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From: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com Sent: Thursday, April 3, 1997 12:56 AM To: Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup Subject: Easter, the Festivals and the Hebrew Calendar
>From Dennis Andress, dandress2@worldnet.att.net
Subject: Easter, the Festivals and the Hebrew Calendar
Many of the respondents to "Easter or Ishtar" have seen the paganism of
Easter for the first time. To contrast this lie, God gave us His
festivals, found in Leviticus 23. They are meant to help His people
understand the
comming of the Messiah.
This year Passover comes almost a month after Easter. It is here that we
should continue our discusion...
The Jewish Calendar (with help from a friend.)
The Jewish calendar is based on the moon, and it is regulated by the sun.
In Numbers 28 11-15; God declared that Rosh Chodesh, the New Moon, proclaims
a new month. Furthermore, the lunar months must always correspond with the
seasons of the year, which are governed by the sun. This is in contrast to
our Gregorian calendar which is purely solar, and in which the months have
completely lost their relation to the moon.
Therefore, the Jewish calendar must meet two requirements, both solar and
lunar. This accounts for its relatively complicated structure. The lunar
year, consisting of twelve months averaging twenty-nine and thirty days
alternately, contains 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, and 34 seconds. In
contrast the solar year which is longer at 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes,
and 45 seconds.
The solar year is approximately 11 days longer than 12 lunar months.
Whenever the annual excess of 11 days accumulates to 30 days, a thirteenth
month is added. This occurs seven times in a cycle of nineteen years.
Nineteen years constitute a lunar cycle, of which the third, sixth,
eighth, eleventh, fourteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth are leap years. This
added month is Adar II; it falls in the later part of March and the beginning
of
April.
Historically, the Jewish people have two calendars, the religious and the
civil. Prior to Exodus 12 the civil calendar was used, after that the
religious calendar is used. At one time, Abraham and his descendants had
only the civil calendar, which began in the fall with the month now called
Tishri. This calendar was in use until God commanded the first Pesach lamb
to be slain in Egypt.
Even though both calendars are in use throughout the scriptures and
continue to the present, only the religious calendar is used to calculate
dates
following its institution in Exodus 12. Therefore, when it is read in
Genesis 8:4 that Noah's ark rested upon Mount Ararat on the seventeenth
day of the seventh month, it is understood to be the month of Nisan, the
seventh month of the civil calendar. However, when reading II Chronicles
19:2-20,
the seventeenth day of the first month, when Hezekiah enters the Temple to
make sacrifice after it has been cleansed, would also be understood as
Nisan, which is the first month on the religious calendar. It is of
interest that these two events occur on the same day.
Names of Months Farm Seasons Feasts
1 Nisan/Aviv March-April Begin barley harvest Passover
Unleavened Bread
First Fruits
2 Iyyar April-May Barley harvest
3 Sivan May-June Wheat harvest Pentecost
4 Tammuz June-July
5 Ab July-August Grape, fig, olive ripe
6 Elul August-Sept. Vintage begins Season of Teshuvah
7 Tishri September-Oct. Early rains; plowing Yom Kippur
Sukkot
Simhat Torah
Shemini Atzeret
8 Heshvan/Bul October-Nov. Wheat, barley sowing
9 Kislev November-December
10 Tebeth December-Jan. Rainy winter months Hanukah
11 Shebat January-February New Year for trees
12 Adar February-March Almonds blooming Purim
13 Adar II Month added to correct the calendar
Dennis L. Andress
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