Chapter 8: The Time of Messiah Yahshua

Did our Father want the counting of the New Moons to be right for the birth of his Son, Yahshua?

It is a well known fact, for instance, that the First Mikdash was destroyed in 586 BCE and the Second Mikdash was consecrated in 516 BCE, and destroyed in 70 CE. The Second Mikdash, therefore, stood 585 years (not 586), while according to Jewish chronology, it stood only 420 years (See Yoma 9a and Yerushalmi Megilah I, 12).

After the Babylonian captivity the Jews carried back with them the Babylonian solar/lunar calendar and used it to determine the dates for high Holy Days.

But at the time when the Messiah was born a man came on the scene and later started a school. His name was Hillel the Elder. Not to be confused with Hillel II who changed the calendar to what we have now with all the postponments.

A study of this man is enlightening. His writing is very much like the Messiah in many ways. In particular the scriptures about the Beatitudes. His views were very much like the Messiah.

What did he do, at the beginning of the years of the Messiah? Their own history records this.

The decree of establishing the Rosh Hodesh on the basis of calculations which are unconnected to the appearance of the moon was enacted by the Rabbanite, Hillel the Elder. The method was guarded as a secret to keep the people from knowing about the change and therefore was called by our brothers the Rabbinites "The Secret of Intercalation" (this is testified to in many Rabbinite works, for example "Magid Harakia`" p.35).

Notice, not connected to the appearance of the moon. But done by calculation.

So, according to their writings the counting then was from the Conjunction, not the Crescent. Thetas why we feel the Father wanted things right for His Son.

Hillel the Elder came on the scene about the same year that the Messiah, Yahshua was born.

So, we decided that whatever was being used at the time of the Savior Yahshua, was correct. Mainly because of the Passover and Pentecost.

We in our studies found that the Messiah was crucified in 30 AD and that Passover was a Wednesday.

Checking with the Naval and National Observatory, we found beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they only way you can reach a Wednesday Passover was counting from the Conjunction. We check the years 29,30,31,32,33, 34. We found that in the year 34, you can get a Wednesday Passover, from the crescent moon if you could see it in 10 hours (I think it was) from Conjunction. That is almost impossible.

We also found 30 A.D. fits the prophecy in the Book of Daniel.

Looking at Daniel 9: 25-27

A day of prophetic fulfillment is a year in actual time (Ezek 4.4-6) & (Num 14.34). The total number of years from the decree to restore Jerusalem until the ministry of Messiah is figured this way: 69 (weeks) X 7 (days a week) equals 483 prophetic days, or 483 years of actual time.

The decree was issued to Ezra by King Artaxerxes of Persia (Ezra 7.8 -11). This decree officially established Jerusalem as a provincial capital city, under its own governor, within the Persian Realm. The seventh year of Artaxerxes was the calendar year from September 458 BC to September 457 BC.

The 483 years of the 69 week prophecy extended from that time forward to AD 27. That was the time Yahshua the Messiah began His ministry. 69 X 7 = 483 years - 457 BC the year the decree was issued This leaves a subtotal of 26 years, or AD 26 The prophecy of Daniel 9 contains another prophetic week, making a total of 70 weeks.

This last week is important. It was also prophesied that the Messiah would... confirm the covenant (the New Covenant) with many for one week: and in the midst (middle) of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease... (Dan 9.27) The Messiah would be cut off in the middle of the week or after 3 1/2 years, (the time of Yahshua's ministry). Since AD 26 -adding 3 1/2 half years would bring us to the Spring AD 30, the time of His death. Yahshua was about 30 in the Autumn of AD 26.

Three decrees concerning Jerusalem are recorded, that of Cyrus, B.C. 536 (Ussher), for the restoration of the "house of the Lord God of Israel" (2Chr. 36.22.23; Ezra 1.1-3); that of Darius (Ez. 6.3-8, B.C. 521-486), and that of Artaxerxes in his seventh year (Ez. 7.7, say, B.C. 458). Artaxerxes in his twentieth year, B.C. 444 (Hales, Jahn), 446 (A.V.), 454 (Ussher, Hengstenberg), gave permission for the rebuilding of the "city," i.e., "Jerusalem" (Neh. 2.1-8). The latter decree is obviously, that from which the "seven weeks" (49 years) run, unless by "the commandment to restore," etc. is meant the divine decree (Dan. 9.23).

In the present state of biblical chronology the date of the decree of Artaxerxes cannot be unanswerably fixed farther than to say that it was issued between 454 and 444 B.C. In either case we are brought to the time of Christ. Prophetic time is invariably so near as to give full warning, so indeterminate as to give no satisfaction to mere curiosity (cf. Mat. 24.36; Acts 1.7). The 434 years reckon, of course, from the end of the seven weeks so that the whole time from "the going forth of the commandment to restore," etc., "unto the Messiah" is sixty-nine weeks of years, or 483 years.

Why would we trust an observatory in this important decision? Well, they have no religious axe to grind. They care less on how or when we observe the Set-Apart days.

So, armed with that info, we set out to see if the postponements were in effect during that time. So far, we cannot find that they were.

Now we have our final understanding-Time time of our Savior's crucifixion and how it was counted.

Clearly, by much proof, it was counted from the New Moon (dark, conjunction) to arrive at a Wednesday Passover.

It is interesting to note here that the New Moon arrived on the day of the Vernal Equinox.