The Divine Calendar in The Old Testament

8/7/2019 The Divine Calendar in The Old Testament

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THE DIVINE CALENDAR

IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

Fr. Dan Bdulescu

Our research in this calendar matter of is limited to the church area:Scripture and the Fathers. In the Old Testament we have the teaching aboutcalendar first covered in the book of Genesis, then the laws inspired by God toMoses, i.e. to the chosen people. Concerning the appearance of calendar, i.e.measurement of time, remember that it belongs first of all to God Himself, and

later to humans:"And Seth was chosen, gentle, kind and wise and just to God. This one wisdom gave names to the seven planets of the sky and get it and how the sky turns around.

"Set, into his kidnapping by the angel, saw the settlement of Upper creature, the beauty of

heaven and of those movements. The running the sun and moon and stars, the settlement of the

heavenly signs, which are called planets, and their works he knew and saw things unseen and the

unknown he knew, forty days being taught by that angel...This is also to be believed, that Adam and Seth after wisdom and knowledge

that were given them from God, set the year in days and weeks and months andhas taught humans the science of yearly cicle and counting the days and weeks

and months and years." (Chronograph).

"And God called the light dayand darkness He called night.And the evening and the morning were the first day.And the evening and the morning were the second day.And the evening and the morning were the third day.And God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the

night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

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And God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the

night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years. And let them be for lights in

the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And to rule over the day andover the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it wasgood. And the

evening and the morning were the fourth day." (Genesis 1)

The first day we already have the basic elements calendar: day, night,evening, morning.

The Calendar inspired by God: an "icon" of the time

Leaving aside the profane meanings of the word "calendar" as a humansystem for measuring time: astronomical, mathematical, meteorological, political,economic, etc., let us focus on God's calendar. For we confess that before thesehuman systems, the first calendar is directly created by God Himself for man andbefore his appearance. And if we get this statement, we must give due honor thiscalendar, call it "holy" without any danger of exaggeration or fanaticism. "Holy"comes from Hebrew kadosh which turned to Greek aghios, and means "special","elected" "distinguished." God is holy and everything related to Him and even Hiswork is sacred and holy. To be convinced that these are not mere "old stylist"passionate assertions, we shall see that those spoken about the calendar of thefirst days of Genesis have a dogmatic significance being close linked with Easterand the iconomy of salvatio

Asking the faithful (and clergy alike), i.e., those who believe and confessthat those happened in the first day happened exactly in the way described by

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Moses, how they feel about the length of the day (light) and night of that day, thevast majority answer: "they were equal!" Of course it was so, then here is afundamental element in the calendar: in the day 1 we had the time of equinox.

But can we know who was this day? Again, asking the faithful who is the7th day, they usually fall into two camps responsible: 1. Sunday (

2. Saturday (minority). The above confusion comes from the fact that the civilcalendar week starts on Monday, plus the fact that the Christian holy day isSunday. So it is of course, only that in the creation week that the order wasplaced as follows: First day Sunday and the 7th is Saturday. So it was throughoutthe Old Testament to the chosen people, and even Christians called Sunday the"first day of the week." So, the correct answer: Day 1: Sunday, Day 7: Saturday.

Going back, here's another answer absolutely certain: God made the worldon a Sunday, with the astronomical equinox. The true Christian should know thiswell, to believe and confess this strongly to anyone. There is by no means aninsignificant detail to salvation!

A little-known tradition, recorded among others by Mathaios Blastaris inSintagma: Letter P On Holy Pascha, the date of this equinox Sunday, expressed interms of the Julian calendar used today is: March the 18 th (obviously year 1).

This did not meet an absolutely sure consensus in the Church and then we

do not dwell, but only confess the month: March: "And springing the light from thedeep darkness, God separated the light from the darkness and called the lightday, and the darkness he called night . And it was the first day, which we now callSundayand the first month, which then was called March and number to that firstmonth." (Chronograph)

Asking again the faithful: "What was the equinox: spring or autumn?" Allrespond without hesitation: "Spring". That this was the truth is witnessed by theday 3:

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"And God said: Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, andthe fruit treeyielding fruit after his kind, whose seed isin itself, upon the earth: and it was so."

From then until the end of the world plants are springinspringtime. This does not matter that spring is in the northern hemisphere. Let'sremember, again, that the scriptural and patristic perspective is from this

hemisphere. After we asked these questions to believers and got the rightanswers, let us strengthen these healthy insights whith the teaching of Fatherstoo:

"It is through the Sun that the four seasons are brought about. And the first of these is spring:for in it God created all things, and even down to the present time its presence is evidenced by the

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bursting of the flowers into bud, and this is the equinoctial period, since day and night each consist of

twelve hours. It is caused by the sun rising in the middle"(St. John DamasceneAn ExactExposition of the Orthodox Faith1)

But not only the sun plays a major role in the calendar, but, close after himcomes the moon. We know of course her phases, and the cause of theiroccurence.

But, again asking the faithful: "At what phase was the moon when her firstappearance (fourth day)?" Again we acquire the most correct answer: "fullmoon". Of course, it is known that the baseline of the astronomical month iscalled "new moon", when the moon is unseen. But we are not messed by this,because God made them all full and the moon could not be exceptions to this:

"It should be understood that the moon was made full by the Creator, that is, a fifteen days'moon: for it was fitting that it should be made complete. But on the fourth day, as we said, the sun was

created. Therefore the moon was eleven days in advance of the sun, because from the fourth to the

fifteenth day there are eleven days. Hence it happens that in each year the twelve months of the mooncontain eleven days fewer than the twelve months of the sun. For the twelve months of the sun contain

three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter days, and so because the quarter becomes a whole, in four

years an extra day is completed, which is called bis-sextile. And that year has three hundred and sixty-six days. The years of the moon, on the other hand, have three hundred and fifty-four days. For the

moon wanes from the time of its origin, or renewal, till it is fourteen and three-quarter days' old, and

proceeds to wane till the twenty-ninth and a half day, when it is completely void of light And then

when it is once more connected with the sun it is reproduced and renewed, a memorial of ourresurrection. Thus in each year the moon gives away eleven days to the sun, and so in three years the

intercalary month of the Hebrews arises, and that year comes to consist of thirteen months, owing to

the addition of these eleven days." (St. John DamasceneAn Exact Exposition of the OrthodoxFaith)

Next, we quote an important calendar/astronomical Patristic passage andeven dogmatic, which is unfortunately very little known even to the most faithfuland clergy:

"Why is The Holy Pascha celebrated after the equinox?"

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and obviously had the day and night which were now present to start from the even, because it is more

natural and before than uneven, in the way that possessions come fore losses, God teaching us from

that to the law of equality, in which resides the being of the virtues, before all oversize and mismatch,

and then after the seventh day the lights started to run as from open barriers and being made to move

by different speed, anomaly was introduced. So, because God has well pleased to restore the fall of man

from sin, it was fit that at the equinoctial beginning of time, when the man received his first

assembling, to be made also the economy of his restoration, and because (from then on) the light ofpiety would increase and the darkness of unbelief decrease, the celebration of the salvific Easter is not

without meaning after the equinox, when the daylight increase and the darkness of night is

diminishing." (Mathaios Blastaris Syntagma, Letter P: About Holy Pascha)So: the world is made in a Sunday, vernal equinox and full moon. There are

already clear and present elements of Easter known today that, it becomes clearto everyone now, are closely linked to the creation of the world. Are missing fromhere only those of man's creation and falling into sin. Can we know exactlysomething about these? The answer is: Yes! Here's what Holy Tradition tells us:

"On the sixth day - which for us is Friday He built beasts, animals andcreatures of the earth, after their kinds, and after all the creatures, He built Adam

and Eve, and took them into the delight of Heaven." (Chronograph)

Can we somehow know even more precisely the time of creation of man,and hour? Yes, we can: "And when God made Adam was the sixth day and six

nothingness!

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hours of daylight." (Chronograph)Here, then, that man was made the sixth day (Friday) at the six hour (12

noon, AM). Again, believers usually guess right now, because when they were allfull and equal cosmic elements: equinox, full moon and afternoon. Now the linkwith Easter is completed: The Savior was crucified on a Friday at the hour of six(12 AM). We will come back to these things when we speak of the Christian church

calendar.

*

Once settled these "fundamental" calendaristical elements fixed (and notPentecostal "fundamentalist" or something like this), let us move further on in theOld Testament, in the faith of the chosen people. We see that even from thestandpoint of revelation, faith and worship, timing plays a crucial role.

We have seen in previous sections that the founder of celestial calendar isGod Himself. He revealed this timetable to Seth, and hence these teachings havebeen taught and transmitted to the elected of the Lord. We have a sample of

calendar timing about Noah:

"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month ,the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were

opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the selfsame day entered Noah,and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons

with them, into the ark

And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred andfifty days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of

the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month:

in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. And it came topass at the end offorty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made ." (Genesis7:11-13, 8:3-6)

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Coming to the descendants of Abraham, the chosen people, we meetcalendar items in the book Exodus. Once out of Egyptian bondage, the Jewsreceived from God the tablets of the Law through Moses, but not exclusively, butalso indications about the order of cultic calendar important feasts, where theleading place is Easter. The main astronomical element, the moon with her cycles

are closely related to those found in the section relating to the fourth daycosmological and the emergence of the li

"In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, thesame day came they intothe wilderness of Sinai." (Exodus 19:1)

Then follows what we may rightly call a liturgical "typicon", taught by GodHimself:

"And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying: This month3 shallbeunto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the

congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth dayof this month they shall take to them every man a lamb,according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house

And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of

the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water,

but roast withfire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof And thus shall ye eat it;

withyour loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste:

it is the Lord's passover...

3 Nisan

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And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord

throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. Seven days shall ye eat

unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth

leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel In thefirst month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and

twentieth day of the month at even." (Exodus 12:3-18; Numbers 27:16-25)

"Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerningthe feasts of the Lord, whichye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done: butthe seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath

of the Lord in all your dwellings. These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye

shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first month at even isthe Lord's passover.

And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven daysye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile

work therein. But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord seven days: in the seventh day is

an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein." (Leviticus 23:2-8)

We shall not dwell more details about Easter ordinance law. We retain theimportance of the phases considered in this moon based calendar, the new moonis always considered a start:

"And they assembled all the congregation togetheron the first day of the second month, andthey declared their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the numberof the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls." (Numbers 1:18)

"Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of yourmonths, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace

offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God." (Numbers 10:10)"Beside the burnt offeringof the month, and his meat offering, and the daily burnt offering, and

his meat offering, and their drink offerings, according unto their manner, for a sweet savour, a sacrificemade by fire unto the Lord." (Numbers 29:6)

We consider the above quotations as sufficient, in the Old Testament thereare many more, but we retain the elements of this religious calendar inspired byGod.

And if i tis so, and it is!, can still someone doubt that the Jewish calendar,unlike other calendars that existed in the same period to other people, even ifthey were religious too, was a holy calendar?

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That does not mean of course that someone would have worshiped it as anidol, but its holiness differed it from other systems of timekeeping, calendars. Inour study we purposely left aside the exposure of other calendars such as was theRoman, Greek, Aztec, Persian, etc. They can only be a research subject in ascientific and cultural point of view, which is not part of this paper. Of course, weadmit the difference between a civil and a religious calendar, which goes not somuch difference in method of calculation as to the purpose of composition. But wedo not get this idea that the timing of the Old Testament can be treated in the

same category of other contemporary religious calendars. Who would argue, forexample, the revealed the nature of the Mayan calendar?

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The religious calendar is a kind of "skeleton" of the cult of the religion inquestion, to which is closely linked. One can easily realize that the cultic aspectdepends drastically of this calendar, up there in that it can be said that a liturgicalworship without calendar is nonsense. We will see further imconsequences of this fact when we talk about the Christian church calendar.

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The Divine Calendar in The Old Testament