Now when I was come home again, and my wife Anna was restored to me, with my son Tobias, in the feast of Pentecost, which is the holy feast of the seven weeks, there was a good dinner prepared me, in the which I sat down to eat.
All Commentaries on Tobit 2:1 Go To Tobit 2
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Often we are asked, “If we celebrate Pentecost because of the coming of the Holy Spirit, why do the Jews celebrate it?” The Jews do, in fact, also celebrate Pentecost. You heard that earlier this morning when you followed with attention the reading of the book of Tobit as it was read at the memorial shrine of the blessed Theogenes. There it was said that on the day of Pentecost Tobit prepared a lunch and invited some of his friends who were worthy to participate in this feast since they feared the Lord. It says, “On the day of Pentecost, that is, the holiest day of the weeks.” In fact, seven times seven equals forty-nine; to this number, one is added for the sake of unity in order to be able to bring us back to the head, the beginning. Unity in fact provides cohesion to every multitude; and the multitude if it is not cemented in unity is an agglomerate of disputing and quarrelsome people. If, however, there is concord, they form a single soul. Scripture asserts just this when speaking about those who had received the Holy Spirit. It says that “they had a single soul and heart toward God.” Thus it makes fifty days, which is the mystery of Pentecost.
But why, then, do the Jews celebrate Pentecost, if not because in their celebration there was something prefigured there? Pay close attention to me! You know that among the Jews a lamb is killed and the Passover is celebrated thus, like a figure of the passion of the Lord that would happen later. No Christian can ignore what I am saying. You also know that they were commanded to find a lamb among the goats and the sheep. But can a lamb be found among goats and sheep? That command, in itself, was impossible, but it pointed toward the possibility that the Christ would come in truth in our Lord Jesus, who according to the flesh was born from the seed of David and drew his origin from both the sinners and the righteous. In the genealogy of the Lord, according to the generations that the Evangelist recorded, we find many sinners, because he also came from sinners; and the church today is assembled from both the just and sinners.
