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Sabbatical and Jubilee Analysis Part Three
How to Count the Cycle
Transcribed and edited from video

https://www.answersoflife.com/

And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
(Lev 25:8-10 KJV)

We are continuing on our journey and our agenda through this multiple part series on the Sabbatical and the Jubilee. We have gone through the first two parts; we have a good understanding of the background, history and the Torah instructions and stipulations that have been made on this subject.

Today we are going into Part 3 – How to count the Sabbatical and Jubilee cycle. We will have several sections during this presentation. We will first talk about counting in sevens.

We have to be aware of the dating systems as we look at how to count the Sabbatical and the Jubilee. We will go back into Leviticus 25 again and look at the agricultural practices that are outlined in that section of scripture and end up looking at the alternatives for counting to the Jubilee. Let’s get started on our scope of analysis, we will complete this scope statement that we need to put our attention on.

We will look at the alternatives on counting and examine how the Jubilee is reconciled within the schedule itself and how to reconcile the Sabbatical cycle and the Jubilee timetable together.

After that we will determine if this is a 49 or 50 year repeating cycle, we have five options to look at that include adding the Jubilee to the 49th year, adding it to the first year, and some variations of that as well as looking at a separate intercalated 50^th year.

Background – Sabbatical and Jubilee Dating Systems

We have touched on dating systems already and will touch on it again this time and continue to remind ourselves that these dating systems are needful and useful to understand if we want to have an accurate assessment of the Jubilee date that the Bible specifies.

There are two main categories of dating systems, one is a spring reckoning which goes from Abib to Abib which would count the Sabbatical and/or the Jubilee depending upon the method a person employs starting in the month of Abib or Nisan. That would typically be March or April on our Gregorian calendar.

The alternative of that is a fall reckoning or Ethanim to Ethanim. Of course that would count the Sabbatical starting with Ethanim or Tishri which would be September or October on the Gregorian calendar. Again, I will be using these month names Abib or Nisan interchangeably and Ethanim and Tishri interchangeably also.

Remember that Abib and Ethanim are found in the scriptures, Nisan and Tishri are not, they are the Babylonian names of the Hebrew Calculated Calendar that is in effect today. The names Nisan and Tishri came out of the returning exiles from captivity in Babylon during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.

You might ask: Why do we care about the dating systems? We care because we want to determine the start and end month of the Sabbatical and/or the Jubilee year. What we are trying to get to is deciding and finding if there are dates in the scripture that show us when the Jubilee was originally outlined to be.

We certainly know from Leviticus 25 that there is a Sabbatical and a Jubilee in Torah, but when is it exactly? What is the cycle that is to be kept? Looking at these dating systems, and finding where the dates match up to what we find in the scripture helps to establish the Sabbatical and subsequently the Jubilee.

The other thing that is important about the dating systems is that we will continue to push forward to look at Ezekiel chapter 40. As I have mentioned before, we believe and understand it to be an announcement of when the Jubilee is and looking forward into the future and looking backward into the history.

Background – Counting Sevens
Sabbath day count
Wave sheaf count

The obvious first item to count in sevens is the Sabbatical day itself. Scriptures tell us in Exodus.

Remember the sabbath ^{H7676=Shabbat=intermission} day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath^H7676=same of YHWH thy Elohim: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days YHWH made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore YHWH blessed the sabbath^H7676=same day, and hallowed it. (Exo 20:8-11 KJV)

It isn’t man’s Sabbath, its YHWH’s Sabbath. Of course this is a simple calendar to figure out. A seven day week has not been changed since creation. Day one is the first day of the week and day seven is the seventh and our work days are days one through six and day seven which occurs on the day the world calls Saturday in the Gregorian calendar is the seventh day.

• Wave sheaf count

When you start to look into the scriptures you find that the seventh day is also the springboard from which we count the wave sheaf offering. In Leviticus 23 it says:

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before YHWH, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath ^{H7676=Shabbat=intermission} the priest shall wave it. (Lev 23:10-11 KJV)

• Day after weekly Sabbath = 1st day Sunday

These are clear instructions, the day after the weekly Sabbath is when the Wave Sheaf is to be offered. I know there is controversy about this that some say that it’s after the Sabbath during the first Sabbath of the First Day of Unleavened Bread. The problem with that is, the First and Last Day of Unleavened Bread as we will see here shortly, are not mentioned anywhere in the scriptures as Shabbats, they are mentioned as Holy Convocations.

Shavuot count (Pentecost)
Number seven weeks
Count from morrow after Sabbath ^{H7676=Shabbat=intermission}
Count from day you brought wave sheaf offering
Seven Sabbath’s shall be complete
Morrow after the seventh Sabbath is fiftieth day

The Wave Sheaf is to be started after the weekly Sabbath and when we count to Pentecost, or Shavuot, the scriptures show us that we number seven weeks and count from the morrow after the Sabbath.

We count from the day that you brought the wave sheaf offering and when seven Sabbath’s are complete the day after that is the 50^th day and that is Shavuot. Leviticus 23 shows us that:

And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath ^{H7676=Shabbat=intermission}, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths^H7676=same shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath ^H7676=same shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto YHWH. Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto YHWH. (Lev 23:15-17 KJV)

• 7 Sabbath cycles = 49 days
  Day after 7^th Sabbath = 50^th day ^{1st day of the week (Sunday)}
  Pentecost G400=pentekoste = 50^th day after Passover…

It’s interesting to note that this offering is baked with leaven as is the thanksgiving offering with the peace offering that is identified in Leviticus chapters 3 and 7. The instructions show us that there are seven Sabbath cycles of 49 days and the day after the seven Sabbaths is the 50^th day. That would be on our Gregorian calendar the first day of the week or Sunday.

In the Greek, when we see this major event in Acts 2 and 3 in the New Testament, the Shavuot is called Pentecost or Pentekoste as it would be in the Greek. Penta meaning 50 and koste meaning count, the 50^th day after Passover.

There is an amplification of this and a second witness about it all in Deuteronomy 16 that says:

Seven weeks ^{H7620=Shabua=sevened, a week, seven times} shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks ^H7620=same from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn. (Deu 16:9 KJV)

• Start harvest immediately after Wave Sheaf

Seven weeks or Shabua to be sevened is what that means. So seven weeks is the count that you make. Notice that this shows us that the harvest starts immediately after the wave sheaf. It can’t start before.

I know I’ve seen some opinions about this that in certain years if the harvest is early you can stack that up in the field prior to the wave sheaf. This scripture shows us that you can’t, you begin to number the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the corn, when you begin, and not before.

Background – Counting Sevens

• Shavuot count
  Number seven weeks (Lev 23:15)
  Count from morrow after Sabbath ^{H7676= Shabbat=intermission}
  Count from the day you brought wave sheaf offering that would be the green wave sheaf day on day one and make it seven Sabbaths complete.

We’ll take these instructions and outline them on a calendar. The first thing we do is to number seven weeks on the left hand side, week 1 through week 7 as is on this slide. Count from the day you brought the wave sheaf offering and make it 7 Sabbaths complete.

On the right side we complete seven Sabbaths and then the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you shall number 50. The count works out perfectly. It’s like it’s a double interlock to get to this 50^th day. When you start on the Wave Sheaf day and count to 50, it interlocks itself nicely.

It turns out that the Jubilee is counted with the same methodology.

Background – Counting Sevens
Jubilee count

Number seven Sabbaths of years (Lev 25:8) 7 x 7 years
Seven Sabbaths ^{H7676=Shabbat=intermission} of years shall be 49 years
Sanctify the 50^th year and proclaim liberty in all your land (Lev 25:10)

We number seven Sabbaths of years in the Jubilee count. It’s the same calendar metrics but now we have seven cycles of years, because we are going to have seven sevens. We take seven times seven years, or Sabbaths shall be 49 years. It works out exactly the same as the count to Shavuot. The two accounting systems and calendar systems work perfectly together. It turns out one is in Leviticus 23 and one is in Leviticus 25 and it’s interesting to see that they are very close to one another and YHWH’s direction on this is consistent. He doesn’t have a different method for counting one or the other. They are the same.

The scriptures tell us to count with a full year cycle. We have grown to understand that Ethanim to Ethanim is the full year cycle. Others understand it differently so everyone has to do their own homework on it.

Ethanim to Ethanim is a revolution of time. The slide gives us a reminder of the orbital mechanics that we are working with. The sun is the larger orange spot in the middle, the earth is the blue medium size circle and it revolves around the sun. The small white circle or dot is the moon revolving around the earth. There is a double orbital mechanics going on here that you have to be aware of and I think it’s useful to understand it. Look at astronomy 101 to understand what the scriptures say.

Full Year Cycle
Ethanim to Ethanim – A Revolution of Time – Beginning of the year

In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning ^{H7218=roshe=the head, as most easily shaken, principal, first, forefront, top} of the year ^{H8142=shawneh=a year, as a revolution of time}, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of YHWH was upon me, and brought me thither. (Eze 40:1 KJV)

We have read this before but there is a noteworthy comment inside of this scripture. The word ‘beginning’ is the word ‘roshe’ and it means the head or the principal, the shaken, the first, forefront or the top. So the ‘roshe’ of the year is ‘shawneh’, means a year, that is how it is typically translated. It also means a revolution of time and I think that is significant. In Hebrew, oftentimes we have a circular pattern of understanding, not a linear one. When we start looking at this subject of calendars, we oftentimes have a linear thinking in our mind because of the Gregorian calendar that we use.

We are going to start thinking about a revolution of time and you can see in the slide that the revolution has to complete somewhere. You can pick a spot, any spot, but one revolution starts at a spot and ends at a spot. It turns out that the scriptures tell us where that spot is.

“In the beginning of the year on the tenth day of the month”, is what this scripture in Ezekiel 40 says.

• Day of Atonement – the tenth day of Ethanim, or Tishri
• Combined as Rosh Ha-shanah – the only occurrence in scripture

I know there is a controversy about Rosh Ha-shanah that some people would say that Rosh and shanah here, or the head of the year would mean Abib but it doesn’t.

The head or the beginning of the year is the month of Ethanim ^{all month} The understanding of this is that the first day of Ethanim isn’t the head of the year, it’s all month, the full period of the month that is the head of the year because we know we also have the end of the year occurring in that month. We know Ethanim and the first day of the month, particularly it’s known as the Memorial of Trumpets.

• 1^st day – commonly known as Memorial of Trumpets (in contrast to the month of Abib)
  cf. Abib = green, young ears ^{all month}, again, Abib one isn’t green or young ears, it’s the whole month is green or young ears. It’s the month of green things if you will.

Ezekiel knew the difference – not Abib
He was actually an outstanding calendar student. He kept track of the calendar and I consider him one of the best examples in scriptures of keeping track of calendar and dates. Of course he was a Levite and a priest so it’s not surprising that he would have paid attention to the calendar. Before the scripture in Ezekiel 40 that we just read, chapter 29 has an interesting reference to the calendar.

And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the word of YHWH came unto me, saying, (Eze 29:17 KJV)

Ezekiel is talking about the first month and the first day. Is that the beginning of the year? Would that be Rosh-shanah? Ezekiel didn’t call it that. He also had another reference in the next chapter.

And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, in the seventh day of the month, that the word of YHWH came unto me, saying, (Eze 30:20 KJV)

Jumping forward to chapter 45, in other words 5 chapters after Ezekiel 40 he says:

Thus saith YHWH Elohim; In the first month, in the first day of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary: (Eze 45:18 KJV)

Ezekiel in chapter 40 is saying it’s the head of the year. He obviously would have called it the first month and the first day or the tenth day of the month which would be the selection of the lambs instead of the Day of Atonement, the day of proclaiming the Jubilee. Ezekiel knew the difference so when we compare these scriptures, and you can go look in Ezekiel to see that there are a number of calendar references that follow this pattern.

• Ezekiel used 1^st month dating examples
  First month not beginning of the year
  Seventh month is the beginning ^{H7218=roshe=the head, as most easily shaken, principal, first, forefront, top} of the year.

We like to think in terms of new year, that is really a poor choice of words because YHWH’s calendar isn’t about a new year, it’s about the beginning of a year and the end of a year.

• Agrarian calendar – This is about agriculture is what it boils down to.
• Nehemiah knew the difference of when the months were from a dating standpoint.

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu ^{9th month – keslev}, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, (Neh 1:1 KJV)

And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. (Neh 2:1 KJV)

The point of these two scriptures are that in Nehemiah 1 and 2, he is talking about a range of months, from the 9^th month through the 1^st month, being the 20^th year of the king of Persia, which is Artaxerxes. Nehemiah is including these months which on the Hebrew calendar today would be Chisleu and Nisan. He is calling them to be the same calendar year and the only way that would be possible is if you started counting from a month prior to the 9^th month which would be Ethanim. It’s an interesting example.

• End of the Year

What is important about this particular slide so far is that the year is determined by the revolution of Earth around the sun ^{a revolution of time}

We get another clarification of this in Exodus 23 that talks about the end of the year.

And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end ^{H3318=yawtsaw=to go out, go forth, come forth, appear} of the year ^{H8141=shawneh=a year as a revolution of time}, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field. (Exo 23:16 KJV)

Here, the end is the going out of the year is when your ingathering completes. What happens after the year goes out is that the new one comes in. The Hebrew Roots Bible amplifies this a bit.

Also the Feast of Ingathering, at the going out of the year, at your gathering your work from the field. (Exo 23:16 HRB)

This reference in Exodus 23 is a good one. Note how the end of the year is in Hebrew, the end is ‘yawtsaw’ and the year is ‘shawneh’ a revolution of time. YHWH is keeping the calendar by looking at the revolution of the earth around the sun. He isn’t looking at the completion of the year by the moon going around the earth, but going around the sun.

Here is a different example of the same methodology. In this case the year’s end is translated from a Hebrew word ‘tequphah’, which means a revolution of the sun. You will find four examples of tequphah in the scripture and two of them refer to this orbital mechanics. One refers to the cycle of childbirth.

And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s ^{H8141= shawneh=a year as a revolution of time} end ^{H8622=tequphah=a revolution of the sun, course of time, circuit} . (Exo 34:22 KJV)

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. (Exo 34:22 HRB)

Tequphah is not about dividing up the four seasons, the rabbinic record in the Mishnah and Talmud try to make the case that the tequphah lines up with the two equinox’s and the two solstice’s. That would not be the case scripturally because what we see here is a revolution of the earth around the sun and a complete circuit or orbit of it that is specified happening at years end around the Feast of Tabernacles.

Hannah’s childbirth of Samuel in 1 Samuel 1:20, talks about the same tequphah, or cycle of things. Hannah had a nine month cycle obviously.

• The Feast of Tabernacles is the festival when the harvest is celebrated. It is the completion of one full orbit of the earth around the sun. The old year is going out and a new year is coming in. I don’t like to think of it as ‘new year’, we like to think because of our Gregorian conditioning that we have January 1 which is the new year’s day and it’s a big celebration.

That is not what the scriptures show us. This is about the completion of a revolution around the sun.

Again, it’s about agriculture. Preparing and planting for next year’s harvest begins immediately after the Feast of Tabernacles.

On our small farm here in Montana it is exactly what we do. The harvest has been completed by the Feast of Tabernacles and we start working on next year’s garden and crop activity. If we were planting wheat we would be planting it after we had gotten the weeds and rocks out. This is an interesting discovery to see this revolution of time associated with these scriptures. This is in contrast to the beginning of months.

Full Year Cycle – Beginning of Months – A Point in Time

• Beginning of months in Exodus 12 shows us that.

This month shall be unto you the beginning ^{H7218=roshe=the head as most easily shaken, principal, first forefront, top} of months ^{H2320=chodesh=new moon, month}: it shall be the first month of the year to you. (Exo 12:2 KJV)

Here this shows us the beginning of Rosh, but instead of Rosh Ha-shannah it’s Rosh Chodesh which means a new moon. Each month is inaugurated with the new moon that comes.

This is the numbering system that YHWH has established. It’s the first month of the year and it does not say it’s the new year, it says the first month of the year.

• Rosh Chodesh = head of the month = 1^st month in Exodus 12:2 ^{doesn’t say new year} – compared to:
• Rosh Ha-shannah = head of year = 7^th month
• Biblical calendar numbers the months starting in the middle of the year (agricultural cycle)
• 1^st month (Abib) starts the first fruit harvest
• Month determined by the revolution of the moon around the earth.

Numbering the months start in the middle of the agricultural cycle. The first month starts with Abib with the first fruits harvest. That is a good place to put number 1. The month is determined by the revolution of the moon around the earth. Keep that in mind. Actually, this orbital mechanic of the moon and the earth happens twelve or thirteen times or cycles, to complete the full orbit of the earth around the sun. They are two independent orbital mechanics that are going on. It’s useful to keep this in your mind’s eye as you look at matters associated with calendar.

• Two Biblical calendars – zero scriptural evidence
  Rabbinic tradition
  Civil year (starting in Ethanim)
  Sacred year (starting in Abib)
  No scriptures states new year starts with Abib
  Month number one is Abib, not the new year
  Abib referred to as beginning of months
  Gregorian calendar conditioning – new year is first month (January)

The idea that there are 2 Biblical calendars is from our view, totally incorrect. There is no scriptural evidence for this thinking; it’s only rabbinic tradition that establishes this and people like to run with it. You find it in the Talmud and the Mishnah again and the idea is that there is a civil year which starts in Ethanim, and the sacred year which starts in Abib. No scripture states there is a new year that starts with Abib.

The month number one is Abib; it doesn’t mean it’s the new year. Abib is referred to as the beginning of months. Finally our Gregorian calendar conditioning has us thinking that the new year is the first month of some system. We think of it as in Gregorian calendar the first month and the first day is the new year. That is where our conditioning comes from.

If we were living in the agrarian time when the Israelites went into the Promised Land and established the United Monarchy and the Divided Monarchy after that, your life would be centered on agriculture, planting, sowing and reaping.

The layout of the calendar shows us how that occurs. Sowing is effectively the start of the year, you sow crops before you reap them. When you start your reaping, that activity starts in Abib, that is why that is the beginning of months. It is appropriate that YHWH has called month number one, the first fruits of your reaping. He could have called it anyway he wants but this is the way he has done it according to the scriptures as we have examined them.

Full Year Cycle – Two regnal Dating Systems
Controversial

There are two different dating systems that you find for the establishment of the anniversaries for kings. Obviously this is controversial; many of the calendar topics are controversial. There are lots of ideas and opinions, but what I want to present is what I find from the research that we have done.

• Tishri to Tishri

United Monarchy – ca. 1030 – 931 BCE
Solomon’s regnal dating – used by successors
Southern Kingdom – 930 – 587 BCE

The first dating system is set from Tishri to Tishri, month seven to month seven. When you research this you find the United Monarchy kept this method of anniversary counting for the kings, particularly Solomon which would be from 1030 to 931 BCE.

What Solomon identifies for us was used by the successors of the Southern Kingdom. After Solomon died the kingdom split after over a tax matter there was a civil war from 930 to the final fall of Jerusalem in 587 and the destruction of the first Temple. Tishri to Tishri dating system was used to establish the anniversaries for the kings.

• Southern Kingdom AKA House of Judah – three tribes
  Worshiped at the 1^st Temple
  Accession dating ^{zero year – tenure prior to 1st anniversary} until King Jehoram in 848 BCE
  Non-accession ^{no zero year} 848 – 587 BCE ^{per E. Thiele}

I would submit that if the kings were keeping their anniversaries that way, the rest of the calendar was being kept that same set of boundaries. What we know is that the Southern Kingdom, also known as the House of Judah, worshiped at the First Temple. Of course that would have included Benjamin, Levi and Judah. I think it’s notable that they worshiped at the First Temple because when we look at the Northern Kingdom we will find that they worshipped at Bethel, and they worshiped idols.

There are two complications to these dating systems and that is the terminology that is used of accession dating versus non-accession dating. Fundamentally accession dating is counting with a zero year and that there is a period of accession of the king until he gets to year one anniversary. This accession dating provides his tenure prior to his first anniversary, it’s much like childbirth. A baby is born and doesn’t turn year one until after 12 months passes by and it is the same idea in accession dating. Year one occurs at some point in time, at some boundary later and that boundary in this case is Tishri.

In contrast, non-accession dating mean there is no zero year. The accounting for the king’s tenure in office starts day one when he goes into office regardless of what month or day of the month that is. We find that non-accession dating occurred for the most part, in the Southern Kingdom starting in 848 down through 587 and the Fall of Jerusalem. For the most part they were keeping Tishri to Tishri and non-accession dating. A great reference to this is Edwin Thiele’s book “The Mysterious Numbers of the Kings”. It’s a good resource for your library.

• Josiah Tishri regnal dating

There is an example of Tishri to Tishri regnal dating in Josiah’s time in 2^nd Kings. This account is about Shaphan finding the Book of the Law, taking it to Josiah, and then Josiah reading it and putting in a reform project to straighten out the country.

And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan…to the house of YHWH, saying, (2Ki 22:3 KJV)

The details of the account and what unfolded are somewhat important because when you see that Shaphan discovered this he said that it was the eighteenth year of King Josiah. Quite a number of activities happened:

Pay workers
Repaired Temple (longer than a few days)
Find and read Book of the Law
Gather elders, consult with Huldah
Destroy high places and pagan shrines throughout the land, north and south outside Jerusalem
Took longer than 2 weeks in Nisan

When we get to the next chapter we see that it is still the eighteenth year of King Josiah.

But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to YHWH in Jerusalem. (2Ki 23:23 KJV)

If we were dealing with Nisan dating, King Josiah’s tenure would have advanced one year when Nisan came around and it didn’t. In other words, we see that it is the eighteenth year of Josiah when a lot of work was done but it was still the eighteenth year when the Passover came. The point of it being that the transition of the year of his anniversary had to occur sometime outside of this window of time. That would back up to Ethanim or Tishri and it provides us with a good example of Josiah keeping his regnal anniversary in the same alignment with the Tishri dating system.

• Nisan to Nisan
  Northern Kingdom – ca 930 – 722 BCE
  This would be the time of Shalmaneser, Sargon and Sennicherib
• Aka Kingdom ^House of Israel or Samaria
  10 tribes
  Non-accession dating ^{no zero year}
  Worshipped golden calf at Dan and Bethel (the Southern Kingdom worshipped at the Temple.
  No scriptural evidence ^{Mysterious Numbers of Hebrew Kings}
  Conjecture – Jeroboam learned Nisan dating from Egyptian hiatus

The Nisan dating system was apparently used in the Northern Kingdom from the division of the United Monarchy 930 throughout the entire time the Northern Kingdom was in existence until 722 BCE when Shalmaneser, Sargon and Sennicherib, that group of Assyrian Monarchs took over and took the Northern Kingdom into captivity.

The Northern tribes had a lot of pagan practices and went into captivity a hundred and thirty five or so years prior to the Southern Kingdom and had nothing but bad kings. One of the considerations is that I can’t find any scriptural evidence of the dating systems for the Northern Kingdom. We can find several good accounts of the dating system for the Southern Kingdom but none for the Northern Kingdom other than the work that Edward Thiele has done in his book “Mysterious Numbers of Hebrew Kings.” There are a few other authors and what they have done is to be able to line up on a timeline when the Northern Kings ruled in contrast to when the Southern Kings ruled. The only way they line up is by using Nisan and non-accession dating. It’s conjecture but why did Jeroboam who started all of this in the Northern Kingdom use Nisan dating and it’s suspected that he was chased out of the United Monarchy by Solomon to Egypt on a hiatus for a period of time and learned lots of ways of the Egyptians.

Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. And Jeroboam arose, and fled into Egypt, unto Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon. (1Ki 11:40 KJV)

Jeroboam was in Egypt for some amount of time and probably learned the Nisan dating system from them. Also, he probably wanted to be different than the Southern Kingdom because he was different in his practice and honor to YHWH.

Full Year Cycle – Two Regnal Dating Systems
Controversial

The Mishnah weighs in on this subject of dating system and new years.

There are four new years: ^1. The first day f Nisan is the new year for kings and festivals; ^2. The first day Elul is the new year for tithing cattle. R Eleazar and R Simeon say “it is on the first day of Tishre.” ^3. The first day of Tishre is the new year for the reckoning of years, for Sabbatical years, and for Jubilees, for planting (trees) and for vegetables; ^4. the first day of Shebat is the new year for trees, in accord with the opinion of the House of Shammai. The House of Hillel say, “On the fifteenth day of that month (is the new year for trees:.”
Mishna Rosh Hashanah 1.1

There is controversy within this controversy even amongst the Rabbis so this is one of the foundational writings that you find. This isn’t scripture of course, it’s one of the writings that you find that lead people to start to think that there is a civil year versus a spiritual or religious year.

• Nisan – regnal anniversaries
  No scriptural support
  Scriptural examples show Tishri
• Tishri – Sabbatical and Jubilee anniversaries
• Late tradition – 3^rd century CE
• Arbitrary oral tradition – exact chronology of early kings ^{1st Temple} and Sabbatic years forgotten

I will show you how some try to make a Nisan to Nisan Sabbatical and Jubilee and why it doesn’t work. It’s the oral law, the oral traditions that have been handed down and one of the problems with the oral traditions is that the exact chronology of the early kings particularly the First Temple, the Sabbatic years have been forgotten.

There is no good record, there are certainly a number of remnants of dates available and you can assemble a good timeline from these remnants which is what we are attempting to do with this series, to get us to an actual Jubilee date.

• Calendar Set at Creation – Non-controversial

One thing that is not controversial is that the calendar was set at creation. What does it say in Genesis 1?

And Elohim said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night;

and let them be for signs ^{H226=oth=signal, flag, beacon},

and for seasons ^{H4150=moade=appointment, festival, set time},

and for days ^{H3117=yome=to be hot, sunrise to sunset},

and years ^{H8141=shawneh=a revolution of time}.
(Gen 1:14 KJV)

Isn’t it interesting that Elohim would say “let them be for years”. Also it says: “The lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for years”, a shawneh a revolution of time. This is a recent discovery to us and one that jumps off the page of Genesis chapter 1 because:

• What appointment is counted in years?

Well, it’s obvious that it’s the Sabbatical and Jubilee. Those are the only two appointments that are counted in years. Everything else is counted in a year or less, months, or dates of certain months of the year. What appointment is counted in years, you have to think about that as you consider what this says.

Full Year Cycle – Two Regnal Dating Systems
Solomon Used Tishri Reckoning

What this is talking about in 1 Kings 6 that we will examine here. Let’s see if Solomon gives us a clue to the dating system that he was using.

And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of YHWH. (1Ki 6:1 KJV)

It goes on:

In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of YHWH laid, in the month Zif ^{2nd month}: (1Ki 6:37 KJV)

It’s a clarification and a second witness of when all of this happened. How does it look? Using a Nisan dating year versus a Tishri dating year we can lay it out.

We know it’s the fourth year and the second month when this project started. There is only one possibility if we put the years of the dating system on the Nisan calendar years 4 – 12 on the top, and the years 4 – 12 of the Tishri dating system on the bottom there is only one way that it matches up here at the beginning. The fourth year and the second month of the Nisan model happens after month number 1 so it’s just after what we would call the beginning of the year.

In the Tishri model though, the second month doesn’t happen until late in the cycle of months because we start with month 7 and come to month 1 and just beyond month 1 would be month 2 so you see why these dating systems are spread so far apart. The months make a difference when you try to reconcile the scriptures that have dates in them. We know that much so far, and going on in the next verse in this account:

And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it. (1Ki 6:38 KJV)

That’s easy to add to this calendar layout, in the Nisan dating year we come out to the eleventh year and the eighth month. Notice when the year starts on the Nisan model, it’s month one so you have to go towards the end of the eleventh year to get to the eighth month in this timeline.

The Tishri dating model has the eighth month immediately after the seventh month which is the seventh month which is the beginning of the Tishri model year.

Why do we care? Well the rest of the scripture in this verse says “he was seven years in the building of it”. Now when you try to lay the seven construction years over the top of this you end up with a problem at the end because you can’t get seven years in between the start and the end point on the Nisan dating model. You have to use the Tishri dating model to get seven years to fit.

The seven year project is not possible using Nisan dating. I think this is a pretty interesting discovery and one that you may have to look at yourself, take a piece of paper and write it out yourself to see if these things are so. It is an easy conclusion that Solomon would have been using the Tishri dating model and it’s talking about his regnal years, I understand that but the regnal years would be an important part of the kingdom at that point in time. When is the anniversary of the king? Probably following the beginning of the year is. That is what this account obviously shows us.

Full Year Cycle – Two Regnal Dating Systems
Nehemiah Used Tishri Reckoning

I also said we would examine the account in Nehemiah so in chapter one

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu ^{9th month – Kislev}, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, (Neh 1:1 KJV)

He goes on in chapter 2:

And it came to pass in the month Nisan ^{1st month}, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. (Neh 2:1 KJV)

Notice that both accounts, the ninth month in the twentieth year and the first month in the twentieth year. They are appearing in the same calendar year, and if we look at this from Nisan dating, dated in months this time.

We will start in month 6 -7 – 8- 9 – 10, and so forth. We get to month twelve in the Nisan model, we have to turn around and start over counting again with a new year in month 1 -2 -3. So far so good……and the Tishri model we will end up with months 9 – 10 – 11 – 12, and we don’t start a new year until the seventh month in the Tishri dating model.

But what are we told here? It’s all the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, and that wouldn’t be possible if the Nisan dating system was used because when we got to the first month it would have been the twenty first year in the first month. Not the twentieth year in the first month.

This is another good example of dating out of what is the Second Temple period. These are two good examples that we know of, and actually the one with Josiah is another third good one.

Instructions for Sabbatical and Jubilee
Agriculture

This is all about agriculture as I have said and what we will do in this next section of the presentation is to look at Leviticus chapter 25 and glean out of it that which has to do with agriculture sowing and reaping. Eating and when you can and when you can’t. We will try to glean that information out and apply it to how we calculate the Jubilee and Sabbatical.

1. And YHWH spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, (Lev 25:1 KJV)

2. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath ^{H7676=Shabbat=intermission} unto YHWH. (Lev 25:2 KJV)

3. Six years ^{H8141=shawneh=a year, as a revolution of time} thou shalt sow thy field, and six years ^H8141=sane thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; (Lev 25:3 KJV)

Notice the orbital model. In Leviticus 25:3 it says six “shawneh’s” which means a complete revolution of time. We need to get six complete revolutions of the earth around the sun to fulfil this.

And you shall sow and you shall prune and gather its fruit. Notice that sowing and pruning are first and then harvesting or gathering in the fruit.

1. Given at Mount Sinai early in the time that the Israelites had just left Egypt.

2. Keep a Sabbatical
1^st commonwealth – ca. 1406 BCE
2^nd commonwealth – ca. 538 BCE

3. Sow, prune and reap for 6 years
6 full year agriculture cycles
Every occurrence of “years or year” in Lev 25 references H8141
Means full calendar year ^{a revolution of time}
Cycle starts with sow and prune – ends with reap (gather or harvest)
Sowing and pruning precede harvest by 4-6 months – depending on location and climate
Sowing cycle in OT Israel started Oct-Nov timeframe ^{Kheshvan and Kislev} – after FOT
Harvest cycle takes place in months 1-6 the following spring -summer
Each of the six years of harvest follows this cycle

The instruction that YHWH gave the Israelites was at Mt. Sinai early in the time that the Israelites had just left Egypt. They were at Mt. Sinai for a period of eleven months so the Book of Leviticus was given toward the end of their stay. Likely within the first year of their sojourn out of Egypt was when Leviticus was written.

It says “When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath”, I would comment that yes, the land that they came into was the land of Israel but I suggest that this scripture applies to us today. When we come into the land which YHWH has given us, we need to realize that YHWH gave us this land to sojourn on. Wherever you are, YHWH has given that to you and particularly if you are oriented toward any type of agriculture, this ought to be paid attention to because we want to be good custodians of YHWH’s land.

Keeping the Sabbatical was viewed by the Second Temple authorities as a new beginning so what we have in terms of keeping the Sabbatical of this is the first commonwealth started in about 1406 BCE. The second commonwealth started after the return of the exiles from captivity under the rulership of the Persian King Cyrus. The second commonwealth restarted the Sabbatical counting but they didn’t start it according to the continuation of the first count. They started it anew and it doesn’t line up.

The Scriptures tell us to sow, prune and reap for six years, that means six full agricultural cycles and you will notice if you look at Leviticus 25 that every occurrence of year or years is this reference to shawneh, Strong’s Concordance H8141 and it means a full calendar year. It means a revolution of time. The cycle starts with sowing and pruning and ends with reaping, or gathering in of your harvest.

Your sowing and pruning obviously has to precede your harvest and depending on the crop, the location and climate 4 to 6 months. If it’s in the Promised Land in Israel, it’s different in the land that we live in here in Montana. We have cold, brutal winters but warm enough summers that we can grow a harvest.

The sowing cycle in the Old Testament started around October/November on our Gregorian calendar after the Feast of Tabernacles. The harvest takes place starting in months 1 – 6, you don’t harvest before month 1 per the scriptures. The Wave Sheaf offering is your first fruit which is the barley harvest. That is the commencement of your harvest cycle.

Each of the six years of harvest follows this cycle. It isn’t different on years two or four, every cycle is the same because the earth is revolving around the sun.

4. Leviticus 25:4 (NKJV)

but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath ^{H7676=Shabbat=intermission} of solemn rest ^{H7677=Shabbathon=from H7676, sabbatism (intermission of labor), special holiday} for the land, a sabbath ^H7676=same to YHWH. You shall neither sow ^{H2232=disseminate, plant, fructify} your field nor prune ^{H2168=to trim} your vineyard.

It should be clear, don’t sow or prune in the 7^th year, it’s a Sabbath of rest. This terminology – Sabbath of rest is quite stunning once you understand it, and put it into your mind to think about because this Sabbath of rest for the land is no different than the Sabbath of rest of the week or the Sabbath of rest for the Day of Atonement. The scriptures use the same exact terminology. Sabbath of Shabbathon

Three Sabbaths of rest

1. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a Sabbath ^{H7676=Shabbat=intermission} of rest ^{H7677=Shabbathon=from H7676, a Sabbatism (intermission of labor), special holiday)} to YHWH: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.
(Exo 35:2 KJV)

2. It shall be unto you a Sabbath ^H7676=same of rest ^H7677=same, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.
(Lev 23:32 KJV)

3. But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath ^H7676=same of rest ^H7677=same unto the land, a Sabbath for YHWH: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.
(Lev 25:4 KJV)

We know the importance of the weekly Sabbath and the importance of the annual Day of Atonement, but what about the Sabbath of rest, this one year rest for the land? How important is that, or should it be to us? I would argue that this should be of the same importance as the weekly Sabbath or the Day of Atonement. The scriptures are strong in how it is identified.

Instructions for Sabbatical and Jubilee – Three Types of Appointments – Sabbath of Rest

A brief sidebar to remind us about the three types of appointments that we see in the scriptures and we have used this chart before but this is a good time to remind us that one type is a Holy Convocation. Every type is a Holy Convocation but only some are listed as such. Those include the Passover, 1DOUB, LDOUB and Shavuot. Those days are listed as Holy Convocations which means a Sacred Meeting. They are not listed anywhere as Shabbats or Shabbathons.

Shabbathons are listed as special Holy Days and they include Trumpets, Feast of Tabernacles and the Eighth Day. You will find reference to each of those three as a Shabbathon in the scriptures.

The Shabbat or Sabbath itself are the three categories that I have already mentioned, Seventh day Sabbath, Day of Atonement and the Sabbatical year.

The Sabbatical year is important to YHWH, His land is important. We have a lot of instruction provided for us but today, so few have paid any attention to thinking of its importance.

Hopefully this presentation will put some attention on it.

5. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap ^{H7114=dock off, harvest,} neither gather ^{H1219=clip off} the grapes of thy untended ^{H5139=unpruned} vine: for it is a year of rest ^H7677=same unto the land.
(Lev 25:5 NKJV)

It sounds like this is saying you shall not reap your volunteers.

5. Cannot harvest or sell volunteers – for profit or income

• As a standalone statement, this seems to indicate volunteers not to be harvested for personal consumption, however we will read the next verse in this series, it provides some clarification.

And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you
(Lev 25:6 NKJV)

Verse 5 it appears that it says you are not to pick it but verse 6 says that it shall be food for you. I think it’s easy to reconcile this contradiction by looking at what the purpose of the food is.

• Apparent contradiction reconciled by examining Leviticus 25:20.

And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase ^{H8393=tebooaw=income, produce, fruit, gain, increase or revenue}: (Lev 25:20 KJV)

• Not to harvest and sell volunteers as income. We are not to gather in our income, or the revenue that is associated with our crop. It is to be eaten but not sold as a business.
• Agrarian based economy
  Annual harvest was primary industry
  Lev 25:6 condones private use of volunteer crop

Think about putting yourself in that period of time, in that situation. The annual harvest was the primary industry. Leviticus 25:6 condones the private use of the volunteer crop.

Instructions for Sabbatical and Jubilee – Agriculture

6. And the Sabbath ^{H7676=Shabbat=intermission} produce ^added of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you, for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land—all its produce ^{H8393=tebooaw=income, fruit, gain, increase or revenue} shall be for food ^{H398=to eat, consume (not to be used for merchandizing)} (Lev 25:6 NKJV)

Instead of selling your produce, you eat it. You could ask isn’t that what they would do anyway? Yes, but through a barter system or a merchandizing system is how they would normally do it on the six years of agriculture. On the seventh year they are not to be using the food for any type of merchandise.

6. Spontaneous yield is eatable; the Septuagint amplifies this:

And the sabbaths of the land shall be food for thee, and for thy man-servant, and for thy maid-servant, and thy hireling, and the stranger that abides with thee. And for thy cattle, and for the wild beats that are in thy land, shall every fruit of it be for food.
(Lev 25:6-7 Brenton)

It should be clear that we can eat the volunteers but we don’t merchandise it.

7. ‘And you shall count seven Sabbaths ^H7676=same of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths ^H7676=same of years shall be to you forty-nine years.
(Lev 25:8 NKJV)

7. Count 7 cycles of 7 Land Sabbaths, or 49 years.

8. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee ^H3104=yobel to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land.
(Lev 25:9 NKJV)

8. It is clear that it’s the Day of Atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month

• 7^th Sabbath cycle of 7 years completes and Jubilee begins on this day
• Jubilee begins on this day
• Jubilee marks the beginning of 50^th agricultural year
  H3104 ^{= yobel = blast of horn from its continuous sound, signal of the silver trumpets, ram’s horn, trumpet}

The yobel is marked by a type of sound and signal is what it seems like the connotation is. I think we see that particularly when we see the yobel being blown in Exodus 19 and 20 at Mt. Sinai. It is a continuous blast of the horn.

9. Lev 25:10 – And you shall consecrate ^{H6942=kawdash} the fiftieth year ^{H8141=shawneh}, and proclaim liberty ^{H1865=freedom, spontaneity of outflow, pure} throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee ^{H3104=yobel=blast of horn from its continuous sound} for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.

9. Consecrate the 50^th year
This word consecrate is useful to get a little deeper understanding of. It is the verb consecrate or H6942 = kaw dash = pronounce or observe as clean (ceremonially or morally), appoint, dedicate, hallow, keep holy, proclaim, purify, sanctify ^verb

• 50^th year proclaimed as holy, set apart, distinctive. Note that it is in contrast to a Sabbath of rest for the Sabbatical year.
• H8141 = shaw-neh = a year, as a revolution of time – full calendar year
• Emphasis = liberty/freedom – we see that in Isaiah, Ezekiel and Luke

The Spirit of YHWH is upon me; because YHWH hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty ^{H1865=freedom, spontaneity of outflow, pure} to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
(Isa 61:1 KJV)

Ezekiel 46 is part of this Millennial Temple Jubilee that Ezekiel is proclaiming starting in Ezekiel 40.

Thus saith YHWH Elohim; If the prince give a gift unto any of his sons, the inheritance thereof shall be his sons’; it shall be their possession by inheritance. But if he give a gift of his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year of liberty ^{H1865=freedom, spontaneity of outflow, pure}; after it shall return to the prince: but his inheritance shall be his sons’ for them.
(Eze 46:16-17 KJV)

We are going to see when we examine this, that the scripture in Ezekiel chapter 40 to 48, that the theme of the Jubilee is throughout this section of the scripture. Liberty, inheritance, returning to the property that you once had, forgiveness of debt, and we will see that amplified in this whole section of this Jubilee vision that Ezekiel had. We will pinpoint it to be in 574 BCE.

In Luke chapter 4 Yahushua himself uses Isaiah 61 and you have to put yourself in the audience of the Synagogue in Nazareth at this point in time. Yahushua is there amongst all of the congregants and he gets up to read Isaiah 61 and says:

The Spirit of YHWH is upon me ^Yahushua, because he ^YHWH hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he ^YHWH hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty ^{G859=freedom, pardon, forgiveness} them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of YHWH. (Luk 4:18-19 KJV)

Then he closed the book and goes back and sits down. Yahushua himself was proclaiming himself to be the Jubilee, the yobel at this point. I think we will see when we get to that section of the presentation that this, in fact is going to be a Jubilee year itself that Yahushua is proclaiming. It happens to match up with the Jubilee year that we found in Ezekiel chapter 40. This is yet to come.

10. That fiftieth year ^{H8141=shawneh=revolution of time} shall be a Jubilee ^H3104=yobel to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. (Lev 25:11 NKJV)

10. Do not sow or reap (harvest – for profit) volunteers on 50^th agricultural year

This instruction specifies 3 requisites:

• No sowing
• No reaping (harvest – for profit) of volunteers
• No harvest (for profit/merchandizing) of your untended (unpruned) vine
• Same guidance as Sabbatical year

Don’t sow or reap in the fiftieth year, no harvest for profit, the volunteers are okay though. This instruction specifies three requisites, no sowing, no reaping, and I include no reaping for profit, I don’t want to be accused of adding to the scriptures but the context of this points to that. No harvest or merchandizing of your untended vine. It’s the same guidance as the Sabbatical year, the same principals apply.

11. For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy ^H6944=kodesh to you; you shall eat its produce ^{H8393 = tebooaw=income, fruit, gain, increase or revenue} from the field. (Lev 25:12 NKJV)

11. Jubilee is holy

• Holy = H6944 = from H6942 verb form, sacred place or thing, consecrated, dedicated, hallowed^noun.
• Provides additional emphasis regarding sanctity of 50^th year Jubilee
• He makes it holy, we do not
• Eat volunteer produce/fruit directly from the field
  Same as Sabbatical

Holy or kodesh, is H6942, this one is 6944 and is the same word but in a noun form. It’s a sacred place or thing. Something that is consecrated, dedicated or hallowed. The Jubilee is holy, and we provide additional emphasis regarding the sanctity. This is an important year to YHWH and even though it has been forgotten, it’s certainly going to be important and brought back during the millennium, important in the government of Yahushua that will reign on the earth. YHWH says that the Jubilee is holy to us, and he is the one that makes it holy, we do not. We are able to eat volunteers directly from the field which is the same as the Sabbatical instruction.

12. So you shall observe My statutes and keep My judgments ^{H4941=mishpawt}, and perform them; and you will dwell in the land in safety. Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell there in safety. (Lev 25:18-19 NKJV)

12. Follow (do) my statutes

• Judgment = H4941 = mish-pawt = verdict, divine law, individual or collectively
• YHWH’s promise – abundance, security and safety, and for being obedient to YHWH’s mish-pawt.

This is his divine law and what his instructions are to us. We will keep these instructions in the millennium and what a great wonderful time it will be.

13. And if you say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year ^{not 7th and/or 8th, just 7th}, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?” Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years. And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest. (Lev 25:20-22 NKJV)

Notice that it says “what shall we eat in the 7^th year.” It isn’t saying 7^th and 8^th; it is saying just the 7^th. This scripture has been used to try to justify what happens on the Jubilee. I will show you that this is about the Sabbatical year not the Jubilee.

It is about not harvesting (for revenue) in years 7, 14, 21, 28 up through 49, and does not include, nor is it legislation for the 50^th year.

The Sabbatical –

The seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to YHWH. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. (Lev 25:4 NKJV)

Taking a closer look at this to see what this is talking about;

• Some commentaries associate the application to this to include the 50^th year. In other words, the sixth year harvest will last for three years including the Jubilee.

Remember what the Jubilee instruction was in Leviticus 25:11, you don’t sow or reap.

That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. (Lev 25:11 NKJV)

Notice what it says in verse 22, You shall sow in the 8^th year.

If this was the Jubilee, the instructions say don’t sow, so it can’t be the Jubilee is what this scripture is talking about. This scripture is specifically referring to the 7^th year Sabbatical, or the Land Sabbath. There is another clue in Leviticus 25 that says:

And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until ^{H5704=ad=as=as far or as long as, even to} the ninth year; until ^H5704=same its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest. (Lev 25:22 NKJV)

The word ‘until’ is the Hebrew word “ad” and it’s used in a number of places and there are great examples of what until means. It should be clear that until means ‘as far as’, and that is what it is defined as.

And the waters decreased continually until ^{H5704=as far as, as long as, even to} the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. (Gen 8:5 KJV)

Until: as far as

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until ^H7504=same the breaking of the day. (Gen 32:24 KJV)

As far as the breaking of day

And ye shall keep it up until ^H7504=same the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening ^{beyn ha arbayim}.
(Exo 12:6 KJV)

The whole assembly will keep this lamb as far as, up till the 14^th day of the same month. The congregation will kill this lamb beyn ha arbayim, between the evenings. It means at the beginning of the 14^th, not at the end of the 14^th.

And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king, and had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until ^H7504=same the day he came again in peace. (2Sa 19:24 KJV)

It should be clear that until the ninth year means up to the ninth year, not through the ninth year. The advocates of the Jubilee interpretation of this need it to be through the ninth year because you wouldn’t have a harvest on the seventh or the eighth year. You wouldn’t have harvest until the ninth year.

13. No harvest (for revenue) in agricultural years 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, or 49

• The produce is for years 6, 7, and 8, ^{not 7, 8, or 9}
• Sow in the 8^th year immediately after the 7^th year, and that is what you would be doing after the regular Sabbatical year
• The 8^th year starts immediately after the 7^th year Feast of Tabernacles
• Crops obviously mature during the 8^th year
• Eat your old harvest from the 6^th year through that period of time
• When the 9^th year starts – finish harvesting or storing 8^th year
  You no longer need the 6^th year crops
• This is applicable in the multiples of 7, 14, 21, up to year 42. Year 49 becomes a different situation, there isn’t instruction that covers years 49 and 50 specifically
• Year 49 and 50 the Jubilee had not sowing or reaping for 2 years. Your guidance on this is specifically for the 7^th year Sabbatical preparation
• YHWH promises sufficient produce to last for 3 years

If you put this on a timeline it would look something like this, produce would occur in your 6^th year and we have the 7^th year Sabbatical. No sow and no reap.

When we add to that the scripture that shows us that on the 6^th year we reap enough for 3 years, obviously the 6^th year that we are reaping, we have to reap for that year also. The 3 years include the 6^th year, 7^th year and makes the bridge to us to the 8^th year until our harvest comes in. Our produce lasts until this 3 year period of time.

Our new crops start to come in towards the middle or end of this 8^th year. You see on the 8^th year we get to sow in the first half and we reap in the last half. That is what this instruction is intended to show us.

YHWH is providing for three years, years 6, 7, and 8. The graphic will hopefully clarify that. Obviously sowing and planting are after the Feast of Tabernacles in the Gregorian calendar which would be in October and November while the harvest starts in Abib or April through September time period on the Gregorian calendar.

Leviticus 25 ends on a major high note, it says:

14. For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am YHWH your Elohim. (Lev 25:55 NKJV)

This is a stunning conclusion to this series of instruction and scriptures about the Sabbatical and Jubilee. “The children of Israel are servants to Me”, I would say we are servants to YHWH to this day.

“they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt”, YHWH brought us out of the land of Egypt, out of this Babylonian system and what a blessing it is for him to provide this instruction for us and this directive to take care of the land and how to take care of it.

He promises that he will provide peace, safety and abundant crops as a result. What an amazing Elohim our Father in heaven is and we honor him in Yahushua’s name.

How is the Jubilee Reconciled – 49 or 50 Year Cycle?

There are four primary methods to reconcile the Jubilee with the 49 year Sabbatical cycle but I am adding a fifth to it that doesn’t make much sense but I want to include it here as an option. There are really four primary ways.

• Option 1 – Year 49 and 50 cycle counted as the same year. In other words, the Jubilee is in the 49^th year.
• Option 2 – Year 1 and 50 counted as the same year
• Option 3 – Jubilee split on year 7 and year 1, this is a hybrid and unorthodox manner but some people like to do it.
• Option 4 – Sabbatical and/or Jubilee is observed Abib to Abib, and this is the grocery store model and makes little sense at all.
• Option 5 – Jubilee is intercalated as 50^th year

Assessment – Stacked option 1

• Stacks Jubilee on 49^th year Sabbatical, in other words the 49^th Sabbatical year comes, the Jubilee stacks on top of this so you have a Sabbatical and Jubilee at the same time.
• The instruction calls for 7 Sabbaths of years, 7 X 7 = 49 year (Lev 25:8) and the 49^th year
• Sabbatical is replaced by the Jubilee legislation, the Sabbatical is a Sabbath of rest and on top of that you have the Jubilee
• We are to sanctify or make holy the Jubilee year, or the 50^th year shall be a Jubilee
  (Lev 25:9-11).
• No instruction for 49 year Jubilee cycle
• Proponents advocate for second Temple practice – Jubilee statutes not practiced
• The methodology of this stacks these two together.

There are specific problems with it as we see. If you recall in our second presentation in this series, we looked at the scriptures and what the legislation was about. In Exodus we saw there was a release of bondservants in the 7^th year.

This would be a 7^th year Sabbatical in the model.

I guess they would just ignore the fact that there is a release of bondservants. In Deuteronomy 15 we also see that debt is released and that loans to the poor are supposed to be released.

That would have had to be ignored in this because there is no instruction that takes into account that the Jubilee is stacked on top of it. The Jubilee legislation doesn’t talk about bondservants being released or debt being ignored or loans to poor being forgiven.

The fourth problem that I see is that the Book of the Law in Deuteronomy is supposed to be read at the end of the Sabbatical year and at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles.

These four problems would have to be dealt with and there isn’t an instruction that takes this into account when you stack the Jubilee on top of the Sabbatical.

The proponents of this though, advocates that this is what happened in the second Temple because the Jubilee wasn’t really practiced so the thought of this is that this is what they would have done as a result of not counting the Jubilee. They stacked it into the 49^th year.

In fact, the Jubilee wasn’t kept during the second Temple period all the way through the destruction of 70 CE, and in fact, it was a 49 year cycle but that is against what the scripture said to do. They didn’t keep it as a 50 year; they kept it as a 49.

This is one of the ways to work around of why there was a 49 year cycle.

Assessment – Hybrid option 2

• Combines Jubilee on year 1 of 49 year cycle
• Instructions call for 7 Sabbaths of years, 7 X 7 years – time should equal 49 years (Lev 25:8)
• Limits sowing and reaping to 5 years for 1 Sabbatical cycle
• No instruction for hybrid Sabbatical – 1 cycle of 6 years ^{Jubilee replaces year 1} and 6 cycles of 7 years
• Instructions call for 6 years sowing and 6 years planting with 7^th year rest (Lev 25:3-4)
• Proponents advocate for second Temple practice – Jubilee statutes not practiced

The second option gets rid of the problems that I brought up of not being able to release your debt and bondservants and so forth but it combines the Jubilee on year one of the next 49 year cycle.

This has its own problems associated with it. If you remember the instructions call for 7 Sabbaths of years. 7 X 7 should equal 49 and it does but the problem with this is that it limits the sowing and reaping to five years for the first Sabbatical cycle after this Jubilee.

You see, you have used up one of your six years as a Jubilee and you would have no sowing and reaping so what you have left is five agricultural years to sow and reap. The scriptures certainly say that you have six.

This method violates that principal but again, it’s a workaround and proponents say that this is what they did in the second Temple. I would say that more likely this is what they did. You see traces and tracks that the Jubilee was kept in counting purposes only. The Jubilee was counted but not practiced. What we certainly know is that we have verifiable 49 year cycles going back to 331 BCE through the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, and going forward several hundred years beyond that even.

Assessment – Split option 3

• Jubilee splits 49^th year of current cycle with 1^st year of next 7 year cycle – counted as year 50
• Half of year 49 and half of year 1 merged and called year 50 – no separate 50^th year
• Jubilee starts in Abib or spring to spring – no scriptural support and you can see this is not well thought out, from an agricultural standpoint it is a farmer’s nightmare.
• Year 1 of next Sabbatical cycle allows reaping with no previous sowing – sowing and reaping starts in year 2. The fact that you have no sowing allowed in this last half of the Jubilee year means that you go to reap when the next series of years unfold; you haven’t sown anything so you aren’t going to have a harvest year 1.
• Limits sowing and reaping to 5 years for 1^st Sabbatical cycle

Assessment – Grocery store option 4
I didn’t originally have this in the options but I put it in because it’s a variation of the previous option where you split the Sabbatical and Jubilee time-wise between Abib and Tishri calendar. This is when you find out that people know little of agriculture, all you have to do is go to the grocery store and say what you want and they take your order into the back room and effectively produce anything on an as needed basis. It has nothing to do with reality of how crops are sown, grown and harvested. People that use this option probably don’t have much of a farming background.

• Sabbatical and/or Jubilee observed Abib to Abib.
  The instruction that tells us for sure that the Jubilee is kept and started on the Day of Atonement, what they say is yes that the trumpet is blown on that day but the trumpet is blown for 6 months throughout the land to get you to Abib or Nisan and then the Jubilee or Sabbatical starts.
• Reaping and sowing flipped
• Agriculture cycle out of sync
• Crop sown in year 6 cannot be harvested.
  What you sow you can’t reap in the 7^th year because it will go to waste.
• Year 1 of next Sabbatical cycle allows reaping with no previous sowing.
  A 2 year fallow process
• No scriptural support

Assessment – Intercalated option 5

• Jubilee is 50^th year and follows 49^th year Sabbatical
• Year following Jubilee is year 1 of next 7 year Sabbatical cycle – IE 51^st year counting from Jubilee counting up to 100
• Literal interpretation of Leviticus 25

This is the option that you come up with without any workarounds.

And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you. (Lev 25:8-10 KJV)

If you were to lay this out in a different view and put two cycles side by side cycle one would be a total of 50 years with Sabbaticals on years 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, and 49 and then a separate intercalated 50^th year to be the Jubilee. If you laid the next cycle to it you will count to 100. This is a literal interpretation of Leviticus 25.

Summary and Conclusion

• Dating systems are the two main categories
• Spring reckoning – Abib to Abib
  Counts Sabbatical year starting Abib (Nisan)
  — March or April on Gregorian calendar
• Fall reckoning – Ethanim to Ethanim
  Counts Sabbatical year starting Ethanim (Tishri) – September or October on Gregorian calendar

Summary and Conclusion

• Dating systems are the two main categories
• Spring reckoning – Abib to Abib
  Counts Sabbatical year starting Abib (Nisan)
  — March or April on Gregorian calendar
• Fall reckoning – Ethanim to Ethanim
  Counts Sabbatical year starting Ethanim (Tishri) – September or October on Gregorian calendar.

I have taken you through a lot of scriptures and given you visual calendar helps to see how sowing and reaping occur.

The conclusion of this to us has to be that the Sabbatical and Jubilee has a fall reckoning. It happens from Ethanim to Ethanim. It is the same reckoning that the United Monarchy and the Southern Kingdom used for their regnal anniversaries. The two are the same.

How is the Jubilee reconciled within the Sabbatical schedule? Which of these counting methodologies that I have shown you is the one that the scriptures show us? It certainly is the separate and intercalated 50^th year.

Counting methodologies

• Jubilee included in 49^th year of current Sabbatical cycle
• Jubilee year included in 1^st year of next 7 year Sabbatical count?
• Jubilee split on year 7 and year 1
• Jubilee year intercalated as separate 50^th year

Is the Jubilee a 49 or 50 year cycle? The answer is the obvious; it’s the 50 year cycle.

As I have stated during this presentation that these are the conclusions we have reached in researching this topic in a lot of detail. I see a couple of Psalms that make me want to research and look and use YHWH’s Spirit to guide us.

Do Your Own Homework

Shew me thy ways, O YHWH; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth ^{H571=certainty, stability}, and teach me: for thou art the Elohim of my salvation ^{H3468=Yesha=liberty, deliverance, salvation} ; on thee do I wait all the day. (Psa 25:4-5 KJV)

Teach ^{H3384=flow as rain water, shoot an arrow} me, O YHWH, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end. (Psa 119:33 KJV)

But seek ye first the kingdom of YHWH, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Mat 6:33 KJV)

Study to shew thyself approved unto Elohim, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing ^{G3718=make a straight cut, dissect the divine message correctly – only occurrence} the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings^{G2757=kenophonia=empty sounding, fruitless discussion – kenophobic=fear of empty rooms}; for they will increase unto more unrighteousness.
(2Ti 2:15-16 KJV)

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