From: BYT YHWH <bytyhwh@...>
Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAndNewMoons] Re: 7th day cycle
To: TheTrueSabbathsAndNewMoons@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, 31 July, 2009, 1:33 PM

 

Gilberto,

just read what YHWH (Yahweh), NOT Constantine, NOT me, said:

EXODUS 31:12-18 -
 12 And YHWH (Yahweh) spoke to Mosheh (Moses), saying,
 13 Speak you also to the Children of Yisrael (Israel), saying, Verily My Sabbaths you shall keep: for it is a Sign between Me and you throughout your Generations; that you may know that I am YHWH (Yahweh) that does sanctify you.
 14 You shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is Set Apart (Holy) to you: every one that defiles it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
 15 Six Days may work be done; but in the Seventh is the Sabbath of Rest, Set Apart (Holy) to YHWH (Yahweh): whosoever does any work in the Sabbath Day, he shall surely be put to death.
 16 Wherefore the Children of Yisrael (Israel) shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their Generations, for a Perpetual Covenant.
 17 It is a Sign between Me and the Children of Yisrael (Israel) for ever: for in Six Days YHWH (Yahweh) made Heaven and Earth, and on the Seventh Day He rested, and was refreshed.
 18 And He gave to Mosheh (Moses), when He had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, Two Tables of Testimony, Tables of Stone, written with the Finger of The Mighty One.

That is the Word of YHWH (Yahweh), HIS Law (Torah), and HIS Prophecy throughout ALL the Generations of the Children of Yisrael (Israel), for a Perpetual Covenant, FOR EVER!

That is NOT mere assumption / speculation / presumption, as you ERRONEOUSLY claim that my Beliefs would be founded!

History Proves that the Children of Yisrael (Israel) have kept The Sabbath on The Seventh Day, on the SAME Day commonly called "Saturday" in modern English, at least from the Time of YHWSU (Yahshua), Who kept the SAME Day as The Sabbath, going, as His custom was, to their Synagogue on the Sabbath Day.

LUKE 4:15-16 -
 15 And He taught in their Synagogues, being glorified of all.
 16 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was, He went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath Day, and stood up for to read.

May YHWH (Yahweh) Open your mind, heart, eyes, and ears to Understand It!

In The Name of YHWSU (Yahshua), The TRUE MashiYah (MessiYah),

Carlo Tognoni

BYT YHWH
www.byt-yhwh. org

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From: Gilbert Ventura <gilven55@yahoo. com>
To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com
Cc: gilven55@yahoo. com
Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 8:30:03 PM
Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Re: 7th day cycle

 

Carlo,      You have not proven to everyone that the present calendar and its weekly cycle was the same weekly cycle of ancient Israel. I REMEMBER, you merely presume that its the same without citing proof.In other words, your beliefs is founded on mere assumption/speculat ion. Gilberto --- On Wed, 7/29/09, BYT YHWH <bytyhwh@yahoo. com> wrote: From: BYT YHWH <bytyhwh@yahoo. com> Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Re: 7th day cycle To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com Date: Wednesday, 29 July, 2009, 3:49 PM   Gilberto, I remind you that YHWH (Yahweh), NOT Constantine, NOT me, Commanded a Weekly Cycle, saying to us to Work the First Six Days, and to Rest the Seventh Day, to be Set Apart to HIM as The Sabbath (EXODUS 20:8-11). With the SCRIPTURAL Belief and Practice that I am following, there is a case in which a Feast Day, an Annual SABBATH, is SET and Commanded to be Kept on the New Moon, that can fall on the Seventh Day Sabbath. That is the SET Feast of Trumpets (or Day of Shoutings), that YHWH (Yahweh), NOT Constantine, NOT me, Commanded to be SET and Kept on the First Day (the New Moon) of the Seventh Month! LEVITICUS 23:23-25 -  23 And YHWH (Yahweh) spoke to Mosheh (Moses), saying,  24 Speak to the Children of Yisrael (Israel), saying, In the Seventh Month, in the First Day of the Month, shall you have a SABBATH, a Memorial of Blowing of Trumpets (Shoutings), a Set Apart (Holy) Convocation.  25 You shall do no servile work therein: but you shall offer an offering made by fire to YHWH (Yahweh). Would you call CONFUSION, something that YHWH (Yahweh) has SET and Commanded us to Keep??? May YHWH (Yahweh) Open your mind, heart, eyes, and ears to Understand It! In The Name of YHWSU (Yahshua), The TRUE MashiYah (MessiYah), Carlo Tognoni BYT YHWH www.byt-yhwh. org ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= === From: Gilbert Ventura <gilven55@yahoo. com> To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com Cc: gilven55@yahoo. com Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 9:04:49 PM Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Re: 7th day cycle   Carlo,       With your belief/practice of Constantine weekly cycle, a Feast or a Holyday and New Moon and your Saturday-Sabbath may FALL ON THE SAME DAY/DATE...you don't call this confusion? Bro..Gilberto --- On Tue, 7/28/09, BYT YHWH <bytyhwh@yahoo. com> wrote: From: BYT YHWH <bytyhwh@yahoo. com> Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Re: 7th day cycle To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com Date: Tuesday, 28 July, 2009, 12:24 PM   Gilberto, there is NO confusion at all when the Day of Atonements or Coverings, or the Passover, or even the New Moon, would fall on the Seventh Day Sabbath. I remind you that the SCRIPTURAL Sabbath Day is the time from Dawn to Dusk, and NOT the Babylonian sunset / evening to sunset / evening. In such peculiar cases when they fall on the Seventh Day Sabbath, then the New Moon becomes ALSO the Sabbath Day, and the Passover becomes ALSO the Sabbath Day, and the Day of Atonements or Coverings makes that Sabbath Day also the Day of Affliction (Special Fasting and Prayer). Technically, there is NO PROBLEM, since cleaning of leaven (yeast), at the Passover, can be done just before the Sabbath Day, and preparing food is not necessary for the Day of Atonements or Coverings, being also a Day of Fasting. I do NOT see any confusion at all, even in such peculiar cases! All the Feast Days wander around the Days of the Week, simply because YHWH (Yahweh) Commanded HIS Feast Days on Set Days of the Month, and NOT on Set Days of the Week! Days of the Month and Days of the Weeks are NOT the SAME thing, simply because the Lunar Month is 29.5 Days, and it is NOT perfectly divisible for 7 Days (Weeks), so that Every Month has DIFFERENT Days of the Week, at the SAME Days of the Month. Lunar sabbath doctrine and theory, by resetting the Weeks at the New Moon, is trying to make match the Days of the Week with the Days of the Month, but, in doing so, is BREAKING Every Month the Weekly Cycle of Six Working Days and the Seventh Day Sabbath, as YHWH (Yahweh) Commanded (EXODUS 20:8-11), having a couple of extra days at the end of each lunar month, counted in various ways, depending from the lunar sabbatarian groups, some as UNSCRIPTURAL broken short weeks, some as UNSCRIPTURAL extra sabbath days, and some as UNSCRIPTURAL extra new moon days, and ALL of the UNSCRIPTURAL! There is NOTHING of CONFUSION and/or of SCRIPTURALLY INCORRECT that the Feast Days wander around the Days of the Week. On the contrary, it is absolutely CONFUSION / BABYLON to all who practice babylonian lunar sabbaths, to have UNSCRIPTURAL broken short weeks, or UNSCRIPTURAL extra sabbath days, or UNSCRIPTURAL extra new moon days, at the end of each lunar month! May YHWH (Yahweh) Open your mind, heart, eyes, and ears to COME OUT OF BABYLON / CONFUSION! In The Name of YHWSU (Yahshua), The TRUE MashiYah (MessiYah), Carlo Tognoni BYT YHWH www.byt-yhwh. org ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= === From: Gilbert Ventura <gilven55@yahoo. com> To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com Cc: gilven55@yahoo. com Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 9:48:39 PM Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Re: 7th day cycle   Carlo,      What is INCORRECT is when all the feast days wanders around the days of the week! This happens to all who practice saturday-sabbataria ns of Emperor Constantine. Can you imagine Day of atonement falling on saturday-sabbaths, also the Passover and even falling on the New Moon day!?  This is absolutely CONFUSION.. and it is NOT YHWH who is the author of confusion.     Gilberto --- On Tue, 7/28/09, BYT YHWH <bytyhwh@yahoo. com> wrote: From: BYT YHWH <bytyhwh@yahoo. com> Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Re: 7th day cycle To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com Date: Tuesday, 28 July, 2009, 8:47 AM   Gilberto, finally you have admitted that the Feast Days or "Holy Days" may fall on ordinary six working days, and NOT only on Seventh Day Sabbaths or New Moons! HALLELUYAH! PRAISE YHWH (YAHWEH)! Now, it remains to you to admit that ALSO the New Moons may fall on ordinary six working days, since the New Moon of the Seventh Month is a Feast Day or "Holy Day", that is, The Feast of Trumpets or Day of Shoutings! Yechetzqyah (Ezekiel) 46:1-3 and Isayah 66:22-23 talk about New Moons and Sabbaths, INCLUDING The Feast Days or "Holy Days"! Your statement that "Ezekiel 46 and Isaiah 66:22,23 ...talks about the REGULAR New Moons and the subsequent REGULAR weekly Sabbaths", simply is SCRIPTURALLY INCORRECT, and it assumes that the New Moons would fall on a kind of "neutral days", not counted as working days, nor counted as Sabbaths! Intead, YHWH (Yahweh) Commanded all males of the Children of Yisrael to appear before Him ESPECIALLY at the time of The Feast Days or "Holy Days"! DEUTERONOMY 16:16-17 -  16 Three times in a year shall all your males appear before YHWH (Yahweh) your Mighty One in the place which He shall choose; in the Feast of Unleavened (Bread), and in the Feast of Weeks, and in the Feast of Tabernacles: and they shall not appear before YHWH (Yahweh) empty:  17 Every man shall give according to the gift of His hand, according to the blessing of YHWH (Yahweh) your Mighty One which He has given you. Then, YHWH (Yahweh)'s Feast Days or "Holy Days", such as those listed above, and as the Day of Atonements or Coverings (on the 10th Day of the 7th Month), and the Feast of Trumpets or Day of Shoutings (on the 1st Day of the 7th Month), are certainly included in HIS "Sabbaths" of Yechetzqyah (Ezekiel) 46:1-3 and Isayah 66:22-23! The Feast Day, or "High Day" or "Annual Sabbath", such as the 1st Day of Unleavened (Bread), just as ANY OTHER Feast Day or "Holy Day", sometimes can fall on one of the six working days, and sometimes can fall on the Weekly Seventh Day Sabbath. The case recorded in the 4 Evangels, at the time of the Death of YHWSU (Yahshua), The TRUE MashiYah (MessiYah), is NOT called a "double Sabbath", but an "High Day" falling on the Seventh Day Sabbath. YAHCHANAN (JOHN) 19:31 -  31 The Yahdaim (Jews) therefore, because it was the Preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the stake on the Sabbath Day, (for that Sabbath Day was an High Day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. That does NOT necessarily mean that EVERY YEAR the "High Day" of the 1st Day of Unleavened (Bread) would fall on the Seventh Day Sabbath, as the lunar sabbath doctrine and theory infers and assumes. The Scripture above is simply SPECIFYING that, in that Year, the "High Day" of the 1st Day of Unleavened (Bread), that is, the ANNUAL Sabbath, did fall on the Seventh Day Sabbath. In conclusion, using your own words, I could say, "I THINK YOU ARE THE ONE THAT NEEDS TO BE PRAYED FOR, FOR LACK OF UNDERSTANDING" . May YHWH (Yahweh) Open your mind, heart, eyes, and ears to Understand It! In The Name of YHWSU (Yahshua), The TRUE MashiYah (MessiYah), Carlo Tognoni BYT YHWH www.byt-yhwh. org ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= === From: Gilbert Ventura <gilven55@yahoo. .com> To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com Cc: gilven55@yahoo. com Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 2:47:11 AM Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Re: 7th day cycle   Carlo,      Ezekiel 46 and Isaiah 66:22,23.... . talks about the REGULAR New moons and the subsequent REGULAR weekly Sabbaths. Feast days or Holy Days such as the Day of Atonement is a special Holy day. Special Holydays like the Day of Atonement may fall on ordinary six working days. The Feast day such as the 1st day of Unleavened Bread falls on a lunar Sabbath, such as recorded in the 4 evangels, IS  called a double Sabbath.     I THINK YOU ARE THE ONE THAT NEEDS TO BE PRAYED FOR , FOR LACK OF UNDERSTANDING. --- On Thu, 7/23/09, BYT YHWH <bytyhwh@yahoo. com> wrote: From: BYT YHWH <bytyhwh@yahoo. com> Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Re: 7th day cycle To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com Date: Thursday, 23 July, 2009, 8:57 AM   Gilberto, actually I have already explained that OVER AND OVER AGAIN, but simply it does NOT match with your own interpretation, and point of view. "Shut on Six Working Days" simply means "Closed during the Six Working Days". But, as I have repeadly explained, SOME of YHWH (Yahweh)'s Set Apart Feast Days fall on the Six Working Days. Even with your "lunar only scenario", you have AT LEAST three Feast Days falling on the Six Working Days - that is, the 7th Day of Unleavened (Bread), and the Day of Pentecost, and the Day of Atonements (Coverings). Would the Eastern Gate of YHWH (Yahweh)'s Temple be Shut, or Open on such Set Apart Feast Days, that fall on the Six Working Days? The Scriptures are very clear: AT LEAST Some of YHWH (Yahweh)'s Set Apart Feast Days fall on one of the Six Working Days, making them Annual Sabbaths.   Now, Please, show your human reasoning here, trying to defend your own interpretation, and point of view, that is SCRIPTURALLY without defense, and lets see if it is better or worst than Arnold's, or my human reasoning... May YHWH (Yahweh) Open your mind, heart, eyes, and ears to Understand It! In The Name of YHWSU (Yahshua), The TRUE MashiYah (MessiYah), Carlo Tognoni BYT YHWH www.byt-yhwh. org ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==== From: Gilbert Ventura <gilven55@yahoo. . . . com> To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 6:51:25 PM Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Re: 7th day cycle   Carlo,      You have NOT yet explain to everybody the meaning of the phrase "....SHUT ON SIX WORKING DAYS".I BET YOUR HUMAN REASONING IS WORST THAN Arnold. --- On Sun, 7/19/09, BYT YHWH <bytyhwh@yahoo. com> wrote: From: BYT YHWH <bytyhwh@yahoo. . com> Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Re: 7th day cycle To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com Date: Sunday, 19 July, 2009, 12:14 AM   Shalom Everyone! That is another Proof that following faulty human reasoning we are lead to ridiculous conclusions. Here below Arnold uses faulty human reasoning, trying to "prove" the "traditional" Seventh Day cycle Sabbath to be "mathematically impossible". But, in his faultly human reasoning, Arnold forgot to think that ONE Daily Cycle, that is, One Day (Light Time) AND One Night (Darkness Time), lasts 24 Hours, and NOT more than that time! So that, even if two people would travel one to East, and the other to West, starting, for example, from the Middle East (where the Garden of Eden was placed), and they would meet one another overseas, where U.S.A. are currently located, they would be on the SAME Day, and NOT one Day apart one from another.. Lets make a simple example, to show that. Lets say that they would make a trip with two boats, one going to East, and the other going to West, and they would meet overseas, two Weeks later. Lets say that both of them started their trips on the First Day of the Week, and they took the SAME time to arrive at the meeting place overseas, two Weeks later. BOTH of them would arrive on the Seventh Day Sabbath, two Weeks later, and NOT on two different Days. End of the Story! And please, Arnold, stop such ridiculous attempts to discredit the Scriptural Weekly Cycle, that is according to YHWH (Yahweh)'s Commandment to Work Six Days, and to Rest and Set Apart the Seventh Day as the Sabbath to YHWH (Yahweh) (EXODUS 20:8-11). May YHWH (Yahweh) Open your mind, heart, eyes, and ears to Understand It! In The Name of YHWSU (Yahshua), The TRUE MashiYah (MessiYah), Carlo Tognoni BYT YHWH www.byt-yhwh. org ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ===   From: Brother Arnold <YHWHPeople@aol. com> To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 4:53:22 AM Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Re: 7th day cycle   The traditional seventh day cycle Sabbath is mathematically impossible.   One of the ways the traditional Roman 7 Day Cycle Error can be exposed is by using common sense and math.. The traditional cycle cannot stand the math test because if the Roman uninterrupted cycle count of counting one through seven over and over is correct, people in the United States would AND SHOULD be Keeping the Seventh Day Sabbath on TWO different days, i.e. Friday and Saturday. The reason for this is because when men began to be fruitful and multiply on the Earth and migrated east and West around the Earth, their descendents would be on a different cycle when they met each other in the United States even though neither group missed a beat in their 7 day cycle count. This is an absolute.   Here’s the way it works. The descendents of Adam traveling east would actually gain time and would see the Sun Sooner and sooner each day and the tribes traveling West would actually lose time because they are going away from the sun and when they had migrated 4 or 5 hours east and West of the garden of Eden, Adams descendents traveling East would keep Saturday 8 or 10 hours before the ones traveling west. There would be no problem so far and this fact would go unnoticed but when they bumped into each other in the United States the tribe that migrated east would be keeping Saturday 24 hours BEFORE the tribes that traveled west and are now a day behind the ones that migrated east. They would be a whole day apart and when the sun rose on both Tribes it would be Saturday the 7th day of the week/cycle to one tribe and Friday and they 6th day of the week/cycle to the other because the ones that had traveled west would not count the day until it came around to them. Remember the ones that traveled west were keeping the seventh day cycle AFTER the ones that traveled east and when they meet in American they would still keep the seventh day cycle AFTER the ones that traveled west and it would now be 24 hours later. This is an absolute and cannot be intelligently argued against. This is why the Heavenly Father never instituted the traditional cycle because it will not work. Please meditate on this because your life depends on it.   The above conclusively proves the Roman calendar and its cycle wrong. This problem goes away with Lunar Weeks and Lunar Sabbaths.   Someone might argue that the sons of Adam that traveled east should give up their seventh day cycle that they inherited from their fathers and get on the cycle with the sons of Adam which traveled west. They could argue that those that traveled east were creating a cycle that did not belong but on the other hand the ones that traveled east could argue that the ones that travel West lost a cycle that did belong.  Remember both groups are sons of Adam and both seventh day cycle would be valid as if Adam himself had traveled east or west. Adam lived to be 969 years old and could have migrated east or west to the United States either one of the tribes and it would still be the weekly Seventh day no matter which way he travel.   Someone might argue that the Sabbath should begin in Jerusalem and go around the Earth but the problem with this is the Sabbath was not made for Jerusalem, the Sabbath was made for man and no matter which way they traveled, east or west, they were to keep the Sabbath day.   If people would only admit the Scripture teaches in Ezekiel 46:1 that the new moon worship days are not counted in with the six working days when counting out the week, this would make the weeks lunar weeks instead of the traditional solar week and the weekly Seventh day of the week will always fall on the eighth, 15th, 22nd, and 29th days of the month. The weeks to Pentecost are lunar weeks because the first day of the first week to Pentecost each and every year is always on the 16th which is the Morrow after the Sabbath or the Morrow after the 7th day/15th of the preceding week. The people who count the weeks to Pentecost from the Morrow after the 15th, the first two weeks will be lunar weeks because the 15th day of the month/moon is lunar itself each and every year. The first week to Pentecost will be from the 16th through the 22nd, making the 22nd the FIRST seventh day of the lunar week to Pentecost and the next complete week to Pentecost will be from the 23rd through the 29th, making the 29th the seventh day of that week and the SECOND Sabbath complete to Pentecost. This is an absolute every year and this is the way the the Scripture teaches to count the weeks to Pentecost and the Septuagint makes it very clear, Leviticus 23.   Here’s another interesting fact that cannot be intelligently denied.. Now if the 16th day is the FIRST DAY of the week in the first month each year, this makes the 15th day the SEVENTH DAY of the week in the first month each year. The 15th is actually called the seventh day in Deuteronomy 5:12 – 15 which reads, “De 5:12 Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as YHWH thy Mighty One20hath commanded thee. De 5:13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: De 5:14 But the SEVENTH DAY is the SABBATH of YHWH thy Mighty One: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. De 5:15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that YHWH thy Mighty One brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore YHWH thy Mighty One commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.” Notice the Sabbath day is referring to the seventh day of the week and it was the seventh day Sabbath that they were given rest from Egypt’s bondage according to Numbers 33:3 and other Scriptures which teach that it was the 15th day that they were delivered out of Egypt’s bondage. The 15th is also referred to as the SEVENTH DAY in Exodus 13:6 where it says that the CHAG is in the SEVENTH DAY and it cannot be talking about the seventh day of the feast because the seventh day of the feast is never called a CHAG, but the 15th is called the CHAG in many places such as Leviticus 23:6, Psalms 81:3 etc. see my article on this at http://www.lun ar.sabbath.info The Septuagint taught Lunar Weeks which ended in a Lunar Seventh day. According to Scholars, the Septuagint was the Bible of the Apostles and early Christians. Most of the Old Testament quotes found in the New Testament were direct quote from the Septuagint. These were quote from the Messiah himself, not to mention His Apostles who wrote the New Testament. They say the New Testament Christian converts were Greek speaking people and read from the Septuagint as did the Greek speaking Jews... Most scholars and even The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia admits that the weeks were originally by the phases of the moon/lunar. A person really has to be blinded by tradition not to investigate this subject. Especially when you cannot find a pinpointed weekly Sabbath that cannot be intelligently argued against that was on any other day than by the moon.   Some argue that they count Pentecost from a supposedly weekly Sabbath that falls within the days of unleavened bread. There is absolutely no Historical evidence whatsoever of anyo ne using such a count during the Temple times. There is plenty of scriptural and Historical evidence during the Temple times were they counted lunar weeks to Pentecost. The Septuagint Scriptures in Leviticus 23 taught this count and we have eyewitness testimony from people who live during the time the Temple was standing, that this is the way it was done. Both Josephus and Philo who lived at this time testify that this is the way it was done. All of these were during the Temple times and there is not even one piece of evidence to the contrary that goes back to Temple times. Some try to say the Mishnah and Jewish Talmud which discusses the traditional Sabbath but neither of these goes back to Temple times. They were written 200 to 500 years after the fact. You have absolutely nothing that was written during Temple times supporting solar weeks to Pentecost. Everything support lunar weeks to Pentecost. People will still believe what they want to believe and follow the traditions of men without any scriptural or Historical evidence to support their belief. There are more loyal to their denomination, organization, preacher, etc, than they are to the word of the Almighty. May He have mercy on their soul before it is everlasting too late.                Brother Arnold www.lunarsabbath. info An Excellent Credit Score is 750. See Yours in Just 2 Easy Steps! Try cool new emoticons, skins, plus more space for friends. Download Yahoo! Messenger Philippines now. Importing contacts has never been easier.. Bring your friends over to Yahoo! Mail today! Surf faster. Internet Explorer 8 optmized for Yahoo! auto launches 2 of your favorite pages everytime you open your browser.Get IE8 here! (It's free) Get your new Email address! Grab the Email name you've always wanted before someone else does!

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Shalom Voixderaison,

You said, The old claim that Jews changed the reckoning of a day changed from dawn to dusk to conform with the supposed Babylonian evening to evening day is still making its rounds on this forum.

Then you ask, To those who repeat this claim, what is your primary source?

There are three definitions of the word, day, in the Bible: daylight hours, the time it take the earth to revolve around sun or an age (generally 1000 years).

If we study the instructions governing the observance of the Holy Seasons (Moediym), a distinction is made between day/night and often times between morning, noon and night.  So, the context of the concept of  day is not an approximately 24-hour period.  In the case of the Moediym, the definition of day as meaning the daylight hours is applied.  Therefore, some believe that the rabbinical Jews changed the meaning of the concept of a day to fit their doctrine.  This is not true.

In the beginning, there was no night and, in the end, there will be no night.  Therefore, the Jews keep the Torah as though the night does not exist.  The night merely signals when the next day would truly begin.  Most agree that the day ends in the evening.   When Mashiach comes, the Moediym will continue.  So, if the night is abolished, then the day will begin at the time we now consider nightfall.  Stated another way, the time will call, Night, will be a time of Light in the World to Come. 

Rabbinical Judaism does not believe that we can keep the Torah in captivity.  So, they keep the Commandments and Moediym in preparation for the Redemption of Israel—the Messianic age.  In other words, they do not acknowledge the night.  The night is an illusion.  Day will replace the time period we consider night.  So, this is why they do the Holy Days beginning in the evening.  It has nothing to do with them believing that the day begins at night.  Again, they do not believe the night exists.  In Genesis 1, we learned that three days elapsed before the creation of the sun and moon.  So, the sun and moon do not determine the days.  They do so, now, only temporarily.  When Mashiach comes, the days will not be determined by the sun in the sky.  The Creator will be our light.  The original order of things is perpetual day.  So, they keep the Moediym at the appointed time regardless of the fact that the daylight appears late or is interrupted by night.  This is a verse that is representative of this belief.

Isaiah 60:19  The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but YHWH shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy Elohiym thy glory.

Revelation 21:22  And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 23  And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

So, they begin the Holy Days in the evening because this is the original and final order of things.  The sun did not originally determine the day.  This is only a temporary situation.

So, IN TRUTH, the distinction is that the rabbinical Jews deal with the original/final order of a day while others believe that the day is strictly determined by the appearance of the sun.  Those of the latter opinion will not begin doing 24-hours Sabbaths when Mashiach comes since Yeshau says that there are only (at present) 12 hours in a day (John 11:9).  On the contrary, the rabbinical Jews are keeping 24-hours Sabbaths because this is the original and final order of things.  In the end, all will be doing 24-hours Sabbaths since the concept of day and night will vanish.

If we read the actual words of the Jewish sages, we will see that they are far from confused on this issue.  It just so happens that modern Jews (even the rabbis) only know the tradition with no knowledge of WHY the sages set things up the way they have.  So, they obey the instructions of the sages as given in the Talmud and Midrashiym without the benefit of having the explanations.

So, in my opinion, if we keep the Moediym with the proper intention and knowledge, then he is fine.  Again, the rabbinical sages do not teach that  the Sabbath is at night since they do not acknowledge the night.  I can explain this better with an allegory.

Say, for example, a person believes that a day is during the daylight hours and that it is the Sabbath.  Then he will wait for sunrise to keep the Sabbath since the bible does say that the day is when the sun dominates (Genesis 1:16). 

All RIGHT!  Now, let us imagine that there is a total solar eclipse at high noon on the Sabbath.  Keep in mind, the definition of day is not based on the position of the sun.  It is based on when the sun dominates.  Since the sun is covered by the moon and cannot shed any light, does this mean that the Sabbath is suspended.  Of course not.  Because we know that, even though an eclipse is occurring, it is still the normal time of the sun’s dominance.  So, the Sabbath will continue.   Similarly, no one will consider the dark state of the earth to be night, the end of the day or the end of the Sabbath even though there is a break in daylight.  In both cases, everyone will deal with the normal cycle.  So, the Sabbath will end at evening as it always does.

So, the Jews see the night the same way as the dawn-to-dusk people would interpret a solar eclipse.  It does not matter if it is pitch black outside.  Both will observe the Moediym at the appointed time.  So, again, the rabbinical Jews see the night as an anomaly and temporary situation.  Since the Truth and the Torah does not change and is eternal, they believe that there should be no change in the times that we keep the Moediym.  Given that the 24-hours Sabbath is the one that will be kept in the Millennial Age and beyond, it must be the real one.  That is why they do it.

Personally, I keep the Holy Days with respect to the day and night cycle.  For me, Yom Kippur is observed on the 10^th DAY SEASON of the Seventh month.  But, I do understand why the Jews do it why they do and I do not disagree.  I know from their words why they do it that way and it has nothing to do with the Babylonians.  The issue is whether or not one will keep the Moediym with respect to the current sun-moon cycle  or in accordance to the way it will be done from the time Mashiach returns and beyond. At that time, all days will be approximately 24-hours.

If we would actually read the interpretations of the rabbinical Jews instead of listening to the Christian Sacred-Namers who hate Jews and have never laid an eye on one explanation of the Sages, we would understand that their beliefs are not based on Babylonian or any other influence.   Such people claim the Bible is corrupted so that they can insert their own doctrine.  Instead of relying on the Bible (because they believe it is corrupted), you have rely on their interpretations of it.  I have not seen anyone match the wisdom of the Jewish sages.  NO ONE!  Instead of looking at the external observances, we must read the reasons from them instead of listening to lies and false teachings based in misinformation and bigotry.  The ex-Christian Sacred-Namers already hated the Jews from their indoctrination in the Church.  When the left the church, they keep the hatred from Jews.  That is all I have.

Shalom,

Yehochanan

--- On Fri, 8/14/09, voixderaison@... <voixderaison@...> wrote:

From: voixderaison@... <voixderaison@...>
Subject: [TheTrueSabbathsAndNewMoons] Babylonian Evening to Evening Day - Says Who Exactly?
To: TheTrueSabbathsAndNewMoons@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, August 14, 2009, 11:39 AM

 

The old claim that Jews changed the reckoning of a day changed from dawn to dusk to conform with the supposed Babylonian evening to evening day is still making its rounds on this forum.

1. To those who repeat this claim, what is your primary source?

2. How do you figure that Judaism is precisely the opposite of Babylonians religion? Is that the standard by which Judaism is to be measured?

3. Who has the authority to decide such a matter for Israel?

Shalom John,

You asked, Can you please provide the references to the sages that say "the night does not exist" or that it is "an illusion", etc.?

Well, I think that I oversimplified the Sages position just a tad bit!

I have no idea if there will continue to be days and nights in the World to Come.  We definitely know that the will be evenings during the Millennial Reign (Ezekiel 46:2), which implies that there will be night. Many times, those terms are using in metaphoric sense.  We cannot take verse literally.  The most important thing is to understand them at the spiritual level.

My point about night being an illusion is that, if the sun and moon were not created until the fourth day, then how could there be a literal day and night before that time given the days are determined by the sun?

Well if the days, prior to that time, were not governed by the sun, then the original order is not based on the sun.  In that sense, we can say that the night is an illusion in the sense that it will not determine days in the End.  Yet, we will always keep Torah (as far as I know).  Therefore, in the sense that I do not believe it will signal the Sabbath in the end since it did not signal the next day in the beginning.  Since the Bible says that the Creator will be our light, we will not need night and day to determine new days.

As for your question about the covenant of day and night, it is explained by the Sages that Day is Right and Night is Left.  The right is always associated with mercy and faith while the left is associated with justice and merit.  Hence, the covenant of day and night is the perfect unison of judgment/merit within mercy/faith, which is Truth (Love/Compassion) and the Torah.  Truly, the Torah is the perfect balance of mercy and justice and the embodiment of Love.  The Covenant represents the Righteousness.  So, stated another way, the Creator is saying, My Righteousness is the perfect balance and unification of mercy and justice (Truth/Torah).  There is a lot more to it. Traditionally, justice is attributed to Isaac, mercy to Abraham and truth to Jacob.  Hence, we usually see hear Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, all together.  That is just the short version.  Here is a sample verse.

Micah 7:20  Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.

Shalom,

Yehochanan

--- On Sat, 8/15/09, John Cordaro <jvcordaro@...> wrote:

From: John Cordaro <jvcordaro@...>
Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAndNewMoons] Babylonian Evening to Evening Day - Says Who Exactly?
To: TheTrueSabbathsAndNewMoons@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, August 15, 2009, 10:18 AM

 

Shalom Yehochanan,

Can you please provide the references to the sages that say "the night does not exist" or that it is "an illusion", etc.?

Also, please harmonize your statement that there will be "no night" with the following passage (Jer 33:20-26):

20* Thus saith YHWH; If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;

 21* Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.

 22* As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.

 23* Moreover the word of YHWH came to Jeremiah, saying,

 24* Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which YHWH hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.

 25* Thus saith YHWH; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;

 26* Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.

I understand that there will be no need of the sun or moon in New Jerusalem (within the city), but outside where the nations dwell day and night will continue as long as Messiah Yahshua reigns on the throne of David.

Shabbat Shalom,

John

On Aug 14, 2009, at 4:41 PM, Yehochanan Bey wrote:

Shalom Voixderaison, You said, The old claim that Jews changed the reckoning of a day changed from dawn to dusk to conform with the supposed Babylonian evening to evening day is still making its rounds on this forum. Then you ask, To those who repeat this claim, what is your primary source? There are three definitions of the word, day, in the Bible: daylight hours, the time it take the earth to revolve around sun or an age (generally 1000 years). If we study the instructions governing the observance of the Holy Seasons (Moediym), a distinction is made between day/night and often times between morning, noon and night.  So, the context of the concept of  day is not an approximately 24-hour period.  In the case of the Moediym, the definition of day as meaning the daylight hours is applied.  Therefore, some believe that the rabbinical Jews changed the meaning of the concept of a day to fit their doctrine.  This is not true. In the beginning, there was no night and, in the end, there will be no night.  Therefore, the Jews keep the Torah as though the night does not exist.  The night merely signals when the next day would truly begin. Most agree that the day ends in the evening.   When Mashiach comes, the Moediym will continue.  So, if the night is abolished, then the day will begin at the time we now consider nightfall.  Stated another way, the time will call, Night, will be a time of Light in the World to Come.  Rabbinical Judaism does not believe that we can keep the Torah in captivity.  So, they keep the Commandments and Moediym in preparation for the Redemption of Israel—the Messianic age.  In other words, they do not acknowledge the night.  The night is an illusion.  Day will replace the time period we consider night.  So, this is why they do the Holy Days beginning in the evening.  It has nothing to do with them believing that the day begins at night.  Again, they do not believe the night exists.  In Genesis 1, we learned that three days elapsed before the creation of the sun and moon.  So, the sun and moon do not determine the days.  They do so, now, only temporarily.  When Mashiach comes, the days will not be determined by the sun in the sky.  The Creator will be our light.  The original order of things is perpetual day.  So, they keep the Moediym at the appointed time regardless of the fact that the daylightappears late or is interrupted by night.  This is a verse that is representative of this belief. Isaiah 60:19  The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but YHWH shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy Elohiym thy glory. Revelation 21:22  And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 23  And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.   So, they begin the Holy Days in the evening because this is the original and final order of things.  The sun did not originally determine the day. This is only a temporary situation. So, IN TRUTH, the distinction is that the rabbinical Jews deal with the original/final order of a day while others believe that the day is strictly determined by the appearance of the sun.  Those of the latter opinion will not begin doing 24-hours Sabbaths when Mashiach comes since Yeshau says that there are only (at present) 12 hours in a day (John 11:9).  On the contrary, the rabbinical Jews are keeping 24-hours Sabbaths because this is the original and final order of things.  In the end, all will be doing 24-hours Sabbaths since the concept of day and night will vanish. If we read the actual words of the Jewish sages, we will see that they arefar from confused on this issue.  It just so happens that modern Jews (even the rabbis) only know the tradition with no knowledge of WHY the sages set things up the way they have.  So, they obey the instructions of the sages as given in the Talmud and Midrashiym without the benefit of having the explanations. So, in my opinion, if we keep the Moediym with the proper intention and knowledge, then he is fine.  Again, the rabbinical sages do not teach that the Sabbath is at night since they do not acknowledge the night.  I can explain this better with an allegory. Say, for example, a person believes that a day is during the daylight hours and that it is the Sabbath.  Then he will wait for sunrise to keep the Sabbath since the bible does say that the day is when the sun dominates (Genesis 1:16).  All RIGHT!  Now, let us imagine that there is a total solar eclipse at high noon on the Sabbath.  Keep in mind, the definition of day is not based on the position of the sun.  It is based on when the sun dominates.  Since the sun is covered by the moon and cannot shed any light, does this mean that the Sabbath is suspended.  Of course not.  Because we know that, even though an eclipse is occurring, it is still the normal time of the sun’s dominance.  So, the Sabbath will continue.   Similarly, no one will consider the dark state of the earth to be night, the end of the day or the end of the Sabbath even though there is a break in daylight.  In both cases, everyone will deal with the normal cycle.  So, the Sabbath will end at evening as it always does. So, the Jews see the night the same way as the dawn-to-dusk people would interpret a solar eclipse.  It does not matter if it is pitch black outside.  Both will observe the Moediym at the appointed time.  So, again, the rabbinical Jews see the night as an anomaly and temporary situation. Since the Truth and the Torah does not change and is eternal, they believe that there should be no change in the times that we keep the Moediym. Given that the 24-hours Sabbath is the one that will be kept in the Millennial Age and beyond, it must be the real one.  That is why they do it. Personally, I keep the Holy Days with respect to the day and night cycle. For me, Yom Kippur is observed on the 10th DAY SEASON of the Seventh month.  But, I do understand why the Jews do it why they do and I do not disagree.  I know from their words why they do it that way and it has nothing to do with the Babylonians.  The issue is whether or not one will keep the Moediym with respect to the current sun-moon cycle  orin accordance to the way it will be done from the time Mashiach returns and beyond. At that time, all days will be approximately 24-hours. If we would actually read the interpretations of the rabbinical Jews instead of listening to the Christian Sacred-Namers who hate Jews and have never laid an eye on one explanation of the Sages, we would understand that their beliefs are not based on Babylonian or any other influence.  Such people claim the Bible is corrupted so that they can insert their own doctrine.  Instead of relying on the Bible (because they believe it is corrupted), you have rely on their interpretations of it.  I have not seen anyone match the wisdom of the Jewish sages.  NO ONE!  Instead of looking at the external observances, we must read the reasons from theminstead of listening to lies and false teachings based in misinformation and bigotry.  The ex-Christian Sacred-Namers already hated the Jews from their indoctrination in the Church.  When the left the church, they keep the hatred from Jews.  That is all I have. Shalom, Yehochanan --- On Fri, 8/14/09, voixderaison@ rocketmail. com <voixderaison@ rocketmail. com> wrote: From: voixderaison@ rocketmail. com <voixderaison@ rocketmail. com> Subject: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Babylonian Evening to Evening Day - Says Who Exactly? To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com Date: Friday, August 14, 2009, 11:39 AM   The old claim that Jews changed the reckoning of a day changed from dawn to dusk to conform with the supposed Babylonian evening to evening day is still making its rounds on this forum.  1. To those who repeat this claim, what is your primary source? 2. How do you figure that Judaism is precisely the opposite of Babylonians religion? Is that the standard by which Judaism is to be measured? 3. Who has the authority to decide such a matter for Israel?

Shalom Carlo,

You said, But what IF the Sun and Moon were Created (Hebrew bara') in the Beginning, in the Heavens, together with Stars and Planets, and the Earth (GENESIS 1:1), and then they were Made (Hebrew 'asah) and Set for the indicated specific functions, on the Fourth Day (GENESIS 1:14-19)?

Correct!

Genesis 1:1 says everything was created (including our souls) before completion of Day One.  The sun and moon were not manifested until fourth day and we were manifested at conception.  This is why the Creator said, several times, that he knew the prophets before he formed them in the womb.  I believe this applies to everyone.

Since I am writing, I will give you a verse.

Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I YHWH do all these things.

The Jewish sages state that the reason the text says that the Creator formed (not created) the Light and created the darkness is because Light is not created since it has always exited.  Not one verse in the Bible says that Light was ever created.  All the Creator did is form it.  On the contrary, darkness is in innovation.  It was created which means—at some point—it did not exist.  That contradicts the idea that since darkness is mentioned first in the Torah, then it must have preceded Light.  This means that it is not included in that which was created in Genesis 1:1.  Light precedes that verse just as the Creator does.  Darkness was created in Genesis 1:1, which is why it is mentioned in verse 2.

One more thing…I was thinking about the daylight issue again as it pertains to the Holy Days.  Check this out.

Lev 23:6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD; seven days ye shall eat unleavened bread.

Lev 23:7 In the first day ye shall have a holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of servile work.

Lev 23:8  And ye shall bring an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days; in the seventh day is a holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of servile work.

Now, when we look at the offerings, we see that the first offering is always said to be in the morning and the last in the evening. This confines context of the word, day, from morning to evening.  So, we see that the context of day for the First Day of Unleavened Bread must be the daylight hours.

Also, if the day begins in the evening, then that means we are to have convocation at night!  That would make no sense in 1000BCE.  What?  Did everyone go around with torches to congregate?  Clearly, the convocation is after the morning sacrifice, in the day.  The complete holy season/week pertains to the day seasons—even if—a person changes the date at night.  That is because the night is not mentioned.  We sleep at night—not work and have convocations.  The Holy Days are for the day seasons, with the exception of the fast of Yom Kippur which states that we begin the fast at night.

Shalom,

Yehochanan

--- On Sat, 8/15/09, BYT YHWH <bytyhwh@...> wrote:

From: BYT YHWH <bytyhwh@...>
Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAndNewMoons] Babylonian Evening to Evening Day - Says Who Exactly?
To: TheTrueSabbathsAndNewMoons@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, August 15, 2009, 10:53 PM

 

Shalom Yehochanan,

as you rightly pointed out, the point is "IF the Sun and Moon were not Created until the Fourth Day", and "IF the Days, prior to that time, were not governed by the Sun, then the original order is not based on the Sun".

But what IF the Sun and Moon were Created (Hebrew bara') in the Beginning, in the Heavens, together with Stars and Planets, and the Earth (GENESIS 1:1), and then they were Made (Hebrew 'asah) and Set for the indicated specific functions, on the Fourth Day (GENESIS 1:14-19)?

That would make the Light, Made and Placed on the Earth, as SUN's Light, and the following division / separation from the Darkness, with the Creation of the DAY (Light), and the NIGHT (Darkness), and Evening (Dusk) and Morning (Dawn) more obvious and logical, because they reflect the "Solar System" just as for ANY of the Six Days (GENESIS 1:3-5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31).

May YHWH (Yahweh) Bless you and yours!

True Love in YHWSU (Yahshua), The TRUE MashiYah (MessiYah),

Carlo Tognoni

BYT YHWH
www.byt-yhwh. org

============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ===



 

---

From: Yehochanan Bey <yehochanan@yahoo. com>
To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com
Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2009 8:17:29 PM
Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Babylonian Evening to Evening Day - Says Who Exactly?

 

Shalom John, You asked, Can you please provide the references to the sages that say "the night does not exist" or that it is "an illusion", etc.? Well, I think that I oversimplified the Sages position just a tad bit! I have no idea if there will continue to be days and nights in the World to Come.  We definitely know that the will be evenings during the Millennial Reign (Ezekiel 46:2), which implies that there will be night. Many times, those terms are using in metaphoric sense.  We cannot take verse literally.  The most important thing is to understand them at the spiritual level. My point about night being an illusion is that, if the sun and moon were not created until the fourth day, then how could there be a literal day and night before that time given the days are determined by the sun? Well if the days, prior to that time, were not governed by the sun, then the original order is not based on the sun..  In that sense, we can say that the night is an illusion in the sense that it will not determine days in the End.  Yet, we will always keep Torah (as far as I know).  Therefore, in the sense that I do not believe it will signal the Sabbath in the end since it did not signal the next day in the beginning.  Since the Bible says that the Creator will be our light, we will not need night and day to determine new days. As for your question about the covenant of day and night, it is explained by the Sages that Day is Right and Night is Left.  The right is always associated with mercy and faith while the left is associated with justice and merit.  Hence, the covenant of day and night is the perfect unison of judgment/merit within mercy/faith, which is Truth (Love/Compassion) and the Torah.  Truly, the Torah is the perfect balance of mercy and justice and the embodiment of Love.  The Covenant represents the Righteousness.  So, stated another way, the Creator is saying, My Righteousness is the perfect balance and unification of mercy and justice (Truth/Torah) .  There is a lot more to it. Traditionally, justice is attributed to Isaac, mercy to Abraham and truth to Jacob.  Hence, we usually see hear Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, all together.  That is just the short version.  Here is a sample verse. Micah 7:20  Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. Shalom, Yehochanan --- On Sat, 8/15/09, John Cordaro <jvcordaro@intergate .com> wrote: From: John Cordaro <jvcordaro@intergate .com> Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Babylonian Evening to Evening Day - Says Who Exactly? To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com Date: Saturday, August 15, 2009, 10:18 AM   Shalom Yehochanan, Can you please provide the references to the sages that say "the night does not exist" or that it is "an illusion", etc.? Also, please harmonize your statement that there will be "no night" with the following passage (Jer 33:20-26): 20* Thus saith YHWH; If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;  21* Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.  22* As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.  23* Moreover the word of YHWH came to Jeremiah, saying,  24* Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which YHWH hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.  25* Thus saith YHWH; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;  26* Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them. I understand that there will be no need of the sun or moon in New Jerusalem (within the city), but outside where the nations dwell day and night will continue as long as Messiah Yahshua reigns on the throne of David. Shabbat Shalom, John On Aug 14, 2009, at 4:41 PM, Yehochanan Bey wrote: Shalom Voixderaison, You said, The old claim that Jews changed the reckoning of a day changed from dawn to dusk to conform with the supposed Babylonian evening to evening day is still making its rounds on this forum. Then you ask, To those who repeat this claim, what is your primary source? There are three definitions of the word, day, in the Bible: daylight hours, the time it take the earth to revolve around sun or an age (generally 1000 years). If we study the instructions governing the observance of the Holy Seasons (Moediym), a distinction is made between day/night and often times between morning, noon and night.  So, the context of the concept of  day is not an approximately 24-hour period.  In the case of the Moediym, the definition of day as meaning the daylight hours is applied.  Therefore, some believe that the rabbinical Jews changed the meaning of the concept of a day to fit their doctrine.  This is not true. In the beginning, there was no night and, in the end, there will be no night.  Therefore, the Jews keep the Torah as though the night does not exist.  The night merely signals when the next day would truly begin. Most agree that the day ends in the evening.   When Mashiach comes, the Moediym will continue.  So, if the night is abolished, then the day will begin at the time we now consider nightfall.  Stated another way, the time will call, Night, will be a time of Light in the World to Come.  Rabbinical Judaism does not believe that we can keep the Torah in captivity.  So, they keep the Commandments and Moediym in preparation for the Redemption of Israel—the Messianic age.  In other words, they do not acknowledge the night..  The night is an illusion.  Day will replace the time period we consider night.  So, this is why they do the Holy Days beginning in the evening.  It has nothing to do with them believing that the day begins at night.  Again, they do not believe the night exists..  In Genesis 1, we learned that three days elapsed before the creation of the sun and moon.  So, the sun and moon do not determine the days.  They do so, now, only temporarily.  When Mashiach comes, the days will not be determined by the sun in the sky.  The Creator will be our light.  The original order of things is perpetual day.  So, they keep the Moediym at the appointed time regardless of the fact that the daylightappears late or is interrupted by night.  This is a verse that is representative of this belief. Isaiah 60:19  The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but YHWH shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy Elohiym thy glory. Revelation 21:22  And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 23  And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.   So, they begin the Holy Days in the evening because this is the original and final order of things.  The sun did not originally determine the day. This is only a temporary situation. So, IN TRUTH, the distinction is that the rabbinical Jews deal with the original/final order of a day while others believe that the day is strictly determined by the appearance of the sun.  Those of the latter opinion will not begin doing 24-hours Sabbaths when Mashiach comes since Yeshau says that there are only (at present) 12 hours in a day (John 11:9).  On the contrary, the rabbinical Jews are keeping 24-hours Sabbaths because this is the original and final order of things.  In the end, all will be doing 24-hours Sabbaths since the concept of day and night will vanish. If we read the actual words of the Jewish sages, we will see that they arefar from confused on this issue.  It just so happens that modern Jews (even the rabbis) only know the tradition with no knowledge of WHY the sages set things up the way they have.  So, they obey the instructions of the sages as given in the Talmud and Midrashiym without the benefit of having the explanations. So, in my opinion, if we keep the Moediym with the proper intention and knowledge, then he is fine.  Again, the rabbinical sages do not teach that the Sabbath is at night since they do not acknowledge the night.  I can explain this better with an allegory. Say, for example, a person believes that a day is during the daylight hours and that it is the Sabbath.  Then he will wait for sunrise to keep the Sabbath since the bible does say that the day is when the sun dominates (Genesis 1:16).  All RIGHT!  Now, let us imagine that there is a total solar eclipse at high noon on the Sabbath.  Keep in mind, the definition of day is not based on the position of the sun.  It is based on when the sun dominates.  Since the sun is covered by the moon and cannot shed any light, does this mean that the Sabbath is suspended.  Of course not.  Because we know that, even though an eclipse is occurring, it is still the normal time of the sun’s dominance.  So, the Sabbath will continue.   Similarly, no one will consider the dark state of the earth to be night, the end of the day or the end of the Sabbath even though there is a break in daylight.  In both cases, everyone will deal with the normal cycle.  So, the Sabbath will end at evening as it always does.. So, the Jews see the night the same way as the dawn-to-dusk people would interpret a solar eclipse.  It does not matter if it is pitch black outside.  Both will observe the Moediym at the appointed time.  So, again, the rabbinical Jews see the night as an anomaly and temporary situation. Since the Truth and the Torah does not change and is eternal, they believe that there should be no change in the times that we keep the Moediym. Given that the 24-hours Sabbath is the one that will be kept in the Millennial Age and beyond, it must be the real one.  That is why they do it. Personally, I keep the Holy Days with respect to the day and night cycle. For me, Yom Kippur is observed on the 10th DAY SEASON of the Seventh month.  But, I do understand why the Jews do it why they do and I do not disagree.  I know from their words why they do it that way and it has nothing to do with the Babylonians.  The issue is whether or not one will keep the Moediym with respect to the current sun-moon cycle  orin accordance to the way it will be done from the time Mashiach returns and beyond. At that time, all days will be approximately 24-hours.. If we would actually read the interpretations of the rabbinical Jews instead of listening to the Christian Sacred-Namers who hate Jews and have never laid an eye on one explanation of the Sages, we would understand that their beliefs are not based on Babylonian or any other influence.  Such people claim the Bible is corrupted so that they can insert their own doctrine.  Instead of relying on the Bible (because they believe it is corrupted), you have rely on their interpretations of it.  I have not seen anyone match the wisdom of the Jewish sages.  NO ONE!  Instead of looking at the external observances, we must read the reasons from theminstead of listening to lies and false teachings based in misinformation and bigotry.  The ex-Christian Sacred-Namers already hated the Jews from their indoctrination in the Church.  When the left the church, they keep the hatred from Jews.  That is all I have. Shalom, Yehochanan --- On Fri, 8/14/09, voixderaison@ rocketmail. com <voixderaison@ rocketmail. com> wrote: From: voixderaison@ rocketmail. com <voixderaison@ rocketmail. com> Subject: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Babylonian Evening to Evening Day - Says Who Exactly? To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com Date: Friday, August 14, 2009, 11:39 AM   The old claim that Jews changed the reckoning of a day changed from dawn to dusk to conform with the supposed Babylonian evening to evening day is still making its rounds on this forum.  1. To those who repeat this claim, what is your primary source? 2.. How do you figure that Judaism is precisely the opposite of Babylonians religion? Is that the standard by which Judaism is to be measured? 3. Who has the authority to decide such a matter for Israel?

Bro. Arnold,

Your scenario is completely extreme.  I will give you an extreme scenario.  How would you keep Sabbath is you were an astronaut and moved to Mars for a year?  You could not because you could not view the lunar phases and we could not because a day on Mars is not the same as a day on earth.  So, what this tells us is that it is completely unreasonable scenarios have not place in a serious discussion. 

All sabbatarians (lunar or seventh day) keep the Sabbath over a 24-hour period.  Most people keep the Sabbath at the beginning of the evening. Well, given you same scenario where a person travels east for two weeks around the world for two week.  Let assume we are at the dateline as a reference point.  Well, the lunar sabbatarians counts the days of the month with sunrises and sunsets just like everyone else.  This means that if he crosses that line, we will be a day ahead of those who did not leave. That means, for him, the new moon will occur on the 16th—not the 15th as he expected.  He will have already experienced 15 sunrises and sunset and looked up at the night sky on the 15th and NOT see a full moon! 

That is why I said you will have the same problem!  Your monthly dates will be off.  Instead of keeping Sabbath on the 15th, you will be keeping on the 16th.  So,  you will be forced to make a choice:  keep the Sabbath on the 7th day on the 15th as you do every month even though it is not a full moon OR you will have to wait until the 8th day and keep it on the 16th which is out of order according to you normal reckoning.  You and your lunar sabbatarian brethren will be day apart.

I am a math teacher myself!  (Wink...Wink)

So, in both cases, it is not assumed that people will be circling the globe!  That will cause problems with dating on any almanac—including your own.  The Torah is kept on a group level.  Torah is not a personal religion like Christianity.  It is congregational. 

And the bottom line is that people have been keeping the Sabbath in Israel and Mediterranean area since the time of the Prophets.  The Sabbath is Yah’s covenant with Israel.  This is why the count will never be lost or broken. 

Shalom,

Yehochanan

--- On Mon, 8/17/09, Brother Arnold <YHWHPeople@...> wrote:

From: Brother Arnold <YHWHPeople@...>
Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAndNewMoons] Babylonian Evening to Evening Day - Says Who Exactly?
To: TheTrueSabbathsAndNewMoons@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, August 17, 2009, 7:36 AM

 

Shalom All,

 

The sun and moon was not created on day 4.

 

In the beginning, YHWH indeed did create, and lay out, the heavens and the earth.  In this creation the moon had to exist, seeing Scripture defines the moon as a part of the heavens.

 

³ When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; [Psalms 8:3]

 

Therefore the moon was in existence before the fourth day of making heaven and earth, and specifically, before the first day of making heaven and earth.  The earth was advanced upon or made in six days, but the heavens and the earth were created in the beginning.  We memorialize creation on the seventh new moon, because YHWH laid His heavenly tabernacle on the day of the new moon, in the beginning.  This is parallel to memorializing other events in Israel’s history, such as the deliverance of Egypt, and dwelling in temporary shelters.

     This shows that the count for the Sabbath occurred after “in the beginning”, i.e. the new moon.  The seventh day was truly the Sabbath, but it was the seventh day after advancing upon the creation for six days.  In six days, YHWH did make or advance upon the heavens and the earth, but He set them out, or laid their foundation in the beginning, when the sons of Elohim shouted for joy. (Job 38:7)  The Sabbath, being a day (Gen. 2:2-3) and a season (Lev. 23:2-3), was regulated by the great lights in the heavens which were to be for signs, seasons, days, and years (Gen. 1:14-18).

 

 The moon was appointed for a purpose on day four, but already had existence as part of the heavens at the creation (In the beginning) along with the sun, stars, and all the planets in outer space.

 

     We might also add that for those who hold to the moon being created on the fourth day, and for those who think this proves the week cannot be regulated by the moon, seeing it began before the moon, please parallel this with the sun.  By the same logic, I could say that the sun could not regulate the year or the day, seeing both the year and the day began before the sun’s existence on day four.  This would not be sound logic.  It does not make a difference what day the sun and moon were appointed, they were still appointed for their purpose, and that purpose is to be a measurement of time or a calendar, as Genesis 1:14-18 eloquently proves.  This would include the timing of the weekly Sabbath day, which was the only appointment at that time.

 

 

     Everywhere in the Scriptures where a new moon is found or pinpointed, the next day after the new moon worship day is the first day of the week, and this is no coincidence.  The new moon can never be the first day of the week no more than t he Sabbath can be.  We are to worship on the beginning day (most specifically the 7^th new moon - Lev. 23:24) and shout / blow the trumpets to commemorate the creation at each new moon, and on the Sabbath we are to blow the trumpets and worship to commemorate His rest after working on His creation for six days.

 

On the fourth day of making heaven and earth, the moon was advanced upon.  Would it not make logical sense for this portion of YHWH’s calendar to reflect the previous three or four days that happened prior?  An example lies in the heavenly body of the sun.  The sun would reflect the fourth working day of the year, instead of day four being the first day of the year.  Likewise, the moon would reflect the previous allotted days of the month, instead of being a new=2 0moon on day four. 

 

The appointing on day four does not mean that it was the first day of the month, or that the moon was in a new moon phase at all.  It makes logical sense for the sun and moon to reflect the days gone by.  The first year in creation would have been 365 ¼ days, just the same as all the other years in Scripture.  This would be in lieu of the first year in creation having 361 ¼ days, which would be the sum of the regular yearly length, minus four days.

 

     We believe that the sun would be in a fourth working day position in the sky on day four.  The moon would also reflect the fourth working day of the month, especially if it was to be for appointments (Ps. 104:19).  It would be a moon four working days old, just between a sliver and a half moon.  In other words, the very first work day in creation could have been the first work day of the year, the first work day of the month/moon, and the first work day of the week, and not only the first work day of the week as many teach.

 

     Would it not make more sense for the first workday to be the first workday of the year, month, and week ins tead of the first day of the week only?  Why cannot the first day be the first day of everything?

 

     If the fourth workday of the week was also the fourth workday of the month, then the seventh day of the week would be after the six workdays and would be the eighth day of the month, by accepting that there was a space of time before the first workday - in the beginning when He created the heavens and earth, before He worked on them for 6 days.  Even if there were not a dark new moon before the first workday, there would indeed be one in the second month in Genesis.

 

     Nowhere in Scripture does it say YHWH created the heaven and earth in six days.  It does say “…for in six days YHWH made heaven and earth (Ex. 20:11).”  The word made has the meaning of advanced upon and not created.  He worked or advanced upon His creation for six days, and rested the seventh day.  This would be the eighth event happening from the creation, i.e. the dark moon in the beginning; the day of shoutings.

 

1. He created heaven and earth. (The Day of Shoutings)
2. He worked on them for six days and the sixth workday would have been the seventh event accomplished, seeing the first thing YHWH did was create heaven and earth. 1 + 6 = 7.
3. The eighth event in sequence was the rest on the seventh day, after six days of working on His creation.

 

     In studying this aspect of the Sabbath, keep in mind that there are two different underlying Hebrew words for the English translations of created and made in Genesis one.

 

CREATED H1254 bara’ baw-raw' A primitive root; (absolutely) to create; (qualified) to cut down (a wood), select, feed (as formative processes):—choose, create (creator), cut down, dispatch, do, make (fat).

 

MADE H6213 ‛aśah aw-saw' A primitive root; to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest application:—accomplish, advance, appoint, apt, be at, become, bear, bestow, bring forth, bruise, be busy, X certainly, have the charge of, commit, deal (with), deck, + displease, do, (ready) dress (-ed), (put in) execute (-ion), exercise, fashion, + feast, [fight-] ing man, + finish, fit, fly, follow, fulfil, furnish, gather, get, go about, govern, grant, great, + hinder, hold ([a feast]), X indeed, + be industrious, + journey, keep, labour, maintain, make, be meet, observe, be occupied, offer, + officer, pare, bring (come) to pass, perform, practise, prepare, procure, provide, put, requite, X sacrifice, serve, set, shew, X sin, spend, X surely, take, X thoroughly, trim, X very, + vex, be [warr-] ior, work (-man), yield, use.

 

     For those who believe the sun and the moon were created on day four, here is something to consider.  The word appointed in Psalms 104:19 is the same word in Genesis 1:14 where it states that Elohim “…made two great lights”.  The word made, could have been translated as appointed, same as in Psm-104:19.  The question is, when did He appoint the moon for seasons? 

 

Was it not in Genesis 1:14 where it says that He made/appointed the great lights for seasons?  When you make someone a captain of a team, or appoint them captain, it means that they were already there standing, waiting for you to appoint them.  Remember, you had evening and morning three times before day four.  You also had light, green organisms, night and day, creation of heaven and earth, etc. before He made/appointed the sun and moon to rule day and night.   

 

Where do you think the heavenly bodies were before He appointed them?  At least one ancient Hebrew scholar would agree that they were already in existence.

 

“The luminaries, which had been created on the first day, were set in place on the fourth”. The Tanach, Stone Edition, commentary of Rashi on Genesis 1:14.

 

     There is no evidence to support the theory that the great lights were created, brand new, on day four, but rather they were appointed on the fourth day or advanced upon for His calendar, to beacon His appointments.  Even if someone insists that the sun and moon were created on day four they would still be there in plenty of time to do what they were created, made, and appointed to do, and that is to be a beacon for YHWH’s appointments, including the weekly appointment.  That way you will know that it is YHWH that sanctifies/set you apart instead of man with his man-made calendar, with the man-made calendar you don't know who it is that set you part by dictating to you when to begin the count for the seventh day. (see Exodus 31:13 and Ezekiel 20:12).

 

0D

 Brother Arnold www.lunarsabbath. info

-----Original Message-----
From: Yehochanan Bey <yehochanan@yahoo. com>
To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com
Sent: Sat, Aug 15, 2009 9:17 pm
Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Babylonian Evening to Evening Day - Says Who Exactly?

 

Shalom John, You asked, Can you please provide the references to the sages that say "the night does not exist" or that it is "an illusion", etc.? Well, I think that I oversimplified the Sages position just a tad bit! /I> I have no idea if there will continue to be days and nights in the World to Come.  We definitely know that the will be evenings during the Millennial Reign (Ezekiel 46:2), which implies that there will be night. Many times, those terms are using in metaphoric sense.  We cannot take verse literally.  The most important thing is to understand them at the spiritual level. My point about night being an illusion is that, if the sun and moon were not created until the fourth day, then how could there be a literal day and night before that time given the days are determined by the sun? Well if the days, prior to that time, were not governed by the sun, then the original order is not based on the sun.  In that sense, we can say that the night is an illusion in the sense that it will not determine days in the End.  Yet, we will always keep Torah (as far as I know).  Therefore, in the sense that I do not believe it will signal the Sabbath in the=2 0end since it did not signal the next day in the beginning.  Since the Bible says that the Creator will be our light, we will not need night and day to determine new days. As for your question about the covenant of day and night, it is explained by the Sages that Day is Right and Night is Left.  The right is always associated with mercy and faith while the left is associated with justice and merit.  Hence, the covenant of day and night is the perfect unison of judgment/merit within mercy/faith, which is Truth (Love/Compassion) and the Torah.  Truly, the Torah is the perfect balance of mercy and justice and the embodiment of Love.  The Covenant represents the Righteousness.  So, stated another way, the Creator is saying, My Righteousness is the perfect balance and unification of mercy and justice (Truth/Torah) .  There is a lot more to it. Traditionally, justice is attributed to Isaac, mercy to Abraham and truth to Jacob.  Hence, we usually see hear Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, all together.  That is just the short version.  Here is a sample verse. Micah 7:20  Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. Shalom, Yehochanan --- On Sat, 8/15/09, John Cordaro <jvcordaro@intergate .com> wrote: From: John Cordaro <jvcordaro@intergate .com> Subject: Re: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Babylonian Evening to Evening Day - Says Who Exactly? To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com Date: Saturday, August 15, 2009, 10:18 AM   Shalom Yehochanan, Can you please provide the references to the sages that say "the night does not exist" or that it is "an illusion", etc.? Also, please harmonize your statement that there will be "no night" with the following passage (Jer 33:20-26): 20 * Thus saith YHWH; If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;  21* Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.  22* As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.  23* Moreover the word of YHWH came to Jeremiah, saying,  24* Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which YHWH hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.  25* Thus saith YHWH; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;  26* Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them. I understand that there will be no need of the sun or moon in New Jerusalem (within the city), but outside where the nations dwell day and night will continue as long as Messiah Yahshua reigns on the throne of David. Shabbat Shalom, John On Aug 14, 2009, at 4:41 PM, Yehochanan Bey wrote: Shalom Voixderaison, You said, The old claim that Jews changed the reckoning of a day changed from dawn to dusk to conform with the supposed Babylonian evening to evening day is still making its rounds on this forum. Then you ask, To those who repeat this claim, what is your primary source? There are three definitions of the word, day, in the Bible: daylight hours, the time it take the earth to revolve around sun or an age (generally 1000 years). If we study the instructions governing the observance of the Holy Seasons (Moediym), a distinction is made between day/night and often times between morning, noon and night.  So, the context of the concept of  day is not an approximately 24-hour period.  In the case of the Moediym, the definition of day as meaning the daylight hours is applied.  Therefore, some believe that the rabbinical Jews changed the meaning of the concept of a day to fit their doctrine.  This is not true. In the beginning, there was no night and, in the end, there will be no night.  Therefore, the Jews keep the Torah as though the night does not exist.  The night merely signals when the next day would truly begin. Most agree that the day ends in the evening.   When Mashiach comes, the Moediym will continue.  So, if the night is abolished, then the day will begin at the time we now consider nightfall.  Stated another way, the time will call, Night, will be a time of Light in the World to Come.  Rabbinical Judaism does not believe that we can keep the Torah in captivity.  / SPAN>So, they keep the Commandments and Moediym in preparation for the Redemption of Israel—the Messianic age.  In other words, they do not acknowledge the night.  The night is an illusion.  Day will replace the time period we consider night.  So, this is why they do the Holy Days beginning in the evening.  It has nothing to do with them believing that the day begins at night.  Again, they do not believe the night exists.  In Genesis 1, we learned that three days elapsed before the creation of the sun and moon.  So, the sun and moon do not determine the days.  They do so, now, only temporarily.  When Mashiach comes, the days will not be determined by the sun in the sky.  The Creator will be our light.   The original order of things is perpetual day.  So, they keep the Moediym at the appointed time regardless of the fact that the daylightappears late or is interrupted by night.  This is a verse that is representative of this belief. Isaiah 60:19  The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but YHWH shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy Elohiym thy glory. Revelation 21:22  And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 23  And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.   So, they begin the Holy Days in the evening because this is the original and final order of things.  The sun did not originally determine the day. This is only a temporary situation. So, IN TRUTH, the distinction is that the rabbinical Jews deal with the original/final order of a day while others believe that the day is strictly determined by the appearance of the sun.  Those of the latter opinion will not begin doing 24-hours Sabbaths when Mashiach comes since Yeshau says that there are only (at present) 12 hours in a day (John 11:9).  On the contrary, the rabbinical Jews are keeping 24-hours Sabbaths because this is the original and final order of things.  In the end, all will be doing 24-hours Sabbaths since the concept of day and night will vanish. If we read the actual words of the Jewish sages, we will see that they arefar from confused on this issue.  It just so happens that modern Jews (even the rabbis) only know the tradition with no knowledge of WHY the sages set things up the way they have.   So, they obey the instructions of the sages as given in the Talmud and Midrashiym without the benefit of having the explanations. So, in my opinion, if we keep the Moediym with the proper intention and knowledge, then he is fine.  Again, the rabbinical sages do not teach that the Sabbath is at night since they do not acknowledge the night.  I can explain this better with an allegory. Say, for example, a person believes that a day is during the daylight hours and that it is the Sabbath.  Then he will wait for sunrise to keep the Sabbath since the bible does say that the day is when the sun dominates (Genesis 1:16).  All RIGHT!  Now, let us imagine that there is a total solar eclipse at high noon on the Sabbath.  Keep in mind, the definition of day is not based on the position of the sun.  It is based on when the sun dominates.  Since the sun is covered by the moon and cannot shed any light, does this mean that the Sabbath is suspended.  Of course not.  Because we know that, even though an eclipse is occurring, it is still the normal time of the sun’s dominance.  So, the Sabbath will continue.   Similarly, no one will consider the dark state of the earth to be night, the end of the day or the end of the Sabbath even though there is a break in daylight.&nbs p; In both cases, everyone will deal with the normal cycle.  So, the Sabbath will end at evening as it always does. So, the Jews see the night the same way as the dawn-to-dusk people would interpret a solar eclipse.  It does not matter if it is pitch black outside.  Both will observe the Moediym at the appointed time.  So, again, the rabbinical Jews see the night as an anomaly and temporary situation. Since the Truth and the Torah does not change and is eternal, they believe that there should be no change in the times that we keep the Moediym. Given that the 24-hours Sabbath is the one that will be kept in the Millennial Age and beyond, it must be the real one.  That is why they do it. Personally, I keep the Holy Days with respect to the day and night cycle. For me, Yom Kippur is observed on the 10th DAY SEASON of the Seventh month.  But, I do understand why the Jews do it why they do and I do not disagree.  I know from their words why they do it that way and it has nothing to do with the Babylonians.  The issue is whether or not one will keep the Moediym with respect to the current sun-moon cycle  orin accordance to the way it will be done from the time Mashiach returns and beyond. At that time, all days will be approximately 24-hours. If we would actually read the interpretations of the rabbinical Jews instead of listening to the Christian Sacred-Namers who hate Jews and have never laid an eye on one explanation of the Sages, we would understand that their beliefs are not based on Babylonian or any other influence.  Such people claim the Bible is corrupted so that they can insert their own doctrine.  Instead of relying on the Bible (because they believe it is corrupted), you have rely on their interpretations of it.  I have not seen anyone match the wisdom of the Jewish sages.  NO ONE!  Instead of looking at the external observances, we must read the reasons from theminstead of listening to lies and false teachings based in misinformation and bigotry.  The ex-Christian Sacred-Namers already hated the Jews from their indoctrination in the Church.  When the left the church, they keep the hatred from Jews.  That is all I have. Shalom, Yehochanan --- On Fri, 8/14/09, voixderaison@ rocketmail. com <voixderaison@ rocketmail. com> wrote: From: voixderaison@ rocketmail. com <voixderaison@ rocketmail. com> Subject: [TheTrueSabbathsAnd NewMoons] Babylonian Evening to Evening Day - Says Who Exactly? To: TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com Date: Friday, August 14, 2009, 11:39 AM   The old claim that Jews changed the reckoning of a day changed from dawn to dusk to conform with the supposed Babylonian evening to evening day is still making its rounds on this forum.  1. To those who repeat this claim, what is your primary source? 2. How do you figure that Judaism is precisely the opposite of Babylonians religion? Is that the standard by which Judaism is to be measured? 3. Who has the authority to decide such a matter for Israel?

Shalom Carlo,

This section of the article caught my attention.

Of particular interest here are the three versions of the Jewish calendar. These diverse calendars were the result of different interpretations of the same Scriptures, different traditions, and personal revelation. The Jews of two millennia ago disagreed as to their correct calendar. However, even from our late perspective it is possible to resolve some of these differences.

The lunar calendar system used by the Jews before the Babylonian captivity and during the Second Temple period was significantly different from the present Jewish calendar. The year originally began in the spring and the day at sunrise, and the determination of the new month was by lunar observation. This is likely the calendar of Scripture, including the Creation, Flood, Exodus, Judges, and Solomon’s Temple and most often at the Second Temple. Today the Jewish year begins in the fall and the day at sunset, and a fixed formula predetermines the beginning of the month. The present Jewish calendar evolved through the influence of the agricultural calendar taken into the Diaspora, the Babylonian calendar, and the Syro-Macedonian calendar.

If the reckoning of the day from sunset to sunset is due to Babylonian influence, then who influenced the 364-day almanac?  Those who support the 364-day almanac use the same Babylonian Conspiracy theory that you do to show that lunar months are from the Babylonians.  And the Babylonians did not just use the first sliver of the crescent moon.  They also used the conjunction.  Therefore, the 364-day almanac supports believe that all who use lunar months are copying from the Babylonians.

Of course, what got me off of that belief were the Books of Genesis and Jubilees.  Both book books say that Noah rested on the mountain after 150 days, which they both equate to 5 months.  There is no way that we can get 150 days in 5 months on the 364-day almanac.  So, not only does the Torah not use the 364-day almanac, neither does the Book of Jubilees. The Book of Jubilees mentions the solar year so that we know when to intercalate the extra month.  If we do not, the whole year will be off.  And the intercalation is based on the solar year, not the lunar year.  That was the context of the statement about 364-days.  And the Book of Enoch is purely astronomical.  It describes both the lunar and solar year—not just the solar year.  It does not say that either is to be used for Holy Days.

So, my point is that if I had not already been impressed by the Jewish sages (who explained this to me) and saw the statement that equated 5 months to 150 day, I would be keeping the Enochian almanac right now based SOLELY on the belief that the lunar-solar is from the pagans.  So, that is why I say that such an argument is not valid (even if it is true).

The only way to prove it is if we had documented proof of exactly how Israel kept the almanac before and after the Babylonian captivity.  There is nothing in the Bible that suggests that there was a shift in the reckoning of the day before and after the captivity.  In fact, it is said that after the captivity, Ezra restored the proper Torah.  This erased the influence of the pagans.

So, the influence had to be after this time.  A better candidate for such influence would be the Greeks.  They are the next nation to rule Israel and it is a historical fact that the Greeks had the biggest and most influential affect on Judaism.  In fact, they some still called they places of worship a synagogue.  This influence was highly present during the time of Yeshua.  Many of the most important Jews were Hellenized.  It is the Greeks who reckoned to new month with the first sliver of the crescent moon. 

So, it could be assumed that Babylonians influenced the Greeks and then the Greeks influence the Jews.  But, there is no evidence in the Bible that the Babylonians influenced Israel after their redemption from captivity.  Israel did become corrupt again after their redemption from Babylon but I have not seen where the Babylon or the almanac is mentioned.  The problems are clearly stated in the Tanakh and none include the almanac after the Babylonian captivity.

So, no matter how much you post information about the Babylon-Israelite connection, Ezra is the one who trumps all of that.  Just start reading from the beginning of chapter 7 of the Book of Ezra.  It clearly states that Ezra received the true Torah and bestowed it upon Israel.  That cancelled out the Babylonian influence. 

Shalom,

Yehochanan

--- On Wed, 8/19/09, BYT YHWH <bytyhwh@...> wrote:

From: BYT YHWH <bytyhwh@...>
Subject: [TheTrueSabbathsAndNewMoons] Re: Babylonian Evening to Evening Day - Says Who Exactly?
To: TheTrueSabbathsAndNewMoons@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, August 19, 2009, 4:12 AM

 

NEW TESTAMENT CHRONOLOGY

INTRODUCTION

I wanted to understand. Daniel and Revelation made no sense to me. I read and read, and they made different sense in every article and book. As allegory they made less sense. The many "exact" solutions could not all be the correct solution. The historical dating shifted with each approach. However, that seemed the entree to confirming or eliminating specific dating of the first or second appearance of the promised Messiah. Thus began my studies on the calendars and chronology of Scripture.

The following work in some way faults all the exact solutions to establishing Jesus as "Messiah the Prince" of Daniel. No alternate solution is here proposed. I still only partially understand Daniel and the Revelation. However, what I discovered about the calendars in Scripture and the dating of a historical Jesus is here offered.

The book's first section explores the evolution of the Jewish calendar, as influenced by Scripture, the Babylonian and Syro-Macedonian calendars. The conclusion reached here is that the Sadducees' calendar which controlled the festivals at the Jerusalem Temple, when Jesus was crucified, began the new year in the spring and the day at sunrise.

The Pharisees, who used sunset reckoning, strongly disputed the sunrise reckoning of the Sadducees. The difference between sunrise and sunset reckoning often caused the required festivals to fall on different days. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE the Pharisees began to record their oral traditions. In their Mishna and Talmud sunrise reckoning was suppressed and eventually eliminated. The calendar system of Scripture and the Temple disappeared.

When Jesus was crucified in 30 CE the calculation of Passover by the Pharisees fell one day after the celebration of the Temple Passover. Thus we find the synoptic Gospels reporting the crucifixion of Jesus after the Passover, while John suggests the Passover is yet future. The use of sunrise reckoning also helps to establish that there are no other possible years for the crucifixion of Jesus.

An interesting byproduct of my investigation is three tentative proofs for the conception of Jesus on March 25, 5 BCE. Nine months later we find the traditional birth of Jesus on December 25. In 5 BCE this day on the Jewish calendar was also Kislev 25, or Hanukkah.

An unpopular conclusion of my investigation is that Jesus' ministry lasted two years and three months, not three and a half years. This solution follows from a close look at the arrival of Pontius Pilate in Judea in 27, not 26 CE. However, with the shorter time the events of His ministry fall nicely into place. This allows exact dating of many events during Jesus' last years.

The time of Jesus is followed by a quick look at the dating of the early church as found in Acts. This covers the period from 30 to 62 CE.

Scripture repeatedly reveals itself as the word of God. Our problems of interpretation lie not in the Bible, but with our own understanding. I hope the findings in this book will further the reader's understanding and pleasure in Scripture.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book was essentially done in the author's den, either in reading or at the word processor. Of particular help has been my wife, Linda. She has brought the needed cup of coffee, listened to some obscure argument, or made a book run to a local library. She has read the book in bits and pieces and has provided much help it making it more readable.

My further thanks to the many helpful librarians and their assistants in finding difficult references. Whether in Fresno, Los Angeles, Berkeley or Chicago, they have helped to make my search exciting.

Part I
THE EVOLUTION OF THE JEWISH CALENDAR

When? This question seems to demand a simple answer. A daily newspaper and a clock are all modern man needs to locate himself in time, but this simple process was not available to the ancients. An early traveling merchant faced more than language barriers as he moved to various trade centers. He also encountered different calendars, and often more than one calendar in the same area. Around Jerusalem there were at least five calendars in use by the first century CE. The answer to "When?" in the first century CE was not simple then, and is more difficult now from a twentieth-century perspective.

A lack of understanding, or misunderstanding, of the variations in the ancient calendars of the Middle East has led to differing chronologies and interpretations of history based on Scripture and contemporary historical documents. An understanding of the building blocks of chronology is essential to accurate historical inquiry. This preliminary study begins with the present western calendar and then steps back to the opening of Genesis. The calendar systems will then be followed forward in time to the Bar Kokhba revolt in the second century CE and the later establishment of the modern Jewish calendar.

The calendar system decreed by God to Moses was with the day beginning at sunrise and the new year beginning in the spring. The Sadducees used this luni-solar calendar. This was the calendar used by the priests at the Jerusalem Temple when Jesus entered its courts. The Sadducees controlled the Temple in Jerusalem, and the Jewish festivals were observed according to this calendar.1

The Jewish "civil" calendar with the day beginning at sunset and the new year beginning in the fall had no official status in the first century CE. However, this calendar of the Pharisees is usually claimed as the calendar in use at the Temple.2 This calendar of the Diaspora appears in later Jewish documents such as the Mishna and Talmud. The rabbis who wrote these wanted to suppress the Second Temple calendar of the Sadducees.

There was also a small minority of Essenes that decried both calendars and insisted on their Jubilee calendar. This solar calendar began with a spring new year and the day beginning at sunset. This calendar has also been used to explain the events of the week of Jesus' crucifixion. 3

The Herodian rulers counted their reigns by the Syro-Macedonian calendar, a luni-solar calendar that began the day at sunset and the new year in the fall. Alexander the Great brought this calendar to the east. This calendar was also the calendar used by Luke.

In the first century CE the Roman conquerors of Judea used their new Julian solar calendar. Their year began January 1, and the day changed at midnight.

The older Babylonian lunar calendar, with a spring new year and a sunset day, had mostly fallen into disuse. Travelling merchants would have brought a few more variations of calendars.

Of particular interest here are the three versions of the Jewish calendar. These diverse calendars were the result of different interpretations of the same Scriptures, different traditions, and personal revelation. The Jews of two millennia ago disagreed as to their correct calendar. However, even from our late perspective it is possible to resolve some of these differences.

The lunar calendar system used by the Jews before the Babylonian captivity and during the Second Temple period was significantly different from the present Jewish calendar. The year originally began in the spring and the day at sunrise, and the determination of the new month was by lunar observation. This is likely the calendar of Scripture, including the Creation, Flood, Exodus, Judges, Solomon's Temple and most often at the Second Temple. Today the Jewish year begins in the fall and the day at sunset, and a fixed formula predetermines the beginning of the month. The present Jewish calendar evolved through the influence of the agricultural calendar taken into the Diaspora, the Babylonian calendar, and the Syro-Macedonian calendar. The changes in the Jewish calendar will be discussed in relationship to these other calendars.

Some chronological solutions to the dating of the life of Jesus are directly dependent on understanding the calendar in use. Was it the calendar used by the Temple priests, the Biblical writers or that whose story is being told? The solution to dating the New Testament cannot be made without that understanding.

Notes:

1. B. J. Malina, "Christ and Time: Swiss or Mediterranean? ," CBQ 51 (1989), 22-23 notes, "From the viewpoint of cyclical traditional time, the temple city of Jerusalem was one big clock marking time solely and only for the Jews." It was in the interests of the ruling elite to maintain an unchanging social order which included a recurring traditional reckoning of time.

2. For example, J. Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969), 264. F. Parise, ed., The Book of Calendars (New York: Facts on File, 1982), 14, projects the present Jewish calendar reckoning back to 2 CE.

3. S. Ruckstuhl, Chronology of the Last Days of Jesus (New York: Desclee, 1965).

Chapter 1
CALENDARS FROM THE CREATION TO THE EXILE

From the beginning of history many calendar systems have been developed. To understand these ancient calendars it is necessary to relate them to the present western calendar system, the Gregorian calendar. The conversion of artificial or lunar dates into the Julian or later Gregorian calendar can be a challenge. Understanding the historical beginnings of the Gregorian calendar provides some perspective on what to expect with these early calendars.

I. The Julian/Gregorian Calendar and Easter

Julius Caesar decreed the Julian calendar that began on January 1, 45 BCE. The present Gregorian calendar is identical with the Julian calendar with a few adjustments because the true solar year in not exactly 365¼ days long. In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII issued a papal bull that decreed that the day following Thursday, October 4 would be Friday, October 15. Besides dropping ten days from the calendar there was the additional requirement that three leap days in 400 years would not be observed. Thus began the Gregorian calendar, a reflection of the Julian calendar of twelve centuries earlier.1

The Christian church became involved with calendar reform to keep Easter in the spring. In 325 CE the Council of Nicaea had decreed that the observance of Easter2 would be uniform at all Christian churches. Easter was to be the first Sunday following the full moon after the Vernal Equinox, which marks the beginning of spring. In 325 CE the Vernal Equinox fell on March 21, and Easter could occur as early as March 22, but not later than April 25. At the beginning of the Julian calendar in 45 BCE the Vernal Equinox fell on March 25, but this day had regressed to March 21 by three centuries later.3 By the sixteenth century the Vernal Equinox had regressed ten more days to March 11, but the Gregorian reform returned the Vernal Equinox to March 21. The reform did not adjust to dating of the Vernal Equinox to the time of Jesus' crucifixion, which then fell about March 24. The present calendar is about three days out of alignment with the calendar of the first century CE. However, the reform stopped the calendar drift, and the calculation of Easter was to be the same as in the year 325 CE.

Easter commemorates the resurrection of Jesus several days after the Passover. The Passover is the Jewish feast that commemorates the death of the Egyptian first-born while the Lord passed over the first-born of Israel. This night before the Exodus is observed in the evening of the fourteenth day of the first Jewish month, at about full moon. The lunar month began about two weeks earlier with the new moon. At the time of Jesus' crucifixion the local lunar calendars determined the beginning of that spring month by observation of the new crescent moon. Two of three methods confirmed the exact first month: barley coming into ear, the sun entering the constellation Aries, and the day of the Vernal Equinox. The particular calendar alignment of that first Easter provides substantial clues to accurately dating the year of Jesus' crucifixion.

All the luni-solar calendars to be discussed are based on the new year beginning near the Vernal Equinox (or Autumnal Equinox). One point that is critical to comparison of the calendars will be whether the first month of the new year began closest to the Equinox, before or after, or with the first new moon following. In the determination of Easter the Church knew, or presumed, that the Jewish month of Nisan at the time of Jesus could begin before the Vernal Equinox. Since Easter can fall as early as the day after the Vernal Equinox and at a full moon, then the new moon and new year might occur up to two weeks earlier. The first Babylonian month of Nisanu during that period began with the new moon after the Vernal Equinox. This would have been approximately equal to the contemporary Jewish calendar only about half the time. This (1) relationship to the Equinox, (2) beginning the day in the morning or evening, and (3) whether the new year began in the spring or fall, will be among the main points discussed in this examination of the calendars found in Scripture and contemporary literature.

II. The Creation Calendar - Forty-first Century BCE

The understanding of the language4 and the interpretation5 of the first chapters of Genesis has led to a wide range of explanations. Was the creation ex nihilo and in an instant? Or did it take six calendar days before the Sabbath rest? Was each day twenty-four hours, a thousand years or an age?6 Or did the "creation" always exist and the description was allegorical? 7 Did the event occur in the dim past, about 4004 BCE,8 or at the Jewish date in the fall of 3761 BCE? Such questions are mostly beyond this discussion. However, the attempts at a literal explanation have led to the establishment of the various forms of the Jewish calendar. A literal examination will be here pursued. Which interpretation is correct is less important to this discussion than the fact that the different interpretations support different calendar reckonings. From this perspective, when the Scriptures were actually recorded is secondary to when the interpretations were made.

The first day of creation began when "God said, `Let there be light,' and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day." (Gen. 1:3-5) Darkness was the previous eternal state, with light beginning "one day,"9 and those following. Daylight followed by darkness was one day, just as in the sequence above. The translation "Evening" carries the meaning of "dusk" or "sunset" that is the end of daylight or passage of day to night. "Morning" carries the meaning of "dawn" that is the end of night or the passage of night to day. The end of "one day" is the end of light followed by the end of darkness. The days of creation consisted of daylight followed by night.

The common interpretation of the days of creation is that nighttime was followed by daylight. This is by interpreting "evening" and "morning" as the beginning, instead of the end of the day sequence (Mishna, Hullin 5:5). But, God called the light "day" and the darkness "night" in the opposite sequence. In the night/day interpretation the first period of darkness would have been "eternally" long. The "first" day, with night preceding day, would have also been eternally long. The "first" day could not have been twenty-four hours, but as long as the previous darkness plus twelve hours. During the creation Scripture does not support a twenty-four hour calendar day, with night preceding day. The first day was twenty-four hours only if day preceded night, if that were the length of a creation day.

On the fourth day of creation, "God said, `Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years.'" (Gen. 1:14) The sun, moon and stars are for the determination of signs, seasons, days and years. There is no indication in Scripture that God gave Adam a specific calendar. God gave Adam and his descendants the sun, moon and stars to determine time. In such early days the first notice would have been the phases of the moon. The derivation of the Hebrew word for "month" is from "moon." This suggests a calendar based on lunar observation, at least during the earlier days of calendar formation. There are about twelve and a third lunar months in a solar year, and the shifting seasons could not be missed. The early method of correction of lunar months to a solar year is not known. There is no indication in Scripture when the new year might have begun, although the present Jewish calendar dates from a creation in the fall month of Tishri. One can expect that the Creation calendar was lunar, with the day beginning at sunrise; when the year began is not known.

During this early period the Egyptians used an artificial calendar which contained twelve months of thirty days and a thirteenth month of five days, or 365 days in a year. The beginning of the Egyptian calendar has been projected back to 4241 BCE, earlier than some would place the creation. This calendar was an astral calendar based on observation of the heliacal rising of the star Sirius. It did not use the sun or moon in determination of the calendar and did not closely fit the requirements of Scripture. The Egyptians concurrently used a second lunar calendar based on beginning the month on the morning following the last observation of the old crescent moon.

A basic calendar feature may be directly derived from the creation account, and that is the week of seven days. Attempts to establish the week from sources outside Israel have met with little success.10 The week has remained independent of the month and lunar cycles. However, the early Sumerians held festivals for the moon on the first, the seventh and the fifteenth days of the month.11 The seven-day cycle ending with the Sabbath later appears extended to a week of years as the Sabbatical year and a week of Sabbatical years as a Jubilee.

III. The Flood Calendar - Twenty-fifth Century BCE

Before the Exodus the only specific Biblical reference to dating was at the time of the Flood. From month and day II 17 to VII 17 there were 150 days, which is the number of days the ark was afloat (Gen. 7:11, 8:3-4). Several calendars have been suggested to fit this pattern, and these are laid out by the month in Chart I. All months are shown as thirty days, except thirty-one for the end of the quarter months of the Jubilee calendar and twenty-nine days probable for months I, IV and VII of a lunar calendar. Jewish inclusive reckoning is used, as will be discussed below.

Chart I
Possible Flood Calendars
Month
360/365 Day
Calendars

Jubilee
Calendar

Lunar
Calendar
II (17th to end)
14

14

14
III
30

31

30
IV
30

30

29
V
30

30

30
VI
30

31

30
VII (1st to 17th)
17

17

17
Total days
151

153

150

The Flood calendar is sometimes used to support the proposed existence of a "prophetic" year. This is reported related to an early Chaldean calendar of twelve months of thirty days, or a 360-day year.12 However, with normal inclusive reckoning there would be 151 days, not 150. It would be necessary not to count the first or last day to reduce the count to 150. A 360 day year seems too crude for any peoples aware of yearly cycles. This supposed calendar was not based on the observation of the sun, moon, or any known star, a requirement of the Creation calendar. The thirty-day months imply an artificial calendar such as that used in Egypt, with its 365-day year.13 Thus, an artificial calendar of thirty-day months at the time of the Flood is unlikely, especially one of 360 days.

As will be discussed in the next chapter, there is also the claim that the calendar of the Pentateuch was the same as that described in Jubilees.14 This was a 364 day calendar of thirty-day months with an extra day at the end of the third, sixth, ninth and twelfth months. Such would have required 153 days for the ark to be afloat, too many days for the 150 days required by Scripture.

The calendar at the time of the Flood was most likely lunar. If II 17 and VII 17 are both counted by the usual Jewish inclusive reckoning, and months I, IV, and VII were twenty-nine- day months, then there were the correct 150 days when the ark was afloat. The months would have been 29, 30, 30, 29, 30, 30, and 29 days long, which is a not untypical sequence of lunar months based on observation. The synodic month, the interval between two conjunctions, averages 29.53 days long, but may vary by almost thirteen hours. The eccentricity of the orbits of the earth and moon cause the month to range in length from 29.26 to 29.80 days. Three successive thirty-day months were somewhat common, occurring about once in ten years, and known to the Babylonians. 15 Even four successive thirty-day months, or rarely five, are possible.16 This possibility always existed, but the sages later limited that the year must contain at least four but no more that eight months of thirty days (BT, `Arakin 8b). Even if the first or last day was not counted, as some might insist, the calendar still could have been lunar. Also, there could have been 150 days from II 17 to VII 17 with a common sequence of lunar months if there was an observational error, particularly by beginning month II a day early or VII a day late. An observational error was a real possibility during the periods of extended overcast that must have preceded or accompanied the Flood. Since there is no artificial calendar that does not contain at least one day too many, according to inclusive Jewish reckoning, the Flood calendar was lunar.

The rains began on II 17 (Gen. 7:11) and the earth was dry in the following year on II 27 (Gen. 8:14). This could represent a lunar year of about 354 days plus ten or eleven days to complete a solar year. Such was the rabbinical explanation by the Middle Ages.17 This would confirm the luni-solar nature of the Flood calendar.

The Flood began in month II, but month I is not given as beginning in the spring or fall. All other numbered months in Scripture later refer to month I being Abib, or Nisan, and, by analogy, we might expect such here. Rain falling in the second month of the spring at the time of the harvests was a sign of God's displeasure (1 Sam. 12:17-18).18 A fall new year19 may seem necessary so that the Flood would coincide with the usual rainy season. However, such a requirement is not necessary for rains that were under Divine control. A fall new year would then place the end of the Flood when the land dried up in the same rainy month when it would start. Beginning the Flood in the fall presents no better logical solution. The numbering of months was likely from a spring new year.

The day may have been measured sunrise to sunrise. This seems suggested in a reference after the Flood, when Lot escaped from Sodom (twentieth century BCE?). His daughters got him drunk and had intercourse with him to preserve the family, "and it came about on the morrow, and the first-born said to the younger, `Behold, I lay last night with my father.'" (Gen. 19:34) The "morrow," also translated "next day," follows "last night" when the day begins at sunrise.

In summary, the calendar system at the time of the Flood was likely lunar. It is unlikely to have been an artificial calendar of 360 days, or 365 days as in Egypt, or the 364-day calendar of Jubilees. These all required more than the stated 150 days. Although not given in Scripture the months are likely, by analogy, to have been numbered from the spring. Rain at the time of the harvests in a spring second month would be an appropriate time for God to show His displeasure. A later passage suggests the day was measured from sunrise. This calendar seems like the one given by God to Moses at the time of the Exodus.

IV. The Exodus Calendar - Thirteenth to Sixteenth Century BCE20

God gave the first explicit "Hebrew" calendar at the time of the Exodus from Egypt, and that system is here called the Exodus calendar. For the first time the Hebrews, as a nation, were independent. They were given laws and religious observances that required a consistent calendar system. Again, there is only Scripture to decide when the day and year began. The beginning of the calendar day and year is often confused with the rest periods, the Sabbath day and the Sabbatical year.

Two weeks before the Exodus God said to Moses, "This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you." (Exod. 12:2) Scripture notes the timing of this month five days earlier, after the plague of hail, which states, "now the flax and the barley were ruined, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud. But the wheat and spelt were not ruined, for they ripen late." (Exod. 9:31-32) This first month was Abib (Exod. 13:4, 23:15, 34:18; Deut. 16:1), which means "fresh ear" of grain and refers to the time when barley shoots into ear. This can be expected in Egypt to occur in March, a little before or after the Vernal Equinox. Thus, in the year of the Exodus Abib, later called Nisan, began in the spring.

Was Abib a lunar month or an artificial month, such as the thirty day months of the Egyptian calendar? The Hebrew "month" is also translated "new moon." The months of the Exodus calendar can be traced as lunar, as "on the first days of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings." (Num. 10:10, 28:11) The first day of the month was tied to trumpets and burnt offerings and was later sanctified as the day of the new moon. During David's days this was suggested by such as, "blow the trumpet at the new moon," and "offer all burnt offerings to the Lord, on the Sabbaths, the new moons. . . ." (Ps. 81:3; 1 Chron. 23:31) The lunar observance of months was still noted shortly after the Babylonian captivity, as, "there was a continual burnt offering, also for the new moons." (Ezra 3:5) New moon festivals were prominent during the inter-testament period (Judith 8:6; 1 Macc. 10:34). Again, in the first century CE we find, "let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day." (Col. 2:16) The Jews and early Christians were still watching for the first appearance of the moon.21 There is no hint that there were two separate types of Exodus calendars in operation, as with the Egyptian 365 day astral calendar and their lunar calendar.22 Abib was a spring lunar month, the first month of a lunar calendar.

One passage is often used to try to establish that the year began in the fall month of Ethanim, later called Tishri, noting, "the Feast of the Ingathering (Tabernacles) at the end of the year." (Exod. 23:16) This does not establish an Ethanim new year, since the "end of the year" also can be translated "during the year."23 The LXX renders this as, "in the middle of the year," or, "within the year." In context, the Feast of Ingathering is the third of the three required feasts during the year and would be the last festival of the year specified by God, at the end of the festival year. Or, it may refer to the end of the harvest season, the end of the agricultural cycle. Such would be the interpretation of "at the turn of the year" (Exod. 34:22) as referring to the change from longer days to shorter days at the fall equinox. The observance of the Feast of Ingathering was two weeks into the month of Ethanim, and the calendar year did not end during the middle of that month.24 This single passage cannot establish a fall new year.

Since the trumpets and burnt offerings were associated with a "new" moon festival, the month must have begun with the new moon. This would likely have been with the first observation of the new crescent, a day or two after the invisible true new moon.

The known months of the Exodus calendar are: Abib, Zif, Tsach,25 IV, V, VI, Ethanim, Bul, IX, X, XI and XII. The numbered months in Scripture always refer to the year beginning with the spring month of Abib, and later Nisan. The months would have been twenty-nine or thirty days in length, probably in no set pattern, but based on observation.

Since twelve lunar months fall approximately eleven days short of a solar year some method of adjustment must be used to maintain the beginning of the new year at about the Vernal Equinox. This requires periodically adding, or intercalating, an extra or thirteenth month. The actual system by which this was done is not certain, but since the cutting of the barley sheaf must occur a few days after the Passover (Lev. 23:10-11), the extra month was probably added when the barley had not yet come into ear. If the ripening of the barley decided the new year, then a thirteenth month could only follow the twelfth month when the barley had not come into ear. Also, the addition of an intercalary month between the first and seventh months was not likely, because this would have upset the relationship of the required feasts in the spring and fall. The Exodus calendar was a lunar calendar periodically adjusted to the solar year by the addition of an extra month.

A 360-day calendar or the Jubilee calendar would have only twelve months with no intercalary month added to adjust to the solar year. Those who support such reckoning note, "Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, who provided for the king and his household; each man had to provide for a month in the year." (1 Kings 4:7) However, just as Scripture does not specify a thirteenth month, such was later in use. It is not specified who provisioned Solomon during a thirteenth month. Such a single passage cannot be conclusive for limiting the year to only twelve months.

Measurement of the day of the Exodus calendar was sunrise to sunrise. For example, the Passover commemorates the slaying of the first-born of Egypt, when God passed over the first-born of the sons of Israel. The Passover meal was eaten during the evening of Abib 14 (Num. 9:3), before the event it commemorates, which was, "at midnight that the Lord struck all the first-born in the land of Egypt." (Exod. 12:29) The night proceeding the Exodus was Abib 14. The Exodus occurred the immediate following morning when, "they journeyed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day; on the day after the Passover the sons of Israel started out boldly in the sight of all the Egyptians." (Num. 33:3) The daylight hours of Abib 15 immediately followed the dark hours and the midnight "Passover" of Abib 14. The day began at sunrise.

Further, the Day of Atonement begins in the morning, "on exactly the tenth day of the seventh month." (Lev. 23:27) Associated with this calendar day is a "Sabbath of complete rest to you. . . . on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening you shall keep your Sabbath." (Lev. 23:32) Here the rest period begins the prior evening of the ninth day and ends at evening on the tenth day. During the Sabbath rest the day must change from the ninth to the tenth day, that time being at sunrise. The entire rest period is named by the second half of the rest period, the Day of Atonement. The specification that the rest period was "evening until evening" would not be necessary if it coincided with the calendar day. If measurement of the calendar day had been evening to evening, then it was only necessary to specify the calendar day, such as the Day of Atonement, Ethanim 10. The Sabbath rest beginning on the ninth should not be confused with the calendar day beginning the following morning of the tenth, the Day of Atonement.

In the preceding there is a Sabbath rest period not associated with the seventh day of the week. Similarly, the first and eighth days of the following Feast of Tabernacles are automatically Sabbath rests, whatever the day on which they fall (Lev. 23:39). A discussion of this subject in detail is found in the chapter, "The Preparation for the Sabbath."

The Sabbath did not coincide with a calendar day, but consisted of half of two succeeding days. Such was similar for the Sabbatical year, which began in the second half of one year, and ended in the middle of the following year. Confusion on this point by the early Jews eventually led to the "agricultural" calendar and the later Diaspora calendar, which began the year in the fall and the day at sunset. Such a calendar does not appear in Scripture.

The beginning of the day at sunrise is also found during the period of the Judges. Gideon laid out his fleece and "arose early the next morning." (Jud. 6:38) Here the night belongs to the preceding day. The day began at sunrise for the Levite who was told, "spend the night here that your heart may be merry. Then tomorrow you may arise early for your journey." (Jud. 19:9) When Israel mourned the tribe of Benjamin "it came about the next day the people arose early and built an altar." (Jud. 21:4) The next day began at sunrise.

During the time of Saul he intended to put David to death in the morning, but David was warned, "save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be put to death." (1 Sam. 19:11) Later it was Saul who died at the battle of Mount Gilboa the day after he visited the witch of Endor, when the ghost of Samuel said, "tomorrow you and your sons will be with me." (1 Sam. 28:19) Saul's last tomorrow was the following day, and the day began at sunrise.

In summary, the Exodus calendar was a lunar calendar with the months beginning with the sunrise following the first observation of the new crescent moon. The first month of the year was Abib in the spring which was probably determined by the ripening of the barley, at least during the early period. The beginning of Abib could occur a little before or after the Vernal Equinox. An extra twelfth month was added periodically to maintain Abib in the spring. The day began at sunrise. This is the calendar of Scripture up to the Babylonian captivity.

V. The Divided Kingdom Calendar Split - Tenth Century BCE

During the time of David a spring new year was still in use. When David sent Joab and his men against the Ammonites it was "after the year was expired, when kings go forth to battle." (2 Sam. 11:1, AV) This was after the winter, and the year was ended, in the spring.

The Exodus calendar with the spring new year was still in use when Solomon built his Temple. In about 968 BCE, "in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord . . . And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished . . . So he was seven years in building it." (1 Kings 6:1, 38) Here the numbered months are from Abib, or Nisan, which identifies that month as the new year. The Mishna says that "the first of Nisan (Abib) is the new year for kings." (Mishna, Rosh Hashanah 1:1) In the gemara, or commentary, rabbi Johanan said, "Here Solomon's reign is put side by side with the exodus from Egypt, [to indicate that] just as [the years from] the exodus from Egypt are reckoned from Nisan (Abib), so [the years of] Solomon's reign commenced with Nisan (Abib)." (Rosh Hashanah 2B) The seven years refer to the time to build the Temple, and not to regnal years, but also only make sense when referring to an Abib new year.26 Solomon's reign and the calendar year were from Abib to Abib.

In 931/930 BCE, Solomon's kingdom became divided, and the northern Kingdom of Israel under Jeroboam separated from the southern Kingdom of Judah under Solomon's son, Rehoboam. The two kingdoms must have reckoned the reign of their kings by a different method. Rehoboam and Jeroboam began to rule about the same time, and Ahaziah (Judah) and Ahaziah (Israel) were killed at the same time by Jehu, in about 841 BCE. For Judah there were five rulers during this period, and the reigns given in Scripture total seventy-nine years. There were seven rulers of Israel during the same period, and their official reigns totaled eighty-six years. The difference was because Judah used accession reckoning, which did not count the first year of a ruler. The first partial year was allocated to the preceding king, and the years can be directly added. Israel used non-accession reckoning where the first partial year was counted as year one, and one year must be subtracted from each king's reign before adding. That is, the eighty-six years of the kings of Israel minus seven years for the seven kings equals the seventy-nine years of the kings of Judah. Judah used accession reckoning, and Israel used non-accession reckoning.27

Judah and Israel also appear to have reckoned the new year for kings from a different month. Rehoboam would have continued using the Exodus calendar and accession reckoning as had his father, Solomon.28 Jeroboam, perhaps initially as a political move, appears to have adopted an agricultural calendar that began in the fall for civil purposes. It is possible that Solomon died and Rehoboam became king in the second half of the year beginning in Abib of 931 BCE. Jeroboam may have been proclaimed king of Israel after the Abib new year in 930 BCE, in the year following Rehoboam. By adopting a calendar from the fall he backdated his reign to the prior Ethanim, into the same half of the year when Rehoboam became king. Also, by changing to non-accession reckoning Jeroboam's official regnal year one preceded Rehoboam's by six months.

Jeroboam also had a religious reason to change the new year. He feared that his people would go to the festivals in Jerusalem, return to Rehoboam, and kill him. So Jeroboam forbade going to these festivals (1 Kings 12:26-33). He set up golden calves for worship and instituted a new festival. Since the calendar beginning in Abib was tied to the festivals in Jerusalem, he may have changed to a fall new year to upset the religious calendar.29 It can be inferred that Jeroboam's civil, and perhaps religious, year began with Ethanim (Tishri), although this is never confirmed in Scripture. This agricultural calendar was used to measure the reigns of the kings of the northern Kingdom of Israel until its end in 722 BCE. A year beginning in Ethanim was likely used for civil purposes in the north.

A fall calendar new year in Scripture does not occur, unless a calendar year is confounded with the rest period of a Sabbatical year. The basis of a fall calendar is the agricultural cycle and its sequence of planting/harvesting . The Sabbatical year was observed in the same sequence, no planting/no harvesting, and the rest began from the fall month of Ethanim. This agricultural cycle does appear as a calendar, of sorts, on the "Gezer Calendar."30 This small limestone tablet from Tell Gezer in Judah dates to about 925 BCE. It reads:

His two months are (olive) harvest
His two months are planting (grain)
His two months are late planting
His month is hoeing up the flax
His month is harvest of barley
His month is harvest and feasting
His two months are vine-tending
His month is summer fruit

The first month of this calendar can be assigned to Ethanim, or Tishri. This was most likely the calendar of the Kingdom of Israel. There is no evidence to support the reckoning of the day from sunset, although development of a sunset observance for the Sabbath would be expected.

Back in the Kingdom of Judah the new year was still reckoned from Abib. The sole reign of Hezekiah began in about 715 BCE, and, "in the first year of his reign, in the first month" (2 Chron. 29:3) he began religious reforms. Because the priests had not been consecrated in sufficient numbers, he "decided to celebrate the Passover in the second month." (2 Chron. 30:2) Thus, the first month must refer to Abib.

VI. The Diaspora Calendar - Eighth Century BCE

During the later decades of the eighth century BCE, the Assyrians took the Kingdom of Israel into captivity, which ended with the destruction of Samaria in 722 BCE. This dispersion of the Hebrews, followed later by the many exiles from the sixth-century Babylonian captivity, became known as the Diaspora, or scattering. The first captives would have taken with them their agricultural calendar beginning in the fall. They became dispersed among nations from Babylon to Greece that reckoned their day from sunset, and that also became fixed in the Diaspora calendar.

The calendar of the Diaspora evolved into the present Jewish calendar. The Pharisees later adopted this method of reckoning. It became their standard passed on through the Mishna and later Talmud, to the exclusion of the Exodus calendar. The present calendar was also finalized in the Diaspora, apart from the Temple ritual of Jerusalem. Jeroboam would be pleased at the success of his calendar split.

VII. The Babylonian Calendar - Seventh Century BCE

The Neo-Babylonian Empire began under Naboplassar in 626 BCE. By the end of the seventh century he had subdued the Assyrians and most of the territories of the early Hebrew Diaspora. His son, Nebuchadnezzar, continued the campaigns against the Egyptians and Judeans.

These Babylonians had the most accurate calendar of the period. The Persians continued to use this calendar until toward the end of the first century CE. Both the Babylonian and Persian kings, as with the Judeans, used accession reckoning from a spring new year.

The Babylonian calendar was a luni-solar calendar that began the new year according to the Vernal Equinox in the spring.31 The first month was Nisanu, which began with the new moon after the Vernal Equinox. The months began with the evening following the first observation of the new crescent moon.

The months of the Babylonian calendar were Nisanu, Aiaru, Simanu, Duzu, Abu, Ululu, Tashritu, Arahsamnu, Kislimu, Tebetu, Shabatu and Addaru. The intercalary months were standardized from the early fourth century to include seven in a nineteen year cycle. These included six second Addarus after the twelfth month in years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14 and 19 and one second Ululu after the sixth month in year 17 of the cycle.

A big difference between the Exodus calendar and Babylonian calendar was that the Jewish calendar could begin before the Vernal Equinox. However, the later Babylonian new year only began following the Vernal Equinox. However, the early Babylonian calendar did sometimes begin before the Vernal Equinox. For example, the new year fell as early as March 6 in 607 BCE and March 11 in 564 BCE, but not before March 24 from 499 BCE to 75 CE.32 Why the change? The Babylonians were keen on astrology, and their observations of the celestial bodies led to the most accurate of ancient calendars.33 The Babylonians developed the divisions of the celestial sphere into thirty-degree increments that divided the night sky into twelve sections. The main star constellation in each of these sectors is the basis of the names of the signs of the zodiac, and the first sign was Aries. Before the fifth century BCE the Babylonians may have used the position of the sun in Aries to determine their new year, as well as the Vernal Equinox. The Babylonians identified the shift of the constellations due to the precession of the equinoxes. In about 500 BCE the astronomer, Naburiannu, located the equinoxial point in ten degrees of Aries; in about 373 BCE Kidinnu located it at eight degrees.34 In the fifth century BCE the sun entered the sector of the constellation Aries on about March 14, shortly before the Vernal Equinox. Because of the precession of the equinoxes, by the first century CE the sun entered Aries close to the Vernal Equinox, about March 21. Today the sun appears behind Aries in the latter part of April, the position of the constellation having moved into the second sign, or sector. The adjustment of the Gregorian calendar did not correct this shift of the relative position of the stars of the zodiac. The Babylonians had noted that the sun entered Aries progressively closer to the Vernal Equinox and would soon enter Aries only after the Vernal Equinox. As such, the new year for the Babylonian calendar locked on beginning after the Vernal Equinox, instead of when the sun entered Aries.

VIII. An Exodus/Babylonian Calendar Comparison - 597 BCE

Abib could begin before the Vernal Equinox, but Nisanu, the first month of the Babylonian calendar, only began after the Vernal Equinox. This relationship can be tested.35 Also, a claimed scriptural error in dating the fall of Jerusalem can be resolved. Conversion dates from the Jewish months to the Julian calendar are calculated; poor weather or deficiencies in existing tables may shift the date by a day.36 There is no indication in Scripture that there was any change to the Exodus calendar between the Exodus and the Babylonian captivity. From the Babylonian record we know that Jerusalem fell to them the second time on the second of Addaru (the twelfth month), or March 16, 597 BCE. This was still the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar according to Babylonian accession reckoning from Nisanu. Scripture relates that, "the king of Babylon took him [Jehoiachin] captive in the eighth year of his [Nebuchadnezzar' s] reign." (2 Kings 12:42) This description occurred when, "at the turn of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon." (2 Chron. 36:10) The Biblical reference is to accession reckoning from Abib, but here says it is Nebuchadnezzar' s eighth year, not his seventh. This is because according to the Exodus calendar the first day of Abib and the Jewish new year began on the morning of March 14. This was two days before the fall of Jerusalem and the beginning of the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar according to Jewish reckoning. The Bible and the Babylonian record are both correct. The new year of the Exodus calendar began one month earlier than the Babylonian new year when the new moon was visible in the two weeks before the Vernal Equinox. When the new moon became visible in the two weeks after the Vernal Equinox the Exodus calendar and Babylonian calendar were approximately equal, allowing for the difference between the day beginning in the morning and in the evening.

[Correction: The Babylonian and Jewish Calendars both fell in the twelfth month in 597. The Babylonian's used non-inclusive reckoning where the partial first year of Nebuchadnezzar was counted as year 0, it still being reckoned as the 21st year of Nabopolassar. The Jews used inclusive reckoning where the first partial year was counted as year 1. The Babylonian 7th and the Biblical 8th are the same year.]

The Jews were now separated from Jerusalem and their Temple ritual. The influence of the Babylonian calendar was soon to be felt.

Notes:

1. G. Moyer, "The Gregorian Calendar," SA 246 (1982).

2. H. W. Armstrong, The Plain Truth About Easter (Pasadena: Worldwide Church of God, 1973) equates the name "Easter" with the idolatrous "Queen of Heaven" and teaches a return to observing the Passover instead of Easter.

3. The regression is due primarily to two factors, the first being that the actual mean solar tropical year was a little less than the 365¼ days of the Julian calendar. Second was the precession of the equinoxes, so that the Vernal Equinox regressed in relation to the sidereal year.

4. G. Ashby, "Reflection on the Language of Genesis 1 & 2," Sem 6(1978).

5. J. P. Lewis, "The Days of Creation: An Historical Survey of Interpretation, " JETS 32 (1989).

6. T. Key, "How Long Were the Days of Genesis?," JASA (September 1984), 159-161 provides a brief summary of the basic interpretations and concludes that "Creative days were vast periods of time."

7. L. Lavallee, "Augustine on the Creation Days," JETS 32 (1989).

8. J. Barr, "Why the World was Created in 4004 B.C.: Archbishop Ussher and Biblical Chronology," JRUL 67, 2 (1985).

9. The Hebrew is "one day," not "first day," as found in some translations such as the NIV.

10. J. Lewey, "The Origin of the Week and the Oldest West Asiatic Calendar," HUCA 17 (1942-43) attempted to establish the origin of the week in Assyria, but this has not been borne out by subsequent research.

11. W. W. Hallo, "New Moon and Sabbaths: A Case-study in the Contrastive Approach," HUCA 48 (1977).

12. R. Anderson, The Coming Prince 10th ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, rep. 1980) and M. F. Unger, Unger's Bible Dictionary (Chicago: Moody, rep. 1981). Used by H. W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977), 135-138 in an attempt at an exact solution to the Seventy Weeks in Daniel.

13. R. Gleadow, The Origin of the Zodiac (London: Cape, 1968), 212.

14. A. Jaubert, "Le Calendrier des Jubiles et les Jours Liturgiques de la Semaine," VT 7 (1957); S. Zeitlin, Studies in the Early History of Judaism (New York: KTAV, 1973), 183-193; J. C. Vanderkam, "The Origin, Character, and Early History of the 364-Day Calendar: A Reassessment of Jaubert's Hypotheses," CBQ 41 (1979).

15. S. Langdon & J. K. Fotheringham, The Venus Tablets of Ammizaduga (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1928), 98; R. A. Parker, "The Beginning of the Lunar Month in Ancient Egypt," JNES 29 (1970).

16. A. E. Samuel, Greek and Roman Chronology (Munich: Oscar Beck, 1972), 15.

17. F. H. Cryer, "The Interrelationships of Gen 5,32; 11,10-11 and the Chronology of the Flood (Gen 6-9)," Bib 66, 2 (1985), 252.

18. Mishna, Ta'anith 1:7.

19. Josephus, Antiquities I 3:3, written about 93 CE, says the Flood was the second month from Tishri.

20. The generally accepted archaeological date for the Exodus is in the thirteenth century and the scriptural date in the fifteenth century. For a reconciliation of these two positions in the sixteenth century see K. Doig, "The 1552 Exodus," C&AH 12, 2 (1990), 147-157.

21. T. Thorton, "Jewish New Moon Festivals, Galatians 4:3-11 and Colossians 2:16," JTS NS40 (1989).

22. A. Cooper and B. R. Goldstein, "The Festivals of Israel and Judah and the Literary History of the Pentateuch," JAOS 110, 1 (1990), 19-31 see the Biblical account as representing a conflation of different festival calendars. A late redactor, RJE, is seen to have combined a festival tradition of Judah based on a solar year with lunar months reckoned from the sunrise following the last observance of the old moon, in the Egyptian style, and a Northern Kingdom lunar calendar based on the day beginning with first visibility of the new moon at sunset. This approach may be acceptable if the Exodus is a myth and these calendars projected back to that time. The two calendars supposedly in the Pentateuch could not exist until after the division of Solomon's kingdom, some half a millennia after the death of Moses. The authors' approach fails from multilevel assumptions, which includes the presumption that Scripture was manipulated by the theological aims of later redactors, rather than by God.

23. M. L. Rodkinson, trans., Babylonian Talmud (Boston: New Talmud Publishing Society, 1916) 3:XIX.

24. J. B. Segal, "Intercalation and the Hebrew Calendar," VT 7 (1957), 276 translates as the "going forth of the year," and uses the ten-day epact beyond twelve lunar months to explain the Jubilee Year opening on Tishri 10. J. Morgenstern, "The Three Calendars of Ancient Israel," HUCA 1 (1924), "Additional Notes on `The Three Calendars of Ancient Israel'," HUCA 3 (1926) and "Supplementary Studies in the Calendars of Ancient Israel," HUCA 10 (1935) claims that "calendar II" began the new year on II 10. His "calendar I" was a solar calendar that used the Canaanite-Phoenicia n names of Abib, Ethanim, etc. The numbered months represented his luni-solar "calendar II." "Calendar III" was also luni-solar, but used the borrowed Babylonian month names, with the new year shifted back to the spring.

25. The word Tsach appears in Isa. 18:4 and would better be translated, "like the heat of the month of Tsach." An ink inscription of a sixth-century clay jar from Arad identified Tsach as the third month. The use of Tsach rather than a number or Sivan would imply that the Exodus Calendar was still in use shortly before the Babylonian captivity.

26. The conclusions of E. R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1983) are reversed in reckoning the kings of Judah according to a Tishri year and the kings of Israel according to a Nisan year. His diagram (p. 52) was to illustrate that Solomon reigned Tishri to Tishri. He assumes that the new year can be measured from Tishri, even though the months are measured from Nisan, for which there is no scriptural evidence. He also assumes that the seven years in building are to be compared to regnal years, rather than a basic length of time. He compares Tishri years against a Nisan standard and incorrectly concludes there are seven years only from Tishri. The bottom comparison years on his diagram must be slid back six months to coincide with the Tishri marks, not the Nisan marks. Then there are correctly eight regnal years to build the Temple, inclusive years four to eleven, whether measured from Nisan or Tishri. According to his chart the actual time to build the Temple was six and a half years on a Tishri calendar and seven and a half years on a Nisan calendar, only the later better describing "seven years in building."

27. The kings of Judah used accession reckoning from Abib (Nisan) from David to Zedekiah, with the exception that Athaliah and Joash used non-accession reckoning from Abib during the disruption of the dynasty. The kings of Israel only used non-accession reckoning from Ethanim (Tishri) from Jeroboam until the end of the northern kingdom. The Scriptures of the entire period of the kings can be reconciled to themselves and history by the above reckoning. This discussion, however, is beyond the scope of the present work.

28. David used accession reckoning. King David was "in Hebron, and there he reigned seven years and six months. And in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years." (1 Chron. 3:4) Here the total of his reign is forty and a half years. Officially, "the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years."(1 Kings 2:11) The extra half year was not part of his official reign, and can only be allocated to the last year of the reign of Saul. Solomon and the following kings of Judah continued this accession reckoning.

29. J. Morgenstern, "The Chanukkah Festival and the Calendar of Ancient Israel," HUCA 21 (1948), 398-399 suggests that Jeroboam revived an agricultural religion based on a pentecontad calendar, which Solomon had abolished.

30. J. Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1964), 33. For the Hebrew and another translation see Morgenstern, "Additional Notes on the Three Calendars." HUCA 3, (1926), 86-87.

31. J. Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology, 29-33; R. A. Parker & W. H. Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C.-A.D. 75 (Providence: Brown Univ. Press, 1956).

32. Parker & Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology, 27-28.

33. Gleadow, Zodiac, 154.

34. Gleadow, Zodiac, 74.

35. All Babylonian dates are taken from the tables of Parker and Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology. These were calculated from Carl Schoch's tables in Langdon & Fotheringham, The Venus Tablets of Ammizaduga, and attested by extensive Babylonian documents. The author here used Schoch's tables to calculate new moon visibility and the beginning of lunar months in other locations such as Jerusalem or points in Egypt. These tables give Julian dates.

36. L. W. Casperson, "The Lunar Dates of Thutmose III," JNES 45 (1986) notes several small errors in the assumptions in the tables of Carl Schoch and those of Neugebauer, and with computer-generated new moon calculations shows previously calculated dates to sometimes cause an error by one day if time of visibility is near the time of day change.

Chapter 2
CALENDARS FROM THE EXILE TO
THE FIRST CENTURY BCE

The Jewish and Babylonian calendars were at first distinct. With the separation from Jerusalem the calendar differences were soon blurred and lost to many exiles.

I. The Exile Calendar - Sixth to Fifth Century BCE

Nebuchadnezzar first carried off captives from Jerusalem in February of 604 BCE. He again besieged and captured Jerusalem on March 16 of 597 BCE, and the Jews were again under the Babylonian yoke. When they later pursued an independent course Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem a third time, and after two years the city fell on June 18, 586 BCE. The invaders destroyed the city and Temple and led many surviving Jews into captivity in Babylon. Some Jews fled to Egypt, and a few were left in Judea. In Babylon the Jews came into contact with a luni-solar calendar similar to their own, a calendar that influenced their reckoning of time.

The sixth century saw the shift from the Exodus calendar to an Exile calendar similar to the Babylonian calendar. To the Judeans the Exodus calendar and the Babylonian calendar must have initially seemed almost identical. In the first year of captivity in Babylon the new year began on April 1, 585 BCE with the sunrise for the Jews and sunset for the Babylonians. However, with the intercalation of the second Ululu in 564 BCE1 the following Babylonian new year was on April 14. It would have been immediately apparent to knowledgeable Jews that the Babylonian calendar did not match their Exodus calendar for festivals. There were already Jews living in Babylon from the first deportation who would have been familiar with the Babylonian calendar, including Daniel. Many of these Jews would have already adopted the Babylonian dating, and there would have been some pressure for its general use. Did the Jews drop their calendar and adopt the Babylonian calendar? Or, did they maintain the Exodus calendar for festivals and use an adopted Babylonian calendar only for civil purposes?

The Jews did adopt month names similar to the Babylonian months. These names have been used since then and are still used in the present day Jewish calendar. The months are: Nisan (Neh. 2:1; Esther 3:7), Iyyar, Sivan (Esther 8:9), Tammuz, Ab, Elul (Neh. 6:15), Tishri, Marheshvan, Kislev (Neh. 1:1; Zech. 7:1), Tebeth (Esther 2:16), Shebat (Zech. 1:7) and Adar (Ezra 6:15; Esther 3:7, 3:13, 8:12, 9:1). With the new month names the year still began in the spring, "in the first month, which is the month Nisan." (Esther 3:7) The Babylonian calendar also began in the spring.

All references to months by the post-captivity Biblical writers refer to months numbered from Nisan. This is confirmed by the three historical books, Ezra,2 Nehemiah3 and Esther.4 The prophet Zechariah also used this system,5 and it was probably used by his contemporaries, Haggai and Malachi. The use of the calendar beginning in Nisan by the prophets suggests that the Exodus calendar may have been set aside as the religious calendar. Or, were only the month names changed, while retaining the other features of the Exodus calendar? In any event, the new year was retained in the spring, now beginning in Nisan.

One pair of passages has been used to try to establish that the new year now began in Tishri. In Nehemiah 1:1 and 2:1 it is written, "Now in the month Kislev, in the twentieth year, . . ." and "it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes. . . ." Since the twentieth year of Artaxerxes appears to occur both before and after Nisan, must this not mean that his regnal year is measured from Tishri? The rabbis debated this in the Talmud, but the Tishri new year was said to refer to only foreign kings, not Jewish kings (Rosh Hashanah 3a-3b). One rabbi correctly noted that the first reference to the twentieth year did not mention Artaxerxes and might refer to something else, but he offered no solution. That solution is here presented.

Artaxerxes reckoned his own reign from Nisanu, and the Jews reckoned from Nisan. The dissenting rabbi was correct in that the twentieth year did not refer to the regnal year of Artaxerxes. It actually referred to being the twentieth year from the first decree of Artaxerxes that prohibited the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Ezra 4:21). This was the subject of concern between the men from Judah and Nehemiah (Neh. 1:2-4). Artaxerxes I became king on the death of Xerxes by Abu (August) of 465 BCE,6 and certainly by Kislev.7 The decree was apparently promulgated in Kislev of that year, as evidenced by Ezra's mention of that month. The twentieth year of the decree was actually in Artaxerxes' nineteenth regnal year since he used accession reckoning. The new year in Nisan for his twentieth regnal year fell in 445 BCE.8 Nehemiah here reckoned the new year from Nisan, since he observed the Feast of Booths in the seventh month, not the first month (Neh. 8:14-18). Nehemiah did not reckon from a new year beginning in Tishri. This subject will be discussed in greater detail in the chapter "The Three-Year Ministry and the Seventy Weeks of Daniel."

Whether the day began in the morning or evening during this period is not clear from Scripture. Concerning a fast it was said, "do not eat or drink for three days, night or day," (Esther 4:16) which suggests that the day was shifted to beginning in the evening. Also, did the Jews shift their new year to begin only after the Vernal Equinox and use the Babylonian method of intercalating an extra month? The Exile calendar is not clear and may only have been used in a period of transition. The calendar of the Jews who fled to Egypt can be better determined.

II. The Elephantine Papyri - Fifth Century BCE

Elephantine Island is in the Nile near Aswan in upper Egypt. During the fifth century BCE there was a colony of Jewish soldiers there. They were part of a military garrison protecting the southern limits of the Persian Empire. Almost a hundred Aramaic documents have been recovered from there. Outside the Bible these provide the earliest documentation of the political, economic, social, and religious life of a Jewish community from the southern Diaspora. Many of these are double-dated legal documents that give some insight into calendar reckoning of the period. The papyri from Elephantine demonstrate that the post-exile Jews used a calendar similar to the Babylonian calendar.9

Many of these legal documents include the required Egyptian civil year date and the regnal year of the current Persian king according to non-accession reckoning based on the Egyptian calendar. The two earliest papyri dated in 494 and 483 BCE contain only the Egyptian date, which suggests that the Jewish dating was not used that early.10 Soon thereafter a date using the new Jewish month names is also given according to the Babylonian calendar, the calendar used by their Persian overlords. Double-dated documents cover the period 471 to 402 BCE. From these it can be established that the Jews at Elephantine used reckoning similar to the Babylonian calendar. This included evening to evening days, a new year beginning in Nisan only after the Vernal Equinox, and the use of an intercalated sixth month. There was little, if any, difference between the Jewish and Persian reckoning.

The Jewish dating is given in the same sequence as contemporary portions of the Bible and Jewish documents of the second commonwealth: day-month-year. 11 This was unlike the contemporary Egyptian and Neo-Babylonian documents. It was also unlike the earlier Monarchy, year-month-day, indicating that this was not a continuation of the Exodus calendar.

The dating of most of the double-dated papyri is straightforward, although a few documents may contain scribal errors. The Jewish date can only be reconciled to the known Egyptian date by consistently using sunset reckoning. The reign of the Persian king is given according to Egyptian reckoning. The regnal year is one year higher than Persian reckoning when it falls between the Egyptian new year on Thoth 1 (December during the period) and the Persian new year on Nisanu 1 (March/April) . If the Jews had reckoned from Tishri then the Egyptian regnal year also would have been one year higher between Nisan and Tishri, or vise versa; this situation did not exist. Thus, the Jews reckoned the reigns of the Persian kings as from Nisan. This would be expected for a Persian military garrison.

There is one document, Kraeling 6, which has been interpreted to be reckoned from a Tishri new year.12 This conclusion is not necessary. The date is given as Pharmuthi 8 = Tammuz 8, year 3 of Darius II. This is one of only two documents that gives the year of reign after the Jewish date, instead of after the Egyptian date. However, Kraeling 6 is said to be the one exception to using the Egyptian regnal year. The reign in Egyptian year 3 by non-accession reckoning or Persian year 3 by accession reckoning would fall in 421 BCE, where no match of the two dates can be made. Pharmuthi 8 and Tammuz 8 do match in the evening of July 11 in the following year, 420 BCE. If one uses accession reckoning from Tishri then year 3 of Darius II would be in 420 BCE. Can we use this one example to establish Jewish dating from Tishri? It may be only a scribal error of writing the prior year 3 instead of 4, similar to errors on other documents. The other papyrus that gives the year after the Jewish date, Kraeling 1, can be interpreted correctly only by using the reign as according to Egyptian reckoning, and no match can be made using a Tishri new year. Would the document have been legal using only a Jewish year, and not the required Egyptian year, or at least the Persian year? This would not be expected. Nehemiah 1:1 and 2:1 has been used in support of this calendar using a Tishri new year, but this was shown above to be an unwarranted conclusion. One document by itself, interpreted as an exception, cannot prove that the Jews at Elephantine used a new year in Tishri.

The Jews of the period also recognized an intercalated month after Elul, or a second sixth month. For example, one Elephantine document, papyrus AP 6,13 equates Kislev 18 with Thoth [17], year 21, in the beginning of the reign of Artaxerxes. Day 17 of Thoth is restored, the only other possibilities being the seventh or fourteenth. This document must have been written shortly after the death of Xerxes in his twenty-first year and the accession of Artaxerxes I in December of 465 BCE. The Egyptian and Jewish dating match on January 2, 464 BCE. Of interest here is that according to the Babylonian calendar the previous Nisanu 1, or Nisan 1, began on March 24, 465 BCE. In that year there was an attested intercalated second Ululu after the sixth month.14 The Jews at Elephantine did intercalate a second Elul during this period, and perhaps the practice continued for some years.15

Almost all of the datable documents can be referred back to a Nisan beginning only after the Vernal Equinox exactly as the Babylonian calendar. There is one possible exception, Kraeling 8, where Tishri 6 = Payni 22, year 8 of Darius II.16 A match is achieved on October 22, 416 BCE if there was a scribal error where Payni 22 was actually the following Epiphi 22, or a match on September 22, 416 BCE if the Jewish month was Elul instead of Tishri. However, there is a match with no scribal error on September 22 if Tishri is measured by the reckoning of the Exodus calendar, where Nisan could begin before the Vernal Equinox.17 This would place Nisan 1 on March 26, 416 BCE, instead of matching Nisanu 1 on April 23 in that year. This scribe may have returned to the old reckoning, but a few following documents still refer to Babylonian dating from after the Vernal Equinox.

One document of 408 BCE to the Persian governor of Egypt informed him of the destruction of the local Jewish temple. In that document only the Jewish months are used without reference to an Egyptian date. The Jewish months must have been directly equivalent to the Babylonian/Persian months for use in a letter to a high Persian official.18

In the main the Elephantine papyri support that the Jews in the Egyptian Diaspora of the fifth century BCE used a calendar identical with the Babylonian calendar. The few possible exceptions, perhaps from scribal errors, do not support the use of a calendar similar to the Jews of the northern Diaspora, with its fall new year and no intercalated sixth month. An open question is whether the calendar on the papyri was used only for civil purposes,19 or was it also used for religious observances?

III. The Second Temple Calendar - Fifth Century BCE

The use of the Exile calendar that matched the Babylonian calendar must have been of short duration. Although the year still began in the spring, that calendar was different from the earlier Exodus calendar and all the Jewish calendars that followed. Jewish tradition has long denied the use of an intercalated second Elul (Rosh Hashanah 12b), but by the fifth century BCE this was a permanent feature of the Babylonian calendar. As will be discussed below, there is evidence from the first century CE that there was a "shift" in the Greek Syro-Macedonian calendar so that it matched the Jewish calendar instead of the Babylonian calendar. This implies that the Babylonian and Jewish calendars were already different, and the change probably occurred before Alexander the Great ever set troops in the Middle East.

The Jews who returned to Jerusalem did shift from the Exile calendar to what can be called the Second Temple calendar. This calendar was probably identical with the Exodus calendar excepting the names of the months. The Jews would have acquired some skill in calculating calendars from the Babylonians, but the extent of use is not known. The calendar would have included the beginning of the new year again within two weeks before or after the Vernal Equinox and the elimination of the intercalated sixth month, or second Elul. What caused the shift back to the old calendar reckoning?

After the return of the exiles from Babylon, they completed the Second Temple on Adar 3 of the sixth year of Darius (Ezra 6:15), or March 12, 515 BCE. They observed the Passover that year during the following Nisan (Ezra 6:19), which was still equivalent to Babylonian Nisanu. However, it was not until 445 BCE that the Jews again celebrated the Feast of Booths in the seventh month (Neh. 8:14), still equivalent to Babylonian reckoning. The next Babylonian intercalated second Ululu was in 408 BCE.20 It would have been apparent to the Jews that there could not be an extra month between the Passover in the first month and the Feast of Booths in the seventh month.21 The Jews must have eliminated the second Elul in 408 BCE and would have begun the following Nisan on March 16, a month earlier than Nisanu on April 14. The return to the Exodus calendar for festivals probably occurred about this time. No following Jewish second Elul is attested. It is also probable that these Jews would have reevaluated all of their calendar reckoning. They recognized at this time that Scripture and earlier tradition called for a day beginning at sunrise, as later observed by the Sadducees. This Second Temple calendar with a sunrise day and spring new year was in effect for festivals at least until the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, except for several disruptions.

IV. The Syro-Macedonian Calendar - Fourth Century BCE

In the late fourth century BCE Alexander the Great swept out of Macedonia, and the nations of the east fell before him. Little is known of the original calendar used in Macedonia, but the concern here is with its adaptation and use in the Middle East. After the death of Alexander his generals divided his empire, and the area of Syria and eastward eventually fell to Seleukos Nikator. Seleukos used the Macedonian lunar calendar. The following years of the Seleucid Era are dated from his accession that according to Babylonian or Jewish reckoning began in the spring of 311 BCE.22 The Syrian Greeks began their new year in the fall, and his year 1 is dated from the prior fall on Dios 1, 312 BCE. The later dating of coins confirms this. The kings of the Seleucid Empire used non-accession reckoning with the first partial year counted as year one. How did the widely used Syro-Macedonian calendar relate to the Jewish Second Temple calendar and Babylonian calendar? The answer to this question is important to one proof establishing the date of Jesus' birth.

Alexander died in Babylon on the Macedonian date Daisos 29.23 A Babylonian astronomical diary dates his death as, "Month II, Babylonian day 29, king died."24 In the year Alexander died, 323 BCE, the Macedonian month of Daisos and the Babylonian month of Aiaru coincided. The conclusion was that Syro-Macedonian and Babylonian calendars were, or became, identical, excepting when the year began.

The equivalence of the two calendars was seemingly demonstrated from three dates given by Ptolemy.25 These are Thoth 27 (Egyptian) = Appelaios 5 (Syro-Macedonian) , year 67 of the Seleucid Era; this calculated date of November 18, 245 BCE = Arahsamnu 5 (Babylonian) . Thoth 9 = Dios 14, year 75; October 29, 237 BCE = Tashritu 14. Tybi 14 = Xanthikos 5, year 82; March 1, 229 BCE = Addaru 5. Of note is the date in 227 BCE that follows an intercalated sixth month, or second Ululu.26 This was said to establish the Greek use of the Babylonian nineteen-year cycle and system of intercalation. The Macedonians already used a day measured from evening to evening. Except for the beginning of the new year and the month names, the Macedonian calendar of the early Seleucid Era has been reputed to match the Babylonian calendar.

In the first century CE a curious thing supposedly happened in the relationship of the Syro-Macedonian calendar to that of the Jews and Babylonians. In the fifth century BCE the Exile calendar of the Jews was for a time identical with the Babylonian calendar. Using the spring new year as a point of reference, Nisanu = Nisan (see Chart III). Then, by the end of the fourth century BCE the Macedonian calendar of the Seleucid Era was supposed identical with the Babylonian calendar, except that the Syro-Macedonian version began the new year in the fall, Dios 1. This made Artemisios = Nisanu. There is no verified equation of Artemisios = Nisan of the Jews during that Period. However, as will be discussed below, near the end of the first century CE Josephus equated Xanthikos = Nisan. This indicates a one-month shift of one or two of the three calendars. This calendar shift seems confirmed by Josephus by such as, "the people were come in great crowds to the feast of unleavened bread, on the eighth day of the month Xanthicus." (Wars VI 5:3) What happened to the calendar alignments?

The Syro-Macedonian calendar was supposedly equivalent to the Babylonian calendar from the time of Alexander down to the early first century CE. The sequence of coins from 15/16 CE from Seleucia27 on the Tigris fits the earlier correlation derived from Ptolemy, as discussed above. The coins are dated with the month and year from the reign of Artabanus II and to years 326 and 327 of the Seleucid Era. The coins contain the marks of two different controllers of the mint, which allows the sequence of the coins and dates to be laid out. The coins demonstrate that in 15 CE Artemisios = Nisanu of the Babylonians.

In Seleucia, again, were found another group of coins dated with both the year and month from the reign of Gotarzes II.28 These are dated to year 357 of the Seleucid Era, or 46/47 CE. These coins are in an uninterrupted sequence from Xanthikos to Hyperberataios only if the date "shift" has taken place and Xanthikos = Nisanu of the Babylonians. If the year was begun with Artemisios then there would be an unlikely break in the coin sequence with Xanthikos at the end. These few examples suggest that the Syro-Macedonian calendar shifted from the Babylonian months and became equivalent to the Jewish months sometime between 15 and 46 CE. The difference would still have been that the Jewish calendar began in the spring and the Syro-Macedonian calendar began in the fall.

At Dura-Europos a horoscope was found scratched on a plaster wall.29 From this it was found that Panemos 1 fell on June 25-26 in 176 CE. This date would have begun the fourth Babylonian month, Duzu. This would equate Xanthikos = Nisanu, again confirming the later shift.

The suggested reasons for the "shift" of the Syro-Macedonian calendar are speculative. These include a single unnecessary intercalation30 or confusion from the new calendar introduced by the Romans. The change has been suggested to have taken place earlier in the court at Antioch, but took time to spread to outlying areas. The early Christian community at Antioch contained many Jews. It was large and active, and their use of a Jewish version of the calendar may have influenced such a change.

However, it is here proposed that there was no shift of the Syro-Macedonian calendar and that the months were always about equivalent to the months of the Jewish Second Temple calendar. The problem lies in the Babylonian, Syro-Macedonian and Jewish months being about equal when the new moon occurs after the Vernal Equinox, from about March 24 onwards. However, when the new moon was observed during the prior two weeks, the months of the Syro-Macedonian and Jewish calendars occurred one month ahead of the Babylonian months. The presumed equivalence of the Syro-Macedonian calendar with the Babylonian calendar is derived from the initial equivalence of Daisos with Aiaru in 323 BCE, the year Alexander died. In that year Nisan 1 or Xanthikos 1 occurred on March 16, while Nisanu 1 began on April 15. Based on the assumption that this relationship always existed between the Babylonian and Syro-Macedonian calendars the dates given by Ptolemy were presumed to relate to Babylonian months. This was probably not so. The relationship of the seven dates discussed above are reinterpreted in Chart II. The letters "A" and "B" under "Vernal Equinox" refer to whether the new moon was visible "After" or "Before" the cutoff date of March 23/24.

Chart II
Syro-Macedonian Months from Seven Dates
Year Vernal
Equinox Nisan1
Xanthikos 1 Nisanu 1 Syro-Macedonian
Month Babylonian
Month
323 BCE B March 16 April 15 Daisos 29 Aiaru 29
245 BCE B March 23 April 22 Appelaios 5 Ara 5
237 BCE A March 25 March 25 Dios 14 Ara 14*
230 BCE** B March 9 April 8 Xanthikos 5 Addaru 5
15 CE B March 11 April 9 Artemisios Nisanu
46 CE A March 28 March 28 Xanthikos Nisanu
176 CE A March 29 March 29 Panemos Duzu
*It is here suggested that the Syro-Macedonian calendar did not acknowledge the second
Ululu, and the equivalent month in a normal year was Ara.
** Xanthikos 5 fell in the following Julian year, 229 BCE.

The months have now been reevaluated to equate the Syro-Macedonian month in permanent alignment with the Jewish months. This approach has the same initial weakness of presuming the alignment and then using that alignment to prove itself. However, here there is the added strength of eliminating the inexplicable calendar "shift," and this alignment is fully compatible with the calendar equivalence reported later by Josephus. The permanent alignment of the Jewish and Syro-Macedonian months is shown in Chart III. The Jewish month names are aligned with the original Babylonian month names when the new moon was observed during the two weeks after the Vernal Equinox, Column A. The Jewish and Syro-Macedonian months were shifted one month earlier than the Babylonian months when the new moon was observed during the two weeks before the Vernal Equinox, column B. The "before" column was applicable from March 23 or before since the earliest day of the Babylonian new year was March 24. This chart would be representative of a year when there was no intercalated extra month. The month of intercalation is indicated by (Inc), and the New Year by (NY).

Chart III
Jewish/Syro- Macedonian/ Babylonian Calendar Comparison
Jewish
Exodus Jewish
Second Temple Syro-Macedonian Babylonian A Babylonian B
Abib (NY) Nisan (NY) Xanthikos Nisanu (NY) Addaru (Inc)
Ziv Iyyar Artimisios (Inc) Aiaru Nisanu (NY)
Tsach Sivan Diasos Simanu Aiaru
IV Tammuz Panemos Duzu Simanu
V Ab Loos Abu Duzu
VI Elul Gorpiaios Ululu (Inc) Abu
Ethanim Tishri Hyperbertaios Tashritu Ululu (Inc)
Bul Marheshvan Dios (NY) Arahsamnu Tashritu
IX Kislev Appelaios Kislimu Arahsamnu
X Tebeth Audynaios Tebetu Kislimu
XI Shebat Peritios Shabatu Tebetu
XII (Inc?) Adar (Inc) Dystros Addaru (Inc) Nisanu

According to this arrangement the Syro-Macedonian new year on Dios 1 was equivalent to the eighth Jewish month of Marheshvan. The New Year began after the Autumnal Equinox, but not before as with Tishri. Since Josephus repeatedly equated Xanthikos with Nisan there was not likely an intercalated month between Dios and the sixth month of Xanthikos. The intercalated month was probably an extra seventh month of Artimisios. Plutarch (Alexander 16:2) related that before the Battle of Granicus in 334 BCE some of Alexander's officers wanted to avoid battle and "thought they ought to observe the customary practice in regard to the month, for in the month of Daesius the kings of Macedonia were not wont to take the field with an army. This objection Alexander removed by bidding them call the month a second Artemisius." 31 The avoidance of war in Daisos may be related to remaining at home for the harvest, although the second Artimisios was probably the normal intercalary month. However, the extra month was probably not actually required in 334 BCE. Also, an Egyptian papyrus of the second Century CE gives a date in terms of "the intercalary month Artemisios." 32 The Syro-Macedonian and Jewish Diaspora calendar months appear to have been about equivalent. Both may have intercalated in a nineteen year cycle that originated in Babylonia.33 Only the fall new year was one month apart, with a possible shift because of different months of intercalating. Both reckoned the day from sunset. Dating by the Seleucid Era of the Syrians was common Jewish practice, as will be seen in the books of Maccabees and Josephus. The use of the Syro-Macedonian calendar would have given weight to the Jews who supported the use of the Diaspora calendar.

V. The Jewish Seleucid Era - Second Century BCE

The Syro-Macedonian version of the Seleucid Era retained the earlier Greek new year in the fall. However, the Jews used a version of the Era that began the new year in the spring.34 This is shown in 1 Maccabees, which was originally written in Hebrew toward the end of the second century BCE. This book describes Antiochus IV Epiphanes' attempt to eradicate Judaism and his desecration of the Temple. An extant Greek version translates, "Early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, that is, the month of Kislev, in the year 148, they arose and offered sacrifice according to the law on the new altar of holocausts." (1 Macc. 4:52) This event is know today as Hanukkah, or the Feast of Dedication, and it occurred in December of 164 BCE.35 That year was year 148 only if measured from Nisan. If measured from Tishri, or Dios, the year would have been 149. Here, the Jews continued measuring from the first month being Nisan, as evidenced by Kislev being the ninth month. First Maccabees further notes that the Feast of Booths was in the seventh month (10:21), and Shebat is named as the eleventh month (16:14). The later book of 2 Maccabees also dates from Nisan, naming Adar as the twelfth month (15:36).

The Jewish use of the Seleucid Era dated from Nisan continued through the first century CE. In about 93 CE the Jewish historian Josephus recounted the same event, when, "on the twenty-fifth of the month Casleu, which the Macedonians call Appelleus, they lighted the lamps . . . the twenty-fifth of the month Appelleus, in the 148th year, and on the 154th Olympiad." (Ant. XII 7:6) Again, this can only be the 148th year if the new year began in Nisan. December of 164 BCE fell in the first year of the 154th Olympiad. Josephus consistently dated from the spring for all his dating,36 and this after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

VI. The Jewish Calendar Controversy - Second Century BCE

After Alexander the Great died in 323 BCE his generals divided the empire. Ptolemy took Egypt and brought Judea under his control. The descendants of Seleukos Nikator ruled Syria, and they eventually gained control of Judea in 198 BCE. The Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes determined to Hellenize his territories, and he outlawed Judaism. There followed the death of many loyal Jews and finally the desecration of the Temple in 167 BCE. Then Antiochus would have initiated the use of the Syro-Macedonian calendar to replace the Second Temple calendar.37

Judas Maccabee arose against the Syrians to cleanse the Temple in 164 BCE. The rededication was on Kislev 25, the same day as the desecration and the monthly celebration of Antiochus' birthday.38 The Judeans had won for themselves a measure of independence. They would likely have returned to the Second Temple calendar at that time, perhaps over the objections of some Jews.

The trauma of the Jewish persecutions and "abomination of desolation" in the Temple led the Judeans to examine again their beliefs and practices. Where had they gone wrong to have brought God's wrath upon them? The religious debate splintered the Jews. Soon after this event Josephus noted that "there were three sects among the Jews, who had different opinions concerning human action." (Ant. XIII 5:9) The Syrian desecration of the Temple crystallized the three sects at that time.

The Sadducees strictly followed the five books of Moses, and believed that evil was due to man's own folly. They continued the use of the Second Temple calendar that was a reflection of the Exodus calendar described in the Pentateuch.

The Pharisees39 followed Scripture and the oral traditions of the elders; they believed that God sometimes intervened in world events. They used the Diaspora calendar.

The Essenes40 followed Scripture and the "revelations" of their Teacher of Righteousness, who was perhaps their messiah who heralded the End of Days.41 They believed that the will of God controlled all events. They valued asceticism and lived the lifestyle of a priest.42 They used the Jubilee calendar, as will be discussed in the following section. The Essenes have also been equated with the Hasideans who joined Judas in the revolt (1 Macc. 2:42) and later accepted Alcimis as the Priest of Aaron (1 Macc. 7:13-14). They have also been equated with the later Herodians, perhaps incorrectly. 43

The calendar differences between the three sects were crucial. Each calendar often yielded different dates for the required feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. If the Second Temple calendar was again used in 164 BCE the situation probably soon changed. The High Priest, Alcimis died in the second month of year 153 (1 Macc. 9:54), or May of 159 BCE. From this time until Jonathan became High Priest in October of 152 there was no High Priest for eight years (Ant. XIII 2:3). What happened at the Temple in Jerusalem?

For two years Judah was undisturbed, and then the brothers of Judas Maccabee withdrew from Jerusalem. It has been suggested that at that time the Teacher of Righteousness of the Essenes assumed the High Priesthood, and the Jubilee calendar was used in the Temple.44 Such seems a probable solution to the control of the Temple during this period. The omission of such a fact in later Jewish writings would not be surprising, considering this might be viewed by many as another desecration, this time by Jews. Control of the Temple ritual was short lived, and many Essenes later withdrew to Qumran near the Dead Sea,45 where evidence of their calendar has been found.46

The Essene reaction is partly found in the Book of Jubilees, which was written within a decade of 150 BCE.47 It contains several tirades against those who followed a lunar calendar and rejects that calendar, noting that "I (the angel of God) shall command you (Moses) and I shall bear witness to you so that you may bear witness to them because after you have died your sons will be corrupted so that they will not make a year only 364 days." (Jubilees 6:38) The Jubilee calendar is also described in the book of 1 Enoch that was last revised48 about 110 BCE.49 The dispute over correct religious dating at the Temple was left to the Sadducees and Pharisees.

The Syrian King Alexander made Jonathan High Priest, and he "put on the sacred vestments in the seventh month of the year 160, on the festival of Tabernacles, " (1 Macc. 10:21) or October of 152 BCE. The Hasmonean rulers wavered between support of the Sadducees and Pharisees. Jonathan initially sided with the Pharisees, and it is likely that the Diaspora calendar would have been adopted for use in the Temple.

The Pharisees ran afoul of the High Priest, John Hyrcanus, who ruled from 134 to 104 BCE (1 Macc. 16:14). Hyrcanus was influenced to "leave the party of the Pharisees, and abolish the decrees they had imposed on the people, and punish those that observed them." (Ant. XIII 10:6) Hyrcanus and the Sadducees would have also abolished the use of the Diaspora calendar and returned to the Second Temple calendar.

After the death of Alexander Jannais in 76 BCE his Queen Alexandra, "restored again those practices which the Pharisees had introduced, according to the traditions of their forefathers, and which her father-in-law, Hyrcanus, had abrogated." (Ant. XIII 16:2; Wars I 5:2) The bitterness of the dispute can be found in that six of the seven feast days of the Pharisees celebrate victories over the Sadducees.50 The calendar controversy was again resolved in favor of the Pharisees and the Diaspora calendar.

However, this situation was probably short lived as the rise of Aristobulus to power in 67 BCE again returned the Sadducees to favor. The priests of the Sadducees then controlled the Second Temple until its destruction in 70 CE. The probable calendars used at the Jerusalem Temple can be summarized as follows:

Chart IV
Calendars Probable at the Jerusalem Temple
Years Calendar System
ca.408-167 Second Temple calendar
167-164 Syro-Macedonian calendar
164-157 Second Temple calendar
157-152 Jubilee calendar
152-134 Diaspora calendar
134-76 Second Temple calendar
76-67 Diaspora calendar
BCE 67-70 CE Second Temple calendar

VII. The Jubilee Calendar - Second Century BCE

The Essene calendar of Jubilees was probably part of a personal "revelation, " recorded within a decade or two after the cleansing of the Temple by Judas Maccabee.52 This calendar is described toward the end of the century in the book of 1 Enoch. Enoch "was the first who learned writing and knowledge and wisdom, from (among) the sons of men . . . who wrote in a book the signs of the heaven according to the order of their months, so that the sons of man might know the (appointed) times of the years according to their order, with respect to each of their months . . . And the weeks according to jubilees he recounted; and the days of the years he made known." (Jubilees 4:17-18)

This Jubilee calendar began in the spring at the Vernal Equinox (1 Enoch 72; Jubilees 7:2), but only on a Wednesday.53 It was a fixed solar calendar of 364 days in four quarters of thirteen weeks; the months sequenced as 30, 30, and 31 days per quarter (1 Enoch 72; Jubilees 6:29-32). The day began at sunset (Jubilees 49:1-2). The calendar was fixed from year to year as follows:54

Chart V
Jubilee Calendar
Months: I, IV, VII, & X II, V, VIII, & XI III, VI, IX, & XII
Wednesday
1

8

15

22

29

6

13

20

27

4

11

18

25
Thursday
2

9

16

23

30

7

14

21

28

5

12

19

26
Friday
3

10

17

24

1

8

15

22

29

6

13

20

27
Saturday
4

11

18

25

2

9

16

23

30

7

14

21

28
Sunday
5

12

19

26

3

10

17

24

1

8

15

22

29
Monday
6

13

20

27

4

11

18

25

2

9

17

23

30
Tuesday
7

14

21

28

5

12

19

26

3

10

18

24

31

This calendar fell one and a quarter days short of a solar year and would have soon receded from beginning at the Vernal Equinox, or about a month every twenty-four years. One would expect that there was some sort of intercalation to adjust periodically to the solar year, but Enoch states, "the year is completed scrupulously in 364 fixed stations of the cosmos." (1 Enoch 75:2-3) Any intercalation would upset those fixed positions. Only the 364-day year is to be used, even to all the generations. One cannot presume that an intercalation was used, and the resultant calendar shift would have contributed to the general rejection of the Essene doctrine. As such, they were probably viewed by most priests as a cult, and the Essenes imposed self-exile to the wilderness. Their polemics against the establishment and its lunar calendar are reminiscent of present day religious cults with their withdrawal from society, special insights, revelations into the dating of the advent of God's Messiah, or other supposed requirements of personal salvation.

There is no evidence of intercalation in the Jubilee calendar, but it is noted that the calendar is under "the dominion of the sun." (Jubilees 4:21; see also 2:9) Thus, several possible schemes of intercalation have been proposed. One method of adjusting for the missing one and a quarter days in the solar year has been suggested as intercalating five weeks during a twenty-eight year cycle.55 More interesting is the suggestion that after seven Sabbatical years, or forty-nine years, that seven weeks, or forty-nine days, were added, and "these days were called a `year' and named the Jubilee Year."56 However, the easiest solution would have been to add one week as required to maintain the New Year as beginning on Wednesday at about the Vernal Equinox. All of this is speculation.

The Jubilee new year began only on a Wednesday, the fourth day of creation week when God created the sun.57 Then the Passover lamb was always slain on the afternoon of Tuesday, Nisan 14. That evening began Wednesday, Nisan 15, when the Passover meal was eaten, and that day of the week was holy. However, the Essenes did not discern that the first Passover could not have occurred on Wednesday. In the year of the Exodus Zif 15 must fall on Saturday;58 this preceded the first week of manna and the first Sabbath rest (Exod. 16:1-13). If Abib in the Exodus year was thirty days long (a requirement of the Jubilee calendar), then the first Passover on Nisan 15 fell on Thursday. If it was a twenty-nine day lunar month then Passover was on Friday. The first Passover must have been on Thursday or Friday, but never on Wednesday. Yet, the Essenes condemned their fellow Jews as lost because they observed the required festivals on the `wrong' days of the week. The use of this calendar virtually disappeared after the destruction of Qumran in 70 CE.

VIII. The Jewish Legal Calendar - Second Century BCE

Legal contracts were dated from Nisan from the time of Simon the High Priest in 142 BCE. First Maccabees reads: "In the year 170, (142 BCE) the yoke of the Gentiles was lifted from Israel, and the people began to write as the dating formula in bills and contracts, `In the first year, under Simon, high priest, commander, and chief of the Jews.'" (1 Macc. 13:41-42) Further, "On the eighteenth of Elul in the year 172 (140 BCE), which is the year 3 under Simon, high priest . . . all contracts in our country be drawn up in his name." (1 Macc. 14:27, 43) Simon came to power after Tishri, in the winter (Ant. XIII 6:6-7) of 142 BCE. The reference to Elul in 140 BCE is before Tishri and would only be the second year if reckoned from a Tishri new year. If the year is reckoned from Nisan, as was the Jewish Seleucid Era, it is correctly the third year. Therefore, legal contracts according to the era of Simon were dated from Nisan.

The written record continues to support Nisan as the official beginning of the new year on into the first and second centuries of the Christian Era. This will be further discussed in the following chapter.

Notes:

1. R. A. Parker & W. H. Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C.-A.D. 75 (Providence: Brown Univ. Press, 1956), 31.

2. Ezra noted the Feast of Booths in the seventh month (3:4-5) and that the new moon festival was still being observed. Also, Passover was in the first month (6:19).

3. Nehemiah 8:14-18 notes that the Feast of Booths was observed in the seventh month.

4. The writer of Esther equated four months with their position according to the spring new year, noted in 2:16, 3:7, 3:13, 8:9, 8:12 and 9:1.

5. Zechariah identified Shebat as the eleventh month (1:7) and Kislev as the ninth month (7:1).

6. Parker & Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology, 17.

7. S. J. Horn & L. H. Wood, "The Fifth-Century Jewish Calendar at Elephantine, " JNES 13 (1954), Papyrus AP6.

8. With a Tishri new year the following Nisan of his twentieth year would fall incorrectly in 444 BCE.

9. Horn & Wood, "Elephantine. "

10. J. Morgenstern, "The Three Calendars of Ancient Israel," HUCA 1 (1924), 21.

11. B. Porten, Archives from Elephantine (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press, 1968), 196-197.

12. Horn & Wood, "Elephantine, " 14-16.

13. Horn & Wood, "Elephantine, " 8-9.

14. Parker & Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology, 6, 31.

15. B. Z. Wacholder & D. B. Weisberg, "Visibility of the New Moon in Cuneiform and Rabbinic Sources," HUCA 42 (1971), 237.

16. Horn & Wood, "Elephantine, " 16-17.

17. In 416 BCE the Vernal Equinox fell on about March 27. The calendar drift that required the change to the Gregorian calendar occurs in reverse as the Julian calendar is artificially projected backwards.

18. J. Morgenstern, "Supplementary Studies in the Calendars of Ancient Egypt," HUCA 10 (1935), 111.

19. E. J. Bickerman, Chronology of the Ancient World 2nd ed. (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1980), 25.

20. Parker & Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology, 6, 33.

21. In the present Jewish Civil Calendar the number of days from Nisan 1 to Tishri 1 is fixed at 177 days.

22. M. J. Geller, "Babylonian Astronomical Diaries and Corrections of Diodorus," BSOAS 53, 1 (1990), 2 places the dating of the era from Simanu or Duzu, in June/July of 311 BCE.

23. Plutarch, Alexander 75. The dates of Daisos 28 (Alexander 76) and Daisos 30 (Aristobulus) are also reported. The date of the twenty-eighth mentions that he died towards evening, and the twenty-ninth began at sunset. The thirtieth has been explained by Daisos being a 29-day month and the numbering of the day skipping from the twenty-eighth to the last day being the thirtieth. See Bickerman, Chronology of the Ancient World, 38.

24. A. E. Samuel, Greek and Roman Chronology (Munich: Oscar Beck, 1972), 141.

25. Samuel, Chronology, 140.

26. Parker & Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology, 6, 39.

27. J. Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1964), 63-65; Samuel, Chronology 143.

28. Finegan, Biblical Chronology, 66; Samuel, Chronology, 143.

29. Finegan, Biblical Chronology, 65-66; Samuel, Chronology, 142.

30. Bickerman, Chronology, 25.

31. Finegan, Biblical Chronology, 59-60.

32. Finegan, Biblical Chronology, 59-60.

33. Wacholder & Weisberg, "Visibility of the New Moon," 241.

34. The dating in 1 Maccabees is often understood that Syrian events used the Syro-Macedonian Seleucid Era from the fall of 312 BCE, and Jewish events used the Babylonian Seleucid Era from the spring of 311 BCE. See J. A. Goldstein, I Maccabees (Garden City: Doubleday, 1976), 23-25. However, the Jewish rather than the Babylonian months are named, and these calendars were not equivalent. The Jewish Seleucid Era from the spring would be a more accurate designation. This writer suggests that all dating in Maccabees is reckoned from Nisan of 311 BCE.
L. L. Grabbe, "Maccabean Chronology: 167-164 or 168-165 BCE," JBL 110, 1 (1991) attempts to establish Jewish dating from the spring of 312 BCE and the first Hanukkah in 165 BCE. This is not consistent with Geller's (note 22) dating the era from June/July of 311 BCE. The approach is also taken that all dating is from the fall Macedonian new year, and the first Hanukkah fell in 165 instead of 164 BCE. See J. C. Vanderkam, "Hanukkah: Its Timing and Significance According to 1 and 2 Maccabees," JSP 1 (1987).

35. Bickerman, Chronology, 189.

36. For example, Ant. III 10:3 and 10:5 for festivals, XI 5:4 for events and for reigns of rulers such as Herod the Great, XIV 14:5, XIV 16:2 and XVII 8:1 in context.

37. This has been explained as the fulfillment of "alterations in times" in Dan. 7:25.

38. J. C. Vanderkam, "2 Maccabees 6, 7A and Calendarical Change in Jerusalem," JSJ 12 (1981).

39. The Pharisees were a lay scribal movement that emerged to challenge the priests with oral traditions, but this process was not complete by the second century BCE. See S. N. Mason, "Priesthood in Josephus and the `Pharisaic Revolution', " JBL 107 (1988). E. Rivkin, "Beth Din, Boule, Sanhedrin: A Tragedy of Errors," HUCA 46 (1975), 195 notes further that the Pharisees are nowhere to be found in Ben Sira or any pre-Hasmonean source, and the Beth Din, a purely Pharisee religious assembly, was not known before the Hasmonean Era. However, H. Mantel, "The Dichotomy of Judaism During the Second Temple," HUCA 44 (1973) concludes the split begun with Ezra, Nehemiah and the sons of Golah who returned from Babylon, who became the Hasidim and later the Pharisees.

40. The conservative Essenes were probably a direct outgrowth of the "abomination of desolation" in 167 BCE. Josephus reported the division of the sects at the time this occurred, as may be inferred from his later addition of a fourth sect at the time that sect was formed (Ant. XVIII 1:2-6; Wars II 8:1-14). L. H. Schiffman, "The New Halakhic Letter (4QMMT) and the Origins of the Dead Sea Sect," BA 53, 2 (1990), 69 concludes that "The earliest members of the sect must have been Sadducees who were unwilling to accept the situation that came into being in the aftermath of the Maccabean revolt (162-164 B.C.E.)." These were probably the "sons of Zadok" whom the Maccabees replaced as high priest.

41. P. R. Davies, "The Teacher of Righteousness and the "End of Days,"" RQ 49-52 (1988). In "Qumran and Apocalyptic or Obscurum Per Obscurius," JNES 49, 2 (1990) Davies later notes the confusion in current scholarship created by associating an apocalyptic community with Qumran.

42. J. Kampen, "A Reconsideration of the Name "Essene" in Greco-Jewish Literature in Light of the Recent Perceptions of the Qumran Sect," HUCA 57 (1986).

43. W. Braun, "Were the New Testament Herodians Essenes? A Critique of an Hypothesis," RQ 53 (1989).

44. Vanderkam, "2 Maccabees," 72.

45. For example, P. R. Davies, Qumran (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1983) places the establishment of an Essene community at Qumran in about 150-142 BCE. However, N. Golb, "Khirbet Qumran and the Manuscripts of the Judaean Wilderness: Observations on the Logic of Their Investigation, " JNES 49, 2 (1990) notes the thin evidence that connects the Essenes with Qumran.

46. Finegan, Biblical Chronology, 44-57.

47. O. S. Wintermute, trans., "Jubilees," The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Vol. 2 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1985), 43-44.

48. According to J. T. Milik the oldest Aramaic version dates from the late third or early second century BCE. Reported by Vanderkam, "2 Maccabees," 56.

49. Isaac, trans., "1 Enoch," The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Vol. 1 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983), 7.

50. Found in the Megillat Ta'anit. See H. Lichtenstein, "Die Fastenrolle Eine Untersuchung Zur Judisch-Hellenistis chen Geschichte," HUCA 8-9 (1931-32).

51. Ant. XIII 16:2 notes Aristobulus supported the Sadducees against his mother.

52. The Essene calendar was not a revival of the Exodus calendar or of that used during the First Temple period. It is often projected back to explain its later use by the Qumran sect.

53. Finegan, Biblical Chronology, 53-55.

54. A. Jaubert, "Le Calendrier des Jubiles et les Jours Liturigiques de la Semaine," VT 7 (1957), 35.

55. Finegan, Biblical Chronology, 56.

56. S. Zeitlin, Studies in the Early History of Judaism (New York: KTAV, 1973), 194-211.

57. The present Jewish calendar specifies that Nisan 1 cannot fall on Sunday, Wednesday or Friday.

58. J. C. Vanderkam, "The Origin, Character, and Early History of the 364-Day Calendar: A Reassessment of Jaubert's Hypotheses," CBQ 41 (1979), 395, suggests that II 15 was a Friday and that the people complained for two days. This attempts to defeat a straightforward reading of Scripture which here establishes the exact dating of the first Sabbath. Also, there is no evidence that this modern equivocation, or the need for it, was known to the Essenes.

Chapter 3
CALENDARS OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA

The stage is now set to examine the calendar conditions in Jerusalem when Jesus preached and healed.

I. The Second Adar - First Century CE

The adjustment of the lunar calendar to the solar year was becoming more accurate. The beginning of the year in Nisan could be adjusted to fall closer to the Vernal Equinox, which marked the beginning of spring. This was done by the intercalation, or addition, of a thirteenth month, or a second Adar. By the first century CE it was well known that the solar year was 365¼ days, as is evident in the Roman use of the Julian calendar. By this time the Jews were also able to calculate the date of the Vernal Equinox,1 and the addition of a second Adar could be known in advance. Philo (De Spec. Legg. 2:8; De Opificio Mundi 39) and Josephus (Ant. III 10:5) reported Nisan occurring when the sun was in Aries, so the month could be predicted by observation of the stars. Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History VII 32) quotes Aristobulos of Paneas2 as, "In celebrating Passover it is necessary not only for the sun but also the moon to have passed through the equinoctial segment." This means the full moon of Passover must occur after the Vernal Equinox, as in the present calculation of Easter. However, the month might still begin up to two weeks earlier.

The Jews did begin Nisan before the Vernal Equinox. This is confirmed by the later Rabbinical instruction of the early fourth century that, "When you see that the tequphah of Tebeth3 will extend to the sixteenth day of Nisan, declare that year embolismic without hesitation." (BT, Rosh Hashanah 21a) According to this instruction Nisan 1 could occur up to fifteen days before the Vernal Equinox, or in the first century CE as early as March 10. Thus, Nisan would begin with the first new moon following March 10, or not later than April 8. The second Adar was intercalated every two or three years as required. There was some variation possible for the late ripening of the barley or the approach of a Sabbatical year. Unlike the Babylonian calendar that only began Nisanu after the Vernal Equinox, the Second Temple calendar began Nisan with the new moon closest to the equinox, or up to two weeks before or after the opening of spring.

II. The Sunrise Day - First Century CE

Josephus uses a sunrise day in describing the Passover in, "leaving nothing of what we sacrifice till the day following." (Ant. III 10:5, also Deut. 16:4) The lamb is sacrificed in the afternoon; if the next day began at sunset before the Passover meal this would present a contradiction. The use of sunrise reckoning is also found in the Jewish oral traditions from the end of the first century CE recorded in the Mishna, which states, "for all [offerings] that must be consumed `the same day', the duty last until the rise of dawn." (Berakoth 1:1) Since the references are to sacrifices conducted at the Temple, then the priests must be following the sunrise Second Temple calendar.

The use of the sunrise day is also found in the New Testament. John described resurrection morning with, "Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb." (John 20:1) Later that same day, after dark, "When therefore it was evening, on that day the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut. . . Jesus came and stood in their midst." (John 20:19) John describes the same first day of the week, Sunday, as occurring both before and after sunset. This can only be with a sunrise day, unless he was using Roman reckoning from Midnight. John did not use evening reckoning for his days. There are many other references that seem to support sunrise reckoning, but none are conclusive. The Second Temple calendar appears to have also been used by John's Jewish community in Jerusalem.

III. The Spring New Year - First Century CE

Josephus consistently dated his months from Nisan, and the equivalence of the months of the Second Temple calendar and the Syro-Macedonian calendar is repeatedly confirmed.4 The use of the spring new year is also found in the dating of the coins of the revolt against Rome from 66 to 70 CE. Coins of the revolt are found dated year 5, which is correct when reckoned from Nisan.5 With Tishri reckoning there were only four years. The spring new year of the Sadducees was the official reckoning.

The New Testament makes frequent references to Jewish festivals, but the relative month is not given. The only reference to a numbered month is to the Annunciation in the "sixth month," (Luke 1:26) a probable reference to Luke's Syro-Macedonian calendar.6

During this same period it is also known that many early Jews used the Diaspora calendar. This calendar was similar to the Syro-Macedonian calendar, with a fall new year and evening reckoning for days. The Pharisees and many common people observed this calendar of the dispersion. The use of this unofficial reckoning was widespread, including its observance by many in Jerusalem. It became the basis of today's Jewish civil calendar.

IV. The Diaspora Calendar - First Century CE

In the later Diaspora there developed the tradition of observing some festivals two days in a row. These included Rosh Hashanah, the Tishri new year, and festivals such as the Feast of Unleavened Bread.7 The double observance compensated for the difference in calendars and locations. This ensured that Passover was celebrated on the correct day throughout the Diaspora. The second day was a bonus. This subject is discussed in detail in the chapter, "The Two Passovers."

With the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and the disappearance of the Temple rites, the ecclesiastical Second Temple calendar was soon lost to most Jews. They did not adopt the calendar of their Roman conquerors, but soon shifted to the use of the luni-solar Diaspora calendar. This included the new year in the fall month of Tishri and the day reckoned from sunset. An important characteristic of this calendar was that it was at this time still based on observation of the moon.

V. The Bar Kokhba Revolt - Second Century CE

The use of the spring new year continued into the second century CE.8 During the years 133-135 CE Bar Kokhba (Son of a Star)9 led the last Jewish revolt against Rome. That rebellion again ended in disaster for the Jewish people and split them from their Christian brothers. The war ended with the fall of Bethar, followed by the slaughter of Jewish men, women and children exceeding 580,000 (Dio Cassius, Roman History LXIX 14:1) and the banishment of the survivors from Jerusalem. Near the end many refugees, especially from En-gedi, hid in caves above the Dead Sea. The Romans tracked down these rebels, laid siege to the caves, and slew all. These caves have been excavated, and have yielded many documents that give some flavor of the dating of the period.10 To understand the dating of these documents requires a look first to the dating of the rebellion.

The third-century Christian historian, Eusebius, gave specific dating of the rebellion. He wrote that the end of the war was "during the eighteenth year of the reign of Hadrian in Beththera." (Ecclesiastical History IV 6) Eusebius also recorded in his Chronicles that the revolt ended in Hadrian's eighteenth year and began in his sixteenth year. Trajan died on August 8, 117 CE, and Hadrian succeeded as emperor later that month. Hadrian's eighteenth year was from August 134 to August 135 CE.11 The last Jewish stronghold, Bethar, fell to the Romans on Ab 9 (Mishna, Ta'anit 4:6). In 134 CE Ab 9 fell on July 19, too early to have been in Hadrian's eighteenth year. Ab 9 in 135 CE fell on August 7, still a few days within the eighteenth year. On August 7, 135 CE Bar Kokhba was killed and the rebellion crushed.

The beginning of the rebellion was in Hadrian's sixteenth year, from August 132 to August 133 CE. The Talmud says that "Bar Koziba reigned two and a half years." (Sanhedrin 93b, 97b) Two and a half years before August of 135 would be in early 133, which falls in the sixteenth year of Hadrian.12 This may indicate the Jew's capture of Jerusalem, with the rebellion having begun somewhat earlier,13 probably as a peasant revolt.14 After a period of a year or more of freedom fighters assaulting the Romans from hideaways, the Jews likely captured Jerusalem by early 133 CE. The Romans retook Jerusalem in early 134, since Hadrian returned to Rome by May 5 of that year.15 The siege and capture of Bethar then marked the end of the revolt in 135 CE.

Later Midrash says that the revolt lasted over three years, saying, "for three and a half years the Emperor Hadrian surrounded Bethar." (Lamentations Rabbah II 2:4; see also PT, Ta'anit 69b and Seder Olam Rabbah 30) However, Bethar was not under siege three years. Such dating is possibly an attempt to justify a claim for Bar Kokhba as messiah using Daniel's "time, times and half a time."16 Even the two and a half years have been explained as a different rabbinic understanding of Daniel 12:7.17 However, the explanation may simply be that the three and a half years were the length of the war and the time Hadrian surrounded Judea, as symbolized by Bethar; the two and a half years were the time from the capture of Jerusalem and the time that Bar Kokhba led the Jews as general.

The coins of Bar Kokhba can support the above dating. His coins are mostly struck over Roman coins dated in 131 and 132 CE.18 The capture of Jerusalem fits in early 133, prior to the issue of any intended new Roman coinage for that year. Coins of Bar Kokhba are known only dated to years 1 and 2 of the rebellion. The coins of year 1 appear to have been struck for the Succot holiday, Pentecost,19 which fell about June 2 in 133 CE. The coins of year 2 would have likely been struck in Nisan of 134 CE. However, Jerusalem's defenses were in ruins, and the retreat to Bethar was probably shortly after the beginning of that new year. There are undated coins that have been attributed to a year 3, but such is only speculation. They might have been struck before the capture of Jerusalem at the beginning of the revolt, or undated copies from years 1 or 2. The rebellion can best be dated to a beginning in early 133, the capture of Jerusalem after Nisan in 133, and the disastrous finish on that fateful day, Ab 9, or August 7, 135 CE.

Documents from the caves of the refugees were found written in Hebrew, Greek and Nabataean. A typical Greek document is dated: "In the ninth year of Imperator Traianus Hadrianus Caesar Augustus, in the consulship of M. Valerius Asiaticus II and Titus Aquilinus (125 CE), IV Id. October (four days before the ides of October, or October 12), and according to the era of the Provincia Arabia Twentieth Year on the twenty-fourth of the month of Hyperberetaius which is called Tishri."20 In addition to the Roman dating, we find the same alignment of the Syro-Macedonian and Jewish months as described by Josephus.

Of more interest is a Hebrew document that is dated from the year of the liberation of Israel by Bar Kokhba that mentions a Sabbatical year. The document reads, in part, "On the twentieth of Shevat, Year 2 of the liberation of Israel by Shimeon ben Kosiba, President of Israel. . . . This land I have leased from you as from today until the end of the eve of the shemittah, which are five complete years, that is harvest-fiscal years."21 The shemittah is the remission, or Sabbatical, year.

Year 2 is akin to a regnal year for Bar Kokhba and matches the dating on the coins. It is, thus, measured from the new year in Nisan of 133 CE. There was the expectation that Israel would remain free, since the writer expected the contract to still be in effect five years later. However, if Year 2 was measured from Tishri, then it would only be necessary to describe the end of the contract as the end of Year 6, since Year 7 would coincide with the Sabbatical year. Instead the contract refers to "harvest-fiscal" years that would begin in Tishri, to distinguish from the year of liberation under Bar Kokhba, as measured from Nisan. Thus, it is possible to identify how the Sabbatical year fell during the revolt.

From this document it is possible to find the years of the Bar Kokhba revolt from the Sabbatical year. This is laid out on Chart VI. N = Nisan; T = Tishri; C = Contract written in the eleventh month of Shebat; Hl, H2, H3, H4, and H5 = Harvest Years; S = Sabbatical year (no harvest). The discussion follows.

Chart VI
The Bar Kokhba Revolt and the Sabbatical Year

Sabbatical years fell in 132/133 and 139/140 CE. This historical sequence is well attested.22 One passage in the Talmud says that the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE was, "at the end of the seventh year." (`Arakin 11b; see also 12b.) This was the year 69/70 measured from Tishri, and the Sabbatical year before the Bar Kokhba rebellion then fell in 132/133. Three earlier dates in 1 Maccabees and Josephus confirm this sequence of Sabbatical years as correct.23 Thus, Year 1 of the Bar Kokhba revolt was then in 133/134 CE, measured from Nisan, since from Year 2 this would leave five harvests until the next Sabbatical year.24

The Bar Kokhba revolt is usually measured from 132, or even the autumn of 131 CE. This may be arrived at by several methods. First, there are the late references to the revolt having lasted three and a half years, and this is backdated from its conclusion in 135 CE. However, this time may be given without mention of the conflicting two and a half year war according to the Babylonian Talmud. Also, Eusebius' beginning in Hadrian's year 16 must be discounted or emended. The references in the Talmud and Eusebius suggest the revolt, at least measured from the capture of Jerusalem, did not begin before early 133 CE.

A second method of beginning the revolt early is by counting the years of Bar Kokhba from Tishri. Then the following five years from Year 2 of the above contract would become Years 3 to 7 of Bar Kokhba. The Sabbatical year would coincide with Year 8, with Year 1 being 132/133. This year has also been arrived at by using a different translation of the destruction of the Second Temple: "in a year following a Sabbatical Year." (Ta'anith 29a)25 This would place the Sabbatical year in 68/69,26 and again in 131/132. However, here the five harvests are correctly noted in Years 2 to 6, and 131/132 was the year before Year 1. Thus, 132/133 is again incorrectly said to be Year 1 of the revolt. If the destruction of the Second Temple took place at the end of a Sabbatical year, then Year 1 of the Bar Kokhba revolt is to be measured from Nisan of 133 CE.

A possible difficulty in beginning the revolt in 133 CE is found in a single document dated, "21 Tishri, year 4 of the Redemption of Israel."27 This has been suggested as a scribal error. However, for those who date the revolt from Nisan of 132 this must be dated after the fall of Bethar in 135, although the war was essentially over. This would be the only document to survive during the last six months of the revolt. If the scribe counted the years from Tishri, then it was correctly Year 4 from the suggested beginning in Nisan of 133 (backdated to Tishri of 132). This was still after the fall of Bethar in 135. The document has also been dated to 134, based on incorrectly dating the Sabbatical year in 131/132 and Tishri reckoning. The interpretation of this document is less than certain. It may be dated from the earlier stages of the rebellion, dated in a provincial town after the rebellion, or represent the continuing change from Nisan to Tishri reckoning.

The Bar Kokhba revolt is to be measured from the capture of Jerusalem in about April/May of 133 to August 7, 135 CE. The underground rebellion began somewhat earlier. The year of coins and reign was reckoned from the Nisan new year, still in accord with the Second Temple calendar.28

VI. The Present Jewish Calendar

The use of the Diaspora calendar with the equivalent Syro-Macedonian months allowed the Jews to communicate with common dates. This became the generally used Jewish calendar, with the day measured from sunset. The Nisan new year was still acknowledged for festivals. However, it had long been known that the time of visibility of the new moon at different locations sometimes caused the festivals to fall on different days in different cities. In the Seleucid year 670, 358/359 CE, Hillel introduced the present calendar based on calculation, and the observation of the new moon was no longer necessary.29 This present calendar is no longer a true luni-solar calendar, but an artificial solar one. The new year in Tishri is calculated in a set pattern and the months have a set number of days. The day begins at sunset. And that is the way it is today.30

VII. Summary

The stages of the evolution of the Jewish calendar are laid out in Chart VII. For the new year, A = Abib, or the later Nisan that began before or after the Vernal Equinox; B = Babylonian reckoning with Nisanu, or Nisan, beginning only after the Vernal Equinox; T = Tishri based on observation; TC = Tishri calculated according to the present civil calendar; D = Dios, equivalent to the eighth month of Heshvan. The intercalary month is counted from the appropriate new year.

It would appear that a Jewish calendar that begins the new year in the spring and the day at sunrise best fits as the calendar used in Scripture. Religious observances at the Temple were according to this calendar. A calendar using a fall new year and a day beginning at sunset was widely used from early times. This eventually became the base for the present Jewish calendar. These calendars were also influenced by the Babylonian and Syro-Macedonian calendars. From this perspective the question, "when?" is better understood in researching the early history of the Middle East.

Chart VII
Summary of Calendars
Calendar System Approximate Dates of Use New
Year Day Intercalary
Month
Exodus Exodus-586 BCE A Sunrise 12th
Diaspora 722 BCE-359 CE T Sunset 6th
Exile 585 BCE-409 BCE B Sunset 6th or 12th
Second Temple 408 BCE-70+ CE with interruptions A Sunrise 12th
Jewish (present) 359 CE - Present TC Sunset 6th
Babylonian B Sunset 6th or 12th
Syro-Macedonian D Sunset 6th

Notes:

1. J. B. Segal, "Intercalation and the Hebrew Calendar," VT 7 (1957), 300.

2. A Jewish philosopher of Alexandria, variously dated from the second century BCE to the second century CE.

3. The period between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.

4. For example, Ant. I 3:3, III 10:2, III 10:5, XI 4:7, XII 5:4, and XII 7:6. There appears to be an inconsistency in XI 5:4 where the ninth month is called Tebeth instead of Kislev, equivalent to Apellaios; the original statement in Ezra 10:9 and I Esdras 9:5 only notes the ninth month without a secondary identification.

5. B. Kanael, "Notes on the Dates Used During the Bar Kokhba Revolt," IEJ 21 (1971).

6. The reference is to the sixth calendar month, which happens to coincide with the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy. Luke was a Greek from Antioch writing to Theophilus, a Greek in Antioch. We can expect that the reference was to the sixth month according to Antioch's Syro-Macedonian calendar, that is Xanthikos in March. This would accord with the traditional date for the Annunciation on March 25. See the chapter "The Sixth Month" for further discussion.

7. Encyclopedia Judeaica (Jerusalem: Mc Millian [Keter], 1971), section on Passover; S. Zeitlin, Studies in the Early History of Judaism Vol. 1 (New York: KTAV, 1973), 223-233; A. P. Bloch, The Biblical and Historical Background of the Jewish Holy Days (New York: KTAV, 1978).

8. Kanael, "Bar Kokhba Revolt," 41.

9. PT, Ta'anith 68d presents Bar Kokhba as the fulfillment of Num. 24:17, "A star shall come forth from Jacob."

10. Y. Yadin, Bar-Kokhba (New York: Random House, 1971).

11. Eusebius used inclusive reckoning (Ecclesiastical History I 9-10), and the typical Roman dynastic reckoning. Dynastic reckoning places Hadrian's year 1 from August 117 to August 118. (See chapter on "The Fifteenth Year of Tiberius.") Some modern historians have counted his year 1 only until January 1 of 118, then his eighteenth year would be from January 1 to December 31, 134 CE.

12. Kanael, "Bar Kokhba Revolt," 40, n.7, supports a scribal transposition, with the beginning of the revolt in the fifteenth year of Hadrian to support a three and a half year revolt.

13. M. Gichon, "New Insights into the Bar Kokhba War and a Reappraisal of Dio Cassius 69.12-13," JQR 77 (1986).

14. S. Applebaum, "The Second Jewish Revolt (A.D. 131-135)," PEQ 116 (1984), 37.

15. S. Perowne, Hadrian (New York: Norton, 1961), 165.

16. B. Z. Wacholder, "Chronomessianism: The Timing of Messianic Movements and the Calendar of Sabbatical Cycles," HUCA 46 (1975), 217-218 supports the dating of the revolt from the spring of 132 to coincide with the Sabbatical year, as part of the claim of Bar Kokhba as Messiah. He additionally places a Jubilee year in 132/133.

17. A. Reinhartz, "Rabbinic Perceptions of Simeon Bar Kosiba," JSJ 20, 2 (1989), 188, n. 58.

18. Yadin, Bar-Kokhba, 183.

19. Kanael, "Bar Kokhba Revolt," 41-42 places these coins at Succot in 132 CE, with the beginning year based on a three and a half year revolt.

20. Yadin, Bar-Kokhba, 223-233.

21. Yadin, Bar-Kokhba, 182-183. For a discussion of this document and the complete text in English and Hebrew see B. Z. Wacholder, "The Calendar of Sabbatical Cycles During the Second Temple and the Early Rabbinic Period," HUCA 44 (1973), 176-179.

22. Wacholder, "Calendar of Sabbatical Cycles," reviews the evidence and provides specific dating from 519 BCE to 441 CE.

23. Sabbatical years are recorded in 163/162 BCE (1 Macc. 6:49; Ant. XII, ch. 9), 135/134 BCE (Ant. XIII 8:1), and 37/36 BCE (Ant. XIV 16:2). The Sabbatical year sequence has also been interpreted as occurring one year earlier than the dates given here. For further details see page 77, note 15 and pages 123-124.

24. L. L. Grabbe, "Maccabean Chronology: 167-164 or 168-165 BCE," JBL 110, 1 (1991), 62 notes that grain might be planted as late as Shebat, and Year 2 can be counted as the first of the five years of crops. Also, a crop may have been planted before the contract was signed. This fits Chart VI, although Grabbe places the sabbatical year in 138/139 instead of 139/140 CE.

25. This can be due to a difference in the perspective of the writer. When the year is measured from Nisan the identification of the Sabbatical year is secondary as a "harvest-fiscal" year. The Sabbatical year is here identified with the Nisan year in which it began. The second half of the "harvest-fiscal" year is in the following Nisan year, or "in a year following the sabbatical year."

26. D. Blosser, "The Sabbath Year Cycle in Josephus," HUCA 52 (1981) supports this dating primarily by reinterpreting Josephus. See the reply against Blosser's dating by B. Z. Wacholder, "The Calendar of Sabbath Years During the Second Temple Era: A Response," HUCA 54 (1983).

27. Kanael, "Bar Kokhba," 45.

28. A. Kloner, "Lead Weights of Bar Kokhba's Administration, " IEJ 40, 1 (1990), 67 concludes that it is probable the system of weights used at the Second Temple was also used by Bar Kokhba. By analogy the Second Temple system of time measurement was continued into this period.

29. Encyclopedia Judeaica, section on "Calendar."

30. S. Rogoff, "Israel's Calendar Confusions," JCR 22, 1 (1952), 33, notes the present modification of the calendar to use hours, minutes and seconds, and to drop the use of the day being divided into 1080 parts and 76 moments. The original "civil" usage is being lost to the widespread use of the Gregorian calendar for such purposes.

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--- In TheTrueSabbathsAndN ewMoons@yahoogro ups.com, "voixderaison@ ..." <voixderaison@ ...> wrote:
>
> The old claim that Jews changed the reckoning of a day changed from dawn to dusk to conform with the supposed Babylonian evening to evening day is still making its rounds on this forum.
>
> 1. To those who repeat this claim, what is your primary source?
>
> 2. How do you figure that Judaism is precisely the opposite of Babylonians religion? Is that the standard by which Judaism is to be measured?
>
> 3. Who has the authority to decide such a matter for Israel?
>