First some terminology clarification. The traditional Rabbinic Hebrew Calendar we're used to calling a Lunar Calendar is strictly speaking a Lunisolar Calendar, the phases of the Moon come first but synchronization is done with a Solar year so the seasons don't drift out of place. The same is true of the popular variants like the Samaritan Calendar, the Kariate method and the proposed Lunar Sabbath model. A strictly Lunar Calendar would be something like the Islamic Calendar which makes no attempt to reconcile and so Ramadan has fallen all over the Gregorian Calendar.
But I've lately been questioning the traditional assumption that the Torah's Calendar is Lunar at all.
Let's start with the fact that Genesis 1 on the Fourth Day defines the Moon as ruling the Night not Months. The positions of the Stars are what helps us keep track of what time of year it is.
The Torah has completely different words for Month and Moon, that is not what I'd expect from an ancient strictly Lunar month based culture. Month is Chodesh/Hodesh (Strongs Number 2320) while Moon is Jerah/Yerach (3394). There are a few places where the latter word is used of a passage of time, but that's because even without a lunar calendar the concept of a month is still tied poetically to the Moon somewhat as it's phases come at least close.
Japan for example had a Lunar Calendar until 1873, and that's why their language uses the same word for both Month and Moon, Tsuki. That's why in the English version of episode 6 of my favorite Anime, Noir, it sounds weird when Mireille says "so many Months and Years have passed", in a language where all the word "month" means is a fraction of a year my mind goes "why even include months in that expression?". But I'm pretty sure in the Japanese she's saying "so many Tsuki and Hi", Hi being an alternate word for both Sun and Year and sometimes Day. So a more poetic yet equally literal translation would be "so many Moons and Suns have passed" which sounds more right poetically even if technically equally as redundant.
The phrase "Rosh Chodesh" gets translated "New Moon" sometimes because of our traditional assumptions, but Rosh means the beginning or head of something not "New". Colossians 2:16 is the one New Testament reference to the Jewish concept of the "Rosh Chodesh", and it again uses a Greek word for Month, not Selene the word for the Moon.
Because we think of it as the Crescent New Moon so much talk about Rosh Chodesh is spent on saying we don't know for certain exactly when it is till it happens. With Dispensationalists saying it typologically fits the Pre-Trib Rapture and "no man knowth the day or the hour" verses. But there is one clear Biblical reference to people knowing for certain the next day is a Rosh Chodesh, 1 Samuel 20:5.
The Torah never talks about the Full Moon, even in regards to the Holy Days that should happen about then on a Lunar or Lunisolar calendar. Two verses elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible are often translated as referring to the Full Moon, but those are highly disputable. For Psalm 81 I don't know how to translate it but my hunch is it's about the Jubilee Yom Kippur sounded Shofar. The word for "feast" used here is sometimes used of Sacrificial animals like Exodus 23:18, Psalm 118:27 and Isaiah 29:1, so that could be the Yom Kippur Sin Offering in this verse. The root of the word thought to refer to the Full Moon appears in Leviticus 16:13 where it's translated "cover".
And then there is all the evidence that The Bible clearly thinks of a Month as being 30 days not 29 and a half. It's there when you do the math of the Flood chronology of Genesis 7 and 8 with 5 months being exactly 150 days beginning on the 17th of the second month and ending on the 17th of the seventh month. And it's also in Revelation with 42 Months, 1,260 days and three and a half years being treated as synonymous time periods.
However there is one thing often taken as evidence for a 365 day year in the Torah, and that is how that number happens to be the number of years Enoch lived. But that could be a coincidence.
Genesis 1:14-19 discuses the Sun (greater light), Moon (lesser light) and stars being made for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. But you'll notice in verse 16 the Sun is made and talked about first, it has priority. And months are seemingly missing from the discussion.
It is well known that the Hebrew Calendar was influenced by the Babylonian Calendar during the Captivity, the names we're now used to calling the Hebrew months come from Babylon for one thing. Well the thing is Babylon had a Lunisolar Calendar, so even that aspect of it could be Babylonian in origin.
Lunar Calendars were more popular with the ancient Pagans then you might expect given the modern popular narrative that ancient Paganism always started with Sun worship. In fact the most prominent not at all Lunar Calendar used by Pagans in classical antiquity was the Civil Egyptian calendar, but even they originally had a Lunar one which they kept using for ceremonial purposes. Actually even in Greece the Attic Lunar Calendar's main purpose was for how they observed Pagan festivals.
Now as much as Christians often love to see all things Egyptian as bad, it wasn't the Egyptians much of the Torah is telling the Israelites not to be like, it was the Canaanites, (When Jerusalem is derogatorily called "Sodom and Egypt" it's about them being inhospitable to strangers not any particular customs.). One of the Canaanite tribes was the Amorites, Babylon first became a major player in Mesopotamia under it's Amorite dynasty, so that Babylonian calendar could be Canaanite in origin.
There is one indisputable difference between the Torah Calendar and the Civil Egyptian Calendar, and that is when to start it. Exodus 12 proclaims Aviv (the time of the Barley Harvest, early Spring) to be the first month while the Egyptian Calendar starts near the Autumnal Equinox.
It is a common traditional conjecture that before Exodus 12 the first season was Fall rather then Spring, and that in Exodus 12 YHWH is swapping the First and Seventh months. I'd been thinking of making a post on how we can't entirely prove that using Scripture alone and so shouldn't build so many theories on it. But since they were in Egypt for several generations it's very possible the Egyptian Calendar was their starting point and what month to make the first month was the only change YHWH is making in Exodus 12. Though different agricultural and climate circumstances in Canaan probably brought further differences over time, the Egyptian Calendar was organized around 3 seasons rather then 4 because of how much they were ruled by the flooding of the Nile.
In a hypothetical Torah based Solar Calendar the Intercalary month of five or six days (if that was the method used for synchronization) would go between Adar and Nisan rather then in September. (BTW, those 5 days were when the Egyptians observed the birthdays of Osiris and Horus, not anywhere near Christmas. And the Egyptian new year was September 11th on our calendar coincidentally enough.) Or maybe you would try to put them before the Seventh Month to keep Yom Teruah close to the Fall Equinox.
Genesis 1:14 is possibly using Signs in place of Months, I have over the years gone back and forth on the Mazzaroth/Gospel in the Stars theory. Maybe fellow Mazzaroth proponents should consider that the Star Signs can be an alternative to the Moon for how to determine the months of the year. Josephus did refer to Nisan as being when the Sun is in Aries, in the first century the Sun entered Aries around the Spring Equinox, and that month is indeed when the Barley Harvest happens. The Romans had a Seven Day Barley Festival similar to Unleavened Bread that was the 12-18th of April, but due to the awkwardness of Caesar's revisions that may be off from when in the Sun's journey it was supposed to be.
It is popular to theorize that Revelation 12:1 is describing some astronomical alignment involving the Moon. If it is it could be an exception and not proof the months are usually defined by the Moon. But I'm skeptical of that altogether, I think it's probably a purely supernatural vision and not something predictable using Stelarrium.
Now I do believe the Passover through Pentecost of Christ's Passion, Resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit was likely based on what the Jews of the time were doing regardless of if it was still accurate. But it may be it happened to be a year when they did line up, or at least close enough that First Fruits was the right Sunday.
But maybe not all the Jews were already using the Babylonian Calendar in Christ's time? Maybe it was originally mainly the Pharisees, who became the only sect to survive the 70 AD war? It was the Sadducees who actually controlled the Priesthood and The Temple, and according to Josephus they were a Torah only sect. But that's all conjecture.
The Qumran Community who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls also rejected the Lunar Calendar, the Temple Scroll is our main source on their Calendar but it's discussed in other scrolls too. I don't think that Calendar is right either, like the Lunar Sabbath model it wants to synchronize the monthly and yearly cycle to the weekly cycle by giving every 3rd month an extra day creating a 364 day year. They make the first day of the year a Wednesday because that was the day the Sun and Moon were created. But at least they correctly placed First Fruits and Pentecost on Sundays. Weeks are not even remotely mentioned in the Genesis 1 account of the fourth day, so they aren't connected to the sun, moon or stars.
The Book of Jubilees was popular with them because it too rejected the Lunar Calendar (Chapter 6 verses 32-37, this Calendar also seems to be endorsed by Enoch 72-82). But indeed Jubilees has the same problem as the Temple Scroll system. In fact it's criticism of the lunar system is a little hypocritical since it doesn't line up perfectly with the seasons either, being one day short of a solar year will inevitably create the same issue even if it'd take longer.
The Hebrew Roots movement has a lot of irrational fear of Sun Worship wrapped up into it. Obviously actually worshiping the actual Sun or Moon or any other inanimate object is a Sin. But Malachi does call Jesus the Sun(Shamash) of Righteousness, there is no equivalent title making the Moon a symbol of Jesus. So I have no problem believing Jesus Rose from The Grave at Sunrise on a Sunday Morning, or that he was born on or soon after the Winter Solstice. I'd rather base my calendar on the astronomical object that is explicitly a symbol of Jesus then one that is not.
You might ask "are you gonna also question if Biblical days begin and end with Sunset?" Well I did originally write this assuming the stranded Sunset based structure, that issue will have to be considered in a separate post.
But I'm not just disagreeing with the current Hebrew Roots movement here. This may shock you to learn but the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and other mainstream Christian Churches do use the Moon to calculate "Easter". It's just that explaining why it doesn't always line up with Rabbinic Passover is complicated. In most Languages "Easter" is just called Pascha. If Catholic "Easter" was just a Christianized Spring Solstice festival as many allege it would consistently happen in the 20s of March.
Also remember that as a Six-Day Young Earth Creationist I do believe originally the Solar and Lunar cycles were in sync and there was no need to choose between them. I think that was the case at least until the Flood but maybe also till the time of Joshua or even Hezekiah.
Japan for example had a Lunar Calendar until 1873, and that's why their language uses the same word for both Month and Moon, Tsuki. That's why in the English version of episode 6 of my favorite Anime, Noir, it sounds weird when Mireille says "so many Months and Years have passed", in a language where all the word "month" means is a fraction of a year my mind goes "why even include months in that expression?". But I'm pretty sure in the Japanese she's saying "so many Tsuki and Hi", Hi being an alternate word for both Sun and Year and sometimes Day. So a more poetic yet equally literal translation would be "so many Moons and Suns have passed" which sounds more right poetically even if technically equally as redundant.
The phrase "Rosh Chodesh" gets translated "New Moon" sometimes because of our traditional assumptions, but Rosh means the beginning or head of something not "New". Colossians 2:16 is the one New Testament reference to the Jewish concept of the "Rosh Chodesh", and it again uses a Greek word for Month, not Selene the word for the Moon.
Because we think of it as the Crescent New Moon so much talk about Rosh Chodesh is spent on saying we don't know for certain exactly when it is till it happens. With Dispensationalists saying it typologically fits the Pre-Trib Rapture and "no man knowth the day or the hour" verses. But there is one clear Biblical reference to people knowing for certain the next day is a Rosh Chodesh, 1 Samuel 20:5.
The Torah never talks about the Full Moon, even in regards to the Holy Days that should happen about then on a Lunar or Lunisolar calendar. Two verses elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible are often translated as referring to the Full Moon, but those are highly disputable. For Psalm 81 I don't know how to translate it but my hunch is it's about the Jubilee Yom Kippur sounded Shofar. The word for "feast" used here is sometimes used of Sacrificial animals like Exodus 23:18, Psalm 118:27 and Isaiah 29:1, so that could be the Yom Kippur Sin Offering in this verse. The root of the word thought to refer to the Full Moon appears in Leviticus 16:13 where it's translated "cover".
And then there is all the evidence that The Bible clearly thinks of a Month as being 30 days not 29 and a half. It's there when you do the math of the Flood chronology of Genesis 7 and 8 with 5 months being exactly 150 days beginning on the 17th of the second month and ending on the 17th of the seventh month. And it's also in Revelation with 42 Months, 1,260 days and three and a half years being treated as synonymous time periods.
However there is one thing often taken as evidence for a 365 day year in the Torah, and that is how that number happens to be the number of years Enoch lived. But that could be a coincidence.
Genesis 1:14-19 discuses the Sun (greater light), Moon (lesser light) and stars being made for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. But you'll notice in verse 16 the Sun is made and talked about first, it has priority. And months are seemingly missing from the discussion.
It is well known that the Hebrew Calendar was influenced by the Babylonian Calendar during the Captivity, the names we're now used to calling the Hebrew months come from Babylon for one thing. Well the thing is Babylon had a Lunisolar Calendar, so even that aspect of it could be Babylonian in origin.
Lunar Calendars were more popular with the ancient Pagans then you might expect given the modern popular narrative that ancient Paganism always started with Sun worship. In fact the most prominent not at all Lunar Calendar used by Pagans in classical antiquity was the Civil Egyptian calendar, but even they originally had a Lunar one which they kept using for ceremonial purposes. Actually even in Greece the Attic Lunar Calendar's main purpose was for how they observed Pagan festivals.
Now as much as Christians often love to see all things Egyptian as bad, it wasn't the Egyptians much of the Torah is telling the Israelites not to be like, it was the Canaanites, (When Jerusalem is derogatorily called "Sodom and Egypt" it's about them being inhospitable to strangers not any particular customs.). One of the Canaanite tribes was the Amorites, Babylon first became a major player in Mesopotamia under it's Amorite dynasty, so that Babylonian calendar could be Canaanite in origin.
There is one indisputable difference between the Torah Calendar and the Civil Egyptian Calendar, and that is when to start it. Exodus 12 proclaims Aviv (the time of the Barley Harvest, early Spring) to be the first month while the Egyptian Calendar starts near the Autumnal Equinox.
It is a common traditional conjecture that before Exodus 12 the first season was Fall rather then Spring, and that in Exodus 12 YHWH is swapping the First and Seventh months. I'd been thinking of making a post on how we can't entirely prove that using Scripture alone and so shouldn't build so many theories on it. But since they were in Egypt for several generations it's very possible the Egyptian Calendar was their starting point and what month to make the first month was the only change YHWH is making in Exodus 12. Though different agricultural and climate circumstances in Canaan probably brought further differences over time, the Egyptian Calendar was organized around 3 seasons rather then 4 because of how much they were ruled by the flooding of the Nile.
In a hypothetical Torah based Solar Calendar the Intercalary month of five or six days (if that was the method used for synchronization) would go between Adar and Nisan rather then in September. (BTW, those 5 days were when the Egyptians observed the birthdays of Osiris and Horus, not anywhere near Christmas. And the Egyptian new year was September 11th on our calendar coincidentally enough.) Or maybe you would try to put them before the Seventh Month to keep Yom Teruah close to the Fall Equinox.
Genesis 1:14 is possibly using Signs in place of Months, I have over the years gone back and forth on the Mazzaroth/Gospel in the Stars theory. Maybe fellow Mazzaroth proponents should consider that the Star Signs can be an alternative to the Moon for how to determine the months of the year. Josephus did refer to Nisan as being when the Sun is in Aries, in the first century the Sun entered Aries around the Spring Equinox, and that month is indeed when the Barley Harvest happens. The Romans had a Seven Day Barley Festival similar to Unleavened Bread that was the 12-18th of April, but due to the awkwardness of Caesar's revisions that may be off from when in the Sun's journey it was supposed to be.
It is popular to theorize that Revelation 12:1 is describing some astronomical alignment involving the Moon. If it is it could be an exception and not proof the months are usually defined by the Moon. But I'm skeptical of that altogether, I think it's probably a purely supernatural vision and not something predictable using Stelarrium.
Now I do believe the Passover through Pentecost of Christ's Passion, Resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit was likely based on what the Jews of the time were doing regardless of if it was still accurate. But it may be it happened to be a year when they did line up, or at least close enough that First Fruits was the right Sunday.
But maybe not all the Jews were already using the Babylonian Calendar in Christ's time? Maybe it was originally mainly the Pharisees, who became the only sect to survive the 70 AD war? It was the Sadducees who actually controlled the Priesthood and The Temple, and according to Josephus they were a Torah only sect. But that's all conjecture.
The Qumran Community who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls also rejected the Lunar Calendar, the Temple Scroll is our main source on their Calendar but it's discussed in other scrolls too. I don't think that Calendar is right either, like the Lunar Sabbath model it wants to synchronize the monthly and yearly cycle to the weekly cycle by giving every 3rd month an extra day creating a 364 day year. They make the first day of the year a Wednesday because that was the day the Sun and Moon were created. But at least they correctly placed First Fruits and Pentecost on Sundays. Weeks are not even remotely mentioned in the Genesis 1 account of the fourth day, so they aren't connected to the sun, moon or stars.
The Book of Jubilees was popular with them because it too rejected the Lunar Calendar (Chapter 6 verses 32-37, this Calendar also seems to be endorsed by Enoch 72-82). But indeed Jubilees has the same problem as the Temple Scroll system. In fact it's criticism of the lunar system is a little hypocritical since it doesn't line up perfectly with the seasons either, being one day short of a solar year will inevitably create the same issue even if it'd take longer.
The Hebrew Roots movement has a lot of irrational fear of Sun Worship wrapped up into it. Obviously actually worshiping the actual Sun or Moon or any other inanimate object is a Sin. But Malachi does call Jesus the Sun(Shamash) of Righteousness, there is no equivalent title making the Moon a symbol of Jesus. So I have no problem believing Jesus Rose from The Grave at Sunrise on a Sunday Morning, or that he was born on or soon after the Winter Solstice. I'd rather base my calendar on the astronomical object that is explicitly a symbol of Jesus then one that is not.
You might ask "are you gonna also question if Biblical days begin and end with Sunset?" Well I did originally write this assuming the stranded Sunset based structure, that issue will have to be considered in a separate post.
But I'm not just disagreeing with the current Hebrew Roots movement here. This may shock you to learn but the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and other mainstream Christian Churches do use the Moon to calculate "Easter". It's just that explaining why it doesn't always line up with Rabbinic Passover is complicated. In most Languages "Easter" is just called Pascha. If Catholic "Easter" was just a Christianized Spring Solstice festival as many allege it would consistently happen in the 20s of March.
Also remember that as a Six-Day Young Earth Creationist I do believe originally the Solar and Lunar cycles were in sync and there was no need to choose between them. I think that was the case at least until the Flood but maybe also till the time of Joshua or even Hezekiah.
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