HaDerech: It’s About Time

Khirbet (=ruins of) Qumran

The Most High performs His bidding at very specific times; in fact, the Hebrew word for these are mo’edim meaning “appointed times.”

As was previously discussed, the modern Jewry follows the Masoretic calendar based on the pagan Babylonian model since the time of the Kingdom of Judah’s captivity. In fact, the fourth (or tenth!) month — depending on whether the religious or civil calendar is employed — is named for the Babylonian deity Tammuz. The “rabbinic sages” state the Creation Week took place in the seventh (or first!) month of Tishri. However, Torah clearly states that the first month is Abib! See Exodus 13:3-4, 23:15, 34:18 and Deuteronomy 16:1. They place more faith in the Talmud Bavli (=Babylonian Talmud) than they do the TaNaKh (OT). They have continually rejected the Most High, yet a remnant of believers have always remained (Romans 11).

Why should one care about calendars anyway? That is explained thoroughly in my Mo’edim series. What does the Bible state about God’s calendar conveyed to Enoch? As we saw above, the first month is Abib. The appointed times are spelled out in Leviticus 23 with the jubilees explained in Leviticus 25:1-22. The priestly courses or divisions (Heb. mishmarot) are listed in 1 Chronicles 24:7-19.

Before exploring that further, let’s examine the pagan Gregorian calendar adopted by nearly the entire world starting in October 1582. It was a refinement to the Julian calendar proposed by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE, which was a reform of the calendar of the Roman Republic.

Let’s review the original, first four months of that Roman Republic calendar (the remainder were essentially enumerated):

• Martius – named after Mars, the god of war
• Aprilis – named after Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality
• Maius – named after Maia, one of the Pleiades and mother of Hermes
• Iunius – named after Juno, the goddess of marriage and childbirth

As the calendar evolved, three more months were added and became the “new” beginning of the year (i.e., moved from March to January):

• Ianuarius – named after Janus, the two-faced god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and ending
• Februarius – named after Februa, Lat. for “purifications” or “purgings”
• Mercedonius (an intercalary month) – meaning the “month of wages;” this month was removed during the Julian reform

The Roman Senate renamed the month of Quintilis, formerly the fifth month, to July in honor of then general Julius Caesar. Likewise, Sextilis, formerly the sixth month, was renamed August in honor of Augustus in 8 BCE. Again, the Most High named the first month Abib and simply enumerated the rest.

Examine the etymology of our modern weekdays:

• Sunday – day of the sun
• Monday – day of the moon
• Tuesday – day of Tiwaz, god of the sky
• Wednesday – Woden’s/Odin’s day
• Thursday – Thor’s day
• Friday – Frigga’s day, Odin’s wife
• Saturday – Saturn’s day

That represents a broad range of polytheistic assimilation still preserved in our modern calendar, but that’s not all! Hours originated with the Egyptians, minutes and seconds from the Babylonian’s sexagesimal (base-60) system, and the Romans began their “day” at midnight. None of this is in accordance with the timekeeping of the Most High; in fact, it represents an ABOMINATION!

Enter Dionysius Exiguus (aka Dennis the Small), a 6th century CE, Scythian monk who ineptly manufactured the anno Domini (AD) system of year accounting. As we know from the Book of Luke, Christ was NOT born in 1 AD but on the Feast of Weeks in 6 CE during the census of Quirinius; see Luke 2:2. This monk also computed his infamous Easter Tables, which ensured that the “early church’s” celebration of Easter — covertly paying homage to a spring fertility goddess of the dawn and NOT Christ’s resurrection on 18 Abib in 36 CE — would NEVER coincide with Passover, when He was crucified on 14 Abib! These same Easter Tables were used to extrapolate the alleged birthdate of Christ, which “happened” to correlate with the birth of the assimilated god Mithra(s) on December 25th. Here’s the mystery: The ONLY thing in Christmas is Mithra(s)! Folks, just like rabbinic Judaism, the only basis of the Catholic “esoteric mysteries” is assimilated paganism. Many of these pagan traditions were carried over into Protestantism after the Reformation. Recall that Martin Luther (a corruption of Ludher) was a Catholic friar protesting indulgences among other things in his Ninety-five Theses.

If the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth of the mo’edim is not found in rabbinic Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism, nor any of the other “flavors” of modern Christendom, then where may it be found? The answer was rediscovered with the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) and the “sect” called The Way (Heb. HaDerech) in Acts. From a calendrical perspective, the four most important artifacts to survive were the:

• Solar calendar, mishmarot (priestly divisions), and lunar cycles;
• Jubilees (or “weeks of years”);
• Course of the Sun based on 1 Enoch; and
• The history of the world from the Creation until Israel’s Crossing into the Promised Land in 2450 AM, in the last year of the 50th jubilee from Creation, as is recorded in Jubilees.

Note: 1 Enoch and Jubilees were the third and sixth most frequent manuscripts discovered among the DSS, respectively. Both of these manuscripts were also discovered in Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia) and translated prior to the DSS.

How can a 364-yom solar calendar be of the Most High? It’s really easy when you stop to think about it. All of our modern timekeeping methods are based upon ancient pagan constructs discussed above. God’s “day” does not start at midnight; a yom is composed of an evening and morning (Genesis 1:5) with its commencement when the sun’s orb sits just atop the western horizon at twilight (Exodus 12:6). This is reinforced by Alex Filippenko in his third lecture entitled “Sunrise, Sunset” of the DVD series “Understanding the Universe: Introduction to Astronomy.” After that point when the sun “kisses” the horizon at sunset, we are simply viewing atmospheric refraction. God’s “day” is not comprised of 24 hours; a yom is divided into 18 portions. God’s months are not composed of a combination of 28/29, 30, or 31 days but contain 30 yomim (plural of yom) with seasonal markers (intercalary days) for the equinoxes and solstices, but not by modern definitions. According to 1 Enoch, the equinoxes occur on the first of two yomim on which the sun sets due west (270 degrees) and rises due east (90 degrees) presumably in Jerusalem.

For a year to be comprised of 364 yomim — instead of 365.25636 SI days in a sidereal year, that means that a yom must be slightly longer than a SI day. Why a sidereal year? Because God uses the sun, moon, and stars for signs, seasons, days, and years (Genesis 1:14). If the 364-yom year is used as the basis, then the conversion factor is 1.00345153846 SI days per yom (i.e., 365.25636 / 364). Applying that conversion factor to a 24-hour SI day, we discover that a yom is exactly 4 minutes 58.2129230769 seconds longer!  How can we know when the TRUE vernal equinox occurs?  Again, the answer is found in the Qumran calendar.  Every three years, a full moon is observed on 1 Abib, or God’s New Year’s Day (cf. Lunar Cycle 1 of 3); the day immediately following the vernal equinox.  This event is called a “sign” (Heb. ‘ot; pl. ‘otot); see the Jubilee accounting of years.  From the “evening” of March 19, 2018, through the “morning” of March 19, 2019, we are in Lunar Cycle 3 of 3.  A full moon does, in fact, occur on 1 Abib of the following year (Lunar Cycle 1 of 3), which is observed between the “evening” of March 19, 2019, and the “morning” of March 20, 2019.  For more information on equinoxes, see here.

A consequence of a yom being slightly longer than a SI day, is that “day slippage” will occur at some point of the year between the Enochian and Gregorian calendars. Think crossing the arbitrary International Date Line.  God’s mo’edim occur on the same day every year just as He conveyed (e.g., Exodus 12:14).  This slippage always occurs on an intercalary day of the summer solstice, autumnal equinox, and/or winter solstice.

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Be sure to read the companion articles in the HaDerech (The Way) series:

• HaDerech: Who Penned the Dead Sea Scrolls?
• HaDerech: Evidence of THE WAY in Acts
• The Greatest Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Shema Yisrael! (Hear, Israel!)

Copyright (C) 1995-2018, L. Alan Schuetz. All rights reserved.

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2 Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. (NASB 1995)

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