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Offline zelly  
#1 Posted : Friday, July 12, 2013 8:01:55 AM(UTC)
zelly
Joined: 3/29/2012(UTC)
Posts: 20
Location: england

The second part of a chapter from a brothers book.
He has lived in Israel for almost 15 years.

It is generally accepted that certain elements of the calculated Jewish calendar,
commonly in use today, were codified in approximately 358 C. E. by the
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(president of the Jewish Sanhedrin), Hillel II. (Encyclopaedia Judaica)
Let me add some historical proof to dogmatically show that the calendar that
the Jews used in the first century AD was one that started in spring and not fall
and the year did NOT ever start before the vernal equinox or the precession of
the equinox. There are 12 constellations in the sky and the sun goes through
each one approximately every 30 days. After it has gone through the 12th and
starts back in the first one, then the New Year can start.
The Jewish historian Josephus referred to this in Antiquity of the Jews when he
stated
“the year had now begun as the sun was now in the constellation of Aries.”
Also, the noted historian Eusebius had much to say confirming that ancient
Israel ALWAYS waited until after the vernal equinox to start the year in spring
and NOT winter.
Extracts from the Canons of Anatolius on the Paschal Festival
But as the Romans would say, before the eleventh of the calends of April. (15)
But the sun is found on the said twenty-sixth of the month Phamenoth, not
only as entering the first segment (of the zodiac), but on the fourth day is
already found passing through it. But this segment they generally call the first
dodecatomorium, and the equinox, and the beginning of the month,
and the head of the cycle, and the head of the planetary course. But that
segment, and the last dodecatemorium, and the end of the planetary
revolution. Hence, also, those that place the first month in it, and
that fix the fourteenth of the month by it, commit, as we think, no
little and no common blunder . (16) But neither is this our opinion only, but
it was also known to the Jews anciently, and before Christ, and was chiefly
observed by them, as we may learn from Philo, Josephus, and Musaeus, and
not only from these, but also from those still more ancient, i.e., the two
Agathobuli, commonly called the masters, and of Aristobulus, that most
distinguished scholar, who was one of the seventy that translated the holy
Scriptures from the Hebrew for Ptolemy Philadelphus, and his father, and
dedicated his exposition of the law of Moses to the same kings. (17) These,
when they resolve inquiries on Exodus, say that all ought to sacrifice the
Passover alike after the vernal equinox, in the middle of the first
month. But this is found to be when the sun passes through the first segment
of the solar, or, as some call it, the zodiac circle. But this Aristobulus also adds,
it was requisite that not only the sun should have passed the equinoctial
segment for the feast of the Passover, but the moon also. But that the first
month of the Hebrews must occur after the equinox may be
gathered also from the book of Enoch.”
We see also in the 19th Psalm that there is more to determine the proper
observation of time than just the new moon.
Psa 19:1-6 The heavens declare the glory of Elohim; and the firmament
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shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night shows
knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the
world. In them hath He set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom
coming out of His chamber, and rejoices as a strong man to run a race. His
going forth is from the end of the heaven, and His circuit (Tekufah) unto the
ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
The question of exactly what the connection is between the times and the
seasons may well be understood in the term for line, which connotes
connection, and certainly would include more than a simple sunrise/sunset
repetition, particularly in the light that is their line , the line of the heavens
and firmament, not just the line of the sun. The line mentioned in Hebrew
thought is always circular and not linear.
While the daily rotation of the earth provided the smaller connecting circuit,
the returning of the sun each year to the same point at the vernal equinox was
the greater connecting circuit. From the earliest times there was an
understanding of the geometry of the earth, and that the sun in its transit
across the equatorial line created the equinoxes. This astronomical event
precludes any artificial man-made rules.
Let us look at another scripture that shows this same concept.
Deut 11:11 But the land which you are entering to possess it is a land of hills
and valleys, drinking water from the rain of the heavens; 12a land which
Yahweh your Elohim cares for; the eyes of Yahweh your Elohim are constantly
on it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
When you read this scripture in Hebrew, it is once again showing a circular
pattern, not a linear one. Yahweh’s eyes are always on the land of Israel in a
never-ending circular pattern, which is physically manifested by the “tekufah”
or circuit of the sun, portrayed yearly with the start of the New Year at the
vernal equinox.
That the learned men of old understood that Abib 1st always fell AFTER the
vernal equinox is crystal clear. The debate of when Passover and the Feast of
Unleavened Bread were properly kept hinged on this single event.
"’Peter, the Bishop of Alexandria, mentions that the Jews had kept the Passover
properly up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. But after the destruction
of the city they ‘err in reckoning the beginning of the month, which is
first amongst the months of the year, on the fourteenth day of which,
being accurately observed, AFTER the equinox, the ancients celebrated the
Passover according to the Divine Command: whereas the men of the
present day now celebrate it BEFORE the equinox, and that altogether
through negligence and error, being ignorant how they celebrate it in their
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season…" Anti-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VI, p. 280.
It is recognized that the calendar followed during the time of Yahshua Messiah
was regulated by the priestly lineage, the Sadducees, who never started the
New Year until AFTER THE VERNAL EQUINOX for reckoning the month of
Aviv. As a matter of fact it is stated in Jack Finegan’s Handbook of Biblical
Chronology that when Solomon built the Temple of Yahweh at Jerusalem that it
was made specifically so that the sun would shine directly through the Eastern
Gate on both the vernal and autumn equinoxes.
Also, during the some 175 years of the Elephantine letters of the Jews in
Diaspora in Egypt, never once did they start the year before either the
precession of the equinoxes or the vernal equinox. Look at the following quoted
excerpt from: Kenneth F. Doig, New Testament Chronology, (Lewiston, NY:
Edwin Mellen Press, 1990).
“Many of these legal documents include the required Egyptian civil year date.
Double-dated documents including the Hebrew dates of the Elephantine Jews
cover the period 471 to 402 BCE. This included evening to evening days and a
New Year beginning in Nisan (Aviv) only after the Vernal Equinox .
Almost all of the datable documents can be referred back to a Nisan (Aviv)
beginning only after the Vernal Equinox each year .”
When the Jews went into Diaspora after the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 AD they
systematically changed the method of calculation and at some point even
started to keep the Passover itself in winter.
“They blessed on the 23rd of Nissan and thus the whole nation announced
that tekufat Nissan begins on the 23rd of Nissan! Therefore, Pesach of that
year they celebrated in the winter tekufa , disobeying the positive,
explicit Biblical commandment to “keep the spring month.” They also disobeyed
the explicit words of Chazal, who said in Rosh Hashanah 21a, “Rav Huna bar
Avin sent to Rabba: If you see that the tekufa of Tevet extends to
the sixteenth of Nissan, intercalate this year and do not hesitate, as
is written: ‘Keep the month of spring’.”
Once Hillel the second centralized the calendar in 359AD, the ancient method
of always calculating the first day of the New Year Aviv after the vernal equinox
was no longer used and exchanged for a calculated calendar based on the new
moon closest to the equinox.
Barley was never a measure for calculating Aviv 1, as it would be clearly
evident in Diaspora that one could not ever start the New Year or observe
Passover, as it would be impossible in Diaspora to know when barley is ripe in
Israel, and the growing season for barley is different all over the world. People
who mistakenly use Ex 9:31 to equate barley to the beginning of the year, fail
to recognize that at the time of this scripture Israel was still in Egypt where the
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barley growing season runs from planting in August to harvest in early
February, which is totally contrary to Israel’s growing season of planting in late
October/November to harvest in late March early April.
This fact clearly shows that barley is not the parameter for equating Aviv 1, as
it would have been impossible to probably date Aviv 1 and the Passover date
from Diaspora. Also, if ripe barley in Israel is the only method to calculate the
year how were years calculated before 1447 BCE when Israel entered the
Promised Land? Clearly Noah calculated months (Gen 7:11) and was not using
barley to know when the year began and couldn’t have seen barley while inside
the ark.
Gen 8:13 And it happened in the six hundred and first year, at the
beginning, on the first of the month, the waters were dried up from off
the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked. And, behold!
The face of the earth was dried. Gen 8:14 And in the second month,
on the twenty seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
Likewise, and of great importance on this subject, most recently the true Gilgal
was found in Israel and the place is in the shape of a sandal, with the foot of
the sandal in a perfect circular pattern in which the priests would circle within
the sandal on Holy Days in worship to the one true Elohim, whose heavenly
bodies circle throughout the year in showing His sovereignty over His creation.
Look at the following scripture:
Exo 23:14 Three times in the year you shall make a feast to Me.
The word for feast here is “chagag” which means
H2287 חגג , cha^gag, khaw-gag'
A primitive root (compare H2283, H2328); properly to move in a circle ,
that is, (specifically) to march in a sacred procession, to observe a
festival;
Also, there are 12 constellations on the ecliptic circle called the mazzaroth in
Scripture in which the sun passes through another constellation every 30 days
and then, when it passes the vernal equinox it resets itself in the first
constellation again to start the New Year.
Even the Jewish historian Josephus tells us that “the year can now start
because the sun is in Aries”. Also look at the following quote from the historian
Philo:
“And the sun the ruler of the day, making two equinoxes every year,
both in the spring and the autumn. The vernal equinox in the
constellation of Aries, and the autumnal one in Libra, give the most
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evident demonstration possible of the divine dignity of the number seven. For
each of the equinoxes takes place in the seventh month, at which time men are
expressly commanded by law to celebrate the greatest and most popular and
comprehensive festivals; since it is owing to both these seasons, that all fruits
of the earth are engendered and brought to Perfection; the fruit of Grain, and
all other things which are sown, owing to the vernal equinox; and that of the
vine, and of all the other plants which bear hard berries, of which there are
great numbers, to the autumnal one. (Philo, on the creation of the
world,1:116)
Here are several other quotes from Philo about the yearly cycle of the sun,
moon and stars as biblical markers of time.
“They were also created to serve as measures of time; for it is by
the appointed periodical revolutions of the sun, and moon and other
stars, that days and months and years are determined. (On Creation
1:59-60)
Moses puts down the beginning of the vernal equinox as the first
month of the year, (Philo on Moses 2:222).
Then the twelve stones on the breast, which are not like one
another in color, and which are divided into four rows of three
stones each, what else can they be emblems of, except the circle of
the mazzaroth ? For that also is divided into four parts, each consisting of
three animals, by which divisions it makes up the seasons of the year, spring,
summer, autumn, and winter, distinguishing the four changes, the two solstices
and the two equinoxes, each of which has its limit of three signs of
this mazzaroth, by the revolutions of the sun , according to that
unchangeable, and most lasting, and really divine ratio which exists in numbers
(Philo on Moses 2:124)
Clearly the ancient records tell us that ancient Israel understood the circular
pattern of the heavenly bodies and how it was connected to worship toward
Yahweh each cycle of each year. They also understood the plan of salvation that
is told throughout the year through the 12 constellations of the Mazzaroth that
represents the 12 tribes of Israel and the birth, life, death, and resurrection of
Yahshua Messiah.
In order to understand the biblical calendar one must understand the circular
pattern of worship at feast time due to both the Holy Days being connected to
the yearly cyclical pattern of the agricultural cycle and the circular pattern of
the heavenly luminaries, the sun, moon, and stars. It has always been
understood from biblical times that the equinox is the dividing point of the year
and the growing cycle.
In contrast, history shows us, and it is no secret, that the modern Jewish
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calendar is based from a 4th century Rabbi and it was not codified for several
hundred years after that and it is not based on the original Hebrew calendar
from Scripture. Even in the Talmudic writings of the 2nd to 4th century it clearly
states that the Passover must be in spring and not winter.
The modern Jewish calendar also has 4 postponement rules, so that if the
Holy Days happen to fall on a certain day of the week that is not convenient to
keep them, then they simply postpone the Holy Day (in some cases up to 2
days) to the next day that is acceptable to the Rabbis.
UNBELIEVABLE! “This cannot be true”, some will say; but it is true. In
Rabbinical Judaism it is taught that the Rabbis have the authority from heaven
to change the Torah and even Holy set apart appointments of Yahweh. The
Talmud also states that Yahweh is only one of 70 Rabbis and must submit to
the will of the other Rabbis. Let me list the 4 postponement rules that the
current Jewish calendar uses when the Holy Days fall on inconvenient days of
the week.
U.S. Naval Observatory summarizes the four dehiyyot [postponements] as
follows:
· (a) If the Tishri molad falls on day 1 [Sunday], 4 [Wednesday], or 6
[Friday], then Tishri 1 is postponed one day.
· (b) If the Tishri molad occurs at or after 18 hours (i.e., noon), then
Tishri 1 is postponed one day. If this causes Tishri 1 to fall on day 1, 4, or 6,
then Tishri 1 is postponed an additional day to satisfy the postponement rule
(a).
· (c) If the Tishri molad of an ordinary year (i.e., of twelve months) falls
on day 3 [Tuesday] at or after 9 hours, 204 halakim [at or after about 3:11
a.m.], then Tishri 1 is postponed two days to day 5, thereby satisfying the
postponement rule (a).
• (d) If the first molad [the Tishri molad] following a leap year falls on
day 2 [Monday] at or after 15 hours, 589 halakim [at or after about 9:32
a.m.], then Tishri 1 is postponed one day to day 3 [Tuesday].
Remember also as already shown, that the modern Jewish calendar starts the
year incorrectly from Tishri and NOT from the biblical Aviv. The main points of
postponing Yahweh’s sacred set apart days is so a Holy Day and in particular
the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) will not fall on a Friday or Sunday, which
the Jews conceive as a burden due to the Sabbath day next to it.
In addition, they will not allow the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles to fall
on a Sabbath due to a ritual that Jewish tradition used to perform in beating
willow branches, which they believe would be breaking the Sabbath day. So
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instead of changing their man made tradition, they just postpone the Holy Day
to another day.
Nowhere in Scripture does it ever state that any man has the authority to
change Holy time. There is a man coming (the anti-messiah) who will attempt
to change times and laws and is strictly condemned for doing so (Dan 7:25).
Very clearly, Scripture tells us to keep the Passover on the 14th day of the first
month! PERIOD! When the new moon occurs, then on the 14th day from that
time, you are to keep the Passover. NOWHERE does Scripture ever even
remotely suggest about postponing Yahweh’s Holy Appointments.
Some will still argue that the oracles of Yahweh were given to the Jews and we
must follow whatever calendar they use, even if it is wrong.
Rom 3:1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of
circumcision?
Rom 3:2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed
the oracles of Yahweh.
This is not proper reasoning or the meaning of this scripture.
The oracles of Yahweh spoken about in Romans the 3rd chapter is not even
remotely hinting that the Jewish rabbis were given authority to change the
eternal word of Yahweh and that believers in Yahshua must follow them.
The word oracle comes from the Greek word logios , and means the utterance
or words of Yahweh were given to the Jews to preserve, Not change . Judah
never lost their identity because it was their job to preserve the Torah
unabated so that the people would still have the pure word of Yahweh for when
the Messiah would come in the first century AD.
Romans 3:1-2, is stating that the advantage that Judah had over Ephraim is
that since they always had the written Torah preserved, then they had the first
chance at salvation, as where Ephraim, who had lost his identity had to wait
patiently in captivity for the good news message to come to them. By far in no
way does the fact that Judah’s job was to preserve the written Torah give them
liberty to change any part of it. Anyone who even changed one word of
Scripture was under a curse.
Deu 4:2 You shall not add to the Word which I command you, nor take from
it, to keep the commandments of Yahweh your Elohim which I command you.
Actually the oracles of Yahweh (His written word) were only entrusted to Judah
until the Messiah would come and then it would be the job of the followers of
the Messiah to preserve the true unadulterated word from there.
Gen 49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the
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people be.
Also, you must remember the 4 postponement rules mentioned above WERE
NOT IN FORCE in the first century in the days of Yahshua, and I will quote
straight out of the Jewish Mishnah to prove that point conclusively.
It is from the Mishnah that we learn that a Holy Day could occur on any day
of the week (Dansby’s translation) such as is given on p. 125, #6: On a
Festival-day next to the Sabbath, whether before it or after it, a man may
prepare two Erubs…”
Still with the Mishnah, on p. 146 #10 we learn that the 16th Aviv may fall on a
Sabbath; pp. 197, 201, 213 show that the old calendar is not in harmony with
the present-day Jewish calendar. In fact p. 509 #7 shows that the Day of
Atonement could fall on a Friday, the day before the weekly Sabbath. This is
in direct opposition to the modern Jewish calendar which has postponements
rules so the Day of Atonement cannot be either before or after the weekly
Sabbath.
So there you have it. If we are to follow the Rabbis for the setting of the
calendar, which rabbis of which era do we follow, as the Jewish calendar today
is not the calendar used in the days of Yahshua, and not even the one used in
the 2nd to 4th century, as at that time the Passover used to fall before the
vernal equinox and now the Passover, but not the first day of Aviv, must fall
after the vernal equinox. Also, there were no postponement laws in the time
of Yahshua and the year before he died Yom Kippur actually fell on a Sunday,
which would be against one of the rules of postponement.
I would also like to prove from the New Testament that conclusively there
were no postponement rules in the first century, during Yahshua’s ministry.
Joh 7:2 And the Jewish Feast of the Tabernacles was near.
Joh 7:37 And in the last day of the great feast, Yahshua stood and cried
out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
Joh 7:53 And they each one went to his house.
Joh 8:1 But Yahshua went to the Mount of Olives. Joh 8:2 And at dawn,
He again arrived into the temple; and all the people came to Him. And sitting
down, He taught them. ( This is the next day after the last great day)
Joh 9:1 And passing by, He saw a man blind from birth. (It is still the same
day after last Great day)
Joh 9:7 And He said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which
translated is Sent. Then he went and washed, and came seeing.
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Joh 9:14 And it was a Sabbath when Yahshua made the clay and opened
his eyes.
Interesting enough if you read the above scriptures you will see that the Last
Great Day or the 8th day of the feast was on a Friday and the next day was a
Sabbath when Yahshua healed the blind man. Knowing this for sure from
Scripture, just merely count back from Friday, the Last Great Day which is the
22nd day of the 7th month, back to the 10th day of the month, which is Yom
Kippur, and you will see that it was on a Sunday, so right here from Scripture
one can easily disprove that there was any type of postponement rules for
Yom Kippur not falling on a Sunday in the first century.
Scripture is very clear. Yahweh created the Sun and moon and stars to tell us
the timing of His Holy Days. No man has the authority to change that. To
postpone the Feast of Trumpets for a day is no different than postponing the
Sabbath for Sunday. There is no scriptural basis for either.
Clearly, from Scripture we are to start the year in spring after the vernal
equinox and not in winter before it; thus, the next new moon after the equinox
was the beginning month of Aviv, thus always occurring in the spring. If the
12th month of the year (Adar) fell early enough to allow another new moon to
occur before the vernal equinox, it necessitated adding a 13th month and
waiting until the vernal equinox was observed as the beginning of spring and
the New Year. This addition of an intercalary month always kept the 1st month
of the year after the vernal equinox!
The year is an astronomical event determined by the sun! It is the point at
which the revolution of the earth around the sun comes to complete its cycle.
The sun determines the year! And that returning point is the vernal equinox.
Determining Passover after the beginning of the New Year, i.e. after the Vernal
Equinox, then setting Aviv 1st before the vernal equinox, would be allowing
Passover to be in the New Year, but setting Aviv 1st before the year ends, i.e.
before the circuit of the sun is complete at the vernal equinox is still in the
winter of the previous year, which is not Aviv. That is the reason for intercalary
years, i.e. the addition of an extra month, so that the first new moon after the
year begins, after the vernal equinox, is Aviv.
The year 2013 is one such year when the Jewish calendar will be starting the
year in winter, one month earlier than the biblical calendar.
This brings us to one most important point why Yahweh and the biblical
calendar never had people visually observing the heavenly bodies to start
time, but it was actually the absence of seeing these bodies that controlled
time.
The day starts when the sun disappears over the horizon and is not visible
any longer. The month starts at conjunction when the last waning crescent
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has disappeared and now the moon is in perfect alignment (conjunction)
with the sun and earth, and the year begins when the sun passes the
equator and now is back into the first heavenly constellation of the year.
Again this is not something that you go and physically sight but we know
the day of the vernal equinox by the shadow of the thing Not seen (the sun)
as we read in Hebrews 11:1.
Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things being hoped, the
evidence of things not having been seen.
It is by the shadow of the sun that one can determine the day of the
equinox as was done in biblical times with sundials. There have been many
ancient sundials found right near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and it is
even stated that Solomon built the Temple so that the sun would shine
through the eastern gate only on the day of the equinoxes, the dividing
point of the winter and summer and the old year and New Year. Then the
next new moon after the equinox is Aviv, the beginning of months. How
simple Yahweh’s biblical calendar really is.
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