If you lived and worked in two different time zones, you would obviously need to keep track of the time in both places. The calendar we are used to is not the same as the calendar spoken of in the Bible. Because of this difference most of us are unaware of the days on which many recorded Biblical events happened, or the days on which God set His “appointed times” (moed).
The way God set the universe in motion gives us our days, weeks months and years.
The rotation of the earth (on its axis) gives us A DAY
In the beginning God worked for 6 days and rested for 1 establishing A WEEK
The revolution of the moon around the earth gives us A LUNAR MONTH
The revolution of the earth around the sun gives us A YEAR
The Hebrew calendar combines each of these events and has a complicated system of compensating for the difference in the length of lunar years and solar years. (A lunar year can be either 11 days less or 19 days more than a solar year!) A day on the Jewish calendar begins at sundown and each month begins when the first sliver of the new moon appears. In Bible times each new month (rosh chodesh) was announced by trumpet or shofar blasts from the temple. Keeping track of the months and days was very important in Bible times as God required the men to come to Jerusalem on 3 specific occasions in the year, regardless of where they lived.
The first mention in the Bible of a specific month is in the book of Exodus when God had Moses lead the Hebrews out of Egypt – though in the story of Noah’s flood it is obvious that many years before Moses, time-keeping was well established. The records in the Bible of how long people lived show that keeping time has been important to mankind since Adam!
The year 2010 in the Gregorian calendar spans the years 5770-5771 on the Hebrew count.
The Gregorian calendar was instituted by the Catholic Church in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. It was adopted by Britain in 1752 and other countries even later – as recently as 1926! It was an adaptation or refinement of the Julian calendar (enforced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC) – itself an adaptation of the previously existing Roman calendar! The Gregorian calendar has divided the solar year into set months with the basic adjustment of the leap year. It is simpler and accurate to the solar year though doesn’t attempt to recon the months according to the patterns of the moon as the Hebrew calendar does. (The watching of the moon was not mystical – it was the available, practical and visible measure of time).
The Hebrews have two ways of observing the calendar – like we have the regular and the financial year calendars. They have the Sacred Calendar which marks the cycle of Feasts. And there is the Civil Calendar, which is the official calendar for Kings, contracts and childbirth. That is why you will see 2 “new years” in both the Hebrew and Gregorian Calendars!
(This little series has been posted with dates in the opposite order to which it was written so as to appear sequentially to readers)