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kuuderekun · 5 years

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

First some terminology clarification. The traditional Rabbinic Hebrew Calendar we're used to calling a Lunar Calendar is strictly speaking a Lunisolar Calendar, the phases of the Moon come first but synchronization is done with a Solar year so the seasons don't get out of wack. The same is true of the popular variants I've discussed already like the Samaritan Calendar, the Kariate reckoning and the proposed Lunar Sabbath model. A strictly Lunar Calendar would be something like the Islamic Calendar which makes no attempt to reconcile and so Ramadan has fallen al over the Gregorian Calendar. But I've lately been questioning this traditional assumption that the Torah's Calendar is Lunar. Let's start with the fact that the Torah has completely different words for Month and Moon, that is not what I'd expect from a strictly Lunar month based culture. Month is Chodesh/Hodesh (Strongs Number 2320) while Moon is Jerah/Yerach (3394). There are a few places where the latter word is used of a passage of time, but that's because even without a lunar calendar the concept of a month is still tied poetically to the Moon somewhat as it's phases come close at least. The phrase "Rosh Chodesh" gets translated "New Moon" sometimes because of our traditional assumptions, but Rosh means the beginning or head of something. The Torah never talks about the Full Moon, even in regards to the Holy Days that should happen then on a Lunar or Lunisolar calendar. Two verses elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible are often translated as referring to the Full Moon, but those are highly disputable as I've discussed before. Colossians 2:16 is the one New Testament reference to the Jewish concept of the "Rosh Chodesh", and it again uses a Greek word for Month, not Selene the word for the Moon. And then there is all the evidence that The Bible clearly thinks of a Month as being 30 days not 29 and a half. It's there when you do the math of the Flood chronology of Genesis 7 and 8 with 5 months being exactly 150 days beginning on the 17th of the eight month and ending on the 17th of the seventh month. And it's also in Daniel and Revelation with 42 Months, 1,260 days and three and a half years being treated as synonymous time periods, and then in Daniel 12 1,290 days being that with one more month added, and 1,335 days added another month and a half. However there is one thing often taken as evidence for a 365 day year in the Torah, and that is how that number happens to be the number of years Enoch lived. But that could be a coincidence. Genesis 1:14-19 discuses the Sun (greater light), Moon (lesser light) and stars being made for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. But you'll notice in verse 16 the Sun is made and talked about first, it has priority. And months are seemingly missing from the discussion. It is well known that the Hebrew Calendar was influenced by the Babylonian Calendar during the Captivity, the names we're now used to calling the months come from Babylon for one thing. Well the thing is Babylon had a Lunisolar Calendar, so even that aspect of it could be Babylonian in origin. Lunar Calendars were more popular with the ancient Pagans then you might expect given the modern popular narrative that Paganism always revolved around Sun worship. But in fact the most prominent not at all Lunar Calendar used by Pagans in classical antiquity was the Civil Egyptian calendar, but even they originally had a Lunar one which they kept for ceremonial purposes. Actually even in Greece the Attic Lunar Calender's main purpose was for how they observed Pagan festivals. Now as much as we love to see all things Egyptian as bad, it wasn't the Egyptians much of the Torah is telling the Israelite not to be like, it was the Canaanites. One of the Canaanite tribes was the Amorites, Babylon first became a major player in Mesopotamia under it's Amorite dynasty, so that Babylonian calendar could be Canaanite in origin. There is one indisputable difference between the Torah Calendar and the Civil Egyptian Calendar, and that is when to start it. Exodus 12 proclaims Aviv (the time of the Barley Harvest, early Spring) to be the first month while the Egyptian Calendar starts near the Autumnal Equinox. It is a common traditional conjecture that before Exodus 12 the first season was Fall rather then Spring, and that in Exodus 12 YHWH is swapping the First and Seventh months. I'd been thinking of making a post on how we can't prove that using Scripture alone. But since they were in Egypt for several generations it's very possible the Egyptian Calendar was their starting point and what month to make the first month was the only change YHWH is making in Exodus 12. Though different agricultural and climate circumstances in Canaan no doubt brought further differences, the Egyptian Calender was organized around 3 seasons rather then 4 because of how they were ruled by the flooding of the Nile. In a hypothetical Torah based Solar Calendar the Intercalary month of five or sixth days (if that was the method used for synchronization) would go between Adar and Nisan rather then in September. (BTW, those 5 days were when the Egyptians observed the birthdays of Osiris and Horus, not anywhere near Christmas. And the Egyptian new year was September 11th on our calendar coincidentally enough.) Or maybe you would try to put them before the Seventh Month to keep Yom Teruah aligned with the Spring Equinox. Since I view the Trumpet of Yom Teruah as also the Last Trump of Revelation 11, could it be preceding 6 Trumpets were meant to be associated with the proceeding extra days? Genesis 1:14 is possibly using Signs in place of Months, I have over the years gone back and forth on the Mazzaroth/Gospel in the Stars theory. Maybe fellow Mazzaroth proponents like Rob Skiba should consider that the Star Signs can be an alternate to the Moon for how to determine the months of the year. Josephus did refer to Nisan as being when the Sun is in Aries, in the first century the Sun entered Aries around the Spring Equinox, and that month is indeed when the Barley Harvest happens. The Romans had a Seven Day Barley Festival similar to Unleavened Bread that was the 12-18th of April, but due to the awkwardness of Caesar's revisions that may be off form when in the Sun's journey it was supposed to be. It is popular to theorize that Revelation 12:1 is describing some astronomical alignment involving the Moon. If it is it could be an exception and not proof the months are usually defined by the Moon. But I'm skeptical of that altogether, I think it's probably a purely supernatural vision and not something predictable using Stelarrium. Now I do believe the Passover through Pentecost of Christ's Passion, Resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit was based on what the Jews of the time were doing regardless of if it was still accurate. But it may be it happened to be a year when they did line up, or at least close enough that First Fruits was the right Sunday. Since I favor 30 AD and a Thursday Crucifixion on the 14th of Nisan followed by a Sunday Resurrection on the 17th of Nisan, I have long placed the Passion on the 6th of April 30 AD. The Qumran Community who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls also rejected the Lunar Calendar, the Temple Scroll is our main source on their Calendar but it's discussed in other scrolls too. I don't think that Calendar is right either, like the Lunar Sabbath model it wants to synchronize the monthly and yearly cycle to the weekly cycle by giving every 3rd month and extra day creating a 364 day year. As I've talked about before the language in Leviticus 23 about Firs Fruits and Pentecost is clearly assuming they won't line up. They make the first day of the year a Wednesday because that was the day the Sun and Moon were created. But at least they correctly placed First Fruits and Pentecost on Sundays. Weeks are not even remotely mentioned in the Genesis 1 account of the fourth day, so they aren't connected to the sun, moon or stars. The Book of Jubilees was popular with them because it too rejected the Lunar Calendar (Chapter 6 verses 32-37). Something I bet Rob Skiba didn't notice when using the book for his agendas (The Jubilees Calendar also seems to be endorsed by Enoch 72-82). But indeed Jubilees has the same problem as the Temple Scroll system. In fact it's criticism of the lunar system for it doesn't line up perfectly with the seasons is hypocritical when their being one day short of a solar year will inevitably create the same issue. The Hebrew Roots movement has a lot of irrational fear of Sun Worship wrapped up into it. Obviously actually worshiping the actual Sun or Moon or any other inanimate object is idolatry. But Malachi does call Jesus the Sun(Shamash) of Righteousness, there is no equivalent title making the Moon a symbol of Jesus. So I have no problem believing Jesus Rose from The Grave at Sunrise on a Sunday Morning, or that he was born on or soon after the Winter Solstice. I'm not ready to propose a specific calendar model just yet. I merely want to open up this line of discussion. Or maybe I am. Read more »

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