26. How might such a questioner reason about the leaven in the two loaves of wheat bread that the high priest offered on the day of Pentecost?

²⁶ A prominent instance, that might be referred to, of where leavened things were offered to Jehovah under command by him and with acceptance by him, is the two loaves of leavened wheat bread that the Jewish high priest offered on the day of the Festival of Weeks, or Pentecost, which fell on the sixth day of the spring lunar month of Sivan. This was the fiftieth day from Nisan 16, when the high priest offered up the firstfruits of the barley harvest. (Lev. 23:15-17; Deut. 16:9-12; Acts 20:16; 1 Cor. 16:8) In view of all the respect given to those two loaves, one’s reasoning might go in the following way: Jehovah on the festival day accepts the two wheat loaves containing leaven. Does not, then, Jehovah’s acceptance in this case of something leavened signify that there the leaven takes on a favorable meaning? Does this not prove that at times leaven does take on a good symbolic value with God? Why, look at how leavened bread was a favorite bread among Jehovah’s ancient chosen people, whereas the unleavened bread was called “the bread of affliction.” (Deut. 16:1-3) Surely that must impart a favorable aspect to leaven when being used as a symbol in the Bible!

27. If we follow that line of reasoning, to what conclusion does it lead us as to the meaning of the leaven in the antitype of the two Pentecostal loaves of wheat bread?

²⁷ If we follow such a line of reasoning regarding the two leavened wheat loaves presented on the festival day of Weeks, then where does it consistently lead? To this: Those two Pentecostal loaves were typical, foreshadowing things to come according to God’s purpose. So in the antitype of that presentation of the two leavened loaves on Sivan 6, the thing symbolized by the leaven in the loaves must be something good, righteous, virtuous. Hence we ask, What do those two loaves of leavened wheat bread themselves typify? They typify the true Christian congregation of imperfect human believers that came into existence on the day of Pentecost of the year 33 C.E. (Zion’s Watch Tower as of March 1, 1898, page 68, paragraph 4) So, now, if, on the day of Pentecost, the leaven pictured something on the good side, then consistently the new Christian congregation is pictured as starting off with an antitypical leaven of goodness in itself, some special “grace of the holy spirit.” All of this, before the holy spirit was poured out!

28. However, in harmony with The Watch Tower, what does the leaven in the typical Pentecostal loaves of wheat bread picture?

²⁸ However, did the human members of the Christian congregation start off with some inward merit of their own on the Pentecostal day of the outpouring of God’s holy spirit upon them? No; they had no righteousness of their own. So, the leaven found in the offering of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest has long been explained to mean sin, the sin that the members of the Christian congregation of Kingdom joint heirs inherited from disobedient Adam. (Rom. 5:12; see The Watch Tower as of June 15, 1912, page 198, the second paragraph under the heading “Parable of the Leaven.”) However, back there on the day of Pentecost, 33 C.E., it became true of the imperfect members of the Christian congregation that “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”​—1 John 1:7; see page 229, paragraph 1, through page 231 of the book The Temple, by Alfred Edersheim, edition of 1881.b

29. (a) With what day of offering firstfruits is the day of Pentecost linked, and how? (b) What about the matter of leaven as regards that earlier day of offering firstfruits of harvest?

²⁹ Such explanation of the leaven in the two Pentecostal wheat loaves is supported by another fact. It is this: Pentecost, the festival day of Weeks (Shabuoth), is linked by the count of time to the day for offering the firstfruits of the barley harvest. That offering was made on Nisan 16, the third day from Passover. (Lev. 23:9-17) When, on Nisan 16, the high priest waved to and fro the “sheaf of the firstfruits of [Israel’s] harvest” of barley, no leaven was offered along with it. Two tenths of an ephah of fine flour moistened with oil was offered along with the fourth of a hin measure of wine, but no leaven. (Lev. 23:13) In fact, this ceremony fell within the seven-day festival of the unleavened bread, during all of which time no leaven was to be around or to be eaten.

In correspondency with the foregoing, we read in the book Biblical Commentary on The Old Testament, by Keil and Delitzsch, (Volume II - The Pentateuch) and under the subheading (page 437) entitled “Sanctification of the Sabbath and the Feasts of Jehovah.​—Chap. XXIII,” and in lines 16-34 of page 443, the following:

“‘ . . . Ver. 20. The priest shall wave them (the two lambs of the peace-offerings), together with the loaves of the first-fruits, as a wave-offering before Jehovah; with the two lambs (the two just mentioned), they (the loaves) shall be holy to Jehovah for the priest. ‘. . . The sin-offering was to excite the feeling and consciousness of sin on the part of the congregation of Israel, that whilst eating their daily leavened bread they might not serve the leaven of their old nature, but seek and implore from the Lord their God the forgiveness and cleansing away of their sin.”