Challenging the "new moon" advocates

It never fails - with the annual return of nearly every Biblical Feast time, Messianic believers become split over whether to celebrate the Feasts according to the Hebrew calendar, or to wait until the sighting of a new moon, (i.e. the "sighted crescent"). These arguments become especially vicious during Passover when the crescent advocates become adamant that the Feast can't start until after a new moon has been sighted and "the barley has ripened"....

There are also those who insist God's calendar is not solar and we must concentrate only on the moon. If that's true, then YHWH is a liar, because the following passages clearly show that the moon and the sun work together to bring in the signs, seasons, days and years - see the following:

Genesis 1: 14 God said, "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to divide the day from the night; let them be for signs, seasons, days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the dome of the sky to give light to the earth"; and that is how it was. 16 God made the two great lights - the larger light to rule the day and the smaller light to rule the night - and the stars. 17 God put them in the dome of the sky to give light to the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 So there was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day.. (CJB)

Psalm 19: 1 For the leader. A psalm of David: The heavens declare the glory of God, the dome of the sky speaks the work of his hands. 2 Every day it utters speech, every night it reveals knowledge. 3 Without speech, without a word, without their voices being heard, 4 their line goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them he places a tent for the sun, 5 which comes out like a bridegroom from the bridal chamber, with delight like an athlete to run his race. 6 It rises at one side of the sky, circles around to the other side, and nothing escapes its heat. (CJB)

Revelation 12: 1. And a great wonder was seen in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2. And, being with child, she cried and labored, and had the pangs of giving imminent birth. (AENT)

Man had to watch the signs in the heavens (all the signs) in the days before calculated and printed calendars were devised, but we know relying solely on the 1st crescent today isn't viable - and the reasons are many...one of them being that the 1st crescent is never observed at the same lunar "age" month after month. The appearance of the 1st crescent new moon^* only means, without exception, that "the new month" has already happened. If one relies only on the "sighted crescent" then all the other many signs of the moon have been ignored!

(^*Note: The term "new moon" takes on many meanings. For most people today it only means that the moon has returned to the night sky after sunset while appearing as a crescent. What we see is called "new moon" for several days while it is waxing. But the actual "new moon" is the period immediately following the passing of the moon through the imaginary plane between the sun and the earth. Though this "moment" (conjunction) is not directly observable, this must be the scriptural definition of "new moon" because the moon has passed from "old" to "new", even though the first visible sign (the first crescent) will not be manifested till sunset one or two nights after the moon actually became "new". Truthfully, when you can see the new crescent, it is only a sign that the new moon has already happened and the new month has already begun.)

YHWH never prescribed the determination of the beginning of the month by the sighting of the crescent moon. Many say it is found in scripture, but it is simply not found. It is only decreed that certain days of the month were to be observed, and some observances are at the "middle" of the month, (i.e., centered on the full moon - the moon's "sign" of the middle of the month), so it is very important to determine when the month should begin so the proper day of the full moon can be observed when the calendar says it is the middle of the month! Even the ancients were smart enough to determine when the New Month began, and the sighting of the 1st crescent was nothing more than a celebratory confirmation that it had happened. (See Maimonides, "Sanctification of the New Moon.")

The Hebrew calendar, which is based on the sun for the year, and the moon for the month, never has a month of fewer than 29 days or more than 30 days because the calendar "day", which is by the sun, must be a full day, while the actual lunar month is never exactly 29 or 30 days. It averages 29.53^† days, with a maximum of 29.84 days and a minimum of 29.27 days. A "lunar month" of 29.53 days doesn't fit exactly into any 29 day or 30 day calendar month! So you will find a new moon always occurs sometime during the period between the last day of the lunar month and the first day of the next lunar month - whether the current calendar month is 29 or 30 days!

(^†Note: Some argue that the ancients did not know this number but the truth is they did! It takes only a few consecutive months of watching the moon, noting the number of days between some observable phase of the moon to the same-phase the next month. This is easily done, for example, by watching the 1st quarter moon to 1st quarter moon or last quarter to last quarter. The number of days in the lunar month is rapidly found to converge to the average of 29.53 days. The ancient Hebrews determined the number much more precisely to be 29.53059 days, remarkably close to the modern value.)

If one adheres to the reasoning of the "1st sighted crescent" group by beginning the month only upon the sighting of the crescent, their calendar will always begin at least 1 day off and sometimes 2 days off from the real occurrence of the New Moon (which is conjunction), and the remainder of their calendar for the entire month will thus be off. The Full Moon is observed up to two calendar days early, and if it is the sunset of the 30th day and the crescent is not sighted, the new month must begin since the month cannot contain more than 30 days!

And what do crescentists suggest we do when another part of the world does not sight the New Moon until then next night? Are we to keep many different calendars by location where the crescent is spotted? And if the whole world must wait for the announcement of the sighting of the crescent in Israel before the month is known, how are feast days scheduled and planned? For example, the very first day of the month of Tishri is a High Holy Day - the Feast of Trumpets! If we must wait till the moon is sighted in Israel to know which day is the special Shabbat of the Feast of Trumpets, half the world would miss the proper day! This is why we have to apply some rationality to this situation. Even the ancients knew this! And that's where the proper calendar comes in!

If YHWH said that a certain feast falls on a certain day of the month, then that is when the feast should be held and the calendar date should alway match the date revealed by the moon.

Leviticus 23: 5 "'In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, between sundown and complete darkness [i.e. during Full Moon], comes Pesach for ADONAI.

Note YHWH said "in the first month on the fourteenth day" - and that very literally means that come the 14th at sunset, Pesach should be "announced" by a full or nearly full moon rising! It is, after all, the middle of the moon's month and the calendar should match the moon's "month"! (By the "sighted crescent" calendar, the moon is always seen to be "full" a day or two before the calendar date becomes the 15th of the month resulting in a perpetual mismatch.)

Examine the time of the Exodus. We are told the day of the month of the original Passover. The lambs were slaughtered at dusk on the 14th day of the month. That night, i.e. now the 15th of the calendar month, YHWH "passed over" Egypt and killed all the first born. Therefore, we know Passover was at Full Moon - sunset became the 15th of the month, there must have been a Full Moon. Therefore our calendars today must synchronize Nisan 14-15 with the Full Moon and that means the New Moon must be established when it was not possible to "see" it. (Many don't realize this simple fact. The calendar is supposed to reflect the signs of moon - all the signs, not just one! When the moon indicates it is at its "middle", i.e., a full moon, our calendar should also be at the middle, the 15th!)

To argue that the month cannot begin until new moon is sighted, is to elevate the importance of the moon to an idol or a god. Instead of looking at the moon for all the signs (Genesis 1:14), seeking only the new crescent leads people to revere the crescent. YHWH said not to do this.

Deuteronomy 4: 19 For the same reason, do not look up at the sky, at the sun, moon, stars and everything in the sky, and be drawn away to worship and serve them; ADONAI your God has allotted these to all the peoples under the entire sky.

Is it the month we celebrate or the crescent?

Leviticus 23: 24 "Tell the people of Isra'el, 'In the seventh month [chodesh], the first of the month [chodesh] is to be for you a day of complete rest for remembering, a holy convocation announced with blasts on the shofar. 25 Do not do any kind of ordinary work, and bring an offering made by fire to ADONAI.'"

Chodesh (חדש) literally means "to be new" or "renewed" month - it refers to a condition, i.e, the fact that the month has been renewed, it does not refer to a method of determining the new month and certainly not a "crescent".

Ancient translations of Psalm 81:3 (reproduced below) do not actual mention the "new moon" (or the full moon). The fact remains that we are commanded to blow the shofar at the new month, which is decidedly when the moon has passed from old-to-new, but not necessarily "sight" the crescent to determine the month. The Hebrew word shomer means to "guard, keep or take count of" (Genesis 26:5). It can only indirectly mean "to observe." Furthermore, if the crescent could not be sighted we still have to blow the shofar while the moon is astronomically new; that is to say, while in darkness.

Ancient reading: Blow the trumpets in the new moon [chodesh] [and] in the time appointed [ba'keseh, or full moon] on our solemn feast day. (Lamsa Aramaic reading.)

Nowhere do we find even a single Biblical example of sighting the crescent as a forward looking marker of "newness" of the month. Instead, when we look at one the main meanings of "new" and "full" above, we find clear evidence that message is the "state" or condition of the month [chodesh] and does not refer to nor imply "sighting the crescent":

“You have heard, look at them all. And do you not declare it? From now on I shall make you hear new [chadash] ones, even hidden ones, which you have not known. “Now they shall be created and not long ago. And before this day you have not heard them, lest you should say, ‘Look, I knew them.’ (Isaiah 48:6-7, ISR)

So here we see clearly that "new" means "hidden, unknown things". If we then see evidence of it, like a first crescent, then it isn't "new" anymore! Here's another example:

“See, the former predictions have come, and new [chadash] ones I am declaring; before they spring forth I let you hear them.” (Isaiah 42:9, ISR)

Now we have two additional details: First, something is "new" before it springs forth. Again, wouldn't a crescent moon then be the precise form of "springing forth" that indicates a "past", hidden newness? Second, it says the old things, "have come to pass" which in Hebrew really means, "gone away". This is why the lunar month actually ends with the conjunction, at that time that the old moon and old month has literally "gone away"! For that reason Isaiah can't help recognizing that the same applies to the whole cosmos:

“For look, I am creating new [chadash] heavens and a new [chadash] earth, and the former shall not be remembered, nor come to heart. (Isaiah 65:17, ISR)

The reason why the former things are not remembered is again, because they are gone. Isaiah is not finished with defining "new" and linking it across the board:

“For as the new [chadash] heavens and the new [chadash] earth that I make stand before Me,” declares יהוה, “so your seed and your name shall stand. “And it shall be that from New [chadash] Moon to New [chadash] Moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” declares יהוה (Isaiah 66:22-23, ISR).

The imagery could not be clearer. When dealing with a brand new month, the new heavens and earth follow the same pattern as the "new things", starting from before they spring forth into the physical world! At a minimum this "strong suggestion" demands that said definition be taken into serious consideration rather than just cast aside for some visible crescent!

Finally, notice YHWH never said, "The new month begins when you actually sight the crescent"; He said, "The FIRST DAY of the month". That does not tell us how to establish the first day! Today, we all know the 1st day of the month because a proper calendar has determined it, hopefully in proper relation to the Moon. But in ancient times, while they knew the new month had arrived, they anxiously awaited the proof - when they saw the new crescent, they celebrated.

YHWH says the sun, moon, and stars are for "signs, seasons, days, and years" (Genesis 1:14). And he said the sun (larger light) and the moon (smaller) light were to rule over the day and night (Genesis 1:16-17). Notice He never said the "sighting" of moon determined the precise beginning of the month! It is a sign of the new month, yes, but so is the complete absence of the moon a very clear sign! The moon is not and should not be elevated to a role for which it was not created.

Thus it actually is the month we celebrate, not the crescent. To truly understand what determines the "new month" takes a full understanding of how the lunar month and calendar month are related, and how the passing of the moon from old-to-new during its conjunction with the sun both completes the old calendar month and begins the new calendar month. Only then can one come to realize that the new crescent is in no way the deciding factor of when the new month begins, rather, it is only the sign that the new month has already begun.

The bottom line is: YHWH doesn't want us bickering over these things; He simply wants us to obey the command to keep His Feasts! We'll know who was right and who was wrong about the timing of the feasts once we're out of our "earth suits." Nowhere are we told that we will not be allowed into Heaven if we failed to keep His feasts perfectly!