John 7:2

‘Now the Jew's Feast of Tabernacles was at hand'.

The Feast of Tabernacles was the feast celebrating the end of the year's harvests, and took place around September/October. It was one of the main feasts celebrated by the Jews, being one of the three that were commanded to be celebrated at their central Sanctuary (initially The Tabernacle, and then the Temple) from ancient times (Exodus 23:14). In Exodus 23:16 it is called the Feast of Ingathering, while in Leviticus 23:3 and Deuteronomy 16:13 it is called the Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths).

The other two main feasts were the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread (celebrated in March/April), and the Feast of Weeks, also called the Feast of Harvest and Pentecost, which was celebrated 50 days after Passover. The former celebrated the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and was distinctive in that every household would sacrifice a lamb at the Temple, and partake of it in the place in which they were staying in Jerusalem, in memory of that deliverance, but it was almost certainly a feast before that for it was during this week that the reaping of the standing grain commenced (Deuteronomy 16:9) and a sheaf of the firstfruits was waved before the Lord (Leviticus 23:10). It was thus both a memorial of the deliverance from Egypt and an acknowledgement by the nation of their dependence on God for their harvest. It was accompanied by numerous sacrifices (e.g. Numbers 28:16).

From the day on which the firstfruits were offered in March/April, 49 days were counted (a week of weeks, hence the name the Feast of Weeks) during which the grain harvest would be gathered in (Deuteronomy 16:9). Then the Feast of Weeks (or Harvest) would be celebrated (May/June) and a cake of the firstfruits of the gathered harvest presented to God (Deuteronomy 16:10; Exodus 23:16; Exodus 34:22). This was later called the Feast of Pentecost.

Following this the grapevines would be pruned, the figs (summer fruit) gathered in, and this would be followed by the general ingathering of grapes, olives and citrus fruits. Finally around September/October the Feast of Tabernacles or Ingathering would celebrate the complete gathering in of the years harvest. It was a feast of thanksgiving for a good harvest (Deuteronomy 16:15), and was especially associated with fruitfulness, with the ‘fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook' (Leviticus 23:40).

During the feast the people would live in booths or ‘tents', remembering how the people who had followed Moses out of Egypt had lived in tents in the wilderness, and a huge flaming lampstand would be set up in the Temple as a symbol of the pillar of fire that had gone before them then, and had protected them, and been their guide.

The feast, which was now approaching, was a joyful one (Deuteronomy 16:15), and had become especially associated with the expected coming age of plenty (Zechariah 14:16), so that at this time the minds of people would be directed towards thoughts of the coming age. The celebration of it was also looked on as a way of seeking to guarantee the pouring out of rain in the coming months (Zechariah 14:17). This was presumably why Jesus chose it for the purpose of proclaiming the coming ‘rain' of the Holy Spirit.