Feast of Booths/Tabernacles

When Jesus incarnated in the Holy Land, He kept the Old Testament (OT) feasts the Lord gave to Israel (including the Jews).  Jn.7:2 NASB “Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was at hand.”  In the Jn.7 verses that follow, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for this pilgrim feast.

It was celebrated annually, usually in early October, beginning around 15 days after the September equinox.  (The start date varies slightly from year-to-year; their calendar differed from ours.)  What did this week-long, or 8-day, festival celebrate?  Why was it called the Feast of Booths?  That’s a strange name for a feast.  To understand why it was called that, let’s go back to the book of Exodus.

Most Bible students are generally familiar with the Exodus account where the Lord God freed Moses and the Israelites from Egyptian bondage.  This topic will note their first camps upon departure, their time in the wilderness, and the memorial relation to the later Feast of Booths they’d celebrate in the land of Canáan.  (There was no Feast of Booths prescribed in Egypt.)

As they were leaving Egypt that spring, in Ex.12:37-38 “The sons of Israel journeyed from Ramesés to Sukkóth [Strongs h5523, Hebrew], 600,000 men on foot”.  Rameses was another name for the Góshen area of Egypt where the ancient Israelites lived, and/or a city in Goshen (Ge.47:6, 11).  There were perhaps two million Israelites, counting the women & children with the “mixed multitude”.

The proper noun Sukkoth (h5523) meant ‘booths’, according to Strongs Bible Dictionary, ISBE, etc.

At least two places are named Sukkoth (h5523) in the Bible.  The one was there in Egypt.  Another was east of the Jordan River, in the area of Canaan which would later be allotted to the Israelite tribe of Gad.

A few centuries earlier, the patriarch Jacob had stopped at the other Sukkoth as he was re-entering the land of Canaan from NW Mesopotámia.  Ge.33:17 “Jacob journeyed to Sukkoth [h5523] and built for himself a house, and made booths [sukkót h5521] for his livestock; therefore he named the place Sukkoth [h5523 Booths].”  The term sukkot is the plural of sukkáh/booth h5521.  Those booths referred to a temporary hut, shelter, or lean-to.  Booths/sukkot were erected for people or livestock.  Unlike tents, such booths weren’t portable.

Much later the prophet Jonah built a temporary booth for himself just east of Nineveh.  Jnh.4:5-6 “He made a booth [h5521] and sat under it. The Lord appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head. Jonah was very glad to have the plant.”  Those make-shift booths provided partial protection from the elements.

When the Israelites left Egypt, they remained in the wilderness for 40 years (Ne.9:21).  But they didn’t dwell in open-air huts/booths for that time!  Such huts were used by harvesters, and are uncommon in the desert.  The wilderness climate in that area could be harsh, with intense heat and bitter cold.  Furthermore, in the dry wilderness there wasn’t enough forestland or necessary foliage for men to keep erecting a lean-to as family dwellings…not for all those people for 40 years!

Rather, in the wilderness the Israelite families lived in tents.  Ex.16:1, 16 indicate that God began the manna provision 30 days or so after they left Egypt. “Gather it every man according to the number of persons each of you has in his tent [óhel h168].”  Ex.33:10 “All the people would arise and worship, each at the entrance of his tent [h168].”

Fred H. Wright Manners and Customs of Bible Lands “The Children of Israel lived in tents during their 40 years in the wilderness.”  Dr. David HaCohen When and Where the Israelites Dwelt in Sukkot “When staying in places for short periods, people use tents and don’t live in booths (i.e., sukkot), which are heavy and unwieldy. Wandering people don’t use booths.”  Also Nu.11:10, 16:27; De.1:27; Jsh.3:14 are some of the verses which show the Israelites living in tents for those years…not in booths.

Tents were made of animal skins or cloths/canvas, and were portable.  The term sukkot (h5521 booths) is never used as wilderness dwellings for the Israelites, except when it refers to the “Feast of Booths”.

Yet the Lord instructed Moses that native-born Israelites in the Land of Canaan were to keep an annual “Feast of Booths” (h5521) in the early autumn.  The Feast of Booths is specifically noted in ten OT verses: Le.23:34; De.16:13, 16, 31:10; 2Ch.8:13; Ezr.3:4; Ne.8:14; Zec.14:16, 18, 19.

The translation of words into other languages is sometimes imprecise.  Also the meanings of words within a language change over time.

The Feast of Booths is called the Feast of Tabernacles in many Bibles (Tyndale, KJV, etc.).

Our English word ‘tabernacle’ comes from the Latin words tabérna and then tabernáculum, used to translate the OT Greek Septúagint term skené (g4633).  Tabernaculum meant a booth, hut, tent, or place of worship.  It may be portable or stationary.  And our noun ‘tabernacle’ too is a rather general term.

In scripture, “tabernacle” most often referred to the portable sacred tent in which the Lord dwelt among the Israelites during the centuries prior to the construction of Solomon’s temple.  The Hebrew OT term mishkán (h4908) is translated “tabernacle”.  The roof of God’s mishkan/tabernacle structure was a tent (h168; g4633 Septuagint/LXX) covering made of goat’s hair and ram skins, Ex.26:1, 7-14.

However, in the LXX, the term skene (g4633) was used as the translation for both mishkan/tabernacle (h4908) and ohel/tent (h168)!  The term skene isn’t explicit, and misunderstandings have resulted.

In the previously noted ten OT verses where “Feast of Booths” (sukkot h5521) occurs, the LXX NETS has the following: “Feast of Tents” (skene g4633) in Le.23:34; De.16:13; 2Ch.8:13; Ezr.3:4; Ne.8:14.  “Feast of Tent Pitching” (skenopegía g4634) in De.16:16, 31:10; Zec.14:16, 18, 19.  A stationary hut or lean-to shelter isn’t apparent in those LXX verses!  In Jn.7:2, this feast is literally the “Feast of Tent Pitching” (g4634).  Some Bibles render Jn.7:2 the “Feast of Booths”, others the “Feast of Tabernacles”.

So we see that in part, the mix of terms used in translations is a problem of derivation and semantics.

Philologos: Booths, Tabernacles, Tents and Huts “Rather than speak of…tabernacles that aren’t tabernacles and booths that aren’t booths, it is indeed more sensible to say Sukkot.”  As Jews call it.

The Hebrew mishkan (h4908) is rendered tabernacle in English.  But in the Hebrew OT the autumn feast is never called the “Feast of Mishkan”, even though the Lord dwelt in His tabernacle.  Nor is this feast called the “Feast of Ohel” (h168 tents), even though the Israelites dwelt in tents in the wilderness and a tent covered God’s tabernacle.  Rather, this autumn feast is called the Feast of Sukkot/Booths.

Let’s look at the Feast of Booths, starting in Le.23:34 NASB. “On the 15^th of this 7^th month is the Feast of Booths [Sukkot h5521] for seven days to the Lord.”  The Latin Vulgate version (400 AD) has “fériae tabernaculorum” for “Feast of Booths”.  The Tyndale Bible (1530 AD) has “Feast of Tabernacles.”

Lev.23.39-40 “When you have in-gathered the crops of the Land [of Canaan], on the first day you shall take the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches, and boughs of leafy trees and willows, and you shall rejoice before the Lord for seven days.”  Israelites were to travel to one location and on the first day of the Feast gather boughs and branches to erect their family booths/huts (and then worship nearby at God’s tabernacle or temple).  Ne.8:14-18 repeats these instructions for this Feast.

(Note: For a Feast of Booths today, many Jews traditionally erect in their own yards open-air booths with boughs, branches and leafy roofs.  They’re made of foliage and last a week or so before decaying.)

Continuing with Le.23:42-43. “For seven days all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths [h5521], so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths [h5521] when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I AM the Lord your God.”  What!?

It seems something in that passage doesn’t add up!  Above were noted several scriptures which say the ancient Israelites lived in (portable) tents after departing Egypt…not in booths!  So why would God want their descendants to know the Israelites had lived in booths (and not tents) when leaving Egypt?

Again, families didn’t actually live in booths for 40 years.  Rather, what Le.23:43 meant is…their first camp upon leaving was…the Egyptian town of Sukkoth (h5523), which means ‘booths’!  Probably it was a place of such shelters.  Pulpit Commentary Ex.12:37 “The meaning of the word ‘Succoth’ is ‘booths’…Huts made of reeds are common at the present day in the tract SE of Tunis [Egypt].”  Ellicott Commentary “The district SE of Tanis…in which clusters of ‘booths’ have been at all times common.”

Ex.12:37, Nu.33:5, the supposed Book of Jasher 81:5…corroborate this first stop on their journey.  JFB Commentary Le.23:43, regarding the future Feast of Booths, “In memory of their first lodging at Sukkoth, they [later] kept the feast in shelters formed from tree boughs.”

Some ancient peoples observed sacrificial harvest festivals.  Moses had said to Pharaoh in Ex.8:27 (also in Ex.3:18, 5:3), “We must go a three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as He commands us”.  (This occasion would be during their first keeping of the Feast of Unleavened Bread that spring.)  Finally, in Ex.12:31 an exasperated Pharaoh relents. “Get out from among my people, and go, worship the Lord, as you have said.”

The Feast of Booths commemorated this.  The place Sukkoth signified their deliverance and freedom!  They were no longer a slave people.  Thus the Feast of Sukkot/Booths was a celebration of the exodus from Egypt.  (The remembrance is akin to the Passover in Egypt.)  They became the free people of God!

Nu.33:3-5 “They journeyed from Rameses on the 15^th day [by night, De.16:1]…and camped in Sukkoth.”  Then late in the 2^nd afternoon, 16^th Abíb, they camped in Ethám at the wilderness (Nu.33:6; Ex.13:20; Jash.81:7).  Then late on the 3^rd day, 17^th Abib, by Pihahiróth (Nu.33:7; Ex.14:2; Jash.81:12).

When the Israelites hadn’t returned from worship after three days…Pharaoh’s army chased them after the 5^th day (from Jash.81:13-14).  Ex.14:9 Pharaoh overtook them by Pihahiroth/the sea.  Traditionally, the ancient Israelites crossed through the sea on the 7^th day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

{Sidelight: At the time of their exodus from Egypt, God commanded the Israelites to observe the 7-day Feast of Unleavened Bread (not to be confused with the autumnal Feast of Booths).  De.16:3 their bread was unleavened because they left in haste.  (Also leaven can represent sin…ref Mt.16:6, 12; 1Co.5:6-8; Ac.20:6.)  The Lord said in Ex.12:15-17, “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the 1^st day you shall have a holy assembly, and another holy assembly on the 7^th day. You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt.”  The holy occasion of the Passover meal occurred on the 1^st day just before the Egyptian firstborn were killed (Ex.12:8, 29).  The holy assembly of the 7^th day occurred just after the Egyptian army was killed (drowned) in the sea.  This spring Feast also commemorated Israel’s deliverance and freedom!

Poole Commentary Ex.12:16 “The 7^th day, because then Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the sea. As on the 1^st day when the firstborn were killed; so their deliverance was begun on the 1^st and completed on the 7^th day, and therefore those [two] days deserve a special character of honor.”  Rabbi Greg Killian The Seventh Day of Pésach “All of the Egyptian army, their horses…died on the 7^th day of Pesach [Passover]. They all were killed by water. Moses and Miriam sang/‘will sing’ a song to HaShém [the Name].”  Ex.15:1-22 is the song of deliverance, sung on the 7^th day for their holy assembly at the shore of the sea.  The traditional Book of Jubilees 49:23, “You [Israelites] celebrated this festival [Unleavened Bread] with haste when you went forth from Egypt till you entered into the wilderness of Shur [Ex.15:22]; for on the shore of the sea you completed it”.  So only the 1^st and 7^th days of the annual Feast of Unleavened Bread, not the intermediate days, were commanded by the Lord as holy convocations for Israel.  They’d become free!  (also see the topic “Passover and the Exodus Timing”.)}

The Israelites then spent 40 years in the wilderness…so long a time was due to their ensuing sin and unbelief (Nu.14:22-23).  The autumn Feast of Sukkot/Booths didn’t celebrate those sins and 38 years of dying in the wilderness!  The Le.23:42-43 command that they’d keep a memorial Feast of Booths in Canaan was given by God in the 1^st year after leaving Egypt, while they were at Mt. Sinai (Le.27:34)!  Following the Ex.12 Passover in Egypt and their exit, they kept the next year’s Passover in Nu.9.  They broke camp at Sinai in the 2^nd month of the 2^nd year (Nu.10:11-13).  This was before their wanderings!

It wasn’t until more than a year after departing Egypt that God decreed most of the males over age 20 would die in the wilderness (Nu.14:26-38).  Excluded from this decree were Joshua & Caleb, Levites (cf. Nu.14:29 & Nu.1:46-47), women.  And that they’d then wander for 38 more years.

The Feast of Sukkot/Booths wasn’t to celebrate their disobedience or 40 years in the wilderness!  And again, it wasn’t that they dwelt in lean-to shelters of foliage for 40 years.  Rather…their first camp as a free people was at the place called Sukkoth/Booths (in Egypt).

In scripture, the Feast of Booths is also called the Feast of Ingathering (h614), Ex.23:16, 34:22.  They would gather-in the later summer crops of the Land of Canaan.  The Feast of Ingathering was at the end of the fig, grape, pomegranate harvest.  It was a festival of rejoicing (Le.23:40).  Not only being thankful for their harvest, but they were to rejoice in the memory of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage prior to entering Canaan.  (Also De.16:13, their custom was to live in booths while harvesting grapes.  This custom has survived in Palestine.  ref International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Wine, and Jewish Encyclopedia: Tabernacles, Feast Of.)  also see my topic “Feasts of the Lord and the Jews”.

But there’s yet more significance to the Feast of Booths.  Notice Is.4:5-6, “The Lord will create over Mt. Zion a cloud by day and flaming fire by night. There will be a booth (h5521) to give shade from the heat by day and refuge and protection.”  Isaiah indicated that God’s cloud is another type of booth.

The Shekéenah glory cloud was as a booth, providing God’s protection & shelter.  Previously the Israelites experienced this, beginning when they were entering the wilderness.  Ex.13:20-22 “They set out from Sukkoth [h5523 Booths] and camped in Etham on the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and a pillar of fire by night.”

So God’s glory cloud as a booth/sukkah (Is.4:6) began protecting them as they left Sukkoth the place of booths!  (God later even provided a plant to shade Jonah in his booth/sukkah.)  The Shekinah glory began sheltering Israel as they departed Sukkoth the place of booths/shelters!  Again Le.23:42-43, so future generations at the Feast of Booths would remember how God had delivered and protected them.

In Nu.16:42, 20:6, the glory cloud was still appearing (to guide Moses).  Ne.9:19-21 says the Shekinah glory accompanied them for all 40 years in the wilderness!  God’s cloud by day and fire by night gave some covering from the heat, and provided some warmth from the cold, of the wilderness/desert.

De.1:2 it was actually only an 11-day journey from the Horéb mountains to Kadésh-barnéa…near where the Israelites spent 38 years.  Yet in spite of their disobedience, the Shekinah glory remained with the Israelites the whole time.  The Lord is so compassionate and gracious!

The Feast of Sukkot/Booths signified God’s providence, His loving care and protection.  Then, decades after being delivered from Egypt (representative of bondage)…following the 7-day Feast of Booths, the 8^th day celebration (Le.23:39) of Shémini Atzerét or ‘eighth assembly’ signified the new order of things for Israel as now free in the Promised Land!  (In addition, see “God Tabernacles With Humans”.)

Thanks be to God for His continual loving care and protection…in which we too, His New Covenant people in the order of Melchisedek (Ps.110:4), are privileged to share!

Feasts of the Lord and the Jews

Ceremonial observances such as tithing aren’t the weightier matters of God’s law, according to Jesus (Mt.23:23).  But there are Christians who unnecessarily do treat some rituals and ceremonial things as weighty matters.  This tendency has resulted in a measure of division in the Body of Christ.

The Lord’s Old Testament (OT) feasts were ceremonial things.  When did the feasts originate, and who were they for?  What did God require for their observance?  How were they kept  When and where were they to be observed?

There are several chapters of the Bible devoted to describing the occasions ancient Israel observed throughout the year…the appointed times (moedím), pilgrim feasts (chagím), new moons, sabbaths, shabbathóns (like sabbatoids).  ref Ex.12, Le.16, Le.23, Nu.9:1-14, Nu.28 & 29, De.16:1-17, 2Ch.30, 2Ch.35:1-19, Ne.8.  Also, within other chapters are shorter related passages.  All verses taken as a whole provide a description of the purposes for those occasions, their order during the year, and the do’s & don’ts of their observance.  Those several occasions had some similarities, but also significant differences.

Since Adam, there’s no example of God ‘dwelling’ with any group or nation in Genesis.  But in Exodus, the Lord brought the people of Israel out of Egypt and they became His sole nation above all other peoples.  Ex.25:21-22 YHVH Himself ‘dwelled’ among Israel, so to speak, on the mercy seat above the cherubs atop the ark of the testimony in the tabernacle!  Ex.28:36-38 the Name of YHVH was inscribed on the gold plate across the Levitical high priest’s forehead as he served in the tabernacle sanctuary.  2Sm.6:2 “the ark of God which is called by the Name (HaShém), the very name of the Lord of hosts enthroned above the cherubim.”

That was the specific place where the Lord dwelt among humanity and put His Name.  Le.9:23-34 & 6:13 holy fire from the Lord was to be kept burning continually on the altar at that sanctuary!  (see the topic “Fire From Heaven!”.)  There was no other place like it on the face of the earth!

The Lord YHVH took special measures and enacted regulations to help safeguard ancient Israel from going into idolatrous pagan worship.  Pilgrim feasts were enacted to worship the Lord God and offer sacrifices.  De.12:11 “The place in which the Lord your God shall choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you.”  De.16:16 “Three times in a year all your males shall appear before YHVH your God in the place He chooses…and they shall not appear empty-handed.”

The three pilgrim feasts were to be kept only at the location where God placed His Name, the location of the sanctuary/tabernacle/temple.  De.16:5-6 “You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of the towns which the Lord your God is giving you, but at the place where the Lord chooses to establish His name.”  See also De.12:5, 14, 17-18, 26, 14:23-25, 16:1-2, 10-11, 15-16 concerning keeping pilgrim feasts at that one place only.  That one place was in the Holy Land, not elsewhere in other nations!

A detailed sequence of many animal sacrifices was also required at that place during those feasts (Nu.28:16–29:40…that’s 55 verses about sacrifices!).  They were burnt by God’s holy fire.  Israelites were to bring their sacrifices, tithes, and other kinds of offerings to that place (1Sm.1:3, De.12:5-6).

The three pilgrim feasts were: 1) Passover (which began the days of Unleavened Bread), 2) Feast of Weeks/Péntecost/Shavúot, 3) Feast of Booths/Sukkót/Tabernacles/Ingathering.  The timing of the feasts was based upon the agricultural cycle in Israel.  God’s people were to keep them solely at the city where the sanctuary was, never at two or more locations simultaneously!  Keeping God’s three feasts elsewhere was not allowed in His Word!  (And man was not to add to nor take away from His commands, De.4:2.)

Since the ancient tabernacle was portable, at what locations or cities did YHVH place His Name as time passed, during ancient Israel’s history?  Prior to the building of the tabernacle, the very first Passover feast (Ex.12) was kept in the first month Abíb of the sacred year, only in Góshen Egypt.  This particular Passover was a one-time event, having some instructions which wouldn’t apply to any succeeding Passover (according to Dr. J.H. Hertz, late Chief Rabbi of the British Empire).

For example: they were to eat that one Passover in haste with their loins girded and staff in their hand (Ex.12:11); the animal blood was put on the doorposts of houses rather than sprinkled at the altar (Ex.12:7 versus Le.3:8, 2Ch.30:15-16 & 2Ch.35:11); that Passover was taken only from the flock and not also from the herd (Ex.12:5 & De.16:2); in Egypt there was no conditional allowance to keep the Passover in the second month of the year (compare Nu.9:1-14).

After leaving Egypt, the tabernacle was constructed.  The next year Israel kept the Passover encamped around the tabernacle in the wilderness (Nu.9:1-5).  For 39 years the ark/tabernacle accompanied Israel during their wilderness wanderings.  Jsh.5:10 the first feast in the (Holy) Land of Canáan was Passover kept at Gilgál, where the ark/Name abode temporarily after they crossed the Jordan River.  Jsh.18:1 the initial established site for the sanctuary was Shilóh.  Je.7:12 wrote of this history, “My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first”.  Later the ark was moved to Bethél temporarily…Jg.20:26-27 “The ark of the covenant of God was there in those days.”  (ref “Ark of the Testimony – Journeys”.)

Centuries after Moses & Joshua, Jerusalem became the ‘permanent’ place for the ark/Name and God’s Levitical priesthood.  Solomon’s temple was built there for Christ to ‘dwell’.  2Ch.6:38 “The house which I have built for Thy Name.”  1Ki.8:1 “In Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant.”  8:29 “My name shall be there.”  2Ch.7:1-3 the holy fire from the Lord fell there in Jerusalem on the altar!

The kingdom was divided after the days of Solomon.  Big Passover celebrations were later held at Jerusalem (nowhere else) in the southern kingdom of Judah during the reforms of Hezekiah (2Ch.30) and Josiah (2Ch.35:1-19).

But Judah disobeyed, so God sent them into captivity to Babylon.  At that time, Christ departed His temple sanctuary in Jerusalem (Ezk.10:4, 18-19, 11:22-23).  The armies of Babylon destroyed the temple.  The holy fire on the altar was extinguished.  There was no longer any sanctuary or animal sacrifices…no earthly place where God’s Name dwelt!

How then could the Israelites/Jews lawfully keep the three pilgrim feasts without a sanctuary (and no holy fire for their sacrifices), no place where God chose to put his Name?  The Bible reveals the answer…they couldn’t!  Two instances illustrate:

Daniel was a wise and righteous man (Ezk.14:20).  Da.10:1-5, 12-13 taken to Babylon, Daniel decided to fast for three weeks at the time of Passover (the 14th day of the first month Abib).  It would have been disobedience for him or anyone to keep a pilgrim feast in a town where God wasn’t placing His Name (De.16:5-6)!  So instead, Daniel fasted at that time…he didn’t keep Passover.

Later God ‘returned’ to Jerusalem.  Subsequently, Ezra recorded the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles again being kept at Jerusalem (Ezr.3:1-4).  Ezr.6:15-21 says the Passover was resumed in Jerusalem.  Several decades after this, Ezra himself came with many others to Jerusalem.  However, God didn’t authorize Ezra or anyone to keep the Passover anywhere else, and not while en route to Jerusalem.  See Ezr.7:8-10, 15, 8:15, 21, 30-33…just two days before Passover, Ezra departed the Ahavá River (near the Euphrates) on his four-month journey to the Holy Land.  No need for Ezra to delay his journey for three or four days until after Passover.  As with Daniel, it would have been disobedience for Ezra and his companions (some were even priests) to keep a pilgrim feast at a site near the Euphrates River away from Jerusalem!  So Ezra didn’t keep it.  (Then Ne.8:14-18 shows the Feast of Booths also was lawfully celebrated again in Jerusalem.)

For the man who was on a journey in another town at Passover time, God had even allowed him to keep the Passover at the tabernacle/temple the next month (Nu.9:9-11)…since there was no Passover being kept in that other town the man journeyed to in the first month.  This allowance is further proof that God had authorized the feast to be kept only at the city of the central sanctuary, and nowhere else!  (see “Passover and Peace Offerings“.)

What about Jesus in the New Testament (NT)?  Lk.2:41 “His parents used to go to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover.”  The Name was there on the high priest’s mitre plate.  And John 7 shows Jesus going up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths too.  Why didn’t Jesus and His family just keep those pilgrim feasts in Galilee at a lesser cost, rather than traveling three days each way to Jerusalem?  Because, it would have been sin for them to keep pilgrim feasts in a town of Galilee (cf. De.16:5-6)…only in Jerusalem then!  And if the sinless Jesus had ever sinned, we’d have no Savior!

Ac.2:1, 9-11 devout Jews living elsewhere in the Roman Empire came to Jerusalem to observe the pilgrim Feast of Pentecost.  In Ac.20:16 the apostle Paul was “hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost”.  Ac.18:21 KJV Paul said, “I must by all means keep this feast at Jerusalem”.  All NT passages about pilgrim feasts show them being kept only at Jerusalem.  There’s no scriptural example of a NT church convoking for any pilgrim feast in their local town/city…God hadn’t authorized it.  (Most Jews today call their spring celebration a séder.  It’s not a real Passover…that’s impossible now.)

Neither in the OT nor in the NT do we read of people, with or without the Holy Spirit, keeping pilgrim feasts in a town away from the environs of the central sanctuary where God had put His Name!  Not Elijah, not Daniel, not Ezra, not Jesus, not Peter, not Paul, not the Ephesians or Thessalonians…no one.  In the 900s BC, the man Jeroboám had disobediently tried to institute a feast site away from the altar of holy fire, the physical place of God’s Name in Jerusalem…but his hand withered (1Ki.12:32-13:5)!

Another of God’s requirements for keeping pilgrim feasts was physical circumcision.  Ex.12:48 “When a stranger/ger sojourns with you and does the Passover, let all his males be circumcised. No uncircumcised person may eat of it.”  Ezk.44:9 “Thus says the Lord God, ‘No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh shall enter My sanctuary.”  (also Lam.1:10, Ac.21:28-29.)  Uncircumcised gentiles were not allowed in the temple where the Passover and other pilgrim feasts were kept by circumcised Israelites/Jews & Jewish proselytes!  Outsiders could come no closer than the Court of the Gentiles.

John even went so far as to refer to God’s Passover and Feast of Booths as a “feast of the Jews” (Jn.6:4 & 7:2).  John so refers because the people keeping them were physically circumcised Jews, whereas God didn’t authorize the uncircumcised (who would also hear John’s gospel) to keep them.  Also Jn.11:55 “the Jews‘ Passover.”  When ancient Israel had entered the Holy Land, Joshua made sure all the males were physically circumcised, so they could lawfully keep the upcoming Passover at Gilgal (Jsh.5:6-10).

There’s no scriptures indicating the existence of any pilgrim feasts for saints who lived prior to the nation of Israel!  Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Joseph, Job…none had pilgrim feasts.  There were no pilgrim feasts for gentiles in Genesis.  There was no Passover prior to the time when God the Word “passed-over” Egypt in Ex.12:23 and saved the Israelite firstborn sons.  (“Christ our Passover”, 1Co.5:7 according to the circumcised Jews, Paul & Sosthénes, 1Co.1:1 & Ac.18:17.)  Pilgrim feasts weren’t authorized for observance by anyone except the physically circumcised peoples from Israel & Judah and circumcised proselytes/aliens!  These feasts were only in the (Holy) Land.  see “Circumcision in the Bible”.

After the temple was destroyed again in 70 AD, there have been a small minority of Christians through the centuries who’ve claimed they’re keeping the above pilgrim feasts.  But what they’re actually doing is celebrating a church event or attending a church retreat or camp meeting…and just calling that occasion of theirs the Passover or Feast of Tabernacles/Booths.  They aren’t really keeping God’s feast…because they aren’t doing the necessary characteristic activities or requirements which defined God’s pilgrim feasts!  They’re ‘keeping’ a pilgrim feast in name only!  A pseudo-feast.  It’s been said, ‘You can call something whatever you want, but it doesn’t make it so’.

For example, you can call a possum a lion…but it’s still a possum.  Although both animals have four legs and fur, they aren’t the same creature.  I played some baseball in high school, and tennis.  A baseball game shouldn’t be called a tennis game, and vice versa.  Although both activities are sports with a ball and were played in the same season at school, they also have big defining differences.

It’s scripturally impossible to really keep a pilgrim feast today!  For nearly 2,000 years, the required singular earthly sanctuary where God was placing His Name hasn’t existed!  And I might add, in scripture pilgrim feasts weren’t authorized to be kept just anywhere by people whose bodies are the temple of God via the Holy Spirit (1Co.3:16).  Without that one place available, there was no lawful pilgrim feast!  Furthermore, many if not most Christian men aren’t physically circumcised (and don’t need to be, religiously).

Many churches occasionally have special church events, retreats, or camp meetings.  But there are a relatively few church organizations who set up their own simultaneous so-called pilgrim feast sites (plural) in various cities during the seasons of the ancient pilgrim feasts…and to these they invite physically uncircumcised members and others.  They call it God’s Feast of Booths/Sukkot/Tabernacles.  (And calling it that makes their event sound scriptural and may increase the monetary offerings they receive.)  Yet what they’re doing doesn’t have the defining characteristics and requirements of God’s pilgrim feasts.  What those groups are naming their event is a significant misnomer, or a counterfeit.  It can be inculcated.

Yes, these church groups and ancient Israel both worshiped the same God, and the modern so-called feasts are held at the same seasonal times as were the OT feasts…but there are big differences, as the above examination of scripture reflects.  The Lord’s commands regarding His pilgrim feasts weren’t just about what and when, but also about who, how and where!

Groups traditionally promoting pilgrim feast-keeping also can pharisaically cause other Christians, who don’t claim to be observing pilgrim feasts, to feel less righteous or perhaps lacking in Bible understanding.  This harms the “body of Christ” and causes division.  And division is further caused by calendar differences even among the groups trying to promote and pinpoint the exact when for their supposed feast observances.

The months in ancient Israel were reckoned by the moon.  But the Bible doesn’t define exactly what constituted the new moon.  Although Jewish historians have cited the method in use in the 1^st century Holy Land to reckon the new moon, scripture doesn’t clearly reveal a method.  Consequently, moderns who think they’re keeping the ancient feasts even disagree among themselves regarding whether the new moon is reckoned by: the first visible crescent as seen locally or seen from Jerusalem or calculated, Hillel II’s Hebrew calendar of around 350 AD, or the astronomical conjunction (‘dark’ moon).  It is confusion.

In narrowing this topic to the feasts, the other OT appointed times or the sabbaths or shabbathons haven’t been addressed.  Although some days falling within the pilgrim feast periods were shabbathons (Strongs Hebrew h7677), none were full sabbaths (h7676), other than the regular 7^th day weekly sabbath.  (To confirm this, reference Strongs numbers in interlinear Bibles or see the Septúagint/LXX or the Jewish JPS Tanákh.)  The annual Day of Atonement was a double sabbath, according to the LXX Le.16:31 & 23:32.

Following is a listing of Israel’s God-ordained annual days and the time of year they occurred:  Passover, with the seven days of Unleavened Bread & Wave Sheaf, occurred in early April.  Pentecost was fifty days later, near June 1.  The Day of Trumpets/Shouting, Rosh Hashánah (“Beginning of the Year”, Ezk.40:1a), occurs near the beginning of autumn.  The Day of Atonement or Yom Kíppur fast is ten days later, near October 1.  Lastly, the 7-day Feast of Booths/Tabernacles/Ingathering and the Last Great Day 8 (Shémini Atzerét) began five days after Yom Kíppur in October.  see “Days Israel Observed – God-Ordained”.

The weekly sabbath, the remaining days of Unleavened Bread (subsequent to the Passover & Wave Sheaf), Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are unlike the pilgrim feasts in that those special days weren’t to be kept solely at the environs of God’s earthly sanctuary.  As G.J. Goldberg noted, “On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur there was no command to gather in the Temple“.  Those days were observed in all their houses and towns (ref Le.23:3, 23-24, 31-32, Ex.12:19-20).  Israelite laymen weren’t enjoined to bring animal sacrifices to the temple on those special days.  Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur aren’t pilgrim feasts.  Those two, and the recurring 7^th day sabbath, may be kept in any homes (without physical circumcision).

After going up to Jerusalem for the Passover (and Wave Sheaf) as commanded, in Lk.24:13 we read of two people returning home to Emmaús for the remaining days of Unleavened Bread.  Abroad, Luke refers to the days of Unleavened Bread (Ac.20:6).  And “the fast” Luke mentions in Ac.27:9 is thought by most to be Yom Kippur.  God had allowed these occasions to be observed anywhere.  The fact that Luke references them outside the Holy Land indicates they were being kept by Jews, and probably by some Christians too.

Many Jews (and some Christians) still observe them.  Jews traditionally refer to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (in the early autumn) as the High Holydays.  The sabbath of Yom Kippur is the most sacred day of the year for the Jewish people.  They renew their search for God, doing teshúvah/repentance during their ten traditional Days of Awe between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  Many Jews who never go to synagogue at other times will attend the services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur!  Then some Jewish families traditionally erect a hut in their own backyard, in which they eat a few meals over seven days…but this isn’t viewed as really ‘keeping’ the pilgrim Feast of Booths as God had commanded it, e.g. De.16:16.  They go to work or school during the 7 days, since they can no longer lawfully keep the Feast anyway.

Goldberg wrote, “With the destruction of the Temple, the pilgrimage festivals could no longer be observed in their prescribed forms”.  Actually, God had commanded native-born Israelites to build temporary booths in the environs of the central sanctuary on the first day of the Feast of Booths, in which they’d dwell for seven days (Le.23:40).  Messianic Rabbi Jack Zimmerman wrote, “All Jewish men from near and far were required to journey to Jerusalem….crowds made their way to the Temple….since this was a pilgrimage feast, every Jewish man would have to be there.”  And again, God never authorized Israelites or Jews (or gentiles) to keep His pilgrim feasts outside the Holy Land.

Also seen in scripture are the two annual Jewish feasts of Hanukkah/Feast of Dedication/Festival of Lights (Jn.10:22, 2Mac.10:5-8) and Purím (Est.9:27-28).  They aren’t God’s pilgrim feasts.  So these later man-ordained commemorations of God’s visitations weren’t restricted by YHVH to the city of the central sanctuary, and are celebrated happily in other countries today (though limited in Arab nations).  During Hanukkah some Jewish families opt to exchange gifts, such as books and games, for seven nights.

Again, the scriptural exhortation is to not add to nor take away from God’s commands.  Some Christians mistake their church traditions for God’s written word.  Some knowingly prefer their traditions.  Jesus said of the Pharisees, “You reject the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition” (Mk.7:9)!

Paul wrote of those who “have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (Ro.10:2).  Although there are well-meaning Hebrew roots groups and Christians who think they’re observing pilgrim feasts in various cities simultaneously…there isn’t a way by which God’s pilgrim feasts can be lawfully kept today.  It’s one thing to attend a Sunday church service at the approximate time of the year when the ancient Feast of Pentecost was held…but it’s quite another thing to think one is actually ‘keeping the feast’, considering all that God required to really keep it!  It’s not that God is against supposed feast-keepers worshiping Him.  God seeks worshipers (Jn.4:23).  Christians in this nation are free to (prudently) set apart a day or days to worship God with church or family.  The issue is…masquerading they’re really keeping His pilgrim feasts!

Elder John Kiesz wrote of the minister in the Church of God 7^th Day who, decades ago, started teaching the OT pilgrim feasts should be kept in the USA. “It was in the fall of 1937 when elder’s [name withheld] credentials were revoked by the Church of God organization. The reason given by the Board of Twelve for this action was because he taught and kept the annual Feast days.”  For this error, COG7 didn’t allow him to continue in their official ministry.

Pilgrim feasts don’t exist in scripture apart from the required: 1) sole earthly sanctuary with God’s Name (and holy fire), 2) animal sacrifices, 3) physical circumcision!  Those definitive characteristics of pilgrim feasts aren’t part of the New Covenant.  The feasts are part of the Levitical order, not the order of Melchisedek (He.5:6).  And again, the timing of pilgrim feasts was linked to the agricultural cycle in Israel.  It’s not relevant to non-Jews in other nations where there are other cycles and climates, e.g. those in remote areas or in the southern hemisphere which has opposite seasons.  Yet the feasts and their typologies do remain good Biblical teaching tools of the Lord’s salvific acts, and show how YHVH worked with His people ancient Israel.

Lastly, there are several differing eschatological interpretations extant in Christendom today.  But if a person’s view or expectancy of reinstituted ceremonial things of God were to impute disobedience to God’s commandments, then their eschatology would be inconsistent with scriptural commands!  For example, some people eschatologically interpret Zec.14:16-21 in a literal manner which wouldn’t match God’s requirements for His feasts and sanctuary.  However, we read that even Zechariah’s Feast of Booths with uncharacteristic holiness concepts is kept only in Jerusalem!  Not in Egypt, not in two or more locations simultaneously, not anywhere else…only in Jerusalem (v.16-19) in the Holy Land!

{Sidelight: Zec.14:16-21.  Much of the book of Zechariah is symbolic.  To interpret him as saying Egyptian non-Jews wouldn’t get rain for their failure to go up to Jerusalem in the future, is an understood irony.  Because Egypt is arid desert which only averages 3 inches of rainfall a year anyway!  (Egypt’s crops were dependent on the Nile River’s annual flooding, not on rainfall.)  Israel’s ancient oppressor didn’t get rain to speak of (cf. the traditional water pouring ceremony).  Gill Exposition v.16-ff says they’re not literally keeping a Feast of Tabernacles.  Furthermore in v.20, the “Holy to YHVH” on the horses’ bridles is also symbolic, as it alludes to the “Holy to YHVH” on the high priest’s golden plate (Ex.28:36).  It’s not literal.  The horses won’t really be holy as the high priest was!  The cooking pots won’t really be as the sanctified bowls in which the priest caught the blood and splashed it on God’s altar.  Zec.14:21 neither will people throughout Judea really be cooking holy animal sacrifices unto the Lord in their homes.  This is symbolic too.  There’s no need for animal sacrifices of boiled offerings anyway!  Jesus’ final sacrifice finished it!  He ended the need for inferior animal sacrifices.  The book of Hebrews is clear on this (e.g. He.10:1-18).

The overall meaning of Zechariah’s passage relates to YHVH’s holy Name becoming known to all nations as the gospel spreads (e.g. Ezk.38:23, Ps.145:21b).  Matthew Henry said of the passage, “The life of a good Christian is a constant Feast of Tabernacles”.  Zec.14:8 “And it will come about that living water will flow out of Jerusalem”, to the east and to the west, in summer and in winter.  The Holy Spirit is that living water of which Jesus spoke at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jn.7:37-39 (also ref Jn.4:10-14), as Christians year-round are spreading the Name of the Lord to Egypt and to all nations!  Glory to God!

Pulpit Commentary Zec.14:16 “It is evident the announcement could never be literally fulfilled.”  Yes, Zechariah would have known that rainfall in Egypt is always scarce.  And he wasn’t really saying common horses’ bridles would have inscribed on them the Tetragrámmaton Name as was on the high priest’s holy mitre plate!  Zechariah didn’t mistake profane cookware for the holiness of God’s sanctuary vessels.  As a priest, he surely knew that God hadn’t authorized or sanctified kettles in common Judean kitchens for holy use.  Zechariah didn’t err about temple holiness or literally contradict God’s commandments or mean that physically uncircumcised gentiles will really go up and offer animal sacrifices in God’s earthy sanctuary!  We can trust the veracity of God’s precepts and requirements.  It’s faulty exegesis to interpret (prophetic) passages in a manner that has God literally contradicting His own requirements in scripture!  e.g. Jn.6:54 Jesus saying to eat His flesh & blood isn’t literal, since human cannibalism is sin (unclean)!  Much of the book of Zechariah is symbolic anyway…1:18-21, and almost the entirety of chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 11!  The imagery of Zec.14:16-21 is also symbolic, not to be interpreted literally as an actual Feast of Booths.  (Yet even Zechariah’s symbolic “feast” occurs only in Jerusalem, not in the USA or anywhere else!)}

To conclude…God doesn’t contradict His prescriptions.  The Lord wants a people who are right examples of His truth to family, neighbors, co-workers, schoolmates…not advocating modern pseudo-feasts as God’s truth.  Let’s have a right fear of God and not disobey His commandments (Ec.12:13).  And worship Him in truth!  Ec.8:12b “It will be well for those who fear God.”