Yahweh’s Solar Calendar
Introduction
Our present lunar-based calendar is fraudulently derived
from the ideological ambiguities of the Jews. It is NOT Scriptural. As a
matter of fact, the lunar-based calendar of the Jews originated in Babylon,
with the pagan Babylonians, not with the Hebrews. The Jewish Masoretes, who
were the successors of the abominable cult of Pharisees in Judea, operating
in the first millennium after Christ, successfully tampered with the
paleo-Hebrew Scriptures by utilizing corrupted translations,
which make it appear that “new moons” are part of the Hebrew Calendar! The
fact is that their deceptive, lunar theology and calendar dating were
introduced into our Bible many centuries AFTER the Hebrew
Scriptures were given, although it is obvious that there were competing lunar
and solar calendars operating in Judea during the time of Christ. I will
first proceed to explain how lunar reckoning was inserted into the Scriptures
and then explain how the solar calendar works.
Without going into the subject of the Masoretic text in
great detail, it should be noted that the Jewish Masoretic scribes had begun
composing their own version of the Old Testament after having been expelled
from Judea by the Roman Army. The early history of the Christian Church and the
Jews was a very stormy one. The two sides hated each other, and
understandably so, because the Christians were Israelites who inherited the
Mosaic traditions, but the Jews were Edomites who had invented the new
religion called Judaism. Contrary to popular belief, Judaism is a PERVERSION
of the Scriptures, not the continuation of them. Since the crucifixion of
Christ, there was literal warfare between these two groups, with the True
Israelites following their Messiah and with the Edomite Jews rejecting Yahshua
Messiah, because they were neither Israelites nor practitioners of the Mosaic
Law. Many deceived Israelites joined the ranks of the enemy. Among these was
St. Paul, who, having studied with a Pharisee, had participated in the Jewish
war against Christianity, until he finally saw the light. With regard to
their doctrinal disputes, the Jews ultimately found that the Christians were
citing the Septuagint as their authoritative source of Old Testament wisdom;
and they were unable to counter the Christian arguments against Judaism. As a
result, they decided to create the Masoretic Text, which is a much abridged
and edited version of the Old Testament. One of the main goals the Masoretes
had in copying the Old Testament for themselves was to deliberately expunge
as many prophetic references to Jesus Christ as possible. Having composed
their own version of Scripture, they could then claim that theirs is
the only true version.
Unfortunately, the King James Version, and most other
versions we have today, are based on the Masoretic Text, not upon the
Septuagint; so, whenever there is a controversial passage or a poor
translation, it is always helpful to consult the Septuagint. In other words,
the KJV has a built-in Jewish bias that the Septuagint does not. The Septuagint
is a Greek translation from the Hebrew Old Testament. It was translated by
Judahite (not Jewish) scribes of the House of Judah, and it was commissioned
by Ptolemy Philadelphus, the Greek king of Egypt at that time, while Eleazer
was High Priest of Judah, around 260 BC.
Since the Jews composed their Masoretic Text in direct
competition against the Septuagint, we would be wise to look at any
translation based on the Masoretic carefully and with suspicion. This is
especially true when we encounter the expression, “new moon,” in the Bible.
This will be discussed in detail later.
The reader may wonder why we should concern ourselves with
God’s solar calendar. What is so important about this calendar? What does it
matter whether we celebrate the New Year in January or March? What does it
matter whether we hold the Sabbath on Saturday or Sunday, as long as we
maintain the Spirit of the Law? We in Christian Identity wish to make it
known that Yahweh says, in His Holy Book, that we are to keep His
Sabbaths and His Holy Feast Days:
Yahweh gives us this reason: Ye shall keep my
sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am Yahweh. If ye walk in my statutes,
and keep my commandments, and do them...ye shall chase your enemies, and they
shall fall before you by the sword. -- Lev. 26: 2,3,7.
In addition to being clothed with the righteousness of the
Son of God, the reference in the Book of Revelation to the “Woman clothed
with the Sun” refers prophetically, in my opinion, to Anglo-Saxon
(Caucasian) Israel restoring the Solar Calendar and its true
Sabbaths, as well as the rest of His Law, the only exception being the
sacrificial laws which were abolished at the Cross. She (we), the Bride of
Christ, is presented in contrast to the Great Whore of Babylon. In these End
Times, there are two “women” fighting for dominion. We know that the Jews
practice a Babylonian calendar, not a Biblical calendar.
Israel’s victory over Babylon will be complete when the Babylonian
calendar is abolished and Yahweh’s calendar is assigned its rightful place.
If we ever wish to be free from our oppressors, we must
keep Yahweh’s Sabbaths, as well as His other commandments. We cannot maintain
the spirit of the Law if we do not understand what the Law is. Indeed,
Yahweh’s Sabbaths are an integral part of the cycles of nature. Agriculture
is what provides us our sustenance. If we deviate from God’s established
cycles and commandments, then we deplete or destroy the land that sustains
us. This is not just an intellectual matter. The environment of our planet is
being destroyed by the Beast System that is economically based on a
combination of ignorance and deliberate exploitation, both of which
contribute to the destruction of our natural resources. We Adamites are His
Stewards. “Be fruitful… and replenish the earth.” ( Gen. 1:28.)
Observing Yahweh’s calendar, land Sabbaths, Jubilees, and
Feast Days keeps us conscious of the role that Yahweh has predestined for us
in His creation. We ignore these laws at our own peril. The further we remove
ourselves from the dust of the earth, the Sun, the moon (as an interstellar
body), the sky, the seasons, (the elements of the Universe) the more arrogant
we become as a species, and the more we exaggerate our own importance. City
folk tend to take food for granted. They forget how dependent we are upon the
cycles of life…and upon farmers. They forget that there are stars in the sky.
They forget, even, God. Farmers never make this mistake. Every day they deal
with the awesome forces of nature. We must never allow ourselves to be
ungrateful for God’s sustenance, and that is what Yahweh’s calendar and
Sabbath-keeping are all about.
Bear in mind that this is a subject on which there is
literally tons of misinformation. Let it be understood that no
doctrine, which lacks Biblical support, is acceptable to Yahweh. We are to do
it His way, not the Jewish way, not the Babylonian way, nor the Egyptian way.
As will be amply demonstrated herein, this means that there is to be NO
recognition of the moon’s phases in Yahweh’s solar calendar. There are two
lights in the sky which divide times and seasons. They
are the Sun by day and the stars by night; and
this is an eternal absolute, which is true every day and every night. We can
navigate the oceans by these lights, but not by the moon. We can distinguish
the seasons by the Sun’s angles and by the constellations. When the moon is
in conjunction with the Sun (new moon), it does not reveal itself on these
nights, because it is on the same side of the sky as the Sun, reflecting the
Sun’s light away from the earth. The moon does not tell us seasons or times
of day. Nor does the moon shine by its own light, so the moon is a
non-factor. We may appreciate the time and effort that some of our
well-meaning Israelites have made in order to incorporate the moon into
Yahweh’s calendar, but, as I will show, it is a simple fact that any lunar
calendar or lunar-solar calendar is not Scriptural and
therefore unfit for true Israel.
New Moons Versus Months in the Hebrew
I hereby wish to acknowledge my fellow Christian
Israelites, who have contributed much research into this subject: Pastor
Kenneth Lent, Scott Vaught, Russ Walker, and Dan Raber. Raber, Vaught and
Walker have developed a calendar, which is very similar to that of Pastor
Kenneth Lent’s; but various details still need to be worked out. This
document is an attempt to sift through the work done by all these dedicated
men in order to arrive at the most logical and Scripture-based Solar
Calendar.
According to Pastor Kenneth Lent of www.solarsabbath.org :
There is no such term as "new moon" in the
Hebrew text. It was always "new month"! The term
"new moon" became attached to Hebrew text mistranslations after the
Babylonian captivity. English Bibles such as the King James Version
that read "new moon" are unequivocally in error. No matter
how ornate the presentation or how many lunar cycle lists are impressively
calculated by the lunar Sabbath adherents, the end story is that their
Sabbaths and Feast Days can never be yearly events as we see them in
Scripture. It is this unavoidable fact that lunar Sabbath holders will
not deal with. Everyone can present their position in a pretty package and it
may look authentic and scholarly. But when all is said and done, just
ask anyone using the lunar method if their Sabbaths and Feast days will be
held on that same DATE next year!! The answer is "No". That's all
one needs to do --- ask that question! This is because there is
actually no such thing as a 'lunar year".
What is actually meant is that compared to the only real year, the solar year, the moon orbits the Earth so many times. A so-called "lunar year" is but a comparative term used for convenience, only if one acknowledges the true year in the first place!
Now, the actual Hebrew word for the English ‘moon’ is yerach. It
has the dual meaning of “moon” and “month.” The Hebrew word that is often
translated as “new moon” is chodesh, meaning “to renew.”
What Pastor Lent is saying is that the definition of chodesh was deliberately changed
by the Masoretic rabbis to mean more than, simply, “renew.” The expression,
“new moon,” or “new month,” should correctly be translated from the Hebrew as chodesh
yerach,” but this expression is not found in the Bible.
In addition, since the moon, as a body in space, does not
meet the Hebrew definition of a ‘light’ in Genesis 1:16, the moon cannot be
reckoned for the calendar, since it has nothing to do with
determining times or seasons. In terms of the calendar, only months have
any meaning. But the Biblical month is simply a period of 30 days, and this
count is unrelated to any phases of the moon, since the cycle of lunar phases
is only 29 & ½ days. There is no way that 29 & ½ days can be
substituted for 30 days. Even our current reckoning of months has nothing to
do with the phases of the moon. The phases of the moon are simply irrelevant,
in the scheme of the Solar Calendar. Aside from these mistranslations, there
is no other mention of “new moons.”
Why is the moon not considered as a light? Because the
moon does not shine of its own accord. The Hebrewmaowr, meaning
“body of light,” or “luminosity,” only refers to those bodies that
shine by their own light. It DOES NOT refer to dead bodies that only reflect light.
Hence, the King James translation of Genesis 1:16 is terribly flawed. Let’s
have a look.
As translated it says,
“And God made two great lights [which shine of
their own accord]; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser
light to rule the night: he made the stars also.”
Pastor Lent points out that there are two problems with
the final clause of this verse. #1. The words he made ARE IN ITALICS,
meaning that the KJV translators ADDED these words to the text. They are NOT
in the original Hebrew verse. #2. In addition, the word also, is
not in the original Hebrew either, even though it is not italicized. In other
words, the King James translators have taken great license in translating the
verse. Whether the King James translators imported these suggestions from the
Jewish Masoretic Text or whether they invented these changes themselves is an
interesting question, but that would require considerably more historical
study. We need to look at how this verse reads without these added
words.
Here is how it should read: “And Elohim made two great
lights; the greater light to rule the day [the Sun, obviously], and
the lesser light to rule the night, the stars.” From this
translation, the lesser light and the stars are one and the same.
Grammatically, this would naturally take the form of an appositive, which is:“the
lesser light, the stars.” But the original paleo-Hebrew text
contained no punctuation, nor did it contain vowels, so the Masoretes added
their own notation for what they determined the vowels should be.
Additionally, the translators of the KJV had to determine how to punctuate
the verses. And this punctuation can dramatically affect the meaning
of this verse.
As another example, consider the comma insertion at Luke
23:43 and the great controversy that has created. Again, as translated,
it states, “Verily I say unto you, Today shalt thou be with me in
paradise.”With another comma, it could easily have been translated as, “Verily
I say unto you, today, thou shalt be with me in paradise.” The first
translation suggests that the “malefactor” would be with Him in paradisethis
very day. The latter translation, with a comma on both sides of
the word ‘today,’ leaves open the question of exactly WHEN he would be with
Jesus in paradise. It may not be a major point in this instance, but it
illustrates well that there is an editorial process going on, whenever a
translation is made. Punctuation can change the meaning of a verse
dramatically!
Getting back to Gen. 1:16: By ADDING the semicolon after
the word ‘night,’ and also the words “he made” and “also,” the
appositive relationship between “lesser light” and “the stars” is
destroyed, leaving the impression that SOMETHING OTHER THAN THE STARS is
meant by the “lesser light,” namely, as everyone would naturally assume, the
MOON. But this cannot be, because the moon is not a light by the Hebrew
definition of a “luminary,” which shines of its own accord. Nor can
the moon be used to divide times or seasons. The moon can
shine by day or night, so it is NOT strictly a nighttime “light.” So,
we have three solid reasons for rejecting the moon as the “lesser light.”
Scott Vaught, in an article entitled, “The Two
Greater-Sign Luminaries,” states,
“First, in order to be a “Luminary,” the person or
thing spoken of must be the source of light, not just the
reflected light from the source! Applying the Urim (lights),
we find there are two greater Sign-Luminaries. Applying the
Thummim (to expand), we see these are the Vernal Equinox and
the Autumnal Equinox. The two Greater Sign-Luminaries simultaneously
rule over (regulate) the length of the day and regulate the length of the
night (darkness).”
Pastor Lent puts it this way:
Any debate as to whether the lights of the
firmament (the sun and stars) were created for the purpose of "dividing
the day from day" can ultimately be put to rest by reading the double
witness of Genesis 1:14, namely, Genesis 1:18 which tells us that
the purpose of these lights are to "divide the LIGHT FROM
DARKNESS".
Although Pastor Lent uses these verses to argue against
the “noon to noon” day reckoning, I cite it as an affirmation that the moon
DOES NOT “divide the light from the darkness,” since it can reflect
light during the daytime or the nighttime. Ironically, the NEW MOON does not
“shine” at all, so it is definitely not luminous when the Babylonian
calendar takes it into consideration!!! The new moon is as dark as
darkness itself!!! How can a completely dark object be regarded as a “lesser
light”?
In the light of this new understanding of Gen. 1:16, let’s
read Gen. 1:17-18 very carefully:
“And Elohim set them in the firmament [Hebrew raqiya, meaning
EXPANSE!] of the heaven to GIVE [Hebrewnathan, “to
give” or “to provide”] light upon the earth, and RULE OVER the day
and OVER the night, and to DIVIDE THE LIGHT FROM DARKNESS: and Elohim saw
that it was good.”
The moon does not “give” light as the luminaries do,
because its source of light is reflected. Also, the moon has nothing to do
with the DIVIDING of day from night, nor does it “rule over” either
daytime or nightttime! The moon can “shine” any time of the day or night and,
therefore, cannot be used for the purpose of dividing the day from the night.
It is also possible to have a completely moonless night sky, so
the moon does not regularly illuminate the night as the stars do. Thus, Gen.
1:16-18, taken together, prove that the moon is NOT the light that “shines”
at night!!!
In an article on a pro-Jewish website, researcher Vendyl
Jones (http://vjri. purpleguy. com /Researcher/ Articles/ The_Lunar_Calendar)
claims to know when the transition from a Solar Calendar to a Lunar Calendar
took place:
This Calendar was adopted during the Hasmonean period.
It was introduced by the High Priest Hannan, or Annias. He changed the months
from the simple Biblical numerical designations of the 1st month, the 2nd
month, and so on, to the names of the Babylonian months. The names of the
Babylonian months were the names of the pagan Babylonian gods. We have like
designations for the pagan names of the months and days of the week in the
Christian System.
Hannan also changed Rosh HaShanah (New Year) from the
first month that begins at Aviv, the Spring month, to the seventh month at
the Autumn Equinox. The word, 'equinox' means equidistant, halfway or middle.
The 7th month, Tishri, is the beginning month half way through the year from
the 1st month of Aviv in the Spring. Therefore, the New Year in the
Jubilee Calendar is 6 months after the New Year in the Lunar Calendar.
The MMS document found at Qumran brings 24 charges
against the Upper Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. Several of these charges relate to
the use of the Lunar rather than the Solar Jubilee Calendar which was used in
biblical times… Among those charges is the allegation that the Torah is very
specific that the first day and the first month of the year is the Spring
Equinox, or the month of Aviv (Spring) is the beginning of the year to the
Nation of Israel. Exodus 12:2;
"This month shall be unto you the beginning of
months.
The first month of the year [Rosh HaShanah] shall it be unto you." Jubilees: THE MOON SIMPLY DOES NOT QUALIFY as a “luminary”! And from the Book of Jubilees, we have Apocryphal prophetic evidence that moon-reckoning would corrupt Yahweh’s Calendar!!! It is obvious to me that Moses is instructing us to take no notice of the moon with regard to the Calendar. Either Moses contradicts himself when he speaks of observing “new moons” in verse 32, or the translation is corrupt for the same reason that it is corrupt in the Bible.
One can easily see the point of dissension that the
writer of the MMS Document made against the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. The Lunar
system requires the addition of 7 extra months in each 19 year cycle to keep
it at least close to the Solar system.
All of the research I have done on the Essenes of Qumran,
where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, suggests that the Essenes were True
Judahites who practiced the Laws of Yahweh, including the dietary Laws. They
considered the Pharisees and Sadducees to be reprobates. If the Essenes
practiced a Solar Calendar, then this is great evidence for this proposed
Calendar.
Evidence From the Apocrypha
In searching the Apocrypha for more information on the
Calendar, I was hoping to find some statements about moon-reckoning. My
expectations were satisfied beyond my wildest dreams, when I discovered this
passage, from the Book of
“Thus it is engraved and ordained in the tablets of
heaven, and there is no transgression from one year to another. And in this
number, three hundred sixty-four days, and the year shall be
complete, and the fixed date of their days and their
festivals shall not be corrupted, for everything transpires in them according
to their testimony, and they (Israel) shall not miss a day or corrupt a
festival. But if they do transgress and do not observe them according to his
commandment, then will be corrupted all their fixed dates, and
the years will waver in consequence, and also their times and their
years, and they will transgress their ordinances.” (Book of
Jubilees, 6:29-31.) {Translated by E.J. Goodrich, 1888}
The Book of Jubilees was purportedly composed by Moses, so
I will refer to Moses as the author. The purpose of the Book of Jubilees is
to categorize the events of Scripture into the Jubilee periods in which they
occurred. Thus, the Book of Jubilees forces us to think in periods of 49
years, from Adam to the Judgment Day! (Interestingly, the Catholic
Encyclopedia refers to this as a “fanciful arrangement”! Like, they
know better than Moses!!!) In the verses quoted above, we are assured by
Moses that Yahweh’s Solar Calendar is to be FIXED, that is, the same pattern
is to be repeated year after year, without deviation.
Now, observe:
“For I know, and from now on I shall make it known to
thee, and not from my heart, but thus is written in a book before me
and is ordained in the tablets of heaven, the division of days, that they
forget not the festivals of my covenant and walk according to the festivals
of the Gentiles [nations, which would include Babylon! –
Eli], after their errors and after their ignorance. And there
will be those who will make observations of the moon, for this one (the
moon) corrupts the stated times and comes out earlier each year by
ten days. And in this way they will corrupt the years and will
observe a wrong day as the day of testimony and a corrupted festival
day, and everyone will mix holy days with unclean ones and unclean with holy;
for they will err as to months and Sabbaths and festivals and jubilees.” (Verses
33-35.)
The Book of Jubilees is not without its translational errors, which are essentially the same as those of the Bible, noted above. Moses would not have use the word, ‘Gentiles,’ for example, which is a Latin word. The Hebrew is goyim, meaning simply, “nations.” Which nations must always be derived from the context of the passage.
By any definition,
Those of you who are wondering why I left out Verse 32
need an explanation. First, here is the Verse:
“And all the children of Israel will forget and will
not find the paths of the years, and will forget the new moon and
the Sabbaths and the festivals, and in all the order of the years they will
err.”
I underscored “new moon” because it should read either
“new month” or “month” or, simply, “renewal,” as the Hebrew word, chodesh,
means “month,” not “new moon,” as discussed above. If this were not true,
then verse 32 would be in DIRECT CONTRADICTION OF VERSE 34, which says, “And
there will be those who will make observations of the moon, for this one (the
moon) CORRUPTS THE STATED TIMES…”
There is also the additional problem with the Book of
Jubilees in that we have only the Ethiopic version, which
was translated from a Greek version. As far as I know, there
is no extant Hebrew copy of Jubilees. The
Goodrich translation is an English translation of an Ethiopic version
from a Greek text translated from the original Hebrew,
so we are three times removed from the original Hebrew; and I am
sure that Goodrich was operating under the same Masoretic assumptions as the
KJV translators.
Thus, we have the false translation of chodesh, rendered as “new moon” in almost every instance. Please keep this in mind when reading the Book of Jubilees and any other Israelite text.
I agree 100% with Kenneth Lent that the expression, “new
moon,” is a false translation by the rabbis of Viperism (Judaism). Just as
their interpolations (false translations) have infected the King James and
other translations of the Bible, they have also infected the translations of
the Apocrypha.
Hallowing the Sabbath
Exodus 12:2 defines the first month of the year:
“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months:
it shall be the first month of the year to you.”
Exodus 13:4 further clarifies:
“This day came ye out in the month of Abib.”
From these two verses, we know that the first month of the year is called Abib. The question remains, which is the first Sabbath Day of the year? Speaking of the priests whose job it is to cleanse the Temple, II Chron. 29:17 declares:
“Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify,
and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of Yahweh: so they
sanctified the house of Yahweh in eight days.”
So, the annual ritual cleansing of the Temple occurred
from the first day through the eighth day of the first month of each
year.
In Exodus 20:11, we are told of the hallowing of the Sabbath Day. The words ‘hallow” and ‘sanctify” are simply different English renditions of the same Hebrew word, qadash (Strong’s #6942). So, we are told of the hallowing or sanctification of days 1 and 8.
Now, to Numbers 28: 16-17. The language is a little
confusing, but once we understand what is being said, we know that the 15th
day of the First Month is also a Sabbath.
“And in the fourteenth day of the first month [the
day BEFORE the Sabbath] is the Passover of Yahweh. And in the
fifteenth day of this month is the feast: seven days shall unleavened bread
be eaten. In the first day[of the Feast, meaning the 15th day of the
month, which is the same as the first day of the Feast] shall be an
holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of servile work.”
So, here we have proof positive that the 1st, 8th and 15th
days of Abib are Sabbaths. Now, all we have to do is to continue our count of
every seventh day for the next Sabbath
Earth’s Orbit Around the Sun, 24-Hour Days and the
Calendar
Regarding the first day of the year, I cannot find a
direct biblical reference to either the Spring Equinox or the first day of
Spring, although Scott Vaught has argued that the paleo-Hebrew has the word abibix,
which means, specifically, the Spring Equinox. This will be discussed in
greater detail later. For the moment, I will simply say that the Spring
Equinox is the basic reference point of the Spring Season; and it would only
be logical to pick that day as the reference point, or marker day, for the
New Year. Vaught, Raber and Russell argue that this day should be the first
day of the first month. Pastor Lent and I argue that abibix is,
in fact, an intercalary day, day #365, which is not counted in the 364-day
year, as defined in the book of Jubilees.
Since the year is defined as consisting of 364 days, there
has to be a day which is not counted, and that would be abibix,
the very day on which the Spring Equinox occurs. Later, I will provide
another reason why this must be so.
On the day of the Spring Equinox (abibix), there
are equally twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of nighttime (in both
the southern and northern hemispheres). Also, the shadow of a sundial would
point directly west at sunrise and directly east at sunset; and there would
be no sideways shadow at noon. For this reason, the Equinoxes are natural
starting points for any system of counting days. So, regarding abibix as an
Intercalary Day, the very next day will be the first day of the month of Abib
(also called Nisan), the first day of the 364-day count.
Scott Vaught has argued that the Hebrews did not have
names for the months; and I confess that I have to concur with this opinion.
Other scholars (in encyclopedias and elsewhere) have also pointed out that
the Hebrews borrowed these names from the Babylonians and other heathen
nations. Vaught has stated in correspondence with me that the word Abib, especially
when preceded by the article the in the Hebrew text, means “the
Spring Equinox,” not “the month of Abib.” However, for simplicity’s sake,
I will use the names of the months as they appear in the KJV and other
sources. But there is no reason why we cannot have a totally numeric system
of designation. Hence, Abib 1 would be 1.1. Ziv 2 would be 2.2, etc. It seems
to me that having names for the months allows us to keep them separated more
easily, as designations such as “Month 1” and “Month 2” could be subject to
typographical errors. If someone typed the wrong number for the Month, gross
errors would occur.
The Jewish calendar, which is Babylonian in origin,
incorporated the new moon into its calendar by waiting for the FIRST NEW MOON after
the Spring Equinox to start/continue their Sabbath count. But even
this is problematic, because the rabbis are trying to force this new moon
reckoning into a continuous 7-Day Cycle of Sunday through Saturday; and the
New Moon may not occur exactly on the 7th Day (every Saturday), so
there is some fudging going on here. This fudging actually requires that
the Jews have to have an occasional THIRTEENTH MONTH, four times in every
19-year cycle. But the Bible does not record -- nor does the Book of Jubilees
-- that the Israelites ever had a thirteenth month. They had twelve months of
30 days each, plus intercalary days that were added to make up for the fact
that a solar year (365&1/4 days) cannot be divided evenly by the number
7. The Book of Jubilees very clearly states that we are to observe a calendar
that consists of “364 days.” (Jubilees, 6:29-30.) The function of the
intercalary days in the Solar Calendar will be explained later.
Every calendar system has to deal with the fact that an
actual year is 365 & ¼ days long. But 52 weeks of 7 days give us only 364
days. This is why the Julian Calendar had to be rectified by the Gregorian
Calendar, as the Julian calendar’s first day of Spring would fall earlier and
earlier each year, according to their calendar, since that calendar did not
account for the extra 1& ¼ days it took for the earth to orbit around the
Sun. In other words, Spring arrived according to the Spring Equinox every
year, but the Julian calendar started each new year 1 & ¼ days too soon.
Farmers eventually realized that planting season and harvest season no longer
lined up with their calendar.
In our era, we deal with this problem by adding an extra
day every fourth year (February 29). A year that has this extra day is called
a Leap Year. Leap years correct for the fact that earth’s orbit is 365 &
¼ days, not an even number of 24-hour days. The ¼ day must be factored into
the calendar, or the calendar will no longer accurately reflect the Equinoxes
or Solstices.
The Roman Catholic Church, for whatever reason, chose to
incorporate moon reckoning for its seasons by choosing the FULL MOON AFTER THE
SPRING EQUINOX. This is why the Roman Catholic Easter jumps around the
calendar so much. Don’t ask me where this idea came from. I don’t know and I
don’t care!!! It’s an absurd idea! More moon worship, no doubt!
Once you understand the rules of calculation of Yahweh’s
Solar Calendar, you will be pleasantly surprised to discover that it resolves
the extra 1& ¼ day per year problem. The problem for modern society,
however, is that the Solar Calendar does not incorporate a perpetual 7-Day
Cycle. The fact is that neither the Hebrews of old, nor the Judahites of Christ’s
time had named days of the week. They just counted the days to get to the
next Sabbath. After 364 days, they just added an extra day while waiting for
the Spring Equinox to return. The 365th day was usually the day of “ the
Abibix,” the Spring Equinox, except for leap years, when an additional
waiting day had to be observed. There was no such thing as a
perpetual Sunday through Saturday reckoning.
In other words, the 7-day count of the Hebrew Calendar
accommodated the actual space-time factors of orbital circulation around the
Sun, plus Earth’s axis rotation. They simply added an extra day and didn’t
worry about what its name or number was. In today’s world, we try to force
nature, and ourselves, to accommodate our perpetual Sunday through Saturday
work-week cycle.
The long and the short of these introductory comments is
to show that the TRUE SABBATH IS NEITHER SATURDAY NOR SUNDAY. Named days of
the week were/are not relevant to the actual Hebrew Sabbath reckoning,
although there is no reason why we cannot keep these names for the 364-day
Solar Calendar. The Hebrew Israelites had their own, unique calendar, which
was given to them/us by Yahweh. Had they maintained that Calendar, they would
have remained in harmony with Yahweh’s scientifically designed seasons. When
we deviate from His seasons and time reckoning, we tend to fall away from
Him. That’s why He stressed the Sabbath in the Fourth Commandment. The
Sabbath Day is not just about resting every 7th day; it is also about
synchronizing with the Earth’s orbit and rotation. This is called Universal
Harmony.
The 91 Days of the Book of Enoch
Chapter 81
1Now, my son Mathusala, all these things I
speak unto you, and write for you. To you I have revealed all, and have given
you books of everything.
2 Preserve, my son Mathusala, the books
written by your father; that you may reveal them to future generations.
3 Wisdom have I given you, to your children, and your posterity, that they may reveal to their children, for generations for ever, this wisdom in their thoughts; and that those who comprehend it may not slumber, but hear with their ears; that they may learn this wisdom, and be deemed worthy of eating this wholesome food.
4 Blessed are all the righteous; blessed are
all who walk in righteousness; in whom no crime is found, as in sinners, when
all their days are numbered.
5With respect to the progress of the sun in
heaven, it enters and goes out of each gate for thirty days, with
the leaders of the thousand classes of the stars; with four which are
added, and appertain to the four quarters of the year, which
conduct them, and accompany them at four periods.
Here, Enoch is defining a month as consisting of exactly
30 days, just as the Bible does. But there are four days added to the year,
one at the end of each season (quarter).
At Verse 7, Enoch tells us:
7So that the year is completed in three
hundred and sixty-four days.
Here, Enoch and Moses agree that the year is supposed to
be 364 days.
11 Four conductors of them first enter, who
separate the four quarters of the year. After these, twelve conductors of their
classes, who separate the months and the year into three hundred and
sixty-four days, with the leaders of a thousand, who distinguish between the
days, as well as between the four additional ones; which, as conductors,
divide the four.
Here, Enoch has reiterated that we have four seasons, plus
four intercalary days. But where and when do we count these four days?
Speaking of the angels that are in charge of each season, Enoch says, in Verses 17 and 20:
17 All the days of his influence, during
which he rules, are ninety-one days.
20 All the days of his light are ninety-one
days.
So, the Book of Enoch explains the seasons and stipulates
that each season has 91 days. The point here is that, although each
month has thirty days, each season has 91 days. Each year,
therefore, has four “91st days.”
These are simply intercalary days that complete the seasons. From the Book of Enoch, there is nothing otherwise exceptional about these days, but they are placed in the calendar so as to coincide with a weekly Sabbath. The main thing we learn from Enoch is where to insert the intercalary days so that we get a year of 364 days with the seasons divided equally among them. Additionally, we have the annual pattern of 52 weeks of 7 days each, which fits very neatly into this system. Here is how it looks: Abibix……………..91st Day……….91st Day……..91st Day………91st Day
Marker Day………..Summer………Autumn……...Winter………..Calendar
Spring Equinox……Solstice……….Equinox………Solstice………..Ends
The following day is the next Spring Equinox, the Marker Day that is ignored (not counted among the 364 days) as far as the count is concerned, but which sets up the Seasons. 364 + 1 = 365 days. And this cycle repeats until the Leap Year, when the Spring Equinox comes a day later, so there is a 92nd day (intercalary) in the last quarter of each leap year. This system of fixed dates keeps the Calendar adjusted to the annual growing season.
WHEN DOES THE DAY BEGIN?
Here, we have three choices: evening to evening (sunset to
sunset), noon to noon, and sunrise to sunrise.
The traditional reckoning is sunset to sunset, derived
from the interpretation of “at even” to mean the “evening of the day,” i.e.,
sunset. There is much dispute over this. My personal opinion is that the
Hebrew and Israelite day-keepers did not use the word ‘day’ as we use it
today. From reading the Scriptures, it appears that they meant by ‘day’ what
we mean by “daytime,” the twelve hour period of daylight.
The relevant Scriptural verse is Gen. 1:5:
“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called
Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”
By itself, this sounds contradictory, because only
the light is first called “Day,” then the “evening and the morning”
are called “day.” The Hebrew word is yowm, meaning “to be hot,”
thus signifying the daytime only, from sunrise to sunset.
But yowm has several other meanings, such as “age” or “era,” “season,” and, by inference…a “24-hour day.” The Hebrew word for “dawn” is shachar; and this word is distinguished from yowm, which does not mean “dawn.”
Vaught, Raber and Russell argue for a sunrise to
sunrise day reckoning, as this seems both logical (a “new day”
usually begins with the rising of the Sun), and they cite Matt. 28:1 as
evidence for their view. Here is what it says:
“In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the
first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the
sepulcher.”
The Greek word for “dawn” is epiphosko. The
expression, “toward the first day of the week,” appears to
be saying “toward the sunrise…” But much depends upon the sentence structure
and the intent of the author.
The Greek word for ‘toward’ is eis, which is a very general proposition, which can mean, “to, against, among, concerning, by,” etc., so this verse, by itself, is inconclusive. Nevertheless, Messers Vaught, Raber and Russell may have stumbled onto something here. There may be merit to the sunrise-to-sunrise reckoning. It is worthy of further study.
The noon-to-noon doctrine is based on the concept that the
word ‘evening’ actually refers to High Noon, when the Sun divides the day
into two EVEN halves.
This is an interesting concept, but the Hebrew word ereb does not offer this as an alternative definition to the one given, namely, “dusk.” The root word is arab, meaning to grow dusky, as the Arabs have darker skin than we do. So, evidently, the “evening of the day” is, indeed, the sunset, not High Noon. Not all of our traditions are false!!!!
Here is what Pastor Lent has to say about Gen. 1:18, with
respect to the noon-to-noon reckoning:
“By simply remembering this verse alone, we are made
aware that Yahweh's Word overcomes any attempt on the part of the noon Sabbath
holders to change the meaning of basic words such as "evening",
"day", "morning", "night" or any other word
they would twist to support this ill conceived doctrine. The noon to
noon Sabbath was part of the baal (Lord) priest's Sun worship thousands of
years ago.”
Given the difficulties presented by the noon-to-noon and
sunrise-to-sunrise measures, I will use the evening-to-evening reckoning, as
is traditional. Although it is counter-intuitive, the darkness does come
before the light in the Holy Bible, even though we understand that “all is
light,” and darkness is, in reality, the absence of light. But the Bible is
the Book of Adam. It is told to, for, by, and about Adam and His SEED. (Gen.
5:1.)
From Adam’s perspective, he awakened from a non-conscious
state, “darkness,” into the light of consciousness. Also, we gestate in the
darkness of the womb until we emerge into the light, so the symbolism of
sunset-to-sunset reckoning, to me, is apt.
“And the earth was without form, and void: and darkness was
upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” (Gen.
1:2-3.)
So, the Bible itself puts the darkness ahead of the light.
This is true from our perspective. The Bible can be seen as
a book which speaks of the Adamites’ emergence from darkness into light.
Given these considerations, I will proceed with the
evening-to-evening reckoning. The noon-to-noon measure seems to have no
obvious merit, being dependent, in my opinion, upon strained interpretations
of Scripture. The sunrise-to-sunrise measure may have considerable merit, but
it requires deeper research, which I am unable to do at the present time.
THE RULES OF CALCULATION
The first rule is that a day begins “at even.” That means,
from the Hebrew word ereb, that the 24-hour day is reckoned from
sunset to sunset, not from midnight to midnight, as we do today. This rule is
apparently in recognition of the order of creation. Before there was light,
there was a void or darkness.
The second rule is that the first day of the year begins
at the first evening after the Spring Equinox. From the Book of Enoch, we
know that each season consists of 91 days, leaving an extra day. This is only
way to cradle the four Seasons between the 5 intercalary days (as shown in
the chart above).
From year to year, this alternates between March 20 and March 21. Astronomers and astrologers know this point precisely as it is marked by two events: 1.) The precise division of the day into equal periods of daylight and nighttime, 12 hours each, and 2.) The entry of the sun into the sign of Aries. This latter point can be seen at night and is referred to either as 0’ Aries or as the first point of Aries. With either of these two points of verification, we can start Yahweh’s calendar at evening with Day 1: Abib 1.
The twelve months are exactly 30 days each. How do we know
this?
First of all, there is the very ancient (pre-historic) tradition that, at one time, the earth’s orbit was exactly 360 days long. In other words, the earth’s orbital circulation and axial rotation were synchronized. It is quite possible that some sort of celestial encounter occurred which knocked the earth out of its 360-day orbit and bumped it up to a 365-day orbit. Immanuel Velikovsky believed that the planet Venus is actually a newcomer to our solar system, and that, when it took its position between Mercury and Earth, the mechanics of the Solar System forced the Earth further away from the Sun.
Be that as it may, the biblical passages which verify the
30-day month occur in the Book of Genesis.
Gen. 7:11 states, In the six hundreth year of
Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same
day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of
heaven were opened.
Gen. 8: 3 tells us, And the waters returned from
off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days
the waters were abated.
Here we have Genesis telling us that the Flood of
Noah, which was NOT global, lasted exactly one hundred fifty days. Gen.
8:4 puts it this way: And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the
seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
So, from the 17th day of the second month to
the 17th day of the seventh month we have exactly 150 days,
which means that each intervening month had exactly 30 days. 5 * 30 = 150.
A biblical month is defined as lasting 30 days.
[NOTE: The twelve months are exactly 30 days each. This
gives us a total of 360 days. Knowing that, at the end of months 3 and 6, we
have seasonal Marker Days, we may conclude that the Flood lasted exactly 152
days. This would not necessarily be a contradiction, as these days are
counted as days of the months. Anyone familiar with this Solar
Calendar (which has also been called the Enoch Calendar) would know that this
period of 150 monthly days would equal 152 Calendar
days.
We have to understand that none of these time measures is exact. Years, months, weeks, and days are all approximate time measures. Every year, we have to reconcile two non-synchronous cycles: earth’s axial spin and earth’s orbit around the Sun. There is no way to divide the one evenly into the other, so we must make adjustments. The beauty of the Solar Calendar is that all of these approximations are reset every year to the Spring Equinox.]
With regard to the weekdays, there are no names for the
seven weekdays. The Hebrews simply used numbers. Only the 7th day had a name,
the Sabbath. But since a month consisted of 30 days and weeks consisted of
seven days, there was no inherent relationship between the days of the month
and the days of the week, except for the intercalary adjustment at the end of
each half year.
The important thing for the Hebrews was to maintain the 7-day count without fail during a given full year, because all of the Feast Days depend upon this count. To do that, all you need is to determine the first day of the year. That, as I explained above, begins at the first sunset after the Spring Equinox. Everything follows simply from that.
Recognizing the fact that the Hebrews did not originally
have names for the months, I will use, for convenience’ sake, the Chaldean
names for those months whose names are not given in the
Bible. It is apparent to me that the Hebrews gradually adopted these names.
The fact that they appear in the Bible is ample proof of that. These months do not line up with the months we use today. For example, Abib 1 usually falls on March 20 or 21, so these two calendars (modern and Hebrew) are typically offset by three weeks each month. Ultimately, as we get more familiar with the Hebrew Solar Calendar, the names of the months can be dropped, or we can continue to use these names for convenience. The twelve months of the Chaldean system are:
Abib
Ziv
Sivan
Tammuz
Ab
Elul
Ethanim
Bul
Chislev
Tebeth
Shebat
Adar
What is unexpected by most people is that Abib 1 is a
Sabbath, even though it is a first day, not a seventh day.
As explained above, under the “Hallowing the Sabbath” heading, days 1, 8, and
15 were “sanctified” and no work was performed on those days.
According to Scott Vaught, the Paleo-Hebrew word, abibix,
is falsely assumed or translated as abib. Abibix is a
direct reference to the Spring Equinox. It is not referring to a month by
that name. Thus, the true meaning of the text is that abibix is
simply a reference to the Spring Equinox, as an astronomical event.
This is, as I have been arguing, the Marker Day, the day that is not counted among the 364, which are divided into 4 Seasons of 91 days each. The Bible tells us that this first day, Abib 1, is a Sabbath, so that every year begins with a Sabbath. The year always begins with a day of rest, not a workday. From that point on, every seventh day is a Sabbath until the end of the year, when the next Marker Day, abibix, occurs. Since there are only 52 weeks in a year, adding up to 364 days, we have to add this intercalary day before beginning the next cycle. That completes the 365-day year. We add another intercalary day at the end of the year when there is a leap year. In this way, the Solar Calendar begins every year on the first full day of Spring.
It is obvious that this system is much simpler than the
Jewish, Catholic, or any other Calendar. It is perfectly attuned to the
growing season, which depends upon the Equinoxes and Solstices, not upon the
phases of the moon.
Although Yahweh’s calendar is very simple in construction,
it is easier to demonstrate in terms of an actual calendar layout rather than
to try to explain it in words. The best explanation here is a picture. In the
chart below, the seven days of the week are laid out from Saturday through
Friday, although, depending on the year, any of the named days could be the
first day of the week.
The Spring Equinox can occur on any day of the week. Whatever day that is, the following full day becomes the first day, and the first Sabbath of God’s Solar Calendar year. This particular chart depicts a year in which Abib 1 falls on a Saturday, so that every regular Sabbath is always on a Saturday during that particular year. (There are also many Special Sabbaths, as defined by the Feasts.)
To avoid a clutter of numbers going across the page, only
significant days and regular Sabbaths are shown. The reader can fill in the
blanks. Also shown are all the days of those weeks during which a transition
occurs from one month to the next month. Since twelve months, each composed
of 30 days each, gives us only 360 days, intercalary days are added at the
end of each Season to line up with the months and the weekly Sabbath count
(as is shown in the Calendar below).
THE HEBREW/ISRAELITE/ANGLO-SAXON/BIBLE CALENDAR
(Incorporating Enoch’s 91st Day of Seasonal Intercalation)
(Spring Equinox, Beginning of the Sacred Half Year)
(These named days are just for reference, since we are so
used to named days. This chart is, therefore, for a year which begins on a
Saturday.)
Saturday
Sunday..Monday..Tuesday.Wednesday..Thursday..Friday
(First Month)
Day 1….Day 2….Day 3…...Day 4…..Day 5…...Day 6…..Day
7
Abib 1…Abib 2…..Abib 3…..Abib 4…..Abib 5……Abib 6….Abib 7
Day 8
Abib 8………………………………………………………..Abib 14 (Passover)
Day 15
Abib 15 (Abib 15 begins the 7-day Feast of
Unleavened Bread which ends on Abib 21.)
Abib 16 Abib 17 Abib 18 Abib 19 Abib 20 Abib 21
(Wave Sheaf, countdown to Pentecost) (Special
Sabbath)
Day 22
Abib 22 Abib 23
(7 days after Wave Sheaf)
Day 29
Abib 29 Abib 30 Ziv1 Ziv2 Ziv3 Ziv4 Ziv5
(14 days after W.S.)
(Ziv 1 is the first day of the second month.)
Day 36
Ziv6 Ziv 7 Ziv 12
(21 days after W.S.)
Day 43
Ziv 13 Ziv 14 Ziv 19
(28 days after W.S.)
Day 50
Ziv 20 Ziv 21 Ziv 26
(35 days after W.S.)
Day 57
Ziv 27 Ziv 28 Ziv 29 Ziv 30 Sivan 1 Sivan 2
Sivan 3
(42 days after W.S.) (First day of third month)
Day 64
Sivan 4 Sivan 5 Sivan 6 Sivan
10
(49 days end on Sivan 4, making Sivan 5 day
#50, Pentecost, counted from the Sabbath day before the
Wave Sheaf (Abib 15). {Lev. 23:15.} Sivan 4 and 5 are a
48-hour Sabbath, so the first workday is day 2 of the next week, Sivan 6.
The regular Sabbaths are still 7 days apart, but, due to the Special Sabbath
of Pentecost, this week has only 5 legal workdays.)
Day 71
Sivan 11
Day 78
Sivan 18
Day 85
Sivan 25 Sivan 26 Sivan 27 Sivan 28 Sivan 29
Sivan 30 Day 91
(91st Day of Spring, ending the Spring Season)
(13 weeks of seven days = 91 days.)
(Summer Solstice)
Day 92
Tammuz 1 Tam 2 Tam 3 Tam 4 Tam 5 Tam 6 Tam 7
(First day of 4th month.)
Day 99
Tammuz 8
Day 106
Tammuz 15
Day 113
Tammuz 22
Day 120
Tammuz 29 Tam 30 Ab1 Ab2 Ab3 Ab4 Ab5
(First day of the 5th month)
Day 127
Ab 6
Day 134
Ab 13
Day 141
Ab 20
Day 148
Ab 27 Ab 28 Ab 29 Ab 30 Elul 1 Elul 2
Elul 3
(Sixth month)
Day 155
Elul4
Day 162
Elul 11
Day 169
Elul 18
Day 176 Day 182
Elul 25 Elul 26 Elul 27 Elul 28 Elul 29 Elul 30 (Day
91)
(Last day of the Summer Season, Intercalary Day)
(2 intercalary days are added {91st day of Spring and the
91st day of Summer} to the first half-year so that Ethanim, the 7th month,
can begin on a Sabbath. This also fulfills the principle of the doubling
of the yearinto two equal halves. [See explanatory note at the end of
this section.] The seven-day Sabbath count remains continuous, and the first
half-year thus equals exactly 182 days (26 * 7 = 182).
Approximate Autumnal Equinox, Sabbath, Beginning of “Civil Year”
Day 183
Ethanim1 (First day of Seventh Month, First
Day of the Second Half-Year)
(Feast of Trumpets, Fall Equinox, approximately,
begins the Civil Year)
Day 190
Ethanim8 Ethanim9 Ethanim10
(Ethanim 10 is a special Sabbath, the Day of Atonement.)
Day 197
Ethanim15 (Ethanim 15 is the first day of
the 7-day Feast of Tabernacles)
Day 204
Ethanim22 (Ethanim 22 is the Sabbath that ends
the Feast of Tabernacles. It is referred to as the Last Great Day.)
Day 211
Ethanim 29 Ethanim 30 Bul 1 Bul 2
Bul 3 Bul 4 Bul 5
(Eighth month)
Day 218
Bul6
Day 225
Bul13
Day 232
Bul20
Day 239
Bul 27 Bul 28 Bul29 Bul30 Chislev 1 Chislev 2
Chislev 3
(Ninth month)
Day 246
Chislev 4
Day 253
Chislev 11
Day 260
Chislev 18
Day 267
Chislev 25 Chislev 26 Chislev 27 Chislev 28
Chislev 29 Chislev 30 Day 91
(End of Autumn Season, Intercalary Day)
(Winter Solstice).
(The Book of I Maccabees states that the Maccabees had
declared that Kislev 25 was to begin an 8-day Feast in commemoration of the
rebuilding of the altar on the same day as it was destroyed by Antiochus
Epiphanes. – I Mac. 1:45; 4:52-59.)
Day 274
Tebeth 1
(First Day of Tenth Month)
Day 281
Tebeth 8
Day 288
Tebeth 15
Day 295
Tebeth 22
Day 302
Tebeth 29 Tebeth 30 Shebat 1 Shebat 2
Shebat 3 Shebat 4 Shebat 5
(Eleventh month)
Day 309
Shebat6
Day 316
Shebat13
Day 323
Shebat20
Day 330
Shebat27 Shebat28 Shebat29 Shebat30 Adar1 Adar2
Adar3
(Twelfth month)
Day 337
Adar4
Day 344
Adar11
Day 351
Adar18
Day 358 Day364
Adar25 Adar26 Adar27 Adar28 Adar 29 Adar 30 Day
91
(Intercalary Day)
The next day is the next Spring Equinox! Beautiful System, isn’t it? The seemingly impossible has happened. By using abibix as the Marker Day, fifty-two weeks are made to fit perfectly into a 365-day year!!! Since the calendar year is defined as 364 days, the 365th day, although part of the real-time solar year, it is not counted on the calendar.
Thus, very 365-day year has four intercalary days (the
four 91st days) plus Abibix, the day between the calendar
years. In case of a leap year, another intercalary day is added at
the end of the calendar to get 366 days. When that occurs, we all take an
extra day off!!! I’m all for that!!! -- Eli.)
After the Spring Equinox occurs, the next day is Abib 1, a
Sabbath starting a new year. After a leap year of 366 days, the next day is
still Abib 1, the first full day after the Spring Equinox, after
which, the 7-day Sabbath count resumes. One question that has frequently come
is, “Why is Abib 1 the day after the Spring Equinox,
instead of the Equinox Day itself?” There are two reasons:
1.) Abibix, the Day of the Spring Equinox, is a day during which the Old Year is ending and the New Year is beginning, so this Day is in limbo, as it were, being partially in both calendar years. 2.) Since the Seasons are divided into 4 91-Day quarters, it just makes sense to have all of these days fit fully into a given year, thus leaving the Marker Day as the day which shares the few remaining hours of the Old Year, plus the corresponding hours of the New Year. Thus,Abibix is the 365th Day, since it is neither counted among the 364 full days, nor does it belong completely to either year.
{Explanatory Note: With regard to the principle of
“doubling” at the end of month # 6, Pastor Lent explains,‘…the Hebrew word
for YEAR comes from the word Shaw-naw (Strong’s #8138) and
it means “the doubling.”
Keeping this in mind, we see that the first day of the second half of the year [“doubling” -- Eli](Feast of Trumpets) is mandated to be a regular Sabbath forbidding servile work. (Num 29:1; also Lev. 23:24-25.)” So, adding the two intercalary days (the 91st days after each Season) gives us a half-year of exactly 26 weeks, or 182 days. Six months of 30 days equals 180 days, so these two intercalary days are interjected to mark the Seasons and to keep the continuous 7-day count going, and so that the second half-year can begin on a regular Sabbath, on Ethanim 1 (day # 183, which begins the “doubling” process). This realigns the Sabbaths, months and weeks for the start of the second half-year, which is an exact duplicate (shawnaw, doubling), in terms of the regular Sabbath count, of the first half-year.}
(Much of this research for Yahweh’s Solar Calendar is
taken from the work of Pastor Kenneth W. Lent, who has issued a combination
taped and written study course entitled Yahweh Demands His Solar
Sabbaths.
It is available through Christian Bible Ministries, PO Box 96, Pearisburg, VA 24134. All those interested in the Bible Calendar should avail themselves of this study course, although it differs slightly from what I have presented here.)
YAHWEH’S CALENDAR, CHAPTER & VERSE, PART 1
The Months
Abib, also called Nisan, is the
name of the first month. Observe the month of Abib, and keep the
passover to Yahweh God. – Deut. 16:1.
(As explained above, I have chosen to keep the names of the months for convenience, to minimize the quantity of numbers we have to deal with. Scott Vaught has argued that this verse is best translated as, “Observe the month of the Spring Equinox, and keep the Passover to Yahweh God.”)
Ziv, also called Iyar, is the
second month. And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth
year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt…in the
month of Ziv, which is the second month. – I Kings 6:1.
Sivan is the third month. The
king’s secretaries were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is
the month of Sivan. – Esther 8:9.
Tammuz is the fourth month.
Although there is no verse in the Bible, which names the fourth month, the
Jewish calendar retains the name Tammuz. The Syrians also
used this name for the same month. The Jews,contrary to the teaching of
the Bible, begin their year at the Autumnal Equinox, instead of at the Vernal
Equinox.
Their name for this month is Tishri. In their calendar, Tammuz is the tenth month. This name corresponds to the Biblical fourth month, dating from the Spring Equinox, so we shall call it Tammuz.
Ab is the fifth month after the Spring
Equinox. We have the same situation as we did for Tammuz. The Bible does not
name Ab as the fifth month, so we have chosen the corresponding Jewish/Syriac
name for their eleventh month. (It is quite possible that the Hebrew
tradition records different names. If so, it is also possible that the Hebrew
names for these months might be found in the Apocrypha or in other
Hebrew/Israelite literature. This is a subject worthy of additional
research.)
Elul is the sixth month. So the
wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul. -- Neh.
6:15. The Bible does not list the number of this month, so again we will
utilize the Jewish/Syriac tradition, which we transposed to the solar method
in the cases of Tammuz, Ab and Elul.
Ethanim (Jewish Tishri)
is the seventh month. And all the men of Israel assembled to King
Solomon at the feast in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month... --
I Kings 8:2.
Bul is the eighth month. And in
the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house
was finished in all its parts, and according to all its specifications. –
I Kings 6:37.
Chislev is the ninth month. In
the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah in the
fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. -- Zech. 7:1.
Tebeth is the tenth month. And
when Esther was taken to King Ahaseurus into his royal palace in the tenth
month, which is Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign, the king loved
Esther more than all the women, and she found grace and favor in his sight
more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown upon her head and
made her queen instead of Vashti. -- Esther 2:16.
(This tendency of foreign kings to adore and marry Israelite women is still alive today, although it is a certainty that Artaxerxes (Ahaseurus) was an Aryan/Adamite/Shemite, although not a Hebrew, as the Hebrews came three generations after Shem. The Hebrews and Persians were cousins before they became enemies. The Kingdom of Persia was founded by the Shemites of Elam {Gen. 10:22}. Although Esther’s marriage to Artaxerxes was permitted by Race, since they were both Adamites, he was still a heathen who did not follow the laws of Yahweh, so Esther regarded her marriage to him as a violation of her tribal marriage law. {Es. 4:16}. The horrible translation of the KJV calls Esther a Jewess. She was not a Jewess. She was a Benjamite. {Es. 2:5-7.} Every instance of the word ‘Jew’ in the KJV is a false translation of the word ‘Judah,’ from the Hebrew. Just because the Jews have appropriated our history for themselves does not make Esther a Jewess. Also, Judaism ALLOWS interracial marriage. Had Esther been a Jewess, she would have had no concern about marrying a foreigner. Her rabbi would have approved!!! If the Bible says one thing and the Jews say another, it is obvious which source is the Truth! Grace Kelly is just one modern example of Adamite/Israelite women who have carried on this “tradition” of being selected by foreign kings. King Hussein of Jordan also married an American Israelite.)
Shebat is the eleventh month. On
the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month which is the month of Shebat, in
the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah, son of Iddo
the prophet. -- Zech. 1:7.
Adar is the twelfth and final
month.
In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahaseurus, they cast Pur, that is the lot, before Haman day after day; and they cast it month after month till the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar. – Esther 3:7.
Unlike the lunar-solar Jewish Babylonian calendar, no
intercalary months are required in YAHWEH GOD’s solar calendar.
Only intercalary days are required to fill the Seasonal gaps. YAHWEH’S CALENDAR, CHAPTER & VERSE, PART II YAHWEH GOD’s Appointments with Israel: Memorials and Feasts
These are the appointed feasts of Yahweh, which you
shall proclaim as times of holy convocation, for presenting to Yahweh
offerings by fire, burnt offerings and cereal offerings, each on its proper
day;besides the sabbaths of Yahweh, and besides your gifts, and
besides all your votive offerings, and besides your freewill offerings, which
you give to Yahweh. -- Lev. 23:37,38.
{A quick note here: There is no doubt in my mind that
Yahweh established these Feasts as a memorial for Israel for perpetuity. But,
since Yahshua Messiah offered Himself as the Last Sacrifice, it is no longer mandatory to
shed the blood of sacrificial animals for the remission of sins. Otherwise,
we are still required to observe the Feasts as a memorial, to study the Law
and humble ourselves before Yahweh.}
Abib 1, first day of the year.
(The first full day after the Spring Equinox.) In remembrance of the
Passsover, Yahweh said to Moses: This month shall be for you the
beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. -- Ex.
12:2.
Passover. (Abib 14.) In the first
month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, is Yahweh’s
passover. -- Lev. 23:5.
Feast of Unleavened Bread. (Abib
15.) “ And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of
unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you
shall do no laborious work. --Lev. 23:6,7Abib 15 is already a regular
Sabbath. It is also a Special Sabbath because it is part of the Feast of
Unleavened Bread. The same is true for Abib 22.
Wave Sheaf Day. (Abib 16) Abib 16 is the “morrow after the Sabbath,” the day of the Wave Sheaf (Lev. 23:9) offering. The day before, a Sabbath, is the day from which the countdown to Pentecost begins. Commanded Sabbath. Ethanim 9. This is a special Sabbath, as well as the next day, Ethanim 10. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening you shall keep your sabbath. -- Lev. 23:32. Day of Atonement. Ethanim 10. The Day of Atonement is not a regular Sabbath. It is a special Sabbath and day of fasting. And Yahweh said unto Moses, On the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present an offering by fire to Yahweh. -- Lev. 23:28. Feast of Tabernacles. Ethanim 15. Ethanim 15 begins the week-long Feast of Tabernacles. Israel is to gather in tents or booths. On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the feast of booths to Yahweh. -- Lev. 23:34. You shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh seven days in the year; it is a statute for ever throughout your generations; you shall keep it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am Yahweh your God. -- Lev. 23:41-43. Feast of Purim. Adar 14 & 15. And Mordecai recorded these things, and sent letters to all the Judahites who were in the provinces of King Ahaseurus, both near and far, enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year, as the days on which the Judahites [of the House of Judah] got relief from their enemies…[the Amelekites and other Canaanites] -- Esther 9:20-22.
Pentecost (Feast of First Fruits). Fifty
days from Abib 15 is Sivan 5. Sivan 5 is a consecutive Sabbath from Sivan 4. And
you shall count from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you
brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven full weeks shall they be,
counting fifty days, to the morrow after the seventh sabbath. -- Lev.
23:15,16.
So that we are sure to understand this starting point, this
verse is its own double witness, telling us to count 49 days from the Day
of the Wave Sheaf offering (Abib 16) and/or 50 days from the Sabbath Day just
before the Wave Sheaf Day (Abib 15).
Feast of Trumpets. Ethanim 1. The trumpet
signals the end of the spring/summer agricultural season. It also signals the
crowning of a new king. Prophetically, the Feast of Trumpets anticipates the
First and Second Advents of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Yahweh said
unto Moses, Say to the people of Israel, in the seventh month, on the first
day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial
proclaimed with a blast of trumpets, a holy convocation. -- Lev.
23:23.
(Given the fact that this particular week starts with two
Special Sabbaths, there are only four work days available until the next
regular Sabbath).
(NOTE: This feast was not appointed by Yahweh, but was
peculiar to the House of Judah, as one of their own memorials. Since Benjamin
and Levi were part of the House of Judah at that time, these tribes might
also celebrate Purim. However, the tribes of the House of Israel were not
involved in this event, so it is not a national holiday for all Israel. …the
Judahites ordained and took it upon themselves and their descendants and all
who joined them, that without fail they would keep these two days according
to what was written at the time appointed every year… -- Est.
9:27,28.)
Final note: It is a condition of the Restoration of Israel that the nations of Anglo-Saxon Israel return to their God by resuming the practice of the Sabbaths, Memorials, and Feast Days of Yahweh’s calendar. All Christian Identity churches and related churches are encouraged to make a study of Yahweh’s calendar and to begin observing God’s commandments once again. In the final days before the Judgment, we are instructed to “come out of Babylon.” It is by opting out of the Beast’s economic system and returning to nature, to Yah’s Laws, and to Yah’s Sacred Calendar that we accomplish this separation.
With so much confusion about the true Biblical calendar, I
believe that Yahweh, in His infinite Mercy, knows our Hearts and judges us
accordingly. Even if we cannot keep the Letter of His Law, He does not punish
us if we keep the Spirit of His Law. It is not possible for people, who work
9-5 jobs, to abruptly quit and follow the Sabbath system, which is unrelated to
the existing workweek; and I am not suggesting that you drop everything and
do so. It is a goal that we must set and pray for. Once He knows you are
trying to understand His Word, He will guide you and move mountains for you,
if necessary, so do not be dismayed if you are presently unable to follow the
Sabbath system outlined herein. But, you must keep the Spirit of the
Law by keeping one day a week separate for rest and worship. At present,
I personally keep Sunday Sabbaths, because I cannot arrange my employment
schedule to keep a weekday Sabbath. Until the Restoration of all things, most
of us have no choice but to keep the Spirit of the Law until we can keep the
Letter. So, keep a regular Sabbath that you can observe without fail.
This day is for Him, your Creator. That is not too much to ask. If this
concept were not important to Yahweh, He would not have said so much about it
in Scripture; and He would not have made it one of the Ten Commandments. The
day will come when all Israelites are once again able to keep the Solar
Sabbath as a nation.
Having participated in numerous Feast Day celebrations, I
know that many Christian Identity congregations, nationwide, keep the particular
Feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles on the weekend closest to the
actual Solar Sabbath. Since most of our congregants are law-abiding,
hard-working citizens who do the 5-days-a-week, 8-hours-a-day routine, they
can hardly expect to tell their bosses to sympathize with their
newly-discovered, “oddball” religious practices! “Sorry, Boss, I’m
not coming to work this week because of the Feast of Tabernacles.” That’s
asking to get fired. Yahweh knows your heart. Keep praying for this
deliverance and He will move mountains for you. In the
meantime, you have to demonstrate to Him an awareness of His Law, so that you
can, ultimately, keep both the Spirit and the Letter of the Law.
But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the
wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments,
which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly
polluted: then said I, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness,
to consume them…I am Yahweh, your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my
judgments, and do them; And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign
between me and you, that ye may know that I am Yahweh your God. -- Ezekiel
20:13, 19, 20.
|
Judgment Day Perspectives
"And they will forget all my law and all my commandments
and all my judgments, and they will err in reference to new moons and
sabbaths and festivals and jubilees and ordinances. And then they will
turn themselves to me from the midst of the nations with all their hearts and
all their soul and all their power, and I shall gather them from amongst all
nations, and they will seek me that I may be found for them when they seek me
with all their heart and with all their soul, and I will open to them much
peace and happiness." - Book of Jubilees 1:13.
Update on Part 1
The response to my Scriptural study on the Hebrew
Calendar, "Yahweh’s Solar Calendar (Part 1),"
was both invigorating and demanding. I ordinarily have no compunction about
challenging long-held traditions of orthodoxy. It is well understood, within
Christian Identity, that a great number of mainstream traditions, surrounding
Christianity and Judaism, have little or no Scriptural foundation. Virtually
everything taught by the rabbis of Judaism is anti-Mosaic, as the Talmud
asserts that Talmudism supersedes the teachings of Moses. Likewise, the
Catholic Church has introduced numerous traditions, such as Christmas and
Easter, that have no Scriptural foundation. Both of these "holy"
days are, in fact, rooted in pagan tradition. Both of these religions have
made a habit of substituting their own traditions in place of the teachings
of the Bible. Also, the Protestant denominations have added universalism and
antinomianism ("The law is done away with") to the witch’s brew
that is called orthodox religion today.
Knowing these things, I long ago suspected that the Jewish
and Catholic feast days were probably just as unScriptural. When I was
writing my book, The Great Impersonation, between 1980 and 2003,
I became more aware of the Hebrew Feast Days and how different they are from
both mainstream Christianity and Judaism.
As I gathered more information about these Hebrew Feast Days, I realized that I had to add an Appendix to TGI, because Yahweh puts so much importance on keeping His Sabbaths and on observing His Feast Days, although we are to keep the Feast Days as memorials. What was abolished at the Cross was the blood rituals of the Levitical priesthood. The rest of The Law remains fully in effect, as we are to have the Law "written in our hearts," as per Jer. 31:31-37.
The Bible takes the Fourth Commandment very seriously,
even calling for the Death Penalty for those who violate it.
For this reason, I had decided that I needed to study the subject in greater detail. Starting with the premise that, "If the rabbis or popes demand it, it’s probably wrong," I became attracted to the Solar Calendar. Of all of the Biblical subjects I have ever tackled, this has been the most difficult to research, as it is a subject of great antiquity and one that is buried by most scholarship. Fortunately, there has been a resurgence of interest in the Hebrew solar calendar because it is featured so prominently in the Dead Sea Scrolls of the Essenes. Some of that research will be adduced herein.
Although there is much said in Scripture about the Feast
Days (Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement,
Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day}, there really are no explicit
instructions as to how to arrange the Calendar.
The Calendar must be deduced from the various passages that deal with the Sabbaths, Feasts, days, weeks, months and years. Because the Bible gives only scant information how to organize these days, the Calendar must be painstakingly reconstructed. I believe I have done this in Part 1 of this two-part series. (Here is the link to that study, which lists Chapter and Verse of all relevant passages pertaining to the Calendar: http://www.anglo-saxonisrael.com/newsletter/2007_8_23.php )
I expected rejection from the mainstream, but I was quite
surprised by the reaction from many CI groups. This calendar issue has struck
a raw nerve within the Christian Identity community, as many
well-established groups practice a lunar or luni-solar calendar.
The circles I travel in are almost exclusively solar in
their approach to the Feast Days. Either that, or the congregation takes a
wait-and-see attitude, waiting for more information to come in before
committing to either a solar or lunar calendar. Once I was invited to speak
to a group in Tennessee. Not realizing that they were an exclusively lunar
group, I caused an uproar by declaring that I practice a solar calendar.
That experience has caused me to research the subject more
thoroughly, to see if perhaps I had overlooked something. The lunar
Sabbath-keepers claim to have all kinds of "proofs," but I found
their arguments to be unconvincing. In short, they just assumed too much.
They were reading things that just weren’t there. So, I did a thorough survey
of all the Bible verses that relate to the Appointments, Seasons and
Sabbaths.
In spite of many recent appeals by lunar advocates, I
cannot accept a lunar calendar. I still maintain that there is not enough
information in Scripture to complete the picture of the Calendar, whether it
is lunar or solar. As I related in Part 1, I had to turn to the books of
Enoch and Jubilees to get the full picture. From these three sources, here is
what we know for sure:
If Day 1 is wrong, everything else is wrong, because Day 1 begins the annual count. Fortunately, Scripture tells us which day that is. It is the first day of the first month of Spring, Abib. Since all calendars, whether lunar, luni-solar, or solar, focus on the Spring Equinox, that day is the focal point. This is true for two main reasons: a.) Since the Equinox Day divides daytime and nighttime into to equal halves of 12 hours each, it is a perfect marker day. It’s like the yellow stripe down the middle of the road. A sundial will cast no left or right shadow on this day, so it easy to mark. The sundial’s shadow will move strictly east and west as the sun passes overhead. b.) Since planting and harvesting seasons must be determined with relative accuracy, a reliable, consistent marker day must be used. This is the reason why the Julian calendar replaced the previous calendars. And this is also the reason why the Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian calendar. Inaccurate calendars begin to drift away from the focal point and must be constantly adjusted to get back to the focal point. This is why lunar calendars must be constantly adjusted to approximate the Spring Equinox. Since the growing season is determined by the sun, not the moon, it is the sun that rules the seasons, the year, and the calendar.
Agriculture and the Calendar
The consistency of a calendar is much more important to a
farmer than it is to a priest. Religious rituals need not be determined by
the planting, ripening or harvesting of crops. Knowing what I do about
Judaism and its importation of Babylonian ideas into Judea during the
Herodian dynasty, and since Jews have never been farmers throughout
their entire history, I began to have doubts about the Jewish calendar,
with it fluctuating dates, months and years. Virtually every calendar
commentator admits that the lunar calendar was practiced in ancient Babylon
before the Hebrews adopted a lunar calendar. The question is: "Did
the Hebrews ever practice a non-lunar, purely solar (agricultural) calendar?"
Since our people have always been farmers and the Jews have never been
farmers, I suspected that the Hebrews had a solar calendar.
One of the most important reasons for rejecting lunar
reckoning is that the first yearly day of the lunar calendar can be as much
as two weeks off of the Spring Equinox. Since all lunar calendars are based
on either the New Moon or Full Moon closest to the Spring Equinox, these
calendars can be as much as two weeks ahead or two weeks behind the
agricultural clock. For farmers, such fluctuations can mean the difference
between a good harvest or a poor harvest. It is for agricultural reasons that
all calendars must focus around the Spring Equinox. The further a calendar
wanders away from this Marker Day, the less the farmers can rely on it. In
other words, a calendar must accurately reflect the Seasons of the year; and
only a purely Solar Calendar can do this consistently.
From the ancient world, one evidence of the importance of
agriculture to the year is the so-called "Gezer Calendar." {http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/westsem/gezer.html }
This is not really a calendar, but a poetic instruction about which months to
sow and reap various crops. Like our famous "knee high by the 4thof
July" saying for corn, the Gezer Calendar relates crops to
particular times of particular months.
The Hebrew word, abib, although employed to
designate the first month, actually means, according to various scholars,
"green ears of barley," "ripening of the barley,"
"tender, green ears," etc. This demonstrates that Abib is
the first month of Spring, when the winter barley crop is just beginning to
ripen. Two weeks after the Spring Equinox, the barley had to be ripe enough
for the Wave Sheaf ceremony to be performed. Obviously, this ripening is the
function of sunlight, not moonlight, nor is it tied to any phases of the
moon.
If the calendar wanders too far away from the agricultural
year, the farmers might as well go back to observation of seasonal weather
patterns. An accurate calendar is primarily an agricultural guide, especially
for planting crops. Because weather patterns are not always constant, farmers
need a guide for sowing seeds at the most opportune time.
Now, the annual barley harvest, by itself, does not prove
that the agrarian Hebrews used a Solar Calendar. Virtually every scholar
agrees that the Hebrews had several calendars going simultaneously, but that
one of these calendars was an exclusively solar one. The remaining question
is: "Which of these calendars was used to determine the Sabbaths
and Feast Days?"
The 364-Day Calendar of the Essenes
All of the latest research coming from the Dead Sea
Scrolls suggests that the Essenes practiced a 364-day Solar Calendar, which
was very similar to the Calendar that I proposed in Part 1. And it is
important to realize the Essenes considered themselves to be the True
descendants and Priests of Judah.
Here is what Dr. Wesley Swift has to say about the
Essenes:
‘Strange and difficult conditions existed in Palestine
during the time of Christ’s ministry. The powers of darkness and forces of
evil had usurped priesthood positions which ruled over the temple. True Judah
and Benjamin understood that the temple was in the hands of this false
priesthood; they also perceived that the defense of their people was not
being carried out by the soldiers that were controlled by the priesthood.
Although they knew that they were under the Roman Empire and that Rome
considered Palestine to be only a vassal province, still they realized that
their greatest danger came from this evil which had penetrated into the
temple control. For this reason the Essene Company had gathered
together and were trying to preserve their records, their scrolls, their
doctrines, and were planning for the rebirth of Israel in Palestine. They
met in secret caves and in homes of people in Palestine. Out of this
organization came the defensive army which would have crowned Christ the
King." -- The Symbol of the Cup, p. 1.
We know that the Pharisees were the sect favored and
empowered by Herod; and they were composed of both Edomites and traitor
Judahites. I am absolutely certain that, with the passage of time, the
Pharisees became dominated by Idumeans and that, by the time of Christ, the
Pharisees were an Idumean monopoly. Jesus confirms this for us at John
8:33-44, although there may have been a small contingent of Judahite traitors
still among them.
The Sadducees were, for the most part Judahites who had
given up the Mosaic Law in favor of Greek traditions. These were
representatives of the well-to-do, cosmopolitan class of Judeans, who had
made their livings trading or dealing with the Greeks, during the Greek
occupation of Judea, from 331 BC to the Roman era. I have no reason to
suspect that there were any Idumeans in this sect.
Josephus, the Judahite historian, tells us about these
three sects:
"For there are three philosophical sects among the
Jews [sic. Judeans]. The followers of the first of whom are
Pharisees; of the second the Sadducees; and the third sect, which pretends to
a severer discipline, are called Essens. These last are Jews [sic.
Judeans] by birth [meaning native Judahites, since the
Pharisees were primarily Idumeans from Idumea], and seem to have a
greater affection for one another than the other sects have. These Essenes
reject pleasures as evil [What more proof do you need that they
weren’t Jews? The Jews have always been known for their materialism and for
the ostentatiousness of their wealthier brethren. Ascetic Jews are unheard
of!!!], but esteem continence, and the conquest over our passions, to be
virtue." – Wars of the Judeans, Book II, Chapter VIII, Para. 2.
From this analysis, we can reasonably compare these three
groups with three American groups: Jews, Bluebloods, and Christian Whites. We
have virtually the same political and economic dynamic occurring today, as
the Jews have become the dominant class, with the Bluebloods taking second
place, while the White Middle Class pays the taxes and does all the work. In
paragraphs 3 through13, Josephus shows his admiration for the Essenes, who,
he says, are "perpetually conversant in the discourses of the
prophets."
By this, he means the Hebrew prophets.
Many of our people falsely believe that Josephus was a
Jew. He most definitely was not. Just because the Jews have claimed him as
one of their own does not make it so. After all, the Jews even say that
"Jesus was a Jew." Do you believe that? By his own
autobiography, Josephus says he is a Judahite, of both royal and priestly
stock. Yes, he did study with the Pharisees, but that was only to find out
what they taught. He does not say how long he studied with them; but he did
leave that pursuit and went on to a brilliant military and political career.
The fact that he does not lavish the Sadducees nor the Pharisees with the
same type praise as he does for the Essenes should be proof enough of where
his sympathies lie.
The point of this sectarian anaylsis is this: The Essenes
were TRUE JUDAHITES, who remained true to their roots, while the Sadducees
were Judahites who did not; and the Pharisees, despite their ancient and
modern claims, were non-Judahites (non-Shemitic Idumean
Canaanites) who practiced their own, Babylonian tradition, which
was completely different from the Mosaic Law. Now, which of these three
groups do you suppose practiced a SOLAR CALENDAR?
"The Dead Sea Scrolls have provided a wealth of
information about religious practices during the first century or so BC in
the community of Qumran near the Dead Sea. A surprisingly large portion of
the scrolls deals with keeping time, which was essential for knowing exactly
when the sacred feasts prescribed by the Law of Moses would be celebrated. The
scrolls make it clear that the group at Qumran felt that the otherJewish [sic.,
‘JUDEAN’ is the proper word here, not ‘Jewish.’ The Essenes were Judahites of
Judea, not Idumean Jews.] sects were mistaken in the calendar they
were using, which was based on the phases of the moon.
This was probably one of several reasons that caused them to withdraw from Jerusalem and to celebrate their own feasts at the times they felt were proper according to what has become known as the Qumran calendar." -- "Dead Sea Scrolls May Solve Mystery," by John C. Lefgren and John P. Pratt, p. 1.
Continuing with these authors:
"While several documents discovered at Qumran give
schedules of events according to their calendar, the best
descriptions of the workings of the calendar itself are
probably found in the Book of Jubilees and the book of Enoch.
Although those books are not included in our Bible today, both were held in high regard at Qumran, equal to others we now include in the Old Testament.
"The calendar had 364 days each
year, beginning on a Wednesday every spring. [This part of their analysis
I cannot agree with, since there were no named days before or during Essene
times. The authors give no rationale for choosing Wednesday, so I disregard
this statement. – Eli.] It had four quarters of
exactly 13 weeks each, so that every quarter-year began on a
Wednesday [sic!]. Each quarter had three months,
the first two having 30 days and the third having 31
days. The months were numbered from 1 to 12, beginning in the
Spring."
Note: There is no mention of a thirteenth month at Qumran
(nor is there in the Bible).
Here, the authors have described the calendar that I deduced from my own studies, taking into consideration the information from Jubilees and Enoch. Except for the "Wednesday" business, I could have written these paragraphs myself. Jubilees and Enoch say nothing about Wednesdays (the fourth day of the week). Other than this, my understanding of the Enoch Solar Calendar is virtually identical to theirs. All of this comes as good news to me, since I was not even aware of the Qumran calendar when I composed "Yahweh’s Solar Calendar." If nothing else, this shows that the Essenes used the same source material for their calendar as I have.
Later on in the article, the authors talk about the 24
Courses of Temple Priests, where they explain how they came up with this
"Wednesday" business. What they are doing is giving our modern
day-names to the number-days of the Hebrew calendar.
Thus, day 1 they call "Sunday," day 2 they call "Monday," etc. What they discovered was that the Qumran priests had retained the names of the Twenty-Four Courses as given in I Chron. 24:1-18, although the original Course families had to be replaced by new families, who agreed to adopt the family names of the original Courses. Thus, the 24 Courses were re-established under Ezra and Nehemiah, after the return of the Judahites from Babylon. Only the Essenes show this constant connection to ancient Israel and Judah, so it is clear that the Essene traditions would reflect the culture of True Judah more than either the Sadducees or the Pharisees.
Later in the article, after analyzing a 7-year stretch of
the Essene calendar, the authors say,
"It is clear that every year in that period had exactly
364 days." -- p. 4.
Another Hebrew Calendar analyst says:
The Enochian Calendar is the ancient
solar Calendar, that the forefathers of the Hebrews
(Pre-Zadokite/Cana'anite) used from the Time of Enoch, 7th from Adam up until
it was challenged and discarded by the Pharisees.
It is 364 days in length, thereby making it a 52 week calendar to be exact. The 52 week (364 day) calendar is divided into 4 periods of 91 day each (13 weeks)... this corresponds to » Spring »Summer »Autumn »Winter, which keeps the days, Agricultural, Cultural and spiritual festivals of the Hebrews in synch with its Natural Cycles.
One more quotation from Dead Sea Scrolls research:
The Jews [SIC! Judahites!] of Qumran,
now famous for the Dead Sea Scrolls and recognized as the Essenes, (100
bc–B100 ad) emphasized "times, seasons, and the calendar."
They desired to walk before God"perfectly in all things that are revealed according to their appointed seasons." They also refused to advance their times or to lag behind any of their seasons. According to them they were the covenant community who were faithful to the divine laws while the rest of Israel had erred. They were separated from the rest of the Jews [Judeans] by their calendar, festivals, and fasts. They insisted that "they will not leave out any day nor disturb any feasts." Their book of Jubilees inveighed against the harm that is done by the use of a different calendar. It objected to the lunar calendar because it was based on "observations of the moon" and makes the year come annually "ten days too soon" (Handbook of Biblical Chronology, by Jack Finegan, pp. 45, 47–48, 55).
What needs to be realized is that while the Qumran sect
claimed that the rest of Israel was in error, this is no proof that they were
conservative or innovative. Quite often the innovator attempts to pass
himself off as conservative, a follower of the "legitimate" line.
The facts are that the disruptive nature of their [lunar]calendar would have been seen after only a few years' use, particularly the gap between the beginning of the seasons and their respective solstices and equinoxes. Four or five years is all it would have taken (The Jewish People in the First Century, Vol. II, edited by S. Safrai and M. Stern, pp. 842–843).
The book of Jubilees defended the solar calendar
against the lunar one. The disciples are told that a divine messenger
informed Moses: "Now you command the Israelites to keep the years in
this number—364 days.
Then the year will be complete and it will not disturb its time from its days or from its festivals because everything will happen in harmony with their testimony. They will neither omit a day nor disturb a festival." Later the angel predicts: "There will be people who carefully observe the moon with lunar observations because it is corrupt (with respect to) the seasons and is early from year to year by ten days." The author of the book of Jubilees argued that with the lunar calendar the sacred days are profaned and the profane days are sanctified. This calendar dispute developed because the book of Jubilees insisted that the solar calendar was the one divinely revealed. Yet, anyone with even a limited calendar knowledge knows that if the lunar calendar was not intercalated (days added occasionally to make up for the shortage) the agricultural season will soon be observed at the wrong time of the year (The Anchor Bible Dict., Vol. I, art. "Calendars"). The book of Jubilees accused the Jews of not following their solar calendar because they followed "the feasts of the Gentiles after their error and ignorance. For there will be those who will assuredly make observations of the moon—now it disturbs the seasons and comes in from year to year ten days too soon" (Safrai and Stern, p. 839).
At least on encyclopedia agrees:
"The origin of
Even Jewish scholars, who have researched the Qumran
calendar, report that the Essene calendar is a 364-day Solar Calendar.
The important factor, from my perspective, is the fact that the Dead Sea Scrolls, Enoch and Jubilees confirm the fact that the Hebrews, at one time or another, followed a 364-day calendar. This can only be a Solar Calendar, as a lunar "year" varies in the number of days every year. Lunar years also drift away from the Spring Equinox by as much as two weeks before ore two weeks after, since they are tied to the phases of the moon.
Now, it is also true, as one of the authors points out,
that LATER, the Israelites adopted some Babylonian customs; and it is
possible that moon-reckoning crept in with these other Babylonian customs.
The Jerusalem Temple was first ransacked and desecrated by the Greek army.
The Judahite Maccabees rebelled against this sacrilege and regained control of Judea. Later, the Romans invaded and the Roman occupation was instituted. The Romans took more of a "hands off" approach to local religion, as they were happy to collect tribute money through local officials. As long as the locals paid their tribute, the Romans stayed out of their religious affairs. Consequently, there was no desecration of the Temple by the Romans. However, Antipater, the Idumean father of Herod the "Great," had made a league with Julius Caesar, which was designed to give the Idumean Canaanites control of Jerusalem. (You can just see the Jewish moneylenders frothing at the mouth, in anticipation of taking control of the city of Jerusalem, which was a major international trade center at that time. A modern parallel is the Jews gaining control of New York City, for the same reason.) This established the precedent of giving Herod the power to chose the High Priest, which was usually one of his own Idumean kinsmen. This favoritism was extended to the Pharisees, which were the official "priesthood" under Herod.
Based on the foregoing, it is my opinion that the lunar
calendar crept into temple worship during these turbulent years, not by the
choice of the Judahite priests, but by the imposition of non-Judahite
occupiers, Greeks, Romans, Babylonians and Idumeans.
Deception By Substitution
Followers of my work know that I deal in word
studies. The fact is that the meanings of words change over time.
Sometimes this is due to the natural progression of use and disuse of certain
words over time. Sometimes, as is often the case for the King James Bible,
the change in meaning is the result of a deliberate process of
distortion. My third book, Arsenal of Words, shows, in great
detail, how numerous modern words, such as Jew and Gentile,
have completely lost the meaning intended by the original Hebrew and Greek
authors. And in that book, I document how, starting with the Pharisaic rabbis
and continuing to the present day, organized Jewry has had a continuous
policy of deliberately changing the meanings of words in order to promote
their self-serving religion of the "chosen." {Here is the link to
that book: http://www.anglo-saxonisrael.com/newsletter/2007_12_16.php }
I have demonstrated how the word Jew originally
meant ONLY Judah, the exclusive racial stock of the Tribe of
Judah, and how, over the centuries, it came to be used of the mongrelized
people known as Jews today.A word which was originally used to designate a
purebred came to represent a mongrel. This change in meaning is a
deliberate stratagem employed by the Jews for the purpose of confusing the
readers of the Bible, so that they cannot understand that there is a
difference between a Judahite and a Jew.
Now, a purebred is a purebred; and a mutt is a mutt. If
you mix these two categories together, you will forever be confused by the
King James Bible. Logicians cal it "mixing apples and oranges."
Apples are not oranges; and purebreds are not mutts. You cannot talk about
apples as if they are oranges; and you cannot talk about mutts as if they are
purebreds. It’s just that simple. Only confusion will result; and that’s
exactly what the rabbis of Judaism want to create in your mind.
In my opinion, the Jews have given the word chodesh the
same treatment. They, as the original promoters of the Babylonian lunar
calendar, have seen to it that the Hebrew word chodesh, which
means "month," has been translated as "new moon." The
Jews have even influenced the various Concordances in adopting false Jewish
definitions. The obviously false definition of Gentile in Strong’s
Concordance, as meaning "non-Jewish," is a particularly
egregious example, for, in the original language, Gentile clearly
means "kinsmen," which is the exact opposite of
how the Jews use the word.
I believe that organized Jewry has done the same thing to
the word, chodesh, so that we Israelites would come to believe
that the Israel of Scripture practiced a lunar calendar, just like the Jews
of today practice. If the impersonator doesn’t resemble the original enough
to fool everybody, then the impersonator can improve his disguise or he can
distort our memory of how the original looked. The rabbis of Judaism are the
ABSOLUTE MASTERS of distorting both Scripture and history.
Let’s take another look, now, at the word, chodesh, and
how it is used in Scripture.
Chodesh: Can it mean BOTH "Month"
and "New Moon"?
Chodesh – (Strong’s # 2320) as defined
therein: "from 2318; the new moon; by implication, a
month: -- month (ly), new moon.
This is especially odd since the Hebrew word for "moon"
is yereach [#3394], and its root is yerach [#3391],whose
meaning is " a lunation, i.e., month: -- moon,
month." Strong’s lists the root word for chodesh as
#2318, chadash, which means, "a prim. root, to be
new…to rebuild…renew, repair." Also, there is the Hebrew
word, chadawsh, #2319, which also means, "new:
-- fresh, new thing." A linguist would expect
"new moon," or other phases of the moon to be variations yerach,
not chodesh!
The idea that is closest to "new moon" is lunation (yerach), for
this word implies the phases of the moon. One would expect that the concept
of "new moon," therefore, to be derived from yerach.
Additionally, I would expect to find at least one instance of the expression chodesh
yereach, the natural Hebrew combination for "new moon."
Usually, the derived word has some resemblance in meaning
to the root word. But in the case of chadashand chodesh,
there is quite a stretch from "renewal" to "new moon."
The former is a general concept about making new. The latter is a particular
phase of earth’s natural satellite. My objection is this: How does the
physical moon derive from the simple concept, new? It’s fairly
evident that the moon was, at some point, added to this concept of newness.
Certainly, the root word implies nothing about any object, whether a house,
wife, or an object out in space. I can see "month, "
in the sense of "beginning of the month," before I can
see "new moon" as the primary meaning of chodesh.
Most dictionaries give the most common meaning
and usage of a word first. Then, the other meanings are listed in the order
of decreasing usage. The fact is that the Bible uses chodesh in
the sense of "month" 256 times. It is translated
as "new moon" only twenty times. Clearly, MONTH is
the primary definition ofchodesh, by a long shot!!!
Therefore, the definition in Strong’s should be: "month,
by implication, new moon." Someone has performed a
switcheroo! The purpose of this switcheroo is to convey the impression
that "new moon" is the primary meaning. It is not.
Also, and perhaps even more importantly, the expression,
"new moon" is not found where the
Appointments (Feast Days) are given and defined: in the Five Books of the
Law, the Pentateuch!!! There, it always says "month." I have
provided all of these quotations in Yahweh’s Solar Calendar,
referenced earlier. None of these five books contains the expression "new
moon." If the concept of the new moon is so important, then why
doesn’t the Bible use that expression where it is most important: in those
very verses where the Sabbaths and Appointments are defined? At the very
least, this is a strange omission.
Most lunar advocates have failed to notice this. For
example, my good friend, and fellow songwriter, Jonathan David Brown, a lunar
calendar advocate, says this in his book, Keeping Yahweh’s
Appointments:
"Every verse in the flood account specifying the
beginning and ending points uses the term chodesh, i.e.,new
moon. As one professor of Hebrew told me, chodesh was
never used historically to speak of anythingother than the moon
cycle prior to the Maccabean era." -- p. 70.
I think I have provided lots of evidence that his
professor is wrong. Like most people in the world today, the good
professor’s thinking has been conditioned by Jewish ideas that have been imposed
upon the Bible.Jonathan’s teacher may have sincerely believed this, but there
is abundant evidence today, thanks to the ongoing translations of the Dead
Sea Scrolls, that the Hebrews most definitely practiced a Solar Calendar,
which both precedes and precludes the
usage of "new moon" for chodesh!
Given this modern, nearly universal assumption of a lunar
calendar, Jonathan David Brown realizes that there is still a problem with
the Bible’s 150 days of Noah’s Flood and the fact that lunar months are not
30-day months. He tries to resolve this discrepancy by saying:
"…inasmuch as the ‘flood calendar’ uses the term chodesh for
its specific dates, the ‘hundred and fifty days’ is likely
an acronym for five lunations estimated at
thirty days each." -- p. 71.
But Gen. 8:4 uses the word month, not new
moon. The discrepancy is only caused by mentally and habitually
substituting "new moon" for "month." A
lunar month count falls 2.5 days short of 150 days, because lunar months are
only 29.5 days long. Jonathan, like all lunar advocates, has made a habit of
reading "new moon" where it says "month."
They treat the two concepts as being synonymous. As much as they would like
it to be that way, the two concepts are not synonymous!!!!
The first usage of chodesh as "new
moon" occurs at I Samuel 20:5. This passage reads as follows: "Behold,
tomorrow is the new moon…" It makes just as much
sense as, "Behold, tomorrow is the new (or beginning
of the) month…"
I Samuel 20 suggests that there is something special about
that particular day, because there will be a supper with Saul, the King,
although no particular Appointment is mentioned. The lunar calendar advocates
assume that it means the beginning of any month, and it is therefore a
Sabbath, for they define months as beginning with a new moon Sabbath; but I
Sam. 20: 5, 18 and 24 do not say anything about that particular day being
"hallowed" or "sanctified," as would be expected for a
Sabbath. Even if it were a Sabbath, these could just as easily be references
to one of the two Solar Calendar Sabbaths, which also happen to be the first
days of their respective months: Abib 1 and Ethanim 1. The passage does not
specify the month, so it is not proof of a lunar calendar. This
interpretation fits the Solar Calendar just as well; and it is a calendar
that uses months of 30 days each.
Charles W. Dodge, in his book, Yahweh’s Perfect
Calendar, puts it this way:
"In every one of the 20 references where the KJV
has translated the Hebrew word KHODESH as new moon(s), we
can substitute the first of the month or the first
day of the month without affecting the sense of the verse. This would
move the emphasis away from the moon and put our attention upon the month.
"Is it possible that those who translated the
original Hebrew into English purposely could have thrown in a translation
which would be misleading? We know that the translators have done this
very thing as far as the true names of our Father and His Son are concerned.
For many centuries, Yahweh has permitted His Name to be hidden from the vast
majority of people during the so-called ‘Age of Christianity.’ It is only at
this end time that the true names, YAHWEH and YAHSHUA, have been revealed to
us.
"If Yahweh had not wanted His true name to be
revealed until now, could He not also, for the same reason, have caused the
truth to be hidden as to when His Feasts should be kept? Daniel 7:25 seems
appropriate at this point: ‘And he shall speak great words against the Most
High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to
change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a
time and times and the dividing of time.’" -- p. 5,6.
With respect to Col. 2:16, in the New Testament, Mr. Dodge
continues:
"According to Strong’s Concordance, the Greek word
translated new moon in Col 2:16 is NOUMENIA [3561]. This
comes from the Greek words [3501] and [3376], meaning a new or a fresh month.
Why, then, was it translated new moon? Could it be that somebody
purposely wanted to cause confusion?" - p. 6.
Of course, it is not impossible that the Hebrews meant
"new moon" by chodesh, but the Bible says
nothing about which phase of the moon it is. The Bible says
absolutely nothing about the phases of the moon, so it is just an
assumption that chodesh means that particular phase that we
traditionally know as the "new moon." The very important
question is: "Who’s tradition is it?"
Nowhere is there in Scripture or in any Israelite literature
an instruction to observe the new moon. Those who think there is have fallen
for a Jewish trick, by which the word chodesh has been
conveniently redefined to suit the Jewish calendar. Having fallen for this
trick, they proceed to read Scripture with a mind to find things where they
do not exist. Even where a "new moon" is implied, it is
NEVER explicitly referred to as an object in the sky, so the New Moon is
always inferred, never located. For those who practice a lunar calendar, this
statement may be infuriating, but it is, in fact, very reasonable. And I will
proceed to demonstrate this as a fact in the following sections of this
study. Lunar reckoning is a prime example of reading with a biased eye,
injecting meaning into Scripture that is not actually contained in it - what
the scholars call eisegesis - seeing only what you want to
see and ignoring what you don’t want to see. In addition, as Charles W. Dodge
suggests, there is a very great likelihood that the meaning
of the wordchodesh was changed to suit the objectives of the
Deceiver.
In an article entitled, "The Sabbath Question,"
Pastor Frank Dowsett, compares Israel’s 7-day Sabbath cycle with that of
their Egyptian captors, who also had a 7-day week:
"This 7-day cycle was naturally kept by the
captive Israelites, and it is of considerable importance to note that this
agreed completely with the 7-day cycle subsequently given to them [by
Moses] at Mount Sinai. This year contained 12 months of 30
days each, giving a total of 360 days to the year, and ever
since has been the basis of prophetic time cycles. However, this was 5
days short of the true length of the year. This was overcome by adding
five days, called ‘supplementary days’, to the year at
several set times, thus extending the year to the true 365 days, with no
doubt the addition of the extra day each fourth year as we still observe to
make up for the quarter of a day each year. These extra days were observed as
‘Sabbaths.’" [In my reconstructed calendar, I show that these
are all actual 7th-day Sabbaths, no quotation marks, the four
91st days of Enoch and Jubilees, plus the Equinox
Marker Day!!!]
Pastor Dowsett goes on to say, "For those who
might be skeptical regarding the aforementioned statements, they are derived
from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th Edition, of
1903, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. [From]"After 40 Years,"
by Hershal Shanks and James C. Vandercamp. It is interesting to note
that after that year, that is 1903, Jewish companies bought out most of the
publishing and printing establishments that printed encyclopedias, historical
and educational books. After this date, true unadulterated history is hard to
find." -- p. 25-26. From the March, April 1996 issue of America’s
Promise Newsletter, POB 157, Sandpoint ID 83864.
Now, lunar advocates might object that we should not
follow an Egyptian tradition, even though it appears that it is the same as
the calendar of Enoch. Well, there is reason to believe that the
Egyptian solar calendar IS the calendar of Enoch. Dr. Wesley Swift
teaches that Enoch spent considerable time in Egypt and even built the city
of On, which city is, in fact, named after him. On is short
for Enoch. In addition, Enoch set up a priesthood, which was
known as the priesthood of On. It goes without saying that he
would have taught his priests how to use his calendar.
Now, all of this would have occurred before the Hamites
moved down to Egypt to set up their dynasty. (Egypt was relatively unaffected
by Noah’s local Flood, so these Hamites would have moved into a
well-populated area.) The KJV records the four sons of Ham as Cush, Mizraim, Phut,
and Canaan. (Gen. 10:6.) Here, it would be useful to compare
Moffatt’s translation: "The descendants of Ham were Ethiopia, Egypt,
Put, and Canaan." So, we see that Mizraim and Egypt are
different names for the same person. The Canaanites settled in the land of
Canaan. The Cushites settled in Ethiopia; and the Mizraimites settled in
Egypt.
When these Hamites moved down to the Nile territory, they
would have run into their kinsmen, thepriesthood of On!
Mizraim would have deferred to these men, who would have been revered by
their newly-arrived kinsmen. Enoch himself was famous throughout all of
Mesopotamia and was known by many different names in many different languages.
One of these names was Hermes, the "Magician."
Here is what Dr. Swift had to say on this subject:
"There are people today who are still of the House
of Seth. And they are acceptable to God for they are Adamic and they
are of His Household. Even as when Joseph married Asenath, the daughter
of Potipherah, the Priest of the city of On in
Egypt. There was no violation of Divine Law in this marriage because
this was a White Priesthood established out of the House of
Seth, and in the days of Enoch and Job was established in On.
This Priesthood was still in Egypt when Joseph and Mary took the baby Jesus
into Egypt for protection from the ravages of Jewry on the rampage."
So, the idea that the Egyptian Solar Calendar might be of
foreign invention is false. It was actually the well-known calendar of Enoch
himself, as taught by the Adamic Priesthood of On!! As we solar advocates
have been arguing all along, the Hebrews originally practiced a Solar
Calendar and only later began to adopt a Babylonian lunar calendar, which is
today known as the Jewish calendar. I submit to you, dear reader, that a
false lunar tradition has, for a very long time, been cleverly, relentlessly
and systematically substituted for solar fact. It is a major part of the
substitution by the Jews of their own traditions for the
traditions of True Israel.
To quote the Book of Jubilees again:
"And there will be those who will make
observations of the moon, for this one (the moon) corrupts the stated
times and comes out earlier each year by ten days. AND IN THIS WAY THEY WILL
CORRUPT THE YEARS AND WILL OBSERVE A WRONG DAY AS THE DAY OF TESTIMONY AND A
CORRUPTED FESTIVAL DAY." -- p. 25.
What has happened to our people is this: They came to a
fork in the road, and they asked a Jewish bystander, "Which way to
the Kingdom?" (He was actually waiting for us to come along!!) A
gleam appeared in his eye, and he deliberately directed them DOWN THE WRONG
PATH!!!! Now, if you come to a fork in the road and you go down the wrong
road, you may have to backtrack all the way back to the fork,
get your bearings and start over, and try the other road. To the advocates of
a lunar calendar, I say "Everything you ‘know’ is wrong!"
If a thesis begins with the wrong premise, it leads in the
wrong direction; and no amount of adjustments will change the fact
that you’re on the wrong road!!!
If, when you get back to that fork in the road, the Jew is
stupid enough to be still standing there, you may want to give him what he
deserves!!!!
Jericho and Yereach Chodesh
Is the destruction of the city of Jericho a symbolic
foreshadowing of the end of the lunar calendar?
In an article entitled, "Search for the Sacred
Calendar," Messers Raber, Vaught and Walker discuss the derivation
of the word Jericho. Under the heading of "Calendar
Discussion, Months Versus Moons," they have this to say:
"The Hebrew word, "Jericho," a
combination of the word #3394 (Ya-rach) and #3218 (Kah-dash), literally means
"Moon-Month." The Hebrew word "City," #5892 (ye-ir) from
root word (ya-ra) #3384 is also a "center of learning;" when
combined with the word ‘Jericho,’ it means ‘A center of learning of the
moon-month.’ Because this understanding is not clearly explicit in the
English language, a closer look at Jericho is on order: the city of Jericho
was built around 19 stone observatories, each tracking one of the 19-year
cycles of the moon. However, even in a period of nineteen years, the
moon’s position (relative to the earth) does not precisely repeat itself.
Moreover, the following Paleo-Hebrew text has somewhat to say about Jericho:
‘Jo 6:17. And the City (the center of learning of the
Moon-Month), it and all that is therein shall be accursed unto Yahuweh…
V-18. And Ye must keep yourselves from the accursed
thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take the accursed thing and
make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it."
Earlier I stated my surprise that nowhere in the Bible is
the natural Hebrew expression, chodesh yereachfound. Seeing these
two words together, I would not hesitate to translate them as "new
moon." It is quite ironic that their inverted order, yerach
chodesh, or "moon new" (!!!), means Jericho!!! The
"accursed thing" is the moon-worship of the Canaanites of
Jericho.
Of course, I do not mean to imply that the modern
proponents of the lunar calendar are "heathen" or
moon-worshippers! Nor do they worship Baal. But I think it is becoming more
and more reasonable to suggest that, via their insistence on practicing a
lunar calendar, they are dabbling in Baal-worship without knowing it!!! In
the same way, those who observe Christmas - which is not Christ’s birthday
but the revival day of the heathen sun-god, Tammuz - do not realize that they
are actually continuing an ancient, Babylonian tradition!
Why 364 Days?
I have repeatedly stated in my various writings that the
Bible, when its original language is understood, is a scientifically accurate
book. The more I study the Bible, the more I find this to be true. Of course,
I am not talking about orthodox translations and interpretations of
Scripture, which are almost routinely at variance with both natural history
and natural science. I am talking about serious analysis of the Hebrew and
Greek words that were used to compose the Scriptures.
There is no doubt in my mind that even Joshua’s
Long Day, or the Day the Sun Stood Still, is an accurate
record of the events that day. At least one possible explanation for this is
that the earth temporarily slowed down and then began to speed up again. Most
people would think such a thing to be impossible, but the fact is that this
can be caused by a large, closely approaching body in space, by a combination
of gravitational attraction and electromagnetic force. If a large body, such
as an asteroid, were to pass close by on the other side of the planet, the
Israelites would not have been able to see it, but they would have felt the
effects. (Most people falsely assume that such a slow-down would cause
objects to fly off their moorings. To the contrary, such a slow-down
will actually do the opposite, as the centrifugal force will be lessened
and gravity will hold you even more solidly to the earth. Just use a carousel
as an example. You are only likely to be thrown off when the carousel is
turning! That’s when you need to hold on to your horse!) If a large asteroid
had come up from the Southern sky, heading south to north, it would have
evaded detection by most of the ancient astronomer-priests.
From Richard Scott’s book, The Restoration of All
Things Has Begun:
"For both feasts and sabbaths to be compatible,
they must also fit into the solar year perfectly. This requires a
year of exactly 364 days. Such a year is compatible with the
twelve months revealed in scripture (NEVER is there a mention of a 13th month!),
being exactly divisible by 12, and with the seventh day Sabbath, being also
equally divisible by 7.
"Believe it or not, this is just the length of
year scripture reveals existed in the time of Moses, when the feasts and the
Sabbaths were given to the Yasraelites [Israelites. Some of our
people don’t know how to spell! (chuckle) – Eli] as they came out of
Egypt!
364-Day Years in Scripture
"All you need to know is the present length of a
year and trace it back in scripture to determine how long years were in
ancient times. Today, the year is approximately 365 and ¼ days long. (365
days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46+ seconds of mean solar time, to be exact.
The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition, 1910, Vol. IV,
"Calendar," p. 989.)
"There are two events in history, that are
recorded in scripture, which show us the year being lengthened by a given
amount. When scripture speaks of a day being lengthened, this means that the
year was lengthened by the same amount of time, for one cannot occur without
the other. [This statement is problematic, but let’s see where Mr.
Scott is leading us. – Eli.]
"Two times, scripture tells us, the day was made
longer. Not only that, the exact amount of time added to the solar year is
also given in each account. King Hezekiah’s miracle of the sun going backward
on the sundial of Ahaz is the last one of these in time sequence. Over 2,500
years ago, during the rule of this king of ancient Yasrael, Yahveh performed
a remarkable miracle that we must understand fully, if we are to get to the
truth on this incredible subject.
"We find an account of this miracle recorded twice
in scripture, in II Kings 20 and Isaiah 38. The sign given this king was that
the sun’s shadow would go backward by ten degrees – or steps
– on the sundial of Ahaz…As surely as the shadow moved back, so did the
heavens that made the shadow…the year was lengthened by a total of about five
hours."
"But that’s not all. There was another miracle
that likewise increased the year by increasing the length of the day. We find
the account in Joshua 10:12-14…Verses 13 and 14 give the remarkable details
of this incredible miracle: ‘And the sun stood still, and
the moon stayed…So the sun stood still in the middle of the sky, and
delayed going down about a full day.’" -- p. 29-30.
Richard Scott’s point is this: Is it a coincidence that,
if we subtract the one day and five or so hours from our current 365 and ¼
day year, we get a result of a 364 day year?
The reason why Enoch and Jubilees had a 364-day calendar
was because that’s how long the year was, before these two events disrupted
the orbit and spin of the earth, resulting in a year that now has an extra 1
& ¼ rotations in our orbital year!!!! The logic is impeccable and the
historical/scientific fact may even be demonstrable astronomically.
This would explain why Enoch, Jubilees and the Essenes
insist on a 364-day yearly calendar. But now, being faced with the
reality that we have to periodically adjust our calendars to accommodate the
extra 1 & ¼ days of the year, some method is required by which the days
and seasons stay aligned. Of course, part of this method is called the Leap
Year. (Incidentally, Yahweh has chosen that the day of this writing
should beLeap Day, February 29, 2008! Sometimes I feel like I’m just a
pencil in His Hands! Don’t I wish!!!)
The Leap Year concept takes care of the four ¼ days that
add up every four years, but how do we account for the extra FULL
DAY every year?
Abibix
Referring back to Scott Vaught, et al, in their paper
entitled, "Search for the Sacred Calendar," under the
heading of "First Witness of the Biblical Calendar," we are
given this fresh (chodesh!) translation of Deut. 16:1:
"Mark (by observation) the sign renewing the
Vernal Equinox and keep the Passover of Yahuweh."
Compare the KJV:
"Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover
unto the LORD thy God."
Scott Vaught argues that the translators have overlooked
or ignored the suffix, ix, that is attached to the word Abib.
Although Abib is not actually used in the sense of the name
of the first month, it is a reference to the Spring
Equinox!!!
Quoting Mr. Vaught from p. 7 of this article:
Summing up his findings, Scott Vaught says this:
In Conclusion, at sunrise, the day immediately
succeeding the Vernal Equinox (day) marks the Weekly Sabbath (day) of the
succeeding year. The First Day of the First Week (of the 52 week Sacred
Calendar count) occurs simultaneously within the Solar Year. The Solar Year
is 29.76 hours longer than the Sacred Calendar. This surplus time must be
permitted to run out, at the end of the Sacred Calendar, on the intercalary Sign-Day.
This Sign-Day automatically corrects the Sacred Calendar, without
any intervention. Therefore, it serves to readjust and begin the daily count
cycle (governing the days, weeks, months and Sabbaths).
What Mr. Vaught calls the "Sign-Day" is
what I have been calling the "Marker Day." Since we were
working independently of each other, we came up with different terminology.
It is Day 365, which is not accounted for in the 364-day
Calendar. It is the fifth intercalary day that was mentioned
earlier by Pastor Dowsett, concerning the Egyptian Solar Calendar, which
is none other than the Enoch Solar Calendar.
It is quite incredible that two teams of Israelites,
working independently of each other and unknown to each other until the final
stages of their respective work, should come up with such similar results!!!!
Kenneth Lent and I were working out the final details of our Solar Calendar
while Vaught, Raber and Walker were doing likewise with theirs!!! Just before
publishing my Yahweh’s Solar Calendar, I became aware of the
other team’s work, because Russell Walker was staying in Indiana for a few
weeks and attending our local congregational meetings in Illinois and
Indiana. Thus, Walker and I were able to discuss the details of Solar
Calendar intercalation.
After looking at my write-up, Scott Vaught remarked that
this is "dangerously close to our calendar"!
Indeed!
Summarizing this section, then, I can only say that we
have done our best to present the evidence as we see it. All of us saw
obvious problems with the lunar calendar, and we felt that these problems
needed to be resolved. The Scriptures that have been interpreted as
justifying a lunar calendar needed a closer inspection. This we have done in
some detail; and our conclusion is that the Bible does NOT support a lunar
calendar.
Scripture Verses Proving the New Moon Calendar to Be
False.
According to the earlier mentioned New Moon Sabbath
Calendar, every month MUST begin with a NEW MOON and every 1st,
8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th day of EVERY MONTH is also a
Sabbath. This is how their calendar works. The Solar Advocates teach
that this is true ONLY of the FIRST Month and the SEVENTH Month,
as the Bible specifically says this of these two months, but it
nowhere says this about any of the other months. The lunar
advocates have extrapolated the words concerning these two months and simply ASSUME
that what is true of the first and seventh months is true of all the other
months.
Now, we all agree that our principles must be based on
what the Bible teaches. But, if an issue cannot be resolved from
Scripture, then we must go to other Israelite scriptures and to reason,
science and history. And that’s what I did when I turned to the Books of
Jubilees and Enoch for more information on the Hebrew calendar. I had to do
this to establish the 91st days (the four
quarterly intercalary days) of the solar calendar.
The lunar Sabbath-keepers think that they can establish
their calendar purely from Scripture. So, let’s stick with Scripture and see
if there are any passages which contradict their method. To disprove the New
Moon Calendar, we need not leave the pages of Scripture. The evidence is
presented here, as I will now provide FOUR EXAMPLES, from Scripture,
which disprove this lunar reckoning:
Exodus 16
1 And they took their journey from Elim, and all
the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin,
which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth
day of the second month after their
departing out of the land of Egypt.
2 And the whole congregation of the children of
Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:
3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would
to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat
by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought
us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
This verse clearly shows that the children of Israel were
TRAVELLING on this 15th day of
the SECOND month. If it were a Sabbath, they would have
been resting, not travelling, and should have stopped
travelling on the previous day and set up their camp, to observe the
supposed Sabbath rest on the next day, which was the 15th day of the
second month. According to the New Moon Sabbath calendar, the
15th day MUST BE A SABBATH IN EVERY MONTH.
However, from this passage, the 15th day is NOT a Sabbath in the 2nd month.
(According to the Solar Calendar, the 15th day of the second
month always falls on Day 3 of its own week, two days after the preceding
Sabbath.)
Numbers 1:1
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness
of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on thefirst day of
the second month, in the second year after they were come out
of the land of Egypt, saying,
2 Take ye the sum of all the congregation of
the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their
fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;
3 From twenty years old and upward, all that are
able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them
by their armies.
Numbers 1:1 tells us that, on the First Day of the
Second Month, the Israelites were taking a census. If it were
a Sabbath, it should have been a day of rest. (In the
Solar Calendar, the first day of the second month also falls on Day 3 of its
respective week.)
Numbers 1:17-19
17 And Moses and Aaron took these men which are
expressed by their names:
18 And they assembled all the congregation
together on the first day of the second
month, and they declared their pedigrees after
their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of
the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls.
19 As the LORD commanded Moses, so he numbered
them in the wilderness of Sinai
This is the same day as the census. Instead of resting on
this day, they were also declaring their pedigrees. They should
have been at home resting or in the Temple reading Torah. Therefore, this first
day of the second month was NOT a Sabbath.
Ezra 10:15-17
15 Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah
the son of Tikvah were employed about this matter: and Meshullam and
Shabbethai the Levite helped them.
16 And the children of the captivity did so. And
Ezra the priest, with certain chief of the fathers, after the house of their
fathers, and all of them by their names, were separated, and sat down in the first
day of the tenth month to examine the matter.
17 And they made an end with all the men that had
taken strange wives by the first day of the first month.
Instead of resting on this "Lunar Sabbath Day,"
they were examining the matter of mixed marriages.
Therefore, the 1st day of the tenth month is not a Sabbath either. In contrast, Verse 17 tells us that they had completed their expulsions of the men with strange wives "by the first day of the first month," which IS a Sabbath (Abib 1 of the succeeding year); and they were not performing this work on this Sabbath Day. So, the whole process took three months, resting from this task on the weekly Sabbath days, none of which were lunar months, and none of which had anything to do with observing new moons.
To disprove their thesis, only one
counter-example would be necessary. I have provided four exceptions
to their method. I do not see how any Lunar Sabbath reckoning can
overcome the contrary evidence of these verses. (According to the fixed solar
calendar, the first day of the tenth month always falls on the day
before a Sabbath.)
The Moon Does Not Divide the Day From
the Night.
One of the major contentions held by the lunar
Sabbath-keepers is that Gen. 1:14-18 speaks about the moon. I argued against
this position in Part 1.
I will repeat the argument here:
The King James translation of Genesis 1:16 is terribly
flawed. Let’s have a look.
As translated it says,
"And God made two great lights [which
shine of their own accord]; the greater light to rule the day, and
the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also."
Pastor Lent points out that there are two problems with
the final clause of this verse. #1. The words he made ARE
IN ITALICS, meaning that the KJV translators ADDED these words to the
text. They are NOT in the original Hebrew verse.
#2. In addition, the word also, is not in the original Hebrew either, even though it is not italicized. In other words, the King James translators have taken great license in translating the verse. Whether the King James translators imported these suggestions from the Jewish Masoretic Text or whether they invented these changes themselves is an interesting question, but that would require considerably more historical study. We need to look at how this verse reads without these added words. Here is how it should read: "And Elohim made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day [the Sun, obviously], and the lesser light to rule the night, the stars." From this translation, the lesser light and the stars are one and the same.Grammatically, this would naturally take the form of an appositive, which is: "the lesser light, the stars."But the original paleo-Hebrew text contained no punctuation, nor did it contain vowels, so the Masoretes added their own notation for what they determined the vowels should be. Additionally, the translators of the KJV had to determine how to punctuate the verses. And this punctuation can dramatically affect the meaning of this verse.
As another example, consider the comma insertion at Luke
23:43 and the great controversy that has created. Again, as
translated, it states, "Verily I say unto you, Today shalt
thou be with me in paradise."With another comma, it could easily
have been translated as, "Verily I say unto you, today, thou
shalt be with me in paradise." The first translation suggests
that the "malefactor" would be with Him in paradise this
very day. The latter translation, with a comma on both sides of
the word ‘today,’ leaves open the question of exactly WHEN he would be with
Jesus in paradise. It may not be a major point in this instance, but it
illustrates well that there is an editorial process going on, whenever a
translation is made. Punctuation can change the meaning of a verse
dramatically!
Getting back to Gen. 1:16: By ADDING the semicolon after
the word ‘night,’ and also the words "he made" and "also,"
the appositive relationship between "lesser light" and
"the stars" is destroyed, leaving the impression that
SOMETHING OTHER THAN THE STARS is meant by the "lesser light,"
namely, as everyone would naturally assume, the MOON. But this
cannot be, because the moon is not a light by the Hebrew definition of a
"luminary," which shines of its own accord. Nor can
the moon be used to divide times or seasons. The
moon can shine by day or night, so it is NOT strictly a nighttime
"light." So, we have three solid reasons for rejecting the
moon as the "lesser light."
Scott Vaught, in an article entitled, "The Two
Greater-Sign Luminaries," states,
"First, in order to be a "Luminary," the
person or thing spoken of must be the source of light, not just
the reflected light from the source! Applying the Urim (lights),
we find there are two greater Sign-Luminaries. Applying the
Thummim (to expand), we see these are the Vernal Equinox and
the Autumnal Equinox.
The two Greater Sign-Luminaries simultaneously rule over (regulate) the length of the day and regulate the length of the night (darkness)."
Pastor Lent puts it this way:
Any debate as to whether the lights of the
firmament (the sun and stars) were created for the purpose of "dividing
the day from day" can ultimately be put to rest by reading the double
witness of Genesis 1:14, namely, Genesis 1:18 which tells us that
the purpose of these lights are to "divide the LIGHT FROM
DARKNESS".
Although Pastor Lent uses these verses to argue against
the "noon to noon" day reckoning, I cite it as an affirmation that
the moon DOES NOT "divide the light from the darkness,"
since it can reflect light during the daytime or the nighttime.
Ironically, the NEW MOON does not "shine" at all, so it is definitely not luminous when the Babylonian calendar takes it into consideration!!! The new moon is as dark as darkness itself!!! How can a completely dark object be regarded as a "lesser light"?
In the light of this new understanding of Gen. 1:16, let’s
read Gen. 1:17-18 very carefully:
"And Elohim set them in the firmament [Hebrew raqiya, meaning
EXPANSE!] of the heaven to GI VE [Hebrew nathan, "to
give" or "to provide"] light upon the earth, and RULE
OVER the day and OVER the night, and to DIVIDE THE LIGHT FROM
DARKNESS: and Elohim saw that it was good."
The moon does not "give" light as the luminaries
do, because its source of light is reflected. Also, the moon has nothing to
do with the DIVIDING of day from night, nor does it "rule over"
either daytime or nighttime! The moon can "shine" any time of the
day or night and, therefore, cannot be used for the purpose of dividing the
day from the night.
It is also possible to have a completely moonless night sky, so the moon does not regularly illuminate the night as the stars do. Thus, Gen. 1:16-18, taken together, prove that the moon is NOT the light that "shines" at night!!!
**********************************************************************
Now, to add considerable weight to this analysis, here is scientific
proof that the moon DOES NOT "divide the day from the night" (Gen.
1:14), as the Moonies also claim.
Here is a direct quote from this article, which describes
the moon’s skyward path in great detail:
"The moon rises and sets every day, appearing on
the horizon just like the sun. The time depends on the phase of the moon. It
rises about 30 to 70 minutes later each day than the previous day, so
the moon is out during daytime as often is it's out at night."
Since the moon spends half of its time in the
daytime sky, it cannot be said to divide the day from the
night. The sun rules the day and the stars rule the night. I know
Psalm 136:8-9 says that the sun rules the day and the moon and stars rule
the night; but the moon’s "rule" (Hebrew: memsheleth,
meaning "dominion") is dependent upon its being in the night
sky, in addition to the stars.
Nowhere does the Bible say that the moon, by itself rules the night. It is absolutely true that, on those nights when the moon is out, it provides more light than the stars do. But, the mere fact that the moon comes out at night does not make it a DIVIDER of day from night, since it spends just as much time in the daytime sky as in the nighttime sky. Whatever "dominion" the moon has, it is borrowed from the sunlight it reflects. In other words, "moonlight" is actually sunlight! What kind of "dominion" is that?
Just as important, however, is that fact that Psalm
136 is NOT talking about the Calendar or Appointments!
It is merely stating the fact that it "shines" at night, along with the stars. Even if we assume that the Moon does "rule" the night sky, this is not evidence that the Moon has anything to do with the Appointments. Here is the thought process of the lunar advocates: "You see? The fact that the moon rules the night sky is PROOF that new moon is the first Sabbath of the month." Of course, it is no such thing!!! The fact that moonlight may be important at night in no way qualifies it for determining the Sabbaths!!! Ironically, a NEW MOON doesn’t shine at all, when it is supposedly "ruling" the night!!! Is the expression, "jumping to conclusions," appropriate here?
Getting back to Gen. 1:16, the fact is that the
moon is not even mentioned in that verse! That is a false
inference, which is based on words which were ADDED to the
text by the translators, who were assuming the Babylonian Jewish lunar
reckoning was accurate.
That’s why they added the words, "He made" and "also,"which DO NOT OCCUR in the Hebrew text. Even if the lunar-reckoners were correct in their interpretation of Psalm 136:9, they would still need a second witness which clearly says the same thing. There is no such second witness. And they would still have to prove that "ruling the night" is equivalent to "determines the Feasts and Sabbaths."
These are two completely different propositions. Whether
or not the moon "rules the night sky" is not proof - or even
evidence – for whether the moon must be consulted in determining the
Appointments.
Countdown to Pentecost: More Problems With Lunar
Reckoning
After exchanging some emails with Kenneth Lent, Russ
Walker and Arnold Bowen (who is a lunar advocate), I realized that the New
Moon Calendar can never obey the Bible’s rules for calculating the Day of
Pentecost. Those who practice the New Moon Calendar teach that days
1, 8, 15, 22, and 29 are Sabbaths every lunar month.
I refer to this system as the New Moon Sabbath system.
This is the basis of their New Moon Calendar.
The problem with this calendar is that each lunar month is
29.5 days long, so there is a half day remainder each month. It is a day and
a half longer than four weeks and it is a half day short of a month. I can
see that they are trying to reconcile the concepts of months and weeks, but
this is not necessary, as months and weeks are separate counts in virtually
every calendar that exists! There is no need for months to be determined by
weeks! Perhaps they see this as a defect that must be corrected. This is not
a problem for the Solar Calendar. If necessary, months and weeks can be
converted into each other just as Fahrenheit and Centigrade can be converted
into each other; but they are separate systems of measurement.
In addition, Day 29 of a lunar month must become Day 1 of
the next month (since it is a New Moon!), so, after two months, a full day
extra must be added to the last week, giving a total of 59 days for every two
months. But 8 weeks equals 56 days. This causes them to violate the
Fourth Commandment's specific 7-day Sabbath count. From this deviation, I
realized that the New Moon Sabbath count will NEVER yield a Pentecost date of 50
DAYS from the First Sabbath of the count. Irregardless of
where we start the count,the lunar system gets hopelessly lost in a maze
of Double Sabbaths, irregular weeks and half day remainders. This New
Moon demand will prevent the day of Pentecost from occurring the DAY AFTER
THE 49TH DAY!
The countdown to Pentecost begins on the morrow after the
Passover Sabbath. I will first show you how Pentecost is arrived at
by the Solar Calendar, which is a simple 49-day count, so you can see how
easy this is.
Passover: Abib 14.
Passover Sabbath: Abib 15.
Wave Sheaf, Day after Passover Sabbath: Abib 16 (Lev.
23:11).
Now, from Wave Sheaf Day, we count 49 days (seven weeks or
seven Sabbaths, Lev. 23:15).
The alternative method for counting is to count 50 days
from yesterday’s Sabbath (Lev. 23:16).
A simple 49-day count from Wave Sheaf Day yields this
result: 16 + 49 = Day 65.
A simple 50-day count from the Sabbath day before yields
the same result: 15 + 50 = Day 65.
These two verses provide a DOUBLE WITNESS that result in
the EXACT SAME DAY AS THE DAY OF PENTECOST.
According to the FIXED Solar Calendar, Pentecost
is always on Day 65. No need to look around for a new moon.
This is how it looks, according to the days and
months of the Solar Calendar:
Beginning with Abib 15, a Sabbath Day, the Solar Calendar
will have these 7 consecutive Sabbaths:
Abib 22 (7 days from Wave Sheaf Sabbath, Abib 15)
Abib 29 (14 days from WSS. There is one more day in the
month of Abib, Abib 30. The next day is Ziv 1, so the seventh day from Abib
29 is
Ziv 6 (21 days from WSS)
Ziv 13 (28 days from WSS)
Ziv 20 (35 days from WSS)
Ziv 27 (42 days from WSS. There are three more days in the
month, Ziv, so the next Sabbath is in the month of Sivan.)
Sivan 4 (49 days from the Sabbath that begins the count,
Abib 15.)
Sivan 5 PENTECOST (50 days from the Sabbath Day just prior
to the Wave Sheaf Day and 49 days from the Wave Sheaf Day itself. DOUBLE
WITNESS!)
According to the FIXED Solar Calendar, Pentecost
is always on Sivan 5, every year.
Now, let us look at the New Moon Sabbath countdown.
According to this lunar system, the month of Abib will
begin on a New Moon Day, whatever day of the week. In both of these
calendars, the named day of the week is irrelevant. In Scripture, there are
only the six allowed workdays and the Sabbath Day of Rest. In 2008, for
example, the Spring Equinox occurs on March 20, a Thursday. The first full
day of the next year, therefore, will be Friday, March 21. According to the
fixed system, every Friday until the next Spring Equinox will be a regular,
7-day Sabbath.
For a direct comparison, let’s pick a year in which the
Spring Equinox and the New Moon occur on the same day. This will happen every
29 years or so. Thus, the New Moon Calendar and the Solar Calendar will start
on exactly the same day. For the first four weeks such a year, the two
calendars will be aligned. Thereafter, the two calendars will drift apart for
another 29 years!
Abib 1 (New Moon Day, Sabbath)
Abib 8 (Sabbath, quarter moon)
Abib 14 (Passover, full moon)
Abib 15 (Sabbath)
Abib 16 (Wave Sheaf, Lev. 23:11)
Abib 22 (Sabbath, 7 days out, three-quarter moon)
Abib 29 (Sabbath, new moon begins, 14 days out)
Ziv 1 (New Moon, shared from previous day, 15 days out)
Ziv 8 (Sabbath, 22 days out)
Ziv 15 (Sabbath, 29 days out)
Ziv 22 (Sabbath, 36 days out)
Ziv 29 (Sabbath, 43 days out)
Ziv 30 (Intercalary day creating an 8-day week, waiting
for the next New Moon, 44 days out)
Sivan1 (New Moon, Sabbath, 45 days out)
Sivan 2, 46 days out.
Sivan 3, 47 days out.
Sivan 4, 48 days out.
Sivan 5, 49 days out.
Sivan 6, 50 days out, PENTECOST.
But the Bible clearly says that Pentecost, just like Abib
16, is a "Morrow after the Sabbath." (Lev. 23:15) But the
New Moon Sabbath Calendar yields a 50th day (Pentecost) on
the fifth day of this last week, two daysbefore the
next Sabbath! They would have to wait another 3 days before coming to a
"morrow after the Sabbath" – which would be a count of 53
days! This is an obvious violation of the definition of
Pentecost! It is also a violation of the 7-Day Sabbath rule. Therefore,
the lunar advocates have to fudge the numbers, and add a few more days to get
to a morrow after a Sabbath.
Observe:
Sivan 7, 51 days out.
Sivan 8, 52 days out, Sabbath
Sivan 9, 53 days out, Day after Sabbath.
The Day of Pentecost must meet these two specific
requirements:
In simple terms, Pentecost must be 50 days after Abib 15
and it must be the day after a Sabbath. This is only possible if you have
seven 7-day weeks. Sivan 5, of the Solar Calendar, fulfills both of these
requirements, as it is the 50th day from Abib 15 and it is the day after the
Sabbath Day, Sivan 4.
Neither Sivan 6 nor Sivan 9 meets both requirements. As
you can see, the New Moon Sabbath Calendar cannot deliver the goods. Therefore,
it is an un-Scriptural calendar.
By insisting that every New Moon must be the first day of
the next month, the New Moon Calendar advocates cannot meet the requirements
of the countdown to Pentecost.
What is a Scriptural Week?
In order to avoid dealing with these problems, New Moon Sabbath
keepers declare that the Bible does not specifically define a week as 7 days.
They keep their definition of "week" open to 8-day weeks and
even 9-day weeks, depending upon how far away the New Moon Sabbaths drift
away from the 7-day count.
In the "Countdown To Pentecost" section above, I
showed that the Countdown is "7 Sabbaths," and that is equal to 49
days, with Pentecost being the 50th day from the first
Sabbath of the count. This should be proof enough that the word week means
7 days – no more, no less.
The Hebrew word for week is shabua. Here is
how Strong’s defines it: "literally sevened, i.e., a week, (spec. of
years); - seven, week."
So, Scripturally, a week is a sevening, or a
count of seven days. Ironically, the lunar Sabbath-keepers accuse us solar
advocates of not heeding Scripture, which, of course, means their interpretation of
it!!!
The Greek equivalent is sabbaton [#4521],
meaning, "…Sabbath…day of weekly repose…a se’nnight[sevennight]…i.e.,
the interval between two Sabbaths…Sabbath (day), week."
We can see that the number 7 is both implicit and explicit
in its many Scriptural usages. There is not even a hint in Scripture that a
week is ever anything else than exactly 7 days.
"And it came to pass, on the sixth day they
gathered twice as much bread [manna], two omers for one man:
and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto
them, This is that which Yahweh hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the Holy
Sabbath unto Yahweh: bake that which ye will bake today, and seethe that ye
will seethe; and that which remaineth overlay up for you to be kept until the
morning…Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, there shall
be none." - Exodus 16:21- 30.
William F. Dankenbring, a prolific Biblical scholar,
reveals that the 7-day Sabbath count was established even before it was
given by Moses as part of the Written Law. He says this precedent was set
by Yahweh Himself, when He dispensed manna for six days and then deprived the
Israelites of it on the seventh. He has this to say about these verses:
"Notice the specific miracles God performed to
re-establish in the minds of His people the correct seventh day of rest – the
Sabbath day!
As stated earlier, the Fourth Commandment (Exo. 20:8-11)
specifies six days of work and the seventh as a day of rest. There is no
indication in Scripture that this 7-day cycle is to be disturbed. Yes, there
are special Sabbaths or Appointments which can fall on other days of the
week, but these special Sabbaths do not change the six days work, next day
rest, six days work, next day rest cycle of the year.
The lunar Sabbath keepers, as I have shown, violate this
principle every month, as their Sabbaths are based on the Moon, not on the
7-day count.
It is admitted that the Solar Calendar, which I propose, does stop
the cycle on the Marker Day; but that is only one exception compared to many
for lunar Sabbath keepers, because their calendar deviates from the 7-day
count at the end of the first month, and stays out of synch for the rest of
that year.
On the other hand, since it has been demonstrated herein that the yearly Calendar consists of exactly 364 days, as the Egyptian, Enoch, Jubilees, and Essene calendars all agree, then my proposed calendar does not deviate at all, since the Marker Day is not considered as part of the calendar. It is part of the solar year, but not part of the solar calendar. Since the Marker Day is partially in the old year and partially in the new year, it does not properly belong to either year. It is not counted in the 364-day calendar, so it is a free day for us to enjoy as we please.
Given all of the above considerations, I think I have
provided sufficient evidence to show that this is how the Hebrew Calendar is
supposed to work. The ancient Hebrew traditions are solar, not lunar. Lunar
traditions crept in later, just as prophesied by the Book of Jubilees.
Which Calendar Works in Both Northern and Southern
Hemispheres?
One of my South African Newsletter subscribers wrote to me
after I published Yahweh’s Solar Calendar. She informed me that
she had enthusiastically printed out that paper and took it to her lunar
Sabbath congregation. Well, they practically threw her out of the
congregation!!!!
All I can say is this: I am overjoyed that her
people study the Bible so enthusiastically that they left the Jewish
Saturnalia Day Sabbath and the Catholic Sun-worship Sabbath behind. Jesus
said, "I would rather ye be cold or hot. If ye be lukewarm, I will
spew thee out of my mouth." There is no substitute for enthusiasm.
Christian Identity is revitalizing Christianity by invigorating Bible
scholarship.
Disagreements over interpretation are bound to occur. In
the spirit of Brotherly Love and Righteousness, Truth will prevail. In His
infinite Mercy, the Father will not hold us to the Letter if we are doing our
best to keep the Spirit of the Law. We are in the process of
restoring that which was lost.
Do Not Sow Discord among The Brethren!
In her letter, she posed a question which I had not
considered before: "What about those of us Down Under? What calendar
should we practice, since our Seasons are the reverse of yours in the
Northern Hemisphere?"
In thinking about this, I realized that the Solar Calendar
is uniquely qualified to handle this potential difficulty. Since the Solar
Calendar is divided into two equal halves of 182 days each,
each composed of 26 weeks, it can be adapted to the Southern Hemisphere
without any difficulty whatsoever. Since we are always 180 degrees apart in
our Seasons, our Spring Equinox is their Autumn Equinox, and our Winter
Solstice is their Summer Solstice.
Since Enoch’s Solar Calendar is primarily an agricultural
calendar, geared to the growing season, it makes sense for those in the
Southern Hemisphere start their agricultural year on Ethanim
The two halves of the Solar Calendar reflect the two halves of the planet! Just as the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are 180 degrees apart, the Solar Calendar reflects this by stressing the two poles of this Seasonal reality: the Spring Equinox, Abib 1 and the Autumn Equinox, Ethanim 1.
How about that!!!!
NO LUNAR CALENDAR CAN COME EVEN CLOSE TO REPRESENTING BOTH
HEMISPHERES AT THE SAME TIME!!!!!!!
Regarding the luminaries in the sky, Gen. 1:14 says,
"Let them be for signs and for seasons and for days
and for years."
The Hebrew word translated as "season" is mowed,
meaning "an appointment, a fixed time or
season."
Charles W. Dodge, in his Yahweh’s Perfect Calendar,
has this to say about Gen. 1:14:
"The Hebrew word [4150] is used frequently in the
Old Testament with reference to the Feasts of Yahweh.
A primary meaning for this word as given in Strong’s Concordance is a fixed time or season. If we determine the dates for the Feast days by cycles of the moon, they will not be "fixed." Every year, they will come at a different date within the seasons of the year.
"The annual seasons are fixed and determined by
the Solar Equinoxes and Solstices. These represent the only days that
come precisely at the same time, year after year. They can be determined
either by observation or by calculation – they are fixed.
"Such times can be determined only by the use
of a solar calendar – not from the cycles of the moon."
Isn’t it amazing that a handful of White men, through
diligent and patient study, can decipher God’s Word by being true to the
Hebrew language, while the official world of organized religion is utterly
clueless?
Summary
Here are the salient points which tie the Hebrew Calendar
either to the Sun and/or the Spring Equinox.
Conclusion
The ancient Hebrews and Israelites practiced a Solar
Calendar, not a lunar calendar. The lunar calendars were introduced at a
later date and conform to Babylonian and other heathen calendars, suggesting
introduction from non-Israelite sources. The language of the Bible does not
support a lunar calendar. Nowhere does the Bible instruct us to observe the
moon, which would be an absolute requirement for developing a lunar calendar.
Nowhere does the Bible explicitly state any kind of lunar reckoning of the
calendar. It has to be inferred from statements which appear to suggest a
lunar calendar, but which do not explicitly say so. Lunar advocates avoid
dealing with the subject of the possible false translation of the word chodesh. Lunar reckoning hinges on the reliability of the
translation of chodesh to mean "new moon."
The derivation of a lunar (We Are Children of The Day Not The Night) calendar from Scripture is
fraught with difficulties. There is no doubt in my mind that the Jewish lunar
calendar is un-Scriptural.
It is a Babylonian calendar, through and through. Other lunar calendars have obviously been influenced by Jewish assertions about their interpretation of Scripture, which is utterly untrustworthy.
Therefore, I can only conclude that any and all lunar
calendars are un-Scriptural. Anyone who thinks that the above summary is
invalid now has the opportunity to rebut. "Come, let us reason
together." (Isa. 1:18.)
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Original Sources
posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 08/26/2012 - 17:02
Yahweh’s Solar Calendar
By Pastor Eli James
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