It all started, once again, because I had a question(s) that
I had to know the answer to. The
question was seemingly a relatively simple one.
“How do we correctly determine the beginning of the year of Yahweh’s
calendar?” It just did not seem logical
to me that keeping Yahweh’s calendar was dependent on physically sighting the
barley in aviv in the land of Yisrael and then physically sighting the first
crescent moon from Yahrushalayim. I am
personally of the belief that Messianic believers should keep “the Feasts of
Yahweh”, but is the keeping of the feast correctly supposed to be
technologically dependent? (e.g. telephone and internet connection /
communication). The seeming complex
issue of the calendar of Yahweh had been bothering me for about two months
before the arrival of the latest Passover season. (Which is 2012 on the Pope’s
calendar.)
In my e-mail communications prior to Pesach I stated my concerns
and questions and a few people cared enough to reply to my inquiry, for which I
am very grateful. For the record, I want
to state at this point that I do not consider myself to be the voice of
authority on absolutely anything. It is
my desire to share what I have found to be true and then to share the source of
these findings with you and then based on the facts hopefully a renewed dialogue
will spark within the Messianic community.
We do not need to fear wrestling with the Word until we are satisfied we
have come into the knowledge of the Truth. (Bereshith 32:24-30)
Yahweh intends for every one of us to seek, ask and knock.
(Mattithyahu 7:7, Acts 17:11) He desires
His Spirit to teach us and be the final authority of His Word. (Yahonan 14:26,
16:13, 1Yahonan 2:27) We all can testify
to the fallacy of following men. We were
all guilty of practicing sun-worship in Jesus name when the set-apart Spirit
called us out of Babylon. Now, that we
have followed the Spirit into the wilderness are we really going to be content
with following another man or are we going to be content with nothing less than
following the cloud by day and the fire by night?
I myself have had to repent of following men and not the
set-apart Spirit concerning this very topic at hand. Back in 2003 I wrote a paper titled, “The
Passover Feast, the Whore and The Beast”.
The set-apart Spirit had led me to understanding many difficult issues
concerning the timing of Yahoshua’s death, burial and resurrection. I knew absolutely nothing concerning the
Hebrew Roots of the faith at that time and I had just begun to keep the set-apart
Sabbath unto Yahweh.
The set-apart Spirit led me to understand two very important
truths during the period of time I was researching that article. One, the New Moon (ha Chodesh) was always
reckoned by the conjunction until the time after the second temple was
destroyed in AD 70. Two, the meal that
Yahoshua and His disciples ate was not the Passover meal. It was the preparation meal they ate together
and it was at this meal he instituted the memorial of the bread (not unleavened)
and the wine. I published all my
findings in 2003 without the slightest intent of personally keeping “the Feasts
of Yahweh”.
http://robertarthurmcduffie.blogspot.com/2010/11/passover-feast-whore-and-beast.html
However, very soon afterward, I began to attempt to keep
“the Feasts of Yahweh”. Unbelievably, I
completely ignored the revelation given me by the set-apart Spirit and instead
began to observe the feast by the Hillel calendar. Later in my walk, I received the revelation
of “The Mark of Elohim” and at this point, I could not keep the feasts of
Yahweh because I was just not absolutely convinced we were supposed to keep
them or even that we could. However, I
continued to keep the Sabbath and to find fellowship with the Messianic
community of believers.
http://robertarthurmcduffie.blogspot.com/2010/04/eternal-mark-of-kingdom-of-yahweh-god.html
In 2010 Jenn and I began to keep “the Feasts of Yahweh” as
we believed the set-apart Spirit was leading us to do so. From that time forward we have simply kept
the feasts according to whatever calendar the local fellowship was keeping and
we did not take any real personal responsibility for when we were celebrating
the appointed times of Yahweh. I guess
in all reality our philosophy was “when in Rome do as the Romans do”. After all, it is always easier to just go
with the flow and we really did not consider it of very great importance when
we kept the feasts as long as we were keeping them.
In addition to rejecting the revelation the set-apart Spirit
had given me in 2003 concerning the calendar, I also rejected the revelation of
“the preparation meal” in favor of Yahoshua eating the Passover. This rejection was so complete I even went
and changed the paper I had published to my blog. I did this because I heard a famous Messianic
teacher with a well known seminar on “the Feasts of Yahweh” teach the meal
Yahoshua and His taught ones ate was the Passover.
As I have joyfully repented of listening to men and
following men instead of the set-apart Spirit, this Passover season, once
again, I marvel at how wicked and deceitful my heart truly is. Thankfully, I had saved the original teaching
and thus I was able to go back to my blog and change it back to the correct
understanding that Yahweh had revealed by His set-apart Spirit.
I thank Yahweh for restoring both revelations to me
according to His favor. This time I
intend to hold onto both with both hands and not let go of them until Yahoshua
returns. I will not take the time to
teach the foundations of either of these understandings because they are
already available in the publication, “The Passover Feast, The Whore and The
Beast”. However, I do have some very
provocative / profound questions to ask the assembly of the Messiah.
1) What year do you believe Yahoshua died? This is the very first question I had to ask
when I was researching the article I originally published. With approximately 3,000,000 celebrants at
the Passover in Yahrushalayim at the time Yahoshua was killed there were plenty
of eye witnesses to the extraordinary events surrounding His death, burial and
resurrection. e.g. supernatural darkness, a great earthquake, the heavy damage
to the temple caused by the earthquake, etc.
Every extra-Scriptural source from secular, Yahudim and
Messianic eye-witnesses of these events record this Pesach as being in AD
30. All of the eye-witnesses compliment
the accounts of “the Gospels”. e.g. One of these accounts states that a 15 ton
rock that held the temple veil in place broke in two due to the earthquake and
fell through the middle of the veil tearing it in two. It landed with such force that it caused
extensive damage to the Sanhedrin’s meeting room. The destruction to the temple from this
earthquake is confirmed by multiple sources.
Also, the Talmud records the presence of the set-apart
Spirit departed from the temple in AD 30.
For exactly forty years many of the miraculous events that had
previously occurred in the temple ceased to happen. In addition the western lamp of the Menorah
in the temple always went out no matter how hard they tried to keep it lit and
the doors to the most set-apart place in the temple opened by themselves on a
regular basis. Up until AD 30 it took 20
strong men to open each door. I
personally believe this is a partial fulfillment of “the sign of Yonah”. The men of Nineweh were told Yahweh would
destroy them in 40 days. They humbled
themselves and escaped the pending destruction.
The men of Yahudah were given 40 years to receive Yahoshua as their Messiah;
however the majority of the Yahudim rejected Him and thus were destroyed along
with their temple in AD 70.
I believe this indictment is the main reason the Yahudim
have grossly distorted the year of their calendar and have also worked so
closely with the papacy over the years to distort the year of the death of our
Messiah. Modern religion teaches a death
burial and resurrection in six different years ranging from AD 29 - AD 34 based
mostly on doctrine’s of men and not historical documentation and the New Moon
(ha Chodesh).
If anyone knows of any other year with extra-Scriptural
evidence supporting it as year of the death, burial and resurrection of
Yahoshua I would love to hear about it.
The reason why this is so important is because once you have determined
the first New Moon of the year Yahoshua died then you will be able to work out
from the New Moon what day Yahoshua died.
In the year AD 30 if you understand the New Moon to be from
the conjunction (not the first light) you will arrive on the 14th
day of aviv being from Tuesday eve. until Wednesday eve, April 5th,
on the Pope’s calendar. This reckoning
allows for three days and nights in the tomb beginning on the eve of the first
night of Unleavened Bread from Wednesday until Thursday and ending at the
conclusion of the Sabbath day.
This fulfills the exact words of Yahoshua (Matt 12:40),
reconciles the seeming contradiction between Mark 16:1 and Luke 23:56, allows
for a third day resurrection (of the Feast of Unleavened Bread) and
demonstratively proves all the spring Feasts of Yahweh were fulfilled at the
exact split second Yahrushalayim time in the death, burial and resurrection of
Yahoshua. If you believe in a AD 30 year
as the year in which these Feasts were fulfilled, but you do not believe in the
ha Chodesh as being rendered by the conjunction then you will find you cannot
reconcile all of the above statements by the astronomically fixed timing of the
first crescent light over Yahrushalayim.
It is impossible!
If you believe in any other year for the fulfillment of all
these things you must be able to show the ability to fulfill all of these
Scripturally accurate occurrences. In
other words if you cannot demonstrate from science your New Moon occurrence
allows for a Wednesday death and burial then your belief will not hold up to
the accurate accounting of “the Gospels” and thus your belief cannot possibly
be correct. “The Scripture” must be our
final authority.
When I first started researching all of this in 2003 I could
not have cared less what the conclusion might be. I did not have any agenda and I really did
not care what the final answer was. However,
the set-apart Spirit would not let me alone and I was compelled to continue to
study this matter until I was able to completely reconcile history, astronomy and
Scripture without any contradictions. I
spent at least a 1,000 hours researching all of these matters before I finally published
my conclusions in the above mentioned article.
What I find especially fascinating is a bit of research
Dewey Bruton did for “Daniel’s Time Line”.
I watched his presentation again this past week. I believe there are many fatal flaws in his
research, the most prevalent being that he uses the Hillel calendar. However, there is still some very good
information which makes it very worthwhile.
Always, always eat the meat and spit the bones, by the Word and the
set-apart Spirit. One of the tastier
nuggets of “Daniel’s Time Line” is Dewey is able to show from “The Scriptures”,
alone, that the original Passover took place from Tuesday evening until
Wednesday evening.
I do not believe this is to be a coincidence at all! After all coincidence is not a kosher
word! This would mean the children of
Yisrael were delivered from death (at the hand of the Mitsrayim army) unto life
(through the watery hell of the red sea) on the Sabbath day! This would be the same day Yahoshua delivered
us from death unto life via His resurrection on the Sabbath!
This brings me to the second revelation I received, once
again, concerning Yahoshua and His taught ones and which meal they ate the
night Yahoshua was arrested. Jenn and I
literally spent an entire day racking our brains as we wrestled with “The
Scriptures” trying to understand when they slaughtered the lambs and ate the
Passover while in Mitsrayim, knowing Yahoshua and His taught ones would have
done the same thing 1,500 years later.
At the end of the day we went to bed absolutely exhausted
and completely frustrated that all of our research left us with contradictory
understandings from “The Scriptures”. As
we laid our bodies down to rest for the evening I prayed and asked Yahweh to
please give us the correct understanding from “The Scriptures” knowing there is
no contradictions in “His Word” only in our understanding.
The next morning for absolutely no explainable reason I
pulled up the pdf file on my computer, “The Messianic Believer’s First Response
Handbook” by Rabbi Moshe Yoseph Koniuchowsky.
Amazingly, I scrolled down to the very page where he had a question and
answer concerning the very question we had asked Yahweh to give us the answer
to.
For the most part this handbook is very worthwhile reading
and I recommend it to every Messianic believer in Yahoshua. The author has a great deal of sarcasm in the
tone of his writing, however that does not mean what he is saying is not
true. I am not endorsing this author to
the body of Messiah, only this particular work, most of which I found to be
insightful and useful as an apologetic tool to give a Scriptural answer to
those who ask. I have copied word for
word the answer the set-apart Spirit gave us from this book starting with page
109 and continuing to page 112. I will
also list this additional resource at the appropriate place in my original paper on my
blog site.
“Accusation”
“A perfunctory examination of New Testament
texts reveals that the Books of Matthew, Mark and
Luke all agree that the Last Supper was actually
a Passover Seder. Bearing in mind that Yahshua was
crucified on the very next day following the
Last Supper, that would mean that according to all three
synoptic Gospels, Yahshua was crucified on the
first day of Passover, or the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nissan (for
example, if tonight were a Passover Seder, then tomorrow would be the first day
of Passover).
The author of the Book of John, however,
completely contradicts the first three Gospels and
maintains that Yahshua was crucified on the eve
of Passover, or the 14th day of Nissan. The Book of John reads, “Now it was the
day of preparation for the Passover Then he handed him over to them to be
crucified (John 19:14-16).” The implications of
this stunning contradiction cannot be overstated because
both claims cannot be true. In essence, this is
not the sort of inconsistency that can be explained away by missionaries
insisting that the reason for the varying Gospel accounts is due to different
perspectives of the Gospel writers. Yahshua was crucified either on the eve of
Passover, which is the 14th day of Nissan, as John contends, or on the first
day of Passover, which is the 15th day of Nissan, as the Gospels of Matthew,
Mark and Luke maintain. Yahshua could not have been crucified on both days.”183
Truth
There are several accusations here that if
proven true by the anti-missionary, can prove to be
worrisome. However if we delve deeper into the
texts, we will see that as always the anti-missionary has
either not done his homework, or has purposely
misled. The statement was made that the “Last Supper
was actually a Passover Seder.” First of all,
can we prove that Yahshua did not eat the Passover, but rather ate a Memorial
Meal prior to the Passover? Moreover can we prove that this pre Passover
Memorial Supper may have been His last, but was not Passover? Since Yahshua was
the Passover Lamb, He could not by definition eat the Passover, since the
Passover was slaughtered before the Passover on the annual Preparation Day. We
cannot be too hard on the anti-missionaries ignorance here because many
Christians make the same errors.
The Paschal Lamb had to be killed “between the
evenings” on the day of the 14th of Aviv between
3-6PM or “bayn haarbayim” (Shemot/Exodus 12:6).
This killing of the Passover on the 14th in the
afternoon is confirmed in Bamidbar/Numbers 9:5.
The lamb was eaten from around 5 PM right on into
the night of the 15th. That is where most get
confused. The eating occurred during the latter part of the
14th, and well into the 15th. That night after
sundown was the 15th, making the actual completion of the meal on the night of
the 15th, with the start during the late afternoon of the 14th.
With that background, we will see exactly what
the synoptic gospels do say. We will see that they
do not contradict John's gospel, but rather
perfectly match. In Luke 22:7 we see that the Memorial Meal
was to be held before the Preparation Day, or
the day of the slaughtering of the lamb, because the
Preparation Day of the 14th was quickly
approaching late on the 13th. Luke 22:7&13 makes it clear that
the Memorial Meal was modeled after and called a
Passover Preparation by Yahshua, then later in Luke
22:15 Yahshua officially states that the meal is
not Passover. But, it will have to do this year, because of
His death on the official annual Preparation Day
“BEFORE my suffering.” In Luke 22:14 the hour had
come and Yahshua announced that despite His
great desire and zeal to celebrate the true Passover with
them, He would not, and could not, celebrate
with them this year as in prior years, due to His impending
and ordained suffering in Luke 22:15. This
Memorial Meal would just have to suffice!
Moreover in Luke 22:16 He states that despite
His desire, the Father's will and the Father’s desire
has not allowed that. Therefore HE WILL NOT
CELEBRATE PASSOVER WITH THEM THAT YEAR, or ever again for that matter, until He
celebrates it with them in the coming Messianic Age or kingdom. Luke 22:15-16
cannot be clearer. Yahshua then did not eat the Passover that year.
Nevertheless for preparation purposes He called it a Passover preparation,
otherwise the disciples would not have known what He wanted prepared or what
manner of meal He desired prepared. Since the Preparation Day is the afternoon
of the 14th with the slaughter followed immediately by the meal late on the
14th turning into the 15th, He had the Memorial Meal on the night of the 14th
just after the sunset on the 13th.
Now the anti-missionary has told you that the
synoptic gospels teach that Yahshua ate the Passover on the first day of
Passover, or on the night of the 15th. While the night of the 15th was the
completion of the normal Passover meal that started late on the 14th, we can
prove that Yahshua did not eat the Passover and that He was dead by the time
Passover started, just like John said he was. Let’s end the confusion once and
for all.
In Matthew 26:17 the Greek word normally
translated first is protos. 185 The word day is not in the
Greek text and therefore cannot read “first
day.” Now the word protos can either mean first or
BEFORE.186 The translators due to their ignorance
of Hebraic practice, almost universally translated the
word protos as first, rather than as before.
Then to make matters worse, they added the word “day” not in the actual Matthew
26:17 text. By eliminating the word day and reading the verse with the
understanding that protos can mean BEFORE, depending on the context, we see
that Luke matches Matthew quite well, since both insist that Before Unleavened
Bread started on the night of the 15th, Yahshua had eaten and been killed.
Now what about Mark? Can Mark line up with
Matthew and Luke? Well surprise, surprise,
surprise! In Mark 14:12 the Word first is protos
again which according to understanding YHWH’s
calendar has to mean before, and not the
alternative rendering “first.” Here we have the word protos
followed by the Word for day, which is hemera.
187 Mark 14:12 reads in the literal Greek, “Before Day
Unleavened!” “Before” the Day of Unleavened
Bread, makes a whole lot more sense than “first”
day of Unleavened Bread. Just as importantly, it
causes Mark to line up perfectly with both Luke and
Matthew. Yahshua was killed BEFORE the FIRST of
UNLEAVENED BREAD!
Lets tackle John. Actually rather than
contradict the synoptic accounts, John makes our point and
YHWH’s truth even clearer! In John 13:1 the word
before the Festival of the Passover is guess what?
“Pro”188 meaning BEFORE, and is the root word
and derivative from which protos is derived in the
other gospels. The word “pro” by itself is a
primary preposition. Had the translators translated with
just a drop of “Leviticus 23 understanding”, all
gospels would match as both “protos,” and “pro” would
be translated “before Passover” and “before
Unleavened Bread”, since as we all have figured out by
now that Messiah Yahshua couldn’t be the
Passover on the afternoon of the 14th, and later eat the
Passover on the night of the 15th, since dead
men don’t each much! John 13:1 confirms that all this
activity took place prior to Passover night.
Also the word in John 12:1 speaking of Yahshua visiting
Bethany before His death, is the word “pro”189
again meaning before Passover.
The Book of John rather than contradicting all
three synoptic gospels, confirms all three with the
clear usage of pro the root of protos. The
events described at the Memorial Meal by John are unique
insights into the actual details of the Memorial
Last Supper, and provide a different look into the events of that night on the
14th just after sundown. The addition of those details only found in John,
enriches the understanding, rather than contradicting the description of the
events, mentioned in the three synoptic gospels.
John 19:14-15 beautifully nails down this
understanding for us. In verse 14 we see Yahshua dying
BEFORE PASSOVER, officially beginning between
3-5PM by dying at 3PM during the normal annual
Jewish Preparation Day, when all the lambs were
slaughtered. John 19:30 confirms this timing. Then the
clincher is found in John 19:31 where we see
that Yahshua died on the Preparation Day of the Passover
lamb, not the “first day” of Unleavened Bread,
but rather “protos” or BEFORE UNLEAVENED BREAD. John 19:42 reiterates that the
death took place on the afternoon of the 14th, the traditional annual
Preparation Day and time. John 18:28 and John 18:39 are both further clear
confirmations that Yahshua was killed BEFORE “pro” or “protos” Passover, and
both the Jews refusing to be “ritually defiled” by entering a gentile edifice,
along with the releasing of a prisoner in honor of the “upcoming Passover”, are
crystal clear pre Passover events. This understanding clears up both the
Memorial Supper/Passover question, as it also sets in order the proper
understanding of the events, and the actual dates of the Master Yahshua's
crucifixion!
Now what was that, which Tovia Singer was saying
about Yahshua being crucified on two different days?”
From: The Messianic
Believer’s First Response Handbook
Providing
Life Saving Answers to Anti-Missionary Activity
By Rabbi
Moshe Yoseph Koniuchowsky
I cannot say it clear enough or loud enough. I do not mean this research to be condemning
to anyone else and their walk with Messiah.
We are all on a journey and we are all heading in the same direction. Just as a pilot navigating a car, a ship or a
plane, must make many minimal corrections to arrive safely at their final
destination, so we must be willing to make every adjustment required of us when
our Messiah speaks to our hearts, so that we may arrive safely at the
destinations He has intended for us between now and His soon return.
Shalom, shalom to all,
In Sincerity and In Truth,
Robert McDuffie ~
Yeshayahu 1:19-20
Ps. I do not know the
significance of this realization; however I thought it was worthwhile to share
with everyone. I had previously
mentioned to Jenn that even though all the Messianic believers we knew were
keeping Passover on varying dates at least we would all be keeping “First
Fruits” and “Shavuot” (Pentecost) on the same days. As I thought on this further I realized that
even the Jews following the Hillel calendar and the Roman Catholics and
Protestants, Baptist and most other Christians following the Popes calendar
would also be observing the correct days for these two feasts. Like I said, I do not know the true
significance of it so I would appreciate it if you would share with me what you
think it means.
Maybe of equal note is that next year the conjunction
calendar and the Hillel calendar mark the same day for Passover in 2013.
