Calendar comparisons
Contents
A Brief Summary of Calendars
When one speaks of calendars you are referring to a system that measures and names the periods of time. These names are called dates and they are usually based on the perceived motion of the celestial bodies.
Yahweh-Elohim determined on the fourth day of Moses' vision in the mount that,"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; And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And Elohim made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And Elohim set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and Elohim saw that it was good. And the evening and morning was the fourth day"(Gen 1:14-19). So we see that by DIVINE authority the sun, moon, and stars are the OFFICIAL TIMEKEEPERS of this physical creation.
The basic format of calendars are:
- Solar: based on perceived seasonal changes synchronized to the apparent motion to the sun
- Lunar: synchronized to the motion of the moon
- Lunisolar: synchronized to the motion of the moon AND the sun
- Arbitrary: not synchronized to either the moon or the sun.
(The concept of the week has NO direct astronomical basis.)
In this treatise our primary comparison is between the Hebrew and the Gregorian calendars.
Hebrew Calendar
"And Yahweh spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying,'This month shall be the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.'" (Ex 12:1-2) "This day came ye out in the month Abib." (Ex 13:4)
The Hebrew calendar is a lunisolar calendar. That means that it is based on the motion of the moon, which revolutions around the earth every 29 1/2 days while the earth completes its revolution around the sun in twelve months (365 1/4 days). Thus a lunar year is 354 days (29 1/2 x 12) Because there is an eleven days shortage compared to the solar year and the days compile in successive years, an intercalary month (lunar month) is added every two to three years within a 19-year cycle of 235 lunar months to bring the calendar in sync with the observational aspect of the seasons as exhibited by the 'motion' of the sun.
Abib or Nisan (April) is the first month of the ecclesiastical year because it has the first festivals related to the first harvests of grain and fruits. Tishri (October) is the first month of the civil year. The reason this is the case is due to the belief of the Hebrew that the world was created on the first day of Tishri 3761 BC.
When the man Adam was in the garden the sun was in its zenith or highest point and DID NOT move until the transgression had been committed. Then it was in the 'cool of the day' (Gen 3:8) that TIME began as the SUN began to move downward as it reflected the mental state of the earthly created SON going into darkness. Time is based on the movement of the celestial bodies.
Gregorian Calendar
The Gregorian calendar was instituted by Pope Gregory XIII because the Julian calendar had become too long and was flawed in its calculations to determine the date for Easter. The Julian calendar was instituted by Julius Caesar who appropriated it from the Egyptian solar calendar. What Caesar did was institute adding a leap day every four years to bring the calendar back into harmony. It was a ten-month calendar but with each wave of successive emperors they tweaked it, changed names of months, added months, etc. until the time came when Pope Gregory simply erased 10 days from the calendar to bring it into sync. Also he instituted a system where the leap year will NOT fall on a year with two zeroes in it that is not divisible by 400. (1900-not leap year, 2000-leap year, 2100-not leap year)
Also the Gregorian calendar continues to use the marking system created by Dionysius Exiguus which is known as Anno Domini Nostri Jesu Christi (Years of our Master Jesus Christ) or simply A.D. This was incorporated into the Julian calendar by Dionysius in the sixth century A.D.
The four years error in the Gregorian calendar is due to in part to the non-specific dating of the Messiah's birth. Most scholars interpret Dionysius' result as pinpointing the year 1 BC or 1 AD. (The zero was not used at this time.) Some say he made mistakes in certain calculations. The German mathematician Johannes Kepler pointed out that in the writings of first century historian Flavius Josephus that the Messiah, who was born in the same year that Herod the Great died, there occurred a lunar eclipse. He determined that the eclipse happened in 4 BC. Many historians have given credence to this viewpoint. The general concensus for the date is between 8 BC-4 BC. For our purposes we will stick with 'four years error'. When determining dates in 'BC' one must SUBTRACT the 4 years whereas in the 'AD' era one must ADD the 4 years.
Important Terms
- B.C. - Before Christ
- B.C.E. - Before Common(or Christian)Era
- C.E. - Common(or Christian)Era
- A.M. - Anno Mundi(year of the world)
- A.D. - Anno Domini(year of the master)
Calculations
Because one calendar is lunisolar and the other a solar calendar there are bound to be numerical differences that have added up for thousands of years. Let us see:
4004 B.C. - year Adam cast out of garden - 4 B.C. - year Yahshua born ---- 4000 - years from Adam to Yahshua
* 2006 A.D. - Yahshua's birth to present time
6006 years + 4 years error ---- 6010 years from Adam cast out of garden
* 5767 A.M. - upcoming year, Hebrew calendar (Oct 2006) * 243 years difference between Hebrew & Gregorian calendars
3761 B.C. - year world was created according to the Hebrews +243 - years difference between the calendars ---- 4004 B.C. - year Adam cast out of the garden
Because Yahshua's life was under the dispensation of the law (Gal 4:4) his 33 years should NOT be included in this present age:
2006 A.D. + 4 years error ---- 2010 A.D. - 33 years of Yahshua's life(or day of Pentecost A.D. 33) ---- 1977 years that has expired in this Present Age
Yahweh has already determined 1960 to be the end of the age but has allowed a grace period for his remnant to be gathered up.
