Dear Friends,

The question of the Bible Feasts, New Moons and Sabbaths as part of the Fourth Commandment is one that is attacked using incorrect translations or omissions of the Jewish philosopher at Alexandria, Judaeus Philo.

Philo included the ten feasts of Israel under the one commandment, namely the Fourth Commandment. That is precisely the position of the Church (see the paper Law and the Fourth Commandment (No. 256)).

Since the fall of the Temple, the Jews and the Trinitarian Christians have done their utmost to trivialise and negate the Calendar of God. The matters that are attacked most are the day of worship on the Sabbath, which has been unlawfully changed from Sabbath to Sunday, and the New Moon, which forms the determination of the Calendar itself. This Calendar and the New Moons are attacked by the Jews who have adopted a pagan Babylonian system that is tied to an incorrect 19-year time cycle with fixed intercalations which bear no resemblance to the Temple system in use until its destruction in 70 CE and that was followed by Christ and the Church from its formation. For example, the Hillel Calendar, which is followed by the Armstrongite ministries, is intercalated in the Sacred Year 2008/2009, when there is absolutely no reason to do so other than it is the year of intercalation set down by the Babylonian system. That system was operational from Babylon for over 500 years before Christ, and was not accepted by the Church but was introduced by Jewish Rabbis at Babylon in 344 CE and adopted by Hillel II in 358 CE. This blasphemous heresy was introduced to the Churches of God by Herbert Armstrong in the twentieth century, and until that time no member of the Body of Christ had ever observed such a calendar. We now see ministers of that persuasion lying to establish the proposition that it was in use at the time of the Temple to justify their ministerial incompetence and error.

The matter of Sabbath and Sunday was addressed in the Sabbath Message 27/10/30/120.

Those in CCG will be aware that we took the UCG ministry to task for their handling of the issue of the New Moons in the paper Commentary on the UCG Doctrinal Paper: Should Christians Observe New Moons? (No. 124).

The issue of the position of Philo was discussed in that paper and a quote was used from Colson’s work. I did not use the second text referring to the New Moons because it was thought that the point had been made clearly enough. That now appears incorrect. What we now find is that some people are misusing another text of Philo which is now to be discussed and added to the section of paper 124 that concerns Philo simply to demonstrate further that the UCG, PCG, LCG, and a host of others are not only wrong they are also wilfully ignorant and lead their people into unrighteousness.

The text in the Commentary states:

“We know from the evidence of Philo that the conjunction was used to determine the New Moon. The Bible provides other evidence from which we can make inferences and deductions. Philo says:

“This is the New Moon, or beginning of the lunar month, namely the period between one conjunction and the next, the length of which has been accurately calculated in the astronomical schools.” (Judaeus, Philo, The Special Laws, II, XXVI, 140, Treatise by F.H. Colson, Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA, 1937.)

UCG quotes Philo here but then fails to make the obvious conclusions or look for other evidence that supports what he has to say or how that affects the calendar. They start with Maimonides determining the crescent as the correct position and then go back over 1200 years to Philo (writing in the time of the Temple period of Alexandria), who says the exact opposite of their premise concerning Maimonides.

So, the astronomical schools are acknowledged to be in existence by Philo, who is an impeccable authority on Judaism up to the Christian period. The ancients calculated the length of the month quite accurately. The conjunctions were calculated in the astronomical schools, and there was no need for witnesses in observation. UCG was forced to acknowledge Philo in this document, but only after they have established this false position with Maimonides, so they can maintain their erroneous position. They could have, and should have, started with Philo and established that there was no such system. So UCG have already contradicted themselves in their own paper in their first two references. These astronomical schools were obviously extremely important.

Philo shows that the Temple calendar was based on the conjunction and not on observation. However, the comment is left hanging as it were. No mention is made of the text in Josephus, which shows that the New Moons were kept during the Temple period. Josephus, in his Wars of the Jews, shows that it was regarded by the priesthood on a level with the Sabbath, and the High Priest robed and officiated in the Temple on both the Sabbath and the New Moon, as well as on the Feast days (W.J., 5:5:7). The New Moon was thus treated on the same level as the Sabbath and the Holy Days of the Feast. UCG could have and should have quoted that reference as well, and that would have substantiated what Philo was saying in the first century. So, we have a witness in the first century who was alive at the time of the Temple, and two witnesses who saw the Temple (and saw it destroyed) and knew what its system was. Two Jewish witnesses at the end of the Temple period wrote on the Calendar and established that the New Moons were determined by conjunction by the astronomical schools, and that they were used as a day of worship on which the High Priest formally robed. As mentioned, he did that only on Sabbaths, New Moons and Feasts.”

In addition to this quote there is another text dealing with the New Moons and their determination that deals with the exact day of the New Moon and which is being misquoted so as to contrive to commence the New Moon on the day after the conjunction. Another erroneous interpretation commences the month a day before the conjunction. These interpretations are made impossible if we use both the quotations of Philo.

In dealing with the Feasts under the Fourth Commandment we read Philo to say:

THE SPECIAL LAWS, II*
{**Yonge's title, A Treatise on the Special Laws, Which Are Referred to Three Articles of the Decalogue, Namely the Third, Fourth, and Fifth; About Oaths, and the Reverence Due to Them; About the Holy Sabbath; About the Honour To Be Paid to Parents.}
....

Yonge's translation includes a separate treatise title at this point: On the Number Seven. His next division begins and ends with roman numeral I (= X in the Loeb). The text follows the Loeb numbering.
X. (39) The next commandment is that concerning the sacred seventh day, in which are comprehended an infinite number of most important festivals. For instance, there is the release of those men who by nature were free, but who, through some unforeseen necessity of the times, have become slaves, which release takes place every seventh year. Again, there is the humanity of creditors towards their debtors, as they forgive their countrymen their debts every seventh year. Also there is the rest given to the fertile ground, whether it be in the champaign or in the mountainous country, which also takes place every seventh year. Moreover, there are those ordinances, which are established respecting the fiftieth year. And of all these things the bare narration (without looking to any inner and figurative signification) is sufficient to lead those who are well disposed to perfect virtue, and to make even those who are obstinate and stubborn in their dispositions more docile and tractable. (40) Now we have already spoken at some length about the virtue of the number seven, explaining what a nature it has in reference to the number ten; and also what a connection it has to the decade itself, and also to the number four, which is the foundation and the source of the decade. And now, having been compounded in regular order from the unit, it in regular order produces the perfect number twenty-eight; being multiplied according to a regular proportion equal in all its parts, it makes at last both a cube and a square. I also showed how there is an infinite number of beauties which may be extracted from a careful contemplation of it, on which we have not at present time to dilate. But we must examine every one of the special matters which are before us as comprehended in this one, beginning with the first. The first matter to be considered is that of the Festivals. [Yonge's translation includes a separate treatise title at this point: To Show That the Festivals Are Ten in Number. This "treatise" begins with Roman numeral I (= XI in the Loeb), enumerates each of the ten festivals individually, and extends through Loeb number 214. The text follows the Loeb numbering.]
XI. (41) Now there are ten festivals in number, as the law sets them down.
The first is that which any one will perhaps be astonished to hear called a festival. This festival is every day.
The second festival is the seventh day, which the Hebrews in their native language call the sabbath.
The third is that which comes after the conjunction, which happens on the day of the new moon in each month.
The fourth is that of the passover which is called the passover.
The fifth is the first fruits of the corn--the sacred sheaf. [Note the Wave Sheaf is one of the Ten]
The sixth is the feast of unleavened bread, after which that festival is celebrated, which is really
The seventh day of seventh days.
The eighth is the festival of the sacred moon, or the feast of trumpets.
The ninth is the fast.
The tenth is the feast of tabernacles, which is the last of all the annual festivals, ending so as to make the perfect number of ten. We must now begin with the first festival.

We notice here that in the introduction in dealing with the third Feast, namely the New Moon, Philo uses the term which has been rendered after the conjunction and some others have rendered as following in the sense of “according to” or “as determined by” the conjunction. However, he qualifies this matter by saying: which happens on the day of the New Moon in each month. The text is thus quite clear that the New Moon is the day on which the conjunction occurs. In the later explanations, Philo then goes on to state that the month is from one conjunction to the next as determined in the astronomical schools, as was quoted above.

There can thus be no error. The New Moon is on the day of the conjunction as determined by the schools from Jerusalem. To postpone the New Moon as is done by Judaism is to postpone all the festivals and make them of no value. It is simply thumbing one’s nose at God and His Laws. On the New Moon hang all the subsequent festivals.

Yonge’s translation lacked part of 140 and the texts of 142-144 (which is supplied here) and explains the timing and the theology behind the New Moon and why it runs according to the conjunction and the New Moon day is the day of the conjunction.

THE THIRD FESTIVAL
XXVI. (140) Following the order which we have adopted, we proceed to speak of the third festival, that of the new moon. First of all, because it is the beginning of the month, and the beginning, whether of number or of time, is honourable. Secondly, because at this time there is nothing in the whole of heaven destitute of light. (141) Thirdly, because at that period the more powerful and important body gives a portion of necessary assistance to the less important and weaker body; for, at the time of the new moon, the sun begins to illuminate the moon with a light which is visible to the outward senses, and then she displays her own beauty to the beholders. And this is, as it seems, an evident lesson of kindness and humanity to men, to teach them that they should never grudge to impart their own good things to others, but, imitating the heavenly bodies, should drive envy away and banish it from the Soul.{17}{sections 142-144 were omitted in Yonge's translation because the edition on which Yonge based his translation, Mangey, lacked this material. These lines have been newly translated for this volume.} (142) The fourth reason is that of all the bodies in the heaven, the moon traverses the zodiac in the least appointed time: it accomplishes its orbit in a monthly interval. For this reason the law has honored the end of its orbit, the point when the moon has finished at the beginning point from which it began to travel, by having called that day a feast so that it might again teach us an excellent lesson that in the affairs of life we should make the ends harmonious with the beginnings. This will happen if we hold the reins on our first impulses with the power of reason and do not permit them to refuse the reins and to run free like animals without anyone in charge of the herd.
http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/text/philo/book28.html

Note, as we said above, Yonge does not have the full text of 140 as Colson does, and does not have 142-144, which appear to have been lost or removed to obscure the exact nature of the New Moons. However, the earlier section above still leaves no room for doubt as to when it was and how it was determined. Those who follow the Hillel Calendar and argue for its adoption are without excuse and disobey God. Their worship services are as rags.

Wade Cox
Coordinator General