A History of the Biblical Calendar

Final Update : November 2021 – the Biblical Calendar in the Modern Era

(Scriptural References: ASV – American Standard Version; GLV – Green’s Literal Version)

There is much confusion today over the biblical calendar, but in the beginning the calendar was simple.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years.” (Genesis 1:14,16 New International Version)
(“Sacred times” – Hebrew: ‘moed’ Strong’s H4150 ‘an appointment, a fixed time’.)

“This month [Hebrew: chodesh – Strong’s (H2320)] ‘the new moon; by implication, a month’] shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.” (Exodus.12:2 ASV)

Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto Jehovah thy God; for in the month of Abib Jehovah thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. (Deut.16:1 ASV)

There are scriptural references to other months – “the second month” (Genesis 7:11, 8:14) etc. up to “the twelfth month”. How many days were there in a solar year?

During Noah’s flood (Gen 7:19) “… the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high mountains that were under the whole heaven were covered.
“the waters prevailed over the earth one hundred and fifty days” (v.7:24), from the seventeenth day of the second month” (v.7:11).
“and the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. (ch.8:3-4)

The waters prevailed over the mountains from the 17th day of the 2nd month to the 16th day of the 7th month, i.e. 5 full months, totalling 150 days.

Ancient secular documents agree with the biblical account that a year comprised 12 lunar months of 30 days each.

“At first the astronomers of Babylon recognized a year of 360 days, and the division of a circle into 360 degrees must have indicated the path traversed by the sun each day in its assumed circling of the earth.” (Moritz Cantor, Lectures on the History of Mathematics.)

“The Assyrians, like the Babylonians, had a year composed of lunar months …
The calendar assigns to each month thirty full days.” (R. Campbell Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon in the British Museum.)

“A year consists of twelve months. A month consists of 30 days.” (The Arabhatiya of Aryabhata – an ancient Indian work on mathematics and astronomy)

“Yet the fact is that no one has ever established that the 365-day calendar was in use prior to the early seventh century.” (Mark Cohen, The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East.)

“All over the world we find that there was at some time the same calendar of 360 days, and that at some later date, about the seventh century before the present era, five days were added at the end of the year, as ‘days over the year’, or ‘days of nothing’ … a series of catastrophes occurred that changed the axis and the orbit of the earth and the orbit of the moon.”
(Immanuel Velikovsky, Worlds in Collision)

Daniel, who had been captured and taken to Babylon in the late 7th century BC, declared: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He causes kings to pass away, and sets up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who know understanding.” (Daniel 2:20-21 GLV)

What was affecting the Earth and causing the “changing times and seasons”?

At the Babylonian Akitu festival, the high priest would stand before the statue of Bel (a.k.a. Marduk) – see Jeremiah 50:2 GLV:
“Babylon is captured, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is broken in pieces, her images are put to shame, her idols are broken in pieces.”
The high priest would then recite the following prayer to Bel:
“My lord is just. Is his name not ‘My Lord’?
My lord causes trembling. My lord is the prince of all the lands …
Jupiter, bearer of signs to the universe! My Lord! My Lord, be calmed!
Mercury, who brings rain! My Lord! My Lord, be calmed!
Saturn, star of justice and right! My Lord! My Lord, be calmed!
Mars, blazing fire! My Lord! My Lord, be calmed!”
The high priest would then turn to pray to Bel’s consort, Beltiya:
“My lady, turn back! Turn back! My lady, be calmed! …
Venus, brightest star – this is a name for my lady,
Bow-star, who fells the mighty – this is a name for my lady,
She-goat star, who scans the heavens – this is a name for my lady,
Star of Abundance, the star of abundance – this is a name for my lady,
Star of Dignity, the star which moves out of orbit …”
(Mark Cohen, The Cultic Calendars Of The Ancient Near East)

“Bel, thine abode is Babylon … thou controllest laws by thy laws … thou burnest up the mighty ones by thy flame.” (Stephen H. Langdon, Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms)

“By causing the heavens to tremble and the earth to quake,
By the gleam which lightens the sky,
By the blazing fire which rains upon the hostile land,
I am Ishtar. Ishtar I am by the light that arises in heaven,
Ishtar the queen of heaven am I by the light that arises in heaven.”
(Stephen H. Langdon, Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms)

How did the nations adjust their calendars to the upheavals in the heavens and on the earth, resulting in changes to the lengths of the lunar month and the solar year? Many retained twelve 30 day months and added ‘5 days of nothing’ at the end of the year, e.g.

“The Peruvian year was divided into twelve Quilla, or moons, of 30 days. Five days were added at the end, called Allcacanquis.” (Sir Clements Markham, The Incas of Peru)

It was subsequently recognized that the solar year was a fraction more than 365 days.
In 238BC a decree at Canopus, Egypt, declared:
“from this time onwards, one day, a festival of the Good-doing Gods, shall be added every four years to the five additional days before the New Year, so that all may know that the error of deficiency which existed formerly in respect to the arrangement of the seasons, and of the year, and of the views usually believed concerning the general ordering of the heavens, hath been rectified and filled up satisfactorily by the Good-doing Gods.”

During the captivity in Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar found Daniel and his companions to be:
“skilful in all wisdom, and endued with knowledge, and understanding science” (Daniel 1:4 ASV). “And in every matter of wisdom and understanding, concerning which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his realm.” (Daniel 1:19-20 ASV).

Was it due to their influence that the Babylonians retained a luni-solar calendar?”

“The months were strictly lunar (in this case, because it was the first visibility of the new crescent that marked the start off each new month), and those lunar months were combined with a variable year that could average out to the same length as the solar year. Every two or three years an intercalary lunar month was added (usually a second Ulul [6th month] or a second Adar [12th month]). (Mark Cohen, The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East)

“On the basis of three letters which record the announcement of the intercalary year, Parker and Dubberstein [authors of Babylonian Chronology: 626BC-AD75] suggest that, during the Babylonian period, the directives for intercalation came from the king, whereas during the subsequent Achaemenid period [Persian empire], priestly officials in Babylon gave the orders.” (ibid)

A year comprising 13 lunar months is evident in the book of Ezekiel, written during the Babylonian captivity:
“… in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month …. which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity, the word of Jehovah came expressly unto Ezekiel.” (1:1-3 ASV).
After Ezekiel had dwelt at Tel Aviv for 7 days (3:15), the word of Jehovah came again, saying that he should lie on his left side for 390 days, then on his right side for 40 days (4:4-6).
More than 437 days had thus elapsed when Ezekiel was sitting in his house on the 5th day of the 6th month in the 6th year, i.e. 14 months later (8:1).
The lunar month now averaged 29½ days:
14 months x 29½ days = 413 days + intercalary month = 442 or 443 days.
An intercalary month is needed to account for there being more than 437 days in this period.

For thus saith Jehovah, “After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.” (Jeremiah 29:10 ASV)

“In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years.” (Dan.9:1-2 ASV)

After the Medes and the Persians had overthrown the Babylonian empire, Cyrus, king of Persia, allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem to “build the house of Jehovah.”

… in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying … “Whosoever there is among you of all his people, his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of Jehovah, the God of Israel (he is God), which is in Jerusalem … When rose up the heads of fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, even all whose spirit God had stirred to go up to build the house of Jehovah which is in Jerusalem.” (Ezra 1:1,3,5 ASV)

An account from King Cyrus, inscribed on a clay barrel now in the British Museum, states:
“To the sacred cities located on the other side of the Tigris river, I sent back to the ruins of their holy places, the articles which were used in their sanctuaries. I also allowed to return to their homes the former citizens of the land. I also made an effort to repair their dwelling places.”

And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem … And they kept the feast of tabernacles, as it is written. (Ezra 3:1,4 ASV)

And Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month …And they found written in the law, how that Jehovah had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month … Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the ordinance. (Nehemiah 8:2,14,18 ASV)

How did Ezra and Nehemiah know when it was the 7th biblical month? If they received instruction from Daniel, it is not recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. We do, however, have detailed information about the calendar that was observed at the Second Temple, as the Jews recorded it in the Mishnah, a collection of 63 tractates, divided into 6 orders, one of them being the Mo’edim (the appointed times of Jehovah).

“The calendar of the Mishnah is discussed and debated in detail in both the Palestinian and the Babylonian Talmudim … The fact that no other calendar system is ever referred to in the Talmudim (completed around 500AD) may be regarded as significant.” (Sacha Stern, Calendar and Community : A History of the Jewish Calendar, 2nd century BCE – 10th century CE, p.164)

During the period of the Second Temple the start of a new year was determined by the Great Sanhedrin which met there, who primarily used two biblical requirements to decide upon intercalation, i.e. whether or not an extra month should be added to the previous year, thereby delaying the start of the new year.

Firstly, the barley (the early summer corn-crop that grows wild all over Palestine) needed to be sufficiently mature for harvesting to begin on the Sunday after Passover.

“Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring the sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest unto the priest: and he shall wave the sheaf before Jehovah, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.” (Leviticus 23:10-11 ASV)

“Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: from the time thou beginnest to put the sickle to the standing grain shalt thou begin to number seven weeks … And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto Jehovah thy God …” (Deuteronomy 16:9-10 ASV)

Secondly, there needed to be a sufficiency of lambs for the Passover.

“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you … In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb.” (Exodus 12:2,3 ASV)

If there was doubt as to intercalation, the Great Sanhedrin considered secondary signs in nature of the end of winter and beginning of summer.

For, lo, the winter is past; The rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; The time of the singing of birds is come, And the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land;
The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs, And the vines are in blossom; They give forth their fragrance. (Song of Solomon 2:11-13 ASV)

The President of the Great Sanhedrin was the ultimate decision maker:

“It once happened that Rabban Gamliel was sitting on a step on the Temple Mount, and the well-known scribe Yochanan was standing before him with three cut sheets [of parchment] lying before him. He (Gamliel) said to him (Yochanan) … take the third [sheet] and write to our brethren, the Exiles of Babylon and to those in Media, and to all the other exiled of Israel, saying:
May your peace be great forever! We beg to inform that the doves are still tender, and the lambs are still young, and the Aviv is not yet ripe. It seems advisable to me and to my colleagues to add thirty days to this year.” Tractate Sanhedrin 11b

R. Jannai said in the name of Rabban Shimeon, the son of Gamaliel:
He used to say: “In that the pigeons are still tender and the spring Iambs thin, it is fitting in my opinion to add thirty days to this year.” Tractate Sanhedrin 11b

The procedure for determining the beginning of a month is described in detail in the Mishnah, Moed Rosh Hashanah: “When Bet Din sanctifies the new month, either on the thirtieth day when there is satisfactory testimony to the sighting of the new moon, or on the thirty-first day when there is no testimony, they send out messengers of the court to inform the distant communities which day is Rosh Hodesh.
If they [the Bet Din that was to sanctify the new moon] did not [personally] know him [the witness or witnesses who sighted the new moon] they [the Bet Din of that city] send another [set of character witnesses along] with him [who are known to that Bet Din, who testify regarding their trustworthiness].”

The declarations of the Bet Din were publicized throughout the land and to the diaspora beyond by via messengers, but to the majority of Jews who lived in Babylonia and Persia, a thousand miles away, a chain of torches was originally used.

“Immediately upon proclaiming, The day is hallowed!, messengers on horseback were dispatched to bring the news of the sanctification of the new moon to all the villages of Israel and beyond. The swift broadcast of the news was essential in order to enable all to observe Rosh Hashana on the proper day.
Simultaneously, the proclamation of the new moon would go out from Jerusalem by way of torches lit by specially appointed “relay teams” who were located on strategically places hill tops. Using this method, the news could be transmitted quickly all the way to the Jewish communities of Babylon and Persia. Speed was of the essence in order to enable all to observe Rosh Hashana and the following holidays in their proper times.” Temple Institute, Rosh Hashana.

Originally [they had no need to send out messengers to inform the people of the new moon, rather,] they used to light [a series of torches which, when sighted, was a sign of the new moon], but when the heretics perverted [justice and tried to mislead the people by lighting their own torches] they enacted that messengers should go forth [to announce the new moon].” Mishnah, Moed Rosh Hashanah

Sometimes the chain of beacons failed or the messengers did not arrive by the 15th of the month. Furthermore, the new moon was declared in the morning, so it was impossible for those in the diaspora to receive the declaration of Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets) by the end of that day. Rather than use local new moon sighting, the Babylonian rabbis, desiring unity, ordered the observation of each annual holy day for two days, to ensure that the day the calendar court had sanctified was being kept. This tradition is continued today by Jews living outside Israel (except for the Day of Atonement – as they do not want to fast for two successive days!).

The Babylonian rabbis introduced a ‘rule of the equinox’ for fixing the start of the year, for those occasions when news from Palestine regarding intercalation was late – and if this proved to be wrong, correction was made for the subsequent appointed times. Their guideline was to begin the year at the nearest new moon to the equinox, so that Passover would begin close to the equinox but always after it.

The procedure for determining the beginning of a year is described in detail in the Tosefta, Tractate Sanhedrin, section 5:2. The Tosefta (meaning addition, supplement) contains much rabbinic opinion on the Mishnah.

Herbert Danby writes, in the introduction to his translation of Tractate Sanhedrin:
“The Mishnah and Tosefta, which are here translated, may be regarded as together giving the bulk of the traditions on the subject in the form in which they existed at the close of the second century A.D. The Mishnah gives an ordered, comprehensive sketch of the regulations which governed the legal courts; while the Tosefta goes over similar ground in a freer manner, frequently repeating, occasionally contradicting, and constantly supplementing not always relevantly the substance of the more authoritative and final code.”

Since much of Tractate Sanhedrin 5:2 contains rabbinic opinion, the basic reasons given for determining the new year must be compared with Scripture.

5.2.2. There are three signs which make it evident that the year should be intercalated:

(a) the premature state of the corn-crops.

If barley, the early summer corn-crop that grows wild all over Palestine, will not be ready for harvesting to begin on the Sunday after Passover, the new year is delayed by one month.

(b) The undeveloped state of the tree products.

And He spoke a parable to them: ‘You see the fig tree and all the trees … Now when they sprout leaves, seeing it, you will know from yourselves that now the summer is near.’ (Luke 21:29-30 GLV)

For, lo, the winter is past; The rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; The time of the singing of birds is come, And the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land; The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs, And the vines are in blossom; They give forth their fragrance. (Song of Solomon 2:11-13 ASV)

Here are included two other Biblical indicators of the end of winter and the beginning of summer: the end of the rainy winter season and bird migration.

The astronomical equinox occurs at a specific time each year, so how can it be deemed to be late? (see below)

5.2.7. The year is not to be intercalated unless the spring equinox is still distant the greater part of a month. How much is the greater part of a month ? Sixteen days. R. Jehuda says : Two thirds of a month, twenty days. R. Jose says : Account is taken of the year and if, before Passover, there still lack sixteen days of the equinox, they intercalate another month.

The biblical calendars used today stipulate that either Passover must be after the equinox [3] [4], or that the new year must start after the equinox [5] [6].

It was quite usual for the rabbis to have differences of opinion, but whatever date they chose to begin the year, this rule was only a guideline for the Babylonian rabbis, as calendrical decisions had to come from Palestine, because of the Talmudic prohibition of intercalation outside the land.

The word ‘equinox’ is not found in scripture. It is translated from the Hebrew word tqufah – Strong’s H8622: a revolution, i.e. (of the sun) course, (of time) lapse. Tqufah is found in 4 verses:

“And you shall observe a Feast of Weeks for yourself, the firstfruits of the harvest of wheat; also the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.” (Exodus 34:22 GLV)
‘And it happened when the time had come around, Hannah conceived and bore a son.’ (1 Samuel 1:20 GLV)
‘And it happened, at the turn of the year, that the army of Syria came up against him …’ (2 Chronicles 24:23 GLV)
‘his going forth from the end of the heavens, and his orbit to their ends’ (Psalm 19:6 GLV)

T’shubah (Strong’s H8666) means the ‘end of the year’ – i.e. the end of winter in 2 Samuel 11:1; 1 Kings 20:22,26; 1 Chronicles 20:1; 2 Chronicles 36:10.
It is used in a different sense in 1 Samuel 7:17, Job 21:34 and Job 34:36.
The kings usually waited until the end of winter to begin their military campaigns, because the rains had ceased (Song of Solomon 2:11), facilitating easier troop movement.

The lateness of the tqufah, the turn of the year, meant that the season had not yet turned – the weather was still wintry, but the rabbis began to teach that the ‘turn of the year’ in Exodus 34:22 may be interpreted as ‘equinox’ – thereby fixing the Day of Trumpets as the closest new moon to the September equinox (and consequently fixing the 1st day of Abib as the closest new moon to the March equinox. They then taught that the March equinox was also a tqufah – and subsequently that the two solstices were also tqufahs – thus four seasons. (Biblically there are only two seasons – winter and summer.)

“The rule of the equinox is attested in a single passage in the Babylonian Talmud (Rosh ha-Shanah 21a) … implies that 15 Nisan, the first day of Unleavened bread, cannot occur before the vernal equinox. In this recension, the term aviv is treated as synonymous with tequfah (equinox).” (Sacha Stern, ibid, p.167)

The computation of the equinox – Tequfah Nisan – was based on a solar year of 365¼ days, which is inaccurate for long term use, but it remains part of the modern calculated calendar for ritual purposes. Tequfah Nisan is now April 7-8 – 18 days later than the true equinox.

5.2.3 On the basis of evidence (of aviv barley) derived from three countries used they to intercalate the year: Judaea, the land beyond Jordan, and Galilee. They may intercalate on the basis of two of these, but not of one only; though in this latter case the intercalation would hold good. And if Judaea were one of the two they rejoiced, because it was from there that the offering of the firstfruits came.

5.2.4, 5.2.5 & 5.2.6 These were additional indicators in years when there was doubt about the barley being ready for harvesting.

5.2.4 The season of the kids or lambs or pigeons had not yet arrived.

5.2.5. R. Jannai said in the name of Rabban Shimeon, the son of Gamaliel: He used to say: “In that the pigeons are still tender (Song of Solomon 2:12) and the spring Iambs thin (Exodus 12:2,3,5), it is fitting in my opinion to add thirty days to this year.”

5.2.6. It happened once with Rabban Gamaliel (see Acts 5:33-39) and the elders, that they were sitting on the steps in the Temple Mount … And to our brethren, the exiles of Babylon, and those in exile in Media, and all the other Israelites in exile, “May your peace be increased! We make known to you that the pigeons are still tender and the lambs thin, and that the season of spring is not yet come. It seems fitting to me and to my colleagues that we add to this year thirty days.”

“The Talmudic sources report that the Council intercalated a year when the fruit had not grown properly, when the winter rains had not stopped, when the roads for Passover pilgrims had not dried up, and when the young pigeons had not become fledged. The council on intercalation considered the astronomical facts together with the religious requirements of Passover and the natural conditions of the country.” (Arthur Spier, The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar (1952)

The calendar described in the Mishnah could be observed only by those peoples who could be reached by messengers from Jerusalem. In Romans 15:24-28 Paul expressed his intention to travel to Spain. According to the Sonnini manuscript, Paul preached on Mount Lud in London, where St. Paul’s Cathedral now stands. This document might not be considered credible, but there is plentiful evidence of Christianity in Britain and Ireland centuries before Emperor Constantine sent Augustine to Britain in 597AD.
(Review of The Celtic Church in Britain, by Leslie Hardinge.)
The Synod of Whitby in 664 signalled the end of Celtic Christianity in Britain.

So how did Christians living far away from Palestine decide when the first month should be?
Documents on the Quartodeciman controversy in the 2nd century AD, concerning the new observance of Easter on the Sunday after Passover, do not explain how the western churches were determining this.

“Eastern computations of the date of Easter were based on the rule of the equinox, first attributed to Dionysius of Alexandria in the mid-3rd century with an 8-year cycle, and then reiterated in c.277CE by Anatolius, also from Alexandria but residing in Laodicea (Syria), with a more accurate 19-year cycle …
We do not know how early the Easter cycles were used in practice by Christian communities, but by the early 4th century, and certainly by the Council of Nicea (325CE), the Roman cycle of 8 or 84 years had become standard in the West, and the Alexandrian cycle of 19 years in the East.”
(Sacha Stern, Calendar and Community, a History of the Jewish Calendar, 2nd Century BCE – 10th Century CE, p.224-5.)

Tables of these yearly cycles were constructed, so that the start of the biblical year could be known years in advance. A 13th month was added, for example, 3 times in the 8-year cycle and 7 times in the 19-year cycle.

(Some people think of the equinoxes as the days when daylight and night are equal. Modern astronomers call them equiluxes, which occur a few days before the equinoxes. The times of equiluxes vary according to latitude, and equinoxes according to longitude. There is no equilux at or close to the equator, as day and night are always 12 hours each.)

After the Council of Nicea Constantine informed the Syrian and Palestinian absentees that:
“It was resolved by the united judgement of all present that this feast ought to be kept by all and in every place on one and the same day … And first of all it appeared an unworthy thing that, in the celebration of this most holy feast, we should follow the practice of the Jews.”

Although the Council agreed that Easter be kept by all on the same day, it was not confirmed that it should be on a Sunday, nor was any decision made as to the method of calculation. Subsequent history of the Easter question reveals continued confusion within the Catholic church over the next 200 years.

It was not until after 525AD, when Dionysius Exiguus published his Easter table, that the Roman Catholic church agreed on a unified system. His paschal table was an adaptation of the 19 year Alexandrian cycle, with intercalations in years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17 & 19 – a sequence that was also adopted for the Hebrew calculated calendar.

“Dionysius ignored the existing tables used by the Patriarchate of Rome, which were prepared in 457 by Victorius of Aquitaine, complaining that they did not obey Alexandrian principles … Ultimately, Dionysius Exiguus’s Easter table … must have been adopted at Rome and also have arrived in Britain and Ireland, where however in both cases certainly not before the second quarter of the seventh century.” (Dionysius in Wikipedia)

In the 7th century the Islamic Empire came to power in the Middle-east. The Caliphate, which by the 9th century stretched from the border of India to Spain, gave to the Pharisees in Babylonia religious autonomy across the empire under a system known as the Exilarchate. Jewish dissidents known as Karaites vigorously opposed their rabbinic traditions and laws, but could not prevent the Pharisees from becoming by far the dominant force in Judaism.

The raised status of the Pharisees is exemplified by the Exilarch of Babylon’s letter in 835/36AD, in which he referred to himself as “the head of the yeshivot, the rabbis and all Israel.” He acknowledged one exception to his authority. The Talmud prohibited decisions on the calendar being made outside Palestine, so the Exilarch was obliged to support the Palestinian calendar court’s decisions … “we always rely on them, lest Israel be split into factions.”

By the early 6th century AD the Babylonian calendar was based on the conjunction, but this and other calendar changes were not implemented until the Geonim, the rabbinic leaders in Babylon, seized control of the calendar in the 10th century.

“The date of R. Ahai b. R. Huna’s demise does confirm, however, that in the early sixth century the rabbinic calendar was based on the conjunction … corroborated by another date in R. Sherira’s epistle …
Of far greater importance, however, is a much later document from the Cairo Geniza: a letter of a Babylonian exilarch … with detailed calendrical instructions for the year 835/6 CE … According to the Exilarch, the setting of Passover on Tuesday was dictated by a concern to avoid visibility of the new moon before the first day of the month. This concern does not exist in the present-day rabbinic calendar. Once discovered and published in 1922, the exilarch’s letter proved beyond doubt that, almost five hundred years after R. Yose and ‘Hillel the Patriarch’, the fixed calendar in its present-day form had still not been instituted.” (Sacha Stern, ibid, pp.183-5)

The story of Hillel II supposedly publishing the present-day Hebrew calendar in 358/359 AD was one of several historical myths introduced into the Worldwide Church of God by the church’s ‘biblical historian’ Herman Hoeh – but this fairy tale did not emerge until the 11th century, as explained in the next quotation.

The following section, describing the development of the various elements of the present day rabbinic calendar, is somewhat technical.

Why do the Jews begin their calendar year in the 7th month?

“1st day of Tishri or Tishrei = New Year For Years (i.e. this is the date for when Creation occurred in Jewish tradition, that is, the creation of the world and of Adam and hence is the date for when the year number changes in the Hebrew/Jewish calendar), that is, just as the 1st day of Nissan or Nisan is the date from when months are counted in the Hebrew/Jewish calendar, the 1st day of Tishri or Tishrei is the date from when the years are counted in the Hebrew/Jewish calendar …
Originally, the Civil New Year occurred on the 1st of Nissan or Nisan, when the reign of kings was dated beginning on the 1st day of Nissan or Nisan. Later on, after the exile of most of the Jews who lived in the Kingdom of Judah to Babylonia by the conquering Babylonians … the practise of observing the New Year For Kings and Festivals on the 1st day of Nissan or Nisan was ended and the Civil New Year was changed from the 1st day of Nissan or Nisan to the 1st day of Tishrei (or Tishri), that is, on Rosh Hashanah. The Civil New Year is known as the ‘head of the year’ or ‘Rosh Ha-Shanah’ in Hebrew when the Jewish year number increases and this occurs in the seventh month of the Jewish calendar, the Hebrew month of Tishri (or Tishrei), which occurs in either in September or October in the Gregorian calendar.
Note that although Hillel II is reputed by tradition to have developed the modern Hebrew calendar, no mention of this exists in the Talmud, which itself was completed around 500 C.E. Hai Gaon (969-1038), the head of the Pumbeditia, Babylonia Jewish academy of learning in the 11th century was the first person to mention that Hillel had formed the modern Hebrew calendar.
In addition, it is impossible to apply modern Jewish calendrical rules to post-Talmudic dates (beyond 500 C.E.). Instead, based on the evidence, it is now widely believed that the arithmetic rules for calculating dates in the modern Jewish calendar were developed in the 7th to 8th centuries in Babylonia by the heads of the Jewish academies of learning, known as the Geonim. Based on the account of the Muslim astronomer al-Khwarizmi, it is also believed that most of the modern arithmetic rules were in place by about 820 C.E.
(Elimelech David Ha-Levi, Jewish (Hebrew) Calendar – Origin And History)

In order to explain away the contradiction between the biblical new year in Exodus 12:1-3 and Rosh Hashana being the 1st day of the new year, a subtle deception was introduced into the Worldwide Church of God that the 1st of Nisan was the beginning of the Jewish religious calendar year and the 1st of Tishri was the beginning of the civil calendar year. In the Jewish Calendar, Rosh Hashana is a major religious holy day, but Rosh Chodesh Nisan is merely one of the other 11 ‘new moons’ – not even a minor holy day.

As explained earlier, the Babylonian rabbis interpreted the Hebrew word ‘tqufah’ in Exodus 34:22 to mean ‘equinox’: “And you shall observe a Feast of Weeks for yourself, the firstfruits of the harvest of wheat; also the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.” (Exodus 34:22 GLV)

According to Strong’s, tqufah H8622 means: a revolution, i.e. (of the sun) course, (of time) lapse – and is translated in the KJV: circuit, come about, end – e.g.
1 Samuel 1:20 ‘Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son …’

Astronomers could not calculate the equinoxes precisely, so in the 9th century AD the Babylonian rabbis adopted the 19 year cycle, with the same intercalation sequence as that devised by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century.

The 1st day of Tishri is normally the Molad Emtzai (mean conjunction) – however, Rosh Hashana may be postponed by a day or two, as rabbinic rules do not allow it to fall on a Sunday, Wednesday or Friday. A ‘four parts’ or ‘four gates’ table – referring to the four days of the week on which Rosh Hashana may fall – was devised to allow for this.

The calculation of the Molad Emtzai was also not a Jewish invention.

“Already in the early twelfth century R. Avraham b. Hiyya acknowledged that the mean lunation of 29 days, 12 hours and 793 parts [1 hour = 1080 parts] was identical with Ptolemy’s in his second-century-CE classic work of astronomy, the Almagest … all the moladot in the rabbinic calendar occur only about 50 minutes later than Ptolemy’s mean conjunctions. This discrepancy of about 50 minutes can be partly explained by the fact that Ptolemy’s figures were based on the longitude of Alexandria, whereas the rabbinic molad would have been based on a longitude further east, perhaps that of Jerusalem. This would reduce the discrepancy by over 20 minutes.” (Sacha Stern, ibid, p.207)

Sacha Stern is reluctant to acknowledge that Babylon lies 50 minutes east of Alexandria, and is thus the location of the molad calculation.

Calendar authority still remained with Palestine, but in the summer of 921AD a dispute arose with Babylon, which would enable the Babylonian rabbis to take control of the calendar at last.

“The survival of this Palestinian rabbinic monopoly, from the Mishnaic and early Amoraic periods until at least the 9th century, was not a mere archaism but an inherent necessity. Because the calendar calculation was not yet fully standardized or fixed, the responsibility for calculating calendar dates had to be restricted to a single authoritative body, so as to safeguard the rabbinic principle of calendrical unanimity. This authoritative body not only calculated and announced the dates of the calendar, but also decided, at its discretion, how the calendar calculation was to be carried out.” (Sacha Stern, ibid. pp.188-189)

The dispute centered around the definition of the recently introduced postponement rule of Molad Zaqen – ‘late conjunction’, which states that, if Molad Emtzai occurs on or after the 18th hour (i.e. noon), Rosh Hashana (Day of Trumpets) must be postponed to the next day.

The Worldwide Church of God’s Ambassador College followed a rabbinic teaching that, if the new moon were sighted between noon and sunset, Trumpets was to be postponed until the following sunset. This is absurd – it is impossible to see a new moon, either during daylight hours or within 6 hours after the conjunction.

Two of the four postponement rules are clearly arithmetical. Remy Landau reasons that Molad Zaqen is also an arithmetical rule.

“Dehiyyah Molad Zaqen creates considerable puzzlement and debate among scholars, some of whom have questioned whether or not it was actually rooted in R. Zera’s dictum found in the Talmud tractate Rosh Hashannah 20b. Traditional references imply that Dehiyyah Molad Zaqen has something to do with the visibility of the new moon on Rosh Hashannah, possibly over Jerusalem.
Calendar arithmetic, however, suggests a more compelling but entirely different functionality for this rule … When Dehiyyah Molad Zaqen is removed from the calendar rules, the calculated time of the molad can be seen to exceed the first day of some months by as much as 5 hours, 23 and 4/9 minutes, which by no coincidence is exactly 6 hours later than its current maximum value.”

We know that this postponement rule is a late introduction, as it could not have been in effect in 835/6AD:
“That molad zaqen was not observed is confirmed beyond doubt in the exilarch’s letter of 835/6CE, in which time the molad Nisan (836CE) is explicitly given as Tuesday ‘in the daytime … at four hours’, i.e. approximately 10am … This means therefore that the subsequent molad of Tishre, according to the exilarch’s reckoning, would have been on a Thursday at least 4 hours later, thus well into the afternoon. But since Passover of 836CE was to occur on a Tuesday (according to this same letter), the subsequent Rosh ha-Shanah would have been on a Thursday – on the day of the conjunction, when this conjunction occurred in the afternoon.
This demonstrates that, as late as 835/6CE, the rule of molad zaqen was not yet observed.” (Sacha Stern, ibid, p.196)

In the summer of 921AD the Palestinian Gaon, Ben Meir, announced the calendar dates, countermanding the Babylonian understanding that the Molad Zaqen rule would come into effect. Ben Meir, however, stated that the Babylonian ‘four gates’ table was defective by 642 parts (35 minutes 40 seconds). He could provide no explanation for this, other than saying it resulted from an ancient system of calculation handed down to him. Rabbi Saadia ben Yosef of Babylon complained that he had artificially superimposed his 642 parts on their ‘four gates’ table. The two versions of the calendar had always been in agreement, and Ben Meir’s 642 parts was an aberration, a sudden divergence from the traditional calendar. The Babylonian leadership not only rejected Ben Meir’s computation but also Palestine’s right to calculate the Jewish calendar.

“To be sure, in earlier generations the rabbis of Babylonia would send and ask for the Palestinian rabbis’ yearly decisions regarding the months of the year, because they were not expert in the order of intercalation in the same way as the Palestinians. Therefore, they used to write to them.
But already many years ago, sages from Babylonia went up to the land of Israel, and investigated with the sages of the land of Israel in the ‘court of intercalation’, and searched and inquired into this matter, until they understood it very well. And now, for many years already, they set the months on their own in Babylonia, and the sages of the land of Israel also calculate and set the months on their own. And in all these years, their calculation has been the same and there and there has been no difference between them; for the calculation is well established, the festivals are sanctified according to the same rule and the same principle, and the calculations were all given by the same shepherd. We have never seen such a disruption or breach …
Behold there are elders in the yeshivot who have advanced in years and who are very old, and none of them remembers that Babylonians ever needed to ask the Palestinians for the intercalation of years and the setting of months. Rather, you set the calendar according to your custom, and we also follow the custom of our fathers, and we set the calendar in our own way, but the calendar is one and the same.”

“This controversy proved that the rules for the modern Jewish calendar were in place by 921CE or 922 CE, except for the rules for calculating the year. Finally, in 1178 CE, Maimonides described in full all of the rules for the modern Jewish calendar, including the rules for determining the modern epochal year.”
(Elimelech David Ha-Levi, Jewish (Hebrew) Calendar – Origin And History)

642 parts of an hour (35 minutes 40 seconds) is the time difference between Jerusalem and Babylonia, but many modern Jewish calendar scholars are reluctant to accept that the calendar is based on Babylonian time, and instead speculate that the 642 parts come from a calendar reckoning by a 3rd century Babylonian rabbi, Samuel of Nehardea, who calculated that the first tekufah in the year of Creation was at sunset: 7 days, 9 hours and 642 parts prior to the conjunction of the sun and moon in the month of Nisan, and it somehow got rounded down to a whole number of hours.

The ‘four gates table’, however, is based on the molad of Tishri, not Nisan.
This was a change from 835/6, when the Exilarch of Babylon, quoting from the Palestinian calendar declaration, wrote that, “the moon of Nisan is to be born in the daytime of the third day of the week,” and he supported the Palestinian court’s decision: “we always rely on them, lest Israel be split into factions.” Palestine was now in agreement with the calendar year beginning in Tishri, so Ben Meir’s argument for an ‘ancient system of calculation’ based on the molad of Nisan was undermined.

The holy days and annual festivals today are not, however, based on Babylonian time, but further east, owing to an eastward drift of the reference point of the molad.

“The period between two new moons is a synodic month … a long-term average length called the mean synodic month (also called the molad interval) is 29 days, 12 hours, and 793 parts (i.e. 29.530594 days) … This value is as close to the correct value of 29.530589 days as it is possible for a value to come that is rounded off to whole parts (1/18th minute).
The discrepancy makes the molad interval about 0.6 seconds too long. Put another way, if the molad is taken as the time of mean conjunction at some reference meridian, then this reference meridian is drifting slowly eastward.
If this drift of the reference meridian is traced back to the mid-4th century, the traditional date of the introduction of the fixed calendar, then it is found to correspond to a longitude midway between the Nile and the end of the Euphrates.
The modern molad moments match the mean solar times of the lunar conjunction moments near the meridian of Kandahar, Afghanistan, more than 30° east of Jerusalem.
Furthermore, the discrepancy between the molad interval and the mean synodic month is accumulating at an accelerating rate, since the mean synodic month is progressively shortening due to gravitational tidal effects.” (World Public Library, ‘Hebrew Calendar’)

The Jews base the phrase ‘midway between the Nile and the end of the Euphrates’ on
Genesis 15:18 – In that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates’ (ASV).

Cairo, Egypt, is at 30.0° latitude 31.2° longitude, and Al Qurnah, Iraq (which lies at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris), is at 31.0° latitude 47.4° longitude, so halfway is 39.3° longitude – which is close to the Jordan-Iraq border.
Jerusalem is at 35.2° longitude. Kandahar is 2 hours east of Jerusalem at 65.7°.

Why is it important that the mid-4th century be the traditional time for the introduction of the fixed calendar? Apart from enabling pseudo-scriptural support for the original reference meridian of the molad, there was a need to combat opposition to this ‘new’ fixed calendar, and affirm that it was really of ancient origin – implying that it is now a ‘tradition’, so therefore the Jewish people must continue to keep it.

Many theories were put forward as to how long ago the fixed calendar was introduced.

Maimonides, in his great treatise on the calendar c.1178AD, wrote that the fixed calendar was instituted “from the end of the period of the sages of the Talmud” (after 500AD), but in another place that the Mishnaic (observational) calendar was practised “until the days of Abaye and Rava” (4th century).

Some Rabbis interpreted 1 Chronicles 12:32 to mean that the ‘sons of Issachar’ understood the ‘secret of intercalation’: ‘And of the children of Issachar, men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do’. R. Ya’aqov b. Shimson wrote in 1123/4AD: “For they saw that the Sanhedrin was declining, so they studied the ‘secret of intercalation’ to know what Israel should do, and designed tables for the calculation of festivals and new years.”

The theory that caught hold and has become the definitive version is the calendar of ‘Hillel the Patriarch’ (a.k.a. Hillel 2, to distinguish him from Hillel the Elder, founder of the House of Hillel in the 1st century AD)

The theory of the Hillel calendar derives entirely from a remark in a paper written in 1123AD by R. Avraham b. Hiyya, in which he quoted R. Hai Gaon (early 11th century) as saying: “… until the days of Hillel b. R. Yehuda in the year 670 of the Seleucid era (358/9AD), from when they did not bring forth or postpone, but kept to this cycle which was at hand …”

All that may properly be deduced from this brief statement is that this Hillel was a man of authority in a community that was using a time cycle to mark time. This community did not postpone – so Hillel’s calendar, whatever it was, did not have any postponement rules.

R. Zerahiah ha-Levi (mid 12th century) embellished the rabbi’s remark and referred to the publication by Hillel of a full calculated calendar, even supplying reasons as to why this was supposedly done: “… in the days of Hillel b. Yehuda, son of our holy Rabbi, who instituted a calendar based on calculation and not on observation, because of the pressure of exile, that there were no witnesses to go and testify before the court, and court envoys were not able to go to all places and announce the court’s decisions, because of the disruption of the roads.”

A century later Nahmanides wrote: “From the time of Hillel … in the year 670 of the Seleucid era, 4118 A.M. [358 AD], the Sanhedrin in Erez Israel ceased and it ceased to have experts, and it was he who regulated the order of intercalation, reckoned the years, and fixed the months for generations to come.”

The Encyclopedia Judaica (2007) treats ‘Hillel’s calendar’ as factual on p.110 – and yet admits on p.358 the influence of tradition, and that the calendar was developed gradually to the end of the 1st millennium AD – so therefore the Sanhedrin could not have been dissolved.

(p.110) “Because of the serious condition of the communities of Erez Israel and the deterioration of the *Galilean center, Hillel II agreed in principle to limit the authority of the nasi and his functions in connection with the proclamation of the New Moon, the fixing of the festivals, and the intercalation of the year. He thereupon published Sod ha-Ibbur (‘The Secret of Intercalation’) and Kevi’uta de-Yarha (‘The Fixing of the New Month’). According to a tradition mentioned by Hai Gaon and quoted in the Sefer ha-Ibbur of Abraham bar Hiyya (ed. H. Filipowski (1851), 97) this took place in 358 CE”
(*The Sanhedrin moved to Yavne after the destruction of the Temple, then to Usha.)

(p.358) “There is, on the other hand, unimpeachable evidence from the works of writers with expert knowledge of the calendar that the present ordo intercalationis and epochal molad were not yet intrinsic parts of the calendar of Hillel II, these being seen still side by side with other styles of the ordo intercalationis and the molad as late as the 11th century. Also the four dehiyyot developed gradually … By the tenth century the Jewish calendar was exactly the same as today.”

There is no record whatsoever in the Talmudim of these momentous events – not of the publication of a fixed calendar in 358/9AD, nor of the dissolution (or limitation of authority) of the Sanhedrin, nor any mention of ‘Hillel the Patriarch’.

Lacking any reference to a Hillel II in the 4th century, the Encyclopedia Judaica resorted to identifying him as Julius: “In the well-known letter of Julian the Apostate to the Jews (written in Antioch in 362), the emperor addressed ‘the patriarch Julius’ (Hillel), calling him ‘brother Julos the patriarch’ …” (p.110)

The Hillel Calendar fantasy was accepted into the Worldwide Church of God as fact by the publication of Herman Hoeh’s article, ‘The Hebrew Calendar – Authoritative for God’s Church Today!’ (Good News, March 1981), which will be analyzed in due course.

The biblical calendar in the modern era starts with the institution of the first annual ordinance – the Lord’s Supper/Passover – in the mid-19th century. There were of course Sabbatarian churches long before this, but the need for a biblical calendar arose only when it was contended that the Lord’s Supper/Passover should be observed, not several times or many times a year, but once annually, on the anniversary of Jesus Christ’s death.

The debate within the Seventh Day Adventist church was resolved by its prophet, Ellen White, during a series of weekend conferences convened in 1848.

The Ministry Magazine recorded in its article, When is the Lord’s Supper to be Celebrated?
The object of those meetings was to correct erroneous views held by some of the people present, to instruct and establish the believers in the present truth, and to unite them in holding and propagating the great doctrines of our faith.
The second conference of that series of five was held in David Arnold’s barn at Volney, New York, during the weekend beginning Friday, August 18, 1848, when it was reported that Mrs. White said:
“As we had before us the emblems of our dying Lord, and were about to commemorate His sufferings, this brother [David Arnold] arose and said that he had no faith in what we were about to do; that the Lord’s supper was a continuation of the Passover, and should be partaken of but once a year.
Was the Lord’s Supper a continuation of the Passover? Should it be celebrated once a year like the Passover? Or is an irregular, occasional celebration all that is needed? …
These strange differences of opinion rolled a heavy weight upon me. I saw that many errors were being presented as truth. It seemed to me that God was dishonored. Great grief pressed upon my spirits, and I fainted under the burden. Some feared that I was dying. Brethren Bates, Chamberlain, Gurney, Edson, and my husband prayed for me. The Lord heard the prayers of His servants, and I revived.
The light of heaven then rested upon me, and I was soon lost to earthly things. My accompanying angel presented before me some of the errors of those present, and also the truth in contrast with their errors. These discordant views, which they claimed were in harmony with the Scriptures, were only according to their opinion of Bible teaching; and I was bidden to tell them that they should yield their errors, and unite upon the truths of the third angel’s message.
Our meeting closed triumphantly. Truth gained the victory. Our brethren renounced their errors …”
A footnote to this article states:
“The Bible does not specify how frequently the Lord’s Supper should be celebrated (see 1 Cor.11:25,26). Adventists have followed the practice of many Protestants to have this ordinance four times a year.
“In adopting the quarterly plan, the early Advent believers felt that, in holding the service more frequently, there would be the danger of formality and failure to realize the solemnity of the service.”
It seems to be a middle-of-the-road decision – between celebrating it too often and leaving it for too long a period, such as once a year (W.E. Read, Frequency of the Lord’s Supper, Ministry, April 1955, p.43).

Robert Coulter sets out, in an article for the Bible Advocate magazine, What’s in an Ordinance? how the Church of God 7th Day came to observe the Lord’s Supper/Passover annually:
“The Church of God (Seventh Day) has observed two ordinances since our inception in 1858. We have always baptized new converts by immersion in water, in the name of Jesus. But our observance of the Lord’s Supper service evolved from “whenever” to annually. Unfortunately, our observance of the Lord’s Supper service has been beset by much unnecessary controversy over the years.
After the Church of Christ in Michigan (former name of the Church of God [Seventh Day]) was organized in 1858, and her congregations grew, she began holding quarterly weekend meetings that rotated among her churches. They began on Friday evening with an opening preaching service, followed by a full day of preaching on Sabbath, and concluded with observing the Lord’s Supper and foot washing on Sunday afternoon before dismissal. These popular weekend services drew large crowds from the statewide membership. They were frequently attended by representatives from independent Sabbath keeping churches whose teachings likened those of the Church of Christ, such as the Church of God in Wisconsin and occasionally the Church of the First Born in New England.
But beside the quarterly meetings’ observance of a communion service, ministers of the churches of Christ in Michigan and the churches of Jesus Christ in Iowa held communion services whenever they felt the occasion called for it.
Gilbert Cranmer reported conducting a funeral in northwestern Michigan one December and conducting preaching services for a few nights following the funeral, which he concluded with a communion service.
Samuel Davison held a Lord’s Supper service for the Church of Jesus Christ at Fairfield, Iowa, in July 1865. But by 1872, Davison had become convinced that the Lord’s Supper should be observed annually at the time of Jesus’s death in the spring. He wrote an article for The Hope of Israel purporting that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper the night before He was crucified on the Jewish Passover as a memorial to His impending death. Davison reasoned that the Passover, a memorial to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, was an annual observance. Therefore, the Lord’s Supper, a memorial of Jesus’s death, should be observed annually like the Passover, around the time of the Passover.
Davison’s argument for an annual communion service received such wide support from the churches’ membership in Michigan, Iowa, and Missouri that Jacob Brinkerhoff, editor of The Hope of Israel, began publishing an annual date for the churches to observe the Lord’s Supper. Brinkerhoff did not have access to a Jewish calendar to know the exact date of the annual Passover. Therefore, he published dates near the spring equinox so all the churches that subscribed to an annual communion service could observe it in unison.”

It was reasonable for Brinkerhoff to assume that the Jews knew from ancient times how to calculate Passover calendar date, but why use the equinox when the Jewish date was not known? Although the calculation of the Jewish calendar was not available to him, he would have been aware that the early Roman Catholic church, not desiring to follow the tradition of the Jews, instituted instead the celebration of the resurrection at Easter, this being the first Sunday after the Paschal (Passover) Full Moon that falls on or after the March Equinox.
To put that more simply, the 1st day of the month is the new moon nearest the March Equinox, and then count forward to the 14th day for Passover/Lord’s Supper.

“Eventually Brinkerhoff learned of the perpetual calendar for all the Hebrew festivals, and he published the actual date of the Passover as the date for observing the Church’s annual communion service. He announced the date for the annual Lord’s Supper service for 1885 in the Advent and Sabbath Advocate magazine: “The 14th day of the first month (Passover), occurs this year on the night after Sunday, March the 30th, according to Roman time.”
However, the Church gave members freedom to observe their communion service at the beginning of the Passover on the fourteenth of Nisan, or twenty-four hours later on the beginning of the fifteenth day (the beginning of the annual Passover Sabbath). Some members believed that was when the Israelites kept the first Passover in Egypt and that memorializing Jesus’s death should follow His crucifixion.
The annual observance of the Lord’s Supper on the date of the Passover became an official doctrine of the Church of God when Andrew N. Dugger, president of the General Conference, included a doctrinal statement in his revision of its doctrines in 1917.”

Two figures came to prominence in the early 1930s who would have a profound effect upon the calendar: Clarence Orville Dodd, a pioneer of the Sacred Names Movement and Herbert Armstrong, founder of the Radio (later renamed Worldwide) Church of God.

The two men corresponded regularly (though never met), until their relationship ended in 1940 over the biblical calendar.

We need to go forward to 1981 and Herman Hoeh’s article on the Hebrew Calendar, in which he recounted Herbert Armstrong’s ministry, while discussing his dispute with Clarence Dodd in 1940 on how to calculate the date for Passover.

Herman Hoeh regarded both Herbert Armstrong and his successor, Joseph Tkach, as God’s apostles, and regrettably he “adjusted” church history and the scriptures in order to support both of their diametrically opposing doctrines.

Fred Coulter writes in his article, How one man brought three critical false doctrines into a Church of God:
“These three false doctrines were the direct result of sleight of hand interpretations, or just plain lies. He failed to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Rather he twisted and distorted the scriptures and created false doctrines. Because he was accepted as an eminent scholar, his views were accepted, and very few challenged his conclusions, yet he apparently did this in order to be politically correct with the leadership of the church.”

It is necessary therefore to compare his article with the testimonies of Herbert Armstrong’s contemporaries. In the following text, Herman Hoeh’s 1981 article, The Hebrew Calendar – Authoritative for God’s Church Today! is in PURPLE. Writings by Herbert Armstrong and other WCG ministers are in GREEN, and quotes by others are in RED.

‘A changed world since 1930’ – “… Herbert W. and Loma D. Armstrong for seven years – 1927 to 1933 – they had to observe God’s festivals alone – by themselves as a family – even while fellowshipping with the little remnant of God’s people in the Willamette Valley in Oregon.
Not until 1934 were others brought to conversion by their ministry, willing to keep God’s festivals with them. This little group in Eugene, Ore., became the mother church of what today is the Worldwide Church of God.”

Herbert and Loma Armstrong joined the Oregon Conference of the Church of God 7th Day – others were not “brought to conversion by their ministry, willing to keep God’s festivals with them” – they joined others who were already keeping God’s festivals.

Richard Nickels records in his ‘Origin And History Of The Sacred Name Movement’ :
Clarence O. Dodd states that he began to keep the Passover in 1928, and immediately began keeping the other Feast Days of the year …
Vera Henion, who with her husband Dave Henion moved to Oregon in October of 1934 … learned much of her beliefs concerning the Holy days from Dodd’s tracts and articles …
She wrote questions to Dodd, and recalls that Armstrong’s knowledge of the Holy days was increased through her, as she gave him Dodd’s material and they studied them together …
(She) believes it was the latter part of 1935 that she started keeping the Holy Days, along with 40-60 others, including the Helms, McGills, Davises and Armstrongs.”

Herbert Armstrong says in his autobiography that he never held an official position in the church, so Hoeh avoids mentioning that Herbert Armstrong was ordained by the Church of God 7th Day in 1931, and received his Ministerial Licence Certificate in 1932.

“Gradually the word spread. A few others already associated with the scattered remnants of God’s Church listened. Among them was a man of some prominence. Unfortunately he jumped the track spiritually. He invented the false teaching that one must speak only Hebrew when using the names and titles of God and of Jesus Christ.”

He avoids naming the man, as any research into him would reveal conflicts with the tale he wishes to spin. Clarence Orville Dodd was this “man of some prominence”, who was not at all a man to whom “the word spread” in 1934 – he was the one who began observing the annual holy days in 1928, and it was through him that the word spread to the church in Oregon.

When the Church of God 7th Day, based in Salem, West Virginia, split from the main church based in Stanberry, Missouri, in 1933, Clarence Dodd was appointed its secretary-treasurer, and a year later Herbert Armstrong transferred from Stanberry to the Salem church. The two men never met, but corresponded regularly, as they shared a belief that all the annual appointments listed in Leviticus should be observed. In 1937, however, the Salem board directed that they should cease proclaiming this doctrine.

“M.L. Ogren, son of C.W. Ogren, reports that he was with the Salem group. He started keeping the Feast Days in 1934, at age 20. He reports that Salem generally kept them from 1934 to 1937, but later dropped the practice … Ogren came to believe in the Feast Days through C.O. Dodd and his own self-study.” (‘History of the Seventh Day Church of God by Richard Nickels’)

John Kiesz, recorded that, “It was in the fall of 1937 when Elder Armstrong’s credentials were revoked by the Salem Church of God organization. The reason given by the Board of Twelve for this action was because he taught and kept the annual Feast days. But the real reason seems to have been because of his unco-operative attitude …
I was on the Board of Twelve when Armstrong was issued ministerial credentials in 1934, and also when his credentials were revoked in 1937. May I state that I personally did not participate in the revoking procedures. Following this incident of revoking Armstrong’s credentials, he and I remained close friends.”

Herbert Armstrong left the Salem church and organized the “Churches of God in Oregon”.

Clarence Dodd resigned his position and established The Faith magazine and the Faith Bible and Tract Society in 1937, in order to spread understanding of Church of God doctrine and especially the annual holy days. In an edition in 1938 he included a clipping about the use of Hebrew names for God and Jesus, which prompted a stream of comments and questions, and his magazine became the main forum for the discussion of sacred names.

Herman Hoeh continues: “But this man did set in motion a movement among the scattered remnants of God’s people. That movement, itself now terribly divided, claims to observe God’s annual Holy Days. But almost none of them has been willing to acknowledge the authority of the calendar God authorized to measure time – the Hebrew calendar.”

Is it not ironic that Herman Hoeh should criticize this movement for being “terribly divided”, when the Worldwide Church of God had suffered two major schisms in the 1970s? The history of the sacred names movement has been just that – a movement to promote the use of sacred names. It has never sought to have a unified set of doctrines.

“Herbert W. Armstrong addressed this problem head-on in the Good News Letter of 1940.
The man referred to above had published earlier that year the date March 22 as Passover.
The Stanberry, Mo., and Salem, W.Va., organizations (of the Church of God, Seventh Day) published the date as April 21 (each meaning the night at the end of the day, of course).”

The Stanberry and Salem churches were to observe the Lord’s Supper in the evening of the 14th day of Abib (Nisan) in the Jewish calendar, while Clarence Dodd is quoted:
“in some Bible dictionary, or Encyclopedia, or Jewish encyclopedia, I read something like this: The ancient reckoning of Passover was from the actual sight of the New Moon nearest the Vernal Equinox …” – which in 1940 placed the Lord’s Supper one month earlier.

The Stanberry church (today based in Denver) does not have a calendar doctrine, but the annual dates it publishes for the Lord’s Supper are the Jewish calendar dates.

The Salem church has since changed its view to that of Clarence Dodd: Doctrinal point no.15:
“The visible new moon nearest the vernal equinox is the beginning of the first month.”

What affiliation did Herbert Armstrong have in 1940?
John Kiesz records that: “It is a mistake for anyone to state, as was done by Marion J. McNair in his book [Armstrongism: Religion Or Rip-Off? – PDF p.95], that Armstrong continued as an unofficial organization, between 1937 and 1946, until he incorporated as the Radio Church of God. Actually, he organized the Churches of God in Oregon shortly after his credentials were revoked. In the month of July, 1940, ministerial credentials were issued to me – John Kiesz – signed by the following Board Members: 1. Herbert W. Armstrong [then 6 named others].”

Herman Hoeh continues: “Mr. Armstrong wrote that ‘many of the brethren are in doubt and want the facts.’ And he gave them facts – in detail. Then he added:
‘In conclusion, unless God has preserved His sacred calendar through the Jews’ …”

He moves straight to Herbert Armstrong’s conclusion, because he doesn’t want to discuss Herbert Armstrong’s “facts” – with very good reason.

His first “fact” is that “the modern Jewish calendar had come down intact without change since 100 A.D. – that much is proved by history.”

Herbert Armstrong does not provide any historical evidence for this statement, and Jewish historians are all agreed that the modern Jewish calendar was developed gradually over hundreds of years after 100 A.D.

“As soon as I learned of [the man’s] published dates for the festivals this year, I sent him a telegram asking his authority for his dates. His reply is that he bases his method of figuring on certain statements of profane history found in encyclopedias … Surely we can see that profane history only contradicts itself, is inaccurate, cannot be depended upon and has no authority whatsoever. There is no Bible authority for any of it. God did not commit His oracles, or the preservation of His times to profane history … They have been preserved by the Jews.”

Herbert Armstrong’s next “fact” is that the Samaritans were Jews, not the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and it was this Jewish sect which preserved God’s calendar. How did he know? – by relying on certain statements of profane history found in – the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

“Further PROOF comes thru the continuous observance of Passover by one Jewish sect, going by the name of ‘Samaritans’. In the Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th edition, Vol.17, page 357, we read: ‘The Samaritans have throughout their history observed the Passover with all its Pentateuchal ceremonial and still observe it down to the present day. THEY SACRIFICE THE PASCHAL LAMB, which is probably the oldest religious rite that HAS BEEN CONTINUOUSLY KEPT UP’.
Here are the ONLY people who have kept Passover, continuously, thru all generations without a break, exactly as God gave it to them under the old Testament form. They have NEVER made any change in their doctrines regarding Passover, or the manner of observing it. Could THEY have lost the calendar – the way of figuring WHEN to take it – as God committed it to them? Hardly! Yet they use today the same calendar all the Jews use – the sacred original Hebrew calendar!
Interesting, too, is the fact they observe Passover on the eve, or night part of the 14th, not on the 15th. They kill the lamb between sunset and dark at the very beginning of the 14th.
They observe the FEAST the night of the 15th. Also, they have continued to figure Pentecost from the morrow after the WEEKLY SABBATH during the days of unleavened bread, the true Bible way – instead of from the first annual Sabbath (as the Orthodox Jews do).
In conclusion, unless God has preserved His sacred calendar thru the (Samaritan) Jew, then WE DO NOT KNOW how to figure Passover or ANY of the holy days this year. For there is NO AUTHORITY for any other day.”

The Samaritan calendar is, however, fundamentally different to the Orthodox Jewish calendar and to the Hebrew calendar observed by most Churches of God.

“The New moon occurs, IN JERUSALEM, (World Almanac), at exactly 10:18 P.M., the night of April 7th, which is the eve of April 8th. However, God had the new moon observed by the naked eye and by this method the first day of the 1st month begins the following sunset, April 8th. Thus Passover comes AFTER SUNSET APRIL 21st …”

The time in the World Almanac is the astronomical conjunction, when sighting the new moon is impossible. Herbert Armstrong believed that a biblical month always began at the sighting of the new moon in Jerusalem. The new moon in the Hebrew calendar was the following day, confirmation for him that God somehow calculated via the Hebrew calendar when each new moon would be observed. This is not the purpose of the modern Hebrew calendar.

New Year’s Day is based on the Molad Emtzai, which is the conjunction, but in half the years one or two postponement rules apply, pushing the day forward. This happened in 1940, but had there not been a postponement, the 1st month would have begun at sunset on April 7th – 4 hours before the astronomical new moon. This would have caused him to reject the Hebrew calendar – and observe which calendar? – since:
“There is NO BIBLE AUTHORITY WHATSOEVER for figuring the 1st day of the 1st month from the new moon NEAREST the Spring equinox!

What biblical authority does he say there is for the Jewish calendar method of adding a 13th month 7 times in a 19 year cycle?

“Research reveals two basic points on this question, 1st, GOD DID NOT RECORD IT IN THE BIBLE, which gives us absolutely NOTHING more to go on that I have stated above. 2nd, History is vague on the subject, shedding little light that can be asserted and trusted.
Yet we know God gave HIS PEOPLE a FIXED RULE for calculating TIME PERIODS, and for figuring WHEN to hold the Festivals of Jehovah.”

Finding no biblical authority, Herbert Armstrong concluded:

“God did not commit His oracles, or the preservation of His TIMES to profane history, or to the Roman Catholics, but to the Israelites. And they have been preserved BY THE JEWS.
After thorough study of the Bible, of the Hebrew calendar, of history, and every angle, after going into the matter with all the Eugene brethren, and other brethren who have made a special study of this question, we have unanimously agreed that the Hebrew calendar has been preserved correct by the Jews.”

Herman Hoeh continues: Forty years have passed since this controversy came and went. Most of those in God’s Church at that time are fallen asleep in Christ … Most people today have had little instruction from God’s Word on the authority of the Hebrew calendar.

By 1981 many people at the Worldwide Church’s headquarters in Pasadena, California, had noted that the Hebrew Calendar month often begins before the new moon is visible over Pasadena, let alone Jerusalem. The increasing number of Hebrew Roots and Sacred Names assemblies were starting each month at the crescent new moon. The purpose of Herman Hoeh’s article is to defend the Hebrew Calendar, which he now has to do by declaring that, “It is not required that the first faint crescent visible in Jerusalem always be declared the new moon.”

Herman Hoeh knew that he could get away with teaching the opposite of what Herbert Armstrong had always taught, because Mr Armstrong was now clinically blind, so that any writing had to be enlarged greatly in order for him to read it.

Herman Hoeh states that, in the 40 years since the letter in 1940, there has been, “little instruction from God’s Word on the authority of the Hebrew calendar”.

There has been more than a little instruction, so he avoids mentioning any of the articles that affirm that a month begins on the evening that the new moon is observed over Jerusalem.

Herbert Armstrong says in his 1940 letter that:
The New moon occurs, IN JERUSALEM, (World Almanac), at exactly 10:18 P.M., the night of April 7th, which is the eve of April 8th. However, God had the new moon observed by the naked eye and by this method the first day of the 1st month begins the following sunset, April 8th.

On page 7 of his 1950 booklet, How Often Should We Partake of the Lord’s Supper, Mr Armstrong states:
“The first day of the new year always begins with the day nearest the Spring equinox, when the new moon is first visible to the naked eye AT JERUSALEM (not in the United States).
The Jewish calendar as used by Jews today is correct.”

He was well known to have memory problems in his old age, but his forgetfulness seems to have begun much earlier. Did anyone remind him of what had happened only 10 years earlier? If so, it made no difference. His 1952 booklet, How Often Should We Partake of the Lord’s Supper had exactly the same wording.

One of his pioneer students, Kenneth Herrmann, an astronomer, wrote three articles in the 1950s on the calendar. In God’s Sacred Calendar (Good News magazine, March 1953, pp.7-9) he declares that the reckoning of Passover from the actual sight of the new moon nearest the vernal equinox is profane.

The observation of the new moon is to be made from Jerusalem, not from the North American continent. The seven to ten hours difference in time between Jerusalem and the part of the country you live in will make actual observation of the new moon from America misleading …
The Passover had to be at the time of the early grain harvest for the high priest waves a sheaf of the new grain crop on the morrow after the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. “Keep this ordinance in his season from year to year.” (Ex. 13:10). No other grain could be cut until the wave sheaf was offered. (Check Ex.23:14-17, Deut.16:9-16 and Num.28:2 also.)
To keep the month in accord with the year, God intended that a 13th month be added in certain years. Seven times in a 19 year cycle this 13th month must be added to keep the year in accord with the seasons. Then the cycle is repeated …
Some sects disagree with the calendar which the Jews preserved and have developed their own formulas for beginning the year. The “authorities” they use are the writers of profane history.
Some believe the ancient reckoning of Passover was from the actual sight of the new moon NEAREST the vernal equinox and cite Josephus, a Jewish historian … Writers of profane history only contradict themselves. They can not be depended upon …
Christ kept the same Sabbath that Jews around him did. He observed the same holy days, proving that they had a correct knowledge of time.

He says the Jews had the calendar correct at the time of Jesus Christ. What was that calendar?
When did a month begin at the time of Jesus Christ? He says that the observation of the new moon was made from Jerusalem, but he offers no evidence.

The Mishnah, Moed Rosh Hashanah (part of the Talmud) records what transpired during the time of the Second Temple: “When Bet Din sanctifies the new month, either on the thirtieth day when there is satisfactory testimony to the sighting of the new moon, or on the thirty-first day when there is no testimony, they send out messengers of the court to inform the distant communities which day is Rosh Hodesh.
If they [the Bet Din that was to sanctify the new moon] did not [personally] know him [the witness or witnesses who sighted the new moon] they [the Bet Din of that city] send another [set of character witnesses along] with him [who are known to that Bet Din, who testify regarding their trustworthiness].”

Although there was no limit as to how far away the witnesses to the sighting of the new moon could be, they would have to travel overnight on foot or by donkey to the Temple, so only those who lived fairly close to Jerusalem would be able to testify.

When does a biblical year begin? He says that the Passover (which is in the 1st month) had to be at the start of the early grain (barley) harvest, and provides supporting biblical verses.

A calendar based on these two principles could not, however, be continued.

So long as the people were in close contact with one another observation was satisfactory. Foreseeing world conditions ahead where the Church as well as the Jews would be scattered, GOD GUIDED THESE MEN TO SET UP A CALENDAR based on the laws of mathematics and astronomy – the very physical laws God set in motion – a calendar that could be prepared far into the future – for our day – one that would be ACCURATE. NOT A NEW CALENDAR, but a mathematical continuation of the original one based on observations of the signs of the heavens over a period of nearly 2000 years; a calendar that would lead to order and harmony among God’s people in the matter of keeping time.

By the end of the 1st millennium AD the Jews had set up a mathematical calendar, with the year starting according to a 19 year time cycle linked to the March equinox, and the start of a month was based, not on when the new moon could be observed, but instead on the conjunction.

Which is the Calendar Christ Used? (Good News, February 1957, pp.3-8)

This article reiterates the arguments put forward in 1953.

Prove God’s Calendar Correct! (Good News, October 1957)

Another calendar article so soon? The church was teaching that a month begins at the sighting of the new moon in Jerusalem. Kenneth Herrmann needed to respond to members in California who they had seen the new moon a day earlier than the 1st day of Abib in the Hebrew calendar. Unusually there was a two day postponement in the Hebrew calendar in 1957, making this possible.

Kenneth Herrmann wrote: Doesn’t the faint crescent of the new moon become visible at an earlier time to the observer in California than to an observer in Jerusalem? Yes, it does and for a number of reasons … The crescent of the new moon could thus be seen one day earlier by California observers about 40% of the time.

He then declares God’s unequivocal instructions as to the beginning of a month:
What are God’s instructions? If the people of Jerusalem, where God’s permanent headquarters are to be, cannot see this crescent of the moon following sunset, then the entire world east and west of that city must delay beginning the month till the following sunset. This is the ordinance as it was given by God. We are not free to begin earlier because of the way we see it.”

“Is the new moon noted on the Roman calendar or in an almanac or astronomy book the same term as the new moon on God’s Sacred Calendar? Not at all. The term “new moon” from these secular sources refers to the conjunction (or molad) of the sun and moon rather than the visible crescent which could first be seen about six hours later.

Kenneth Herrmann did not publish any articles on the biblical calendar after October 1957. However, as the church’s designated expert on the subject, in 1969 he received from a church member one of probably many queries about the calendar. He subsequently sent a copy of his reply to a minister, John Ritenbaugh, who preserved it and passed on copies, enabling Frank Nelte to publish the 1969 Calendar Letter, by Kenneth C Herrmann, on the internet.

Based on Kenneth Herrmann’s response, his correspondent believed that a biblical month should begin earlier than the Hebrew calendar, perhaps at the start of the moon’s dark period:

It is easy to look at a table and conclude that maybe God’s Church is keeping holy days several days late … Revelation is needed. We need an Oracle from God to keep time His way. What advantage has the Jew? Much in every way … Romans 3.
Rom 3:1-2 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision?
Much every way: first of all, that they were intrusted with the oracles of God. (ASV)
Rom 3:1-2 What then is the superiority of the Jew? Or what the profit of circumcision?
Much every way. For first, indeed, that they were entrusted with the Words of God. (GLV)

There follows two pages of obfuscation and rhetoric on the many ways that one might start the day, month and year, demonstrating, he reasons, that divine authority is needed. The Worldwide Church of God was now interpreting the oracles (Strong’s G3051 utterances, words) of God in Romans 3:1-2 to include a calculated calendar that God had given to the Jews to preserve, thus it has divine authority and is God’s Sacred Calendar.

Now all that remains is the question of why the new moon dates on God’s Sacred Calendar will at times follow a day or two after the astronomical new moons.

Notice “at times”. He is now admitting that the new moon dates on the Hebrew calendar will at times be the same dates as the the astronomical new moon – totally contrary to what he said were God’s instructions in October 1957.

The question of whether God’s Church might just be keeping God’s Holy days a day or two days or a month late is just not a proper question. God’s Church follows the Oracle that God guides the Jews to preserve …
Why does God insist that the new moons of His Calendar be delayed? So that certain festivals do not fall on certain days of the week. The fact that He does so is certain because that is the way the Sacred Calendar is given to us. Why it does? It is not really necessary for us to know ahead of time. I know He has good reasons …

As the church’s expert on the Hebrew calendar, he surely knows why the Day of Trumpets is delayed (postponed) if it falls on a Sunday, Wednesday or Friday, but he wants to avoid the embarrassment of disclosing the reasons for the postponements.

An Oracle is a God-given communication. It has God to back it up. Thus if God’s Church is following that Oracle faithfully, it is completely impossible that we would be wrong on any of these dates for the Holy Days. That one basic fact every Church member must know and trust. We lay members merely take instructions in the Hebrew Scriptures (an Oracle) and the Sacred calendar (an Oracle), and check whether this Church is following faithfully. Pentecost’s date depends upon a revealed Sabbath.

How Often Should We Partake of the Lord’s Supper? was re-published again in the Tomorrow’s World magazine in March 1971, with the same wording.

In 1971 the Worldwide Church of God published a booklet by Kenneth Herrmann, God’s Sacred Calendar 71-72, “the true calendar for all mankind.”
“The beginning of this month (Nisan) and all God’s months is determined by the appearance of the first faint crescent of the new moon in the west just after sundown. (Observed from Palestine.) The astronomical new moon calculated for the United States is, in general, a day or two earlier.” (p.4)

The calendar shows that the 1st of Nisan 1971 was the 27th of March. The new moon should therefore have been visible on the evening of the 26th. The astronomical new moon was at 7.23pm (Universal Time) on the 26th, so it would have been impossible to see the new moon on that evening, whether in Palestine or California.

Whatever discussions and arguments transpired among WCG’s hierarchy in Pasadena, one outcome is known. Craig White records, in Pioneers of the Worldwide Church of God:
“In 1972 Mr. Herrmann was put on extended Sabbatical leave due to political problems in the Pasadena administration and transferred to the Big Sandy area.”

In 1974 WCG’s editorial staff published God’s Sacred Calendar by Herbert W. Armstrong, supposedly a reprint of one of his articles, which it was not.
“This (the Hebrew calendar used today) is the calendar God gave to Israel when He led them out of the pagan practices of Egypt. It has been in continual use for over 3400 years. In all major respects except one, it is the same calendar used between Adam and Moses.
God gave the sacred calendar to Israel when He brought them out of Egypt.”

These statements were made to support current doctrine, and there is not a shred of scriptural or historical evidence for them.

“A new year is to begin in the spring. This month (Nisan or Abib) shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you (Exodus 12:2). This first month of God’s sacred calendar is called, in the Bible, Abib (Exodus 13:4). It means the month of “green ears”. Later the Jews called it Nisan (Esther 3:7) – a Babylonian word having a similar meaning.
The beginning of this month and of all God’s months generally (Herbert Armstrong said “always”) occurs at the appearance of the first faint crescent of the new moon in the west just after sundown (observed from the Holy Land). The astronomical new moon calculated for the United States is, in general, a day or two earlier.”

Pagan Holidays – or God’s Holy Days – Which? was published in 1974, which was an update of the articles published in April and June 1951, and the booklet in 1957, with the day of Pentecost changed from Monday to Sunday, in accordance with the doctrinal change made that year.

Herman Hoeh continues: What prompts this article is the fact that the Passover this year, 1981, is the eve of April 18. It falls on the eve of a Sabbath. It is not common for the Passover to occur Friday night. Or to have the Festival of Unleavened Bread correspond to a natural week. Or to have the autumn festival season begin on a Tuesday In fact, it has occurred only nine times this century … These are all curious features of the calendar God caused the Jewish people to preserve for us.

Curious features of the calendar did not prompt this article. It is a smokescreen to cover his real purpose. Herman Hoeh either has to confirm that a month begins at the visible sighting of the new moon over Jerusalem – and ditch the Hebrew Calendar (not politically viable), or cover up the church’s decades long teaching on the new moon, and proclaim that: It is not required that the first faint crescent visible in Jerusalem always be declared the new moon.

He then states: What is important is that the authority to declare it arises from Jerusalem! The authority of Jerusalem in the person of Hillel II did speak in A.D. 358-359 to authorize the present Hebrew calendar throughout the future until such time as a new court sitting in Moses’ seat be re-established in Jerusalem.

As previously explained, The story of Hillel II supposedly publishing the present-day Hebrew calendar in 358/359 AD was one of several historical myths introduced into the Worldwide Church of God by the church’s ‘biblical historian’ – Herman Hoeh.

Note that although Hillel II is reputed by tradition to have developed the modern Hebrew calendar, no mention of this exists in the Talmud, which itself was completed around 500 C.E. Hai Gaon (969-1038), the head of the Pumbedita, Babylonia Jewish academy of learning in the 11th century was the first person to mention that Hillel had formed the modern Hebrew calendar. (Elimelech David Ha-Levi, Jewish (Hebrew) Calendar – Origin And History)

Since, in Hillel’s day, they did not postpone, his calendar, whatever it was, could not be the present day Hebrew Calendar.

Herman Hoeh continues: The Bible makes plain that the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread must fall in the month of Abib, the first month of the Hebrew calendar (Ex. 12:2, Deut. 16:1). The month Abib has been known, since the Babylonian Captivity, as Nisan, a word derived from the Semitic root nesu, meaning “to start.” It starts the months of the year. Abib is derived from aviv, meaning “ears” or “green ears of grain.” The first month is the month in which green ears of grain – begin to ripen – barley first, then winter wheat, which is usually still in green ears when barley ripens.
Are we free to decide for ourselves when we think the month Abib – the month of green ears – should occur? Are we to decide the matter on the basis of the state of the harvest in the Holy Land today? Some sects … claim so.

The sects to whom he refers are Hebrew Roots assemblies, who were able to contact Karaite Jews living in Israel, and learn from them about the ripening of wild barley in Israel.

Herman Hoeh acknowledges that the ripened barley determines when the biblical year begins – but who decides that? He states that God has given the authority to determine the Hebrew calendar to the Jews – via Romans 3:2 – but which Jewish calendar? He argues that it is the calculated calendar developed by the Pharisees, who comprise the vast majority of all religious Jews.

He continues: Did you ever notice that the Bible requires the Feast of Tabernacles, commemorating the second and great harvest of human beings, to at least reach the beginning of autumn?

No, you would not notice that. Autumn is nowhere mentioned in the Bible. There are only two biblical seasons, Summer and Winter.

In Exodus 34:22 we read from the English translation of the Hebrew Bible:
“Thou shalt observe … the feast of ingathering at the turn of the year” (Jewish Publication Society translation).
What is the “turn of the year”? The Hebrew word translated “turn” is tequfah, meaning “revolution, circuit or end.” It is used specifically for the equinoxes or solstices. It is here specifically referring to the autumnal equinox – when day and night approach equal length. It normally falls on Sept. 23 this century.

Earlier in the article he quoted Mr Armstrong saying in his 1940 letter:
There is no Bible authority whatsoever for figuring the first day of the first month from the new moon nearest the spring equinox.

Now he is interpreting the Hebrew word tqufah to mean equinox.

He ends the article by setting up a straw man and knocking it down.

But if the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles were one month earlier this year the Festival would fall on Sept. 14-20. And that is wholly in summer and plainly contrary to Exodus 34:22.

to be continued …

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