The Dead Sea Scrolls PART 17 on Matt 16:4 and 1 Thessalonians 5:1 - Feasts, Festivals, and the New Moon

Millions of biblical readers and Bible teachers still have "old school" thinking when it comes to the biblical definition of "chodesh" or "rosh chodesh." The meaning is typically the "new moon." But the truth is, chodesh does not mean "moon" and rosh chodesh does not mean new moon.

Come, learn about Lo Adu Rosh as a postponement rule for the Feast of Trumpets or Yom Teruah. Learn about Lo Badu Pesach which is postponement rule for the festival of Passover.

Also, see an alternative reading for the Moon text in the Hebrew of Psalm 104:19 and Psalm 89:36-37.

This is Real Israel Talk Radio Episode 113 and PART 17 in the DSS series and the New Covenant.

Transcript

In the last episode of Real Israel Talk Radio, I spoke about Matthew 16:1-4. In the text, we learned about a dialogue between Yeshua, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees. 

• Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came and testing him asked that He would show them a sign from Heaven. He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, fair weather, for the sky is red; and in the morning, foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.” Hypocrites! You know how to understand the face of the sky, but you cannot the signs of the times.

Specifically, what was Yeshua speaking about when he spoke these words? Continue with me and let's give it a go and find out. 

On Day 4 of the Genesis creation narrative, which is based on Genesis 1:14-19, Yehovah made two luminaries or lights AND the kochavim or the “stars.” It is generally interpreted and understood that these luminaries – the greater one and the lesser one – control the timing of Yehovah’s feasts and festivals and His special appointments referred to in Hebrew as “moedim.” The Genesis 1;14-19 narrative teaches us the following:  

• Genesis 1:14-19. Then Elohim said, “Let there be luminaries in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years, and let them be for luminaries in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. Then Elohim made two great luminaries: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. The stars also. Elohim set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And Elohim saw as Good. So, the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

This text comes from what is called the Leningrad Codex, written in 1009 C.E. (our common era), in Cairo, Egypt.  However, when compared to what is written in the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls Book of Jubilees, there are some differences. The Book of Jubilees does not say that the Moon regulates the divine moedim. Instead, the Book of Jubilees addresses only the Sun as the responsible luminary for regulating Heaven’s Signs(Hebrew: otot), Seasons (moedim), Days (yamim), and Years (Hebrew: shanim). This is based on the Dead Sea Scrolls 4Q216 (the Book of Jubilees) Column 6, Lines 5-10, which has been abridged for this reading. 

5 [… הש]מש…

7[… גד]ול [על הארץ] לימ[ים] ול[ש]בתות ול[חדשים]

8 [… וליוב]לים ולכל תק[ופות השנים]

Here is an English translation:

• 5 [Blank On the fourth day YHVH made the s]un…as a gre]at [sign above the earth] for the day[s], the [sa]bbaths, the [months], 8 [the feasts, the years, the weeks of years and the jubi]lees and for all the cyc[les of the years.] 

 The claim is made in Hebrew:

 השמש...גדול על הארץ לימים ולשבתות ולחדשים וליובלים ולכל תקופות השנים

Hashemesh gadol al haaretz l’yamim ul’shbatot ul’chodeshim, ul’yovilim, v’lechol t’kufot hashanim.

English translation: 

• The Sun…is great over (or on) the earth for Days, and for Sabbaths, and for months (chodeshim), and for Yovelim (Jubilees) and for all T’kuphot (cycles or circuits) of the years. 

Compared to the text in our present-day Hebrew Bible (which is copied from the oldest complete manuscript of the Tanakh in the 1009 C.E., and referred to as the Leningrad Codex, the Sun AND the Moon are both regulators for earth’s Days, Sabbaths, Months, and Years. 

• Genesis 1:14-19. Then Elohim said, let there be luminaries in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years…Then Elohim made two great luminaries: the greater luminary (the Sun) to rule the day and the lesser luminary (the Moon) to rule the night; the stars also. 

Why are The Sun and The Moon mentioned in the Genesis text that we have from 1009 C.E saying, “the greater luminary rules the day AND the lesser luminary rules the night” whereas, in the Book of Jubilees, only the Sun is mentioned? For a detailed answer to this question, please revisit last week’s episode 112 and Part 16 in this teaching series for my thoughts on the matter. 

Before we go on, let’s summarize what appears to be baked into the biblical model of the biblical festivals, which are called moedim or divine appointments in the Bible. As far as I can determine, what I am going to give you next is what was taught from the giving of the Torah to Moses and the People at Mount Sinai to the forced exile of the House of Israel and the House of Judah.

The SIGNS (Hebrew: otot)

12 chodeshim (monthly) cycles.
8 chodeshim (months) each with 30 days.
4 chodeshim (months) each with 31 days (the extra day separating the four different seasons).
4 cycles of 13 weeks.
4 cycles of 91 days corresponding to each rotation of 13 weeks.  

The SEASONS (Hebrew: moedim)

52 weeks of 7 days. Each 7th Day of the week is Sabbath.
7 chodeshim (monthly cycles) giving us the testimony of feasts and festivals to maintain our relationship with Yehovah.

The DAYS (Hebrew: yamim)

360 cycles of 24-hour days with a “12” hour day and a “12” hour night. 
4 cycles of days are called t’kufot or days of transition and renewal.
1 cycle of 364 days that defines one year in the biblical texts. 

The YEARS (Hebrew: shanim)

A period of 7 years is called shemitah; that is, one year of rest for the land.
A period of 49 years with the 50th year called yovel; that is, a complete reset for the whole of the creation.  

In the years that followed the late first-century destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, the religion of Judaism was subjected to a redesign by the rabbinical minds of the period. It was part of a planned agenda to establish through custom and tradition some new long-lasting parameters to regulate the timing and the doing of the moedim; that is, the biblical festivals. 

First, in Hebrew, the word ירח "yareyach" does mean "moon" in the biblical texts. In scripture, there are twelve (12) moons in one year. Each month has a cycle of the yareyach. Some begin every new cycle with the dark moon conjunction whilst there are others who begin with the sighted "horns" of the moon crescent. There is no across-the-board unity amongst everyone who follows the new moon cycles. 

Second, in Hebrew, the word חדש "chodesh" does NOT mean moon. Yes, I know that in the Hebrew Bible, the traditional and typical way of today's scholarship is to translate "chodesh" as "moon" or sometimes "month." However, this is "old school thinking" because this is all that any among the biblical scholars knew until 1947 when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the Qumran caves. 

Three, in the late 1990s, nearly fifty years after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, this "old school thinking" started changing. Scholars and Dead Sea Scrolls researchers began to accept that "chodesh" does not have the same meaning as yerayach or "moon." Instead, biblical scholars began to adopt a new "gold standard" for the Hebrew term "chodesh." Permit me to give you an example that we can understand today. 

Back in the 1940s and I suppose even until about the late 1980s, the common English word "gay" meant happy and joyful. However, with the emergence of the LGBT and LGBTQ movement, the word "gay" came to mean anyone who is non-heterosexual or even those who question their own sexual identity, choosing instead to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.  Today, if one says "I am happy and gay," it carries a very specific connotation of one who is a homo, a lesi, a bi, or a trans, so one needs to be careful in relating to outdated definitions. 

Today, millions of good people "out there" have a similar kind of problem in reading the Hebrew word chodesh or rosh chodesh, and understanding it as "moon," "new moon," or even "month." It's just a sorry case of "old school thinking." The problem is that millions of biblical readers and "old school" teachers are far behind the newer scholarship that is now available. As a result, millions are still relating to old-school thinking that defines chodesh as “moon” but the truth is, they have no idea that it does not mean "moon." 

So, what, in fact, does it mean? 

Based on the Dead Sea Scrolls, chodesh means a count of exactly one 30-day period of time that begins with the FIRST FOURTH DAY OF THE WEEK THAT FOLLOWS THE SPRING EQUINOX of any given year. 

So, in whatever status the moon is found (whether it is a dark moon, a crescent, a 1/4, a 1/2, a 3/4, or a full moon) that Moon status is always what it is on "DAY 1" beginning with the FIRST FOURTH DAY AFTER THE SPRING EQUINOX in any given year. In other words, a chodesh begins with the FIRST FOURTH DAY AFTER THE SPRING EQUINOX, which always establishes the first month. This is how the term chodesh was defined in the Enoch texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

THE MEANING OF CHODESH

BUT...many Judeans or "Jews" among the scribes, the elders, and the Temple priests disliked the Hashmonaim family of rulers (the "Maccabees") and preferred the culture of the Greeks, the Babylonians, the Egyptians, and the Romans. As a result, their "mindset" was influenced by Greek, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Roman thinking. Sadly, they gravitated towards adopting the Moon customs of those that surrounded them confirming the Truth of Deuteronomy 4:19. Ultimately, this led to a lot of disagreements in how to define the term chodesh or month. 

THE MEANING OF ROSH CHODESH

As for the term rosh chodesh, often translated from Hebrew as "new moon," again, this is "old-school thinking." The newer updated definition for rosh chodesh, based on the Dead Sea Scrolls is the "BEGINNING" or "HEAD" of the MONTH. Rosh Chodesh is always, always going to be DAY 1 of a 30-day chodesh or month. 

With every four quarters of a full year, there are three (3) chodeshim or months, each with 30-30-31 days. The reason that the third chodesh has 31 and not 30 days is that the last day of the Third Chodesh  in each of the four quarters is called a "day of remembrance." Again, in any given year, there are four (4) "days of remembrance."  Each of the four days is dedicated to four solar events that happen with each cycling of a year: 

• A) The Spring Equinox, 
• B) The Summer Solstice, 
• C) The Fall Equinox,
•  D) The Winter Solstice. 

Each of the "Day 31" remembrance days defines a specific change in the season. And, there are four seasons of changes in every year. We can see this in Genesis 8:22.

Of course, Yeshua knew all of this which is what he directly referenced in Matthew 16:1-4 when he spoke to the Pharisees and the Temple Sadducees saying to them, "you don't understand the signs of the times." Yeshua's statement was well understood. They knew that he was talking about the Book of Jubilees and the Book of Enoch. But, the Judeans, or simply, the "Jews" rejected those teachings, and consequently, they DID NOT include them in the Hebrew canon of scripture when Hebrew scripture was in the process of being officially defined and canonized. 

Why? 

Because they did not accept the authority of the true calendar stewards – the priests of the House of Tzadok. As a result, the Judeans left out the Book of Jubilees and the Book of Enoch because they wanted a newer more up-to-date calendar that was more in line with what they preferred, which was not linked to that old priestly calendar of the House of Tzadok. 

So, in brief, I will simply state for the record that I think it would be wise for all of us to seriously consider what calendar we are following and ask, why are we following it? It would be my opinion that our calendar should now be based on the newer definition and scholarship of “chodesh” as it is understood from the discovered texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls in November of 1947.  

Now, let us travel back in time to the early second century of this common era and read about how the biblical festivals and feasts were determined using the sighted-moon lunar calendar paradigm. We will consult a couple of texts in the Talmud from Rosh HaShanah 25a. 

• Rosh HaShanah 25a:  Rabbi Akiva said to Rabbi Yehoshua: I can learn from a verse that everything that Rabban Gamliel did in sanctifying the month is valid. As it is stated: “These are the moedim of YHVH, sacred proclamations, which you shall proclaim in their appointed seasons (Heb: moedim - Leviticus 23:4). This verse indicates that whether you have proclaimed them at their proper time or whether you have declared them not at their proper time, I have only these festivals as established by the representatives of the Jewish people…
• Rabbi Akiva said to Rabbi Yehoshua… It states with respect to the festivals: “The moedim of YHVH, which you shall proclaim them [Heb: otam] to be sacred convocations.  Three times (Leviticus 23:2, 4, and 37) the verses use the term otam (them), which can also be read as atem (“you all,” plural). This comes to teach: You [atem] are authorized to determine the date of the new month, even if you unwittingly establish the New Moon on a wrong day; you, even if you do so intentionally; you, even if you are misled by false witnesses. In all cases, once the court establishes the day as the New Moon, it is sanctified, and God grants His consent. After hearing this, Rabbi Yehoshua said to him in these words: Akiva, you have consoled me; you have consoled me.

This teaching from Akiva to Yehoshua in the early 2nd century focuses on Hebrew word play using the vowel pointing of two terms: atem meaning “all of you” – referring only to the Jewish court of Rabbinic authority AND otam – referring to “all of them” – the seasonal moedim or festivals of Yehovah. The Jewish legal tradition that the Jewish court sights the moon for everyone else was established in prior generations. It was the “Sanhedrin” that handed itself total power to declare when the moedim or festivals of Yehovah were to be set apart and done in all Israel. Consequently, the people had to rely on the court for all festival proclamations including proclamations based on their postponement rules of “Lo Adu Rosh” and “Lo Badu Pesach.”

 LO ADU ROSH AND LO BADU PESACH

Lo Adu Rosh is a postponement rule applying to the Feast of Trumpets or Yom Teruah. The Feast of Trumpets can never start on a “Sunday” (the first day of the week = Aleph), a “Wednesday” (the fourth day of the week = Dalet),” or a “Friday” (the sixth day of the week = Vav).  

Lo Badu Pesach is another postponement rule applying to the first day of Unleavened Bread. The Feast of Unleavened Bread can never start on a “Monday” (the second day of the week = Bet), a “Wednesday“– the fourth day of the week = Dalet or a “Friday” – the sixth day of the week = Vav. 

However, what is even more interesting is that the days – “Sunday,” “Wednesday,” and “Friday,” were sacred days to the Qumran House of Tzadok and their Book of Jubilees calendar according to the parable of the greater luminary – the Sun. When you understand these types of rules in Judaism because they are a legal policy for all the nation, then you will understand statements like this from Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6 (abridged). 

• But concerning the times (from Jubilees and Enoch) and the moedim (the festival days), brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of Yehovah so comes as a thief in the night…But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. 

If you are following my clarifications then you should have no difficulty in understanding why Psalm 104:19 has been interpreted in a rather misleading way. Let’s now take a look at Psalm 104:19 as it appears in Hebrew scripture. 

• Psalm 104:19 (NKJV). He appointed the moon for moedim (seasons); the sun knows its going down.

עָשָׂ֣ה יָ֭רֵח לְמוֹעֲדִ֑ים שֶׁ֝֗מֶשׁ יָדַ֥ע מְבוֹאֽוֹ

The entirety of the psalm is all about the coming of the glory and the majesty of King Messiah, the Light of the World. So, when we read verse 19, our interpretation should follow the context. Please, permit me to give you my opinion on this verse in its context.

• Psalm 104:19. He (Messiah, the Word) made the Moon [facing] to (or going towards) the moedim [of] the Sun. He (the Moon) knows (by watching) his (the Sun) coming in.

So, here in this text, the Moon follows the pattern and paradigm of the Sun, not the other way around, with the Sun following the pattern and paradigm of the Moon. Now, to clarify this in Psalm 104:19, take a look at the Hebrew word מְבוֹאֽוֹ which is generally translated as the coming sun or simply, “sunset.” In 2 Samuel 3:25, the term appears as מוֹבָאֲך, which is rightly translated as “your coming in” and in Ezekiel 43:11 it appears as וּמוֹבָאָ֣יו, which is rightly translated as “and his entrances.”

Given the biblical doctrine about the job of the lesser luminary – the Moon – in Genesis 1:14-18 from the Leningrad Codex of Hebrew scripture dated to 1009 C.E. as compared to the job of the Sun in the Book of Jubilees which predates the Leningrad Codex by about 1,200 years, the writer or writers of Sefer HaYovelim “The Book of Jubilees” desired to make it very clear in 6:32-35

• And you command the children of Israel that they observe the years according to this reckoning - three hundred and sixty-four days, and (these) will constitute a complete year, and they will not disturb its time from its days (yamim) and from its feasts (chagim) for everything will fall out in them according to their testimony, and they will not leave out any day nor disturb any feasts. But if they do neglect and do not observe them according to His commandment, then they will disturb all their seasons (moedim) and the years (shanim) will be dislodged from this (order), [and they will disturb the seasons (moedim) and the years (shanim) will be dislodged] and they will neglect their ordinances. And all the sons of Israel will forget and will not find the path of the years (shanim) and will forget the months (chodeshim), and seasons (moedim), and sabbaths (shabbatot) and they will go wrong as to all the order of the years (shanim). For I know and from henceforth will I declare this unto you, and it is not of my own devising; for the book (lies) written before me, and on the Heavenly Tablets the Times of the Days (yamim) as ordained, lest they forget the feasts (chagim) of the covenant and walk according to the Festivals of the goyim (Gentiles) after their error and after their ignorance.

That is how the Book of Jubilees reads in chapter 6, lines 32-35. Now, let’s go on. Psalm 89:36-37 is another one of these very interesting passages that have been misread and misinterpreted.  It concerns Messiah the Word and his covenant loyalty (Hebrew: chesed חסד). First, let’s go to the English text: 

• English (NKJV): His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me; It shall be established forever like the moon, even the faithful witness in the sky. It shall be established forever like the moon, even the faithful witness in the sky.
• Hebrew Reading (vv.37-38) as I would understand the flow and context): His seed will be to (or towards) ‘Olam עולם(“illumination” from עלם) and his throne like (as) a comparison opposite the Sun. And like (as) the Moon, he (the singular collective Sons of the Covenant – see the context in the English v. 28; Hebrew: v. 27) has surely (certainly) been illuminated [Hebrew: עלם), thus, testimony in the upper heavens [of the firmament], always [Hebrew: סלה). 

So, it is that we have learned Yehovah’s moedim or biblical festivals and meeting times are precisely pre-programmed events according to the work of the greater luminary – the Sun. Correspondingly, the moedim must fall on specific days among all the seven chodeshim agreeing to the 364-day solar calendrical year just as the high-priestly House of Tzadok presented it in their writings. However, because of a later and radical coverup of the Messianic signs, the moedim, the days, and the years, those initiating the revisions in the Judean calendar system; they made permanent changes to the Judaism of their day (in Yavne following the destruction of the Second Temple) which still pretty much drives the Judaism of our day. 

Their actions had a profound multi-generational effect on all Jews in the centuries to follow. All of this was, should I say, galvanized through the rules of Lo Adu Rosh and Lo Badu Pesach – forbidden starting days for the moedim or festivals.  The greater luminary of the Day and of the Light through Yeshua the Messiah has become a body of fouled waters of Torah. This should not surprise us given the words of Yehovah to the Prophet Ezekiel, who said: 

• Ezekiel 34:18-19. Is it too little for you to have eaten up the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet (hinting at the halacha = “the legal system of Judaism”) the residue of your pasture—and to have drunk of the clear waters, that you must foul the residue with your feet? And My flock, they eat what you have trampled with your feet, and they drink what you have fouled with your feet.

Essentially, this finds a theological expression through the words of the New Covenant Book of Hebrews: 

• Hebrews 10:28-29. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ Law dies without mercy on two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the Blood of the Covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of Grace? 

But once again, from Deuteronomy 4:15 and 4:19, we have this warning:

• Guard yourselves…lest you lift your eyes to Heaven, and you see the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, all the Hosts of Heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which Yehovah your Elohim has given to all the peoples under the whole Heaven.

EGYPTIAN FEASTS and FESTIVALS (mostly 18th Dynasty during the days of the Hebrews)

Thoth: Rebirth and rejuvenation.
Blacked-out Moon (New Moon Day): First day and head of the month.
New Crescent Day: in accordance with the light phases of the Moon).
Wadi Festival: Honour to the souls of the deceased.
Neith Festival: Uniting of the nation with lighted candles and oil lamps at night to mirror the sky and bring the earth into harmony with the realm of the gods.

ANCIENT ROMAN FEASTS and FESTIVALS

Floralia: Protecting the blossoms of spring.
Saturnalia: Winter solstice.
Family Festival: Spiritual renewal and divine rebirth.
Lupercalia: Fertility and purification.

ANCIENT GREEK FEASTS and FESTIVALS

Torches: To the god Diana (Catholic Feast of Assumption). Light of the Moon with dancing.
Aphrodite: To the goddess Aphrodite for love, sex, beauty, sensuality, warmth.
The Noumenia: To all household gods on the first crescent of the visible new moon.
Hygenia’s Day: To the goddess Hygenia for healing and hygiene with bathing.

ANCIENT CELTIC (DRUID) FEASTS and FESTIVALS (some say the Celts have ancient Israelite origins):

1. Samhain
2. Winter Solstice
3. Imbolg
4. Spring Equinox
5. Beltine
6. Summer Solstice
7. Lughnasa
8. Autumn Equinox

Concerning these customs and traditions from the surrounding pagan cultures, here is what Paul had to say: 

• Galatians 4:9-11. But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe (do or implement) days (yamim) and months(chodeshim) and seasons (moedim) and years (shanim). I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.

And here is what Yeshua had to say: 

• John 12:36. While you have the [Greater] Light, believe in the [Greater] Light, that you may become Sons of Light [embodying the cycles of the Greater luminary].

The lesson for us is to NOT make the rehearsing the moedim (the festivals) light reflecting from the faces of the Moon. That’s what the pagan cultures do in their traditions and customs. We’re IN their world but we are not OF their world.  And this is why the Book of Jubilees does not give the Moon the job of announcing the moedim as they have been written down on the Tablets of Heaven so they cannot change. 

Accordingly, I have come to understand that the true biblical calendar is the one that was taught to Moses and the People on Mount Sinai with the giving of the Torah. I believe that this is the pattern that continued downline until the forced exile of the House of Israel and the House of Judah and living by the surrounding nations and their cultures. 

Thanks for joining me today in finishing up with my study of Matthew 16:1-4 and its link to Genesis 1:14-19. navigate over to our website at www.cominghome.co.il. Yah Willing, see you next week when we will begin looking at the detailed chronology and timing issues of his last Passover week of Yeshua leading to his death and his third-day resurrection. I’m Avi ben Mordechai, and this is Real Israel Talk Radio.