Calendar Archive for proposed New Moon worship days according to the NT Bible Model
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2011* proposed New Moon worship days according to the NT Bible Model
To find the waxing crescent NT Bible Model approximation add exactly 3 days to the dates in the final column in the following table.
Note: the model approximation here is for the beginning of the dark phase: and used through 2014. From 2015 using the waxing crescent approach.
*Note: study completed late 2011 so table only constructed for last 2 months.
2012 proposed New Moon worship days according to the NT Bible Model
To find the waxing crescent NT Bible Model approximation add exactly 3 days to the dates in the final column in the following table.
Table correction late 2012: 12 Nov & 11,12 Dec to 12,13 Nov & 12 Dec.
Note: the model approximation here is for the beginning of the dark phase: and used through 2014. From 2015 using the waxing crescent approach.
2013 proposed New Moon worship days according to the NT Bible Model
To find the waxing crescent NT Bible Model approximation add exactly 3 days to the dates in the final column in the following table.
Note: the model approximation here is for the beginning of the dark phase: and used through 2014. From 2015 using the waxing crescent approach.
2014 proposed New Moon worship days according to the NT Bible Model
To find the waxing crescent NT Bible Model approximation add exactly 3 days to the dates in the final column in the following table.
As from 2015 this information will built into each table.
Note that the first entry is blank as the beginning of the dark phase approach landed in December of the previous year. The waxing crescent
approximation will be in January and we find it as follows: numerical 3 Jan 1:14am giving January 3. The Jewish calendar gave January 2.
Note: the model approximation here is for the beginning of the dark phase: and used through 2014. From 2015 using the waxing crescent approach.
The average given here is only for these values in 2014. The
range appears to be about 5 hours and 40 minutes.
Note: the synodic month being shorter than most calendar months can fall inside a month. For 2014 this happens twice! Two astronomical new moons
in January and March. Hence Jan-Jan and Mar-Mar on the above table left side and on the following graph month axis.
This does not flow over this year [2014] to the NT Bible model new moon worship days.
Being 1.5 days before each astronomical new moon just moves these dates so that no two separate worship days occur in the same month.* This may not be the case with the waxing crescent approximation. There is no ulterior motive here. Having two separate worship days in the same calendar month is more a novel occurrence than anything to worry about!
* This may not be the case with the waxing crescent approximation.
2015 proposed New Moon worship days according to the NT Bible Model
Data from www.timeanddate.com
Note: from late 2011 through 2014 the model approximation used the beginning of the dark phase approach. This years' model approximations are for the waxing crescent approach.
The average given here is only for these values in 2015. The range appears to be about 8 hours and 25 minutes.
2016 proposed New Moon worship days according to the NT Bible Model
Data from www.timeanddate.com
a. this is just past midnight so compared with the sunset time for the preceding day, 2 September. There's no hard rule here but since this was less than 6 hours adding the previous day also.
Note: the model approximation here is for the waxing crescent approach.
2017 proposed New Moon worship days according to the NT Bible Model
Data from www.timeanddate.com
May-June gives the shortest synodic month length: 29 days 6 hours 46 minutes.
November-December gives the longest: 29 days 18 hours 48 minutes.
The difference is 12 hours and 2 minutes and is how much the length of the synodic month varies through this year.
Note: the model approximation here is for the waxing crescent approach.
2018 proposed New Moon worship days according to the NT Bible Model
Data from www.timeanddate.com
2019 proposed New Moon worship days according to the NT Bible Model
Data from www.timeanddate.com
2020 proposed New Moon worship days according to the NT Bible Model
Data from www.timeanddate.com
2021 proposed New Moon worship days according to the NT Bible Model
Data from www.timeanddate.com
am/pm Conundrum
This doesn't happen often but when it does it can be curious. So the calculation for March gave 15th, 00:21am. Probably not too hard but the starting point was also tricky, 13 Mar 12:21pm. And would 12:21am be different to 00:21am?
To explain how I got in this spot, I started with the following information from a NASA page:
For March 13 we have 10:21 but these are UTC/GMT times and an adjustment of 2 hours is needed for Jerusalem. That takes it to 12:21 and clearly this is mid-day so is this am or pm?
We find on the timeanddate site:
The abbreviations am and pm derive from Latin:
AM = Ante meridiem: Before noon
PM = Post meridiem: After noon
https://www.timeanddate.com/time/am-and-pm.html
And they have some examples converting from the 12 hour system to the 24 hour system and back. Interestingly the 0 hour appears to only exist in the 24 hour system with 12:49 am/pm examples given. So 0:21am may be valid but the preferred rendering of this is to write 12:21am.
From 0:00 (midnight) to 0:59, add 12 hours and use am.
0:49 = 12:49 am (0:49 + 12)
https://www.timeanddate.com/time/am-and-pm.html
So for March 15 my numerical value [time] should be 12:21am.
I also obtained a moon phase table from the timeanddate site that did give the March 13 time as 12:21pm:
And there are some other curious things mentioned. For example, the timeanddate.com site proposes a hypothetical question:
Imagine being asked to pick up a friend at the airport at 12:00 am on April 13. Would you go there at midnight between April 12 and April 13? Or 24 hours later?
https://www.timeanddate.com/time/am-and-pm.html
We'll probably leave this at this point.
New Moon day proposal selection amendment/update
Dec 2021.
This has no impact on the numerical value column where the 1.5 day adjustment has been used.
A recent quote note for my Search page yielded an alternative quote that very strongly supported the 1.5 day approach in the model construction.
According to NASA, a full moon technically only lasts for the moment when the Earth is directly between the sun and the moon. However, full moons appear to last for approximately three days.
https://www.reference.com/science/many-days-full-moon-last-588a1e5f7d59ab60
My Search page had concluded the full moon and new moon phases were the longest and equal in length. Which means this quote was supporting the astronomical new moon phase length being 3 days giving the end point at 1.5 days past the conjunction point.
And this did make me rethink about the associated method I had been using for the proposal selection process.
This was never clearly spelled out, but basically if the numerical value was within a 4, 5 or 6 hour overlap with the previous day sometimes I used it.
But this new quote strongly supported the day starting at the 1.5 day point with no previous overlap.
Also with the new moon pics I used on the Search page giving 2.0 and 2.8 as possible upper bounds I realized that the 1.5 day approach could more likely be used as the starting point for the new moon day. This is a subtle difference to how I had been selecting the proposed days so far and will take this approach from now on. There should be very little differences but it is possible some double days may become single and some single, double days.
I am also going to couple this with a more laid-back approach
If a day ends in the early hours of the next day, the next day will be ignored. This may infuriate the purists but looking back over the previous years it appears that the results would be similar.
Also if the day starts not too far from where a sunset is we might just count the following day with the understanding most people will probably keep the days from the previous sunset anyway. As before, with this simplified approach, it is recommended that each new moon day start at the previous sunset. New Moon days in the Old Testament times were kept from sunset to sunset. With or without a sunset column the day construct is simply implied.
Jan 2022 amendment:
The Search page Crescent Visibility quote gives ridiculously low hours so a really laid-back approach would be to take the day if the numerical value falls before the sunset time along with the following day. So I am not going to worry if it is 1, 2, or 3 hours etc, just add the day.
Given we are using a numerical approximation this approach will be very reasonable and make the selection easier. And this should be the final amendment on this.
And our table above? Any changes? A little late but I now would have:
Jan 15
Feb 13 & 14
May 13 & 14
Nov 6 & 7
Dec 6
2022 proposed New Moon worship days according to the NT Bible Model
Data from www.timeanddate.com
Note: the synodic month being shorter than most calendar months can fall inside a month. For 2022 this happens once: Two astronomical new moons in April.
And an extremely interesting note:
These table dates were obtained from the timeanddate.com site. And two dates look different to the NASA /AstroPixels Moon Phase data.
26 September and 24 November.
The NASA/AstroPixels data give 25 September 21:54 and 23 November 22:57:
These tables are UTC/GMT times. When we adjust for Jerusalem [add 2 hours] and daylight saving we get the same as above.
21:54 + 2 hours + 1 hour = 24:54 or 12:54am the following day or 26 September.
22:57 + 2 hours = 24:57 or 12:57am the following day or 24 November.
2023 proposed New Moon worship days according to the NT Bible Model
Data from www.timeanddate.com
Only need sunset time checks for 21 Apr, 19 Jun, and 16 Sep. Probably didn't need 16 Sep.
And an interesting note:
These table dates were obtained from the timeanddate.com site. And one date looks different to the NASA /AstroPixels Moon Phase data.
13 December.
The NASA/AstroPixels data give 12 December 23:32:
These tables are UTC/GMT times. When we adjust for Jerusalem [add 2 hours] and no daylight saving we get the same as above.
23:32 + 2 hours = 25:32 or 1:32am the following day or 13 December.
Note: this is our archive. Our current calendar page is at Calendar
Historical update
Late 2014 a search was undertaken using different new moon models to find the crucifixion date. 4 years were tried and a Friday date was obtained using
the Waxing Crescent approach. A Friday date was also obtained with the Beginning of the Dark Phase approach. But with the weight of historical quotes
supporting the Waxing Crescent, and given that we did find a Friday date using it, the safest conclusion to draw is clearly that it is the better
choice of the methods.
So the results of this search were twofold. We obtained a very likely date for the crucifixion of Christ. And we determined that the most likely new
moon worship day of the Bible is the waxing crescent.
From late 2011 through 2014 the NT Bible Model was used to approximate new moon worship days according to the beginning
of the dark phase of the moon. From 2015 the model has been used for the waxing crescent instead.
NT Bible Model: Add 1 day 12 hrs to Astronomical New Moon time. Adjust for sunset.
Proposal selection amendment/update for 2022 onwards
From Dec 2021:
This has no impact on the numerical value column where the 1.5 day adjustment has been used.
A recent quote note for my Search page yielded an alternative quote that very strongly supported the 1.5 day approach in the model construction.
According to NASA, a full moon technically only lasts for the moment when the Earth is directly between the sun and the moon. However, full moons appear to last for approximately three days.
https://www.reference.com/science/many-days-full-moon-last-588a1e5f7d59ab60
My Search page had concluded the full moon and new moon phases were the longest and equal in length. Which means this quote was supporting the astronomical new moon phase length being 3 days giving the end point at 1.5 days past the conjunction point.
And this did make me rethink about the associated method I had been using for the proposal selection process.
This was never clearly spelled out, but basically if the numerical value was within a 4, 5 or 6 hour overlap with the previous day sometimes I used it.
But this new quote strongly supported the day starting at the 1.5 day point with no previous overlap.
Also with the new moon pics I used on the Search page giving 2.0 and 2.8 as possible upper bounds I realized that the 1.5 day approach could more likely be used as the starting point for the new moon day. This is a subtle difference to how I had been selecting the proposed days so far and will take this approach from now on. There should be very little differences but it is possible some double days may become single and some single, double days.
I am also going to couple this with a more laid-back approach
If a day ends in the early hours of the next day, the next day will be ignored. This may infuriate the purists but looking back over the previous years it appears that the results would be similar.
Also if the day starts not too far from where a sunset is we might just count the following day with the understanding most people will probably keep the days from the previous sunset anyway. As before, with this simplified approach, it is recommended that each new moon day start at the previous sunset. New Moon days in the Old Testament times were kept from sunset to sunset. With or without a sunset column the day construct is simply implied.
Jan 2022/2024 amendment:
The Search page Crescent Visibility quote gives ridiculously low hours so a really laid-back approach would be to take the day if the numerical value falls before the sunset time along with the following day. So I am not going to worry if it is only 1, 2, or 3 hours before etc, just add the day.
Given we are using a numerical approximation this approach will be very reasonable and make the selection easier. And this should be the final amendment on this.
Notes:
The Bible model is a little different to the current Jewish approach.
The Jewish approach of using Molad dates and times does not correctly follow the
true lunar synodic month through the year. The length of the synodic month changes
through the year and the Jewish calendar does not allow for this and can actually
get a little out of step. And some years it can get completely out of sync.*
The Jews are aware of these length discrepancies and readily admit them.
The NT Bible model approach uses a numerical value to follow the astronomical new moon
date. As the synodic month length changes the position for the new moon worship day adjusts accordingly.
The numerical value obtained was 1 day and 12 hours from the
astronomical new moon date and time. This value was tested using the
Jewish calendar for the year 2011 by adding the value to the
astronomical new moon date and time. For every month tried the
numerical approach was successful in landing on a Jewish Rosh Chodesh
date. When the Jewish calendar had two dates in the same month the
numerical value was successful in landing on one of them.
Also, according to the Bible construction for a day, New Moon worship days are from sunset to sunset.
The Jewish approach of using two chodesh dates when the numerical value falls near a sunset
time is here taken. At present Jerusalem times are being used but the
reason for this is purely geographical, not Jewish. If the command
from God was given to Moses then it is clear the location is
somewhere near the region of Palestine. Using Jerusalem times should
solve any problem here.
All the reasons for the above [except Jerusalem] are given in my study The Search for Chodesh.
* It got completely out of step in 2013. This was one of those out-of-sync years. See the PostScript section at the end of my Search page. [link above] Top
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Last revised: 6 Jan 2024.
Construction: Feb 2012.