1. There were two competing views at the time of Christ on how to calculate the day of Pentecost. For the Sadducees, Pentecost always fell on Sunday, while the Pharisees had it on various days of the week. Yet in Acts 2:1, with a Friday Passover, both would have agreed that Pentecost fell on the first day in Acts 2:1, which was 33 AD. (But the specific year is not important.) The difference was that the Sadducees started counting 50 days after the first weekly sabbath and the Pharisees started counting 50 days after the Yearly Sabbath, ie Passover.
2. It is well documented beyond question that the Sadducees controlled the Temple worship and the feast days at the time of Christ. It wasn't until about 70 AD that the Pharisees view came into power and prominence. This means that even though both methods of calculating Pentecost agreed that it fell on the first day of the week in Acts 2:1, the Sadducces had the official say at this time to calculate the actual day. In other words, during Christ's 30 years on earth as a man, Pentecost always fell on the first day.
3. Regardless of whether the Sadducee's or Pharisee's method of calculating Pentecost was used the year Christ died, both would calculate Pentecost in Acts 2:1 as the first day of the week.
4. This means that all the discussion about whether Pentecost always fell on a Sunday is irrelevant to Acts 2:1 because even the method noted by Josephus and Philo and the Pharisees had Pentecost fall on the first day of the week in Acts 2:1.
5. Even Samuele Bacchiocchi, the Seventh-day Adventist Scholar agrees that Pentecost always fell on a Sunday: "The second dating method that could be used today is to reckon the fifty days of Pentecost from the first Sunday after Passover, which means that Pentecost always would fall on a Sunday." ... "At this point in my research I TEND TO SUPPORT the reckoning of the fifty days of Pentecost from the first Sunday after Passover" (God's Festivals in Scripture and History, Samuele Bacchiocchi, p.232-233)
6. Sabbatarians bring up the controversy about whether Pentecost always falls on the first day or not, is a smoke screen intended to confuse the simple issue that even the Sabbatarian method of calculation would have Pentecost fall on the first day the year Jesus was crucified.
7. All Sabbatarians who believe in a Friday crucifixion and a first day resurrection MUST admit to a Pentecost in Acts 2:1 that fell on the first day (Sunday).
8. Only Herbert W. Armstrong (WWCOG) before 1990 and all splinter groups since the 1994 shake down, believe in a Wednesday crucifixion and a Sabbath resurrection for Christ. Click here to refute Sabbath resurrection.
9. "Conclusion: Ancient records have provided us with four models used for counting the 50 days to the Festival of Weeks. Only two are viable-the Aristocratic and Hasidic (Pharisaic) models-for only these two conform with the example provided by Joshua, 5:10-12, that the omer wave offering can occur during the days of unleavened bread. The heart of the difference between all of these various systems, nonetheless, is their differing interpretations about what exactly is meant by the phrase, "on the day after the Sabbath," as found in Leviticus, 23:11. Nevertheless, it is important to notice that the oldest of these known systems was the Aristocratic Pentecost, [The Sadducees, who said Pentecost always falls on the first day] and this was also the system deemed correct by all of the ancient Christian assemblies." (Festival and Sacred Days of Yahweh, by Qadesh La Yahweh Press, 1998, p 258)
10. "The Sadducees celebrated it on the 50th day (inclusive reckoning) from the first Sunday after Passover (taking the 'sabbath' of Lv. 23:15 to be the weekly sabbath); their reckoning regulated the public observance so long as the Temple stood, and the church is therefore justified in commemorating the first Christian Pentecost on a Sunday (Whit Sunday). The Pharisees, however, interpreted the 'sabbath' of Lv. 23:15 as the Festival of Unleavened Bread (cf. Lv. 23:7), and their reckoning became normative in Judaism after AD 70, so that in the Jewish calendar Pentecost now falls on various days of the week." (New Bible dictionary, 1996 Pentecost, Feast of)
11. "The date of the feast came to be firmly fixed only in later Judaism. It was now dated on the 50th day after the Passover. Opinions varied as to the significance of the "day after the Sabbath" mentioned in Lv. 23:15. The Boethuseans (Sadducees) took this literally and counted from the first regular Sabbath (Saturday) after the first day of the Passover, so that Pentecost would always fall on a Sunday. The Pharisees, however, took the of Lv. 23:15 to mean the first day of the Passover, the 15th Nisan, and thus counted seven full weeks from the 16th Nisan, so that Pentecost would fall exactly on the 50th day after the 16th Nisan. Acc. to this reckoning the day of the week on which Pentecost carne would depend on the day of week the Passover began." (Theological dictionary of the New Testament, 1976, The Jewish Feast of Pentecost)
12. The fact that Philo and Josephus Both state that Pentecost was celebrated 50 days after the first day of the Passover, does not change the fact that the Sadducee's view was on place in 33 AD when Christ was crucified. It is well documented beyond question that the Sadducees controlled the Temple worship and the feast days. "for the Festival of Pentecost had come around, following the Sabbath day, and we are not permitted to march either on the Sabbath day or on a festival day." (Joesphus Antiquities 13:8:4.).
13. The evidence for those who say Pentecost always falls on a Monday is so week and contradictory to both the Bible and record of history, that we need not waste any space refuting it. How valid could their position be if it never existed before Herbert W. Armstrong and his multitude of little splinter groups came along in 1925 AD?

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