Sunset Times
Crescent New Moon Visibility; Astronomical New Moon; Equinox
The Crescent New Moon Maps show when the next new moon will become visible.
(The above two websites are currently down for essential maintenance, however the crescent new moon map for March 2023 is available here – on page 3.)
When does the biblical year begin?
[1] Jewish (Hebrew) Calendar
Rosh Hashanah (New Year’s Day) is the 1st day of the 7th month (Tishri).
Jewish tradition says that, “Adam and Eve were created on that day … but how did the sages determine this date? In other words, why did they think man was created on Rosh Hashanah? By transposing the Hebrew letters of the very first word of the Hebrew scriptures. In other words by rearranging the letters of the word bereshit (in the beginning), the phrase aleph b’Tishri (“on the first of Tishri”) was formed, and therefore this date became associated with the anniversary of creation (or rather, the creation from Adam’s perspective, i.e. the “sixth day”.)
According to Jewish tradition, this first “Friday” of creation was the first Rosh Hashanah.”
The Jewish New Year is the day of the Molad Emtzai (conjunction), unless one of the 4 postponement rules apply. In 2023 the Molad is on Friday, the 15th of September. The postponement rules do not allow the Day of Atonement to be adjacent to the Sabbath, so Rosh Hashana (New Year’s Day) cannot be on a Wednesday or Friday. In 2023 therefore it must be postponed to Saturday the 16th.
The Jewish Talmudim indicate that is a rabbinic rule:
“Another rule, that appears to have only emerged in the Amoraic period, is that the Day of Atonement cannot occur on a Friday or a Sunday. This rule is mentioned in the Palestinian Talmud as well as in the Babylonian Talmud, although the latter remains uncertain about its extent – for instance, whether it also applies to other festivals. Reasons for this rule are given in the Babylonian Talmud: it was difficult to keep fresh food (ʿUlla’s opinion) or an unburied corpse (R.ʾAḥa b.Ḥanina’s opinion) over two consecutive days of forbidden work.
This rule is unknown in the Mishnah (published c.200AD), where the possibility of the Day of Atonement’s occurring after the Sabbath or vice-versa is completely taken for granted.”
(Calendar and Community : A History of the Jewish Calendar, 2nd century BCE – 10th century CE, p.166, Sacha Stern)
[2] Jewish (Hebrew) Calendar of the Worldwide Church of God
Most of the ex-WCG churches continue to keep its version of the Jewish calendar, which differs on the following points :
• The Biblical Calendar begins on the 1st day of the 1st month – however, the calculations of the Jewish Calendar, which are calculated from the 1st day of the 7th month, are observed.
• The Lord’s Supper/Passover is not observed in the manner of the Jews, with a supper on the evening of the 15th of the 1st month, but with a tiny piece of unleavened bread and a sip of wine on the evening of the 14th.
• Instead of observing Shavuot on the 6th of Sivan, Pentecost is kept 50 days from the Sunday within the Festival of Unleavened Bread, counting that Sunday as day 1 of the count, so the count is completed on a Sunday.
[3] Day of the astronomical new moon [21st of March 2023],
nearest to the vernal equinox [20th of March 2023].
[4] Day of the appearance of the crescent new moon [23rd of March 2023],
nearest to the vernal equinox [20th of March 2023].
[5] Day of the astronomical new moon [21st of March 2023],
following the vernal equinox [20th of March 2023].
[6] Day of the appearance of the crescent new moon [23rd of March 2023],
following the vernal equinox [20th of March 2023].
[7] Day of the appearance of the crescent new moon in the month that the barley in Israel will be ready for harvesting by the Sunday after Passover (Leviticus 23:10-12). [23rd of March 2023]
The 3 annual festivals (Exodus 23:14-16) are printed in bold green, and the 7 annual holy days are in bold red. The red numbers along the top row are the 7 most popular biblical calendars.
|
[1] |
[2] |
[3] [5] |
[4] [6] [7] |
|
|
New Year’s Day |
Sat-Sun. |
Thu. |
Tue. |
Thu. |
|
Seder/Passover/ |
Thu-Fri |
Wed. |
Mon. |
Wed. |
|
Festival of (Passover) |
April |
April |
April |
April |
|
1st Day of (Passover) |
Thu-Fri |
Thu. |
Tue. |
Thu. |
|
7th Day of (Passover) |
Wed-Thu |
Wed. |
Mon. |
Wed. |
|
Festival of Firstfruits |
Fri-Sat |
Sun. |
Sun. |
Sun. |
|
Day of Trumpets |
Sat-Sun |
Sat. |
Fri. |
Sun. |
|
Day of Atonement |
Wed |
Mon. |
Sun. |
Tue. |
|
Sukkot – Festival |
Sep.30 |
Sep.30 |
Sep.29 |
Oct. |
|
1st Day of |
Sat-Sun |
Sat. |
Fri. |
Sun. |
|
|
Sat-Sun |
Sat. |
Fri. |
Sun. |
How did these 7 calendars become popular, and what biblical justification is there for them?
“The history of the Jewish calendar may be divided into three periods – the Scriptural, the Talmudic, and the post-Talmudic. The first rested purely on the observation of the sun and the moon, the second on observation and reckoning, and the third entirely on reckoning.”
(The Jewish Encyclopedia : History of Calendar)
The “Scriptual Calendar” [7] was observed at the Second Temple, and for several centuries thereafter. It is recorded in the first part of the Talmudim – the Mishnah – a collection of 63 tractates, divided into 6 orders, one of them being the Mo’edim (appointed times).
“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 may be regarded as significant. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, it is reasonable to assume that the Mishnaic system was perpetuated well into the Amoraic period (third to fifth centuries).” (Sacha Stern, ibid, p.181)
The first month of the year was when the barley (the early summer grain crop) would be ready for harvesting by the Sunday after Passover (Leviticus 23:10-12).
If there were doubt as to the time of this harvest, the Sanhedrin would consider secondary signs – the sufficiency of lambs for Passover and signs in nature that winter was ending.
“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)
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)
How was the 1st day of each month determined?
“The beginning of the months were determined by direct observation of the new moon. Then those beginning of months (Rosh Hodesh) were sanctified and announced by the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, after witnesses testified that they had seen the new crescent and after their testimony had been thoroughly examined, confirmed by calculation and duly accepted.” (Arthur Spier, The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar, p.1)
After the destruction of the Temple, how did the Palestinian court notify the scattered Jewish communities in the Diaspora of its decisions on the new year and new moons?
… “the dependence of Diaspora communities on the calendrical decisions of the Palestinian rabbinic court. This assumption is based on contemporary rabbinic sources, but these reflect rabbinic wishful thinking rather than historical reality. All the evidence suggests, in fact, that Diaspora communities took charge of their own calendar, without ever referring to Palestinian calendrical authority. The communities of Antioch and in Alexandria, as we have seen, chose their own ‘limits’ of Passover and ran their calendar accordingly.” (Sacha Stern, ibid., p.100)
The very large Jewish community in Babylonia remained loyal to the Palestinian court, because the Babylonian rabbis observed the Jewish Oral Law, which required the calendar to be declared from Palestine. As Babylon is nearly a thousand miles away, torches were lit along the route to Babylon when the new moon was sighted in Israel, but this was not particularly successful. Owing to the difficulties for the Jews in Babylon in observing this calendar, there was a lot of discussion, recorded in the Babylonian Talmud, on introducing fixed rules that would limit the Palestinian calendar court as to when the calendar year and months could start. This was the beginning of the end for the Scriptural Calendar [7] – although a group known as the Karaites continued to observe it as best they could – and they still do today, although their numbers are now much reduced.
During the Talmudic period some Babylonian rabbis proposed that the 1st month should begin at the new moon nearest the spring equinox. The biblical justification for doing so was dependent upon interpreting the Hebrew word tequfah in Exodus 34:22 to mean equinox.
A further rule that appears to date from the Amoraic period is that of the equinox. Although the equinox is mentioned already in the Tosefta, it only serves as one of a few criteria involved in the intercalation (see section 4.1.2). The rule that emerges in the Amoraic period is that intercalations can and should be made on the sole basis of the equinox.
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.184)
Tequfah (Strong’s H8622): a revolution, i.e. (of the sun) course, (of time) lapse).
This Hebrew word is found in 4 verses:
“You are to observe the Festival of Weeks, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Tabernacles at the turn of the year.” (Exodus 34:22)
“Turn of the year” here refers to the turn of the season from Summer to Winter.
(The seasons of Spring and Autumn are not found in the Bible.)
‘And it happened, at the turn of the year, that the army of Syria came up against him…’
(2 Chronicles 24:23)
‘And it happened when the time had come around, Hannah conceived and bore a son’
(1 Samuel 1:20).
‘… his going forth from the end of the heavens, and his orbit to their ends’ (Psalm 19:6)
Those keeping calendars [3] and [4] observe the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year (Autumn equinox), but [5] and [6] require the new moon of the 7th month to be after the equinox, so they sometimes observe it one month later.
The Scriptural Jewish Calendar [7] has enjoyed a revival in the Internet Age, as reports of the Aviv Barley and New Moon Sightings can now be received instantly.
The Sanhedrin website states that sighting the new moon is required by Jewish law. The Jews therefore intend to return to sighting the new moon as soon as the Sanhedrin achieves official status and thus will have the authority to change from the calculated calendar:
“A special court has been established to accept evidence concerning the sighting of the New Moon, as required by Jewish Law. This court is made up of various justices who are assembled to hear evidence as the opportunity permits. The purpose of the court is to increase awareness, develop skills, and resolve halachic issues that arise when determining the Jewish Calendar according to testimony by witnesses. At this point there is no intention to supercede the mathematical calendar currently in use and fix the calendar on the basis of the testimony, such a step should be unacceptable to the public and spiritual leadership. Nevertheless, witnesses appear before the court and are investigated with precision according to what they saw. Sometimes the witnesses may also bring photographic evidence to support their testimony. Evidence is already being collected by the yiresh shomaim volunteers throughout the Land of Israel, with the intention that testimony can be presented before the court in a full legal fashion when the peoples’ hearts are ready for it.”
7th Day Churches of God 