Some alternate Torah calendars have become popular online lately, in particular I’ve been skeptical of those that try to synchronize the weeks to the months or at least year, like the Lunar Sabbath Calendar or the Jubilees Calendar.
Neither of those actually make the first day of the first month the first day of the week, they come up with excuses for starting the year on the same day of the week every year yet not choosing the first day.
Christians of course aren’t inclined to support a calendar that does always start Aviv on a Sunday because then the 14th of Aviv would always fall on the Sabbath, and placing the Crucifixion on the Sabbath is virtually the most impossible model.
But I have been rethinking some things.
For starters I am making this theory in the context of my prior arguing against the Torah using a Lunar Calendar as well as for starting the day at Sunrise rather than Sunset. So my mind is presuming that as I think about all this, but it could still be compatible with more traditional assumptions about those two issues.
I’ve been thinking about the flexibility of the usage of the name Peshach/Pascha. (Commonly translated Passover but I've seen some Hebrew scholars say it really means Protection or Protector.) Christians debating Friday, Thursday or Wednesday Crucifixion models are often focusing mostly on the rather strict use of the term in Exodus 12, Leviticus 23 and some other passages for the 14th. But by NT times common Jewish usage was treating it as synonymous with the entire Festival of Unleavened Bread which is largely how modern Rabbinic Jews still use the word. Acts 12 clearly has it still Pascha during Unleavened Bread.
The Hebrew Bible itself actually started that expansion of Peshach’s application in Deuteronomy 16 and Ezekiel 45:21-24. Of the Five Books in the Pentateuch Jesus quoted Deuteronomy more than any other, the same is true of the New Testament as a whole, so maybe their definitions for Pascha are based on that book more so than Exodus, Leviticus or Numbers?
So if we study Leviticus 23 under the assumption that for the first month the days numbered a multiple of seven are the Sabbaths. That would make two of the days that are important observances of that month fall on the weekly Sabbath, the 14th which is YHWH’s Peshach, and the 21st which is the Seventh Day of Unleavened Bread.
For Unleavened Bread both the first and seventh days are defined as a Holy Convocation in which no servile work shall be done, obviously they both can’t be the actual weekly Sabbath, and neither is directly called a Sabbath the way the Holy Convocation days of the 7th month are later, but the last day of Unleavened Bread is defined in the text by it’s Seventhness rather then it’s Lastness which I think can be seen as implying it.
Leviticus 23:9-15 describes the first day of the Omer. Which is commonly called by Christians interested in this stuff "First Fruits", however that can be confusing because in English Bibles that term is also associated with Pentecost, but the Hebrew words are different and at least the one used in this section isn’t in it’s etymology referencing fruit. I like to call it Aparche, the equivalent Greek word which is used for The Resurrection of Jesus in 1 Corinthians 15, it rolls off the tongue easier then the Hebrew. The Aparche is NOT part of Numbers 28, the word for Firstfruits there is the one used in Leviticus 23 of Pentecost.
The timing of the Aparche is defined as the day after the Sabbath, in context the Sabbath that follows Peshach is implicit. I in the past and others opposing Sabbath synchronized calendars have argued it being described this way instead of simply the 16th or some other date shows that day won’t always be the same day of the month. However the Seventh day of Unleavened Bread isn’t defined as the 21st in Leviticus 23 either. The Spring Holy Days are directly connected to each other more so then the Fall Holy Days. The context of this section following the Seventh Day of Unleavened Bread being a Holy Convocation in which no servile work is to be done I now feel reasonably implies that day is the Sabbath being referred to in verse 11. So in the model I'm proposing the Aparche offering is the 22nd of the first month.
And then in verse 14 we are told that bread, parched corn and green ears are things we are to not eat until this Aparche offering is made. During Unleavened Bread you absolutely are supposed to be eating Matzah (unleavened bread), some argue Lehem always means specifically leavened bread, I’m unsure on that as a general rule but in context it certainly does here. So verse 14 basically defined this day as the day we return to eating what we were restricted from eating during Unleavened Bread in Exodus 12:20.
Leviticus 23:13 is also the only time the word "wine" appears in the KJV of this chapter. The Hebrew is Yayin which of the Hebrew words translated Wine is definitely one that refers specifically to fermented Wine. In Exodus 12:20 the word the KJV translated "leavened" the Young's Literal Translation renders "fermented", some Karaites believe this refers to more then just Unleavened Bread, my interpretation of the Aparche here agrees with that. Also Yeast is used in Fermenting Wine which I didn't even originally know. Numbers 28:24 confirms that Drink Offerings are part of the days of Unleavened Bread, so "fruit of the vine" can be drank during those days, just not fermented Wine.
In John 20:17 Jesus tells Mary not to touch Him because He hasn’t ascended to The Father yet, since later in the same day the disciples are allowed to touch him, that implies some brief ascension happened, and people studying the Feast Days have argued this was him as our High Priest making the Aparche offering. Leviticus 23:12 refers to a Lamb being offered at this time, but doesn’t say the Lamb was killed that day. Now don’t get me wrong I’m sure literal Lambs offered that day were probably killed that morning, but the wording here gives us room to typologically view this Lamb as the Risen Jesus presenting Himself to The Father. 1 Peter 1:19 could have a lot of Torah Scriptures in mind, but in the KJV wording it’s arguably most directly quoting Leviticus 23:12 "lamb without blemish".
In Deuteronomy 16 it is contextually Peshach as a name for Unleavened Bread that is required to be observed in Jerusalem with animals killed in The Tabernacle/Temple, probably the same Sacrifices as Numbers 28:17-25, because the establishment of the Pilgrimage Festivals in Exodus 23:14-17 includes Unleavened Bread but not Peshach. The 14th of Aviv Peshach was a family matter not a Levitical Sacrifice, it did not have to be in the same city as The Mishkan and was killed by the head of the Household not a Kohen. I think that is the Supper being eaten in Bethany at the start of John 12, and then the 15th is the Day of the Triumphal Entry aka Palm Sunday.
“How does the 10th of Aviv’s significance from Exodus 12 fit in then?” You may ask. Well that is not one of the ordained to be repeated observances of Leviticus 23, there are only two other references in all of The Hebrew Bible to the 10th day of the first month being a day where something happened. Ezekiel 40:1 where that is the date of the day Ezekiel had the vision the rest of that book is describing. And Joshua 4:19 where it’s the day The Israelites encamped at Gilgal. Gilgal could be related to the place called Ephraim in John 11, but speaking of John 11 it’s clear in John 11-12 that the raising of Lazarus really spiked Jesus’s popularity, in a very real sense that is the day He was chosen by the people.
But going back to my point about Deuteronomy 16. I think even if Pascha is always used in a singular form, it’s still a meal that is eaten every evening during this week. That’s how The Last Supper could be a Pascha Meal but there was also a Pascha being prepared while Jesus was on The Cross in John 19:14.
In Matthew 26 I believe the first five verses should be the end of chapter 25, they tell us when the Olivet Discourse happened not anything in the following verses. Regardless, two days before the Pascha sounds like there is one specific Pascha in mind, as does John 12:1. It could be that the narrative voice of The Gospels is sometimes using Pascha specifically of the day of the Crucifixion and/or The Last Supper in timing statements like these.
However for John 12:1 the Peshita reads "before the Six Days of Peshka" which sounds like a direct reference to Deuteronomy 16:8.
Matthew 26, Mark 14 and Luke 22 are all chronologically jumping backwards when they talk about Jesus being anointed for burial and the argument with Judas then Judas deciding to betray Jesus over it which we know from John 12 all happened the day prior to the Triumphal entry. And so likewise the following part about making the arrangements for the Upper Room and Pascha may have also been done the same day as the Triumphal Entry, then it transitions back to the present for the Last Supper. Meaning Matthew 26:2, Mark 14:1 and Luke 22:1 could be referring to two days before the Triumphal Entry.
Now I know the main objection some are going to have is that this weakens the Typology of Jesus as The Lamb which we’ve usually thought of as the Exodus 12 Peshach Lamb first and foremost. But that Lamb isn’t a Sin Offering as The Lamb of God is clearly defined as being in both John 1 and when Paul says Jesus was made Sin for us in 2 Corinthians 5:21.. No Sin Offering is ordained for the 14th anywhere in The Torah, but Numbers 28 and Ezekiel 45 do have Sin Offerings happening during the Seven Day Festival. Jesus ultimately fulfills all the Sacrifices not just one.
This also forces me to become a supporter of a Friday Crucifixion model, since now every reference to a Preparation day in The Gospels would have to be Friday, the preparation for The Sabbath. In the past I’d always been bothered by the Seventh Day of Unleavened Bread having no significance to The Gospel narrative, but in this model that day can be identified with the Sabbath being referred to in those passages and called a High Day in John 19:31.
Friday is the day Adam was created, The Last Adam goes into the Earth the same day the first Adam was formed out of it. The Torah constantly counts days Inclusively, like how the time for Circumcision is always determined. The "Three days and three nights" statement is said only once and in the context of referencing Jonah, exactly how long it would be was not the actual point.
That makes the Crucifixion the 20th day of the First Month, that day is never singled out anywhere in The Hebrew Bible. But I think that’s good actually, I don’t like how often Western Christians make the Crucifixion equal to or even more important then The Resurrection. The Resurrection is what the Point of all this was, so that being the day the Aviv Holy Days are all building up to is perfect.
The rest of this post is more speculative and not vital to the main argument.
I still view a Biblical Month as 30 days. So the Seventh month won’t automatically start on a Sabbath. But the Egyptian Calendar the Hebrews would have been using as their starting point put their extra days before the first fall month. So maybe Leviticus 23 was in part telling them to start the Seventh Month on the Sabbath following the 30th of the sixth month. There is a natural logic to the Seventh Month having its Holy Days uniquely tied to The Sabbath.
While three of the four Holy Days that are called Sabbaths in the Seventh Month are days that would indeed always be the same day of the week as each other, Yom Kippur on the Tenth is the odd one out. Maybe that’s partly why the 9th day is also given special attention, since being a day sandwiched between the Weekly Sabbath and this special Sabbath would no doubt make it a very work heavy day.
The day of the Week that Yom Kippur would always fall on in this model would be the second day, (what we now call Monday if it lined up with our modern weeks). In Genesis 2 that’s the day of the Creation of the Firmament/Heaven, maybe there’s a thematic connection there to Yom Kippur being the day The High Priest crossed the Veil to enter the Holy of Holies.
If the 7th and 8th months are again 30 day months then at the end of the ninth and early tenth month the 8 days of Hanukkah both starts and ends with a Sabbath like the 8 days of Tabernacles, 1 Maccabees 10:21 as well as 2 Maccabees 1:9&18 and 10:6 define Hanukkah as a sort of second Tabernacles so that lines up well.
What Sunday should we start this new proposed Calendar on? I’m thinking either the Sunday closest to the Spring Equinox, or the first Sunday after it. For the time being the Spring Equinox will almost always be falling on March 20th. So for 2022 the first Sunday after model would have Aviv start on March 27th which actually happens to line up with the official Easter observance.
Or maybe it shouldn't be expected to line up with our current Gregorian Calendar weeks at all.
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