The Zadok Calendar
Zadok is the name of a High Priest who served in the days of Kings David and Solomon. David wanted a permanent temple built in Jerusalem, and God permitted him to gather all the material necessary to build it. It was then his son, Solomon, who oversaw the construction, but Zadok played an incredibly important role in those events. First, Zadok ordained Solomon to be king during the controversy with Absalom, his brother by another mother, when Absalom attempted to seize the kingship before David had died. Zadok was also the first High Priest for the Temple in Jerusalem.
The Zadok line of priests continued for many years until the Babylonian exile and return of the remnant of Judah from that exile. Factions began to form, and the Pharisaic and Sadducean traditions began. Essentially, the Zadok dynasty was cast out, with the Sadducees gaining control of the Temple. Elements of the Zadok priesthood remained in a fragmented manner in such places as Qumran. In the days of Yeshua, John the Baptist was probably a Zadok priest.
Let us leave the subject of Qumran for a moment and address an ancient question about the role of priests and what they really did.
The priests were of the tribe of Levi, with the first High Priest being Aaron. Aaron’s sons were also priests, and the line of High Priests followed the Aaronic line. The priests were the administrators and managers of the temple service. Besides presenting sacrifices on God’s altar for the sons of Israel, they determined what was holy and profane, clean and unclean, right and wrong, concerning God’s commandments. They were the ancient Torah teachers and Scribes. They also did one more very important thing for the Temple Service: they maintained the calendar.
God’s appointed times specified certain months and days for the Holy Days. Passover was to be on the 14th day of the first month. Unleavened Bread was to begin on the 15th day and to continue for seven days. Others included the Feast of Trumpets on the 1st day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement on the 10th day of the same month, followed by Tabernacles on the 15th day of that month.
The calendar Moses referred to in giving these commandments apparently existed before Moses and the whole priest/temple system. The first reference to a numbered month and numbered days is in the story of Noah. Moses recounts to us the timing of the great flood as follows:
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.
Genesis 7:11
In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.
Genesis 8:4
Now it came about in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was dried up. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
Genesis 8:13–14
When Moses shares the story, the timing of the flood is very exact, using specific months and days accordingly. But we must ask ourselves: What calendar is Moses referring to and using in the commandments for God’s appointed times?
It certainly is not the present Hebrew calendar or the Roman/Greco calendar of our present day. The Hebrew calendar was developed in Babylon when the remnant of Judah returned from captivity. The present-day calendar is a product of Roman and Greek mythology, with influences from the Popes of the Catholic Church. Our present calendar, beginning in January and continuing through December, is the Gregorian Calendar. So, where did this pre-Flood and Torah calendar originate? More importantly, why aren’t we using this calendar to obey God’s appointed times?
When we look back to the creation story, we know that God created time along with space and matter. Technically, we call it the space-time continuum. The first hint of time measurement is day one of the creation. God said there was one day.
God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
Genesis 1:5
At this point, the earth was rotating, but the first hint of what we call months and years is on the fourth day of creation.
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
Genesis 1:14–19
With the earth rotating, sunlight became the day and moonlight became the night. But we also now have a rotating earth around the sun and a moon that rotates around the earth. We now have a method to define years and months accordingly.
The moon’s rotation around the earth is approximately 29 days, but that does not divide correctly for 12 months in a year. The Scripture defines 12 months in a year (a full solar rotation).
The Hebrew calendar adjusts for this by adding an additional month (Adar II) seven times in a nineteen-year cycle. It then adjusts the number of days in a year to six different lengths. Yes, it is complicated and most people do not understand it.
The Gregorian calendar has its own weirdness. Every four years, we add one day to February for a total of 29 days instead of 28 days. Mind you, every other month is either 30 or 31 days.
Neither of these calendars, nor any other nation’s calendar, matches the Biblical calendar that Moses referenced. It should be noted that the calendar Moses followed was used by Israel until after the Babylonian exile. That is when Israel adopted the Babylonian calendar back in the land. Babylonian culture was pervasive throughout the Middle East until the Greeks took over.
Let us examine the calendar that was used by Israel prior to the Babylonians’ influence. When God gave instructions to Moses that were for the nation of Israel, it began at the Egyptian exodus. The exodus began at the Passover. Listen to how God instructed the children of Israel to begin as a nation.
This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. You shall keep it [the Passover Lamb] until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight.
Exodus 12:2, 6
This command is then repeated as part of God’s appointed times for several holy days.
In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the LORD’s Passover.
Leviticus 23:5
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.
Leviticus 23:6
Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, “In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.”
Leviticus 23:24
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 your souls and present an offering by fire to the LORD.
Leviticus 23:27
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.”
Leviticus 23:34
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.
Leviticus 23:39
He did not say the Passover and Unleavened Bread were on the 14th and 15th day of Nisan. Or that Trumpets was on the first day of Tishri, with Atonement and Tabernacles following on the tenth and the fifteenth of Tishri. Those dates are different from the Biblical commandment. Beyond the appointed times, other very significant events were recorded by the Biblical calendar, such as the date for the operation of the Tabernacle and temple service.
Now in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected.
Exodus 40:17
Following the Hebrew calendar, we would say it was the first days of Nisan, which can vary from year to year, somewhere between late March to the middle of April. But the command was for a specific date four days after the spring equinox. Interestingly, the ancients in all cultures paid close attention to the spring equinox, the summer solstice, the fall equinox, and the winter solstice. They determined the seasons. The calendar used by Moses did the same. The new year began, associated with the spring equinox. It turns out that we know that date and the calendar used by Moses for these commands. It was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Many of the Dead Sea Scrolls were unearthed more than 70 years ago, but they have only been translated, published, and widely studied over the last 20 years or so.
Apparently, the Essenes of Qumran were the remnants of the Zadok priestly line after the Babylonian exile who were forced out of the temple service by the Sadducees and the Pharisees. They were the priests who maintained the calendar used in the temple prior to the Babylonian exiles.
This same calendar is now documented extensively by the many books about the Dead Sea Scrolls. Considerable attribution to this calendar goes all the way back to Enoch, who lived in the pre-flood world, and the book called “Jubilees.”
The book of Jude offers some commentary on the man Enoch by saying this:
It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
Jude 1:14–15
Apparently, Enoch was a prophet of God who even prophesied the Messiah’s coming at the end of the ages. Moses also tells us about Enoch and, in particular, his relationship with God.
Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
Genesis 5:21–24
This Scripture says that Enoch was so involved with God that God took him to be with Him after only living as a mortal for 365 years. The average man lived more than 900 years in the pre-flood world. Enoch is credited with instructing many, including Noah, about God. We believe that Enoch taught the Biblical calendar that Noah used to record his trip on the ark, which was also passed down through Abraham to Moses.
Let us step back for a moment. Messianic believers of today have gone through an incredible transition. First, we hold to the belief that Yeshua of Nazareth is the Messiah. Secondly, we have come to understand that historical Christianity is not the teaching of the New Testament believer. The “church” was established by the church fathers to leave the Jews and anything to do with Israel. When the Jews were scattered and Jerusalem’s temple destroyed, the church fathers took the theological position of “God’s economy” (replacement theology).
Messianics believe that the New Covenant did not make the previous covenants go away, especially the Law of Moses (the Torah). After accepting the Torah, they have returned to keeping the Sabbath and God’s appointed times.
That means that Messianics do not hold to the present-day Gregorian calendar of January as the first month, and Passover to be observed on the 14th day of the first month. Obviously, it must be the Hebrew calendar, or the month of Nisan on the 14th day. Thus, almost all Messianics follow the Hebrew calendar now. It is what regulates our assemblies and the keeping of holidays.
Tilt… the Hebrew calendar did not exist when the appointed times were given.
The implications are clear. We Messianics are trying to keep God’s appointed times and are still missing the mark because we are under the ancient Babylonian system that the Jews brought back to Israel.
What are we to do?
It appears that we need to find and understand the calendar that Israel used prior to the Babylonian influence. By the way, this is a very good idea since God warns us in the entire 18th chapter of Revelation to “get out of Babylon” at the end of the ages.
Here is but one segment of that chapter.
I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”
Revelation 18:4–5
How do we come out of Babylon today? Obviously, we will have nothing to do with horoscopes and astrology. That is Babylonian. Or, what about … the month of “Nisan?”
Tablet fragments from the Neo-Babylonian period describe a series of festival days celebrating the New Year. The festival began on the first day of the first Babylonian month, Nisannu, roughly corresponding to April/May in the Gregorian calendar. This festival celebrated the re-creation of the Earth, drawing from the Marduk-centered creation story described in the Enûma Eliš.
Nisanuu is the Babylonian name adopted by the Jews when they returned, instead of saying, “the first month of the year” as the Lord had said. Furthermore, they renamed the festival of Yom Teruah (Trumpets) and called it New Year because of the agricultural cycle. The Harvest is complete in the fall and new planting begins. It has nothing to do with creation and/or what God commanded. Even more so, Judaism spiritualizes it with a need to repent at the “start of the year.”
The Bible says the first month is the beginning of the year, and God specified that when He gave the instruction of Passover. The Hebrew calendar has turned things around and gotten “off track” from God’s instructions.
We need to come out of all the influences of Babylon, Roman gods, and Greek mythology. It influences our calendar names for days and months to this day.
The calendar used in the Bible has numbered months and numbered days. The exception is the seventh day, called Sabbath, and specific holidays called the appointed times: Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Weeks, Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles.
There are a couple of exceptions to this general rule that we can acknowledge.
You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. And none shall appear before Me empty-handed.
Exodus 23:15
Abib here means spring. The first month is in the spring.
Now it came about in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.
1 Kings 6:1
All the men of Israel assembled themselves to King Solomon at the feast, in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.
1 Kings 8:2
In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished throughout all its parts and according to all its plans. So he was seven years in building it.
1 Kings 6:38
On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, as follows:
Zechariah 1:7
Understanding the Zadok calendar (the calendar last used by the priesthood of the temple prior to the Babylonian exile) is a serious study. Many scholars and Bible teachers are having to come to terms with the evidence found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. One of the preliminary conclusions includes John the Baptist as being a Zadok priest. Yeshua required John to baptize Him “so that all righteousness will be fulfilled” may be part of this. Yeshua’s title as a Nazarene does not only reference Him as living in the town of Nazareth; it also indicates that He was part of the “enes.” Nazar means “branch of.” A Nazarene then means that He was a branch of the “Essenes” (the priests that were separate from the temple in Jerusalem). It turns out that much of the New Testament theology originates from the spiritual community in Qumran.
Here is a fascinating fact about Qumran: They called their community “Damascus.” When Paul was dispatched with letters of authority to arrest and bring back to Jerusalem those Jews who opposed the Sanhedrin, was he on the road to a Syrian city or was he on the road to Qumran?
There is even more evidence that brings into question our established understandings of the New Testament teaching. Those questions dramatically re-enforce the commandments of Torah and the teachings of Yeshua and the Apostles.
Matthew stated clearly in his Gospel that the Messiah would be called a Nazarene.
and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
Matthew 2:23
There is no prophecy to be found in the books of the Old Testament that gives that prophecy. What prophecy is Matthew referring to? There are two possible answers: First, anyone from Nazareth was looked down upon and despised. It was a lowly place. Nathanael, when told that the Messiah was from Nazareth, questioned if anything good could come from Nazareth. Secondly, the word “Nazar” means “branch.” Based on Yeshua’s teachings and those of his disciples, they were associated with the Essenes. They were the people faithfully looking for the Messiah to come, and He would teach that we are the sons of light, not the sons of darkness.
Let me bring this introduction of this subject to a conclusion. I believe there is sufficient evidence that the Zadok priestly calendar, credited to Enoch before the Flood, used by Moses, is the calendar that believers of Yeshua should adhere to in contrast to the present Hebrew calendar. God’s appointed times should be scheduled and observed according to the Zadok calendar.
But allow me to give the strongest reason for that conclusion.
Ezekiel’s final vision was Ezekiel being shown the Temple that would be in the Kingdom. He also received some instruction about that future temple and the kingdom.
The LORD said to me, “Son of man, mark well, see with your eyes and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the statutes of the house of the LORD and concerning all its laws; and mark well the entrance of the house, with all exits of the sanctuary. You shall say to the rebellious ones, to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Enough of all your abominations, O house of Israel, when you brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to profane it, even My house, when you offered My food, the fat and the blood; for they made My covenant void—this in addition to all your abominations. And you have not kept charge of My holy things yourselves, but you have set foreigners to keep charge of My sanctuary.” Thus says the Lord GOD, “No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the sons of Israel, shall enter My sanctuary. But the Levites who went far from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me after their idols, shall bear the punishment for their iniquity.”
Ezekiel 44:5–10
Ezekiel saw the rebellious priests of the temple and how God would deal with them. They would serve the future temple, but not according to their preferences and modifications. Instead, God would bring back the Zadok line of priests and they would follow God’s original instructions (including the timing of God’s appointed times) – the Zadok Calendar.
“But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary when the sons of Israel went astray from Me, shall come near to Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer Me the fat and the blood,” declares the Lord GOD. “They shall enter My sanctuary; they shall come near to My table to minister to Me and keep My charge.”
Ezekiel 44:15–16
If God intends to operate His Temple in the Kingdom with the Zadok priests in leadership, then we should fully support that decision as we await the Messiah’s return.
Shalom,
Article written by Monte Judah
* Scripture references from the NASB95
Biblical Scripture References for Dates
Passover — Exodus 13:4
Feast of Unleavened Bread — Leviticus 23:6–8
Feast of First Fruits — Leviticus 23:9–14
Feast of Weeks/Shavuot — Leviticus 23:15–22
Feast of Trumpets/Yom Teruah — Leviticus 23:23–25, Jubilees 6:26
Feast of Atonement/Yom Kippur — Leviticus 23:26–32, Jubilees 34
Feast of Tabernacles/Sukkot — Leviticus 22:33–44, Jubilees 16 & 32
Feast of Dedication/Hanukkah — Maccabees 4:54, 56, 59
Purim — Esther 9:17, 18, 21, 26–32
This list is courtesy of Kenneth B. Jenkerson
References for further study
Books
Bishop, B., & Bishop, K. (2018). The Biblical Calendar Then and Now. Aquafire Sulis.
Wise, M. O., Abegg, M. G., & Cook, E. M. (2005). The Dead Sea Scrolls - Revised Edition: A New Translation. Harper Collins.
VanderKam, J. (2010). The Dead Sea Scrolls Today, Rev. Ed. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
Peck, J. (2021). The Lost Prophecies of Qumran: 2025 and the Final Age of Man.
Gaston, D. (2021). The Sons of Light: Jesus and the Essenes.
Blum, J. (2019). Unlocking the Scriptures.
Websites