Feasts of the Lord -- part 1

[Southtown]

Disclaimer: the below post is theologically based. It is an attempt at understanding the meaning and purpose of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. Please do not take this to be preaching. It is simply my own personal theological inclinations submitted purposefully for your scrutiny and criticizm. Feel free to jest, deride, flame, or otherwise disagree with anything that is stated below. :smart:

 

Prompted by another thread expressing doubt in the usefulness of a theology forum, I would like to share some insight that I have gained recently. My outlook on life and walk with God has been changed drastically as a recourse. What I will be talking about is the prophetic fulfillments of the feasts of the Lord that have been rehearsed by Jews for millenia upon millenia. In one hand I'm totally elated and bursting with excitement, while on the other hand I'm overwhelmingly disappointed and deeply saddened that the rest of the sincere believers including myself have overlooked, or worse, that their pastors and teachers have overlooked these things for centuries. What I'm about to share with you is how exactly the seperate pieces of scripture fit together, and how our Father was actually “declaring the end from the beginning”. (Isaiah 46:9-10) You will no doubt be as surprized, uplifted, and thirsty as I was to see the truth unfold. So let us ease into this series with an appetizer that is appropriate for the occasion and is also a primer for the topics to follow.

 

 

 

The Dilemma

 

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

--

Matthew 12:38-40 nkjv

 

Our Redeemer announces emphatically, and rather indignantly I might add, "so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Well, there's a problem. There are neither three days nor three nights between Friday evening and Sunday morning. Are we sure that we understand the gospel accounts? Or did the Messiah make a boo-boo? Therein is the dilemma: is the Messiah correct, or are the gospel accounts correct? Let's search the scripture to see whether these things are so.

 

We know from John 19:3 that He died just before the sunset that would start a High Sabbath. We also know from this same verse that it was the Day of Preparation. All of the gospels are in one accord regarding the time of His death and burial. They also agree that there was a rush to quicken the death of those nailed to crosses before sunset and that Jesus was buried in Joseph of Arimathea's unused tomb.

 

However, His rising is not so certain. Regarding the women coming to the tomb, Matthew says 'as the first day of the week began to dawn', Mark says 'on the first day of the week...when the sun had risen', Luke says 'on the first day of the week, very early in the morning', and John says 'the first day of the week...while it was still dark'. While it doesn't come as a surprise that there are minor discrepancies among the gospels, the outlook here is actually positive. The gospel writers basically agree that the women came to the tomb around sunrise on Sunday. And since they also agree that Jesus wasn't in the tomb in any of those cases, then we can safely conclude that He arose before sunrise.

 

Regarding the actual time of Jesus' resurrection, and ignoring the differences in irrelevant details, Matthew says 'He is not here; for He is risen' but fails to specify when He rose, Mark elaborates 'Now when He rose early on the first day of the week'. Luke and John fail to specify even as much as Matthew. While it may now seem impossible to truly know when Jesus was resurrected, there is hope, as we shall soon see. For now the most we can glean from the text is that He rose sometime between sunset and sunrise on the first day of the week, Sunday. Keep in mind that the days start at sunset in Hebrew culture, which doesn't help us narrow it down any further just yet.

 

 

 

The Alternatives

 

Was Jesus wrong? Was He misquoted? Were His words and those of the apostles altered after the gospels were produced? Well, if He was simply flat wrong then we can forget the whole issue and just go home now. But where's the fun in that? :steering:

 

As for the possibilities that He was misquoted or fabricated, we have numerous confirming verses, (Matthew 12:40; 26:61; 27:40; 27:40; Mark 8:31; 14:58; 15:29-30; John 2:19-20) and we also have no contradictory verses regarding the length of time He would spend in the tomb. There is mention of three-and-a-half days in other places, but nothing in direct connection with the Messiah. The scriptures seem to be airtight.

 

So what gives, then? There doesn't seem to be any wiggle room. The crucifixion did occur immediately before Sabbath, and the first day of the week does follow immediately after the Sabbath. At best, if we count the day of crucifixion and also include Sunday, we have three days and two nights. At worst, not counting those days since he died at sunset and rose at sunrise, we have one complete day, Sabbath, and two complete nights.

 

Unless there was another Sabbath that occured in the middle of the week, there isn't any way to reconcile this very rudimentary arithmatic. Counting three days and three nights before Sunday morning would put us at Wednesday evening for the crucifixion. Since we have to include the entire dayside of Thursday in the three days, we have to put the trial, death, and burial on Wednesday. A Wednesday followed by a High Sabbath on Thursday, though... that is crazy, isn't it?

 

 

 

The 'Midst' of the Week

 

It's time for a peek into the Jewish culture. Taking cue from the gospels, we will check out the Day of Preparation, the Passover, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, since these were the setting behind the scenes in those days. I think a good starting point is to assess when they occur. Back to everybody's favorite chapter, Leviticus 23. :confused: Try not to get too excited, would ya? I know the "word of God is living and powerful" (Hebrews 4:12), but we must focus on the issues at hand, people. :evil:

 

Don't worry, don't worry. It's not that complicated. The three occasions are interconnected, after all.

 

‘These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the LORD’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it. But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.’”

--

Leviticus 23:4-8 nkjv

 

Well this only answers two of them, but I'll make it easy for ya. The one that isn't mentioned, the Day of Preparation, is the day of the Passover. The Passover is the meal at twilight ending the Day of Preparation. Then the next day is the first High Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. (Mark 15:42) In "preparing" during the day for the Passover, the lambs are killed, offered, and cooked in time for the Passover Seder, or the Passover meal, at sunset where the Jews eat the lambs in haste as they did in the first Passover meal in Egypt before putting the blood of the lambs on their doorposts.

 

Now you shall keep it

[lamb]

until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover.

--

Exodus 12:6-11 knjv

 

This is the Passover Seder. (Wikipedia) And as you can see, the seven days of Unleavened Bread include two High Sabbaths, one on the first day, and one on the seventh. This is incompatible with the week. Both High Sabbaths can't fall on actual seventh-day Sabbaths because there is only one weekly Sabbath every seven days. If one High Sabbath falls on the seventh day, other will fall on the following sixth, and so on. How can we justify placing one on Thursday, though, to explain the haste in killing those on the crosses next to Jesus. We must now determine when the Passover takes place in relation to the seven-day week, so we can make some sense of all this confusion.

 

 

 

The Hebrew Calendar

 

No, not the Jewish Calender (Wikipedia) that modern Israel follows. The Jews had to adjust their ways of keeping track of the seasons when Jerusalem was demolished in 70 C.E. as predicted by the Messiah. (Mark 13:2) We are interested in the time prior to that, when Israel was still able to count the seasons according to God's word. (Wikipedia) Returning to Exodus 12, God refers to the first month of the year.

 

Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a

[Passover]

lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.

--

Exodus 12:1-3 nkjv

 

The word month basically means 'moon', refering to the waxing and waning of the moon from new to full and back again. So in the first 'moon' of the year, Israel performed the Passover in rememberance of their exodus from Egypt. When then is the first moon? Israel didn't have the precise measurements of the celestial orbits that we have these days, e.g. sun orbits in 365.25 days and the moon cycles every 29.53 days.

 

Well, gosh darnit. God's people just had to use common sense. The year is the cycling of the seasons, which are the effect of the earth's orbit around the sun. And it just so happens that the first month was called Abib or Aviv (Hebrew vs. Aramaic) in biblical days. It's pronounced 'ah-BEEB' or 'ah-VEEV', respectively. And it refers to the ripening of the barley crop. It was renamed to Nisan or Nissan ('NICE-on'), though, after the Babylonian captivity.

 

And Moses said to the people: “Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. On this day you are going out, in the month Abib.

--

Exodus 13:3-4 nkjv

 

The first month occurs when the barley is 'abib' or mature. This is where it gets tricky. The barley crop had to be ready for harvest after the first seventh-day Sabbath following the Passover. This is because a firstfruits offering was required and a sheaf of barley had to be harvested and processed on the first seventh-day Sabbath after the Passover (Abib 14). This day then would always fall somewhere in the seven days of Unleavened Bread. (Leviticus 23:9-11)

 

How exactly were the first days of the year and 'moons' determined? Months begin and end specifically at the sighting of the new moon, therefore so do the years. This isn't directly referenced in the bible, but it is hinted at in Numbers 29, and well known in other Jewish literature. (Wikipedia) We will visit this chapter again towards the end of this series. :phones:

 

‘And in the seventh month,

on the first day of the month

, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. For you it is a day of blowing the trumpets. You shall offer a burnt offering as a sweet aroma to the LORD: one young bull, one ram, and seven lambs in their first year, without blemish. Their grain offering shall be fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for the bull, two-tenths for the ram, and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs; also one kid of the goats as a sin offering, to make atonement for you;

besides the burnt offering with its grain offering for the New Moon

, the regular burnt offering with its grain offering, and their drink offerings, according to their ordinance, as a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to the LORD.

--

Numbers 29:1-6 nkjv

 

So how does this calendar stay on track, since there are 12 moons in some years and 13 in others? At the end of the twelfth month, Adar ('AY-dar'), if the barley had not reached the proper stage of maturation (abib) when the next new moon was sighted, then the month was not called Abib (go figure). The new moon in this case signified a 13th month, or leap month, Adar II ('AY-dar BET'). And so the calender was adjusted occasionally, just as ours is adjusted every four years with an extra day in the second month.

 

 

 

The Conclusion

 

I know, it's a long time coming, but well worth the trip. The bottom line of all this is that the first new moon of the year doesn't always fall on the same day of the week (29.53 / 7). This isn't really a shock, since the modern calendars aren't in sync with the weekdays either. Well, consequently, neither does the Hebrew year (365.25 / 7), nor does the Day of Preparation, nor does the Passover Seder, nor does the Feast of Unleavened Bread always fall on the same day of the week every year.

 

The likely story then, considering the details in the gospels (the crucifixion on the "Day of Preparation", a "3-day/3-night" burial, and a resurrection before sunrise on the first day) is unfolding quite plainly. The month of Abib, in the year of the crucifixion, could have started with a new moon sighting on a Thursday. The Passover lamb selection (Abib 10) would fall on the second Sabbath of the month. And then the Preparation (Abib 14) happened to be the following Wednesday with the Passover at twilight. And consequently the sacrifice of Jesus was also on Wednesday at twilight, strangely coinciding with Passover Seder. Then, at sunset, the next day began, which started the seven days of Unleavened Bread, the first of which is a High Sabbath, requiring those on crosses to be killed and buried prior.

 

The three days and three nights, then would be Wed. night/Thurs. light, Thurs. night/Fri. light, Fri. night/Sat. light. And the resurrection could then take place after sunset on Saturday and still meet the gospel requirement of 'early the first day', since the Jewish days start at sunset. Remember it was the women coming to the tomb that occured around sunrise on Sunday, not the actual resurrection.

 

Well, I think I may have rambled a bit. As you can see there was a lot to cover. I hope everyone is following along so far. This also had to serve as a primer in the biblical Hebrew Calender, though. But don't worry, we won't have to rehash that (too often :Guns:) in the following installments of this series. There is still quite more to discuss, however, since the implications of this thread are so far-reaching for the totality of biblical interpretation. One important development is the absence of a reason for the Easter holiday, which is why I said this subject was appropriate for the occasion.

 

I eagerly await your comments and/or questions as they are opportunities to share more with you all. Up and coming in the series is the Passover and the Arc of the Covenant, the Prophets and the Feast of Weeks/Pentecost, the Gentile Provision, and the Feast of Trumpets.