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Now we have the day to count FROM---Sunday April 25th.
No one should get mixed up in counting 50 days FROM a definite day.
"And ye shall count unto you FROM the morrow after the
Sabbath,....seven sabbaths (weeks) shall be complete, even to
the morrow after the seventh sabbath (week) shall ye number FIFTY
DAYS." (Lev. 23:15).
Those who have Miscounted Pentecost have done so thru one
or more of three errors. Error number one is assuming that the
word "Sabbaths" means always and only SATURDAYS---that is, seventh
day of the week. Anyone who understands Hebrew knows the Hebrew
word Sabbath, or "shabbaths" as it is in this text, has also the
meaning of any PERIOD of seven days, or WEEKS. The Hebrew word
"Sabbath" means "rest," "cessation," "holy day"---as, for instance,
all seven annual holydays are SABBATHS, and they are not SATURDAYS;
it means also "seven" or period of seven days, or week, and it
means also THE seventh DAY of each week.
For instance, the expression first day of the WEEK occurs
in eight places in the New Testament. Tho written in the Greek
language, God inspired the writing THRU Hebrews, and in every one
of these eight places the GREEK word for "week" was not used---
because he Jews always used the word "SABBATH" to express "WEEK."
In every one of those eight places the expression is "shabbathon,"
literally "sabbaths," or "first into the sabbaths."
From the Dictionary of the Bible by Hastings, you'll find
the root (of the Heb. "sabbath") means to desist, cease,---the
doubled "b" having an intensive force and implying complete
cessation, hence, seven. To say that the word "sabbath" must mean
the equivalent of what is today called "Saturday" ALONE, without
any other meaning, is simply to express rank ignorance. The ROOT
of the word signifies COMPLETE cessation, and since SEVEN is God's
number denoting completeness, the number seven is connected with
the Hebrew "shabbaths." It means a period of SEVEN days---ANY
period of seven days, or, as we say in English "WEEKS," as well as
the seventh day of each week. It is so used elsewhere in the
Bible.
The Moffatt translation settles it. Listen: "From the
day after the sabbath, the day you bring the sheaf of the waved
offering, you shall count SEVEN FULL WEEKS." Not seven SATURDAYS
---seven full WEEKS. They are counted FROM a Sunday. Now if you
count your FIRST week to the following SATURDAY, you do not count
a FULL week, but only six days, and the instruction is plain---
seven FULL weeks FROM a Sunday, and seven FULL weeks from a Sunday
brings you to a Sunday seven weeks later. Then we count to the
morrow AFTER that seventh full WEEK, or a MONDAY, making FIFTY DAYS
from the Sunday where we begin counting.
Now suppose this meant seven SATURDAYS, and to the morrow
after the seventh Saturday. This would be ONLY 49 DAYS from the
day we count from. It would not be COMPLETE, and the text
explicitly commands us to count seven weeks COMPLETE, to a total
of FIFTY DAYS from a Sunday. Notice, "FROM the morrow after the