What is the importance of the first Christian Pentecost?

Answer 1

A:Acts of the Apostles says that on the day of Pentecost, everyone that was in the upper room was filled with the Holy Spirit coming down on them as tongues of fire. They began to speak in tongues as the spirit gave them the utterance. Christianity celebrates this occasion as the Day of Pentecost ('fifty days').

The Jews also celebrated a Pentecost, also known as Shavuot, from the second century BCE onwards and hence in Jesus' day, in memory of the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. It takes place fifty days after Passover, just as the Christian Pentecost takes place fifty days after Easter. Numbers 11:25 tells us that on that occasion, the spirit of God came down on the seventy elders and they began to prophesy in ecstasy. There are enough parallels to the earlier account to raise doubts about the historicity of the Christian Pentecost.

If the Christian Pentecost story was really inspired by the Jewish Pentecost, then the Christian event never really took place. Furthermore, the author of Matthew's Gospel, who knew nothing of Acts of the Apostles and therefore nothing of Pentecost, simply has Jesus meet the disciples at a mountain in Galilee, far away from Jerusalem, and command them to go therefore and teach to all nations, and say that he will be with them always (Matthew 28:19-20). This is an alternative account of the very beginning of the Church, again suggesting that the Christian Pentecost never really took place. The author of John's Gospel certainly knew of Luke's Gospel but probably not Acts of the Apostles. John 20:22 has Jesus breathe on the disciples and give them the Holy Spirit, seemingly making Luke's Pentecost superfluous.

Christian faith in the truth of Christian Pentecost story means it is now regarded as the beginning of the Christian Church, but it has no importance in history.

Answer 2

A:Acts of the Apostles says that on the day of Pentecost, everyone that was in the upper room was filled with the Holy Spirit coming down on them as tongues of fire. They began to speak in tongues as the spirit gave them the utterance. Christianity celebrates this occasion as the Day of Pentecost ('fifty days').

The Jews also celebrated a Pentecost, also known as Shavuot, from the second century BCE onwards and hence in Jesus' day, in memory of the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. It takes place fifty days after Passover, just as the Christian Pentecost takes place fifty days after Easter. Numbers 11:25 tells us that on that occasion, the spirit of God came down on the seventy elders and they began to prophesy in ecstasy. There are enough parallels to the earlier account to raise doubts about the historicity of the Christian Pentecost.

If the Christian Pentecost story was really inspired by the Jewish Pentecost, then, apart from Christian faith in the truth of this story, it has no historical importance.

Answer 3

Pentecost was the day when the promised Holy Spirit came to give the followers of Jesus power to witness for Him.

Answer 4

First, Pentecost (aka Shavuot or the Feast of Weeks) is one of the 3 annual pilgrimage festivals of the Jewish year. Observance of Shavuot is included in the festival calendars in the Torah. Every adult Jew was expected to travel to Jerusalem on each of these festivals. The story of Pentecost in Acts occurs as the disciples are taking part in this pilgrimage, so they were already celebrating it before the events remembered in Acts. Prior to the story in Acts, it's not clear that the early Christians saw their mission as including preaching to non-Jews. After this event, preaching to non-Jews seems to be a natural consequence of the idea that each listener heard the message in their own language.