The Intercalation of the Biblical 13th Month

or How to Determine the First Month of the Year

and other calendar matters

Rabbis vs. Karaites vs. Torah

implications for Passion Chronology

     1. "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for set times, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars." (AV, Gen. 1:14-16, with corrections)

a: correction)  The AV translation in vs. 16 needs to be corrected to "and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars"; 'the stars' in not just an addendum or afterthought as implied by the AV.   It is included with the moon as the direct object of the verb phrase, 'to rule the night';

b: stars)  In vs. 14, 'lights' should be understood as including the sun, including the moon, and also including the stars.   This is very important because the stars are included in the purpose, 'for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years';

i: stars and years:  The stars are especially necessary for the determination of years.  The stars are necessary to fix the length of the year from a geocentric point of reference because the sun moves with reference to the fixed background of the stars.  When the sun has returned to the same point in heaven a year has passed.  These 'points' in heaven are fixed by the stars, which are the 'lights' marking the 'sign' posts of the sun's passage.

ii: stars and signs: The sign value of the stars is also seen in the Mazzaroth (Job. 38:32) and Rev. 12:1, where the word 'wonder' (AV) means 'sign' in the Greek and refers to the sun, moon, and twelve stars at the heave of the constellation virgo.

c: correction) The word 'seasons' in Gen. 1:14 is not what we mean by 'seasons' in English (spring, summer, fall, winter).  This word /mō"əĐ^hĬĪM/ means 'appointed time' (BDB Lexicon).  It is used in Lev. 23:2-3 in reference the new moon, Sabbath, and annual Sabbaths, and again in Lev. 23:37.  The same word in in Psalm 104:19 for the new moons (not the four seasons, AV).  It is also used in the sense of 'year' in Dan. 12:7, "for a time, times, and an half" (AV);  it can mean any set or fixed time cycle by the sun, moon, and stars.   On the other hand, the word 'seasons' in English connotes the condition of plant life at various times of the year, and the temperature, or the general time of a holiday in a vague sense.  This is not what the original biblical Hebrew word /mō"əĐ^hĬĪM/ is all about.

     2. In the scripture there are two times periods designated a 'year'.  The first of these is the natural year, and the second is the sacred year.

a: natural year)  The natural year always begins in the spring.  The Scripture refers to this as the 'return of the year,' (2Sam. 11:1; 1Kings 20:22, 26; 1Chron. 20:1; 2Chron. 36:10)  or the 'circuit of the year' (*Ex. 34:22; 1Sam. 1:20; 2Chron. 24:23) or 'days to days' (Exodus 13:10; Judges 11:40; 21:19; 1Sa. 1:3, 20; 2:19).  It always refers to the sun (Psalm 19:7).

i.  'return of the year' /lĭ t^hə SHOO vat^h hash·shaa NAA^h/ refers to the sun returning to the same point in the heavens (against the stars) as before, always from the spring equinox.

ii. 'circuit of the year' /ŧə QOO fat^h hash·shaa NAA^h/ refers to the sun making one complete circle of the heavens, and always from the spring equinox.

iii.  'days to days' /mĭī·yaa MĬĪM yaaMĬĪ maa^h/ means the cycle of the year using an intensive plural 'days';  The intensive plural means the special day, or the important day of the year in the sense of the 'day of the days';  The phrase means 'from the day of the days to the day of the days';  the same kind of plural is used with other Hebrew words such as  /'ə lo HĬĪM/.  See Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar, § 124 g-h, on the pluralis maiestatis.   The special day marking the year is the day of the spring equinox, which can be determined by counting the right number of days from the last spring equinox.

iv. Most translations, Jewish and Christian, habitually mistranslate these phrases.  For example, 'days to days' becomes 'year to year' and looses the Hebrew sense of from one particular special day to the next particular special day, i.e. the day of the spring equinox which tells us when a year has elapsed.

b: sacred year)  The sacred year is the Sabbatical and Jubilee year, which begins with the new moon of the seventh month.

i: jubilee year.  Lev. 25:9 tells us that the Jubilee year is announced, "on the tenth of the seventh month";

ii: Sabbatical year. In the same context, Lev. 25:8 tells us that 49 years, with their 'seven Sabbaths of years', i.e. sabbatical years are to be numbered up to the eve of the Jubilee year.   It has been supposed by some that there is no sacred year, and that the sabbatical year is the same as the natural year, starting in the spring.  I have already thoroughly refuted this heresy in this article.

     3.   Jewish tradition has preserved for us such things as the definition of the beginning of the Sabbath, when a new moon occurs, and what constitutes the precise beginning of the natural years.

a: Jewish tradition)  There are many Christians who reject Jewish tradition for its historical value.  This is a sort of knee jerk reaction against some errant traditional practices that is imputed to the whole of the Jewish tradition, which then they pick and choose what they want to believe with no standards at all.  However, Jewish tradition also refers to Jewish history, and not 'traditional practices' that may be errant.

i: oracles of God.  Paul tells us that the oracles of God were committed to the Jews (Rom. 3:1-3). While this means the written Scriptures, we must also understand that we have to go to the Jews and other ancient near eastern sources for a knowledge of the original languages, and what the biblical terms meant in practical use.

ii: opinions.  It is obvious that sometimes there is a difference of opinion in the ancient historical and linguistic knowledge handed to us by the Jews, or to put it another way, sometimes we are handed two or more opinions.

iii: discernment criteria.  The Jewish opinions should be sorted out according to the these criteria: 1. Which agrees most with scripture?  2. Which view is supported by the ancient near eastern context (history, archaeology, linguistics).  3. Which view is preserved by the majority? (Majorities can be wrong, but this is kept in check by criteria 1-2).  4.  There is never absolute proof of anything, but only sufficient evidence of what is probable; faith is required to bridge the gap between what is probable and committing oneself to the truth; human beings are always capable of coming up with reasons not to believe the probable truth by suggesting improbable contingencies as to why they do not want to believe what is probable! In other words, they have no faith where faith should be exercised based on the probable evidence.  5.  We must realize that human nature tends toward the chaos of the Hegelian world view of relativism, and thus looses the nature to discover and discriminate truth from error, and the ability to exercise faith when the probable evidence shows what should be believed.

b: Sabbath)  The scripture gives us the timing of the Day of Atonement, as 'from evening to evening';  Yom Kippur is also, "a Sabbath of Sabbaths" and "your Sabbath"; (Lev. 23:32).  But this says nothing of the weekly Sabbath.  Some passages like, Nehemiah 13:19 and Mark 1:32 strongly suggest that the Sabbath begins at sunset and ends at sunset.   If there is any doubt to the matter, it is settled by the Jewish observance, which is from about 20 minutes before sunset to just after sunset when three stars become visible.

i: sunrise.  Some heretics have suggested that the Sabbath is only from sunrise to sunset, or sunrise to sunrise.   These reject the value of the Jewish historical tradition, and often seek to make their view seem scriptural by wrenching texts out of context, and by using mistranslations or unsound reasoning.  Not only do they try to make the improbable their truth, but they try to make the probable impossible by lying arguments and exploiting of simple factual and translational errors which inadvertently slipped by translators or writers, who themselves are innocent of such outlandish conclusions. This is the sort of antithesis and thesis of the Hegelian method.  It's source is lawless and its promoter is the lawless one.

        There is a time and place for the sunrise to sunrise, and dawn to dusk day in Scripture, but not with the duration of the Sabbath.  There is a time to refute such arguments as the sunrise Sabbath, but not here.

c: new moon)  Jewish historical tradition is unanimous that the the first visible crescent in the western sky after sunset defines the new moon.   Jewish history also shows us that the location for making this determination was the land of Israel, with locations nearer to Jerusalem taking precedence.

i: Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece.  These Empires defined new moon the same way as the Israelites, however, they used their own capital cities as the location of observation.  The Egyptians alone differed by using the first day on which the old moon had disappeared for their secondary calendar, so  Exodus 12:1-3 was a calendar reform which corrected this.

ii: The Hebrew /ĦŌ đ^hesh/ for the 'new moon' means 'renewed moon' or 'fresh moon';  this usage in Exodus 12:2 tells the Israelites that they are to go back to the first sighting of the new crescent used by the Semitic peoples and to reject the Egyptian method of the 'old' moon.

iii: location.  In matters of law, the sanctuary takes precedence as the location for its giving (Isaiah 66:23; Micah 4:1-3).  This teaches that observations of the new moon made from or near the Temple take precedence.

b) natural year:  The natural year begins with the spring equinox, called the 'return of the year'; this is when the waxing day finally equals the length of the waning night.  This occurs every year at the a fixed point with reference to the background of the stars.  A year elapses when the sun has set out from this point and returned to this point.  In many calendars, this will be marked as the first day of spring.

i.  Rabbinic Judaism (the majority) supports this definition for phrases, "circuit of the year," "return of the year" and "days to days";

ii. The same definition for the beginning of the year was used by Assyria and Babylonia, and many other ancient peoples.  The same point was not lost by the Romans even though their calendar disagreed with it.  It is preserved in Latin in the term equinox.

iii. This definition makes sense out of the Hebrew phrase used to describe it, 'days to days' because the equinox occurs on on a special day of the year that is a consistent number of days from its last occurrence: from day[of day]s to day[of day]s";  The word from is saying, 'from' the last equinox day to the next equinox days.

     It also makes sense out of 'circuit' /ŧə QOO fat^h/ and 'return' /SHOO vat^h/ because the sun returns to a fixed point in the heavens and makes a circle back to the same fixed point.

     4. "And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you" (Exodus 12:1-2, AV).

a)  The month being referred to in this passage is the month of Passover.  This month is the first month of the year.   We have seen that the year began at the spring /ŧə QOO fat^h/, called the equinox, and the day in the year referred to in the phrase, "days to days" (Exodus 13:10).

b)  However, the day of the new moon does not normally fall on the day of the equinox.  Sometimes it will fall before it, and sometimes it will fall after it.  It is therefore necessary to determine which new moon will be the new moon for the first month, whether before the equinox or after it.  The following will show how to determine this:

i.  Passover must fall on or after the equinox.   This is implied by Exodus 13:10, where the text says /lə mō"əĐ^hAAH mĭī·yaa MĬĪM yaaMĬĪ maa^h/ "Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance at its set time from days to days";

ii.  The operative word in Exodus 13:10 is from.  It means from the equinox and onward.  Proof is found in Judges 11:40, "That the daughters of Israel went from days to days to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year."  This means that they started lamenting at the equinox, but continued it for four days, showing that the other three days are included in the phrase, 'from days to days';  strictly the phrase 'days to days' refers to the equinox starting and ending the year itself, but the word 'from' is extensive indicating the progression of time from one equinox to the next.   This shows that the Passover festival must be celebrated on or after the spring equinox.

iii.  Now the annual Passover Sabbath falls on the 15th day of the first month.  So the rule is more precisely, that the 15th day of the first month must fall on or after the spring equinox.  This is also confirmed by Exodus 23:14, "Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year"; therefore, Passover may not be kept in the old year lest four feasts end up in the old year and only two in the new.

iv. Now a Rabbinical rule gives us the principle that "One should not delay to perform a commandment";  in connection with the Passover feast, this is confirmed by the commandment, "Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me" (Exodus 22:29).  This commandment is directly connected to Exodus 13:10 by Exodus 13:11-16! "That thou shalt set apart unto the LORD all that openeth the matrix, and every firstling that cometh of a beast which thou hast; the males shall be the LORD'S." (Ex. 13:12; cf. vs. 14).  The general commandment in Exodus 22:29 includes the bringing of the wave offering to the Temple (Lev. 23:11-14).

v. Another commandment says, "For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6).  But Israel is not allowed to consume the new crop until the wave offering (Lev. 23:14).  Therefore, in order to be the most merciful and loving requires the wave offering to be made without delay.

vii.  A minority sect of Jews, the Karaites, would have Israel delay the wave offering (by postponing the first month) if they cannot find 25% barley in a rain fed, un-irrigated field, even though a wise farmer can produce irrigated barley in Israel before this sufficient for his family to eat.  The Karaite tradition would deny a poor but wise farmer the right to feed his family by their tradition violating both the prophet's word and the Torah commandment.

viii.   The forgoing principles therefore form a Rosetta Stone for the following rule:  Passover must fall on or as soon after the spring equinox as possible.  This will preserve the rule not to delay the first fruits, and the prophetic principle that mercy is better than sacrifice.  No farmer should be asked to sacrifice his children's health by delaying the Passover because it is delayed and he cannot bring his first fruits to the Temple.

viiii.  The rules that Passover must fall on or after the equinox, and Passover must not be delayed any later than necessitated by the first rule can be combined into this general dictum: the first month is that new moon which is nearest to the spring equinox.

     5. It is now necessary to dispose of some arguments used by the Karaite sect to confuse the calendar.

a)  "Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night" (AV, Deut. 16:1).  The Hebrew /'aaVĬĪV/ has several meanings, among them, 'spring' 'green ears' or just the name of the first month, "Aviv".  The Karaites seize on the sense 'green ears' and weave a doctrine of searching for barley and finding it in ripe state (as they determine) before the first month can be declared.

i.  Such an interpretation is not necessary.  The context shows that merely the month of "Aviv" is meant, which is the customary time for barley to ripen, and it does normally reach green ear stage just before the equinox, though there may be exceptional years when significant amounts of it do not.   However, postponing the start of the year based on these exceptional times, is no more logical than postponing the spring equinox because there may still be snow on the ground and nothing is 'springing' up according to the non-technical meaning of 'spring';

b) According to the Talmud, a search for barley was made in conjunction with determining the calendar.  The Karaites use this to support their claim.

i.  The Talmud is the compilation of Rabbinical Jews, and not the Karaite Jews, who in general reject the Talmud.

ii.  The Talmud includes traditions that are clearly not biblical.  As we have shown, using barley would introduce a prohibited delay into the calendar system.

iii.  The Talmudic evidence is overrated by the Karaites in polemic only because they do not actually use its criteria as stated.  The Talmudic criteria take precedence in this order: 1) Does the equinox fall before the 15th? No: add 13th month, done (goto questions 7-8 for confirmation). Yes: go to next question. 2) Is there a famine or drought? Yes: do not add 13th month, done.  No: go to next question. 3) Is it a Sabbath year? Yes: do not add 13th month, done.  No: go to next question, 4) Is it a post Sabbatical Year?  Yes: do not add 13th month, done.   Yes: go to next question. 5) Was the temperature below average, or is there snow? Yes: do not add 13th month due to unusual weather, done.  No: go to next question 6) Is there any barley in any two of three areas, Judea, Galilee, or Transjordan? Yes: do not add 13th month.  No: go to next question.  7) In just one area? No: add extra month: Yes: go to next question. 8) Are the fruit trees sprouting in two territories? Yes: do not add 13th month, done.  No: add 13th month.

     Only the criteria in red might result in an unbiblical postponement of the year, and it is certain that the year was never postponed on those two reasons alone, without agreement with the reason in blue, which is the same as saying that the grain and fruit was only used to confirm the first question, but never to contradict it.  As temperature and weather judgments are subjective, question 5 can always be answered so that one will not have to consider questions 7 or 8 going the wrong way per question 1.

      Why did the Talmud explain it so?  The Rabbis were zealous of two things.  First they wanted to guard the astronomical and mathematical method of intercalation from the people, and second they wanted to keep an element of uncertainty before them, or at least that there was perceived uncertainty in the method of the calendar, so that they as authorities could stay in control of determining the calendar, and three, they were paying some lip service only to sects like the Karaites that wanted to use barley for determination.

c)  "Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn" (Deut. 16:9).  It is thought that therefore, the grain must be ripe to harvest , and therefore must be inspected before the Passover.  But this interpretation is not necessary.

i.  The Hebrew says, "Seven Sevens you shall count for yourself from making common use of a sickle in the standing grain; you may make common use while counting seven sevens."    The Hebrew verb in question "make common use" is /ħaa LAL/.  It merely refers to the fact that common harvesting of the new crop is only permitted after the first day of Passover (Lev. 23:11-14); it does not really refer to 'beginning' in the normal sense.  The imperfect "you may make common use" is not a commandment to harvest, but permission to harvest since it is legally permitted then, and the Hebrew form of the verb (imperfect) allows the mood may to be attached.   The second clause is appropriate, "You may make common use" because this included plucking by hand, whereas, "common use of a sickle" does not, and the crop was to be used as food before the main harvest.  The text is showing that both the main harvest and hand plucking are illegal until, 'in the day after the Passover'.

d)  Sometimes a mistranslation in Ex. 34:22 as in the AV is exploited, "And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end."  The phrase 'at the years end' is mistranslated.  In Hebrew it is simply, 'circuit of the year' with no 'at'.  This comes at the end of a description of all the three feasts in the passage and refers to the fact that all three feasts fall in the circuit of the year, i.e. just one year.  (cf. Exodus 23:14); what it is not saying is that the fixed point on the circuit is in the fall.  The Karaites try to misinterpret this text so that they can nullify the biblical teaching about the equinox.  Even if some Rabbis fell into the same trap, it does not nullify the meaning of /ŧə QOO fat^h/ i.e. equinox.

     6.  Understanding the calendar correctly is of the utmost importance for understanding that the solution of the Passion chronology, (i.e. that Yeshua died in A.D. 34 on a Wednesday and rose on Sabbath, 'three days and three nights' later) is totally unique.

a)  No other year fits the biblical calendar requirements.  The first month cannot be postponed as some who propose an A.D. 31 Wed. date.  

b)  Because the biblical calendar does not allow postponing the first month by a Karaite method, also there is no room for any Thursday to Sunday Crucifixion from 28 to 34 A.D.  And though A.D. 27 may still be suggested, this year would score -19 points (out of 46 possible).  Floyd Nolen Jones scored -20 for attempting to put a Thursday view in A.D. 30, and A.D. 30 does not permit a Thursday view since Jones had to postpone the first month to allow his view.