I am writing this small paper to explain why I started studying the calendar found at Qumran in the Dead Sea Scrolls. I was first introduced to the calendar by a newspaper article by Rachel Elior, which I was encouraged to read by a friend in Israel. At that time, Rachel was a professor at the University of Jerusalem. She has many things that can be viewed on YouTube, and they are all loaded with good information. For instance, she shows that the idea that the inhabitants of Qumran were Essenes is not factual and is based on statements made by Josephus and Pliny the Elder some 200 years after the fact. The writings found there always refer to the inhabitants as either Zadok priests or sons of light. This was my beginning point, and from there, I have spent a little more than four years studying the scrolls, the history of the Seleucid Empire, the Hasmonean dynasty (beginning with Antiochus Epiphanes IV), all the way through the second temple destruction, and to today.
What follows is what has kept me on this quest. I feel it is proof positive that the lunar-solar calendars followed by Rabbinic Judaism and most of the Messianic people today are not the calendars followed by the second temple Zadok priests before Antiochus IV. Calendar controversies developed as far back as the Babylonian exile. I want to direct everyone to the YouTube teachings Eddie Chumney has done, which show proof of my last statement. He does an excellent and compelling job of presenting undeniable evidence.
The following information is what sent me on my quest to understand the Qumran calendar through the priestly order as presented in the Qumran scrolls.
The first and foremost proof, which is quite an eye-opener, is the phrase “new moon”, which does not appear in the entire Hebrew Tanak (Old Testament) or the writings of the Apostles, but this phrase appears in almost all translations. When I tell people this, a large number of them immediately disagree. They use Strong’s Concordance mostly, which tells you how words are translated, not necessarily what they mean. It takes a different path to prove that it does not appear. The Strong’s number for the word moon is H 3394 (moon in Hebrew-Yareach). Search for yourself in the Tanak for this number to find the first mention of the word moon in the Torah. It first appears when Joseph had his dream in Genesis 37:9 about the sun, moon, and stars bowing down to him. The next appearance is Deuteronomy 4:19, which tells us not to be drawn to worship the sun, moon, and stars. Most people do not realize that the sun and moon were not mentioned by name when they were created; they were just called the greater and lesser light, the sun being the greater light. The greater light is the determiner, and the lesser light and the stars are the two witnesses, which is how the Qumran priestly order calendar works. All three must confirm a date, i.e., two to three witnesses are required to establish a matter according to the Torah.
There are 26 times the word moon (Strong’s H 3394-Yareach) appears in the Tanak, and none have to do with the month. There is another word for moon in Strong’s Concordance (H 3391-Yerach). There are 13 occurrences of it, and a few of them appear in the same line with the Hebrew word for month, which is Chodesh (Strong’s H 2320). At no time is it related to the beginning of a month. A search for H 2320-Chodesh in the King James version (with Strong’s numbers) comes up with 279 matches. There are multiple times it is translated as moon instead of month. They also translate it as a new moon when the word for new in Hebrew (Chadash) does not appear at all. Chadash is Strong’s number H 2319, which appears 48 times, and not one time is it followed by moon or month.
I am using the Hebrew Bible to check the King James version. Every time you see the phrase “new moon” in the Tanak, it is a deliberate mistranslation. This was enough to get me to dig more to determine what was happening.
Also, there is never a thirteenth month anywhere in all Scripture. King Solomon had 12 governors over all Yisrael, who provided food for the sovereign and his household-each one made provision for one month of the year (1 Kings 4:7). We see twelve months again in Revelation 22:2 “In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month.” So, from the first temple period to the new Jerusalem, only twelve months are recorded. In Esther 2:12, we can again see twelve months in the year as follows. “Now when the turn of each young woman came to go into Sovereign Achashverosh after she had completed twelve new moons ( wrong translation, the Hebrew here says only Chodesh-month, there is no new moon or moons) according to the regulations for the women – for the days of their preparation were completed as follows: most scriptures say six new moons (this is Chodesh also the same as the first mention, no new or moons) with oil of myrrh, and six new moons (same again) with perfumes and with the preparations of women.” Once again, we see twelve months that have nothing to do with moons. In Daniel 4:27-33, there is a mention of twelve months, as follows.
Daniel 4:27: “Therefore, O sovereign, let my counsel be acceptable to you, and break off your sins by righteousness, and your crookedness’s by showing favor to the poor – your prosperity might be extended.”
Daniel 4:28 All this came upon Sovereign Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel 4:29 At the end of the twelve months, he was walking around the palace of the reign of Babel.
This does not explicitly say one year, but the twelve months would logically be a significant period.
The calendar’s reckoning is probably the most divisive thing in congregations of all those who follow the Torah today. The Jews are in unison following the Hillel reckoning of the calendar. Avinu (our Father) is not the author of chaos; the adversary (satan) is. So, Avinu’s calendar cannot be chaotic.
There are 52 weeks in a solar year, which is 364 days. The tropical year is 365.25 days. There are 354 days in a lunar year. This is unless it is a year where a thirteenth month has been added. Many times, using crescent moon causes Yom Kippurim to fall on Shabbat. So, if you follow this, you will be violating Shabbat’s rules.
I ask now, is this a synchronized calendar? I do not think so. So, what is the source of these calendars that the Torah-keeping world is now following? That is the big question. I will now show what I have found so far in my search for the actual calendar as given to Yisrael by Avinu.
I have found that anciently, before the Greek ruler over Israel, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Israel was keeping a twelve-month priestly order solar calendar, which was confirmed by the moon and the constellations. The sun is the greater light. The moon and constellations are the two witnesses.
Ezekiel is the only one in the Bible called the son of man besides Yahushua. He is also the only one who bore the iniquity of a people (Ezekiel Chapter 4) besides Yahushua. Ezekiel is the only prophet who gave a day, month, and year for all his prophecies. Indeed, he had a purpose for this. When we place these dates on the calendar found at Qumran, in Jubilees, and in Enoch, these days fall on Sunday, Friday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Ezekiel is purposely showing that none is on a Shabbat. He was explicitly showing this because he was called to be a watchman, to warn of coming destruction. Such warnings cannot be done on Shabbat because they violate the purpose of Shabbat. That is to meet with Avinu baShamayim (our Father in Heaven). Shabbat is a mikra moedim, a festive appointment. It is supposed to be a day of shalom, rest, and joy. So, to prophecy coming, destruction cannot happen on Shabbat. On any other calendar, based on lunar observation to determine months and years, his prophecies would be all over the Shabbat.
Hillel the Great created the school of Hillel. Paul was trained in this school. Hillel was after Antiochus IV who was responsible for the calendar changing. He reined over Israel from 175 BC to 164 BC. The Talmud records that Hillel’s students came to him and informed him Yom Kippurim would fall on Shabbat; they wanted to know which rules they should keep. Hillel’s response was Yom Kippurim. Hillel was one of the most famous rabbis in Jewish history. A question that begs to be answered is, if Judaism had been following this calendar that uses moon phases to determine the beginnings of the months, this situation would have happened multiple times, so why was there not a well-known rule for this situation?
Another thing that is sometimes used to say Yahushua did not live a perfect Torah obedient life is that he did not attend a commanded feast on time. In John 7:1-14 it says He didn’t go up to the temple on Sukkot until the middle of the feast. It says He went after His brothers were gone secretly, but He did not go up to the temple and show Himself till the fourth day or the middle of the feast. One undeniable thing is He kept the Pesach one day before the feast of the Jews. I read recently that according to the Starry Night Astronomy program, the sighted moon started the year one day after the beginning of the year on the Qumran, Zadok calendar. So, maybe this is why the High Days are referred to as “the feast of the Jews” in the apostles’ writings. YHWH says in Leviticus 23 that appointments with Him are His, not the Jews.
Information shows that the calendar either changed in Babylon or at the time of Antiochus IV. According to what I have found, the change began in Babylon when they adopted the Babylonian month names and changed the first day of the year to Yom Teruah. But I think the adoption of the lunar-solar calendar that the Jews follow today happened during Antiochus’s rule over Israel. It is possible that Israel kept the Babylonian calendar as a civil calendar after the captivity but used the Zadok priestly order calendar for the priestly order and the moedim. I also believe this truth can be derived from the Book of Daniel and our information about the Hasmonaean dynasty of priests who followed the Greek rule of Israel. Eventually, Israel came into alliances with Rome, and later, the Romans ruled over Israel, as said above. There is plenty of information about Antiochus IV and the Hasmonean dynasty. You will find there was never another righteous High Priest after Anias III, who was driven out of Jerusalem by the evil priest who bought the office of High Priest from Antiochus IV. Israel was divided before Antiochus IV; many wanted to be Greek. We do not know how many of the Jews and Levites wanted to be Hellenized (Greek), but it was enough that a civil war could have erupted if they were not under the rule of the Greeks. If you delve into this, you will discover that the Maccabees changed the priesthood. They decided the priesthood had reverted to the Melchizedek (firstborn) priesthood and appointed priests who were not from the line of Aaron.
I have always been saddened that Avinu (our Father) did not give us a way to determine the beginning of the year in scripture or how to determine months. When I first recognized that we needed to follow the Torah, I quickly found out there were several ways people reckoned to keep the High Holy Days (moedim). This grieved me. I gleaned from the Torah that the High Priest would declare the moedim. Yahushua is our High Priest in the Heavenlies, but He has not told us how to do so. We do not presently have an anointed High Priest here on earth. I prayed then that Avinu would give us this information so everyone would be on the same calendar.
After being convinced that this calendar found at Qumran was the correct calendar, all I needed to do was start keeping it. That requires a bit of research in itself. What I determined needed to be done first was to determine a correct genealogy from Adam to now.
To settle on what I believe is the correct genealogy took me over a year of studying all the most widely accepted genealogies I could find. There are over 100 experts who agree that Adam was created in -4004 BC, according to the Masoretic text. That is where I started. I have been asked why you need a correct genealogy to follow the calendar. The answer is that it is a priestly order calendar, which determines which priest serves when and tracks the time each year, which tells us when to celebrate moedim, bring offerings required at the beginning of months, and when to follow the Yovel (Jubilee) years along with the Sabbatical-Shemita years. If we do not know where we are from the creation of Adam, we do not know when to do those, as mentioned earlier. What I have found would take a few pages to go through.
Most of those who felt they had figured out the correct genealogy differed. The more I went through them, the more I understood why each one was doing what they did. I learned something from each one of them. I tested every one of them. For now, I will say what I have come up with has been tested and found faithful through its witness. We (my cousin and I) have developed an Excel spreadsheet with all the years from the creation of Adam to 2171. Each sheet is a Yovel (Jubilee) cycle. The years are shown in seven weeks of years with a space between the Sabbatical-Shemitah year and the next seven-year cycle. The priests who serve are indicated by the number of the week they serve. There is way more to it than I can explain quickly. It is an excellent tool that can be used to test any genealogy against historically known events.
With the spreadsheet done, what was next was to figure out how to keep the year centered on the tropical year. The calendar is a 52-week calendar, so it naturally needs some intercalation to keep it centered on the tropical year. It must be done in increments of one week to maintain the priestly order based on a 52-week year. The flow of the priestly order is of utmost importance, as we will see later in a supplement to this named “Events that have occurred in years that begin with the same priest.” This appendix shows that events could have been recognized a year before they happened through priestly order. These events were destruction to Israel. I have another article that explains the spreadsheets and how to use them. I am glad to share it all with anyone interested. Also, I am available to demonstrate at almost any time through Zoom.
Most people agree that the year begins with the spring equinox, but they do not agree on what the equinox is. Equinox means equal night. Equilux means equal day when the hours of the day are equal to the hours of the night. The straight-line day is on March 20th or the 21st on leap years. This is because it is the only day in the spring that the shadow of a pole standing plumb will form a straight line. The Qumran scrolls refer to this day as the OT. In Hebrew, OT means a sign or an identifying mark upon you. A sign is telling you what is ahead. This straight-line day can be observed almost anywhere in the world except extreme Northern or Southern latitudes. The Wednesday after the OT (sign) would be the first day of the year on the 364-day calendar kept by the Qumran community, as witnessed by the scrolls.
Plants begin to ripen when the days start to get longer. This ripening happens the day after the day when the hours of the day are equal to the hours of the night. In the spring, the plant begins to ripen and becomes ripe in a certain number of days, according to what plant it is. Some grains, such as barley and flax, will ripen within a few weeks, and others, such as wheat, will go much longer, but the amount of light triggers the process. Wheat takes 50 more days than barley and flax because the Omer count starts at the first fruits of the barley harvest.
When the day is equal to the night, this day is easy to determine anywhere in the world except as in the extreme North and the extreme South. The way to determine this day is to place a plumb pole and observe the shadow. There is only one day in the spring when the shadow of the pole, in the morning and the evening, will create a straight line. On any other day, the shadow will bow either North or South, depending on the season. This day would be the first day of spring. The first day of the year will be the Wednesday following that day.
This calendar was not made for people all over the world. It was for Israel. The House of Israel sinned so greatly that they were cast out of the land and scattered to the ends of the earth. The calendar was taken away from them, as seen in the following.
Hosea 2:11 : “And I shall cause all her rejoicing, her festivals, “the first of her months”, and her Sabbaths, even all her appointed times, to cease. I added a correct translation of the above would be “the first of her months”, because the ISR Scriptures still uses the new moon.
So, the question is, when will these things be restored? It can be seen to some degree through prophecy. What I mean is we can determine the restoration time through prophecy when we see certain events. We can know the day and hour of Yahushua’s return. I have an article to explain the misconception of what is being said in Matthew 24:36. Romans 11:25 says that there is a partial blindness on all Israel until the fullness of the nations has come in. The fullness of the nations is Melo Goyim in Hebrew. This is exactly what Jacob told Ephrayim in his blessing on him that he would be. So, when Ephrayim comes in, the blindness that is in part will be removed. So, what does it mean to come in? Come back into Torah or possibly come back into the land? The next two verses tell us when this will happen.
Romans 11:26 And so all Yisrael shall be saved, as it has been written, “The Deliverer shall come out of Tsiyon, and He shall turn away wickedness from Yaaqob (Reference Psalms 14:7,)
Romans 11:27 and this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
(Reference Isaiah 59:20-21, Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Hebrews 10:16.)
Our deliverance comes when satan and his followers are thrown out of heaven as follows.
Revelation 12:7 And there came to be fighting in the heaven: Mikael and his messengers fought against the dragon. And the dragon and his messengers fought,
Revelation 12:8, but they were not strong enough, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.
Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was thrown out, that old serpent called the Devil and Satan, who leads the world astray. He was thrown to the earth, and his messengers were thrown out with him. Revelation 12:10 And I heard a loud voice saying in the heaven, “Now have come the deliverance and the power and the reign of our Elohimb and the authority of His Messiah, for the accuser of our brothers, who accused them before our Elohim day and night, has been thrown down. (Reference Revelation 11:15.)`
So what we are delivered from at this time is all sin, as said in Romans 11:26-27, as shown above. The answer is in Matthew 13:24-43: the darnel (the knowledge of evil) is removed at the wheat harvest. The offerings for the harvest are at Shavuot. Yahushua saved us from the law of sin and death through His death, burial, and resurrection, but He has yet to Deliver us from all evil. We now have the expectations of that deliverance. 1Th 5:8 But we who are of the day should be sober, putting on the breastplate of belief and love, and as a helmet the expectation of deliverance. Reference Isiah 59:17.
In Deuteronomy 30, we can see that YHWH will return all the blessings that He gave Israel when they first entered the land if we turn back and keep His Torah. This is the beginning of the coming in, seen in Romans 11:25, Jeremiah 31, and Ezekiel 36. All these are entirely about this time when the sin that dwells in us is removed. We are in the process right now, but we can pinpoint when this happens through several other scriptures. All this information is in another writing named “The Day and Hour.” For now, the blindness is still on us in part, as we can see, because there is still some confusion among those following the Zadok calendar about how exactly to inter-calculate weeks. The last paper in this group, “The Priestly Order, The Six-Year Mishmarot & The Otot,” describes how to intercalate the calendar and contains a list of intercalation years and the six-year Mishmarot. It also contains the Otot (signs) that are shown on the first six Excel sheets.
I realize that most people will not be inclined to dig deep into these things. Most people would not have the time. It can also be difficult to have time, even though I am somewhat retired. I am taking the time because the calendar is one of the most divisive things that comes between Elohim’s people. Resolving this issue would be monumental.
At this time, I hope to present key information points to establish what I am putting forth without going to great lengths. I fully expect that my understanding will be refined by those who are diligent in their studies, and I welcome that. We are a people, and I am just one. What a joy it will be when we are all following one perfectly synchronized calendar, where the sun, moon, and stars are in perfect synchronicity (harmony). There is no potential for man to define Avinu’s appointments with us when the Torah does not give us that information, such as “what definitely describes the way to determine the first day of the year.” A righteous anointed High Priest (Kohen Gadol) from the line of Zadok would be the only one, through his anointing from Avinu, who would have the authority to announce the times of the moedim (the weekly and seven High Shabbats each year) under those conditions. Fortunately, the weekly Shabbats have never been lost. The calendar has to perfectly synchronize the sun, moon, and stars, as said on page 3. The sun was created to be the greater light, the moon the lesser light, and stars are witnesses also of Sabbatical years and Yovel (Jubilee) years. I did not expect the High Priest to reveal the correct calendar from around 165 BC.
I am glad to share the Microsoft Excel file we have created. It shows years with the priestly order shown for each priest by his number on the week he serves. It can be used to test years according to the genealogies to see what is happening in relationship to the Jubilee (Yovel) and Sabbatical-Shemita years. Incredibly, we can test ideas in almost an instant. I have already made some discoveries that witness how important the priestly order is, such as many significant events that have happened in years that began with the same priest.
I will wrap this up with some critical information. This calendar found at Qumran, commonly called the Zadok calendar, never has problems with moedim running over each other because every moedim is on the same annual day every year, and none overlaps. Every high day has its own time. There is a Shabbat in Unleavened Bread and Sukkot, but never on a High day. Even the first days of each month fall on Rishon (Sunday), R’viyiy (Wednesday), and Shishiy (Friday), which is never on a High day, with one exception, and that is Yom Teruah, which is always on R’viyiy (Wednesday) which is the first day of the seventh month. I also want to mention that the moon and the stars play a critical role in this calendar. A straightforward way exists to determine the exact moon cycle on any solar day. The ancient priest understood how to do that. I explain the method in the following paper: “Events that Fall on the same Priestly Order according to the Zadok Priestly Order Calendar”.
This brief synopsis shows why I am delving into all this and shows everyone interested in this subject a short explanation of why I am studying the calendar found at Qumran and First Enoch. The details of what I have discovered are in the articles that follow. I have developed a presentation of all this information. The connections with the Zadok calendar, as found at Qumran, and historical events that we know their dates prove the genealogy I created from the Masoretic text is correct. The significance of a correct genealogy is that you know when to insert the intercalations by what we can see the Qumran community did.
Shalom
Conner Stevens
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