Pentecost and Shavuot ‎–‎ Holy Spirit and Torah ‎–‎ The Quest for Traces of a Dialogue between Jews and Christians about a Shared but Separating Festival

Leonhard Clemens

Abstract

Jewish and Christian texts of roughly the late fourth (and later) centuries converge in their ‎discussion of the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost and the gift of the Torah on Shavuot. As Israel Yuval has shown regarding several stories about Pesach as well as Shavuot and Pentecost and Daniel Stökl-Ben Ezra regarding Yom Kippur and Shavuot, the two theological tenets foster ‎the creation of narratives and counter-narratives in the context of the festivals of Pentecost and Shavuot. They furnish the festivals with meaning and anchor thus the theological debates in a ‎ tangible and visible part of the practice of Jews and Christians. This debate must be reconstructed in the fourth century and its aftermath. It is not-or not yet-possible to determine temporal and causal priorities or to point to specific geographic areas for these developments. Palestine is in any case one of the best candidates for such dialogues, although scholars in many other parts of the ancient Christian world debated notions of the Holy Spirit and the rabbis also had reasons to celebrate Shavuot apart from interests in counteracting Christian positions.