Feasts

FEASTS. God out of his great wisdom appointed several Festivals among the Jews for many reasons. 1. To perpetuate the memory of those great events and wonders which he had wrought in favour of his people; for example, the Sabbath brought to remembrance the creation of the world; the Passover, the departure out of Egypt; the Pentecost, the Law given at Sinai, &c. 2. To keep them firm to their Religion, with the view of ceremonies, and the majesty of Divine Service. 3. To procure them certain pleasures, and allowable times of rest: for their Festivals were accompanied with Rejoicings, with Feasts of charity, and with innocent Diversions. 4. To give them instruction; for in their Religious Assemblies the Law of God was read and explained. 5. To renew the acquaintance, correspondence, and friendship of their Tribes and Families with one another, by coming from the several towns in the counry, and meeting three times a year in the Holy City.

The Hebrews had a great number of Feasts. The first, and most ancient of all, was the Sabbath, or the seventh day of the week, instituted to preserve the memory of the World’s Creation; The Lord blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, says Moses, because that in it he had rested from all his work. Some of the ancient Fathers, and some Rabbins¹ were of opinion, that the Sabbath had been observed among the righteous, from the beginning of the World. But the most universal opinion is, that people did not begin to cease from work upon that day, till after the command which God gave the Israelites to that purpose, some time after their coming out of Egypt, when they were incamped at Marah.

The Sabbatical year which returned every seven years, and was intirely set apart for rest, and the Jubilee year, which was at the end of seven times seven years, or the forty ninth year; were sorts of Feasts too, and may be considered as consequences of the Sabbath.

The Passover was instituted in memory of the Israelites departure out of Egypt, and of the favour which God shewed his people in sparing their first-born, when he passed in Egypt, and killed all the first-born of the Egyptians. It was celebrated on the fourteenth, or rather fifteenth day of the first month in the Ecclesiastical year, which was the seventh of the civil year. The Feast began after-noon on the fourteenth, and was celebrated properly on the fifteenth of Nisan; it lasted seven days. But the first and last days only of the Octave were days of rest. See the Article PASSOVER.

The Feast of Pentecost was celebrated on the fiftieth day after the Passover, in memory of the Law’s being given to Moses on Mount Sinai, fifty days after the departure out of Egypt. They reckoned seven weeks from the Passover to Pentecost, beginning at the day after the Passover. The Hebrews for this reason call it the Feast of Weeks, and the Christians Pentecost, which signifies the fiftieth day.

The Feast of Trumpets was celebrated at the beginning, or on the first day of the civil year, upon which a Trumpet was sounded, proclaiming the beginning of the year, which was in the month Tizri, answering to our September. It was rather a civil Feast than a sacred Solemnity. We know no religious cause of its establishment. Moses commands it to be observed as a day of rest, and that particular sacrifices Levit. xxiii.should be offered upon it.

The New Moons, or first days of every month, were in some sort a consequence of the Feast of Trumpets. The Law did not oblige people to rest upon this day, but ordained only some particular sacrifices Numb. xxviii. 11. Numb.x. 10. 1 Sam. xx. 5, 18.to be offered. It appears, that upon these days also, the Trumpet was sounded, and some sort of entertainments were made upon them. See CALENDS or NEW-MOONS.

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