Feasts "of the Jews": Re the full moon basis for the Rabbinic calendar...

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Created 5941(?) 07 26 2027 [2010-10-05]

Last edited 5941_[(?)] 08 23 2027 [2010-11-30]

The Rabbinic Calendar in New Testament times vs. the Scripture Calendar

Re the Full Moon Basis for the Rabbinic Calendar

(with a particular focus upon 19 CE)

A Study in Progress:

(Therefore, please forgive me for any errors, whether words remaining from past thinking and not yet corrected or thoughts of mine that are still suffering from being in error until somehow I am given additional rays of light!)

Abstract:

The Rabbinic calendars have been reckoned based upon principles that have been kept secret or semi-secret for long periods of time. However, since the Roman persecutions of the Jews, most specifically under Caesar Constantine, in the fourth century, and the associated prohibitions re the Jewish calendar and re the convening of the Sanhedrin, Hillel II, in 359 CE,[1] made at least some of those secrets available to the Jews in dispersion.

It should be recognized too, that current Hillel II based Jewishss calendars do suffer from a small but significant shifting of the seasons type flaw, similar to that of the Egyptian calendar, a flaw similar to that which leap days and leap months are designed to mitigate, a flaw of “16.5 minutes a year” or “one day in every century”… More at this site…

Perhaps more importantly, the particulars of the principles of the rabbinic calendar may be recognized and learnt from studying how that calendar has been expressed in reality. As they say: “The proof is in the pudding…” Here is an example that I discovered for myself:

1. The definition of the actual full moon (for the purposes of the priestly hierarchy and their reckoning of each month:) First day in the month when the sun is seen rising in the east before the full moon is completely set in the west.

2. In consequence of #1: The full moon of Nisan 19 CE was being reckoned by the priestly hierarchy as having occurred on the day known to us as May 8, 19 CE, beginning at sunset the evening before.

3. Per the definitions used by the priestly hierarchy: The official full moon is always defined as the 13^th day of the month, that is, as the actual full moon is being adjusted per the postponement rules etc. for any given month.

4. Per the postponement rules of the priestly hierarchy: Nisan 15 cannot fall on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, [2] i.e. Nisan 15 cannot begin on a Sunday, Tuesday, or Thursday night. If it would it will be deferred by one day.

a. Given that the actual full moon was recognized as occurring on the day beginning at sunset Sunday May 7, 19 CE (cf. #1 above,) which would make Nisan 13 begin that Sunday night and which would make Nisan 15 begin on a Tuesday night, the official calendar dates of that months were postponed by one day (cf. #4 above.)

5. In consequence of #4.a above: the official dates observed by the priestly hierarchy were: 1) Nisan 13, 19 CE began Monday evening May 8, 19 CE; 2) Nisan 15, 19 CE began Wednesday evening May 10, 19 CE; Nisan 1, 19 CE began Wednesday evening April 26, 19 CE; etc..

6. In contradistinction: Abib 1, as observed by Yeshua and his disciples began with the New Moon crescent actually seen Tuesday evening April 25 CE, 19 CE.

7. Thus I was led to discover the principles behind and the reason as to why, per the New Testament witness, the dates of Yeshua and his disciples preceded the dates of the priestly hierarchy by one day in the month Abib/Nisan 19 CE.

Considerations:

Whether or not the within described details are previously recognized or not, as for me, I seem to have discovered something about the rabbinic calendar of the first century that I didn’t know before and which differs somewhat from what I’ve learned about it from other authors, most specifically it differs in a small but significant way from what I learnt from “the testimony of Aristobulos…” as represented by a certain Research Committee of the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1939.

“If we accept the testimony of Aristobulos, 200 years before Christ—that the Passover of the Jews followed the sunset of the day when the full moon rising in the east faces the setting sun in the west—we can reasonably conclude that the Jewish Passover, which is repeatedly described in the Bible as the 14^th day of Nisan, was the day following the full moon date, and not on it.”

(General Conference of SDA, Research Committee Final Report, 1939 (Grace Amadon Collection,) Report of Committee of Historical Basis, Involvements, and Validity of the October 22, 1844 Position, Part V, p. 4.)

If you think about it carefully, it is obvious that so long as “the full moon rising in the east…” while yet facing “the setting sun in the west…”the moon cannot yet be completely fulled, i.e. with an illumination of 100.0%. Once the moon is completely fulled it is no longer seen in the evening prior to the setting of the sun, but may be seen in the morning at sunrise and prior to moonset. It follows that the above quoted “testimony of Aristobulos…” must be accordingly revised before being correctly applied.

I find it clear, from my in depth studies into first century and New Testament chronology, that during the month of the crucifixion (which crucifixion I believe I have very good evidence for placing on Aviv 17, 19 CE) the Rabbinic calendar was one day delayed (cf. John 18:26-28) in comparison with the calendar used by Yeshua. Given some particular peculiarities of that month of crucifixion I find that:

1. The method used by the priests for determining the time of the fulled moon each month must have been the same as is revealed in ( 1) lines 4 obverse, 2) 17 obverse, and 3) 16 reverse of) the Babylonian clay tablet VAT 4956 from Nebuchadnezzar’s 37^th year of reign. That is, upon said clay tablet one may recognize monthly notations of the first monthly instance of the fulled moon being visible after sunrise. That event is reflected upon said clay tablet by words such as the following:

“one god was seen with the other: sunrise to moonset: 1° 30’ ”

Given that the sun and the moon can only be seen together in the morning once the moon has been fulled, and given that so long as the moon can still be seen with the sun at the time of sunset the moon has not yet been completely fulled, this observation is indeed a very useful tool for determining the alignment of the sun, the earth, and the moon, and a relatively exact point in time for said alignment, especially when a measurement of the lag time for the moonset vs. the sunrise is also done, e.g. such as is reflected by the words “sunrise to moonset: 1° 30’ ” within the above quote.

2. Indeed, it seems clear to me that, rather than relying upon an actual New Moon crescent observation from month to month, the priests were using calculations, based upon the fulled moon, for determining a subsequent New Moon, which New Moon is sometimes called the “horned moon.”[3] Apparently said New Moon or “horned moon” is arrived at by means of a retrograde count from the day of the next full moon as calculated, which day of the full moon was always considered the 13^th day of the month. Thus, so long as the “full” moon was still visible before sunset, or, more correctly, so long as the fulled moon had not yet been seen with the sun in the morning, the 13^th day of the month had not yet been reached. Based upon their advance calculations of the next fulled moon the priests could then predetermine which day would be their New Moon day, that is which day would be the 1^st day of the coming month. The details of how this was being done are being reflected by the discussion on pages 38, 38A, and 39 of the above quoted Research Committee Final Report.

3. In the NASA Phases of the Moon tables for 19 CE I find that the astronomical full moon of the Aviv 19 CE crucifixion month occurred “May 7 14:17 [UT,]”which translates to 16:38 Jerusalem solar time. The sunset over the Jerusalem horizon on May 7, 19 CE occurred at 6:18 PM and, accordingly, the full moon could no longer be seen before sunset of that day. Indeed, per my Starry Night Backyard soft ware, the moon first became visible at 6:24 after the last rays of the sun disappeared at 6:19 PM on that day. Thus, technically this fact could be used for labeling the day prior to sunset as the day of the full moon and the 13^th day of the month, yet, as revealed by said Babylonian clay tablet, this is not how things were done… Thus, Monday May 8, 19 CE and not Sunday May 7, 19 CE was considered the 13^th day. This makes a greater difference than at first might be recognized, as follows: If Sunday May 7, 19 CE had been reckoned as the 13^th day of the 7the month, then the 15^th day of Nisan, the First day of the Feast of unleavened bread, would have fallen on a Tuesday and would not have activated any postponement rules of the Rabbis. Indeed, Nisan 1, the New Moon day would then have fallen one day before, not after, the New Moon crescent was actually observed that month, as evidenced by the reckoning used by Yeshua and his disciples. When, on the other hand, it is recognized that Monday May 8 (Nisan 13,) 19 CE was being reckoned as the actual day of the full moon, then it follows that the same Feast Day, Nisan 15, would have fallen on a Wednesday, if that would have been acceptable to the priestly hierarchy. As it is, however, the postponement rules of the Rabbis do not allow Nisan 15 to fall on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, and thus the New Moon, the 13^th, the 15^th, etc. are all being postponed by one day such that Nisan 13 is being applied instead upon Tuesday May 9, 19 CE etc..

“Under the rules of the Rabbinic Calendar, Passover regulates all the other festival times in the Hebrew calendar. Passover Sabbath, Nisan 15, begins at twilight at the end of the 14th day of the first month (Leviticus 23:5). The Hebrew day extends from sunset to sunset. Passover Sabbath (the first high day feast of the days of unleavened bread) always occurs with a full moon rising in the east, the 15th day after the new moon. It could not occur before the vernal equinox. By Rabbinical rules Passover can never occur on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. The day starting at the previous sunset. Preventing Passover Sabbath from falling on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday eliminates the possibility that Tishri 1 would occur on a Friday, Sunday, or Wednesday. This is because Tishri 1 is always 163 days after Nisan 15. Succoth, the Feast of Tabernacles, was also set to begin on a full moon, the fifteenth day of the first month, Tishri (Leviticus 23:34). Succoth must also occur in the fall, after the gathering of crops (Deuteronomy 16:16).” (From BibArch’s Calendar Rules; cf. Chabad.org[4])

4. In consequence of the principals behind my above discovery, the 19 CE Nisan dates of the priestly hierarchy is found to be trailing the Aviv dates of the calendar being used by Yeshua and his disciples, during that crucial crucifixion month, by one day!

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[1] General Conference of SDA, Research Committee Final Report, 1939 (Grace Amadon Collection,) Report of Committee of Historical Basis, Involvements, and Validity of the October 22, 1844 Position, Part V, pp. 7, 12, 13, 18.