Firstfruits (Yom HaBikkurim)

According to the Bible, when should the firstfruits of the barley harvest be offered? As with so many things in Judaism, there’s a machloket—a disagreement. The Bible says, “On the next day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.” The Sadducees believed “the Sabbath” referred to the Saturday that fell during Passover week. But Orthodox Jews believe the wave offering would have taken place on the High Sabbath—the day of rest that followed the day of Passover.

I personally believe that in this case the Sadducees knew what they were doing. After all, it was the Sadducees who were in charge of the first century Temple, whereas many Pharisaic/Rabbinic Jewish traditions didn’t really come into being until well after the Second Temple was destroyed. I am in my eighties now, and I know from experience how greatly traditions can morph in just one lifetime.

Furthermore, the Bible mandates a fifty-day countdown between Firstfruits and Pentecost, but Orthodox Jews don’t explain to my satisfaction what that countdown is counting down to. (See “Counting the Omer” and do the math.)

I believe that it was on Resurrection Sunday that “Christ the Firstfruits” rose from the dead. Fifty days from Resurrection Sunday is Pentecost Sunday. Resurrection Sunday and Pentecost Sunday are biblically “chained together” by the otherwise mysterious procedure of Counting the Omer, and it was on the fiftieth day of the Omer count, on Pentecost Sunday, that the earliest believers received the Holy Spirit.

Margot Armer

Scriptures About Firstfruits and First Fruits

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you. On the next day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. On the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb without defect a year old for a burnt offering to the LORD. The meal offering with it shall be two tenths of an efah* of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the LORD for a pleasant aroma; and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, the fourth part of a hin.† You must not eat bread, or roasted grain, or fresh grain, until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God. This is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. (Leviticus 23:9-14 WMB)

And the feast of harvest, the first fruits [Heb. ha bikkurim] of your labors, which you sow in the field; and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors out of the field. (Exodus 23:16 WMB)

You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of the LORD your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. (Exodus 23:19 WMB)

“You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground to the house of the LORD your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” (Exodus 34:26 WMB)

Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23 WEB)

If the first fruit is holy, so is the lump. If the root is holy, so are the branches. (Romans 11:16 WEB)

Greet the assembly that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first fruits of Achaia to Christ. (Romans 16:5 WEB)

But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruit of those who are asleep. (1 Corinthians 15:20 WEB)

But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s at his coming. (1 Corinthians 15:23 WEB)

Now I beg you, brothers—you know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have set themselves to serve the saints— (1 Corinthians 16:15 WEB)

Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. (James 1:18 WEB)

These are those who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed by Jesus from among men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. (Revelation 14:4 WEB)