SPEAKING IN TONGUE HAPPENED

DURING THE FESTIVAL OF TABERNACLES,

AND NOT AT PENTECOST^ã

Aristeo Canlas Fernando, Peace Crusader

The speaking in tongue happened during a festival when “Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5) were gathered together in Jerusalem. They were there on pilgrimage. This could have happened in any of the three pilgrim festivals: the Feast of Unleavened Bread or Passover Festival (Pesach), the Feast of Weeks or Harvest or Pentecost (Shavuot), or the Feast of Tabernacles or Shelters or Booths or In-gathering (Sukkoth). The Bible states that it was at Pentecost when it happened (Acts 2:1). But was it really at Pentecost when it happened or at another festival? This webpage will show that it was not during Pentecost when it happened but at the Festival of Tabernacles. This was uncovered after proving that the crucifixion date of Jesus on August 17, 1 BC revealed by the Holy Spirit is correct. The webpage “Crucifixion Date of Jesus Revealed and Proven” at http://aristean.org/jesuscrucify1.htm explains how the revelation has been proven to be correct.

Please note that all verses quoted herein are from the Holy Bible, King James Version.

THE PILGRIM FESTIVALS

God commanded the Israelites to appear before the Lord in the place He chose—Jerusalem—three times in a year, to wit:

Deuteronomy 16:16 – “Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the Lord empty:”

These three feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles—are called pilgrim festivals, and together, they celebrate deliverance from slavery, revelation from God, and settlement in the Promised Land after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. The comparison of the three pilgrim festivals are presented in Table 1. These days, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Weeks are connected by the counting of the omer for 49 days. In ancient times, however, they were not connected at all.

Table 1. Summary of the three pilgrim festivals.

Feast	Feast of Unleavened Bread or Passover Festival	Feast of Weeks or Harvest or Pentecost	Feast of Tabernacles or Shelters or Booths or Ingathering
Jewish Name of Feast	Pesach	Shavuot	Sukkoth
When Held	14^th to 21^st of first month of religious year	Part 1: Presentation of first sheaf of corn on day after Sabbath Part 2: Seven full weeks from Part 1	15^th to 22^nd day of 7^th month
Jewish Calendar Date	Present: Nisan 14-21 Before: 14^th to 21^st of first month of religious year	Part 1: Day after Sabbath during Passover Festival (present) Part 2: Seven full weeks from Part 1 now fixed on Sivan 4-5	Tishri 15-22
Gregorian Calendar Date	Present: Start between March 27 and April 25 Before: Any date	Part 1: Between March 27 and May 2 Part 2: Start between May 15 and June 13	Start between September 21 and October 19
Bible Verses	Num 28:16-25; Ex 12:14-20, 23:15, 34:18; Lev 23:5-8; Deut 16:1-8	Part 1: Lev 23:9-14 Part 2: Num 28:26-31; Lev 23:15-22 Others: Ex 23:16, 34:22; Deut 16:9-12 (Part 2)	Num 29:12-39; Ex 34:22; Lev 23:33-43; Deut 16:13-15
Duration	8 days	Part 1: 1 day Part 2: 2 days (present)	8 days

Which of these pilgrim festivals is more likely the festival when the speaking in tongue could have happened? We can eliminate the Feast of Unleavened Bread because it was in this feast when Jesus was arrested and it was around this time when He was crucified. The speaking in tongue happened after His resurrection, after being with the apostles for 40 days, and after His ascension to Heaven. We are therefore left with either of the two remaining pilgrim festivals: the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles.

Table 2 illustrates the events that happened around the time when Jesus was crucified until His ascension to Heaven in both the Jewish calendars and the proleptic Gregorian calendar. The months in the Jewish civil calendar shown are Av 3760 AM (a month of 30 days), Elul 3760 AM (last month of the civil year with 29 days), and Tishri 3761 AM (first month of the civil year with 30 days). In the Jewish religious lunar calendar, the months were just numbered from 1 to 12, shown in the table as Roman numerals. The first month of the religious calendar fell in the month of Av 3760 AM when Jesus was crucified. It is during the first month of the religious year when the Passover Festival is held. The Festival of Tabernacles, on the other hand, was fixed in the civil calendar from the 15^th day to the 22^nd day in the month of Tishri.

Table 2. Dates in the Jewish civil and religious calendars from Av 1, 3760 AM to Tishri 30, 3761 AM and in the proleptic Gregorian calendar in the year 1 BC.

Date in Jewish Calendars		Date in proleptic Gregorian Calendar	Day of Week	Days from Cruci-fixion	Remarks
Civil	Religious	Date in proleptic Gregorian Calendar	Day of Week	Days from Cruci-fixion	Remarks
Av 1	I - 1	July 19	Wednesday		Start of religious year, New Moon Festival, a high day
Av 2	I - 2	July 20	Thursday
Av 3	I - 3	July 21	Friday
Av 4	I - 4	July 22	Saturday		Saturday Sabbath
Av 5	I - 5	July 23	Sunday
Av 6	I - 6	July 24	Monday
Av 7	I - 7	July 25	Tuesday
Av 8	I - 8	July 26	Wednesday
Av 9	I - 9	July 27	Thursday
Av 10	I - 10	July 28	Friday
Av 11	I - 11	July 29	Saturday		Saturday Sabbath
Av 12	I - 12	July 30	Sunday
Av 13	I - 13	July 31	Monday
Av 14	I - 14	August 1	Tuesday		Start of Passover Festival
Av 15	I - 15	August 2	Wednesday		Passover Festival, a high day
Av 16	I - 16	August 3	Thursday		Passover Festival
Av 17	I - 17	August 4	Friday		Passover Festival
Av 18	I - 18	August 5	Saturday		Passover Festival, Saturday Sabbath
Av 19	I - 19	August 6	Sunday		Passover Festival
Av 20	I - 20	August 7	Monday		Passover Festival
Av 21	I - 21	August 8	Tuesday		End of Passover Festival, a high day
Av 22	I - 22	August 9	Wednesday
Av 23	I - 23	August 10	Thursday
Av 24	I - 24	August 11	Friday
Av 25	I - 25	August 12	Saturday		Saturday Sabbath
Av 26	I - 26	August 13	Sunday
Av 27	I - 27	August 14	Monday
Av 28	I - 28	August 15	Tuesday
Av 29	I - 29	August 16	Wednesday
Av 30	I - 30	August 17	Thursday		Crucifixion of Jesus
Elul 1	II - 1	August 18	Friday	1	Jesus in the sepulcher; New Moon Festival, a high day
Elul 2	II - 2	August 19	Saturday	2	Jesus in the sepulcher; Saturday Sabbath,
Elul 3	II - 3	August 20	Sunday	3	Jesus in the sepulcher; resurrection of Jesus – before midnight of August 20
Elul 4	II - 4	August 21	Monday	4	Resurrection of Jesus before midnight of Elul 4; discovery of empty sepulcher at early daytime; 1^st day from resurrection
Elul 5	II - 5	August 22	Tuesday	5	2^nd day from resurrection
Elul 6	II - 6	August 23	Wednesday	6	3^rd day from resurrection
Elul 7	II - 7	August 24	Thursday	7	4^th day from resurrection
Elul 8	II - 8	August 25	Friday	8	5^th day from resurrection
Elul 9	II - 9	August 26	Saturday	9	6^th day from resurrection, Saturday Sabbath
Elul 10	II - 10	August 27	Sunday	10	7^th day from resurrection
Elul 11	II - 11	August 28	Monday	11	8^th day from resurrection
Elul 12	II - 12	August 29	Tuesday	12	9^th day from resurrection
Elul 13	II - 13	August 30	Wednesday	13	10^th day from resurrection
Elul 14	II - 14	August 31	Thursday	14	11^th day from resurrection
Elul 15	II - 15	September 1	Friday	15	12^th day from resurrection
Elul 16	II - 16	September 2	Saturday	16	13^th day from resurrection, Saturday Sabbath
Elul 17	II - 17	September 3	Sunday	17	14^th day from resurrection
Elul 18	II - 18	September 4	Monday	18	15^th day from resurrection
Elul 19	II - 19	September 5	Tuesday	19	16^th day from resurrection
Elul 20	II - 20	September 6	Wednesday	20	17^th day from resurrection
Elul 21	II - 21	September 7	Thursday	21	18^th day from resurrection
Elul 22	II - 22	September 8	Friday	22	19^th day from resurrection
Elul 23	II - 23	September 9	Saturday	23	20^th day from resurrection, Saturday Sabbath
Elul 24	II - 24	September 10	Sunday	24	21^st day from resurrection
Elul 25	II - 25	September 11	Monday	25	22^nd day from resurrection
Elul 26	II - 26	September 12	Tuesday	26	23^rd day from resurrection
Elul 27	II - 27	September 13	Wednesday	27	24^th day from resurrection
Elul 28	II - 28	September 14	Thursday	28	25^th day from resurrection
Elul 29	II - 29	September 15	Friday	29	26^th day from resurrection
Tishri 1	III - 1	September 16	Saturday	30	27^th day from resurrection, New Year Festival, a high day, start of civil calendar, New Moon Festival, a high day, Saturday Sabbath
Tishri 2	III - 2	September 17	Sunday	31	28^th day from resurrection
Tishri 3	III - 3	September 18	Monday	32	29^th day from resurrection
Tishri 4	III - 4	September 19	Tuesday	33	30^th day from resurrection
Tishri 5	III - 5	September 20	Wednesday	34	31^st day from resurrection
Tishri 6	III - 6	September 21	Thursday	35	32^nd day from resurrection
Tishri 7	III - 7	September 22	Friday	36	33^rd day from resurrection
Tishri 8	III - 8	September 23	Saturday	37	34^th day from resurrection, Saturday Sabbath
Tishri 9	III - 9	September 24	Sunday	38	35^th day from resurrection
Tishri 10	III - 10	September 25	Monday	39	36^th day from resurrection, Day of Atonement, a high day
Tishri 11	III - 11	September 26	Tuesday	40	37^th day from resurrection
Tishri 12	III - 12	September 27	Wednesday	41	38^th day from resurrection
Tishri 13	III - 13	September 28	Thursday	42	39^th day from resurrection
Tishri 14	III - 14	September 29	Friday	43	40^th day; Ascension of Jesus to Heaven,
Tishri 15	III - 15	September 30	Saturday		First day of Festival of Tabernacles, a high day, day of rest, speaking in tongue, Saturday Sabbath
Tishri 16	III - 16	October 1	Sunday		Festival of Tabernacles
Tishri 17	III - 17	October 2	Monday		Festival of Tabernacles
Tishri 18	III - 18	October 3	Tuesday		Festival of Tabernacles
Tishri 19	III - 19	October 4	Wednesday		Festival of Tabernacles
Tishri 20	III - 20	October 5	Thursday		Festival of Tabernacles
Tishri 21	III - 21	October 6	Friday		Festival of Tabernacles
Tishri 22	III - 22	October 7	Saturday		End of Festival of Tabernacles, a high day, Saturday Sabbath
Tishri 23	III - 23	October 8	Sunday
Tishri 24	III - 24	October 9	Monday
Tishri 25	III - 25	October 10	Tuesday
Tishri 26	III - 26	October 11	Wednesday
Tishri 27	III - 27	October 12	Thursday
Tishri 28	III - 28	October 13	Friday
Tishri 29	III - 29	October 14	Saturday		Saturday Sabbath
Tishri 30	III – 30	October 15	Sunday

Passover is the celebration of the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora (Dispersion) in a festival commemorating the divine deliverance or freeing of the children of Israel from their oppression and enslavement in Egypt after 430 years. Since this festival is religious in nature and not season-dependent, it was retained in the religious calendar and not fixed in the civil calendar. The religious lunar calendar is the calendar that the Jews had been using since they left Egypt whereas the civil lunisolar calendar is the calendar that they adopted from the Babylonians when they were exiled in Babylonia in sixth century BC. These two calendars that the Jews used are discussed extensively in http://aristean.org/twocalendars.htm (under construction as of October 20, 2003).

As shown in Table 1, the first month of the religious year fell in the month of Av in the year 3760. The Passover Festival is celebrated from the 14^th to the 21^st of the first month of the religious year. During the time when Jesus was crucified, the Passover Festival was held from August 1-8, 1 BC.

Jesus ate the Passover Meal or seder with His disciples on the night of the 14^th of the month. This 14^th day is called the Lord’s Passover (Leviticus 23:5). Later that night, they went to the Garden of Gethsemane. It was here where Jesus was arrested led by Judas Iscariot. Jesus was not actually crucified during the Passover Festival because the Holy Spirit revealed that Jesus was crucified on August 17, 1 BC. This is equivalent to Av 30, 3760. This shows that the crucifixion happened nine days after the end of the Passover Festival. This is discussed in details in http://aristean.org/passover1.htm.

Jesus was in the sepulcher for three complete days and three complete nights. He then resurrected on Sunday, August 20, 1 BC, between 6 pm and midnight, or on the early evening of Elul 4, 3760. Details about this is discussed in http://aristean.org/sundaysabbath.htm. Jesus showed Himself alive and seen for forty days, and spoke of things pertaining to the kingdom of God (August 21 to September 29, 1 BC or Elul 4, 3760 to Tishri 14, 3761) (Acts 1:3). Before Jesus ascended to Heaven, He commanded His disciples that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father to be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5). In Luke 24:49, Jesus said to His apostles, “And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” Jesus ascended to Heaven from Mount Olivet which is only a sabbath’s day journey from Jerusalem (Acts 1:12). After His ascension, His disciples returned to Jerusalem. The ascension happened on Friday, September 29, 1 BC or Tishri 14, 3761, the eve of the Festival of Tabernacles and the weekly Saturday Sabbath. That evening, Tishri 15, 3761, was the first day of the festival and it was also the Saturday Sabbath.

The following morning, the festival “was fully come” (Acts 2:1). It was during this time while the believers were gathered together in one place when “suddenly, there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting” (Acts 2:2). Cloven tongues like fire sat upon each of them. “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:3-4). The apostles did not wait long to receive the promise of the Father that they will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. It happened just overnight!

Attracted by the noise and in their excitement, people quickly gathered and formed a large crowd. “And they were all amazed and marveled” to see that the believers who were Galileans speaking in the native languages of the pilgrims who were “Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers from Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians” (Acts 2:9-11) . Peter, standing up with the eleven, spoke to the crowd. He preached to them about Jesus . Then he invited his listeners to follow Jesus. To be saved, he told them to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus and that they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. A large number of them heeded the appeal of Peter--three thousand, the record states, were added to the group on that first day (Acts 2:40-42).

The Holy Spirit we communicate with told us that the apostles received this gift of speaking in tongue “to let the apostles feel the heat and flame of the fire of the Holy Spirit, and in their hearts, the love of God will burn. And in that way, the apostles would have joy and enthusiasm, that they would perform their duties cleanly.” Truly, the apostles were filled with joy and enthusiasm that they were bold enough to preach about Jesus. The gift promised by Jesus from the Father happened just the next day after His ascension to Heaven. The apostles did not have to wait long for the gift. Otherwise, some could have been frustrated if the gift was given at a later time for they could have been waiting and waiting and the promise did not come. They could have become irritable. Others could have left for they had work or business to attend to or things had to be done at their homes. They must have been surprised to receive the gift that soon and a special and an unexpected kind of gift that could have been new to them.

The giving of the gift was also timely in that there were many pilgrims from different places, “out of every nation under heaven”, who attended the Festival of Tabernacles. Some of these pilgrims could have been there since the Passover Festival during the first week of August and preferred to stay until the first week of October for the Festival of Tabernacles. They could have come from far away places that it was more practical for them to remain in Jerusalem to attend both pilgrim festivals than come back and forth that soon. During their two-month stay in Jerusalem, they must have also heard, if not witnessed, the crucifixion of Jesus on August 17, 1 BC. So they were already aware about Jesus and had some knowledge about Him and His teachings. Many of these people must have been among the 3,000 who joined the group that first day of the festival.

Another possible reason why many Jews from other nations opted to stay in Jerusalem from the Passover Festival to the Festival of Tabernacles might be because they were also able to attend the New Year’s Festival (Rosh Hashanah) on September 16, 1 BC (Tishri 1, 3761) and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) on September 25, 1 BC (Tishri 10, 3761).

That year, the first and eighth (last) days of the Festival of Tabernacle coincided with the weekly Saturday Sabbath, so it was an extra special festival that could have attracted more pilgrims to come to Jerusalem. The first and eighth (last) days of the festival are designated as sabbaths (Leviticus 23:35-36,39; Numbers 29:12,35), when holy convocations are held and work and business are proscribed or banned.

Given the above circumstances and events, we can expect to find more pilgrims to come to Jerusalem to attend the eight-day joyful Festival of Tabernacles than the one- or two-day agricultural Harvest Festival or Feast of Weeks or Pentecost or Shavuot.

REASONS WHY PENTECOST IS STATED IN THE BIBLE

Jesus resurrected from the dead after being in the sepulcher for three days and three nights since His crucifixion. This occurred on Sunday, August 20, 1 BC between 6 pm and midnight. Sunday, i.e. from sunset of Saturday until sunset of Sunday, was observed as the Sabbath day of the followers of Jesus. This was discovered in “Followers of Jesus observed Sunday Sabbath” in http://aristean.org/sundaysabbath.htm. The followers of Jesus observed their seventh day of the week as their Sabbath day a day after the Jewish Sabbath. If the Jews observe theirs on Saturday as it is known these days, the followers of Jesus observed theirs on Sunday. And who could have instructed these followers to observe Sabbath day on Sunday except Jesus. This tradition coupled by the fact that Jesus resurrected on Sunday evening was carried on. Hence, weekly, on Sunday, in their meeting for worship, the early Christians were reminded of the day when Jesus rose from the dead or when He resurrected.

Yearly, the followers of Jesus celebrate the anniversary of His resurrection in a great main feast called Easter, often referred to as the Christian Passover. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus happened around the time of the Jewish Passover. Hence, Easter was tied to the Jewish Passover.

The Jewish Passover is the celebration of the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. This is celebrated on the first month of the Jewish religious year. Since the religious year was using a purely lunar calendar, it had only 354 days in a year. A solar year, on the other hand, has 365 days. Passover, therefore, was wandering through the seasons in a solar calendar.

The early Christians were using the solar Julian calendar. They were the first to place the correct time when Exodus could have occurred. Exodus occurred when the barley crop was shooting into ear (Abib). They estimated that Exodus happened sometime at full moon after the vernal equinox on March 21. Hence, in 325 AD at the Council of Nicea, the Christians decided to break away and to dissociate themselves from the Jews by not being dependent upon the Jewish Passover for the Christians’ Easter. They made a formula of when Easter should be celebrated. They decided that Easter should be observed “on the first Sunday after the full moon on or next after March 21 or one week later if the full moon falls on Sunday” (Webster’s Third New International Dictionary).

Emperor Constantine wrote a letter addressed to those who were not present at the Council of Nicea. He blamed the Jews for killing Jesus and how erroneous they were in celebrating Passover at the wrong time. In fact, he even cited that the Jews at times celebrated Passover twice in one year, that is, in the solar Julian calendar with 365 days in a year. This letter is found at http://www.fordham.edu/hasall/basis/nicea1.txt.

After placing Easter to be held in March or April, they had to consider when the ascension of Jesus to Heaven took place. It had to be on one of the pilgrim festivals since there were many pilgrims when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles and they were able to speak in tongue. The most logical festival is Pentecost held sometime in May, even though this is about fifty days from Easter or on the seventh Sunday after Easter. The ascension of Jesus, however, happened 43 days from His crucifixion. This, I believe, is how the Bible got in Acts 2:1 that the speaking in tongue happened at Pentecost. Originally, I believe that the festival referred to was the Festival of Tabernacles in about September or early October. Since this festival is about six months away from Easter placed sometime in late March or April, it would have been awkward to state that it was during this festival when the speaking in tongue happened. Their most logical festival was Pentecost.

The Jews in the Diaspora took notice of what the Christians did to their Easter which was dependent before on the Jewish Passover. Hence, from AD 328-342, those in Syrian Antioch always celebrated Passover in (Julian) March, the month of the spring equinox, ignoring whatever the rulings in Palestine were. This was an open rebellion by Jews in the Diaspora to those who give the rulings in Palestine. So, in order that the unity of Jewish people, both in Israel and in the Diaspora, would be preserved, the patriarch Hillel II revealed and published the secret astronomical observation of calendar making in AD 358/359. He reformed the calendar such that he fixed the religious lunar calendar into the civil lunisolar calendar. The civil year still started in the month of Tishri. However, the religious year started in Nisan, a spring month. This is when Passover is held, from Nisan 14 to Nisan 21. This is also about the time when Exodus happened. Those in the Diaspora did not have to depend on those in Jerusalem of when a month is to commence. It was not visual observation of the crescent new moon anymore, rather it was using a precalculated calendar. Since this reformation, the form of the Jewish calendar has remained the same until today.

CONCLUSIONS

The following are the notable findings and from those of Table 2:

That the crucifixion of Jesus occurred in mid-August confirming the August 17, 1 BC date revealed by the Holy Spirit;
That the crucifixion occurred 2003 years ago this year 2003 and not 1970 years ago (2003 – 33 years the age of Jesus when He died);
That the speaking in tongue occurred during the Festival of Tabernacles or Sukkoth and not at the Festival of Weeks or Pentecost or Shavuot, neatly agreeing with the Bible from crucifixion to ascension;
That Jesus was not crucified during Passover, but after;
That Passover was migrating through the seasons;
That Passover when Jesus was crucified was celebrated during the month of Av sometime in July-August, 1 BC;
That the Festival of Tabernacles or Shelters or Ingathering or Sukkoth was fixed in Tishri occurring sometime in September/October in the lunisolar civil calendar.

RECOMMENDATION

I recommend that the original manuscripts, such as the “Muratorian Canon” used in about AD 200, those used by Origen in AD 250 and by Eusebius in AD 300 should be consulted to determine in which festival the speaking in tongue stated in Acts 2:1 really happened.

File speaktongue.htm last updated: October 31, 2003

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