HHMI Newsgroup Archives
Subject: Hebrew calendar
Date: Sun, 8 Dec 1996 11:59:38 +0000
From: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
Reply-To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
From: "Doug Hammond" <dharnmond@tri-lakes.net>
To: <heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
Subject: Hebrew calendar
>lf we are living in the year 5757 and most scholars believe that there will
>be 6000 years of the present^ then the messianic age, are we looking at
>another 43 years before we can really anticipate Yeshuas' return? 6000 -
>7=5973 for the rapture. Or has the actual date count since creation been
>lost during periods of Jewish exile e.g. Bablyonian? Any help with this or
>links to studies will be appreciated.
>Shalorn
>Doug
>dhaimnond@tri-lakes.net
From Eddie:
Doug, this is an excellent question! I would like answer this
question from a Jewish book put out by the Central Conference of
American Rabbis entitled, "Gates of the Seasons " (you should be able
to get this book at your local library if you live in a large city).
I will be quoting from pages 7-10.
********************************************************
"In order to appreciate fully the meaning of the Jewish holidays
--- their relationship to the seasons, to historical events, and to
each other --- it is necessary to have a basic understanding of the
Jewish calendar ... the main purpose of the Jewish calendar is, and
always has been, to set the dates of the festivals. Our present
calendar has its roots in the Torah, but it has been modified by
Jewish religious authorities through the ages. The principle rules
were established by the Sages and Rabbis of antiquity and were
supplemented by medieval scholars. In Talmudic times, the regulation
of the calendar was the exclusive right of the Jewish leadership in
the land of Israel, particularly that of the Nasi. Since that time,
such regulation has been regarded as a task of crucial importance for
the observance of Judaism.
In the Bible, the Hebrew months are lunar (i.e. each month
begins with the "birth" of the new moon). However, since festivals
such as Passover and Sukkot had to occur in the proper agricultural
season (i.e. according to the solar year), it is obvious that the
Jewish calendar must be lunar-solar. This means that the lunar year
(appoximately 354 days) and the solar year (approximately 365 days)
had to be harmonized and adjusted to each other, a complex process
that was meticulously refined by the ancient and medieval Rabbis. The
Jewish day has twenty-four hours and starts in the evening.
The introduction of a permanent Jewish calendar became
increasingly urgent after Jews began to spread throughout the world.
As Jewry dispersed, regular contacts with the Jewish leadership in
the Land of Israel, which had the sole privilege of regulating the
calendar, became more and more difficult. The most important step in
this process of permanent calendar reform was the adoption in the
eighth century ( C.E. of a nineteen-year cycle of "intercalation")
(i.e. harmonization of the solar and lunar calendar). The adoption of
this cycle made the actual physical observation of the new moon and
the signs of approaching spring unnecessary. This cycle of nineteen
years adjusts the lunar year to the solar year by inserting into it
seven leap years (i.e. the additional 30-day month of Adar) in the
following order: every third, sixth, eighth, eleventh, fourteenth,
seventeenth, and nineteenth year.
In the Bible, the months are most frequently designated by
ordinal numbers. However, there are references both to such ancient
names as Ziv, Ethanim, and Aviv and to some of the now customary
names Kislev, Tever, Adar, Nisan, Sivan, and Elul. which are of
Babylonian origin. But, it is only since the first century that the
Hebrew calendar has employed the now traditional month names of
Nisan, lyar, Sivan, Tamuz, Av, Tishri, Cheshvan, Kislev, Tevet,
Shevat, and Adar.
A.D., B.C. and B.C.E.
The Jewish tradition of counting years since the
creation of the world has its roots in early Talmudic times, but it
was not adopted authoritatively until several centuries later. In
Biblical times, dates were referred to as being "two years before the
earthquake" or "the year of the death of King Uzziah" etc. In
Taimudic times, we find instances of dating from the creation of the
world, but this was adopted as the Jewish method only much later as a
response to Christian dating.
It was in the eighth century that Christians began to
date their documents generally as A.D. (the year of the Lord), and so
it is hardly a coincidence that in the eighth or ninth centuries we
find more and more Jewish documents dated "since the creation of the
world". Obviously, calculating dates based on the Christian
theological principles were not acceptable to Jews; nevertheless, it
was not until the tweivth century that dating "since the creation"
was accepted by Jews universally.
Only a minority of Jews today would take the traditional
Jewish date as being literally "since the creation of the world".
Jewish texts will often use such designations as B.C.E.
(Before the Common Era) or C.E. in order to avoid any dating related
to Christianity. In order to determine the Jewish year for a given
civil year, the number 3760 is added; conversely in order to find the
civil year for a given Jewish year, 3760 is substracted. Of course,
since the Jewish year changes with Rosh HaShanah, the number to work
with from Rosh HaShanah to December 31 is 3761.
Not only was the confirmation and sanctification of the new
moon --- and therefore the new month --- the duty of the Palistinian
authorities, but theirs was also the task of communicating the dates
of the new moons to every Jewish community. This was a task of vital
importance, as the new moon determines the dates of the festivals. At
an earlier time, the new moon (i.e. the first of the month) was
communicated to all the Jews in Palestine and the Diaspora by
kindling flares on hilitops. However, after the Samaritans kindled
flares at the wrong time to confuse the Jews, the news about the New
Moon had to be communicated by messengers. The change was introduced
by Juda Hanasi (135-200 C.E)
Since it happened tha the messengers did not arrive in
time at the right places of their destination outside of Palestine
because of road hazards, wars, or political upheavals, a second day
was added to the holidays for the Jews in the Diaspora. During the
Talmudic period a stable, scientifically determined calendar was
adopted, and so the pragmatic need for "second days" disappeared.
************************************************************
From Eddie:
This is more information than you asked for but I
thought that this would be a good opportunity to give info about
understanding the Jewish calendar.
Now to review your question about the year 5757 in
relation to the year 6000, this article presently that the modern
dating of time (5757) to be "since the creation of the world" was
actually an adaptation and response to Christian dating of documents
in the eighth century and 5757 does not literally mean since the
creation of the world.
I did a genealogy in the Bible one time from Adam to
Christ. Basically, from Adam to Christ was around 4,000 years. It has
almost been 2,000 years since the time of Christ. Therefore, we are
VERY CLOSE to 6,000 years since the creation of Adam.
In the book, "Judaism in the 1st Century Christian Era"
by George Foote Moore, he indicates that when the Jews determined the
year "since the creation of the world" they did not count periods of
time when they were in Babylon.
I hope that this answers your questions.
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