If there was this division on the start of the month in Christ's day the residual question would be who was right - the Galileans or the priests and Pharisees? If Christ as Firstfruits rose from the dead on the 16th, that would solve that question. The Priests were right on their calculation of the first of the month.

The other interesting question this view generates is which lamb escaped from the priests when the veil was torn? There were probably hundreds of passover lambs offered that day at the temple. Christ died about the 9th hour which is about 3 PM. This would be during the time when these lambs were being slain, before the corporate evening sacrifice so it would have been one of these that escaped. We're that lamb that escaped.

Mark, I do not understand what is wrong with this. I am under the impression, can't find it again, but that Ellen White said or implied that Christ's last supper was eaten before the actual passover everyone else would eat, that it was not really intended as the passover as Christ Himself was the passover, that the meal and footwashing service served to institute in the place of the Jewish Passover. Therefore, the meal Christ ate with the disciples was not the Jewish Passover, but a supper Christ ate with the disciples in preparation for Christ as the Passover later that day, and as preparation to the replacement of communion with the Jewish rites and ceremonies.

There was a James who basically said in his false prophesy that the Southern hemisphere didn't really count.

What do you say, concerning any validity to using the equinox rather than a local determination for the Jewish economy for determining the start of the year? Does South America / Australia count? When should their year start, given the thought that ancient Jewish year beginnings affect current times? Taken further, when should those exactly on the equator start their year?

Elle was not able to say how to determine when the equinox is. If the equinox cannot be determined at any preciseness far from the equator, unless I'm wrong, it would even be harder to determine it near the equator.


Whereas, anyone living in an agricultural economy could easily determine whether grain was going to be ripe within a month.

Did you miss my last few posts? I agree with Dedication and APL now. She did a good job reviewing the passages in John. I'm convinced this explanation is valid and harmonizes all four gospels.

Regarding the equinox vs the harvest the reason I asked for a presentation on this from you and Dedication is that I thought I might have missed something. I've reviewed the scriptures you quoted and your reasoning and I'm not convinced yet. The evidence still favors the equinox IMO but I don't want to belabor. If you haven something new I'm always open to scripture and how it applies.


If you're referring to James as a false prophet, be careful of your labels. In the last days the gift of prophecy will be widespread because the promise in Joel is that the Lord will pour out His spirit on all flesh. That's the case even with reprobates. Those who like Pharaoh are enlightened during the latter rain may even utter prophesies like King Saul but harden their hearts. They will be lost but when the time comes the gospel and holy spirit will cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. If that's the case, we ought to expect that many sincere believers who have the prophetic gift will not understand all scripture accurately and will be wrong on some things. Many children will have the gift but will not be experts in the word. And some with the prophetic gift may not always clearly know the difference between a word from the Lord and their impressions.

Ok, I thought you agreed with only portions of what they said. I guess when you said something about "not persuasive" made me think you disagreed. But I missed the part about arriving at a true understanding.

We gave texts supporting harvest determining the new year. Whether that's convincing or not is one thing, but what verses are there about the equinox?

Your advice about last day prophecy is good, but after some totally off the wall, makes one want to reject anything related. But that is an interesting thought (or dilemma) about some may have a true gift, but not know where their opinions start and end. Hmmm, how does one sort through that.

Regardless of whether there are or are not verses about the equinox, how does one determine when it is, given the capabilities of the Israelites?

The ancient Jews and oriental cultures were not as backward as we might think. Simple instruments have been found that were used for determining the equinox. The Jews have consistently been at the forefront of invention for millennia. Solomon's temple has never been equaled for architectural and artistic perfection. Some claim the best of Greek architecture was inspired by but dimly reflected it's magnificence and beauty.

The ancients were obsessed with astronomy and astrological knowledge. All over the world we still find huge monuments (and smaller ones) that were perfectly lined up to show equinoxes and many other events connected with planets, stars, and the sun.

"Many ancient cultures studied the stars and cosmic phenomena so brilliantly that they were able to produce magnificent works with such high precision star-alignments that we are still baffled by them till now."

For example the three pyramids of Giza of Egypt, built millenniums prior to Christ, are a perfect reproduction of the 3 stars of Orion’s belt.

Or the calendars produced by the ancient Mayans --
one made quite a sensation a few years ago.



A lot of it has an eerie sense to it -- linked heavily with pagan worship,
which has always made me somewhat uncomfortable when it gets into the religious realms too heavily.

Is it of God, or is it occultic?

I do know that Kabbalism, (mystical religion) took rather firm root in the Jewish religion, and we need to be careful in discriminating between what is biblical and what came from Kabbalism when we turn to rabbinical literature.

Seems the Biblical method was based on crops ripening, not on equinoxes?