Distortion of God's Calendar in Judah (No. 195B)

The Bible is quite clear about the Jubilee system, and the fifty-year Jubilee was observed over the First Temple period and up until the corruption of the Second Temple system under the Seleucids. The corruptions began to occur in some sects from that time.

Leviticus 25:2-12 "Say to the people of Israel, When you come into the land which I give you, the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD. ³ Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruits; ⁴ but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. ⁵ What grows of itself in 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. ⁶ The sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired servant and the sojourner who lives with you; ⁷ for your cattle also and for the beasts that are in your land all its yield shall be for food. ⁸ "And you shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall be to you forty-nine years. ⁹ Then you shall send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land. ¹⁰ And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family. ¹¹ A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you; in it you shall neither sow, nor reap what grows of itself, nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. ¹² For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat what it yields out of the field (RSV).

There is thus clear delineation of the fiftieth year. The fiftieth year ends at Atonement, and after the Last Great Day the lands are cultivated by the restored owners or new tenants.

We know that Alexander the Great did not destroy Jerusalem or even attack it but came to sacrifice there, which he was allowed to do under the Temple laws and as stated by Solomon when it was built (see Rule of the Kings Part III: Solomon and the Key of David (No. 212C)).

The calendar can be checked against the mentions of it in the Bible texts, and there seems to be a consistent 50-year structure in the texts over the period until the Seleucids.

During the second century BCE there was a split in the Hasidim between what were the proto-Pharisees and the sect that was to occupy Qumran and later become known as the Essene, although they themselves did not use this term.

The doctrines that we find emerging in Qumran were mooted in the text of the Book of Jubilees, which was written by a member of the Hasidic community in Palestine. The latest event noted there was during the battles of the Macabbees dated at 161 BCE. The writings of the Qumran text regarding the wicked priest refer to a split in the Hasidic community at that time and a conflict with the priesthood in either 152, when Jonathan was appointed High Priest by Balas, or 140 BCE when Simon was recognised as High Priest by the people. The structure of the text upholds the Sabbaths and Jubilees and noted the seven-year cycles. However, it also introduces the concept of a solar year of 364 days. This concept originated in Egypt and was taken up by the Qumran community; and the concept appears in the Book of Enoch.

The earliest dated fragments from Qumran are dated by F. M. Cross at 125-75 BCE. There is what is considered to be an explicit reference to Jubilees in the Damascus Rule at CD 16.2-4 (Jubilees, tr. O.S. Wintermute Introduction; Charlesworth OT Pseudepigrapha, Vol. 2, pp. 43-44, Doubleday, 1985).

We have direct evidence that the seven-year cycles were continued until after the fall of the Temple period and on into the post-Temple period until the time of Hadrian’s dispersal in 135 CE. The problem we are faced with is that the seven-year cycles were continued by the proto-Pharisees but the Jubilee had been removed from their calculations. The Jubilee was advanced as a 49-year cycle by the proto-Pharisees under the Seleucid occupation, through the Parthian period and into the Hasmoneans and with Herod, who was installed by the Romans after the containment of Parthia and the removal of Antigonus. It was in this later period that the Qumran community emerged full blown in their errors.

Fortunately for us all the Pharisees did not get control of the Temple except for two very short periods: one for nine years under Queen Alexandra, and the other for the short period under Herod’s favour – but this may not have actually given them control.

There are a number of references to the Sabbath years and we find them in a number of sources, the most significant of which is Josephus; but the Mishnah also refers to them on a number of occasions.

The reference to the keeping of the Sabbatical years is encountered in Josephus (A. of J., Bk 13. VIII.1), when John Hyrcanus I was made High Priest and evicted Ptolemy by siege. He was made High Priest and allegedly overcame Ptolemy in the Sabbatical year. Ptolemy fled to Zeno Cotylas who was Tyrant at Philadelphia. The Seleucid Antiochus invaded Judea on the fourth year of his reign, being the first year of Hyrcanus and the 162^nd Olympiad. No mention is made of this in Macabbees, however.

Antiochus became king in 138 BCE, and Hyrcanus began to rule in 134 BCE. The year 134 BCE could only be the second year of the Olympiad based on current agreed dates.

The accepted year of rule for John Hyrcanus I was 135 BCE, the year before the Sabbath according to Josephus. However, the Temple Calendar would have placed the Sabbath in 132 BCE, which was the year of the Olympiad.

Josephus says that John’s father Simon had been High Priest before him.

Simon Macabbee gained relief from tribute against the Seleucids by supporting Demetrius II against Tryphon in 143-142 BCE, and this date is used for Jewish legal documents from that time (cf. 1 Mac. 13:35.20).

Antiochus II made war on Hyrcanus after he had defeated Ptolemy, and Josephus says that the siege was drawn out so that the Sabbath year came upon them (Jos. ibid. 13. VIII.1, Whiston, p. 278). Thus Josephus holds that the Sabbath year was in 134 BCE in the second year of Hyrcanus, but the first year according to the civil calendar of the East, which was reckoned according to Tishri.

Josephus then says that John Hyrcanus I cleansed the Temple and allegedly restored the sacrifices in that year.

Antiochus VII then invaded and sacked Jerusalem and made Hyrcanus his vassal.

The dates of the Sabbath years are not in accordance with the earlier Temple period and the Bible dates (cf. Reading the Law with Ezra and Nehemiah (No. 250)). We find that the Sabbath based on the Temple Calendar would have been in 132 BCE, which was indeed the 162^nd Olympiad.

When we examine the time-frames of Josephus we see that a 49-year cycle has been introduced under the Seleucids/Ptolemies, and the timings commence to be two years out at this time. That means that the 49-year cycle had to have been introduced two Jubilees previously from the Jubilee ending in 224 BCE and deleting also the Jubilee of 174 BCE. The Pharisaic calculated cycle then became one year out for every Jubilee down to the expulsion under Hadrian in 135 CE.

The ruler of the Seleucids at this time was Seleucus II. He lost Judea to the Egyptian Ptolemies through betrayal of his second wife Berenice, sister of Ptolemy III of Egypt. They had previously lost the province of Parthia through the rebellion of the Satrap Andragorus. In about 238 BCE, Arsaces led a revolt of the Parthians against Andragoras, leading to the foundation of the Parthian Empire.

From what we are told in Josephus we are led to believe that the 49-year calendar existed from this time.

The imposition of tribute at this time is intimated as affecting the capacity to keep the Jubilees and the cycles reduced to 7x7 = 49 years. From that time on they appear to have begun to be a year out with each Jubilee, according to the Josephus record and we can determine that precisely as we examine the later evidence on the cycles.

Seleucus II Callinicus or Pogon (the epithets meaning "beautiful victor" and "bearded", respectively), was a ruler of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, who reigned from 246 to 225 BC. He was proclaimed king by his mother, Laodice, while her partisans at Antioch murdered Berenice and her son.

This dynastic feud began the Third Syrian War. Ptolemy III, who was Berenice's brother and the ruler of Egypt, invaded the Seleucid Empire and marched victoriously to the Tigris or beyond. He received the submission of the Seleucid Empire's eastern provinces, while Egyptian fleets swept the coast of Asia Minor.

Wikipedia article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seleucus_II_Callinicus

The next King of the Seleucids to deal with Jerusalem was Antiochus IV Epiphanes (meaning shining one, but changed to Epimanes, meaning mad one, by the Jews). He had invaded Egypt successfully for the second time in 168 BCE but was made to withdraw by the Romans. He withdrew but made war against Jerusalem and sacked it on his return. This caused the Macabbean revolt, and he died in 164 on his way to again take Jerusalem. He had tried to destroy the Temple system and placed a Greek god in the Temple after mutilating and killing a number of citizens for refusing to conform to his policy of worship. After his death the Temple system remained under the control of the Macabbees and the Sadducees.

Judea under the Romans

Josephus records that the Romans also granted this Sabbath remission of tribute.

Caius Caesar, consul the fifth time, hath decreed, that the Jews shall possess Jerusalem, and may encompass that city with walls; and that Hyrcanus the son of Alexander, the High Priest and Ethnarch of the Jews, retain it in the manner he himself pleases; and the Jews be allowed to deduct out of their tribute, every second year the land is let, [in the Sabbatic period,] a corus of that tribute; and that the tribute that they pay be not let to farm, nor that they pay always the same tribute.

Caius Caesar, imperator the second time, hath ordained, that all the country of the Jews, excepting Joppa, do pay a tribute yearly, for the city of Jerusalem, excepting the seventh, which they call the Sabbatical Year, because on that year they receive neither the fruits of their trees, nor do they sow their land, and that they pay that tribute to Sidon on the second year [of that Sabbatic Period,] the fourth part of what was sown: and besides this they are to pay the same tithes to Hyrcanus and his sons which they paid to their forefathers. ... And that Hyrcanus the son of Alexander and his sons shall have as tribute of that city [Joppa], from those that occupy the land, for the country and for what they export to Sidon, twenty thousand six hundred and seventy five modii every year, the seventh year, which they call the Sabbath Year excepted (Jos. ibid, Bk 14.10.5-6).

The declaration listed first (actually the second declaration) is made when Caesar is consul the fifth time, and the latter declaration (the third) is listed as being made when he is imperator the second time. Both are actually events at the same time.

The dates are all in 44 BCE as he was appointed perpetual dictator and consul for the fifth time with Mark Antony. He was killed in the Senate on the Ides of March in 44 BCE at 56 years of age (being born in 100 BCE), before he could undertake a campaign against the Parthians and the Getae.

The Ides of March, when Brutus and the republican group killed Caesar, fell before the Passover after the New Year on 1 Abib, which was the second year of the Temple Calendar. He had certainly written the decrees well before his death in that year.

These remissions were no doubt given to the Jews, at the behest of the High Priest and Ethnarch, in order to secure their allegiance to Rome in the forthcoming war with the Parthians and Goths. Thus also, the Goths were considered a tribe separate to the Parthians by the Romans.

44 BCE is the Thirtieth year of the Sacred Calendar and the second year of the Sabbatical cycle according to the Temple Calendar and for which this decree was issued.

The Temple was run by the Sadducees, who followed the ancient Temple Calendar. The Pharisees had been expelled by the Maccabbees after ruling only for nine years under Queen Alexandra; this might account for the dating and problems we saw under the Macabbees at that time.

This decree by Caesar confirms the ancient Temple Calendar and shows that the Temple system was being adhered to correctly according to the ancient fifty-year Jubilee by the Jews under the rule of Hyrcanus, son of Alexander.

How is Josephus recording the decrees of Caesar according to the correct system and yet is himself using the incorrect 49-year system for other dates? The answer is incredibly simple. Josephus was a Pharisee writing his history of the Jews and their wars after the fall of the Temple system.

Caesar made his decrees at the behest of the High Priesthood in 44 BCE – they were actually running the Temple system according to its ancient Calendar. Josephus could not forge the decrees as they were a matter of public record and the Romans would have dismissed his work as fraudulent, knowing the facts of the public decrees as a matter of record. He could, however, use the calendar of the Pharisees as they were now the post-Temple period authorities and were continually playing with the calendar, as we know from the Mishnah and the councils at Jamnia.

As another example, Josephus also records that in the year that Herod was declared king at Jerusalem it was a Sabbath Year (hebdomatikon) (ibid., 14.16.2).

The footnote to Josephus says there was a gap of three years between Herod obtaining the kingdom at Rome and his taking Jerusalem by force. The Armenian historian Moses Chorenensis says that Herod besieged Samosata with the Romans. Herod had been declared king at Rome for two years when Tigranes was king of Armenia and who died in the vicinity of Samosata. Herod then returned the 340 miles to Jerusalem with the army and the army of Sosius.

Schürer states that the conquest of Jerusalem took place probably in July of 37 BCE. Josephus says it was summer time when it was under siege, and it fell in the third month. The first wall fell after forty days and the second after 15 days, and then the Temple was besieged (Jos, ibid., and cf. History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, Vol. 1, p. 287). The fifty-five days of the walls is almost two months, and the Temple held out for some time. It is most likely the third month was in June, not July.

Schürer notes also that in 34 BCE Herod then marched allegedly against the Parthians but actually against the Armenian King Artavasdes (who no doubt was in charge of the Parthian forces in the south) (cf. Schürer, ibid., p. 298).

The year 37 BCE is the second year of the sixth cycle of the Temple Calendar. So we see another error in Josephus probably using the Pharisaic post-Temple calendar. By this time we have lost four years in the cycles. The Pharisees had also assumed more power in Jerusalem. That is actually what we see with Schürer’s comments regarding their influence at the time of Herod. Remember, it is four Jubilees from the Jubilee in 224 BCE to the Jubilee in 74 BCE, and seven Jubilees from 224 to the expulsion by Hadrian.

Thus Josephus is definitely using the post-Temple period, 49-year Pharisaic system, which is counted from just before the Jubilee of 224 BCE, thereby losing four years of the cycle by 37 BCE. He says Jerusalem was weakened due to the famine and the Sabbath. The Sabbath was not that year at all but there was a great famine at the time that accounted for the lack of food.

The Sabbaths at that time were in 25 BCE (before the Jubilee in 24 BCE), in 32 BCE, and in 39 BCE and in 46 BCE, as we see from the decree of Caesar in 44 BCE before the second year commenced in Abib of that year.

Whiston in his footnote to Josephus (A. of J. 15.9.1), where Josephus mentions the years of famine as continuing in the 13^th year of Herod, identifies this as a Sabbath and a Jubilee following. This confirms that the actual Temple system was in operation. They were allegedly under calamity. From the 13^th year of Herod, which was at the end of his first period of consolidation of his reign from 37 BCE to 25 BCE, was the Sabbath Year of the Temple Calendar and the Jubilee was in 24 BCE. The Treble harvest year of 26 BCE did not eventuate. No planting occurred in 25 or 24 BCE until after the Jubilee of Atonement 24 BCE. Yet Josephus makes no mention of the Sabbath or Jubilee, but does so in the first reference above when there was in fact no Sabbath year. He simply says there were perpetual droughts, but the fact of the matter is that 25 BCE and 24 BCE were not cropping years; yet if he mentioned that fact his own chronology of the Pharisees, used as we see above, would have been exposed. Whiston, however, understands the fact that Herod’s 13^th year in 25 BCE was a Sabbath followed by the Jubilee in 24 BCE, as he states in the footnote (cf. also Schürer, Vol. 1, p. 296 and Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 2, art. ‘Herod’ (Family), pp. 587ff.).

Josephus also records that when Herod took power he appointed the Pharisee Pollio and his disciple Sameas in place of Hyrcanus, who was both High Priest and later ethnarch or king (A. of J. 15.1.1) and the Sabbath year then continued (according to their system) (A. of J. 15.1.2).

The Parthian generals Bazarphanes and Pacorus had taken Hyrcanus and Phasaelus the brother of Herod captive. Phasaelus committed suicide but the king of Phraates treated the High Priest kindly and established him among the Jewish population at Babylon, which was quite extensive. Parthia controlled Babylon at the time. Herod was on good terms with the High Priest and remained so on his return; however, he had to be replaced as he was disfigured in the captivity. A lesser known priest, Hananel, was appointed to replace him (Schürer, ibid., p. 297).

Alexandra (mother of Mariamne, Herod’s wife whom he later killed) opposed this appointment and sought to have Aristobulus, Mariamne’s brother, made High Priest. This was unlawful as the High Priest held office for life. Alexandra used her influence with Cleopatra to persuade Antoninus, the Roman prefect and Herod’s friend. As a result, Herod was forced to appoint Aristobulus High Priest in 35 BCE.

Archaeological confirmation

A Deed of Loan has been found at Wadi Murabba near Bethlehem. This deed links the second year of Nero to the year of release. The Deed of Loan and its translation are found at http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/westsem/loan.html.

Named Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus, he succeeded to the throne on October 13, 54 CE following the death of Claudius. His second year thus commenced at the civil year of 55 CE, which is noted in the Deed of Loan as a year of release. The Jubilee in the Current Era was in 27, and the First year of the new Jubilee according to the ancient Temple system began in 28 CE, which was the first year of Christ’s ministry after the Passover when John had been put in prison.

The Sabbath years were thus the years 34, 41, 48, 55, 62, 69, 76 CE, with the Jubilee in 77. This is in accordance with the ancient Temple Calendar. This text proves that in the year 55 CE the Sabbath year was still in force in the Temple system, and this is so because the Temple was in the hands of the Sadducees and the aristocracy. This is an accurate independent proof of the Calendar. It also proves that Josephus, writing after the fall of the Temple, was applying a false rabbinical dating system to his work.

Christ’s Declaration in 27 CE

The intention of Christ’s declaration in 27 CE was to identify the correct Calendar as was kept by the Temple authorities and the Sadducees. It was not the declaration of the Sabbath year, as that would have put it at odds with the declaration by Julius Caesar at the behest of the High Priest at the beginning of 44 BCE, before the ides of March and the commencement of the Second year of the Calendar and the tribute to Sidon, which was the first purpose of the declaration. The second element was to determine the Sabbaths and establish the Sabbaths in Judea under the rule of the High Priests and the reception of tribute. It was, however, issued for the first purpose for the Second year.

For the determination of the Sabbath in the Second year of Nero in 55 BCE it had to be the actual Atonement in Tishri of the Jubilee year itself of 27 CE that Christ declared.

Christ was demarcating the exact time for the return of lands and declaring Qumran and the Pharisees and the Samaritans to be in error. It was at the time an important statement and verification of what the High Priest was doing.

Rabbinical Texts

The Temple was destroyed in a post-Sabbatical year according to the commentaries on the Taanith (B. Taan, 29a). However, the text is understood as meaning at the end of the Sabbath day. The Jubilee was in 77 CE, the Sabbath was in 76 CE and the previous Sabbath was in 69/70 CE. The Sabbath year ended on the last day of Adar and the Roman Army surrounded Jerusalem on 1 Abib in what was 70 CE. The Temple did not fall until 10 Ab and the last of the city fell in Elul.

The Taanit in the Mishnah claims that both the First and Second Temple fell on 9 Ab (Taanit 4:6). The city was also allegedly ploughed up by Hadrian on 9 Ab (ibid.).

The commentaries from the Tractate Talmud say:

Five misfortunes befell our fathers ... on the ninth of Av. ...On the ninth of Av it was decreed that our fathers should not enter the [Promised] Land, the Temple was destroyed the first and second time, Bethar was captured and the city [Jerusalem] was ploughed up. -Mishnah Ta'anit 4:6

...Should I weep in the fifth month [Av], separating myself, as I have done these so many years? -Zechariah 7:3

In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month ...came Nebuzaradan ... and he burnt the house of the LORD... -II Kings 25:8-9

In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month... came Nebuzaradan ... and he burnt the house of the LORD... - Jeremiah 52:12-13

How then are these dates to be reconciled? On the seventh the heathens entered the Temple and ate therein and desecrated it throughout the seventh and eighth and towards dusk of the ninth they set fire to it and it continued to burn the whole of that day. ... How will the Rabbis then [explain the choice of the 9th as the date]? The beginning of any misfortune [when the fire was set] is of greater moment. -Talmud Ta'anit 29a

The destruction of the Second Temple is explained in detail in the paper War with Rome and the Fall of the Temple (No. 298).

The Mishah Arakhin makes no claim for the timing of the destruction of the Temple.

The Talmudic Rabbis made great errors in relation to the timing of the Temple system and that is openly acknowledged by Jewish scholars (Misunderstood Chronological Statements in the Talmudic Literature, Jacob Z. Lauterbach, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 5, 1933 - 1934 (1933 - 1934), pp. 77-84).

The later Rabbis claimed that the Temple was destroyed during the last part of a Septenate (B. Arak, 12b), and R. Hunna then claims in the third century that the Temple was destroyed in a Sabbatical year and computed the Sabbatical cycle based on that false deduction and in spite of the evidence of the Mishnah Taanith. R. Joseph Yose ben Khalapha, however, sets the record straight by saying that the Sabbath year was the year prior to the destruction of the Temple (Seder Olam Rab. 30). The year began in Abib and was never reckoned from Rosh HaShanah until after the third century, as Rosh HaShanah was not introduced as a festival until that century. The insertion of the title Rosh HaShanah into the Mishnah ca. 200 is an emendation of the third century when it was compiled.

As we have seen above, the cycle of the Jubilee was from 28 CE to 77 CE. The Sabbaths were the same each century and so the Sabbaths in the second century were in 134, 141, 148, 155, 162, 169, 176 (and the Jubilee in 177) from Abib to Abib.

The Jewish Revolt in 132 CE under Bar Kochba was crushed by Hadrian in 135 and all Jews were banished in what became the Diaspora. Documents in that period were also written in accordance with the Jewish system based from the Sabbath in 134 and the Sabbath to occur in 141. By 135, however, it was irrelevant. The Sabbath in the revolt saw leases and documentation in that year written to accord with the Sabbatical system. The 49-year cycles pushed by the rabbinical system were by now out by eight years over eight Jubilees, from 224 BCE to 127 CE.

The later chronologies of the Church writers such as Jerome were completely wrong and the errors continued for centuries until modern archaeology restored the data upon which the evidence might be examined.

The Commencement of the Land Sabbaths

Some people have made the error of assuming that the order given to Israel to implement the Land Sabbaths when they entered the Promised Land and took up their inheritance was a direct indication that the Jubilee and Sabbaths systems were not known or in operation. That is false and was never the understanding of the Israelites during the Temple period.

Leviticus 25

¹ The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai, ² "Say to the people of Israel, When you come into the land which I give you, the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD. ³ Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruits; ⁴ but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. ⁵ What grows of itself in 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. ⁶ The sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired servant and the sojourner who lives with you; ⁷ for your cattle also and for the beasts that are in your land all its yield shall be for food. ⁸ "And you shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall be to you forty-nine years. ⁹ Then you shall send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land. ¹⁰ And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family. ¹¹ A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you; in it you shall neither sow, nor reap what grows of itself, nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. ¹² For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat what it yields out of the field. ¹³ "In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. ¹⁴And if you sell to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. ¹⁵ According to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years for crops he shall sell to you. ¹⁶ If the years are many you shall increase the price, and if the years are few you shall diminish the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. ¹⁷ You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the LORD your God. ¹⁸ "Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and perform them; so you will dwell in the land securely. ¹⁹ The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell in it securely. ²⁰ And if you say, `What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?' ²¹ I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, so that it will bring forth fruit for three years. ²² When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating old produce; until the ninth year, when its produce comes in, you shall eat the old. ²³The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me. ²⁴And in all the country you possess, you shall grant a redemption of the land. ²⁵"If your brother becomes poor, and sells part of his property, then his next of kin shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. ²⁶ If a man has no one to redeem it, and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, ²⁷ let him reckon the years since he sold it and pay back the overpayment to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his property. ²⁸ But if he has not sufficient means to get it back for himself, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the year of jubilee; in the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property. ²⁹ "If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a whole year after its sale; for a full year he shall have the right of redemption. ³⁰ If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee. ³¹ But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country; they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee. ³² Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time. ³³ And if one of the Levites does not exercise his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city of their possession shall be released in the jubilee; for the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel. ³⁴ But the fields of common land belonging to their cities may not be sold; for that is their perpetual possession. ³⁵ "And if your brother becomes poor, and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall maintain him; as a stranger and a sojourner he shall live with you. ³⁶Take no interest from him or increase, but fear your God; that your brother may live beside you. ³⁷ You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. ³⁸I am the LORD your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. ³⁹ "And if your brother becomes poor beside you, and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: ⁴⁰ he shall be with you as a hired servant and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee; ⁴¹ then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own family, and return to the possession of his fathers. ⁴² For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. ⁴³ You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God. ⁴⁴ As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are round about you. ⁴⁵ You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property. ⁴⁶ You may bequeath them to your sons after you, to inherit as a possession for ever; you may make slaves of them, but over your brethren the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness. ⁴⁷ "If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you, or to a member of the stranger's family, ⁴⁸ then after he is sold he may be redeemed; one of his brothers may redeem him, ⁴⁹ or his uncle, or his cousin may redeem him, or a near kinsman belonging to his family may redeem him; or if he grows rich he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰ He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his release shall be according to the number of years; the time he was with his owner shall be rated as the time of a hired servant. ⁵¹ If there are still many years, according to them he shall refund out of the price paid for him the price for his redemption. ⁵²If there remain but a few years until the year of jubilee, he shall make a reckoning with him; according to the years of service due from him he shall refund the money for his redemption. ⁵³ As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him; he shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight. ⁵⁴ And if he is not redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the year of jubilee, he and his children with him. ⁵⁵ For to me the people of Israel are servants, they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. (RSV)

The text clearly says that they were to implement the Land Sabbaths when they entered the Promised Land and took up their inheritance. It does not imply that they did not know when the years of the Calendar were or that the Jubilee system did not have an established understanding under the Patriarchs. Some rabbinical scholars have tried to place the commencement of the system decades and centuries into the occupation.

It is a matter of fact that the Bible clearly states that the children of Ephraim were in occupation of their lands in Ephraim before Ephraim’s first children were killed, prior to the captivity in Egypt and centuries before the Exodus. (1Chr. 7:20-28; cf. 7:29).

Jewish scholars have also published claims regarding the 30^th year of the Calendar in Ezekiel as actually referring to the fall of the Temple in 597, despite the clear statement about it also being the fifth year of Jehoiakin’s captivity, which is a known date. The dates of the Temple Jubilees and Sabbaths are known and attested to by biblical and non-biblical sources alike and by the testimony of Jesus Christ himself.

The Sabbath under Zedekiah

God gave King Zedekiah a command to obey the Law and to release the slaves of Israel in the Sabbath year. The Sabbath year was in 589 BCE, the tenth year of his reign. He was told to release all the slaves in that year, and the wealthy families did release them but they took them back again. Thus God said He would send Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem and destroy it. The Sabbath year had already started when the release and the re-enslavement happened, and that was all before the siege was laid in the tenth year, 589 BCE. Jeremiah chapter 34 is quite clear on that fact.

The siege lasted the remainder of the Sabbath and through the first year of the next cycle in 588 BCE, and ended with the fall of the city.

Jeremiah 34

¹ The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadrez'zar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion and all the peoples were fighting against Jerusalem and all of its cities: ² "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Go and speak to Zedeki'ah king of Judah and say to him, `Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. ³You shall not escape from his hand, but shall surely be captured and delivered into his hand; you shall see the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak with him face to face; and you shall go to Babylon.' ⁴ Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedeki'ah king of Judah! Thus says the LORD concerning you: `You shall not die by the sword. ⁵ You shall die in peace. And as spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so men shall burn spices for you and lament for you, saying, "Alas, lord!"' For I have spoken the word, says the LORD." ⁶ Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedeki'ah king of Judah, in Jerusalem, ⁷ when the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left, Lachish and Aze'kah; for these were the only fortified cities of Judah that remained. ⁸ The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedeki'ah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a proclamation of liberty to them, ⁹ that every one should set free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should enslave a Jew, his brother. ¹⁰ And they obeyed, all the princes and all the people who had entered into the covenant that every one would set free his slave, male or female, so that they would not be enslaved again; they obeyed and set them free. ¹¹ But afterward they turned around and took back the male and female slaves they had set free, and brought them into subjection as slaves. ¹² The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ¹³ "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying, ¹⁴ `At the end of six years each of you must set free the fellow Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years; you must set him free from your service.' But your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ears to me. ¹⁵ You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming liberty, each to his neighbor, and you made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name; ¹⁶ but then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves, whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your slaves. ¹⁷ Therefore, thus says the LORD: You have not obeyed me by proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor; behold, I proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine, says the LORD. I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ¹⁸ And the men who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant which they made before me, I will make like the calf which they cut in two and passed between its parts -- ¹⁹ the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf; ²⁰ and I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives. Their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. ²¹ And Zedeki'ah king of Judah, and his princes I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives, into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon which has withdrawn from you. ²²Behold, I will command, says the LORD, and will bring them back to this city; and they will fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant." (RSV)

So we see the Sabbath was in force, the Babylonians had withdrawn after besieging some of the cities of Judah, and God said He would cause them to return against Jerusalem - which He did that same year.

Zedekiah reigned for eleven years from 598/7 to 588/7 BCE. He was set on the throne after the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar (cf. Interp. Dict., art. ‘Zedekiah’, Vol. 4, p. 948). The Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem in the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah, either on the Tenth day of the Tenth month or on the Tenth day of the Twelfth month, Adar (2Kgs. 25:1; cf. Vulgate and Knox). The ninth year of Zedekiah was 590/89 BCE. 589/8 was a Sabbath year and the release occurred before the Feasts, and the reclamation of the slaves caused the resumption in the Sabbath.

Thus God demands obedience to the Covenant He made with Israel when He brought them out of Egypt at Sinai. The Sabbaths and the Calendar were known and in force from that time. Only the land was to be put at rest when they entered the Promised Land. If God is not obeyed and the people of Israel (including Spiritual Israel, which is the Church of God) disobey or play with His Laws they will be punished. Here we see clearly that the nation went into a Sabbath year warned of the timing by a servant of God, and knowing the requirements. They gave God lip-service by obeying the Sabbath and then went back on their word like a backsliding devious people, and for that they provoked God to wrath, as we now see.

The section in Jeremiah 34:17-22 is God’s sentence. They were restored but they again went back on His will and word. The sentence is still in force and is the direct cause of the tragedies and misfortunes that have occurred to Judah over the last two millennia, and these punishments will now be increased in full measure until backsliding Judah repents along with those that follow her errors and traditions.

Judah has shown itself wilfully disobedient to the Laws of God, and they have been sent into captivity on a number of occasions for playing with the Calendar and the Laws of God that relate to the specific years. Jeremiah 34 is a clear example of the long suffering and patient endurance of God with a wilful and stiff-necked people that will do anything to twist and distort what God has ordained from the beginning. This text is a clear exercise in logic and in God’s long suffering for His people.

Judah does this game-playing with God to this very day. They even sell their own leaven to Muslims and buy it back at the end of Pesach. God is not mocked.

The Great False Calendar of Hillel II

The rabbinical system became the successor to the Pharisees and began their false system of observations so that they could play with the Calendar each year. To do that they had to control the observers as well, and thus entire groups of people had to be excluded on a permanent basis.

These conflicts are evident from the comments in the Mishnah. We have discussed the systems in detail in the paper God’s Calendar (No. 156).

The calendar under Hillel II was not completed at that time and amendments continued until the twelfth century.

The periods of the Calendar distortions occurred after the fall of the Temple in 70 CE in a series of activities. The first ad hoc games were played with the post-Temple Calendar when the court, now under the Pharisees’ sole control, moved to Jamnia. They then became the Rabbis and their system is in effect still in place. We will term this period the observation period. It was in fact the inclusion of postponements by subterfuge as there was no conclusive system of calculation carried out. The Mishnah records many instances of back-to-back Sabbaths and the things that were to be done on those days. With the modern system these problems are minimised, and rules are in effect to ensure postponements of the actual beginning of months to make sure that such things do not happen on specific days. These matters are called Dehiyyah or postponement rules, of which there are four. The process is explained in the paper The Calendar and the Moon: Postponements or Festivals? (No. 195).

We will quote from that work to illustrate the impact and seriousness of the postponement system.

The Months of Tishri and Abib

Tishre: From Aramaic shera or sherei, “to begin” ... Seventh month in the religious or festival cycle; first in chronological or civil cycle... The 1st never falls on Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday. In the twentieth century, its earliest beginning is September 6th and its latest beginning is October 5th (The Jewish Almanac, Bantam, 1980, p. 241).

This postponement rule ensures that the Day of Trumpets (1 Tishri, Rosh HaShanah), and the Day of Atonement (10 Tishri, Yom Kippur) do not have a Sabbath immediately before or after these sacred days. The Jewish postponement rules also preclude observance of the Feast of Tabernacles (as in 1997) where the autumnal equinox is on the last day of the Feast (21 Tishri), and place it a month later (16-23 October), well after the autumnal equinox (which was 23 September in 1997).

Nisan: Related to the Babylonian first month Nisannu, “to start”, or perhaps to Hebrew nitzan, “blossoms.” Its pentateuchal name is Aviv [or Abib], “spring”. ... The first never falls on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. In the twentieth century its earliest beginning is March 13th and its latest beginning is April 11th (ibid., p. 245).

The whole Passover season also symbolises the preparation of the first-fruits of God for the First-fruits harvest, Pentecost. The above postponement rule avoids the Jewish observance of their Passover coincident with a Tuesday night occurring on 14 Abib [i.e., where a Wednesday is 1 Abib]. The rules for Abib do allow for a Sabbath to fall on the 14th [where 1 Nisan is a Sunday], which is a preparation day for the 15th, the first Holy Day of the seven days of Unleavened Bread. However, in Tishri, a Sabbath is not permitted just before the 1st or the 10th of the month.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th edition, article ‘Calendar’, has this to say:

The [spring] equinox is fixed on the 21st of March, though the sun enters Aries generally on the 20th of that month, sometimes on the 19th. It is accordingly quite possible that a full moon may arrive after the true equinox, and yet precede the 21st of March. This, therefore, would not be the paschal moon of the calendar, though it undoubtedly ought to be so, if the intention of the Council of Nice [Nicea] were rigidly followed. The new moons indicated by the epacts [extra days needed to determine Easter Sunday] also differ from the astronomical new moons, and even from the mean new moons, in general by one or two days.... The epacts are also placed so as to indicate the full moons generally one or two days after the true full moons; but this was done purposely, to avoid the chance of concurring with the Jewish Passover, which the framers of the calendar seem to have considered a greater evil than that of celebrating Easter a week too late (p. 599).

The New Moon and the Molad

We should note that the conjunction, or molad, is the astronomical crossover point from one month to the next and that the determined calendrical New Moon and the molad seldom coincide. An example of the third dehiyyah (postponement rule) is: If the molad of Tishri occurs at 12 noon on Saturday [Under ideal conditions, the very first sliver of the crescent would be visible after the ensuing sunset, i.e. about 6 to 8 hours after the molad], Rosh HaShanah would be deferred to Sunday, “which again is not permitted, so that the festival will be moved one further day, to Monday” (Encyc. Judaica, Vol. V, Jerusalem, 1972, p. 44). In such eventuality some would decide to start the observance of 1 Tishri on Friday evening, some Saturday evening, and those following Jewish reckoning would start observance Sunday evening.

The present Jewish calendar is lunisolar, the months being reckoned according to the moon and the years according to the sun. A month is the period of time between one conjunction of the moon with the sun and the next. The conjunction of the moon with the sun is the point in time at which the moon is directly between the earth and the sun (but not in the same plane) and it is thus invisible. This is known as the molad (“birth”) (ibid., p. 43).

Since the molad is indeed the conjunction (all authorities agree on that) then time just before the molad is the end of the previous month, and time after the molad is attributable to the next month. The biblical day is evening to evening. Thus, the day of the New Moon is taken as being that day in which the molad or conjunction falls. This appears to be the only practical way of dealing with the precise event of the conjunction. Also, it appears to be the way in which it has been dealt with in ancient times and is the way nations deal with the fact of the conjunction in normal commercial practice even today. It would seem that those in disagreement with this system would need to reach agreement about a “postponement” rule which does not contravene biblical rule, and which is in line with astronomy. No commercial organisation would appear to accept such a view.” (ibid., No. 195).

This process is entirely non-biblical and contrary to God’s Law and His Calendar given to Moses by the Angel of the Presence at Sinai. That is a fact that both Judaism and early Christianity acknowledge from their ancient records.

In the year 344, two Babylonian Rabbis invented a method whereby they could calculate a calendar system that was able to enshrine the postponements according to a basic set of rules. They took this to Hillel II and, after proofing, it was issued by Hillel II on 358 CE as the official Jewish calendar. This calendar of false traditions that had nothing to do with the Bible or the calendar of the Temple system was introduced and fine-tuned over the next thousand years. The Rabbis themselves admit that it is progressively incorrect. However, they hold that they will have to wait for the Messiah to fix it (see the paper Why Is Passover So Late in 1997? (No. 239).

Intercalation

One of the terrible consequences of the Jewish calendar of Hillel II and subsequently is that the system of intercalation established with the postponements created a system that virtually ensures that the Feasts and Holy Days are never actually kept on the correct days, and for seven years out of every nineteen years they are not even in the correct months.

One of the Churches of God in the twentieth century had a minister that tried to introduce the Hillel or rabbinical calendar to the Church of God (Seventh Day), and they subsequently dismissed him. He was Herbert W. Armstrong, who established the Radio Church of God and then renamed it as the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). Through the break-up of that system there are many ministers of his teaching that hold this false system and their adherents do not keep the correct calendar and are completely deceived over the issue.

The rabbinical calendar in current use will intercalate in Adar 2008. There is absolutely no biblical reason to intercalate in that year except that Judaism is tied into this false system of calculation. Even the postponement rules don’t necessitate the beginning of the year to move in Abib. They are simply tied to a system that forces this intercalation as part of their 19-year cycle of intercalation.

They intercalate seven times in every nineteen years but generally, if not always, on the years that are incorrect years according to the Temple Calendar and the conjunctions.

The months are acknowledged to be one month late as follows:

We can estimate the proportion of Hebrew months that are presently one month late as the accumulated drift divided by the 30-day length of the leap month = (¹⁶⁴⁹/₂₂₄) / 30 = ¹⁶⁴⁹/₆₇₂₀ ≈ 24.5% of months!

http://individual.utoronto.ca/kalendis/hebrew/drift.htm#quick

However, the fact is that that figure is based on their calculations and the error is 7/19 years and sometimes only 6/19 years, making it up to 38% of the time they are a month late.

For over twenty-five percent of the time they admit they keep the Feast of Tabernacles in the eighth month. It is actually some thirty-eight percent of the calendar that they are a month out. Jeroboam did that and God castigated him for it (cf. the paper Jeroboam and the Hillel Calendar (No. 191)).

If we were to go on a simple 19-year cycle, based on their version of the beginning of the cycle, we could say that the Jewish calendar adds the seven extra months in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th years. They traditionally use these years for the cycle of intercalation.

These Jewish cycles do not correspond to the Jubilees, however. They are derived directly from the Babylonian calendar cycles established in Babylon ca. 380 BCE. They had nothing to do with the Temple system. This is a corruption of Judaism by the Babylonian sympathisers in Pharisaic Judaism after 380 BCE and has nothing to do with the Temple priesthood.

The Cambridge History of Judaism contains a number of inaccuracies and assertions but it has something to say about the origins of the 19-year cycle, which is clearly Babylonian. It continues then to assert that the calendar in Roman times was fairly obscure. The reason that is asserted is because the Pharisees had taken over with their traditions and were trying to destroy the Temple system and its calendar, which ran contrary to their traditions.

These traditions run contrary to everything God told Israel to do and can accurately be described as wilful insubordination and the deliberate deception of a nation that allegedly wanted to follow God.

With some exceptions, a cycle of twelve common and seven leap years harmonised the course of the sun and the lunar years. From about 380bce the position of leap years became fixed: a month was intercalated in the years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17 and 19 of every cycle. As 235 lunar months practically equal 19 solar years, the place of the New Year’s day, on Nisannu (Nisan) 1, now fluctuated no more than 27 days within a cycle, from 26 March to 22 April Julian. Thanks to the excellence of this calendar we are able to express any date in late Babylonian texts in the terms of the Julian year with the margin of one or two days of possible error. Therefore, we can say that the capture of Jerusalem on Adar 2 of the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzr occurred on (or about) 15 March 597 BCE and that the Temple, desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes, was re-dedicated by Judas Maccabeus (1 Macc.5:52) on or about 7 December 173 BCE.

The calendar situation in the Roman province of Judea, before and after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD remains obscure. The Jewish civil year continued to run from Nisan to Adar....

(William David Davies et al, The Cambridge History of Judaism, Cambridge University Press, p. 63)

The following item by Remy Landau shows the complex inter-relations in the calculations of the rabbinical system and that it has nothing to do with the New Moons.

The 19 year cycle is any period of 19 Hebrew years whose first year leaves a remainder of 1 when its value is divided by 19. For example, the first year of the 304th cycle is 5758H, because the value 5758 when divided by 19 leaves a remainder of 1. That year began on Thursday, October 2, 1997g.

The previous year, 5757H was the last year of the 303rd 19 year cycle. Its value of 5757 when divided by 19 leaves a remainder of 0, which is also the same as 19 modulo 19.

The year 5750H (1989g/1990g) was the 12th year of the 303rd 19 year cycle. Its value of 5750 when divided by 19 leaves a remainder of 12.

When Rosh Hashannah advances to a new day in the Gregorian calendar, it always does so in the 9th year of the 19 year cycle.

(See the Additonal Notes on The Rosh Hashannah Drift for more information on the latest possible occurrences of Rosh Hashannah).

The 19 year cycle is known in Hebrew as the Machzor Katan.

The following table shows the number of times that any year in the 19 year cycle begins on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday when examined over the full and complete Hebrew calendar repetition cycle of 689,472 years.

19 Year Cycle Weekday Starts
Year	Mon	Tue	Thu	Sat	TOTAL
1	9837	3811	12272	10368	36288
2	10368	3281	12271	10368	36288
3	10368	5184	10368	10368	36288
4	9838	3811	12271	10368	36288
5	10368	3281	12271	10368	36288
6	10368	5184	10368	10368	36288
7	9838	3811	12271	10368	36288
8	10368	5184	10368	10368	36288
9	9838	3811	12271	10368	36288
10	10368	3281	12271	10368	36288
11	10368	5184	10368	10368	36288
12	9838	3811	12271	10368	36288
13	10368	3281	12271	10368	36288
14	10368	5184	10368	10368	36288
15	9838	3811	12271	10368	36288
16	10368	3280	12272	10368	36288
17	10368	5184	10368	10368	36288
18	9837	3811	12272	10368	36288
19	10368	5184	10368	10368	36288
TOTAL	193280	79369	219831	196992	689472

The table shows that over the 689,472 Hebrew year calendar cycle:-

Each year of the 19 year cycle begins the same number of times on Saturday. The number 10,368 is exactly 2/7/19 of the full calendar cycle.

The number of times that a leap year begins on either Monday, or Thursday is the same as the number of times that these years begin on Saturday.

Leap years begin on Tuesdays exactly half as many times as they do on any other day of the week.

The weekday distribution of Rosh Hashannah starts is identical for each of the leap years in the 19 year cycle, which are the 1st, 3rd, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th years.

The 16th year has an absolutely unique weekday distribution of Rosh Hashannah starts.

The 1st and 18th years have the same weekday distribution of Rosh Hashannah starts.

The 2nd, 5th, 10th, and 13th years have the same weekday distribution of Rosh Hashannah starts.

The 4th, 7th, 9th, 12th, and 15th years have the same weekday distribution, of Rosh Hashannah starts.

Over the 689,472 year cycle, the number of times that any year in the 19 year cycle does not begin on Saturday is 36,288 - 10,368 = 25,920. This number is also equal to the number of parts in one day which is 24 * 1080 = 25,920.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1584/cycle19.html

Judaism intercalated in the following years:

1989/90 was year 12 of the 303^rd 19-year cycle.

1996/7 (19^th year).

Year 1 begins in October 1997 according to the Babylonian system, which they term Rosh HaShanah as the New Year, contrary to God’s commands.

It is clear that the year begins in the month of Abib or Nisan, which is the First month (Deut. 16:1).

God said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: "This month shall be for you the beginning of the months, it shall be for you the first of the months of the year." (Ex. 12:1)

1999/00 (3^rd year)

2002/3 (6^th year)

2004/5 (8^th year)

2007/8 (11^th year)

2010/11 (14^th year)

2013/14 (17^th year)

2015/16 (19^th year)

The Calendar according to the Temple system intercalates an Adar II at the end of the Sacred Year as follows:

2005/2006 (i.e. an Adar II is inserted in 2006)

2008/9

2010/11

2013/14

2016/17

2018/19

2021/22

2024/25

2027/28 – thus the end of the Jubilee year intercalates an Adar II before the New Year of the New Jubilee commencing in Abib of 2028.

2029/30 intercalates two years afterwards.

It is thus obvious that the Temple Calendar bears no relationship to the rabbinical Jewish/Babylonian 19-year cycle, which is always at least one year prior to the intercalation according to the actual moon cycles based on the conjunction.

In only one year does the rabbinical system correspond with the Temple system based on the conjunction (i.e. 2013/2014), but they postpone the days so as to get the Holy Days wrong on each occasion.

It is clear that the rabbinical calendar is a cleverly constructed ruse of mysticism so as to ensure that the Children of Israel, if they follow it, are never keeping God’s Laws and never once will they observe the New Moons and Holy Days and Feasts on the correct days. The only thing they could not move was the Sabbath, but they wrecked it with their traditions.

Judaism never calculates the months by the conjunction of the moon as the Bible dictates. All months in Judaism have fixed lengths except for Cheshvan and Kislev, which each can have either 29 or 30 days, depending on the exact length of that calendar year.

Over the long term, however, the mean Hebrew month length equals the traditional molad interval, which is 29 days 12 hours and 793 parts = 29 + ¹²/₂₄ + ⁷⁹³/₂₅₉₂₀ = 29+¹³⁷⁵³/₂₅₉₂₀ days = 29.530594135802469... days (in the decimal representation of the exact fraction the underscored digits repeat forever). For further information about the numeric length of the molad interval, see "Why Divide Hours into 1080 Parts?" at <http://www.sym454.org/hebrew/chelek.htm>.

Thus the mean length of the Hebrew calendar year equals the number of months per cycle times the average month length, all divided by the number of years per cycle:

= ( 235 months × 29+¹³⁷⁵³/₂₅₉₂₀ days ) / 19 years

= 365+²⁴³¹¹/₉₈₄₉₆ days

= 365 days 5 hours 55 minutes and 25+²⁵/₅₇ seconds, and since each chelek = ¹⁰/₃ seconds...

= 365 days 5 hours 55 minutes and 7+¹²/₁₉ chalakim, and since each rega = ¹/₇₆ chelek...

= 365 days 5 hours 55 minutes 7 chalakim and 48 regaim

= 365.246822205977907732293697... days (the underscored digits repeat...)

≈ 365.2468222 days per mean Hebrew calendar year

http://individual.utoronto.ca/kalendis/hebrew/drift.htm - mean

Because of its system of calculations and the drift of the equinox:

since the era of Hillel II to the present era, a span of 5768 – 4119 = 1649 years, the Hebrew calendar solar drift has accumulated to about ¹⁶⁴⁹/₂₂₄ ≈ 7+²/₅ days.

http://individual.utoronto.ca/kalendis/hebrew/drift.htm - quick

Thus the Hillel calendar is way off the cycle it was intended to be when it was invented. The simple fact of the matter is that they invented a system that allowed them to keep their traditions and turned their back on God and the Bible.

The following is an article by Dr John Zucker, research fellow in Physics, King’s College, University of London, which shows the increasing inaccuracy of the Hillel Calendar.

"WHY PESACH IS NOW FALLING OUT OF SEASON?

Is Pesach this year later than it should be, according to the dictates of the Torah? The straight answer is yes. But if April 22 - on which the first day falls - is considered late, think ahead to the year 2005, when the first day will fall on April 24. Indeed, in some years - 1929, 1948 and 1967, for example - Pesach began on April 25. To understand why it is biblically inappropriate for the festival to fall so late in the year, one has to consider the conditions governing its date. The Torah specifies two criteria. "The festival of matzot," it says in Exodus 34:18, "shall be kept... at the appointed time in the month of Aviv." In Leviticus 22:6, the appointed time is given as the 15^th of the month. 'Aviv' means spring, so it is necessary to determine what is meant by the first month of spring. The first month is required on the principle that a mitzvah should be performed as soon as possible.

Although the Jewish festivals are placed in specific lunar months, the 'tekufot', or seasons, are governed by the solar calendar. The lunar month which is designated as Aviv is dependent on a civil date. It is generally accepted that the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere is when the length of the day - which has been increasing steadily since December 21 - equals the length of the night. This occurs on March 21 in a normal civil year, and March 22 in a leap year.

How does one know which lunar month includes the first day of spring? In the Talmud (Sanhedrin 13b), Rabbi Samuel, the son of Rabbi Isaac, states that the first day of spring should occur in the lunar month while the moon is still waxing. The moon grows from new to full in the first 14.5 days of the month. If a Rosh Chodesh (new moon) occurs at any time between the sixth and the 20^th March, then on the 21^st March the moon will still be waxing and that month is designated as Aviv. If this is not the case, the next lunar month is chosen. The earliest date Pesach can occur is March 21, and the latest it should occur is April 20. Yet an examination of the calendar from 1920 to 2019 shows the earliest date to be March 26. Instead of the festival falling between March 21 and April 20, this century has seen the first day being celebrated between March 26 and April 25.

Future calendars reveal a gradual shift of Pesach - and, consequently, of the other festivals - to progressively later dates. In the century from 2950 to 3050, the first day of Pesach will be found to fall between March 31 and April 30. What is happening? And, more importantly, is it possible to rectify the situation? The origin of this glitch lies in the fixed Jewish calendar that has been in use for the past 1,650 years. The calendar attempts to correlate the solar year - the time the earth takes to go round the sun - with the lunar month, during which the moon circles the earth. The year determines the seasons, while the months - in their appropriate seasons - determine the festivals. The present fixed calendar is based on the premise that 19 solar years are exactly equal to 235 lunar months. Dividing 19 into 235 gives 12, with seven remaining. Thus, in every 19-year cycle, seven years acquire an extra month, which is why we have Jewish leap years every 3^rd, 6^th, 8^th, 11^th, 14^th, 17^th and 19^th year cycle.

The 19-year Metonic cycle is named after the Greek astronomer, Meton, who devised it around 430 BCE. It was well known to the rabbis of the Talmud. When, in 350 CE, the Roman authorities limited the authority of the Nasi - the spiritual leader - in Eretz Yisrael, regarding the proclamation of Rosh Chodesh, Hillei 11, the then Nasi, instituted the present fixed calendar, based on the Metonic cycle. Although it was remarkably accurate for its time, it is not exact. The 235 lunar months exceed the 19 solar years by a little more than two hours. Spread over 1,000 years, this totals some 4.5 days. One thousand years ago, the first day of Pesach would have fallen, on average, four or five days earlier than now, in the correct solar time span as dictated by the Torah.

Is it possible to remedy the present situation, and to halt the gradual shift of Pesach? In his book, Rabbinical Mathematics and Astronomy, Dr. W.M. Feldman suggests a new basis for a fixed Jewish calendar. He demonstrates that if, in a cycle of 334 years, 123 of them were leap years, the differential between the Jewish and civil calendar would amount to no more than 39 mins. It would take 12,500 years to accumulate a one-day discrepancy, instead of 230 years it takes under the present system. Feldman proposes constituting the 334-year cycle as a series of 19-year minor cycles, with the odd 11 years forming the beginning of the next major cycle. If Feldman's 334-year cycle had been employed over the past 1,650 years, instead of the present 19 year cycle, there would have been one less leap year.

To make the festivals less movable in the future, and to accord more accurately with the requirements for Pesach to fall in the month of Aviv, one designated leap year would have to lose that status. The next most suitable year for this purpose would seem to be 2005 (5765). By making it a regular year instead of a leap year, Pesah would commence on Saturday, March 26, instead of Sunday, April 24. The year 5765 would be the 89^th year of a 334-year cycle, the 13^th year of the fifth 19-year cycle within the larger cycle. From this basis, future dates could be computed, demonstrating that Pesach would be confined to its designated Torah place for the foreseeable future. The year 2005 is sufficiently far ahead to enable one to compute, and to adjust to, the new system. Even the most forward-looking parents will not yet have booked their son's barmitzvahs! Dr. John Zucker (Jewish Chronicle, April 11, 1997).

Earliest and latest dates in the Temple system

At the earliest possible dates, Trumpets will be 31 August or 1, 2, or 3, September.

12 March and 5 September 1975 were the earliest dates the WCG observed, using the Jewish calendar, as the First and Seventh moons, then they followed the POSTPONEMENT of 13 March and 6 September. This occurred again in 1994. These postponement events are all the 10th years of the 19th cycle.

In each of these alleged 19-year cycles, every 2nd, 5th, and 13th year will be one month earliest possible month.

Any date before 12 March or 5 September resulted in the WCG and Judaism observing the months and Feasts ONE MONTH LATER.

We can say correctly that 1 Abib is NEVER later than 5 April, nor earlier than 7 March.

The Seventh Moon is NEVER earlier than 31 August, nor later than 29 September.

The Seventh Moon is NEVER in October.

The inherent problem on calculations based on the equinoxes

The fixing of the calendar by Hillel II saw an immediate violation of the rules the following year.

Rav Adda bar Ahavah, a colleague of Hillel II, established a system of calculations that was improved on later by Maimonides (Rambam) in the twelfth century, but there are increasing violations as time goes on.

Dr Irv Bromberg of the University of Toronto, Canada summarises the arguments of the Talmud regarding the conflicts as follows:

The Talmud Bavli tractate Sanhedrin 12b, 13a and 13b contains a long debate about the criteria and rules for intercalation of the Hebrew calendar year, much of it concerning whether the day of an equinox or solstice is the last day of the season that ended or the first day day of the season that is starting, and what should be the intercalation rules with respect to the autumn equinox relative to the days from Sukkot through Hoshana Rabbah.

The debate there was whether the equinox in Tishrei must always occur prior to the 16th or the 20th day of Tishrei. Astronomically, neither of these is possible. There are two astronomic constraints that preclude a leap rule with regard to the equinox in Tishrei. Firstly, the date of Rosh HaShanah is fixed relative to the molad of Tishrei. Therefore, with a day or two leeway, Rosh HaShanah must start 6 lunar months after the start of Nisan = 6 × the molad interval = a bit more than 177 days, which would place the 16th and 20th of Tishrei at about 192 or 196 days after the start of Nisan, respectively. The present era average length of the northern hemiphere spring season is about 92+³/₄ days, and the summer season is about 93+²/₃ days, so the total span from the average equinox of Nisan to the average equinox of Tishrei is about 186+²/₅ days. Therefore if the average equinox of Nisan is at the start of Nisan then the average equinox of Tishrei can only be at Yom Kippur on the 10th of Tishrei, with ±¹/₂ month of variation at both equinoxes (in parallel) due to the leap month structure of the calendar. Thus the astronomical equinox of Tishrei must actually range from the last week of Elul through to the 25th day of Tishrei, and there is nothing that can be done to prevent a late equinox in Tishrei as long as the start of Nisan is aligned with its average equinox. The second astronomical constraint is that for the past millennium the length of the southward equinoctial year has been shorter than the northward equinoctial year, and it will continue to get shorter while the northward equinoctial year length remains essentially constant for the next >4 millennia. Therefore there is no way for any fixed arithmetic calendar to simultaneously maintain alignment relative to both equinoxes, and even a calendar employing accurate astronomical algorithms can't possibly align with both equinoxes. It is also impossible for any fixed arithmetic calendar to approximate just the southward equinox alone, because the mean southward equinoctial year is getting progressively shorter.

Dr Bromberg has proposed a solution to adjust the calendar in his excellent article on the intercalations and the equinoctial drift.

The Seasonal Drift of the Traditional (Fixed Arithmetic) Hebrew Calendar

http://individual.utoronto.ca/kalendis/hebrew/drift.htm - quick

However, it still does not concur with the orders of God as laid down in the Torah, and the only solution is to turn and repent and restore the Temple Calendar.

Responsibility in the Churches of God

We have issued a series of papers on the Calendar and one of those papers was written to deal with the postponements of Judaism in their calendar. That paper is The Calendar and the Moon: Postponements or Festivals? (No. 195). We have seen, however, that there are a number of other matters that need explanation regarding the Calendar, including the Jubilee system and the disparity that occurs within the time-frames used by the varying sects of the last three centuries of the Temple period. For example, in the writings of Josephus we see two discrete systems used in the Calendar structure quite in conflict with one another. What is the explanation of it all and how is it to be reconciled? The High Priest seems to be using a system different to that used by Josephus, and so also is the emperor Julius Caesar.

We see the relevance of archaeology to the Calendar and how that shows what Christ was doing in declaring the Acceptable Year of the Lord in 27 CE at Atonement. We can see why Christ made that declaration given the known dates and declarations both before and after that event, which are all supportive of the Jubilee structure. We have seen that Christ was declaring the Atonement Jubilee in the Jubilee year so as to clarify which of the sects had the system correct. It was the Temple system under the High Priest and the Sadducees - and not the Pharisees - that was correct and Christ declared that to be so simply by what he said and did. We can determine that from the declaration of Julius Caesar and the archaeological finds near Bethlehem dated to 55 CE in the second year of Nero, and by the early rabbinical admissions themselves.

We have explained here how the Hillel calendar was affected and how it is going progressively later in its months and Passovers.

Anyone who keeps the Jewish calendar will be keeping the festivals one month too late in some seven years out of nineteen and keeping the Feast in the Eighth month, which was forbidden to Israel when it occurred under Jeroboam (see the paper Jeroboam and the Hillel Calendar (No. 191).

Also, they will virtually never keep God’s Laws and His Calendar on the correct days in any year, and nor will they keep the News Moons ever.

It is important that we all understand what is happening and that God does not honour these systems and distortions of His Calendar.

The Jews were sent into dispersion because of these errors. The Church of God is, however, without excuse.

The Churches of God, as distorted by the WCG system and ministry, proclaim that God's Calendar is preserved by the Jews, yet they do not properly follow the Hillel calendar anyway. They do not keep a Sivan 6 Pentecost, which is a fixed date for Pentecost in the Hillel calendar system. They continue to justify their indolence and error in using the Hillel calendar by asserting that the Oracles of God were given to the Jews, which is a blatant lie (see the paper The Oracles of God (No. 184)).

God expects his Church to work in truth. Repent and restore the Calendar. The sentence of God in Jeremiah 34 is in force and will now increase in severity until the Churches of God and wilful, devious Judah repent. The blood of their own children will be upon their heads because of their wilful disobedience and perversion of the Laws of God and His Calendar.

PO Box 369, WODEN ACT 2606, AUSTRALIA