NOTES. 293 



pounder.* The coimi beg ins on " the morrow after tlie sab- 

 bath/' that is, on the second of unleavened bread. 'Trom the 

 day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave-offering, seven 

 sabbaths shall be complete." (Levit. xxiii. 15.) The day of 

 the wave-offering (the 16th) was always the first of the fifty 

 daysf (see Deut. xvi. 9), consequently the Pentecost alicai/s 

 came on the same day of the week. I am informed, by a 

 learned Jewish TeacherJ that there can be no evasion here; 

 that "the computation is absolute and indisputable; the Pen- 

 tecost always occurs on the same day of the week as the wave- 

 offering.^' And to make Sunda?/ a Pentecost, the passover and 

 unleavened bread must commence on Friday eveniug I§ 



The last evangelist, indeed, clearly favors this alternative, 

 for he tells us (John xix. 14) that the daj'- of the crucifixion 

 was " the preiKiration of the passover,"]] necessarily the llth 

 of Ahib. {Exod. xii. 6; 2 Chron. xxxv. 1, 16.) And since 

 the crucifixion is known to have tåken place on Friday ^the 



* In a Sabbatarian Essay, entitled, "Brief Remarks on the History, 

 Authority, and Use of tlie Sabbath," by J. J. Gurney, the same cal- 

 culation is very carefully gone through. Following his predecessor, 

 Mr. Gurney has in this committed a blunder, or perpetrated an artifice. 



f "The day of Pentecost was the fiftieth day from the day of the 

 wave-offering ; but, in the number of the fifty days, was both the day of 

 the wave-offering and of Pentecost included ; as now, among the Chris- 

 tians, still it is." Bishop Peabson. [Ezposition of the Creed, art. v. — 

 "the thirdday.") 



X The Rev. I. Leeser, of Philadelphia, editor of " Tlie OccidenV^ 



^ This hypothesis is adopted by Baxter, who says: " TJie Passover 

 that year fell on the Sabbath day, and Pentecost was fifty dnys after 

 the Passover, which falleth out on the Lord's day." [Pract. Works, 

 vol. iii. "Lord's day," ch. 5.) This arrives at the conclusion desired 

 by Lightfoote and Mr. Guruey, without recourse to their fallacious 

 premises. 



II He further confirms this by alhiding to the care of the Jews during 

 the trial, not to defile themselves before eating the passover [John xviii. 

 28 ; see Numb. ix. 6 ; Ezra vi. 20) ; and he also speaks of the follow- 

 ing Sabbath day (Saturday) being a "high day" [John xix. 31), as it 

 would be if the first of unleavened bread. 



25* 



4 



