Today in the Bible

A day is based upon the revolution of the Earth; a week is based upon creation; a month is based upon the cycle of the Moon…a year, then, is based upon the Earth’s revolution of the Sun. The word for “years,” in Hebrew, is “shanim” (“shah-neem” – שָׁנִים).  The singular form of this word is “shanah” (“shah-nah” – שַׁנׇה).  Shanah stems from a root which means “to change;” a second group of related words carries the meaning “to repeat or do again.” 

From our perspective, the Sun journeys through the sky on a daily basis, but what is unseen during the daylight hours is the field of stars that it is passing through.  This, however, does not negate the fact that, each day, the Sun is moving through a slightly different field of stars than it was the day before.  With each new day, the star field shifts ever so slightly — so that, over the course of a year, the Sun has completely moved through each of the constellations falling in its path and then starts all over again. Picture this, the Universe is seen as a 360-degree dome and there are 365 days in a year. That means the Sun moves through the constellations a tish less than one degree per day.

Since ancient times, people have recognized patterns in the star field and have organized them into constellations.  Therefore, on God’s calendar, we can tell what time of year it is by the Sun’s orientation against the constellations.  You don’t need a calendar for that.  The Sun’s perceived path through the stars is called the ecliptic.  It is called the ecliptic because a lunar or solar eclipse is only possible when the Moon crosses this line.  Twelve constellations straddle the ecliptic; they are known as the zodiac.

Obviously using the cycles of the Moon as the measurement of a month will lead to problems when trying to calculate a year.  Every other month is 29 days and every other month is 30 days.  No matter how you try, you can’t make this add up to 365¼ days.  God said we need to keep the first month of the year in the springtime, at the time of the exodus from Egypt and the time of ripened barley.  In order for His calendar to work properly, there are seven times within a 19-year cycle when an extra month is inserted into the Hebrew calendar – to keep the month of Nisan (the first month in springtime) in its proper place.  It is called an intercalary month.  Intercalary is defined as a day or a month inserted into the calendar to keep it aligned with the solar year.  We’re already familiar with this concept on the Gregorian calendar, every four years, a “leap day” is added.  The Hebrew calendar inserts a “leap month” by doubling the 12th month, Adar; they become known as Adar I and Adar II.

The Islamic calendar is solely based upon the cycles of the moon, which makes it 10-11 days shorter than a solar year.  This causes the Islamic holidays to be that much earlier each year.  But it was important to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that we associate the agricultural seasons with His calendar.[1] This is why both the Sun and the Moon are used as guides.  This concept was also revealed on the fourth day of creation.

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. – Genesis 1:14-19 (NKJ)

Originally, the first month of the year was called Tishrei, Tishrei means “beginning.”  After the exodus from Egypt, God changed the counting of the months to start in the springtime which caused Tishrei to become the seventh month.  You may be familiar with the term “Rosh Hashanah.”  It is the Hebrew New Year.  “Rosh” means “head” and “shanah” means “year.”  The two little letters “ha” mean “of” or “the.”  Thus, “Rosh Hashanah” means the “head of the year.”  Today, it occurs on the first day of the seventh month which falls in September or October of the Gregorian calendar.  If you’ve ever bought a 16-month calendar, you’ve bought a calendar that accommodates both the Hebrew and Gregorian modes of time-keeping.  Judaism recognizes Rosh Hashanah as the anniversary of the day that God created Adam.

[1] Exodus 23:15-16