This year, 2008-2009, is a Sabbatical year, according to best scholarship. It is a year when the land is to rest and no planting or tilling is to take place. That includes home gardens as well as farm fields. Read on for an understanding of this most misunderstood and neglected of Scriptural precepts.
The number 7 is the most important number in the Bible. Most scholars say it is Yahweh’s number because so many of His key activities and designs center on it. One of the most important occurrences of seven is in the Sabbath or seventh day, as well as other observances.
Did you know that the sabbatical, that popular leave of absence that college professors and teachers often take every seven years, is a concept taken straight from the Scriptures?
How many today realize that a “land” Sabbatical is a scripturally commanded rest every seven years, during which planting and tilling of the fields is to stop and the soil is to lie fallow for a year? Modern science even validates the Bible by confirming that the land should periodically rest and re-nourish itself naturally for a year.
If you have ever felt “jubilant” or witnessed a crowd filled with jubilation, then you might be surprised to learn that there is another Scriptural precedent at work here, too. These terms and their meanings come right from the Biblical word “Jubilee,” a year that came every 50 years.
At the Jubilee slaves were freed and debts forgiven. The Jubilee is also a year of land rest, but it went beyond that to include the release of land ownership as well. The Jubilee was a more intensified Sabbatical year.
Certain months of the year have special observances that have Sabbaths within them as well.
Most know that the weekly Sabbath is a time to cease from work. But what is the purpose of these other Sabbaths — the Sabbatical every 7 years, and the 50th-year Sabbath, known as the Jubilee?
The word “Jubilee” is derived in the Bible from the Hebrew jobel or more properly, yobel, which means “ram’s horn.” The ram’s horn announced the beginning of the Jubilee year. Whenever a trumpet was used to signal an event, in this case the shofar trumpet, it was an alert meaning something very significant was about to happen. Leviticus 25:9 says, “Then shall you cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.”
The law of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years is one of the more mysterious and intriguing in Scripture. It is like discovering a key that opens up a door to an exciting treasure room.
Sabbaticals a Key to Prophecy
Important events of history and prophecy are tied up in these specially sanctioned years. Yet, the Israelites abandoned the keeping of the sabbatical years and in the process missed out on a critical aspect of Yahweh’s prophetic plan.
Deuteronomy 5:15, in the restating of the Fourth Commandment, gives us some additional insights into the broader concept of “Sabbath.”“And you shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your Elohim brought you out thence by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm: therefore Yahweh your Elohim com-manded you to keep the sabbath day.”
Why does He bring in the issue of slavery in conjunction with the Sabbath? Because there is a connection to the 50th year Jubilee, which is also a Sabbath year. Slaves were to be set free on this 50th year Sabbath.
Persons sold as slaves in order to repay debts had to recover their freedom. An Israelite could not suffer slavery because he was redeemed by Yahweh from Egyptian slavery. He could only lend his services without being treated as a slave, but more like a laborer or tenant, while retaining his dignity as a human. It is much the same way an employee works at the discretion of his employer.
True slaves were only the gentiles who were acquired and sold in the pagan world. These remained the perpetual property of the family, and were treated as slaves in the social sense of the word (Lev. 25:44-46).
Israel was taken into captivity specifically for not keeping the land Sabbath. Not keeping the Sabbaths — weekly and annual — leads to slavery of another kind. Slavery to the world.
The Day of Yahshua’s Return
The trumpet call announcing the Jubilee year directly parallels the trumpet that will announce the return of Yahshua to this earth, which prophecy and Yahshua Himself indicated will occur on a Sabbatical or Jubilee year. Had Israel not lost track of the Jubilee, we could perhaps know with greater certainty the year of Yahshua’s return.
The circumstances of Yahshua’s return are revealed in Luke 4:18, where Yahshua was found in the synagogue reading Isaiah 61:2:
“The Spirit of Yahweh is upon me, because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor: He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of Yahweh.”
To “proclaim” means “after the manner of a herald, with formality, gravity and authority.” The terminology coincides with the trumpet sound pro-claiming the all-important Jubilee at Atonement. Here is what some scholars say about the phrase “accept-able year”:
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary: “Acceptable year an allusion to the Jubilee year (Lev. 25:10), a year of universal release for person and property.”
Wesley’s Notes: “The acceptable year — plainly alluding to the year of Jubilee, when all, both debtors and servants, were set free.”
Here we see Yahshua rightly dividing the word. In quoting Isaiah 61 He stopped in the middle of verse 2, which demonstrates that He Himself, as the fulfillment of this prophecy, was now calling people out of the world to become His followers. He did not read the rest of the verse, which refers to the future when He returns on the day of judgment.The “acceptable year” is Yahweh’s amnesty year as one translation calls it.
Sabbatical, Jubilee Defined
The Jubilee is couched in a command detailing the Sabbatical year in Leviticus 25:“And Yahweh spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto Yahweh. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in the fruits thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath unto Yahweh: you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.
“That which grows of itself of your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather: it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for you, and for your servant and for your maid, and for your hired servant and for your stranger, who sojourn with you. And for your cattle, and for the beasts that are in your land, shall all the increase thereof be for food.
“And you shall number seven sabbaths of years unto you, seven times seven years; and there shall be unto you the days of seven sabbaths of years, even forty and nine years. Then shall you send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall you send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land.
“And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a Jubilee unto you; and you shall return every man unto his possession, and you shall return every man unto his family. A Jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of the undressed vines. For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: you shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In this year of Jubilee you shall return every man unto his possession…
“Wherefore you shall do my statutes, and keep mine ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety. And the land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. And if you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years. And you shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the ninth year, until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old store. And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for you are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.”
From this law we see that the Sabbatical year prescribes that:
·Land and vineyards are to rest
·Voluntary crops can be eaten
·Debts are to be canceled
The stipulations for the Jubilee years are these:
·Land must rest
·Land goes back to original owner
·Israelite slaves are freed
In quoting Isaiah 61 Yahshua said, “This day is the Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” He meant that He Himself would be its fulfillment when He returned on a Jubilee year. It was undoubtedly a Jubilee year when He said this. His ministry proper began on this Jubilee year, probably 28-29 CE.
Typically a person will experience at least one Jubilee year in his lifetime. As prophetically important as the Jubilee year is, it would be surprising and uncharacteristic for Yahshua, our liberating Savior who alone fulfills the Jubilee prophecy, not to have experienced a Jubilee himself while on earth. And this one would have been it.
The Jubilee is all about freedom —for the land, for the slave, and for the debtor. Yahshua’s ultimate liberating act dying on the tree was in releasing us from the death penalty if we repent and follow Him. His triumph began with the start of His ministry and ended with His impalement.
Just as He was cut off in the middle of the week and died on a Wednesday, so Yahshua left unread the rest of Isaiah 61:2, which tells of the vengeance that would follow His return at the end of the age. Note the latter part of this verse: “…And the day of vengeance of our Elohim; to comfort all that mourn” (Isa. 61:1-2).
Jubilee Soon Neglected
“And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths: for as long as it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years,” 2Chronicles 36:20-21.
Daniel 9 begins with a reference to the 70 years of Judah’s Babylonian captivity. The Jews were sentenced to a captivity of 70 years because they had not kept 70 sabbatical years.
After the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh were exiled, tradition says, the Jubilee was no longer in effect, being specifically for “ . . . all the inhabitants thereof,” Leviticus 25:10 (see Encyclopaedia Judaica, article “Sabbatical Year and Jubilee,” pp. 579-580). Jews began to believe that the Law of Jubilee did not apply to them because they did not fully occupy the land ofIsrael. In addition, rabbis relaxed the Sabbatical year because of “eco-nomic hardship.”
The last time we see an attempt to apply the principles of the Jubilee is after the return from the Exile in the time of Nehemiah (Neh. 5:1-11).
When Does the Jubilee Occur?
Is the Jubilee the 49th or 50th year? Isaiah 37:30 holds the key:
“And this shall be the sign unto you: you shall eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs of the same; and in the third year sow, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.”
Here are two Sabbath years in a row. Sabbatical years by definition are spaced seven years apart. This can only refer to a Sabbatical year followed immediately by a Jubilee year, just as 49 is followed by 50. Counting to the Jubilee year is just like the count to Pentecost. You count 49 days (7 weeks) followed by the 50th day.
The Power of Seven
The weekly Sabbath every seven days, the Sabbatical year every seven years, and Jubilees coming after every 7×7 years as well as the 1,000-year reign of Yahshua following 6,000 years of man’s rule are each a part of Yahweh’s great Sabbath system. Yahweh marks weeks, holy days, years and millennia in increments of seven. The word ‘week’ in Hebrew is the same as the number 7, shabua. It literally means “sevened.”
Weeks are determined in cycles of seven days, just as Yahweh’s Word established them, and the month (“moonth”) is based on the moon phase beginning with the new moon. Shabua has a dual meaning, also signifying oaths.
What is Yahweh telling us by this word with dual meanings? Simply this: there is a powerful relationship between the number seven, representing Sabbaths, and an oath. Is it any wonder then that the Sabbath is THE sign between Yahweh and His people? “Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths you shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am Yahweh that does sanctify you,” Exodus 31:13.
Sabbath Lessons Taught
With many important meanings and lessons, His Sabbaths are also great equalizers. On the 7th day, for example, both the powerful and the powerless become irrelevant, as even the ox is liberated and given the same day of rest.
To counter any predatory greed, on the Sabbatical year debts are forgiven. And to counter over-farming, the land rests on the seventh year. After 7×7 years all debts are forgiven and lands are returned to the original owners. That insures that property rights remain in a family and the land specially given by Yahweh to the various tribes remained with them.
The Jubilee marks a return to origins, when everyone in Israel had his own property and hence his freedom and equality as well as dignity. It was a safety against tenureship and poverty. It allowed for economic equilibrium, whereby everyone enjoyed at least the minimal economic independence and liberty.
The Sabbatic plan teaches us that land belongs to Yahweh. No one could appropriate land as personal or hereditary property in perpetuity. For this reason, the buying and selling of land was only a temporary transfer and never to be permanent. Even the price of a tract of land was estimated on the basis of counting the years from the Jubilee. The land was more highly valued if it had had more years of production behind it.
The gift of the land was made on the basis of equal distribution to the needy families on the part of Joshua (Josh. 13-21). All were treated fairly. This is the answer to the promises made to the Patriarchs through an oath made by Yahweh (Gen 12-50).
Sabbaticals Prepare Us
In ancient times Yahweh sent prophets to warn the people of their backsliding, but their pleading fell on deaf ears.There were brief revivals, such as with King Josiah, but after his death the people continued their obstinacy.Ancient Israel was punished for neglecting the Sabbaths and Holy Days of Yahweh.
There is good evidence that Yahshua’s ministry began on a Sabbatical/Jubilee, in the year 28-29 CE. If we count forward from that time, we find that 2008-09 is the next Sabbatical year where we don’t plant or harvest. That means starting this Atonement, October 11, the land Sabbatical begins.
It just so happens that Sabbatical years in our Gregorian wall calendars are divisible by 7.
In 1973 Ben Zion Wacholder published a table of sabbatical years called, “The Calendar of Sabbatical Cycles During the Second Temple and the Early Rabbinic Period,” published at HebrewUnionCollege. His Sabbatical dates coincide with what we have found.
The second great principle, deriving from the first, is:“You are strangers and sojourners with me.” You are only passing through as pilgrims, heading toward an infinitely greater life. This life is schooling for the life to come, so don’t get wrapped up in the material things around you and live for them. I want you to know that you are strangers and sojourners with me.”
By getting in line with the Sabbath design and learning to follow the Biblical calendar, we learn how Yahweh’s government will run when Yahshua’s rule goes forth out of Zion to all the earth.
byAlan Mansager
Watch “The Amazing Sevens” On Discover the Truth TV below:
Since the post-Apostolic period, the nature and person of Yahshua has been much debated. Questions have ranged from whether the Messiah is a separate being distinct from His Father to whether He and the Father are one in a mysterious triune relationship. Other questions surround his humanity. Was Yahshua fully human, divine or partly both when he walked this earth?
Then there are those who ask whether Yahshua preexisted prior to His birth at Bethlehem or whether he first came into being through Mary’s miraculous conception.
In this first installment we will uncover the truth regarding the existence that the Messiah had with His Father prior to the creation of this world. Before this, however, it is necessary that we understand why this fact is important.
Those who acknowledge Yahshua as the one true Messiah don’t question His validity. Only through the Messiah’s sacrificial atonement is mankind justified and released from the penalty of his sins (Rom. 3:25, 4:25, 5:18). Now this redemption He offers us is not the only significance of Yahshua the Messiah. Once we understand that Scripture also teaches that through Yahshua all things were created, we come to realize the role that Yahshua had prior to his birth as a man.
According to Scripture, without Yahshua the Messiah, the heavens and earth would not exist. Those who deny the preexistence of the Messiah also deny the great contributions that He provided to the existence of this universe. Therefore, this belief not only rejects His full existence by denying his preexistence, but also ignores His contributions to creation and to mankind.
First we will examine the Scriptural evidence for the Messiah’s preexistence. We will begin by reviewing the proof found in the New Testament. There is no passage of greater importance when answering the question of the Messiah’s preexistence than John chapter one.
The Word Became Flesh
It reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Elohim, and the Word was Elohim. The same was in the beginning with Elohim. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made…And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-3, 14).
Based on verse 14, who represents the “Word” within this passage? The “Word” is identified as the only begotten of the Father. This can refer only to Yahshua the Messiah. Now does the “Word” in verse 1 correspond to the “Word” in verse 14? There are those who would argue that the word in verse 1 refers simply to the “plan of Yahweh,” while the word in verse 14 refers to the manifestation of that plan, i.e., Yahshua the Messiah. The problem with this view is context. From the passage it is clear that there is only one “Word” being described, the Messiah.
This passage could be rendered, “In the beginning was the Messiah, and the Messiah was with Elohim, and the Messiah was Elohim.” Here is evidence that the Messiah was with Yahweh in the beginning.
Now there are some who struggle with John 1:1, when it says, “…the Word was Elohim.” Some have interpreted this as John confirming the duality of the Father and Son. In other words, validating that the Father and Son are the same being, as expressed through the Trinity.
Understanding begins with the Greek. The Greek word for “elohim” is “theos,” literally “a general name of deities or divinities” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon). From the Old and New Testament we find that this term along with its Hebrew equivalent, Elohim, applies to both the Father and Son, as well to false deities and even man. This passage could just as easily be rendered, “…the Messiah was a ‘Mighty One.’” John is not confusing the Father and Son. He is simply confirming that in the beginning the Son was with His Father as a “Mighty One.”
Having established who this “Word” represents, let’s now move on to the meaning of verse 3. It says again that all things were made by Him. So based on this verse Yahshua was the one who created all things. This truth must not go unnoticed. John unambiguously declares that all things in the heavens and on earth were created through the Messiah. To ignore or reject this pronouncement is to discard the truth of Yahweh and degrade the role of Yahshua.
To summarize, we find three scripturally undeniable facts within this passage: (1) The “Word” represents Yahshua the Messiah, (2) Yahshua was with His Father is the beginning and (3) all things were made through the Messiah. To remove the Messiah’s preexistence is to remove his presence with His Father and the pivotal role that He took part in at creation.
‘Before the World Was’
In His eye-opening prayer in John 17 we find Yahshua himself declaring his own preexistence as he prepared for his imminent death: “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:5).
Now the key word here is “was.” This word is derived from the Greek einai meaning, “to exist” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance).Thayer’s Greek Lexicon offers a similar definition, “to be, to exist, to happen, to be present.”
Based on the Greek, we find Yahshua asking his Father to provide Him the same glory that He had before the world existed. Yahshua through his own mouth offers irrefutable confirmation of his preexistence. He declares that He had glory with His Father, indicating His exalted state, before the world existed. In essence, this is the same message we found in the first chapter of John.
‘Before Abraham Was’
Similar to the previous example, in John 8:56-58 the Messiah confirms that he existed before Abraham. “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham? Yahshua said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”
Before we consider verse 58, the critical verse here, it is vital that we understand the context of the entire passage. The Jews understood Yahshua’s referring to His past existence, otherwise their reference to his age would be without significance. Though this passage speaks in the present tense, the context clearly refers to the past. It is vital that this context be understood, as Yahshua’s proceeding statements are built thereupon.
In verse 58, Yahshua again made the remarkable statement, “….before Abraham existed, I was.” Now what was Yahshua saying within this passage? The meaning is once again found in the Greek. The word “was” here comes from the Greek word, ginomai. The Strong’s defines this word as, “to cause to be, i.e. (reflexively) to become (come into being).” Thayer’s adds, “to become, that is, to come into existence, to begin to be, or to receive being.”
The phrase “I am” comes from the same Greek word for “was” in John 17:5, i.e., einai. Additionally, The Complete Word Study New Testament under its Lexical Aid, provides this definition, “to be, to exist, have existence or being.”
From the Greek the Messiah confirms here that before Abraham came into being that He existed or was present. So from this example, Yahshua once more confirms his heavenly existence by substantiating that he existed prior to the patriarch Abraham.
Yahshua Before John the Baptist
Not only did Abraham confirm Yahshua’s preexistence, but John the Baptist did also. “John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, this was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me” (John 1:15).
The word “before” here comes from the Greek word protos. Strong’s defines this word as, “foremost (in time, place, order or importance).” This statement by John clearly refers to time and not to order of importance. This can be substantiated through John’s earlier statement, “He that cometh after me.”
Those who know genealogy might be saying, but wait. Elisabeth, John the Baptist’s mother, conceived six months before Mary (Luke 1:26). How then was Yahshua before John? Simple, as Yahshua preexisted before Abraham, we find here that He also preexisted before John the Baptist.
Came from Above
In addition to these examples, Yahshua also noted in several passages that he came down from heaven. We find one such account in John 3:13, “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.”
In addition to the Messiah’s declaring that no man has gone to heaven, a belief that is corroborated in both Old and New testaments (Gen. 3:19, Job 14:2, Ps. 103: 14-16, 146:4, Ecc. 9:10, 12:7, Dan. 12:2, Acts 2:29-34), Yahshua states that he came down from heaven. The phrase here “came down” is from the Greek katabaino, meaning “to descend’ (Strong’s). Thayer’s offers additional detail: “the place from which one has come down.”
Yahshua confirms here that He came down or descended from heaven. Based on the Greek, no other interpretation would apply. For this statement to be true our Savior would have had to first exist in heaven prior to his birth as a man.
An analogous passage can be found in John 6:38, “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” As Yahshua stated in John 3:13, He also plainly declares in this verse that he came down from or was sent from heaven.
The phrase “came down” is derived from the same Greek word found in John 3:13, katabaino. From Yahshua’s own testimony we find confirmation once more that He came down or descended from heaven. For this to be possible, Yahshua would have had to preexist in heaven with His Father. In verse 62 Yahshua went on to say, “What and if you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?”
The Messiah confirms here His heavenly preexistence. Scriptures states that after Yahshua’s death and resurrection that he ascended into heaven (Acts 1:11). Based on this fact, Yahshua confirms here that He existed in heaven prior to his birth as a man.
In John 8:23 Yahshua provides proof for His previous existence by drawing a contrast between himself and mankind. “And he said unto them, You are from beneath; I am from above: you are of this world; I am not of this world.”
Yahshua witnesses here again to his place of origin. He stated that while man was from beneath and of this world, that He Himself was neither. If Yahshua was not from beneath or of this world, from where did he commence? Based on the evidence, the only clear conclusion is that he had His beginning in heaven. The fact that Yahshua also stated that He was from above only further solidifies this fact. So from multiple passages we find the same message…Yahshua came down or existed in heaven prior to his human birth.
Image of the Invisible El
Paul in Colossians 1:14-17 not only confirms Yahshua’s preexistence, but also explains his role in the Old Testament: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible El, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”
From verse 14 there should be no question as to the subject; this passage is a reference to our Savior. Now in verse 15 Paul states that Yahshua is the image of the invisible El, referring to the Father. Yahshua in John 6:46 confirmed that no man had seen the Father except for the Son. Scripture also corroborates that the Father cannot be seen and is invisible (1Tim. 1:17, Heb. 11:27).
According to Paul, Yahshua is the image of His Father. Now what existence of the Son is Paul referring to; His past existence with His Father prior to the world or His present existence as a man?
From the next few verses we find that Paul is clearly referring to the past existence of Yahshua, which confirms that Yahshua was the image or representation of His Father in the Old Testament. We will review many of these accounts in part two of this article. For now, let’s continue with verse 15.
Paul states that Yahshua is the firstborn of every creature. The word “firstborn” is derived from the Greek word prototokos. Both Strong’s and Thayer’s define this word as “firstborn.” They offer no other definition. The KJV also translates this word as “first begotten.” The meaning of prototokos is very specific. It is important to acknowledge this fact. By so doing we must acknowledge that Yahshua was the firstborn of every creature.
To ensure that we have a full understanding of this passage, we must not neglect the word “creature.” This word is derived from the Greek ktisis. Strong’s defines this word as, “original formation.” Thayer’s offers a similar definition, “creation, that is, a thing created; used of individual things, beings, a creature, a creation.” So based on the Greek Paul is validating that Yahshua was the firstborn of every original formation of creation. To negate that Yahshua preexisted prior to creation is to ignore the clear truth we find within this passage.
Paul goes on to further explain that not only was Yahshua the firstborn of every creature, but that through Him all things in the heavens and on earth were created. The word “created” in verse 16 is from the Greek word ktizo. Strong’s and Thayer’s define this word as, “to fabricate” or to “create,” as referring to creation. So as we find here, it was by the Messiah that all things in heaven and on earth were created. This is the same message and second witness to John 1:3.
Paul’s last point here is important. Paul states that by Him, i.e., Yahshua the Messiah, all things consist. What is Paul referring to? From the context Paul points to the creation of the heavens and earth. If Yahshua were not present at creation, then how would all things consist by Him? This would make no sense unless Yahshua was both present and active in creation.
In part two, we will continue to explore the evidence for Yahshua’s preexistence in both Old and New Testament. In addition we will review passages that are used by those who oppose the preexistence. Finally, we will close by reviewing those Old Testament passages that reveal the role that Yahshua performed in the Old Testament as the image of the invisible El.
Our Savior is a spirit Being,Paul wrote in 1Corinthians 10:4. Paul called Him a. “spiritual Rock.” This attribute has far-reaching implications few may realize. Note exactly what he wrote: “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock wasMessiah.”
Other Biblical passages also refer to Him as the “Rock,” such as Psalm 18:2. Thereference in 1Corinthians 10:4, however, is fromExodus 17 where Moses struck the rock in Horeb and water gushed forth. But the Bible also says the rock followed them. Are we to imagine this as a “Rock” tumbling along behind them?
The Jewish commentary on the Old Testament is known as the Midrash. It dates back from the time of Ezra. The Midrash explains that this rock itself followed the Israelites in their wanderings. It says the rock was round and rolled like a swarm of bees. When the tabernacle was pitchedthe rock settled itself in the vestibule, remaining there until the tabernacle was again moved.
Life-giving Water from the Rock
Adam Clarke’s Commentary says that Paul speaks of the rock, but metaphorically he meant the water from the rock, which the Israelites stored up in their skin-bottle containers.
They took their containers with them, and in that sense the rock (the water it produced) came with them. No evidence exists from Scripture that an actual rock followed the wandering Israelites. This calls for another look at 1Corinthians 10:4.
Going to the Greek text, we learn that the objective pronoun “them” is not there. The clause simply reads, “That spiritual Rock which followed,” or a better rendering, “A spiritual following Rock.” (See Companion Bible note.)
Yahshua Is Manifest
Paul mentions four outstanding events occurring to the Israelites.
• They went under a cloud and were protected and guided by a pillar of fire by night and by the cloud in the day.
• They all passed through the sea and by the cloud and sea were metaphorically baptized into Moses.
• They ate the spiritual meat (manna – a miraculous spiritual food which appeared six times a week).
• They drank of the spiritual rock that followed the three other miracles, and had far greater significance for Israel and us.
All of these special events were miracles, and Paul mentions them in the sequence they occurred: The protection of the cloud; crossing the Red Sea; the daily manna. These miraculous acts were all followed by the miraculous water gushing from the Rock. The gushing water came after the three other miracles, showing Yahweh’s care of His people.
Paul clearly identifies the “Rock” as the Messiah. The Apostle John picks up on this theme, showing the New Testament application of this Water of Life that comes from the Savior. Yahshua tells us as well as the woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of Elohim, and Who it is that says to you, Give me to drink; you would have asked of Him, and He would have given you living water” (John 4: 10).
Source of Living Water
Yahshua went on to explain that He was the source of living water, the special water that would quench our spiritual thirst: “But whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4: 14).
Upon the last great day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Yahshua stood and cried out, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believes on Me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet [given]; because that Yahshua was not yet glorified” (John 7:38-39).
Yahweh’s people in the Old Testament were given physical blessings, representative of spiritual blessings available to His faithful followers.
Our decision to obey or not to obey makes all the difference when it comes to what our Savior means to us: “Unto you therefore which believe [He is] precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the Head of the corner, And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed” (lPet. 2:7-8).
Yahshua can be a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense for many who will not accept and follow what He taught. Or He can be the solid Cornerstone when we build our spiritual house upon the Rock of Salvation. It is all up to us.
Sargo, the Babylonian, lounges by the Hanging Gardens, daydreaming of the far distant future. What will the 21stcentury be like, he wonders. “What if I could go to those future lands spoken of in the legends, to see how people live 4,000 years from now?” he fantasizes,chomping on a pork chop.
“Will the great god Bel have allowed the people to be powerful? Will Earth Mother Beltis have protected them through the years, and will Ishtar have blessed them with many children to sacrifice? Or will future faiths have forgotten our Babylonian beliefs?”
No, Sargo, you would be pleasantly surprised to know that were you alive today you would not feel all that uncomfortable or unfamiliar with the state of religion in the 21st century. In fact, you may even be moved tell the modern churchgoer, “You worship much like I do.”
Sargo, your Babylonian beliefs have become the standard for nearly all the world’s religions. They are evident the world over in a wide variety of religions and practices.
Hindus practice it, still keeping your sacred cow sacred, and still honoring the Trinity – except they changed the names to Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. They haven’t lightened up on your belief in immortality of the soul, either, just gave it their own spin in the wheel of samsara.
Your story of Nimrod and Tammuz taught them well. In fact, the Hindu doctrine of reincarnation is a hot item in parts of Europe and America. It’s called New Age. I know, Sargo, it is not new. I realize they should give credit where credit is due. After all, you Babylonians are the true masters of all things heathen.
The fastest growing religion today is Islam. It was started by a man, just as Nimrod founded your faith, Sargo. Mohammed gleaned many of his beliefs from Judaism and another religion called Christianity. You’ll find essentials of your revered Babylonian mysteries in these religions as well.
Your notion of a gloomy, dark world where evil people go at death and burn forever still is very much alive. Here again lives that immortal soul idea you are so famous for. Your faith in many deities has an outlet in some faiths today with their veneration of saints.
Sargo Would Be Very Comfortable
What day is it? you ask. This is Monday, Sargo. You get it? Mon-day/Moon Day, the day your forefathers set aside for moon worship. It still comes right after Sunday, the day your ancients worshiped the sun-god Shamas.
All the other days of the week still reflect heathen worship, like Tuesday, the day the deity Tiu was honored. And Wednesday, named after Woden, a Celtic deity who came later in Europe. Then there’s Thor’s day (Thursday), Frigg’s day (Friday), and of course, Saturn’s day (Saturday).
No, Sargo, most people today don’t worship the planets as you Babylonians did, but they do read horoscopes where they seek their futures from the stars – in the same manner your fathers did.
Fortune-telling by the stars is so popular today that even a former First Lady consulted an astrologer before advising her husband.
I believe in the Bible. The Bible condemns prophesying through the stars.
And the Bible doesn’t name the days of the week either, it only numbers them, except for the seventh, which is called the Sabbath.
What’s the Bible, you ask? It’s the Book inspired by the true Almighty Yahweh and on which Christianity is claimed to be based. Christianity is a major religion that has spread around the world. Its worshipers claim to worship the true Heavenly Father.
You may be surprised that they call Him God. Yes, that’s right. It’s not a name. And I agree that it is rather odd that Christianity seems to be the only major religion in all of history that doesn’t honor the One it worships by name.
Pardon me? …Oh of course, their Mighty One does indeed want to be called by His Name, just as you do yours. He said over and over in His inspired Word that His Name is Yahweh, and even sealed it in the Third Commandment. But THEY don’t think it is important.They say, “He knows who I mean.”
I agree, it IS very strange – and very confusing. But there are many aspects about this faith that you would find familiar, Sargo.
For instance, if you could see its temples, called churches, you would recognize the tall spires most of them have … Yes, you’re right. They are a carryover of the Asherah you had in Babylon. This is what a scholar says about the asherah:
“Originally a tree, symbolical of the ‘tree of life,’ it was an object of reverence and veneration. Then came the perversion of the earlier idea which simply honoured the origin of life; and it was corrupted and debased into the [male] organ of procreation, which was symbolized by the form and shape given to the Asherah. It was the phallus image of Isaiah 57:8, and the image of the male, Ezekiel 16: 17.” (Companion Bible, Appendix 42)
Babylonian Days Prosper
This religion worships on the venerable day of the sun, just as you and your forefathers did, Sargo, when you worshiped sun deities. Strangely, their own Bibles command that they worship on the seventh day, not the first day of the week (Ex. 20:10). But because they wanted to break clean from another faith known as Judaism, they decided on their own to change their day of worship.
They chose Sunday because that is the day their converts from pagan Babylonian religions were accustomed to keeping holy. A king even enforced it. His name was Constantine. And they have been observing Sunday ever since.
But there is much more.
They observe a holiday each year in honor of your goddess Ishtar. It still sounds similar: Easter. Many of them even are aware that Ishtar was the Babylonian queen deity of love and fertility, yet they still paint and hide eggs, symbols of life and reproduction, and flood this observance with rabbits, also symbols of fertility.
They claim they observe it because the Savior was resurrected on Sunday morning, although Scripture says He was already gone by the time Sunday sunrise rolled around. Anyway, they still honor where this observance really comes from – with your now symbolic rabbits and eggs.
You Babylonians certainly were big on worship of sex. But is that something to be proud of, Sargo? The big paradox is that the Bible condemns mixing these rites with True Worship. “Learn not the way of the heathen,” Jeremiah 10:2 reads, but they continue practicing your pagan traditions of worship anyway. They cite something about doing it for the children’s sake.
In Ezekiel, the One they seek to worship says He will have no mercy on those who practice sunrise worship rites:
“And He brought me into the inner court of Yahweh’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of Yahweh, between the porch and the altar, were about 25 men, with their backs toward the temple of Yahweh, and their faces toward the east: and they worshiped the sun toward the east… and they put the branch [asherah] to their nose… Therefore shall I deal in fury…” (8:16- 18)
Modern Holly Folly
Amazing, isn’t it, how all these rites of your influential heathen faith are so entrenched in today’s worship? But I’ve barely scratched the surface, Sargo. Where your religion really shines today is in the annual extravaganza called Christmas.
The biggest promoters are the merchants, who have kept this observance alive and growing in order to reach their annual sales quota. They claim to make half of their annual sales in the last two months of the year before Christmas, when gifts are exchanged and people go into debt for the next year. So they start Christmas advertising in September.
The Bible prophesies that the merchants of the earth will “have waxed rich through the abundance of her [Babylon’s] delicacies,”Revelation 18:3. Amazingly accurate, isn’t it? Never so accurate as in this the biggest shopping extravaganza the world has ever seen.
You’ll be more amazed at how Christmas rites are so very like those in ancient Babylon.
Some practices may have changed cosmetically through the years as they left Babylon and diffused through the Mithraic cults and into northern Europe, but the essence still shines through.
For instance, you know about the myth of Nimrod, symbolized by a tree, and how he became deified and was “reincarnated” after being cut down. Well, the fable is still celebrated in December with a yule log. At Xmas the burning log represents the glowing sun god Mithras returning to the skies after the winter solstice.
In Egyptian worship Nimrod reappeared as the palm tree. In Rome and northern Europe he was the fir or evergreen that is always green and seemingly immortal.
One source put it this way, “Now the Yule Log is the dead stock of Nimrod, deified as the sun-god, but cut down by his enemies; the Christmas tree is Nimrod redivivus – the slain god cometo life again,” The Two Babylons, p. 98. It continues, “This entirely accounts for the putting of the Yule Log into the fire on Christmas-eve, and the appearance of the Christmas-tree the next morning,” p. 97.
You pagans were always quite concerned when your source of life, the sun, appeared less and less each day at the end of the year. At the winter solstice, about December 25, you celebrated the return of the unconquered sun as it made its cyclical appearance once more and promised springtime renewal of life from the dead of winter.
In honor of the solar deity, even though they may not realize it, people at Christmas today decorate their evergreen trees with bulbs and balls symbolic of the returning sun, as well as to honor the renewal of life. Then they stand back and virtually worship this tree idol, placing gift offerings beneath it.
Yes, Sargo, without hesitation you could say that Christmas is indeed a gift from you sun-worshiping Babylonians. Some people today still claim December 25 is the day the Savior was born,but many know better.
In her book, All About American Holidays, Maymie R. Krythe writes, “The exact date of [the Messiah’s] birth is not known; and during the first two or three centuries little note, apparently,was taken of the anniversary. For church officials opposed such celebrations as savoring of paganism,” p. 254.
Early American colonists detested the Christmas observance, realizing its true origins. Associated Press writer Peter Coy writes, “Celebrating Christmas in Massachusetts three centuries ago was risky: Anyone who took the day off from work could be fined 5 shillings. When George Washington crossed the Delaware River the night of Dec. 25, 1776, he could count on catching the Hessian soldiers drunk and sound asleep after a day of carousing. But, for Washington’s men, Christmas was just another day. And it wasn’t until 1836 that the first state – Alabama – declared Christmas a holiday.”
Christmas is also rooted in the Roman Saturnalia, a sister heathen festival in honor of Saturn, deity of agriculture. According to Funk and Wagnall’s Standard Reference Encyclopedia, “The customs of the Saturnalia were later, in Christian times, blended with those on January 1, the celebration of the New Year, when it was also the practice to give presents, and much of the traditional merrymaking of the Christmas season seems to have developed from the earlier pagan festival,” Saturnalia, p. 7825.
Passing on the Mysteries?
You see, Sargo, other cultures also borrowed from your mysteries, and ours borrowed from and built on theirs as well as yours. The Roman counterpart to your Tammuz was Mithras, the sun deity. He supposedly hatched from an egg on December 25.
Because Mithraism was one of the last of your mystery cults to reach the West, it became a rival of Christianity, with which it was contemporary. Many of the practices of Mithraism were picked up by Christian worshipers.
The book, The Golden Bough, says about the blending of Mithraic rites with Christmas nativity customs, “In the Julian Calendar the twenty-fifth of December was reckoned the winter solstice, and it was regarded as the Nativity of the sun, because the day begins tolengthen and the power of the sun to increase that turning point of the year. Now Mithras was regularly identified by his worshipers with the Sun, the Unconquered Sun, as they called him; hence his nativity also fell on the twenty-fifth of December,” p. 416.
What is the harm in observing holidays your forefathers began? you ask. Well, Sargo, your pagan background allows for the worship of numerous “gods.” Naturally, these “gods” don’t mind sharing your worship because they don’t exist.
But Almighty Yahweh does exist, and because of Him you exist. He says that if you seek salvation – to live forever in His Kingdom – then you must obey and worship only Him.
Here are His exact words: “I am Yahweh: that is My Name: and My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images,” Isaiah 42:8. He also said through the Apostle Paul, “Take heed unto yourself, and unto the doctrine: continue in them: for in doing this you shall both save yourself, and them that hear you,” 1Timothy 4:16.
We can’t compromise True Worship, Sargo. The Roman Empire tolerated many different religions because they did not understand truth, and what they were really after anyway was political unity. So they forfeited truth whenever expedient to appease their subjects. And compromise is what began the fall of man in Eden.
You see, being a follower of the one true Mighty One Yahweh means enjoying a close, father-child union with Him. He actually lives in us by His Holy Spirit power. He says, “You are the Temple of the living Elohim; as Elohim has said, ‘I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people.’ Wherefore, ‘come out from among them, and be separate,’ says Yahweh, ‘and touch not the unclean thing,’ “ 2Corinthians 6:16-18.
If I worship other deities in the popular customs, even though maintaining that I’m really worshiping the true Creator Yahweh, then I can no longer be a son of Yahweh. He makes that clear. It’s like giving up my family and all it stands for and going to live at the neighbor’s house.
What would you think if your child did that to you, Sargo? It is the same with the Father Yahweh, the only true Mighty One of the universe. When we accept false worship and we compromise the truth, it is the same as leaving our Father.
The typical theologian’s dodge to a difficult question is, “That certainly is a mystery!” This is a buffered reply intended to protect one from further embarrassing questions. This response is simpler than a clumsy attempt to justify a doctrine not based upon Bible teachings. We find this answer in response to a query to explain the concept of the trinity out of Scripture, for instance.
The Apostle Paul, however, was given deeper understanding of spiritual truth and from time to time revealed this wisdom through what he called “mysteries.” Biblical mysteries are part of a grand program that Yahweh is working out with those He has chosen, but remain hidden to the majority. In general, churchianity does not fully comprehend Yahweh’s plan.
According to Paul, Yahweh has a special program destined for Israel, which He promised to Abram when He called him out of Ur of the Chaldees. The Bible contains Yahweh’s grand design for redeeming mankind through Israel, which He is working out even today. You and I have been called to have a part in this program.
Gentiles Put Into Prior Covenant
Most Bible believers have a distorted view of Yahweh’s plan. They think the “church” is now the focus of Yahshua‘s atoning work after Israel failed in fulfilling its mission in the Old Testament.
Popular teaching erroneously says that the New Testament reveals that Israel has been set aside. Favor has now been extended to the “church,” the “ekklesia,” the called-out ones who believe in the Savior. All the promises made to Israel are now transferred to the “church.”
They teach that the “church,” which is composed of those who have “accepted the Messiah as Savior,” has now replaced the Jews and all Israel as the favored people. The truth is, Yahweh is still working with Israel and the only way one can have any part in His plan for the faithful is to become a part of Israel. It is through Yahshua that the uniting of Jew and Gentile into one Body is to take place. That is the thrust of the New Testament, the “New Covenant.”
Not only is Yahweh calling out a people now to replace the rebellious of Israel, but He will also bring a spirit of repentance to Israel, who at the end of the age will accept Yahshua as the promised Messiah.
Yahweh’s calling requires a softening of the heart and turning to Him by both Jew and Israelite. At the same time He is also calling out a dedicated people from the Gentiles for His Name.
Musterion Means Mystery
The Apostle Paul wrote much about the Bible’s hidden knowledge, revealing deeper truths by what he refers to as “mysteries.” Calledmusterionin Greek, a mystery refers to a secret or knowledge that is impossible for humans to penetrate. Each of Paul’s mysteries is closely related to the coming Kingdom and Yahshua’s return. Man can only know as Elohim has chosen to make it known. Man could never have discovered this had Yahweh not revealed it.
Nominal understanding in general is a smooth message of love and grace or health and wealth. Discipline, faithfulness, obedience to Yahweh’s laws, and “working out our own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12) are cast taboo. Smooth, bland, soft messages that ignore Bible truth are in vogue today.
An emphasis on dedication, discipline, and high moral integrity as described in Yahweh‘s Word is not popular anymore. The Bibleitself is continually being replaced in sermons with cute little human interest stories designed to tickle the ears. Paul’s prophecy about this has come to pass in the last 40 years: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears,” 2Timothy 4:3.
Instead of teaching the Bible as a way of life, that the Ten Commandments are to mold us and our character, the vast majority ofchurches contend that keeping Yahweh’s law puts one under bondage. They say they are free from the law.
Churchianity has far removed itself from the Savior’s lessons of disciplined obedience to Yahweh‘s way of life. The Savior was born a Jew and obeyed Yahweh‘s laws all His life even so far as observing Passover with His disciples on the very day died. He never gavelicense to anyone to ignore or flout any of the Ten Commandments. He plainly said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17).
Nowhere does the Apostle Paul teach that the mysteries or the Savior did away with Yahweh’s law or His commandments, nor did Paul himself teach such. In fact he plainly said that the sacred treasures given to Israel included the law: “Who are Israelites; to whom pertain the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of Yahweh, and the promises”(Rom.9:4).
The only way we can obtain the adoption, the promised glory or the promises is to become a spiritual Israelite.
Paul’s Mystery
Paul’s first mention of a mystery is found in Romans 11:25: “For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant 0/ this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”
Paul reveals that blindness fell upon those Israelites who refused to see Yahweh’s plan in Yahshua (Rom. 11:7-8). They rejected the Messiah and continue in slumber even to this day. However, the elect (those who are called out) have obtained the blessing by becoming spiritual Israelites.
Even now, Yahweh is grafting Gentiles who are not physical Israelites into the Abrahamic olive tree. Paul says not all Israel are fleshly Israelites: “... they [are] not all Israel, which are 0/ Israel… That is, they which are the children 0/ the flesh, these[are] not the children of Yahweh: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed” (Rom. 9: 6, 8).
The true Israelite today is one who obeys Yahweh’ s laws from the heart. To Paul it was revealed that the Gentiles would be given the same opportunities through Yahshua: “Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Messiah by the evangel”(Eph.3:5-6).
Because of their miracles and wonders among the Gentiles, Paul and Barnabas joined those going to Jerusalem to ask about what to do with Gentile converts. Peter explained that Yahweh had already shown that He put no difference between Jew and Gentile, having given both of them the Holy Spirit, Acts 15:7-9. James agreed, stating that Yahweh choose from the Gentiles a people for His Name, Acts 15:14–17 (quotingAmos9:11-12), emphasizing, “That the residue of men might seek after Yahweh, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my Name is called, says Yahweh Who does all these things” (Acts 15:17).
Calling Spiritual Israel
Clearly, Yahweh wants a people for His Name; a people who would honor His Name, be called by His Name, be obedient to Him and be known as His people. He had hoped that would be ancient Israel, but they failed in this calling.
Yahweh has no plans to jettison His promises made to Abraham, which He began to fulfill in earnest when He redeemed Israel with a stretched-out arm. In no way is He planning to abandon or reject them, turning His attention solely to the Gentile church.
He continues to replace rebellious Israelites with pious, commandment keeping Gentiles. Just as He replaced the rebellious Israelites redeemed from Egypt with the new generation 40 years later, He is today grafting Gentiles into the Israelite promise. He is bringing Jew (Israelite) and Gentile together in one fold. He is uniting them into one body, called “the Body of Messiah, “the Ekklesia.”
In Acts .1:6 His disciples asked Yahshua whether He would at that time restore the kingdom to Israel. His reply: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own power.”
Those who are called out now to be followers of the Savior will replace the stiff-necked Israelites who reject Yahweh’s Messiah. A spiritual Israelite is one that becomes a member of the Body of Messiah through baptism into His saving Name, and is then placed in the ranks of Israel.
We are to become spiritual Israelites, to learn of Yahweh‘s ways and become teachers of His laws and commandments the same way physical Israel did. The Apostle Peter refers to us as a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar [treasured, consecrated, acquired, purchased] people, to show forth His praises,1Peter 2:5; 9. We are also called “kings and priests who will reign on earth,” Revelation 5:10.
Spiritual Marriage Anciently
Yahweh said He was married to Israel and pleaded with them to return to His way of living and admit they had transgressed: “Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your Elohim, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice, says Yahweh. Turn, O backsliding children, says Yahweh; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.”(Jer. 3:13-14)
Verse 15, which follows, pictures the restoration when new and faithful rulers will teach and guide a reunited Israel and Judah. Jerusalem will be the center of Yahweh’s rule, where all nations will come to learn obedience and follow His ways, Isaiah 2:3. “And many people shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the Elohim of Jacob; and He will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.”
We learn in the New Testament that the followers of Yahshua will also become His bride when He returns. The saints (those who are being called) will have been obediently prepared for His coming and are referred to as the bride:
“Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints”(Rev. 19:7-8).
Yahshua was the Yahweh of the Old Testament (l Cor. 10:4), and He was put to death at Calvary. He was betrothed to fleshly Israel, but they were the very ones who put Him to death, so His betrothal to them is no longer binding: “But we speak the wisdom of elohim in a mystery, [even] the hidden [wisdom], which Elohim ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known [it}, they would not have impaled the Sovereign of glory,”1Corinthians 2:7-8.
Yahweh brought Yahshua back from the dead, and now He is free to marry whomsoever He will. He can legally marry Jew or Gentile, bond or free. He will marry His bride consisting of those who are given glorified bodies in the first resurrection. This will include the ancient worthies and the grafted-in spiritual Israelites.
A spirit of reconciliation will pervade many humble hearts and turn many Israelites to accept the Savior as the promised Messiah,and many Gentiles will accept the role of an Israelite. It is then that the union of Jew and Gentile will be complete inYahshua theMessiah.
The following passage has been misunderstood by many and cited as doing away with the Ten Commandments. These verses are given us to show that through His death Yahshua has united both Israelite (Jew) and Gentile, making them one body.
Remember, this was written to the Gentile congregation at Ephesus. They were not of Israel, not Jews. They were not yet brought into fellowship with Israel. The passage is Ephesians 2:10-16: “For we are his workmanship, created in Messiah Yahshua unto good works, which Yahweh has before ordained that we should walk in them.”
We are being taught Yahweh’s law, which was given Israel in the Old Testament, that we should walk in obedience (unto good works) obeying the Commandments just as Yahshua did. “Wherefore remember, that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands.”
Are ignorant, just as the Ephesians were Gentiles in the flesh, and unaware that we are to obey Yahweh’s laws now and learn of His ways so that we could teach them to others both here and in the Kingdom. “That at that time you were without Messiah, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without Yahweh in the world.”
When Yahweh called us to become His sons and daughters, we were aliens from Israel. Now we seek to learn of His ways and walk in His, which were given anciently to Israel and will again be taught in the Kingdom. As spiritual Israelites, we teach and help others along the way.
“But now in Messiah Yahshua you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Messiah.” By accepting the sacrifice of Yahshua, we are accounted worthy of His love, and we can now draw near and approach Yahweh at the throne of grace. For He is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us.
When Israelites accept Yahshua as the Messiah, and Gentiles accept the Torah (Law), then we will both be one. The middle wall of partition is thought to be the waist-high wall in the court which divided the Jew and Gentile in Temple times. Now we are one, for we are united in Yahshua. “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.”
The Knowing Guide the Unknowing
There is no longer any animosity over the special handwritten ordinances that were given especially for the pagan Gentiles to abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. (Acts 15:20)
And that he might reconcile both unto Yahweh in one body by the tree, having slain the enmity thereby.
By His death, the Savior paid the penalty for both the sins of Jew and Gentile, and both are now united in one body. No hatred or enmity exists because we are all known as the Israel of Yahweh.
Paul emphasizes in Galatians that we as the called-out Gentiles are considered spiritual Israelites. Yahweh has given us a new heart, a new attitude, a broken and contrite spirit which is needed to develop into obedient new creatures as Yahweh’s Israel:
“And as many as walk according to this rule, peace [be] on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of Yahweh”(Gal.6:16). Yahweh will yet gather all His people together at the end of the age through Yahshua’s working with Israel: “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Messiah, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth [even] in him”(Eph.l:10).
Through Yahshua the world will be reconciled to Yahweh. Yahshua will put down all rebellion and bring this earth to perfection, where everything will be under Yahweh’s perfect control. We are being called now to learn of Yahweh’s ways, and walk in His paths.
Perhaps it is the better understanding given to us through the New Testament writers that strengthens our faith and clarifies some of the obscure sayings of the Old Testament. The writer of Hebrews says this knowledge gives us the opportunity to help perfect others.
“[Elohim] had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect,”Hebrews 11:40 (NIV).
Our minds collapse when we attempt to fathom the depth of the promises given us in the Bible. Even what we understand fills us with awe. Yet there is much more we do not yet comprehend, for Paul writes:
“But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the hear of man, the things which Elohim has prepared for them that love him. But EIohim has revealed [them] unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of Elohim”(l Cor.2:9-10).
The New Testament clearly teaches that Yahweh is calling out a people now to replace the rebellious Israelites. They failed to be the model nation that would receive all the blessings of Yahweh and be a wonder to the world. We can be grafted into the olive tree and become a kingdom of priests in the Kingdom. We will join other Israelites when Yahshua returns to help teach others Yahweh’s laws.
We are right now attending the school of life to test us to see whether we will seek Yahweh’s favor, call upon His Name, and be obedient to His word. Then all the world will know and understand the “mysteries” that are revealed to us now.
Others from ages past will join us as we which have followed Yahshua, in the regeneration when the Son 0f man shall sit in the throne of his glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. 19:28).
Our desire is that this truth will move you to make a commitment right now to join the growing number of spiritual Israelites!
Watch: “Secrets Unveiled” from Discover the Truth TV below.
The “church” has left the foundation of exclusive worship of the Father and is morphing into an environment where, utterly illogical and unthinkable, the worshiper esteems and exalts self above the One worshiped. Ancient apostasies are returning full circle as age-old Gnostic teachings are dramatically changing the religious landscape. They called it New Age, but there was nothing new about it. It was as old as Babylon and even older. This heresy that says we humans are really “gods” reaches all the way back to the Garden of Eden, when Ha Satan enticed Eve that she could be “divine” if she followed his instructions to defy Yahweh.
Popularized by the ‘80s New Age Movement, the dogma of self-glorification moved into mainstream culture and now into the Main Street church. Ancient mystery worship is back. One of its daughters, Gnosticism, began to permeate the New Testament movement early on and to pollute true teachings nearly from the start. So insidious were its diabolical dogmas that they were to dramatically influence the next 2,000 years of church doctrine and worship, opening the door to the grand-scale sacrilege we see today. It is time we learned where today’s trendy doctrines really came from and how you can come out from under the spell of an age-old scourge that Paul calls “damnable heresies” and their “pernicious ways that many would follow.”
Apostles Were Concerned
As he traveled from town to town teaching the truths he learned from the Savior, the Apostle Paul was a witness to many successes. At the same time he began to be increasingly concerned with what he was hearing from various quarters.
Concern led to alarm as Paul launched a campaign to warn the various Assemblies about the insidious heresy. So did Peter. Each was aware of apostates out to get their own followers at the expense of truth taught in the newly established Assembly. Just as the New Testament Body was beginning to get its feet on the ground, wolves were circling. The Apostles’ early fears proved abundantly justified.
Little is known about what exactly happened in the first two centuries following the death of the Apostles. One thing is sure, however. What occurred was far-reaching and would change the face of New Testament worship worldwide for the next two millennia down to our day. The die was cast, and its imprint was a familiar one. Many heretical teachings have become major tenets today, and none supported in Scripture. We also know that Gnosticism was at its most influential while the early Assembly was in its infancy. One researcher describes it this way:
“As the apostolic age comes to a close, the [Assembly] seems to pass through a dark tunnel. When it comes out at the other side, the original bond of unity, the clear standards, and the love of [Yahweh] seem to have been replaced by an unsettling, institutionalized spirit of domination and by beliefs which are more Gnostic than Christian. What happened? We are now confronted with the possibility that the original identity and true definition of Christianity have become lost,” from The Apostasy of the Lost Century, p. 9.
Why were the Apostles so concerned? What was it that posed such a deadly threat to the truth? It was nothing less than age-old Babylonian mystery religion beginning to take root through heretical and influential teachers. These apostates were mixing the teachings of Eastern mysteries and Greek paganism with the Bible. The Apostles had already confronted one of them, whom the Scriptures identify as Simon (Magus). “Magus” because he was a member of the Median tribe of Magi or Persian mystics who interpreted celestial phenomena and used wizards’ spells, according to the writer Herodotus. We read of Simon Magus when he attempted to buy the Holy Spirit from Peter and John in Acts chapter 8.
Another heretic was Marcion, a man who worked hard to completely separate the Messianic Faith from its Old Testament roots. He regarded the Old Testament as a catalog of crimes against humanity by an evil, sinister Mighty One.
Truth Nearly Smothered
These men were leaders in this farreaching movement of Gnostic teachings. This was primitive idolatry that centered on worship of self, not on Yahweh. In fact, Yahweh was seen by Gnostics as an evil sub-deity who made a serious mistake in creating the physical world. He imprisoned human beings in physical bodies even though they are innately “divine.” You can sense the rudiments of the immortal soul doctrine in the making.
The Gnostic believed humans possessed a spark of divine nature just waiting to be released at death to reunite with the true deity. The problem the Gnostic saw is that man doesn’t know that he is at the center of this great plot by a sinister creator, and is imprisoned by the created world. All that is physical is evil and useless. The way to salvation is knowledge, the Gnostic says. Enlightened knowledge is what Satan tempted Eve with: “For Elohim knows that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil,” Genesis 3:5.
This heresy, according to some historians, became a formidable contender with the early Faith and nearly smothered it. So powerful were its dogmas, so far-reaching was Gnostic teaching that its tenets were to impact church teachings irreconcilably and saturate popular worship all the way down to today.
More than one source has noted that Gnosticism made a deep impact on Christianity: “Scholars have debated whether (1) Gnosticism was a widespread scheme that flourished before the birth of [Messiah) and influenced Christianity from the outset, or (2) whether it was a movement that developed concurrently with Christianity and came to affect it significantly only in the second a subsequent centuries, or (3) it was a basic alteration of Christianity that arose after the disappointment of the earliest Christians’ expectation of the end of the age,” Dictionary of Bible and Religion, “Gnosticism,” p. 396.
Regardless as to the exact time of its inception, Gnosticism was to work its evil on the early faith. As one scholar writes, “The great menace, in fact of Gnosticism, was its refusal to remain outside of Christianity. It fastened itself as a parasite upon the Christian faith,drawing substance from it and at the same time robbing it of its individual character and vitality,” Deceptions and Myths of the Bible by Lloyd M. Graham, p.284.
That “individual character” being robbed was the early Assembly’s Israelite faith and the fact that the New Testament Assembly shared the same bond with Yahweh that Israel did — including the same commanded obedience to His statutes. With Gnostic influence, that relationship would forever change, and the “church” would early on-adhere to unscriptural beliefs and practices that would dominate and alter its personality and character. Only a small remnant would continue teaching the truth of the Bible.
Back to Babylon
With today’s decline in Bible-centered religion and worship, the sinister teachings of ancient Gnostic forefathers and other Babylonian mysteries have begun to grow and infiltrate in ever newer and bolder ways. How could such an obviously pagan movement be coming back? For NeoGnosticism to flourish today, traditional standards and values must first be dismantled. This is being done socially, politically, in the classroom, and now in churches. For this new Gnosticism to be successful, the past and its values must be completely erased.Secular history is being rewritten to take out references to the Bible and Biblical mores. The breakdown in the family and educational misdirection will ensure that traditional values will not be passed on to the next generation.
Socially, behavior that was once driven by Biblical undertones supported by a deep reverence in and fear of the power of the Almighty has been replaced by a man-made “politically correct” worldview. Whereas Biblical religion teaches that Yahweh alone constructs the reality of right and wrong, good and evil, NeoGnosticism sees the culture itself as divine. Gnostic philosophy says every problem must have a societal solution. The new behavioral standard of correctness is now fluid, changing with the times, rather than unchangeable since creation.
To grasp the significance of what is happening to the “church” as well as to society, we must first come to know more about the Gnostic religion, how it rose to prominence in the first centuries of the New Testament era, and how it still lives in doctrines and teachings of most denominations.
Gnosticism: A Quick Course
The Greek word Gnostic derives from a verb meaning “to know” It combines aspects of Greek philosophy, Oriental mysticism, and Christianity. It stresses salvation through gnosis or knowledge.
This teaching says “history is a progress from materialism and paganism, by way of religion and ethics, to spiritual freedom and gnosis ….The spirit in man is united with the soul so that it may be formed and educated in practical life, for it needs psychic and sense training,”Encyclopedia of World Religions, p. 146.
How did such a hybrid religious system arise? According to the book, Mystery Religions in the Ancient World, by Joscelyn Godwin, it was a combined effort. “In both Palestine and Egypt at the end of the Hellenistic age, unorthodox Jews mingled with Greek philosophers and Persian dualists; and somewhere in that confused but thrilling encounter Gnosticism was born, the religion of Gnosis — knowledge of the true nature of things” (p. 84).
“True nature”? Here is what this source describes as a major tenet of Gnosticism: “The world is a stupendous mistake, created by a foolish or vicious creator-god. This creator or Demiurge (Yahweh) is a god of very low grade on the celestial hierarchy, himself the result of a grave error, who thinks he is supreme. His pride and incompetence have resulted in the sorry state of the world as we know it, and the blind and ignorant condition of most of mankind. The Gnostic, however, is not fooled. Although like every man he suffers under the tyranny of this monster, he knows that far above the Demiurge there is another God. He believes, moreover, that humanity is not totally without hope of reaching this true God whom the Demiurge does his best to hide, both from himself and from his subjects,” Ibid.(Demiurge is Greek meaning “craftsman, maker, creator.”)
To understand modern doctrines we need to realize that Gnosis-centered teachings also reject the law of the Old Testament, the holy days and weekly Sabbath, as well as many other commands Yahweh gave to His chosen people Israel.
It is the hidden force behind the immortal soul doctrine, universal salvation teachings, the once-saved-always-saved tenet, the belief in a reward in heaven, and many practices engaged in but not supported by the Scriptures (like the custom of pouring rather than immersion for baptism). It even explains the pervasive belief that Yahshua the Messiah came to do away with His Father’s “harsh,” Old Testament laws.
Clearer View of Worship Today
As one digs deeper into the tenets of this mystic religion, one begins to see the pieces of a diabolical puzzle begin to come together. When the pieces are placed side by side a clearer picture of modern worship emerges from the darkness of mysticism. The simple fact is, Gnosticism and Christianity grew up together and would strongly influenced each other.
Notice this statement: “Gnosticism emerged in schools of thought within the church in the early second century and soon established itself as a way of understanding Christianity in all of the church’s principal centers … Gnosticism was thus a major threat to the early church,” Holman Bible Dictionary, p. 558.
Another source shows just how powerful this movement was in turning people from the Scriptures: “Its rapid growth in the ancient world was encouraged by an early Christian fascination with Greek philosophy and mythology … early Christians were led into Gnosticism when they rejected the Old Testament and their Jewish roots, and turned to Platonic Dualism,” Mercer Dictionary of the Bible,p. 334.
One of the Gnostic sects had a particularly profound impact on early Christianity. Its founder was the Persian Mani. “He established a highly syncretistic form of Gnosticism called Manichaeism, which became widespread and which even included Augustine among its converts,” The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, p. 417. This heresy combined Zoroastrian, Gnostic Christian, and pagan elements.
With one of the “church fathers” even involved, it is no wonder that many Christian teachings would be forever influenced by the heresies of this paganistic movement.
Doctrinal Ties to False Worship
There are really only two religions in the world: the religion of “He” (Yahweh) and the religion of “Me” (paganism). All false religion has as its core the worship and advancement of self through human philosophy. Anything that replaces the worship of Yahweh is idolatry. Any religion based on the worship of another mighty one either springs from a rebellious heart that refuses to acknowledge Yahweh as supreme, or is simply practiced out of ignorance. Either way, True Worship is displaced while glory is given to idols — even the idolatry of self-worship. The Prophet Samuel told King Saul, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry” (1Sam 15:23).
Let’s look at some modern doctrines and see how they equate with what was being taught in Gnostic circles even while Peter, Paul, James, and John were teaching the truths of Yahshua and the Scriptures.
First, here are some revealing statements about some of today’s New Age notions, as well as church beliefs and practices that, astonishingly, are tied to Gnostic teachings. “From the Coptic Gnostic papyri (and their Greek originals) it is evident that the Christian Gnostic systems developed for some centuries alongside the orthodox forerunner of the main Christian church. and were distinguished by such matters as giving priority to immediate experience rather than ecclesiastical structure, teaching that ignorance rather than sin is the cause of suffering, recognizing a feminine as well as a masculine element in the divine, explaining the resurrection of [Messiah] as spiritual rather than bodily, and pointing to self-knowledge as knowledge of [Yahweh],” Myth and Mysteryby Jack Finegan, p. 258.
This writer explains that while Biblical worship stresses a single, correct faith that is ever one and the same, the Gnostics believed that the Holy Spirit continued to teach new things in an evolution of beliefs.As a result, the apostate church “came to alternative thoughts and practices that were plainly meaningful to many, and that have continued to be of influence in various forms of religious tradition, including the esoteric,” ibid.
The belief among some that the “church” has the authority to set doctrine over the Bible is in line with this same Gnostic belief of an ever-growing and expanding belief system. This belief is at odds with Psalm 119:89: “For ever, O Yahweh, thy word is settled in heaven.” In other words, no new is revealed over what has already been revealed in Scripture.
Teachings that were once Bible based began to take on Gnostic flavor, as one authority notes: “The early Christian preachers and writers, seeking to speak and write to be understood, used terms current in the first century world in the vague context of gnostic religious longings and gave them new meaning in the context of the incarnation, death, and resurrection of [Yahshua],” Holman, p. 559. This same source also reveals, “The classic answer to the question of why gnosticism arose is that it represents the ‘radical Hellenizing of Christianity.’ In this view, gnosticism’ resulted from the attempt of early Christian thinkers to make Christianity understandable, acceptable, and respectable in a world almost totally permeated by Greek assumptions about the reality of the World,” p. 559.
Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, says that the “church” did not go into wholesale corruption until after the martyrdom of James the Just (61-62 C.E.), “when Symeon the cousin of [Yahshua] was chosen bishop of Jerusalem, and a certain Thebouthis, who was not chosen,began the corruption ‘by the seven heresies, to which he belonged, ‘” A Source Book for Ancient Church History, Joseph C. Ayer, p. 109.
Old Heresies Strong Today
These seven heresies or movements in Gnosticism were initiated by Gnostic teachers, two of whom were Simon Magus and Marcion. They and other teachers were so effective and influential that many of their heresies are still alive and well in the basic beliefs and majordoctrines of most denominations today. Let’s look at some.
Universal salvation
The Gnostic Carpocratians taught that each person must pass from body to body until one has experienced every kind of action in the world. Then the soul is liberated to soar upward to the god who is above the maker(s) of the world (meaning the lesser mighty one,Yahweh). In this way all souls are saved. This belief arises from Oriental teachings of reincarnation. It traces to the world’s first lie, when Satan told Eve, “You won’t die if you disobey Yahweh.”
Elements of this universal salvation teaching of Gnosticism are still evident in the common belief that the dead live on in heaven when they “die.” Furthermore, if all are saved eventually anyway, where is the need to honor Yahweh through obedience? The logical conclusion leads inevitably to the Gnostic-rooted teaching of grace over obedience, along with the “faith alone” teaching, neither of which the Bible supports or teaches.
Law versus grace
It was the Old Testament Mighty One of harsh law and retributive justice (Yahweh) who made the world, Marcion taught. Through it He maintains unjust control. It is the higher New Testament god of love and grace, from whom Yahshua came, who is above Yahweh and unknown who will ultimately triumph over the lesser Old Testament deity. Marcion made much of the contrast between the law and the Evangels, that is, the first as coming from a wicked mighty one while the latter from a loving Father. These Gnostic notions were to profoundly affect church doctrine.As one source notes, “Christian theology also had taken seriously the concepts of love and mercy, rather than stressing law and ecclesiastical authority,” Mercer, p. 548
The law is against us
This idea is implicit in most church teachings today with their misinterpretation of grace and love. That the law is somehow bad is not found in any Scripture, however, and therefore had another origin. In fact, the Scriptures say just the opposite, that the law is good and good for us, Romans 7: 12; Psalm 19:7; lJohn 5:3; John 14:21. The Gnostic Ptolemaeus wrote that the law was imperfect, unjust, and had to be abrogated by Yahshua. The law came from an imperfect Demiurge (Yahweh), an inferior mighty one.
No-law beliefs were popular among Gnostics. “They claimed that the spiritual Christians were not responsible for what they did and could not really sin. Thus they could act in any way they pleased without fear of discipline,” Holman, p. 558. In the mind of the Gnostic, it wasn’t the human being who brought on his own problems, but Yahweh who was responsible.
“The Gnostic Marcion thus rejected the Old Testament, pointing out that the lesser or subordinate god revealed in it dealt with matter, insisted on law rather than grace, and was responsible for our decaying, tragedy-filled world,” Ibid. The reason Marcion rejected Yahweh “was not for His role as Creator, but for having given the Law,” Mercer, p. 548.
Gnosticism lies at the core of the modern belief that if man obeys Yahweh he is being “legalistic,” which is the same diabolic lie Satan used on Eve when he told her that she need not obeyYahweh’s warning against eating of the fruit of the tree. “He’s only trying to keep you from being as great as He is, Eve.” The Gnostics fell under the same spell, only they thought they could even be GREATER than Yahweh.
Finegan says that obeying the Scripture was not popular among the enlightened Gnostics, “For those [Gnostics] who are spiritual and perfect, however, such a course of conduct [obedience to Yahweh] is not at all necessary. They will be entirely and undoubtedly saved, not by means of conduct, but because they are spiritual by nature,” Myth and Mystery, p. 231.
The same reasoning is shared by the no-law clerics of our day. If I’m already saved, why obey any law? is their rationale.
The strength of Gnosticism was that it played on man’s carnal desires. And it struck at the heart of True Worship by attacking Yahweh and opening Him up to suspicion and doubt. Since Yahweh was inferior and was doing all He could to keep man from attaining his full,spiritual potential, keeping His laws and commandments will only inhibit man and keep him chained and in subjection, the believed.
In the same way, to reject Yahweh’s laws today is reflective of a covert animosity toward Yahweh as well. Only a rebellious heart refuses to obey. Romans 8:7 says, “The carnal mind is enmity against Elohim.” Enmity means deep-seated hatred.
John, however, writes, “For this is the love of Yahweh, that we keep His commandments,” lJohn 5:3. The converse of this verse is also true — disobedience to His laws means a rejection of Him and His desires for His people.
The ancient Gnostic and today’s neo-Gnostic both reject what Paul wrote in Romans 7: 12, “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” They also avoid the passage that reads, “He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21).
Immortal soul
The teaching that the human being is an immortal being is central to Gnosticism. As shown, the Gnostic held that man is divine being held in a physical world by an evil sub-Mighty One who created the physical world and imprisoned us. Man’s true place belongs with the gods, says the Gnostic.
Finegan writes, “The Gnostic systems envision not only the end-experience of the individual, for whom death is liberation from entanglement in matter and the beginning of the ascent of the soul to its proper heavenly home, but also the end-goal for the whole cosmos,”Myth and Mystery, p. 257.
The notion of an immortal soul is rooted squarely in paganism. As Ramsay MacMullen writes, “Their religious views we might suppose began with, or logically rested on, ideas of immortality. Homer portrayed man as having a soul, and Elysian Fields to go to after death.Plato taught of life indestructible” (Christianizing the Roman Empire, AD 100-400, “What Pagans Believed,” p. 11).
This writer offers further insight as he describes the words spoken at a pagan funeral, remarkably similar to what one hears in funerals today: ” … he [the deceased] now lives among the gods, traversing the heavens and looking down on life below” (Ibid.).
The pagan Greek philosopher Plutarch, writing in the first century, once gave this consolation on the death of a child: “It feels no more pain; its soul is indestructible, according to ‘traditional teachings’ and Dionysiac rites; better, according to ‘traditional and ancient customs,’ the soul returns to a ‘finer and more divine fate and country,” MacMullen, p. 126.
An inferior Old Testament
The biggest force for rejecting the teachings of Yahweh in the Old Testament comes from Marcion. “The gnostic Marcion thus rejected the Old Testament, pointing out that the lesser or subordinate god revealed in it dealt with matter, insisted on law rather than grace, and was responsible for our decaying, tragedy-filled world.” =Holman Bible Dictionary, p. 558.
Another source writes about Marcion, “He has [Yahshua] descend to Hell after the Crucifixion to rescue the Old Testament ‘villains’ and all the Gentiles, leaving behind Abraham, Moses and all the other henchmen of [Yahweh]” Godwin, pp. 85-86.
Marcion even compiled and wrote his own New Testament, in which he contrasted the Old Testament to the New Testament on love and justice. He omitted what did not promote love.
Through the influence of Marcion the picture is becoming clearer why the precepts of Yahweh as first given in the Old Testament Scriptures are put in the closet today by most denominations.
Trinity
Some Gnostic teachings reflect the Babylonian and Egyptian concepts of a trinitarian godhead. The worship of three main deities is common in ancient, pagan religious systems. The oldest is from Babylon, where the father Nimrod was worshiped along with his wifeSemiramis and son Tammuz. Other variants of this include Egyptian (Osiris, Isis, Horus); Graeco-Roman (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades; Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto); Christian (Father, Son, Holy Spirit).
The Gnostic work called The Gospel of the Egyptians includes the trinitarian concept and provides another bridge to this teaching in churchianity. “The first section of the work…tells of the origin of the heavenly world. From the supreme God, who is the Great Invisible Spirit, there evolves a trinity made up of Father, Mother (Barbelo), and Son,” Myth and Mystery, p. 251.
Significantly the deification of Mary as the “mother of G-d” fits well into the trinitarian pattern of ancient worship systems involving a mother in a trine god hierarchy.
Mother of G-d
The idea of a mother god is 4,000 years old. The Chaldeans called her Beltis, in Assyria she was known as Ishtar (from which we get Easter); the Phrygians called her Cybele; she was Isis or Hathor in Egypt; Astarte among the Canaanites; Dianna with the Ephesians, and Aphrodite in Greece.
Here is how the Gnostic embraced mother god-ism: “The being who fell out of the Pleroma [heavenly hierarchy] became the mother of Christ, and Christ returned to the Pleroma. Jesus emanated from Christ who returned to the Pleroma (although other ideas of his origin were advanced too), and the Holy Spirit emanated from Ecclesia. The mother, however, was unable to return to the Pleroma, and she brought forth another son, the Demiurge, who is the creator of all things outside the Pleroma, and the ruler of everything under him,” Myth and Mystery, p. 229.
Hence we have the Gnostic concept of the ancient belief in a “mother of G-d.” She becomes the literal mother of the Demiurge Yahweh and is called Sophia (Wisdom). Significant are the parallels between this mother concept and the “Virgin Mary” is presented venerated today. Ultimately, Sophia or Mother wisdom is restored to her place among the deities, not unlike the way prayers are directed to Mary today.
New Age
New Age is nothing more than warmed-over Gnosticism, as noted by Christopher Lash in an issue of Omni magazine: “The New Age movement is best understood … as the 20th century revival of an ancient religious tradition, gnosticism … ”
As churchianity accelerates the watering down of Scriptural precepts, New Age neo-Gnosticism is stepping through church doors and into the pulpits. As the book The New Age Explosion explains, “It is interesting that New Agers such as Besant would mention ‘Gnosis’ in the church.’ For in essence, the New Age is a revival of the gnosticism that was prevalent in the days of Paul and the early apostles,” p. 42.
Sophia the Feminist
Exalting of the female long predated Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug, who are just minor characters in an age-old worship of feminine power and mystique. Feminist roots reach back to the beginning of creation — to the mystic’s interpretation of Genesis, where Eve caught on to the “plot” of the Demiurge or creator and realized that it was the snake, not Yahweh, that was telling the truth. The snake was the emissary of the real “god.” The enlightened Eve with her special wisdom realized that she need not be subject either to Yahweh or to her husband and could transcend this fleshly existence through ignoring what Yahweh told her. All she had to do was to believe Satan.
Eve, therefore, becomes the bearer of truth on earth for the mystic. Some Gnostic teachings say that Eve became the light-bringing serpent.
From the idea of wisdom in the form of a woman came the Gnostic Sophia, a feminine deity whose name in Greek means skill and wisdom. She is seen as the mother of Yahshua, even the progenitor of Yahweh and the world-soul. She is seen as the mother goddess of many pagan religions.
New Age religion also focuses on Sophia as the divine providence who will save humanity. According to certain Gnostic teachings, man is physical and evil; woman is spiritual and divine. The idea of women as manifestations of the true “divine” is at the root of the movement to ordain women, to lead worship back to its “true” origins — back to Dame Wisdom.
As William Gentz writes of Gnostic teachings, “The two most common themes in this literature as a whole are the creation of the world as a perversion of the divine plan, and the role of wisdom [Sophia] and/ or Jesus as the bearer of the divine message of deliverance from the world of matter,” The Dictionary of Bible and Religion, p. 396.
History is also reflected in the modern push to get rid of the patriarchal order in society and replace it with a matriarchal one. Because the family is what passes on traditional values to the next generation, the family order is the next logical institution to come under attack.
Family responsibilities to rear children are increasingly being taken over by the state, which can mold them into its “politically correct” ideology. Without parental guidance, young people are increasingly finding their values on the streets and in gangs. Instead of advocatinga return to family values and responsibilities, those in power perpetuate what has already proven to fail. As a former first lady said in a Mother’s Day commencement address at George Washington University a few years ago, “Our community must be a family.”
‘Come Out of Her My People’
These are some of the salient teachings of Gnosticism. This ancient heresy that is making a big comeback throughout our culture stands Biblical truths on their head as it seeks to make right wrong and wrong right. Gnosticism is an effective and powerful tool that theAdversary has used through the centuries to corrupt True worship and twist proper and true teachings so that the vast majority will worship in error. This is the heresy that gave Paul one of his biggest headaches, which was a harbinger of bigger problems to come in our day.
Return with us to pure, unadulterated worship of the one true Father in heaven. Leave the doctrines of heathendom produced by compromise with error. Come out to the light of truth. Enter the strait gate and walk the narrow way that leads to everlasting life!
When Yahshua the Messiah returns, where will He descend? To whom will He return? To Christians who keep Sunday? To Muslims who keep Friday? To Jehovah’s Witnesses who keep all days? To the U.S. Naval Observatory to confirm the day of the week and the equinox? Or to those who keep the Biblical Sabbath and Feasts – just as He did Himself?
Bible prophecy tells us that world conditions indicate that the return of our Savior is drawing ever nearer. He could return at one of the Feast days of the seventh month – at year’s end – because He is prophesied to return at the last trumpet sound. When Yahshua returns, only the believers are raised to an incorruptible state.
The New Testament deals with the end times and moves step by step through the chapters of Revelation and the sounding of seven trumpets of Yahweh. A number of verses corroborate the return of the Messiah, stating that it is at the seventh and last trumpet that our Savior returns. One such is lCorinthians 15:52: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (ICor. 15:52).
The Apostle Paul also wrote, “For Yahshua Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of Yahweh: and the dead in Messiah shall rise first” (1Thes. 4: 16).
While we are assured that Yahshua will return at the last or seventh trumpet, we are also told that He will return to Jerusalem to the mount of Olives: “And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which [is] before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south” (Zech. 14:4).
Atonement and the High Priest
Many believe that the Savior will return at one of Yahweh’s Festivals — perhaps the Feast of Trumpets.
There is also justification for the belief that the Day of Atonement may be the time of His return. Leviticus 16 gives a detailed account of the high priest’s duties on Atonement day. None of the Israelites could enter that holy place at any time, and the high priest entered the Holy of Holies only on the day of Atonement.
Our Redeemer is pictured in type as having gone to the heavens where He as our High Priest is also our advocate or mediator between His ekklesia (Assembly) and the Heavenly Father.
The populace waited outside with baited breath for the return of the high priest, knowing that when he emerged, the sacrifice for himself and the people was then accepted by Yahweh. Had he been struck dead in the Holy of Holies, the message was clear that the Atonementsacrifice was rejected, and the people were still in their sins.
So it is with us. When we see the returning Messiah, we will know that we are among the redeemed and our sins have truly been forgiven. We can now stand in His presence: “So Messiah was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Heb. 9:28).
True Roots Soon Lost
In preparing for the coming birth of the Savior to Bethlehem, Yahweh under Ezra and Nehemiah had brought the exiled Jews back from Babylon. The Temple was rebuilt and Jerusalem was again occupied by the Jews. Under the Romans, the Levitical priesthood wasallowed to function.
The community of Jews in the Holy Land was the only composite witness to the world that Yahweh was indeed the Mighty One of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yahweh sent His Son as His prophet to a people now restored in the land, but they received Him not,John 1:11-12.
Dr. Ethelbert Bullinger’s Companion Bible notes that had the people back then accepted Yahshua as the Messiah, the Kingdom could have been established at that time. However, their rejection of Him brought tragedy upon the whole Jewish nation. A number of Jews along with some Gentiles did accept the Messiah, which was the beginning of the early ekklesia or Assembly of believers, erroneously called “the church.”
Yahshua had spent three and a half years teaching and preparing His twelve Apostles concerning the Kingdom of Heaven. They were to be His witnesses, proclaiming His truth after His return to the Father in heaven. These and other Jewish converts to the Messiah made up the early believers and were known by the world as “Jewish Christians.”
However, soon after the Savior’s death and resurrection the Jewish converts died off and were replaced by Gentiles. The ekklesia(known as the early “church”) for the most part became “Gentile Christianity” and lost its Israelite or Jewish roots. Paganism was adopted wholesale.
Enter Heathenism
The church soon was composed of unconverted pagans who continued in their heathen customs. Pagan doctrines began to supplant the Savior’s New Covenant teachings and perverted His message. Sunday replaced the Sabbath.
Pagan days such as Christmas, Hallowe’en, Lent, and Easter soon displaced the holy days of Leviticus 23. False teachings like going to heaven and the immortal soul idea were baptized and woven into the fabric of “Christian” worship. Pagan worship continued on pagan days, but was now syncretized with a new meaning supposedly adapted to the Bible.
The “gentile church” now claimed the promises made to Israel. Christianity no longer looked to the Jews to learn when Passover was to occur, but turned to the worship of Ashtoreth at the time of the vernal equinox, calling it “Easter.”
Pagan worship revolved around the movement of celestial bodies, and the solstices and equinoxes were the standards for heathen holidays. Xmas came at the time of the winter solstice. The term Easter was derived from the pagan deity Eostre which was the name of the goddess of spring. “In her honor sacrifices were offered at the time of the vernal equinox,” The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, p. 6, “Easter.”
The celebration in honor of Eostre (Ashtoreth) was adopted by the church and changed to honor the resurrection of the Savior, an observance nowhere commanded in the Bible. We are never told to remember His resurrection, but to remember His death.
Zion-centered Truth
Yahshua clearly states, “Salvation is of the Jews,” (John 4:22), referring to Himself as the ultimate Savior Who would spring from Judah. Paul emphasizes the important role the Jews had in preserving Yahweh’s Word: “What advantage then has the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles (Greek logion, utterances) of Yahweh” (Rom. 3:1-2). It is the Jews who have meticulously copied and maintained the accuracy of the Old Testament for us.
Notice that Yahshua Himself made His presence known at the Feast of Dedication in December (John 10:22- 23), a memorial of the cleansing of Ezra’s Temple after its defilement by Antiochus Epiphanes. This was not a commanded observance, but has great historical significance to Israelites.
The Old Testament speaks of the final deliverance of Yahweh’s people as taking place in Mount Zion and Jerusalem where the Jewish nation is presently recognized: “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of Yahweh shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as Yahweh has said, and in the remnant whom Yahweh shall call” (Joel 2:32).
During the Sabbatical year of 69-70 C.E., the Temple was destroyed and the Levitical priesthood ceased to function. The Jews were soon driven from the Holy Land following the Bar Kochba rebellion in 135 C.E. Few returned.
For almost 2,000 years Yahweh has not had a “showcase” witness on this earth as was the nation of Israel in the time of David and Solomon, of whom the world could attest to blessings of obedience from Yahweh.
Pagan customs and worldly influence continue to hold sway in churches as corruption of Bible teaching proceeds apace. However, sincere Bible students reject traditions and practices not found in the Bible but seek the Bible’s admonition and example to return to the pristine truth of Scripture as closely as we are able.
It was only in this century, after 2,000 years, that in 1948 Yahweh saw fit to reestablish Israel back in the Holy Land. Israel is the only nation in the world where the seventh-day weekly Sabbath is nationally acknowledged as the day of rest (but not necessarily observed by everyone). While His personal Name, Yahweh, continues to be disguised and avoided, His feast days are tolerated and even respected by most Jews in Israel today.
Once again Yahweh has a viable, visible showcase where His laws and ways are acknowledged (but not always observed).
This tiny nation called Israel, with some 4 million people, has been preserved and spared by Yahweh in spite of repeated attacks from the Arab coalition sworn to push the fledgling country into the sea. It has not happened, and will not happen, because Yahshua Himself will yet intervene at Israel’s darkest hour: “Yahweh also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah” (Zech. 12:7).
Israel was given the Torah and a priesthood to educate them in Yahweh’s ways. Each of the priest’s activities in some way symbolized the redemptive work of the Savior. The Sabbaths have special significance in carrying out Yahweh’s grand design for mankind. Yahweh set apart special days and times for the worship of Himself. These days are prophetic, Colossians 2:17.
These special days are in harmony with the harvesting of crops in the Holy Land. Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread mark the beginning of the barley harvest, followed by the Feast of Weeks for the wheat harvest, and Tabernacles for the general harvest.
Savior to Return to Zion
When Yahshua returns, He will go to the Holy Land and stand on the Mount of Olives, Zechariah 14:4. He will then establish Jerusalem as the bright and shining beacon of light showing His truth to the whole world.
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of Yahweh’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the Elohim of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem” (Isa. 2:2-4).
Yahshua will rule with a rod of iron from Jerusalem with the resurrected saints. All His Sabbaths will be strictly honored and kept, “And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, says Yahweh” (Isa. 66:23).
All Feast days will be observed as well, Ezekiel 45:21-25; also Zechariah 14: 16-18. His Name Yahweh will be revered by all and they will gladly serve Him in the Kingdom: “For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the Name of Yahweh, to serve Him with one consent” (Zeph. 3:9).
Passover and the Equinox
Because we know that the Sabbaths and Feast days will be observed in the Kingdom, it is incumbent upon us as the Elect of Yahweh to learn as much as we can of these special times.
By keeping these sanctified days now, we will understand and comprehend their deeper spiritual lessons.
Yahweh teaches us spiritual truths through physical actions. We keep the weekly Sabbath to be reminded every week, 52 times a year, that Yahweh is our Creator, the One we serve and obey. We are reminded weekly that Yahshua came to show us how we are to walk in His footsteps and live the truth He teaches.
In the year of His death, history records that the Savior kept the Passover at the same time as did the Sadducees. John 18:28shows that some Jews had not yet partaken of the Passover, but Yahshua and His disciples had done so in John 13. His disciples raised no question about their observing Passover before the Jews who followed Rabbinic Judaism.
Historians agree that while the Temple was standing the Jews kept Passover BEFORE the equinox. Because Yahshua kept Passover as determined by the Sanhedrin before the equinox during Temple times, then we are on safe ground to do likewise. Nothing is said about having to observe a NEW MOON that appears after the vernal equinox before keeping Passover. Historians point out that the vernal equinox often comes during the month Abib.
McClintock and Strong’sCyclopedia of Biblical Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, Vol. 3, p. 13, under Easter states: “Many of the Church fathers are of opinion that, according to the original calculation of the Jews up to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, the 14th Nisan had always been after the spring equinox, and that it was only in consequence of a miscalculation of the later Jews that the 14th of Nisan occasionally fell before the equinox. They therefore insisted that the 14th of Nisan, which for both parties within the church determined the time of Easter, should always be after the equinox.
“As the year of Jews is a lunar year, and the 14th of Nisan always a full-moon day, the Christians who adopted the above astronomical view, whenever the 14th of Nisan fell before the equinox, would celebrate the death of [Messiah] one month later than the Jewish Passover. As the Christians … had to make their own calculations for the time of Easter … These calculations frequently differed, partly from reasons already set forth, and partly because the date of the equinox was fixed by some at the 18th of March, by others at the 19th,by others at the 21st of March.”
Man Sets His Own Rules
Notice that the Christian “Church fathers” established their own rules by relying upon the vernal equinox as did the pagans, instead of the green ears of barley as the Bible requires (Abib = “green ears,” Deut. 16:1).
Another authority writes, “That the vernal equinox occurred in Nisan [Abib] is attested by Josephus (Ant. 1. x. 5) and also in cuneiform literature (Muss-Arnolt p. 77) Nisan corresponded to the first zodiacal sign (Aries) in which the vernal equinox fell. The sacred year was determined by the annual festivals and the first of these festivals was henceforth fixed by the Passover moon.” “Equinox and the Calendar,” Dictionary of the Bible, James Hastings, p. 765.
Notice that Hastings says, “The vernal equinox occurred in Nisan Abib.” That is to say, sometime during the month of Abib, after the new moon of Abib, the vernal equinox took place. Thus, the equinox came AFTER the new moon of Abib! This counters those who erroneously cling to the idea that the new moon must occur AFTER the equinox.
Nothing is mentioned here about letting the equinox determine the month of Nisan. The vernal equinox fell within the month of Nisan [Abib] -which means the new moon of Nisan came BEFORE the equinox! That is, the new moon came establishing the month of Nisan (Abib), then came the equinox, then the Passover. Therefore, those who insist upon keeping the Feasts a month later are out of harmony with Yahweh’s calendar.
Fausset’s Bible Encyclopedia, under “Year [Hebrew year] reads, “They began it with the new moon nearest to the equinox, yet late enough to allow of the firstfruits of barley harvest being offered about the middle of the first month. So Josephus (Ant. iii. 10,5) states that the Passover was celebrated when the sun was in Aries” (p. 727).
Many authorities and Bible dictionaries corroborate the fact that the Passover was kept AFTER the equinox, but that the new moon of Abib, which began the new year, was that which was nearest the vernal equinox. Some even declare that the equinox came in the month Abib-Nisan, which is AFTER the new moon. Therefore, history confirms the fact that the idea is from paganism that the new moon of Abib must come AFTER the vernal equinox. Often it precedes the equinox. .
Savior Likely to Come at Feast
Because the return of Yahshua will have wide repercussions, many serious Bible students anticipate that the Messiah may well return on one of Yahweh’s prophetic annual Feast days. Trumpets may be a likely time, for this festival has not yet been fulfilled and we read that the Savior will return at the sound of a trumpet: “For Yahshua Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of Elohim, and the dead in Messiah shall rise first” (1Thess. 4: 16).
We also read that the Savior will return to the land of Israel: “Then shall Yahweh go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which [is] before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, [and there shall be] a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of ittoward the south” (Zech. 14:3-4).
At Last, a Return to Truth
Almost all great Bible events have taken place upon special days that Yahweh has set aside for His worship. Still not fulfilled are the four annual Sabbaths of the seventh month.
The Hebrew tekufah (Strong’s No. 8622) is assumed by a few to be the spring equinox. It appears four times in the Bible with the following literal meanings: Exodus 34:22; at the year’s end (marg.: revolution of the year) 1Samuel 1:20; when the time was come about(marg.: in revolution of days) 2Chronicles 24:23; at the end of the year (“in the revolution of the year” – margin) and Psalm 19:6[concerning the sun] “His going forth [is] from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.”
Tekufah means at the end of a complete circuit and not the vernal equinox at the beginning of a year.
Before the Savior comes there will be a movement of New Testament believers who will diligently seek the ancient paths and return to keeping Yahweh’s Torah in preparation for Yahshua’s return. The union of Judah and Ephraim will surely come as the latter rain when Yahweh’s Spirit is poured out on His people.
The Savior will return to the mount of Olives, which is in the land of Israel. It will most assuredly be on a Feast day (perhaps Trumpets?). Would not He honor His people by returning when they are obediently keeping the feasts of the seventh month?
Because the Jews were given the oracles of Yahweh, their observance of His holy days would certainly be in the right season, in the correct month, and not a month later as determined by an unbiblical “new moon after the vernal equinox.”
This practice would delay the Feast Days one whole month. Furthermore, observing the signs of the heavens such as the equinoxes and solstices was the practice of pagans who gave us Easter and Xmas. We are better off to be in harmony with the Jews than attempt to observe another month through worldly customs outside the Bible.
Remember the words of Yahshua: “You worship you know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews,”John 4:22. Keep the days Yahweh has commanded, in the time that is appointed, not according to the notions of man.
Yahweh in His wisdom has given us a calendar in the sky for all to see. He uses the sun and moon to establish days, months, years, and also His appointed observances, Genesis 1:14. A critical component to His calendar is the new moon, which starts each Biblical month. Yahweh commanded special offerings on each new moon, and one special new moon is even a Feast day called the Feast of Trumpets,Isaiah 66:23.
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.
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.”
Make no mistake. The Biblical admonition to observe the new moon as a special marker in the Biblical calendar is not a pronouncement about worshiping the moon itself. Yahweh prohibits worshiping any celestial body: “And beware, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which Yahweh your Elohim has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven” (Deut. 4:19). At the same time He commands us to watch for and observe the new moon each month so that we honor and follow His unique calendar and the setting of His special holy days.
What Constitutes a New Moon?
What exactly is a new moon according to the Scriptures? The Jewish calendar creates some confusion because it uses the conjunctions of the moon (Hebrew molad) in setting the beginning of each month. Also somewhat confusing, a certain verse of Scripture seems to equate the new moon with the full moon.
If you are baffled about what the new moon is, we hope this study will settle the issue for you.
Let’s first look at the astronomical conjunction. A lunar conjunction is when the sun, moon and earth are directly in line. Because the sun is behind the moon, no sunlight is reflected from the lunar face. The moon is a total blackout during a conjunction. No part of the moon can be seen in an astronomical conjunction.
The average wall calendar portrays the conjunction with a large black dot and calls it a “new moon.” But in reality it is a “no moon.” It is invisible, and a “no moon” conjunction is not what the Bible means by a new moon, which we will see.
The Bible uses the same Hebrew word for both “new moon” and “month.” Therefore, the new moon is linked to and sets the beginning of the month. But on our Gregorian wall calendars the “no moon” conjunction floats all over the 12 calendar months. Modern calendars completely ignore the Biblical way of setting the first day of the month by the visual new moon, even though the word “month” is derived from the word “moon” and should be oriented to the moon as it was intended by the Creator.
Historically, new moon spotters in Israel watched for the thin crescent to establish the beginning of each month. Once seen they reported their sighting to the calendar court authorities of the Sanhedrin. Note what one authority says, “Originally, the New Moon was not fixed by astronomical calculation, but was solemnly proclaimed after witnesses had testified to the reappearance of the crescent of the moon,” Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 12, p. 1039.
The switchover from watching for the first visible crescent to calculating conjunctions to determine the month’s beginning came with Hillel II’s calendar revisions in the 4th century C.E. “By the middle of the fourth century, the sages had established a permanent calendar and the public proclamation of the New Moon was discontinued” (Ibid).
Going by the calculated lunar conjunction contradicts the command in Deuteronomy 16:1: “Observe the month [chodesh, new moon] of Abib and keep the Passover…” Here, the word “observe” in the Hebrew is shamar and also means “look narrowly for, search” (No. 8104 in Strong’s). The Holladay Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon defines it as watching in the sense of looking. Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words includes the definitions “mark, watchman, wait, watch, look narrowly.” The command is to look for, wait for, watch and mark the new moon.
The problem is that you cannot see a moon that is completely black or dark, as it is during a conjunction. It would be lunacy sending out new moon watchers on the night of a conjunction to look for a moon they cannot see. To visually confirm the new moon there must be something to identify. Obviously, the invisible conjunction is not that something.
Another predicament is created by the use of the conjunction because during the period surrounding the conjunction there are as many as two or even three nights when no moon is visible. This leads us to wonder which three invisible moons are we commanded to “look narrowly for”? On which of three invisible starting points does the month begin? Yahweh’s calendar is based on observation. Man’s calendars are based on calculation.
No U.S. Naval Observatory existed in the time of the prophets or Apostles. The ancients had to have something tangible to go by that was visible on only one day each month. They needed to see the first thin crescent of a moon as it began its building or waxing phase.
Philo was a prominent Jewish leader who lived in Alexandria from about 20 B.C.E. to about 50 C.E. and was a contemporary of both Yahshua the Messiah and Paul. He was aware of what the Savior and His followers considered was the new moon. In his Treatise on the Special Laws, Book II, XI (41), Philo discusses the Biblical observances. Note how he describes the new moon:
“[It] is that which comes after the conjunction, which… [is] the day of the new moon in each month.” In his detailed discussion of the new moon, Philo describes what constitutes a new moon: “…at the time of the new moon, the sun begins to illuminate the moon with a light which is visible to the outward senses, and then she displays her own beauty to the beholders.”
As Philo noted, the new moon follows the conjunction but it is not the conjunction itself. His observation reveals to us what was considered the new moon in Yahshua’s day and what the Savior Himself also observed as the new moon. That is all we need to know to realize what still constitutes the Biblical new moon today.
Does ‘New’ Mean ‘Full’?
Some read Psalm 81:3 and conclude that the new moon is a holy feast day, and also (because of mistranslation) that the new moon is the full moon and not the first light of the moon. The KJV reads, “Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.” Time “appointed” is the Hebrew kacah and means “to plump, i.e. fill up hollows” (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words). This appointed time is a full moon totally filled with light and on which a solemn Feast day occurs. Does that mean that the new moon is the full moon?
The New King James and some other translations add to the confusion by not translating Psalm 81:3 precisely enough: “Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon, at the full moon, on our solemn feast day.” One immediate problem we note is that nowhere in Scripture is the regular monthly new moon referred to as a Feast day, nor is it a full moon, as we shall see.
Other translations clear up the problem by showing two completely different and separate observances in this verse: “Sound the ram’s horn at the new moon, and when the moon is full, at the day of our feast” (NIV).
In Psalm 81:3 Yahweh is speaking of a new moon as well as another observance or appointed time that comes at a full moon. During each of these separate times the trumpet was to sound.
The Hebrew in fact reveals two distinct clauses in this passage, making a definite division of thought. The first is the trumpet as applying to the new moon. The second is the trumpet as it applies to a solemn feast day, which is by Biblical definition different from a regular monthly new moon.
From the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, one would translate Psalm 81:3 this way: “Blow the trumpet at the new moon, and in the fullness of our festival day.”
The Interlinear NIV Hebrew-English Old Testament also makes a differentiation between the two clauses of verse 3: “Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon, and when the moon is full, on the day of our Feast.”
The Complete Jewish Bible reads: “Sound the shofar at Rosh-Hodesh [new moon], and at full moon for the pilgrim feast.”
The Psalms for Today: A New Translation from the Hebrew into Current English translates the verse: “Sound the trumpet at the new moon, and at the day of our festival, when the moon is full.”
These Hebrew-based translations show that the new moon is different from the full moon and different from a Feast day. The Hebrew shows that the new moon and the full moon are not synonymous. The first is barely visible, the second totally visible. Different words are used for each.
The Hebrew word levanah meaning white, occurs three times in the Hebrew text and poetically refers to the white brilliance of the full moon (see Song of Solomon 6:10; Isa. 24:23; 30:26). And the Hebrew word kehseh, meaning fullness, is twice translated full moon (Ps. 81:3; Prov. 7:20). Chodesh, on the other hand, refers to the new moon and is never used for full moon.
Counting Backward from the Full Moon?
Some postulate that all that is necessary is to wait for the full moon and then count back two weeks for the beginning of the month.
First, such a method ignores Scriptural mandate and practice. Why would one need to “narrowly look for” and diligently search for a full moon? A full moon is in plain sight all night long.
Second, by this reckoning there would historically have been no need for special moon watchers to search the evening sky and report their findings to the Sanhedrin.
Third, those moons immediately preceding and following a full moon have nearly full lumination and are difficult to distinguish from the actual full moon without side-by-side comparison and an expert, discerning eye. This is not the case with a new moon crescent that is either seen or not seen, as by a shepherd boy like David out in the sheep fields.
Fourth, the astronomical full moon does not consistently fall at the exact midpoint between two lunar conjunctions. The full moon may follow the lunar conjunction by as little as 13 days, 21 hours and 53 minutes, or by as much as 15 days, 14 hours and 30 minutes. That is why months vary in length between 29 and 30 days. This anomaly is because the moon’s orbit is not perfectly circular.
Fifth, this method is based on the conjunction, which we have shown is not the Scriptural new moon.
Consequently, determining the new moon by counting backward from the full moon is anything but scripturally ordained and at times quite inaccurate. And in one special case doing so would even be out of the question: the Feast of Trumpets, itself a new moon and the first day of the seventh month, would be two weeks past by the time the full moon arrived and the backward count is made.
Scimitar-shaped New Moon
Scholars who know the Hebrew language also know that the new moon is defined as a thin, crescent moon. Vine’s says, “Chodeshmeans ‘new moon,’ ‘month.’ The word refers to the day on which the crescent reappears.” The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testamentsays of (c)hodesh, “Although this word properly means ‘new moon,’ it is commonly used as an equivalent to our word ‘month’ because the month began when the thin crescent of the new moon was first visible at sunset.”
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says hodhesh (chodesh) means “‘new,’ ‘fresh.’ As the Hebrews reckoned their months from the actual first appearance of the young crescent, hodhesh is most frequently translated ‘month’ ” (Vol. 1, p. 303).
The verb form of (c)hodesh is hadash, a primitive root meaning to rebuild, renew, repair, refresh. This gives us additional proof as to what constitutes a new moon. A full moon is not in the rebuilding or renewing stage. It is already rebuilt, complete, and as full as it will get before waning back down to nothing, where it starts to re-grow from complete blackness once more.
According to Gesenius Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon the word hodesh derives from a word which means to be new, or to polish a sword. Etymologists have observed that the basic sense is that of cutting and polishing. And the significance of newness relates to a polished sword. The new moon resembles a scimitar or curved sword.
The New Brown Driver Briggs Gesenius says chodesh is rooted in the meaning of conceal, as in “to conceal behind a curtain.” A full moon is anything but concealed. A crescent, on the other hand, is nearly all concealed by a curtain of darkness except for just a curved sliver of light along the right edge.
An Act of Worship
Looking for the new moon crescent each month is, above all, an act of worship. It is axiomatic that we cannot let our worship be done by someone else. James tells us, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only…” 1:22. Do we have the dedication to go out and search the evening sky for a sliver of moon that is often very difficult to locate? Or do we just rely on others in our area or in some other part of the world to do it for us?
As we learn through hundreds of lessons in the Scriptures, True Worship takes effort and self-sacrifice to search out Yahweh’s ways in order to honor Him. It takes no effort or sacrifice to see a full moon or follow computer calculations.
Please take a moment to complete our short survey. We appreciate your time and value your feedback.
The Bible’s yearly calendar of feasts is based in agriculture and Israel was an agrarian culture. The Feasts are also agriculture-based. Salvation itself is awarded to those spiritually called firstfruits. They will be resurrected first in a harvest of faithful ones to serve in His coming Kingdom. “These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto Elohim and to the Lamb,” Revelation 14:4. The importance of firstfruits in the biblical calendar cannot be over-stated.
The series of seven annual Feasts begins with the month Abib, a name describing the first green grains of ripening, firstfruits barley. In the Hebrew Scriptures it is designated “the Abib” (haAbib), a definitive term for a specific stage of barley growth. It was in the new-year month of Abib when Israel kept the Passover just before coming out of Egypt, Deuteronomy 16:1. All the annual feasts are set by the critical first month of Abib, the month of green barley ears, Exodus 12:2. To establish Abib as the first month we must find the ripening firstfruits of barley grain. This beautiful harvest calendar is a lesson for in faithful obedience and reliance on Yahweh’s mercy and blessings and not fixed, calculated dates for personal convenience.
Calendars are as common as wristwatches and you probably see at least one every day. Odds are, the calendar you see is the Gregorian calendar, named for Pope Gregory XIII, who updated the earlier Julian version in 1582 to align it more closely with the spring season. Gregory added rules for leap years, which insert an extra day in February. His rules have kept this calendar synchronized with the solar year to within one day in over 3,300 years.
Other calendars are in use today as well. Two of these are very important to those who observe biblical feast days. The Bible specifies exactly which days of the year the feasts are to be observed – and it does not use the Gregorian calendar.Without a proper calendar keyed to the Bible it is impossible to observe the feast days on the correct days of the year, and the Bible stresses that having the correct days is very important for proper worship.
This study examines the original calendar of the Scriptures (the biblical calendar), and the modified calendar derived from it (the calculated Jewish calendar).We will actually address three calendars: the biblical calendar (based on natural observations), today’s Jewish calendar (based on calculations), and the transition between these two – a calendar that started with observations, began supplementing them with calculations, and after 2,000 years finally metamorphosed into today’s Jewish calendar.
Keeping the Right Day Is Paramount
Of all calendars, the true biblical calendar is one of the easiest to understand and the one True Worshipers follow today in observing scriptural days. It is so logical that any rational person can easily comprehend its structure. It requires no complicated calculations or arbitrary rules to keep it aligned with the seasons of the year. It is a lunisolar calendar, which means that both moon and sun play a part in its construction.The rules for that construction come entirely from the Bible and are so simple that after reading them for yourself you should be able to understand and explain them to anyone.
Without an accurate understanding of His biblical calendar, Yahweh’s people would be unable to obey Him. Yahweh told His people they were to assemble at certain times of the year to observe His Feast days, and He did not mention “April” or “October” or any of our other Gregorian calendar months. He used words like “the tenth day of the first month” and “the first day of the seventh month” to pin down Feast day observances (moedim in Hebrew).He says, “But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbears to keep the Passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of Yahweh in his appointed time, that man shall bear his sin” (Num. 9:13).
We learn that Yahweh instructs us to observe all His feast days at precise times (Lev. 23:2), not holidays of our making at times we choose. We sin if we don’t observe them at the commanded day and time. If True Worship means keeping Yahweh’s commands, how do we determine when the fifteenth day of the seventh month is (Feast of Tabernacles)? There are varied arguments among various Feast keepers about the correct day for Passover and Pentecost, and it is certainly prudent to prove what is right (as any good Berean would), rather than blindly accept the opinions of others.
Yahweh tells us rather plainly how to deduce the correct days from a “calendar” in the sky. Note Genesis 1:14: “And Elohim said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.”
How Would YOU Create a Calendar?
Calendars record the days of the year, laid out in a format that usually spreads them over months and weeks (not all calendars use 7-day weeks, incidentally). A basic calendar relates four time elements: day, week, month, and year.Of these elements the day is foundational. How does Yahweh determine the length of a day? “In the beginning Elohim created the heaven and the earth… And Elohim said, Let there be light: and there was light.And Elohim saw the light, that it was good: and Elohim divided the light from the darkness.And Elohim called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen. 1:1-5. The New International Version reads, “And there was evening, and there was morning – the first day.”)
One evening and one morning equal one day. Why did Yahweh start His day at the “end” of it?We are so accustomed to starting our days at midnight that we think it illogical to start a day at any other time.What could be more illogical than midnight?
If you were living in ancient times and interested in creating your own calendar, at a time unencumbered by our modern society’s need to define and calculate everything exactly, would you not start your days at an easily observable time? What would you use as a starting point for the day?Noon is no good because it is hard to tell when noon is. Midnight is even worse. Sunrise is okay, but most people are asleep then, and even if not, determining just when the sun peeks over the horizon is much harder than determining when it drops below it because you can see it in the process of going down but not coming up. So sunset is a natural time to start, as well as end, the day.
Now isn’t that a coincidence? The Bible tells us exactly that: “The evening and the morning were the first day.” In many places, including the first part of Genesis, Scripture tells us that days begin and end at sunset. Evening is metaphor for night, morning means daylight in Hebrew.
How many of these days do we string together to make a week? Why do we count off seven days, then, and call them a week?The Hebrew word translated “week” is shabua, and it signifies completeness, or perfection.The week was also introduced to us early in Genesis (2:3): “And Elohim blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which Elohim created and made.”The word translated “rested” here is from the Hebrew root word shabath, Strong’s Concordance No. 7673 – the Sabbath. That Yahweh uses a seven-day week is clear throughout the Bible (Lev. 23:15).
How many days would you put in a month?Remember, you are an ancient observer and you are observing a couple of heavenly bodies for extended periods. The sun rises and sets and the days go by.The moon is doing something a little different.It also rises and sets but the amount of it you can see varies – sometimes it is not visible at all. But it does follow a cycle.
You notice over time that the moon starts as a very thin crescent on one side, gets fuller and brighter, then recedes to a very thin crescent on the other side. Then it disappears for a little while, only to repeat these phases. You count the number of days from one point to the next identical point and you notice there are about 29½ days for the moon’s cycle to complete itself. But when do you start your moon cycle count?
You conclude that starting with the first crescent sighting makes the most sense and sidesteps unnecessary calculations. You decide to use this moon cycle for your calendar because just marking off solar days one at a time doesn’t seem to be of much practical use.
You also notice something interesting from watching the moon. From the time you can just barely see the new crescent until the moon is at its brightest (full moon) takes 14 days.Each quarter (first, second, third, fourth) marks a seven-day period.You decide this is handy – you can count days in a package of seven by looking closely at the moon.Surprise!That’s the way Yahweh created it!
Does Yahweh include months in His calendar? Again, as with weeks there are many biblical references – but three are sufficient, starting with Deuteronomy 16:1: “Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover unto Yahweh Elohim: for in the month of Abib Yahweh Elohim brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.”In Hebrew, the word translated “month” is Strong’s2320, chodesh, which means “the new moon; by implication, a month.”
Yahweh not only includes months, but He also starts them with the sighting of the new moon. This verse literally says, “Look for the new moon of Abib, and keep the Passover.…”The Passover is to be observed on Abib 14 (Ex. 12:6): “And you shall keep it (the paschal lamb) up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.”
The second reference to months and their timing is Psalm 104:19:“He appointed the moon for seasons.”The third reference is also in Psalm 81:3: “Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.”Here the only feast that begins on the first day of a month (Ethanim) is mentioned – Trumpets.Other “chodesh” verses abound in the Bible (over 200 of them), all meaning “new moon.”
As you observe about a dozen moon cycles, you notice that the sun seems to be moving along the horizon at its setting time, going from south to north and back to south. As soon as you realize this, you pick out an object on the horizon near the setting sun, and in a few days you begin to get an idea about how fast it is moving away from your object.Over time you also notice the world around you is getting warmer, then cooler, then warmer again.
You count the days from the sun’s position at your marker object until it returns there, going in the same direction. Your count is 365 days. This number, representing the cycle of the sun, and the number representing the cycle of the moon (29½), are not evenly divisible.A little basic math tells you a solar year will not exactly equal 12 lunar months. The difference between 12 months of 29½ days (354 days) and the length of a solar year (365) will cause the four seasons to move around through the year.
This may be of no importance to you whatsoever – why should you mind if spring comes in the first month or the second month or the third month?But Yahweh minds. Yahweh told Moses in Exodus 12:2, “This month (Abib) shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.” Abib is the Hebrew name for this month, and it means “green ears” of grain. It is the month in which green ears of grain appear. But which grain? Turn to Exodus 9, where we read of one of the plagues Yahweh visited upon Pharaoh.
“And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and Yahweh sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and Yahweh rained hail upon the land of Egypt. … And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field…And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled.But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not grown up” (vv. 23, 25, 31-32).
The grain that Abib refers to is barley, the one crop already “in the ear,” and the month in which the first Passover took place is Abib, the green ears of barley month.The month of Abib and the state of barley are tied closely together. If barley is not in the proper stage at that month, that month cannot be Abib.
Turn to Leviticus 23. Here Yahweh explains the concept of firstfruits to the Israelites, and tells us what shape barley must be in during the month of Abib: “And you shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your Elohim: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings” (Lev. 23:14). The Israelites were not permitted to harvest their crops of barley until the firstfruit sheaf was waved before Yahweh by the priest.
Barley is planted in November and takes about four months to mature. It must be in the green ear stage during the first month, and at least some of it ready for harvest by the time of the wave sheaf offering that occurs during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.We know it occurs during the Feast of Unleavened Bread because these verses explain how to count forward from the wave sheaf to the Feast of Weeks. Yahweh keeps the seasons aligned with the months by having us observe the maturing barley.
An interesting find in Israel called the “Gezer” calendar shows that the Israelites were an agrarian society that based its months from 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.
Yahweh’s Calendar – Easy as 1, 2, 3, 4
We have worked our way through the rules for the biblical calendar and discovered that they are simple and logical:
1.Start and end days at sunset (Genesis 1:5).
2.Start weeks at day one and end on day seven, the Sabbath (Leviticus 23:15-16).
3.Start months with the sighting of the new moon (Deuteronomy 16:1).
4.Start years in the month barley will be harvestable by the middle of that month (Leviticus 23:4-14).
These rules require you to observe Yahweh’s creation – sighting a sunset or a new moon and looking at a barley crop. Psalm 33:8 says, “Let all the earth fear Yahweh: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.” Is there a better way than to get outside and look at some of these awesome, timekeeping sights of creation?
The ‘Original’ Jewish Calendar
That the biblical calendar given by Yahweh was with us from creation seems logical, but Yahweh’s revelation of it to Moses took place just before the exodus, about 3,500 years ago, as Yahweh explained the Passover, its significance and timing. In the first five books of the Bible, the Torah (all written by Moses), the rules for the “original” biblical calendar were given by Yahweh to the people of Israel by oral and (later) written instructions.
Today’s modified Jewish calendar, however, is one of the more difficult to comprehend. It has added and revised rules that move dates without biblical authorization. The original Hebrew calendar was the biblical calendar of the exodus. For over 40 years in their journey from Egypt to the Jordan River crossing the Israelites in the desert determined their years exactly in accord with the four rules declared by Yahweh through Moses. What happened from then until now?
To answer that we will need to consult non-biblical sources.Be careful!Unlike the rock-solid Word, there are many sources of “fact” written by men, and where there is man-made “fact” there is man-made counter-fact.
The Talmud is a combination of fact, teachings, traditions, analyses, ideas, opinions, and in some cases outright prejudice – which are considered “facts” by many Jews today.During the Talmudic period, observation of the moon and crops evolved toward calculation.First, the Israelites would have noticed that the new moon appeared either every 29 or 30 days – never shorter, never longer.Simple counting, then, gave them the ability to anticipate the actual observation.
After settling in the Promised Land they would have noticed something about the year, also. The maturation of their crops of barley could be correlated with the position of the setting sun on the horizon. The seasons are very important to agrarian peoples. Knowing proper planting times is crucial to survival, and fixing the beginning of a season, particularly spring, is advantageous.
Yahweh decreed that the year was to begin in the month when barley would be ready for harvest. The Israelites quickly noticed this happened very near or in the spring season, and that the beginning of spring could be determined from the sun’s setting position on the horizon. Over time the observation of the sun’s position replaced the observation of barley. The pagan Egyptians and later the Romans also observed a solar calendar.
Today’s Calculated Jewish Calendar
Beginning with their possession of the Promised Land, the Israelites became more scattered and communications with Jerusalem’s priests (who observed moons and waved grains) became increasingly difficult. Later, the Israelites of the Dispersion generally took up the civil calendars of their conquering countries and were informed by messengers from Jerusalem of coming feasts. Certainly by the end of the Talmudic period, and most probably hundreds of years before, the Jews had accumulated sufficient knowledge to convert a calendar based on observation to one based on calculation alone.
According to the Apostle John, Yahshua’s Passover meal was eaten the night before the Passover meal was eaten by His Jewish accusers – this indicates that two ways of determining dates existed at the time of the impalement. That the new moon of Abib could have appeared on two different days is, of course, impossible.
In any case, the separation of Israel’s peoples made it increasingly difficult for those not residing in the Holy Land to stay in synchronization with their brothers.Indeed, after the failed Bar Kochba revolt in 132-135 CE the Sanhedrin – the post-exile Jewish supreme council – was barred from meeting. Something had to be done to preserve holy day observance, and about 359 CE patriarch Hillel II revealed a method of Jewish calendar calculation that contained many elements obviously learned from places like Babylon.According to Hillel, and to the many Jews and others who believe that the methods of calculating this calendar were divinely presented to the Israelites, this calendar was in place from the very creation.
Here are some facts about the calculated Jewish calendar:
• A month is determined by the calculation of the conjunction of the moon (Hebrew molad, a point in the moon’s orbit exactly between the earth and the sun – and invisible to us), not new moon sighting; hours are added to the molad to determine when the new moon should or should not be visible.
• The first molad occurred 5 hours and 204 chalokim (3 1/3 seconds) after sunset at the beginning of day 2.
• Every molad is calculated from this point by adding 29 days, 12 hours, and 793 chalokim.
• A nineteen-year cycle of months of 29 and 30 days is employed, together with leap months inserted in seven of the years, to keep the seasons in line with the solar year; the cycle consists of regular and leap years as follows: R-R-L-R-R-L-R-R-L-R-L-R-R-L-R-R-L-R-L.
• The cycle is not exactly the length of nineteen solar years – it is a little over 2 hours longer; every 216 years this adds up to a whole day, and there are no corrections in the calculations to prevent spring from moving away from Abib; if the calculated Jewish calendar had existed at the beginning, this error would have already moved the seasons 26 days away from Abib – one entire month.
• The year begins with the seventh month (Ethanim), not Abib; the first day of Ethanim is Rosh Hashanah.
• Postponement rules for Rosh Hashanah are required such that an annual Sabbath is never juxtaposed with a weekly Sabbath (prevents two consecutive non-work days); these rules are not simple – here is one of them: if the molad of a year following a leap year which begins on Tuesday is later than Monday, 15 hours and 589 chalokim, Rosh Hashanah of the second year is postponed from Monday to Tuesday.
• The calculated molad can sometimes start a month before the new moon is visible, and the postponements can actually cause a month to begin the day after the new moon is sighted.
• The entire calendar, from the beginning to any point in the future, is fixed by its starting point, the length of a molad, and the postponement rules; no observation is necessary.
No Biblical Basis for Changes in the Calendar
All these rules and calculations keep the seasons and the solar year rather closely aligned, without a single observation of a new moon or a series of sunsets. They are very handy for Jews but not a single bulleted item we’ve noted is mentioned in the Bible, and using this calendar means you will be celebrating feast days at times different from those the biblical calendar specifies.
Did the perversion of the biblical calendar start in Talmudic days, or was it later, around Hillel’s time? Yahweh confirmed the importance of the biblical calendar at the beginning of the Exodus (Lev. 23), and that is the time Satan began his work to pervert it.Isn’t it amazing howSatan has twisted everything in the Bible to his advantage?Yahweh gave us laws to live by while Satan tells us they are just for ancient Israelites.
Because His Feast days are important to Yahweh’s plan for mankind, Satan replaces them with those important to his plan. He also derails Yahweh’s inspired calendar by man-made calendars.
If we must have a Messiah to be saved from sin’s death penalty, then the adversary causes churchianity to refute Him by convincing them to celebrate Easter! They take the very first inspired time of the sacred year and celebrate it with sunrise services, egg-laying rabbits, and leavened hot-cross buns. To top it off, Satan puts it on the wrong day.For those who escape this trap, he lays another one.When Numbers 9 says observing Passover on a particular day and at a particular time is very important, Satan confuses time itself.
If the bulleted items on pages 12-13 seem a bit convoluted and confusing compared to the four rules Yahweh originally gave the Israelites, it is because they are.Whenever Satan works, things always get complicated.
Why Not Use the Vernal Equinox to Start the Year?
Some ignore barley altogether and set Abib 1 according to the vernal equinox. The vernal equinox is that instant when the sun is directly above the earth’s equator while going from the south to the north (for inhabitants of the northern hemisphere). It is the time that most consider the beginning of spring.
Those who employ the vernal equinox point to Genesis 1:14, claiming that the sun, moon, and stars set the year’s beginning. It is true that the sun divides day from night and inaugurates the seasons by the earth’s tilt, while the new moon sets the beginning of months. Yet, nowhere in the entire Bible can one find that the vernal equinox establishes the first month Abib. Nowhere in the Bible is there even any mention of the vernal equinox. To say that Genesis 1:14 refers to the vernal equinox is reading into Scripture what simply isn’t there.
Passover is related to spring through the growing cycle of crops. First and foremost, it must occur in the month of Abib. And Abib is a condition of grain as much as it is a time of the year.
The King James Version has led some astray in the way it translates moed in Exodus 13:10, Num. 9:2, 3, 7, and 13. The KJV uses “season” in these verses, causing some to believe that the command is specifically for springtime, and therefore must involve the vernal equinox. In reality, the Hebrew moed simply means “set time” or “appointed time.” Yahweh has set Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread by the criteria of ripening crops, not by the vernal equinox.
The vast majority of Jews gradually got away from actively looking for the green ears of barley, going instead by a calculated calendar that involved the vernal equinox. This was done for the sake of convenience. But Yahweh tells us that His growing cycle reveals the proper month for His Feasts. The first month of the year, Abib, means a green ear (of grain), not vernal equinox.
McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia of Biblical Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, Vol. 3, p. 13, under Easter states: “Many of the Church fathers are of opinion that, according to the original calculation of the Jews up to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, the 14th of Nisan had always been after the spring equinox, and that it was only in consequence of a miscalculation of the later Jews that the 14th of Nisan occasionally fell before the equinox. They therefore insisted that the 14th of Nisan, which for both parties within the church determined the time of Easter, should always be after the equinox.
“As the year of Jews is a lunar year, and the 14th of Nisan always a full-moon day, the Christians who adopted the above astronomical view, whenever the 14th of Nisan fell before the equinox, would celebrate the death of [Messiah] one month later than the Jewish Passover.”
Christianity Sets Its Own Rules
Note that the Christian “Church fathers” established their own rules by relying upon the vernal equinox as did the pagans, instead of the green ears of barley as the Bible requires (Deut. 16:1).
Another authority writes, “That the vernal equinox occurred in Nisan [Abib] is attested by Josephus (Ant. 1. x. 5) and also in cuneiform literature (Muss-Arnolt p. 77) Nisan corresponded to the first zodiacal sign (Aries) in which the vernal equinox fell. The sacred year was determined by the annual festivals and the first of these festivals was henceforth fixed by the Passover moon.” “Equinox and the Calendar,” Dictionary of the Bible, James Hastings, p. 765.
Nothing is mentioned here about letting the equinox determine the month of Nisan. The vernal equinox fell within the month of Nisan [Abib] which means the new moon of Nisan came BEFORE the equinox. That is, the new moon came establishing the month of Nisan (Abib), then came the equinox, then the Passover. Therefore, those who insist upon keeping the Feasts a month later are out of harmony with Yahweh’s calendar.
Fausset’s Bible Encyclopedia, under “Year [Hebrew year] reads, “They began it with the new moon nearest to the equinox, yet late enough to allow of the firstfruits of barley harvest being offered about the middle of the first month. So Josephus (Ant. iii. 10,5) states that the Passover was celebrated when the sun was in Aries” (p. 727).
Vernal Equinox and Historic Paganism
When the Roman church deliberately 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 setting of an observance was entirely man-made, and it is appropriate that it applied to a man-made holiday called 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 historic 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 vernal equinox has long been a significant event in the lives of agricultural peoples as it symbolizes nature’s regeneration, fertility, growth and bounty. The word equinox comes from Latin and means ‘equal night’ (Tag- und Nachtgleiche). On this day, night and day each last twelve hours. The Vernal Equinox used to be considered the beginning of the Pagan New Year. It was a time of joy called forth by the resurrection of the ‘Light of the World’ (sun god) from the underworld of the winter, from where he arose to join his goddess Eostre.” –by Ruth Reichmann, Max Kade German-American Center, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis.
• “Babylonians and Assyrians placed greater importance on the Equinoxes than the solstices. 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, cosmos, and human society.” –Tales of the Vernal Equinox, by Robin DuMolin
• “Modern Pagans also celebrate the universal principle of Resurrection at the Equinox – which is named for Eostre, a Pagan goddess. She is the goddess of Spring to whom the offerings of cake and colored eggs were made at the Vernal Equinox. Rabbits, especially white ones, were sacred to her, and she was believed to take the form of a rabbit. She is also said to be the goddess of the East, that being the direction of rebirth. Since the sun rises in the East, she is linked with the sunrise. Traditional Easter services stem from this association,” Ibid. “Easter is supposed to be derived from Anglo Saxon Eostre, the name of the Norse goddess whose festival is celebrated by the pagans at the vernal equinox.” – A Book About the Bible, George Stimpson, p. 180.
• “Ostara, also known as The Spring or Vernal Equinox, the Festival of Trees, Alban Eilir, Ostara, the Rites of Spring, and the Rites of Eostre, occurs between March 19 and 21 and marks the first day of true Spring. Day and night are equal on this day, hence the name Equinox. It is observed by Pagans throughout the world.” –from The Witches’ Web
• “Pagans revere the G-d and G-ddess through rituals or ceremonies of various kinds. Pagans of the western traditions celebrate eight festivals or Sabbats each year. They comprise the four solar quarters i.e. the two solstices (longest and shortest days) and the two equinoxes (day and night are the same length) plus four Celtic seasonal festivals. All these mark important events in the cycle of life. They are: Ostara (Easter), the spring equinox, 21st March: Return of the sun from the south, springtime proper. Some celebrate a holy union between G-d and G-ddess.” –from What Do Pagans Do?
Vernal Equinox as the ‘Tequphah’?
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 evidence, in fact, points to the end of the year, not the beginning.
The following passages contain the Hebrew word tequphah as well as its meaning, as indicated by the quotation marks:
• Exodus 34:22 (Feast of ingathering at the “year’s end”)
• 2Chron. 24:23 (Syria attacked Judah at the “end of the year”)
• 2Chronicles. 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. This source 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 based on the growing of crops, not to the vernal equinox.
Ancient Israelites were farmers and herders, not astronomers. It stands to reason that Yahweh would zero in on their crops as a starting point for their annual Feast calendar. The calculated calendar does not work with the command to give Yahweh the firstfruits.
Yahweh’s Calendar v. Jewish Calendar
Let’s sum up the differences between what Yahweh said about keeping time and what the Jews of today do with the calculated Jewish calendar.
• Yahweh said begin the year with Abib when crops are green and growing. Jews begin with Ethanim in the autumn.
• Yahweh said begin Abib by checking the barley crop. Jews check the date of the vernal equinox and add hours.
• Yahweh said begin months by sighting the crescent moon. Jews calculate from a molad (invisible conjunction).
• Yahweh said nothing about not putting two Sabbaths back-to-back.Jews create postponement rules.
• The rules laid down by Yahweh automatically adjust for what’s going on in the solar system.
The Jews’ calculations have built-in errors that must sooner or later be corrected. Yahweh never said that months should be 29 days long or 30 days long or
any exact number of days.He said new moon to new moon was a month, Isaiah 66:23. Yahweh never said how many months were in a year, either – just that they started with new moons, Ezekiel 45:17-18. The words for “molad” or “equinox” or even spring, when used as a season, do not appear in the Bible.
The critical difference between the biblical calendar and the calculated Jewish calendar is that they produce different days for observing the feasts. One is correct, the other is wrong. One obeys Yahweh, the other does not.
Keeping this in mind, let’s look at the major reasons offered by some for using the calculated Jewish calendar to determine feast days and times, and their counter-arguments.
• Yahweh committed the oracles to the Jews and we should follow their lead.
This argument comes from the Apostle Paul’s writings to the Romans. “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of Yahweh” (Romans 3:1-2). What were the “oracles”? The proponents of the calculated Jewish calendar include the rules for calendar-making in these oracles – but that logic could include anything they added, including the Talmud.In Acts 7:38 the same Greek word for “oracles” is used – (No. 3051), where it says, “This is he (Moses), that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us.” Here oracles refers to the law given Moses on Mt. Sinai.The oracles or laws were all given to all of Israel as is recorded in Deuteronomy, not just to the Levites or to any one tribe.
•The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat, so we must obey them.
This argument comes from Yahshua’s words in Matthew 23:1-3: “Then spake Yahshua to the multitude, and to his disciples, Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not after their works: for they say, and do not.” According to Yahshua, this metaphor means they read the law to the people on the Sabbaths, just as Moses transmitted the law.Reading the law and doing what it says are two different things, as Yahshua pointed out, but this argument usually omits the part about “do notafter their works: for they say, and do not.” Someone who says one thing and does another is a hypocrite. Did Yahshua follow the Pharisees’ interpretation of when the Passover should be observed (remember, they kept the Passover on the 15th)? Clearly He did not.
•The Jewish calendar is a complicated calendar, and although the rules for its construction are not given in the Bible, the Levites were given these rules in order for them to relay correct dates to the people.
That the calculated Jewish calendar is complicated is true.Its rules are not in the Bible, and it should not be logically concluded from this that they were given orally to the Levites. If the Levites were given the correct rules for calculating the Jewish calendar, then why do their calculation tables today use a solar year that is 365.25 days long? That figure is about eleven minutes longer than the solar year really is. Also, the 19-year cycle is longer than 19 solar years by over two hours.
If Yahweh gave the Levites the rules, why did He not also tell them the correct value for the mean length of a solar year, and also give them rules to adjust the cycle to prevent future problems with the months and the seasons, like adding a periodic 13th month? Why would a perfect Creator give us imperfect rules? And why would He have told only the Levites something so important? In just about every instance, when Yahweh spoke to Moses, He started out with a phrase something like, “Say to the house of Jacob,” or “Tell the people of Israel,” or “Speak unto the children of Israel.” If you read the 23rd chapter of Leviticus, where the feast requirements are laid down, this is particularly true.There is no place in the Bible that says that Yahweh told Moses to tell the Levites to in turn tell the people something.
Turn to Deuteronomy 1:3.Here, just before the people were to cross over the Jordan and into the Promised Land, Moses made his farewell speech to the Israelites. “And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that Yahweh had given him in commandment unto them.” Notice that he was not talking to the Levites alone, but to all the Israelites. Also notice the word “all” in this verse.It is the Hebrew kole, Strong’s 3605, “from 3634; properly the whole; hence all, any or every (in the singular only, but often in a plural sense):—(in) all (manner, [ye]), altogether, any (manner), enough, every (one, place, thing), howsoever, as many as, [no-] thing, ought, whatsoever, (the) whole, whoso (-ever).” The root word (3634) means, “to complete, make perfect.” The verse does not say Moses withheld words for the Levites’ ears alone.
In chapter 16 verse 1 of this book is the commandment for observing the moon of Abib, to keep the Passover. It is very significant that Moses gathered every tribe together and explained again everything they needed to know before possessing the land. No one tribe or person was to have this knowledge exclusively. They all started out equally in the Promised Land. They would not be able to blame any other person or tribe for their mistakes.
•Not everything Yahweh taught the Levites is recorded in the Bible.
It seems logical that Yahweh could have said and done things not recorded in the Bible. But is it logical that Yahweh would have omitted something so important to His worship, depending only on the instructions of a special group to relay His requirements? He never did that with any of His other instructions and commands.
•Postponements are not condemned in the Bible; the calculated Jewish calendar does not violate one Scripture.
In Deuteronomy Moses was making his wrap-up speech to the Israelites before they parted.Read Deuteronomy 4:2: “You shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish ought from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh Elohim which I command you.” See also Revelation 22:18-19. If we are told not to add anything to the Word, and doing so changes the very day a Feast is observed, and as a result I am cut off from my people, it is clear I have violated something in the Scripture.
• The Bible does not define what a new moon is, so we are not instructed how to watch for the new moon.
This argument is made in support of substituting the astronomical conjunction for the actual sighting of the new moon.
Let’s look again at Deuteronomy 16:1, paraphrased as closely to the Hebrew meanings as Strong’s dictionary allows. “Look narrowly for the new moon of the green ears of grain and keep the Passover.” Once again, Moses was speaking to all of Israel here. He told them to look for the new moon of Abib. He did not tell them to check with the Levites about molads. A molad (conjunction) as we have already learned, is when the moon is exactly between the earth and the sun. This argument substitutes the molad, a moon you cannot see, for the new moon crescent, which you can.
Imagine a desert-dwelling shepherd from the tribe of Dan trying to figure out when the molad of Abib would occur!He definitely would not have “looked narrowly for” a dark moon that he could not possibly see! Saying that we were not instructed in how to look for a new moon is ridiculous. Saying we are to look for a black moon is ludicrous.To equate the words “new moon” to “molad” is even more ridiculous. If I asked you to observe my “new car,” and I pointed to an empty parking space, what would you think? Apply the same logic to the phrase “new moon” and then go out and try to spot the conjunction. It’s impossible.
The biblical calendar can be projected, but it is confirmed only by observation of barley and the new moons. Just as Yahweh planned when He created the “lights” in the sky, Genesis 1:14, we are to establish His appointed times (moed) by the monthly lunar cycle and tostart at that particular time of year when the sun causes barley to grow and begin to produce grain in the ear.
When we follow the scriptural calendar, all the complications that calculated calendars try to overcome just disappear. And we rest assured that we are observing the days Yahweh commands – at the proper time He commands them.
All of Yahweh’s seven annual Feasts or moedim (appointments) revolve around the harvest cycle of cereal grains and other produce. This is clear with the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, which occur at the barley harvest (Ex. 9:31). Then comes the Feast of Firstfruits, also known as Pentecost in the New Testament. This special time occurs seven weeks after Unleavened Bread and represents the firstfruits of the wheat harvest made into two loaves of bread that were waved (Lev. 23:17). Then in the seventh month we come to the Feast of Tabernacles, otherwise known as the Feast of “Ingathering.” (Ex. 23:16). Tabernacles represents the general harvest at the close of the growing cycle when everything is “gathered in”– from grains to vegetables, melons, nuts, and fruit.
Clearly, the various harvests are central to Yahweh’s Feasts and are key to them like nothing else is. The harvests prophetically point to the harvest of souls in Yahweh’s great salvation plan — from the firstfruits, which indicate His first chosen people, to the general harvest of souls later. Even the first month of the sacred year is named Abib, which in Hebrew means “tender, green ears.” The “ears” refer to barley grain, the only grain mature enough at the time of the Passover to be green and in the head (Ex. 9:31, “And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled” [bolled=podded, BDB No. 1392, Heb.gibol]. “32: But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not grown up.). Therefore, Yahweh says, “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you,” Exodus 12:2. “This day came you out in the month Abib,” Exodus 13:4.
The state of the crops, especially the barley and flax grain, is the only criterion that Yahweh gives for establishing the timing of the first month of the year. Nothing in the Bible explains how to establish the first month of the year in any other fashion than the developing green ears of barley grain.
In the spirit of maturing crops, we are to establish and observe the first month – when the barley grain is green, Leviticus 23:14 (note the words “parched” meaning roasted, and “green”). Baking or parching the green barley dried it. This was not ripe barley, it was young and green barley. We cannot establish Abib if the barley head is not developed or if the barley seed is dry, ripe, yellow and ready to harvest; by then it would be too late. The barley must be green and this occurs in a specific month.
Can I Look in My Locale?
Can we look at the barley crop growing in our own vicinity to establish Abib? Naturally we will find a difference of many weeks between barley that is ripening in southern Texas and barley that is growing in North Dakota. The same is true of barley that may be grown in Brazil compared with the grain growing in Russia. Seasons are opposite on either side of the equator. Therefore, whether a small or a great difference in distance, Abib would occur at widely varying times depending on where one lives.
The only way to reconcile this discrepancy in growing seasons is to look at the barley that is grown in or around Israel. It was to people living in that area of the world that Yahweh gave the command to keep the Passover and Feast during the green ear month of Abib. It is that area of the world that will give us the proper and accurate time of maturing barley, when Yahweh commanded Israel to keep the first month.
Interestingly, barley originated in the Mediterranean region. How appropriate, then, that we look at the barley maturing in Israel, and not barley grown in North Dakota, Texas, or Australia to establish Abib.
What About 1999?
Two different sources confirmed that the barley had green ears in the head by wave sheaf time in Israel this year, or April 4. One report claims the barley was green even by March 18. Not believing these reports and choosing to rely on barley growing in the United States, some observed Passover on April 29 this year, making the wave sheaf day May 2.
The law provides that the wave sheaf be of the firstfruits of the barley. Whatever barley field produced green ears first, from that crop the wave sheaf was taken. Once the wave sheaf was offered to Yahweh, the harvest could begin. Harvesting of barley typically begins in early April near Jericho and in early May in the mountains around Jerusalem.
We find a serious flaw with the keeping of an April 29 Passover and a May 2 wave sheaf this year based on barley:
The firstfruits barley would have been past Abib stage by May 2. In other words, these would not be “green” ears, but brown, ripe ears. Agriculturalists maintain that only a couple of weeks elapse between the time of barley green ears and mature and yellowing ripe ears. Therefore, waiting an additional FOUR more weeks would be far too long for green-ear firstfruits.
Note this astounding report about barley grown in the Middle East, from the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges(Exodus 9, p. 76): “In Egypt, according to a farmer living in the Delta (cited by W.R. Smith, Journal of Phil. xii. 300), flax blossoms and barley ripens in Jan.; but, he adds, the seasons vary, and so the travellers cited by Kn. mention mostly Feb.: wheat and spelt are ripe, in any case, about a month later.”
In light of this information, the argument that an April 4 wave sheaf was too early to be seen in Israel this year has no validity whatsoever.
The explanation of why only the barley and flax were damaged by the plague of hail in Egypt (Ex. 9:31) brings up an important confirmation point many miss: “…for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled.” “Bolled” is from the Hebrew gibol and means swollen, podded, in the bud. Therefore, one can use the flax as a second witness to the month of Abib if the flax shows to be in the pod at that time.
Why Not Use the Vernal Equinox?
Some ignore barley altogether and set Abib 1 according to the vernal equinox. The vernal equinox is that instant when the sun is directly above the earth’s equator while going from the south to the north (for inhabitants of the northern hemisphere). It is the time that most people take as the definition of the beginning of spring.”
Those who employ the vernal equinox point to Genesis 1:14, claiming that the sun, moon, and stars set the Feasts. It is true that the sun divides day from night and establishes the seasons, while the new moon sets the beginning of months. Yet, nowhere in the entire Bible can one find where the vernal equinox establishes Abib. We can go even further and say unequivocally that nowhere in the Bible is there even any mention of the vernal equinox. To say that Genesis 1:14 refers to the vernal equinox is reading into Scripture what isn’t there.
Passover is related to spring through the growing cycle of crops. First and foremost, it must occur in the month of Abib. And Abib is a condition of grain as much as it is a time of the year. The King James Version has led some astray in the way it translates moed inExodus 13:10, Num. 9:2, 3, 7, and 13. The KJV uses “season” in these verses, causing some to believe that the command is specifically for springtime, and therefore must involve the vernal equinox. In reality, the Hebrew moed simply means “set time” or “appointed time.” Yahweh has set Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread by the criteria of the crops, not by a purely astronomical reckoning known as the vernal equinox.
The vast majority of Jews gradually got away from actually looking for the green ears of barley, going instead by a calculated calendar that involved the vernal equinox. This was done for the sake of convenience. But Yahweh tells us that His growing cycle reveals the proper month for His Feasts.
Vernal Equinox and Historic Paganism
When the Roman church deliberately 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 setting of an observance was entirely man-made, and appropriately applied to a man-made holiday called 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 historic 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 vernal equinox has long been a significant event in the lives of agricultural peoples as it symbolizes nature’s regeneration, fertility, growth and bounty. The word equinox comes from Latin and means “equal night” (Tag- und Nachtgleiche). On this day, night and day each last twelve hours. The Vernal Equinox used to be considered the beginning of the Pagan New Year. It was a time of joy called forth by the resurrection of the “Light of the World” (sun god) from the underworld of the winter, from where he arose to join his goddess Eostre.”– by Ruth Reichmann, Max Kade German-American Center, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis.
“Babylonians and Assyrians placed greater importance on the Equinoxes than the solstices. 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, cosmos, and human society.”–Tales of the Vernal Equinox, by Robin DuMolin
“Modern Pagans also celebrate the universal principle of Resurrection at the Equinox – which is named for Eostre, a Pagan goddess. She is the goddess of Spring to whom the offerings of cake and colored eggs were made at the Vernal Equinox. Rabbits, especially white ones, were sacred to her, and she was believed to take the form of a rabbit. She is also said to be the goddess of the East, that being the direction of rebirth. Since the sun rises in the East, she is linked with the sunrise. Traditional Easter services stem from this association.” Ibid o “Easter is supposed to be derived from Anglo Saxon Eostre, the name of the Norse goddess whose festival is celebrated by the pagans at the vernal equinox.” — A Book About the Bible, George Stimpson, p. 180.
“Ostara, also known as The Spring or Vernal Equinox, the Festival of Trees, Alban Eilir, Ostara, the Rites of Spring, and the Rites of Eostre, occurs between March 19 and 21 and marks the first day of true Spring. Day and night are equal on this day, hence the name Equinox. It is observed by Pagans throughout the world.” — from The Witches’ Web
Pagans revere the G-d and G-ddess through rituals or ceremonies of various kinds. Pagans of the western traditions celebrate eight festivals or Sabbats each year. They comprise the four solar quarters i.e. the two solstices (longest and shortest days) and the two equinoxes (day and night are the same length) plus four Celtic seasonal festivals. All these mark important events in the cycle of life. They are: Ostara (Easter), the spring equinox, 21st March: Return of the sun from the south, springtime proper. Some celebrate a holy union between G-d and G-ddess.– from What Do Pagans Do?
Vernal Equinox as the ‘Tequphah’?
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 ConcordanceNo. 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 evidence, in fact, points to the end of the year, not the beginning.
The following passages contain the Hebrew word tequphah as well as its meaning, as indicated by the quotation marks:
Exodus 34:22 (Feast of ingathering at the “year’s end”)
2Chron. 24:23 (Syria attacked Judah at the “end of the year”)
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 Hebrew and English Lexicon 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, not to the vernal equinox.
If all truth seekers would realize that the Feasts have profound significance in the plan of Almighty Yahweh, and that His year as well as His Feasts are closely tied to the harvest, then greater truth would be known and Yahweh and His salvation plan for man would be far better understood.
