13th New Moon Sighting (Eve)
As I explained in my January 7, 2019 blog in Bible times (and the old ways are the right ways - Jeremiah 6:16) the new moon was determined by the sighting of the first visible crescent, after the dark phase of the moon was over. By this original manner of reckoning, tonight is the sighting of the 13th Biblical new moon. (For more information about Biblical new moons, see also the blog from February 5, 2019).
How can there be a thirteenth new moon - a thirteenth month - when a year is supposed to be made up of only 12 months?
Many Bible scholars believe the solar and lunar years were once in perfect alignment. Prior to the Flood it is thought that there were 12 months in a years with each month being 30 day, making a year have 360 days, aligning with the 360 degrees of a perfect circle.
Since the Flood, the differences between the amount of time it takes for the moon to rotate around the earth and the length of time time it takes for the earth to complete a cycle around the sun have long created challenges for calendar makers. The moon determines the lunar year (and the Biblical month) and the sun determines the solar year. But because lunar years and solar years don't perfectly align, months and years don't perfectly align.
The (solar) calendar year has 365 days (366 days in leap years). A lunar year has 12 lunar months which alternate between 30 and 29 days (in leap years, one of the lunar months has a day added). ... The lunar calendar is a measure of the moon's rotation around the earth. A year on the lunar calendar has 354 days.
Since the heavenly bodies of the sun and moon are used to determine time on earth, and since they are not in perfect alignment (although they probably were perfectly aligned at Creation), there need to be some adjustments made to keep a calendar on track with the seasons.
The Gregorian calendar makes those adjustments by varying the number of days in a given month from 28 to 31 days. It also adds in a leap year (making the month of February have 29 days instead of the usual 28) every 4 years. In so doing, March continues to fall in the Spring, as it should, instead of slipping farther and farther into winter, as it would if these adjustments weren't made.
In Bible times, a month was always 30 days. This closely aligns with the moon, for the length of time from one new moon to the next is 29.5+ days. We can see that a Biblical month was always 30 days in a number of Bible passages. But one evidence is Revelation 11:2-3, which says that the the holy city would be trampled for "42 months", which it also states is a period of "a thousand two hundred and three score days" (1260 days).
Adding in a thirteenth month is actually less complicated than it may seem at first. You don't have to worry about trying to figure out which years will have a 13th month in them. Some years will simply come out to have a 13th new moon from the Spring Tekufah of one year to the spring Tekufah of the next. As I explained in my February 11, 2019 blog, the Biblical year ends with the Spring Tekufah, which falls on March 17 on a modern calendar. The Biblical year begins with the first new moon sighting following the Spring Tekufah.
Our current Biblical year began on March 19, 2018, as the following calendar shows:
March 18 was the new moon eve (the night when the first sliver of the new moon was first visible), making the next day - March 19 - the first new moon day following the Spring Tekufah (which fell on March 17). From this starting point, let us count the months, to see that this year there is a thirteenth month. The following 2019 Biblical calendar must also be used:
To count the months, remember, Biblical years begin in the spring so, they do not perfectly align with modern calendar years. Also, on the 2018 calendar, new moon days are dark green, but on the 2019 Biblical Calendar, the new moon days are purple. The only exception is the 7th New Moon. On both calendars annual Sabbaths (Feasts of Leviticus 23) are shown in orange. The 7th New Moon is an annual Sabbath, being the Feast of Trumpets. As a result the 7th New Moon is shown in orange on both calendars. The following are the new moon dates for the 2018-2019 Biblical year:
Spring Tekufah (End of prior Biblical Year: 2017-2018) - March 17, 2018
New Moon #1: March 19, 2018
New Moon #2: April 17, 2018
New Moon #3: May 17, 2018
New Moon #4: June 15, 2018
New Moon #5: July 14, 2018
New Moon #6: August 13, 2018
New Moon #7: Sept 11, 2018 (Feast of Trumpets)
New Moon #8: October 10, 2018
New Moon #9: November 9, 2018
New Moon #10: December 9, 2018
New Moon #11: January 8, 2019
New Moon #12: February 6, 2019
New Moon #13: March 8, 2019
Spring Tekufah (End of current Biblical Year: 2018-2019) - March 17, 2019
Again, you don't have to sweat and worry about whether a given year will have a 13th month or not. They just happen, periodically. If the year will have a 13th month, it will just show up naturally between the two Spring Tekufahs, as happens this Biblical year.
Considering that this Biblical year has a 13th month, one may wonder whether there is an example of a 13th month occurring in Biblical times. The answer is yes. Consider the case of Ezekiel, during his 430 days of lying on his side, by divine command. In this account, found in Ezekiel chapters 1-8, we find Scriptural proof of a thirteenth month.
To show this, we must first note that this passage gives several specific dates. To begin, Yahweh told Ezekiel to act out a warning parable, portraying Jerusalem's coming judgment for their rebellion against Yahweh. Let's begin by tracking the given dates in his amazing story:
1) Ezekiel received a vision on the fifth day of the fourth month (Ezekiel 1:1-2). This happens in the fifth year of King Jehoichin's captivity.
2) In that same year, Ezekiel has another vision on the 11th day of the fourth month.
3) Then in Ezekiel 4:1-11, Yahweh tells Ezekiel to lay on left side for 390 days after which he is instructed to lay on his right side for another 40 days. 390+40=430 days all total.
4) Following this, in Ezekiel 8:1, we find the next specific date given. It says, "And it came to pass in the sixth year (of king Jehoichin's captivity), in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house..."
Note that during these verses Ezekiel has had time to lie on his side for 430 days, and then, a year and two months later (having fully finished his 430 days) he is sitting in his house. A full 430 days can only be accomplished in the Biblical calendar in a year when a thirteenth month (13th new moon) occurs. If Ezekiel was accomplished in a solar year of 365 days, there would not have been enough time for him to finish lying on his side for 430 days and be back sitting in his home by the sixth month of the following year.
Consider the following chart:
As we have seen above, this Biblical year (which started in the Spring of 2018) has 13 months. And tonight, at sunset, is the sighting of the 13th new moon of the year. This means that tomorrow, March 8, is the 13th New Moon day of this current Biblical year. It also means that the next New Moon will be the first New Moon of the next Biblical year - from which we count to Passover (the 14th day). Shalom and happy last month of the year!
As I explained in my January 7, 2019 blog in Bible times (and the old ways are the right ways - Jeremiah 6:16) the new moon was determined by the sighting of the first visible crescent, after the dark phase of the moon was over. By this original manner of reckoning, tonight is the sighting of the 13th Biblical new moon. (For more information about Biblical new moons, see also the blog from February 5, 2019).
How can there be a thirteenth new moon - a thirteenth month - when a year is supposed to be made up of only 12 months?
Many Bible scholars believe the solar and lunar years were once in perfect alignment. Prior to the Flood it is thought that there were 12 months in a years with each month being 30 day, making a year have 360 days, aligning with the 360 degrees of a perfect circle.
Since the Flood, the differences between the amount of time it takes for the moon to rotate around the earth and the length of time time it takes for the earth to complete a cycle around the sun have long created challenges for calendar makers. The moon determines the lunar year (and the Biblical month) and the sun determines the solar year. But because lunar years and solar years don't perfectly align, months and years don't perfectly align.
The (solar) calendar year has 365 days (366 days in leap years). A lunar year has 12 lunar months which alternate between 30 and 29 days (in leap years, one of the lunar months has a day added). ... The lunar calendar is a measure of the moon's rotation around the earth. A year on the lunar calendar has 354 days.
Since the heavenly bodies of the sun and moon are used to determine time on earth, and since they are not in perfect alignment (although they probably were perfectly aligned at Creation), there need to be some adjustments made to keep a calendar on track with the seasons.
The Gregorian calendar makes those adjustments by varying the number of days in a given month from 28 to 31 days. It also adds in a leap year (making the month of February have 29 days instead of the usual 28) every 4 years. In so doing, March continues to fall in the Spring, as it should, instead of slipping farther and farther into winter, as it would if these adjustments weren't made.
In Bible times, a month was always 30 days. This closely aligns with the moon, for the length of time from one new moon to the next is 29.5+ days. We can see that a Biblical month was always 30 days in a number of Bible passages. But one evidence is Revelation 11:2-3, which says that the the holy city would be trampled for "42 months", which it also states is a period of "a thousand two hundred and three score days" (1260 days).
42 (months) x 30 (days in a month) = 1260 (days)But now, in our post-Flood world, the solar and lunar year are no longer 360 days long. The lunar year of 354 days lags behind the solar year of 365 days. Thus, without an adjustment, the alignment of months with their correct seasons would be lost. This is why the Biblical calendar, which always starts with the new moon sighting, will sometimes have a thirteenth month.
Adding in a thirteenth month is actually less complicated than it may seem at first. You don't have to worry about trying to figure out which years will have a 13th month in them. Some years will simply come out to have a 13th new moon from the Spring Tekufah of one year to the spring Tekufah of the next. As I explained in my February 11, 2019 blog, the Biblical year ends with the Spring Tekufah, which falls on March 17 on a modern calendar. The Biblical year begins with the first new moon sighting following the Spring Tekufah.
Our current Biblical year began on March 19, 2018, as the following calendar shows:
March 18 was the new moon eve (the night when the first sliver of the new moon was first visible), making the next day - March 19 - the first new moon day following the Spring Tekufah (which fell on March 17). From this starting point, let us count the months, to see that this year there is a thirteenth month. The following 2019 Biblical calendar must also be used:
To count the months, remember, Biblical years begin in the spring so, they do not perfectly align with modern calendar years. Also, on the 2018 calendar, new moon days are dark green, but on the 2019 Biblical Calendar, the new moon days are purple. The only exception is the 7th New Moon. On both calendars annual Sabbaths (Feasts of Leviticus 23) are shown in orange. The 7th New Moon is an annual Sabbath, being the Feast of Trumpets. As a result the 7th New Moon is shown in orange on both calendars. The following are the new moon dates for the 2018-2019 Biblical year:
Spring Tekufah (End of prior Biblical Year: 2017-2018) - March 17, 2018
New Moon #1: March 19, 2018
New Moon #2: April 17, 2018
New Moon #3: May 17, 2018
New Moon #4: June 15, 2018
New Moon #5: July 14, 2018
New Moon #6: August 13, 2018
New Moon #7: Sept 11, 2018 (Feast of Trumpets)
New Moon #8: October 10, 2018
New Moon #9: November 9, 2018
New Moon #10: December 9, 2018
New Moon #11: January 8, 2019
New Moon #12: February 6, 2019
New Moon #13: March 8, 2019
Spring Tekufah (End of current Biblical Year: 2018-2019) - March 17, 2019
Again, you don't have to sweat and worry about whether a given year will have a 13th month or not. They just happen, periodically. If the year will have a 13th month, it will just show up naturally between the two Spring Tekufahs, as happens this Biblical year.
Considering that this Biblical year has a 13th month, one may wonder whether there is an example of a 13th month occurring in Biblical times. The answer is yes. Consider the case of Ezekiel, during his 430 days of lying on his side, by divine command. In this account, found in Ezekiel chapters 1-8, we find Scriptural proof of a thirteenth month.
To show this, we must first note that this passage gives several specific dates. To begin, Yahweh told Ezekiel to act out a warning parable, portraying Jerusalem's coming judgment for their rebellion against Yahweh. Let's begin by tracking the given dates in his amazing story:
1) Ezekiel received a vision on the fifth day of the fourth month (Ezekiel 1:1-2). This happens in the fifth year of King Jehoichin's captivity.
2) In that same year, Ezekiel has another vision on the 11th day of the fourth month.
3) Then in Ezekiel 4:1-11, Yahweh tells Ezekiel to lay on left side for 390 days after which he is instructed to lay on his right side for another 40 days. 390+40=430 days all total.
4) Following this, in Ezekiel 8:1, we find the next specific date given. It says, "And it came to pass in the sixth year (of king Jehoichin's captivity), in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house..."
Note that during these verses Ezekiel has had time to lie on his side for 430 days, and then, a year and two months later (having fully finished his 430 days) he is sitting in his house. A full 430 days can only be accomplished in the Biblical calendar in a year when a thirteenth month (13th new moon) occurs. If Ezekiel was accomplished in a solar year of 365 days, there would not have been enough time for him to finish lying on his side for 430 days and be back sitting in his home by the sixth month of the following year.
Consider the following chart:
As we have seen above, this Biblical year (which started in the Spring of 2018) has 13 months. And tonight, at sunset, is the sighting of the 13th new moon of the year. This means that tomorrow, March 8, is the 13th New Moon day of this current Biblical year. It also means that the next New Moon will be the first New Moon of the next Biblical year - from which we count to Passover (the 14th day). Shalom and happy last month of the year!
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Quite a scholarly accounting.
ReplyDeleteI hope to see the sliver chasing the sun down this evening.