FINDING AN ACCURATE MOLAD (or lunar conjunction) WHEN Elohim (“godkind”, “superkind”) created our solar system through Yahweh (who later became “Jesus Christ”), he made two great lights – the sun and the moon. He ordained them to be for signs, FESTIVALS, for days and for years: Genesis 1:14* ¶ 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: That there was a CALENDAR given is undoubted, because Yahweh points out specific days which are his feasts: Lev 23:5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’S passover. 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: So we have days, months and years. THE HOLY CALENDAR IS FOR THE ENTIRE EARTH, AND ALL FLESH MUST KEEP THE SABBATHS AND THE NEW MOONS ON THE SAME DAYS: Isa 66:23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD. It is wrong for one part of the earth to observe the moon and make the first day of the month a different day from other places on the earth. But how do we know when the first month of the year begins, and when each month begins? The answer is we don’t, unless Yahweh at some point told us, or confirmed what we were in doubt about. When Israel were in Egypt for 430 years, they were reduced to the status of slaves and Yahweh had to specifically TELL MOSES AND AARON PERSONALLY which month was the first month of the year, and which month was the beginning of the 235 months of the 19-year cycle, on which the holy calendar was based. He also CONFIRMED in the wilderness for 40 years which day was the 7th –day Sabbath of rest, by giving twice as much manna on the sixth day of the week (known as Friday), and none on the 7th day which we call “Saturday”. Exodus 12:1 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2* This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. WHO IS THE AUTHORITY FOR THE CALENDAR? YAHWEH is our authority. He is the one who gave the calendar to humanity at the beginning, and knew Abraham, Isaac and Jacob personally, and who CONFIRMED to Moses and Aaron when the months begin. Yahweh (Christ) and his WORD – the Bible, is our authority. We cannot just use other authorities for determining the calendar or when the lunar conjunction occurs. Now people can think up different times when they believe the LUNAR CONJUNCTION occurs (the “new moon”) and how it relates to the first day of the lunar month. Yet the holy calendar, as preserved by the Jews already gives us these days in advance. We do not have to “moonwatch” or observe crescents to know when the 1st day of each month occurs. DIFFERENT VIEWS OF THE TIME OF THE LUNAR CONJUNCTION: Some believe that the first visible crescent of the new moon marks the first day of the month, even though it might have been there the day before but unseen because of clouds. The “church of god in truth” believes that as soon as the moon becomes invisible is the day of the new moon, which can be up to a day before the actual astronomical conjunction (centres of earth, moon and sun in a line). Margo (Wilson) believes the new moon day should be the day in Jerusalem when the conjunction occurs. Yet the authority is still Yahweh, his word the Bible and the holy calendar he entrusted to the Jews to preserve for us. (Which they have done). IS THE BIBLICAL CALENDAR’S MEAN MOLAD VALID? The moon has a very eccentric orbit around the earth (unlike the earth’s orbit round the sun which is rock-solid). The length of its orbit can vary from around 29 ¼ days to 29 ¾ days. So in the holy calendar these variations are AVERAGED OUT – the figures ranging over 1000 lunations (orbits of the moon), and the figures used is EXTREMELY ACCURATE when compared toe NASA’s figure for an average lunation. The advantage of an averaged figure for the moon’s variable orbit time is that you could take this figure and, if you know the time of one conjunction, just add it on to it and you would arrive at the time of the next conjunction, or as many months in the past or future as you wished to go. At the end of a 19 year cycle, the sun, moon and earth return to (almost) where they were exactly 19 years ago. Margo makes a point that the calculated (holy) biblical calendar’s mean molad times (averaged over 1000years), are not as accurate as NASA’s calculated conjunctions individualized for each conjunction. She said “The Hebrew calendar is based on “mean” time, not real time. In particular, the new moons which begin every month (especially the 7th month, …) are based on what is called a Jewish Molad, which is the mean (average) time of the conjunction, not the real time of the conjunction of the moon between the sun and the Earth.” Well, the Gregorian calendar we use has one day as the smallest unit it works with, yet the earth rotates around the sun in 365 ¼ days (roughly), and so the Gregorian calendar is inaccurate most of the time, building up about 6 hours error a year until a leap year of 366 days corrects this error. But this is still more practical than trying to divide a day up into hours. She wants (correct me if I am wrong) all lunar months to begin on the same day as the conjunction, without any link to the days of the week. She also states that if you had no knowledge of the holy calendar, you could work out the conjunctions by yourself by holding a protractor to the crescent before dawn (assuming you could see it without clouds blocking it). Maybe you could do that if you lived in a desert, but we certainly couldn’t do it in the UK as we very often have a cloud cover. The DAYS are determined by the SUN (and the earth’s rotation), the YEARS are determined by the sun and moon in relation to the earth in the holy calendar. The days of the week are governed by the SUN so long as we have not lost the 7-day cycle since creation. But WHAT DETERMINES the months? Why the HOLY CALENDAR. This calendar with its 19-year cycles was given to Moses by Yahweh (Christ) in Egypt when Yahweh told Moses 2 things: This month is the beginning of the 19 year cycle, and (2) this month is the first month of the year for you. Exodus 12:1 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2* This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. “The beginning of months” is a unique phrase and this is the ONLY time this phrase appears in the OT. It refers to the 19-year cycle used in the holy calendar. THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR COULD BE MORE ACCURATE – BUT IS IT MEANT TO BE? The Gregorian calendar which we use for our everyday dates in this world doesn’t show the festivals as it has no link to the moon’s path, it is ONLY a SOLAR (sun-based) calendar. It rounds its time to the nearest DAY. It doesn’t go into parts of days. The earth goes round the sun in 365 ¼ DAYS (roughly), and for the earth to be in the same position relative to the background of stars as the year before we would need to add on about 6 hours every year. So to be extremely accurate about the earth’s orbit when we got to midnight on December 31st, we would have to start the next day at 6am on January 1st, and all the rest of days in that year would have to start at 6am. Then the next year they would have to start at 12 noon on Jan 1st, and the following year at 6pm Jan 1st and the following year at midnight again and we would not have to put in a leap year (making the 4th year 366 days as at present) because this calendar had allowed for that in the last 3 years. Would you be happy with that? Margo? It would be more accurate. But it would be unnecessary. Now, if you get an extremely accurate time for the lunar conjunction, what do you do with it? Apparently you would like to change the holy day known as the “new moon day”. I believe you want to use the day of the conjunction as the first day of the lunar month whatever time it was at Jerusalem, even though it might be a different day somewhere else on earth. Now the problem with this is that if it were one day at Jerusalem, it could already be one day later in New Zealand. So if the new moon day were, for example Thursday, and New Zealand were already in Friday, there is NO WAY they could keep the NEW MOON on Thursday, unless they kept it on the last day of the last month. Here is an example of the innacurracy that could be caused in the world if we took the new moon day to be the day it was in Jerusalem when the lunar conjunction occurred: Say the conjunction occurred in Jerusalem at 5pm on THURSDAY evening (2AM FRIDAY MORNING IN NEW ZEALAND) - that would make, according to Margo, THURSDAY the new moon day. Let’s say it is is the equinox and days begin at 6pm. Now THURSDAY begins in New Zealand (9 hours ahead of Jerusalem time)– on WEDNESDAY evening at 6pm when it is 9am THURSDAY in Jerusalem. So New Zealand would have begun the NEW MOON on THURSDAY (Wednesday evening) SOME 32 hours (one day and 5 hours) BEFORE the conjunction occurred. And the new moon day in New Zealand would be over BEFORE the conjunction occurred. In the holy calendar, the days of the month follow the lunar phases very accurately, but in 60% of cases, the day following the conjunction (Jerusalem time) is the first day of the month. This actually fits in better with the WHOLE EARTH, and occurs mainly because of the postponements (an integral part of the calendar). The 4 postponements are used to determine the day of Trumpets (1st day of 7th month), and are an integral part of the calendar, and were NOT suddenly invented by Hillel 2 in 358 AD. Mr William Dankenbring USES THE MISHNA AS HIS AUTHORITY when he writes about the postponements, and says that in the 1st century the crescent of the moon was observed. At that time the Saducees were in charge of the temple and the high priest was a Saducee. He had been since the time of John Hyrcanus, the high priest just after the time of the Macabees and the “abomination of desolation”. John Hyrcanus was a Pharisee but fell out with the Pharisees over a private matter (discussed in much detail by Josephus if you want to read about it) and so became a SADUCEE. In doing this, he changed the day he kept PENTECOST to “whit Sunday”, and “observed” the crescent of the new moon, as they did at the time of Christ. From that time God’s presence left the temple, and there were NO MORE TRUE PROPHETS FROM MALACHI until JOHN THE BAPTIST AND CHRIST! From the Saducees came the KARAITES, who also observe the crescent of the moon and don’t believe in using POSTPONEMENTS. And basically those who ”observe the moon” rather than using the HOLY CALENDAR today get their doctrines from the KARAITES who go back to the SADUCEES in the time of Christ, and, as Christ said “the Saducees don’t know the scriptures”. Matt 22:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, (the Saducees, Karaites) Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. (Brackets mine). So we have NO POSTPONEMENTS, NO TRUE CALENDAR, AND NO TRUE PROPHETS while the Saducees (Karaites) ruled the temple. So are we going to have a 3rd temple (with no sin or guilt or burnt offerings of course) with the Karaites in charge who “observe” each new moon individually and we cannot plan ahead – if we do we will have a situation similar to the time between Malachi and John the Baptist – God won’t be in that temple! THE POSTPONEMENTS The postponements keep the days of the month in close alignment with the moon’s phases, and link the calendar to the DAYS OF THE 7-DAY WEEK. They are as follows: The 1st day of Tishri must be on the day of the Molad EXCEPT FOR the postponements (dehioth) in 4 specific cases: 1. When the Molad Tishri occurs on a Sunday, Wednesday or Friday, Rosh Hashanah is postponed to the following day. 2. When the Molad Tishri occurs at noon (18h) or later, Rosh Hashanah is postponed to the next day. (Or if this day is a Sunday, Wednesday or Friday, to Monday, Thursday or Sabbath because of Dehiah 1). 3. When the Molad Tishri of a common year falls on Tuesday, 204 parts after 3am, i.e 3d 9h 204p or later, Rosh Hashanah is postponed to Wednesday, and, because of Dehiah 1), further postponed to Thursday. 4. When, in a common year succeeding a leap year, the Molad Tishri occurs on Monday morning 589 parts after 9am, i.e. 2d 15h 589p or later, Rosh Hashanah is postponed to the next day. From Arthur Spier’s notes in his book “the comprehensive Hebrew calendar”: …”in more than 60% of all years (THE DAY OF TRUMPETS) .. is postponed. … It is OBVIOUSLY NOT THE INTENTION OF THE CALENDAR CALCULATION TO ESTABLISH ROSH HASHANAH AND THE BEGINNINGS OF THE MONTHS ON THE DAY OF THE CONJUNCTION. …” NOTE: Having the month begin on the day in Jerusalem on which the conjunction occurs is not the best way either for the phases of the moon, or for the entire earth. A conjunction occurring very early, Jerusalem time, could be very inaccurate for the far east. The crescent of the moon does not become visible for at least nearly one day after the conjunction, and the postponements link the months close to the when the visible crescent will appear around the earth. The first postponement means the Day of Atonement will not occur on a Friday or Sunday (though with the Saducees in charge, it sometimes did). It also means that the 7th day of the feast of tabernacles cannot occur on a 7th-day Sabbath (Saturday). THIS HAS BIBLICAL AUTHORITY, which I will show shortly. The second postponement allows for greater accuracy in the visibility of the crescent moon around the earth – if the conjunction of 1st Tishri in Jerusalem is after 12 noon, then the Day of trumpets is postponed one or 2 days. The moon would only be 6 hours old in Jerusalem at sunset and could never be seen. It can take up to 24 hours for the visible crescent to show somewhere in the world. The holy calendar also allows for intercalating a 13th month in certain years to preserve the first month as the MONTH OF RIPENING BARLEY. This has BIBLICAL AUTHORITY: De 16:1* Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. (The Hebrew word “observe” has the sense of preserving, guarding and keeping the month of ripe barley in the SPRINGTIME.) The third and fourth postponements are mathematical calculations to allow for the correct length of year to balance the solar and lunar years so that PASSOVER is preserved in the SPRINGTIME, as the scriptural authority commands. BIBLICAL AUTHORITY FOR THE FIRST POSTPONEMENT The first rule (postponement) in the holy calendar is that the 7th day of the Feast of Tabernacles must not occur on a 7th day weekly Sabbath (Saturday). Lev 23:41 And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: The commanded time to stay in temporary dwellings (booths) is 7 days. The feast of tabernacles runs for 7 days, with the 8th day being a separate feast, called the “last great day”. Now there are examples in the bible of course, of people staying at the feast site for all 8 days, even one time staying for another week because they were having such a good time. Of course it is quite OK to stay at the Feast site for all 8 days. You do not HAVE to go home after 7 days, but you can if such an arrangement were necessary. BUT if someone had very pressing commitments at work or at home, or if they had book a 7-day holiday, they COULD stay 7 nights at the feast site and travel home and keep the Last Great Day at home in their own house. This rule of the calendar allows for the 7th day of the Feast of Tabernacles to be kept free for travelling home (if this suits the person better). Also this first postponement stops the Day of Atonement (a fast day) from occurring on a Friday or Sunday – so that you do not have to go from a fast to a feast (weekly Sabbath) or from a feast to a fast (Saturday to Sunday). This is a practical rule built into the calendar. WHERE IS THE BIBLICAL AUTHORITY FOR BEGINNING THE MONTH EITHER ON THE DAY OF THE CONJUNCTION, OR ONE OR TWO DAYS AFTER? Who has the authority to say? Well, Yahweh has, and Moses got his authority from him to say which month was the beginning of the cycle of 19 years used in the holy calendar. He was also told that this month was the first month of the year for him. Exodus 12:1 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2* This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. NO MENTION OF WHEN THE CONJUNCTION OCCURRED OR WHEN THE CRESCENT WAS FIRST SIGHTED. JUST THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE 19 YEAR CYCLE was given with its calculations and details. Moses was NOT living in the dark ages, with no knowledge of Yahweh, or without urim and thummim and without a teaching priest. He did NOT have to observe the crescent in the morning with a protractor (although that sounds interesting, and might be good to know), or rely on seeing the crescent in the evening hoping it would not be cloudy. With the holy calendar we do not have to rely on CHANCE and INACCURATE measurements. The holy calendar used 19 years as a unit of time for the days, years and festivals ordained in Genesis 1. The molad on Monday 8th July (2nd day of the week) occurred at 8.15 am British Summer Time which is 7.15 am Greenwich Mean Time in LONDON, UK. That would be 10.15am in Jerusalem and 7.15 pm in Auckland, New Zealand (the THIRD day of the week) and 7.15 pm in Honolulu the SECOND day of the week. So when the MOLAD occurred it was the SECOND day of the week and the THIRD day of the week at different places on earth. So do you count Monday or Tuesday as the NEW MOON DAY? When the CONJUNCTION OCCURS do you count the NEW MOON DAY as the SAME DAY or the NEXT DAY? If the conjunction occurred 1 minute before sunset in wherever on earth you decided to work from, then NEARLY ALL OF THAT DAY WOULD BE IN THE OLD MONTH. The first COMPLETE DAY in the NEW MONTH would be the day after the conjunction. This is why the biblical 19-year calendar has a rule that if the conjunction occurs after 12 noon (on the 1st Tishri only) the new moon day is postponed to THE FOLLOWING DAY. This sets the entire calendar more accurately. AN ASSUMPTION IS NOT A FACT Margo, you are making ASSUMPTIONS appear as FACTS: You said: “…the ancient practice of observing the waning crescent just before sunrise (or a mid-day) and estimating the time the moon moves into alignment with the sun is still a rather good way to predictably estimate the time of the conjunction even for people who might be isolated from astronomical tables. This was undoubtedly the way David knew that the next day was the day of the new moon in 1 Sam 20:5-6…” I would disagree and would say that it was undoubtedly NOT the way David knew the new moon was the next day, and that David knew the 19-year cycled holy calendar given by Yahweh to Moses on Mount Sinai. David said: Ps 119:100 I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. Margo said “In summary, then, the day of a new moon is the day in progress at Jerusalem at the precise instant of the astronomical conjunction.” Margo, you are saying that without ANY biblical authority or any references. Where did you get it from? In actual fact that IS the way the holy calendar works, but there are 4 postponements which can make the holy new moon day a day or two later. One is if it occurs later than 12 noon, and the 2nd is that the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles must not be a weekly Sabbath (but the Last Great Day can be a weekly Sabbath.) The holy calendar links in with the days of the 7-day week. The calendar is not just about months (Genesis 1 does not even say the moon is for months, although it is for FESTIVALS and they of course depend on the sun and moon’s positions.) You also said (ASSUMED): “This day of the new moon is the first day of a month. The month then proceeds for a total of usually 29 or 30 days, up to and through the day preceding the day of the next new moon. That is the Biblical definition of a month, as defined by the heavenly bodies in the sky! Very simple!” There is NOTHING in the Bible to support this assumption and IT IS NOT THE BIBLICAL DEFINITION OF A MONTH. It is Margo’s definition of the month (or someone else’s she got this from). Margo said: “In the ancient past, people were forced to rely on direct observations and rough calculations because they did not have the accurate astronomical calculations that we have in this modern technological age to determine the precise moment of the conjunction. “ Well, yes people who did not have access to God’s personal revelation or to the preserved oracles of God might have to do that. Those who were living in ignorance. OTHER ASSUMPTIONS MADE ABOUT THE CALENDAR: It is ASSUMED by some that Hillel 2 INVENTED the 4 postponents included in the holy calendar in 358 AD. That he stuck them into the calculations there and then without them being included before. It is ASSUMED by some that the Mishna’s description of the “observation of the crescent moon” in Jerusalem is the way CHRIST kept the festivals. Remember Christ (Yahweh) was the one who told Moses which day was the new moon in Egypt before the Passover. NO MENTION is made of him telling Moses to observe the moon either after sunset or before sunrise. The Karaites who teach some of these things come from the Saducees at the time of Christ, and Christ said THE SADUCEES DID NOT KNOW THE SCRIPTURES.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 08:46:37 +0000
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