The dispute between following the Zadok Priestly Calendar and the Hillel II / Pharisaic / Babylonian Calendar is one of authority regarding following the festivals of the Lord (Leviticus 23). In Ezekiel 44:15, 24, that authority was affirmed by God to be given to the ‘sons of Zadok’ who were faithful to King David, as it is written:

But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer to Me the fat and the blood, says the Lord GOD … In controversy they shall stand as judges, and judge it according to My judgments. They shall keep My laws and My statutes in all My appointed meetings [Mo’ed in Hebrew, referring to the festivals of the Lord] and they shall hallow My Sabbaths.

“In controversy” refers to Torah disputes, which include following the proper Biblical calendar, in order to keep the festivals of the Lord. “In controversy” refers to Deuteronomy 17:8–9 which says:

If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses. And you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment.

Today, Orthodox Judaism claims these verses as their Torah authority through the rabbis and the Sanhedrin, to make judgments according to the Torah, that is binding upon the Jewish people based upon Deuteronomy 17:10–11. Orthodox Judaism comes from the Pharisaic sect of Judaism, which is mentioned in the New Testament. However, the Pharisaic sect did not exist in the days that the Hebrew Scriptures were written. Therefore, how do the Hebrew Scriptures interpret Deuteronomy 17:8–9? Our examples are found in 2 Chronicles 19:8 and Ezekiel 44:24.

Our first example is 2 Chronicles 19:8. Here is the background to understand this verse. Zadok, the High Priest, was faithful to King David when David’s fourth son, Adonijah, (2 Samuel 3:4) tried to proclaim himself as the next king in Israel when David was on his deathbed (I Kings 1:5, 8). As a result, when King David declared that his son, Solomon, would be king after him, David instructed Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet to anoint Solomon to be king (I Kings 1:32–34, 39). At that time, Zadok was the High Priest in Israel when Solomon became king (I Chronicles 29:22). According to the Jewish Encyclopedia article on ‘Zadok’, it says that from the time of Solomon, “reliable historical data shows that the high priesthood remained in the hands of the Zadokites from this time until the rise of the Maccabees.”

As a result, in the days of King Jehoshaphat, the ‘sons of Zadok’ were the high priests in Israel. In 2 Chronicles 19:8 it is written:

Moreover in Jerusalem did Jehoshaphat set of the Levites, and of the priests, and of the chief of the fathers of Israel, for the judgment of the LORD, and for controversies, when they returned to Jerusalem.

King Jehoshaphat interpreted Deuteronomy 17:8–9 exactly how it is written in the Torah. He set up the Levites and the priests to rule in matters of Torah controversy. This included the high priesthood of the ‘sons of Zadok.’ So notice that King Jehoshaphat didn’t appoint the rabbis or the Pharisaic sect to rule in matters of Torah controversy. They didn’t exist. Furthermore, among the Jewish people, the doctrine of Oral Torah is exclusive to the sect of the Pharisees. The Zadok priests didn’t have a doctrine of Oral Torah. As a result, the Zadok priests in the days of the kings of Israel didn’t teach the doctrine of Oral Torah.

Our second example is Ezekiel 44:15, 24. In these verses, God instructs Ezekiel that He recognizes the ‘sons of Zadok’ to make rulings in matters of Torah controversies, including giving them authority regarding the celebration of the festivals of the Lord, as quoted previously.

Our New Testament example comes from Acts 15. This Torah controversy is regarding the place of the Gentiles once they became believers in Yeshua as Messiah. The matter was decided in Jerusalem (Acts 15:2) ‘the place that the Lord chooses’ (I Kings 11:36) where Torah controversies are to be decided (Deuteronomy 17:8). The decision was not according to the sect of the Pharisees (Acts 15:5) nor was it decided by the Sanhedrin. It was decided by James, the brother of Yeshua, who was the leader of the first congregation of believers in Yeshua in Jerusalem. When the ruling was made, a letter was written (Acts 15:22–30) to affirm that the ruling should be followed based upon Deuteronomy 17:10–11.

In the days of Antiochus Epiphanes IV, a Greek Seleucid king, the Temple in Jerusalem became corrupted. In Daniel 7:25, Antiochus Epiphanes IV was prophesied to change “times and seasons.” This refers to the keeping of the festivals of the Lord according to the priesthood of the ‘sons of Zadok.’ Antiochus Epiphanes IV insisted that the Greek Seleucid calendar be used in the Temple. This calendar was based upon the Babylonian calendar used by the Pharisees and Orthodox Judaism today. When Jonathan became the first Maccabean high priest through the appointment by the Greek Seleucid king, Alexander Balas, the high priesthood of the Maccabean dynasty followed the Greek Seleucid / Babylonian calendar to celebrate the feasts of the Lord. This was done because Alexander Balas needed the military support of the Maccabeans, of which Jonathan was the leader. Jonathan was not a Zadok priest. In response, the faithful ‘sons of Zadok’ fled to Qumran to preserve the Temple way of life and especially the priestly calendar that the Zadok priests followed since the days of David and Solomon.

The Zadok priests were inspired by Isaiah 40:3 in seeking direction regarding how to respond to the corruption of the Temple. In Isaiah 40:3 it is written:

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

The Hebrew word translated as “desert” is Arava. The Arava is a geographical location in Israel. It is the desert valley that extends from the Dead Sea to Eilat. It includes Qumran. So the faithful ‘sons of Zadok’ left the corrupt Temple system and established a community in the Arava known as Qumran. It is in the Qumran caves that the Dead Sea Scrolls were initially found in 1947. From the Rule of the Community (1QS 8:12–14) it says:

And when these become of the Community in Israel according to all these rules, they shall separate from the habitation of unjust men [the corrupted Temple system] and shall go into the wilderness to prepare there the way of Him; as it is written, Prepare in the wilderness the way … make straight in the desert a path for our God (Isaiah 40:3).

The first Jewish believers in Yeshua were primarily affiliated with the Qumran community. The Qumran community had other affiliated communities in Jerusalem, in the land of Israel and even outside the land of Israel. For this reason, the first Jewish believers in Yeshua were called ‘The Way’ (Acts 9:2, 22:4, 24:14) because the founding of the Qumran community was based upon Isaiah 40:3. The Qumran community called themselves, ‘the Way’ and they were known as the ‘people of the Way.’

Whenever someone wanted to join the Qumran community, they had to agree to follow the Torah and to keep the festivals of the Lord according to the leadership of the ‘sons of Zadok.’ In the Dead Sea Scrolls, the priestly calendar kept by the ‘sons of Zadok’ is explained in explicit detail. The first day of the year was always the fourth day of the week (Wednesday), based upon the sun and the moon being created on the fourth day of creation in Genesis 1:14. The priestly calendar contained 364 days in the year. In a strict sense, it is NOT a solar calendar. A solar calendar has 365 1/4 days a year. The Gregorian Roman calendar that is followed mostly by the Western world is a solar calendar. God told the nation of Israel that they are a ‘holy people’ (Deuteronomy 7:6) and that they are not to follow after the ways of the Gentile nations (Deuteronomy 12:29–30). Many of the Gentile nations followed a lunar calendar. This included Egypt, Babylon, Persia, and Greece. Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome are the enemies of Israel. Israel was not to follow the ways of these nations, including their calendars. Therefore, the Biblical Priestly Calendar is unique to Israel in that no other Gentile nation in the world has ever followed it.

The Gentile nations name their months after their gods. Israel was to make no mention of the names of the gods of the nations (Exodus 23:13). This included ‘Tammuz’. Tammuz is a Babylonian god. It is a name for a month on the Hillel II/Pharisaic/Babylonian calendar.

In Ezekiel 8:14–17, Tammuz was being worshipped in the Temple. They were ‘weeping for Tammuz.’ As a result, God told Ezekiel to set a ‘mark’ (the Hebrew word ‘Tav’) upon the heads of those who wept for the abominations that were being done in the Temple, including the worship of Tammuz (Ezekiel 9:4). How do God’s people honor Tammuz today? It is by proclaiming a month after Tammuz on the Babylonian calendar that is being followed by the Pharisaic sect of Judaism. This is why it is prophesied at the time of the greater exodus (Jeremiah 16:14–15, Hosea 2:15) that God will remove the names of Baalim from the lips of His people (Hosea 2:17). This is why God also said in Revelation 18:4, ‘Come out of Babylon and be not partakers of her sins and plagues.’

According to the Priestly Calendar, the festivals of the Lord were always celebrated on fixed days of the week each year. For example, Unleavened Bread always begins on a Wednesday. Yom Kippur is always on a Friday. In rejection of the Zadok priesthood and in order to claim their authority over the calendar, the rabbis decreed that the festival dates on the Babylonian Calendar should not fall on the same dates as the Priestly Calendar. For example, the rabbis decreed that Unleavened Bread can never start on a Wednesday and Yom Kippur can never occur on a Friday. Clearly, there was a calendar dispute between the Zadok priesthood and the Pharisees, as represented by Rabbinic Judaism. That dispute was over the authority of the Zadok priesthood itself and the authority regarding the proper days in the year to keep the festivals of the Lord.

The Priestly Calendar is in the Torah. While we may call it the Zadok Priestly Calendar, the Priestly Calendar was prior to the Zadok priests. The Priestly Calendar was followed by the nation of Israel in the wilderness. We can see this from the narrative in Exodus 16. In Exodus 16:1 it is written:

… and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin … on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

In Exodus 16:6–7 it is written:

And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel … And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the LORD …

The children of Israel saw the glory of the Lord on the second month and the 16th day. In Exodus 16:10, it is written:

And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.

On the second month and the 16th day, the Lord told Moses that the next morning that they will get ‘bread from heaven.’ In Exodus 16:11–12, it is written:

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying … in the morning ye shall be filled with bread …

This would be the second month and the 17th day. This bread was called ‘manna’ (Exodus 16:15). On the sixth day, the children of Israel were to receive double manna. In Exodus 16:22, it is written:

And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread …

So the manna was given in the second month from the 17th day to the 22nd day.

In Exodus 16:23, it is written:

And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD …

In this Torah narrative, the Sabbath is the second month and the 23rd day. On the Zadok Priestly Calendar, the second month and the 23rd day are always Sabbaths each year. It is because the first day of the year is always the fourth day of the week (Wednesday). Since the first month always has 30 days, the second month and the 23rd day is always on a Sabbath. Here are the first two months of the calendar.

On the website, www.hebcal.com, there is a date conversion from a Pharisaic Babylonian Calendar date to a Gregorian date. If you put in the second month and the 23rd day (Iyar) for the Jewish Babylonian Calendar date on any given year, it never falls on a Sabbath on the Gregorian Calendar. It should be obvious that the children of Israel were not following a Babylonian Calendar in the wilderness when they came out of Egypt.

Once the children of Israel followed the Priestly Calendar in the wilderness, nobody had the authority to create an alternative calendar. This includes the Pharisaic sect that would advocate following a Babylonian Calendar as well as any individual.

In following the Pharisaic Babylonian Calendar, one is committing the sin of Jeroboam (I Kings 12:26–31). In the days of Jeroboam, the ‘sons of Zadok’ were the high priests. They followed the festivals of the Lord according to the Priestly Calendar. Jeroboam was unwilling to go to Jerusalem to keep the festivals according to the priestly calendar because he believed that it would create ‘division’. In I Kings 12:26–27 it is written:

And Jeroboam said in his heart … If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem [go to the Temple and keep the festivals of the Lord according to the Zadok Priestly Calendar] then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah [there will be division]

Because Jeroboam wanted ‘unity’ with his people, he took counsel (he had a board meeting) and made a decision to reject the authority of the Zadok priesthood and made his own priests (who were supposed to be teachers of Torah) who were not Zadok priests (those that would teach the Torah correctly). He also decided to celebrate the festivals of the Lord, not according to when it was done in Jerusalem according to the Priestly Calendar of the ’sons of Zadok,’ but according to his own calendar. In I Kings 12:28, 31–32 it is written:

Whereupon the king took counsel … It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem … And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi [the Hasmonean / Maccabean priesthood and Rabbinic Judaism are a substitute authority from the Zadok priesthood] … And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month [he decreed his own festivals days like the decrees made by the Rabbis and the Sanhedrin] like unto the feast that is in Judah [the feasts in Judah were according to the Zadok priesthood in the days of Jeroboam].

Today, leaders in the Messianic / Hebraic Roots movement are making decisions to follow the festivals of the Lord according to a Babylonian calendar because they think doing otherwise will create ‘division,’ and by following a Babylonian calendar it will result in ‘unity.’ In reality, it creates confusion among the sheep of Yeshua who are innocent, because the shepherds of Israel don’t teach them properly. As a result, Yeshua’s sheep remain scattered (Ezekiel 34:1–5).

In teaching His disciples, Yeshua warned them against following the Pharisees and their doctrine of Oral Torah. In Matthew 15:1–2 it is written:

Then came to Yeshua scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.

The tradition of the elders is the doctrine of Oral Torah. Oral Torah teaches that you must wash your hands before you eat bread. In Matthew 15:9, Yeshua replied:

But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

The commandments of men are the doctrine of Oral Torah and rabbinic authority. Yeshua didn’t follow Pharisaic Oral Torah in Luke 11:37–38 as it is written:

And as He spoke, a certain Pharisee asked Him to dine with him. So He went in and sat down to eat. When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first washed before dinner.

In Matthew 16:9–10, 12, Yeshua taught His disciples:

Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? … Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

So, Yeshua specifically taught His disciples to beware and not to follow the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Yeshua practiced what He preached. In Leviticus 23:39, you are to keep the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days. In John 7, Yeshua didn’t keep the Pharisaic feast of tabernacles for seven days. In John 7:2, 6, 8–9 it is written:

Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand … Then Yeshua said unto them … Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast … When he had said these words unto them, he abode still in Galilee.

So, Yeshua didn’t go to Jerusalem to keep the Pharisaic Feast of Tabernacles for seven days. However, later, He did go in order to teach the people (John 7:14). Yeshua didn’t oppose going to the Pharisaic Feast of Tabernacles to teach the people. He just wasn’t obligated, according to the Torah, to celebrate the feasts according to the Pharisaic Babylonian Calendar.

Yeshua wasn’t identified with the sect of the Pharisees. He had many disputes with them. It was prophesied that Yeshua would be called a ‘Nazarene’ (Matthew 2:23). The first Jewish believers in Yeshua were not only called ‘the Way’ (Acts 9:2, 22:4, 24:14) but they were also called ‘Nazarenes’ (Acts 24:5). Nazarene comes from the Hebrew root, ‘netzer,’ which means branch. In John 15:3, Yeshua said that He is the vine and we are the branches. In modern Hebrew, Christians are called‘notzrim,’ which comes from the same Hebrew root as branch. The Qumran community called themselves ‘the Way’ based upon Isaiah 40:3 which is the verse by which they were founded. So, ‘the Way’ is connected to the ‘Nazarenes’.

John the Baptist grew up in the wilderness of Judea. Most Biblical scholars believe he was a member of the Qumran community. If so, John the Baptist followed the Zadok Priestly Calendar. This is why John the Baptist strongly rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matthew 3:7) because they were following the wrong calendar. Keeping Yeshua’s feasts at the proper time is holy because time is holy. They are called holy convocations (Leviticus 23:2).

The ministry of John the Baptist was after the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17). When John the Baptist was asked in John 1:19, “Who are you?” he replied in John 1:23 that he was Isaiah 40:3. We are told that the ministry of the spirit of Elijah in Luke 1:17 is Isaiah 40:3. John the Baptist also said that he was the ‘friend of the bridegroom’ (John 3:29). Every Biblical wedding will have two witnesses. They are called the ‘friends of the bridegroom’. They are personified by Moses and Elijah. When Israel entered into marriage at Mount Sinai (Jeremiah 2:2), Moses escorted Israel to meet with God (Exodus 19:17). John the Baptist represents the spirit of Elijah. That is why he said that he is the ‘friend of the bridegroom’. In other words, the message of the ministry of Elijah is Isaiah 40:3. It is a wedding message.

In Isaiah 40:2 it is written:

Speak to the heart of Jerusalem …

Jerusalem is a title for the bride of Messiah. In Isaiah 62:1, 5 it is written:

For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest… For as a young man marries a virgin, So shall your sons marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So shall your God rejoice over you.

So what is the Holy Spirit saying to the heart of Yeshua’s bride? It is Isaiah 40:3.

The voice of him that cries in the wilderness … in the desert [in Hebrew the ‘Arava’ – meaning in the Qumran, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Zadok priesthood, the Zadok calendar] a highway [the road to Jerusalem where Yeshua will marry His Bride] for our God.

Are you willing to make yourself ready to be the dwelling bride of Yeshua? While you may be a betrothed bride (by accepting Yeshua as Messiah), that doesn’t make you a dwelling bride (faithful in service to Him). In Zechariah 2:7, it is written:

Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwells with the daughter of Babylon.

The bride of Yeshua becomes clean before she puts on her wedding dress (Isaiah 52:1, 11). Yeshua’s bride is dwelling with the daughter of Babylon. Babylon comes from the Hebrew word ‘Babel’ which comes from the root ‘Balal’ which means ‘to mix’. Yeshua’s bride is called to come out of mixed worship. Abraham was called to come out of Babylon (Genesis 15:7). Mixed worship is the stumbling block from being Yeshua’s dwelling bride (Isaiah 57:14).

Jeroboam led the Northern Kingdom of Israel into mixed worship. The Northern Kingdom is called, ‘the house of Joseph’ (I Kings 11:28). They represent the non-Jewish believers in Yeshua as the Messiah. Mixed worship includes keeping the festivals of the Lord according to a Babylonian Calendar.

Will you listen? Do you have ears to hear? Do you have eyes to see? In Revelation 22:17 it is written:

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

If you accept Yeshua’s invitation to come out of Babylon and stop keeping the festivals of the Lord according to a Babylonian Calendar, your reward for being Yeshua’s dwelling bride will be to rule and reign and live forever with Him in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:9–27). Will you say, ‘I do’ to Yeshua’s offer? ■