Hello Donna Danna and
Doves,
What you've linked to
for finding the date for the Feast of Firstfruits is
pretty much the 'accepted' way to count the days in
Nisan. That Feast of Firstfruits falls on 16
Nisan. So this 'fits' with a 14 Nisan before sundown
Thursday burial and a 17 Nisan before sunrise Sunday
resurrection. Then the women showed up at the tomb
when it was still dark on the 'first day of the
week/Sunday' after the Sabbath/Saturday.
Aaron at God A Minute has a video
with his 'charts' showing how he sees these first three
feast days - starting with the crucifixion and burial on
14 Nisan then resurrection was right when Saturday 17
Nisan became Sunday 18 Nisan - right at dusk. Then
the women showed up at the tomb when it was still dark on
the 'first day of the week/Sunday' 18 Nisan after the
Sabbath/Saturday.
The
Timing & Extra Details Of The Cross ✝️ & The
Soon Rapture - YouTube
Aaron has it drawn out and shows
clearly what he's talking about.
Having Feast of Firstfruits fall
within the Feast of Unleavened Bread celebration is pretty
much the 'accepted' timeline of the first feasts.
Wednesday to Sunday timeline - Death, Burial to
Resurrection
The Sunday to Saturday seven day
calendar was overlayed onto the Jewish New Moon calendar
long after the Lord's feast days and the Lord's Sabbaths
were presented to Moses for the people by God. I
wrote my letters, trying to look at the feast days and
Sabbaths as given to Moses.
Also, Donna Danna wrote about
"other days that are called Sabbath days besides
Saturday." In one of the links/articles
provided in her letter, the author wrote: "It is
also important to understand that there are more Sabbaths
in the Jewish year than there are "seventh days' on the
Jewish calendar. For instance, Passover and the
other holidays are regarded as Sabbaths, and therefore in
Mark's gospel the women are said to have come to the tomb
after the Sabbaths (..a plural noun) which indicates that
both Passover (Nisan 15) and the following day (Nisan 16,
the seventh day of the week) were regarded as Sabbath days
(see the Greek text for Mark 16:2)".
I clicked on his link for the 63?
listed translations and saw two with "and early in the
morning of the first of the sabbaths,
they come unto the sepulchre, at the rising of the sun"
Young's Literal Translation. And the other: "and
very early in the morning the first of the sabbaths, they
come unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun."
Jubilee Bible 2000. So Sunday was the first of the
sabbaths? - that doesn't make sense. ?? Most
of the translations have 'first day of the week' and don't
add Sunday or Sabbath to the text. The biblehub.com
greek link had 'Sabbaths', plural. Most translations
have Sabbath, singular.
On a side note, I looked up the
Greek text in Mark 16:2 - in biblehub.com - it shows the
same Greek word for "Sabbaths" as it does for "of the
week" - the full translation being 'first day of the
week' Probably why the above two translations of the
63 show "the first of the sabbaths'.
Greek
Concordance: σαββάτων (sabbatōn) -- 11 Occurrences
Probably better to just translate
that part as 'the first day of the week'. I don't read
Greek so I'm relying on translations.
In my 'short study' on this -
neither 'Saturday' nor 'Sunday' were used in Leviticus 23
and the Feast Days were not referred to as "Sabbaths" -
Sabbaths were given by God as part of the 'work week'.
The Sunday to Saturday seven day
calendar, according to some, was added somewhere around
587 BCE. And it was overlaid on the New Moon calendar
given by God. So it was being used during Jesus'
day, but not during Moses' day.
What I've been looking at
is the fulfilling of the Lord's Feast Days per Leviticus
23 - not per the Gospels at Jesus's time.
I wrote about the Feasts of the Lord per God's
instructions to Moses and was not looking at anything
added later by man - i.e. I'm not using a Sunday -
Saturday seven day calendar because that didn't exist in
Moses' time.
In recent letters to Doves, I
wrote about when I thought the Feast of Firstfruits was in
the 'Feasts of the Lord' timeline. When was
Firstfruits during the time Leviticus 23 was written
and what is the God-given definition of 'Sabbath'?.
I'm just going to look at Leviticus 23 and that time of
Moses and the Israelites. That seems like a 'more
accurate' time period for looking at these two questions
as that is when God gave His instructions on His Feast
Days and His Sabbaths to Moses.
What Did A Sabbath Day
Mean To The Israelites During Moses' Day?
I think that some translations of
the Bible use the word 'Sabbath' incorrectly and do not
follow what God told Moses. When the Sunday -
Saturday seven day calendar showed up, Saturday was the
7th day so it became the 'Sabbath of the Lord'. This
was not a God-ordained Sabbath. More on this below.
In looking at Jesus' crucifixion
through resurrection - a few versions of the Gospels have
Sabbath translated as Saturday - because that seven day
calendar was in use then. (For example, In the New Living
Translation, instead of "When the Sabbath was over", their
version is "Saturday evening, when the sabbath ended" -
they add the day "Saturday" to the translation. And
for 'day after the Sabbath' or 'the first day of the week'
some versions will replace these with "Sunday".)
When Did the Israelites
Start Using the Sunday - Saturday Seven day Calendar?
It wasn't used during Moses' time
when Leviticus 23 was written. Looks like it
came about after 587 BC. - a long time after Moses.
Were The Sabbath Days Set
To A Seven Day Calendar By Man?
Yes. God gave instructions
for His Sabbaths in Leviticus 23. These Saturday
'sabbaths' were not 'God-given'.
In Leviticus 23, God told Moses
to tell the Israelites about two things: (I used the
Berean Standard Bible version)
1) Feasts of the
Lord: Appointed feasts. God's
feasts.
"Then the Lord said to Moses,
"Speak to the Israelites and say to them, "These are My
appointed feasts, the feasts of the Lord that you are to
proclaim as sacred assemblies." Lev 23:2
"These are the Lord's appointed
feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their
appointed times." Lev 23:4 (Then the Lord
tells Moses about these feasts in the rest of the
chapter.)
2) Sabbaths:
God appointed a work week with a seventh day of rest.
"For six day work may be done,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, a day
of sacred assembly. You must not do any work,
whereever you live, it is a Sabbath to the Lord. Lev
23:3
God set up a 'work' schedule for
a seven day period: six days for work and the
seventh day for a "Sabbath"
In other verses in Leviticus 23,
the Lord tells Moses about sabbaths - these are the days
he defined in verse 3 - having to do with the work
week. These do not refer to His feast days. But they
do help in the count to specific feast days - like Feast
of Weeks/Shavuot.
The exception to use of the word
"Sabbath" is Day of Atonement/Yom Kippur - the most holy
of the days - this day God was very adamant about the
Israelites following His instructions; I think He made a
point of how serious He was by saying, "OK - let me say
this is a "Sabbath" too so it is double labeled so you'll
know I've put an emphasis on this day to keep you from
being destroyed if any of you do any work on this
day." This is my opinion - as no other feast day is
called a "Sabbath" by the Lord - and no other feast day
has a 'punishment', actually a severe punishment, attached
to it for working.
Here are the Feasts of
the Lord. These are based on a New Moon
calendar. The sliver of the New Moon begins the
month...days are counted from there. (In my recent
letters I wrote about the Sabbaths of the Lord being on
the moon calendar used in Leviticus 23 - those Sabbath
days would be on 7, 14, 21, 28. - that's what I've seen
in various articles on this. I have a link below
to one article that says these Sabbaths days would be on
8, 15, 22 and 29.)
Passover is an
appointed feast - at an appointed time. Begins at
twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month.
Feast of Unleavened Bread
- on the fifteenth day of the same month. For seven
days they are to eat unleavened bread. This feast
would be days fifteen through day twenty-one. The first
day is a sacred assembly - you are to do no regular
work. For seven days you are to present an offering
made by fire to the Lord. The seventh day is a
sacred assembly - you are to do no regular work.
(The Lord doesn't mention 'no regular work; for days 2 -
6)
Feast of Firstfruits -
the priest is to wave the sheaf before the Lord on
the day after the Sabbath. The Feast of
Unleavened Bread is not referred to as a Sabbath by the
Lord. The seventh day, twenty-first day of Nisan,
for Unleavened Bread would be a Sabbath - the day after
the Sabbath would be day twenty-two. That's the day
I believe is the day of Feast of Firstfruits - not 16, 17
or 18 Nisan.
Another
Look At Some Of The Feasts Of The Lord Part 2
Also, no where in the Feast of
Unleavened Bread does God give instructions for the
insertion of the Feast of Firstfruits; Unleavened Bread is
seven days long with it's own instructions from the
Lord. I do not believe that Feast of Firstfruits
should be inserted into the Feast of Unleavened Bread -
all the other feasts have their own days/times and are not
'doubled up.'
Feast of Weeks -
for this day, count off seven full weeks from the day
after the Sabbath (to use God's definition of a
Sabbath). Count off fifty days until the day after
the seventh Sabbath. Offer a new grain offering to
the Lord. Two loaves are the firstfruits.
There are to be specific burnt offerings, grain offerings
and drink offerings. There is also a sin offering
and a peace offering. A sacred assembly. No regular
work.
Feast of Trumpets -
the first day of the seventh month - a sacred assembly
announced by trumpet blasts. a day of rest. No
regular work and present a fire offering to the Lord.
Day of Atonement
- the tenth day of the seventh month - a sacred assembly
with a fire offering. To humble yourselves. No
regular work This feast of the Lord is a really big
one - "If anyone does not humble himself on this day, he
must be cut off from his people. I will destroy from
among his people anyone who does any work on this
day." To really emphasize that people absolutely
must not work on THIS day - the Lord says it will be a "Sabbath
of complete rest for you and you shall humble
yourselves. From the evening of the ninth of the
month until the following evening you are to keep your
Sabbath." This feast has a punishment from the Lord
if anyone works on this day - this is different from His
'work week' Sabbath - there is no punishment given by
Him. IMO, the Lord is showing this day is like a
Sabbath in terms of total rest - absolutely no work.
The tenth day is not one of the regular Sabbath days, but
in terms of rest/no work it is- to God.
Feast of Tabernacles
- the fifteenth day of the seventh month - and it lasts
for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly
of no regular work. For seven days there is a fire
offering to the Lord.
At the end of the list, the Lord
said, "These are the Lord's appointed feasts, which you
are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for presenting
offerings by fire to the Lord - burnt offerings and grain
offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on
its designated day. These
offerings are in addition to the offerings for the
Lord's Sabbaths..." Lev 23:37
This last verse shows that each
Feast of the Lord has it's own designated day and are
separate from the Lord's Sabbaths.
So how were these seven
day time periods figured out back in Moses' day without
the Sunday - Saturday seven day calendar that didn't
exist until thousands of years later??
In Leviticus 23 God
uses the New Moon calendar for His appointed days/solemn
assemblies and Sabbaths for the seventh days of the
calendar - that is days 7, 14, 21, 28 - these are
the Sabbaths I see listed most often in the
literature. These are separate from the appointed
days of the Lord as noted above. These appointed
days, we are told, are prophetic. They are to be
reckoned according to the what the Lord told Moses - for
both the sacred assemblies and the Sabbaths - Passover
falls on a Sabbath but it is a sacred assembly - a
prophetic day. The last day of Unleavened Bread
falls on a Sabbath (21) but it is also a sacred assembly -
a prophetic day.
I did a bit of
research to see when the Israelites started overlaying
their Full Moon calendar (using the sighting of the new
moon) with a Sunday - Saturday seven day calendar to mark
out the sabbath days for them - every seventh
day.
My various letters on
the Hebrew calendar imply that somewhere along the line
there was a convergence of the moon calendar with a
seven-day calendar. With this bit of research it looks
like it was after the Kingdom of Judah was destroyed and
Mesopotamian influence crept in.
Seems 'someone'
thought it was a good idea to celebrate Saturday as the
Sabbath and use the Sunday - Saturday pagan calendar to
keep track.
What I'm finding is
that this seven day cycle came about after the destruction
of Judah in 587 BCE. The 'seven-day rhythms' came
primarily from contact with Mesopotamian culture "after
the onslaught of Babylonian armies in 597 and
587."
Before this "the seven
days were likely counted from New Moon (Rosh Chodesh)."
Did 'someone' just
pick a day and say - let's call this Sunday - and start a
set of seven days?
It seems that the
earliest texts showed a Moon-Sabbath (Chodesh-Shabbat)
monthly cycle - revolving around the New Moon and the Full
Moon. "These texts suggest that some in pre-exilic
Israel commemorated Shabbat on the Full Moon."
A "statue in Exod
23:12, which biblical scholars agree belongs to an older
(if not the oldest) law code of the Torah, requires
landowners to cease from fieldwork every seven days in
order to give those toiling on their behalf a time to
recuperate. The mandated seven-day rest
cycle, however, did not have to begin and end on the
same day for all households. This day was
not called Shabbat."
"It would not be
surprising if the seven-day cycles from different
individuals and communities converged over time.
This convergence would have been driven in part by the
need to agree on a common calendar to attend to
mercantile, organizational and cultic matters. For
agrarian communities, shared work and market cycles are
more practical, which would have motivated
communities to keep a common seven-day cycle."
The sacred days
(Feasts of the Lord) of the New Moon (Chodesh) and the
Full Moon (Shabbat) holidays made it easy to track seventh
days "and the celebration of festivals. "If the
counting of began with the New Moon then the seventh day
of rest cycle would be day 8, 15, 22 and 29. The
second rest day would coincide with Shabbat and the final
one either with Chodesh or the day before Chodesh.
There is a time when
the moon month becomes separate from the "universal
seven-week cycle".
The Mesopotamian
calendar had similarities to the Jewish moon calendar -
they both had New Moon and Full Moon holidays. "The
name of this Full Moon holiday celebrated on the 15th of
the month was sapattu. The connection between this
term and the Hebrew holiday of Shabbat seems hardly
coincidental."
The Mesopotamians had
a calendar similar to the ancient Israel's calendar -where
three days were celebrated: the first day - the new moon;
the seventh day and the fifteenth day (sapattu).
"At some point, the
cycle of seven days took on a life of its own and became
independent of the Chodesh-Shabbat calendar. Thus,
(as I wrote in my letters) Israel developed two systems
of time that ran independently of - and even compete
with - each other.; one was lunar, and the other was
based on a seven-day periods of time." "Following
the shift from Chodesh based to the independent weekly
cycle, the seventy-day of rest merged with the
(non-defunct) holiday of Shabbat."
Due to the use of the
lunar phases in the Hebrew calendar, they had a New Moon
(Rosh Chodesh) celebration, a Full Moon (Shabbat)
celebration." So Shabbat was originally on the Full
Moon.
"The transition from
the monthly to the weekly Shabbat would have been a
protracted one, with both understandings competing in many
ways of the relevant biblical references to Shabbat.
Yet it seems most likely that the transition began very
late in Israel's history." Shabbat
transitioned from the Full Moon celebration to "an
independent seventh day of rest."
"The shift form the monthly to
the weekly Shabbat was done under the influence of
Mesopotamian culture.: Most specifically with
"direct and sustained contact with Mesopotamian culture"
which "began after the conquest of Judah in 587".
Shabbat became "the
primary and most fundamental institution for the people of
Israel" in their post-exilica period.
"The Temple may have
been destroyed and national sovereignty forfeited, but
Shabbat survives. The natural cycles of the day,
moon, seasons, and year which were created by Israel's
God, have not been eradicated by the vanquishing power of
the Babylonian high-god Marcuk. Above all, the
non-natural covennantal cycle of the seven-day week
persist after national's defeat."
"In contrast to the
New Moon and Full Moon Shabbat (as well as days, seasons
and years), the independent weekly cycle does not
correspond to any natural cycles. For this
reason, it could easily become a point of contention for
rival communities, since there is no objective way to
determine when the seventh day "really" is (a problem
Shabbat did not face when it was a full moon
celebration)."
"Imagine what Judaism
would look like - or the western world for that matter -
if no consensus had ever been formed about converging the
Shabbat/weekly cycles. How would it be if Jews from
different communities - including Karaites, Samaritans,
and Ethiopians - all kept Shabbat on different days?
What if the Ashkenazi Shabbat was the sephardic or
Yemenite Wednesday? Needless to say, such a
calendrical mess would destroy any possibility of
large-scale community cohesion around the holiday."
Shabbat originally
designated Full Moon.
The number seven had
special significance for ancient Israel...but we lack
comparative evidence for time reckoning according to
seven-day (weekly) cycles.
Before a seven day
cycle ending in rest existed, "the seven days were likely
counted from New Moon (Rosh Chodesh).
It is likely that the
monthly Shabbat merged with the seven-day cycles for
work/rest because of Mesopotamian influence. After
the Babylonian armies' in 597 and 587.
"Over time the
individual labor cycles would tend to coalesce." I.E. more
areas/people came to a seventh day/Saturday day of rest.
"After the reinvention
of Shabbat in the wake of the destruction of the kingdom
of Judah in 587 BCE, its observance became one of the
primary markers for the people of Israel."
Was God using the
man-made seven day cycle calendar placed onto the
God-given moon calendar or was He using His moon
calendar? Moses lived long before the
Mesopotamian influence on the moon calendar - so does it
make sense to use the overlapped calendars or the moon
calendar when reading Leviticus 23? God did not
ordain a weekly Saturday Sabbath - that is man-made.
So do we use the weekly Saturday Sabbath for Leviticus 23
when it did not exist then? I do not believe we can
use Saturday for the Sabbath or Sunday for the day after
the Sabbath as those didn't exist either in Moses'
day. So for interpreting the Lord's Feast Days -
there was no Saturday Sabbath counted out on the seven day
weeks. Only the counting from the New Moon were used
for the days. It makes sense that the sighting of
the New Moon started the count to the Sabbaths (as it was
used in the count to the Feasts of the Lord).
Does it make sense to
use the Sunday-Saturday seven day calendar for Jesus
fulfilling the appointed Feasts of the Lord of Levitucs
23? God's appointed days. Sunday-Saturday
calendar didn't exist for Moses when God laid out His
Feast Days - which He called appointed feast, sacred
assemblies - not Sabbaths. Sabbaths are the seventh days.
Jesus fulfilled the
appointed days on their exact date. So the Sunday -
Saturday calendar does not apply to Leviticus or Jesus
fulfilling these days exactly as prophesied.
Based on the new moon
- "the seventh day, the Sabbath, was never on the same day
on the lunar calendar":
"For example, in the
month of Passover in the year:
26 AD; the seventh
day, the Sabbath was on a Friday.
27 AD; the Sabbath was
on a Wednesday
28 AD; the Sabbath was
on a Monday
29 AD; the Sabbath was
on a Saturday
30 AD; the Sabbath was
on a Wednesday
31 AD; the Sabbath was
on a Monday
32 AD; the Sabbath was
on a Monday
33 AD; the Sabbath was
on a Friday.
As I see it, my
thoughts on the Lord's feast days and Jesus do not
contradict the moon calendar of appointed days and
Sabbaths given in Leviticus 23. That's what Jesus
fulfilled - not the pagan calendar of the day.
"..since the Sadduces controlled
the Second Temple worship schedule, the Wave Offering
(Feast of Firstfruits) would have occurred on the Sunday
following the weekly Sabbath." In Leviticus 23,
Feast of Firstfruits was on the day after the Sabbath -
the same day that Mary and the others witnessed Jesus in
His resurrected body - Jesus being the firstfruits of the
dead.
There are some who place Feast of
Firsfruits a couple of days after Passover - during Feast
of Unleavened Bread. This is what I use to believe.
The Pharisees and Orthodox Judaism believe this day
follows the first day of Unleavened Bread (15 Nisan), so
the wave offering of Firstfruits would occur on 16
Nisan. Years ago, everything I read about the Feast
Days put Firstfruits right about the day after Unleavened
Bread - they all counted out their three days and three
nights...
Others place it after the Sabbath
- on the first day of the week, a Sunday (using the
Sunday-Saturday seven day calendar of Jesus' time).
According to the Leviticus 23, it
is celebrated after the Sabbath (per the definition given
by the Lord), following the seven day Feast of Unleavened
Bread. All of the feasts in a given order on their
appointed day.
My Doves letter linked above
showed that the New Moon calendar does work with the story
of the crucifiction/ressurection and it aligns with the
Feasts of the Lord given in Leviticus 23 if one uses the
'day after the Sabbath' - the day the Sadducess agree on -
as the Feast of Firstfruits and one uses the Lord's
definition of 'Sabbath'.
Over the years, I've 'changed' my
mind on some of the 'accepted' biblical beliefs - and the
last few years I've made some big changes in my beliefs
concerning the Feasts of the Lord - like with when
Ascension Day is, when Acts Pentecost is, how to count to
Feast of Weeks, and what is Feast of New Wine and how to
count to Feast of New Wine, when is the Feast of
Firstfruits, etc.
So for now, these are my
thoughts...until I see something else pop up....
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
Maranatha!
Chance