"The Calendar"
In the scriptures Yisrayah [Israel] was commanded to keep certain days sacred. There were different commandments regarding what was to be done or not done on those days. Those days are called feasts and sacred convocations. There is a nice list of the feasts and sabbaths of Yahwah in Leviticus chapter 23. In each case, the correct time is given! Leviticus 23 tells us exactly WHEN to celebrate each thing. All we have to do is know how to tell the time. Let's look at how time is defined in the scriptures.
DAY
First, we need to know what a day is. Seems simple. But then why do we see some people saying that a day is only from sunrise to sunset? Why do some people insist the day runs from sunrise to sunrise, noon till noon, or from midnight to midnight? What about the sidereal day? A sidereal day is the amount of time it takes a star to travel all the way around the sky. That is several minutes shorter than a solar day, because of the distance the earth travels around the sun in its orbit during the day. Sidereal day is very important to astronomers who track the stars.
Scripture defines a day based on the rising and setting of the sun, a solar day, not a true sidereal day.
I personally believe the day starts when the sunlight is disappearing and the stars are becoming visible. That is what happens when I take the scriptures literally. First, there is Genesis 1:1-2. Creation of the gods, the universe, and the earth occurs in the dark. After that is Genesis 1:3-4. As the first day of creation continues, light is created and separated from the dark. Then the terms are defined in verse 5. This is very straightforward. It is the record Yahwah left us. The way the Laws of Physics works, first you have darkness, which is nothing, and then you add light, which is a something (energy). You have to have darkness first. You can shine a light into the darkness, but you can not shine darkness into the light. If you want a lighted up area to become dark, you turn off the light.
Matthew 27:57 When evening [late afternoon, after the ninth hour] came, there came a rich man from Arimathaea, named Yahusef, who himself was Yahshua's disciple.
The first part of the evening is before sunset. They did the burying before the new day started, before sunset, because after sunset was a high sabbath day, on which no work of burying is allowed to take place. They are not allowed to leave a body on the stake overnight (Deuteronomy 21:22), so he had to be buried in a hurry.
So, Yahchanan [John] says: 20:1 Now on the first day of the week comes Miriam Magdalene to the tomb early, while it was yet dark, and saw the stone taken away from the tomb.
Notice that early on the first day of the week it was DARK. I give these two examples from people who KNEW Yahshua personally, in the flesh, and we can be sure Yahshua knew the truth. It looks like the day is supposed to end just after sunset, as the light is failing.
In Nehemiah we find: 13:19 It came to pass, when the gates of Yahrusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded the doors should be shut.
Doesn't this mean the sabbath begins when it is getting dark, before the first three stars come out?
Sure, one can re-interpret Genesis to say that the day begins at sunrise. One can do almost anything one wants. One can say Genesis 1:1-2 are not part of "creation week". Or one can say the first day had three parts: no light, then day, then night, and then the day ended. Sure, define it the way you want, then find the evidence to "prove" it. How about Mark 16:2? Why not claim that Genesis 1:4 documents the creation of the first night, even though that is not what it literally says. What it says is that Yahwah separated the new light-time from the pre-existing darkness.
EVENING
The Passover lamb is required to be killed: between the evenings. What does that mean? Flavius Josephus says the passover is killed from the 9th hour of the day to the eleventh. Luke says Yahshua died at about 9th hour, at the beginning of: between the evenings. Well, the 'evening' is the end of the day and the beginning of the night. According to the best evidence, a day is 8 hours of light, then 4 hours of evening till sunset. The first 4 hours of the night are part of the evening. In this case an hour is one-twelfth of the day or the night, each watch has four hours. At equinox when the day and night each equal twelve hours, the ninth hour is equal to: 3pm. So any time after that is not considered the time of the light, but rather, the time of the evening.
Jubilees 49:10 Let the children of Yisrayah come and observe the passover on the day of its fixed time, on the fourteenth day of the first month, between the evenings, from the third part of the day to the third part of the night, for two portions of the day are given to the light, and a third part to the evening. 11 This is that which the Master commanded you that you should observe it between the evenings. 12 It is not permissible to kill it during any period of the light, but during the period bordering on the evening. Let them eat it at the time of the evening, until the third part of the night.
If I had to invent a definition I'd say: Evening is that time of the afternoon when it is light in summer but dark in the winter.
WEEK
Whew! Once we think we know what a day is, now we can look at a collection of days. Seven days equals a week. In Leviticus 23 and in Genesis 2:2-3 we are told to honor every seventh day as a sabbath day to Yahwah. That is every seventh day from the first sabbath day. Leviticus 23:3 confirms that the weekly sabbath is one of the "appointed times of Yahwah", a "sacred convocation". The time for the weekly sabbath is given by days (the sun is also used for signs and seasons, as well as the moon - Genesis 1:14). The weekly sabbath is defined here and everywhere as every seventh day. Nowhere do I see an exception to the seven days.
No, we don't have an indisputable calendar going back 7000 years, but we don't need it. Yahshua was not jumping up and down telling the Jews they had the wrong sabbath day. They celebrated the seventh day every seventh day for thousands of years. He told them HOW to do it, but not WHEN to do it, so they were apparently doing it at the correct time. Apparently Yahshua celebrated the same day as they did. Jews have their own calendar they go by, and they don't change it because the pagans change theirs. The pagans have and had their first-day sun-day worship for thousands of years. The Hebrews and the pagans both did sabbath weekly. Just because a calendar changes Julian or Gregorian does not mean they changed the week. The current fitting of the two sabbaths show that the week probably did not change.
Exodus 31:12-17 could be interpreted a few different ways. Yahwah is commanding them to observe the sabbath. But also He could be telling them that they WILL keep the sabbath. Maybe as a prophecy, or maybe because He will force them to keep it. Either way, it makes it look like we have the correct week today.
The weekly sabbath is defined everywhere as every seventh day. Nowhere in scripture is it connected to the moon. Nowhere do I see an exception to the seven days. Leviticus 23:4 says: These are the feasts. And after that is a list of feasts which depend on the day of the moonth. We get the times of each feast from the moon and the sun. First the barley gives you the beginning of the year, then the moon gives you the moonth, then the sun counts the days. They are defined that way, the weekly sabbath is not.
MOONTH
Another collection of days is called a moonth. A moonth is not the same as a month like we have today. A modern calendar month is about one-twelfth of a solar year. Here is how it works. A moonth is the amount of time the moon goes between phases, say full moon till full moon. That takes about 29.5 days (synodic month). Since our calendar has lost contact with the phases of the moon, we have a month.
A lunar year is not exactly the same as a moonth. A year is the time for the moon (or sun) to pass a certain star again, while the moonth goes by the phases. A solar YEAR is the amount of time it takes the sun (Sol) to go around the sky relative to a reference star, which could be Antares or Regulus, about 365.25 days. A lunar YEAR is also the amount of time the moon (Luna) takes to go around the sky relative to a reference star, about 27.3 days (sidereal month). So there are about 13.38 lunar years in a solar year, when you define it correctly.
Twelve moonths equals about 354 days, a bit less than a solar year. So every so often a thirteenth moonth is added to the solar year. Yisrayah was required to count the moonths of each year, and at certain times there would be a festival.
Seeing the first visible sliver of the crescent new moon just above sunset would make that moment the end of the old month, and as the stars come out the new day and the new moonth begin. When you see the new crescent moon just after sunset, you are looking at it at a time when there are no stars visible in the sky. Venus and Jupiter might be visible, but not the sun nor the other stars.
The moonth begins with the first visible crescent of the new moon, a day or two after the moon reaches conjunction with the sun. Conjunction means the moon is between the earth and the sun. If it is directly between, someone on the earth will experience a total, annular, or partial solar eclipse, where the sun is eclipsed by the moon. Usually it appears to pass a bit above or below the sun. Nowadays in the USA we say the New Moon is when it is at conjunction. A moonth always has either 29 or 30 days. Full Moon is always on the 14th of the moonth, but can occur at anytime of a month.
Certainly the Israelites of old quickly determined that the time from first visible crescent till full moon is shorter than the time from full to first crescent. That is why they came up with the molad. Molad is not exactly conjunction, but close to it. It is a calculated time of the beginning of the moonth. As far I know, that time is calculated from the full moons. We can easily see exactly when the moon is full. First crescent merely confirms the new moonth in this system.
SOLAR YEAR
A solar year is the amount of time it takes the sun (Sol) to go around the sky relative to a reference star, about 365.25 days. The thing is how to get the year started off right. That is the next issue we will look at here. This is a simple question, with an insane answer! In the screwed-up practice of Judaism they actually have four different years, all overlapping [beginning on 1 Tishrei - Rosh Hashanah; 15 Shevat - Tu Bishvat; 1 Nisan - 1 Abib; and 1 Elul - Rosh Hashanah LaBehema].
They have two calendars, civil and religious. The festival of Rosh Hashanah, which is in the fall, is the beginning of their year. It is the "Jewish New Year", the day when the year changes to the next number. However, the first moonth of the year, Abib, is six months earlier! Is that spastic?
Abib [Aviv] is the name of the first moonth, and means 'ripe' or 'spring'. The way I understand it, if the barley is already declared aviv (ripe) at the beginning of the moonth (when the new moon appears), it is the first moonth of the year. If the barley is not yet ripe when the new moon is sighted, an extra thirteenth moonth is added to the old year. It is defined as the first visible crescent of a waxing new moon after the barley is ripe. Here is how to tell which is the first moonth of the year:
Exodus 9:31 The flax and the barley were smitten; for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in bloom. 32 But the wheat and the spelt were not smitten; for they were not grown up. 12:2 This month is the beginning of months to you: it is the first month of the year to you.
LUNAR YEAR
A lunar calendar supporter usually says one lunar year is about 354 days. But that is wrong. It is an attempt to merge the lunar calendar with the solar calendar. Here is how it really works. A lunar YEAR is the amount of time the moon (Luna) takes to go around the sky (from earth's perspective) relative to a reference star, about 27.3 days.
I have seen reference to the use of lunar years in times long past. For example in referring to Atlantis we usually see long time periods given. Well, if all those years are really lunar years of 27.3 days each, then the time given is perfectly in line with what we think we understand about the real timeline of the earth since it was created about 7500 years ago.
CORRUPTION
Now that we have the calendar set out, it is time for man to corrupt it. Mankind wants to have a nice neat calendar he can set out for the next ten thousand years. But we do not get it. The first problem there is knowing when the barley will be ripe. Another problem is that the seven day week stubbornly refuses to fit into the moonth, and into the year. Another problem is the moon is not in a stable orbit around the earth! Each moonth is a different length. In reality, the moon is in a chaotic orbit around the sun, drastically perturbed by the earth.
It appears as if Yahwah our Creator purposely made the calendar in such a way that it can not be set out far in advance. Maybe that is so we will live in the present, and for the present?
CALENDAR
Now we can look at the lunar/solar calendar which seems to be regaining popularity recently. Man has invented a so-called lunar/solar calendar where they have forced the weekly sabbath to fit the moonth.
They fit the weekly sabbath into a moonth by saying there are 28 "weekly" days in each moonth (4 weeks times 7 days), and every seventh of those is a sabbath. But what about the extra days? They become intercalary days which don't count. There seem to be two separate systems. In one, the first day of the moonth is a special day, like a sabbath, but not as restrictive, and not one of the weekly sabbaths. It is called the New Moon Day. Then the second day of the moonth becomes the first day of the first week. In this case, in every moonth the four weekly sabbaths fall on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and the 29th day of the moonth. In the other system the first day of the moonth is also the first day of the first week. In that case the fourth sabbath of the moonth is on the 28th. The intercalary days are the days when the moon is dark, at conjunction, nearly new.
I am thinking it is a major mistake to attach the weekly sabbath to the lunar cycle. No doubt the connecting of the week to the moonth was/is a sin, because it threw off the sabbath days. Sometimes the week would have eight or nine days, and so everyone would now have the wrong sabbath.
Nimrod called the first day of the week (the day after Yahwah's sabbath) Sun-god-day. It was his alternate-sabbath. It was not connected to the moon, it was every seven days like Yahwah's sabbath. Later when the Romans claimed they "changed" sabbath they were admitting Saturday was the true sabbath being worshiped at that time also. The devil made his false sabbath every seven days, not four days a month.
YHWH says the seventh-day sabbath is a sign between Him and His people. So it should be easily possible to determine the correct day if you want to be one of His people. If there has always been some number of people who were people of YHWH, the correct sabbath has to have been continuously known all this time. The lunar sabbath calendar is barely known, knowledge of it was hidden until recently. The regular weekly is known by almost everyone in every civilized country. Saturday is the correct sabbath.
To this day they still admit Saturday is correct when they say Jesus (sic) died Friday the day before a sabbath, was in the grave Saturday the sabbath, and rose Sunday after the sabbath.
Leviticus 23:35 The first day is a holy convocation, you will do no servile work. 36 Seven days you will offer an offering made by fire to Yahwah. On the eighth day is a holy convocation to you, and you will offer an offering made by fire to Yahwah. It is a solemn assembly, you will do no servile work.
That quote is regarding the feast of tabernacles. It defines two sabbath days. If those days were already sabbath days, that would seem pointless. If they were already weekly sabbath days, Leviticus would probably say so. No?
The 'high sabbaths' which are connected to the feasts are holy convocations, and the moon is used to set those days. But I do not think that means the 'weekly sabbath' should be or can be set by the moon. Because if you do so, it will no longer be a "weekly" sabbath.
Isn't the sabbath defined as every seventh day? As far as I know, that is how sabbath is always defined. With the lunar/solar calendar the weekly sabbath does not occur every seven days. Sometimes it is eight or nine days. I feel that must be rejected. Where are we told to add days between weeks? Where are we told that weeks might not be successive? Where are we told to align the sabbath week with the moon?
Just because "some of the Jews did it" is not good enough for me. Those same Jews committed lots of horrible sins which got them divorced from Yahwah, and thrown out of the Promised Land. Just because some sinners tied the sabbath to the moonth does not mean we should do it. The scriptures I have say the sabbath is every seventh day. I'm pretty sure it never says it is sometimes eight days. Yahwah has a sabbath EVERY seven days. A 29/30 day month with sabbaths on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th does not fit. It looks to me as if those are the folks who've gone wrong. They are trying to align the weekly sabbath with the moonth and the solar year, but it aligns with neither (and they don't align with each other).
Sure, there were/are Jews who use a lunar calendar for some things. They are commanded to keep track of the moonths and years (festivals and jubilees). The lunar moonth can be divided into four parts, each of which is similar to a week. But they are not and can not be the same.
By definition the full moon is at the end of the second "week" of the moonth. That is not said to be connected with the normal 7-day sabbath week, nor with whatever calendar or month is being used. The third week of the moonth would begin when full moon is over, and a terminator appears on the west edge.
Here is a popular quote from the lunar sabbatarians: In fact, the Sabbaths that can be date identified in Scripture are always on either the 8th, 15th, 22nd or 29th days of the moon. Yes, they keep saying that. But it is WRONG! Yahshua died on a Wednesday, the middle of the 7-day week, as predicted. This was the 14th day of Abib, the Passover, and a preparation day. The next day was the High Sabbath, first day of the Unleavened Bread week. Two days later was the weekly sabbath, on the 17th day of Abib, on Saturday. I explained this in my Resurrection chapter.
Another thing, you will run across someone quoting the verse where the Jews were saying Yahshua keeps a different sabbath than their seventh day which is identical to ours. But any decent reading will prove he kept the same sabbath days, and the same feast days. He just kept them differently. Yahshua thought it is okay to heal a man on the sabbath, and the Jews figured he should die for working on that day. Never did Yahshua say it is not the sabbath. He always acknowledged the same day we still have.
Below is a verse demonstrating that you should be very careful about following the customs of the Israelites, and of Judaism. It shows us the Israelites adopted pagan customs into their own religion. That is why Yahwah evicted them from the Promised Land at that time. I personally believe the sunrise to sunrise day is one of those things. I believe attaching the seven day week to the lunar cycle is also a pagan mistake. No? Please beware of doing something simply because some Jews did it long ago.
2 Chronicles 36:14 Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations. They polluted the house of Yahwah which He hallowed in Yahrusalem. 15 Yahwah, the Father of their fathers, sent to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending, because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling-place. 16 But they mocked the messengers of Yahwah, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of Yahwah arose against His people, till there was no remedy. 17 Therefore He brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or virgin, old man or hoary-headed. He gave them all into his hand.
I fail to see any reason to change the weekly sabbath, and convert it to a lunar/solar year. The idea might be enticing, but that is how satan gets us to sin. Since I find no scriptural evidence in favor of forcing the weekly sabbath into a lunar/solar calendar, I consider that idea to be an invention and tradition of men.
Mark 7:7 In vain they worship Me, teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men. [Isaiah 29:13] 8 You leave the commandment of Yahwah, and hold fast the tradition of men. 9 He said to them: Full well do you reject the commandment of Yahwah, that you may keep your tradition. 13 making the Word of Yahwah void by your tradition, which you deliver. And many such like things you do.
Matthew 15:6 You made the word of Yahwah void because of your tradition [Judaism].
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