NT Bible Model:
Add 1 day 12 hrs to Astronomical New Moon time. Adjust for sunset.
See Historical update below.
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Jewish holiday calendars & Hebrew date converter
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חדשׁ
2320. chodesh, kho'-desh; from 2318; the new moon; by impl. a month:--month(-ly), new moon.
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.
For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, says the LORD; so shall your descendants and your name
remain.
From new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the LORD.
Isaiah 66:22,23.
2026 proposed New Moon worship days according to the NT Bible Model
Note: For 12 Oct we compare with the sunrise time of 6.40am. The numerical value of 6.50am falls just in the daylight part of the day and only just. This is so close to the sunrise that we may as well ignore the daylight part and just choose the same day. So we propose 12 Oct.
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.
A really laid back approach amendment 2025
So far this is how it looks...
Midnight to sunrise: take the same day.
Daylight to sunset: take the same day plus the following day.
Sunset to midnight: take the following day.
Notes:
Data obtained from
http://www.timeanddate.com/
http://astropixels.com/ephemeris/phasescat/phases2001.html
Note: Jerusalem is UTC+2 hrs.
The Bible model is a little different to the current Jewish approach.
The Jewish approach of using Molad dates and times does not strictly 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
** this has adjusted a little with the really laid back approach amendment 2025.
E-mail: snoaktrua [at] duck.com
Last revised: 17 Jan 2026.
Construction: 20 Nov 2011.
Page design/construction 2011.