Chapter Two: The Biblical Month- The First Crescent & Moon Phases

  The answer is certainly not in any translations.  However, when considering the original Hebrew text in context of ancient Hebrew thought, the answers are revealed.  There are two schools of thought that define when the Biblical month begins. 

One school of thought define that the Biblical months begin when the first crescent moon is observed in the evening sky.  The other school of thought asserts the Biblical month start in the "renewed moon" period or otherwise known as the "dark" period of the moon or "no moon."  In the figure, the 1st Crescent moon is visible and can be observed.  The proper term for the first crescent moon is often confused and sometimes it is called the "New Moon."  On the right is the "Renewed Moon."  As you can see, it cannot be observed in the night sky.  More detailed technical concepts will be covered in a later chapter about the definition of the crescent moon, renewed moon or new moon.

OT:7218 ro'sh (roshe); from an unused root apparently meaning to shake; the head (as most easily shaken), whether literal or figurative (in many applications, of place, time, rank, itc.): KJV - band, beginning, captain, chapiter, chief (-est place, man, things), company, end, X every [man], excellent, first, forefront, ([be-]) head, height, (on) high (-est part, [priest]), X lead, X poor, principal, ruler, sum, top.

 
A brethren of mine once noted to me the ancient Israelites related this word "Ro'sh" to the head of the bull.  If you look at Strong's reference you will see that one definition of "Ro'sh" is "the head."  The ancient or nomadic Israelites would have associated the two horns on the head of a bull to the crescent moon in the night sky.  Today, we are so far removed from the agricultural basis of the scriptures, it will be hard for us to imagine without an illustration.  Our ancestors spent their days harvesting the ground and tending their animals, and their evenings observing the night sky.  Unlike today, they didn't have all the distractions we do and all the different shapes and sizes of buildings, lights, etc.

During Sukkoth (Feast of Tabernacles) in 2004, a Messianic couple from Northern Idaho shared with me an interesting observation they had made for the last 14 years.  The first crescent moon moves from a horizontal plane to a vertical plane from around the month of Abib to the seventh month Tishri (around September) and the back to a horizontal plane.  This observation really impressed me and re-confirmed the analogy of the head of the bull to the first crescent and its role in helping to establish beginning of the month as well as possibly being another indicator to help establish the beginning of the year in addition to sighting of Abib barley in Israel.  Click to view phases of first crescent for a year.

Jewish calendars call the first day of the month "Rosh Chodesh" meaning "head of the month."  The Karaite Jews begin their months by sighting of the first crescent moon- see www.Karaite-Korner.org.  The Rabbinic Jews forecast the approximate timing of the appearance of the renewed moon in advance by calculating the conjunction of the sun, earth and moon which happens twice a month- once at the full moon and second at the renewal moon.  The Rabbinic Jews determine the traditional Jewish Calendar by this method.  This renders the Sabbaths & Yahuah's Feast Days to differ by a day or two in comparison to observing the first crescent. 

A practical reason on why the first crescent moon is used to start the beginning of months is the very fact that a "dark," "renewed" or "no moon" cannot be easily sighted with the naked eye because there is no light reflecting off the moon to see.  The following is a grid illustrating the 29 phases of the moon plus one extra renewal day for a typical Biblical month.  Note that each visible sighting of the moon represents the first evening of a Biblical day.

The weekly Sabbaths are in the quarter moons & full moon.  In the illustrated "Typical Biblical Month", the 1st quarter moon or "half moon" alternates between the 6th & 7th days in the first week.  The full moon appears to last two days on the 6th and 7th days of the second week.  The 3rd quarter moon alternates between the 6th & 7th days in the third week.  Note that in Hebraic and Biblical reckoning, days are numbered and not named.

Notice the first crescent begins the first day, the first quarter appears on the first evening of the 6th day, the full moon appears on the first evening of the 13th day, the third quarter appears on the first evening of the 20th day.  See how the first quarter, full moon and third quarter moons line up on the 1st evening of the 6th day in this example.  In most cases, it almost appears as if the 1st quarter moon gives us a one-day advance notice of the Sabbath day for the following evening.  However, this is not always the case because there are months where the first quarter moon doesn't appear until the first evening of the 7th day.  Observation from Aviv 5992 (April 2001) through Kislev 5993 (November 2001) shows two occasions where the first quarter moon appears on the evening of the 7th day instead of the 6th.

When I first started observing the first quarter moon, it almost seemed like it could be used as a second witness in the establishment of the Biblical month using the principle of "two or three witnesses."  My limited observation encouraged me in this direction.  There are some authors with illustrations that appear to make the first quarter moons to consistently show on the first evening of the 7th day.  When you actually make observations, it is clear that there are several months where you just can't get six full days between the first crescent moon and a perfect first quarter moon.  Continued observation proved that in a majority of the time, the first quarter moon appears on the first evening of the sixth day, and on occasion it will appear on the first evening of the 7th day.  At least this was the case from around Aviv 5992 (April 2001) through Kislev 5993 (November 2001. 

The following charts provides the actual first crescent moon sighting data from Aviv 5992 (April 2001) through Kislev 5993 (November 2001).  Note that this is a view from the Pacific Northwest of the United States at 20 hours Pacific Standard time.  There is a ten and eleven hour difference from Israel in the Western United States.  Therefore, first crescent sightings from this area from time to time can be a day in advance. 

During periods of low illumination like in the month of Cheshvan where the illumination was 1.07, it is possible that those in the Pacific Northwest of the United States may sight the first crescent moon one day earlier than observers in Israel.  This time difference allows the moon to gain illumination by the time observers see it in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

This also raises a question, do the scriptures command us to observe the first crescent sighting based on Israel or can we rely on sightings from anywhere in the world?  This topic will be covered in a later chapter.

The illumination and lag time figures for the first crescent moon sighting corresponding to the 1st quarter moon are from www.Kairite-Korner.org.  The First Crescent may be more visible at times and less visible at other times based on "illumination" percentages.  I do not know how illumination percentages are measured and I'm not sure if our ancestors ever had the means to measure illumination.

Aviv Aviv 6 Aviv 7 Mar 31 - Apr 1 Apr 1 - Apr 2 6th day 1st Quarter 1st Crescent Illumination = 2.81, 81

Iyar Iyar 6 Iyar 7 Apr 29 - Apr 30 Apr 30 - May 1 7th day 1st Quarter 1st Crescent Illumination = 1.33, 52

Siwan Siwan 6 Siwan 7 May 29 - May 30 May 30 - May 31   6th day 1st Quarter 1st Crescent Illumination = 3.18, 90

4th Month 4th Month 6 4th Month 7 Jun 27 - Jun 28 Jun 28 - Jun 29   6th day 1st Quarter 1st Crescent Illumination = 2.04, 68

Av Av 6 Av 7 Jul 26 - Jul 27 Jul 27 - Jul 28 6th day 1st Quarter 1st Crescent Illumination = 1.22, 50

Elul Elul 6 Elul 7 Aug 25 - Aug 26 Aug 26 - Aug 27   6th day 1st Quarter 1st Crescent Illumination = 3.91, 78

Tishri Tishri 6 Tishri 7 Sep 23 - Sep 24 Sep 24 - Sep 25   6th day 1st Quarter 1st Crescent Illumination = 2.42, 62

Cheshvan Cheshvan 6 Cheshvan 7 Oct 23 - Oct 24 Oct 24 - Oct 25   6th day 1st Quarter 1st Crescent Illumination = 1.07, 44

Kislev Tishri 6 Tishri 7 Nov 21 - Nov 22 Nov 22 - Nov 23 7th day 1st Quarter 1st Crescent Illumination = 2.19, 63

Tevet Tevet 6 Tevet 7 TBD TBD     TBD day 1st Quarter 1st Crescent Illumination = TBD