The book of Acts reports the fulfillment of a universal covenant when the message of the God of Israel reached out to the Gentiles: "devout men from every nation under heaven'' (Acts 2:5), and even identifies some of them: Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God. (Acts 2:9-11)
It is noteworthy that this special event took place during the feast of the Weeks, Shavuot, a feast that points to the Jubilee. Indeed, just as Shavuot concludes the preceding 49 (7 x 7) days, the Jubilee also concludes the 49 (7 x 7) preceding years. It is certainly significant that the seventy-week prophecy of Daniel uses the same paradigm of the Jubilee and Shavuot (7 x 7) to announce the coming of the Messiah and consequently of the making of a universal covenant: Seventy weeks are decreed concerning thy people and concerning thy holy city... to atone for iniquity and to bring an everlasting covenant... Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, until Messiah, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, and after these sixty-two weeks, Messiah will be cut off... And he (Messiah) will broaden covenant with many for one week, and in the middle of the week, he will bring to an end sacrifice and offering. (Daniel 9:24-27)
That this time of Shavuot is marked by a universal covenant is indeed perfect timing because, as Rabbi Irving Greenberg points out, "Shavuot evokes the hope of the universal covenant."1 This tradition records that when God gave the Torah at Sinai, His voice resonated in "seventy languages, so that all the nations should understand" (Exodus Rabbah 5:9). Another tradition infers the universality of that event from the very fact that it took place in the wilderness.
Why was the Torah not given in the Land of Israel? In order that the nations of the world shall not say, "Because it was given in Israel's land, we do not accept it: Lest one group say, "In my territory, the Torah was given:' Therefore, the Torah was given in the desert, publicly and openly, in a place belonging to no one.3
According to the Book of Jubilees (6:17), a product from the second Temple period, Shavuot is celebrated as a symbol of the covenant that God made with humankind through Noah. It is also meaningful that the liturgical reading of the book of Ruth marks this feast, for through the reading of the book of Ruth, the universality of the covenant is remembered. This is the story of a Moabite who joined the community of Israel and embraced their God: "Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God" (Ruth 1:16). Therefore, Shavuot, which concludes the period of the seventy-week prophecy, is not only a symbolic time pointing to the Messianic era when all the nations will worship the God of Israel; the book of Acts testifies that it is also a historical time when the word of God exploded beyond the borders of Israel and was made available to all the nations of the world.
1 Irving Greenberg. The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), 85.
2 1his association is hinted at in 2 Chronicles 15:10-14; c£ Exodus 19:1.
3 Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael on Exodus 20:2.
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