Nowhere do the Scriptures speak of the regular new moons as Sabbaths. But that doesn’t diminish the necessity to “observe” them, both physically as we look for the thin crescent, and in a spiritual sense. Many prophecies talk about the future Kingdom when the Sabbath as well as the new moons will be observed, Ezekiel 46:1; Isaiah 66:23. Isaiah tells us that people will come before Yahweh to worship on the new moons. This tells us that even though not a rest day, the new moon is a day on which to come before Yahweh in worship, prayer, study, and celebration.

Because of Numbers 15:2-3, YRM believes any sightings outside the North American continent are not valid for us here in the U.S.: “And Yahweh spake unto Moses saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you come into the land of your habitations, which I give unto you, and will make an offering by fire unto Yahweh, a burnt offering, or a sacrifice in performing a vow, or in a freewill offering, or in your solemn feast, to make a sweet savour unto Yahweh, of the herd, or of the flock…” We don’t use the setting of the sun in Israel or Australia to confirm our weekly Sabbath. This is a sign that comes to you locally, at your time and place, just as does the new moon.

What New Moon did King David, Abraham or Jacob use? It’s obvious, the moon in their locale. What about the Apostle Paul who traveled for as long as two years and as far away as Macedonia, what new moon did he use? Obviously, the new moon in his local. What if we lost global communication, as could very well happen in the end times? These questions pose very big problems if we implemented a “global” network of new moon spotters. Malachi 3:6 For I [am] Yahweh, I change not…

Yahweh’s people in ancient times simply looked up in the sky to know when feast days like Trumpets (Yom Teruah) started. We need not let modern technology interfere with Yahweh’s set signs in the sky, and we need to be willing to change our calendars as a result of Yahweh’s revealings without looking for shortcuts. What schedule are we on, His or ours? He commands us in Deut. 16:1 to watch for the new moon. If we use a sighting anywhere on earth then we no longer need to watch for the moon in this country as most of the time someone will already confirm the moon for us a day earlier in another country. Our command has been trumped, thanks to modern technology.

We understand that the saints in biblical times didn’t have to deal with these issues as mass communication was non existent. We realize that a global network would make things easier and every moon would be spotted somewhere in the world. We realize we would never have to worry about changing our calendar, but there’s one underlying question that will always immerge: what part of following Yahweh are we to make easy? And isn’t the whole point of looking for a New Moon the very idea of Yahweh telling us when to worship Him in our land? Is not the whole idea of New Moons to give Yahweh the control and show him our faith and devotion?

Matthew 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide [is] the gate, and broad [is] the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14) Because strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

The new moon is the first visible crescent. The word “month” as found in Exodus 12:2 is derived from the Hebrew “chodesh,” meaning, “new moon.” The root of chodesh, Hebrew “chadash,” means to be new or to rebuild. Historically the Jews determined the month by the first visible crescent: “The Hebrew or Jewish calendar had three stages of development: the preexilic, or Biblical; the postexilic, or Talmudic; and the post-Talmudic. The first rested on observation merely, the second on observation coupled with calculation, and the third on calculation only. In the first period the priests determined the beginning of each month by the appearance of the new moon” (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, “Calendar”). Yahweh uses the new moon to establish moedim, or commanded observances, Psalm 104:19. Special offerings were also given on the new moons, 2Chronicles 2:4; 8:13;23:31. We find many references to the new moon or beginning of months in the Scriptures, including the obligation for True worshipers to observe them, Numbers 10:10; 28:11-15; 1Chronicles 23:31; 2Chronicles 2:4; 8:13; 31:3; Ezra 3:5; Ezekiel 46:1, 3, 6;Colossians 2:16. Apostolic Believers, who remained true to His Word, continued to honor new moon days as well as observe Feast days in the New Testament, Acts 18:21; 27:9; 1Corinthians 5:7-8. Further, we learn from Ezekiel’s prophecy (46:3) that new moon days will be kept in the coming Kingdom: “The people of the land shall also worship at the doorway of that gate before Yahweh on the Sabbaths and on the new moons.

For an in-depth study on the new moon read our booklet: What Is a Biblical New Moon

The new moons and Sabbath are not determined by crops, but by the moon and sun. As for determining the start of the yearly Feasts, Israel went by the barley crop in the Abib stage of development to establish the first month of the year. Abib is even the name of the first month of the Biblical year, Deuteronomy 16:1. Barley is native to the Mideast, and in the wilderness it doubtless grew wild back then as it does today. Abib barley aside, being in close contact with Yahweh as he was, Moses would need only to ask Him when the first month was.

Read “The Biblical Calendar” for an in-depth look at Abib calculation.

You will not find “vernal equinox” or even spring equinox in the Scriptures. The argument has been attempted that the vernal equinox corresponds to the Hebrew word tequphah, which is found several times in the Bible. The definition of tequphah (Strong’s Concordance No. 8622) is: “A revolution, i.e. of the sun course (of time) lapse: circuit, come about, end.” From the definition, we find it next to impossible to attach any firm connection of tequphah to a spring equinox. The meaning of tequphah points to the end of the year, not the beginning.

The following passages contain the verses where the Hebrew word tequphah is found, as well as its meaning in the context of each:

•    Exodus 34:22 (Feast of ingathering at the “year’s end”)
•    2Chron. 24:23 (Syria attacked Judah at the “end of the year”)
•   2Chron. 24:23; 36:10 (“end of the year/year was expired”)

Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon defines the tequphah (Strong’s No. 8622) as: “coming round, circuit;–Ex. 34:22, adv., at the circuit (completion) of the year, so 2Chron. 24:23= pl. cstr. 1Sam. 1:20; sig. Sf. Of finished circuit of sun.” p. 880

Brown, Driver, Briggs says about the root of tequphah, No. 5362 naqaph: 1. An intransitive verb meaning to surround something… (Isa. 29:1, let feasts go around, i.e. run the round (of the year). 2. make the round, i.e. complete the circuit. Job 1:5 when the days of feasting had completed their circuit.

The closest we have in the Hebrew to spring as a season is 6779, tsamach, a primitive root meaning to sprout, bear, bring forth, bud, grow, cause to spring (forth, up). Yahweh again reveals that the time for His Feasts is attached to the growing of crops, the barley, not to the scientific vernal equinox.

When the Roman church de-liberately acted to separate Easter from Passover, it ruled in 325 CE in the Council of Nicaea that Easter would fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. This establishment of an observance was entirely man-made, and appropriately applied to the man-made holiday of Easter. The Roman church on its own volition, therefore, bestowed a legitimacy on the vernal equinox as a calendar marker where it had none before –at least not in any kind of Biblical context.

That does not mean, however, that the vernal equinox had no significance among ancient pagans and their calendars. Note the following:

• “Easter, too, celebrates the victory of a god of light (J-sus) over darkness (death), so it makes sense to place it at this season. Ironically, the name ‘Easter’ was taken from the name of a Teutonic lunar Goddess, Eostre (from whence we also get the name of the female hormone, estrogen). Her chief symbols were the bunny (both for fertility and because her worshipers saw a hare in the full moon) and the egg (symbolic of the cosmic egg of creation), images which Christians have been hard pressed to explain. Her holiday, the Eostara, was held on the Vernal Equinox Full Moon. Needless to say, the old and accepted folk name for the Vernal Equinox is ‘Lady Day.’ Christians sometimes insist that the title is in honor of Mary and her Annunciation, but Pagans will smile knowingly.” – Lady Day: The Vernal Equinox, by Mike Nichols.
• “The most important festival in Babylonia was the New Year, which occurred at the Spring equinox. This was the akitu, a twelve-day ceremony in which the King, as the son and representative of the divinity, regenerated and synchronized the rhythms of nature.” – Tales of the Vernal Equinox, by Robin DuMolinc.The early Egyptians (who were sun worshipping pagans) built the Sphinx to face east, so that it points directly toward the rising Sun on the day of the vernal equinox. The Sphinx was called Hor-em-akhet (English: Horus of the Horizon). As a result of the precession of the equinoxes, the sun on the vernal equinox rises against the stellar background of a different constellation. For the past two thousand years that constellation has been Pisces the Fish. This is rather interesting, as this is the symbol of Christianity. As the church grew and left it’s Hebrew roots, sun-worship infiltrated the church, it is not surprising that the mother church (and all subsequent Protestant churches) calculate Easter as the first Sunday (sun’s day) after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. It is also not surprising that this came as a result of the first Council of Nicea (325 C.E.) which was convened by Roman Emperor and sun worshiper Constantine the great, who was also instrumental in evolving Sunday (the sun’s day) to
  replace the Sabbath as the day of “rest and worship.”

  Yahweh’s calendar is agricultural, and begins with green barley ears. An interesting find in Israel called the “Gezer” calendar shows that the Israelites were an agrarian society that based it’s months from the bases of agriculture.

In the March April 2002 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review on page 45 we read “A Different Clock governed everyday life in ancient Israel. The society was agrarian- virtually everyone was a farmer- so people naturally regulated their daily lives by the rising and setting sun. Likewise the yearly calendar was defined by seasonal activities related to farming and herding. This small limestone tablet, found in 1908 at Gezer and called the Gezer Calendar, associates the months of the year with activities like sowing, pruning and harvesting, and gives us a glimpse into a way of life very different from ours- a life strongly tied to the earth and it’s natural rhythms.

Written in Paleo-Hebrew, the Gezer Calendar dates from the 10th century B.C.E., around the time of the construction of Solomon’s temple. The biblical city of Gezer is located on the western slopes of the Judean Hills, midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.  It contains the following text:

“Two months of harvest)
Two months of planting
Two months are late planting
One month of pulling flax
One month of barley harvest
One month of harvest and feasting
Two months of pruning vines
One month of summer fruit”

This calendar lays-out the fundamental importance of the agricultural cycle in King Solomon’s day, this can be seen in the temple festivals of Shavuot  (“Feast of weeks”) or First Fruits in early Summer (the “month of summer” fruit in line 8), and the Feast of Ingathering (the harvest) in the Fall which culminates to the Feast of Tabernacles. The mention of feasting  reflects the pilgrimages festivals which involved feasting.

The word “month” in both of the above passages is derived from the Hebrew chodesh meaning, “the new moon; by implication, a month” (Strong’s Concordance). Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words offers this definition, “The word refers to the day on which the crescent reappears.”

The word chodesh is from the primitive root chadash, meaning, “to be new; causatively, to rebuild” (Strong’s). Clearly, the “black moon” or conjunction is neither new nor in the process of rebuilding. The only phase of the moon that fits this description is the first visible crescent.

Another key is in Deuteronomy 16:1. The word “observe” is from the Hebrew shamar. A key meaning of shamar is “to mark, look narrowly for” the new moon of Abib (Strong’s). How does one mark or look narrowly for a moon that is black and invisible? It would be impossible.

An argument some cite for a calculated new moon is that David knew in advance when the new moon would fall, 1Sam. 20:5. Anyone capable of counting to 30 could know the same thing. The lunar cycle is approximately 29.5 days. As a result, the new moon falls at either 29 days or 30 days from its last verification. If it were not seen at day 29 we can be assured it will be visible at day 30.

Historical evidence also confirms that Israel began the month with the first visible crescent: “The Hebrew or Jewish calendar had three stages of development: the preexilic, or Biblical; the postexilic, or Talmudic; and the post-Talmudic. The first rested on observation merely, the second on observation coupled with calculation, and the third on calculation only. In the first period the priests determined the beginning of each month by the appearance of the new moon” (International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, “Calendar”).

Another source confirms, “The Israelites divided their year according to natural phenomena exclusively, combining the solar and lunar years. The months began with the new moon, but the first month was fixed (after the Exodus and by the necessities of the Passover) by the ripening of the earliest grain, namely, barley. The lunar month averaging 29 1/2 days, a year of twelve months of 30 and 29 days alternately resulted” (The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary, Calendar).

This reference also verifies that the Israelites marked the year by the ripening of the barley. “The month was a unit of time closely tied to the moon. The Hebrew word for “month” also meant “moon” (Deut 33:14, NIV, NASB). The reason for the connection between the month and the moon is that the beginning of a month was marked by a new moon. The moon was carefully observed by the people of Bible times. When it appeared as a thin crescent, it marked the beginning of a new month” (Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Calendar).

As for the vernal equinox starting the Biblical year, there is no Scriptural evidence to justify such a claim. Besides the fact that the equinox is absent from scripture, perhaps the best evidence is found in the name for the first month, i.e., Abib. Actually, “Abib” is less of a name and more of a description of the stage of ripening grain.

Strong’s Concordance offers this definition for Abib: “to be tender; green, i.e. a young ear of grain; hence, the name of the month Abib or Nisan.” By its very definition we find the first month firmly tied to agriculture, specifically grain or barley. Notice that the equinox is nowhere referenced. In addition to Strong’s, we find the following from the Brown Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, “(1) fresh, young barley ears, barley (2) month of ear-forming, of greening of crop, of growing green Abib, the month of the Exodus and the Passover (March or April).”

Following is more confirmation from scholarly references: “The month Nisan [a later name]. Meaning ears of grain, namely, barley (Ex 13:4). …the Jews began harvest by gathering a sheaf of barley firstfruits” (Fausset’s Bible Dictionary, “Abib”).

“The month the Hebrews were divinely directed to make the first of the year as a memorial of their deliverance from Egypt (Ex 12:1-2; 13:4). The Passover and the feast of unleavened bread occurred in it, and it marked the beginning of the barley harvest” (The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary, “Abib”).

“(‘Abhibh, young ear of barley or other grain, Ex 9:31; Lev 2:14): The first month of the Israelitish year, called Nisan in Neh 2:1;Est 3:7, is Abib in Ex 13:4; 23:15; 34:18; compare Deut 16:1. Abib is not properly a name of a month, but part of a descriptive phrase, “the month of young ears of grain.” This may indicate the Israelitish way of determining the new year (Ex 12:2), the year beginning with the new moon nearest or next preceding this stage of the growth of the barley” (International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, “Abib”).

An interesting find in Israel called the “Gezer” calendar shows that the Israelites were an agrarian society that based it’s months from the vantage point of agriculture.

In the March April 2002 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review on page 45 we read “A Different Clock governed everyday life in ancient Israel. The society was agrarian- virtually everyone was a farmer- so people naturally regulated their daily lives by the rising and setting sun. Likewise the yearly calendar was defined by seasonal activities related to farming and herding. This small limestone tablet, found in 1908 at Gezer and called the Gezer Calendar, associates the months of the year with activities like sowing, pruning and harvesting, and gives us a glimpse into a way of life very different from ours- a life strongly tied to the earth and it’s natural rhythms.

Written in Paleo-Hebrew, the Gezer Calendar dates from the 10th century BC, the time of the construction of Solomon’s Temple. It contains the following text:

“Two months of harvest)
Two months of planting
Two months are late planting
One month of pulling flax
One month of barley harvest
One month of harvest and feasting
Two months of pruning vines
One month of summer fruit”

This calendar lays-out the fundamental importance of the agricultural cycle in King Solomon’s day, this can be seen in the temple festivals of Shavuot  (“Feast of weeks”) or First Fruits in early Summer (the “month of summer” fruit in line 8), and the Feast of Ingathering (the harvest) in the Fall which culminates to the Feast of Tabernacles. The mention of feasting  reflects the pilgrimages festivals which involved feasting.

Following is more confirmation from scholarly references: “The month Nisan [a later name]. Meaning ears of grain, namely, barley (Ex 13:4). …the Jews began harvest by gathering a sheaf of barley firstfruits” (Fausset’s Bible Dictionary, “Abib”).

“The month the Hebrews were divinely directed to make the first of the year as a memorial of their deliverance from Egypt (Ex 12:1-2; 13:4). The Passover and the feast of unleavened bread occurred in it, and it marked the beginning of the barley harvest” (The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary, “Abib”).

“(‘Abhibh, young ear of barley or other grain, Ex 9:31; Lev 2:14): The first month of the Israelitish year, called Nisan in Neh 2:1;Est 3:7, is Abib in Ex 13:4; 23:15; 34:18; compare Deut 16:1. Abib is not properly a name of a month, but part of a descriptive phrase, “the month of young ears of grain.” This may indicate the Israelitish way of determining the new year (Ex 12:2), the year beginning with the new moon nearest or next preceding this stage of the growth of the barley” (International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, “Abib”).

For more in-depth research see: ABCs of the Biblical Calendar