The Orthodox Jew’s claim they are the descendents of the Pharisee’s of Jesus Christ’s time. The following is one of their web sites that have some very informative information about the Jewish new moon dates which they use to calculate their feast calendars today.
http://www.beingjewish.com/yomtov/chodesh/newmoon.html This web site states when and why the Jews stopped observing the crescent moon image that occurs after the dark new moon phase and changed to a calculated new moon to determine their feast dates. Quoting from their article, “The New Moon and the Power of Judaism:” “In order for the new month to begin, the Sanhedrin (highest Jewish Court) must declare “Rosh Chodesh”. Rosh Chodesh literally means “Head of the Month.” Rosh Chodesh was declared only after two witnesses came to the Sanhedrin and testified that they had seen the new moon (a little piece of the moon beginning to show) during the previous night. If no witnesses showed up by the thirtieth day of the month, Rosh Chodesh was declared on the thirty-first day (the previous month will therefore have thirty days), and all the dates of the coming month were thus set.”“When the Sanhedrin realized that Constantinius, the Christian Caesar, was going to disband the Sanhedrin, one of the most important things they did was to calculate all the New Moons until the year 6,000 of Creation (which corresponds to 2240 C.E.), and made the proper declarations for all of them. Thus today we have holiness on each Rosh Chodesh, and on each Holiday, just as has always been since Hashem (the Lord) gave us those Commandments.” Unquote. The phrase made proper declarations for all of them mean that the Jew’s traditional postponement rules are already figured and declared in the date for the first day of the seventh month (the beginning of the Jew’s civil year.) for each of the 6000 years, 3761 B.C. to the year 2240 C.E.
What actually happened is, about 358/359 AD Hillel II formally sanctified each new moon dates in advance, and intercalated all future leap years until such time as a new recognized Sanhedrin would be established in Israel. These calculated new moon dates are literally a World Calendar that makes it possible for Jews all over the world to calculate their feast calendar dates. This also means that anyone who observes a feast calendar determined from these dates is observing the Jew’s traditional feast dates, not the Lord’s.
The reason why the Jew’s stopped observing the crescent moon image is because by their tradition, there must be a Sanhedrin for two witnesses to testify that they had seen a little piece of the crescent moon beginning to show during the previous night, which would begin their new moon or month. The Sanhedrin had to declare the new month and it was going to be disbanded by Constantinius, the Christian Caesar. This is the reason they went to a calculated new moon.
The reason the article caught my attention was because the feast dates were calculated from 3761 BC through 2034 AD by Ambassador College for the former “Worldwide Church of God.” They state the year 3761 BC is the base year for the Hebrew Calendar, (because by Jewish tradition, the Jew’s believe that was when creation week occurred.)
Ambassador College also printed a copy of the Jewish traditional postponement rules and which years in a leap year cycle a month was intercalated or inserted, (when the sun and moon did not divide a 13th dark new moon) to determine the dates for the beginning of each seventh month.
http://www.sktc.net/~earll/jwc.html
Copyright © Ambassador College, 1988-1989. All Rights Reserved.
This program is provided for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a scholarly or authoritative work. Some mistakes may have been made while writing it. These will be corrected as we learn about them and time permits. Conclusions reached using this program should be validated with other sources.
This program may be copied and shared provided that:
1. It has not been modified in any way.
2. Output from the program may not be published without written permission.
3. No fee is charged above the actual cost of copying and materials.
Calculations for the years 1000AD through 2000AD for the first of Tishri have been validated by comparing them to the Jewish Encyclopedia.
This program displays calendars to the screen and printer for the years 3761BC through 2034AD. The screen display is a mini civil calendar showing the months containing the Holy Days. The Holy Days are also listed along with the day, hour and parts for the Molad Tishri. The Julian civil calendar is used prior to October, 15, 1582. The Gregorian civil calendar is displayed for dated after October 4, 1582.
Three printer displays are provided including the civil calendar with Holy Days, the Hebrew calendar, and a comparison calendar showing a side by side Julian, Gregorian, and Hebrew calendars.
To learn more about the Fixed Calendar (calculated) consult:
1. Jewish Encyclopedia
2. Rabbinical Mathematics and Astronomy
3761BC is the base year for the Hebrew Calendar. We do not attempt to project back further.
2034AD is the end of a 19 year time cycle that is far enough into the future to be useful. We do not attempt to project further as we do not know how, when, or it drift (2hr+ each 19yr cycle) will be corrected.
Prior to 257AD we use the leap year cycle 2, 5, 7, 10, 13, 15, 18.
After 256AD we use the leap year cycle 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 16, 19.
POSTPONEMENT RULES USED:
Before 1443BC:
1. If the Molad occurs at or after 12 noon, Trumpets is postponed until the following day.
On or after 1443: (Apply only 1 rule)
1. If the Molad is on Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday, Trumpets is postponed until the following day.
2. If the Molad occurs at or after noon, Trumpets is postponed until the following day. If that causes Trumpets to fall on Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday, Trumpets is postponed an additional day (2 days total).
3. If the Molad of a common (non leap) year is on Tuesday at or after 3 hrs 204 parts, Trumpets is postponed until the following Thursday (2 days total).
4. If the Molad of a common (non leap) year which immediately follows an intercalary (leap) year is Monday at or after 9 hours 589 parts, Trumpet is postponed until the following day. Unquote.
These rules are the reason in some years their feasts are held an addition month later.
To calculate the first new moon date for March or April for Worldwide’s sacred feast calendar, all they had to do was count back 177 days (three 30 day months and three 29 day months) from the Jew’s calculated new moon date in the seventh month.
You can easily check this yourself by using the dates for the first day of the seventh month of the Jewish Years found in some dictionaries. I found them while looking up the word “Jewish” in a Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Deluxe Edition published by The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. Copyright date 1998.
Following the word “Jewish” in the dictionary was “Jewish calendar”. The following definition was given for: Jewish calendar, noun (circa 1888): a calendar in use among Jewish peoples that is reckoned from the year 3761 B.C. and dates in its present form from about A.D. 360. The dates were listed that begins the JEWISH YEARS 5754 through 5773 which correspond to the Gregorian calendar years 1993 through 2012. The Gregorian calendar year, 2008, is the JEWISH YEAR 5769.
When counting back 177 days from the Jewish seventh month date to find the date for the first month for the years 1993 through 2012, they are the same dates that Ambassador College calculated for the former Worldwide Church of God feast calendars. They were identified as “First Day of Sacred Year.”
Most of the Church of God organizations and scattered groups today continue to use the feast calendars of the former Worldwide Church of God which is determine by the Jewish calculated new moons and postponement rules. On rare occasions (in spring of 2009 and 2018) their calculated new moons dates will occur on the date of the beginning of the dark new moon phase of the lunar cycle that is created in the heavens by the sun and moon. We can see that their calculations are not correct because they were trying to calculate the dates for the time of the crescent moon image which occurs several days after the beginning of the dark new moon phase. The result is they usually do not observe the Lord’s feast dates found in Leviticus, chapter 23. They observe the feast dates of Judaism, the Jew’s religion, (Galatians 1:11-14).
Today the term Judaism or Jews’ religion is usually used to identify the Jews who observe the Jewish oral law, traditions, interpretations and expansions of the Jewish written Law. When those oral traditions were first written down they formed the Mishnah and later became the first part of the Talmud. Today, the Karaite Jews, like the Sadducees in Christ’s time, do not accept the oral laws and postponement rules of the Jewish calendar and they teach in their “Karaite Fact Sheet.” Quoting. “The words of the Mishnah and Talmud are clearly the words of men living in the 2nd-5th centuries CE and absent are the familiar Bible formulae “And the Lord spoke unto Moses saying,” and “Thus saith the Lord.” Unquote.
In addition to the ten commandments the Lord wrote on tablets of stone and gave to Moses to teach Israel which is found in the Torah, Judaism has added 603 traditions (commandments of men) which are recorded in the Talmud. In Christ’s day, these oral traditions were not written down but were taught orally by the elders. Jesus Christ told the scribes and Pharisees they were wrong. Notice what Jesus tells them in Mark 7:9, 13. (9) “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition (13) making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.” Judaism, the Jews’ religion, is the religion of the Torah and Talmud, not the religion of Jesus Christ and the Father.
In Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, the words crescent or crescent moon are not listed. In the Bible (KJV), there are no scriptures that tell us the new moon starts when the first crescent image of sunlight is seen several days after the true dark new moon begins. That is Jewish tradition that was learned while Israel was in captivity in Babylon. The only words that may symbolize “crescents” that I have found in Strong’s Concordance is in reference to pagan “ornaments” (#7720, a round pendant for the neck.) found in three scriptures: Judges 8: 21, 26 and “round tires (#7720) like the moon” found in Isaiah 3:18.
There are scriptures that tell us that the beginning of the dark new moon is the correct new moon to count to the feasts of God in Leviticus, chapter 23. (Read the article titled “The Concealed Full Moon”.) If a crescent moon image (which appears on the right side of the moon after the dark new moon phase ends) had to be observed after sunset to determine the time of the crescent moon image, how could David and Jonathan know in the daytime that “tomorrow is the new moon?” (1 Samuel 20:5, 18.) …… Before sunrise, they could see the moon was completely covered with darkness with the exception of a long, narrow strip of sunlight usually on the left side of the moon and they knew the moon would be completely covered with darkness and invisible in the heavens sometime after sunset, the beginning of a new day.
Jesus was questioned by the scribes and Pharisees about his disciples transgressing the traditions of the elders by not washing their hands when they eat bread, (Matthew 15:1-14). Jesus called them hypocrites and said: “And in vain (#3155, folly, to no purpose, in vain) they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, Hear and understand: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man. Then His disciples came and said to Him, Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone, They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” (ditch, Strong’s #999, a hole (in the ground); specifically a cistern:-- ditch, pit. [cistern, a large pit for storing water.])
By teaching the church members to observe the Lord’s feasts on the dates of the Jew’s calendar, the former Worldwide Church of God was teaching Jewish fables and the commandments of men.
Today the leaders of the large Church of God organizations and the small scattered groups who are using the seventh calculated new moon dates of the Jew’s to determine their feast calendars and those who teach and use the crescent moon image for the new moon to observe the Lord’s feasts are giving heed to Jewish fables (#3454, a tale, fiction, myth) and commandments of men.
There are several warnings in the scriptures to all of us about following the Jewish fables and commandments of men. When Paul instructed Titus to appoint elders in every city, notice what Paul wrote in Titus 1:13-14. (13) “This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, (14) not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth.”
Most Jews’ in Jesus’ day and today will tell you very quickly that Jesus Christ was not the Messiah to come. The apostle John tell us what these people are in 1 John 2:22-23, (22) “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. (23) Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”
Jesus Christ called those who follow the Jews’ traditions and teach Jewish fables and the commandments of men, blind leaders of the blind. Do not be the blind that the blind leaders are leading astray with the Jewish traditions which are fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth.
In order for us to not be the blind, we must realize and understand fully the following: “The head of Christ is God,” (1 Corinthians 11:3). “Jesus Christ is the head of the church,” (Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18). “The Holy Spirit (Comforter) will teach you, you need not any man teach you, (1 John 2:27; John 14:26).
Some of the things we must do: “Prove (Strong’s #1381, to test (lit. or fig.); by implication to approve) all things; hold fast that which is good,” (I Thessalonians 5:21).
“Study (#4704, to use speed, i.e. to make effort, be prompt or earnest) to show thyself approved (#1384, acceptable) unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (#3718, to make a straight cut, i.e. (fig.) to dissect (expound) correctly) the word of truth,” (2 Timothy 2:15).
My opinion: We must not use the Jewish World Calendar calculated new moon dates to determine the feast dates of the Lord in Leviticus, chapter 23.
Updated 11-29-10, Art Ryan