The Abib Biblical Lunar Calendar (ABLC)

Feast of Unleven Bread will be Apr 1 thru Apr 6 2010

Feast of Pentecost will be May 19 and 20th in 2010

Feast of Tabernacles will be Sep 24 thru Sep 30 2010

Sections to read first 1-3

The bible is a book which contains prophecy. It is a book of past events which symbolically represent future events. Prophecy is statements about events which are going to occur in the future. One cannot understand when in the future the events are going to occur until one knows how the bible expresses times and dates. So we need to know what sort of calendar the bible uses.

All the chronology in the bible, the dates, the days, months and years, are expressed in terms of the Biblical Lunar Calendar. This Calendar which was used in the day of Noah is the same calendar that was used by all ancient civilisations. It has 12 lunar months each of 30 days. The Egyptians used this type of calendar up to around the 8th Century BC, the Chinese used it up to around the 4th Century BC. When Rome was founded by Romulus, a 360 day calendar was being used - see Ancient Calendars. Sir Isaac Newton stated:

All nations, before the just length of the solar year was known, reckoned months by the course of the moon, and years by the return of winter and summer, spring and autumn; and in making calendars for their festivals, they reckoned thirty days to a lunar month, and twelve lunar months to a year, taking the nearest round numbers, whence came the division of the ecliptic into 360 degrees. (Anderson, Robert. The Coming Prince. London: Hodder & Stroughton, 1894. )

The truth about the biblical 360 day year as mentioned by Newton was quoted by Sir Robert Anderson in his book, The Coming Prince, page 68. This was not a new discovery by Sir Isaac Newton in the late 1600's or by Sir Robert Anderson in 1895. It was clearly discussed in detail by the Yahshuaian, Julias Africanus in his Chronology within his explanation of the fulfillment of Daniel's Seventy Weeks, written about A.D. 240. www.direct.ca/trinity/360day.html

The Biblical Lunar Calendar Timetable

The first month of the year started in the spring after the Jewish exodus from Egypt in 1513 BC, and it started in the Autumn (in the months of Tishri) before the Exodus. Jews today still celebrate the new year on Tishri 1 (but this is according to the modern Hebrew Calendar which is slightly different from the Biblical Lunar Calendar). We have designed a Calendar Converter Program which converts the modern calendar (Gregorian) into the Biblical Lunar Calendar for dates from 2000 BC to 3000 AD. You can download it free - see BLC calendar converter. 

Technical Calendar stuff

Lunar calendars start the year either at a new moon, or at a full moon, which is taken as the beginning of a lunar month. A true lunar month is around 29.5 days long, because the moon takes 29.5 days to orbit the earth (29 days, 12 hours 44 minutes and 3 secs according to current astronomy, or 3 and a third seconds according to the current Hebrew Calendar). We currently use a Solar calendar which starts the new year after a complete orbit of the earth around the sun. Such an orbit takes almost precisely 365.25 days. This period is around 12.4 lunar months. The Greeks, the Babylonians and the ancient Hebrews all operated lunar calendars before Yahshua. In 46 AD, Julius Caesar issued a decree changing the Roman calendar from Lunar to Solar. The resulting Julian calendar, based on the calculations of Sosigenes, had 365 days in each year and a leap year every 4^th year with 366 days. It had 12 months whose lengths exactly fitted the year. In 1582 AD this calendar had become ten days out, since the true solar year is a bit longer than 365.25 days, (making it not much better than a lunar calendar by then as regards seasons starting at the correct time). So Pope Gregory XIII abolished October 5^th to October 14^th, in that year, and he abolished leap years in century years, unless such years were divisible by 400. This Gregorian calendar is the one in use today.

The Gregorian component of our BLC calendar is true Solar, it extends Gregorian dates back from today until 2000 BC. It does not follow the abolition of the 10 days from October 5th to October 14th 1582 inclusive, because it extends the Gregorian calendar backwards, rather than using the flawed Julian Calendar before 1582 October 4th. The biblical lunar calendar had 12 months in each year. The bible writers adopted the Babylonian names of these months during and after the period when the Jews were deported from Israel to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar II, the King of Babylon (reigned 604 - 562 BC). These months were:

1 Let there be an observing of the month of Abib, and you must celebrate the passover to Jehovah your Yahweh, because in the month of Abib Jehovah your Yahweh brought you out of Egypt by night (Deuteronomy 16).

2This month will be the start of the months for you. It will be the first of the months of the year for you…
5 ...you may pick from the young rams or from the goats. 
6 And it must continue under guard until the 14^th day of this month…
11 ...and you must eat it in haste. It is Jehovah’s passover (Exodus 12: 2-11).

The Passover is still celebrated by Jews today and is in late March/Early April, on Nisan14. It occasionally coincides with 'Good Friday’ (well, statistically every 7 years). Of course it coincided in 33 CE, when Yahshua was killed, since Yahshua was killed on the Jewish Passover, he being the greater Passover lamb.

7 In the 1st month, that is, the month Nisan (Esther 3).
1 In the month of Ziv, that is, the 2nd month (1 Kings 6).
9 In the 3rd month, that is, the month of Sivan (Esther 8).
2 In the lunar month of Ethanim in the festival, that is, the 7th month (1 Kings 8).
38 In the lunar month of Bul, that is, the 8th month (1 Kings 6).
1 On the 4th [day] of the 9th month, in Chislev (Zechariah 7).
16 In the 10th month, that is, the month Tebeth (Esther 2).
7On the 24th day of the 11th month, that is, the month Shebat (Zechariah 1).

7 In the 1st month, that is, the month Nisan, in the 12th year of King Ahasuerus, someone cast Pur, that is, the Lot, before Haman from day to day and from month to month, [to] the 12th, that is, the month Adar (Esther 3).

1 Kings was written before and Esther and Zechariah were written during or after the 70 year Babylonian exile of Judah (586 to 516 BC - see later).

19 And he proceeded to burn the house of the [true] Yahweh and pull down the wall of Jerusalem; and all its dwelling towers they burned with fire and also all its desirable articles, so as to cause ruin. 
20 Furthermore, he carried off those remaining from the sword captive to Babylon, and they came to be servants to him and his sons until the royalty of Persia began to reign, 
21 to fulfill Jehovah's word by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had paid off its sabbaths. All the days of lying desolated it kept sabbath, to fulfill seventy years (2 Chronicles 36).

The remainder of the names of the months can be deduced from Josephus (the Jewish historian) or the Talmud or current Jewish calendars. The post Babylonian exilic names were the month names used in Babylon.

11 In the 600^th year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the 17^th day of the month, on this day, all the springs of the vast watery deep were broken open and the flood gates of the heavens were opened (Genesis 7).

3 And the waters began receding from off the earth, going and receding, and at the end of 150 days the waters were lacking. 
4 And in the seventh month, on the 17^th day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (Genesis 8).

When the waters are lacking the Ark would run aground, so from this we deduce that 5 months was 150 days, so there were 30 days in each Biblical Lunar Calendar (BLC) month. If all the months were the same length. 

19 You will eat, not one day nor two days nor five days nor ten days nor twenty days,
20 but up to a month of days, until it comes out of your nostrils and it has become a loathing to you, just because you rejected Jehovah, who is in your midst, and you went weeping before him, saying: Why is it that we have come out of Egypt? (Numbers 11).

14 So he dwelt with him a month of days (Genesis 29).

13 And he continued to reign for a lunar month of days (2 Kings 15).

So a month of days was a specific number of them. So all months had the same length (30 days). The BLC therefore has 12 months each of which is 30 days long. So it spans 360 days. But there are 365.25 days in the Solar year. Furthermore 12 lunar cycles only take 354 days since each cycle is 29.5 days long. So we have a problem at the end of each year where the thirteenth lunar cycle is starting around 11 days (365 - 354) early with respect to the Solar calendar. The way the Hebrews dealt with this, was that sometimes the next year did indeed start with the next lunar month, and other times it skipped a month, or rather the previous year had another month added. This month was called Veadar, or ‘second Adar’. The 14^th month then became the first of the new year. The Modern Jewish calendar adds a 13^th month every 3^rd, 6^th, 8^th, 11^th, 14^th, 17^th & 19^th years in a 19 year cycle. The first new moon and the first full moon of the 19^th lunar year occur on the same solar day that they did in the first lunar year. This is not how the ancient Hebrews did it however. They added an extra month only when the 14th day of that month was not in spring, in the sense that it did not start after the day of the vernal equinox. 

The bible defines the 12 months of the year as follows:

1 As for the sons of Israel by their number, the heads of the paternal houses and the chiefs of the thousands and of the hundreds and their officers that were ministering to the king in every matter of the divisions of those that came in and that went out month by month for all the months of the year, each division was 24,000.
2 Over the first division of the first month there was Jashobeam the son of Zabdiel, and in his division there were 24,000.
3 Some of the sons of Perez the head of all the chiefs of the service groups were for the first month.
4 And over the division of the second month there was Dodai the Ahohite with his division, and Mikloth was the leader, and in his division there were 24,000.
5 The chief of the 3rd service group for the third month was Benaiah the son of Jehoiada the chief priest, and in his division there were 24,000.
6 This Benaiah was a mighty man of the 30 and over the 30; and [over] his division there was Ammizabad his son.
7 The 4th for the 4th month was Asahel, Joab's brother, and Zebadiah his son after him, and in his division there were 24,000.
8 The 5th chief for the 5th month was Shamhuth the Izrahite, and in his division there were 24,000.
9 The 6th for the 6th month was Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, and in his division there were 24,000.
10 The 7th for the 7th month was Helez the Pelonite of the sons of Ephraim, and in his division there were 24,000.
11 The 8th for the 8th month was Sibbecai the Hushathite of the Zerahites, and in his division there were 24,000.
12 The 9th for the 9th month was Abi-ezer the Anathothite of the Benjaminites, and in his division there were 24,000.
13 The 10th for the 10th month was Maharai the Netophathite of the Zerahites, and in his division there were 24,000.
14 The 11th for the 11th month was Benaiah the Pirathonite of the sons of Ephraim, and in his division there were 24,000.
15 The 12th for the 12th month was Heldai the Netophathite, of Othniel, and in his division there were 24,000 (1 Chronicles 27).

There was no ministering recorded for any 13^th month. So presumably there was actually no ministering in the 13th month (Veadar). In non (lunar) leap years (years with no 13th month or intercalary month) the last 5/6 days of Adar are coincident with the first 5/6 days of Nisan (because 12 lunar cycles are 354.36707 days, and 12 BLC months are 360 days). Adar25/26, the 355/6^th day of the year, is Nisan1 in the next year, and Adar30 is Nisan5/6 in the new year. Likewise in the case of Solomon’s food:

7 And Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, and they provided the king and his household with food. It would devolve upon each one to provide the food one month in the year (1 Kings 4)

2 As for the courtyard that is outside the temple. Cast it clear out and do not measure it, because it has been given to the nations, and they will trample the holy city underfoot for 42 months. 
3 And I will cause my two witnesses to prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days dressed in sackcloth (Revelation 11)

This period of 42 months is 42 months all of which are one of the 12 months above. In other words if it started in Nisan then it ended in Tishri, 3 years and 6 months later. There is no 13^th month mentioned anywhere in the bible explicitly. In fact there would have been 43 lunar months in the period of 42 BLC months. Likewise, if the period of 1260 days started on Nisan18 it would end on Tishri18 three years later. In fact there may well have been 1240 or 1280 true days between these two BLC dates, separated by 1260 BLC days, each one of which is in a 30 day BLC month.

To apply bible prophecy to dates today we need to know when each first month of the lunar year starts. We need to know Nisan1 for each year. The modern Jews calculate it so that Nisan14 is on or after March 26^th. This is because they start the year on Tishri 1 and are effectively choosing this month with reference to the Autumn equinox. The early Yahshuaian Churches calculated it so that the Passover, Nisan14, is on or after March 21^st, the date they chose for the Vernal Equinox, when day and night are precisely the same length, see: www.ozramp.net.au/~sanhub/Yahwehstime.htm 

The 1st day of the lunar month is a new moon, therefore the full moon occurs on the 14th-15th of the month.  A lunar month is 29 days 12 hours 44+ minutes long. 

The first month, Abib or Nisan (in the northern hemisphere; Jerusalem as the focus Psalm 122; 135:19-21; Zechariah 14:1-4; Revelation 21:2-3), is the beginning of the sacred year when the days start to get longer. Some barley is ready for harvesting (Leviticus 23:10; Ruth 1:22; 2:23; 2Samuel 21:9), but reaping may continue as late as August in higher altitudes. Wheat and rye are still immature in spring  (Exodus 9:31,32). This season must coincide with the Vernal Equinox, which causes seasonal change and crop development not vice versa. The 20th-21st March is the turn from winter to summer of a solar year (Genesis 1:14). Biblically, it is the start of the summer season (Genesis 8:22; Psalm 74:17).

Passover is an 8 day feast, including Unleavened Bread, a day, or a meal (Matthew 26:17; Ezekiel 45:21; Numbers 9:6; Luke 22:15). Included is the Lord's Supper on the 14th Nisan, the Night to be Much Observed on the 15th Nisan, (i.e., 14th-15th at the time of a full moon), followed by the Wave-Sheaf Offering (Yahweh's acceptance of the resurrected Yahshua), both set during the Days of Unleavened Bread, and with the seventh day of Unleavened Bread being 21st Nisan. The full moon of Passover must be the first full moon and after the new moon nearest to the Vernal Equinox, i.e., nearest to March 20th-21st.

This calculation wherein the Passover is the first 14th day of a lunar month to fall on or after the day of the vernal equinox is the way that Yahweh stipulated things should be done after the Exodus:

2 And Jehovah now said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month will be the start of the months for you. It will be the first of the months of the year …
5 ...you may pick from the young rams or from the goats. And it must continue under guard until the 14^th day of this month…
11 ...and you must eat it in haste. It is Jehovah’s Passover (Exodus 12).

23 And it will certainly occur that from new moon to new moon and from sabbath to sabbath all flesh will come in to bow down before me, Jehovah has said (Isaiah 66).

Yahweh was stipulating that Nisan, the Passover month, the month in which the Jews left Egypt, was to be the anchor month for the lunar calendar (whereas before this it was Tishri). This month is synchronised to the Solar calendar, to the seasons, through the spring equinox which defines the beginning of the spring and harvesting half of the year. Basically the Passover is the first 14th day of a lunar month where this day is actually in spring (which starts after the Hebrew day of the vernal equinox).

Incidentally the Hebrew langauge has no word for Spring or for Autumn, in fact the scriptures talk about the seasons (appointed times) of summer and and winter. 

22 For all the days the earth continues, seed sowing and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, will never cease (Genesis 8).

17 It was you that set up all the boundaries of the earth; Summer and winter, you yourself formed them (Psalm 74)

15 And I will strike down the winter house in addition to the summer house.' And the houses of ivory will have to perish, and many houses will have to come to their finish,' is the utterance of Jehovah (Amos 3).

8 And it must occur in that day [that] living waters will go forth from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. In summer and in winter it will occur (Zechariah 14).

So it appears that both seasons were 6 months long for the Jews. Today, since we have a solar calendar, we would run 6 month seasons between the equinoxes. But no so for the Jews with a lunar and agricultural calendar. To the Hebrew summer was the harvest season and winter was the no harvest season. The spring rain and the autumn rain are mentioned in english translations of the old testament, but the Hebrew words used stand for first-rain [hrwm] and late-rain [#wqlm]

22 For all the days the earth continues, seed sowing and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, will never cease (Genesis 8)

1 When David himself had crossed over a little beyond the summit, there was Ziba the attendant of Mephibosheth to meet him with a couple of asses saddled and upon them 200 loaves of bread and 100 cakes of raisins and 100 loads of summer fruit and a large jar of wine (2Samuel16)

8 it prepares its food even in the summer; it has gathered its food supplies even in the harvest (Proverbs 6).

39 However, on the 15th day of the 7th month, when you have gathered the produce of the land, you should celebrate the festival of Jehovah seven days. On the 1st day is a complete rest and on the 8th day is a complete rest (Leviticus)..

32 Now you learn from the fig tree parable. Just as soon as its branch grows tender and it puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near [Summer being the harvest season from Nisan16 to Tishri22. The buds come out just before Nisan16]. (Matthew24).

2 Speak to the sons of Israel, and you must say to them, 'The seasonal festivals of Jehovah that you should proclaim are holy conventions. These are my seasonal festivals:
3 'Six days may work be done, but on the 7th day is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convention. You may do no sort of work. It is a sabbath to Jehovah in all places where you dwell.
4 'These are the seasonal festivals of Jehovah, holy conventions, which you should proclaim at their appointed times/seasons (Leviticus23):

We know that the first fruitrs of the barley harvest were offered to Yahweh on Nisan16, and no human was allowed to eat any new grain until then. So officially the harvest began on Nisan16. Then the festival of the final ingathering, the festival of Booths, ran from Tishri15-22. So officially the harvest gathering and rejoicing ended on Tishri22.  So we think that biblical Hebrew Summer ran from Nisan16 to Tishri22. In truth, some barley must have been harvested before Nisan16 and no one did any harvesting on Tishri22, since it was a Sabbath, and some dates and figs must have been havested after Tishri22. But the festivals defined the harvest season of summer we think. 

The catastrophe happened in the 600^th year of Noah’s rulership, in what was once the second month, called by the Macedonians Dius, and by the Hebrews Marsuan (Marheshvan or Heshvan), according to the arrangement of the calendar which they followed in Egypt. Moses, however appointed Nisan, that is to say Xanthicus, as the first month for the festivals, because it was in this month that he brought the Hebrews out of Egypt. He also reckoned this month as the commencement of the year for everything relating to divine worship. But for selling and buying and other ordinary affairs he preserved the ancient order (Jewish Antiquities Book I).

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the springs of the vast watery deep were broken open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened (Genesis 7).

The bible shows that the agricultural year, which was the fiscal year in what was an agricultural economy, started in the seventh month, Tishri:

22 And you will carry on your festival of weeks with the first ripe fruits of the wheat harvest, and the festival of ingathering, at the turn of the year (Exodus 34).

16 Also the festival of the harvest of the first ripe fruits of your labours, of what you sow in the field, and the festival of ingathering at the outgoing of the year, when you gather your labour from the field (Exodus 23).

13 The festival of booths you should celebrate for yourself seven days when you make an ingathering from your threshing floor and your oil and winepress (Deuteronomy 16).

So the turn and outgoing, meaning beginning, of the agricultural year was the seventh month. The ingathering of all the crops is obviously a good end to an agricultural year. The modern Jews celebrate their new year on Tishri1. This day was the start of the agricultural or secular year. Since the bible does not introduce this new year as a new concept, one can deduce that this was the one being used before the change to Nisan for the sacred new year as mentioned above  in Exodus 12:2-11.

To calculate which day Nisan14 is we need to know when the new and full moons are around March 21st for the last 6,000 years. There is a great website for this at: http//sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/phase/phasecat.html  written by Fred Espenak of Nasa. He uses Gregorian dates on and after 1582 October 15th, which was the first day after the ten days from October 5 to October 14 inclusive, that the Pope abolished. He uses Julian dates before October 5th that year, as mankind did.

 Moon Phase Table (accurate to 1 minute)

 Year      New Moon       First Quarter       Full Moon       Last Quarter       1991                                                                                 Feb 14  17:32     Feb 21  22:58     Feb 28  18:24     Mar  8  10:34              Mar 16  08:12     Mar 23  06:03     Mar 30  07:17     Apr  7  06:47       1992          Mar  4  13:23     Mar 12  02:35     Mar 18  18:17     Mar 26  02:30              Apr  3  05:02     Apr 10  10:05     Apr 17  04:42     Apr 24  21:40       1993          Feb 21  13:05     Mar  1  15:46     Mar  8  09:46     Mar 15  04:17              Mar 23  07:15     Mar 31  04:09     Apr  6  18:43     Apr 13  19:38       1994          Feb 10  14:31     Feb 18  17:48     Feb 26  01:16     Mar  4  16:54              Mar 12  07:06     Mar 20  12:15     Mar 27  11:10     Apr  3  02:55       1995          Mar  1  11:49     Mar  9  10:12     Mar 17  01:26     Mar 23  20:10              Mar 31  02:10     Apr  8  05:34     Apr 15  12:09 p   Apr 22  03:18       1996                                                                                    Feb 18  23:31     Feb 26  05:51     Mar  5  09:23     Mar 12  17:15              Mar 19  10:46     Mar 27  01:30     Apr  4  00:08     Apr 10  23:35       1997                                                                                    Feb  7  15:06     Feb 14  08:57     Feb 22  10:26     Mar  2  09:37              Mar  9  01:15     Mar 16  00:06     Mar 24  04:45     Mar 31  19:37       1998                                                                                    Feb 26  17:26     Mar  5  08:41     Mar 13  04:34     Mar 21  07:39              Mar 28  03:14     Apr  3  20:19     Apr 11  22:23     Apr 19  19:53       1999                                                                                    Feb 16  06:40     Feb 23  02:44     Mar  2  06:59     Mar 10  08:43              Mar 17  18:49     Mar 24  10:18     Mar 31  22:49     Apr  9  02:53       2000             Mar  6  05:18     Mar 13  06:59     Mar 20  04:44     Mar 28  00:23              Apr  4  18:13     Apr 11  13:30     Apr 18  17:41     Apr 26  19:32       2001          Feb 23  08:22     Mar  3  02:03     Mar  9  17:23     Mar 16  20:47              Mar 25  01:23     Apr  1  10:49     Apr  8  03:22     Apr 15  15:32       2002                                                             Feb 12  07:42     Feb 20  12:03     Feb 27  09:17     Mar  6  01:26              Mar 14  02:04     Mar 22  02:29     Mar 28  18:25     Apr  4  15:30       2003          Mar  3  02:36     Mar 11  07:15     Mar 18  10:35     Mar 25  01:52              Apr  1  19:19     Apr  9  23:40     Apr 16  19:36     Apr 23  12:19       2004          Feb 20  09:20     Feb 28  03:24     Mar  6  23:16     Mar 13  21:02              Mar 20  22:43     Mar 28  23:48     Apr  5  11:04     Apr 12  03:47       2005          Feb  8  22:29     Feb 16  00:15     Feb 24  04:54     Mar  3  17:37              Mar 10  09:12     Mar 17  19:18     Mar 25  21:00     Apr  2  00:51       2006          Feb 28  00:32     Mar  6  20:15     Mar 14  23:35     Mar 22  19:10              Mar 29  10:16     Apr  5  12:01     Apr 13  16:41     Apr 21  03:28       2007                                                 Feb 17  16:14     Feb 24  07:56     Mar  3  23:16     Mar 12  03:55              Mar 19  02:43     Mar 25  18:16     Apr  2  17:15     Apr 10  18:04       2008          Mar  7  17:14     Mar 14  10:45     Mar 21  18:39     Mar 29  21:48              Apr  6  03:55     Apr 12  18:31     Apr 20  10:24     Apr 28  14:13   2009            Feb 25  01:35     Mar  4  07:46     Mar 11  02:38     Mar 18  17:47              Mar 26  16:06     Apr  2  14:34     Apr  9  14:56     Apr 17  13:36   2010            Feb 14  02:51     Feb 22  00:42     Feb 28  16:38     Mar  7  15:42              Mar 15  21:01     Mar 23  11:00     Mar 30  02:25     Apr  6  09:37   2011            Mar  4  20:46     Mar 12  23:45     Mar 19  18:10     Mar 26  12:07              Apr  3  14:32     Apr 11  12:05     Apr 18  02:44     Apr 25  02:47   2012            Feb 21  22:35     Mar  1  01:22     Mar  8  09:40     Mar 15  01:25              Mar 22  14:37     Mar 30  19:41     Apr  6  19:19     Apr 13  10:50        

The times above are GMT. The Hebrew day is taken as starting at 7pm in Jerusalem. But Jerusalem is 2 hours ahead of GMT. So the Hebrew day starts at 5pm GMT in Jerusalem. It starts at darkness local time all over the world. We are taking darkness in Jerusalem to be 7pm here. Between March 6th and April 4th sunset in Jerusalem is around 6 pm local time and darkness is around 7 pm local time www.timeanddate.com.

So in the case of 2008, the Hebrew day which starts at 7pm on March 6th and ends at 7pm on March 7th has the new moon. But this does not make it the first day of the new lunar month. Because new moons are only visible at night and are not generally visible to the naked eye until around 18 to 48 hours after they occur.

So we need to know how long after a new moon occurs one has to wait in Jerusalem before one can actually see it. The record for a human first seeing a new moon is 15.5 hours after it occurred, but visibility depends upon a lot of factors. However in the middle east, Jerusalem, at a mid northern latitude (31:47 North), and a reasonable altitude (820 metres above sea level or 2700 feet ), at the time near the vernal equinox, is well placed in this regard see: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/faq/docs/islamic.html 

Obviously, the visibility of the young lunar crescent depends on sky conditions and the location, experience, and preparation of the observer. Generally, low latitude and high altitude observers who know exactly where and when to look will be favored. For observers at mid-northern latitudes, months near the spring equinox are also favored, because the ecliptic makes a relatively steep angle to the western horizon at sunset during these months (tending to make the Moon's altitude greater).

Mind you the first passover was in Egypt ! The new moon's visibility in Jerusalem largely depends on the rotational position of the earth. Normally at some place on the earth the new moon will be visible around 18 to 24 hours after it occurs. But it can obviously take the globe up to 24 hours to rotate until Jerusalem reaches this position. This combines with other factors to mean that the period between occurrence and visibility in the once holy city can be anything from 18 to 48 hours. It is possible to calculate when the moon will first become visible in Jerusalem: Mooncalc 5.2 by Dr. Monzur Ahmed ('Monz') seems to do this fairly well and is very easy to use. It is advertised on the South African Astronomical Observatory site at: http://www.saao.ac.za/sky/vishome.html and you can download it from: http://www.starlight.demon.co.uk/mooncalc. Of course the best way to find this out is to go there with your binoculars on the day of the new moon itself. 

Abib Barley

From 1992 to 2008 we thought that Nisan (Abib) should be the first lunar month wherein the full moon occured after the lunar equinox. But we have now seen that there was no point in declaring Abib (Nisan) and then having no barley with which to make a burnt offering to Yahweh on Nisan16 under the law of Moses. In fact had the Jews done so they would have then undeclared Abib and redeclared it the next month in order that they would indeed be able to celebrate the festival of the firstfruits during cakes. When the calendar was implemented at the exodus, the barley was in the head, since it was struck by the hail, the 7th plague, and Yahweh himself declared Abib (which means heading). So certainly under law, barley was the indicator not the spring equinox. The question then is whether barley remained the indicator after Yahshua ended the law and in particular the requirement to offer roasted grain to him on Nisan16. Well the first century Yahshuaians were Jews themselves until the conversion of Cornelius on 36Tishri18, and the temple of the law continued until 70Ab10 when Titus destroyed it. So the Hebrew calendar would have remained in use throughout the whole period of FDS1, from 33Nisan17 to 69Nisan17 (when FDS2 became appointed over the saints). Therefore since the Jews, who ran FDS1, would not have been using two calendars, we are forced to the conclusion that the whole first true Yahshuaian church used the barley indicated lunar calendar. And if it was good enough for them it must also be good enough for us, the last true Yahshuaian church in this system. 

It seems really crazy to modern man who can see the atomic clock, accurate to the nanosecond, at the click of a mouse button, to make precise chronological interpretations using a calendar dependent upon a bunch of Israeli farmers. But even today the original promised land is still being used by Yahweh. We must thank Jehovah, Yahshua, Greg Mapplebeck and the Karaite Jews on www.karaite-korner.org/abib.shtml for this one!

This is not a BLC Calendar change. It has no effect on the BLC chronology of this church. It merely adds 30 days to the Gregorian equivalent in the year of 2008. We now use a kind of Gregbarlian calendar in fact! So we now use the Abib Biblical Lunar Calendar, the ABLC for our dates in 2008. There was no headed barley in Israel on March 7/8 2008, so 2008Nisan1 was 2008April7/8.

For years prior to 2008, if we use the rule that the new moon is not visible for 30 hours after the astronomical new moon, and take the first day where 7pm in Jerusalem is 30 or more hours after the new moon that achieves pretty much the same thing - see the table below. Incidentally the moon must be visible at darkness on the new moon day since the Jews were not going to stay awake all night looking for it and since one celebrated the new moon when darkness fell, and one needs to see it then to celebrate...

5 At this David said to Jonathan: Look! Tomorrow is new moon, and I myself ought, without fail, to be sitting with the king to eat; and you must send me away, and I must conceal myself in the field until the evening on the third day.
18 And Jonathan went on to say to him: Tomorrow is new moon, and you will certainly be missed, because your seat will be vacant.
24 And David proceeded to conceal himself in the field. And it came to be new moon, and the king took his seat at the meal to eat (1 Samuel 20).

In the middle east there are between 1.5 and 3.5 days between the old moon and the new moon. It would not be possible for David to know that the next day was a new moon unless the moon had been seen sometime after darkness on the previous night which did not count as the new moon since the it was not visible when darkness fell.

The spring equinox does not occur on March 20/21 every year in the Julian calendar, which mankind used before 1582, because it does not track the solar year properly. So one needs to convert the Julian date to the Gregorian date to find out when the vernal equinox is. This can be done with the Calendar Converter at: www.mollis-ltd.demon.co.uk/CalendarApplet.htm . But the vernal equinox is not always on March 21st even in the Gregorian calendar. It occurs when the apparent longitude of the Sun is zero degrees. This can occur as early as March 19th or as late as March 21st. Furthermore the day when day and night are observed to have the same length is dependent on the latitude of the observer, occurring typically two or three days early i.e. around March 17th for an observer at 40^o North latitude, see: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/faq/docs/equinoxes.html  (London is 52^o North and Jerusalem is 32^o North). So visibility is not a good guide to when spring occurs. But since the Passover involves harvested fruit and a spring lamb, it must occur on a true spring day independent of observation.

The first true day of spring is the first full day after the vernal equinox. There are astronomical tables of vernal equinoxes for the various years that we can look up, for example see: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/3116/eqindex.html . The vernal equinoxes from 1991 to 2008 fall as follows: