Seven full weeks or seven completed Sabbaths and ascension of Jesus

Leviticus / Wayyiqra 23:15, 16     

Comparing Differences in the Translations between The Scriptures, HRV, and Restoration Scriptures:

THE SCRIPTURES:   Leviticus / Wayyiqra 23:15, 16 —   “AND FROM THE MORROW AFTER THE SABBATH, FROM THE DAY THAT YOU BROUGHT THE SHEAF OF THE WAVE OFFERING, YOU SHALL COUNT FOR YOURSELVES: SEVEN COMPLETEDSABBATHS.  UNTIL THE MORROW AFTER THE SEVENTH SABBATH YOU COUNT FIFTY DAYS, THEN YOU SHALL BRING A NEW GRAIN OFFERING TO YHWH.”

17 Nisan the Resurrection of Jeshua, Jesus Christ – La Résurrection – between 1886 and 1894, James Tissot (1836–1902) – Brooklyn Museum

RESTORATION SCRIPTURES  BY M. KONIUCHOWSKY:  Leviticus / Wayyiqra 23:15, 16 —   “AND YOU SHALL COUNT FROM THE NEXT DAY AFTER THE SHABBAT, FROM THE DAY THAT YOU BROUGHT THE SHEAF OF THE WAVE OFFERING;  SEVEN FULLWEEKS:  UNTIL THE NEXT DAY AFTER THE LAST WEEK SHALL YOU NUMBER FIFTY DAYS, AND YOU SHALL OFFER A NEW GRAIN OFFERING TO YHWH.”

HRV BY JAMES TRIMM:  Leviticus / Wayyiqra 23:15, 16 —   “AND YOU SHALL COUNT UNTO YOU FROM THE MORROW AFTER THE DAY OF REST, FROM THE DAY THAT YOU BROUGHT THE SHEAF OF THE WAVING;  SEVEN WEEKS SHALL THERE BE COMPLETE;  EVEN UNTO THE MORROW AFTER THE SEVENTHWEEK SHALL YOU NUMBER FIFTY DAYS; AND YOU SHALL PRESENT A NEW MEAL-OFFERING UNTO YHWH.”

According to “traditional” Rabbinical understanding,

Abib 16, or the 2nd day of Matsah, is the time that the Kohen Gadol waved the sheaf/omer of grain (First-fruits offering).

When did Yahusha ascend to Abba to do this?  Not Abib 16, as Rabbinical Judaism teaches is the time of the Wave Sheaf Offering.  We see that Yahusha became our Wave Sheaf Offering, and would not allow Miryam of Migdal to touch

Him, because He had not yet performed this (Yoch. 20:17).  

Yahusha did it on the first day of the week, and it was not on Abib 16.

His resurrection represented the wave-sheaf offering.

Later that same day, He allowed His talmidim to touch Him (Yoch. 20:27).

Yahusha is the sheaf of first-fruits, and could not “wave” Himself before Yahuah until He resurrected.

His resurrection was at the end of the weekly Shabbat.  

Then on the first day of the week, the “morrow after the Sabbath”, He performed the wave-offering, Himself.

50 days later, another “morrow after the seventh Shabbat”, comes Shabuoth, often called “Pentecost” (count-fifty).  

On Abib 16, or the 2nd day of Matsah, our Kohen Gadol was in the Earth, fulfilling the sign of Yonah.
It’s incredible to see how Yahusha timed His last Passover meal, 3 days and 3 nights in the tomb, then resurrected to become the wave offering Himself on the “morrow after the Sabbath”. 
I hope that one day both Moshe K. and James Trimm will see the literal words of Lev. 23:15,16 further confirm what actually took place when the words were fulfilled by Yahusha, our first-fruits omer/sheaf offering! 

SHEBA SHABATHOTH TAMIMOTH (seven Sabbaths complete/intact) at Wayyiqra 23:15 is rendered “seven complete Sabbaths” in its literal form by many, and others follow the idea of

“seven completeweeks“.   If these “weeks” were truly intact weeks of day 1 through day 7, then

there is no difference in the outcome.  As you know,  Rabbinical Judaism’s interpretation allows for “weeks” to represent any 7-day grouping, so the day of Shabuoth can “float”, and occur on any day of the week.

With this interpretation, they have to overlook the literal words “HASHABBATH HASHABIYOTH” (seventh Sabbath) at 23:16. 

While we can make some compromises with how to bring some words over to our English, it’s a

huge stretch to make the word “HASHABBATH” to mean “week” (23:16).  Yahuah stated it two ways so that this special anniversary of Israel’s marriage to Him would have a self-checking test.   The day after the seventh Sabbath will always fall on the 1st day of the week.   I’ve always seen this as a miniature form of Jubilees, 49 (7×7) years + 1 making a total of 50 years, as Shabuoth counts up to the 50th day, after 7 intact weeks. 

This also makes the Sabbatical “years” a type of reflection of the intact week of 7 “days”.   To interpret a “week” to mean anything but “THE” week, allows for us to count-off ANY set of 7 days and call that a “week”  (i.e., the 4th day through the 3rd day  –  as in “a week from today”).  This kind of treatment of the term may be comfortable with our modern world, however it is not able to be justified by any example seen in Scripture.   A “month” is 29.5 days, and when Yahuah speaks of a month, He’s talking about the
real month, not a “group” of 29.5 days that we can slide around any way we like.  The moon defines what a month is, as the sun defines what a day is.  The week was shown to Israel with the manna for 40 years, but has no other reference point than the weekly Sabbaths.   If we allow ourselves to ignore the Sabbath as the reference point for what a “week” is, then we’ve departed from reality.   I only wish to stay with what is the SAFEST interpretation, checking ALL the words carefully.  I could not, in good conscience, ignore the situation that exists here, since how a person interprets the words will establish the High Sabbaths.

23:15: The text in the original Hebrew clearly gives us certain directions, however some translate the words in such a way that two possible interpretations can be made. Are we to believe the text means “Seven WEEKS” or “seven Sabbaths complete”? Yahuah uses the words “sheba (seven) Shabbathoth (Shabbaths) tamimoth (finished, intact)” at 23:15 (which Moshe Koniuchowsky and James Trimm take down as “seven full weeks“, but to many of us it means seven “intact” Sabbaths). These 7 Sabbaths are literally a whole “week” of fully-intact Sabbaths, and they are “complete” or “intact” because they are made up of THE seven days, and there are seven of them. The word “Shabbathoth” is written as shin-beth-tau-waw-tau (Sabbathoth, in contrast to shin-beth-ayin-waw-tau (shabuoth). If it really means “seven full weeks“, the Scripture would have used the word “shabuoth”, not “Shabbathoth” (compare Daniel 9:25). The idea of “complete” or “full” really means: thorough / closed / fully concluded, finished, intact. The Hebrew word for “complete” or “full” here is TAMIM + oth (pluralized) and means intact, perfect, without defect, entire, FINISHED, come to an end.

23:16: This can cause confusion, but the greatest difference in our interpretation is in verse 16, where it should read “up to the day after the seventh Sabbath”. “Seventh Sabbath” is the literal translation of the Hebrew words “haShabbath haShebiyoth”. “Shebiyoth” is the ordinal number “seventh”, where the root is sheba, meaning seven (which also means “perfect” or “complete”). “HaShabbath” is literally “the Sabbath“, not “week”.

I’ll say it again for emphasis: “HaShabbath” is spelled hay-shin-beth-tau, and means “the Shabbath”, not “week“.

The Hebrew word for “week” is shabua, and the plural of shabua is SHABUOTH. “Until the next day after the last week” (Moshe’s view of verse 16) to me would read:

“up to the day after the seventh Sabbath you count fifty days”.

In other words, you’ll find that you’ve counted fifty days when you’ve counted up to the day AFTER the seventh Shabbath, because 7 x 7 = 49 (seven complete or “intact” weeks of Shabbathoth).

The fiftieth day will be the appointed time, or mo’ed, which falls the day after the seventh Shabbath (haShabbath haShebiyoth). So, in our interpretation it will always fall on the 1st day of the week. Not knowing what the “week” is makes it very difficult for people – Israel had this problem too.

Observing the Sabbath-closing havdalah ritual in 14th-century Spain. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yahuah’s “week” is always THE week, not any group of seven days starting at some arbitrary point. If we pull a starting-point out of our hat, we stand a chance to be out-of-synch. The “week of days” was being “remembered” by the nation of Israel after their captivity for 430 years, and the manna conditioned them to the correct pattern. This is why Yahuah used the word “tamimoth”, as this removes all doubt that He emphatically meant THE Sabbath that “concluded intact” each week of the seven days. The real key to understanding this concept largely rests on this word, “tamimoth”. It means “intact” because the week of Sabbaths is “intact”. It’s literally a whole “week” of Sabbaths, thus they are “complete”. If we don’t know what the original words are and take the translator’s at face value, we could be observing the moed’im (festival days of Yahuah) at different times, and not walk in unity.

At Daniel 9:25, the translators often correctly write “seven sevens” from the Hebrew words SHABUA SHABUIM, and these refer to seven “weeks” (sevens) of years. So, here we have a comparison to look at for distinctions in the words – but one must see the original Hebrew to make these distinctions. We must PROVE (test) all things we walk in from Scripture.

Without being unkind or judgmental of our brothers James’ and Moshe’s interpretations, we would hope they would look at this again and see if there is any way to improve it. If they are correct, then we will have to change! Rebellion is not in their heart, nor yours, nor mine. But, what I’ve learned is that when we see something differently than another brother does, and we then treat them as if they are corrupt and that we would have nothing to do with them, then we are in the worst danger of all. What if Yahuah made several things purposely to be able to be seen in two different ways, then sat back to see which individuals would be hateful and judgmental toward the other view? When Yahusha returns, He will set everything right again. We’ll know when the Sabbatical years are, and when the Jubilee year is. We’ll know whether the Rosh Chodesh is a “dark moon” or a “sliver – sighted” moon. Suppose that a person was correct about every detail, and interpreted everything flawlessly according to the intentions of Yahuah – yet they were severe, mean and unloving to others who also did their best to observe Yahuah’s Torah and held to the Testimony of Yahusha. I’m convinced that the one who loves is the one that has learned what Torah is established to accomplish. The one who cannot accept, but hates his brother because he expects perfection, may be in greatest danger of losing the race.

Compare Lev. / Wayyiqra 23:15,16 in various versions, especially our “blue” Scriptures above.

I’ll acknowledge that translators have a tremendous task to perform, andthe work by Moshe and James is certainly superb.   On some fine points, there will always be differences.   The Kohlenberger Hebrew-English Interlinear is inconsistent in how they bring many words into our English.

shin-beth-tau-waw-tau they also render as “weeks“, while other translators render it “Sabbaths“.

It is certainly the “feast of weeks”, not the “feast of Sabbaths”  — a point Moshemade to me quite well.

At Debarim 16:9, the word “shabuoth” (shin-beth-ayin-tau) is used, and these we are to count.   When Yahuah uses the term “week”, the only consistent, sane interpretation of what it consists of is provided at Genesis/Bereshith chapters 1 & 2.   At Debarim 16:10, Yahuah refers to this mo’ed as “Chag Shabuoth” (Feast of Weeks), however here we don’t have the complete details of how the feast is calculated, as we find at Wayyiqra 23.  But, a “week” needs to be understood as THE week, not any grouping of 7 days we pull out of our imagination.

The day of Shabuoth will be determined by how these words are translated and understood, as well as what day is used as the starting point.  Personally, I feel the literal translation of our blue Scriptures is the safest to follow on these two highly critical verses.  If I’m wrong, I’ll change and fall on the forgiveness of Yahusha.  If I guide one person into any error because I did not thoroughly check the original words and intentions provided in the Hebrew Scriptures, the guilt falls more heavily on me as their teacher.  We still love all the brothers and sisters whose consciences follow the alternate interpretation.

Lew White from Fossilized customs

Strawberry Islands Messianic Publishing / TORAH INSTITUTE

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Biblestudents Editorial Note:

On the 14th of Nisan Jesus died at the same time as the lambs were slaughtered in the temple and as such became the Lamb of God, the Peace offering for our sins. Later in the day he was put in sheol (the hell) which is the tomb or sepulchre where he stayed buried for three days. Like Jonah stayed for three days in the vowels of the whale, Jesus stayed three days in the grave until he was taken out of death by his Father. As such the resurrection was on the 17th of Nisan, according the wording of the Holy Scriptures.

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