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Statement of belief: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word
is truth.” (John 17:17 KJV)
Created 5941(?) 07 26 2027 [2010-10-05]
Last edited 5925[(*??*)]
07 26 2029 [2012-11-11]
Revised 5925[(*??*)]
12 22 2029 [2013-04-04] – Revised dates for
the Pentecosts of the Jews.
The Rabbinic Calendar in New Testament
times vs. the Scripture Calendar
Re the Full Moon Basis for the Rabbinic
Calendar
(with a particular focus upon 19 CE)
-
A Study in Progress:
(Therefore, please forgive me for any errors, whether
words remaining from past thinking and not yet corrected or thoughts of mine
that are still suffering from being in error until somehow I am given
additional rays of light!)
Abstract:
The Rabbinic calendars have been reckoned
based upon principles that have been kept secret or semi-secret for long
periods of time. However, since the Roman persecutions of the Jews, most
specifically under Caesar Constantine, in the fourth century, and the
associated prohibitions re the Jewish calendar and re the convening of the
Sanhedrin, Hillel II, in 359 CE,[1]
made at least some of those secrets available to the Jews in dispersion.
It should be recognized too, that current
Hillel II based Jewishss calendars do suffer from a small but significant
shifting of the seasons type flaw, similar to that of the Egyptian
calendar, a flaw similar to that which leap days and leap months are designed
to mitigate, a flaw of “16.5 minutes a year” or “one day in every century”… More at this site…
Perhaps more
importantly, the particulars of the principles of the rabbinic calendar may be
recognized and learnt from studying how that calendar has been expressed in
reality. As they say: “The proof is in the pudding…” Here is an example that I
discovered for myself:
2.
In consequence of #1: The full moon of
Nisan 19 CE was being reckoned by the priestly hierarchy as having occurred on
the day known to us as May 8, 19 CE, beginning at sunset the evening before.
3.
Per the definitions used by the
priestly hierarchy: The official
full moon is always defined as the 13th day of the month, that is, as
the actual full moon is being adjusted per the postponement rules etc. for any
given month.
4.
Per the postponement
rules of the priestly hierarchy: Nisan 15 cannot fall on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, [2] i.e. Nisan 15 cannot begin on a Sunday, Tuesday, or Thursday
night. If it would it will be deferred by one day.
a.
Given that the actual full moon was
recognized as occurring on the day beginning at sunset Sunday May 7, 19 CE (cf.
#1 above,) which
would make Nisan 13 begin that Sunday night and which would make Nisan 15 begin
on a Tuesday night, the official calendar dates of that months were postponed
by one day (cf. #4 above.)
5.
In consequence of #4.a above: the official
dates observed by the priestly hierarchy were: 1) Nisan 13, 19 CE began Monday
evening May 8, 19 CE; 2) Nisan 15, 19 CE began Wednesday evening May 10, 19 CE;
Nisan 1, 19 CE began Wednesday evening April 26, 19 CE; etc..
6.
In contradistinction: Abib 1, as
observed by Yeshua and his disciples began with the New Moon crescent actually
seen Tuesday evening April 25, 19 CE.
7.
Thus I was led to discover the
principles behind and the reason as to why, per the New Testament witness, the
dates of Yeshua and his disciples preceded the dates of the priestly hierarchy
by one day in the month Abib/Nisan 19 CE.
Considerations:
Whether or not the within
described details are previously recognized or not, as for me, I seem to have
discovered something about the rabbinic calendar of the first century that I
didn’t know before and which differs somewhat from what I’ve learned about it
from other authors, most specifically it differs in a small but significant way
from what I learnt from “the testimony of Aristobulos…” as represented by a
certain Research Committee of the General Conference of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church in 1939.
“If we accept the
testimony of Aristobulos, 200 years before Christ—that the Passover of the Jews
followed the sunset of the day when the full moon
rising in the east faces the setting sun in the west—we can reasonably
conclude that the Jewish Passover, which is repeatedly described in the Bible
as the 14th day of Nisan, was the day following the full moon
date, and not on it.”
(General Conference of SDA, Research
Committee Final Report, 1939 (Grace Amadon Collection,) Report of Committee
of Historical Basis, Involvements, and Validity of the October 22, 1844
Position, Part
V, p. 4.)
If you think about it carefully,
it is obvious that so long as “the full moon rising
in the east…” while yet facing “the setting
sun in the west…”the moon cannot yet be completely fulled, i.e. with an
illumination of 100.0%. Once the moon is completely fulled it is no longer seen
in the evening prior to the setting of the sun, but may be seen in the morning
at sunrise and prior to moonset. It follows that the above quoted “testimony of
Aristobulos…” must be accordingly revised before being correctly applied.
I find it clear, from my in depth
studies into first century and New Testament chronology, that during the month
of the crucifixion (which crucifixion I believe I have very good evidence for
placing on Aviv 17, 19 CE) the Rabbinic calendar was one day delayed (cf. John
18:26-28) in comparison with the calendar used by Yeshua. Given some particular
peculiarities of that month of crucifixion I find that:
1.
The method used by the
priests for determining the time of the fulled moon each month must have been
the same as is revealed
in ( 1) lines 4 obverse, 2) 17 obverse, and 3) 16
reverse of) the Babylonian clay tablet VAT 4956 from Nebuchadnezzar’s 37th
year of reign. That is, upon said clay tablet one may recognize monthly
notations of the first monthly instance of the fulled moon being visible after
sunrise. That event is reflected upon said clay tablet by words such as the
following:
“one god was seen with the other:
sunrise to moonset: 1° 30’ ”
Given that the sun and the moon
can only be seen together in the morning once the moon has been fulled, and
given that so long as the moon can still be seen with the sun at the time of
sunset the moon has not yet been completely fulled, this observation is indeed
a very useful tool for determining the alignment of the sun, the earth, and the
moon, and a relatively exact point in time for said alignment, especially when
a measurement of the lag time for the moonset vs. the sunrise is also done,
e.g. such as is reflected by the words “sunrise to
moonset: 1° 30’ ” within the above quote.
2.
Indeed, it seems clear to
me that, rather than relying upon an actual New Moon crescent observation from month
to month, the priests were using calculations, based upon the fulled moon, for
determining a subsequent New Moon, which New Moon is sometimes called the
“horned moon.”[3]
Apparently said New Moon or “horned moon” is arrived at by means of a
retrograde count from the day of the next full moon as calculated, which day of
the full moon was always considered the 13th day of the month. Thus,
so long as the “full” moon was still visible before sunset, or, more correctly,
so long as the fulled moon had not yet been seen with the sun in the morning,
the 13th day of the month had not yet been reached. Based upon their
advance calculations of the next fulled moon the priests could then
predetermine which day would be their New Moon day, that is which day would be the
1st day of the coming month. The details of how this was being done
are being reflected by the discussion on pages 38, 38A, and 39 of the above
quoted Research Committee Final
Report.
3.
In the NASA Phases of the
Moon tables for 19 CE I find that the astronomical full moon of the Aviv 19
CE crucifixion month occurred “May 7 14:17 [UT,]”which
translates to
“Under
the rules of the Rabbinic Calendar, Passover regulates all the other
festival times in the Hebrew calendar. Passover Sabbath, Nisan 15, begins at
twilight at the end of the 14th day of the first month (Leviticus
23:5). The Hebrew day extends from sunset to sunset. Passover Sabbath (the
first high day feast of the days of unleavened bread) always occurs with a full
moon rising in the east, the 15th day after the new moon. It could not occur
before the vernal equinox. By Rabbinical rules
Passover can never occur on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. The day starting at
the previous sunset. Preventing Passover Sabbath from falling on Monday,
Wednesday, or Friday eliminates the possibility that Tishri 1 would
occur on a Friday, Sunday, or Wednesday. This is because Tishri 1 is always 163
days after Nisan 15. Succoth, the Feast of Tabernacles, was also
set to begin on a full moon, the fifteenth day of the first month, Tishri
(Leviticus
23:34). Succoth must also occur in the fall, after the gathering of
crops (Deuteronomy
16:16).” (From BibArch’s Calendar
Rules; cf. Chabad.org[4])
4. In consequence of the principals behind my above discovery, the
19 CE Nisan dates of the priestly hierarchy is found to be trailing the Aviv
dates of the calendar being used by Yeshua and his disciples, during that
crucial crucifixion month, by one day!
5.
Re NT timing of Pentecost: Although
I find solid reasons
for disagreeing re the day of the Omer sacrifice, and thus of the Shavout,
Pentecost, falling anciently, as reckoned by the priesthood and others, on a
Sunday morning, I find the following quotes valuable towards a better understanding
of NT ancient time placement of said two feast days. That is, “the morrow after
the Sabbath” is, per clear Scriptural usage, a reference to the morning
following the beginning of the weekly Sabbath, not a reference to
the morning following the end of the weekly Sabbath! I am
convinced that the presently widely held belief re Sunday morning observance of
these feasts is little more than the remains of the general amnesia, re Hebrew
reckoning of time, introduced by Caesar Constantine and others:
“At present, in the
tradition of Pharisaic Judaism, rabbis count the Omer from the second
day of unleavened bread (from the day following Passover Sabbath not Sunday)
but the priests did not do so anciently.”
“The priestly offering of the wave sheaf
was on the morning of the first day of the week (Sunday morning) following
the first weekly Sabbath during
the Days of
Unleavened Bread. In Herodian times Shavuoth always fell
on the first day of the week (Saturday night to Sunday night). The
Pharisees disagreed with the priests on which day to observe as Shavuoth preferring
the fixed date of Silvan 6.”
“As Nisan 15, the annual Sabbath, or
Passover Sabbath, marking the start of the seven-day Feast of Unleavened bread
began at sunset Tuesday night, the Essene observance of the Passover Seder
was always on a Tuesday night (Finegan
1998:43, 48).”
“Following the injunction of Leviticus
23:11, 15 the priests insisted
on a literal discharge of the scriptural directive by offering the
wave-sheaf on the Sunday occurring during the Days of Unleavened Bread.
Prior to the CE 70 destruction of the Second Temple the Sadducees and
the priests regularly fixed the date of Pentecost by counting beginning with
the Sunday occurring during the festival rather than from the first High Sabbath.
This always placed Pentecost on a Sunday and not on a fixed date.”
“The Boëthusian priestly family is
traceable to Boethus of Alexandria whose son Simon ben Boëthus was
made high
priest under Herod the
Great ca. 24 BCE (Josephus, Antiquities
of the Jews XV.1.1; 9.3; XVIII 1.1; Wars II.8).
The Boëthusians "maintained that the Omer (Babylonian
Talmud Menahot 10:3) had to be offered on the first Sunday
after Passover,
and not on the morrow of the first day and, as a result, differed as to the
date of Shavuoth which according to them must
always fall on a Sunday (Babylonian Talmud Hog 24)" (Encyclopaedia
Judaica 1972:1170 see Babylonian
Talmud Hog 24).”
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