Keeping the 364-day Calendar Year on Track with the Solar Year - Part 4

Part 4 - Priestly Courses, Mishmarot and The Prescribed Pattern of the Years

In two very similar passages, 2 Samuel 7:1-17 & 1 Chronicles 17:1-15, we read about King David telling his prophet Nathan that he wants to build a house for Yah.  Nathan tells David to do what is in his heart, for God is with him:

1 Chronicles 17:1-4

(1) Now it came to pass, as David sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, Lo, I dwell in an house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD remaineth under curtains.

(2) Then Nathan said unto David, Do all that is in thine heart; for God is with thee.

(3) And it came to pass the same night, that the word of God came to Nathan, saying,

(4) Go and tell David my servant, Thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in:

However, Nathan has a vision from Yah that night and is told that David will not build a house for Him because he was a man of war and had shed blood in the land.  Instead, his son shall be the one to build it, and Yah also proclaims a covenant with King David that he will always have a son on the throne to rule forever:

When we read this promise with the advantage of history and the knowledge of our Messiah, we can plainly see the incredible prophecy it was - and still is - and will continue to be - regarding our King Y'shua ben David.  Whether or not King David fully realized that the Messiah would come from his seed, we can't say for sure; but we can be sure that he understood the righteousness of Yah and the relevant magnitude of this promise for the future of Israel.  His heart undoubtedly had a strong desire to do all that he could in preparation for the immense task that would lay before his youngest son and heir to the throne, Solomon; thereby enabling him to accomplish a successful endeavor in building the house of Yah.

Yes, he prepared abundantly and then some!  Not only did he outline the plans and procure all the building materials, gold and silver that would be needed, but he also established a huge organization of chief priests, Levitical ministers, singers, porters, officers, commanders, overseers of the treasury, counselors, and so on for the duties (the Mishmarot) of the yet future Temple.  King David had an altar built, and the full administrative operation of the Mishmarot were implemented under David and his high priests at the time, Zadok and Ahimelech.

There were 24 courses of chief priests established by lot for the governance of the sanctuary and of the future house of Yah to serve in their courses as follows:

The records in 1 Chronicles show us that King David's preparations were wide-ranging and thorough; his massive organization of people and resources was notably structured with specific positions of authority and duties delegated among thousands of individuals. These 24 priestly courses played a key role in the Mishmarot - the governance and administration of Temple duties, guarding and preserving Yah's Word. The chief priests served in authority under the High Priest, managing the Levitical ministers, singers and porters which were also chosen in courses by lot. Yah ordained a simple, yet highly effective system for His House to function through King David, Zadok and Ahimelech.

It is generally understood from the Scriptural context and actual history that each course served one week at a time, twice a year. In addition, they all served during the three pilgrimage feasts as they would be there anyway since all adult males were required to be in attendance at those times.  Some sources report that the courses switched out on Sabbath, while other sources state they changed on weekday-1.  This is probably two different ways of looking at the same thing when you consider that neither course would come in or go out on Sabbath, and the new one coming in probably started their official week of service with the evening sacrifice on Sabbath.  This also fits entirely with an account from the historian Flavius Josephus who states that they actually served 8 days, from Sabbath to Sabbath, and it certainly stands to reason that the priests would pitch-in to help each other with the extra work load of Sabbath services.  The new course coming in would arrive on weekday-6 before Sabbath, and the course going out would depart on weekday-1 after Sabbath.  When we combine this information from several reliable sources, we can see how a weekly rotation of these courses would line up easily with the 52 weeks of the year:

• Each of the 24 courses served twice a year = 48 weeks

• All courses served 2 weeks in the Spring surrounding Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread/Matzot, beginning with the Sabbath before the feast week and ending with the Sabbath after the feast week

• All courses attended and assisted for about 2 days in late Spring for the weekly Shabbat + Feast of Weeks/Shavuot

• All courses served 2 weeks in the Autumn surrounding the Feast of Tabernacles/Sukkot in the same manner as Spring, beginning with the Sabbath before the feast week and ending with the Sabbath after the feast

• 48 + 2 + 2 = 52 weeks, and most likely, all courses would also come to serve the extra week when intercalation was required.

The 24 priestly courses are structured in a simple pattern that is wholly compatible with the Sabbath calendar.  Their order maintains an equitable distribution of work for them in a steady flow through the year, and everyone involved would always know exactly when the week of their course was due for service in the year, every year. 

Josephus also lends a great deal of credence to this straightforward method of weekly/yearly service with his testimony of the priestly courses being in their assigned order at Qumran. Each course was assigned to its weeks of service, and they remained "in their partitions".  The context of Josephus' historical record mirrors the Scriptural context of 1 Chronicles 24:19, "These were the orderings of them in their service to come into the house of the LORD, according to their manner,".  The context from history and from Scripture is one of ordained structure, order, purpose, and numbering in the assignment of these priestly courses.  Yah does not change; His structure, His order, His purpose or His numbering does not change after He commands or ordains something; YHWH is "echad".  When He numbers something, we can safely presume He does so with a methodology and timing that will always assimilate within His divinely established patterning, and it will be consistent throughout time.  When we examine the Scriptures and study the history of Qumran, it becomes apparent that the "orderings of them in their service" did not rotate through different weeks each year. 

However, the Mishmarot scrolls of the DSS, 4Q319 - 4Q330, show something entirely different.  They show a sequence of priestly courses in the same order as Scripture, but they serve consecutively through the year without any suspension in their order during the spring and fall feasts.  This creates a situation where all the courses serve twice in a 48 week period, and the next 4 in the order will serve a third time to complete the 52 weeks of the year.  This results in a 6-year pattern of rotation with each course serving 13 times in different weeks of the year during the 6-year span.  These scrolls also have these 6-year rotations plotted in 7-year Shemita cycles  and further on into six 49-year Jubilee periods for a total series of rotations equaling a span of 294 years. 

The rotations of the priestly courses are also recorded with a multitude of other specific criteria.  Most notably, they connect specific lunar timing with the first month of the year and the corresponding priestly courses for that specific year of the rotation.  The lunar phases (full moon or crescent moon, nobody is quite sure) are from a schema found in scroll 4Q317 that is not based on actual observation, and it is riddled with scribal corrections and markings.  There is much more detail covered in these scrolls, but this is probably enough already to boggle anyone's sensibilities.

While studying these scrolls and figuring out their patterns can be quite fascinating, especially if you like puzzles, there are some initial characteristics mentioned here that should immediately start sounding some warning bells:

• There is a ton of detail within these Mishmarot Scrolls, 4Q319 - 4Q330, that has no Scriptural basis.  In fact, they go against Scripture by adding to it, so they should not be regarded as authoritative.

• A highly questionable lunar schema that is not compatible with the solar-based schema of the 364-day Sabbath calendar is merged in combination with the yearly rotations of priestly courses.

• This entire panacea of rotations and cycles within cycles as documented in the Mishmarot scrolls introduces an unnatural amount of complexity into a system ordained by Yah that is really rather simple and straightforward - resulting in a system that neither fits the context of Scripture nor the evidence of recorded history.

So just what does all this mish-mash about the Mishmarot have to do with our current series of blog posts anyway?  Aren't we supposed to be looking at the topic of intercalation?  What on earth do the Mishmarot have to do with keeping the Sabbath calendar year aligned with the solar year?  Well, nothing  -  they have nothing to do with intercalation; they have nothing to do with knowing when to begin the year.  There is nothing in Scripture, nothing in recorded history, and nothing in the bulk of the DSS that would corroborate using the rotation of the priestly courses to determine the calendar year.  In fact, the corpus of calendrical writing in the DSS refutes applying any lunar observations for months, seasons and years, and there is absolutely no Scriptural basis to require a certain phase of the moon for a certain week for a certain priestly course. 

We discuss much more about these issues in our new article, Rotation of the Priestly Courses, which will hopefully answer any questions you might have.  The misapplication of the priestly courses as they are documented in the DSS has become somewhat divisive and controversial because other calendars have emerged under the "Zadok/Zadokite" moniker which started their year before the vernal equinox on March 19th instead of placing the "Beginning of Months" a week later this year on March 26th. 

One thing that must be understood from all the misunderstanding surrounding the DSS Mishmarot is that not all scrolls in the DSS are suitable when it comes to applying them to Scriptural things.  Just like any library, the DSS contain many different writings including secular records, community rules, and numerous pseudepigraphal writings that really amount to good works of ancient fiction.  Just because 4Q319-4Q330 were discovered in the caves of Qumran, it doesn't mean that they have Scriptural integrity, and just because they illustrate an intriguing scenario to consider, it doesn't mean they have a valid application. 

This is especially true if the information from a few scrolls disengages the flow of the Sabbath calendar entirely away from its schema as it is clearly established within the majority of the DSS - not to mention how we've compared and contrasted everything about the calendar with other historical, archaeological and Scriptural evidences.  We are not witnessing a proper vetting of the information contained in the DSS Mishmarot scrolls when it comes to others attempting to make the rotations work in the "Zadok/Zadokite" calendar.  In these attempts, many are basically creating a different calendar that resembles the ancient calendar system of the DSS, but it is violating Yah's order of the Heavenly courses as they are clearly delineated in the DSS.  We've written another new article about the Prescribed Pattern of the Years which will hopefully bring even more clarity regarding the basic elements we've already been discussing through the last 3 posts in this series.

There is just one last thing we need to mention before closing out this series of blogs regarding proper intercalation of the Sabbath calendar.  It concerns other versions of "Zadok/Zadokite" calendars that are aligning the equinox with the stars, or some other version of stars (sidereal time) and priestly courses too.  These are extraneous elements that share some sort of relationship to timing on the calendar in a year, but they in no way have any direct cause in determining the start of a calendar year.  Please know for a fact that the 364-day Sabbath calendar year is a schematic representation of the 365.25-day solar year, and that's it.  The year is governed by the sun; it is not governed by the moon, the stars, or the priestly courses.  Please also refer to a comprehensive article we wrote titled Sun, Moon, Stars & Priests - How do they relate to Yah's calendar work? 

We've been reviewing and studying whatever material that might have a bearing on the subject of intercalation more extensively this year than ever before.  We've been aware of the disparity among so-called "Zadok/Zadokite" priestly calendars, and we want to be sure that we haven't misunderstood or simply overlooked something.  We truly want to be on track and in step with Yah, just as much as anyone if not more so.  Now, as of this year, we are more confident than ever, thoroughly assured in standing on a very simple, yet very sturdy platform of knowing without any question, that the vernal equinox signals the end of the solar year, and the calendar year must begin on the weekday-4 (Wednesday) that is either simultaneous with the day of the equinox or the first weekday-4 that comes after the equinox.  If the calendar year ends before the vernal equinox, then we wait an additional week until the following weekday-4.  We do not begin the calendar year until the solar year has ended, and this maintains a completely harmonious rhythm with the seasons and Yah's impervious, majestic design.  These fundamental criteria for determining when to intercalate are - basic - simple - perpetual - and immensely profound. 

The ancient 364-day calendar system of the DSS is a creation-based Sabbath calendar system that truly honors the cycles of time from creation.  Following this calendar connects the Divinity of the Heavenly with the realm of the earthly, the infinite with the finite, through those ordained cycles of time.  The calendar existed long before the priestly courses were instituted, and they do not have any bearing on the calendar other than simply following it just as it is.   There is nothing that needs to be fixed, altered, modified, added or subtracted for the Sabbath calendar to function seamlessly throughout all of time!

This concludes our 4-part series discussing the only appropriate method of intercalation for keeping the 364-day calendar year aligned with the solar year.  We pray that our work may be a blessing for you, and that others will come to know and understand more about this incredible, divinely inspired Zadokite Sabbath Calendar and its unique orchestration.

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