Introduction to Tracking Time in Israel
- [Narrator] The ancient Hebrew calendar holds the keys tounderstanding how the Appointed Times speak of the Messiah. How did the ancientIsraelites track time? How did they determine the hours of the day and followthe watches in the night? When did their days begin and end? How did theyreckon months so they could accurately observe the high Sabbath days of theAppointed Times? Did the Lord establish his timetable of future events on thecalendar of the ancient Israelites? The answer to these questions and manyothers can be found in "Tracking Time in Israel"
Welcome to the Messiah Beyond a Shadow of Doubt. My name isDon McCluskey and it's my privilege to be your host throughout this series.
This lesson is entitled "Tracking Time in Israel"and it is based on a small book that we've written that explains how theancient Israelites tracked time. The booklet may be purchased online but it isalso included in its entirety in the back of "The Messiah Beyond aShadow of Doubt." So, if you own a copy of the Messiah book then youalready have "Tracking Time in Israel."
How the Israelites Tracked Time
So, what are we going to learn in this lesson? We're goingto learn how the ancient Israelites tracked time. How did the people and thenation stay in sync with each other since they didn't have mechanical ordigital clocks during Bible times? They had to have a way to tell time thateveryone in the community could see, ways of determining the time of day, whenthe day began and ended, counting the days, hours, months, and years.
So, in this lesson we will look at the very differentaspects of time and how they were tracked by the ancient Israelites. Theseinclude their concept of a day, daytime, nighttime, twilight. And by the way,twilight has a very different meaning from our understanding of twilight. We'lltalk about their concept of a week. We'll talk about the Sabbath day which isthe weekly Sabbath day. We're also going to talk about high Sabbath days whichare the Jewish holy days that you've probably heard of. They are also calledthe Appointed Times which we'll spend a lot of time on throughout this series.And finally, we're going to talk about how they determine months and new moons- very important concepts.
Astronomy… Not Astrology
So, let's go back to the very beginning of the Bible. In thefirst chapter of the book of Genesis, verse 14 we learned that God created thelights in the heavens for the purpose of determining times. He said, "Letthere be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from thenight and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and foryears."
So, to begin, it's very important that you understand thatthis is astronomy, a science. It is not astrology. Astrology is a way of tryingto predict the future and gain special knowledge about life by trying to findmeaning in the alignment of planets and stars and the heavenly bodies.Astrology is considered to be an occult practice that was strictly forbidden byGod. But astronomy on the other hand is based on science, something that'sobservable. And all we're doing is monitoring these heavenly events to use themas indicators of time which is perfectly permissible in the Bible.
Two Great Lights in the Heavens
Notice that it says that, "God made two great lights,the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern thenight." And clearly, he's talking about the sun and the moon which he gaveso that we could determine the signs, seasons, days, and years.
The Hebrew Day
So, let's take a look at the Jewish concept of day. InGenesis 1:5 it says that, "God called the light day and the darkness hecalled night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day." Andbecause of the wording in this verse the Jewish people understood that the daybegan with evening. That is at sundown.
The verse mentions evening first. Therefore, it must meanthat the day ends when the sun goes down, which makes sense. When the sun sets.And simultaneously a new day begins at sunset. So, we learned from this thatthe Hebrew day ended and began at sundown. It's a very important concept. Thebeginning and ending of the day were simultaneous events.
Now let me give you an interesting example of this from thegospels. In the first chapter of the book of Mark, we learned that Jesus wasteaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath day. As he was teaching, a man with anunclean spirit, a demon, cried out saying, "You are the holy one ofGod!" So, Jesus rebuked him and the spirit came out of the man.
Of course, when the people saw that Jesus had healed theman, they thought, whoa! And they wanted their friends and relatives who weresick to be healed as well. But they were not allowed to carry them on theSabbath day or walk more than a specified distance since it was considered tobe work which was forbidden on the Sabbath day.
But this passage has a very interesting point. In Mark itsays, "When evening came, after the sun had set, they began bringing allthose who were ill and those who were demon-possessed and Jesus healedthem." Why? Because the sun had set and it was a new day. No longer theSabbath day. So, the point is that the sun sets, the day ends, and a new daybegins. So, they were allowed to carry their sick friends to Jesus. Now, thisis a very simple example but it illustrates how understanding the ancient timetracking methods can give additional insight into the stories of the Bible.
Daytime
Okay, now let's take a look at daytime. Daytime, in otherwords the time of daylight, was divided into 12 equal parts, from sunrise tosunset. And they numbered each segment from 1 to 12. The first hour istypically around 6:00 AM, sunrise. And you may have heard that the third houris 9:00 AM. The ninth hour is 3:00 PM and of course that means that right inthe middle of that the sixth hour is 12 noon and so on. This is how theydetermined what the hours of the day were.
Twilight
Now there's another concept that's called twilight. Twilightis very interesting because as I mentioned before it is different from twilightas we know it today. Nowadays, twilight is considered to be from the time thesun sets when its rays are still diffused in the earth's atmosphere and itgives a glow that we call twilight. It continues to give enough light for us tosee.
But Moses did not use the word twilight. In the originallanguage of the Bible, Hebrew, he said, "Between the evenings." Andwe scratch our heads and we say what does he mean by between the evenings?Well, the "Tracking Time in Israel" book gives several optionsthat you can read but the best explanation for between the evenings is the timebetween the ninth hour daily sacrifice at 3:00 PM until the sun actually wentdown which would be the second evening. So, when Moses told the people to killthe Passover lamb between the evenings, they had a little bit of latitude intheir time. A few hours difference between 3:00 PM and sundown. So, as weexplore the writings of Moses which include the Appointed Times, we willconsider twilight to be the time between 3:00 PM and sundown.
Nighttime
Now what about nighttime? Did they divide that into 12 hoursas well? No, nighttime is divided into four equal parts which began at sundownand ended at sunrise. Each part is referred to as a watch. Now it's not likethe watch on your wrist. It refers to the guards watching the city at nighteither from the wall or walking through the street. They would take shifts or awatch. You may have seen movies where people set up camp at night and someonewould say, "I'll take the first watch."
A Watch in the Night
Well, there you have the same idea as the ancient watch inthe night. The first watch began at sundown and lasted through a quarter of thenight. The second watch, of course was the second quarter, which ended atmidnight. The third watch was from midnight until the third quarter ended andthe fourth watch was the fourth quarter until sunrise.
The Morning Watch
Now it's interesting that the fourth watch has a name givento it. They referred to it as the morning watch. And that's an importantconcept that we'll see when we study the Appointed Times. Because the morningwatch is the time that the Israelites were crossing the sea. God told Moses tostretch out your hand and bring the waters back together to destroy thepursuers. So, it's very helpful to understand what these different watches areand what they mean because their meaning extends to the Messiah.
The Sabbath Day
And now let's talk about the Sabbath day. In the Bible welearned that the Sabbath day is a special day. God said, "Six days youshall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lordyour God, and in it you shall not do any work." And this is a very holyday, the seventh day of every week. So, we refer to it as the weeklySabbath. And as we said work was strictly forbidden, even the slightest bit ofwork. So, the Jewish people were very careful not to violate the Sabbath. Andonce again, we're going to refer to this as the weekly Sabbath.
So, let me ask you a question. Which day is the Sabbath? Isit Friday, Saturday or Sunday? Well, it's the seventh day of the week, so it'sSaturday. In the Bible when you read about the Sabbath day, it is the seventhday of the week. And of course, when it mentions the first day of the week it'sreferring to Sunday.
High Sabbath Days
Now there's another concept that we refer to as HighSabbaths. High Sabbaths are the Jewish Holy Days which are defined in theAppointed Times in Leviticus 23. But the term high Sabbath comes from thegospel of John. In John 19:31, Jesus had been crucified and was on the cross.And the Jewish people wanted the bodies off the cross before sundown becausethe next day was a Sabbath day. And John says, "For that Sabbath was ahigh day." In other words, they wanted them off the cross because the sunsetwould bring about the first high Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.Isn't that interesting how that works?
Now, I should mention that this term high Sabbath does notoccur very often in the Scriptures. But it does occur, therefore we need tomake sure we understand it. John in his gospel here makes it very clear thatthe Sabbath day that followed Jesus’ crucifixion was a high Sabbath and we seethat it was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
So, let's continue. What are the high Sabbaths? As Imentioned, they are recorded in the 23rd chapter of Leviticus and there areseven of them. Seven is not that many and you can memorize them pretty easily.Make a note that the seven high Sabbaths are in addition to the weeklySabbaths. They should not be confused. You should always be aware thatthere are differences between high Sabbaths and the weekly Sabbaths, whichoccur every seven days. They're the Jewish Holy Days which are so importantwhen studying about the Messiah.
The first two high Sabbaths are like bookends in theweek-long Feast of Unleavened Bread. The first day of the feast is a highSabbath and the seventh day or the last day of the feast is also a highSabbath.
Now if you're trying to memorize them that makes it prettyeasy because you've already learned the first two. And the last Appointed Timeis also a week-long feast. The last one of the year, it is called the Feast ofBooths and it is also book ended by high Sabbath days. One on the first day andone after the seventh day. So, once you've memorized these four, you'll be morethan halfway to memorizing all seven of them. The others that are in betweenare the Feast of Weeks which is also called Pentecost, the Day of Trumpets andthe Day of Atonement.
So, these are the seven high Sabbaths that are talked aboutin Leviticus 23, the Jewish Holy Days. And as we're going to see, they areshadows of the Messiah as Paul tells us in the book of Colossians. So, if youcan memorize these seven high Sabbaths, you'll be able to gain a clearerunderstanding of the Scriptures.
Passover is Not a High Sabbath
Now one thing I need to point out is that Passover itself isnot a high Sabbath. And you might be thinking, well, I thought it was animportant date.[1] Andit is. It's a very important date, but it's just not a high Sabbath. It is anAppointed Time, but instead of being a Sabbath day it is called a Day ofPreparation.
Now a day of preparation is a day before a Sabbath day. Onthese days, people do the work that is necessary in order to get ready orprepare for the Sabbath day. They take care of things that are considered to bework which are not allowed on a Sabbath, such as washing clothes, preparingfood, setting the table and so on. Things that will be needed on a Sabbath day.And Passover occurs right before the first day of the Feast of UnleavenedBread, which is a high Sabbath. So, we refer to Passover as the Day ofPreparation.
According to Leviticus 23:5, Passover is always on the 14thday of the first month of the year. We'll talk about the months in a little bitbut it would be very helpful for you to memorize that Passover is always on the14th day of the first month. It is a day of preparation, a day of work, it isnot a high Sabbath.
Months and the Silver Edge Moon
Okay, let's talk about months. Recall that Genesis 1:14tells us that God placed lights in the heavens that would be for signs andseasons and days and years. So, the Jewish people use one of these lights, themoon, as their sign for months. And they decided that its silver edge phasewould be their indicator for a new month. Notice that a silver edge moon iscompletely dark except for the edge, which is just becoming illuminated. Thus,the reason they refer to it as a silver edge moon. When they observed the newmoon at this phase the leaders sanctified the new moon and proclaimed that anew month had begun.
The Gregorian Calendar Compared to the Hebrew Calendar
With this in mind, let's compare the Jewish months to themonths that we know which are called the Gregorian months. The names of theGregorian months are January, February, March, April and so on throughDecember, as you know them. The Jewish months, however, have different names.
And notice that their timing is staggered. They occur inbetween the times of our months. And the reason for that is because theGregorian months that we live by are going to appear on the same day every yearsince they're based on the solar calendar. They occur during the same season ofevery year.
But since the Jewish months are based on the cycles of the moon,they shift by about 11 days every year. And this is because the phases of themoon are not synchronized with the solar year. So, if we look at the month ofAbib, or Nisan, for example, we see that it's in our March-April timeframe, butfrom year to year it's going to change by 11 days. For the same reason, themonth of Tishri is in the September-October timeframe.
Abib – aka. Nisan – is the First Moon or Month
Now I want to point out that Abib, also called Nisan, is thefirst moon or the first month of the Jewish religious year. Tishri isthe seventh moon and it occurs six months later. Tishri marks the beginning ofthe Jewish civil year. So, yes, the Jewish people actually have two NewYears. Actually, they have four, which you can read about in the "TrackingTime in Israel" book.
So why is this important? It's because the Appointed Timesbegin during the month of Abib which is the first month of the year, always inthe March-April timeframe rather than in the fall of each year with a Jewishcivil year.
Now you might be thinking that this is a lot of informationall at once, but don't worry. It'll all come together as we discuss theselessons. And I will give reminders throughout and it will become like secondnature to you. You can also refer to the "Tracking Time in Israel"booklet if you want more detail or refreshers. So be encouraged, this isextremely valuable information that will help you understand how the Messiah isshadowed in the Appointed Times.
Okay, let's take a look at an animation of the moon's phasesas it orbits the earth. Notice that we have the earth toward the middle of thescreen and we have the moon to the left of it. Now then I've shown the sun onthe very far left of the screen. Now I'm not saying that the moon and the sunand the earth are actually that close together. Actually, the sun is almost 400times farther from the earth than the moon is. But I just have it up here toshow the relationship. And notice that the illuminated sides of the moon andthe earth are on the side that faces the sun...of course So if we look at therays of the sun traveling toward the moon and the earth, that's the side wherethey are illuminated.
The Phases of the Moon
When the moon is between the earth and the sun none of itsilluminated surface is visible from our perspective on Earth. So, this is whatwe call the Astronomical New Moon. It's completely darkened, but it is not thesame as the Jewish New Moon, which I will explain in a moment.
Now I'm going to move the sun... I'm going to back it up 93million miles and I want to show you how the moon orbits the earth. If you lookin the upper right-hand corner of your screen, you'll see a small image of themoon as we would see it from the earth. So, look at it in the upper right-handcorner of your screen and you see that as the moon starts to go around theearth, it becomes illuminated. And when the earth is between the moon and thesun it appears to be fully illuminated from our perspective on Earth.
But as the moon continues its orbit around the earth, itsillumination begins to wane or decrease. And when it is between the earth andthe sun it becomes completely dark from the earth's perspective and it beginsits journey again starting with the silver edge or the new month.
How long does it take the moon to go around the earth? Ittakes approximately 29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes. Roughly 29 and a halfdays, which is close to 30 days. So, there you have the Jewish month.
So that's how the Israelites determined when months began.But you should know that they had to observe it by Jewish law. They were notallowed to simply calculate it. They knew how to do that but they wanted tomake sure that they were correct. So, the new moon had to be observed by anindividual, and the individual would come running into the Sanhedrin, theJewish leadership, and they would interview the witness and ask questions aboutthe new moon. And if they agreed that yes, a new moon was definitely seen thenthey would sanctify the new moon and send messengers throughout the country.They'd blow the silver trumpets and everyone would know that a new month hadbegun.
So, the new moon is a very important concept in Judaismbecause it tells us when a new month began which determined the dates of theAppointed Times and other events for the people of Israel. So once again theJewish New Moon begins with a silver edge.
The Astronomical New Moon and the Jewish New Moon
Now remember that I also mentioned the Astronomical New Moonand it's not that one is right or wrong. It's just the way that differentpeople reckon it. So, if you go to NASA's website it will say that theAstronomical New Moon is to the New Moon when it is completely dark and there'sno illumination at all. But the Jewish New Moon began with a silver edge afterthe Astronomical New Moon occurred. So, keep this distinction in mind since itis very important.
So, this is how the ancient Israelites tracked time. And asit turns out, I'm out of time! But I recommend if you don't have "TheMessiah Beyond a Shadow of Doubt" book which contains "TrackingTime in Israel" then you might consider obtaining the smaller "TrackingTime in Israel" booklet on its own. I encourage you to becomefamiliar, intimately familiar with this information about how Israel trackedtime since it can give deeper insights into many stories of the Bible.
A Quick Review
So, here's a quick review of "Tracking Time inIsrael"
- The Jewish Day begins and ends at sundown.
- Daytime is divided into 12 equal segmentsbetween sunrise and sunset.
- Twilight literally meant between the eveningsand was the time between 3:00 PM and sundown.
- Nighttime was divided into four equal parts thatwere called watches.
- The Sabbath Day occurred every seventh day onSaturday. It begins at sundown on Friday and ends at sundown on Saturday.
- There are seven high Sabbaths, which wereinstituted in Leviticus 23 as the Appointed Times.
- Passover is not a high Sabbath. It is a day ofpreparation.
- The Jewish months began with the appearance ofthe Silver Edge Moon.
So, you see, tracking time in Israel is really pretty easy.And now you know. Thanks for joining us in this lesson. I hope to seeyou again as we continue with The Messiah Beyond a Shadow of Doubt. I'm Don McCluskey and it's been a joy to bringthis information to you.
[1]Teacher’s note: It would have been better if I had said, “…I thought it was anAppointed Time. And it is, but not allAppointed Times are High Sabbaths.”
