The Calendar, Part 6

I want to use this time to kind of... It's been a while since I've had my last Bible study on going through the calendar. Mr. Prada talked about marriage, and you Google marriage, and all the different information that can come up. It can be kind of confusing. Well, the calendar is another one of those issues. Even more so, it can be very confusing when you Google online, go different calendar issues, and so on. So I just wanted to be giving this series to kind of clarify some of those things and simplify them somewhat, if I can. But last October is when I began this series of Bible studies on the calendar. For many years now, the Hebrew calendar that we now use for determining when to observe God's annual feast and holy days has been questioned, or maybe even possibly under attack by some, and being discredited to some degree. A number of God's people today, as we know, use different New Moon calendars. And I'm not here to criticize or put down any particular calendar or condemn any calendar. I'm just trying to clarify some of these issues so we can understand them a little bit better. But a number of God's people do use different New Moon calendars and observe many of the feast and holy days apart from the major churches of God. And that's true around the entire United States to do a degree. But because the calendar is a huge issue, which has raised many questions, so last year I began a series of Bible studies to address some of those issues and to basically try to defend, at least to a degree, the use of the Hebrew calendar that we use in the United Church of God and most of the major church of God groups used still today. Previously, I've given five Bible studies so far to address various issues and concerns that relate to the calendar. My last Bible study I gave back on February 23rd, so it was a while back, here in Bellevue anyway. It was March 2nd, I think, in Cedar Willy that I gave that same Bible study. And in that Bible study, I addressed the subject of seasons and showed that that was part five, actually, of the series and gave the biblical perspective in comes to the various seasons. And I basically showed from that Bible study that there are two overall harvest seasons, the spring harvest season and the fall harvest season. And those two harvest seasons correspond to the two overall festival seasons, the spring festival season consisting of Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread, and then the countdown, the day countdown period, at least to Pentecost.

And then second, the fall harvest season consisting of Trumpet's Atonement, the piece of Tabernacles, and Last Grade Day. And then also, I showed the third, from the perspective of the Bible, there are basically two overall climate seasons that are addressed in the Bible. That is, a cool or winter climate season and a warmer summer climate season. That's the perspective of the Bible. But then I asked the question last time that I want to kind of continue with today a little bit. I asked, is there such a thing as a biblical calendar? Because a lot of people, what you'd like to do, obviously, if there's a count count, you can figure out a calendar from just information in the Bible. That's what you would want to try to use and utilize for determining the Feasts and Holy Days. But is there such a thing as a biblical calendar? That is, did God give us enough information in the Bible alone to construct a calendar? For example, there's a lot of questions you can ask in regards to that. Does the Bible clearly tell us the exact day on which a year must begin? And when you really look at that openly, the answer is no, it does not.

And yet you would need to know that to construct a calendar. Does the Bible tell exactly how many days there should be in a biblical year? Or how many months there should be in a biblical year?

No, it does not. Does the Bible tell us how to reconcile the difference between lunar months and the solar year? They don't come out even, as we've demonstrated in previous Bible studies.

And again, no, it doesn't tell us, the Bible doesn't tell us how to reconcile that. When to add in the 13th month or a leap year month or whatever, it just doesn't really address those things clearly.

In fact, does the Bible even give us a clear definition of a new moon? In a sense, it does, but in a sense, it doesn't. Not really. But the bottom line is this. Every calendar you want to use, regardless of what form of calendar it is, every calendar must at least to some degree be devised by man, to some degree, and must devise rules for that calendar which are outside of the Bible. Which is why those who reject the Hebrew calendar, they decide that they don't want to use the Hebrew calendar and want to devise another calendar, and other counters might be fine and good. They might do the good job if we'd all agree that that's the calendar we should use. But the thing is, you have different people that don't, they reject the Hebrew calendar and they can't agree among themselves which other calendar would be the best one to use, always. And so, they come up with different versions of a calendar. But there's no such thing as a true biblical calendar. That is, there's no way we can construct a calendar strictly from information give us to us in the Bible. It doesn't give us enough detailed information, specific information on certain areas, to really construct a Bible just from information in the Bible alone. Any calendar you want to use, or construct, must have some rules that come from outside of the Bible. In other words, any and all calendars must utilize some rules and definitions that are devised by man, apart from the Bible.

Maybe using information in the Bible to try to tie it into as closely as possible, but still, it's going to have to come up with some rules for that calendar that you can't specifically see instructions for in the Bible. So today, then, in Part 6, I want to look at five things, very briefly. One, we'll review how the Karaite Jews determine the beginning of the year, and difficulties that poses. Now, I touched on that last time, but I want to clarify it. And the reason I want to touch on this is because there are a number of God's people in different areas that like to use the Karaite Jews calendar. So I want to touch on that just briefly to show you, you know, what they do and some problems that that poses. Number two, we will look at why I'm giving you so much detail concerning calendar issues. I mean, some of it is really simple.

God gave that responsibility to the Jews, to the Levites, and God's ministers, God's church, or the spiritual Levites today. So it's up to the church to determine the calendar, pick out which calendar to use. That's a simple answer, but it doesn't really address all the issues and concerns that people bring up. So I want to go into the reason why I'm giving you more details.

Number three thing I want to, third thing I want to cover is what is the new moon, and is the new moon clearly defined in the Bible? And number four, we'll look at observation versus calculation. That's an issue when it comes to the calendar. Should we go strictly by observation of when the new moon is? Or should we use calculation? Is that okay? Or can we use a combination of both?

And we'll see that there are problems with both methods, and we can see how the Hebrew calendar resolves those issues. Okay, is that still working? Okay, good. Thanks, Zach. And number five, fifth thing, I want to show you that the Hebrew calendar was used by the Jews in the Old Testament.

And I'm going to show that. Now, I'm going to demonstrate that and prove that. There also would raise some questions against the Hebrew calendar by what I'm going to show you. It says, in regards to that in the Old Testament, but that's going to lead into something next time as well.

So the title for my Bible study here this afternoon is the calendar part six, the new moon and the Hebrew calendar. Part six, the new moon and the Hebrew calendar. But first, I want to just review a little bit about the method the Karaite Jews use for determining their calendar. And I simply want to touch on one aspect of their calendar, how they determine the beginning of the calendar year. And to learn more about them, actually, if you want to learn, you can easily Google that, or you can go to their website, which is www.karite-corner.org. And that's spelled as K-A-R-A-I-T-E-K-O-R-N-E-R.org. But I want to give a quote from their website, which shows how they determine the beginning of the calendar year. And again, I'm not condemning this in any way. I'm just showing you what they use. And I'll raise some questions as to, you know, as far as does the Bible give that information in the Bible to determine that, which is what we should do. And this is talking about ABIB, or barley, and talking about, in their biblical leap years. So the biblical year begins with the first new moon after the barley in Israel reaches the stage in its ripeness called ABIB. The period between one year and the next is either 12 or 13 lunar months. Because of this, it is important to check the state of the barley crops at the end of the 12th month. If the barley is ABIB at this time, then the following new moon is Hodesh Ha'eviv, that is the new moon of ABIB. If the barley is still immature, we must wait another month and then check the barley again at the end of the 13th month. That would be a leap year.

In general, it can only be determined whether a year is a leap year a few days before the end of the 12th month. Now, that's going to raise a little bit of a difficulty for people who would use that method. And then they ask, where is ABIB mentioned in the Hebrew Bible? The story of the Exodus relates this day you're going out in the month of ABIB, Exodus 13, verse 4. And of course, I could add that Exodus 12 too also says, this month, referring to ABIB, this month shall be your beginning of months, which should be the first month of the year to you. So in Exodus, the first month of the year is called ABIB. And if you look it up, ABIB means to be tender or green, with barley being the main spring crop. So what the Karaite Jews do then, they plant barley in certain fields in Israel in the fall, and then they examine those fields to see when they begin to become green or tender.

Now, that's all well and good. But do you find those specific instructions in the Bible? I mean, you can use logic and say, well, ABIB means green, and then you can say, well, ABIB means green and tender, so that would be a way you could do that. But you don't see in the Bible where it specifically tells you, plant certain fields in Palestine in the fall, plant barley crops there, and then go out and examine them to see when they become green or tender.

And then the next new moon after that will be the beginning of the year to you.

Those specific instructions are not found in the Bible. That's, it's logical. I'm not saying it's illogical to do that, but it's not found in the Bible. Because all instructions aren't specifically given in the Bible. Those are instructions that are devised by the Karaite Jews. Again, the Karaite Jews are very interesting, and I'm not going to go into their background, but they basically became a separate, recognized group around the 7th century AD.

And I won't go into their history, but you can go to their website and probably get their history there. But another problem that's obvious, I think, to all of us, they themselves say this regarding this method, as I just quoted, in general it can only be determined whether a year is a leap year, that is, whether it should have a 13th month or not, a few days before the end of the 12th month. So now, if you use that method, then you've got a problem, especially today.

There could be no or very little advanced planning for the Passover in Days of Unleavened Bread, because you wouldn't know until just maybe most a month before or a few days before.

So it would be hard to plan, to get a haul or whatever. And you would only know about six months in advance as to when the piece of tabernacle is going to occur. And that would not be very practical today. And the world we now live in were plans and reservations to be made for a place to meet for a large group of people at least a year or more in advance. It would be very, not very practical to have to use that method. But today, the Karaite Jews use both observation of the barley and observation of the new moon, of abib, and calculation from the beginning of that triggered point of time to determine the other holy days. So they use a combination of observation and calculation. But usually, if you go by their calendar, the holy days are either going to be one month off from when we observe them, or they can be maybe a day off. Or sometimes they can be at the same time. It just depends. But again, you can learn more from their website. Now, second question I want to address here briefly is, why am I giving so much detail concerning calendar issues? I just want to read one scripture and make it a very brief answer to that particular question.

And the answer is quite simple. Simply, to equip you with knowledge. So you'll be equipped with knowledge and understanding about various issues that are involved. And then, you know, I could say, Fox News says, we report you decide. But one scripture I want to turn to here in that regard is Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4, beginning in verse 11, referring to Christ, and he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. For what purpose? It says, for the equipping of the saints, to equip the members of God's church, and for the work of mystery, the work of service, and for the edifying, or for the building up of the body of Jesus Christ. And to we all come to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, or to a mature individual, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, to the maturity of Jesus Christ, if we can attain to that goal.

That we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trippy of man, in the cunning craftness of deceitful plotting, by speaking the truth and love, and may grow up in all things unto him who is ahead Christ. Now, I want to make a qualification here. I'm not saying those people use other calendar trying to use trickery, or they're using, trying to use cunning craftiness, they're not doing that. They're very sincere individuals who are trying to look into the Bible and trying to construct a calendar that they feel would be mostly closely parallel to what's given to us in the Bible. So I'm not saying that. And again, when it comes to what is a true calendar from the Bible that we can use, I don't know if there really is such a thing. Again, like I say, there's no such thing as a true biblical calendar that can be constructed from the Bible alone. But what I'm trying to do here is to equip you with knowledge so you won't be tossed to and fro by all kinds of different opinions that my people might have regarding this particular issue, and so we can have more unity of faith, until we come to the point where Christ can clarify these things to all of us if that time comes. So I'm trying to address divisive issues in a way that they will no longer be divisive issues, at least not for the majority of us. Now, third question I want to then briefly touch on today is, what is the new moon? And is the new moon clearly defined in the Bible?

Now, in the Bible, it's very clear that months begin with a new moon. But when precisely does a new moon occur? Now, we can come up with a pretty clear answer, actually, but there are three overall possibilities, just to show you the reason why I bring this question up. One, does the new moon begin? And I could show this, but I didn't want to do that. I think I can explain it just as easy as trying to show it on a screen. Does the new moon begin with the disappearance of the last faint crescent of the old moon, as the moon goes into conjunction, which I'll explain in a moment?

Does it begin as that moon disappears and goes into darkness at that precise moment? Does it begin then? Or does it begin at some point while it is in conjunction? While it's dark when in the period of we call the darkness of the moon, when it's totally obscured in darkness. And, you know, that's that's hard to figure out because that time that it's in darkness can be anywhere from as little as 17 hours to as much as 34 hours. It can be in conjunction or where you don't really don't see it. It doesn't reflect any light back to the earth. Third, does it begin with the first faint crescent of the new moon as it comes out of the conjunction as it just begins to appear for the first time? Is that the new moon? Well, so if you want to find a scriptural definition that tells us which of those three possibilities is the definition of the Bible, you can't really find that. The Bible doesn't clearly define that for us. However, the Hebrew word kodesh translated month 254 times in the Old Testament and translated new moon 20 times in the Old Testament means to renew. That's the verb form means to renew, and the adjective form means new or renewed. So those definitions then would tend to fit with the appearance of the first faint crescent as being the best definition to use.

As it's coming out of conjunction, when that first first present first appears, as it's coming out of conjunction, out of darkness back into where you're seeing a faint reflection of the portion of the moon again. Thus, even though the new moon is not clearly defined in the Bible, the most appropriate biblical definition then would be the appearance of the first faint crescent of the moon as it's coming out of conjunction. Now, I want to touch on another subject here, and we'll get into that one just to mention there a little bit more in a moment. What about observation versus calculation?

Some people say she goes strictly by observation. Of course, the Hebrew calendar is strictly by calculation, and some condemn that. They think, well, it should be by observation. There are some counters that use a combination of observation and calculation. But when it comes to observing the new moon or calculating it, there are some interesting challenges, but both methods, actually. First, what is conjunction? We say when it goes into conjunction or comes out of conjunction or when it's in conjunction, what does that mean? Conjunction is, again, just easy to explain this and show it on a screen, but conjunction is when the sun, the moon, and the earth are in line with one another, with the moon being between the sun and the earth. That period is when the moon is in conjunction. And during that time of conjunction, no light is being reflected from the moon back to the earth. It's what we call the dark of the moon, if you will, when the moon is totally obscured in darkness. Technically, if you want to look at the technical definition, technically it's called the astronomical new moon, is when it's in conjunction. That's generally the new moon that's indicated on the calendars as well. But here is another challenge. As I've just mentioned already, the time of conjunction, the time the new moon remains obscured, and the time it goes into darkness until time it comes out, can be anywhere from 17 to 34 hours. Thus, there can be a variance of about 17 hours in the length of the time of conjunction. And that can vary from month to month, that time of conjunction. So when it comes to observation, then, it can be difficult to use observation for determining when the first faint crescent of the new moon appears. There are several reasons that can make that challenging. Number one, that makes it challenging, it can occur anytime, day or night, anytime of the 24-hour period. If you're going to use observation, you'd have to have a method of observing at night. You couldn't do it during the day, because how would you observe that particular point when it's coming out of conjunction during the day? You wouldn't be able to see it. You'd have to wait until after sunset. Which raises another question. When you come to a night when you see the first faint crescent of the new moon, is that day the day of the new moon? Or should it be the previous day when you know it really came out of conjunction but you couldn't see it?

Which day would you pick? Well, somebody has to make a decision. Somebody has to determine that.

Does the Bible tell us what you use in that case? It doesn't say. So somebody has to make a determination. Again, like I say, there's things that come up like that that somebody has to make a decision on that aren't really defined clearly for us in the Bible. Now, there's a Church of God group and you can look this up. I'm just mentioning this. I'm not condemning their method either. I'm just bringing it up because it's a method that some have looked to. There's a Church of God group called the Obedient Church of God. You can google Obedient Church of God and go to their website and see how they determine when the day of the new moon is. They have a rule that they use, which they've devised. You can't find this in the Bible, but they've devised it. They're not condemning it. It's a logical thing to use if you want to use logic, but you're not going to find this clearly defined in the Bible. Here's what they do. The day of the new moon is a day the first faint crescent of the new moon can be observed at night everywhere around the earth.

Not just over Jerusalem, but everywhere around the earth. Because that first faint crescent might be observed on a certain night in Jerusalem, but maybe the rest of the world can only, maybe only 60, 70, 80 percent of the rest of the world will see it that night. It might be the next night when the whole world can see it, when it's gotten, dancing up to where the whole world can see it.

So they set that day as the new moon day, when the whole world can see that first crescent.

Not just when it's observed over Jerusalem for the first time. Now, that raises some challenges. I don't know if I'll put it that way or questions. Two thousand years ago, time of price, how would anyone know when the crescent of the new moon could first be observed at night by everybody around the world? I think it'd be pretty difficult. I don't think they would know.

They couldn't know that by observation, only by some form of calculation, maybe.

And yet that same group basically looks to observation and condemns calculation.

So again, that's a difficulty. But again, their calendar rules are of their own devising.

Those cannot be found or substantiated by Scripture, even though they might seem logical.

A second difficulty when it comes to observation is that congestion can last, as I said, anywhere from 17 to 34 hours and can vary by as much as 17 hours. So it can be difficult to know exactly when to look for it. Okay, let's see. You're going to have to have centuries posted all night looking at the difficulty. When can I first see it? So you'd have to have to have somebody watching for a long period of time at night to find out, because you might not see it one night, but it might be the next night. But you wouldn't know for sure it was going to be this night or the next night. That would just be a challenge to have somebody looking at that to observe it.

And third, what if it's a cloudy night? What if there are several cloudy nights? You'd have to somehow kind of guess from the last time you could see it from the month before, and maybe calculate when you thought it would be or when it would be. Again, there are challenges there because it was cloudy for several nights. It could be very difficult to use observation even to see it at night.

You'd have to kind of guess what day you think it occurred from previous observances or whatever.

So there are a number of problems and uncertainties when it comes to using observation.

Now, what about calculation? Calculation, of course, is more exact, but it can even be somewhat difficult to mathematically even calculate the exact appearance of the New Crescent.

Now, why would that be? Why couldn't you always be very accurate in how far its calculation goes?

Because, as I kind of pointed out a little bit in the previous Bible study, there are over 5,000 variables, or what are called perturbations, they're called, that could affect the time it takes for the moon to orbit the earth.

Now, we've all been perturbed by someone. They call them perturbations.

We've all been perturbed by someone at some time. And perturbed means to disturb or to throw into confusion. Well, we've all been confused or disturbed by someone or something at times.

But the word perturb also means, astronomically speaking, it means to cause a celestial body to deviate from a regular orbital motion, to cause a celestial body to deviate from a regular orbital motion. And there are over 4-5,000 forces which can cause the moon to deviate from its regular orbital motion around the earth each month. And all 5,000 of those variables would have to be taken into account if you're going to know precisely exactly when to calculate that first faint present for that particular month and period of time. So even calculation, it wouldn't be off by much, but it could be off by enough to maybe throw it off by a day. So even calculation can be a challenge mathematically if you want to be exact. What then is a possible solution?

Well, actually, the interesting thing is the Hebrew calendar is a possible solution, and maybe even a probable one. Why? Because even though the exact time of the first present can not always be observed accurately, and even though there are challenges when it comes to precisely calculating it right down to the exact few seconds or minutes, it can, the average time, can be calculated accurately. I went on that last time. You can use average times in over a long period of time. The averages come out very, very precise because the average time of conjunction for the new moon, if you want to average it out over a period of a year or several years, that can become very precise. Although it can be difficult to calculate the precise time of the new moon, it is relatively easy to calculate the average time that it's going to occur.

And that is what the Hebrew calendar does. It solves the problem by calculating the average time of the new moon. And it calculates the average time, I just explained it just a little bit, just very briefly, and try to make it simple. It calculates the average time from what is called the Molad of Tishri. And the word Molad actually means average. So the Hebrew calendar calculates the average time of the faint present of the new moon as it appears over Jerusalem for the month of Tishri, the seventh month. Oh, that's of course also the day of trumpets. As I said, the new moon at Tishri or the new moon of the seventh month is the day of trumpets, as we know.

So the Hebrew calendar calculates the new moon at Tishri, or the day of trumpets, and then determines all the other feasts and holidays from that particular point.

So the reference point of the Hebrew calendar is the day of trumpets. It centers around the day which portrays the return of Jesus Christ. And it does that by calculating the average time of the new moon of Tishri, which is the most accurate way of determining it over, consistently, over a period of time. So that then shows us observation, briefly observation versus calculation versus the Hebrew calendar. And the Hebrew calendar is very accurate when it comes to those methods of possibly determining how to determine things. Now finally, one thing I want to go into here in the time we have remaining is why the Hebrew calendar, or excuse me, not why, but was, was the Hebrew calendar any indication the Hebrew calendar was used in the Old Testament? Now I can't reprove one way or the other, although I think the latter thing I'm going to give you just proof that it was being used, although some would raise questions in regards to that as well, so I'll bring up. But there are two possible indications that it was used. One, and I'm going to go through this briefly because I think it's interesting, it's a conversation that took place between David and Jonathan. It's recorded back in 1 Samuel 20. Jonathan, as you might know, is the son of King Saul, the first king of Israel, who was, at this time this is recorded, was a present king of Israel.

And David had just been appointed by God to be the future king to replace Saul. And Saul then became extremely jealous of David. As we know, he sought to take David's life on several occasions.

And Saul's son Jonathan, ironically, was also David's very best and closest friend.

So Jonathan here in 1 Samuel 20 had just made a covenant with David and with David's house.

Let's go back there to 1 Samuel 20 and pick it up in verse 16. 1 Samuel 20.

Verse 16. So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the Lord require it at the hands of David's enemies. Now Jonathan again caused David to avow because he loved him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul. Jonathan loved David. They're very, very dear friends.

So now then, notice what Jonathan tells David is recorded in the very next verse, in verse 18.

Then Jonathan said to David, Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be empty.

David had told Jonathan that he wouldn't be at this particular seat. When he had the new moon, the king had a feast and he had a table set and David and Jonathan were expected to be there.

On that day of the new moon. And David had told Jonathan he wouldn't be there because Saul, of course, had been trying to take his life. But here Jonathan makes an emphatic statement, Tomorrow is the new moon. Again, this new moon was the first day of the next month, which is indicated by several verses here, including verse 27, which is actually two days later. Verse 27, as it happened the next day, this is the next day after the new moon day, the second day of the month, first day of the month was the new moon day, the previous day, as it happened the next day, the second day of the month, that David's place was empty.

And Saul said to Jonathan his son, why has the son of Jesse not come to eat?

Either yesterday on the new moon day or today. So this is now two days after verse 18, and David's seat was empty on the day of the new moon. Also, as we were told in verses 24 and 25, verse 24 says, then David hid in the field, and when the new moon had come the next day, the king sat down to eat the feast. Now the king sat on his seat, as at other times, on his seat by the wall, and Jonathan arose, and Abner sat by Saul's side, but David's place was empty.

David wasn't there. But the point is that Jonathan was emphatic about the next day being the new moon day. Tomorrow is the new moon. David was also very emphatic about that in advance, as is recorded in 1 Samuel 20 verse 5. And David said to Jonathan, indeed tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king to eat, but let me go that I may hide in the field until the third day at evening, which is what he did. And the Hebrew is also just as emphatic. And the Hebrew says, tomorrow the new moon. Tomorrow the new moon. Now, it is stated with such absolute certainty here, which to me then at least indicates a good possibility that maybe it was calculated, because when you have calculation, you know when the new moon day is going to be. You know what the day is going to be. There's no having to go out and observe it or try to figure out, okay, is it going to be tomorrow, the night, or the next night? It's absolutely certain if you use calculation. So at least indicates a possibility there that they were using calculation rather than just strictly observation, which is what the Hebrew calendar uses calculation. So it doesn't say they're using the Hebrew calendar. We can't prove that, but at least indicates to me the possibility that some calendar like the Hebrew calendar using calculation was being used at that particular time.

Now, a second indication that I want to cover here briefly that the Hebrew calendar was being used by the Jews in the Old Testament are the names of the months that are indicated in the books of Nehemiah and Esther and Zechariah as well. Nehemiah, Esther, and Zechariah. Let's take a look at that. Just see the names of the months that are actually mentioned there. This is getting down towards the end of the Old Testament period when we have Nehemiah and Esther and Ezra and Zechariah. Now, prior, again, like I say, people can use this. Here, look at this. Say, well, this is one of the reasons why we shouldn't use the Hebrew calendar. I'll address that in a moment. But prior to the Babylonian captivity, the months were simply referred to by number.

First month, second month, third month, etc. With the exception of maybe the first month also being called ABib in the book of Exodus. But after going into captivity to Babylon, the month of the Hebrew calendar were given Babylonian names. And those Babylonian names are still used for the months of the Hebrew calendar today. Now, they're in Jewish, but they're basically from Babylonian names. Were the Jews who returned from captivity, were they using the Hebrew calendar during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah toward the end of the Old Testament period? Are they using the Hebrew calendar? What names are being used there for the calendar? Well, they're actually not Babylonian names, they're the Hebrew names that are given here in the Old Testament.

But there's a Babylonian calendar that's very similar with Babylonian names. But the names given here that I'm going to show you are actually the Hebrew names of the calendar that's used today.

So I mistook that when I said that a moment ago. And this indicates that they were using, at the end of the Old Testament period, the Jews were using the same calendar they used today. The first month came to be called, Nisan. Let's go to Nehemiah chapter 2 verse 1. Nehemiah 2 verse 1. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hekaliah, it came to pass in the month of... let's see, where am I?

Oh, Nehemiah, that's from Nehemiah 1. Nehemiah 2, excuse me, Nehemiah 2 verse 1. It came to pass in the month of Nisan, and in the 20th year, Cain Artaxerxes, and so on. When wine was before him, I took the wine, etc. So here it says, it came to pass in the month of Nisan. And Nisan is the Hebrew name of the first month of the Hebrew calendar today. Now, the Book of Esther was also written during this period toward the close of the Old Testament. Let's go to Esther chapter 3 verse 7. In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the 12th year of King Hazaros, they cast pur, that is, a lot before Haman. They determine the day and the month until it fell on the 12th month, which is the month of Adar. So here, Nisan is given as the name of the first month, and Adar is given as the name of the 12th month. On the Hebrew calendar today, it's called Adar 1, and if there's a 13th month, it's called Adar 2.

But the only calendar that uses those names here, and as they're given here, is the Hebrew calendar, Nisan and Adar, which indicates this calendar was being used by the Jews at this particular time, at the time of the close of the Old Testament. Third month of the Hebrew calendar is called Sivan. Let's go to Esther 8, verse 9.

Chapter 8, verse 9. So the king's scribes were called at that time in the third month, which is the month Sivan on the 23rd day. Now, the sixth month of the Hebrew calendar is called Elul. Let's go back to Nehemiah. To Nehemiah 6 this time, verse 15. Nehemiah 6, verse 15.

So the wall was finished on the 25th day of Elul in 52 days.

A ninth month was called and is called Chislah, C-H-I-S-L-E-A-U in the old King James. It's called Chislah, C-H-I-S-L-E-V in the new King James. It's spelled K-I-S-L-E-V on the Hebrew calendar today. Let's go to Nehemiah, and I started to read this before, but I want to read it now. Nehemiah 1, verse 1. The words of Nehemiah, that the son of Hecariah, it came to pass in the month of Chislab, the 20th year, as I was in Shusan, the citadel, or the palace.

So here, that month is given. Here, it's also mentioned. This month is also mentioned in the book of Zechariah. I'll just go turn there quickly. Zechariah 7, verse 1, also mentions the same month, now in the fourth year of King Darius, it came to pass that the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, Shislab. So it actually gives a month and the name of the month here in these accounts. And they're the same months and the same names that are used on the Hebrew calendar today. So it indicates very strongly that the calendar was being used at this particular period of time, at the close of the Old Testament, was the very Hebrew calendar that we use today, that the Jews use today.

The 10th month of the Hebrew calendar came to be called Tebeth. Let's go back to Esther, chapter 2, verse 16. Esther 2, verse 16.

So, Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal palace in the 10th month, which is the month of Tebeth in the seventh year of his reign. It's interesting here that it gives the number of the month and also the name in all these cases. And why does the name give it? Well, the name does tell us that the counter they were using was at least a form of the very Hebrew counters being used by Jews today. The same names are used then as they're being used now.

The 12th month, as we've already seen, was called Adar, or Adar 1. In addition to Esther 3, 7, where we saw that name used, is also mentioned in several other places. For example, in Esther 3, verse 13.

And the letters were sent by couriers into all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, children and women, in one day, on the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their possessions. So also, you can several other times here in the book of Esther. Esther, chapter 9, verse 1.

Now, in the 12th month, that is the month of Adar, on the 13th day, the time came for the king's command, etc. And also, you drop down to chapter 9, verse 15. And the Jews who were in Shushan, gathered together again on the 14th day of the month of Adar, and killed 300 men at Shushan.

In verse 17, this was the 13th day of the month of Adar. And on the 14th of the month, they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness, verse 21, to establish among them that they should celebrate yearly the 14th and 15 days of the month of Adar, called Purim today.

And finally, Ezra, going back to the book of Ezra, this final scripture, Ezra 6, verse 15.

Now, the temple was finished in the third day of the month of Adar, which was the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. So this then shows us, as a very strong indicator, that the Jews were using the present day Hebrew calendar, which has those same names, at the time of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, and Zechariah, and possibly back at the time of Jonathan David as well, although I can't be really proven.

But as those names mentioned in Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zechariah are only used in conduction with the Hebrew calendar today, then that had to be the calendar they were using. Now, because that can raise an objection that some might have, they say, well, okay, but that calendar came out of Babylon. And if you look up a Babylonian calendar, it has, it's very similar, obviously it has different names, it has Babylonian names rather than Hebrew names, but so you have to say then, okay, what happened?

Did the Babylonians borrow a calendar from the Hebrews? Did the Hebrews borrow a calendar from the Babylonians? I don't know. I would say it's probably the Babylonians borrow from the Hebrews. I have lots of Hebrew calendar that goes much older than theirs. But the thing that I want to point out here is it's obvious from what we just read that the present-day Hebrew calendar uses the same names for the same months was being used by the Jews at that time, that close of the Old Testament period.

And when you read it there, it's very interesting that for every month it reiterates what that name was the name of the month as well, to show which calendar was being used. And yet there is nothing condemning in there at all. There's no criticism of using that calendar anywhere indicated in Scripture where those names and numbers appear. It doesn't seem to be any indication that there was any condemnation of using that calendar at all, regardless of where it came from.

There in Babylon they'd come out of Babylon. The Babylonians have a similar calendar. I'm going to conclude there for now, but I want to I have a great deal more to cover, but there's something else I want to cover here that picks up from where we left off here. And I see I can understand how if somebody could look at what we just read and say, well, that shows we shouldn't use the Hebrew calendar because it came out of Babylon, possibly. It could have been the other way around, but I could see why people could come to that possible conclusion, yet there's nothing condemning given in Scripture where those names and numbers are used.

But I want to switch next time to the New Testament, because there's something in the New Testament that I think is quite profound when it comes to the calendar and calendar issues. What if we could show you and prove to you that this Hebrew calendar that was used at the time of the close of the Old Testament, what if we could show and demonstrate that that was a calendar that had to be used at the time of the New Testament church and by the apostles and by Christ?

Would that substantiate the Hebrew calendar? Well, I think it would give it a lot of credibility if we could show that. And I want to look at that next time, the beginning of the New Testament, because it's very interesting. There are two scriptures in the New Testament that are very relevant to the calendar. And if you look closely at those two scriptures and the context in which they're given, you can prove, at least I can prove to myself, and I think you can almost prove beyond any shadow of a doubt, from those two scriptures that the counter that they had to be using in that first century AD, it was being used by Christ and the apostles and disciples, had to be the Hebrew calendar we're using today.

Not only that, you can demonstrate, and this is another very controversial issue when it comes to the Hebrew calendar, that's postponement rules, because of the present day Hebrew calendar has four postponement rules, which I'll discuss possibly in a future Bible study and show you. But people, that's a controversial thing. Should we use postponement rules or not? Those are man-made. Shouldn't we use the Hebrew counter without postponement rules? The thing that's interesting is these two scriptures in the New Testament, when you look at them closely, you come to the conclusion the only calendar that works, that fits with those two scriptures, is the present day Hebrew calendar using postponement rules.

And I think that's quite fascinating, at least, to look into. So next time we'll begin to go into that, and that's going to take probably at least two Bible studies to go through all of that, to set the stage for that, and explain that. And also those two scriptures give us a lot of spiritual lessons as well that are very, very fascinating and interesting to look at as well.

So I think we'll begin to look at that next time, and we'll see that the counter that was being used by Christ the disciples in the first century, D, was in all probability the same Hebrew counter that we're using today. And again, we'll begin to show you that next time in part seven of this series on the calendar.