It Was A Riddle Not A Command

Listen to this Podcast discussing one of Joseph’s most popular books.

You Can Learn the Secret Meaning of:

No One Knows the Day of the Hour

 Why does no One Know When Jesus was born?

When Does the Thief in the Night Come?

Why Are the Foolish Virgins Rejected?

No One Knows The Day or The Hour is a Hebrew idiom or parable.

Jesus spoke in parables to conceal His message which He later explained to the Apostles.

No One Knows The Day or the Hour is telling you the very day He will come back on! 

The exact opposite to what you thought it said!

This is the very same day when He first came.

The Book of Revelation Tells you the very day and hour He was born.

You are given clues in Revelation about the thief that comes in the night, about being caught naked and ashamed. All of these clues tell you about the very day He is coming back.

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians telling them they had no need to write them about the Day of the Lord

FOR THEY KNEW FULL WELL THE MOEDIM!!!

Knowing the Moedim shows you the Day and Hour No Man Can Know.

We are also told about the Two Witnesses in the Book of Revelation…
What revelations do the Two Witnesses show you about the birth of Jesus?

There was a heavenly Host praising God when Jesus was born.
This, too, tells you the Day He was born.

Are you aware that the 5 Foolish Virgins did not understand what the Thief in the Night was?
Do You?

All these questions and so much more are explained in detail.
It was a Riddle for us to figure out.
It was not a command that we could not know.
We can KNOW.
YOU Can Know!

Thoroughly researched and profoundly significant!

5.0 out of 5 stars

There just isn’t a better book on Christian prophecy than this! What an eye opener!

Of the many books and articles that I have read on prophecy in my personal search for truth, this is the only one that does not rely on old ideas that were developed hundreds of years ago when knowledge was minimal. So much more has been learned through historical and archeological research. The world has changed so much that before now no one could have clearly envisioned how prophecy might play out.

I think the average Christian doesn’t realize that recent developments in technology and huge increases in knowledge offer us a unique opportunity to raise the veil so that we might see clearly what was once hidden behind a dark glass.

After learning about these things and seriously considering the Bible, with a willingness to set aside my traditional beliefs about prophecy, I have come to the conclusion that this book is inspired by God. Mr. Dumond presents compelling information that overturns long held assumptions and unverified beliefs making the entire body of prophetic knowledge fully accessible. As a matter of fact I think that just about anyone with no previous knowledge of the Bible would understand things that scholars have devoted their lives to explaining.

I would like everyone to know what is being shown in the pages of this book. No serious truth seeker should pass up the opportunity to have their eyes opened through its revelations. I believe it is the most important book ever written,- next to the Bible itself.

Thank you Joseph Dumond.

Amazon Customer: Ross Boraan

Order your copy Today!

The Stones Cry Out Part 1 & Part 2

Do you want to know how to prove the Zadok Calendar, the Enoch Calendar, and the Book of Jubilee Calendar false?

Do you want to know how the calendar issue became so confusing?

I got this awesome endorsement and I want to share it here now. with you.

In The Stones Cry Out, I walk you through the history of each change and why those changes came about, starting with the Maccabean days. Yes, it all began around 164 B.C. When Yehshua was here, he was dealing with two schools of thought. The Sadducees were all but wiped out when the Temple fell in 70 C.E. This left only the Pharisees, who began to be persecuted after the failure of the Bar Kochbah Revolt in 134 C.E.

The truth began to become out of focus around 160 C.E. when Rabbi Jose wrote the Seder Olam. This work originally was written to proof Simon Bar Kochbah was the Messiah. When that did not pan out the history was later revived and then redacted as the truth into the Mishneh Torah by Rabbi Judah ha Nasi in 180 C.E. After this the Jerusalem Talmud begins to debate these issues. It was then during this time as the Jerusalem Talmudist are forced to flee and the Babylonian Talmudist continue to grow until the 6th century that Hillel came up with a solution to help them keep the Holy Days at the proper time while they were out of the land of Israel. He did this in 358 C.E. This work was then modified and adjusted over the next 800 years with additions added and other rejected. Until it was finally redacted once again in 1177 by Rambam. And with that we now have the modern Hillel calendar which includes the errors passed on during each redaction. These errors included the time of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years.

Once the Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E., the Jews recorded time by counting from the time It was destroyed. This is why the 40 tombstones of Zoar, which record this information, are crucial to understand.

When you understand why the Postponement rules were first created so that the crescent moon would not be seen in another part of the world before it was seen in Israel then you can understand how they were still trying to follow the crescent moon to begin the month. The Tombstones show us this exact thing. The tombstones also show us when the Jews changed from a crescent moon to a Conjunction moon to begin the month. They also show us when the Jews changed the year from the month of Aviv to the Tishri to begin the year.

I really want you to understand these things so you know why you do what you do as far as following a calendar to keep Yehovah’s moedim.
Get your Free copies of The Stones Cry Out Part 1 and Part 2 here https://sightedmoon.com/the-stones-cry-out-lp/

And share this information with your FB friends and Bibles Study groups. If they don’t like it, it never cost them anything.

Get your copy today. If you want a paperback copy, I have them on Amazon for the least amount they would let me post them there. Order both of them and start to understand the history of how these changes affect those who follow Yehovah and keep His Feasts.

I would like to add this recent comment to encourage you all to get this book and learn these truths. And the Book is FREE. You have no reason not to get it.

Most people assume that Hillel created the calendar in 358 C.E. They then assume that because it was a Sanhedrin, they are not allowed to change in order to obey Yehovah. The Hillel calendar has been changed many times since 358 C.E. up until 1177 C.E. Few people talk about these changes but we do in our latest Book The Stones Cry Out Part 1 which is free on our website. The Hillel calendar was changed on many occasions and many sought to make other changes during this time. They never needed a Bet Din to approve those changes. They just did them. So this excuse that we do not have the right to obey Yehovah because the Bet Din has not approved it is a crock of crap.
You have the obligation to obey Yehovah. You have the duty to prove which calendar you are to go by. You must prove it beyond all doubt. Yehshua never followed the Hillel calendar. Nor did any of the Apostles.
The reason no man can know the day or the hour is because it refers to a crescent moon to begin the 7th month. That is the day He was born on and the day He comes to judge on. At a day and hour no one can know. Using the Hillel calendar predicts Yom Teruah years in advance so every one knows when to keep it. But even in the Hillel calendar they keep two days of Yom Teruah reckoning back to the sighted moon. Also in the postponement rules developed long after Hillel, they again state that if the conjunction is at a certain time then the day begins at such and such, in order that the moon will not be seen in another part of the world before it is seen in Israel. That was rule number 2.
Everyone has to choose. You have the right to be wrong. But if you choose to be wrong then you also must live with the consequences that come with sin. And that is the death penalty for not keeping the Holy Days, these Sabbath at the proper time. It is your choice.
Just because you write in to me to justify your position does mean it is right. It just means your sounding off.

Allow me to share this endorsement of our latest book again. If you have read our books, please share your thoughts about them with us in the comments below or email me.

And yes, many observe the Equinox.  There are many who are deceived, improperly educated.  And this is why Joe puts out a newsletter every week, why he writes books, why the SightedMoon Zoom Shabbat service started, why he travels to places like England and the Philippines to share this message and why were are going to the NRB in February.  The calendar is always a divisive issue in social circles because the details are many, that’s why there are so many books Joe has written.  I’m not looking to put Joe on a pedestal here.  This is not about Joe worship.  But Joe has tenaciously studied out the calendar from every angle, not to prove himself right, to to seek to find and share what Yehovah is telling us about His Calendar.

In The Stones Cry Out, Joe has shared the history of all the different groups within Israel, and the beliefs they had about the scriptures and the feast days and the calendar.  When you line it all up, you can see for yourself the how and why these misunderstandings and arguments about how and where and why  they came about.

This is my new favourite book and I’m only 60-70 pages in.  And I encourage you to read the footnotes in this one.  Sometimes there’s more footnote on the page than Joe’s words.

Sombra Wilson

When I wrote Stones Cry Out, I wanted it to be one of our FREE books so everyone would have it. It is more of an encyclopedia than a book to read. It will be your quick resource book; you will have access to every question about any calendar, how it got started, and who started it. You will also learn the history of how the Mishnah was assembled, when it was assembled and why. Then, you will learn how that information was transferred into both the Jerusalem and the Babylonian Talmud until it reached its final stage in the Mishneh Torah. Along with this progression, the calendar also progressed and changed long after 358 C.E. when Rabbi Hillel first published it. But…what was before the Hillel calendar? What does the Mishnah record about those things?

The Stones Cry Out was originally going to be one book explaining all the various proofs we have discovered, demonstrating when the Sabbatical and Jubilee years are throughout history.

You can know; it is not a mystery.

As I began to write The Stones Cry Out, I quickly found myself going back, time and time again, to explain how the calendar is behind the confusion of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years. The Rabbis, as they began to write the Mishnah, incorporated wrong understandings, and those errors were written into what became known as the Talmud and then the Mishneh Torah. The expulsion from the land and subsequent persecutions in trying to send out messengers to report the barley being found or the crescent moon being seen, proved to be more and more dangerous over time. All of these things took place over 14 centuries.

Then as I was working on The Stones Cry Out, I discovered that many people were now accepting the Zadok calendar as factual. This is when we pivoted to include all the details of the various calendars that have crept back into public knowledge today and are being used to mislead new people who are just starting to learn about the calendar. All of this was directly connected to the period starting with the Hasmonaeans, up to the destruction of the Temple. Then, with the compiling of the Mishnah, the studies that led into the writing of the Jerusalem Talmud, then the Babylonian Talmud and finally the Mishneh Torah, each error that was added is compounded over time.

The Stones Cry Out, Part 1 explains the history of how each compilation of the Oral Torah incorporated errors, leading the followers thereof away from the actual Torah. In understanding these facts, it is then possible to understand more readily how the Sabbatical and Jubilee years were then mixed and later changed. By explaining all this history, I will be able to help you the reader understand the tombstones when most authorities do not. They have assumed, to their error, the Hillel calendar to have always been in use since Mount Sinai. Not understanding the history of the calendars is why most authorities dismiss the tombstones as too confusing to use. Once you understand The Stones Cry Out Part 1, Part 2 will be very easy to grasp.

Daniel 7:25 tells us he will change the appointed seasons and commandments. Many assume Constantine did this when he made Sunday the Sabbath. Few have considered the calendar’s many changes and how they relate to us today. Hidden in this proverbial swamp of confusion is the truth about the Sabbatical and Jubilee years. The Sabbatical and Jubilee years reveal the truths about the calendar that have been hidden for almost 2000 years.

We are in the very last days and Yehshua warned us that during this time:

Mat 24:10 And then many will be offended, and will betray one another, and will hate one another.

Mat 24:11 And many false prophets will rise and deceive many.

Mat 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many will become cold.

Mat 24:13 But he who endures to the end, the same shall be kept safe.

Paul also warned Timothy about these last days, warning that some would leave the truth and begin to follow demonic teachers:

1Ti 4:1 But the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and teachings of demons,

Paul again warned the Thessalonians that the Great Falling away would take place in the last days. How can you fall away if you have never come to know the truth? So who is Paul talking to? Those who are called and answer that calling begin to walk this road of restoration back to Yehovah, and then at some point along that walk, they change and leave this walk following the teachings of demons to false calendar.

2Th 2:1 Now we beseech you, my brothers, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him,

2Th 2:2 that you should not be soon shaken in mind or troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word or letter, as through us, as if the Day of Christ is at hand.

2Th 2:3 Let not anyone deceive you by any means. For that Day shall not come unless there first comes a falling away, and the man of sin shall be revealed, the son of perdition,

2Th 2:4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself forth, that he is God.

We must endure until the end. We must not let ourselves become offended by personalities and leave the faith once given.

I want you all to have access to and the ability to read this book and use it as a reference. https://sightedmoon.com/the-stones-cry-out-lp/ Click on the link fill in the form and you will have access to the FREE PDF anywhere in the world. If you want a copy you can hold in your hands we have published it at Amazon for the lowest price they would allow us. Order you copy after Shabbat and begin to read it today.

A big thanks to our very first underwriter of the podcast. Joseph Dumond is an international speaker. He teaches the ancient roots of the Gaelic people at Sightedmoon.com.

You’ll hear me mention him in each episode of the podcast at the end of the show. This is not exactly advertising. It’s awareness promotion. I have no more than four more slots available every month if you, your business or your band want to be mentioned as an underwriter of the podcast.

Join Our Sabbath Meetings

There are many people in need of fellowship and who are sitting at home on the Sabbath with no one to talk to or debate with. I want to encourage all of you to join us on Shabbat, and to invite others to come and join us as well. If the time is not convenient then you can listen to the teaching and the midrash after on our YouTube channel.

What are we doing and why do we teach this way?

We are going to discuss both sides of an issue and then let you choose. It is the work of the Ruach (Spirit) to direct and to teach you.

The medieval commentator Rashi wrote that the Hebrew word for wrestle (avek) implies that Jacob was “tied”, for the same word is used to describe knotted fringes in a Jewish prayer shawl, the tzitzityot. Rashi says, “thus is the manner of two people who struggle to overthrow each other, that one embraces the other and knots him with his arms”.

Our intellectual wrestling has been replaced by a different kind of struggle. We are wrestling with Yehovah as we grapple with His Word. It is an intimate act, symbolizing a relationship in which Yehovah and you and I are bound together. My wrestling is a struggle to discover what Yehovah expects of us, and we are “tied” to the One who assists us in that struggle.

Today, many say Israel means “Champion of God”, or better — the “Wrestler of God”.

Our Torah sessions each Shabbat teaches you and encourages you to constantly challenge, question, argue against, as well as view alternative views and explanations of the Word. In other words, we are to “wrestle with the Word” to get to the truth. Jews worldwide believe that you need to wrestle with the Word and constantly challenge Dogma, Theology, and views or else you will never get to the Truth.

We are not like most churches where “The preacher talks and everyone listens.” We encourage everyone to participate, to question and to contribute what they know on the subject being discussed. We want you to be a champion wrestler of the Word of Yehovah. We want you to wear the title of Israel, knowing that you not only know but are capable of explaining why you know the Torah to be true with logic and facts.

We have a few rules though. Let others talk and listen. There is no discussion about UFO’s, Nephilim, Vaccines or conspiracy-type subjects. We have people from around the world with different world views. Not everyone cares who is the President of any particular country. Treat each other with respect as fellow wrestlers of the word. Some of our subjects are hard to understand and require you to be mature and if you do not know, then listen to gain knowledge and understanding and hopefully wisdom. The very things you are commanded to ask Yehovah for and He gives to those who ask.

Jas 1:5  But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and with no reproach, and it shall be given to him.

We hope you can invite those who want to keep Torah to come and join us by hitting the link below. It is almost like a Torah teaching fellowship talk show with people from around the world taking part and sharing their insights and understandings.

We start off with some music and then some prayers and it’s as though you were sitting around the kitchen back in Newfoundland having a cup of coffee and all of us enjoying each other’s company. I hope you will grace us with your company someday.

Sabbath services begin at 12:30 PM EDT where we will be doing prayers, songs and teaching from this hour.

Shabbat midrash will begin at about 1:15 pm Eastern.

We look forward to you joining our family and getting to know us as we get to know you.

Joseph Dumond is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Joseph Dumond’s Personal Meeting Room

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“Tekufah-Equinox”

After last weeks Newsletter about the Barley being Aviv, I had one lady write me the following note. I have included my response which I have taken from Karaite Korner.

It does require the sun to warm the earth in order for the barley to grow. Hence the when it says in Gen 1:14

Gen 1:14  And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to divide between the day and the night. And let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years.

That word seasons is for the Feasts. For the shepherd in the field, without doing any mathematical calculations, all they have to do is watch for the barley to be ripe, which is caused by the sun. As we showed you last week, you must have barley in order to make the wave sheaf offering. People keep forgetting this one law. You must have barley in order to make the wave offering that is made from the first fruits of barley. You cannot harvest anything until you make this wave offering.

Lev 23:9  And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, 10  Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, When you have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest of it, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. 11  And he shall wave the sheaf before Jehovah to be received for you. On the next day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12  And you shall offer that day when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering to Jehovah. 13  And its food offering shall be two-tenths part of fine flour mixed with oil, a fire offering to Jehovah for a sweet savor. And the drink offering of it shall be of wine, the fourth part of a hin. 14  And you shall eat neither bread, nor parched grain, nor green ears, until the same day, until you have brought an offering to your God. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

Let me say it again LOUD AND CLEAR.

YOU MUST HAVE BARLEY TO MAKE THE WAVE OFFERING ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, DURING THE DAYS OF UNLEAVENED BREAD. IT MUST BE THE ‘FIRST FRUITS’ NOT THE LAST FRUITS OF THE BARLEY. THEREFORE THE BARLEY MUST BE AT THE BEGINNING OF ITS RIPENESS IN ORDER TO BE FIRST FRUITS.

You cannot make the wave offering based on the equinox, because the equinox never determines if the barley is ripe or not.

Some claim you cannot have Passover if it comes before the Equinox. Not true. We have had Passover before the spring equinox because the barley was aviv. Others claim the first moon after the equinox is when you count to Passover. Some of these are this year abandoning the Hebrew Calendar in favour of the equinox calendar. They have now become hypocrites to their own rules. Rules which the Hebrew calendar uses since the 12th century ratified by Rambam, which are not found in Torah. Again watch our video on The Blood Moons or get the e-book to learn the history of the calendar and when these things were changed and added to it.

Some, in their ignorance, claim the barley in Egypt is different than that of Israel. I have a vineyard on the Egyptian border. 100 Yards from the border. It is in the same area that Jacob, Isaac and Abraham lived. It is just over a few hours drive to Jerusalem going directly east and a little north east.. The barley in Egypt would have grown at almost the exact same time as the barley around Jerusalem. It would be the same as comparing crops in Eastern Ontario that are growing about the same time as those in Western Ontario. This argument about how they could tell when they are in Egypt is so telling of the lack of understanding some have.

Joseph Dumond , I wish you would take a look at the idea of the new moon after the equinox as the start of the new year. Gen 1:14 gives us the heavenly luminaries as our signs for knowing when Yah’s set apart times are to be observed. There is no abib barley in his heavens. The barley is an earthly witness that will always be in agreement when we go by the first new moon after the spring equinox. When the abib barley is talked about in scripture (Moses), the children of Israel were not in Israel but still in Egypt. So they were not going by the abib barley in Israel. I pray you will consider this in keeping with the responsibility you bear to the people who listen to you as a teacher. Please make sure what you are teaching is true, Joseph. This is coming from a loving sister. I mean no disrespect. I ask that you would prayerfully consider this. Thank you.

I am saying this here, which I did not say in my response and this is not due to the email above but is said in general in response to the many other emails I do get.

As a teacher…..as one who worships and fears Yehovah ,….as one who bears the weight Yehovah has placed on me to warn the people…..as one who seeks the truth and whose desire is to be at the wedding supper with my husband Yehovah…..I have searched and been prodded by Ephramites and Hebrew roots people for 10 years over the calendar issues, many of them fracturing into their own petty little groups claiming to all be the one and only true followers of what ever sacred name and calendar they have learned. Speaking when they should be silent and studying more. Teaching when they have only learned half of the truth in order to satisfy their own shallow understandings. I have seen more disgusting behaviour from the “brethren” than I have from among the Christians or the Jews. And I am ashamed many times because of the “brethren”.

We have shared this before in a recent News Letter.

Rom 1:21  Because, knowing God, they did not glorify Him as God, neither were thankful. But they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22  Professing to be wise, they became fools 23  and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. 24  Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. 25  For they changed the truth of God into a lie, and they worshiped and served the created thing more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Psa 81:10  I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. 11  But My people would not listen to My voice, and Israel would have none of Me. 12  So I gave them up to the stubbornness of their own hearts; and they walked in their own conceits. 13  Oh that My people had listened to Me, and Israel had walked in My ways! 14  I would soon have humbled their enemies, and would have turned My hand against their foes.

Act 7:41  And they made a calf in those days and offered sacrifice to the idol and rejoiced in the work of their own hands. 42  Then God turned and gave them over to serve the host of the heavens, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: “O house of Israel, have you offered to Me slain beasts and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness?

Act 14:14  But hearing this, the apostles Barnabas and Paul tore their clothes and ran in among the people, crying out 15  and saying, Men, why do you do these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preaching the gospel to you to turn you from these vanities to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all things in them; 16  who in past generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. 17  And yet He did not leave Himself without witness, doing good, giving rain and fruitful season to us from heaven, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

2Th 2:7  For the mystery of lawlessness is already working, only he is now holding back until it comes out of the midst. 8  And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of His mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming, 9  whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10  and with all deceit of unrighteousness in those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, so that they might be saved. 11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, 12  so that all those who do not believe the truth, but delight in unrighteousness, might be condemned.

All of this ties right back to the Jubilee cycles which Yehovah is about to finish and complete His word about.

Gen 6:3  And Jehovah said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, in his erring; he is flesh. Yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.

Yehovah is not going to put up with our constantly erring against His will and His Torah. But because we will not obey and we put more trust in our own wisdom and not His, He has given some over to be deceived by their own lusts of knowledge. This time is coming to a close and when we reach that 120th Jubilee in the year 2045 Yehovah will have said enough of this foolishness and our Anointed King David will rule over us and help us to get our spots out during the 7th Millennium. Only after that will we be ready for the wedding to Yehovah.

Getting the calendar right is important. Study to show yourself approved, for the time is late and the night comes when no one can work.

Q: Doesn’t Genesis 1:14 show that the Vernal Equinox, not the barley, determine the holy day seasons?

We read in Gen 1:14

“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, to divide between the day and the night and they will be for signs and for times (Moedim) and for days and for years.”

From this verse it is not clear what is dependent on what. Certainly no mention of the Vernal Equinox is made. Perhaps the year is dependent on the moon or the stars? If the year is dependent on the sun, then what about the sun effects the beginning of the year? Gen 1:14 does not specify these things so we must turn to other Biblical passages to get a more precise understanding of the Biblical calendar. In Dt 16:1 we read:

“Keep the month of the Abib and make the Passover (sacrifice) to YHWH your God at night, because in the month of Abib YHWH your God took you out of Egypt”

Similarly we read:

“You will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; seven days you will eat unleavened bread, as have I commanded you, at the time of the month of the Abib, because in the month of the Abib you went out of Egypt.” (Ex 34:18)

The word “Abib” refers to barley which has reached a certain stage in its development. This meaning of Abib is preserved in the verse:

“And the flax and the barley were smitten, because the barley was Abib and the flax was Giv’ol. And the wheat and the spelt were not smitten because they were dark (Afilot).” (Ex 9:31-32)

To keep the Passover Sacrifice in the Month of the Abib requires taking the Abib (ripening barley) as an indicator of the beginning of the year. This is entirely consistent with Gen 1:14, for the ripening of the barley is dependent on the seasons of the year and therefore indirectly is controlled by the sun. Central factors, which cause the barley to ripen, are the lengthening of the days and the increasing sunlight, changes in humidity, and other factors which affect the environment. Therefore, it is the sun, which indirectly causes the barley to ripen, and thereby acts as an indicator of years. It is this indirect effect which causes the barley to become Abib which Gen 1:14 is referring to when it says the sun and moon will be for years.

It should be noted that the equinox is never mentioned in the entire Hebrew Bible. Gen 1:14, which has often been cited as proof of the equinox theory, does not mention the equinox either. On the contrary, the use of astronomical calculations for determining the time of the equinox, was in this period synonymous with the idolatrous practice of fortune telling and was certainly not practiced in ancient Israel (Isa 47:13).

Doesn’t Josephus say that the New Year is determined based on the “1st of Aries”?

The “1st of Aries” is a reference to the Vernal Equinox and as seen above the Pharisees determined the New Year based on 3 factors, one of which was the Vernal Equinox. In his autobiography, Josephus himself informs us that he is a Pharisee, so it is not surprising that he should quote the Pharisee practice of intercalation. As is Josephus’ practice he only gives the details of which would be comprehensible to his pagan Greek readers. In this case Josephus does not mention the agricultural indicators of the New Year [according to the Pharisees the Abib and the Fruits] and only refers to the astrological indicators which his pagan audience would have been able to relate to. Josephus’ repeating the Pharisee position on intercalation does not give it any more credence.

Vernal Equinox and Tekufah

Q: Is the equinox (Tekufah) mentioned in the Tanach (Hebrew Bible)?

The claim has been made by proponents of the equinox calendar theory that the word equinox actually appears in the Tanach. They are referring to the word Tekufah or Tequfah which appears in the Hebrew Bible four times. Tekufah is in fact the post-Biblical word for “equinox”, however, it never has the meaning of “equinox” in the Tanach. In Biblical Hebrew, Tekufah retains its literal meaning of “circuit”, that is something which returns to the same point in time or space [from the root Nun.Quf.Pe. meaning “to go around”]. To claim that Tekufah means equinox in the Tanach, just because it had this meaning in later Hebrew, is an anchronism. This would be like saying that there were handguns in ancient Israel because the word EKDACH, the post-Biblical Hebrew word for handgun, appears in Isaiah 54:12. Let us consider another example of this anachronistic use of language: Before the invention of the electronic computer during World War II, the word “computer” referred to a man who sat at a desk calculating (computing) mathematical equations. Imagine if we found an 18th century document mentioning “computers” and proclaimed to the world that there were really electronic computers in the 18th century. This is exactly what the equinox-followers are doing with the word Tekufah. To better understand this, let us consider the four appearances of Tekufah in the Tanach.

Tekufah in Exodus 34:22

The first appearance of Tekufah is in the list of Pilgrimage-Feasts (Hagim) in Ex 34:22 which refers to the agricultural character of the Feast of Booths (Sukkot):

“And the Feast of Ingathering at the circuit of the year (Tekufat HaShannah).”

Being mislead by the Post-Biblical Hebrew meaning of Tekufah, some have interpreted “circuit of the year” anachronistically to refer to the Autumnal Equinox (it is doubtful whether the ancient Israelites even knew of the equinox and they certainly had no way of calculating when it would be). This anachronistic reading leads to the suggestion of fixing the beginning of the year so that Sukkot (The Feast of Ingathering) falls out at the time of the Autumnal Equinox. However, a closer investigation shows that “circuit of the year” has nothing to do with the equinox. The list of Pilgrimage-Feasts also appears in a parallel passage in Ex 23:16 which describes Sukkot as follows:

“And the Feast of Ingathering at the going out of the year (Tzet HaShannah), when you have gathered in your work from the field.”

Exodus 34 is actually an almost verbatim paraphrase of Exodus 23 and it is important to compare and contrast these two passages; the differences are often very enlightening. Comparing Ex 34:22 and Ex 23:16 it is clear that the “going out of the year” and the “circuit of the year” refer to the same time. The “going out/ circuit” of the year is described in Ex 23:16 as “when you have gathered in your work from the field”. This agricultural ingathering is also described in Dt 16:13:

“You shall keep the Feast of Booths for seven days, when you have gathered in from your threshing floors and from your wine presses.”

The Feast of Booths/Ingathering is described as the “going out of the year” because it takes place at the end of the yearly agricultural cycle of planting, harvest, threshing, and ingathering. At the same time, Sukkot is described as taking place at the “circuit of the year” because once the agricultural cycle ends it then immediately recommences (making a circuit, returning to the same point in time) with the planting of the fields after the first rains (sometimes during or shortly after Sukkot itself).

Tekufah in Psalms 19:7

The term Tekufah (circuit) appears in Psalm 19 in reference to the sun, but here too it has nothing to do with the equinox. Psalm 19 describes the heavens and sun, which from their unique vantage point are witness to all things in creation, and thus (metaphorically) testify to the incomparable glory of God. Verses 5-7 describes the sun:

“(5)… He [YHWH] placed a tent among them [the heavens] for the sun. (6) Which is as a bridegroom going out of his chamber, and which rejoices as a strong man running a race. (7) From the end of the heavens is its [the sun’s] going out and its circuit (Tekufato) is to their [the heavens] ends, and none is hidden from its heat”

Verse 6 describes the sun as a bridegroom that bursts forth out of his chamber and as a hero that runs along a path. Verse 7 then describes the “going out” of the sun at one end of the heavens and the “circuit” (Tekufato) of the sun at the other end. Clearly what is being described is the daily path of the sun which rises at one end of the heaven (its going out) and sets at the other end (its return), “and none is hidden from its heat” during the course of the day. What has confused some readers is that the going out or exiting of the sun refers to sunrise, but this unusual terminology is used throughout the Tanach. For example, we read in Judges 5:31:

“Thus shall all the enemies of YHWH be destroyed; and all those whom he loves shall be as the going out of the sun (KeTzet HaShemesh) in its might”. (Jud 5:31)

Those loyal to YHWH shall shine forth with glory as the “going out of the sun”, that is sunrise. It may seem strange that sunrise is referred to as the “going out” of the sun. After all, in Exodus we saw that the going out of the year was the end of the year, whereas the going out of the sun is the beginning of the day. However, this is consistent with Biblical usage and in fact the common Biblical way of saying sunset is the coming in or entering of the sun. This is related to the ancient Israelite conception of the sun which at night was thought of as metaphorically dwelling in a celestial chamber (Ps 19:5). At dawn the sun goes out of this metaphorical chamber and the earth is lit while at night the sun comes into the metaphorical chamber and it is dark. This is also the thought behind the comparison of sunrise to a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber. Ps 19:7 refers to the going out of the sun (sunrise) at one end of heaven and its circuit (return to the same place, to its nightly chamber) at the other end, that is sunset (for a similar thought see Ecc 1:5). We see that here too Tekufah (circuit) has nothing to do with the equinox.

Tekufah in 2Chronicles 24:23

As seen above the “Tekufah (circuit) of the year” in Exodus referred to events in the autumn (the time of the ingathering). The same expression (circuit of the year) is also used to refer to events which take place in late spring as we see in 2Chr 24:23:

“And it was at the circuit (Tekufah) of the year that the army of Aram went up and they came to Judah and Jerusalem…”

In this instance the “Circuit (Tekufah) of the year” comes in place of the common expression “Return (Teshuvah) of the year” which appears several times in the Tanach as “the time when kings go out [to war]” as in:

“And it was at the return (Teshuvah) of the year, and Ben-Haddad counted Aram and went up to Afek to war with Israel.” (1Ki 20:26).

“And it was at the return (Teshuvah) of the year, at the time the kings go out [to war] and David sent Yoav… and they smote the Amonites and besieged Rabbah…” (2Sam 11:1)

The time that the kings went out to war was the late spring before the oppressive heat of summer and after the winter rains which made the mud roads in the Land of Israel impassable. We see here that Tekufah (circuit) of the year is used interchangeably with the more common Teshuvah (return) of the year. Whenever this annual set time for kings to go out to war comes around it is a “circuit of the year”, returning to the same point in time as last year.

Tekufah in 1Samuel 1:20

The term Tekufah (circuit) also appears in 1Sam 1:20 which says:

“And it was at the circuits (Tekufot) of the days, and Hannah conceived and bore a son…”

Here the “circuits” of the days refers to “the same time the following year” [or possibly to the completion of the term of pregnancy?]. It is worth noting that Tekufah is plural in 1Sam 1:20 as tekufot “circuitS”. If we apply the anachronistic meaning of Tekufah as equinox then we get the absurd translation: “And it was at the equinoxes of the days, and Hanah concieved and bore a son…” This emphasizes how important it is to understand Scripture in its historical and linguistic context.

None of the four appearances of Tekufah in the Hebrew Scripture have anything to do with the equinox. Instead, this term is used in Biblical Hebrew in its primary sense of a “circuit”, that is a return to the same point in space or time. Only in Post-Biblical Hebrew did Tekufah come to mean “equinox” and to read this meaning into the Tanach creates an anachronism.

Noah and The Barley