The reason I post this as a question, is because "my" current answer is "I do not know yet". The reason I feel led to present this question is that as of 09/08/21, I had never heard of the Zadokite Priestly Calendar and in less than 2 weeks I have seen it mentioned several times on different platforms. Please allow me to give a brief explanation of how I began keeping the Feasts of YHWH and the calendar that I have been keeping for about 20 years now. Then I will explain how the Zadokite Calendar was first presented to me and lastly I have just a few questions that I would like to ask anyone who is seeking out the Zadokite Calendar. I would appreciate any comments you have that could answer my questions. 

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How I came into keeping the feasts of YHWH

So, my wife Lisa and I have been trying to celebrate the Feasts of the YHWH discussed in Leviticus chapter 23 for about 20 years now. It seems that most of the "Hebrew Roots" or "Messianic" people whom we have met over those 20 years attempt to celebrate these feast in one manner or another in their love for YHWH and desire to fellowship with like-minded believers. About 20 years ago, when I became exposed to the Sabbath and Feasts of YHWH, I did what most people who I hung out with "at that time" did: We waited for Nehemia Gordon and Michael Rood to tell us when the barley was aviv in Israel and then we looked for the next new moon sliver and considered that the beginning of months for our annual feast-keeping cycle. About 2000, I was given a Michael Rood video tape that "claimed" that Sunday was not the Sabbath talked about in the Bible and that Christmas and Easter (among other typical holi-days) were pagan in their origin and had been used to replace the Holy-Days that YHWH spoke of in the Bible. This is the catalyst that caused me to seek out the truth of what the Bible teaches, but that is for a different discussion.  

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How I was presented with the Zadokite Calendar

On Sept 07, 2021 (on the Gregorian calendar) Lisa and I went out to look for the new sliver moon. It was very hazy and we did not see it ourselves here in Iowa, but we saw on the internet that numerous other followers in other areas had witnessed the new sliver. I shared in a Facebook Messenger group that we had not seen the new sliver. The next day, a brother who is also part of that same Messenger group (but someone I do not know personally) responded to my posts about not having seeing the new moon the previous night. I have cut and pasted his response below, so that I would be "exactly" as he shared it. He shared:

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"The moon sighting was NEVER used by the Aaronic Priesthood of the line of Zadok, to determine the new month (chodesh), until the hellenization of Israel had taken place, and the corrupt 'appointed' priests adopted the moon calendar of the Greeks. The Zadokite priestly calendar, which has been reconstructed from Documents found in Qumran (DSS), is available today, and has been available for several years. Jubilee's 6:32-38 "And command you the children of ישראל that they observe the years according to this reckoning three hundred and sixty four days, and these will constitute a complete year, and they will not disturb its time from its days and from its feasts; for everything will fall out in them according to their testimony, and they will not leave out any day nor disturb any feasts. But if they do neglect and do not observe them according to his commandment, then they will disturb all their seasons and the years will be dislodged from this order, and they will disturb the seasons and the years will be dislodged and they will neglect their ordinances. And all the children of ישראל will forget and will not find the path of the years, and will forget the chodesh, and seasons, and Shabbaths and they will go wrong as to all the order of the years. For I know and from henceforth will I declare it unto you, and it is not of my own devising; for the book lies written before me, and on the heavenly tablets the division of days is ordained, lest they forget the feasts of the covenant and walk according to the feasts of the other nations after their error and after their ignorance. For there will be those who will assuredly make observations of the moon how it disturbs the seasons and comes in from year to year ten days too soon. For this reason the years will come upon them when they will disturb the order, and make an abominable day the day of testimony, and an unclean day a feast day, and they will confound all the days, the holy with the unclean, and the unclean day with the holy; for they will go wrong as to the months and Shabbaths and feasts and jubilees. For this reason I command and testify to you that you may testify to them; for after your death your children will disturb them, so that they will not make the year three hundred and sixty four days only, and for this reason they will go wrong as to the chodesh and seasons and Shabbaths and feasts, and they will eat all kinds of blood with all kinds of flesh." (end quote).

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A few questions for believers in the Bible (66 books) as related to the Zadokite Calendar

So, I need to make a couple things clear right up front. I "personally" feel that every believer needs to study for themselves and follow the conviction that they believe to be true, for conscience sake. I am not trying to condemn any person who is following the Zadokite Calendar. As I said, I do not even know what it is all about, as I have never read the book of Jubilees, nor studied out what all is said about the Zadokite Calendar.

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However, as "every" believer "should" have a desire to seek out the truth about every tenet of what they follow, I do want to present a few questions that came into my mind that make me "personally" have some questions about this calendar. I would love it if any one could answer and share with me, if they feel that they have any answers to my questions.

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Although believers are likely to have differing opinions on whether the book of Enoch, the book of Jasher, the book of Jubilees, and other books (that are definitely mentioned in the Bible), are equal in weight to the 66 books in the Bible, certainly there must have been some merit in these extra-Biblical books, since they are mentioned in Scripture. However, I "personally" have my own "trust issues" when it comes to searching Google for "the Book of Jubilees" (for example) and then believing that the version that Google presents to me is in fact a genuine version of the Book of Jubilees and that the English is accurately translated. 

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Secondly, (as far as "my" faith and conscience goes) whichever extra-Biblical book I go look up and read and study, must be in full agreement with the 66 books called the Bible, for "me" to accept. So, with that said, let me present a few questions below for consideration.

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The Zadok Priestly Calendar description from the book of Jubilees, as I cut and pasted by the quote from the brother on Messenger, clearly states that it is a 364 day calendar and that if we do not keep to this calendar it will throw off the feasts from their correct date and we will thereby keep them on an abominable date, (my paraphrase). It also started out that: "The moon sighting was NEVER used by the Aaronic Priesthood of the line of Zadok, to determine the new month (chodesh), until the hellenization of Israel had taken place, and the corrupt 'appointed' priests adopted the moon calendar of the Greeks."

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So my first question, since I do not know what the Zadokite calendar teaches is: "if" it the moon sighting was NEVER used to determine the new moon (chodesh), then how does that reconcile with what YHWH said in Gen 1:14? "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:"? It "appears" that the book of Jubilees (or at least the brother stating in his post before quoting the Book of Jubilees) that the lights in the firmament (sun, moon and stars) have nothing to do in connection with signs, seasons, days and years. But it also appears that YHWH said they were created for this very reason.

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We know scientifically that (at least currently) it takes 365 days and approx 6 hours for the Earth to revolve one time around the Sun and come back to the same place. We know that the current calendar used by the majority of the world, the Gregorian calendar, corrects for that extra 6 hours by adding a full day of 24 hours called "February 29" every four years. This "extra" day added every 4 years is what compensates for that extra 6 hours that it takes the Earth to go around the Sun once in a year period, beyond the exact 365 days.

 

It is my understanding that Judaism has a somewhat similar corrective method of adding a 13th moon or month on occasion to keep their calendar in sync, called a "second Adar". 

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So it seems to me, unless I am misunderstanding, that if you have a calendar of only 364 days, then you lose 1.25 days "from the Gregorian calendar" every year. If you then multiply that 1.25 days per year times 146 years, you would get 182.5 days (or roughly 6 months). In other words, by removing 1.25 days every year, it seems to me that it is going to cause the seasons to flip-flop or get off by 6 months, every 146 years. Then spring time would occur in the fall and summer would occur in the winter. If this is true, it would absolutely do exactly what the Zadokite calendar admonishes us not to do. Our feast days would then be thrown off and kept in the wrong seasons. I am not advocating that we keep a Gregorian calendar at all or a Jewish calendar, or that we call the names of months and days by the names on the Gregorian calendar or the Jewish calendar. So I try not to think of it as a "Gregorian" or a "Jewish" calendar, but rather I accept the scientific fact that it currently takes 365.25 days for the Earth to revolve around the Sun one full time, which we call a "solar" year.

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Google says that the Gregorian calendar was adopted in the year 1582, or 439 years ago. If you then divide that 439 years by the time it would take the seasons to flip-flop (the 146 years), then the seasons should have flip-flopped 3 full times since this Gregorian calendar was adopted, because 439 years divided by 146 years equals 3.0 times. I am talking about "if" we had been keeping the Zadokite calendar during those 439 years. I am guessing that "if" the seasons even flip-flopped one time, it would have been recorded in the history books by someone. It would only take half of those 146 years (or 73 years) for the seasons to change by "one" season, for example for Winter to start on Sept 20th instead of Dec 20th, or for Spring to start on Dec 20th instead of Mar 20th. Some of the older ones of us are at least getting close to that 73 years. Have you ever seen the seasons getting off by one full season in your life time? I personally have not and I am 61 years old and Spring has always begun around Mar 19th, 20th or 21st during my entire life time. Perhaps my logic is incorrect? I do not know. I only know that I am trying to humbly seek the truth on this Zadokite calendar. 

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I am not suggesting you refer to the beginning of Spring by the name March 20th. I am only stating that "scientifically" with a 365.25 day calendar, it seems to me that the seasons would stay the same within about a day, every year and would remain that way, but if we use a 364 day calendar, that our seasons would start getting off.  

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As a watch or clock has 3 hands, one for seconds, one for minutes and one for hours, in the same way God seemingly designed our days, months and years to have something to do with the sun, moon and stars. I have to wonder if they are listed in that order for a reason? There are 14 verses in the Bible that speak of the sun, moon and stars and in 12 of those verses they are listed in that respective order. The sun, moon and stars might very well be for signs in the sky to determine days, months and years. The "sun" determines one "day" (or the time it takes the Earth to rotate one full time on its axis and for the same spot on Earth to come back to that same time the next day. The "moon" might determine the number of days in a "Biblical" month, from one new moon to another new moon. Especially if we consider that the word for "new moon" in Hebrew is the word "chodesh" or Strong's #2320 and means: the new moon; by implication a month: - month (-ly), new moon and the word "chodesh" comes from the root word "chadash" or Strong's #2318 meaning: to be new, causatively to rebuild, renew, repair. And that leaves the "stars" which determine a "year" period or the time it takes for the Earth to revolve in its orbit around the Sun exactly one complete time and end up in the same position amongst the "stars" or constellations.

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YHWH spoke of the constellations in His Word also. It is called the mazzaroth. See Job 38:31-33  "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? 
Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?" I did notice how YHWH associates the constellations (stars) with the "seasons"?

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I am NOT speaking of fortune-telling using the stars, which is "astrology". I am speaking of the study of the position of the stars in relationship to one another, called "astonomy". Many believe that the magi used astronomy to know the timing that Yeshua was born and then "later" visited him with gifts.    

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Anyway, I would like to close this discussion with another thought for all those who seek truth. I am not suggesting that you need to change how you calculate YHWH's calendar, which in turn determines when you keep His feast days. I am only telling you "why" Lisa and I started calculating the first month of the year differently these last 3 years from how we "used to" calculate the first month for the 17 years previously. I would love some honest feedback on this subject also, as we are always willing to correct ourselves if we find that we are in error.  

          

I mentioned earlier that we "used to" look for the first new sliver that occurred directly after the barley was discovered to be aviv in Israel. Then I came across a web site that uses the new sliver to start each new month, but they do NOT use the aviv barley to determine the first month of the year, bur rather they go by the first sliver of the moon that occurs "after" the Spring Equinox, which normally falls on or about March 20th each year.

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Let me quickly explain what the Spring Equinox is for those who do not know and why we feel we are to use it to calculate the first month of each Biblical year, as opposed to using the aviv barley to calculate the first month.

 

First, the Equinox is a term that refers to "equal day and night". This occurs only two days each year. Once in the Spring called the Vernal Equinox and happens around Mar 20th every year. Also, once in the fall called the Autumnal Equinox and happens around Sept 20th. The equinox is actually a time when the Sun is 90 degrees directly above the equator, which causes the whole planet to have equal day and night for that one 24 hour period, or at least that is "my" understanding.  

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Now, you might say to yourself, but how did Yeshua, or going back even farther, how did Abraham know when the Sun was exactly 90 degrees over the equator since they did not have watches and clocks back then and they did not live on the equator? Well, actually they did have time keeping devices back then, and they were called sundials. They record the time of day based on the shadow that the sun casts onto a dial with numbers. All these individuals would have had to do was wait until spring-time or when the winter was going away and temperatures started warming up and trees and plants started to bud, etc.. and then they could have simply looked at a sun dial to when it indicated 12 hours of light, and then they would have known it was the Equinox and they could have then looked for the first new sliver to determine which month was the first moon (or month) of that annual feast cycle or year. Also, by the time you get to the Spring Equinox virtually all barley would be aviv in Israel and ready for the "firstfruits" offering. 

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What really caused "me" to wonder about using the aviv barley to determine the first month of every year, was that a couple of articles on the following website "really" made a lot of sense to me. Did you know there are many different types of barley and that most varieties today are hybrid (or even GMO) and therefore some were actually specifically designed by man to "spring-up" earlier so they could then mature earlier? This and several other important things about barley are shared in the following articles from the website   https://truthofyahweh.org under "Topics" or just click on the links below. 

 

I certainly encourage "anyone" who currently considers the aviv barley as the sign that determines the first new moon of the year, to please read these two articles below to answer the simple questions the author asks regarding which barley should be used. 

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https://truthofyahweh.org/barl2002.html

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https://truthofyahweh.org/barl2002a.html

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So I am thinking that perhaps the barley being aviv as mentioned in Exodus 9:29 & 31, was more of an "after-detail" when mentioning that the barley was aviv, but not "the primary or key thing" that determined the first month of the year. The key thing then possibly being the Equinox that occurs to announce a time or day of equal day and equal night. Keep that thought of "12 hours of light in a day" in your mind as I want to share a testimony. 

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Oh, I had one more thought here about the aviv barley that Don Esposito (Congregation of YHWH) mentioned in a newsletter several years ago. Don stated that ALL of the children of Israel were to bring a sheaf of firstfruits (barley) to the priest to wave before YHWH on the morrow after the sabbath during Unleavened Bread. I believe Don's thought was that there had to be enough barley (in the proper state) for the entire nation to offer up to YHWH. Therefore, it seems if a few brethren nowadays go out and search for aviv barley in Israel and find "a little here and a little there in a few fields" that this would not constitute enough barley for the entire nation to have brought before the priests back in Yeshua's time period, when there was a temple. So, perhaps, it would also not be enough barley to start the first month, if we still had a temple? This seems to make sense to me.

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Lev 23:9  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 
Lev 23:10  Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: 
Lev 23:11  And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. 
Lev 23:12  And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD. 
Lev 23:13  And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin. 
Lev 23:14  And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 

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It seems that there would "always" be enough barley to offer for the entire nation "if" one waited until the first moon "after" the Spring Equinox to harvest the barley. 

 

Lastly, from what I shared earlier about Genesis 1:14 that YHWH created the sun, moon and stars to be sign-posts or indicators of the days, months and years, but I could find nothing that seemed to indicate that He uses agriculture to be the signs of seasons. As I said, it appears to me that the agriculture springing up and birds beginning to chirp, etc.. are by-products of the fact that "spring" has begun because we then have enough warmth from the sun being directly over the equator to "cause" the things in nature to be additional witnesses. Just my thoughts. 

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I would like to close with what "I feel" was a testimony to me from YHWH that we "might" be on the right track using the Equinox to determine the first month of the year. After I had read the two articles on that website that stimulated my thinking about whether it was realistic to use "only" the aviv barley to calculate the first month of each year, I decided to seek Abba on this subject for guidance and wisdom. I prayed and then searched some "key" words in the Bible using the e-Sword program. I knew that the word "Equinox" was not in the Bible, so I typed in the phrase "twelve hours" knowing that the Equinox means equal hours of daylight and darkness, or 12 hours daylight and 12 hours of darkness. It found only one verse in the entire Bible and that was  John 11:9 where it says: "Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world'. 

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Well, I read this verse in context and saw that it was in the midst of the story of Lazarus and Yeshua raising him from the dead. But the really cool part "to me" was that pretty much right after the story of Lazarus, in verse John 9:55 it states in John 11:55 "And the Jews' passover was nigh at hand: and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the passover, to purify themselves".

 

The reason this is significant to me is that the passover occurs on the 14th evening of the "first month" of the year, so this "could" be 14 days "after" the Equinox which has "twelve hours in a day" which Yeshua stated in John 11:9. Could Yeshua have been alluding to the time of year (or Equinox) in stating "Are there not twelve hours in the day?" I know that there are only 2 times when we have twelve hours in a day and those are the Spring and Fall Equinox. I know it does not prove the Equinox theory, but "for me" it at least gives credence to it. Please feel free to contact me at Yeshuais4me@hotmail.com if you have any comments or if you believe you have answers to my questions above. Thank you so much for taking time to consider this!

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Blessings as you seek YHWH's will for your lives! Paul and Lisa

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Caveat: I generally do not give much time of day to anyone who comes across with a haughty, prideful, know-it-all attitude. So please know that if that is what you share with me I am likely to delete it. Humility goes a long way. And, although I do want to genuinely consider any answers as to why you believe that the Zadokite calendar does actually align with Scripture, I also want to make sure that I do not lure myself into hundreds of hours of studying this or any other calendar to the neglect of keeping my focus on sharing Yeshua with people. I know me and I know that I can easily get lost in endless studying of things.