The Holy Spirit And Pentecost

Q

I am truly grateful for your faithful study of Scripture and your willingness to devote countless hours to share what you learn with us. My Bible is full of penciled in clarifying margin notes with the initials JK by it. We know from Acts 1:3 that Jesus ascended back to his Father 40 days after his resurrection. The disciples were told to go to Jerusalem to wait for the promised Holy Spirit ( Acts 1:4-5) which we know from Acts 2:1 came on Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection. Since God is so into numbers there must be a reason for the 10 day wait in leaving his disciples without the promised Holy Spirit. Is it connected with Shavuot in some way?

A

The Bible doesn’t give us a reason, but one possibility is that He wanted to wait until Jerusalem was full of pilgrims again. Shavout (Penetcost) was one of the three annual feasts where attendance was required (Exodus 23:14-17).

By the way, the disciples were not without the Holy Spirit during that time. They had received the Holy Spirit on the evening of the resurrection (John 20:19-23). Pentecost was a special manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s power, enabling all who were present to understand the Gospel message regardless of their nationality (Acts 2:5-6).