Thanksgiving
Where does Thanksgiving come from? Is the story that everyone knows the real basis for the celebration or is there another, more ancient, back story to the festivities of Thanksgiving? Are we to believe it only dates back to the 1600s here in the United States?
There is a logical construct that says “an un-caused effect cannot exist”. In other words, in basic cause and effect, everything you see comes about because someone or something originated it. If you trace everything back, you eventually get back to the story of Genesis and the creation. Rather than start at the very beginning, allow me to trace it backward.
The traditional story goes something like this. The puritan settlers (pilgrims) at Plymouth Rock arrived in the area of Massachusetts in the early 1600s and experience extreme hardship. The native American tribes that lived in the area helped out the settlers and to show their gratitude, the settlers held a feast to thank God and the native Americans for the grace of God and help. Here is what the Encyclopedia Britannica has to say on the matter:
“Plymouth’s Thanksgiving began with a few colonists going out “fowling,” possibly for turkeys but more probably for the easier prey of geese and ducks, since they “in one day killed as much as…served the company almost a week.” Next, 90 or so Wampanoag made a surprise appearance at the settlement’s gate, doubtlessly unnerving the 50 or so colonists. Nevertheless, over the next few days the two groups socialized without incident. The Wampanoag contributed venison to the feast, which included the fowl and probably fish, eels, shellfish, stews, vegetables, and beer. Since Plymouth had few buildings and manufactured goods, most people ate outside while sitting on the ground or on barrels with plates on their laps. The men fired guns, ran races, and drank liquor, struggling to speak in broken English and Wampanoag. This was a rather disorderly affair, but it sealed a treaty between the two groups that lasted until King Philip’s War (1675–76), in which hundreds of colonists and thousands of Indians lost their lives.
The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating “Thanksgivings,” days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought. The U.S. Continental Congress proclaimed a national Thanksgiving upon the enactment of the Constitution, for example. Yet, after 1798, the new U.S. Congress left Thanksgiving declarations to the states; some objected to the national government’s involvement in a religious observance, Southerners were slow to adopt a New England custom, and others took offense over the day’s being used to hold partisan speeches and parades. A national Thanksgiving Day seemed more like a lightning rod for controversy than a unifying force.”
Notice how it says that the day was a religious holiday? Even the Encyclopedia lets us know that it is religious. If it is religious, then we must find its source in the bible, right?
One of the best references in the New Testament to the concept of Thanksgiving is found here:
2 Cor 9
10 And He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, shall supply and increase the seed you have sown and increase the fruit of your righteousness,
11 being enriched in every way for all simplicity, which works out thanksgiving to Elohim through us.
12 Because the rendering of this service not only supplies the needs of the set-apart ones, but also is overflowing through many thanksgivings to Elohim.
The first thing you may notice is that Paul describes this as a service. This is a hint that what he is talking about here is an actual offering. The words are often synonymous in the Hebrew (or, the same Hebrew word can translate both English words). What are the things we find in all Thanksgiving celebrations? We have food which comes from seeds that God has given us, and then God provides the increase (even turkey must eat food which originally comes from a seed) and we give thanks to he who has provided the bounty to be placed upon our tables. Of course we know it is not just the bounty resulting from the seed that we eat. We also have meat at thanksgiving:
Psalm 107
21 Let them give thanks to יהוה for His kindness, And His wonders to the children of men!
22 And let them bring slaughterings of thanksgiving, And relate His works with rejoicing.
You can see we bring slaughterings to the Thanksgiving celebration, and give thanks to God. We are also to rejoice during the celebration.
Psalm 116
16 O יהוה, I am truly Your servant, I am Your servant, the son of Your female servant; You have loosed my bonds.
17 I bring You a slaughtering of thanksgiving, And call upon the Name of יהוה.
18 I pay my vows to יהוה In the presence of all His people,
19 In the courts of the House of יהוה, In your midst, O Yerushalayim. Praise Yah!
This reference is interesting. We are to bring a slaughtering to give thanks and call upon the name of יהוה! Look at that – David is bringing a thanks offering and actually using the holy name! This is especially enlightening given the sanction in the oral Torah against using the name.
Psalm 95
1 Come, let us sing to יהוה! Let us raise a shout to the Rock of our deliverance.
2 Let us come before His face with thanksgiving; Let us raise a shout to Him in song.
3 For יהוה is a great Ěl, And a great Sovereign above all mighty ones.
Yet another reference to using the name. It is clear to me that the name is to be used and not covered up by a Takanot (command of the Rabbis that change biblical law, a law that is also followed by Christians who like to say “the LORD”).
Let me get back to Thanksgiving.
Psalm 147
7 Respond to יהוה with thanksgiving; Sing praises on a lyre to our Elohim,
8 Who covers the heavens with clouds, Who prepares rain for the earth, Who makes grass to sprout on the mountains
While it says lyre here in verse 7, the word can also be translated as harp. In fact, the Hebrew here is kinnor, which is the word in Hebrew for harp. A lyre is just a type of harp. What I take from this is that we are also to celebrate Thanksgiving with music, and in this case, music from a harp.
Nehemiah 12
27 And at the dedication of the wall of Yerushalayim they sought out the Lĕwites in all their places, to bring them to Yerushalayim to perform the dedication with gladness, and with thanksgivings, and with singing, cymbals, harps and lyres.
28 And the sons of the singers gathered together from the countryside around Yerushalayim, from the villages of the Netophathites,
29 and from the house of Gilgal, and from the fields of Geḇa and Azmaweth – for the singers had built themselves villages all around Yerushalayim.
30 And the priests and Lĕwites cleansed themselves, and they cleansed the people, and the gates, and the wall.
46 For in the days of Dawiḏ and Asaph of old there were chiefs of the singers, and songs of praise and thanksgiving to Elohim.
Sometimes we can even have a city-wide celebration such as we have above in Nehemiah chapter 12 with the re-dedication of the city of Jerusalem. Yet again we have music from a harp and this time we even add in singers. We have an entire worship team singing and playing praises unto God.
Of course we still haven’t gotten to where this idea all comes from. It was originally written down in, of course, the Torah! Here is the reference from the Torah:
Leviticus 7
11 ‘And this is the Torah of the slaughtering of peace offerings which is brought to יהוה:
12 ‘If he brings it for a thanksgiving, then he shall bring with the slaughtering of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened thin cakes anointed with oil, or cakes of finely blended flour mixed with oil.
13 ‘Besides the cakes, he brings as his offering leavened bread together with the slaughtering of thanksgiving of his peace offering.
14 ‘And from it he shall bring one cake from each offering as a contribution to יהוה: to the priest who sprinkles the blood of the peace offering, it is his.
15 ‘As for the flesh of the slaughtering of his peace offering for thanksgiving, it is eaten the same day it is offered, he does not leave any of it until morning.
16 ‘And if the offering he brings is a vow or a voluntary offering, it is eaten the same day that he brings his slaughtering, and what is left of it is eaten the next day,
17 but whatever is left of the flesh of the slaughtering on the third day is burned with fire.
This is known as the Todah, or thanks, offering. This is not for sin or for any transgression – it is simply to thank our creator for the blessings he has bestowed upon us. We have bread (cakes) and meat and just sing praises unto God and thank him for all he has given us. I actually like the idea that you have only two days to eat it all and at the third day, you burn it all if there is any left overs. God knows some of us (like me) can only stand turkey so many days in a row. :)
If you really want to go back to the very first Thanksgiving, you actually have to go back to the sacrifices of Cain and Abel:
Genesis 4
3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.4 4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
You have grain (the cakes from Leviticus 7) and the slaughterings. All of the necessary elements are here. Thanksgiving dates back to right after our first parent’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
There you have it – Thanksgiving does not date back to 1621 in Massachusetts but instead goes back to Cain and Abel.
