According to the Jewish calendar the Passover in 2013 was on March 26th. However, according to the biblical calendar this is an intercalary year in which a 13th month needs to be added and the true biblical Passover is actually on the night of April 23rd, the beginning of the 14th of Aviv, the first month of the biblical year.
How can one be absolutely sure from scripture?
The Biblical calendar is a solar/lunar calendar (Gen 1:14) with the sun ruling the day and the moon ruling the month and the sun and stars ruling the year (Ps 104:19). Since the lunar month is only 29.5 days a lunar year of 12 months will only consist of 354 days, and if a 13th month was not added within a few years Passover would be kept in December/January in the dead of winter.
The Jewish calendar also adds a 13th month, as does any calculating of a lunar biblical calendar not to have Passover and the holy days fall out of season (Ex 13:10). The Jewish calendar also uses the vernal equinox as the dividing point between the old year and the new, as did almost all ancient calendars in antiquity. There is nothing in the bible about starting the year based on the barley harvest.
This was too arbitrary and how would Noah has known when barley was seen on the ark, or any biblical person before Israel entered the Promised Land in 1443 B.C.? Also, barley grows quite different from place to place and even in Egypt where Israel came out from the barley harvest there is in late January or early February depending on the year and weather. Clearly the sun, moon and stars were given to calculate the biblical calendar.
Gen 1:14 And Elohim said, Let light sources be in the expanse of the heavens, to divide between the day and the night. And let them be for signs and for (Holy day) seasons, and for days and years.
Also, clearly the Holy Days of Yahweh had to be kept in their season and not at any time of the year as each Holy Day depended on the harvest of its particular season associated with it.
Exo 13:10 And you shall keep this ordinance at its appointed time (in its season), from year to year.
Exo 12:2 This month (Aviv) shall be the head of months for you. It shall be the first of the months of the year for you.
So, the question is not whether to add a 13th month but when to add the 13th month. Since Exodus 12:2 clearly states that Aviv 1 and not simply Passover is the dividing line between the old year and the New Year, it would not be correct to start the New Year 10 or 11 days into Aviv, to simply have the Passover fall in the New Year, but have the other 10 days in the old year. Also, according to the biblical reckoning you cannot have Sukkot start before the autumn equinox.
Exo 34:22 And you shall observe a Feast of Weeks for yourself, the first-fruits of the harvest of wheat; also the Feast of Ingathering after the turn of the year.
The Hebrew word for turning of the year is “Tekufah” and is the word used for equinox for a revolution of the sun. If you start your year before the spring equinox you will not have your Holy Days fall after the autumn equinox. Also, every Holy Day needs the harvest fruits for whichever feast celebration is being done. In the spring you need the new grain for the wave sheaf offering on the feast of firstfruits, and in the fall you need the 7 harvest fruits for the Sukkot celebration. If you start your year too early in the winter while the old year is still going on many years you will not have ripe harvest grain or fruits in the spring or fall. This year 2013 the Jewish feast of Sukkot will start September 19th, but the turning of the year (tekufah, equinox) is not until September 22nd; clearly proving the Jewish calendar in 2013 is incorrect. Even look at the following quote from the Rabbis own writings in the Talmud stating that if Sukkot fell before the autumn equinox than a 13 month must be added to avoid this.
Should the Tekufah of Tammuz extend till after the Succoth Festival, or the Tekufah of Tebeth till the sixteenth of Nisan, the year would be intercalated, so that the festivals might fall in their due seasons, viz., Passover in Spring, Succoth in Autumn.(Sanh 11b)
The reason to wait until after the tekufah (equinox) or turning of the year for Sukkot is quite simple; not only does the fall harvest have to be ripe before Sukkot, but it has to be harvested as this is the main reason of the feast. That reason being to take the harvest fruits of the dates, and the pomegranates, and the figs, and the wine and the olives. That is why it is called the feast of “ingathering”. It is inconceivable that Israelites would have went to Jerusalem for Sukkot empty handed, as it would be about a month trip turnaround from the time leaving until returning, while their harvest fruits would have ripened and fell and rotted while they were away. If one biblically waits until after the tekufah (equinox) to start the year, then they will always have Sukkot after the autumn tekufah and the fruits will be ripened and harvested.
The current Jewish calendar was not the one used in biblical times and there is ample proof that in biblical times they always waited to start the New Year until the old year was complete after the spring equinox or Tekufah. Please reference the Chapter in my new book on the Biblical calendar called ‘When Does the Year Begin” for more extensive proof to the beginning of the biblical year at www.coyhwh.com.
There is one more proof that the Jewish calendar was incorrect this year. Judah went into captivity in 586-572 BC by the Babylonians and when they returned they syncretized the biblical calendar with the Babylonian one. This is when they also started to visually sight a crescent moon to start the month, instead of the biblical conjunction.
The Jewish Rabbis also were cast out of Israel by Hadrian and the Romans in 132-135 AD, this was after Titus destroyed the temple in 70 AD. The Jewish encyclopedia clearly states that the modern Jewish calendar was created in this Diaspora from 358 Ad until around 1,000 Ad or later. Being outside of the physical land of Israel they lost all connection with the connection of the harvest fruits with the biblical calendar.
There was a small group of Sadduceen priests who never were cast out of Israel into Diaspora and who keep the biblical calendar intact. These people today are called Samaritans and they have taken DNA tests to proof that these Samaritan priests are indeed Levites. They have records claiming their decent all the way back to Aaron.
I have met and am friends with one of the head priests and our pilgrim groups and school have visited them many times. Interesting enough they also start the biblical month at conjunction, and attest that crescent moon sighting came from Babylon, paganism, and Islam.
So when are the Samaritans, who actually are the only provable true priesthood of Levites alive today and who still sacrifice the Passover lamb exactly according to the book of Exodus keeping the Passover in 2013?
They are keeping it exactly as the Congregation of Yahweh Jerusalem is on the evening of April 23rd, 2013, which is the beginning of the 14th of Aviv, the first month of the biblical year.