Ok Recently I have been having people come and try to correct me for Sighting the first sliver of the new moon as the beginning of the biblical month and the establishing factor that marks the feast days. So after some of my typical SLIDE moves trying to avoid a debate with people that already had their minds made up to what it was that they believed, I finally broke down and let them have it. Then I got to thinking that people may need this information that are struggling to answer these questions concerning just when does a biblical month begin. So here you go I will try to provide you all the information you should need to stop the debate and maybe even teach someone some scripture at the same time.

 

The debate is this. Does the new moon begin at the conjunction, the full moon, or the first sliver? The fact is that if a person does not know the history of sighting then new moon it can be a daunting task going through the scripture to figure out which one it is. Honestly I could set here and make a convincing argument for any one of the three beliefs using scripture. The reason I say that is that I want you to realize that to someone that has not spent countless hours on this topic it can be quite confusing and with a intelligent dialogue they could be convinced of any one of them.

 

So I will do something that I almost never do and that is use other sources then scripture to make my argument. I could do it  using scripture alone, but that would only lead them to post scriptures that they believe to be contradictory and we would just fall in to the Hebrew whipping game and no one befits from that. I will support my claim by using the Talmud, the Encyclopedia Judaica, and several other encyclopedias and language concordances, along with some historical references.  I know this is not what you typically expect from one of my articles but please bare with me, as I believe it necessary in this case.   

 

Historically, the Sanhedrin would send several  new moon spotters out on the hills of  Israel to watch for the thin crescent so they could establish the beginning of each month. Once these new moon spotters had seen the new moon they would then report their sighting to the Sanhedrin. “Originally, the New Moon was not fixed by astronomical calculation, but was solemnly proclaimed after witnesses had testified to the reappearance of the crescent of the moon,” Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 12, p. 1039.   

 

The changing from watching for the first visible crescent to calculating conjunctions to determine the month’s beginning came with Hillel II’s calendar revisions in the 4th century C.E. “By the middle of the fourth century, the sages had established a permanent calendar and the public proclamation of the New Moon was discontinued”  (ABID) . It was not until the fourth century that anyone relied on a conjunction moon sighting. Well at least among those that claimed to be fallowing YHVH. If we go back to nimrod and the historical evidence there oh we will see so much more and maybe I will do that in this article but for now Just know Yeshua was on a seven day Sabbath cycle, and a sighted crescent new moon observance and he never rebuked anyone for doing it this way.   

 

Those that would have you believe that the conjunction is the proper new moon observance will give you arguments from scripture to make their case but I have never seen one try to make the argument without sighting Jonathan and David’s conversation concerning David not going to diner until after the new moon. There is an easy answer to this and it is as valid as their argument. The answer is that David knew the new moon was going to be tomorrow because he had already been through two days of no moon. Now scripture does not say that but neither does it say that it was the conjunction on the next day.  

 

Most of them will make grand gestures and say things like if you can show me even one scripture that says we must sight the new moon they will repent and return to watching for the crescent moon. Well I am about to give you that scripture and it is beyond contestation. It proves without a shadow of a doubt that we are commanded to sight at least the first new moon of the year even though I think it implies that we should physically sight everyone of them.

 

Those that would go by the calculated lunar conjunction contradict the command in Deuteronomy 16:1 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. Now you should know that both the word for moon and month are the Hebrew word chodesh [new moon/month]. You should also know that the word for observe is the Hebrew word Shamar in the Hebrew, Shamar means “look narrowly for, search” (No. 8104 in Strong’s). The Holladay Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon defines it as watching in the sense of looking. Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words includes the definitions “mark, watchman, wait, watch, look narrowly.” The command is to look for, wait for, watch and mark the new moon.

 

So with that information lets correctly insert those two truth into that verse and see what it says. Deuteronomy 16:1 Look for the moon of Abib, and keep the Passover unto YHVH your Eloheem. Because it was at the month of Abib that YVHV brought you forth out of the land of Mitzriem at night. Now you may say why did I change one to moon and leave the other as month. Those that understand Hebrew will get this right away it is called a Hebrew word pun or Hebraism. This is where the same word is used to describe two different things. This is also done at times by using two different Hebrew words to describe the same thing; this however was not the case here because of the syntax of the language being used.    

 

The big problem with the conjunction folks is that you cannot see a moon that is completely black or dark, as it is during a conjunction. It would be lunacy (pun intended) to send out new moon watchers on the night of a conjunction to look for a moon they cannot see. As I will clearly show was what was being done when Yeshua was here. To visually confirm the new moon there must be something to identify. Obviously, the invisible conjunction is not that something.

 

Now the conjunction people will play upon our hubris and say the Jews where not ignorant people they knew how to calculate the conjunction. And our pride wants to agree and say yeah that’s right we are smart people. The Fact is the father made his calendar so simple that even a little child could look at the sky and tell you when the new moon was. Remember every thing that is very important to YVHV for us to observe he has made so simple that we will have no excuse. He gave us ten fingers and ten toes so that if a catastrophe happened and we lost 13 of them we could still count to seven and know when his Sabbath was. And he gave us this big ole moon in the sky that when we saw the first sliver we would know that a new moon had occurred and we needed to celebrate and sound the Shofars.  

 

Another predicament is created by the use of the conjunction because during the period surrounding the conjunction there are as many as two or even three nights when no moon is visible. This leads us to wonder which three invisible moons are we commanded to “look narrowly for”? On which of three invisible starting points does the month begin? Yahweh’s calendar is based on observation. Man’s calendars are based on calculation.

 

There was no U.S. Naval Observatory existing in the time of the prophets or Apostles. The ancients had to have something tangible to go by that was visible on only one day each month. They needed to see the first thin crescent of a moon as it began its building or waxing phase. It was on this first glimpse of the moon they would declare throughout the land of Israel that a new moon had been sighted and that a new month had began.

 

Lets go back to the point that Yeshua was observing the first sliver as well, and never rebuked anyone for doing it wrong. Philo was a prominent Jewish leader who lived in Alexandria from about 20 B.C.E. to about 50 C.E. and was a contemporary of both Yahshua the Messiah and Paul. He was aware of what the Savior and His followers, considered was the new moon. In his Treatise on the Special Laws, Book II, XI (41), Philo discusses the Biblical observances. Note below how he describes the new moon. But lets make this clear someone that was the contemporary of Yeshua living at the same time, and was aware of how the messiah and his followers observed the new moon made the claims that fallow. This is a first hand account but they would have us to believe a rabbi in the fourth century who was afraid of loosing the biblical calendar altogether because of their disobedience to YVHV should be trusted more then this first hand account.  

 

“[It] is that which comes after the conjunction, which… [is] the day of the new moon in each month.” In his detailed discussion of the new moon, Philo describes what constitutes a new moon: “…at the time of the new moon, the sun begins to illuminate the moon with a light which is visible to the outward senses, and then she displays her own beauty to the beholders.” 

 

As Philo noted, the new moon follows the conjunction but it is not the conjunction itself. His observation reveals to us what was considered the new moon in Yeshua’s day and what the Savior Himself also observed as the new moon. That is all we need to know to realize what still constitutes the Biblical new moon today. Now I can go on and on ripping this garbage to pieces but I have wasted enough time on it, and if this will not convince them of the truth I doubt me writing ten more pages of historical references and word studies would do it ether. But if you really want to drive the point home about the conjunction being false you should really look into the pagan origins of it.

This puts me in mind of two people in history the first being Constantine and the second being Marten Luther. Both of which said they would not be made to worship like a damnable Jew and that the Jews where a parasite that should be whipped off the face of the earth. These people that buy into this normally have such hatred in their heart for the Karaite’s and Muslims that they would rather celebrate the new moon on a false day then to observe it on the same day as they do. 90% of the time this is what I boils down to the other 10% is just miss teaching.