The Sadducees, who were largely of the priesthood responsible for maintaining the integrity of the worship system, counted Pentecost from the weekly Sabbath falling within the Feast of Unleavened Bread, unlike the Pharisees, who began from Nisan 15, and the Essenes, who began from Nisan 21. They used that weekly Sabbath to determine Wavesheaf Day and then counted fifty days, so their Pentecost always fell on a Sunday. In doing so they followed the three-step process of Leviticus 23:15-16 and began it with a weekly Sabbath rather than a holy-day Sabbath. Their practice is not indisputable proof, but it corroborates the biblical case, which rests on the need for counting and on the Hebrew article ha before "Sabbath." During the whole life of Jesus, the Sadducees, as those responsible for the Temple, set the date of Pentecost for the Jews, and they alone consistently observed a Sunday Pentecost (Edersheim is cited as historical support, though he himself favors Sivan 6). Jesus and His disciples kept the holy days on the same days as the Jews (Acts 2), who followed those God allowed to be in charge, the Sadducees. Jesus therefore counted and kept Pentecost as the Sadducean priesthood did, on a Sunday after fifty days counted from the weekly Sabbath within Unleavened Bread. Christians who are called to follow His example (I Peter 2:21; I John 2:6) should do the same, and the counting requirement is a test of faithfulness.

The Sadducees were the priestly party that controlled the Temple at the time of Christ and the founding of the church, so offering the Wavesheaf, including choosing its day, fell to them. They counted to Pentecost from the weekly Sabbath within Unleavened Bread, with the next day as Wavesheaf day and the first day of the count. In a year when Passover falls on a Sabbath, the only such Sabbath is the last day of Unleavened Bread, so the count begins just after the feast. This fits Leviticus 23, where the definite article before "Sabbath" usually marks the weekly Sabbath, and where the first and last days of Unleavened Bread are not called Sabbaths. Because the Wavesheaf marked the start of harvest, it had to fall on a common workday, and all Jewish groups agreed on this. The Pharisaic method, which counts from the first holy day, fails on three points. God commands counting, which would be pointless if Pentecost always fell on the same date. Pentecost must be the day after the seventh Sabbath. The four gospel writers' phrase mia sabbaton marks Christ's resurrection day as the first of the count, the day after the weekly Sabbath. The New Testament records no dispute between Christ, the apostles, or the church and the Sadducees over Pentecost. The Sadducees' doctrine was not perfect, and Christ warned against it, but they upheld the Temple's ceremonial instructions better than the Pharisees because those duties were theirs. Their method is correct, and the Worldwide Church of God abandoned it in 1974 by requiring Wavesheaf day to fall within Unleavened Bread.

In Jesus' day the Sadducees still controlled the Temple, and they determined when Pentecost was to be kept. They counted to Pentecost from the day after the weekly Sabbath that falls within the Days of Unleavened Bread, so the count always began on a Sunday. This is the same method Leviticus 23:15-16 requires. The Pharisees, and the modern Jews who follow them, counted from the day after the first day of Unleavened Bread, the 15th of Nisan. That puts Pentecost on Sivan 6 every year and removes the reason for counting. The Sadducees' method forces a fresh count each year, since the weekly Sabbath's date changes with the day on which Passover falls. Because the Sadducees and Jesus agreed on the proper way to observe Pentecost, Scripture records no dispute between Jesus and the Sadducees over it.