Hebrew Scriptural Calendar #2

Conclusive Evidence of the Calculated Hebrew Calendar
in the Old Testament

Fred R. Coulter—March 18, 2015

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I think that it's very important that we understand that we're dealing with something that has a lot of complexity to it, and that there are a lot of people who have very strong opinions… I know about all different ways that people have proposed as calculating the calendar and how to find the Holy Days.

We'll examine all of those a little later. But as we finished off in #1, we saw that the calendar had undoubtedly had to be the Hebrew Calculated Calendar that God revealed to Hezekiah after moving the sun back ten degrees. It was undoubtedly the calendar that the Jews brought into Babylon.

A lot of people claim that when the Jews came out of Babylon they brought a Babylonian calendar. And in bringing this Babylonian calendar we ought to get rid of it if we're going to come out of Babylon.

• Where were the majority of the Jews at that time?
• Were they not in Babylon? Yes, they were!
• Did they not bring with them the Scriptures? Yes, they did!
• Did they not bring with them the calendar that God undoubtedly had to reveal to Hezekiah after turning the sun back ten degrees? Yes, He did!

Now what we're going to do is look at some Scriptures from the Old Testament, and we're going to examine the situation concerning about the calculated calendar.

The way that the calculated calendar is setup with 19-year time cycles and 7 years that are called intercalated years or embolistic years, or leap years with a 13th month.

Many people have claimed that we shouldn't use the calendar that the Jews have because it has a 13th month. Because the solar years is 5-1/4 years longer than the 360 day calendar, which was originally created, now we're going to have to account for that time.

So, we're going to see that there must be intercalated years. We are going to see that there must be adjustments. But first of all, let's ask:

Can we find evidence of a Calculated Hebrew Calendar in the Scriptures? If we can find evidence of the Calculated Hebrew Calendar in Scriptures, this will give us a time-setting and an approximate date when it was in full force and full use.
It's very important for us to understand and realize the things that have taken place here. We need to look at the Calculated Hebrew Calendar, the names of the months, some of the basic ways or the constituent parts of it, and then look at the account in the book of Ezekiel and see that right in Scriptures we have a 13-month year.

Having a 13-month year can only mean that they were using, and by common means, the Calculated Hebrew Calendar almost is identical to what we have today. Let's start with what we know:

Roman Solar Calendar

This is what we have today. It is only a solar calendar; there is no allowance for Calculating or keeping track of time based upon the moon. Although, on the Roman calendar today you can see various phases of the moon interposed upon the days on which they will occur.

Every day is approximately 24 hours. We have a week of seven days. On the Roman calendar a month is 30 or 31 days. I advise everyone to read about the Julian and Gregorian calendars. I'm not going to go into that here, because that is something you can do on your own.

However, we have February with 28 or 29 days. The reason we do is because you must make an adjustment of the quarter day to round it to a whole day. That is an astronomical fact and it calendarial fact whether you use the Calculated Hebrew Calendar or just go solely by the Roman Solar Calendar.

So, you have 365-1/4 days, and that is rounded to 365 days or 366 days every 4th year and a total of 12 months. That's the basic summary of the calendar that we have. There are some special rules involved because the exact time is a little less than 6 hours. Every century, which is not divisible by 4 you do not have leap year at the beginning of that century.

This is the general terminology that we have and everything must be adjusted to fit that.

Hebrew Lunar—'Luni'—Solar Calendar:

This is entirely different, because the months are calculated according to the movement of the moon. A month equals one full cycle of the moon!

There are 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. However, in a calendar—a 'luni' solar calendar—you have some months with 29 days and some months with 30 days.

Why is that? Because the complete rotation of the moon around the Earth, a complete phase is 29 days, 12 hours and 793 parts!

Like we have understood, you must account for all time. You cannot throw away time, you must account for it.

As we're going to see, the Hebrew calendar has for an hour 1,080 parts. The complete duration is 29 days, 12 hours, 793 parts on an average. Sometimes it's a little less, sometimes it's a little more. That's all a result of the astronomical conditions that we have seen already that took place during the days of Amos and Hezekiah.

A year for a common year is 12 months, but in order to account for all of the time—namely the 793 parts, which is not a whole number—there will be 353, 354, 355 days in a Hebrew Lunar Solar Calendar.

The average is 354 days. The reason that these are here and different is because in order to have a 'Luni' Solar Calendar you must have a justification of the odd numbers that take place yearly and over the period of a 19-year time cycle.

A leap year is 13 months, an intercalated month and it has 383, 384, or 385 days depending of the phase of the moon.

Let's see the unequal parts that we have for the Lunar Solar Calendar, which must be justified. You must account for every second of time. Let's look at some of these unequal values. Remember how we saw with the calendar of Moses, we had all equal values: 12 months, 30 days, 360 days in a month. Now, after these astronomical events we do not have even divisible parts. We have unequal values and they must be justified.

An hour has 1,080 parts. Then you accumulate 24 of these 1,080 parts and you have a day, which has 24 hours, a week has 7 days, a lunar month is 29 days, 12 hours and 793 parts.

To make this understandable a little bit more let's put it this way:

• if you took the number 100 and divided it by 3 you would have 3.333333
• if you took 300 and divided it by 3, you would have exactly 100
• if you took 200 and divided it by 3, you would have 6.6666666

So, you have to round it off in order to get a whole number, and that's why we have adjustments to a whole day. You cannot have a day made up of partial hours any less than 24 hours, and you cannot have a month made up with partial days. They must be whole days!

If they are alternated, if the lunar month was exactly 29 days and 12 hours then we would have a simple problem. The month could simply be justified by having the month alternate with 29 or 30 days. There are 29 days in one month and 30 days in the next month, and so forth.

In order to justify it to whole days, all parts and hours must be accounted and justified in order that all days are whole days. All months must have whole days and all years must have whole months.

It is justified on what is called a 19-year time cycle. Why? That is valid in calendar calculation, but it is not valid, necessarily, in prophetic interpretations as some in the past have tried to stretch it.

So, we have here the justification of the Roman Solar Year and the Hebrew Lunar Solar Year is the 19-year time cycle. Here's the reason:

A Hebrew Calculated 'Luni' Solar 19-year time cycle is 1 hour, 485 parts less than a Roman/Julian 19-year time cycle. Hence, the 19-year time cycle becomes the major point of justification to reconcile 19 years of lunar months with 19 years of solar months.

The Hebrew 19-year time cycle consists of common years, the years with an average of 384 days, 12 common years; 12 months equals 144 months. Seven leap years being 13 months equals 91 months. Nineteen Hebrew years equal 235 months and that equals 19 solar years. But you have to adjust for this one hour, 485 parts. You have to account for that, and that's why there are some justifications to the calendar that need to be taken.

Here are the names of the months in the Hebrew calendar:

• Abib/Nisan
• Iyar (Zip)
• Sivan
• Tammuz
• Ab (Av)
• Elul
• Tishrei (Ethanam)
• Heshvan (or Marcheshvan)
• Chislev
• Tebeth
• Shevat
• Adar
• Adar 2 (leap year)

The reason for Adar 2 is because a common lunar year is approximately ten days and some odd parts less than a solar year. So, you must have this adjustment 7 years out of 19 years you must have Adar 2.

In the Scriptures there is in the book of Ezekiel a 13-month year, which is evidence—if not direct proof—that a calculated calendar was being used. Since they were in captivity and had no temple from which these things would be sent, it is obvious that they had to have the knowledge of the Calculated Hebrew Calendar at that time.

Ezekiel proves that the Scriptures do reveal a year with 13 months. Here's how: those of you who are familiar with double-entry bookkeeping understand that it is done with two different entries that can counterbalance each other to get an accurate rendering of what the accounting of any business or sum/amount is. This is equivalent to double-entry bookkeeping, because we are dealing with two beginning known part, plus we have the days and months in between.

Ezekiel 1:1: "And it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month… [v 2]: On the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity."

Ezekiel 3:16: "And it came to pass at the end of seven days…"

Ezekiel 4:5: "For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days."

Verse 6: "…you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days…"

7+390+40=437 days

There's no way you can get around that, that is absolutely true. Then we are told that it's 5th day of the 4th month of the 4th year.

Month 4—Tammuz—it was on the 5th day—so you take away 4 and there are 25 days left. Then you take each month and you add the number of days in the month and you come to 55, 84, 114, 144, 174, 203, 233, 262, 291, 321, 350, 380, 409, 439, and 445 days until you come to the 6th year of the 6th month and the 5th day. Let's see how this is justified:

If you take away Adar 2—which is 29 days—it equals 416 days. But how many days do we have total in the whole chronology: 445 days. It cannot be a common year! There is no way that year in this time period that is given by Ezekiel can be a common year, which means that they knew the difference between a common year and an intercalated 13-month year!

His duration took 445 days, so you take away the 29 days from Adar 2 and you have 416 days. You cannot have that and still have the chronology, because we saw the total minimum number of days required by this chronology is 437 days.

These figures are accurate, absolute. There's no way you can twist and turn it. This is absolute Scriptural proof that the Calculated Hebrew Calendar during Ezekiel's day had a 13 month in the year or an intercalated month. There can be no other conclusion! God inspired that to be in there! Why is this important?

Let's go over those Scriptures so you can understand it. That whole sequence took 437 days and the number of running days that we accounted for was 445 days, and it had to be an intercalated year. If it were not an intercalated year you would have 416 days, which is too short of a chronology to fit 437 days into. Try that sometime, it won't work!

Remember, you can't add or take away, you have to completely account for, and this is double-entry bookkeeping or double entry accounting because you have the year, the day and the month at the beginning. Then you have the number of days in between, which is another way of reckoning. Then you have the ending entry with the 5th year, the 6th day and the 5th month.

Ezekiel 1:1 "And it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Chebar…" Why is this important?

• the temple had been destroyed; it was no longer there
• he was in captivity
• he knew the day, the month and the year

This shows that the Calculated Hebrew Calendar at that time was general knowledge. It was not some big secret or mystery. We're going to see that even more.

"…that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity" (vs 1-2).

Ezekiel 8:1: "And it was in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me. And the hand of the Lord GOD fell on me there."

We have that bracketed timeframe with the 7 days (Ezek. 3:15-16); the 390 days (Ezek. 4:4-5); and the 40 days (Ezek. 4:6).

So, we have out of this 437 days and there just can be no other way around it. There had to be a 13-month year. That means that they understood how to calculate the time, and it was general knowledge when the time was. It was not some big mystery, which only the priests themselves knew.

Now let's see what are the months in the Bible that refers to the Calculated Hebrew Calendar that proves that the Calculated Hebrew Calendar was in use and was in effect right after the captivity of Judah when they came back out of Babylon.

We also know that by the evidence in the Scriptures that the Calculated Hebrew Calendar was also the calendar of the court of the Persian Empire that succeeded and took over the Babylonian Empire.

We also know that that calendar was used right on down to the time of Jesus Christ. They may have had to make some minor adjustments here and there on the way to it. But let's look in the Scriptures; everyone wants a Scriptural calendar. Let's use the Scriptures properly and divide them properly. I do not see any of the fang-dangled calendars that people have devised of their own devisings in the Scriptures. We're going to see that!

The book of Ezra is important, and we're going to see some of the months that are numbered by number, and some of them named by name. Those names coincide with the names of the calendar that we just covered.

We'll look in Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Zechariah and Haggai in particularly and they will show us that they named the months of the calendar as we now understand them in the Calculated Hebrew Calendar, which is strong evidence—if not absolute proof—that God had to reveal the Calculated Hebrew Calendar to the Jews right after the time of Hezekiah.

That also means, because we have to account for every minute and second, and there has to be adjustments made to keep everything in time. There had to be the adjustments, called postponements. People get all excited about that and that becomes a 'bone of contention.' I remember on one of my visits, a man came up to me and was just vehement with it, because 'there shouldn't be any postponements.'

If God gave them this calendar, and it's an inherent part of the calendar, then guess Who gave the postponements? We'll get into postponements in a little bit and see exactly how those work and why they have to be. We're going to see that all of them are because of astronomical situations that need to be accounted for so that the Feasts are kept in their season. We are to keep them in season, and then proclaim the day.

The day itself does not determine the season, the season determines the day and the day is determined on how it fits into a whole day and a whole month on God's calendar.

We're going to find a lot of references to the calendar in the book of Ezra, some in Nehemiah, and especially in the book of Esther.

Ezra 3:1: "And when the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves as one man to Jerusalem. And Jeshua the son of Jozadak stood up, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brethren.…" (vs 1-2).

We're going to find that this is the same time as in the book of Haggai.

"…And they built the altar of the God of Israel in order to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. And they set the altar on its bases, for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries. And they offered burnt offerings upon it unto the LORD, burnt offerings both morning and evening. And they kept the Feast of Tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty of every day required" (vs 2-4).

Verse 5: "And afterward they offered the continual burnt offering, both of the new moons…"—which means they had to calculate for the new moons!

We're going to see that it was, in fact, an historical known fact that they calculated the new moon.

"…and of all the appointed Feasts of the LORD that were consecrated, and of everyone who willingly offered a freewill offering to the LORD. From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD, but the foundation of the Temple of the LORD was not yet laid" (vs 5-6).

There we go! The 1st day of the 7th month being the Feast of Trumpets.

Verse 8: "And in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they who had come out of the captivity to Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to oversee the work of the house of the LORD." There again we have a month and a time!

Let's see something very important, we're actually going to have a month named, and it's going to be one of those that is named in the Calculated Hebrew Calendar. This shows that they had to have had the Calculated Hebrew Calendar.

Ezra 6:15: "And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king."

Adar is the 12th or 13th month: Adar 1, 12th month; Adar 2, 13th month, whenever they have the cycle of 13 months in an intercalated year. So, we have Adar listed here.

• Is this also in the Calculated Hebrew Calendar?
• Does this not give us evidence that they were using the Calculated Hebrew Calendar?

if they were not

• Why name the names this way?
• What other calendar can you show?

No one can show any other calendar than this. You can just ignore it and say 'that doesn't mean anything' or 'doesn't prove anything.' But then you bring some proof that shows something better than this! No one can!

Verse 19 shows they kept the Passover, and they kept the time; they knew the calendar, without a doubt.

Verse 19: "And the children of the captivity kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.

That agrees with Lev. 23, but also agrees with the Calculated Hebrew Calendar. So, we find that the Calculated Hebrew Calendar was in use here, and it was used to understand when the Holy Days of God and the Feasts of God should be kept.

Ezra 7:8: "And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, in the seventh year of the king. Now, on the first day of the first month…" (vs 8-9).

This is talking about what Ezra was doing when he left there:

"…he began to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem…(v 9). It took him exactly 5 months to get there!

We are talking about a Calculated Hebrew Calendar! Let's see again how this is born out:

Ezra 8:31: "And we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem…." There we have it right there!

Ezra 10:9: "Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves to Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month…."

There we have them keeping time according to a Hebrew calendar. Let's see how they kept this time all the way through as these things are done. What  I am reading to you is the Scriptures!

• What Scriptural calendar is it that we are finding in the Scriptures?
• Have I read you anyplace where it says to 'go out and observed the moon'?
• Have I read you anyplace where it says that on the first full moon after the spring equinox is when you're to have your Feast?
• Do you find that anywhere in the Scriptures?

People in their calendars, as we will see, claim that! But I don't find it anywhere in the Scriptures. I'm reading you what I find in the Scriptures. I want the Truth of God; I don't want to be in error with God. I don't want to presume to speak a word in the name of God that He didn't command.

• IF God inspired the Scriptures, which He did
• IF these are the words of God, which they are

THEN:

• Can we not listen to the words of God and accept what God has given us?
• Must we throw away the words of God and say that we have something better than what God has devised and given?

You need to think about that! I realize those are pretty strong words. But this is a pretty strong and heady subject. What I want to do first is get well grounded in the Scriptures! Let's ask these questions as we go along, and let's see.

Again, we're dealing with the time, day and month, we just read that in v 9.

Verse 16: "And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain heads of the fathers, after the house of their fathers, and all of them by their names, were separated. And they sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter. And they were finished with all the men who had married foreign women by the first day of the first month" (vs 16-17).

What are we talking about? No less than two months—1st day of the 10th month to the 1st day of the 11th month (one month), and 1st day of the 11th month to the 1st day of the 12th month (another month), from there to the 1st day of the 1st month.

Then we have three months involved. If there was a 13-month there, then we have four months involved. So, this covers quite a span of time. Notice that we have no account of observation, no account of any other thing other than what we find in the Hebrew calendar as we have it today.

Neh. 1:1 shows us that the Persian Empire also had the Calculated Hebrew Calendar. That was the general calendar in use throughout all the empire. It came from the Jews before they left for captivity into Babylon. Daniel—I am sure—made it the official calendar of Babylon, and also the court of the Persians after they conquered Babylon used exactly the same calendar.

It's just like today when we have countries continuous to us, we use the same calendar, so we can have the right day, the right month, the right time. So likewise, they did here.

Nehemiah 1:1: "The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chislev… [one of the months of the Calculated Hebrew Calendar, a normal standard calendar at that time] …in the twentieth year…"

Neh. 2:1—again we are talking about the time, the months as we find them in the Calculated Hebrew Calendar.

Nehemiah 2:1: "And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king…"

We are again going to see another month named; we are going to see all the months of the Calculated Hebrew Calendar named. We have seen a 13-month calendar. We have seen month 1, 2, 7, 10 and 12. The evidence I've just barely started to show how much evidence there is of the Calculated Hebrew Calendar in the Scriptures. Why do not the proponents of those who believe in whatever other form or calendar that you believe in—and there are too many to mention in just one sentence—go to these Scriptures and acknowledge that, yes, the Calculated Hebrew Calendar was being used before the captivity and after the captivity!

Then it must have been used all the way down to the time of Jesus Christ. We find no other historical change. You cannot throw this away. This is the basis of where we begin.

Nehemiah 6:15: "And the wall… [building the wall around Jerusalem] …was finished in the twenty-fifth day of Elul… [the month Elul as we saw in the Hebrew calendar] …in fifty-two days," So, they were calculating time, months and days!

Nehemiah 7:73: "And the priests, and the Levites, and the gatekeepers, and the singers, and some of the people, and the temple servants, and all Israel, lived in their cities. And when the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities"—the beginning of the keeping of the Feast in the fall of the year!

Nehemiah 8:1: gives us the account: "And all the people gathered themselves as one man into the street before the Water Gate. And they spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the Law before the congregation, both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month" (vs 1-2). 

They were reading about the 1st day of the 7th month. Since there was a change from 360 days to 365-1/4 days, God had to show them what it was and how to figure it out! He commanded them to keep the Feasts at their appointed times, in their seasons. So, we have it here: "…the first day of the seventh month." Then they read out of the Scriptures!

• What do we do when we come to the Feast of Tabernacles?
• Do we not read out of the Scriptures? Yes!

Verse 14: "And they found written in the Law, which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the Feast of the seventh month."

They would have to know when to keep it, which is the 15th day of the 7th month. Is that not correct? Yes!

Nehemiah 9:1: "And on the twenty-fourth day of this month… [two days after the last day of the Last Great Day after the Feast of Tabernacles] …the children of Israel were gathered with fasting and with sackcloth, and with earth upon them."

The book of Esther has an awful lot in it. All of this is important, very important because this shows conclusive evidence of the use of the Calculated Hebrew Calendar right in the Scriptures before, during and after the captivity of the children of Judah into Babylon. This means that they did not get the Calculated Hebrew Calendar in Babylon from the Babylonians. They went there and showed the Babylonians what the proper calendar should be. That was the one that was adopted by the whole Babylonian Empire and by all the Persian Empire, and that's the one used here.

The book of Esther is important because it's right at the kings house, the Royal Court of Persia. This is important for us to understand.

Now, we're going to see another month is mentioned, just exactly as it was in the Calculated Hebrew Calendar as I listed off the names of the months.

Esther 2:16: "So, Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign."

That, brethren, is important. That's the same name that's on the Calculated Hebrew Calendar today. Does this not show more and more. We're going to stack up evidence of a Calculated Hebrew Calendar in use that is going to be overwhelming. All of the detractors who like to have their own little calendar, which is not the calendar of God, are going to find themselves very hard-put to continue doing what they are doing.

What we are finding in reality is that the Calculated Hebrew Calendar and all that that means was used Scripturally before, during and after the captivity of the children of Judah into Babylon.

(break)

Esther 3:7: "In the first month, that is, the month Nisan…"—That's exactly as we have it in the calendar today!

We find that Nehemiah and Ezra also used it and these are pretty profound witnesses for us, and these are the things that we need to understand.

"…in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, the month Adar" (v 7).

So, we have the whole year encompassed here, from Nisan to Adar.

Verse 12 "Then the king's scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month… [there we have 13 days later]…and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded…"

Verse 13: "And the letters were sent by postal riders into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their goods."

There we have there again, the month Adar, very specific; there can be no doubt, no doubt whatsoever.

Again, this is one of the months that we find in the Calculated Hebrew Calendar:

Esther 8:9: "Then the king's scribes were called at that time in the third month, the month Sivan, on the twenty-third dayof it…."

It's stacking higher and higher. The evidence for the Scriptural calendar can only be the Calculated Hebrew Calendar; it can be any other devising. God did not leave this for every man to go out and sit on a stump and look at the stars and try and figure it out for himself. Yet, we will see there are some people who claim that that is a proper Scriptural calendar and what we're reading here is of no account.

What they're really doing and is saying is that 'God is of no account' when you really understand it. We're down to very serious business with this calendar. God want us all to be in unity with Him. That's why He gave this calendar. That's why they figure the times this way.

Verse 12: "On one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar."

Esther 9:1: "And in the twelfth month, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same…"

Verse 15: "For the Jews in Shushan gathered themselves on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar…" So, they escaped the judgment!

This is an important day for them to number; this is where the Feast of Purim that the Jews celebrate for the deliverance of the Jews from all of those would kill them, the 14th day of the month Adar.

Verse 17: "And on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, and on the fourteenth day of the same, they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness. But the Jews at Shushan gathered on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth. And on the fifteenth day of the same month, they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness" (vs 17-18).

There you have the 13th, 14th & 15th day of the month Adar.

I have a mountain—and sorted them out—of things, everything that there is. I've searched out to get everything so that I would know what is right and true. I'm not running off half-cocked down the road to bring you something that is my own idea. We need to stick with the Scriptures.

Look at all of this evidence. There's nothing here that says to go view the moon. There is nothing here that says 14 days after the spring equinox, or when the first full moon occurs afterwards. That's not Scriptural. As a matter of fact, brethren, that's pagan!

Yet, the way it's turned around is that if you follow the Calculated Hebrew Calendar, you're pagan. It's the same thing that's always been done by those who are against God. Those people don't think that they're against God, but they are. If you reject the Truth of the Scriptures, are you not against God? They the call black white and white black, and turn things upside down! They have caused:

• division
• heresy
• split families
• hurt feelings

All the way through, because they were not thorough enough in their research and there were willing to believe what anyone told them.

We're dealing with very serious and difficult things That's why I'm taking the time to go through this step-by-step every Scripture, every place. Don't you think that's important?

Esther 9:20: "And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, near and far."

They had the same calendar everywhere in the empire. I'm going to prove this from another historical document.

Verse 21: "To establish among them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,"

What else does this tell us? They had a perpetual calendar! Brethren, there's nothing wrong with a perpetual calendar. Nothing wrong with knowing many years in advance when the Feasts of God are. That's what they did here.

Verse 22: "As the days in which the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day, that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions to one another, and gifts to the poor."

There we have it recorded right in God's Word! For the Jews the keeping of the Feast of Purim is entirely right and correct. They should do that, and that's the calendar that they used.

Haggai tells us some very important things; shows us some more of the calendar of God. It shows that the Calculated Hebrew Calendar was being used. That's how they figured it.

Haggai 1:1: "In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the Word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying."

Notice that everything is based upon the calendar of God.

Verse 15: "In the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king."

Haggai 2:1: "In the seventh month, in the twenty-first day of the month, the Word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai, saying,

What is the 21st day of the 7th month? The last day of the Feast of Tabernacles! The 22nd day is the Last Great Day. So, this is during the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles came this prophecy. God said that He would bless them from that day forward.

Verse 10: "In the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year…"  Now we have a running chronology when these things came to Haggai!

Verse 20: "And a second time the Word of the LORD came to Haggai in the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying." Then He gives another prophecy!

Zech. was after the captivity, during the time before Ezra and Nehemiah. As a matter of fact, we saw in the book of Ezra that they overlapped. If God is going to give the days commanded to keep, then it's God's responsibility to reveal to us how we understand which days those are. That's why we find the evidence of the Calculated Hebrew Calendar.

Zechariah 1:1: "In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the Word of the LORD came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying."

Verse 7: On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, it is the month Shebat."

Did we not see that that was one of the months named on the Calculated Hebrew Calendar? Yes!

Look at how many months we have named. When we get done, we're going to review the names of the months of the Calculated Hebrew Calendar again and see how many are mentioned in Scripture. If that's not overwhelming evidence to show that we should use the Calculated Hebrew Calendar, I don't what to tell you if you don't believe that.

I suppose that you can believe anything you want to. God has given you the choice, but He commands us to love Him and choose that which is right, which comes out of His Word! Not the things that we choose or desire, We know that 'there's a way that seems right to a man and the ends thereof are the ways of death.'

Wherever this foolishness of the wrong calendar has gone, it's led to all kinds of confusion and wretchedness. Will it really lead to spiritual death for some, because they presume to lead brethren away. I don't know, brethren. Let's hope they repent, and let's hope that we understand:

• what we're doing here.
• how we're doing it
• way we do it
• why we're doing it
• why God has said we should do it this way

• Are these not important for us to do?
• How can we say that we love God and if we don't accept these words of His? We can't It's just not so!

"…the eleventh month, it is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius…" (v 7).1:

Zechariah 7:1: And it came to pass in the fourth year of King Darius, the Word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, in Chislev."

This has to do with the months of the Calculated Hebrew Calendar.

Verse 3: "And to speak to the priests who were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, 'Should I weep in the fifth month and fast, separating myself, as I have done these many years?'"

What is this telling us? All during the years of the captivity, the 70 years, they separated themselves for fasting in the 5th month! This shows a long continuousy of the Calculated Hebrew Calendar.

Verse 5: "Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months, even those seventy years, did you truly fast to Me, even to Me?'"

• 7th month—Day of Atonement
• 5th month—month of Ab—9th & 10th of Ab when Jerusalem fell, they were to fast, weep and lament, and God was saying, 'Did you do it Me?'

All during the 70 years, and this tells us that they had the Calculated Hebrew Calendar before, during and after the captivity of Judah. Couldn't be any other way.

Zechariah 8:18: "And the Word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth month, and the fast of the seventh month, and the fast of the tenth month… [talking about the Calculated Hebrew Calendar] …shall be to the house of Judah for joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts. Therefore, love truth and peace"'" (vs 18-19).

May we do that today! May we love the Truth and love peace and let God bless us in the way that He wants to, with the things that He wants to.

Zechariah 11:8: "I also cut off three shepherds in one month…"

There we have all the Calculated Hebrew Calendar right here in the Scriptures!

Now let's understand something that's very important concerning that. Let's go back and consider Ezra and what his work was in brining together the Scriptures. Is it not incumbent upon God and those who have the Scriptures to also have the knowledge of the calendar? Yes, it is! Let's cover something very important here, before we get to Ezra.

Let's read something and understand exactly what it says and what we are talking about. We are, as Jesus did, all of those traditions that are contrary to God's way.

• calculating the calendar is not a tradition
• calculating the calendar is a mathematical fact
• calculating the calendar is an astronomical reality
• calculating the calendar is obeying God
• calculating the calendar is part of the oracles of God

God had to have given it to Hezekiah, and it was passed on down through the priesthood! Then we will see that it was made general knowledge as these Scriptures we just read showed after the captivity, probably during the captivity; maybe even during the captivity. That's why Ezekiel had the days all listed out there the way that he did. The calendar was generally known to most people. It was not some secret thing locked away in the store, tucked under some cabinet so that only a high priest could look at it, and then stand up and make a secret proclamation. We are going to see that that is not correct!

Romans 3:1: "What then is the advantage of the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?"

We have to understand that when it's talking about Jew here, it's talking about those who were considered in the nation of Judea who were Jews consisting of:

• Benjaminites—Paul was a Benjaminite
• Levites—the priests, scribes, Sadducees

The Pharisees were not; they were Jews and Edomites. This calendar that we have is not a Pharisaical calendar. This is a Calculated Hebrew Calendar. We need to understand that going in.

Verse 2: "Much in every way. Primarily in that they were entrusted with the oracles of God."

This means that the oracles of God were committed to the Levites within that Jewish community, not committed to the rabbis, but committed to the Levites within the Jewish community, some of whom later were called rabbis, but namely the scribes.  The Greek for oracles is 'logion,' which does not mean just the Scriptures. As we read in 2-Tim. 3:15 are called 'grapho.' Those are the writings. 'Logion' includes the oracles, writings and non-written things. There are some things that were written, but not written in the Scriptures; we need to understand that.

This is not the Talmud that we are talking about, because the Mishnah and the Talmud did not develop for over 200 years after the time that Paul wrote. The Talmud did not really come into full existence until the 400sA.D.

When people come along and attack the Calculated Hebrew Calendar as coming out of the Talmud, they don't have a clue as to what they're talking about. The Jews may have taken the Calculated Hebrew Calendar and put it into the Talmud, That does not mean it came out of the Talmud. It's not an invention 400-500 years after Christ!

It is something that is continuous and ongoing from before the captivity, during the captivity and after the captivity.

Now let's understand something concerning Ezra and what he did, because he was the one who canonized the whole Old Testament and brought it together under God's inspiration so that it would be there for us. This does not take away what I've written concerning the Passover in Deut. 16. Some people get all upset over it. Ezra undoubtedly edited the word Passover in because the Days of Unleavened Bread at that time were understood and called Passover. But if you read it very carefully, it's talking about the Days of Unleavened Bread.

There was no major thing that Ezra did to rename it there at that particular place, or clarification for Jews of his day.

From The Christian Passover book:

In order to preserve the true worship of God, it was essential to differentiate the Scriptures of the Jerusalem Jews from the Scriptures of the Jewish/Samaritan religion….

He had to make it different, because remember that you had Jews who left, who rebelled during the days of Ezra and Nehemiah and would not put away their strange wives, so the ran up to Samaria and Sanballat was the one who said the he would build a temple. The priest Manasseh went up there and setup a 'religion' identical to the one they had down in Jerusalem.

So, to differentiate between the true Scriptures, Ezra used the block lettering for writing out the canonized Scriptures that we have today. The renegade Jews in Samaria used the script, and to this day most of the Samaritan writing are in script rather that the block. That's how Ezra distinguished it.

So, whatever is written here, Ezra wrote it, which shows that he:

• knew of the calendar
• understood the calendar
• functioned by the calendar
• put the names of the months of the Calculated Hebrew Calendar exactly and precisely as we have today

There it is in the Scriptures! We have to have the calendar to go along with the days that God has commanded us to keep, otherwise we wouldn't know when or how to keep them.

…The first step was to set the Scriptures in order and canonize each book as the authentic Word of God. When this work was completed, accurate copies of the entire text had to be made and distributed to Jewish synagogues throughout the empire….

I'm sure that a Calculated Hebrew Calendar went with them, without a doubt. There were the Levitical Jews who were the rabbis in the different synagogues and they knew what the calendar was.

Once canonized, the Word of God could be preserved for all time. Here is a summary of Ezra's work, which was a monumental step in the development and preservation of the Old Testament for the Jewish people, and eventually for the world:

"According to Jewish tradition, five great works are ascribed to him: (1) the foundation of the 'Great Synagogue' [the Great Assembly], (2) the settlement of the canon of Scripture, with the threefold division into Law, Prophets, and Hagiographa [the Psalms and other Writings], (3) the substitution of the square Chaldee characters for the Hebrew and Samaritan script, (4) the compilation of Chronicles, possibly Esther, with the addition of Nehemiah's history to his own, and (5) the establishment of synagogues" (Angus, The Bible Handbook, p. 542).

As stated above, one major task that Ezra undertook was to change all the Hebrew letters in the Scriptures of the Old Testament to the square Chaldee script, or the block style. This lettering was commonly used in the sixth century BC in Babylon and elsewhere in the Persian Empire. Ezra's purpose in replacing the ancient script was to preserve the Word of God from being corrupted by Samaritan influences and to differentiate the official Jerusalem Scriptures from the Samaritan version. As Martin explains, "This was not done simply to facilitate the reading of the Bible but, more 183 The Christian Passover importantly, Ezra was able to establish at one fell swoop an official canon of the scriptures which was now (by the use of the new letter configurations) able to be distinguished from heretical Samaritan manuscripts which were written in the old Hebrew script" (The Original Bible Restored, p. 63).

I'm sure that Ezra did likewise with the calendar, because all the calendar references are here. This means that the calendar prevailed from that time on down to the days of Jesus Christ.

This mean, as we will see later on, that all the postponements that are there to keep the calendar coordinated and justified with the solar and lunar year so that the Holy Days are kept in the right season on the right day. All of those were part and parcel of it. Those are all required because we have a solar year of 365-1/4 days and a lunar month 29 days, 12 hours, 793 parts. Those all have to be justified within a 19-year time cycle.

That's what we have from the Scriptures. If you want to know what is the true Scriptural calendar, you can come to no other conclusion, but that it was the Calculated Hebrew Calendar as we know it today.

This being passed down in time, was the calendar under which Jesus Christ lived. It was the calendar with the postponements and everything that Jesus Christ followed. Why should it not be that? Because He inspired it and revealed it undoubtedly to Hezekiah and the priests in his day! It was substantiated over and over and over again by the redoubling and reproving every year:

• of all of the calculations
• of all the Holy Days
• of all of the time that God has given

Now then, if Jesus followed it, which He undoubtedly did, we see nowhere in the Bible where He says anything contrary to the calendar that was inspired to be put there by Himself in the canon that Ezra did. Jesus said nothing about it. He went to the Feast days that were declared in Jerusalem. Those are the days that He kept.

• had Jesus kept any other He would have been sinning
• had Jesus gone against His own word, He would have been sinning
• had Jesus gone against what He inspired, He would have been sinning

This means with all the postponements that are there! People who freak out over postponements, hold on!

• you need to understand them
• you need to realize what they're all about
• you need to understand why they are there
• you need to understand that these are necessary to keep the calendar in season perpetually down through the years:
• year after year
• the 19-year time cycle
• common year
• leap year

So that you keep the Feasts of God in time and in season, because God fellowships with us on those days!

• that's why we have that calendar
• that's why it is there

We're going to go through and study some things concerning other versions of calendars that people have said are more accurate than the Calculated Hebrew Calendar. We are going to see that no they are not!

There are some very slick reasonings that comes along. You have to use your mind and be alert. Part of the thing that's important for us to understand today, living in the end-time is that:

• there are many arguments that sound plausible
• there are many things presented that are very convincing

But they are only based upon partial knowledge and partial facts! Therefore, their conclusions are faulty and are wrong, and we will prove it! The only calendar we find in the Scriptures is the Calculated Hebrew Calendar!

Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version

Scriptural References:

• Ezekiel 1:1-2
• Ezekiel 3:16
• Ezekiel 4:5-6
• Ezekiel 1:1-3
• Ezekiel 8:1
• Ezra 3:1-6, 8
• Ezra 6:15, 19
• Ezra 7:8
• Ezra 8:31
• Ezra 10:9, 16-17
• Nehemiah 1:1
• Nehemiah 2:1
• Nehemiah 6:15
• Nehemiah 7:73
• Nehemiah 8:1-2, 14
• Nehemiah 9:1
• Esther 2:16
• Esther 3:7, 12-13
• Esther 8:9-12
• Esther 9:1, 15, 17-18, 20-22
• Haggai 1:1, 15
• Haggai 2:1, 10, 20
• Zechariah 1:1, 7
• Zechariah 7:1, 3, 5
• Zechariah 8:18-19
• Zechariah 11:8
• Romans 3:1-2

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Ezekiel 3:15; 4:4
• Leviticus 23
• 2 Timothy 3:15
• Deuteronomy 16

Also referenced: Book:
            The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter

FRC:bo
Transcribed: 6/6/21