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Jewish Feasts

Solar Year. A solar year is the orbital period of the Earth moving around the Sun. It is approximately 365.25 days. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing (or cycle) of the seasons—Spring, Summer, Autumn (or Fall), and Winter. Points of interest:

  • Jewish Feasts. The seven Jewish Feasts were ordained by God at the giving of the Law (Leviticus 23). These feasts were celebrated yearly during the Spring and Fall seasons—three feasts were celebrated in the early Spring (Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits), one (Pentecost) in the late Spring (i.e. 50 days after First Fruits), and three in the Fall (Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles). The Jewish Feasts in order:
  1. Passover - Nisan 14. Leviticus 23:5 specifies that the festival year begins with Passover on "the fourteenth day of the first month" (Nisan 15).
  2. Unleavened Bread - Nisan 15-22. "And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread" (Leviticus 23:6).
  3. First Fruits - Nisan 16.
  4. Pentecost - Sivan 6.
  5. Trumpets - Tishri 1. Announcement via the blowing of the "shofar" of impending judgment, which occurs on the Day of Atonement, nine days later.
  6. Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) - Tishri 10.
  7. Tabernacles - Tishri 15-22. "On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord seven days" Leviticus 23:39.

The Jewish calendar was based on lunar months. Each month in a lunar calendar begins with a New Moon. Passover falls on the first Full Moon of Spring. Pentecost marks the Summer harvest and ocurs in late May or early June. The last three feasts occur in September or October.

Jewish Feasts interpretation: The Jewish Feasts point to the redemptive work to be carried out by both the Father and Son. The first three feasts met their fulfillment during Christ's first coming, the fourth was fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and commencement of the Christian Era, and the final three will be fulfilled in the period of Christ's Second Coming (see Prophecy of the Seven Jewish Feasts). The Feast of Tabernacles, the last of the Fall feasts, will ultimately be fulfilled when the Father and Son dwell with Man in the New Earth (Revelation 21:3).

Notes

  • A Well-Ordered Life. C. H. Spurgeon. Sermon #878. Arithmetic, geometric, proportional, relational. Holiness is persevering obediencee—it is not holiness at all if it is but occasional zeal and sensational piety.
  • Jewish Menorah Mirrors 7 Feasts: Reflections Made On 2011’s Feast of Trumpets.
  • Passover dates 26-34 A.D. There is no debate over the astronomical date of New Moon for 31 AD. However, computing the first observable crescent, which is when the Jews started counting the new month, can be from 1.5 to 3.5 days after the astronomical date. See here: AD 31 and the Friday Crucifixion.
  • Spring Phenomena 25 BC to 38 AD. Naval Oceanography Portal. Spring Equinox for 31 AD was on March 23 at 3am. It was on a Friday. Adjust +2 hours from U.S. Naval Observatory figures to account for the difference between Jerusalem Israel and Greenwich England (universal) time.
  • Bible Explorations (Calendar).
  • Feast of the Lord - Part 5: The Feast of Trumpets. Excellent commentary on the Feast of Trumpets.
  • Significance of the Shofar. Genesis 22:13 (the "Ram of God"). For the believer, the blast of the shofar represents the shout of God's victory over the power of sin and death. The "first trump" of God occurred on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:16).
  • (YouTube) Feast of Trumpets. Blast of the shofar.
  • Feast Days & The Ceremonial Law. Good study of the feast days. Argues against observance in the conclusion section.
  • Ellen White and the Antitypical Day of Atonement. By Fred Bischoff. www.scripturefirst.net.
  • Yom Kippur - The Day of Atonement. According to the Jewish sages, on the 6th of Sivan, seven weeks after the Exodus (i.e. exactly 49 days), Moses first ascended Sinai to receive the Torah (Shavuot). Just forty days later, on the 17th of Tammuz, the tablets were broken. Moses then interceded for Israel for another forty days until he was called back up to Sinai on Elul 1 and received the revelation of Name YHVH (Exodus 34:4-8). After this, he was given the Second Tablets and returned to the camp on Tishri 10, which later was called Yom Kippur. Moses' face was shining with radiance in wonder of the coming New Covenant which was prefigured in the rituals of the Day of Atonement (Exodus 34:10).
  • Should we observe the Levitical festivals?: A Seventh-day Adventist perspective - Part 1. Ministry Magazine.
  • Should we observe the Levitical festivals?: A Seventh-day Adventist perspective (Part 2 of 2). Ministry Magazine.
  • Holy History. PDF study feast days by John L. VanDenburgh.
  • Christ never observed the ceremonial laws. “Christ passed through all the experiences of His childhood, youth, and manhood without the observance of ceremonial temple worship.” (BE, October 31, 1898)
  • “There are two distinct laws brought to view. One is the law of types and shadows, which reached to the time of Christ, and ceased when type met antitype in His death. The other is the law of Jehovah, and is as abiding and changeless as His eternal throne. After the crucifixion, it was a denial of Christ for the Jews to continue to offer the burnt offerings and sacrifices, which were typical of His death. It was saying to the world that they looked for a Redeemer to come, and had no faith in Him who had given His life for the sins of the world. Hence the ceremonial law ceased to be of force at the death of Christ.” ( (Signs of the Times, July 29, 1886)
  • “Anciently, the new year did not commence in midwinter, as now, but at the first new moon after the vernal equinox.” SOP Vo. 4, p. 497; GC, 1888 ed, p. 681. To apply modern dates to these occasions is quite simple. Everyone knows the time of the vernal equinox, March 21, when the day and night are the same length once each spring. Count fourteen days from the first new moon after the vernal equinox and you have the date for Passover. Add one day (day fifteen) and you have the first day for Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasts seven days.
  • Divine Pattern – Sun and Moon, Sabbath and the Law. By Adrian Ebens. Published on 7/13/2013. To apply modern dates to these occasions is quite simple. Everyone knows the time of the vernal equinox, March 21, when the day and night are the same length once each spring. Count fourteen days from the first new moon after the vernal equinox and you have the date for Passover. Add one day (day fifteen) and you have the first day for Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasts seven days.
  • The Five Offerings in the Old Testament. In table format.
  • Comments on the Drink Offering. I don't agree with everything he says, but very good content. Leviticus 23 mentions the grain and drink offerings in connection with First Fruits (at the morning sacrifice), Pentecost, and Tabernacles.
  • The Question of Wine and the Drink-Offering of the Old Testament. The Hebrew word for "drink offering" is nesek, which means "that which is poured out," whether it is drinkable or not. It is not the Hebrew word, mashqeh "drink," which means "any drinkable liquid."
  • Lamp-Stand Restoration. An illustrated Pentecostal Theology. Interesting theological development of the the lampstand. I don't agree with some parts, however.
  • The Temple Symbolism in Genesis. Garden of Eden as the "Mountain of God."
  • And Rains in Their Due Season. Speaks of the early and latter rains in Israel. The early rain (Hebrew, yoreh) comes in late September or October, but sometimes as late as November. The winter months of December, January and February are the rainiest ones, after which precipitation starts tapering off again. The latter rain (Hebrew, malkosh) comes in March or April, around the month of Nisan. Between Passover and Tabernacles is the long, dry Mediterranean late Spring and Summer. The early rain ripened the oil and wine which is pressed from the picked fruit in October and November, after the yoreh has swelled it to full size. Tthe latter rain ripened the grain which was planted during the winter. Winter planting (sowing) was done in two rounds. The first round of sowing grain [zera] in the ancient Middle East took place in November and December, when the early rains had softened the ground enough to plow it easily; a second round, called lekesh, then followed in January and February. But for the lekesh to succeed, there had to be rain in the less dependable months of March and April, too.
  • The Early Rain. The early planting was of barley. The second planting in January-February was of wheat. The barley was harvested around Passover and the wheat around Pentecost. The grapes and olives were harvested in the Autumn, in connection with the early/former/first rain. The grains, barley and wheat, were harvested in the Spring and early Summer, in connection with the latter rain.
  • The Former and the Latter Rain. Extensive EGW quotes on the former and latter rains.
  • Sacred Calendar (Spring). Describes the Spring festivals including Pentecost.
  • Sacred Calendar (Fall). Describes the Fall festivals.
  • What does the word translated “atonement cover” originally mean in Hebrew?. The traditional translation “mercy-seat” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV) came from Tyndale in 1530 and was also used by Luther in 1523. The noun is formed from the word “to make atonement.” The item that the Israelites should make would be more than just a lid for the ark. It would be the place where atonement was signified. The atonement cover was where the blood was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:14-15). In the New Testament, Jesus Christ is described as our “atonement cover” using the same word as was used in the Greek translation of Exodus 25: (see Romans 3:25).
  • Mercy-seat. The word for "mercy seat" is the same root for the word "atonement". It means to cover, cancel, appease, or cleanse. The Greek equivalent is the word "propitiation".
  • Tables of Stone. Comments on the belief that the 10 commandments will be found before the close of probation.
  • “In the earthly ark Moses was required to place the tables of stone.  These were called the TABLES OF THE TESTIMONY; AND THE ARK WAS CALLED THE ARK OF THE TESTIMONY because they contained GOD’S TESTIMONY in the TEN COMMANDMENTS.”  (Spirit of Prophecy Vol 1, p. 273)
  • “’(Christ) GAVE UNTO MOSES, when he had made an end of communicating with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, TABLES OF STONE, written by the finger of God.’ Nothing written on those tables could be blotted out.  The precious record of the law WAS PLACED IN the ark of the Testament and is STILL THERE, safely hidden from the human family.  But in God’s appointed time HE WILL BRING FORTH THESE TABLES OF STONE TO BE A TESTIMONY to all the world against the disregard of His commandments and against the idolatrous worship of a counterfeit Sabbath.”  (SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 1 p. 1109)
  • “THE LAW is just as Jehovah wrote it, IN THE TEMPLE IN HEAVEN.  Men may trample upon ITS COPY HERE ON EARTH, but the ORIGINAL is kept in the Ark of God in heaven.”  (Signs of the Times, Dec. 22, 1887) 
  • Were the 10 Commandment Tablets Blue?
  • (YouTube) Temple Made of Time - 4ever Young. Lyrics for guitar here.
  • (YouTube) Temple Made of Time. Two sisters sing this song.
  • The Daily Sacrifice. by Tom Stapleton. One interpretation of Daniel 8:11 and 11:31.
  • <<The Scapegoat>>.