Commentaria in Leviticum
Where note that the Jews have a fixed pasch and pentecost: for since they use lunar months, they always celebrate the pasch on the 15th day of the first lunar month, namely at the full moon, and counting 50 days from it, they necessarily celebrate pentecost on the sixth day of the third month. But Christians, because they have not lunar but solar months, as they have a movable pasch, so also a movable pentecost, so that they now celebrate it on the tenth of May, now on the twentieth, now on the thirtieth, now on the tenth of June, now on the twelfth.
From what has been said it is plain that these 50 days of pentecost are to be counted from the second day of azymes, not exclusively, but, as Radulphus and Ribera, book 5 On the Temple, chap. 7, hold, inclusively: for otherwise there would be not 50, but 49 days. For if you count from the 16th day of the first month, inclusively, the remaining 15 days of the same month, and of the second month count 29 days (for the months, being lunar, were alternately of 29 and 30 days), and finally add the six days of the third month (for on the sixth day was pentecost), you will find precisely 50 days.
Note: We Christians, as we do not celebrate the pasch on the day on which the Jews do, namely the 14th day of the month Nisan, but on the Sunday following it, and that in memory of the resurrection of Christ, which took place on a Sunday, so consequently we do not celebrate pentecost on the day on which the Jews do, but on the fiftieth day from the Sunday of the pasch, or of the resurrection of Christ, which likewise necessarily falls on a Sunday: for on the Lord’s day, which was pentecost, or the fiftieth day from the pasch, descended the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, and the new law was promulgated in Sion, Acts 2, as the old law was formerly promulgated on Sinai on the same fiftieth day from the pasch. Hence St. Augustine, serm. 154 On the Season; Clement of Rome, book 5 Constitutions, last chap.; Isidore, Albinus and others who write on the offices of the Church, and St. Leo, serm. 1 On Pentecost, count the 50 days of pentecost not from the pasch of the Jews, nor from the day of the passion of Christ (for so there would be not 50, but 52 days); but from the very Lord’s day of the resurrection of Christ. Furthermore, lest the pentecost of the Christians should coincide with the pentecost of the Jews, lest we Christians should seem to keep the ancient pentecost of the Jews, for this reason the first Christian pentecost, on which descended the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, was not seen to coincide with the pentecost of the Jews. Which is proved: for in the year in which Christ suffered and rose again, the pasch of the Jews fell on the day of Thursday, and the first of azymes on Friday, on which Christ suffered; and consequently the second of azymes fell on the day of the sabbath: now count from this day of the sabbath 50 days, and you will find the 50th day, or the pentecost of the Jews, then likewise falling on the sabbath, which immediately preceded the Sunday of the Christian pentecost, on which the Holy Ghost descended. Then, therefore, the Jews celebrated pentecost on the sabbath, but the Apostles and Christians on the Sunday. So Hugh, Lyranus, Abulensis, Cajetan here or on Acts 1, Josephus, book 3 Antiq. chap. 13, and Francis Suarez, part 3, Quest. 53, disp. 46, sect. 1; the same teach
Objection. You will say: In Acts 2:1 it is said: “When the days of pentecost were accomplished,” or as the Greek is, “while the days of pentecost were being accomplished, suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming.” But St. Luke there seems altogether to speak of the pentecost then common, namely of the Jews; for until then the Christian pentecost had not yet been instituted or celebrated: therefore the Holy Ghost descended on the pentecost of the Jews, and consequently the first pentecost of the Jews and of the Christians was the same, namely a Sunday. On account of this argument some hold that the pentecost of both was then the same;
Hence they think that in the year in which Christ suffered the first day of azymes did indeed fall on Friday, but was transferred from the 15th day of the month to the 16th, namely to the sabbath, and that lest two feasts, namely the first of azymes and the sabbath, on which it was not lawful to work, should fall together; and consequently they think that the second of azymes in that year fell on the Sunday of the pasch, from which to the Sunday of pentecost there are precisely fifty days.
But this transference of feasts cannot be solidly proved from Scripture or the Fathers; nay, it is repugnant to the Evangelists, who assert that Christ kept the pasch with the Jews according to the law, namely on the fourteenth moon at evening, so that on the fifteenth, which was the first of azymes, namely on Friday, Christ suffered, and consequently the second of azymes, from which the 50 days of pentecost are to be counted, fell on the sabbath.
Others hold that in the year in which Christ suffered this offering of ears, from which the 50 days of pentecost were to be counted, was transferred from the second day of azymes to the third, and that for this reason, that the second of azymes fell on the sabbath, on which it was not lawful to reap ears: that the harvest therefore was reaped and offered on the third day, namely the Sunday of the pasch, from which to the Sunday of pentecost there are precisely 50 days.
But the same can be objected to this opinion as to the former. Add that its foundation, namely that it was not lawful to reap these ears on the sabbath, does not seem true; for on the sabbath it was lawful to slay, flay, cut up and burn the lamb morning and evening, and other victims: therefore much more was it lawful to reap some ears for the oblation and sacrifice. Secondly, if it was not lawful to reap them on the sabbath, they could and ought to reap them one day or two before, rather than transfer this feast and sacrifice from the day prescribed by the law, namely the sabbath, to another, namely Sunday. Thirdly, it is an obstacle that the Jews celebrated their pentecost after the pattern of that first one on which they received the law on Sinai, Exod. 19:11; for that first was the norm and exemplar of all that followed, which were instituted and conformed in memory and form of this first. But that first was celebrated on the 50th day from the second of azymes, which then fell on the sabbath; for the first of azymes, on which they went out of Egypt, fell on Friday, as I showed on Exod. 12:14: therefore the second of azymes then fell on the sabbath. For if from this second of azymes, or from the sixteenth day of the first month, which then fell on the sabbath, you count 50 days, you come to the sixth day of the third month, on which they celebrated pentecost. Now if they could then count from the sabbath the 50 days of the first pentecost, they could also in other years thereafter do the same.
I answer, therefore, and say that St. Luke speaks of the Christian pentecost, not the Jewish. For the Christian pentecost was kept by Christians and flourished not only when St. Luke wrote these things, but also from its beginning, namely immediately from the first pentecost, which was the fiftieth day from the resurrection of Christ. That this is so is proved: First, because St. Luke, a Christian, writes to Christians, not to Jews (whence he writes in Greek, not in Hebrew), of the origin of Christianity and of its sacred things and feasts: therefore he treats of the Christian pentecost, not the Jewish. Secondly, because in chap. 1 he plainly shows that he is treating of the mysteries and deeds of Christ, which Christians recall and celebrate at the pasch, pentecost and other feasts. Let chap. 1 be read attentively, and it will be found so: therefore as in chap. 1 he counts 40 days from the resurrection of Christ to his ascension, so immediately after, in chap. 2, from the same resurrection, and not from the pasch of the Jews, he counts the 50 days of pentecost. Thirdly, because Christians celebrate their pentecost in imitation of the first, which Luke describes in Acts 2: therefore that was Christian. Fourthly, that St. Luke here describes the origin of the Christian pentecost, the Church feels, which every year reads and recalls this his narration of pentecost on the feast of pentecost. His sense therefore is: While the days of pentecost were being accomplished, that is, while the fiftieth day was being accomplished, on which the Christian pentecost was to be instituted and ordained by Christ for Christians, by the sending of the Holy Ghost, whom he himself had promised, Acts 1, and by the promulgation of the new law. For St. Luke alludes to the figure, namely to the institution of the Mosaic pentecost, Exod. 19:16, where it is said of it: “And now the third day was come (which was the fiftieth from the pasch, namely pentecost), and the morning appeared: and behold thunders began to be heard, and lightning to flash, and a very thick cloud to cover the mount, and the noise of the trumpet sounded exceeding loud.” For in like manner of the antitype, namely the Christian pentecost, St. Luke says: “When the days of pentecost were accomplished, etc., suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, etc. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire: and it sat upon every one of them.” As therefore Moses, Exod. 19, speaks of the Jewish pentecost and its institution, so St. Luke here speaks of the Christian and its institution.