"), on 

 which was the wave-ofi"ering. {Levit. xxiii. 11.) Seven com- 

 plete weeks (a " week of weeks/' as Josephus calls it) were 

 counted from this 16th day, inclusive (xxiii. 15), which termi- 

 nated with Friday, and on the next day, or Saturday, was 

 ''the day of Pentecost !'' (xxiii. 16, 21.) 



It is absolutely incontrovertible that, if Matthew's account 

 be correct, the Pentecost coidd not possihJy have heen on Sun- 

 da?/! This "fact'' may be digested by "learned'^ Sunday 

 Sabbatarians, at the ruminations of their studious leisure. On 

 the other hand, if Sunday icas the Pentecost, then the passover 

 could not have been eaten on Thursday evening, and Friday 

 coidd not have been " the first of unleavened bread.^^ If we 

 understand Matthew (xxvi. 17) as saying that Thursday was 

 " the first day of the feast of unleavened bread," this only 

 makes the matter worse; for then the day of Pentecost was 

 infallibly Friday ! By the unvarying system of the Jewish 

 ritual, the Pentecost must occur just one day later in the week 

 than the first of unleavened bread. 



After rummaging a host of Sunday Sabbatarian Treatises 

 (which generally display a harmony and facility of assumption 

 as remarkable as it is edifying), I find, in LiGnTFOOTE's " Com- 

 imentary on the Acts/^ an attempt at sustaining the common 

 dogma. He reckons (according to Matthew) that Thursday 

 was the " preparation'^ (14th of the month). Friday the first 

 of unleavened bread (15th), and Saturday, or the Sabbath, the 

 day of the wave-sheaf offering (16th) ; a/tei^ which he counts 

 the fifty days, as excluding the 16th, and added to it. {Com. 

 in Acts ii.) Such a mistake is inexcusable in a Biblical ex- 



