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First Fruits?
- Thread starter rstrats
- Start date
I think this is more of a question for the Judaism DIR, but I'm pretty sure that the first fruits of the spring harvest is the first part of the crop that turns ripe and gets harvested.
Ahh, this is what you were getting at. As I said earlier, the first fruits would be the first of the crop to be harvested. To connect this to Christ's Resurrection, Christ was the first one to be risen from the dead and enter Paradise, thus He is the firstfruits of the dead.
And looking at Leviticus 23, my first instinct is to say that the firstfruits are offered after the seventh-day Sabbath, i.e. Sunday morning.
Leviticus 23: 9 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, 11 and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
But, is this a typical weekly Sabbath, or a festival Sabbath that can fall on any day of the week? It could be either/or. It depends on when the Passover Sabbath fell in the year that Christ died. The two Sabbaths could have potentially overlapped.
Alt Thinker
Older than the hills
It would appear to be the weekly Sabbath. This is the only way to get to the seventh Sabbath by counting seven full weeks.
When Paul refers to Jesus as being the first fruits he is tying into the tradition that there would be a general resurrection to reward the righteous and punish the evil-doers. This tradition was the answer to the problem posed by the wicked prospering and the good suffering. The general resurrection and judgment was to rectify that. The resurrection of Jesus was the proof that this was really going to happen. To emphasize this point Matthew refers to holy people being raised from the dead when Jesus is resurrected. (MT 27:51-53) Confusingly Matthew places this statement at the death of Jesus.
The Synoptic Gospels refer to the general resurrection and the Sadducees not believing in it. (Mt 22, Mk 12, Lk 14) The idea of a general judgment is found in the Book of Daniel chapter 7, which is echoed in the Olivet Discourse. (Mt 24, Mk 13, Lk 21) As far as I know the only reference to a general (more or less) resurrection in the OT is in Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones. (Ez 37)
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As Jesus was the first one to rise from the dead and subsequently be completely free from its grasp, the time of His Resurrection would have been when He became the firstfruits of the dead. A piece of a crop, when harvested, never returns to the field. Likewise, when Jesus rose from the dead, He would never again be taken in by death, as He had destroyed its power.
Where are you getting that from? "First fruits" simply means the first fruit of the harvest.
Alt Thinker
Older than the hills
The feast of the First Fruits is generally given as Nisan 16, the day after Passover. However the scriptural passage appears to imply the day after the weekly Sabbath after Passover. This is the only way to get to the seventh Sabbath by counting seven full weeks.
One way to have the feast of First Fruits on the first day of the week is to have Passover fall on the weekly Sabbath. This would be in line with the Gospel of John, which has Jesus crucified on the day before Passover at the time the lambs are slaughtered. John says that the next day was to be a “special Sabbath”, which could simply mean Passover, that is, a special Sabbath other than the ordinary weekly Sabbath. Or it might mean that Passover happened to fall on the weekly Sabbath, making that Sabbath special. Combined with the first day resurrection specification of all four Gospels, the latter would mean a Friday crucifixion.
A Friday crucifixion and Sunday resurrection blows away Matthew’s “three days and three nights in the earth” but allows the scenario of part of Friday (until sundown), all of Saturday (until sundown) and part of Sunday (from Saturday sundown). But then “on the third day” already contradicts Matthew’s Jonah reference.
To complicate matters, the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) all have the Last Supper as a Passover Seder on the evening of the day the lambs are slaughtered. This puts the crucifixion on Passover. They all refer to that day as the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The modern Feast of Unleavened Bread begins the day after Passover. But in the days of the Second Temple in Jerusalem the lambs were slaughtered in the Temple on the afternoon of 14 Nisan, with Passover beginning at sundown. The Festival therefore began on 14 Nisan and included Passover, not 16 Nisan as in modern practice.
My opinion on the matter is that the Synoptics are using the Pauline Eucharist formula, having Jesus symbolically be the Paschal Lamb eaten at the Passover Seder. In John, the Last Supper is not a Seder. Instead he has Jesus symbolically be the Paschal Lamb by dying as the lambs are being slaughtered in the Temple before Passover begins. But in so doing John abandons the Eucharist formula.
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Alt Thinker
Older than the hills
I did address your point as I understood it. First Fruits is normally considered the day after Passover. Sixth day (or earlier) crucifixion either on Passover (Synoptic Gospels) or on Preparation Day for Passover (John) puts First Fruits on the seventh day or earlier. First day is too late. Was that not what you meant?
However first day resurrection can be made to coincide with First Fruits by:
1. First Fruits being the day after the weekly Sabbath after Passover as Leviticus seems to imply.
2. Crucifixion on fifth day afternoon on Preparation Day for Passover. This puts Passover on the weekly Sabbath and First Fruits on first day.
Alt Thinker,
re: "I did address your point as I understood it."
I'm afraid that you misunderstood it. My question is: "...is there a scripture that says when the first fruits of the spring harvest become the first fruits?" Is it at the moment when the first sheaf is harvested or is it later when the sheaf is waved "before the Lord"?
re: "I did address your point as I understood it."
I'm afraid that you misunderstood it. My question is: "...is there a scripture that says when the first fruits of the spring harvest become the first fruits?" Is it at the moment when the first sheaf is harvested or is it later when the sheaf is waved "before the Lord"?