Feast of Firstfruits

The Feast of Firstfruits (Hebrew Bikkurim, or the Sheaf-offering, Omer) falls on the day after the Sabbath of Passover week (Lev 23:9–14). A representative sheaf of the first ripe barley — the earliest grain to mature in the spring — is brought to the priest, who waves it before the Lord. With this offering Israel acknowledges that the whole harvest belongs to God; only then may the rest of the barley field be reaped, ground, and eaten. The offering is accompanied by a year-old male lamb as a burnt offering, a grain offering of fine flour with oil, and a drink offering of wine. From the day of the Omer the people count seven full weeks to Pentecost (Lev 23:15–16), so Firstfruits anchors the entire spring counting. In the New Testament, Paul makes the festival's image central to his theology of resurrection: "Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor 15:20). His rising on the day after the Sabbath of Passover week binds the festival's timing into the gospel itself.