Bible study on the Feasts of the LORD in the New Testament

God recently gave me the opportunity to lead a Bible study at church on the Feasts of the LORD in the New Testament. As I prepared for the Bible study, I approached it with an open mind, seeking just to find the facts and draw conclusions only based on facts. As such, I present in this post what I found and my conclusions on what I found.

First, let me begin by indicate the scope and limitations of this post and Bible study. It is meant to be a mere overview of the feast days in the Bible, particularly as they are mentioned in the New Testament Scriptures. My study does not cover all possible mentions of the feats. Further I present the feasts in the order that they appear in the Jewish calendar.

1. Passover/Pesach and Unleavened Bread
From my study, Passover and Unleavened Bread observance are the only feasts commanded in the New Testament for Christians. Jesus first commanded it, that the Passover feast should commemorate his sacrifice (Luke 22:19). Then Paul, speaking to Gentiles in Corinth, declare that they must keep the feast, not in the old Jewish way, but with the new meaning infused into the feast by Jesus (1 Cor. 5:6-8).

Finally it is clear that what apostle Paul refers to as the Lord's Supper is different from what we call communion and celebrate today. The Lord supper according to Paul was an activity that involved more eating than just bread and more drinking than just a small cup or sip of wine (or grape juice). So abundant was the feasting at the Lord's supper that some people were drunk, while others came expecting to have food and were hungry (1 Cor. 11:17-34).

Finally in Acts 20:6, we see that Luke (a Gentile) also use

2. Pentecost/Shavout
Unlike Passover, there is no explicit command for the keeping of Pentecost. Despite that, the apostles were obviously together on that day (Acts 2:1). Paul made special arrangements to keep this feast in Jerusalem, despite other Gentile Christians wanting him to minister to them (Acts 18:18-21;20:16).

However, I would be hard pressed to state that Christians are commanded to observe the festival.


3. Feast of Trumpets/Rosh Hashanah
Unlike the previous festivals, Feast of Trumpets is not explicitly mentioned. In fact, the feast is only referred to in the New Testament implicitly through symbolism. Perhaps the best way to identify symbolic references to this feast is to browse the New Testament scriptures for allusions or references to the blowing of a trumpet or trumpets (See Matthew 24:31; Revelations 11:15-19; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; 1 Cor. 15:51-52).


4. The day of Atonement/Yom Kippur
This feast is the only one that I consider not a "feast" as it is actually a fast. In Acts 27:9, the feast may be alluded to as "the Fast". The symbolism of this feast is mentioned through Hebrews Chapters 9 and 10 (Hebrews 9:6-14,24-28; Hebrews 10:1-3,11-13).

5. Feast of Tabernacles/Booths/Sukkot
Like the fellow fall festivals, Feast of Tabernacles is not explicitly mentioned in the New Testament, except for the references to the observance of these Festivals and events in the life of Jesus. Jesus goes up to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast, even though he was risking his life in doing so (John 7:1-14). On the Last Great Day of the feast, Jesus announces the promise for living water for those who are thirsty (John 7:37-39). The symbolism of this feast is also alluded to in Revelations 21:1-6, where God comes from heaven to dwell with human beings and establishes a living stream that quenches the thirst of all the inhabitants living in God's earthly residence.

Concluding points
From these findings, I conclude that

1. The festivals/feast days were as much a part of the Jewish calendar as they were of the Gentile Christian calendar. Gentiles like Luke use the calendar to mark times and significant events in his account and retelling of the history of the early church and the biography of church leaders and apostles such as Paul.
2. One feast observance is explicitly commanded, both by Jesus and apparently even by Paul. This one feast explicitly commanded for Christian observance is not tied to the ceremonial laws nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14). Passover and Unleavened (Exodus 12) comes before the Sabbath in Exodus 16 and the giving of the 10 commandments in Exodus 20. The very first Passover was kept before a tabernacle or temple was instituted. 
3. There is no evidence that Jesus commanded the discontinuation of the observance of these festivals or feasts. Rather, the feasts continue to be alluded to throughout the New Testament Scriptures.

I will hopefully in my next blog post thoroughly analyse why Christians should keep the feast of Passover and Unleavened bread.

Conversation on Leviticus 21:16-23

It has been a while since I have last posted. This time I wish to post a conversation that I have had on the Web with some persons about some verses of the Scriptures and about G-d. The names have been removed to preserve anonymity. A little editing was applied to correct the spelling of words to what the persons intended to say.

Someone posted in response to Leviticus 21:16-23, 'lol, God made people with defects but he finds them gross. hahah'

16 The LORD said to Moses, 17 “Say to Aaron: ‘For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God. 18 No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; 19 no man with a crippled foot or hand, 20 or who is a hunchback or a dwarf, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles. 21 No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the food offerings to the LORD. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God. 22 He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food; 23 yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the LORD, who makes them holy.

[comment by Person 1 removed]

Person 2: I can't stop laughing. A nice way around this would just be to cure them all, but oh well. Btw, shouldn't the altar have magical properties that could cure them?


Person 2: So I can't go to the altar until my knee gets better?


I responded to the discussion which seem to be about Scripture and the character of G-d.

Me: Interesting questions and issues. What is the reference for this scripture?

Person 2: I'll definitely have to look, but I don't think is very nice regardless.

Me: G-d usually uses phsyical things to teach symbollic and spiritual meaning. In the day that his tabernacle is on earth, there will b categories of ppl who will not b able to come near to him.


Me: Perhaps a prophetic lesson or symbol that parallels the text that no whoremonger, adulterer and spiritual unclean person will inherit the kingdom (Ephesians 5:5 http://bible.cc/ephesians/5-5.htm) plus others in the New Testament

Ephesians 5:5 "For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person--such a man is an idolater..."
www.bible.cc
New Living Translation (©2007)"You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy..."

Person 2: The passage Person 1 mentioned clearly states that only people who could be classified as gross aren't allowed in. They did not bring it upon themselves. A whoremonger, adulterer, etc chose to partake in actions that God asked them not to partake in. The others, God Himself made them that way. Thus, I still don't understand.
  12:58

Me: Found the verses in Leviticus 21 (New International Version).

Me: U r right Person 2. However, because of who is involved - the Levitical priesthood, which is a symbollic and ceremonial role, that parallels who G-d's ppl are, I believe G-d was teaching through the ceremonies a spiritual truth, just as he does with the other ceremonies and rituals in the "OT". Even though we do nothing as babies, we inherit SIN and what we inherit is still detestable to G-d. Likewise there is nothing that we can do to get rid of it, so it takes G-d's action to do so.

Person 2: So if you had one deformed child, in order to teach your other children a lesson, would you ban your deformed child from coming into the bedroom, telling him quite clearly that it's because he's too deformed to come near you?

Me: The deformed Levite ate G-d's holy bread. He was just excluded from the office of going into the temple/tabernacle to work on the altar/mercy seat. However I'll ponder your question some more.

Person 3: To this entire post - my point exactly

Person 2: Okay, Mark, while you ponder it, ponder it in terms of your deformed child having eaten the last slice of Christmas cake (closest thing I could think of to holy bread).

Me: Can't judge G-d by my/our personal standards. Have to evaluate him by his own standards and about what he says about himself. But I will still ponder your question in terms of the context/reference that you have posited.

Person 2: He DOES say He is merciful, so you can judge him by that and explain how the above is merciful.

Me: I'm still pondering, but I know that throughout the Bible G-d selected persons with defects to serve him. Moses was a bad speaker, perhaps with a stutter problem. Jeremiah also complained that he was not eloquent in speech and was young. David was not handsome (relative in comparison to his brothers). Jesus himself was describe as not handsome in Isaiah 53 [Jewish scholars may differ with me on this]. Israel was chosen by G-d as a nation, because it was smaller than any other and insignificant to world events. So it is a matter of pondering what are the differences that lead G-d to act differently in some parts of the same word.

Me: Jacob was chosen over Esau though Esau was more good looking and strong.

Me: I'll continue meditation on the subject and the questions. However I do know that G-d selects some people to be close to him and others, he does not select. He has that right. Not selecting someone to share special knowledge with does not mean that he loves them any less. He is like a CEO who selects the best persons for a job.
 
Me: Love the points and questions though, as they challenge my existing ideas and knowledge of G-d and who he is. Pushes me to search some more.

[END of conversation]

Now I want to find out what rabbinic literature has to say on the subject and would welcome input from Jewish literature on the subject, as contemporary Christian literature inadequately provides insight on such passages. Then perhaps this conversation is not at an end, but to be continued.