Chapter One
How
Today's Jewish Calendar Came Into Being
A few years ago I received the following letter, which
brings up some salient points which need to be considered concerning the Sacred
Calendar as we have received it, and certain changes made concerning it in the
fourth century. The writer says:
“I enjoyed
reading the information about the origin of the Septuagint. The idea
of an alternate
text to the Massoretic text was new to me.
This other Hebrew
model, used by
the translators sent from Jerusalem, must surely have been the
official version
in use. If the Nazarene Christians used
this set of Scriptures and
the defenders of
traditional Judaism despised them, they certainly could have
used this as an
opportunity to distance themselves from these ‘blasphemers.’
What better way
than to give preference to a different group of texts and discredit
those used by
the Nazarenes.
“When considering
this grudge held by the adherents to Pharisaic and Rabbinic
tradition, I
find myself in some confusion. In the
Sept./Oct. 1994 Prophecy Flash,
I read about the
dispute between the Nazarenes and Rabbis concerning the Oral Law.
The Nazarenes
never rejected it, shown, in one respect, by their acknowledgement
of the sacred
calendar. However, they did reject what
they referred to as ‘the traditions
of the
elders.’ It was apparent to them that
these were different from the ‘customs of
the fathers’ (Acts 28:17). They
understood that these traditions would make the
word of God of
none effect (Matt.15:6, , Mark 7:13), and were not actually binding
on them. After the destruction of Jerusalem, they
were no longer tolerated but
expelled and
cursed; and it seems that Judaism continued on its course of giving
greater
importance to biased interpretations than to Scripture.
“If the
Nazarenes did have a proper understanding of the Oral Law, I can’t imagine
how they could
agree to the use of a sacred calendar that had been altered through
Rabbinic
tradition. Surely, they must have seen
the drift away from the way
established by
God and conveyed in the Oral Law for which they had already suffered
isolation. The idea of doing things simply for the sake
of ‘unity’ didn’t govern their
decision making
and they didn’t interpret Matt.23:2 to mean they owed complete
obedience to
those who ‘sit in Moses’ seat.’ I do
wonder, since the leaders of Judaism
did create a
religious tyranny, if the new sacred calendar may have helped to identify
‘heretics.’ After all, the ‘church’ in the Middle Ages
did have its way of recognizing dissidents.
“There can be no
doubt that God did preserve the Law, oral and written, through
the Jews and
that we should never take for ourselves authority God doesn’t intend
for us. Like the Nazarenes, we must also ‘reject and
refuse the new rabbinical expansive interpretations
and emendations of the Law.’ If changes
are made by men who despise
the Messiah,
sent for their redemption, and his followers, how much weight should their
opinions hold in
our eyes?
“As you can see,
this is a tough issue to get a handle on.
Everyone wants to have a
proper
understanding of what God expects from His people. At the same time, there
are many people
worthy of respect for their knowledge of God’s ways, such as yourself,
who disagree on
the calendar to be used. I have
considered what you have written about
the way the
Nazarenes approached this type of problem and their way seems to make
sense. It would be most helpful if you would
comment at length, in your magazine,
on
how faithful and discerning people, like the Nazarenes, would approach and
solve
problems like
this one.”
--
Pennsylvania
I agree that the approach of the Nazarenes is the best
one since it is that of the early New Testament Church and reflects the words
of Christ as to the Christian relationship to the Laws of God, the traditions
of the elders (which Christ often condemned), and the customs of the fathers,
which Paul said he did nothing contrary to.
The question is: Would the
Nazarenes have rejected the Rabbinic changes in the calendar, especially those
adopted by Hillel II in the fourth century?
If the changes were in line with Oral Law and precedent, then I do not
believe they would have rejected them at all.
If the changes were of a practical nature, and enabled widely scattered
branches of Jews (and, for that matter, true Christians) to adhere to the same
calendar, in unity, even though out of touch with each other, then I believe
they would have endorsed such changes.
A Careful Look at
the History of God’s Calendar
In effect, what happened is that after 135 A.D.,
after the Bar Kochba rebellion was
squashed by the Romans and Emperor Hadrian, the Romans were so furious at the Jews,
who had just revolted in 70 A.D., sixty years previously, that they decided to
banish the Jews from Jerusalem.
Now, according to the Oral Law of the Jews, the calendar
was to be determined by new moon sightings by properly appointed officials of
the Sanhedrin at the Mount of Olives, at Jerusalem. But after the Jews were banished from Jerusalem, this “Oral Law”
became impractical, even impossible, to perform. The true Sanhedrin was abolished by the Romans. Over the following two centuries, persecution
and intolerance toward the Jews, by the Roman Empire, increased, threatening
the very existence of Judaism as a separate faith. Under these very adverse conditions, the Rabbinical court in exile, of that time, had to make a
decision -- as to how to preserve the calendar -- and how to preserve their
very existence as Jews, together with the Torah, the Scriptures, and Jewish
commentary dealing with God’s Word.
The essence of Judaism revolves around the celebration of
the weekly Sabbath and the annual Festivals.
Therefore, the preservation of the calendar was of vital
significance! Should widely scattered
congregations all do their own observations, locally, of the new moons, thus
leading to differences, and loss of cohesion on the calendar dates, dates of
the holy days, etc.? This was no doubt
viewed as a very unhealthy and reprehensible view -- the way to chaos and
confusion -- a guaranteed recipe for disaster!
As the apostle Paul himself wrote, “For God is not the
author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints” (I Cor.14:33). Who
is the “author of confusion”? Satan the
devil is the “prince of darkness” and therefore is also the true author of
confusion (Eph.6:12).
How did the leaders of the Jewish people settle this question,
as they saw Jewish communities in exile being widely scattered and many of them
out of touch with each other? They had
no telephones, no radios, no means of instant communication. They had no true “headquarters,” as
Jerusalem had been. So how would they
be able to preserve the calendar, and the holy days, which were the essence of
Judaism? How were they to preserve
their own identity?
In the fourth century, after the extremely harsh edicts
of Constantine virtually outlawed Judaism and condemned the Jews, the very
existence of the Jews was severely threatened.
With the awesome stress of their very existence in question, the
rabbinical sage Hillel II saw the need to preserve the unity of the Jewish calendar
-- to preserve its very existence, also.
How could this be done, so that all Jews would retain the same calendar,
all over the world, and observe the same holy days, no matter when they were
located?
The answer?
Hillel II created the “perpetual
calendar,” which was similar to the Jewish calendar which had always been
used. But instead of using
“observation” of the new moon at Jerusalem, to determine the New Moons, since
the Jews could not live there any longer, and since there was no proper Sanhedrin,
he invoked the historical precedent of determining the dates of the calendar
mathematically, based on astronomical laws which until then had only been used
as a back-up system to verify the sighting reports.
This approach, based on astronomy, was always the “back
up” or “fail safe” system used by the Jews of antiquity, when they could not
literally “sight” the new moon at Jerusalem due to inclement weather, and to
double-check those who claimed to be witnesses of the New Moon.
Jewish tradition tells us that these mathematical
principles of the calendar actually go back to Moses and was revealed by God to
him, as well as the method of sightings of the new moons, and the techniques of
intercalation of the leap year to keep the lunar calendar in line with the
solar year.
The Oral Law
Provision for the existence of an “Oral Law” was made in
the Torah or Written Law of God itself.
God told Moses: “If anyone is
found slain, lying in the field in the land . . . and it is not known who
killed him . . . Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the
LORD your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of
the LORD; by their word every controversy and every assault shall be
settled” (Deut.21:1-5). These
judgments and decisions became “legal precedents,” and were memorized and
passed down from generation to generation as part of the “legal code.”
God also told Moses:
“If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees
of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one
punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall
arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses. And you shall come to the priests, the
Levites, and to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them: they shall pronounce upon you the sentence
of judgment. You shall do according to
the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place which the LORD
chooses. And you shall be careful to do
according to all that they order you.
According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct you,
according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn
aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence which they pronounce
upon you” (Deut.17:8-11).
Thus judicial “case law” became legal precedent and part
of the “Oral Law.” In this way, the Law
of God as given at Sinai was kept relevant and up-to-date for each succeeding
generation.
Ezra the Scribe
These
matters were the business primarily of the priesthood of Aaron, and later that
of the prophets, and the scribes (such as Ezra), who maintained the law, and
interpreted it. As we read in Nehemiah,
“So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and
all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month. Then he read from it in the open square that
was in front of the Water Gate from morning until midday, before the men and
women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were
attentive to the Book of the Law. . . . Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin,
Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah,
and the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law; and the people stood
in their place. So they read distinctly
from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to
understand the reading” (Neh.8:2-3, 7-8).
Ezra is the one who founded the “Great Assembly” or
“Sanhedrin,” after the Babylonian captivity.
Their judicial decisions became part of binding Oral Law, as the book of
the Law itself foretold.
The Church of God would not have rejected the authorities
of the scribes and Rabbinic Judaism regarding these matters of the calendar, so
long as their rulings were in line with Scripture, the written Torah, which
must always take precedence.
However, if the Jews perverted, twisted, distorted, and
corrupted the calendar, that would have been an altogether different matter.
What is the TRUTH about the present Jewish calendar? Is it according to the Scriptures? Or did the Jews go into apostasy, and make
fundamental CHANGES to the calendar God gave to Israel, which contradict God's
Word and His laws?
The apostle Paul wrote, “What advantage then has the Jew,
or what is the profit of circumcision?
Much in every way! Chiefly
because to THEM were committed the ORACLES of God. For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without
effect? Certainly not!” (Rom.3:1-3).
The Jews have done an outstanding job of preserving the
knowledge of God's calendar, and Laws of God, even while in exile and
dispersion around the world, without a country of their own! What other people have accomplished
this? None! God knew what He was doing when He gave this task to the
Jews. As Paul also wrote: “For I could wish that I myself were
accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who
are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, THE
GIVING OF THE LAW, THE SERVICE OF GOD, and the promises” (Rom.9:3-4).
However, simply because they preserved this knowledge,
did they use it correctly? Is the
present Jewish calendar correct, in God's eyes? Or is it fundamentally flawed?
Speaking of the Jews, Paul also wrote: “For I bear them witness that they have a
ZEAL for God, but not according to knowledge [of the Messiah]. For they being ignorant of God’s
righteousness [redemption through Christ], and seeking to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God” (Rom.10:2-3).
What Really
Happened
The Jews have indeed preserved the knowledge about the
sacred calendar. Were it not for them, we
would all be hopelessly lost and in confusion, without a “compass” to guide
us! “The Jew’s catechism is his
calendar,” wrote Samson Raphael Hirsch a hundred years ago, when he called upon
Jews of his time to count and live their days according to the hallowed order
of the sacred Jewish calendar.
Famed educator, scholar and calendar expert, Arthur Spier
tells us,
“In the early
times of our history . . . [the] beginnings of the months were determined
by direct
observation of the new moon. Then those
beginnings of the months (Rosh
Hodesh) were
sanctified and announced by the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court in
Jerusalem, after
witnesses had testified that they had seen the new crescent and after
their testimony
had been thoroughly examined, confirmed by calculation, and duly
accepted” (The
Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar, p.1).
He
goes on:
“A special
committee of the Sanhedrin, with its president as chairman, had the mandate
to REGULATE AND
BALANCE the solar with the lunar years [the lunar year equals
12 lunar months, about 354 days long; the solar year is
365.25 days long; thus it is
approximately 11
days longer than 12 lunar months]. This
so-called Calendar Council
(Sod Haibbur)
CALCULATED the beginnings of the SEASONS (Teklufoth) on
the BASIS OF
ASTRONOMICAL FIGURES which had been HANDED DOWN
AS A TRADITION
OF OLD. Whenever, after
two or three years, the annual excess
of 11 days had
accumulated to approximately 30 days, a thirteenth month Adar II
was inserted
before Nisan in order to assure that Nisan and Passover would occur
in Spring and
not retrogress toward winter. However,
the astronomical calculation
was not the only
basis for intercalation of a thirteenth month.
The delay of the
actual arrival
of spring was another decisive
factor. The Talmudic sources report
that the Council
intercalated a year when the barley in the fields had not yet ripened,
when the fruit
on the trees had not grown properly, when the winter rains had not
stopped, when
the roads for Passover pilgrims had not dried up, and when the young
pigeons had not
become fledged. The Council on
intercalation considered THE ASTRONOMICAL
FACTS TOGETHER WITH THE RELIGIOUS REQUIRE-
MENTS OF
PASSOVER and the natural conditions of the country.
“This method of
observation and intercalation was in use throughout the period of
the second
temple (516 B.C.E. -- 70 C.E.), and about three centuries after its
destruction, as
long as there was an independent Sanhedrin.
In the fourth century,
however, when
OPPRESSION AND PERSECUTION THREATENED THE
CONTINUED
EXISTENCE OF THE SANHEDRIN, the patriarch Hillel II took
an extraordinary
step to PRESERVE the UNITY OF ISRAEL. In order to prevent
the Jews
SCATTERED ALL OVER THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH from cele-
brating their
New Moons, FESTIVALS and holidays at DIFFERENT TIMES,
HE MADE PUBLIC
THE SYSTEM OF CALENDAR CALCULATION
WHICH UP TO THEN
HAD BEEN A CLOSELY GUARDED SECRET.
It had been used
in the past only to check the observations and testimonies of
witnesses, and
to determine the beginnings of the spring season.
“In accordance
with this system, Hillel II formally sanctified all months in advance,
and intercalated
all future leap years UNTIL SUCH TIME AS A NEW, RECOGNIZED
SANHEDRIN would
be established in Israel. This is the
PERMANENT CALENDAR
according to
which the New Moons and Festivals are calculated and celebrated today
by the Jews ALL
OVER THE WORLD” (p.1-2).
Just because the Jews rejected the Messiah, which they
were prophesied to do, as a whole, nevertheless, that fact does not mean they
totally rejected the Laws and Torah of God, or that they totally rejected the
principles of the calendar. But they
did make “compromises.” They did make
some drastic changes and additions.
Were these changes of God? or of
MEN?
Perhaps the Jews got the "cart before the
horse." Hillel II did away with
the observation of the New Moons, because of the scattered conditions of the
Jews, to preserve "unity."
But "unity" at the expense of obedience to God's laws is still
disobedience!
Rather than change God's calendar, maybe the Jews should
have repented of their sins, including rejecting the Messiah, so that
they would have been restored to their land!
At any rate, they did not -- and continued in exile for
nearly 2,000 years! The question is,
then, how accurate is the calendar they have given us? They applied ancient astronomical knowledge
to the calendar calculations. But did
they do anything else?