THE OLD TESTAMENT (OT) CALENDAR ?
Part One
by
Keith Hunt
The controversy over the calendar Moses had, the calendar Christ was under, and the calendar the majority of the Jews use today (called the Jewish perpetual or fixed calendar) first began from among the organization known as the Worldwide Church of God, or I should more correctly say, that organization’s OFFSHOOTS, started back in the 1970’s with the first appearance of offshoot churches from the WCG. It was at that time thoroughly hashed through with paper after paper appearing on the scene claiming it had the answer and was the true way to govern the calendar. The underlying premise for such papers was the claim that the Jewish fixed calendar was UNbiblical and had a number of errors. The new calendar papers claimed to correct the errors and restore the true rules of the calendar.
The organizations known as the SACRED NAME churches got in on the act. It was possible they had been doing so for many more years than I knew about, as I had no contact with them until the late 70’s. I had never heard of them nor did I know they existed until that time.
I read their magazines and papers on the subject together with the many others circulating at the time.
In the 80’s the topic seemed to level off and even to get put on the back burner. I guess most had studied it to their satisfaction and made their decision on the matter.
With the further, much larger break-up of the Worldwide Church of God in the early 90’s, this issue of the calendar has once more surfaced, and surfaced with a BANG!! The old hands of calendar reform have been given a new lease on life and have come to life again, together with new pushers for new calendars. The modern Internet and E-mail church forums among the offshoots of the WCG has added to the controversy of this topic.
Out of it all, for anyone who has studied it, and not even for very long, one thing soon is clear to see. HARDLY NONE of the calendar reformers AGREE AMONG THEMSELVES as to the correct way to govern the calendar for the observation of the Festivals of the Lord. While at the same time, many of them claim THEY have the TRUE method of calculating the calendar, or that they have the calendar originally given to Moses.
I do not know if such people found where Moses was buried by God and dug up his grave to take from his hand the manuscript he wrote containing the rules of the calendar, but they seem quite sure THEY are the ones with the correct calendar, while the others must have found the grave site of a wrong Moses, with a wrong calendar manuscript in his hand.
Then there are those who preach the OT itself contains the calendar rules. If the cycle of the earth and its seasons were fixed to a 30 days a month, 12 months a year, then all our problems would be over; we would have no problems for a calendar.
Under such a cycle, knowing when to begin the first month of the year, even a first grader could then figure out exactly when the festivals of Leviticus 23 should be and mark then on the calendar for you.
Ah, but life is not quite that simple, and the earth’s cycle in this immediate galaxy of our is not that simple, not any more at least. As we shall see there is evidence it once was that simple, from the Bible itself, but it is not that simple today.
Somewhere along the course of time that simplicity was nudged or swung, or blown or pushed out of orbit, and the nations of earth had to learn to devise calendars to try to keep things “in synch” with each other over hundreds and thousands of years. Sometimes adjustments to calendars had to be made from time to time. Some nations threw out calendars they had and started all over again with another calendar.
The Bible itself and secular history records some pretty
HUGE miraculous events took place along the way from the
beginning to the present, that screwed up the nice neat little 12 month, 30 days to a month, year of the earth, with the sun and moon.
Well all this can be found in the Encyclopedias under the
subject of “calendar.” It will be good for the reader to spend
some time in investigating the matter, so they fully realize we
are dealing here with a rather complicated issue as we now find it.
What I want to undertake to do is simply go through the Old Testament and look at all the passages that have any direct bearing on what we might call a calendar issue. Ask some open question, see if we can find any open answers, see if we can ascertain any calendar rules, and if so, see if there are enough of them to claim we have the calendar Moses had. Then after all that in the second half of this study, try to investigate what kind of a calendar Jesus lived under. And to find that, we shall have to look elsewhere from the New Testament of the Bible, as nothing is given to us there for our answer to that question.
So let’s begin.
Genesis 1:14
I do not know how many people over the years have turned me to this verse in Genesis to somehow claim the “calendar” is here, but it is quite a few. In their mind they think they have the rules and regulations for the calendar all down pat, nicely tied up with a pink bow, and this verse is that little package.
Many of these people are either “moon crescent” watchers or “ears of barley green” lookers, yet somehow they think this verse is the key to the calendar question.
The Hebrew word “moed” for “seasons” in this verse is indeed used in the other books of Moses for “feast.” So some immediately say: “There it is, God put the sun and moon and stars in heaven to regulate when to observe the festivals.” Even IF God established His festivals from the beginning, HOW on earth does this verse by itself propound the calendar?
We need to use some logic. Where in this verse does it say which month is the beginning of the year? Where in this verses is the phrase “new moon”? Where in this verse does it tell us how many months there are to be in the year? Where does it say how many days there are in the month? Where in this verse does it tell us to look to the crescent of the moon to start the month? What if it was cloudy one month and you could not see the moon? What if it was cloudy for 3, 4, 5, months in a row? Where is the sighting to be done from if we are to go by sighting? And what has this verse to do with a 13th month to be added now and then to keep everything “in synch” with the universe? When does this verse tell me to add that month to the year? And who is the final worldwide authority for all God’s people to proclaim the adding of a 13th month? Then for those who argue about the “spring equinox” – tell me where in this verse does it mention the spring equinox?
Sorry, but for anyone to use this verse in an attempt to establish the rules and regulations of the calendar, especially for today, when the earth, moon, and sun, are not “in synch” together with a nice neat 12 month, 30 days to a month cycle, is not only taking BIG liberties with the word of the Lord, but are also READING INTO and ADDING such large amounts of HUMAN reasoning and interpretations, that I have honestly wondered if they are trying to enter the “fiction of the year” writers contest.
Certainly God has placed in the sky the heavenly bodies that on a GENERAL overall view do divide the night from day, do give us seasons in the year, and do tell us that after winter and the start of spring is a logical time for a new year to begin. The farmers have in the past taken note of the sky and heavens to help them do their work on the land.
God promised Noah, and us, that while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease (Gen.8:22). The pattern and cycle of the moving of this earth, with the moon and sun, give us day and night, cold and heat, summer and winter – the seasons of the year, AND THAT IS ALL GOD WAS GIVING US IN GEN.1:14.
The Eternal WAS NOT giving us the rules and regulations of the calendar, especially for today, when He inspired Moses to write the first chapter of Genesis.
Does Genesis INDICATE in any way that there was a calendar used in those beginning days? If it does, is there any indications as to the basics of that calendar?
YES, indeed there are very probable answers to those two questions.
By reading the account of Noah and the building of the Ark, when he entered the ark, the length of stay in the ark, the resting of the ark, and the going forth from the ark, all found in the 7th and 8th chapters of Genesis, we come to the conclusion that in those days the calendar was neat and simple – 12 months to a year, with 30 days to a month. If the festivals of the Lord were established from the beginning, then God would have told them which was the first month as He did with Moses. He would have stated to them what is written in Leviticus 23 (except there was not tabernacle and priesthood then as under Moses) as to the months and days of the feasts. And with our immediate solar system in simple synch from year to year (12 months, 30 days to the month) at that time, it would have not taken very much education to know the calendar of God and when the feasts of the Lord were to be observed. Even a small child would have been able to have kept track.
There would under such a calendar have been no need to look to the heavens, watch the moon, go sighting for the crescent of the moon, watch for the green ears of barley, decide when to add a 13th month (for it was not needed), and whatever else is argued about today, including the spring equinox.
So much for anything about the calendar in the book of Genesis. The next time we encounter the calendar for God’s people is with Moses at the time of the Exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt.
That we shall look at next time.
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Written May 1997