Passion Week Chronology Completely Rethought

 I decided to post this new Chronology on my Main Bible Blog, but I'll also promote it here.

https://solascripturachristianliberty.blogspot.com/2022/04/passion-week-chronology-completely.html

Biblical Calendar Proposal

[Update: This is semi defunct now with my new Passion Week Chronology.]

I now view The Last Trump as Yom Kippur

I still view the Last Trump of Matthew 24, 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4 as being the Seventh Trumpet of Revelation 10 and 11.  But I've changed from viewing that Trumpet as sounded on Yom Teruah to viewing it as sounding on Yom Kippur.  I had flirted with this theory before, but am now convinced by nuances I didn't notice before.

But I need to lay some groundwork first.

Chris White likes to draw a strong distinction between the Shofar and the Silver Trumpets of Numbers 10 and 31:6, saying it is only the Silver Trumpets that the Prophets associated with the Day of The LORD.

First of all I think drawing such a strong distinction between them is invalid.  Hosea 5:8 used both in the same verse in a way that could justify seeing them as synonyms.  The assumption that the Shofar was a Ram's Horn is not really Biblically proven.  Joshua 6 does once use Qeren (Horn) to describe those Shofars, but that word is also used of the Horns of the Brazen Altar so we know it can refer to objects made of metal.  Every time the KJV of Joshua 6 says "Ram's" however it's actually using the word Yobel, the word for Jubilee, none of the Hebrew words for Ram, Goat or Lamb are in that chapter.

But if they are distinct then it's only the Shofar that is explicitly tied to the Day of The LORD.  Most explicitly in Zephaniah 1:14-18 which I'll discus more later.  But also Joel 2:1, 15-16, where my personal theory is verse 1 is the Sixth Trumpet when the Day of the LORD is nigh but not quite here yet, and then 15-16 is the Seventh Trumpet and a pretty solid description of the Rapture.  Psalm 81 which I've discussed before also uses Shofar.

Isaiah 27:13 is also interesting.   Now when Pre-Tribbers (or more specifically an old Prophecy In The News episode) try to make that verse about the Rapture they argue the word for "perish" can be translated "disappear" or "vanish" to help their Secret Rapture doctrine, I'm not gonna support that.  What I think is that those ready to perish are believers who because of their Faith in the Resurrection are prepared to die for their Faith in the Messiah.  Remember pretty much all non Pre-Tribbers agree the Rapture happens during a time of persecution.

There are other uses of Shofar in the Prophets and Psalms that could be about the the Eschatological Trumpets of Revelation 8-11, but these are the ones I'm most strongly interested in.

It is also the Shofar that is used when YHWH's voice is described as being like a Trumpet in Exodus 19:13-16, 20:18 and Isaiah 58:1.  So that shows that Revelation 1:10& 4:1 have the Shofar in mind, and Hebrews 12:19 is probably the same.  And since the Greek is using the same word in those verses as every reference to the Rapture Trump and the Seven Trumpets it's likely they too are Shofar.

Also in the Hebrew Bible only the Shofar is associated with the number 7 thanks to Joshua 6.  In the Torah it's always singular when it is used, but the Silver Trumpets are inherently a pair, a duo.

Chris White and one Kariate website I used to visit argued that there is no Biblical proof for Yom Teruah of Leviticus 23:24 and Numbers 29:1 being about Trumpets.  In the past on this blog I'd argued against their position, but now I've come to agree with it.

The word Teruah is associated with the Silver Trumpets in Numbers 10 and the Shofar in places like Joshua 6.  But there are also plenty of places where it doesn't seem to involve Trumpets at all.  And to make things even more confusing thanks to Leviticus 25:9 the First day of the Seventh Month isn't even the only Holy Day the word Teruah is directly linked to.

In Leviticus 25:9 Teruah is used of the sounding of the Shofar on the Yom Kippur that comes six months prior to the Jubilee year.  The KJV confusingly translated the word "Jubilee" here, but every other time "Jubilee" appears in the KJV including the very next verse it is Yobel.

I had even very recently tried to use Zephaniah 1:16 as smoking gun proof that the Day of the LORD is Yom Teruah.  But the word "Day" is not used directly of Teruah in that verse but rather of the Shofar, it is the day of the Shofar's Teruah.  And in the Torah that day is the Yom Kippur of the 49th Year.

I still think the Resurrection and Ascension of the Two Witnesses possibly happens on Yom Teruah.  I'm thinking of connecting the 10 days that would begin there and end with The Rapture to the 10 days of tribulation refereed to in the message to Smyrna, and typologically to the ten days of Genesis 24:55.  But that's a conjecture and maybe all of this happens on the 10th or at least the evening of the 9th.

In my last post discussing Yom Kippur I showed that the "fast" of Yom Kippur ends at Sunset of the Tenth day.  I shall speculate that that is also when The Trumpet sounds.

Naturally making the Day of the LORD the pre Jubilee Yom Kippur backs up seeing the Jubilee as a type of the Millennium.

I was suprised how rarely the word Shofar is actually used in the Torah.  Three out of five uses are saying the voice of YHWH is like a Shofar.  Only this Yom Kippur prior to the Jubilee verse uses it of an instrument the Israelites sound.

I'm not in this post going to make any date setting guesses based on theories about the proper Jubilee cycle.  But since even arguing the Rapture happens on Yom Kippur is treated as date setting by Pre-Wrathers, I shall direct you all to my post refuting the anti date setting argument.

I'm starting to think the Biblical Day does begin at Sunrise

I still stand by my post arguing agaisnt the Lunar Calendar.  But at the time I made that I still agreed with days beginning at Sunset.

Then I discovered some websites like these.

http://www.isawthelightministries.com/daystarts.html

https://www.bibletimemarkers.com/a-day-begins-at-sunrise

I am not at this time endorsing anything else on those sites.  But the first one I notice does support a Rapture view similar to mine in being at the 7th Trumpet and before the Bowls.  That site however is still assuming a Lunar Calendar for determining the Months, which I am now highly skeptical of.  I also probably do not agree with their Passion Week chronology.

Both argue that during the Creation Week, the Day is when God does the work, and at the end of each day it describes the times of Sunset and Sunrise (evening and morning) following.  The first act of Creation is the creation of Light, which thematically supports the day beginning at Sunrise.  Then in Genesis 1:5, 15-16 and 18 the Day is listed before the Night.  Like many other times later on when referring to "forty days and forty nights" or "three days and three nights", in fact almost any time you see "nights" plural, and there are 27 verses that refer to "day and night".  Also the Sun is always listed before the moon in verses like Genesis 37:9, Deuteronomy 4:19. 17:3 and 33:14.  And in Numbers 28 the daily sacrifices are listed as morning first then evening.

In Leviticus 23 a few things make more sense when you remove the Sunset to Sunset based assumptions.  And this is the most important chapter to understanding the Torah Calendar.

What's said about the 14th of Nisan and Passover when compared to Exodus 12 and other Passover passages is a lot less confusing if the days begin and end at sunrise, since then the evening is the middle of the day.  

But the Yom Kippur instructions are what's really revealing.  The Day of Atonement is the Tenth day of the Seventh Month, that was determined already back in chapter 16.  But in verse 32 the Ninth Day is mentioned for some reason.  What the verse seems to be saying is this 24 hour period that functions like a Sabbath begins at the Sunset of the 9th and ends the next Sunset.  The emphasis on that here clearly implying that's not when actual calendar days begin and end.

I have argued in the past agaisnt viewing Yom Kippur as a Fast day.  But this understanding of verse 32 can negate my main argument, since it can allow the Fast to be from Sunset of the 9th to the Sunset of the 10th so that in the Evening of the 10th you eat the meat of Sacrificed Animals, similar to how the 14th as Passover works in this model.

Likewise is Exodus 12:18, everywhere else the Seven Days of Unleavened Bread are 15-21 of the first month, but in this passage it includes the Evening of the 14th.  

This also explains how confused the Rabbinic Jewish observance of Passover is.  While Deuteronomy 16 and Ezekiel 45 provide Hebrew Bible precedent for expanding the use of the word Passover to cover the entire seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread, the change to a Sunset based observance causing the Evening of the 14th to become the Evening of the 15th explained why Rabbinic observance basically forgets that the 14th is Passover.  Rabbinic tradition does call the 14th the Fast of the Firstborn.  Originally that was clearly tied to the 14th being the day the Egyptian First Born were killed and Israel's spared, but that is supposed to be happening during the Seder so the Sunset based reckoning now has that happening on the 15th so why the 14th is called the Fast of the Firstborn is something the Rabbis struggle to explain.

Speaking of Rabbinic tradition, Fasts are still traditionally supposed to begin at Sunrise, so that sounds like a carry over from the original reckoning.

1 Samuel 30:17 also arguably makes more sense on a Sunrise to Sunrise calendar.

It also mirrors the Torah year better.  Biblically the year begins in Spring, and Dawn is essentially the Spring of the day, hence Sunrise sometimes being refereed to as "dayspring".

Malachi says Jesus is the Sun of Righteousness, and the Fourth Gospel says He is the Light, and Peter calls Him the Lightbearer, there is also the Womb of the Morning reference in Psalm 110.  Revelation says Jesus is the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega.  So the day beginning and ending with Sunrise fits that typological pattern.

Which then leads to overlooked details of the Passion narrative.  Matthew 27:57 and Mark 15:42 depict the evening following the Crucifixion as still the day before The Sabbath.  And John 20:19 depicts the Evening following when Jesus had Risen and been seen Risen as still the First Day of The Week.

Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement

I want to talk about a few things relevant to what is often considered the Holiest Day of the Year on the Hebrew Calendar, the Tenth Day of the Seventh Month, commonly called Tishri currently but Biblically was Ethanim.

I've touched on my objections to making it a Fast Day before.  But I've come to an even more vital realization.  It outright violates The Torah to Fast on Yom Kippur because Yom Kippur revolves around Sacrifices, chiefly the special Sin Offering of Leviticus 16 but also Numbers 29 requires a bunch of other normal Sacrifices.

For every Sacrifice but the Whole Burnt offering, and especially Sin Offerings, eating the meat of the sacrificed animal was part of the ritual, in fact in The Torah eating animals and sacrificing them were inseparable acts.  Part of the point of the Eucharist/Lord's Supper in Christianity is to make it so that the Sacrifice of Jesus is also one we are eating, whether you take the Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant position on the literality of that is irrelevant to the basic point.

So refusing to eat on Yom Kippur actually violates The Torah.

I've also talked about how Yom Kippur relates to the Jubilee in Leviticus 25 before, but I want to remind people as it could have thematic relevance to where I'll go after this.  The Jubilee Shofar is sounded on Yom Kippur.  But the Jubilee Year doesn't begin then as many wrongly assume, the Jubilee Trumpet is sounded during the 49th year as an announcement that the Jubilee is coming, the Jubilee Year still begins with Aviv and then lasts 12 months like any other.  It is called the Fiftieth Year but it's really the First year of the next Jubilee cycle.

I've spent most of the history of this Blog arguing against Jesus being born on a Fall Holy Day and for him being born around December 25th.  And I'm still leaning that way, but there is one argument for a Yom Kippur Nativity I have recently considered.

Attempts to determine when the course of Abijah served frequently turn to extra Biblical sources, both when arguing for a December Nativity or a Tishrei one.  But I've been considering abandoning all of those assumptions and just going off what we would conclude from 1st Chronicles 24.

First of all the idea that each course served twice a year also seems to be extra Biblical, there is no hint of that in 1st Chronicles 24.  It seems to me pretty logical to assume that 24 courses serving over a 12 month year would simply be two courses a month, 15 days each if we're going by 30 day months.

1st Chronicles 24 verse 10 says Abijah was the Eight course.  So if I ignored extra Biblical sources and when I might personally want to wind up placing the Nativity, this information would make me conclude the course of Abijah was the second half of the Fourth Month.

That would then place when he laid with Elizabeth to conceive John in the Fifth Month.  If the Fifth Month is the first month of Elizabeth's Pregnancy then her sixth month when the Annunciation happened according to Luke 1 would be the Tenth Month which tends to equate to late December and early January.  And if the Tenth Month is the first month of Mary's Pregnancy then her ninth month was the Sixth Month.  But remember the Pregnancy cycle is actually 280 days, or 9 months and 10 days on a 30 day month calendar.  So that makes the Nativity as Yom Kippur awfully attractive (and John's Birth on the 10th of Nisan).

Yom Kippur was not a pilgrimage feast so Joseph being in Bethlehem on that day as Luke 2 records isn't a problem, Bethlehem was close enough that 5 days was more then enough time for him to get to Jerusalem for Tabernacles.  This would place Jesus Circumcision during Tabernacles but Luke has no explicit reference to Joseph being there for that.

The Circumcision being on the 17th can be quite interesting.  Same day of the Month I place the Resurrection, The New Testament compares Baptism to both Circumcision and Resurrection.

However the evidence seems to show in Second Temple times each course was a week and so they didn't always consistently happen at the same time of year.  Proponents of every model have found a convincing way to make the timing for Abijah's course work for them.

September 24th 2019 Update:  However if the 24 Courses served twice a year then the latter part of the 2nd and 8th months would be Abijah's courses.  And if we interpret how to synchronize Elizabeth and Mary's pregnancies slight differently to make Elizabeth's 5th Month Mary's first, then Mary's first Month is the first month of the year if Elizabeth's first month was the 9th. In which case Jesus could have been born on either Hanukkah or the Fast of the Tenth Month.

Maybe the Torah's Calendar was never a Lunar or Lunisolar Calendar?

First some terminology clarification.  The traditional Rabbinic Hebrew Calendar we're used to calling a Lunar Calendar is strictly speaking a Lunisolar Calendar, the phases of the Moon come first but synchronization is done with a Solar year so the seasons don't drift out of place.  The same is true of the popular variants I've discussed already like the Samaritan Calendar, the Kariate reckoning and the proposed Lunar Sabbath model.  A strictly Lunar Calendar would be something like the Islamic Calendar which makes no attempt to reconcile and so Ramadan has fallen all over the Gregorian Calendar.

But I've lately been questioning the traditional assumption that the Torah's Calendar is Lunar at all.

Let's start with the fact that the Torah has completely different words for Month and Moon, that is not what I'd expect from an ancient strictly Lunar month based culture.  Month is Chodesh/Hodesh (Strongs Number 2320) while Moon is Jerah/Yerach (3394).  There are a few places where the latter word is used of a passage of time, but that's because even without a lunar calendar the concept of a month is still tied poetically to the Moon somewhat as it's phases come at least close.

Japan for example had a Lunar Calendar until 1873, and that's why their language uses the same word for both Month and Moon, Tsuki.  That's why in the English version of episode 6 of my favorite Anime, Noir, it sounds weird when Mireille says "so many Months and Years have passed", in a language where all the word "month" means is a fraction of a year my mind goes "why even include months in that expression?".  But I'm pretty sure in the Japanese she's saying "so many Tsuki and Hi", Hi being an alternate word for both Sun and Year and sometimes Day.  So a more poetic yet equally literal translation would be "so many Moons and Suns have passed" which sounds more right even if technically equally as redundant.

The phrase "Rosh Chodesh" gets translated "New Moon" sometimes because of our traditional assumptions, but Rosh means the beginning or head of something not quite "New".  Colossians 2:16 is the one New Testament reference to the Jewish concept of the "Rosh Chodesh", and it again uses a Greek word for Month, not Selene the word for the Moon.

Because we think of it as the Crescent New Moon so much talk about Rosh Chodesh is spent on saying we don't know for certain exactly when it is till it happens.  With Dispensationalists saying it typologically fits the Pre-Trib Rapture and "no man knowth the day or the hour" verses.  But there is one clear Biblical reference to people knowing for certain the next day is a Rosh Chodesh, 1 Samuel 20:5.

The Torah never talks about the Full Moon, even in regards to the Holy Days that should happen about then on a Lunar or Lunisolar calendar.  Two verses elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible are often translated as referring to the Full Moon, but those are highly disputable as I've discussed before.  For Psalm 81 I don't know how to translate it but my hunch is it's about the Jubilee Yom Kippur sounded Shofar.  The word for "feast" used here is sometimes used of Sacrificial animals like Exodus 23:18, Psalm 118:27 and Isaiah 29:1, so that could be the Yom Kippur Sin Offering in this verse.  The root of the word thought to refer to the Full Moon appears in Leviticus 16:13 where it's translated "cover".

And then there is all the evidence that The Bible clearly thinks of a Month as being 30 days not 29 and a half.  It's there when you do the math of the Flood chronology of Genesis 7 and 8 with 5 months being exactly 150 days beginning on the 17th of the second month and ending on the 17th of the seventh month.  And it's also in Revelation with 42 Months, 1,260 days and three and a half years being treated as synonymous time periods.  

However there is one thing often taken as evidence for a 365 day year in the Torah, and that is how that number happens to be the number of years Enoch lived. But that could be a coincidence.

Genesis 1:14-19 discuses the Sun (greater light), Moon (lesser light) and stars being made for signs and for seasons and for days and for years.  But you'll notice in verse 16 the Sun is made and talked about first, it has priority.  And months are seemingly missing from the discussion.

It is well known that the Hebrew Calendar was influenced by the Babylonian Calendar during the Captivity, the names we're now used to calling the months come from Babylon for one thing.  Well the thing is Babylon had a Lunisolar Calendar, so even that aspect of it could be Babylonian in origin.

Lunar Calendars were more popular with the ancient Pagans then you might expect given the modern popular narrative that ancient Paganism always started with Sun worship.  In fact the most prominent not at all Lunar Calendar used by Pagans in classical antiquity was the Civil Egyptian calendar, but even they originally had a Lunar one which they kept using for ceremonial purposes.  Actually even in Greece the Attic Lunar Calender's main purpose was for how they observed Pagan festivals.

Now as much as we love to see all things Egyptian as bad, it wasn't the Egyptians much of the Torah is telling the Israelites not to be like, it was the Canaanites, (When Jerusalem is derogatorily called "Sodom and Egypt" it's about them being inhospitable to strangers not any particular customs.).  One of the Canaanite tribes was the Amorites, Babylon first became a major player in Mesopotamia under it's Amorite dynasty, so that Babylonian calendar could be Canaanite in origin.

There is one indisputable difference between the Torah Calendar and the Civil Egyptian Calendar, and that is when to start it.  Exodus 12 proclaims Aviv (the time of the Barley Harvest, early Spring) to be the first month while the Egyptian Calendar starts near the Autumnal Equinox.

It is a common traditional conjecture that before Exodus 12 the first season was Fall rather then Spring, and that in Exodus 12 YHWH is swapping the First and Seventh months.  I'd been thinking of making a post on how we can't entirely prove that using Scripture alone and so shouldn't build so many theories on it.  But since they were in Egypt for several generations it's very possible the Egyptian Calendar was their starting point and what month to make the first month was the only change YHWH is making in Exodus 12.  Though different agricultural and climate circumstances in Canaan probably brought further differences, the Egyptian Calendar was organized around 3 seasons rather then 4 because of how much they were ruled by the flooding of the Nile.

In a hypothetical Torah based Solar Calendar the Intercalary month of five or six days (if that was the method used for synchronization) would go between Adar and Nisan rather then in September.  (BTW, those 5 days were when the Egyptians observed the birthdays of Osiris and Horus, not anywhere near Christmas.  And the Egyptian new year was September 11th on our calendar coincidentally enough.)  Or maybe you would try to put them before the Seventh Month to keep Yom Teruah close to the Fall Equinox.  

Genesis 1:14 is possibly using Signs in place of Months, I have over the years gone back and forth on the Mazzaroth/Gospel in the Stars theory.  Maybe fellow Mazzaroth proponents like Rob Skiba should consider that the Star Signs can be an alternative to the Moon for how to determine the months of the year.  Josephus did refer to Nisan as being when the Sun is in Aries, in the first century the Sun entered Aries around the Spring Equinox, and that month is indeed when the Barley Harvest happens.  The Romans had a Seven Day Barley Festival similar to Unleavened Bread that was the 12-18th of April, but due to the awkwardness of Caesar's revisions that may be off from when in the Sun's journey it was supposed to be.

It is popular to theorize that Revelation 12:1 is describing some astronomical alignment involving the Moon. If it is it could be an exception and not proof the months are usually defined by the Moon.  But I'm skeptical of that altogether, I think it's probably a purely supernatural vision and not something predictable using Stelarrium.

Now I do believe the Passover through Pentecost of Christ's Passion, Resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit was likely based on what the Jews of the time were doing regardless of if it was still accurate.  But it may be it happened to be a year when they did line up, or at least close enough that First Fruits was the right Sunday.  Since I favor 30 AD and a Thursday Crucifixion on the 14th of Nisan followed by a Sunday Resurrection on the 17th of Nisan, I have long placed the Passion on the 6th of April 30 AD and The Resurrection of the 9th.

But maybe not all the Jews were already using the Babylonian Calendar in Christ's time?  Maybe it was originally mainly the Pharisees, who became the only sect to survive the 70 AD war?  It was the Sadducees who actually controlled the Priesthood and The Temple, and according to Josephus they were a Torah only sect.

The Qumran Community who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls also rejected the Lunar Calendar, the Temple Scroll is our main source on their Calendar but it's discussed in other scrolls too.  I don't think that Calendar is right either, like the Lunar Sabbath model it wants to synchronize the monthly and yearly cycle to the weekly cycle by giving every 3rd month an extra day creating a 364 day year.  As I've talked about before the language in Leviticus 23 about Firs Fruits and Pentecost is clearly assuming they won't always line up.  They make the first day of the year a Wednesday because that was the day the Sun and Moon were created.  But at least they correctly placed First Fruits and Pentecost on Sundays.  Weeks are not even remotely mentioned in the Genesis 1 account of the fourth day, so they aren't connected to the sun, moon or stars.

The Book of Jubilees was popular with them because it too rejected the Lunar Calendar (Chapter 6 verses 32-37).  Something I bet Rob Skiba didn't notice when using the book for his agendas (This Calendar also seems to be endorsed by Enoch 72-82).  But indeed Jubilees has the same problem as the Temple Scroll system.  In fact it's criticism of the lunar system is a little hypocritical since it doesn't line up perfectly with the seasons either, being one day short of a solar year will inevitably create the same issue even if it'd take longer.

The Hebrew Roots movement has a lot of irrational fear of Sun Worship wrapped up into it.  Obviously actually worshiping the actual Sun or Moon or any other inanimate object is a Sin.  But Malachi does call Jesus the Sun(Shamash) of Righteousness, there is no equivalent title making the Moon a symbol of Jesus.  So I have no problem believing Jesus Rose from The Grave at Sunrise on a Sunday Morning, or that he was born on or soon after the Winter Solstice.  I'd rather base my calendar on the astronomical object that is explicitly a symbol of Jesus then one that is not and was frequently the basis for Pagan ceremonial calendars.

You might ask "are you gonna also question if Biblical days begin and end with Sunset?"  Well I did consider it, but I concluded that they do.  Genesis 1 lists them as Evenings and Mornings, and later Torah verses after Exodus 13 do the same, like Exodus 16 which is also the proper origin of the Sabbath.  Also Exodus 27:21 and Leviticus 24:3.  Instead I'm just going to point out that even that is also determined by the the Sun, when the Sun sets.  [Update: on this paragraph I've had a change of mind since.]

But I'm not just disagreeing with the current Hebrew Roots movement here.  This may shock you to learn but the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and other mainstream Christian Churches do use the Moon to calculate "Easter".  It's just that explaining why it doesn't always line up with Rabbinic Passover is complicated.  In most Languages "Easter" is just called Pascha.  If Catholic "Easter" was just a Christianized Spring Solstice festival as many allege it would consistently happen in the 20s of March.

Also remember that as a Six-Day Young Earth Creationist I do believe originally the Solar and Lunar cycles were in sync and there was no need to choose between them.  I think that was the case at least until the Flood but maybe also till the time of Joshua or even Hezekiah.

I'm not ready to propose a specific calendar model just yet.  I merely want to open up this line of discussion.

Or maybe I am.  But take everything below with a grain of salt, it's all stuff I could easily abandon.  What I've talked about above is the point of this post.

In Fact ignore everything below, I've revamped it all here.

https://midseventiethweekrapture.blogspot.com/2021/09/biblical-calendar-proposal.html

[Update 2023: I have an even newer idea to add.

https://solascripturachristianliberty.blogspot.com/2022/04/passion-week-chronology-completely.html]

Debates about when to celebrate "Easter".

First, a reminder that "Easter" is a word used only in English and other Germanic languages.  All of the Greek and Latin speaking ancients I'm about to talk about actually said "Pascha" everywhere modern English discussions/translations of them like Wikipedia say "Easter".

Also, by the First Century the word Peshach/Pascha was being used for all the Nisan Holy Days together and not just 14th which is the Proper Torah terminology, but this looser application is perhaps anticipated by Ezekiel 45 21-24.  That's why in Acts 12 it's still Pascha after the Days of Unleavened Bread have started.

First I want to discuss how the Quartodecimanism debate that went on in the Second Century was not the same thing as the arguments modern Hebrew Roots/Torah Observant Christians have with mainstream Western Christianity, or even the same thing as the debate that was had at the Council of Nicaea.

Both sides of the original Quartodeciman controversy were using the same calendar, and it seems like it was a lunar Calendar, if it was exactly the same Calendar the Jews of the time were using or not I don't know for sure but I think it probably was.  The debate was about whether the main celebration (Feast being the word used) should be on the 14th of Nisan (the position of the Quartodecimans) or the following Sunday which seems to be what most Christians were doing. The Sunday observers fasted through the 14th till Sunday morning.

It wasn't a debate between two entirely different methods of when to calculate anything, but a debate about whether the day Jesus was Crucified, or the Day He Rose from the Dead should be the day of the Feast.  Or in the context of Leviticus 23, Exodus 12 and Numbers 28, the day the Passover Lamb is killed or First Fruits, which is always on the morning after the Sabbath hence Sunday.

Modern Torah observant Christians often assume the Quartodecimans were the ones on their side of the dispute, and anyone who wanted to do anything but hide under their beds on a Sunday must have been closet Pagan sun worshipers.

The truth is both sides of the dispute were adding to the Torah by seeing a full Fast as being required at all.  But if you read Leviticus 23 more closely, specifically verses 9 through 14 which are about First Fruits.  Verse 14 says.

"And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for this age throughout your generations in all your dwellings."

So, it sounds like a fast of sorts ends on First Fruits.  It's also interesting that Esther's fast was at the time when Passover would normally be celebrated, but it lasted three days trough the 14th and 15th days of the month, leading to her final victory on the 17th.

Melito of Sardis' Passover teaching clearly teaches the Torah being done away with, so no the Quartodecimans were not the Hebrew Roots people of their time.

To Christians the two most important events in history are the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  I would argue that the Resurrection is more important, in the Sermon on Mar's Hill in Acts 17 Paul's presentation of The Gospel to a gentile audience does not directly refer to the Death of Jesus at all, but the climax is definitely The Resurrection.  In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul refers to both the Crucifixion and the Resurrection at the beginning, but the rest of the chapter is primarily about the Resurrection.

Crucifixion Day is a day to mourn (which is often an appropriate time to Fast in Jewish thought), The Resurrection is what we celebrate.

Polycrates_of_Ephesus defended the Quartodeciman position by citing the long established traditions of the Churches in Asia.  But I've already talked about how The Bible itself gives us reasons to suspect that region was where things first started going wrong.

The debate about Easter at the Council of Nicaea is also highly misunderstood.  This debate was only about first if Christians should use the same Lunar Calendar as the Jews, and then if all Churches should use the same calendar.  There was not even any disagreement that it should be a Lunisolar Calendar.

The Council's final decision was that it should be determined independent of the Jewish calendar, and that there should be a universal agreement.  But what that final calendar was took a long time to form.

And it wasn't till centuries later that the Roman Church started making a deliberate effort to make sure Christian Passover never lines up with Jewish Passover, doing that is arguably just as much in violation of Nicaea's decision as adopting the Jewish reckoning would be, since that's not a truly independent decision.

Nicaea was addressing a disagreement that began in the late 3rd Century, so it predated Constantine's influence but was still a century after the Quartodeciman controversy.

One of the arguments against the Jewish Reckoning made at this time was that it sometimes had Passover happening before the Spring Equinox.  Now that makes it seem to me like a form of the modern Rabbinic Jewish calendar is what they were breaking with here, and indeed it seems to have developed at the same time this Christian disagreement started.  The modern Kariate reckoning has if anything the opposite problem, a tendency to happen maybe a little too long after the Equinox.  My current opinion is that Nisan should begin with the Crescent New Moon closest to the Spring Equinox, whether it's before or after..

Did the Church's developing Anti-Semitism play some factor in why this happened?  Possibly, but just as Anti-Semites criticizing Israel doesn't make criticism of the Israeli Government inherently Anti-Semitic, there is likewise disagreement even among Jews on if the Rabbinic calendar is correct.

I'm not a legalist, I don't think it's a big deal if we're technically observing things on the wrong day.  But I wanted to clarify how neither of these disputes were an Ancient Hebraic Christian practice being suppressed by a Solar Calendar using organized Church.  The origin of the current method the Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant Churches use is much longer and more complicated.

The Origins of Lent

One of the false claims you'll see among people presenting conspiracy theories about where the Holidays came from is that Lent is when the Women weeped for Tammuz.

All the evidence shows that on or soon after the Summer Solstice was when that happened.  The Assyrians and Babylonians also used a lunar calendar and after the return from captivity the months of the Hebrew calendar took their names.  The women weeped for Tammuz is the month that was named after Tammuz, the fourth month.  Which on our calendar usually begins in late June or July.

The myth went that the Summer Solstice was when Tammuz went to the Underworld for 6 months and then at the Winter Solstice Ishtar takes his place.  Fitting the point I made before that the Pre-Christian Pagans did the opposite of the traditional Christian calendar, Solstices were for deaths and resurrections and sometimes conception at the same time, while Equinoxes were for births.

Adonis was a figure in Greek mythology probably based on the Tammuz cult spreading west.  The Adonia, a festival in which women weeped for him, was also in the Summer.

So where did Lent come from?  I have a few ideas.

Jewish tradition eventually started preparing for Passover a full month in advance, essentially starting it right after Purim.  (Interpretations for abstinence from leaven or yeast)  This included a custom of refraining from eating Matza in order to build an appetite for it before the Feast.

Deuteronomy 34:8 tells us that the children of Israel wept for Moses for 30 days after he died.  And the start of the Book of Joshua seems to give the impression a new year started right after that.

The traditional explanation is that Lent commemorates the 40 Days Jesus fast in the Wilderness.  And I don't think it's really based on claiming this is when those 40 days actually happened.  There is a Jewish tradition that one of Moses 40 days on Mount Sinai ended on Yom Kippur.  And other traditions that say Yom Kippur is when the events of Genesis 3 happened.  So placing Jesus Temptation on Yom Kippur fits nicely in my view.  There is also my hunch that Yom Kippur is when Michael will cast Satan out of Heaven.

Firstfruits and Pentacost are the First Day of the Week

I already did a post about people like Rob Skiba who are now trying to say The Resurrection happened on The Sabbath, and every time you see “Week” in the New Testament it should be translated Sabbath.

Part of my response was simply pointing to the Feast of Firstfruits, and regardless of the accuracy of the usual ways Christians justify connecting that to the Resurrection, which I’ll get into latter, it does show that the “Sunday” after Passover is important for something.  Likewise with Pentecost which indisputably fell on the same day of the week seven weeks later.

I have not yet seen someone try to argue that we’re misreading Leviticus 23:9-22 and that Firstfruits was on the Sabbath not the day after.  But I want to prepare in advance for anyone who might try to.

In the King James English of Leviticus 23:9-22 I could see someone looking at “morrow” and thinking it means morning and consider that the intent might have been to say the morning of the Sabbath.  But no one who really knows the Hebrew would make that mistake.

There are a few different words translated “Morning” (some might refer to the Sunrise itself while others to a broader time frame) none of them are what’s translated “morrow” here.  This word is also sometimes translated “tomorrow”, it means the day following something.  So even when the YLT chooses to render it "morrow of the Sabbath" that language still means the day after, however that YLT wording is bad, I like YLT often but this mistake is embarrassing.

The Rabbinic Jewish reckoning of it being the 16th of Nisan is based on saying the Sabbath meant here is the 15th of Nisan as a special Sabbath.  But Leviticus 23 doesn’t describe the 15th of Nisan as a Sabbath, it only calls these special days of rest Sabbaths for the Tishri days, which I think might have to do with Tishri being the Seventh Month.  I would say to both this view and the Lunar Sabbath view that if the intent was for this always to fall the same day of the Month, God would have just said that as He did for other days in the same chapter.

But that’s not what I’m dealing with today.  These Sabbath Resurrection people could instead say following similar logic to what I just used “why didn’t God simply say First Day of the Week?”  The difference is identifying things by a day of the Week is not as common in the Torah’s terminology as using the Day of the Month is, and is mostly only used in defining The Sabbath itself in Genesis 1&2 and Exodus 16.

Firstfruits and Pentecost are the first and last days of a period of fifty days.  And we’re also clearly told there were only seven Sabbaths within that fifty days.  If Firstfruits and Pentecost were on Sabbaths then Pentecost would be the Eight Sabbath not the morrow after the seventh.

Now lesser then this error is the claim of Wednesday Crucifixion supporters that Jesus Rose while it was still the Sabbath but the Women found the Tomb Empty on Sunday/Firstfruits.  To me however a careful reading of Matthew 28 and Mark 16:2&9 shows Jesus Rose at Sunrise.  I believe He rested on The Sabbath.

Now what can be confusing is what Firstfruits means.  Throughout the Hebrew Bible the many places you see Firstfruits or “first fruits” in English are not always exactly the same in Hebrew.  Sometimes it’s two words and sometimes it's one, and at least 3 different words are used.  But only two of them appear in Leviticus 23:9-22 and neither of them is a word that actually means fruit. 

The Spring feasts are mostly about the Wheat or Grain Harvest. the harvest of the fruits comes later.  A Hebrew word for Fruit is used in Leviticus 23:40 (translated "boughs" in the KJV) talking about Tabernacles in the Seventh Month.  That’s why we know this is the time of the Grape Harvest (Revelation 14).

The New Testament references to Firstfruits don’t have such variety in the Greek however, they are in verses that all use aparch or aparche, and it doesn’t etymologically actually refer to fruit either.  My break down of the Greek Etymology of the word leads to me conclude it's equivalent to the Hebrew word translated Firstfruits in Leviticus 23:10 rather then Bikkurim which is more directly associated with Pentecost.  And the Septuagint Translation agrees with that, I would never base a theory solely on the Septuagint but I'm glad this one lines up. 

Most times the New Testament uses this word (especially Paul) it’s about the subject of the Resurrection, but exactly how kind of varies.  In 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 Jesus is the Firstfruits of the Resurrection, so in that context unique of His Resurrection.  But Romans 8:23 and 11:15-16 seem to use it of all the Resurrected, or all of the "First Resurrection" at least.  And in my view Revelation 14:4 uses it of the 144 Thousand resurrected.  But even if not every NT use of Firstfurits is about Resurrection, in 1 Corinthians 15 it's definitely about how Jesus fits into The Resurrection as a whole.

None of these verses are for the purpose of saying when Jesus Rose.  But since that seems to be when anyway, it works.

This Sun Worship paranoia from people like Rob Skiba who support the Mazzaroth and using Virgo to interpret Revelation 12 I find highly hypocritical.  Malachi 4 calls Jesus the Sun (Shamash) of Rightness, and Mark 16’s account of the Resurrection specifically refers to Sunrise.

But more important than that, the “First day of the Week” wasn’t a Sun Worship day when the New Testament was written.  Originally the Greeks and Romans didn’t have a Seven Day Week, there is no evidence of them being aware of the idea until they made contact with the Jews.  That’s why the New Testament doesn’t use the modern Greek word for Week, because it wasn’t coined yet.  The first Greco-Roman references to the idea of a seven day week involve them saying the Sabbath is the day to Worship Saturn/Kronos because they identified the Jewish and the Pagan Semitic El with Saturn/Kronos.

So the first day of the Week became Sunday because of people associating Jesus with the Sun, not the other way around. 

I will say this.  The Triumphal Entry is never referred to as being on the first day of the week.  Now it might be a detailed breakdown of the timeline of the Gospels can show it probably did happen the same day of the week as the Resurrection a week earlier.  But typologically I believe it happened on the 10th of Nisan when the Passover Lamb was presented.  So people commemorating the Passion using a Hebrew Calendar should keep it on that day not a day of the week. 

A Thursday Crucifixion on the 14th Model would fit the 10th falling on Sunday.  But people emotionally invested in a Friday Crucifixion model should change it to Palm Monday.  Sometimes the resurrection of Lazarus is estimated to be the previous day, though John 11 actually seems to imply more of a gap.  I’ve often been attracted to associating the events of John 11 with Purim.  What John 12 places the day before the Triumphal entry is Mary of Bethany anointing Jesus and Judas throwing a fit over it.

Esther is relevant to Passover as well as Purim

It's not the origin of Passover, that's Exodus 12.  But a number of passages in Scripture have added to what we know of Passover, other parts of the Torah, Joshua's Passover, the Passovers of Hezekiah and Josiah, Ezra 6, and prophetically Ezekiel 45:21.  And for us Christians the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, among other New Testament references.

But sometimes that time of year might be relevant even if the word isn't used.  The New Holiday ordained by the Book of Esther is in Adar (the 12th month not the last month) when Israel was fully delivered.  But what is often considered the core dramatic narrative of the Book of Esther actually takes place in the first month.  Many seek to attack Esther's Canonocity based on it seemingly not mentioning God directly, and lacking any direct quotations in the New Testament.  But I'm going to argue that Esther perhaps foreshadows the Passover of the Passion Week almost as much as Exodus 12 does.

We're told in chapter 3 specifically that the 13th day of the first month is the day the decree to kill all the Jews on the 13th of Adar was issued, and thus it's on that day chapters 3 and 4 take place.  And so that makes the 14th-16th days of the Month Esther's three day Fast, and the 17th the day Haman was hanged and Mordecai was honored.

It may have been on the 13th Judas approached the Priests to betray Jesus.  But more importantly since I'm a Thursday 14th of Nisan Crucifixion proponent.  That makes the three days of Fasting and Mourning here correlate to the day Jesus was Crucified (as well as Gethsemane), and the two full days he was dead and buried.  And then the 17th of Nisan, the true day of Deliverance in this narrative, is the day I place the Resurrection of Jesus, on the Third Day of Unleavened Bread.

One of the things that confuses people about Passover is that Rabbinic Judaism doesn't use the same terminology for the Nisan Holy Days as The Torah, or at least Leviticus 23.  Leviticus 23 calls the 14th Passover because that's the day the Passover is killed, but it is eaten after sunset when the 15th has started.  Rabbinic Judaism has Passover as the 7 day festival that is Unleavened Bread in Leviticus 23.

One of the more mysterious details of the Rabbinic Hebrew Calendar is that it has the 14th of Nisan as the Fast of the Firstborn.  Many theories are proposed for what it's origin is, one is that the 14th was the first day of Esther's Fast but you can't regularly Fast on the 15th and 16th since they are Feast Days.  I think it's interesting how often Fasts are anniversaries of deaths, and Jesus is the Firstborn of Creation.

Here is an article I found recently supporting a Thursday Crucifixion in 30 AD model.  But I disagree with them on the 70th Week of Daniel.  I also can't approve of their endorsement of the Shem Tob, it's a Rabbinic source.
When Were the True Dates of the Crucifixion and Resurrection?

The YouTube channel InspiringPhilosophy has a good video called Easter is not Pagan.  When dealing with the misinformation regarding Easter's Etymology, they mention how Esther is attacked on the same grounds.  I wonder if that isn't a Coincidence?

On the subject of Purim.  I've always had a hunch that maybe Purim has something to do with when Lazarus was resurrected in John 11.

BTW, I updated this older post of mine, to show that I support this year (2018) starting Nisan with the New Moon of March not the New Moon of April.

I don't think Jesus was born on a Leviticus 23 Holy Day

I've already done one post where I explained why historically I find it highly implausible, I don't think Rome would have forced everyone to be at a specific location so close to any of the Pilgrimage Festivals.

Still, there are some people in the Torah Observant and Hebrew Roots communities who seem darn near like the Holy Days are Idols to them.  Insisting "They are Yahweh's Appointed Times, of course Yeshua could only be born then", ignoring any history based arguments besides the common anti December 25th Memes that I've firmly refuted.

Remember how people used to mock the title of Star Wars Episode VII?  "The Force doesn't Sleep".  Well it seems like some Christians think Yahuah sleeps over 300 days a year, and wakes up only on those Leviticus appointed times.

In Exodus 16 in the very next month after Yahuah initiated the calendar, He does something significant on a day not mentioned in Leviticus 23.  And later the Book of Esther ordains Purim.

Other Anti-Christmas people start with how The Bible never calls for celebrating Birthdays at all, and every reference to Birthdays seem to be about Pagans celebrating them.  So maybe that's a good argument against Jesus being born on an Appointed Time?

But of course since these people are usually Pro-Lifers, I could point out that perhaps they should consider the Conception date more important, the time of the Annunciation and Visitation.  And the traditional date for Jesus Birth places that around Passover, it is inherently linked to Early Christians believing (before Constantine) that Jesus Conception should logically happen around the same time as His Death and Resurrection.  It's the Conceptions of Jesus and John, being Six months apart, that start the New Testament narrative chronologically, not their births.

It was first Zola Levitt who discovered a compelling correlation between the Gestation process and the Leviticus 23 Holy Days.  And Rob Skiba, one of the most adamant anti-Christmas people out there right now, endorses that idea, including a video about it on his Virtual House Church website, on the page for Week 15, Bo.
http://www.virtualhousechurch.com/biblestudies/exodus-week-15

That begins with placing the sequence of biological events we commonly call "Conception" on the Spring Feasts in Nissan.  That the Early Church Fathers, having no knowledge of any of these modern Scientific facts, for totally separate reasons concluded that Jesus was conceived at that time, I find an awfully compelling coincidence.

What's interesting then is to try, though it's not easy, to follow the chronology of Exodus after the first Passover, and see what if anything there can be estimated to happen about Nine Months later.

In Exodus 18 and 19 the giving of what we commonly call The Ten Commandments is placed in the Third Month, now known as Sivan, and generally conjectured to be Pentecost.

In Exodus 24:18 to chapter 32, after the initial Covenant had been given and ratified, Moses goes up into the Mount for 40 days and 40 nights.  It's difficult to be certain when this was.  But it's common to theorize it as basically Elul and the first 10 days of Tishri.  It was near the end of this Period the Golden Calf was made, and there is potential typological significance to it being in early Tishri or late Elul, when the Abomination of Desolation will likely happen.

Stuff happens after that, and then in Exodus 34:27-28 Moses goes up again for another 40 days because now the Tablets have to be replaced.

Exodus 40:2&17 tell us that the Tabernacle was first set up on the first day of the first month of the second year, that is almost a full year since the first Passover.

Between the end of the second 40 day period, and the start of the second year, it was mostly the creating of The Tabernacle and everything needed for it that they were doing.  And it does seem the first priority was building The Ark of The Covenant.  Could it make sense to place the construction of the Ark as being on the Birth and/or Circumcision day of Christ?  Or maybe it'd be fitting if the Menorah was originally made during what would become Hanukkah?

Is it possible the second 40 day period may have correlated to the 40 days and nights that it rained in Genesis 7?  Which is commonly viewed as beginning on the 17th of Heshvan and ending during the 8 days that would become Hanukkah? 

That's another thing.  In the Torah observant branch of the Anti-Christmas movement, it commonly goes hand in hand with arguing for Hanukkah.  Other Anti-Christmas people also hate Hanukkah (though Hanukkah receives hate from pro-Christmas people as well).  Well I've been a Hanukkah defender on this Blog.  And the fact is I've also seen it argued that Hanukkah is a reason for placing Jesus birth at that time of year.  Him being the Light of The World and so forth.

And to a great extent reasons for placing Jesus birth at Tabernacles can be transferred to Hanukkah, but without the Pilgrimage problems.  I firmly believe the real origin of Hanukkah is Haggai 2, where it is essentially ordained as a Second Tabernacles.  And the First and Second Maccabees accounts of their Hanukkah also back that up.

The first Thanksgiving was actually in September.  And many have argued it originates from celebrating Tabernacles.  Perhaps that Holiday getting moved from the month named the Seventh Month to the month named the Ninth Month has something to do with how Hanukkah relates to Tabernacles?

Of course my initial main argument was for Jesus being born in Tevet.  But I'm less certain on my exact chronology now since I've possibly changed my view on the Lunar Eclipse preceding the Death of Herod. 

So I'm still working out the details.  But I now believe Jesus was born at the earliest in late November and at the latest in early February.

And as I was still writing this, it occurred to me, what if there is some relevance to the start of Leviticus 24?  What Yahuah talked about right after finishing the Leviticus 23 Appointed Times?  Since our modern chapter divisions weren't in the original text.  And that just so happens to be about The Menorah, and then talk of frankincense.  Almost as if The Holy Spirit wanted to tell me something before I finished this.

And then Leviticus 25 to the end is mainly about the Sabbatical Cycle and The Jubilee, showing He wasn't done with The Calendar when 23 ended.

In my attempts to do searches for others who might have thought the same thing.  I am seeing a common argument that it was nine months spent building The Tabernacle.  So far no sign of anyone using this as evidence for the Birth-date of Jesus, but it would be attractive to those who place his Birth in Nissan.  This estimate fudges the dates, they could not have begun building the Tabernacle till after Moses came down from the first period of 40 days.  The soonest that could have ended was maybe in Tammuz, but as I said it was probably much later Moses even went up there.

The completion of the Tabernacle's construction is recorded in Exodus 39.  Then early in 40 the instruction to set it up on the First Day of the new year is given.  Then later in that chapter that is recorded.  So perhaps it can be assumed the Tabernacle was done significantly before it was set up?  Not unlike Solomon's Temple.

Perhaps the first 40 day period, which ended with the Golden Calf incident, was really most of Tammuz and early Av, making a link between that period of Sin and the dates the associated with The Temples' destruction much later.  And the second 40 days were Elul and the beginning of Tishrei.  And the Tabernacle was completed in Kislev or Tevet?

The Lunar Sabbath issue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-s31DlZNTs

Earlier today (October 11th 2016) I watched this video.  And this was the first time I heard of the Lunar Sabbath issue.

First assumption I had was this involved the Sabbath being kept on the multiple of 7 days of each month.  As I looked it up elsewhere (the Hope For Israel site which I have many issues with starting with it's Racism) I saw that it actually involves not counting the New Moon as a work day (a detail Rob clearly missed) and making the Sabbaths the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th of each month.

As I contemplated this I was reminded of how I'm always puzzled by all these often conflicting Rabbinic customs about what to do if the Sabbath falls on the 14th of Nisan or 10th of Tishri or some other inconvenient day, and would ask myself "why didn't God deal with that in The Torah?"

But then as I contemplated it more I remembered that Jesus said "God made The Sabbath for Man not Man for The Sabbath".  Which means you really shouldn't stress about it.

Both key arguments Rob made against it are flawed.  One I alluded to already, you never work more then 6 days because of the New Moon.  The other about God creating the Moon on the 4th day is that I feel God created the Moon in it's 4th day (or 18th day in a Tabernacles Creation Week theory) position, I don't think the first New Moon was a Wednesday.

The biggest flaw to me is that this theory can't explain how Pentecost works, how can the Fiftieth day also be the day after a Sabbath?

In fact First Fruits and Pentecost as a whole weaken the argument.  If those days were always supposed to be the same day of a Month then God would have just said that like he did with the other Holy Days.  Instead he said the morning after the Sabbath.  This is my same argument against the Rabbis starting the Omer on the 16th of Nisan.

A minor observation is everything I read so far seemingly ignores that sometimes a Hebrew month has 30 days, meaning a single work day between the 29th Sabbath and the New Moon in this model.  I have long theorized that in God's original perfect creation all years were 360 days, 12 months of 30 days each.  I do NOT however then interpret that to mean Daniel 9 should be counted as 360 day years.

This model also overlaps with the absurd Friday Crucifixion model.  The Thursday model which I favor and even more the Wednesday model need the weekly Sabbath to NOT be the 15th special Sabbath in that particular Nisan.  And as Greek students know the text itself refers to there being plural Sabbaths passing between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.

Jesus was Crucified on the 14th, Liberated Sheol on the 15th, rested on the Weekly Sabbath on the 16th, and Rose again on the 3rd day of Unleavened Bread which was the 17th of Nisan, the day Mordecai was honored and Haman hanged in Esther, and probably the day Noah's Ark landed on Ararat.

I did once did calculations and concluded that IF the original first month was Tishri as many assume, and IF my originally months were 30 days theory is true. Then the 10th and 17th of of the first Nisan would have also fallen on Sundays and the 16th would have been a weekly Sabbath.  That's an interesting observation but I wouldn't read anything profound into it.

Update October 28th 2016:  Lunar Sabbath supports have often sought to say the synchronized week goes back to Babylonian Paganism.  But it was actually Mesopotamians who used a Lunar cycle to determine their days of Rest.  As discussed (with an Anti-Judeo Christian bias) on the Wikipedia pages for Week and Sabbath.  We however don't need a Sumerian origin for the word Sabbath, it comes from Sheba, the Hebrew word for Seven.

Yom Teruah is coming up

Nehemia Gordon did a study just recently called "How Yom Teruah became Rosh Hoshanna".  Which is informative.

He also talks about how the sounding of the Jubliee on Yom Kippur was not during the Jubilee year but to announce it was coming in the middle of the 49th Year, a fact I'd already heard, but not from a source as reliable as him.  I find that intriguing on a number of levels.

Overlap that with aspects of my Time of Jacob's Trouble post, and maybe I should leave my Mid-Trib variant view and consider founding a Mid Seventh Year Rapture view.  That would affiliate the Seventh Trumpet and Last Trump of The Rapture with the Jubliee Trumpet, making the end of Revelation 11, all of 12 and start of 13 about Yom Kippur, the rest of 13 and all of 14 and 15 between Yom Kippur and Tabernacles, and the Seven Bowls of God's Wrath poured out on the seven days of Tabernacles, with Haggai 2 supported the 7th Bowls being the 21st of Tishrei.  This would adjust my Fall Feasts hypothesis.

The Seventh Trumpet account mentions God's Temple in Heaven being opened and The Ark of His Covenant being seen.  That kinda fits Yom Kippur.

Then I would really have to change this blog's URL.

There are other factors I still have to consider.  There is already a Pre-Seventh year view, but they're under the false impression that Nehemia is refuting, that Tishrei can begin a year.

I watched awhile ago a Prophecy Club video called The Chronological Order of the Prophecies in The Jubilees.  There is much of this person's views that are clearly wrong, from his supporting the Britam view of the Lost Tribes, to trying to make the 120 years of Genesis 6 point to 6000 years.  But his evidence for a reckoning of the Jubilees that would have the next jubilee year starting in Spring of 2045 AD (with the Jubilee Trumpet then in fall of 2044) is compelling.  Here is a still I took regarding the Sabbatical Years.

The view of the 70 Weeks I've been favoring had the Decree of Artaxerxes in Nissan 454 BC putting the 70th week in 30-37 AD.  But many have, using much of the same evidence, argued for the Decree being Nissan of 455 BC, and a 70th Week that is 29-36 AD.  I need to look into that more, but if so that would make both the beginning and ending of the 70 weeks the start of Jubilee years in the above Jubilee model, which makes sense.

I've seen people argue for both 29 and 36 AD Crucifixion models.  For the latter that includes Nikos Kokkinos who's theories I may talk about more in a future post.  My personal bias remains 30 AD for the moment however.  But The Resurrection and Acts 2 Pentecost being Jubilee years has a certain symmetry to it.

This makes the latest Jubilee year to happen Spring 1996-Spring 1997.  And before that 1947-1948 which many see as Biblically significant.  Before that 1898-1899, and before that 1849-1850.

This model could place the beginning of the 21 year Time of Jacob's Trouble in Spring of 2024 AD.

Or maybe if someone could argue the above proposed Jubilee cycle is off by a year, to make my original 70s Weeks views match up to Jubilees, things would fit better.  Then it would be during a Jubilee year modern Israel was founded.

If I switched to a Mid 7th Year or mid 49th Year Rapture view.  How do I match up the time-frames?  The ministry of the Witnesses and consecration of the Rebuilt Temple would be around the Nissan that would start year 4 of the relevant Sabbatical cycle.  The 42 Months The Beast is allowed to continue would begin about 6 months later.  And the 1260 days The Woman is in the Wilderness would continue 3 years into The Millennium.  Why would that happen?  Who knows, perhaps I'll think of a reason later.

But I will still never accept a Non Chronological view of Revelation.

Perhaps the Karaite reocking isn't as perfect as I thought

I had argued before strongly for the Karaite reckoning of when to begin a Hebrew Year.  And I certainly still reject the Rabbinic calendar and the Samaritan one.

Aviv is a name for the month now commonly called Nisan used in The Torah.  Because Aviv is a term related to the Barley Harvest (As someone not at all a Harvest expert I still don't quite understand it) the Karaite assumption is the Aviv has to happen before the month can begin.

The issue is in a case like this year where the Karaites and the Rabbis both had a second Adar, and celebrate Passover and Unleavened Bread in the 20s of April rather then the 20s of March.  The Barley Harvest is done before Passover happens meaning it's not possible to offer the First Fruits Wave Sheaf on the Morning after the Sabbath after Passover.

(Side note, I still agree with the Karaite view that Purim should be celebrated in 1st Adar when there are two, Esther defines it as being the 12th Month, but the Rabbis like doing it a month before Passover no matter what.)

I think the Goal should be to make sure the Barley Harvest is going on when Unleavened Bread happens.

What I think many people don't want to accept is that it may be the New Moon that begins the New Year might need to be not recognized as such till after the fact.  The Torah does not call for anything to be done on the New Years Day itself that isn't called for for every New Moon, the only New Moon that is a Holy Day is the New Moon of Tishri which marks the Midway Point of the year.

Ezekiel 45 makes the First Day of the First Month important (and the Seventh Day of the First Month also), it's unclear to me if those are for every year or just about when that Temple is first instituted. Whichever case that is, Ezekiel's Temple is instituted either at the start of The Millennium or the New Heaven and New Earth, either way when The Messiah reigns, so calendar ambiguities will no longer be a concern.

I think if the Barley is Aviv very soon after a New Moon, like within a Week, then that New Moon should be retroactively considered the start of the New Year.

Josephus said the first month of the Jewish year was Aries.  Back then the Sun was in Aries a month before when it is now, beginning around the Spring Equinox and ending in the midst of April.  I would not build doctrine on Josephus, and his goal was to define things in terms a Greek audience would understand, but it's still an interesting reference.

That there is a risk of missing Passover is part of why the Second Passover law was instituted in Numbers 9.

Update March 17th 2018:  There are some out there arguing that we should use the Equinoxes to decide what New Moon starts the year.   One of these I can't recommend since they're Lunar Sabbath supporters and very Racist.

But the Argument is that Israel in the Wilderness didn't have Barley to check, and neither did Moses on the Ark.  And that the Sabbatical and Jubilee years you weren't to be planting any crops.  Genesis one says the Sun, Moon and Stars are to be times and seasons are determined.

They also argue that tquwphah Strong Number 8622, means Equinox.  It means Circuit but apparently that's kind of what Equonox means.  I'm not entirely convinced of that argument however.

However they largely fall into the same issue as the Kariaites, that it should always be the first New Moon after the Spring Equinox, not simply the closest.  They say that if you started the year 13 days before the Spring Equnox, most of Tabernacles would happen before the Fall Equinox.

I think the answer isn't closest or first after, I think it's somewhere in between.  They're concerned with starting it too soon, but I feel it can be equally a problem to start it too late.

Again, no one is willing to consider that the New Moon that starts the year can maybe be identified as such afterwards.

Take March of 2018 when I'm writing this Update for example.  The New Moon (as in the first Crescent) will probably bee seen on the 18th or 19th.  In this case the Equinox is certainly soon enough afterwards that it seems extreme to delay the new year a whole month over it.

We need to make sure it's Spring when the Nisan Festivals happen.  But the start of Nisan can be sooner.

Update March 22nd 2018:

Another reason I would be more concerned about doing them a Month late then a month early is the Feast of Jeroboam.  Jeroboam's Feast wasn't in the 6th month it was in the 8th.  The people in Ancient Israel doing Tabernacles a month later where Jeroboamists.

For people attacking Christmas because they vaguely happening at the same time as Pagan holidays is so bad.  In a year like this one, not starting Nisan till nearly a full Month after the Equinox is going to place Passover on Walpurgisnacht/Beltaine and Halloween during Tabernacles.  But the truth is it's the Kabbalahist holiday Lag BaOmer a month after Passover that has it's origins as a Judaized form of the Mid Spring Pagan bonfire festival.

Does the Book of Maccabees claim a different origin for Purim?

The books of Mccabees tend to be most interesting to us for telling the story of the origin of Hanukkah and of Antiochus Epiphanes fulfilling prophecies presumed to be about him from Daniel.  Once he's dead and the Dedication is celebrated we tend to stop reading besides occasionally taking interest in those letters from Sparta for Lost Tribes/Dan/Edom speculation.

Chapter 7 of First Maccabees begins with Demetrius taking the Seleucid throne.  This is the person who arguably should have been King the whole time, who's birthright was usurped by Epiphanes.  You'd think it'd be in his interest then to relate to others wronged by Epiphanes, like the Jews.  But no, he decided pretty quickly he wants Judea back in his empire.  And treasonous Jews who'd usurped the High Priesthood encourage him in doing so.  Nicanor is still one of the chief Seleucid generals.

I encourage you to read the entire Chapter.  I shall copy here starting from verse 33.  This is BTW the King James translation.

After this went Nicanor up to mount Sion, and there came out of the sanctuary certain of the priests and certain of the elders of the people, to salute him peaceably, and to shew him the burnt sacrifice that was offered for the king.  But he mocked them, and laughed at them, and abused them shamefully, and spake proudly, and sware in his wrath, saying, "Unless Judas and his host be now delivered into my hands, if ever I come again in safety, I will burn up this house: and with that he went out in a great rage."

 Then the priests entered in, and stood before the altar and the temple, weeping, and saying, "Thou, O Lord, didst choose this house to be called by thy name, and to be a house of prayer and petition for thy people: Be avenged of this man and his host, and let them fall by the sword: remember their blasphemies, and suffer them not to continue any longer."

 So Nicanor went out of Jerusalem, and pitched his tents in Bethhoron, where an host out of Syria met him.  But Judas pitched in Adasa with three thousand men, and there he prayed, saying, "O Lord, when they that were sent from the king of the Assyrians blasphemed, thine angel went out, and smote an hundred fourscore and five thousand of them.  Even so destroy thou this host before us this day, that the rest may know that he hath spoken blasphemously against thy sanctuary, and judge thou him according to his wickedness."

 So the thirteenth day of the month Adar the hosts joined battle: but Nicanor's host was discomfited, and he himself was first slain in the battle.  

Now when Nicanor's host saw that he was slain, they cast away their weapons, and fled.  Then they pursued after them a day's journey, from Adasa unto Gazera, sounding an alarm after them with their trumpets.  Whereupon they came forth out of all the towns of Judea round about, and closed them in; so that they, turning back upon them that pursued them, were all slain with the sword, and not one of them was left.  Afterwards they took the spoils, and the prey, and smote off Nicanors head, and his right hand, which he stretched out so proudly, and brought them away, and hanged them up toward Jerusalem.

 For this cause the people rejoiced greatly, and they kept that day a day of great gladness.  Moreover they ordained to keep yearly this day, being the thirteenth of Adar.  Thus the land of Juda was in rest a little while.

I'm accusing it of presenting a different origin not simply another deliverance on the same day because it records them referencing back to a past deliverance of Israel, Isaiah 36, in the days of Sennacherib and Hezekiah.  Which is a cool story to remember but you'd think he'd also remember the deliverance from Haman's scheme that happened at this same time of year?  And because it later says they ordained this day.

Nicanor and his men's bodies are hanged up, just like Haman and his sons.

Now I believe Esther over Maccabees because I consider the Masoretic Text, not the Septuagint, God's Word.  In a lot of ways 1 Maccabees is clearly propaganda of the Hasmonean Dynasty, it may be they wanted to claim the origin of the holiday.

Which then makes me wonder, going back to all the debates about if Hanukkah is Biblical or not.  And how I believe Haggai 2 ties into Hanukkah.  What if these books are lying about it's origin too?  But the older account just keeps getting overlooked.  What if Haggai 2 is the real origin of Hanukkah?

2 Maccabees does tell a very different story about the fate of Nicanor in chapters 14 and 15.  But also claims it the origin of the 13th of Adar holiday.

Yom Teruah and Trumpets

I talked about the controversy of affiliating Yom Teruah with Trumpets in my initial Seventh Trumpet post.  I went back and forth on Psalm 81 more recently.

On one of the Karaite websites I follow I noticed that they object to affiliating Trumpets with Yom Teruah.  Even Karaites can be fallible.

The Hebrew word for neither kind of Trumpet is used in Leviticus 23:24 or Numbers 29, that is correct.  To me as I argued before whether it's the Shofar or the Silver Trumpet is irrelevant, Revelation's Trumpets I believe draw on both as does The Rapture Trumpet.

The Karaites like Chris White feel Teruah without a clear Trumpet reference refers to the people making noise, not a Trumpet.  Thing I've noticed though is that many Bible verses that use Teruah grammatically of the people shouting also reference Trumpets, if not in the same verse very near by.

Revelation 11 also has voices shouting and making Alarm in Heaven after the Seventh Trumpet sounds.

Jeremiah 4:19 and Zephaniah 1:16 both use Teruah in reference to the Shofar, with the KJV translating it Alarm.  Joshua 6 uses it while also talking about the Trumpets at the battle of Jericho.  Psalm 150, the last Psalm (and a short one), uses it in verse 5 in reference to Cymbals but Trumpets were mentioned earlier.  Also 2 Chronicles 13:12, 15:14 and Psalm 47:5.  And Amos 2:2 uses it and the Shofar.

2 Samuel 6 15 and 1 Chronicles 15:28 use it and also mention Trumpets while talking about when David brought The Ark to Jerusalem.  Revelation 11 tells use after the Seventh Trumpet is sounded that the Ark will be seen in the Temple in Heaven.

Some verses that use the word without mentioning Trumpets directly, are referring to "The Alarm of War". Numbers 10 and Joshua 6 both tell me we can infer the Alarm of War involves Trumpets.

Still, in The Torah this is the Holy Day we're told the least about.  It's not mentioned in Deuteronomy 16 or Ezekiel 45.  Yom Kippur is also absent from those chapters but it has Leviticus 16 dedicated to it.

Nehemiah 7:23-8:12 is all on this day, and it makes that day pretty important, though no Trumpets are referenced.

Before that however was Ezra 3, in verses 1-2 and 6-7 talking about the first year of the return from captivity (though some argue a time jump between verses 6 and 7).  Verses 8-9 jump to the Second Month of the Second year to talk about Zerubbabel and Jeshua starting their work.  I can't help but wonder if it can be conjectured while not clearly stated, that verse 10 has jumped forward to the anniversary of what was recorded before, that that day is supposed to be the day for consecrating the foundations during this period.

If so it's interesting that Ezra 3:10 refers to Trumpets, and says "after the ordinance of King David", and then verses 11 and 13 use Teruah 3 times with the KJV translating it Shout.

What can be interesting in terms of a Tishri Rapture in general is 2 Chronicles 31, talking about Hezekiah's reforms.  Verses 5 and 6 talks about offering made for The Temple at Hezekiah's command, including First Fruits offerings.  Then verse 7 says.

"In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month."

Early in the third month is when Pentecost happens, could this time frame be a type of the time frame of The Church?  Our foundation laid at Pentecost and finished in Tishri?  Because after this these offerings were gathered up and stored in the "chambers in the house of the LORD" in verses 10 and 11.

While I don't like to build doctrine on Extra Biblical Jewish Traditions, especially ones not attested before The Talmud in the 2nd Century.  The customs that went on during the first Century Second Temple period were an influence on the imagery of the New Testament.  I've already done a post on how Yom Teruah customs tie into the Two Witnesses.

Numbers 10 is about the Silver Trumpets sounding every Holy Day and New Moon.  What is interesting about Yom Teruah is it is the 7th New Moon of the year.

The Month of Iyar and Second Passover

Zif is the month Solomon began building The Temple according to 1 Kings 6 and II Chronicles 3.  Zif being the Month now known as Iyar.

The Ascension which was 40 days after the Resurrection was in Iyar, most likely the 27th or 28th.

Pesach Sheini (Second Passover) on the 14th of Iyar, the month following Passover, I find interesting. It's there to allow a second chance at Passover if for some reason you couldn't observe it when it actually happened (as explained in Numbers 9:6-12).  It's the only major Feast day for which this second chance is allotted in The Torah, it is also thematically affiliated with second chances.

At least twice in the History of Ancient Israel, the entire nation collectively had to use it. During the reigns of Hezekiah and Josiah. It was during this special Passover of Josiah that many survivors of the Northern Kingdom returned South, the narrative specifically singles out many of Asher being among those. I think the Ancestors of Anna The Prophetess of Luke 2 are among those.

In Ezra 3:8-9 the Second Month is linked to Zerubbabel and Jeshua beginning their work.  They are considered types of the Two Witnesses because of Zachariah 4.

You should Study Stephen's sermon in Acts 7 remembering that he didn't get to finish.  What he'd repeatably demonstrated was that Israel constantly failed to obey God the first time but got it right the second time. It's pretty clear his intended climax was going to be that they would accept Jesus as their Messiah when he came the second time. Romans 11 makes it clear Israel's current spiritual blindness isn't permanent, Hosea 5:15 I believe makes Israel's salvation the trigger of the Second Coming. Luke 13 also backs this up.

 So, I think Second Passover is linked to this point of Stephen's sermon. Now I'd already come to this hypothesis before I looked up the History and noticed that ALL the major national Holidays of modern Israel are in the month of Iyar, the same month as the 2nd Passover. The 5th of Iyar is their Independence day (The previous day being their Veteran's memorial day). The Battle at Degania was the 11th. The surrender of Nazi Germany, Suicide of Adolf Hitler, and the Liberation of various Concentration Camps where all in this month. But best of all of the Unification of Jerusalem during the Six Day War is the 28th.

Everything above I'd originally said in different places a long time ago.  Recently I've come to strongly suspect the Two Witnesses may begin their ministry in Iyar.

That Solomon began building his Temple in Iyar, could also be reason to suspect Ezekiel's Temple will be built in Iyar.

It is the proper Biblical Rekconing of Iyar not the Rabbinic one we should pay attention to however.

There could be a dark-side to Iyar's significance as well (maybe already has if you're someone critical of the modern state of Israel).  Iyar could also be when construction of The Temple the Antichrist will desecrate begins construction.  Solomon can in some ways be a type of the Antichrist as much as Jesus.  And if something is being done specifically to device mainstream modern Judaism, the Rabbinic calendar would likely be used.  The Rabbinic Jewish festival of Lag B'Omer falls on the 18th of Iyar, the 33rd day of the Omer (as the Rabbis incorrectly reckon it).

Romans 8 tells us all things work together for good.  So bad things happening at this time could be linked to good happening.

Occult Holidays like Walpurgisnacht and Beltaine frequently fall during Iyar.  As does the secular May Day.  I mentioned the day Hitler died above, Hitler killed himself on May 1st because it (and May 5th somewhat less well known) are occult holidays.  I believe I'd checked once before and May 1st 1776 on which the Bavarian Illuminati was founded also fell in Iyar.

I've also already mentioned on this Blog how May 6th was originally Apollo's birthday in Ancient Greece (and May 7th Artemis) it was Augustus who made his Birthday September 23rd the day to celebrate Apollo.  And Apollyon is a name for Apollo.

I oppose the Blood Moon theory for a few reasons.  One being that I think The Bible avoids referencing Full Moons directly because Full Moons are important to the occult.  So the occultists could find it significant when a Lunar Eclipse is the Full Moon closest to Belltaine.  Which interestingly happens in 2032-2033.

Possible Psalm 81 Retraction

In my main Seventh Trumpet post I had cited Psalm 81 as evidence for affiliating Yom Teruah with Trumpet sounding.  And my overall point in that post remains regardless of the relevance of this Psalm.  But it turns out there are possible translation issues with that verse.

I had cited the KJV rendering, as is usually my default, of verse 3.

Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.

Yom Teruah is the only day that is both a New Moon and one of the Leviticus 23 Feast Days.

There are a few issues I have since discovered.  Which I found looking into why many modern Bibles replace "in the time appointed" with Full Moon.

1. The Hebrew doesn't use the usual Hebrew phrase for Appointed Time, Mowed, but rather Keceh, which the Strongs says means full or fullness.

2. The usual word for the "new" part of New Moon, Rosh, isn't the Hebrew in the verse.  Just the word Codesh which is affiliated with the Moon as well as with Months.  But not the standard Hebrew word for Moon which is Yerah.

3. The reference to "solem feast day" isn't Mowed either, but chag, which unlike other words translated Feast is assumed to specifically mean a feast or festival.  I've been told recently that only the pilgrimage days are feasts/festivals.  Two of those happen on or right after Full Moons, and none on a New Moon.

According to Numbers 10 the Silver Trumpets are sounded on all the Appointed Times.  The Hebrew here references the Shofar however.  It's possible the types of Trumpets are not meant to be as distinguished from others as some insist they should be.

Modern Bibles are clearly wrong to reference the New and Full Moon both, this is a single day being refereed to according to the grammar.  If it's a Solemn Feast Day that's Full Moon linked, it's either Passover of Tabernacles.

The word in question for "fullness" is only used once elsewhere in Scripture.  Proverbs 7:20.  There again the KJV renders it Appointed.

He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.

Other translations also say "full moon" instead of "day appointed' here.

It is strong number 3677, but it's root is 3680.  That word is taken as meaning things like cover, hide, conceal.  So that sounds more like the New Moon or a solar Eclipse (the eve of the Hebrew New Moon which is the crescent) were the Moon isn't visible at all.

Numbers 10 does say to sound the Silver Trumpets on all the Holy Days, but it's usually only Yom Teruah (or Yom Kippur but only for the Jubilee) specifically associated with Trumpets.  Especially the Shofar.

I still think my original view on this may be right, but that makes those who insist Yom Teruah and Yom Kippur are not Feasts mistaken.  Solomon's 14 day Festival went through Yom Kippur, which doesn't work if Yom Kippur is a Fast Day as tradition as convinced people.

The Septuagint agrees with the KJV on this verse, I have major issues with the Septuagint, but those come down to how it's used against the KJV, and the Masoretic text in general, here I'm simply wondering how to interpret what the Masoretic text says.  And I do think now the KJV and LXX are both mistaken in exactly how to express the verse, but possibly closer to the correct intent then the Full Moon view.

Thing is this would be the only verse in The Bible making the Full Moon significant, (with only one other mentioning it at all, based on the same word).  Certain Feast Days happen to occur near the Full Moon, but it's how long after the New Moon they are counted.  And saying the 15th of each month is the Full Moon is a mistake based on a wrong understanding of the Biblical New Moon.  The Full Moon is actually the 14th more often then not.

I always find it significant when God does the opposite of The Pagans.  The Full Moon is constantly significant to Pagans, but The Bible seems to be more focused on New Moons.

This PDF argued in-favor of the Full Moon interpretation.  But in doing so reveals how that interpretation has it's roots in the opinions of the Pharasitic Rabbis of the first and second centuries, who went on to influence Jerome.  I give Jerome credit for being the first "Church Father" to use Hebrew rather then the Septuagint for the Old Testament, but he should have sought his advice from Kariates rather then Rabbis.

And that PDF's argument against the "covering" interpretation seems overly technical for a word that is used only twice.

My hunch now is that this refers to when the Moon comes out of hiding, the Biblical New Moon.

This is an issue I'm gonna to dig deeper on.

On a side note, tonight is the Blood Moon (but in Kariate Biblical reckoning it's not Tabernacles after all, Tabernacles starts tomorrow night).  Here is Chris White's refutation of that again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v--qn0ZyZi0

He could have added that it's barely visible in Israel, this last one being the only one visible there at all.

I'm gonna put Rob Skiba's recent longer video here too, though he says plenty I don't agree with (like on the Flat Earth).