Festival
In Scripture, a festival is a set time of worship, remembrance, and rejoicing appointed especially for Israel. Biblical festivals marked God’s saving acts, covenant life, and the rhythm of holy time.
At a Glance
In Scripture, a festival is a set time of worship, remembrance, and rejoicing appointed especially for Israel. Biblical festivals marked God’s saving acts, covenant life, and the rhythm of holy time.
Description
A festival in the biblical sense is an appointed religious celebration, especially the feasts God gave Israel as part of her covenant worship life. These occasions combined sacrifice, assembly, rest, thanksgiving, remembrance, and joy before the Lord, and they ordered Israel’s year around God’s acts of creation, provision, redemption, and holiness. Major examples include Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. In the New Testament, Jewish festival language remains important in understanding the setting of Jesus’ ministry and the worship life of first-century Jews. Many evangelical interpreters also see these festivals as having typological significance that points forward to Christ, but care is needed not to go beyond what Scripture clearly states.