Friday, June 28, 2019

The Origin Of The Biblical Calendar Hebrew

By Harold Brooks


While most are more familiar with the Gregorian calendars, most Jews would make use of a different formats for their calendars. This is known as the Biblical Calendar Hebrew style. While they are pretty similar, these types of calendars have their own specific differences as compared to the more modern ones.

The calendars in the Bible did not use this system that is used today known as the Gregorian calendar as they used an older system that included the important feasts that must be observed. In the Bible, it is important for the followers to follow the exact days of the feast for proper worship. For that, the Jews revolved the dates around the times at which they need to have a worship feast.

That said, the modern Jewish calendars are more calculated and have some sort of mathematical basis to them. The old version, on the other hand, was based on pure observation of the sky and the weather. Of course, the Bible did state how exactly the people were able to tell dates based on the instructions of God.

To know how the followers observed dates, it is very important to go back to the very first book of the Bible which is Genesis. According to Genesis one verse fourteen, God said that there will be a light in Heaven that separates the light and darkness in the sky and there will be seasons. That was how God taught the people of Israel at that time how to observe dates wherein they must gather for the Passover.

One of the first indicators of time would be the presence of light in the sky and darkness. This can actually be found in the book of Genesis wherein God says that there will be light called the day and there will be darkness called the night. If one day and one night pass, then it will already be considered a full day.

In order to observe weeks, God stated that when both day and night pass seven times, then one whole week has passed. In Genesis, he regards one whole cycle of seven days as the Shabbua or the Sabbath because it took him seven cycles to make the earth. It is sort of a symbolism that signifies perfection.

To count the months, Deuteronomy chapter sixteen stated that the followers are supposed to observe the month of Abib which is said to occur on the chodesh or new moon in English. Now, for a month to pass, the moon would go through phases from a full moon to a half moon and then a crescent moon. After that cycle, it will go back to its original state and will signify the time to observe the Passover.

Lastly would be the counting of the years wherein the start of the year would be the month of Abib. Now, the book of Exodus gives a very clear depiction of the state of the environment depending on what month it is in the year which is how the Jews knew which month was which. Again, this was all done through observation and the calculations only came in the later years.




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