What I share in the following explanation of the Tithe of the Third year and the Ancient Hebrew Calendar system, I simply pass on in the name of my teacher, Ze'ev Ben-Shahar. ( Ze'ev Ben-Shahar doctoral thesis "The Calendar of the Judaean Desert Sect").
"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16. And God made two great lights; the greater glint to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 18. And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day." -- Genesis 1:14-19.
The Creator, Blessed is He, ESTABLISHED THE SANCTITY OF TIME on the FOURTH DAY of Creation. The sun, the Day Star of our solar system in the myriad of the galaxy, is the governor of light and day. The moon is the governor of darkness and night. Seven revolutions of the evenings and mornings make a cycle of one week. Note that the purpose of the solar system was to govern only the signs, seasons, days, and years. No mention is made for governing the month by the moon!The Jewish Calendar before the Babylonian captivity was based upon the sun and not the moon. It was only after the Babylonian captivity did the Jewish Calendar change from the Solar calendar to the Lunar calendar. The pre-Babylonian calendar reckoned Rosh HaShanah, the New Year in the Aviv, the spring or vernal equinox. Since the captivity, the Rosh HaShanah, meaning the Beginning of the Year, is reckoned on the autumn equinox, on the first day of Tishri.
Before the Babylonian captivity the months change from a numeric system to a name system. Only then did the seventh month become Tishri and the Rosh HaShanah or beginning of the year. The names beginning with the autumn equinox are:
Tishri; Hesvan; Kislev, Tevet;Shevat; Adar; Nisan; Iyar; Sivan; Tammuz, Av and Elul.
These 12 names replaced the twelve numerical numbers of the months. The Rosh HaShanah New Year was changed from the spring, Aviv, equinox to the autumn equinox. It is startling that the names of the Hebrew months are derived from the names of Babylonian deities.
Our calendar days and months are also derived from pagan deities. Both the Julian and the Gregorian calendars have nothing to do with astronomy. They are strictly theological. The reckoning of B.C. meaning Before Christ and A.D. meaning Anno Domoni or Latin for Year of Our Lord are strictly conjectural. The monks who made this calculation established year zero as the year of the birth of Jesus. Hence, the year one B.C., plus the year zero and the year one A.D. encompass a three year period. When in reality the year one is the year one for both B.C. and A.D. You cannot have a year zero; if so, nothing happened. Hence, we have a three year miscalculation from the start. In the Apocrypha it states that Antiochous Epiphanies offered a sow on the altar in the Temple on the 15th day of the 9th month, which is Kislev and so defiled the house of G-d. The monks reasoned that since Jesus abrogated Judaism and the Old Testament, he was most certainly born on the same day, being the 25th day of the 12th month in their calendar. What they did not realize is that the 24th day of the 12th month would have been the 25th day of Elul which is during March, not December. In fact, the Temple was rededicated four months earlier on the 25th day of Kislev, the ninth month, which is the feat of Hanukkah, commemorating the rededication of the Temple after it had been defiled. Hence, the monks in their attempt to bring contempt upon the Jews by miscalculating his birth at the desecration of the Temple, punned their own illogic by setting his birth at the rededication of the Temple rather than it's defilement. That is why Christmas always occurs about the time of Hanukkah. (Hanukkah is the time when Messiah was born in the womb of Mary). Another gross mistake in the calculation of the time of his birth.
Then, by adding eight days to the date of his miscalculated birth, the monks concocted that he was circumcised on the first day of January thus making his circumcision the beginning of the New Covenant that replaced the Old Covenant marking the first day of the Christina year. Later they discovered that he was actually born at the turn of the fifth year into the fourth year B.C.
To compound their theological mistakes, the monks tried to create 490 years to make Jesus fulfill the prophesy of Daniel 9:-12:. In so doing they also added almost 200 years to the B.C. dating that really never existed. Modern scholarship today has adopted B.C.E. and C.E. to replace B. C. and A. D. The C.E. reckoning simply means Common Era. However, in view of all the mistakes the theologians made C.E. would better represent the Common Error.
At this point I want to inject that the MMT document from Qumran that is being published by Professor Qimron at Ben Gurion University at BeerSheva, brings twenty-four charges by the Priest of Qumran (Succaccah) against the wicked priest in Jerusalem. One of these charges was against the use of the Lunar Babylonian Calendar that made the Holy Days fall on the wrong day of the week and month.
Noteworthy also is that eighteen copies of the Book of Jubilee were found at Qumran. The Book of Jubilees is based on the Solar Calendar. The change in the calendar during the Maccabian Period made the Essenes or Ishiyim separate themselves from the Pharisees in Jerusalem. With this Calendar change, the logic of the Tithe of the Third Year was diminished.
The most accurate time piece on earth is the sundial. Clocks, a relatively recent invention, are very inaccurate timepieces. ONLY ON MARCH 21ST AND SEPTEMBER 23RD ARE CLOCKS CORRECT WITH THE SUN.
On better globes of the earth, one can see a figure eight diagram called the Analemma or equation of time. This is a graphic system to show how much our clock is ahead or behind the sun. The ancients did not have watches or clocks. They did not know, nor would they have cared, if it took 365 1/4 days for the sun to complete its cycle. They, therefore did not bother with a leap-year every four years. To them the problem did not exist. The sundial never needed adjusting. They did not need to spring forward an hour in the spring nor fall back and hour in the fall. They needed no February 29th every four years. Nor did they have to add seven months each nineteen years to keep the lunar reckoning in adjustment to the solar. They also ignored the Moon reckoning altogether. The moon calendar is about eleven days shorter than the solar calendar.
March 21st, the vernal spring equinox is the first day of the first month in the solar year. On that day the day and night are exactly even. That is what equinox means. The same occurs on September 23rd in the autumn equinox. No clocks, no moon calendar, no leap days nor leap months, the sun's cycle are perfect! The sun is the governor of the days and years. Since the sun governs and rules, all other systems are subject to the sun. March 21st in the first day of the month of the Sun Calendar used by the pre-Babylonian Israelites.
The zodiac sign, the constellation Aries, or ram is hidden by the sun during the month of the year. The second month Taurus, the bull moves into the Second Gate of the sun. Each month, the sun and the zodiac were in perfect harmony. These stars are "for signs and seasons." No adjustments were necessary.
ON MARCH 21, the sunrise begins on the eastern horizon, dead-center at 90 degrees due east. That position is the First Gate of the sun. THIS IS THE FIRST DAY OF THE YEAR. Day by day, the sunrise edges leftward to the North. One month later, the sun has moved one space of its own diameter to the north. The center of the sun is now in the Second Gate of the sun, in the second month. The sun proceeds through Gate Three to Gate Four. In Gate Four, JUNE 21ST, THE LONGEST DAY OF THE YEAR, the sun has progressed 22 1/2 degrees to the east by north across the horizon or 67 1/2 east by north. On that day, that sun begins to regress back southward through Gates Four, Five, Six, Seven Eight, and Nine.
Now the sun is 22.5 degrees south of due east or 112.5 degrees east by south. On its southward movement from its June 21st position, the sun has moved a full 45 degrees BY DECEMBER 21ST, THE SHORTEST DAY OF THE YEAR. Then on December 21st the sun begins its progression back eastward through Gates Ten, Eleven, and Twelve completing the cycle through the seven annual doors and the twelve annual gates. Thus, the sun swings across the horizon as a pendulum through the seven annual doors and twelve annual gates.The procession also of the zodiac follows each gate of the sun. The constellation Aries, of the ram, is in the First Gate, Taurus, the bull, is in the Second Gate, Gemini the twins is in the Third gate. These are the three months of the Spring. The Fourth Gate is Cancer, the crab. The Fifth Gate is Leo, the lion and the Sixth Gate, Virgo, the virgin. These are the three months of summer. The succession of gates Seven, Eight and Nine are Libra, the balances, Scorpio, the scorpion and Sagittarius, the archer. These are the three gates or months of autumn. Gate Ten, Eleven, and Twelve are Capricorn, the sea goat, Aquarius, the Water Bearer and Pisces, the fish.
This is not astrology. This is astronomy. The stars have no power in themselves. All this power is a matter of physics not metaphysics.
The Creator, Blessed be He, set these signs or zodiac to separate the four seasons of the year. The signs of the zodiac, in combination with the rocking declination of the earth and its relation to the angle which the sun's rays hit the earth, determine our climatic conditions. For example, the earth is much closer to the sun in the winter than it is during the summer. Because of the earth's tilt the southern hemisphere receives the direct rays of the sun. It is summer in the southern hemisphere while it is winter in the northern hemisphere. Because the earth is closer to the sun during winter and receiving more direct angle from the sun, the southern hemisphere is therefore, tropical. While the earth has the same angle of the sun's rays in the northern hemisphere during the summer, the farther distance from the sun makes the zone temperate. All these combinations are infinitely precise day by day, year by year, century by century and age after age, worlds without end.
Since the Creator set the sun and the stars to be governors of the solar order on the Fourth Day of the week, the ancient Israelites began to count the days of the week on the Fourth Day or what we call Wednesday. As seen on the Menorah illustration, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, or Day Four, Day Five and Day Six are ascending to the center shaft of the Menorah, which is the Seventh Day of the week, the Crown of Shabbat. The First Day (Sunday), the Second Day (Monday) and the Third Day (Tuesday) descend from the Shabbat. Thus, Tuesday, the Third Day, ends the weekly cycle and the procession begins again Wednesday, the Fourth Day.
It is interesting to observe, according to this system, that the Creator blessed the First Day of the week (Sunday). However, he did not bless the Second Day (Monday). We might make the conjecture that "Blue Monday" started in the creation. He did not bless it and He only formed or beat out the "Firmament" which he called, "The Heavens" and painted them blue!
For that reason, Orthodox Jews avoid making any new business contracts on Mondays. They never get married on Mondays. Most Jewish wedding occur on Monday night, which, because the next day at Sundown, is Tuesday or the Third Day of the week. We cannot ignore that obvious Jewish tradition in John 2:1 "Now on the Third Day, there was a marriage in Canna of Galilee...."
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FYI: We at MHM may not agree with all of Vendyl Jones
articles,
but on this one, we believe he is right on target.
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Barbara's Comments: It was only after the Babylonian captivity did the Seventh month becomes Tishri and Rosh HaShannah. It was then Tishri 1 became the beginning of the Jewish New Year as we have it today. Beginning after the Fall Equinox, the number of the month was given a name according to the "Babylonian gods" of their captors. These Babylonian names are listed as:
Tishri (7th), Hesvan (8th), Kislev (9th), Tevet (10th), Shevat (11th), Adar (12th), Nisan (1st), Iyar (2nd), Sivan (3rd), Tammuz (4th), Av (5th) and Elul (6th).
So tell me why do we still use them if as Believers in Yeshua Messiah we now know better?Also below we outline the Hebrew months by number's they were called, also called the "Gates of the sun," the Hebrew Mazzaroth (Star Path - Constellation) names, along with the Babylonian equivalent monthly names we found in the Encyclopedia Judaica... and added the 12 Tribes of Jacob according to the Sefer Yetzirah. These are as follows:
Gates/Mazzaroth - Babylonian - Tribe of Jacob
1. Aries (Ram) - Nisan - Judah
2. Taurus (Bull) - Iyar - Issachar
3. Gemini (Twins) - Sivan - Zebulun
4. Cancer (Crab) - Tammuz - Reuben
5. Leo (Lion) - Av - Shimon
6. Virgo (Virgin) - Elul - Gad
7. Libra (Balances) - Tishri - Ephraim
8. Scorpio (Scorpion) - Marshechvan (Hesvan) - Menashe
9. Sagittarius (Archer) - Kislev - Benjamin
10. Capricorn (Sea Goat) - Tevet - Dan
11. Aquarius (Water Bearer) - Shevat - Asher
12. Pisces (Fish) - Adar - Naftali
This article is short, was from a fuller article, but it no longer on-line on the JUBILEE CALENDAR.Shalom,
Rev. Barbara Di Gilio
Mayim's Endnote