An objective reckoning for the Biblical calendar -updated
From 8/6/2011 this is my 'best guess' reckoning for the moons of the year. Please feel free to tear shreds off it, with evidence of course ;)
Background assumptions
This proposed calendar reckoning assumes that YHWH's new moons and moedim are based on objective and not subjective realities, depending not on observation of barley or the zodiac or the esoteric rulings of man or imprecise calculation systems, but on precise astronomical realities; (which may have been revealed to prophet or priest, but are not dependent on revelation or on observation and/or calculation and/or man's decree, but on…) objective reality. Observation, calculation and/or decree are accurate only to the extent that they reflect the precise astronomical realities... and revelation from YHWH would always be accurate, of course! -whensoever He did indeed answer.
This reckoning is based totally on the relative positions of sun, moon and earth.
It is beautifully simple, but I'll try not to fall too in love with it ;)
1. The Full Moon Night occurs between the 14th day and the 15th day of each month.
[By 'Full Moon Night' I mean the night in Jerusalem (whose solar midnight moment is) closest to the Astronomical Full Moon moment. Solar midnight data can be found here, and full moon times can be found here.]
2. The first Full Moon Night after the Spring Equinox Day belongs to the 1st month of a year.
[By 'Spring Equinox Day' I mean the daytime in Jerusalem (whose solar noon moment is) closest to the (northward)spring equinox. The (northward)spring equinox times can be found here under 'March Equinox', and solar noon times can be found here.]
3. There is no third rule.
#moedim #1abib #determiningthefeastdates
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Garth Grenache
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Garth Grenache
-Psalm 81:3-
“Blast in the ḥo̖ḏɛ̯š (renewing=lunar month) the šōp̱ǟ̖r(ram's horn)!
-in the kɛ̖sɛ̯ˀ(full moon), for the day of our ḥa̖gg(festival)!”
The context (see particularly verse 5, verse 6, and verse 1 is the “ḥa̖gg” of unleavened bread, the 15th day of the 1st month, on which YHWH rescued Israel from Egypt. The 1st rule of my reckoning makes sure that the Full Moon Night is the night that belongs to this 15th day: the night before the 15th day, the night after the afternoon Passover sacrifice, in which the sacrifice is eaten, the 'night of watching'.
-Dead sea scrolls, 1Enoch's Astronomical Book, 3rd century BC-
Whilst it abandons the Biblical lunar calendar, 1Enoch describes the times of the moon as reaching full moon in 14 days in a 29-day lunation period, and in 15 days in a 30-day lunation period. The first of these days a half-seventh portion of light is received by the moon at sunrise, to be manifested after sunset. The 1st rule of my reckoning fits with this simplified description of reality to a similar degree that this description of reality fits astronomical realities, landing the full moon night between the 14th and 15th day, and the most likely first appearance of the crescent after the 1st day.
Chapters LXXIII, LXXIV and LXXVIII of 1Enoch are relevant and can be found here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/boe/index.htm
-Aristobulus? 2nd century BC?-
“They are accustomed to call this segment the first dodecatomorion, and the equinox, and the beginning of months, and the head of the cycle, and the starting-point of the planetary circuit...These writers, explaining questions in regard to the Exodus, say that all alike should sacrifice the passover offerings after the vernal equinox, in the middle of the first month. But this occurs while the sun is passing through the first segment of the solar, or as some of them have styled it, the zodiacal circle. Aristobulus adds that it is necessary for the feast of the passover, that not only the sun should pass through the equinoctial segment, but the moon also. For as there are two equinoctial segments, the vernal and the autumnal, directly opposite each other, and as the day of the passover was appointed on the fourteenth of the month, beginning with the evening, the moon will hold a position diametrically opposite the sun, as may be seen in full moons; and the sun will be in the segment of the vernal equinox, and of necessity the moon in that of the autumnal.”
Eusebius ~300AD quotes Anatolius who appeals to teaching from 'Aristobulus', http://www.textexcavation.com/....documents/aristobulu
The correct time for the sacrifice of the Passover is “in(during) the coming [down] of the sun” (Deuteronomy 16:6) in the 14th daytime. It is slain before sunset, and eaten after sunset. The 1st rule of my reckoning makes sure that this night is the Full Moon Night, so that the full circle of the moon is rising at about the time the circle of the sun is setting, so that it is seen that “the moon will hold a position diametrically opposite the sun, as may be seen in full moons”.
-Philo, before 50AD-
"(155) And this feast is begun on the fifteenth day of the month, in the middle of the month, on the day on which the moon is full of light, in consequence of the providence of God taking care that there shall be no darkness on that day."
"(21 Again, the beginning of this festival is appointed for the fifteenth day of the month, on account of the reason which has already been mentioned respecting the spring season, also that the world may be full, not by day only but also by night, of the most beautiful light, the sun and moon on their rising opposite to one another with uninterrupted light, without any darkness interposing itself between so as to divide them."
From Philo Special Laws II http://www.earlyjewishwritings.....com/text/philo/book
Philosophical Philo slightly exaggerates: it is not always possible in every month to have the full moon rise while the sun sets and then the sun rise while the full moon sets “without any darkness interposing”. However this is more true on the Full Moon Night than any other. The 1st rule of my reckoning makes sure that the Full Moon Night is the night observed with “the fifteenth day of the month”, the night immediately preceding that 15th daytime.
-Common Calculated Hebrew Calendar ~4th century AD-
That the rules of the Common Calculated Hebrew Calendar include automatic postponements and a fixed long month of Tishrei resulted in the full moon night commonly occurring immediately before the 14th, 15th or 16th day of a month [confirmed by analysing a random sample of months toward the end of the 4th century], in approximate agreement with the 1st rule of my reckoning.
[More info about the Calculated Hebrew Calendar and a calendar conversion tool can be found here: http://www.rosettacalendar.com/ ]
The logical beauty of the 1st rule
Aside from the greatest beauty -that the 1st rule of my reckoning fits with the Scripture, and also with the historical testimonies above- there are several other aesthetic aspects of the 1st rule.
In Psalm 104:19 it is written, “He made the moon for mōʕēdī̖m(appointments)...”. For what appointments? Both Talmudic and Karaite traditions (which crystalize after the destruction of the Temple in 70AD) treat the moon as a sign only for the New Moon Day, the first day of the month, and assume that the moon is only a sign for a few moments when it may or may not appear after the sunset which ends the 29th day of one of their months. If it appears in this night -in it's darkest visible phase- and is seen by them, they count the moon as a sign that they should begin a new month with that night. If it does not appear in that night, they do not use the moon to begin the new month, but instead begin it the following night regardless of whether or not it is sighted.
In fact no Scripture ever says that the ḥo̖ḏɛ̯š (renewing=lunar month) is the visible waxing crescent.
But the above writers(including Philo who died before 70AD), and the Scriptures themselves, refer instead to the “full moon” as a sign of the “middle of the month” and “the fifteenth day”. It is a rare occurrence when the night of the full moon falls as late as the 15th night of the Karaite calendar!
In Genesis 1 it is written,
“14 And ʔɛ̯lōhī̖m said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for mōʕēdī̖m(appointments), and for daysand years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And ʔɛ̯lōhī̖m made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And ʔɛ̯lōhī̖m set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And ʔɛ̯lōhī̖m saw that it was good.”
ʔɛ̯lōhī̖m gave the moon as “the lesser light to rule the night” and “to give light on the earth” and to “be for signs and for mōʕēdī̖m(appointments), and for days”. This fits beautifully with the 1st rule of my reckoning, as by it the moon’s most important “sign” is when it gives most “light on the earth”, in the night when its “rule [of] the night” is most obvious: the Full Moon Night! In two months, the 1st and 7th month, this “sign” is in the night that immediately precedes and is celebrated with two most important “mōʕēdī̖m(appointments)”, the ḥa̖gg of Unleavened Bread, and the ḥa̖gg of Tabernacles.
Another beautiful thing about this 1st rule is that by it the Full Moon Night separates the first two sets of seven daytimes from the second two sets of seven daytimes in each month. The Full Moon Night divides the first fourteen days from the second fourteen days in the month.
Indeed by this 1st rule, though the half moon phases of the moon are not able to also be definitive of the time of month, they still give approximate indication of the time of the month at times when these phases are most obvious:
*As the 1st rule locks the average time of the Full Moon moment to midnight between the 14th and 15th day times...
*The First Quarter Half Moon is locked to an average time of 3pm (the end of the 9th hour) on the 7th daytime of the month, the last day of the first seven days, at the time of day when the sun and moon appear at about equal heights in the sky.
*The Last Quarter Half Moon is locked to an average time of 9am (the end of the 3rd hour) on the 22nd daytime of the month, the first day of the fourth seven days, at the time of day when the moon and sun appear at about equal heights in the sky.
So by the 1st rule the major phases of the moon divide the four sevens of the month:
*The first two sevens from the second two sevens by the Full Moon Night,
*the first seven is divided from the second seven by the First Quarter Half Moon at a time when it is visible: the afternoon ending the 7th day,
*and the fourth seven is divided from the second seven by the Last Quarter Half Moon at a time when it is visible: the morning beginning the 1st day of this fourth seven, the 22nd day of the month.
What of the crescent phases? The times when the moon “give[s] light on the earth” to a much lesser degree, are most distant from the Full Moon Phase, and due to the irregularity of the moon's orbit their timing is quite variable. Keeping this in mind, the waxing crescent moon may not be seen until the 1st, 2nd or 3rd day of the month has ended -and occasionally will might be seen before the 1st daytime! Nevertheless, by the end of the 1st daytime, the moon will have waxed an average of 36 hours, making the moon more usually to be first seen upon the close of the 1st day of the month than after any other day of the month. Likewise, at the beginning of the 28th day (sunrise), the moon will have an average of 36 hours waning time left, with the result that it is more usual that the last sighting of the moon will be just before this last day of the fourth seven, than any other day of the month.
So soon after the first seven days in a month has already begun, the waxing crescent evidences that the moon has also already begun waxing,
and toward the end of the fourth seven days, the waning crescent evidences that the moon is waning away and about to vanish again.
Naturally, all these four seven-day periods begin on the same day of the week. This means, for example, that a month that begins on the Thirdday of the week has a Half Moon sign just before the second Thirdday, a Full Moon sign in the night immediately before the third Thirdday, and a Half Moon sign at the beginning of the fourth Thirdday.
Beautiful, I reckon!
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Garth Grenache
-Dead sea scrolls, 1Enoch's Astronomical Book, 3rd century BC-
1Enoch (and likewise the Book of Jubilees) abandons the Biblical lunar calendar and proposes in its place a solar calendar of 52 weeks, 364 days, beginning the day after the spring equinox, which is always a Fourthday of the week by its reckoning. That the calendar fits not the lunar nature of the Biblical calendar, nor the real length of a solar year (being about 1.24 days too short for the astronomical tropical year of 365.24 days) makes its calendar difficult for both faith and reason. Nevertheless, the 2nd rule of my calendar reckoning causes the first day of the first month of the year to fall the very day after the spring equinox on average, being equally likely to fall either side of this day.
Chapters LXXII and LXXXII are relevant and can be found here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/boe/index.htm
-Aristobulus? 2nd century BC?-
“They are accustomed to call this segment the first dodecatomorion, and the equinox, and the beginning of months, and the head of the cycle, and the starting-point of the planetary circuit...These writers, explaining questions in regard to the Exodus, say that all alike should sacrifice the passover offerings after the vernal equinox, in the middle of the first month. But this occurs while the sun is passing through the first segment of the solar, or as some of them have styled it, the zodiacal circle. Aristobulus adds that it is necessary for the feast of the passover, that not only the sun should pass through the equinoctial segment, but the moon also. For as there are two equinoctial segments, the vernal and the autumnal, directly opposite each other, and as the day of the passover was appointed on the fourteenth of the month, beginning with the evening, the moon will hold a position diametrically opposite the sun, as may be seen in full moons; and the sun will be in the segment of the vernal equinox, and of necessity the moon in that of the autumnal.”
Eusebius ~300AD quotes Anatolius who appeals to teaching from 'Aristobulus', http://www.textexcavation.com/....documents/aristobulu
The 2nd rule for my reckoning results in the Passover sacrifice occurring within 30 days of the Spring Equinox Day, here called “the equinoctial segment”, “the first dodecatomorion”, that is, the first twelfth of a year. The Passover day, the 14th, is by the combination of the 1st and 2nd rules one of the 30 days beginning with the Spring Equinox Day. This corresponds to the time when “the sun will be in the segment of the vernal[spring] equinox”.
-Philo, before 50AD-
“(181) In the first season--he calls springtime and its equinox the first season--he ordered that a feast which is called "the feast of unleavened bread" be celebrated for seven days and declared that every day was equal in honor in religious services.”
From Philo, Special Laws I http://www.earlyjewishwritings.....com/text/philo/book
Philo places the feast of unleavened bread in “springtime”, that is after the equinox, “in the first season”. The 2nd rule for my reckoning results in the week of unleavened bread consistently occurring in this season that begins with the spring equinox, never in winter (never before the equinox).
“Although the month in which the autumnal equinox occurs is first in sequence according to solar orbits, it is not considered first in the law. The reason is that at that time, after all the crops have been harvested, the trees lose their leaves and everything that springtime produced in the height of its glory is withering under dry winds after it has been made dry by the flaming heat of the sun. (154) Therefore he thought that to apply the name "first" to the month in which the hill country and the plain become barren and infertile, was incongruous and unfitting.”
“(204) The last of all the annual festivals is that which is called the feast of tabernacles, which is fixed for the season of the autumnal equinox.”
From Philo, Special Laws II http://www.earlyjewishwritings.....com/text/philo/book
The 2nd rule for my reckoning results in the (southward)autumn equinox occurring about as late as the 20th day of the 7th month, and about as early as the 20th day of the 6th month. Therefore about two-thirds of the time the seventh month would be “the month in which the autumnal equinox occurs”.
-Josephus, 1st century AD-
“4. Upon the fifteenth day of the same[seventh] month, when the season of the year is changing for winter, the law enjoins us to pitch tabernacles in every one of our houses, so that we preserve ourselves from the cold of that time of the year...
5. 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,) the law ordained that we should every year slay that sacrifice which I before told you we slew when we came out of Egypt, and which was called the Passover; and so we do celebrate this passover in companies, leaving nothing of what we sacrifice till the day following. The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the passover, and falls on the fifteenth day of the month, and continues seven days...”
From Josephus, Antiquities Book 3, Chapter 10, http://www.earlyjewishwritings.....com/text/josephus/a
The 2nd rule for my reckoning results in Passover consistently occurring within 30 days of the (northward)spring equinox, when once “the sun [was] in [the zodiac sign called] Aries.” [Because of precession of the equinoxes, tropical Aries no longer corresponds with sidereal Aries.] Also, with the (southward)autumn equinox occurring about as late as the 20th day of the 7th month and about as early as the 20th day of the 6th month, the festival of tabernacles consistently ends (and usually begins) in a season “changing for winter”, that is the season of autumn which extends from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice.
-Common Calculated Hebrew Calendar ~4th century AD-
The common Calculated Hebrew Calendar may have originated in the 4th century AD. Its metonic cycle may have been set with the aim of having Passover occur as soon as possible after the (northward)spring equinox. It usually achieved this in the 4th century AD. 360AD was an exception: the 15th Nisan by the Calculated Hebrew Calendar fell on the 18th March, a day *before* the spring equinox. These days the Calculated Hebrew Calendar has Passover later; it is more than 30 days after the spring equinox about 20% of the time. The 2nd rule of my reckoning consistently places makes the Passover Full Moon night the first Full Moon night after the Spring Equinox Day.
[More info about the Calculated Hebrew Calendar and a calendar conversion tool can be found here: http://www.rosettacalendar.com/ ]
The logical beauty of the 2nd rule
Aside from the greatest beauty -that the 2nd rule of my reckoning fits with the Scripture, and also with the historical testimonies above- there are several other aesthetic aspects of the 2nd rule.
In Genesis 8:22 it is written,
“While the earth remains,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night,
shall not cease.”
One could say the first three dichotomies signify two seasons, two halves of the year:
The one called “harvest”, “heat” and “summer”, the other called “seedtime”, “cold” and “winter”.
The sun's equinoxes are signs which naturally divide the year into these two seasons “heat” (spring equinox to autumn equinox) and “cold” (autumn equinox to spring equinox). The 2nd rule of my reckoning ensures that the festival of unleavened bread, the firstfruits and the festival of weeks(Pentecost) -which are all concerned with the beginning of the harvest- do actually occur within this naturally divided “heat” season, and not before it. [In fact, if there ever existed a 2nd and 3rd Pentecost (The Firstfruits of Wine and The Firstfruits of Oil, respectively) as described in the Dead Sea Scroll's Temple Scroll, this 2nd rule ensures also that both of these fall within the "heat"/"summer", the 183rd day after the spring equinox day being the latest possible day (just a few days before the autumnal equinox which marks the end of the "heat" season) if 1st Pentecost is counted from any of the seven days of Unleavened Bread. To stray far from 2nd this rule will result in either the firstfruits of barley happening before this harvest season, or the firstfruits of oil occurring after this harvest season, in some years. Adhering to this 2nd rule ensures that all four firstfruits (separated by 3x7x7days) occur within "heat", the first two in "spring", the last two in "summer".]
The festival of tabernacles in the 7th month is “in the going forth of the year” (Exodus 23:16) also described as “in the [completion of the] circuit of the year” (Exodus 34:22). What 'year' is going forth or completing it circuit? Is it not that the sun is rapidly departing the Northern hemisphere? The departure of the sun from the Northern hemisphere is most rapid at the autumnal equinox. The 2nd rule of my reckoning results in the festival of tabernacles consistently ending near the beginning of this naturally divided “cold” season which is brought about by this rapid departure of the sun from the Northern hemisphere. “Harvest” time has ended “in your gathering (together) your labours from the field” (Exodus 23:16), and “seedtime” is begun.
In Genesis 1 it is written,
“14 And ʔɛ̯lōhī̖m said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for mōʕēdī̖m(appointments), and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And ʔɛ̯lōhī̖m made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And ʔɛ̯lōhī̖m set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And ʔɛ̯lōhī̖m saw that it was good.”
Another beautiful aspect of the 2nd rule is that the sun “rule[s] over the day”, in particular that day when it its northward motion to increase its “light on the earth” of the Northern hemisphere is fastest, signifying that day as the coming in of the year, after which the new years “mōʕēdī̖m(appointments)” are permitted to begin.
In that by the 2nd rule the sun assigns a day, whereas by the 1st rule the moon assigns a night, there is no questions arising from the possibility of these two time periods occurring simultaneously. Rather, any Full Moon Night must be either after the Spring Equinox Day, orbefore it. It cannot be on it, because a night in Jerusalem cannot occur at the same time as a day in Jerusalem. In this way we have a beautiful application of the teaching “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night” (Genesis 1:14).
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Garth Grenache
The rules are simple.
They can be easily applied without advanced astronomical technology, and accuracy can be refined by the use of such technology.
They result in a good predictability for the calendar which surpasses that of the Karaite/Talmudic method, even with simple observation and calculation, and absolute predictability long into the future with the help of modern astronomy.
The rules have an objectivity which means agreement can be reached by everyone on the globe who uses them: no 'expert opinion' or 'esoteric arts' or arbitrary decrees are needed.
It provides an middle-of-the-road alternative for those unconvinced by the Karaite calendar's subjectivity or the Calculated calendar's inaccuracies and convenient postponement rules, which results in the month numbers which most often agree with both these methods (even more so with the agreement of the Karaite method and the original state of the Calculated calendar before its seasonal drift), and which results in its dates occurring not long before those of the Karaite method, and close to or on to those of the Calculated calendar.
My conclusion:
We have before us a simple reckoning for the Biblical calendar which might even be its original.
The reckoning is objective, simple, easily applied, predictable, and promotes agreement.
It is congruent with the Scripture, and fits historical evidence from an earlier period than the domination of Rabbinic Judaism and the rise of Karaitism.
Can you tell that I like it? And can anyone blame me? I'll leave that for you to decide!
A final note
I've devised a simple notation by which all the times of the months of a year can be given without a single reference to the months of pagan calendars.
It is in this format [SED = Spring Equinox Day, FMN = Full Moon Night]:
YEAR of SED: No. of days including SED before FMN; week day number for each New Moon Day in the year.
e.g. This year...
2011: 28; 245 612 461 245
Knowing that there is only one possible 2nd day of the week that could occur about 28 days after the Spring Equinox, and that months can only have 29 or 30 days, this efficient notation is completely unambiguous.
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The LampKeeper
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Joshua Williams
Psalm 81:3 speaks of a "new moon" which is an appointed time and a "solemn feast day" which would likely be Yom Terurah. I know some interpret this as a reference to the full moon, but even if it is, that is the only reference to full moon that we see in the scripture. It seems a big stretch for me to believe that the full moon is the key point, when the new moon is what is repeatedly mentioned.
Put another way, the "beginnings of your months" is what is celebrated by sacrifices every month, while the middle of the month is only celebrated twice a year. For the middle of the month to be what we work backwards from, I would expect the beginning to be the key point to work from.
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GidgetsMom
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GidgetsMom
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Garth Grenache
With great variability, pending good weather, the crescent it is generally from about a day after the Dark Conjunction('Astronomical New moon'. That leaves a maximum of about 13.75 days (29.5/2-1) (but as sunset could occur upto 24h later, on average 13.25 days) until the Full Moon Conjunction, so that it is expected no later than noon on the 14th daytime after (midnight before on average). Therefore, your reckoning, on average, if you get a clear sky, your full moon will be expected in the night after the 13th daytime, not the night of the festival/eating the Passover. But often, you'll get it a day even earlier.
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Garth Grenache
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Garth Grenache
To clarify: I am pointing out that the commonly 'visible crescent' reckoning also reckons that 'a day begins with sunset' -which is not a precisely Biblical way of saying it, but it is true that a holy day's night is the one before the holy day, as evidenced by that the observation of the Atonement day is from 'the sunset of the 9th day, from sunset to sunset', so that the hour that 'Trumpets' is to be observed from is not 'unknown': it is from sunset. By visible crescent reckoning, it might initially be unclear at sunset whether that night will begin 'Trumpets' or not, but you do know that if it is the 1st day, it began with sunset. (By the way, 'Trumpets' is not the Biblical name for the day https://docs.google.com/docume....nt/d/1UiZDfGgJzu93lo )
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Garth Grenache
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Garth Grenache
Here chodesh must refer to the 'month' as actually most usual in Scripture, not the first day of the month. And there is a 'full moon' in the month, but it is not in the chodesh(first day) of the chodesh(month)!!!
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