by "Kevin"

Shalom brethren,
This year has brought some interesting discussion concerning the first Scriptural
month. Many believe that the first Scriptural month can not begin until after the
vernal equinox while many believe it can, but at the same time many on both sides
say that the equinox has nothing to do with determining the first Scriptural month.

I sent out a short note to some which stated I believe I can prove without doubt
that the first Scriptural month can begin before the vernal equinox and the
expected response was, Show me Scripture & verse that states such! I wish it
were as simple as listing a Scriptural verse which states such but it's not. Those
who claim that the new year cannot begin until after the vernal equinox do not have
Scripture & verse stating such so why do they expect those who say that the new
year can begin before the equinox to have Scripture & verse stating such? The
simple fact of the matter is that we have to do some reasoning of our own to
figure out what the Scriptures are saying, and the simple fact of the matter is that
spring begins before the equinox. It is a man made rule that says spring begins at
the equinox but it is evident from nature that things begin to spring back to life from
the dead of winter before the equinox.

Genesis 1:14 is often used to say that the new moon which is after the vernal
equinox is the first month of the year, but the vernal equinox is not even mentioned
in this verse of Scripture.

Also, Genesis 1:14 is used to say that the new moon that occurs when the green
ears of barley appear in Israel is the first month, but green ears of barley is not
mentioned in this verse of Scripture either. However, with reasoning, both sides
make some good points. One side will point out how unreliable it is to use green
ears of barley to determine the first month of the year because of the ability to
manipulate the growth of crops these days so the crops can mature earlier and
earlier and the other side will point out that there is not one mention in Scripture
that the equinox is used to determine the first new moon.

Personally, I believe that because neither green ears nor the equinox is mentioned
in Genesis 1:14 that both sides are vulnerable to error when determining the first
Scriptural month, because it is true that man is manipulating the growth of crops,
but I also believe that it can be proven that by example in Scripture that the first
Scriptural month can begin before the equinox. However, it will take me some time
to put that information together. Yahweh willing, by next year I will have that put
together, but for now I will leave you with some info that also has helped me to
conclude what I have concluded, that the first month of the year can begin before
the vernal equinox.

Many are familiar with the works of Josephus. In relation to when the Passover is
to be observed he wrote,"In the month of Xanthicus, which with us is called Nisan,
and begins the year, on the 14th day by lunar reckoning, the sun being then in
Aries, our lawgiver, seeing that in this moon we were delivered from bondage to
the Egyptians, ordained that we should year by year offer the same sacrifice..."
(Josephus, Antiquities 3:10:5, quoted from the book The Festivals and Sacred
Days of Yahweh pg 219/220. Their web site is: http://www.yahweh.org)

Also found in the book The Festivals and Sacred Days of Yahweh concerning the
beginning of the year it is stated that "Anatolius points out that the more ancient
Jews (i.e. those under Sadducean authority) and the conservative Quartodecimans
both observed the same reckoning for their first month of the year. Anatolius
points out that among those who correctly began the year were the eminent third
century B.C.E. priest and scholar Aristobulus of Paneas, the second century
B.C.E. book of Enoch, and the first century priests and writers Philo and Josephus.

(Anatolius, 3) Anatolius then writes:
'These writers, in solving some questions which are raised with respect to the
Exodus, say that all alike ought to sacrifice the Phasekh after the vernal equinox in
the middle of the first moon; and that this is found to be when the sun passes
through the first segment of the solar, or, as some among them have named it, the
zodiacal circle. But this Aristobulus also adds, that for the festival of Phasekh it
was necessary not only that the sun should pass the equinoctial segment, but the
moon also...and since the day of the Phasekh is fixed for the 14th day of the
moon, at twilight, the moon will have the position diametrically opposite the sun; as
is to be seen in full moons.'" (Anatolius, 3f; pg 455/456)

With the understanding that the new year then was calculated by the sun being in
Aries then it becomes clearer what was meant in Gen 1:14 when 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," The determining
factor of when Yahweh's moadim are has nothing to do with green ears of barley,
although it is at that time of year when the Passover is observed, being the first
month of the year, and when the first month of the year begins has nothing to do
with the new moon occurring after the vernal equinox, although at times the first
month of the year does not begin until after the vernal equinox.

Now then, are we to still go by these very instructions to begin the new year?
obviously not, because if we were to still go by when the sun is in Aries then
Passover would veer further and further away from the equinox, from the
procession of the equinox, and further and further away from the season which it
represents, the barley harvest.

So, what is the answer?

The book The Festivals and Sacred Days of Yahweh goes on to say on page 456,
"The first month of the year, therefore, is determined under the Aristocratic system
when the 14th day of the moon passes the spring equinox. If the 14th day of the
moon falls before this equinox, that month is counted as part of the previous year."

I believe that there is plenty of evidence to support this criteria and it is what I use
for the basis to determine the first Scriptural month of the year.

However, I do double check the timing of when the Feast of Tabernacles will be in
this calculation because we are specifically told in Exodus 23:16 that "...the feast of
ingathering...is in the end of the year..." And in Exodus 34:22 we are instructed,
"And thou shalt observe...the feast of ingathering at the years end."

Some have determined that the word "end" in this verse of Scripture is referring to
the autumnal equinox. Although there is no Scriptural support that the Feast of
Trumpets and the Day of Atonement be at the years end but Scripture does state
that the feast of ingathering (Tabernacles) is to be at the years end.

Thus, if the Feast of Ingathering is not at or directly after the autumnal equinox
then I believe that the calculation of the first month is in error.

With this evidence I believe that this year, 2005, the first month of the Scriptural
year should begin with the moon just prior to the equinox, because everything falls
into place. Passover will be observed on the first full moon that is after the vernal
equinox, there would be green ears of barley availible for the wave sheaf offering
if we were to still make such an offering, and by using the moon that is just prior to
the vernal equinox that puts the Feast of Ingathering right at the autumnal equinox
as instructed in Scripture.

Conclusion:
It is reasoned by many that because our Savior is the Savior of the world, not just
the Jews, then there must be some way for those who are not in the vicinity of
Israel to check for green ears of barley to determine when Yahweh's appointed
times are and I believe that there is. The sun, moon and the stars are given for our
determination of Yahweh's appointed times, if we only knew how to read them.
(Gen. 1:14)

I don't proclaim to know how to read them as of yet, but history tells us that the
way some have determined the first Scriptural month was from using  the first full
moon after the vernal equinox.

By using this method one does not have to be in the land of Israel to determine if
there are green ears of barley, but it is likely that there will always be green ears
of barley by the first full moon that is after the vernal equinox in order to have the
wave sheaf offering.

Please note below that I have listed other sources that collaborate with this info.

Although some of the info listed below has to do with the setting of the date for
Easter, the date for Easter was established from the date of the Passover.

I hope that this info will in some way help all who are determined to keep
Passover at Yahweh's appointed time.

Yahweh bless,

Kevin

From site:
http://www.alphalink.com.au/~sanhub/godstime.htm

Note that errors of up to 2 hours are probable for 30 A.D. reckonings, and
therefore important implications are consequent as seen in the table below which
uses U.S. Naval Observatory astronomical calculations obtained from the Internet.

(http://riemann.usno.navy.mil./AA/data/docs/SpringPhenom.html).


ASPECTS OF GOD'S TIME
© Orest Solyma May, 1997
The Church of God in Williamstown
WEB SITE:
http://www.alphalink.com.au/~sanhub/index.htm

THE BIBLICAL CALENDAR
Genesis 1:14 tells us that the sun and moon [hence a solar-lunar calendar] are for
"signs and for seasons (mo'ed = time(s); season(s); festival(s); assembly), and for
days and years." The LXX confirms this translation. Targum Neofiti [See the note
following this paragraph] has (Gen 1:14): And the Lord ['according to the decree
of his Memra' [i.e., YHWH]] said: "Let there be lights in the firmament of the
heavens to separate the daytime from the night, and let them act as signs and
(sacred) seasons [times] and so that the intercalation of moons (and) months may
be consecrated by them." [The Aramaic Bible, (translated by Martin
McNamara M.S.C.); T and T Clark, Edinburgh, 1992].

Another Aramaic Targum, Pseudo-Jonathan, says: God said, "Let there be lights
in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them
serve as signs and as festival times, and for counting the reckoning of days, and
for sanctifying the beginnings of months and the beginnings of years, the
intercalations of months and the intercalations of years, the solstices, the new
moon, and the cycles (of the sun)."
[The Aramaic Bible, (translated by Michael Maher M.S.C.); The Liturgical Press,
Collegeville, MN, 1992].

It is accepted that these Aramaic Targums pre-date the apostolic times and so
are quite valuable in revealing the earlier Jewish understanding of Genesis 1:14.

The NEB has "as signs both for festivals and for seasons and years." The NJB has
"let them indicate festivals, days and years."

Ps 104:19 supports Gen 1:14 with the remarkable statement that God appointed
the moon for seasons [festivals], which are agriculturally-based and typify the
harvests of God's saints (1Cor 15:20,23,24).

The NEB and the NJB translate 'festivals' for 'seasons' in Gen 1:14.

The month with the Passover, Abib, is specifically commanded by the Lord as
being the beginning of the year (Ex 12:2; and also see Ex 13:4; 23:15; 34:18;
40:2,17; Lev 23:4-6; Num 9:1-3; 20:1; 28:16; 33:3; Dt 16:1-3; Josh 4:19; 5:10;
1Chr 12:15; 27:2-3; 2Chr 29:3,17; 30:15; 35:1; Ezr 7:9 [see NIV footnote]; 10:17;
Neh 2:1 [see NIV footnote]; Est 3:7 [see NIV footnote]; Ezk 29:17; 45:18,21 [Ezk
45 has a millennial setting!]).

This beginning symbolises the redemption of the Israel of God from the world's
system (Gal 1:4; Rev 14:4), and the typology of the Passover lamb foreshadows
the Lamb of God (Jn 1:29; Rev 5:6-6:1; 14:1-4). Clearly, the first month of the
year symbolises what is first in the sequence of salvation, and determines all that
follows. The religious leaders of Judaism, as described in the Gospels, rejected
the Son of God (Jn 8:19; 16:3), and not surprisingly their spiritual ancestors
determine the calculations for the calendar from 1 Tishri (the day commemorating
the return of Jesus the Messiah (1Cor 15:51-53; 1Th 4:14-16; Rev 20:6; Lev
23:23-25), who is still not recognised.

"The observation of the autumnal equinox, i.e., 'the going out of the year' (Ex.
23:16), and of the spring or vernal equinox, called 'the return of the year' (1 Ki.
20:26; 2 Ch. 36:10 KJV), was important for controlling the calendar and
consequently the festivals. Thus the year began with the new moon nearest the
vernal equinox when the sun was in Aries  (Josephus, Ant. 3.201 [better to see
Ant. III.x.5]), and the Passover on the fourteenth day of Nisan coincided with the
first full moon (Ex 12:2-6)." (The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, J. D. Douglas and N.
Hillyer, editors, IVP, 1980; Article Calendar, Vol 2, p. 223).

The present Jewish calendar, often termed the Hillel calendar, is of more recent
derivation than generally known. There is no doubt that the postponement system,
according to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, was not fully in place until the eleventh
century and is not really the product of Rabbi Hillel II from 358 C.E., even though it
is commonly attributed to him. We should recognise that we are confronted with
either the observance of God's Festivals or the observances of a calendar with
postponement rules based on rabbinical traditions. The intent of the Catholic
calendar is to avoid agreement with the original Jewish calendar and the current
Jewish calendar avoids agreement with the almost universal Christian calendar
(the Eastern Orthodox churches excepted). For example, the Catholic observance
of Easter Sunday was 30th March, 1997, whereas the Orthodox Easter Sunday
was 27th April, 1997. The Jewish Passover was on the night of 21st April. The
Roman observance is based on the early (Nicean) arguments which related to the
avoidance of the original Jewish observance:

"The Easter controversy raged in the early Church and still exists between the
Western and Eastern churches. The final conditions arrived at in the West are that
Easter must be kept on the Sunday after the paschal moon (the calendar moon
whose fourteenth day falls on or after the vernal equinox), reckoned from the day
of the new moon inclusive" (The Encyclopedia of Religion, (MACMILLAN, 1987,
ed. Mircea Eliade), Vol 10, p. 86).

The 1997 spring new moon (Jerusalem time) was on the night of 8th-9th March.

"Since the majority of early Christians were Jewish converts, it is understandable
that from the outset the Christian calendar was governed by the fact that the death
and Resurrection of Christ had taken place at the time of the Jewish feast, the
Pasch, or Passover, celebrated on the 14th day of the month of Nisan, i.e., at the
full moon following the spring equinox" (New Catholic Encyclopedia, (McGRAW
HILL, N.Y., 1967, Vol 2, p. 1062).

Please note that the larger groups observing the Passover season follow the
rabbinical traditions. Scriptures and historical support for non-rabbinical practice
are denied.

THE CALENDAR OF CHRISTIANITY
It should be noted that there is a lack of postponement rules indicated in the early
Church (admittedly Catholic, but nevertheless pertinent to our decision-making on
these matters of determining what calendar Christians ought to observe).

The key postponement rule used by the Catholic Church is that Easter Sunday is
the first Sunday after the Paschal (full) Moon.


A post-Nicaean letter from the emperor, Constantine I (306-337C.E.), further
illustrates the kind of calendrical problem we are confronted with.

"Constantine, August, to the churches. ...
When the question arose concerning the most holy day of Easter, it was decreed
by common consent to be expedient, that this festival should be celebrated on the
same day by all, in every place. ...
it seemed to every one a most unworthy thing that we should follow the custom of
the Jews in the celebration of this most holy solemnity, who, polluted wretches!
having stained their hands with a nefarious crime, are justly blinded in their minds.
It is fit, therefore, that, rejecting the practice of this people, we should perpetuate
to all future ages the celebration of this rite, in a more legitimate order, which we
have kept from the first day of our Lord's passion even to the present times. Let
us then have nothing in common with the most hostile rabble of the Jews. We have
received another method from the Saviour. A more lawful and proper course is
open to our most holy religion. In pursuing this course with a unanimous consent,
let us withdraw ourselves, my much honored brethren, from that most odious
fellowship. ... As it is necessary that this fault should be so amended that we may
have nothing in common with the usage of these parricides and murderers of our
Lord; and so that order is most convenient which is observed by all the churches
of the West, as well as those of the southern and northern parts of the world, and
also by some in the East, it is judged therefore to be most equitable and proper,
and I pledged myself that this arrangement should meet your approbation, namely
that the custom which prevails with one consent in the city of Rome, and
throughout all Italy, Africa and Egypt, in Spain, Gaul, Britain, Lybia, the whole of
Greece, the diocese of Asia, Pontus and Cilicia, would be gladly embraced by
your prudence,... and to have no fellowship with the perjury of the Jews. And, to
sum up the whole in a few words, it is agreeable to the common judgment of all,
that the most holy feast of Easter should be celebrated on one and the same day."
(A Historical View of The Council of Nice; with a Translation of Documents by Rev.
Isaac Boyle, D.D.; (T. Mason and G. Lane, New York, 1839), pp. 51-4).


This letter of Constantine reveals a high level of manipulation of political power,
propaganda, and religious coercion.

Furthermore, roots of anti-Semitism in Western culture are seen in the world
government of the day.

"It will suffice here to say that a decision seems to have been arrived at in the
Council of Nicaea, which, though it is strangely absent from the canons of the
council as now preserved to us (Turner, Monumenta Nicaena, 152), is believed to
have been determined that Easter was to be celebrated on the first Sunday after
the first full moon which follows the spring equinox" (Catholic Encyclopaedia, 1913;
obtained from Internet: 'New Advent' Catholic Supersite
(http://www.knight.org/advent/cathen/03158a.htm#easter).

It is worthwhile and a little entertaining to see how the last larger bastion of
resistance, Britain, fell to the onslaught of calendrical and further religious
distortion. The British historian and bishop, Bede [c.672-735 A.D.], in his The
Ecclesiastical History of the English People, especially in chapters 25-26 of Book
III, has much to say about the synod and the discussions presided by King Oswy
[612-670], particularly between Bishop Colman and the Rome enthusiast, the
Abbot of Ripon, Wilfred, in the monastery of Streanaeshalch [i.e., the historic
Synod of Whitby of 664 A.D.].

"Bede makes it very clear that the calculation of the date of Easter was not a
merely technical or isolated issue. The movement of Easter was one of the many
things which argument in terms of symbols (as we would say, but symbol is for us
a limiting word, mysteries they would say) showed to be loaded with significance.

Easter had to be just at the equinox, for the lengthening days represented Christ's
triumph over the powers of darkness. It had to be in the first month of the lunar
year, for this was the month in which the world had been created and in which it
ought to be newly created. It had to be as the moon was about to wane, for the
moon turns from earth to heavenly things [See Rev. 12:1; Mal. 4:2; Lk. 2:32; Isa.
60:1-3]. It was appropriate that Easter should always fall within a space of seven
days, for seven was a number of divine significance. Considered from another
point of view, Easter was to be calculated in such a way as to fulfil both of the Old
Law of the Jews and the New Law of Christ. If it was celebrated at the right time,
then all was in harmony." (Introduction, p. xviii, by James Campbell, who
translated Bede's EH for The Great Histories Series by Washington Square
Press, N.Y., 1968).

Before quoting directly from Bede let us look at a footnote (no. 44, pp. 400-1):
"Both the Celts and their opponents agreed that Easter was to be calculated by
reference to the full moon which came on or first after the spring equinox. But the
Celts held Easter Sunday to be that which came in between the fourteenth day of
the moon (i.e., the day of the full moon) and the twentieth, both included. That is to
say, that if the full moon came on a Sunday, they made this Easter Sunday. The
other churches refused to make the day of the full moon Easter Sunday. Thus the
system which Bede used, and which became universal in the west, reckoned
Easter Sunday as that which fell between the fifteenth and the twenty-first days of
the moon. If the full moon on or next after the equinox came on a Sunday, then the
next Sunday was Easter Sunday."

This pattern of universal imposition of the dating and mode of observance in the
Passover/Easter controversy has persisted through the centuries.

The New Catholic Encyclopedia comments:
"Since the majority of the early Christians were Jewish converts, it is
understandable that from the outset the Christian calendar was governed by the
fact that the death and Resurrection of Christ had taken place at the time of the
chief Jewish feast, the Pasch, or Passover, celebrated on the 14th day of the
month of Nisan, i.e., at the full moon following the Spring equinox. However, rather
than literally follow the Jewish Passover, since this would necessitate the
commemoration of the Resurrection on a different day of the week each year,
Christian custom (sanctioned by the Council of Nicaea I in 325; ConOecDecr 2-3,
n.6) fixed the anniversary of Christ's Resurrection on the actual day of the week
(the first day) on which the Resurrection had taken place. As a result, Easter falls
on the first day of the week (Sunday) after the first full moon following the spring
equinox, and thus can be as early as March 22 and as late as April 25" [which
would make it the second full moon after the equinox] (ibid., McGraw Hill, N.Y.,
1967; pp. 1062-3).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (St Pauls, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1994,
Item 1170) says:
"At the Council of Nicaea, in 325, all the Churches agreed that Easter, the
Christian Passover, should be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full
moon (Nisan 14) after the vernal equinox. The reform of the Western calendar,
called "Gregorian" after Pope Gregory XIII (1582), caused a discrepancy of
several days with the Eastern calendar. Today, the Western and Eastern
Churches are seeking agreement in order once again to celebrate the day of the
Lord's Resurrection on a common date."
The TRUE Scriptural New Year:
Neither Green Ears Nor Equinox
Are Mentioned In Genesis 1:14