I was studying the feast of First Fruits when I came across the Essene Calendar which was different from what the Jews use today. The Essene calendar states the Feast of First Fruits falls on the Sunday after the weekly Sabbath a week later. Which is the true date?
The Hebrew calendar is lunar-based, which simply means it calculates how long it takes for the moon to orbit the Earth. In the Jewish calendar, each new month begins with the molad, which means “birth” in Hebrew. It took many years to accurately calculate the length of the cycle from one new moon to the next, which is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 31⁄3 seconds. The Jewish people have studied astronomy very carefully because of their intense need for definite dates in keeping the festivals. For example:
DEUT 16:1“Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
Because of the profound scrutiny to observe God given laws on the correct dates, the Jews studied and become very acquainted with the position of the sun.
Contrary to the Hebrew calendar (lunar), the Essenes acknowledged the solar calendar, whose dates are based on the position of the earth and its proximity to the sun. We understand that the solar calendar does not align with scripture as it does not use intercalation, thus drifting off from the agricultural cycle which was in high regard to the Jews because of the sacrificial laws given by God.
Britannica Definition of intercalation:
Intercalation, insertion of days or months into a calendar to bring it into line with the solar year (year of the seasons). One example is the periodic inclusion of leap-year day (February 29) in the Gregorian calendar now in general use. To keep the months of a lunar calendar (e.g., the Hebrew calendar) in their proper seasons, an entire month must be intercalated periodically, because there are a fractional number (between 12 and 13) of cycles of lunar phases (months) in a solar year. In cultures without highly developed astronomy, intercalation was done empirically, whenever seasons and their properly associated months became noticeably out of step.
The Essenes, were living separated from the other Jews and followed their own calendar. Because they did not use intercalation, these calendars were not in line with agricultural activities which the Nation of Israel held closely. Looking at the feasts of the Jewish people, they are all linked to the agricultural cycle of the land as found in the scriptures, known as harvest feasts:
LEV. 23:4 ‘These are the appointed times of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them.
LEV. 23:5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover.
LEV. 23:6 Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
LEV. 23:7 On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.
LEV. 23:8 But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.’”
LEV. 23:9 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
LEV. 23:10 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and you gather its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.
LEV. 23:11 He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
LEV. 23:12 Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one year old without defect as a burnt offering to the Lord.
LEV. 23:13 Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the Lord for a soothing aroma, with its drink offering, a fourth of a hin of wine.
Leviticus 23 goes on to say:
LEV. 23:26 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
LEV. 23:27 “On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble yourselves and present an offering by fire to the Lord.
LEV. 23:28 You shall not do any work on this very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before the Lord your God.
LEV. 23:29 If there is any person who does not humble himself on this very day, he shall be cut off from his people.
LEV. 23:30 As for any person who does any work on this very day, that person I will eliminate from among his people.
LEV. 23:31 You shall not do any work. It is to be a permanent statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.
LEV. 23:32 It is to be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall humble yourselves; on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening, you shall keep your Sabbath.”
LEV. 23:33 Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
LEV. 23:34 Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths for seven days to the Lord.
LEV. 23:35 On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.
LEV. 23:36 For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the Lord; it is an assembly. You shall not do any laborious work.
LEV. 23:37 These are the appointed times of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, to present offerings by fire to the Lord—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each day’s matter on its own day—
LEV. 23:38 besides those of the Sabbaths of the Lord, and besides your gifts and besides all your vowed and voluntary offerings, which you give to the Lord.
LEV. 23:39 On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day.
LEV. 23:40 Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and branches of trees with thick branches and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.
LEV. 23:41 So you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a permanent statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
LEV. 23:42 You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths,
LEV. 23:43 so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’”
LEV. 23:44 So Moses declared to the sons of Israel the appointed times of the Lord.
Had the Jewish people aligned their calendar with the solar calendar, as the Essenes did, the harvests would have never yielded in its proper and appointed time.
The ancient promise that God would one day deliver His people is found in the resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible refers to the ascension as the first fruits. The resurrection is, in essence, a foretaste of what is to come in the future. The harvest feasts of Leviticus point to something far greater:
1COR. 15:20 But the fact is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
1COR. 15:21 For since by a man death came, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.
1COR. 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
1COR. 15:23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming,
In vv 21-22 Paul explains that Jesus’ death and resurrection was necessary to reverse Adam’s mistake in the garden. When Adam sinned, he placed himself in a sinful state, with a fallen nature incapable of reconciling itself with God. The atomic makeup of his nature was forever changed, lacking the perfection required for fellowship with God. Adam could not correct this problem of his own accord, therefore, Paul says in vv 21-22 that if we can accept that by one man’s mistake, we all suffer death… then we can also understand that by One Man’s resurrection, we can all share in His resurrection.
Christ came as a man for the express purpose of reversing the predicament created by Adam’s sin in the Garden. Christ became a new Adam, a man created by God to establish a new beginning for mankind. Because Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin He didn’t begin His earthly life inheriting the sin nature of Adam. His perfect life preserved His claim to being a new Adam.
That’s why we say we are “born again” by faith, for our likeness of Adam is put to death (separation from God) and in its place comes the likeness of Christ (fellowship with God).That transition takes place in two steps, first, we received Christ’s Spirit at the point of faith and then later, we receive a new sinless body on the day of resurrection and these things are made possible because Christ’s death and resurrection forged this new path for all of us.
When Christ was raised from the dead, He was the first fruits of those who have died. The Jewish feast pictures the first fruits of the harvest. Jesus fulfilled the feast by becoming the first fruits of the resurrection, meaning that every believer, whether in the Hebrew Scriptures or the New Testament, will experience this resurrection and will never experience death again but will have everlasting life in the presence of God. That harvest is plentiful and eminent!!
Furthermore, traditional Judaism and most Messianic Jewish congregations observe First Fruits on the day after the High Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or 16 Aviv. Many others observe it on the day after the weekly Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which will change from year to year but always fall on the first day of the week (Sunday).
Please see the following Jewish calendar of feasts at Ariel Ministries for further information concerning the specific dates of the Feast of First Fruits.
