[4]  The Biblical Lunar Calendar (BLC)

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The bible is a book which contains prophecy. It is a book of past events which symbolically represent future events. Prophecy is statements about events which are going to occur in the future. One cannot understand when in the future the events are going to occur until one knows how the bible expresses times and dates. So we need to know what sort of calendar the bible uses.

All the chronology in the bible, the dates, the days, months and years, are expressed in terms of the Biblical Lunar Calendar. This Calendar which was used in the day of Noah is the same calendar that was used by all ancient civilisations. It has 12 lunar months each of 30 days. The Egyptians used this type of calendar, with a 5 day extension, up to around the 8th Century BC, the Chinese used it up to around the 4th Century BC. When Rome was founded by Romulus, a 360 day calendar was being used - see Ancient Calendars. Sir Isaac Newton stated:

All nations, before the just length of the solar year was known, reckoned months by the course of the moon, and years by the return of winter and summer, spring and autumn; and in making calendars for their festivals, they reckoned thirty days to a lunar month, and twelve lunar months to a year, taking the nearest round numbers, whence came the division of the ecliptic into 360 degrees. (Anderson, Robert. The Coming Prince. London: Hodder & Stroughton, 1894. )

The truth about the biblical 360 day year as mentioned by Newton was quoted by Sir Robert Anderson in his book, The Coming Prince, page 68. This was not a new discovery by Sir Isaac Newton in the late 1600's or by Sir Robert Anderson in 1895. It was clearly discussed in detail by the Christian, Julias Africanus in his Chronology within his explanation of the fulfilment of Daniel's Seventy Weeks, written about A.D. 240. http://xwalk.ca/360day.html 

For more info on the original calendar of mankind see...
http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-ancient.html

The Pre-flood year had 360 solar days in it, and 12 lunar months of 30 days each precisely

See U90.

31 And to offer all burnt sacrifices unto the LORD in the Sabbaths, in the new moons, and on the set feasts, by number, according to the order commanded unto them, continually before the LORD: (1 Chronicles 23 KJV)
31 and for every offering up of the burnt sacrifices to Jehovah at the Sabbaths, at the new moons and at the festival seasons, by number according to the rule concerning them, constantly before Jehovah. (1 Chronicles 23 NWT)
31 And [they were] to offer all burnt sacrifices to Jehovah in the Sabbath, in the new moons, and on the set feasts, by number, according to the order commanded to them, continually before the face of Jehovah, (1 Chronicles 23 GLT)
31 and for all the burnt-offerings -- burnt-offerings to Jehovah for Sabbaths, for new moons, and for appointed seasons, by number, according to the ordinance upon them continually, before Jehovah. (1 Chronicles 23 YLT)

So Sabbath and New Moons and festivals are calculated according to a numerical rule rather than observation. So even though the new moon in Adar actually occurs physically around Shebat25 (since lunar months are 29½ days long), all months are deemed by rule to be 30 days long.

The Biblical Lunar Calendar Timetable

The first month of the year started in the spring after the Jewish exodus from Egypt in 1513 BC, and it started in the Autumn (in the months of Tishri) before the Exodus. Jews today still celebrate the new year on Tishri 1 (but this is according to the modern Hebrew Calendar which is slightly different from the Biblical Lunar Calendar). We have designed a Calendar Converter Program which converts the modern calendar (Gregorian) into the Biblical Lunar Calendar for dates from 2000 BC to 3000 AD. You can download it free - see BLC calendar converter - Or you can use our online version at www.biblelinguistics.co.uk/blc

Technical Calendar stuff

Lunar calendars start the year either at a new moon, or at a full moon, which is taken as the beginning of a lunar month. A true lunar month is around 29.5 days long, because the moon takes 29.5 days to orbit the earth (29 days, 12 hours 44 minutes and 2.8 secs according to current astronomy, or 3 and a third seconds according to the current Hebrew Calendar). We currently use a Solar calendar which starts the new year after a complete orbit of the earth around the sun. Such an orbit takes almost precisely 365.25 days. This period is around 12.4 lunar months. The Greeks, the Babylonians and the ancient Hebrews all operated lunar calendars before Christ. In 46 AD, Julius Caesar issued a decree changing the Roman calendar from Lunar to Solar. The resulting Julian calendar, based on the calculations of Sosigenes, had 365 days in each year and a leap year every 4^th year with 366 days. So the Julian calendar had precisely 365.25 days in every year. It had 12 months whose lengths exactly fitted the year. In 1582 AD this calendar had become ten days out, since the true solar year is 365.2421896698 days long not 365.2500, (making it not much better than a lunar calendar by 1582 as regards seasons starting at the correct time). So Pope Gregory XIII abolished October 5^th to October 14^th, in that year, and he abolished leap years in century years, unless such years were divisible by 400. This is because...

365 ⁹⁷/₄₀₀ = 365.2425 which is 0.00031 days out per year, or 26.78 seconds.

The resulting Gregorian calendar is the one in use today.

We supply a free Windows Calendar converter program, which converts Gregorian dates into Biblical Lunar Calendar and Julian dates (and vice versa) for the period from 4100BC until 3099AD. You can down load it here.

The Gregorian component of our BLC calendar is true Solar, it extends Gregorian dates back from today until 2000 BC. It does not follow the abolition of the 10 days from October 5th to October 14th 1582 inclusive, because it extends the Gregorian calendar backwards, rather than using the flawed Julian Calendar before 1582 October 4th. The biblical lunar calendar had 12 months in each year. The bible writers adopted the Babylonian names of these months during and after the period when the Jews were deported from Israel to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar II, the King of Babylon (reigned 604 - 562 BC). These months were:

1 Let there be an observing of the month of Abib, and you must celebrate the Passover to Jehovah your God, because in the month of Abib Jehovah your God brought you out of Egypt by night (Deuteronomy 16).

2This month will be the start of the months for you. It will be the first of the months of the year for you…
5 ...you may pick from the young rams or from the goats. 
6 And it must continue under guard until the 14^th day of this month…
11 ...and you must eat it in haste. It is Jehovah’s Passover (Exodus 12: 2-11).

The Passover is still celebrated by Jews today and is in late March/Early April, on Nisan14. It occasionally coincides with 'Good Friday’ (well, statistically every 7 years). Of course it coincided in 33 CE, when Jesus was killed, since Jesus was killed on the Jewish Passover, he being the greater Passover lamb.

7 In the first month, that is, the month Nisan... [to] the 12th, that is, the month Adar. (Esther 3 NWT)
1 In the month [hodesh] of Ziv, that is, the 2nd month [hodesh] (1 Kings 6).
9 In the 3rd month, that is, the month of Sivan (Esther 8).
15 At length the wall came to completion on the 25th [day] of Elul, in 52 days. (Nehemiah 6 NWT)

2 In the lunar month [yerah] of Ethanim in the festival, that is, the 7th month [hodesh] (1 Kings 8).
38 In the lunar month [yerah] of Bul, that is, the 8th month [hodesh] (1 Kings 6).
1 On the 4th [day] of the 9th month, in Chislev (Zechariah 7).
16 In the 10th month, that is, the month Tebbeth (Esther 2).
7On the 24th day of the 11th month, that is, the month Shebat (Zechariah 1).

7 In the 1st month, that is, the month Nisan, in the 12th year of King Ahasuerus, someone cast Pur, that is, the Lot, before Haman from day to day and from month to month, [to] the 12th, that is, the month Adar (Esther 3).

1 Kings was written before and Esther and Zechariah were written during or after the 70 year Babylonian exile of Judah (586 to 516 BC - see later).

19 And he proceeded to burn the house of the [true] God and pull down the wall of Jerusalem; and all its dwelling towers they burned with fire and also all its desirable articles, so as to cause ruin. 
20 Furthermore, he carried off those remaining from the sword captive to Babylon, and they came to be servants to him and his sons until the royalty of Persia began to reign, 
21 to fulfill Jehovah's word by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had paid off its Sabbaths. All the days of lying desolated it kept Sabbath, to fulfill 70 years (2 Chronicles 36).

The remainder of the names of the months can be deduced from Josephus (the Jewish historian) or the Talmud or current Jewish calendars. The post Babylonian exilic names were the month names used in Babylon.

11 In the 600^th year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the 17^th day of the month, on this day, all the springs of the vast watery deep were broken open and the flood gates of the heavens were opened (Genesis 7).

3 And the waters began receding from off the earth, going and receding, and at the end of 150 days the waters were lacking. 
4 And in the seventh month, on the 17^th day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (Genesis 8).

When the waters are lacking the Ark would run aground, so from this we deduce that 5 months was 150 days, so there were 30 days in each Biblical Lunar Calendar (BLC) month. If all the months were the same length. 

19 You will eat, not one day nor two days nor five days nor ten days nor twenty days,
20 but up to a month of days, until it comes out of your nostrils and it has become a loathing to you, just because you rejected Jehovah, who is in your midst, and you went weeping before him, saying: Why is it that we have come out of Egypt? (Numbers 11).

14 So he dwelt with him a month of days (Genesis 29).

13 And he continued to reign for a lunar month of days (2 Kings 15).

So a month of days was a specific number of them. So all months had the same length (30 days). 

13 and remove the mantle of her captivity from off her and dwell in your house and weep for her father and her mother a month [yerah] of days; and after that you should have relations with her, and you must take possession of her as your bride, and she must become your wife. (Deuteronomy 21 NWT)

29 And all the assembly got to see that Aaron had expired, and all the house of Israel continued weeping for Aaron 30 days. (Numbers 20 NWT)

8 And the sons of Israel proceeded to weep for Moses on the desert plains of Moab 30 days. At length the days of weeping of the mourning period for Moses were completed. (Deuteronomy 34 NWT)

So a yerah is most definitely a 30 day long calendar month. But a hodesh (meaning new moon or new month) could be either a 30 day calendar month or a 29½ day lunation, or an actually new moon sighting. The trouble is that Leviticus23 and all the festivals are defined in terms of Hodesh. Yerah only appears 6 times for month in the entire bible...

13 and remove the mantle of her captivity from off her and dwell in your house and weep for her father and her mother a month [yerah] of days; and after that you should have relations with her, and you must take possession of her as your bride, and she must become your wife. (Deuteronomy 21 NWT)

1 And it came about in the 480th year after the sons of Israel came out from the land of Egypt, in the 4th year, in the month [hodesh] of Ziv, that is, the 2nd month [hodesh], after Solomon became king over Israel, that he proceeded to build the house to Jehovah.
37 In the 4th year the house of Jehovah had its foundation laid, in the lunar month [yerah] of Ziv; 
38 and in the 11th year, in the lunar month [yerah] of Bul, that is, the 8th month [hodesh], the house was finished as regards all its details and all its plan; so that he was 7 years at building it. (1 Kings 6 NWT)

2 So all the men of Israel congregated themselves to King Solomon in the lunar month [yerah] of Ethanim in the festival, that [month] is, the 7th month [hodesh]. (1 Kings 8 NWT)

13 Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the nine and thirtieth year of Uzziah king of Judah; and he reigned a month [yerah] of days in Samaria. (2 Kings 15 KJV - adapted from the Hebrew)

8 And I finally effaced 3 shepherds in one month [yerah], as my soul gradually became impatient with them, and also their own soul felt a loathing toward me. (Zechariah 11 NWT)

From these scriptures it is apparent that yerah = hodesh in the cases of Ziv, Ethanim and Bul. So 'hodesh' can certainly means a 30 day calendar month. But hodesh is a different Hebrew word and literally means new moon. So it can take that meaning and does take that meaning we think in the case of the festival of the new moon, which does not occur on the first of the calendar month, but occurs at e the sighting of the new moon.

5 saying, 'How long will it be before the new moon [hodesh] passes and we may sell cereals? Also, the Sabbath, and we may offer grain for sale; in order to make the ephah small and to make the shekel great and to falsify the scales of deception; (Amos 8 NWT)

10 And in the day of your rejoicing and in your festal seasons and at the commencements [reshith] of your months [hodesh] [the actual new moon day], you must blow on the trumpets over your burnt offerings and your communion sacrifices; and their use must serve as a memorial for you before your God. I am Jehovah your God. (Numbers 10 NWT)

The BLC therefore has 12 months each of which is 30 days long. So it spans 360 days. But there are 365.25 days in the Solar year. Furthermore 12 lunar cycles only take 354 days since each cycle is 29.5 days long. So we have a problem at the end of each year where the thirteenth lunar cycle is starting around 11 days (365 - 354) early with respect to the Solar calendar. The way the Hebrews dealt with this, was that sometimes the next year did indeed start with the next lunar month, and other times it skipped a month, or rather the previous year had another month added. This month was called Veadar, or ‘second Adar’. The 14^th month then became the first of the new year. The Modern Jewish calendar adds a 13^th month every 3^rd, 6^th, 8^th, 11^th, 14^th, 17^th & 19^th years in a 19 year cycle. The first new moon and the first full moon of the 19^th lunar year occur on the same solar day that they did in the first lunar year. This is not how the ancient Hebrews did it however. They added an extra month only when the 14th day of that month was not in spring, in the sense that it did not start after the day of the vernal equinox. 

The bible defines the 12 months of the year as follows:

1 As for the sons of Israel by their number, the heads of the paternal houses and the chiefs of the thousands and of the hundreds and their officers that were ministering to the king in every matter of the divisions of those that came in and that went out month by month for all the months of the year, each division was 24,000.
2 Over the first division of the first month there was Jashobeam the son of Zabdiel, and in his division there were 24,000.
3 Some of the sons of Perez the head of all the chiefs of the service groups were for the first month.
4 And over the division of the second month there was Dodai the Ahohite with his division, and Mikloth was the leader, and in his division there were 24,000.
5 The chief of the 3rd service group for the third month was Benaiah the son of Jehoiada the chief priest, and in his division there were 24,000.
6 This Benaiah was a mighty man of the 30 and over the 30; and [over] his division there was Ammizabad his son.
7 The 4th for the 4th month was Asahel, Joab's brother, and Zebadiah his son after him, and in his division there were 24,000.
8 The 5th chief for the 5th month was Shamhuth the Izrahite, and in his division there were 24,000.
9 The 6th for the 6th month was Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, and in his division there were 24,000.
10 The 7th for the 7th month was Helez the Pelonite of the sons of Ephraim, and in his division there were 24,000.
11 The 8th for the 8th month was Sibbecai the Hushathite of the Zerahites, and in his division there were 24,000.
12 The 9th for the 9th month was Abi-ezer the Anathothite of the Benjaminites, and in his division there were 24,000.
13 The 10th for the 10th month was Maharai the Netophathite of the Zerahites, and in his division there were 24,000.
14 The 11th for the 11th month was Benaiah the Pirathonite of the sons of Ephraim, and in his division there were 24,000.
15 The 12th for the 12th month was Heldai the Netophathite, of Othniel, and in his division there were 24,000 (1 Chronicles 27).

There was no ministering recorded for any 13^th month. So presumably there was actually no ministering in the 13th month (Veadar). In non (lunar) leap years (years with no 13th month or intercalary month) the last 5/6 days of Adar are coincident with the first 5/6 days of Nisan (because 12 lunar cycles are 354.36707 days, and 12 BLC months are 360 days). Adar25/26, the 355/6^th day of the year, is Nisan1 in the next year, and Adar30 is Nisan5/6 in the new year. Likewise in the case of Solomon’s food:

7 And Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, and they provided the king and his household with food. It would devolve upon each one to provide the food one month in the year (1 Kings 4)

2 As for the courtyard that is outside the temple. Cast it clear out and do not measure it, because it has been given to the nations, and they will trample the holy city underfoot for 42 months. 
3 And I will cause my two witnesses to prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days dressed in sackcloth (Revelation 11)

This period of 42 months is 42 months all of which are one of the 12 months above. In other words if it started in Nisan then it ended in Tishri, 3 years and 6 months later. There is no 13^th month mentioned anywhere in the bible explicitly. In fact there would have been 43 lunar months in the period of 42 BLC months. Likewise, if the period of 1260 days started on Nisan18 it would end on Tishri18 three years later. In fact there may well have been 1240 or 1280 true days between these two BLC dates, separated by 1260 BLC days, each one of which is in a 30 day BLC month.

To apply bible prophecy to dates today we need to know when each first month of the lunar year starts. We need to know Nisan1 for each year. The modern Jews calculate it so that Nisan14 is on or after March 26^th. This is because they start the year on Tishri 1 and are effectively choosing this month with reference to the Autumn equinox. The early Christian Churches calculated it so that the Passover, Nisan14, is on or after March 21^st, the date they chose for the Vernal Equinox, when day and night are precisely the same length, see: www.ozramp.net.au/~sanhub/godstime.htm 

Norm Womersley and Orest Solyma have produced the clearest explanation we have seen (from Appendix B of the web page above - altered)

The 1st day of the lunar month is a new moon, therefore the full moon occurs on the 14th-15th of the month.  A lunar month is 29 days 12 hours 44+ minutes long. 

The first month, Abib or Nisan (in the northern hemisphere; Jerusalem as the focus Psalm 122; 135:19-21; Zechariah 14:1-4; Revelation 21:2-3), is the beginning of the sacred year when the days start to get longer. Some barley is ready for harvesting (Leviticus 23:10; Ruth 1:22; 2:23; 2Samuel 21:9), but reaping may continue as late as August in higher altitudes. Wheat and rye are still immature in spring  (Exodus 9:31,32). This season must coincide with the Vernal Equinox, which causes seasonal change and crop development not vice versa. The 20th-21st March is the turn from winter to summer of a solar year (Genesis 1:14). Biblically, it is the start of the summer season (Genesis 8:22; Psalm 74:17).

Passover is an 8 day feast, including Unleavened Bread, a day, or a meal (Matthew 26:17; Ezekiel 45:21; Numbers 9:6; Luke 22:15). Included is the Lord's Supper on the 14th Nisan, the Night to be Much Observed on the 15th Nisan, (i.e., 14th-15th at the time of a full moon), followed by the Wave-Sheaf Offering (God's acceptance of the resurrected Christ), both set during the Days of Unleavened Bread, and with the seventh day of Unleavened Bread being 21st Nisan. The full moon of Passover must be the first full moon and after the new moon nearest to the Vernal Equinox, i.e., nearest to March 20th-21st.

This calculation wherein the Passover is the first 14th day of a lunar month to fall on or after the day of the vernal equinox is the way that God stipulated things should be done after the Exodus:

2 And Jehovah now said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month will be the start of the months for you. It will be the first of the months of the year …
5 ...you may pick from the young rams or from the goats. And it must continue under guard until the 14^th day of this month…
11 ...and you must eat it in haste. It is Jehovah’s Passover (Exodus 12).

23 And it will certainly occur that from new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath all flesh will come in to bow down before me, Jehovah has said (Isaiah 66).

God was stipulating that Nisan, the Passover month, the month in which the Jews left Egypt, was to be the anchor month for the lunar calendar (whereas before this it was Tishri). This month is synchronised to the Solar calendar, to the seasons, through the spring equinox which defines the beginning of the spring and harvesting half of the year. Basically the Passover is the first 14th day of a lunar month where this day is actually in spring (which starts after the Hebrew day of the vernal equinox).

Incidentally the Hebrew language has no word for Spring or for Autumn. Both testaments only talk about the seasons (appointed times) of summer and and winter. 

22 For all the days the earth continues, seed sowing and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, will never cease (Genesis 8).

17 It was you that set up all the boundaries of the earth; Summer and winter, you yourself formed them (Psalm 74)

15 And I will strike down the winter house in addition to the summer house.' And the houses of ivory will have to perish, and many houses will have to come to their finish,' is the utterance of Jehovah (Amos 3).

8 And it must occur in that day [that] living waters will go forth from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. In summer and in winter it will occur (Zechariah 14).

So it appears that both seasons were 6 months long for the Jews. Today, since we have a solar calendar, we would run 6 month seasons between the equinoxes. But no so for the Jews with a lunar and agricultural calendar. To the Hebrew summer was the harvest season and winter was the no harvest season. The spring rain and the autumn rain are mentioned in English translations of the old testament, but the Hebrew words used stand for first-rain [hrwm] and late-rain [Xwqlm]

22 For all the days the earth continues, seed sowing and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, will never cease (Genesis 8)

1 When David himself had crossed over a little beyond the summit, there was Ziba the attendant of Mephibosheth to meet him with a couple of asses saddled and upon them 200 loaves of bread and 100 cakes of raisins and 100 loads of summer fruit and a large jar of wine (2Samuel16)

8 it prepares its food even in the summer; it has gathered its food supplies even in the harvest (Proverbs 6).

39 However, on the 15th day of the 7th month, when you have gathered the produce of the land, you should celebrate the festival of Jehovah seven days. On the 1st day is a complete rest and on the 8th day is a complete rest (Leviticus)..

32 Now you learn from the fig tree parable. Just as soon as its branch grows tender and it puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near [Summer being the Hebrew harvest season from Nisan16 (first fruits) to Tishri14 (he last day of the harvest before the first Sabbath of the festival of Booths. The buds come out just before Nisan16]. (Matthew24).

2 Speak to the sons of Israel, and you must say to them, 'The seasonal festivals of Jehovah that you should proclaim are holy conventions. These are my seasonal festivals:
3 'Six days may work be done, but on the 7th day is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convention. You may do no sort of work. It is a Sabbath to Jehovah in all places where you dwell.
4 'These are the seasonal festivals of Jehovah, holy conventions, which you should proclaim at their appointed times/seasons (Leviticus23):

The Old BLC had a Tishri1 year start

Before the exodus from Egypt Josephus tells us that the first month of the year was Tishri:

The catastrophe happened in the 600^th year of Noah’s rulership, in what was once the second month, called by the Macedonians Dius, and by the Hebrews Marsuan (Marheshvan or Heshvan), according to the arrangement of the calendar which they followed in Egypt. Moses, however appointed Nisan, that is to say Xanthicus, as the first month for the festivals, because it was in this month that he brought the Hebrews out of Egypt. He also reckoned this month as the commencement of the year for everything relating to divine worship. But for selling and buying and other ordinary affairs he preserved the ancient order (Jewish Antiquities Book I).

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the springs of the vast watery deep were broken open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened (Genesis 7).

The bible shows that the agricultural year, which was the fiscal year in what was an agricultural economy, started in the seventh month, Tishri:

22 And you will carry on your festival of weeks with the first ripe fruits of the wheat harvest, and the festival of ingathering, at the turn of the year (Exodus 34).

16 Also the festival of the harvest of the first ripe fruits of your labours, of what you sow in the field, and the festival of ingathering at the outgoing of the year, when you gather your labour from the field (Exodus 23).

13 The festival of booths you should celebrate for yourself seven days when you make an ingathering from your threshing floor and your oil and winepress (Deuteronomy 16).

So the turn and outgoing, meaning beginning, of the agricultural year was the seventh month. The ingathering of all the crops is obviously a good end to an agricultural year. The modern Jews celebrate their new year on Tishri1. This day was the start of the agricultural or secular year. Since the bible does not introduce this new year as a new concept, one can deduce that this was the one being used before the change to Nisan for the sacred new year as mentioned above  in Exodus 12:2-11.

To calculate which day Nisan14 is we need to know when the new and full moons are around March 21st for the last 6,000 years. There are two great websites for this at: http://astropixels.com/ephemeris/phasescat/phasescat.html  written by Fred Espenak of Nasa (moon phases from 2000BC to 3000AD) and http://www.paulcarlisle.net/mooncalendar/ (moon phases from 3999BC to 3999AD) . They use Gregorian dates on and after 1582 October 15th, which was the first day after 1582 October 4, abolishing October5 to October14 inclusive by Papal decree. They use Julian dates before October 5th that year, as mankind did.

Taken from Espenak's Moon Phase Table from 1991 to 2017 (accurate to 1 minute)

 Year      New Moon       First Quarter       Full Moon       Last Quarter  

1991                                                                       
Feb 14  17:32     Feb 21  22:58     Feb 28  18:24     Mar  8  10:34    
Mar 16  08:12     Mar 23  06:03     Mar 30  07:17     Apr  7  06:47    
1992
Mar  4  13:23     Mar 12  02:35     Mar 18  18:17     Mar 26  02:30    
Apr  3  05:02     Apr 10  10:05     Apr 17  04:42     Apr 24  21:40    
1993
Feb 21  13:05     Mar  1  15:46     Mar  8  09:46     Mar 15  04:17    
Mar 23  07:15     Mar 31  04:09     Apr  6  18:43     Apr 13  19:38    
1994
Feb 10  14:31     Feb 18  17:48     Feb 26  01:16     Mar  4  16:54    
Mar 12  07:06     Mar 20  12:15     Mar 27  11:10     Apr  3  02:55    
1995
Mar  1  11:49     Mar  9  10:12     Mar 17  01:26     Mar 23  20:10    
Mar 31  02:10     Apr  8  05:34     Apr 15  12:09 p   Apr 22  03:18    
1996                                                                          
Feb 18  23:31     Feb 26  05:51     Mar  5  09:23     Mar 12  17:15    
Mar 19  10:46     Mar 27  01:30     Apr  4  00:08     Apr 10  23:35    
1997                                                                          
Feb  7  15:06     Feb 14  08:57     Feb 22  10:26     Mar  2  09:37    
Mar  9  01:15     Mar 16  00:06     Mar 24  04:45     Mar 31  19:37    
1998                                                                          
Feb 26  17:26     Mar  5  08:41     Mar 13  04:34     Mar 21  07:39    
Mar 28  03:14     Apr  3  20:19     Apr 11  22:23     Apr 19  19:53    
1999                                                                          
Feb 16  06:40     Feb 23  02:44     Mar  2  06:59     Mar 10  08:43    
Mar 17  18:49     Mar 24  10:18     Mar 31  22:49     Apr  9  02:53    
2000   
Mar  6  05:18     Mar 13  06:59     Mar 20  04:44     Mar 28  00:23    
Apr  4  18:13     Apr 11  13:30     Apr 18  17:41     Apr 26  19:32    
2001
Feb 23  08:22     Mar  3  02:03     Mar  9  17:23     Mar 16  20:47    
Mar 25  01:23     Apr  1  10:49     Apr  8  03:22     Apr 15  15:32    
2002                                                   
Feb 12  07:42     Feb 20  12:03     Feb 27  09:17     Mar  6  01:26    
Mar 14  02:04     Mar 22  02:29     Mar 28  18:25     Apr  4  15:30    
2003
Mar  3  02:36     Mar 11  07:15     Mar 18  10:35     Mar 25  01:52    
Apr  1  19:19     Apr  9  23:40     Apr 16  19:36     Apr 23  12:19    
2004
Feb 20  09:20     Feb 28  03:24     Mar  6  23:16     Mar 13  21:02    
Mar 20  22:43     Mar 28  23:48     Apr  5  11:04     Apr 12  03:47    
2005
Feb  8  22:29     Feb 16  00:15     Feb 24  04:54     Mar  3  17:37    
Mar 10  09:12     Mar 17  19:18     Mar 25  21:00     Apr  2  00:51    
2006
Feb 28  00:32     Mar  6  20:15     Mar 14  23:35     Mar 22  19:10    
Mar 29  10:16     Apr  5  12:01     Apr 13  16:41     Apr 21  03:28    
2007                                       
Feb 17  16:14     Feb 24  07:56     Mar  3  23:16     Mar 12  03:55    
Mar 19  02:43     Mar 25  18:16     Apr  2  17:15     Apr 10  18:04    
2008
Mar  7  17:14     Mar 14  10:45     Mar 21  18:39     Mar 29  21:48    
Apr  6  03:55     Apr 12  18:31     Apr 20  10:24     Apr 28  14:13 
2009  
Feb 25  01:35     Mar  4  07:46     Mar 11  02:38     Mar 18  17:47    
Mar 26  16:06     Apr  2  14:34     Apr  9  14:56     Apr 17  13:36 
2010  
Feb 14  02:51     Feb 22  00:42     Feb 28  16:38     Mar  7  15:42    
Mar 15  21:01     Mar 23  11:00     Mar 30  02:25     Apr  6  09:37 
2011  
Mar  4  20:46     Mar 12  23:45     Mar 19  18:10     Mar 26  12:07    
Apr  3  14:32     Apr 11  12:05     Apr 18  02:44     Apr 25  02:47 
2012  
Feb 21  22:35     Mar  1  01:22     Mar  8  09:40     Mar 15  01:25    
Mar 22  14:37     Mar 30  19:41     Apr  6  19:19     Apr 13  10:50    
2013
Feb 10  07:20     Feb 17  20:31     Feb 25  20:26     Mar  4  21:53    
Mar 11  19:51     Mar 19  17:27     Mar 27  09:27     Apr  3  04:37    
2014   
Mar  1  08:00     Mar  8  13:27     Mar 16  17:09     Mar 24  01:46    
Mar 30  18:45     Apr  7  08:31     Apr 15  07:42     Apr 22  07:52   
2015
Feb 18  23:47     Feb 25  17:14     Mar  5  18:06     Mar 13  17:48	
Mar 20  09:36     Mar 27  07:43     Apr  4  12:06     Apr 12  03:44    
2016
Mar  9  01:54     Mar 15  17:03     Mar 23  12:01     Mar 31  15:17    
Apr  7  11:24     Apr 14  03:59     Apr 22  05:24     Apr 30  03:29    
2017
Feb 26  14:58     Mar  5  11:32     Mar 12  14:54     Mar 20  15:58   	
Mar 28  02:57     Apr  3  18:39     Apr 11  06:08     Apr 19  09:57    
2018                      
Feb 15  21:05     Feb 23  08:09     Mar  2  00:51     Mar  9  11:20    
Mar 17  13:12     Mar 24  15:35     Mar 31  12:37     Apr  8  07:18    
2019   
Mar  6  16:04     Mar 14  10:27     Mar 21  01:43     Mar 28  04:10    
Apr  5  08:50     Apr 12  19:06     Apr 19  11:12     Apr 26  22:18    
2020                
Feb 23  15:32     Mar  2  19:57     Mar  9  17:48     Mar 16  09:34    
Mar 24  09:28     Apr  1  10:21     Apr  8  02:35     Apr 14  22:56    

Lord's Witnesses First 2 New Moons in March and April Table from 2400BC to 3100AD (from Espenak and Carlisle - Gregorian from 1582October15 Julian until 1582October4).

The full table is available here.

The times above are GMT. The Hebrew day starts at sunset in Jerusalem. But Jerusalem is 2 hours ahead of GMT. So the Hebrew day starts at around 4pm GMT in Jerusalem. It starts at sunset local time all over the world. Between March 6th and March 27th, the day when the clocks go forward in Israel, sunset in Jerusalem is around 6 pm local time and darkness is around 7 pm local time, and between March 27th and April 4th sunset is around 7pm and darkness around 8pm see www.timeanddate.com.

So in the case of 2008, the Hebrew day which starts at sunset on March 6th and ends at sunset on March 7th has the new moon. But this does not make it the first day of the new lunar month. Because new moons are only visible at night and are not generally visible to the naked eye until around 18 to 48 hours after they occur.

So we need to know how long after a new moon occurs one has to wait in Jerusalem before one can actually see it. The record for a human first seeing a new moon is 15.5 hours after it occurred, but visibility depends upon a lot of factors. However in the middle east, Jerusalem, at a mid northern latitude (31:47 North), and a reasonable altitude (820 metres above sea level or 2700 feet ), at the time near the vernal equinox (which is roughly when the Passover occurs), is well placed in this regard see: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/faq/docs/islamic.html 

"Obviously, the visibility of the young lunar crescent depends on sky conditions and the location, experience, and preparation of the observer. Generally, low latitude and high altitude observers who know exactly where and when to look will be favored. For observers at mid-northern latitudes, months near the spring equinox are also favored, because the ecliptic makes a relatively steep angle to the western horizon at sunset during these months (tending to make the Moon's altitude greater)."

Mind you the first Passover was in Egypt! The new moon's visibility in Jerusalem largely depends on the rotational position of the earth. Normally at some place on the earth the new moon will be visible around 18 to 24 hours after it occurs. But it can obviously take the globe up to 24 hours to rotate until Jerusalem reaches this position. This combines with other factors to mean that the period between occurrence and visibility in the once holy city can be anything from 18 to 48 hours. It is possible to calculate when the moon will first become visible in Jerusalem: Mooncalc by Dr. Monzur Ahmed ('Monz') seems to do this fairly well and is very easy to use. You used to be able to download it from: http://astrotips.com/software/mooncalc.But it has now disappeared.

Of course the best way to find this out is to go there with your binoculars on the day of the new moon itself. Fortunately we do not have to do that because some very nice people called the Karaite Jews do this for us. There is a website called www.karaite-korner.org edited by Nehemia Gordon which collates the sightings of the various interested people in Israel who look for new moons every month. Their monthly sightings over the last few decades are published at...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/karaite_korner_news/messages/

In the case that we do not have the benefit of the eyes of the Karaites, and when calculating historical Nisan1 dates we need a reasonably accurate visibility rule. Fred Espenak of Nasa has all the new moon date going back to 1999BC and Paul Carlisle has written a program which gives new moons all the way back to January 3999 BC and forward to December 3999 AD.

http://www.paulcarlisle.net/mooncalendar/ (Carlisle 3999BC to 3999AD)
http://astropixels.com/ephemeris/phasescat/phasescat.html (Espenak 2000BC to 4000AD)

John Walker of Fourmilab has also written a moon phase program which differs by around 12 hours from the two above in 2000BC so we do not use that one. All of these programs are based upon the work of Jean Meeus in his book Astronomical Algorithms (Willmann-Bell; Hardcover (2nd ed. 1998), ISBN: 0943396611).. His book is available from http://www.willbell.com/math/mc1.HTM for $34.95 or for considerably more from amazon.

So we need a formula to tell us how long after the new moon occurs astronomically, does it occur visibly in Jerusalem. The first thing to realise is that a new moon is a new month. Once you see a new moon you are in a new month. For a moon is a month. There is no accession period as we at first thought. New moons are only visible to the untrained naked eye just after sunset and during the night. So here is how we define Nisan1...

Definition of Nisan1: If a new moon is visible in the evening, i.e. between sunset and sunrise, in Jerusalem, then that evening is the start of the BLC day of Nisan1 so long as the 14th day of the month begins after the vernal equinox (i.e. is in spring - this is how the ancient Hebrews decided whether to call a second Adar or to call Nisan - The Jewish Passover today is the first 14th of the month after the spring equinox ).

"The Jewish Passover is calculated according to lunar cycles and must fall on the night of the first full moon following the Spring Equinox....The early Christians, however, wished to differentiate themselves from the Jews and agreed at the first universal Council of the Church at Nicea in 325 AD that if the first full moon after the Spring Equinox falls on a Sunday, Easter should be postponed to the following Sunday. Passover and Easter, therefore, can never fall on the same day." http://wilderness-ventures-egypt.com/2011/05/passover-easter-and-the-spring-equinox/. 

If you look at the table of moon sighting below you will see that the new moon is normally spotted around 10-20 minutes after sunset. Once in every 10 years someone sees it a few minutes before sunset and once in every ten years someone sees it a few minutes after darkness. But in general it is seen during civil twilight (between sunset and darkness). However even if the new moon was seen an hour or 2 hours after darkness it would still define the new month for the new month is the new moon. You cannot be in the previous month if you see a new moon during the night between sunset and sunrise. The new moon does not have to be visible before sunset or even during twilight. It just has to be visible during the night. Actually moonset is always around 18:30-20:30, at that time of year in Jerusalem, so you do not have to stay up all night anyway!

5 At this David said to Jonathan: Look! Tomorrow is new moon, and I myself ought, without fail, to be sitting with the king to eat; and you must send me away, and I must conceal myself in the field until the evening on the third day.
18 And Jonathan went on to say to him: Tomorrow is new moon, and you will certainly be missed, because your seat will be vacant.
24 And David proceeded to conceal himself in the field. And it came to be new moon, and the king took his seat at the meal to eat (1 Samuel 20).

David knew this because under the BLC every lunar month was 30 days long. So he was on the 30th day of the month and therefore the next day was the new moon. This BLC new moon day not necessarily have actually been a day when the new moon either occurred or was visible in Jerusalem. 

The Lords Witnesses have written a Gregorian and Julian equinox and solstice calculator program from 4100BC to 4100AD based upon the algorithms of Jean Meeus thanks to the open source code of Vernero Cifagni http://www.codeguru.com/cpp/cpp/date_time/article.php/c4763/Equinox-and-Solstice-Calculation.htm 

The LW Equinox and Solstice Calculator can be downloaded from here.

www.timeanddate.com also shows sunrise sunset moonrise and moonsets for all major cities around the world and vernal equinoxes back to 1AD. 
Vernal equinoxes from 999 BC to 9999 AD can be obtained from: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/ar5/srvernal.html
Gregorian - Julian calendar conversion can be obtained from: https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/calendar/

The spring equinox always occurs on March 20/21/22 Gregorian in every year. But not in the Julian calendar, which mankind used before 1582, because it does not track the solar year properly. It is a bit short because it makes every year 365.25 days long whereas in fact they are 365.2421896698 days long. 

The first true day of spring is the first full day after the vernal equinox. The vernal equinoxes from 1991 to 2008 fall as follows:

You cannot easily see a thin new moon at sunset. So we must keep looking until darkness falls at the second evening, the end of the 12 hour daylight day and beyond if necessary. But if it is not visible when darkness falls, then the priest is not expected to stay up all night looking for it because moonset in Jerusalem at the start of the sacred year was around 20:30. 

Definition: The Nisan1 sacred/festival year is always dominant over any secular/agricultural year. Because God is the head of Caesar, not the other way around. So an Iyyar1, Sivan1, or Tishri1 secular year is subordinate to the Nisan1 sacred year. So the only intercalary month will be Adar, whatever secular year start we are under.

Definition: The vernal equinox occurs when the apparent longitude of the Sun is zero degrees.

Between 1991 and 2015 the Nehemiah Gordon and the Karaite Jews in Jerusalem were able to see the new moon in the evening if it occurred before 19:00 GMT the day before and were not able to see it if it occurred after 19:00 the day before. So based upon their observations, the BLC uses the following definition for when a new moon becomes visible in Jerusalem. 

Definition: A new moon is deemed to become visible after sunset in Jerusalem if it occurs before 19:00 GMT on the day before. 

The Passover, Nisan14, is always in spring, i.e. the day starts after the vernal equinox. Putting all of this together we can now work out the dates of the Passover from 1991 to 2008 as follows. The Passovers in 2000 and in 2008 are particularly interesting (JT is Jerusalem Time. 

In the past we had deduced visibility in Jerusalem from Mooncalc 5.2 or Mooncalc 6.0 for dates after 2008. Moon calc agrees completely with the observations of the Karaites in Israel from 1991 - 2008. In general we have found it to be accurate to the day or one day out at most back to 2000 BC - see [100]. But now we have our own vernal equinox calculator and moon phase tables from Paul Carlisle and Fred Espenak and we have seen the pattern of the Karaite observations we no longer need Mooncalc.

In 1999 and 2008 mooncalc 5.2 says the new moon will be visible during the nights of March18 and March8.

http://www.karaite-korner.org/ or https://whenisthenewmoon.com/ have...

1999Nisan1 starting at sunset at 17:49 on 1999March18 (moon seen at 18:10 with naked eye for 2 minutes in Jerusalem, having been found with binoculars at 18:06 then obscured by clouds)
2000Nisan1 starting at sunset at 17:42 on 2000March7 (moon seen at 17:50)
2001Nisan1 starting at sunset at 17:55 on 2000March26 (On March 26, 2001 the New Moon was first sighted by Devorah Gordon and then by Nehemia Gordon from Jerusalem at 18:05 and by Adam Cowan from Ramat Beit Shemesh at 18:12)
2002Nisan1 starting at sunset at 17:47 on 2000March15 (On Friday March 15, 2002 the New Moon was sighted from Jerusalem. The moon was first sighted by Brian Convery at 18:11 and sighted shortly thereafter by Nehemia Gordon, Devorah Gordon, Michael Storey, Richard Dolan, and Gerald Kirby)
2003Nisan1 starting at sunset at 19:00 on 2000April3 (On Thursday April 3, 2003 the New Moon was sighted by observers from Jerusalem. The moon was first sighted by Devorah Gordon at 19:08, by Nehemia Gordon at 19:11, by Ron Aboodi at 19:15, and by Melekh ben Ya'aqov at 19:17. The moon was also sighted from elsewhere in Jerusalem by Chaim Goldman and a group of observers. The clocks go forward on March 27 in Israel)
2004Nisan1 starting at sunset at 17:52 on 2000March22 (On Monday March 22, 2004 the New Moon was sighted by observers from Jerusalem. The moon was sighted by Devorah Gordon at 17:57, Nehemia Gordon at 17:58, Avi Marcus and Dina Marcus at 18:01, and Ruthanne Koch, Melekh Ben-Ya'aqov, and Rivka Michaeli at 18:06. The New Moon was also sighted from Tekoa by Wendy Sutherland, Chen Brill, and Ester Levy-Noiman at 17:48 and by Bruce Brill and Ilan Levy-Noiman at 17:50.)
2005Nisan1 starting at sunset at 17:44 on 2000March11 (March 11, 2005 The moon was first sighted from Jerusalem at 18:00 by Karl Bloodworth followed by Ruthanne Koch and Glen Cain. The moon was also seen by Nehemia Gordon, Devorah Gordon, Ferenc Illesy, Melekh Ben Ya'aqov, Rivka Michaeli, and Avi Marcus all of whom saw the moon by 18:01)
2006Nisan1 starting at sunset at 17:57 on 2006March30 (moon seen at 17:58)
2007Nisan1 starting at sunset at 17:50 on 2007March20 (moon seen at 17:55)
2008Nisan1 starting at sunset at 17:42 on 2008March8 (moon not seen due to cloud but would have been visible) Does that count? Should this not be 2008March9? We think not.
2009Nisan1 starting at sunset at 18:55 on 2009March27 (moon seen 19:12 - clocks go forward on March 27 in Israel)
2010Nisan1 starting at sunset at 17:48 on 2010March17 (moon seen at 17:50)
2011Nisan1 starting at sunset at 19:00 on 2010April4 (moon seen after sunset on April4. It was barely visible from Mount Hezekiah at 19:28 and visible in Ashdod at 19:40. Sunset was 19:00, civil twilight ended 19:25 and nautical twilight ended 19:54 - report number 506. But mooncalc has it easily visible on April4?)
2012Nisan1 starting at sunset at 17:53 on 2013March23 (moon seen at 18:14 - report number 549)
2013Nisan1 starting at sunset at 17:46 on 2013March13 (moon seen at 17:41 - report number 586)
2014Nisan1 starting at sunset at 18:58 on 2014April1 (according to Nehemiah Gordon's facebook page, the new moon was sighted at 19:25 on March 31 at two mountainous locations in Israel - (Kiryat Ata and Kerem BeYavneh) but not from Eilat or Jerusalem. Sunset in Jerusalem was 18:58 and civil twilight ended at 19:22 and nautical twilight ended at 19:51. The moon was not visible from Jerusalem during civil twilight, but was visible during nautical twilight. According to Nehemiah Gordon it was not visible anywhere in Southern Israel on the evening of March 31. So sunset March31 should have been been the start of the sacred year. We actually started the year on 2014April1 mistakenly believing that the moon had to be seen during civil twilight. This lead to the total lunar eclipse of April15 at 07:47 GMT, falling upon Nisan14, which resulted in a blood moon. 
2015Nisan1 starting at sunset at 17:51 on 2015March21 (moon seen at 17:53 by Nehemia Gordon of Karaite Korner in the Eilat mountains. Tim Arndt saw it at 6:01pm. The new moon was also sighted from Kiryat Ata in northern Israel by Yoel Halevi at 6:38pm and by Naomi Halevi, Yedidyah Halevi, and Aharon Halevi at 6:46pm)
2016Nisan1: The new moon was sighted on March 10 from Tel Aviv by David Cachicas at 5:41pm and shortly thereafter by Daniela Cachicas.
2017Nisan1. The new moon was sighted on Wednesday, March 29th, 2017, at 7:25pm from Jerusalem, by Yoel Halevi, Devorah Gordon and Gilbert Ashendorf.
2018Nisan1: The new moon was sighted on Sunday, March 18th, 2018, 6:12pm. Jerusalem, Israel, Yotam Marcus, Roy Hoffman. Therefore the first day of the next month begins starting this evening. 
2019Nisan1: I am sending out this update as the “Hebrew in Israel” Facebook Page, owned by Yoel Halevi, has just reported that someone sighted the new moon this evening, 6 April 2019 from the Western Negev at 7:47pm. (Devorah Gordon)
2020Nisan1: New moon was sighted By: Brian Hoeck, Karen Andrews, David McKnew, Gil Ashendorf, and Devorah Gordon at 6:32 pm on Wednesday March 25, 2020.
2021Nisan1: New moon was sighted By: Yael, Noa, and Ruth Guenther and other observers in Israel at 6:20 pm Sunday, March 14th, 2021.
2022Nisan1: Nobody sighted the new moon in Israel on April2 due to bad weather. No lone looked on April3. They just took April3 'by default': https://paleotimes.org/nm/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/%F0%9F%8C%99-New-Moon-Report-2-April-2022.pdf  The new moon was seen in the US on April2 - https://paleotimes.org/aviv-new-moon-reports-2022/ 
2023Nisan1: The new moon was not visible in Israel on 22 March but was visible on 23 March. It was visible here in the United States and Mexico on the 22^nd of March. - https://paleotimes.org/aviv-new-moon-sighted-2023/ 
Yahu Ranger has Nisan1 as March22/23 - https://yahuranger.com/calendar-2023/  
Renewedmoon.com has visual aid assisted sightings in Israel on March22 and naked eye sightings in Oman and Saudi Arabia and many other places on March22. And naked eye sightings in Israel on March23. https://renewedmoon.com/  
The Hilalmap on Al-habib.info Confirms that the new moon should have just been visible to the naked eye in Israel on 2023March22 - https://www.al-habib.info/islamic-calendar/hilalmap-crescent-moon-visibility-map.htm 

Deuteronomy 16:1 instructs us as follows...

1 Let there be an observing of the new moon of Abib, and you must celebrate the Passover to Jehovah your God, because in the month of Abib Jehovah your God brought you out of Egypt by night. (Deuteronomy 16 NWT)

We must physically observe the Abib new moon for the first month of the year. Then subsequent new moons are merely multiples of 30 days later.

The Jews in Egypt observed the Abib moon in Goshen, not in the promised land. Deuteronomy16 was first obeyed upon the plains of Moab during the 30 solar days of mourning for Moses from 1474Adar1 to 1473Nisan7, when Joshua told the people to get up and cross the Jordan in 3 days time on 1473Nisan10. So one does not have to be in Jerusalem or in Israel to make an Abib new moon sighting. Today Israel is the congregation of the 2NCs. So one does not have to be in the congregation to make a sighting. So we can take any genuine sighting (between 20 and 44 hours after the true new moon conjunction).

The old BLC program which is available from our download page, takes 2010Nisan1 as starting on March16 and 2011Nisan1 as starting on April4 and 2013Nisan1 as starting on March 12. It is therefore one BLC day ahead of the true Biblical Lunar Calendar for any Gregorian day in those 3 years.  So for example Ted Jaracz died on 2010June9 at 7:30 am, which was 2010Sivan24, not 2010Sivan25 as the BLC converter program states. It was also one day out in 2014.

The New BLC 2 has these errors fixed. It is also available from our download page.

https://yrm.org/abib-confirmed/ 
http://whenisthenewmoon.com/the-creators-calendar-hebrew-calendar/ 

Biblical Lunar Calendar

We now have our latest Biblical Lunar Calendar available for download. The physical Jews went round in geographical circles in the wilderness before entering the geographical promised land. And the spiritual Jews of today go round in chronological circles of the BLC upon entering the chronological promised land of the 1,000 year kingdom of God which runs from 2008Nisan22 to 3008Nisan14 but before entering into the promised land of the congregation of Zoar. 

• Download the Biblical Lunar Calendar v2.2.4 (2,748 kB). Just double click Blc.exe. That is it!
• Or you can use our online version at www.biblelinguistics.co.uk/blc
  

The full table of all new moon and vernal equinox data used to calculate the BLC from 2400BC to 3100 AD is available here.

A good way to test our Passover definition is to apply it to the Passover of 33Nisan14, since we know that this was on the day before the Sabbath:

1 After the Sabbath, when it was growing light, on the first day of weeks, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to view the grave (Matthew 28)

31 Then the Jews, since it was the preparation, in order that the bodies might not remain upon the torture stakes on the Sabbath, (for the day of that Sabbath was a great one), requested Pilate to have their legs broken and them taken away (John 19).

A great Sabbath was a Sabbath in a festival that was also the weekly Sabbath, it was a double Sabbath. So Jesus died on Friday afternoon. Since the Jews celebrate the Sabbath on Friday 6pm to Saturday 6pm, and this one thing they have right. So 33Nisan14 started on Thursday. 

The Midst prophecy in the solar fulfilment (see U100) requires that the Passover on 1943Nisan14, when Abraham crossed the Euphrates occurred on April10 true solar (Gregorian).
The Exodus from Egypt has 1513Iyyar22 definitively as the first weekly Sabbath when they refrained form picking up any manna (see U356) - since 1513Iyyar16 is the first day of the week when the manna began. This means that the Passover on 1513Nisan14 (38 days earlier) was on a Tuesday night which was March30 true solar (Gregorian).

The situation was as follows:

JULIAN CALENDAR

Year      New Moon            First Quarter          Full Moon          Last Quarter      Delta T (some error measure)

1048     Mar 19 14:12        Mar 26 21:14           Apr 3 23:46       Apr 11 05:35       07h18m
2 BC     April 4 20:43         April 11 11:57          April 19 10:18   April 27 11:01      02h56m
10         Apr 3 07:01           Apr 10 09:32           Apr 17 05:26     Apr 25 00:27       02h55m
29         April 2 17:29         April 10 12:37          April 17 02:45   April 24 04:45      02h51m
33         March 19 10:36    March 26 10:28       April 3 14:47     April 11 03:41      02h51m

GREGORIAN TRUE SOLAR CALENDAR (extrapolated backwards)

We can see from the results in 1513 that Fred Espenak and NASA are more accurate than John Walker and Fourmilab.ch!! The BLC uses Fred Espenak's and Paul Carlisle's new moon figures.

So Jesus made the new covenant with his disciples at the last supper on the Thursday night and he was impaled on the Friday, and died at about the ninth hour, which is 3pm Friday April 1 Gregorian.

46 And about the ninth hour Jesus called out with a loud voice saying: Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? That is: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27).

He said it twice brothers and sisters see - The Repetition Principle of the code. Even in his agony he was a prophet.

To check that 33April3 Julian, was 33April1 Gregorian, which was Friday, visit: https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/calendar/ or look at the new BLC for those dates. The new BLC is a Julian Gregorian converter.

It is quite a complicated puzzle. But it is worth doing because Jesus commanded his brothers to celebrate the first new covenant and to:

19 keep doing this in remembrance of me (Luke 22).

One cannot commemorate the Last Supper on any old day of the year. In fact, there is no religious festival instigated by God in the bible that did not have an appropriate day for it which God himself chose. One should commemorate the Last Supper, and take holy communion, therefore, on the day that God chose for Jesus to celebrate it on. If instead you celebrate it when it is convenient to you then you have become Cain, offering not what God has determined is suitable for you but what you have determined is suitable for God. The day God choose for the last supper was the Passover, which occurred once a year under the law of Moses. For the Last Supper is the greater Passover, and Jesus is the greatest Passover lamb. Covenants are also drunk on the day that they were made (which is always a Mosaic festival) - not on any other day (except the late Passover or late festival day).

7 For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5).

For Jesus was the lamb of God (according to John the baptist), the Passover lamb of God.  

29 On the morrow, John sees Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold! The Lamb of God, taking away the sin of the world! (John 1 GLT).

Adar and VeAdar

2010VeAdar14 is 30 BLC days before 2011Nisan14, since it acts like Adar14 in that case. It is also 30 days after 2010Shebat14, which is 30 days before both 2010Adar14 and 2010VeAdar14, since VeAdar is an alternative Adar which overwrites the first one. In other words 2010Adar14 is 2010VeAdar14 in calendar terms. Two different solar days with two different BLC dates which are for counting purposes the same date.

The Various New Years

The sacred year was changed from Tishri1 to Nisan1 year start at the Egyptian Passover. Or perhaps not. Perhaps it already existed but became dominant in that year because Death ruled as king from Adam down to Moses but Jehovah took over his people in 1513. Tishri1 is Adam's year start, the secular year start. 

Michael's 6,000 year headlease on Adam began on 3993Nisan21, first fruits after he sinned on 3993Nisan14 BC..
Satan's 6,000 year secular sublease on Adam began on 3989Nisan16 (1st fruits after the Great Sabbath). 

A Passover from an Egypt is a time of a calendar change. A calendar change is highly symbolic. It is not as we at first thought to our cost, caused by the Passover itself, notwithstanding the wording of Exodus12 It is caused by a change in administration. When God started ruling his people as King rather than Satan, then Nisan1 sacred calendar became dominant over the Tishri1 calendar.

1 Jehovah now said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:
2 This month will be the start of the months for you. It will be the first of the months of the year for you.
3 Speak to the entire assembly of Israel, saying, 'On the 10th day of this month they are to take for themselves each one a sheep for the ancestral house, a sheep to a house......
11 And in this way you should eat it, with your hips girded, sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand; and you must eat it in haste. It is Jehovah's Passover. (Exodus 12 NWT) 

On 2012Sivan15, the Venusian Transit and the Jubilee restoration of the priesthood, the 4EC and the 1AC baptisms that all those in the two true churches of Zoar and Laodicea lost when they died to Adam at the Zoar Passover on 2012Sivan14 and completed their resurrection to be non adamic Abrahamic on 2012Sivan16. Non adamic FDS4 was appointed/installed over non adamic Abraham on 2012Elul16/Heshvan5 after Laodicea)..

The Egyptian calendar in Egypt which began in the month of Thoth which was Elul. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_calendar 

The Jews were presumably using a Tishri1 year start calendar before the Passover (not with an intercalary Elul or the midst prophecy would not work from a solar standpoint - see U100). The Tishri1 calendar was the original calendar of mankind. Whereas the divine sacred calendar uses a Nisan1 year start reflecting the Passover of Adam from Hades on 3993Nisan14 and his Passover from Michael to Satan on 3989Nisan14, which Satan picked up on first fruits, which was 3989Nisan16 (at the start of Satan's lease), and the Passover of Israel in Egypt on 1513Nisan14 and Jesus' sacrifice on 33Nisan14. So the Nisan1 sacred calendar was not invented in 1513 by God. It was always in existence from the fall of Adam - which occurred in Nisan. 

Adam has the Tishri1 secular year
Fallen Adam has the Nisan1 sacred year in honour of Jesus' agreement to ransom him made on the day of his sin.
Abrahamic Zoar has an Elul1 sacred year and Abrahamic Laodicea has an Ab1 sacred year from when they became Abib (headed, appointed over Abraham). For we are no longer Adam. Just as the exit from Eden in Nisan instigated the Nisan1 sacred year. So the exit from Adam in Sivan for Adam and in Tammuz for Cain instigates the Ab1 and Elul1 sacred years
Isaaic Zoar and the Kingdom of God have a Tammuz1 sacred year from our appointment over non adamic Abraham on 2016Tammuz16.
For more see U271-11#17.

Why are there not 12 lunar months in the solar year?

Was Jehovah, the one who stretched the heavens out like a gauze, the one who calls all of the stars by their names, unable to get the earth to go around the sun fast enough? Did he say actually to Lucifer, here Luce, get the years to be as close as you can to 360 days would ya? And did Lucifer come back and say, Dad, I couldn't quite make it 360 days. But I did manage 365.24 days is that OK? And did the God of whom Moses said: The rock, perfect is his activity, then say: Well done son - who cares about 5.24 days? That's good enough for a government contract - you hit over 95% of your target. I am promoting you to chairman of British Rail!

One thinks not. So what is God picturing with the heavenly sign whereby 2 years out of 3 the 12 months eat into the solar year and then the 3rd year we have an extra month? Well it seems to the LWs that he is picturing the 12 tribes of Jacob which suffer from the two half tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh that substituted for Joseph and Levi. Or the 12 apostles and the 13th half apostle Matthias who substituted for Judas. Or the 12 tribes of 12,000 1NC saints who are to be substituted by the 2 half tribes of 6,000 1NC reserves one from each presence - NICE - a Frank-Gordon production.

Putting this the other way round: Why are there 360 days in the BLC and not 365.2421896698?

The only reason that the biblical calendar exists is that a year with those characteristics existed at some point in biblical history. There was once a solar year with 12x 30 day lunar months in it. 

Guy Cramer has a good shot at this in http://xwalk.ca/360vs365.html 
Barry Setterfield proves that the 360 to 365 day calendar change occurred around the time of the flood at http://www.setterfield.org/year_length.html  (We have copies of these pages if the links stop working)

The key scripture identified by Guy Cramer is Matthew 24:22...

22 In fact, unless those days were cut short, not all [chosen] flesh would be saved; but on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short. (Matthew 24 NWT)

The repetition of days being cut short means that there are two way in which days are cut short. One is that there are less days, and the days of tribulation are reduced in number. The other way is that the days are reduced in length and are shortened. This occurred in the days of Noah for Jesus goes on to say...

37 For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be. (Matthew 24 NWT)

In order for the year to be 360 days long the day has to be longer than it is now in the ratio 365.2421897/360 = 1.01456164:1 = 1.456164% larger. In other words rather than being 24 hours long it would be around 24.35 hours long. How could this have been the case? Well when an ice skater spreads her arms out she rotates more slowly and when she draws them in she rotates more quickly. If the earth spread out a bit and got fatter at the equator and flatter from pole to pole (as if someone was treading on a basketball) then it would rotate more slowly and so the day would last longer. But the earth is actually fat at the equator and squashed at the pole due to centrifugal force and the liquid nature of the earth under its crust. So if the planet were hotter then it would be more liquid and so the centrifugal force arising from its rotation would cause it to expand and be fatter at the equator. Now before the flood this was the case. The flood dumped a load of water from the atmosphere onto the crust of the earth which would have cooled the earth down and therefore stiffened it up and reduced the bulging effect of centrifugal force. So we propose that prior to the flood the circumference of the earth was larger than it is today.

http://www.ancient-world-mysteries.com/360-days.html makes an overcomplicated presentation of a fascinating finding namely that a geographical mile (which is the distance on the equator traced out by one second of arc which is one 60th of a minute of arc which is one 60th of a degree of arc which is on 360th of a circle) would in fact be almost precisely 6,000 feet long rather than the present 6,087.253 feet long if the earth was indeed 1.456164% larger in circumference and therefore the day was 24.35 hours long and the year had 360 days in it. This is because 6,087.253 is 1.45421% larger that 6,000.

This all works because the circumference of the earth is linearly related to the period of its rotation around its axis for small variations from the present 24 hour day period in order that angular momentum is preserved. For if we keep the velocity of its surface the same then for small variations in day length we preserve angular momentum which is the integral of mass x velocity for each particle of the planet. So to increase the day by 1.456164% we increase the circumference of the earth by the same amount.

So we propose that the flood waters cooled the surface of the planet down by such an amount that it stiffened up to such an extent that the centrifugal force of its own rotation caused it to bulge by 1.45% less. Hence it spun 1.45% faster. Hence the days became 1.45% shorter. Hence the year contained 1.45% more days. It increased from 360 days to the present 365.2421896698.

This not only alters the clock of mankind, but also points backwards to the changes in the speed of light which have altered the clock of the universe see U234.

The day length change would have occurred gradually during the flood between 2371Heshvan17 and 2370Heshvan27 as the earth was cooled by the waters. In the BLC we take this change as being instantaneous and occurring at the start of 2370Nisan1 which was sunset (18:00) on 2370April5 Gregorian (around the middle of the flood). Now the new moon for the sacred year of 2370 BLC occurred at 2370 April4 16:40 AFG (After Flood Gregorian), which was 2370 April 4 17:04 BFG (Before Flood Gregorian). Whereas the vernal equinox was 2370March22 11:59 AFG, which was 2370 March22 16:54 BFG.

Likewise in 2371 and before..

New moon is 2371 April 4 17:04 BFG 
Vernal Equinox is 2370 March22 16:54 BFG

Before the flood everything was synchronized perfectly which proved the existence of God. The lunar months were precisely 30 solar days and the solar year was precisely 12 lunar months. So the new moon and the vernal equinox always occurred at the same time on the same day before the flood. By our calculation every new moon for Nisan1 occurred on April 4 17:04 BFG and every vernal equinox occurred on 2370 March22 16:54 BFG.

Technical note on BFG calculation

BFG days are 365.2421896698/360=1.014561637x=20.98675726 minutes longer than AFG days.

New moon was 2370 April4 16:40 AFG. This is 27 hours and 20 minutes AFG before day length change which is 26.94 hours BFG or 26 hours and 56 minutes before. So 17:04 BFG. So new moon is 2370 April 4 17:04 BFG 

Vernal Equinox was 2370March22 11:59 AFG. This is 14 days and 6 hours and 1 minute before the day length change. This is 14.2506944 days AFG which is 14.046159 days BFG or 14 days 1 hour and 6 minutes. So the vernal equinox is 2370 March22 16:54 BFG

The 5th commandment shows that the Kingdom of God will return to having 360 days in the year and 30 day to each of 12 lunar months

God restores everything that is lost. Physically, the lava flood, the extinction level volcanic event, evaporates all the water back into the atmosphere where it was before the flood of Noah. It also alters the rigidity of the panet, making it more flexible so that its circumference increases under centrifugal force and its roatational inertia therefore increase so it rotates more slowly and the day become longer so that we only need 360 of them to make a true solar year. This is witnessed to in the 10 commandments would you believe?

12 Honor your father and your mother in order that your days may be made long/extended/stretched upon the ground that Jehovah your God is giving you. (Exodus 20 LWT)
12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long on the land which Jehovah your God [is] giving to you. (Exodus 20 GLT)

The ground that Jehovah God is giving us is the Kingdom of God. The scripture does not say in order that your days may be many. It says in order that they may be made long. Longer than they presently are in fact.

If Jehovah is 'your God' then you are one of his people and so you will be upon his ground in the Kingdom of God enjoying a slightly longer day. Not only that but Paul confirms with the further cryptic classic...

2 Honor your father and [your] mother; which is the first command with a promise:
3 That it may go well with you and you may endure a long time on the earth. (Ephesians 6 NWT)

A long time is not just another 10 years added to your life in this system. It is 1,000 years in the Kingdom of God.

There was a Partial Lunar Eclipse on the day Jesus was sacrificed

According to Fred Espenak's NASA eclipse page - http://www.eclipsewise.com/lunar/LEprime/0001-0100/LE0033Apr03Pprime.html , there was a partial lunar eclipse at 17:37 GMT (+10191 seconds, which is 2 hours 50 minutes) on April3 Julian which was April1 Gregorian. Sunset is 18:58 on April 1 in Jerusalem IDT (Israel Daylight Saving Time) which is 3 hour ahead of GMT. So it is 15:58 GMT. So the partial lunar eclipse could have been on April1 Gregorian to the margin of error of the NASA calculation. This is important since a biblical blood moon (the moon shall be turned into blood) is not just a total lunar eclipse when the moon goes red due to the refraction of light in the earth's atmosphere. It is a total lunar eclipse on a Christian blood sacrifice festival, i.e. the Passover. 

The Annual Festivals

We included them in the new BLC. Here they are for completeness...

FS = Festival Sabbath. PS = Partakers Sabbath. MS = Mandatory Sabbath.

Nisan14 Passover: 4100 BC –3100 AD
Nisan15 1st day of Cakes: from 1513 BC onwards (FS)
Nisan16 2nd day of Cakes from 1513 BC onwards
Nisan17 3rd day of Cakes from 1513 BC onwards
Nisan18 4th day of Cakes from 1513 BC onwards
Nisan19 5th day of Cakes from 1513 BC onwards
Nisan20 6th day of Cakes from 1513 BC onwards
Nisan21 7th day of Cakes: from 1513 BC onwards (FS)

The first day of the week (Gregorian Saturday) between Nisan16-22 is Mosaic first fruits from 1513 BC to 32 AD and 1NC first fruits from 33 AD onwards
The first day of the week (Gregorian Saturday) between Sivan5-11 is Mosaic Pentecost from 1513 to 32 AD (FS) and 1NC Pentecost from 33 AD onwards (FS)
The 3^rd day of the week (Gregorian Monday) between Tammuz5-11 is late Mosaic Pentecost from 1513 BC to 32 AD (PS) and late 1NC Pentecost from 33 AD onwards (PS)

Iyyar14 Late/2nd Passover: 4100BC-3100AD
Iyyar15 1st day of Late Cakes from 1513 BC onwards (PS)
Iyyar16 2nd day of Late Cakes from 1513 BC onwards
Iyyar17 3rd day of Late Cakes from 1513 BC onwards
Iyyar18 4th day of Late Cakes from 1513 BC onwards
Iyyar19 5th day of Late Cakes from 1513 BC onwards
Iyyar20 6th day of Late Cakes from 1513 BC onwards
Iyyar21 7th day of Late Cakes from 1513 BC onwards (PS)

The first day of the week (Gregorian Saturday) between Iyyar16-22 is Late Mosaic First Fruits from 1513 BC to 32 AD and 1NC first fruits from 33 AD onwards
The first day of the week (Gregorian Saturday) between Tammuz5-11 is 2nd Mosaic Pentecost from 1513 BC to 32 AD (PS) and 2nd 1NC Pentecost from 33 AD onwards (PS)
The 3^rd day of the week (Gregorian Monday) between Ab5-11 is Late 2nd Mosaic Pentecost from 1513 BC to 32 AD (PS) and Late 2nd 1NC Pentecost from 33 AD onwards (PS)

Tishri1 Rosh Hashana Trumpets (FS) - 4027Tishri1 BC to 2032Tishri1 AD
Tishri2 2NC First fruits (the day Adam was born)
Tishri10: Atonement day, Mandatory Sabbath (MS)
Tishri15: 1st day of Booths (FS)
Tishri16: 2nd day of Booths
Tishri17: 3rd day of Booths
Tishri18: 4th day of Booths
Tishri19: 5th day of Booths
Tishri20: 6th day of Booths
Tishri21: 7th day of Booths
Tishri22: 2NC Assembly (FS)
Heshvan1: Late old Rosh Hashana (PS) - 4027Tishri1 BC to 2022Tishri1 AD
Heshvan2: Late 2NC first fruits from  - 4027Tishri1 BC to 2022Tishri1 AD
Heshvan10: Late Atonement day (PS)
Heshvan15: 1st day of Late Booths (FS)
Heshvan16 2nd day of Late Booths
Heshvan17: 3rd day of Late Booths
Heshvan18: 4th day of Late Booths
Heshvan19: 5th day of Late Booths
Heshvan20: 6th day of Late Booths
Heshvan21: 7th day of Late Booths 
Heshvan21: 2NC Pentecost  (FS) - Jesus was born on 2Heshvan21 BC
Heshvan22: Late 2NC celebration (PS)
Chislev21: Late 2NC Pentecost (PS)

Annual Festival Calendar

Pick a year between 4100 BC and 3100 AD and this program will list all the festivals in that year with their BLC and Gregorian dates.

• Download the Annual Festival Calendar (2,774 kB). Just double click Afc.exe. That is it! Only valid up to 2012.

The 24 Annual festivals from 2024 onwards (in Zoar)

Nisan14: Passover (1)
Nisan15-21: Cakes (7)
Tishri1: Rosh Hashana (1)
Tishri10: Atonement day (1)
Tishri14: Isaaic Zoar Passover (1)
Tishri15-21: Booths and Isaaic Zoar Cakes (7)
Tishri16: Abrahamic first fruits, the appointment of Isaaic Zoar over Abraham (0)
Tishri22: Solemn Assembly (1)
Heshvan16: Isaaic first fruits: The appointment of Isaaic Zoar over Isaac (1)
Chislev5: Abrahamic Pentecost: The installation of Isaaic Zoar over Abraham (1)
Tebbeth2: 2NC first fruits: The appointment of Isaaic Zoar over the 2NCs (1)
Tebbeth5: Isaaic Pentecost: The installation of Isaaic Zoar over Isaac (1)
Adar21: 2NC Pentecost: The installation of Isaaic Zoar over the 2NCs (1)

Set your heart on the 24th of the 9th of Haggai2 is the 24th festival day of the 9th year of Zoar, which is 2024Adar21 which is also 2024VeAdar21 which is 2025March26/27, the rapture of Elijah4, the end of the rapture of the 2NCs.

The 19 year Metonic Cycle and the 687 year cycle

There are 29.53059 days in a lunar month.
There are 365.2422 days in a solar year.

19 solar years = 6939.60 days
235 lunations = 6939.69 days

This is accurate to 0.09 days or two hours.

687 tropical/gregorian solar years of 365.242190 days = 250,921.385 days
8,497 lunations of 29.53058867 days = 250,921.412 days.

This is accurate to 0.027 days or 39 minutes.

So every 687 years the sun and the moon come back into the same relative positions to within 39 minutes.

Notes:

In practice the new moon is visible  in Israel if it occurred before 19:00 GMT the previous day. The new BLC will use this definition in the absence of Karaite observations.
The Passover occurs after the vernal equinox in order that Barley is headed (Abib) ready for first fruits and symbolically the Passover is when the day conquers the night so it must occur after the vernal equinox not before it. Not sure whether the entire Passover day has to occur after the equinox or just Hebrew midnight of the Passover feast itself. Logically it would have to occur in the day before the Passover in order that priests could measure the lengths of the day and the night and see that they were equal, prior .

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

INCORRECT!!!

Abib Barley

Jesus died to end the sacrifices of the law. So presenting Barley is now obsolete!!!!

Previously we had thought as follows...

From 1992 to 2008 we thought that Nisan (Abib) should be the first lunar month wherein the full moon occurred after the vernal equinox. But we have now seen that there was no point in declaring Abib (Nisan) and then having no barley with which to make a burnt offering to God on Nisan16 under the law of Moses. In fact had the Jews done so they would have then undeclared Abib and redeclared it the next month in order that they would indeed be able to celebrate the festival of the firstfruits during cakes. When the calendar was implemented at the exodus, the barley was in the head, since it was struck by the hail, the 7th plague, and God himself declared Abib (which means heading). So certainly under law, barley was the indicator not the spring equinox. The question then is whether barley remained the indicator after Jesus ended the law and in particular the requirement to offer roasted grain to him on Nisan16 (Nisan16-22 - ed). Well the first century Christians were Jews themselves until the conversion of Cornelius on 36Tishri18, and the temple of the law continued until 70Ab10 when Titus destroyed it. So the Hebrew calendar would have remained in use throughout the whole period of FDS1, from 33Nisan16 to 69Tammuz22 (when FDS2 became appointed over the saints). Therefore since the Jews, who ran FDS1, would not have been using two calendars, we are forced to the conclusion that the whole first true Christian church used the barley indicated lunar calendar. And if it was good enough for them it must also be good enough for us, the last true Christian church in this system. 

It seems really crazy to modern man who can see the atomic clock, accurate to the nanosecond, at the click of a mouse button, to make precise chronological interpretations using a calendar dependent upon a bunch of Israeli farmers. But even today the original promised land is still being used by God. We must thank Greg and the Karaite Jews on www.karaite-korner.org/abib.shtml for this one!

This is not a BLC Calendar change. It has no effect on the BLC chronology of this church. It merely adds 30 days to the Gregorian equivalent in the year of 2008. We now use a kind of Gregbarlian calendar in fact! So we now use the Abib Biblical Lunar Calendar, the ABLC for our dates in 2008. There was no headed barley in Israel on March 7/8 2008, so 2008Nisan1 was 2008April7/8.

Cute But Wrong!

Now the Tishri1 secular year of Adam and Satan was as far away as is possible from the Nisan1 sacred year. Whereas the Iyyar1 secular year of Zoar and the Kingdom of God is as close as possible to the Nisan1 year. In this way the last month of the Iyyar1 secular year, which is Nisan, is the first month of the Nisan1 sacred year. And the last month of the sacred year which is Adar comes first before Nisan and Iyyar. So the last is first and the first is last. The Kingdom is the political reverse of this system. In this system the King sacrifices his people for his own benefit. In the next the Kings sacrifice themselves for the benefit of their people. Surely in the Kingdom of God the two calendars become one because our high priest is our King and our sacred leader is our secular leader.