Twenty-four hours later, Day One was complete. What does the Bible say? ―It was evening and it was
morning, one day‖. That first 24-hour day began with night and ended with day, and it‘s been that way ever
since. The Hebrew still today honours this commandment of YHWH.
Later, on Day Four, YHWH assigned the sun and the moon as day and night markers, setting up the solar
system the way it is today; but the Jewish day begins with night, because that's how time began.
The day is divided into two parts, evening and morning.
Evening: when the sun is down. Mark 1:32: ―And at even, when the sun did set...‖ For further proof that
days start and end at evening, sunset, at the going down of the sun, see Joshua 8:29, Joshua 10:26-27,
1 Kings 22:35-36, 2 Chron18:34, 2 Sam 3:35.
Morning: when the sun is up. Thus in Genesis chapter 1 we read how ―the evening and the morning were
the first day‖, "the evening and the morning were the second day‖, "the evening and the morning were the
third day" and so on.What is a Hebrew month and when does it start?
A month in the sacred calendar is measured by the moon. A month is the period of time between one new
moon and the next. A month begins when the new moon is sighted with the naked eye. The moon orbits the
earth in about 29.5 days. Months in the sacred calendar may, therefore, be either 29 or 30 days in length:
they cannot be 28 or 31 days in length. Note that the new moon mentioned here is not the astronomical new
moon (conjunction), which is invisible; but the visible new moon as it is first sighted with the naked eye
by an observer at Jerusalem.
Months in the sacred calendar are usually, though not always, referred to in Scripture by their numbers, not
by their names: i.e. 1 st month, 2nd month, 3rd month, 7th month, etc. Unlike most weekdays, however, months
in the sacred calendar do have proper names, most of which are found in the Bible. But let‘s also look at the
Babylonian versus the Biblical Calendar.
This table is divided into two sections because of the changes made in the calendar as a result of the
Babylonian exile. After the Jews were exiled from Judah to Babylonia in 586 B.C., they adopted Babylonian
names for the months of the year. Nevertheless, they still have important meanings in the whole scheme of
things. Not only do most of the names of the Babylonian months have appropriate meanings, but there is
also an important theme that applies to these months (Babylonian or Biblical).
Please view the chart on the next page.