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Church of God-eim    PO Box 3332 . Modesto, CA 95353    www.cog-eim.org

Calculation of Pentecost
Herbert V. Armstrong
February 11, 1974

Dear Brethren of God's Church:

One subject God's Church has most recently been re-examining is the calculation of the annual Holy Day of Pentecost. A committee of our best researchers and scholars at Pasadena Headquarters was appointed to reexamine for me this subject in depth. Their researches have produced new facts. These new facts I have personally examined with extreme care. I give you, in this letter, the result of this reexamination.

I want to give you the true history of how you as a member of God's true Church came to be observing this Feast of Weeks, commonly called Pentecost.

God is using fallible human men in His Work. Unless we are willing to be corrected when wrong, God cannot use us -- for it is "human to err." But God works only through men He can thus lead, finally, into His Truth. In those early days after my conversion I was searching frantically to find the one true Church of God. I knew that when I found it, it would of necessity be a church which was willing to confess error, correct it, and grow in truth and knowledge, as well as in grace. That is why I did check to prove the church with whose brethren my wife and I began to fellowship. When their leader was forced to confess the error of a teaching, but refused to correct it, I did not withdraw from fellowship with their brethren -- nor later, when they admitted a truth which they refused to accept or teach as a church. But they had more truth than any of the other churches which I knew.

Yet I did not have to personally accept the point in which they were in error, or reject the truth they refused to accept.

But this Church has always confessed and corrected error.

A little history of two incidents will illustrate, at this point.

In the early days of the parent church of this present generation at Eugene, Oregon, the Church believed the Great White Throne Judgment took place at the beginning of the Millennium. I had even taught it over the air. A woman who was hostile to me personally stopped me on a downtown street.

"Herbert Armstrong, you're all wet!" she exclaimed in icy sarcasm. She said that the judgment had to be at the end of, or immediately after, the Millennium. I did not argue with her. I simply said I would re-examine the point. I went immediately to the public library to check the original Greek, for I and others in the church had supposed Revelation 20:5 to be a mistranslation: "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." There was no mistranslation.

To admit that this hostile woman was right and that I was wrong would possibly have been very humiliating to most men. I doubt that any other church would have changed it. But on the next Sabbath, it was corrected by the church, and on Sunday I corrected it on the broadcast.

Another time a woman said the church teaching was error, as she believed the prophet Ezekiel used the term "mountains of Israel" to mean the nations of Israel, i.e., the U.S. and British people. Often the word "mountain" or "mountains" is indeed used in prophecy symbolically to mean "nation," as in Isaiah 2:2 and Micah 4:1. We rechecked. The woman was right. The church teaching on it was changed.

This Church has always corrected error when found and proved, and has always grown in true knowledge, and I know of no other organized church which has done this. But when dissidents accuse the Church of God of being unwilling to give up error when it is not error, but truth, then we hold fast to that which is good.

Now how did you and every other member of God's Church come to be observing Pentecost at all?

Let me tell you: In my original biblical research and study on the subject of the Sabbath, I saw plainly that the annual Sabbaths were still binding. My wife and I began keeping them, though none of the "Sardis" brethren would. For seven years we observed them alone, not yet knowing why, or the meaning of those days. God commanded: "Keep them." And we obeyed. As soon as the parent church of the present Worldwide Church of God was raised up, the brethren joined us in keeping those annual Sabbaths. Later God revealed the meaning, and the Church began keeping the eight-day autumn festival.

That is how you came to be observing Pentecost.

We did not have, at that time, access to all of the scholarly research that we have today.

In Leviticus 23:15, it says to count 50 days from a Sunday (the morrow after the Sabbath). Now when we count a certain number of days from a day, we begin counting with one. One day from Sunday is Monday, not Sunday. To count Sunday as day one is not counting one day from Sunday. Ten feet from a house on the west is not ten feet beginning at the east side of the house. It is seven days "from" one Sabbath to the next, one day from Sabbath is Sunday, and seven days "from" Sabbath is the next Sabbath. To count by beginning with the Sabbath being the first day counted would put the next Sabbath on Friday, and the one after that on Thursday, etc. The word "from" means "away out of."

This Festival is called, in Deuteronomy 16:9, the Feast of Weeks. There we are told to count seven weeks from the morrow after the Sabbath -- seven weeks from a Sunday. Adding the 50th day (Leviticus 23:16) placed Pentecost on a Monday.

In Leviticus 23:15 in the Authorized Version (King James), it says "seven sabbaths" shall be counted, but other translations, especially in the Revised Standard Version and the Moffatt, translate it "seven weeks." In Deuteronomy 16:9, the weeks are to be counted, and there the Hebrew word is shavuot -- meaning "weeks." I therefore accepted the other translations "weeks" to be counted, instead of "Sabbaths," in the sense of weekly Sabbaths.

According to the facts available to me and that small parent church at that time -- back in 1927 to 1933 -- Pentecost was put on a Monday.

But now, consider: Why did God use me in founding Ambassador College? Simply to provide an educated ministry for His Church Ambassador College has indeed provided an educated ministry. It has developed a scholarly research team. Today at the Pasadena Headquarters it has provided me -- and the Church -- with many facilities I did not have in 1927.

And that team of scholarly researchers -- delving into every possible phase of this subject in depth -- has now indeed brought me new facts -- new evidence.

The Hebrew words for "from the morrow after the sabbath" are mi-mohorat ha-shabbat in Leviticus 23:15.

The original Hebrew translated "from the morrow" is mi-mohorat. These identical Hebrew words occur twenty-eight times in the Bible. Our research team brought me the following facts:

In twenty-six of the twenty-eight times where this Hebrew expression appears, it is translated "on the morrow." Only in Leviticus 23:15,16 is it translated "from the morrow," and "unto the morrow."

The same Hebrew mi-mohorat is used in this very same passage in Leviticus 23:11 -- translated "and he shall wave the sheaf before the Eternal, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it." The same Hebrew mi-mohorat is used, followed by the same Hebrew ha-sabbat. Here, as in all the places (26 of them) where mi-mohorat appears, to translate it into the English "from the morrow" would obviously distort the meaning.

Then why did all translations but one I have checked translate it "from" in Leviticus 23:15?

Our research team had just presented this much to me when I wrote you the letter of January 31, 1974, saying new evidence had been presented and that it might cause the Church to change the day observed as Pentecost -- but I needed to check further before a decision.

I wondered, could it be possible that the translators understood the Hebrew words here to mean we must begin counting from - that is "a way out of," or beginning to count the first day of the 50 days as the day after this "morrow after the sabbath," which we call "Sunday." That is, one day from Sunday is Monday, and if so counted (as the Church has counted for over forty years), the fiftieth day (Pentecost) is on Monday.

On the other hand, if "on the morrow" is the correct rendering, as in all twenty-six of the twenty-eight places, this Hebrew expression occurs, probably the translators should have added the word "beginning" on the Sunday, that is, the morrow after the Sabbath. Many places in the Bible, in order to make the meaning clear in English, they have simply added such a word, and in the King James translation, such added words are always printed in italics.

That is the reason I was unable to make a firm decision when I wrote the recent letter of January 31st.

It is my responsibility to set the day for the entire Church, as Christ the Head of the Church leads me. For He speaks through the one He called and chose and used in raising up His Church of this time, and the one who is getting His message to the world as a witness. Christ, the Head of the Church, does not speak through self-appointed, would-be "scholars" who take it upon themselves to teach the Church contrary to those Christ has set in His Church, as attested by all the fruits.

I had to be sure. I needed to know why the translators had rendered mi-mohorat as "from the morrow," instead of "on the morrow," as in the twenty-six other places. And this same rendering of "from the morrow" was thus translated by the RSV (Revised Standard Version), Moffatt, Fenton, and all but one recent translation. That is why the Church had always counted Pentecost as 50 days from the morrow after the Sabbath. The Church has counted correctly according to the knowledge that was available. But, as I said, God has not revealed all of His Truth at once, but a little at a time. We had to grow in the Truth.

Of course, none of the translators of the King James Version is now still living. That translation was made in (or completed) in the year 1611. But undoubtedly the most authoritative later translation is the RSV. That translation is now being carefully re-examined by its scholarly translators; the Chairman of the Revision Committee is Dr. Herbert G. May. I asked our own research team to contact him -- and others as far as possible -- since writing my former letter to you.

Following is our own researchers' report to me:

This research was conducted in direct response to Mr. Herbert Armstrong's question "Why do the translators say 'from the morrow' in Lev. 23:15, whereas all other occurrences of mi-mohorat are translated 'on the morrow'?

To assist Mr. Armstrong, we contacted world-famous translators -- scholars who actually rendered the Hebrew of Leviticus into English in some most widely-accepted translations of published Bibles -- and asked them this question (and many variations of it from all sides): "According to the Hebrew, does one count beginning on the morrow after the Sabbath (Sunday), or from (away out of) the morrow after the Sabbath (Monday)?"

Dr. Herbert C. May (Chairman of the Committee for Continuing Revision of the Revised Standard Version, now called the Common Bible and accepted by Protestant, Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox scholars) commented on the meaning of the word "from" in Lev. 23:15. Dr. May explained it as "beginning to count on the day after the Sabbath." Dr. May, after checking various English  translations, including the New American Bible, admitted that "from the morrow" could be confusing in English -- although the Hebrew mi-mohorat could never be confusing. He said: "You count beginning with the morrow after the Sabbath. And then on the fiftieth day, counting beginning on the morrow after the Sabbath, you get the Festival of Weeks .... I don't think here it would be  'away from.' It would mean a starting point ... and 'beginning with' would probably be clearer."

Dr. May also stated that he would recommend to his committee changing "from the morrow" in Leviticus 23:15 to read "count beginning with the morrow after the Sabbath ...." If his translators accept this revision, the Common Bible will read "beginning with" when it appears in 1982-84.

Dr. Harold Lindsell (member of the Revised Standard Bible Committee, and author of the marginal references for the RSV): "The answer is ... you would count fifty starting with Sunday itself and it would come on the fiftieth day, which would come out on another Sunday." He then encouraged Dr. Dorothy to call Dr. William Lasor, an expert in Hebrew who himself helped translate the Berkeley Bible, a new modern translation (published in 1949 in Berkeley, California).

William Sanford Lasor (translator of three Old Testament books in the Berkeley Version and renowned Hebrew scholar -- also recommended to us as an expert by Luther Weigle [Retired Chairman of Old Testament Translators of the RSV]) stated that he used the word "from" to indicate a starting point to begin with, and that you must begin counting on the day after the Sabbath, which would mean the fiftieth day, Pentecost, is on a Sunday. Of course, Dr. Lasor is relying on an English idiom which allows "from" to be inclusive like the Hebrew.

Dr. Mole (Assistant to the late Dr. Charles H. Dodd, Head of the Committee on the New English Bible): "I see what you mean. The English is ambiguous .... Yes, a very tricky expression." We asked, "Do you feel the Hebrew is also ambiguous?" The answer: "Definitely not ...."

We see then that the world's most renowned translators (the ones contacted represent whole teams of scholars) unanimously feel that the Hebrew mi-mohorat is inclusive regardless of its English translation. Put another way, these translators understand the English "from" as if it said "beginning with."

Why?

We asked that question also and the response was: "That is the traditional translation." But, if that is a problem to some, then they suggest "beginning with" as a more accurate reflection of the original, as in the Hebrew.

Our research team has brought out a number of other points, of greater or lesser significance to one wishing to study into the subject in as great a depth as they have researched it.

But it is not my purpose in this letter to burden all members with a long and highly technical treatise on the subject. In a short time we will prepare a special booklet covering many more technical points and more statements from authorities on the Hebrew language.

It is sufficient in this letter to show you how you came to be observing this Day of Pentecost; why you are in the Church and now called, before the time, to help get Christ's great message of the Kingdom of God to the nations ….before Christ's coming and setting up God's Kingdom; how the Church came to calculate Pentecost on a Monday (because the very translators who gave us the Bible in the English language now admit that it is an unclear and ambiguous translation); and why the Church of God must now, upon learning this, correct the error and appoint the Day of Firstfruits (which is to teach us that we are the first to be called for this special mission) to be held hereafter on a Sunday.