Basis for our Studies this Year:
The Bible tells us that the “End (of the world) is declared from the “beginning” (Isaiah 46:10). Certainly, this means that the early Biblical record of human history bears End-time prophetic significance. But, it’s actually even more specific than that. The original Hebrew word translated as “beginning” in Isaiah 46:10 is תישאר (rê’shı̂yth). This is the root of Bereshith, which is the Hebrew name of the first Book of the Bible, “Genesis”. In other words, prophecies of the End of the World are found in the Book of Genesis.
The Torah is one of the five keys for unlocking End-time Prophecy… Prophecy is unlocked through the Statutes!
Genesis 6:3 and the 120 Jubilees...
What are the past Jubilees?
· Exodus? There is argument whether the Children of Israel experienced the Exodus on a Jubilee, or entered Canaan on a Jubilee… So, the Exodus story is difficult to use, even though we know that there was a Jubilee on one side or the other of the Exodus story…
· Solomon’s Temple Dedication? The dates for the timing of Solomon’s Temple are in dispute…
· Crucifixion Year? The year of the Crucifixion is also in some dispute. We can determine that Yahshua died in a Jubilee year, but most Christians believe Messiah’s Crucifixion was 3.5 years after His baptism… Others believe the Crucifixion year happened on the year of solar eclipse (because the sun was darkened when Yahshua was on the Cross), which places the Crucifixion year in 34 AD… Still others teach that Yahshua’s death was less than 2 years from His baptism? How can we be sure of the Crucifixion year? Actually, the Crucifixion year is provable… So, let’s work on finding it in order to get our anchor year for calculating Jubilee years.
We will use the Crucifixion Year to find the Jubilee…
Historical Records Tell Us that the Early Christian Believers Taught a 1 Year Ministry of Messiah:
• Early Christians believed in a one year ministry Early Church
leaders who believed in a one year ministry included: Tertullian, Lactantius,
Filastrius, Gaudentius, Evagrius, Orosius and Ephraem.
The Journal of sacred literature and Biblical record, Volume 11, p 444
(B. Harris Cowper): “Tertullian, a most accurate man… searched and studied the
veritable Acta, or dispatches of Pilate to Tiberius, in the archives at Rome,
and appealed to them in his writings in defense of Christianity, at the end of
the second century… (Tertullian) states that He (Christ) was about 30 years of
age at the time (of His Crucifixion)… Tertullian adopted the opinion, held by
Clemens Al., and others… that the ministry of our (Master) lasted but one
year…”
• Historical Sources Claim Peter Taught a 1-Year Ministry: "Why
did our Teacher abide and discourse a whole year to those who were awake?”
(Peter, quoted in The Clementine Homilies)
“They, (“those who were conversant in Asia with John, the disciple of Yahshua, affirming that John conveyed to them that information”) however, that they may establish their false opinion regarding that which is written, "to proclaim the acceptable year of Yahweh," maintain that He preached for one year only… They are forgetful to their own disadvantage, destroying His whole work, and robbing Him of that age which is both more necessary and more honorable than any other; that more advanced age, I mean, during which also as a teacher He excelled all others. For how could He have had disciples, if He did not teach? And how could He have taught, unless He had reached the age of a Master? …And, according to these men, He preached only one year reckoning from His baptism. On completing His thirtieth year He suffered, being in fact still a young man, and who had by no means attained to advanced age…” (Adv. Haer. 2.22.5.)
“Moreover, they (the followers of the Way) affirm that He suffered in
the twelfth month (of His ministry), so that He continued to preach for
one year after His baptism...”
Irenæus, Against Heresies: Book I, Chapter XXII Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. I
3:3) admitted that many followers of the Way (specifically mentions the church
at Ephesus) preached a ministry of one year, and this was based on Yahshua's
reading from Isaiah at the synagogue in Nazareth and proclaiming "the
favorable year of Yahweh."
Ephraim of Syria resonates the thirtieth year
death of Yahshua:
“In the year that is the thirtieth let
them give thanks with us;--the dead that have lived through His
dying,--the living that were converted in His Crucifixion,--and the height and
the depth that have been reconciled in Him! Blessed be He and His Father!”
Ephraim of Syria, Epiphany Hymns
“Hippolytus
of Rome (170 – 235) was the most important 3rd-century theologian in the
Christian Church in Rome. He came into conflict with the popes of his time and
seems to have headed a schismatic group as a rival bishop of Rome. In the Words
of Hippolytus: “…That eternal One existed for thirty years on the earth…”
Hyppolitus, The Refutation Of All Heresies, Viii, I
Clement
of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, and Lactantius, early “church fathers” of
the second and third centuries, as well as Filastrius, Gaudentius, Evagrius,
Orosius, Ephraem, and a half dozen other theologians cited by the Catholic
Encyclopedia under “Chronology of the Life of Yahshua Christ”, all concurred
that the Messiah’s ministry lasted about one year.
The first
mention of a three and a half year ministry of Messiah was in the writings of
Eusebius… Every church “father” and historian for the first three centuries
either clearly stated, or never contradicted , that Yahshua’s ministry was
“about one year”. But Eusebius proposed his undocumented idea – and now – after
1600 years, his assumptions are still being taught.
·
Rome’s
authority was the sole basis for demanded obedience to this heresy teaching by
Eusebius. – and yet the Catholic Encyclopedia clearly acknowledges that
Eusebius was the origin of this false teaching. According to Eusebius…
Messiah’s Ministry was: “…three years
and a half, which is half of a week…” Demonstratio Evangelisticia VIII, 106.
Johannes
Van Bebber was born in the Netherlands in 1854. He is credited with being the
first to believe in a one year ministry of Messiah, since the Early Christian
Church. Michael Daise quoted Van Bebber’s Viewpoint in English:
Feasts in John: Jewish festivals and Yahshua' "hour" in the Fourth
Gospel, Michael A. Daise, p 154: “…The reference to Passover at (John) 6:4 was
spurious to the original text… (Johannes) Van Bebber (in Zur Chronologie des
Lebens Jesu, 1898), (Johannes) Belser, and their predecessors resolved the
difficulty (of a one year ministry or two) simply by deeming that reference a
later insertion, alien to the original narrative.”
Evidences
of Yahshua’s Death being on a Jubilee:
·
He
came to set the captives free (this is a Jubilee reference/promise – Leviticus
25:10
o “And ye shall hallow the fiftieth
year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants
thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his
possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.” — Leviticus 25:10
(CEV — free translation)
o “Thus saith Yahweh GOD; If the
prince give a gift unto any of his sons, the inheritance thereof shall be his
sons'; it shall be their possession by inheritance. But if he give a gift of
his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year of
liberty; after it shall return to the prince...”
o “Thus saith Yahweh, the God of
Israel; I made a covenant with your fathers… saying, At the end of seven years
let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and
when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee…”
— Leviticus 25:10 (Jewish Publication Society translation — more precise
translation)
So… We
can now pinpoint a Jubilee Year – the Year of the Crucifixion: Yahshua was
baptized in 27 AD (at 29 years old) and He died (Daniel 9:24-27, Passover
Lamb…) in 28 AD (at 30 years old). 27-28 AD was a Jubilee.
Do we
count by 49 or 50 to determine Jubilees? The way Pentecost (Feast of Weeks) is
calculated is a day for a year on how to calculate Jubilees. Pentecost is the
50th day (not the 49th)
Historical
Information About Calculating Jubilees:
Around
153-105 B.C., an apocryphal book, the Book of Jubilees, was
written. It divides the history of the world into "Jubilees" of
49-year periods, seven weeks of years.
The biblical idea of the Jubilee year, the 50th year following the seven
weeks of years (Leviticus 25:8-12) is ignored.
Thus, the
Jews accepted this erroneous idea and are confused as to the true Jubilee. As
the Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible (Abingdon Press,
Nashville, 1962), article "Jubilee, Year of," admits, the so-called Book
of Jubilees completely disregards the original and true Jubilee
Year:
“. . . In the official count of Sabbatical Years in the Maccabean and post-Maccabean periods the Jubilee Year was omitted entirely and the Sabbatical Years followed each other in uninterrupted succession every seven years. Moreover, certain later, rabbinic authorities likewise reckoned a Jubilee period as of only forty-nine years, although a majority adhered, quite naturally, to the biblical reckoning of the period as of fifty years.”
Encyclopedia Judaica, article "Sabbatical Year and Jubilee," pages 579-580:
Why are the Jews confused? Because they did not obey God. They
admit that when the First Temple (Solomon’s Temple) stood, full
fifty-year cycles were used. The next year after the Jubilee was the
first year of the next fifty-year cycle of seven seven-year cycles. Because the
tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh were exiled, tradition says,
the Jubilee was no longer in effect, because it was for " . . . all the
inhabitants thereof," Leviticus 25:10. The Jubilees were not properly
calculated, and a 49-year cycle was instituted where the "Jubilee"
year was also the beginning year of the next seven year cycle. Jubilee is
counted by the Jews exactly as they count Pentecost. Hence, Jews observe Sivan
6 as Pentecost.
Jewish Encyclopedia: www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12967-sabbaticalyear-and-jubilee 4
“There is a difference of opinion
in the Talmud as to whether the Jubilee year was included in or excluded from
the forty-nine years of the seven cycles. The majority of rabbis hold that the Jubilee
year was an intercalation, and followed the seventh Sabbatical year, making two
fallow years in succession. After both had passed, the next cycle began. They
adduce this theory from the plain words of the Law to "hallow the fiftieth
year," and also from the assurance of God's promise of a yield in the
sixth year sufficient for maintenance during the following three years,
"until the ninth year, until her fruits come in" (Lev. xxv. 22),
which, they say, refers to the Jubilee year.”
Which way
of calculating Jubilees is the oldest/original way? 50 year cycles
Which way
of calculating Jubilees fits the Pentecost Template? 50 year cycles (a year for
a day)
Which way
of calculating Jubilees fits the Torah requirements? 50 year cycles
120
Jubilees…
Additional Links: