Passover -
     Just as God brought Israel out of Egypt (a type of sin) after the death of the firstborn, with the blood on the door post and lintels of their homes, God rescues us from sin by the death, shed blood and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
     Leviticus 23:4-5; Deuteronomy 16:1; 1 Corinthians 11:23 - 34; 1 Corinthians 5:7-8; Romans 6:3-4; Exodus 12-13; Numbers 9:1-14; Numbers 33:3-4; Luke 22:14-20


Days of Unleavened Bread
     Having been cleansed from sin, we are to take in of Jesus Christ, the unleavened bread, that we might be made into the image of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
     Deuteronomy 16:3-8; Leviticus 23:6-8

Pentecost
     The wave sheaf day, the morrow after the sabbath, during the week of unleavened bread, is the start of the harvest. Jesus Christ was the first of the firstfruits, the wave offering made before God the Father, when Jesus rose from the dead. After His death and resurrection, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit upon all who believe and are saved.
     Deuteronomy 16:9-12; Leviticus 23:9-22; Acts 2:1-41 ; Joshua 5:11; Jeremiah 2:3; Numbers 15:18; Exodus 34:22;  Revelation 14:4

Trumpets
     Many believe that Jesus Christ will return on Trumpets, ushering in His kingdom rule on this earth.
     Leviticus 23:23-26; Numbers 23:21; Psalm 89:15; Jeremiah 4:19; Joel 2:1; Zephaniah 1:14-16; Joshua 6:5; Matthew 24:31; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonian 4:16; Matthew 25:13; Revelation 11:15

Atonement
     The two goats offered on the Day of Atonement symbolize the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, cleansing us and removing our sins from us. Similarly, the High Priest also symbolizes Jesus Christ, who makes intercession for us before God.
     Leviticus 23:26-32; Leviticus 16:1-34; Ezra 8:21 (fasting as a way to humble yourself);  Numbers 29:7-11; Isaiah 58:3-14

Feast of Tabernacles
     This harvest feast likely symbolizes the establishment of the Kingdom of God on this earth, the marriage supper of the Lamb, the building of the temple of God with the lively stones of man, and the ordination of the priests of God.
     Deuteronomy 16:13-15; Leviticus 23:33-43; Numbers 29:12-38; Exodus 34:22; Psalm 19:6; Leviticus 8-9; John 7:37-38

The Eighth Day
     There is not a lot about the eighth day. Here are the scriptures which cite a closing assembly. Many believe that this is the commencement ceremony after the Millennial reign of Christ and the Great White Throne Judgement. This is the day which symbolizes closing the book on this life and starting the next chapter of dwelling with God forever.
     Leviticus 23:36; Nehemiah 8:18; Jeremiah 9:2; 2 Kings 10:20; 2 Chronicles 7:8-9; Revelation 21-22

Calendar Study

The following article is a partial transcript of a Bible study presented April 7th, 2018 concerning the Holy Day calendar. The study was designed to answer some questions concerning how we determine calendar dates and was intended as an overview and is not exhaustive.
__________________________________________________________________

 Last Sabbath I warned everyone I intended to discuss the calendar issue today. I used the word "warned" and even suggested some people might want to stay home or go elsewhere to skip this discussion. I did that because some people can get very worked up over the calendar. It is a controversial subject, convoluted and difficult to understand at times, filled with partial or even misinformation and sometimes even emotional manipulation to try to convince people to a certain viewpoint. It is not an easy study or an easy subject to learn or discuss. Nevertheless, I do think it is an interesting topic and important to get right, the best that we can.

  Due to the nature of the subject, I probably will say something you will disagree with at some point. Please realize it is not my intent to attack or be disagreeable. You might be right and I might be wrong. What I am doing today is to try to explain, to answer some questions, as to why we are doing the Holy Day calendar like we are, why every few years we are about a month behind the Jewish calculation of the calendar.

  I make no claims to being an expert on the calendar. After researching it for years now, I might be able to answer some questions which come up. You can ask questions along the way or wait until I finish, whatever you prefer. And if at the end we disagree, that's ok. We're all still learning and perhaps time will reveal more solid information or God will grant us better understanding if we have a willing heart to learn.

  Many years ago I carried a card in my wallet; it told me what the biblical holy days were for many years in advance. I never gave much thought back then as to how those dates were arrived at. It sure was convenient for planning purposes such as putting in for vacation days at work.  That all changed when we became an independent church. Suddenly things taken for granted had to be thought out and decisions made. I, for one, had no desire to get involved with calendar issues. But the calendar cannot be ignored; one way or another we all make decisions concerning it and based on it, even if we just choose to use that card in our wallet or purse.

  Most of us probably have a wall or desk calendar at home with many special dates marked on it such as 4th of July, Presidents' Day, famous birthdays and so on, including what some people call Jewish holidays. The Jewish method of determining those "Jewish holidays" involves a much different calendar than the one on your desk though. I think a brief history of both might be helpful.

  The historical background of our current secular calendar comes from the Romans. Before 45 B.C. the Roman calendar was a bit disorderly to say the least. It was composed of 304 days and 10 months. At the end of 304 days it was just winter until March came in again. Eventually attempts were made to correct this by adding and subtracting days, and over time this improved some, but that was not all of their calendar problems. The Roman priesthood was in charge of the calendar and it seems they were open to changing the calendar for a bribe, if someone was willing to pay enough. Also leap years were considered bad luck and could be skipped in times of war or trouble of some type. I guess you could say their calendar was “flexible."

  Julius Caesar decided to do something about this calendar and declared 45 B.C. as the target date for calendar reform. To get ready for that reform, 46 B.C. became a year with some 455 days and 15 months just to straighten out the errors.

  The new Julian calendar was actually much better with a year being 365.25 days. It was still off enough that a one day error accumulated over a 128 year span. This resulted in the spring equinox date creeping backward some 10 days by the year 1582 and interfered with the calculation of Easter. To correct this, Pope Gregory XIII changed the year to 365.2425 days and leap years would be utilized usually every 4 years. This is our current calendar and pretty accurate, only resulting in a 1 day error every 3300 years or so. This is the calendar probably on your desk or hanging on your wall.

  The Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar, it does not need the moon to calculate it. The current Jewish calendar utilizes both sun and moon in its calculations; it is both solar and lunar based. New months are calculated from the dark moon conjunction as opposed to a new moon crescent sighting. Since the lunar cycle falls about 11 days short of the yearly solar cycle, an additional month is added at intervals to keep the lunar cycle from falling too far behind the solar cycle. The current Jewish calendar uses a 19 year time cycle with additional months being added in years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17 and 19. This is called the Metonic cycle after the Greek astronomer who proposed it, but the current calculated Jewish calendar is generally credited to Hillel Ben Judah, better known as Hillel the II, although there is some uncertainty about how much of the calendar he was actually responsible for. Anyhow, he produced it around 390 A.D. as an emergency calendar to keep some unity among the Jews during the dispersion and scattering of the Jews due to the persecution of Rome. Most Jews and Christians appeared to reject it initially, and it seems to have been stored for a considerable amount of time but was reintroduced during another time of intense persecution. Hillel meant it as a temporary calendar just until a new Sanhedrin could be formed. The Jews are still waiting for that Sanhedrin to be formed and Hillel's calendar is still the method used for the Jewish calendar today. That's how we get those dates on our Gregorian calendar.

  So why not just use them? It is a whole lot easier than calendar research. Does it even matter what dates we observe as long as we observe something? Don't the Jews have the authority to regulate the calendar? Didn't Hillel, as a representative of the last Sanhedrin, sit in Moses’ seat and possess the authority to change the calendar?
  And that is precisely where the problem lies. The current Jewish calendar is a changed calendar. It is different from what the "authorized" Jewish Sanhedrin deemed proper before Hillel. Hillel himself viewed it as an emergency and temporary solution; it has persisted way past what was anticipated or needed.

  One of the most troubling aspects of the current Jewish calendar to many people are the postponements. The current Jewish calendar allows for Holy Days to be postponed, moved around in what day they will be observed for the sake of convenience. For example, if Atonement falls adjacent to a Sabbath that means 2 days in a row no "work" can be done and that is thought to be reason enough to change the date of a day God was very specific and adamant about observing. There are more postponement rules, but it is not my intent to list them; I just want to comment on their existence and the disregard they seem to reflect for what God has decreed. They are part and parcel to the current Jewish calendar and seem to have been devised somewhere around the advent of the Hillel calendar although no firm date is known.

  Another change of the Hillel calendar is that the new moon is calculated from the conjunction instead of the observed crescent. We have excellent records indicating during the time of Jesus the Sanhedrin used the observed crescent to determine the new month. More on that later but that is a significant change.

  Also, concerning the Jews sitting in the seat of Moses. I have discussed this in detail before and not planning to repeat that here. Simply put, that authority and responsibility is to preserve and teach God's law, not change the law from what God has given. I think that should be obvious.

  Those are some of the objections to the current Jewish calendar, just a very quick overview. Any questions so far?
  So...what does the Bible tell us about how to determine the Holy Day calendar?

Not a whole lot and not as much as most would like. But there might be more than you think.

  An early reference connected to the calendar is Genesis 1:14, "And God 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 seasons, and for days, and years.” The sun, moon and even the stars can be used in determining a calendar. We see that in a quote from the Jewish historian Josephus who lived in the 1st century A.D. Concerning the Exodus, he writes, "In the month of Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of our year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries (for in this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians),”

  That is quite a statement. They obviously used the moon, lunar, to start the month and count the days.  The sun is mentioned as being in the constellation Aries. What he meant by that is the spring equinox had already occurred; it was spring when they received deliverance from Egypt. Aries is the zodiac sign of the Ram, the background constellation which appeared immediately after the spring equinox from about 1730 B.C. to around 217 A.D.. The Passover date identified by Josephus as the original Exodus used the sun, moon and stars as reference points, tied to the spring equinox.

  Another scripture tied to the calendar is Exodus 12:1-2, "And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you."  The Hebrew word for month here is chodesh, Strong's reference 2320, meaning new moon. You can see chodesh literally translated that way in Isaiah 66:22-23, "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed  and your name remain. 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, saith the LORD." New moon here is chodesh, the word translated as month back in Exodus 12:2. The new moons start the months. That might seem obvious, but there are some that deny a month is connected to the moon.

  Psalm 104:19, "He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down." The word for moon here is yareach, Strong's 3394, simply meaning “the moon.” God appointed the moon for seasons, the Hebrew word mowadah (4150), meaning “an appointment, a festival, an assembly, a fixed time.” Mowadah is the word for “seasons.” In Genesis 1:14 we read, the lights in the heavens are for signs and seasons (mowadah). The mowadah are the Holy Day appointments with God in Leviticus 23. And it is the new moon that starts the month.

  So how was that new moon determined? By calculating a dark conjunction? Or by simply observing when a new moon crescent appeared?

  I think the simple answer wins out here. Ancient Israel just went out and looked.

History supports that viewpoint too. There are many works on this subject, I'll just quote a few.

This is from The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar by Arthur Spier:  "In the early times of our history the solution (of balancing the solar cycle with the lunar cycle) was found by the following practical procedure: The beginning of the months was determined by direct observation of the new moon."...this method of observation and intercalation was in use throughout the period of the second temple (516B.C. to 70A.D.) and about three centuries after its destruction, as long as there was an independent Sanhedrin."

  This next quote is from Rabbinical Mathematics and Astronomy by W.M. Feldman. "the Phase Method of determining the beginning of a month...prevailed until...the middle of the 4th century when it was replaced by the fixed calendar method which makes use of a mean conjunction or molad to determine the beginning of a month."

  One more, this from The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia: "The importance of the month to the Hebrews is seen when it is noted how fundamental a division of time the month was for them.The date of the new moon as marking the beginning of a new reckoning of time was by them not calculated, but observed. The length of a month, twenty-nine or thirty days, depended, therefore, upon the day the moon was seen, except in cloudy weather the thirtieth day was reckoned to the preceding month."

  I could go on with many more references but you can easily research it yourself. Ancient Israel and through the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. at least, used an observed crescent of the moon to start a new month and to determine the dates of the Holy Days. It was not based on calculations nor are there any indications of postponements that I know of.  This is the calendar being used at the time of Jesus and there is no record He disagreed with how it was determined. Furthermore, the Passover Lamb of God, Jesus, was sacrificed, crucified, at the same day and time the Jews determined was the Passover and were sacrificing their lambs. This is a strong confirmation the observed crescent from Jerusalem actually starts the beginning of a new month. That method coincided with God's 14th day of the 1st month and that is very significant. Calculated calendars, postponements and local sightings from different points on the earth often give different results for Holy Day dates.

  I personally think that is hard to argue against. The observed new moon from Jerusalem matched the Nisan 14th Passover date of God's calendar when Jesus was crucified. Why use a different method?

  Actually, I think the much more difficult question is when to start the new year. Which new moon is it?
We read Exodus 12:2, it speaks of the 1st month of the year. A little further, Exodus 13, gives a bit more.
Exodus 13: 3-4, "And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten. This day came ye out in the month of Abib."

The 1st month of the year is identified as Abib; Nisan is the Babylonian name of the 1st month, often used.
Abib in Hebrew means "green ears", referring to tender, new barley grain. Many people, like the Karaite Jews, look to the ripening of barley to determine what month is the start of the new year.

It is not a horrible method, it just is very subjective as to when enough barley is ripe to make that call. It is simply a matter of opinion, not a firm observable point in time. Barley ripens at different times at different locations at different elevations in Israel. The main harvest may not start until mid April or even into May, depending on what sources you look at. Just because a patch of barley can be found in March does not necessarily mean that is the new moon to start the new year. It is a general indicator of spring, important but a very subjective call at times as to which new moon should be considered the new moon of the year.

  There is a much better way, I think. That is the spring equinox. The equinoxes are clearly defined points in time for most of the planet, a straight line measurement of when the sun rises in the east and sets directly in the west. This is easily measured and was used anciently. The Egyptian pyramids are said to have an equinox component to them as do other structures. Stonehenge in England is believed to be an ancient equinox marker identifying the start of spring.

  Using the equinoxes and solstices takes the guesswork out of when the seasons begin and what new moon to use. Using the new moon after the spring equinox keeps the Holy Days in their proper seasons, no need for 19 year time cycles of adding a month or subjective calls of how much of the barley is ripe.

  It works well, but is it biblical? Well, I think there is support for that. It is found in the use and meaning of the Hebrew word tquphah, Strong's 8622. Tquphah comes from a base word meaning “a revolution,” like of the sun; it means “course, or a time lapse, a circuit, come about, end.” The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the Old Testament defines tquphah as “indicating a turning around; a circuit. It indicates the completion of a yearly cycle. It indicates the gestation period of a child, {that cycle of life}. It is used to describe the circuit or passage of the sun across the sky.”

  Let's look at some scriptures where tquphah is used.

Exodus 34:22, "And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end." End here is tquphah, meaning not the last day of the calendar year but a complete yearly cycle completed of the Holy Days.

Another kind of cycle completed is in 1 Samuel 1:20, "Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD." The word come is tquphah, the cycle was complete and the baby is born.

Psalm 19: 1-6," The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth  as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit into the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof."

Circuit here in verse 6 is tquphah, the circuit of the sun. The points of the sun's circuit are precise places and times, the 4 seasons. That's how the Encyclopedia Judaica defines tquphah, defining seasons set by the equinoxes and solstices. A complete circuit of the sun defines when spring occurs precisely each year. It marks the seasons with the stars confirming the time, such as Aries during the Exodus. After the spring equinox, the new moon starts the day count for the month from which the Holy Day calendar is derived.

  And that is how we do the Holy Day calendar. Each year we wait for the sun to complete its tquphah or circuit with the spring equinox. The next new moon crescent as seen in Jerusalem determines the start of the month and the determination of the Holy Day calendar for that year.

  This year, 2018, most observers of the Holy Days used the new moon before the spring equinox. That is why we are so much later this year than most of those observing the Holy Days.

  And you may have noticed, the spring seems to be lagging about a month behind this year. We had similar experiences the other 2 times we did this too.

  As I indicated at the start, this is just an overview, the calendar is a huge subject. Perhaps this will answer some questions for some.

Ron Saladin