The Mystery of Ephraim

The Essenes had their own calendar, but they were wiped out during the 70 AD Inferno, so is there a Calendar Omen?

The Scriptures command us to celebrate Passover in the spring at the time of the ripening of the barley, so the Jewish or the Hebrew calendar has to be a solar calendar. But in another Scripture, it commands us to remember the new moon, so the Jewish calendar has to be a lunar too.

Since Biblical times, various astronomical phenomena have been used to establish uniquely Jewish definitions for the day and its hours, the months and the year.

The length of days and hours vary by the season, controlled by the times of sunset, nightfall, dawn and sunrise. The months and years of the Hebrew calendar are established by the cycles of the moon and the sun.

Though the months follow the lunar cycle, the lunar months must always align themselves with the seasons of the year, which are governed by the sun. Thus, the Hebrew calendar is “Luni-Solar.” The discrepancy between the solar year (365 days) and the lunar year (354 days) was resolved by every so often adding a thirteenth month to the year, to form a “leap year.”

In the early times of our history, the High Court (Sanhedrin) in Jerusalem was assigned the tasks of determining the beginning of each month and the balancing of the solar with the lunar years. They relied on direct observation of the New Moon, astronomical data, and other considerations.

In the fourth century after the Temple’s destruction, however, when oppression and persecution threatened the continued existence of the Court, a fixed calendar was instituted — based on the Sanhedrin’s closely guarded secrets of calendrical calculation. Called the Hillel calendar, this is the permanent Hebrew calendar according to which the New Moons and festivals are calculated and celebrated today by Orthodox Jews all over the world.

Like the original system of observation, it is based on the Luni-Solar principle. It also applies certain rules by which complex astronomical calculations are combined with the religious requirements into an amazingly precise system.

Exodus 121 And the Lord spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.

From the wording of this verse, “shall be unto you,” the sages deduced that the responsibility of pinpointing and consecrating the chodesh, the crescent new moon, was entrusted to the leaders of our nation, the Sanhedrin, the rabbinical supreme court of every generation.

Preceding the Sanhedrin were the one hundred and twenty priests who comprised the Great Assembly that Ezra had established.

Originally, there was no fixed calendar. There was no way to determine in advance the exact day of a coming holy day or festival, because there was no way to determine in advance when the month would begin. Each month anew, the Sanhedrin would determine whether the month would be 29 or 30 days long — depending on when the following month’s new moon was first sighted — and would sanctify the new month.

The Sanhedrin (Hebrew synedrion, “sitting together,” hence “assembly” or “council”) were assemblies of elders (known as “rabbis” after the destruction of the Second Temple), who were appointed to sit as a tribunal in every city in the ancient Land of Israel.

There were two classes of Jewish courts, the Great Sanhedrin and the Lesser Sanhedrin. A lesser Sanhedrin of 23 judges was appointed to sit as a tribunal in each city, but there was only supposed to be one Great Sanhedrin of 71 judges, which among other roles acted as the Supreme Court, taking appeals from cases which were decided by lesser courts.

Members of the Sanhedrin were to be recruited from the following sources: Priests (Kohanim), Levites (Levi’im), and ordinary Jews who were members of those families having a pure lineage such that their daughters were allowed to marry priests.

In general usage, the “Sanhedrin” without qualifier normally refers to the Great Sanhedrin, which was presided over by the Nasi, who functioned as its head or representing as President, and was a member of the court; the Av Beit Din or the chief of the court, who was second to the nasi; and sixty-nine general members (Mufla). 

Hillel II (Hillel the Nasi), held the office of Nasi of the Sanhedrin between 320 and 385 AD and he is regarded as the creator of the modern fixed Hebrew Calendar the Jews observed from 359 AD onward to modern time.

In the Second Temple period, the Sanhedrin met in the Temple in Jerusalem, in a building called the Chamber of Hewn Stones. This Sanhedrin convened every day except the yearly festivals and on sabbath days (Shabbat).

Members of the Sanhedrin were well schooled in astronomy. They knew exactly when the new moon would have appeared, and where it would have been visible. Nevertheless, the sanctification of the moon depends on the crescent new moon actually being seen by at least two witnesses. The word “this” (in the above-quoted verse in Exodus 12:2, “This month shall be to you . . .”) implies something that is actually seen. These witnesses could be local or from the Disporal who arrived (would be lavishly entertained there, in order to attract potential witnesses to travel) to Jerusalem to testify.

The rabbis of the Sanhedrin would question the witnesses in the order of their arrival. They knew what the proper responses to their questions ought to be, and were thus quickly able to identify fraudulent claims. Starting with the elder of each pair, they would ask: “Tell us how you saw the moon:

In which direction was it in relation to the sun? (The observation is limited to the time of sunset)
Was it to the north or south?
How high in the sky did the moon appear to be?
In which direction were the crescent’s tips facing?
How wide was it?”

After they had finished questioning the first witness, they would bring in his partner and question him in similar fashion. If the two accounts corroborated, the evidence was accepted.

Publicizing the New Month

The following night (the second night of the month), huge bonfires were lit on designated mountaintops. Lookouts stationed on other mountaintops would see that a fire had been lit, and would light their own fires. This chain of communication led all the way to Babylonia, so that even very distant communities knew that the day beforehand had been declared the New Month (Rosh Chodesh).

Eventually, the Samaritans started lighting fires mischievously on the wrong days in order to confuse the Jewish Diaspora. To prevent this confusion, the fire-on-mountaintop method of communication was discontinued, and instead running messengers were dispatched from Babylonia and all other far-flung Jewish settlements. This took a lot longer, a delay which had (and still has) halachic implications with regards to observance of the second day of the Festivals in the Diaspora.

Nowadays

The lunisolar Hebrew calendar, or the Hillel calendar, was named after Hillel II because he was the presiding Nasi of the Sanhedrin when the calculated calendar was established, is actually a brilliant invention that filled a desperate need. Originally, the new moons were formerly sighted by multiple witnesses and officially declared throughout Israel. But after the Second Temple destruction and the subsequent dispersion, it was impractical to declare the new moon to every Jewish community in the world, and under Constantius II, it was actually outlawed.

As a remedy, the Sanhedrin instituted the Hillel calendar in 359 AD. This calendar averages 29.5 days per month and 365.2468 days per year (compared to the average solar year length of 365.2422). 

Implementing the Hillel calendar was the Sanhedrin’s last big decision before disbanding. Whenever the Hillel calendar will be decommissioned in the future to return to sighting and declaring the New Moon days, it would have to be at the authority of a reconvened Sanhedrin.

So until then, this calendar is what unites Jewish people worldwide in celebrating any Festivals on the same days, and reading the same Torah portion together each week. So Hillel and his rabbinical court, the Sanhedrin, established the perpetual calendar which is followed today.

The Sanhedrin considered several factors in the course of their deliberations whether to declare a leap year on a given year. The primary factor, which may or may not override other factors, was the spring equinox.

(a) If the spring equinox would fall later than the first half of Nissan (from the 16th onward), then the year was automatically declared a leap year. This is because, as mentioned earlier, the verse states: “Guard the month of spring, and make [then] the Passover offering.”

(b) However, it wasn’t enough for Passover to fall after the equinox, when it was “officially” spring; spring-like conditions needed to be evidenced. If in the land of Israel, the barley had not yet ripened, and the trees were not yet blossoming with seasonal fruit — that, too, was sufficient reason to delay Nissan by adding a second month of Adar. Spring had to be felt; it had to be bright and green.

(c) There were also several non-season-related factors which the Sanhedrin considered. For example, if the roads or bridges were in disrepair due to the winter rainy season, impeding the ability of the pilgrims to travel to Jerusalem for Passover.

But where did the Sanhedrin get their authority?

Deuteronomy 16:18 “Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes; and they shall judge the people with just judgment. 

19 Thou shalt not distort judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a bribe; for a bribe doth blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the righteous.

Deuteronomy 17:11 According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do. Thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee to the right hand nor to the left. 

12 And the man who will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest who standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die; and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.

13 And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

Moses knew he would die soon and his understanding had been conveyed to the judges, the Levites and priests where the true interpretation of the law were taught. So in the book of Deuteronomy Moses spoke and explained unto all Israel “according unto all that the Lord had given him” as to how to keep them, the blessing they would have if they obey, or cursing if they disobey, in a language they could understand. Men may have good intentions, but may do things seen as presumptuously? 

And the man who will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest who standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die

It’s a death penalty, so what is presumptuous or presumptuously? 

Below are some of its synonyms: 

arrogant, bumptious, cavalier, chesty, haughty, high-and-mighty, high-handed, high-hat, huffish, huffy, imperious, important, lofty, lordly, masterful, overweening, peremptory, pompous, presuming, pretentious, self-asserting, self-assertive, sniffy, supercilious, superior, uppish, uppity

Moses as a god unto Pharaoh:

Exo 7:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god H430 to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.

The KJV translates elohim as “judges” in Exodus 21:6; Exodus 22:8; and twice in Exodus 22:9

Exo 21:6 Then his master shall bring him unto the judges H430; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.

Exo 22:8 If the thief is not found, then the master of the house shall be brought unto the judges H430, to see whether he has put his hand unto his neighbour’s goods.

Exo 22:9 For all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox, for ass, for sheep, for raiment, or for any manner of lost thing, which another challenge to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges H430; and whom the judges H430 shall condemn, he shall pay double unto his neighbour.

The Jewish “leap year” which occurs seven times in a 19-year cycle has 13 months instead of the regular 12. This is so that the lunar-based Jewish year should remain aligned with the solar seasons (12 lunar months make up a total of 354 days — slightly more than 11 days short of the 365.25 day solar cycle). The added month is called “Adar I” and is inserted before the month of Adar (termed “Adar II” in leap years).

New Testament Omen

The significance of the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD should not be ignored. It came forty years after John the Baptist had given a stern warning about another consuming fire recorded in Luke 3:16. The number 40 generally symbolizes a period of testing, trial or probation. During Moses’ life he lived forty years in Egypt and forty years in the desert before God selected him to lead his people out of slavery.

Because of their perversion, God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah during Abraham’s time. The Blind have ignored John’s warning about another consuming fire recorded in the Gospel of Luke. John said unto them:

“I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I cometh, the straps of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with FIRE. 17 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor and will gather the wheat into His garner; but the chaff He will burn with FIRE unquenchable,” Luke 3:16-17.

The word F-I-R-E is highlighted above, with a hope that the Blind could see the word“FIRE.” When we look back, one cannot avoid concluding that God had deemed that the Essenes were worthy of extinction during the AD 70 INFIRNO. Everything about the Essenes were destroyed by FIRE.

“Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?” Amos 3:6

Or by the Roman SWORD?

The Sadducees and a large portion of the Shammai Pharisees also followed suit; only the Hillel branch of Pharisees limped off to Yavne and survived; the Nazareens survived too, they fled to Pella on the northeastern side of the Jordan Valley.

If the 70 AD inferno was only a microcosm, a foretaste, how could those who deviate from the God ordained Calendar, who have similar deceptive beliefs as the original Essenes, escape John’s warning during the Last Days? Wouldn’t there be another Sodom and Gomorrah? And wouldn’t they also share its fate? It’s an unpleasant ending, but that’s what the Scriptures indicate.

The Essene/Qumran has their own 364 day solar calendar totally at odds with the calendrics of the Sanhedrin. Their sacred year always began on the vernal (spring) equinox and is, by definition, Wednesday (because God Created the “lights in the firmament” for “signs and seasons” on the 4th Day), 1st day of the 1st month (Nisan or Abib). Consequently, the Essene Passover will always begin at 6 PM Tuesday, 13 days later (Nisan 14). The key point being Essene Passover always began “Tuesday” evening, 13 days after the vernal equinox. To outsiders, the Essenes would appear to observe the vernal equinox and (regardless of whatever the previous day was) declare that day to be Wednesday 1 Nisan of their calendar.

The Essenes were pious, they practised celibacy, collective ownership, and plagued obedience to their leaders, chose not to possess slaves but served each other, to maintain a pure lifestyle, to abstain from criminal and immoral activities, they practised daily purification by water rituals and baptism and even refrain from defecation on the Sabbath. Yet the Essenes were wiped out during the AD 70 inferno.

But why? Why did they faced their Sodom and Gomorrah in AD 70! 

Had the Essenes acted presumptuously by repudiating the Calendar that God has instituted through the Sanhedrin? Were they found guilty of repudiating the Passover sacrifice in Jerusalem? Had the Essenes acted presumptuously?

If so, could this AD 70 INFERNO be just a microcosm during the endtime for those who promote their own calendar?

“Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the CREATOR of this Universe has not brought it about?”

What are the Oracles of God?

~ by Joel Huan on May 21, 2021.

Posted in Calendar, Essenes, Sects