Determination of the first visible crescent moon - new light

The lunar orbit is the approximately elliptical orbit of the moon around the earth. Since the moon is exposed not only to the gravitational pull of the earth, but also to that of the sun and the other planets, its orbit deviates noticeably from a pure Kepler ellipse. The exact orbit calculation is therefore complicated. 

The biblical calendar is a lunisolar calendar (from Latin luna 'moon' and sol 'sun'), which means that it contains (like the lunar calendar) the 12 lunar months as calendar months; but to approximate the solar year (tropical year), a thirteenth lunar month is switched on every three years on average (leap year). The solar year is longer than 365 days, but the lunar year (354 days) is shorter. The average length of a tropical year is about 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds - or 365.24219 days. The lunar phases have as their period the synodic month (lunation) with an average length of 29.53059 days (varying from about 29.27 to 29.83 days). The calendar usually uses 6 months with 29 days and 6 months with 30 days alternately. Thus the calendrical moon year is 354 days long (6x29 + 6x30). For the adjustment to the astronomically exact length of a lunar year with 354.3671 days (12 lunations) the calendrical lunar year is longer approximately every three years by one day. There is no leap rule of any kind, it is also superfluous, because the beginning of each lunar month results from the observation, not from a calculation (see Wikipedia1, Wikipedia2). Because the lunar year is about 10.87 days shorter than the solar year, these leap years are important to adjust the calendar to the state of nature. This is extremely important because all of God's festivals are also harvest festivals. Thus it could always be ensured that at the Passover always with the grain harvest and at the Pentecost always with the wheat harvest could be begun (see barley and wheat harvest in Israel). 

In order to be able to see the first crescent moon  (the so-called "new light") at all, there must be a minimum illuminated width, otherwise the light reflected from the sun will not reach the earth's surface. An illumination of 0.1% is not sufficient, there must be at least 3-5% illumination so that the crescent moon can be seen with the eye.

Theoretically the new light over Jerusalem and thus also the beginning of the month could be determined mathematically over astronomical numerical values (e.g. from NASA). But it is not so simple, because further criteria must be considered like visibility, sun position, geographical latitude, the season and the moon orbit; because the moon crescent must reach a certain minimum height over the horizon, otherwise it becomes invisible by the extinction of the earth atmosphere. In many months it is very easy to determine the correct biblical beginning of the month on the basis of the data of NASA, in other months however difficult, because the first crescent moon is not to be seen at a certain time in the night, but can appear also immediately before the brightness. Thus differences of opinion arise whether the first crescent moon could be seen (sufficient illuminance) or not and which day is now the first day of the month? The determination of the first day of the month results naturally also in the information on which weekday the 14th Nisan (preparation day) fell. Therefore there is until today no suitable calculation program, with which all Biblical beginnings of the month can be determined exactly over centuries for each month in advance (or back), because there can always be few years, in which some Biblical beginnings of the month cannot be assigned surely and therefore a visual observation is necessary in rare cases. There is, moreover, a far greater problem, for many theologians desire a resurrection of Jesus "on a Sunday", because the King James Bible has been inaccurately translated and speaks of the "first day of the week." So they compromise with the astronomical dates and calculate so that Friday comes out as the 14th of Nisan. This explains why there are so many contradictory statements in the literature about the year of Jesus' death, because the individual churches often calculate the way they would like and their alleged "resurrection Sunday" comes out. That is why it is all the more important to look at all the biblical passages on this subject, because only these give us the certainty that God in reality speaks of a resurrection Sabbath and that the 14th of Nisan in that year must have fallen on a Wednesday, as is very often the case, namely about every third year. 

So the first visibility of the crescent moon after new moon over Jerusalem cannot always be calculated. But this concerns only few exceptions; in most years there are no problems at all in this respect. Besides it is clear that a new month must begin anyway at the latest after a 30th day, if the crescent moon is not visible at all e.g. by atmospheric influences (clouds, haze, sandstorms...). 

The determination of the beginnings of the month on the basis of the visible moon illumination (new light) over Jerusalem 2023 (Illumination according timeanddate.com):

1st month Nisan 2023 (5783): March 22, 2023 (0.7%), March 23 (4%)

2nd month Iyar: April 20 (0.1%), April 21 (2%), April 22 (6.2%)

3rd month Sivan: May 19 (0.1%), May 20 (0.7%), May 21 (3.5%)

5th month Av: July 19 (2.8%), July 20 (6.8%)

7th month Tishrei 5784: Sept 15 (0.2%), Sept 16 (1.8%), Sept 17 (5.3%)

Determining the beginnings of the months based on the first visible crescent moon (new light) over Jerusalem (see timeanddate.com) according to God's biblical calendar: As the inaccurate Jewish calendar from the 4th century AD used in Israel today inserted an additional leap month at the beginning of 2024, which is a major error, the feast days in the Jewish calendar 2024 each begin one month later. This means that the connection between the feast days and the equinox and harvest times is lost. The following dates therefore only refer to the beginnings of the months in God's calendar. As can be clearly seen, TorahCalendar has correctly determined the biblical months of 2024.

In 2024:

1st month of Nisan 2024 (5784): March 11, 2024 (1.8%), March 12 (6.6%)

       [1st month of Nisan 5784 in the Jewish calendar: April 09, 2024 (0.7%), April 10 (4.2%)

2nd month of Ijjar 2024: April 09, 2024 (0.7%), April 10 (4.2%), April 11 (10.4%)

3rd month Sivan 2024: May 09, 2024 (2.4%), May 10 (7.3%)

5th month Aw 2024: July 07, 2024 (2.6%), July 08 (6.8%)

7th month of Tishri 2024 (5784): Sept 04, 2024 (1.7%), Sept 05 (5.1%; Day of Trumpets), Sept 06 (10.2%)

In 2025:

13th month Adar II 2025 (5785): Feb 28 (0.2%), March 01 (2.9%), March 02 (8.6%)

1st month Nisan 2025 (5785): March 30, 2025 (1.5%), March 31 (6.2%)

3rd month Sivan 2025 (5785): May 28, 2025 (2.8%), May 29 (8.1%)

5th month Aw 2025 (5785): July 25, 2025 (0.6%), July 26 (3.4%), July 27 (8.3%)

7th month of Tishri 2025 (5786): Sept 23, 2024 (2.5%), Sept 24 (6.6%; Day of Trumpets) 

There are several websites (e.g. Time and Date) that show the illuminance of the moon over Jerusalem. The information corresponds to the TorahCalendar, which gives the Gregorian dates in God's calendar.

We have received a number of anonymous emails (why anonymous? Fear of arguments?) from Christians claiming that, according to the Bible, each month is supposed to start from the new moon, the time when there is no visible moon for days. This false doctrine can be refuted very easily. It is completely impossible to begin a month at new moon, because new moon can last up to three days and how can a person determine the biblical beginning of the month with certainty? That would be nothing more than pure speculation and it would only create disputes, with the result that people would celebrate the biblical festivals on different calendar days. But the first visible crescent moon (the "new light") is a clearly and unmistakably defined feature for everyone and any dispute is excluded; everyone celebrates the biblical feasts on the same days. Some Christians have an arrogant attitude and simply want to start a month without light. They claim, according to "new spiritual revelations" (these certainly do not come from God), that the Israelites have allegedly been starting the months wrongly for thousands of years. No, they calculate the beginning of the month correctly, because in Judaism (in the biblical calendar) and in Islam, each month does not begin when there is no moon to be seen, but always with the "new light." It is unbelievable, but some Christians write so arrogantly in some articles, as if the Jews were supposedly not able to determine their own beginnings of the month and their own feast days themselves and have always been doing everything wrong and now of all times need (mostly young) Christians to tell them something new. No, certainly not.

The misunderstanding results from a problem of definition: What does the word "new moon" mean? Does it mean the still invisible moon or the new visible moon? In biblical times, people spoke of the "new moon" when they could see the crescent moon for the first time and thus the light appeared "new" and increased daily from that point on. A "new moon" was figuratively "reborn" and appeared visibly above the earth, hence the terms "new moon" and "new light," as the first visible light of the crescent moon. But "new moon" and "new moon" are not the same thing, because in today's general western definition "new moon" does not mean the time when the light can be seen for the first time, but the period when nothing can be seen at all, i.e. when there is no light at all, because in the thinking of some philosophers at this dark time the light "renews itself", so to speak, in order to be able to shine again. This illogical definition also includes the period at the end of the month when the moon is no longer visible to the eye until an illumination of 0% is reached, i.e. the "old moon". But of course the light cannot "renew" itself, the moon only shows a reflection of the light rays that emanate from the sun. And here lies the problem, because "new moon" means "new" in the name, but in fact it is about light that has already passed; there is no light at all and no one knows when the "new" should even begin, because no one can see anything at that time. Normally, therefore, in the definition "new moon" should mean the point in time when the first crescent moon is visible to the eye and the moon shows "new light". This is how it was in biblical times, but unfortunately not today because the definition has been changed. However, the English Wikipedia is more accurate:

"When the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun, the bright side of the Moon is facing away from the Earth, which is known as a new moon. In astronomy, the new moon is the first lunar phase, when the Moon and Sun have the same ecliptic longitude. At this phase, the lunar disk is not visible to the unaided eye, except when silhouetted during a solar eclipse. Daylight outshines the earthlight that dimly illuminates the new moon. The actual phase is usually a very thin crescent.

The original meaning of the term new moon, which is still sometimes used in non-astronomical contexts, is the first visible crescent of the Moon after conjunction with the Sun.This thin waxing crescent is briefly and faintly visible as the Moon gets lower in the western sky after sunset" (Wikipedia).

In Switzerland the terms are more logical, because there they speak of the "full moon" (full light) and "empty moon" (no light at all). But most people have never heard this word in other countries, so many spelling programs mark it as an error that must first be added to the vocabulary.

So it would be more logical if we (as in Switzerland) distinguished between "full moon" and "empty moon" and used the term "new moon" to describe the point in time when the "new light" can be seen again for the first time (new visible moon). But this will not be able to gain acceptance worldwide in the short time before the Rapture, because these different definitions are already too deeply anchored in the thinking of people who don't want to know anything about the Bible anyway and would much rather orient themselves to the Roman Catholic division of time by the Pope (Gregorian calendar). The German Wikipedia page explains it all very well: 

"The term new moon (Latin: Interlunium), in Switzerland also empty moon, refers to the luminous shape (lunar phase) of the moon that is not visible to the naked eye when it is between the earth and the sun, i.e. in conjunction with the sun. During this constellation, only the night side of the moon is visible from Earth. Only after about 35 hours does the rightmost edge (left edge when observed from the southern half of the Earth) become illuminated again by direct sunlight. This lunar phase is the new light. The phase before it is called the new moon because the moon appears to "renew" itself during it. The last visible phase before the new moon is called old light. The second new moon in a month and the third new moon of a season with four new moons is called the black moon".

[Original: „Der Begriff Neumond (lateinisch Interlunium), in der Schweiz auch Leermond, bezeichnet die mit bloßem Auge nicht erkennbare Lichtgestalt (Mondphase) des Mondes, wenn sich dieser zwischen Erde und Sonne, das heißt in Konjunktion mit der Sonne befindet. Während dieser Konstellation sieht man von der Erde aus nur die Nachtseite des Mondes. Erst nach etwa 35 Stunden wird der äußerste rechte Rand (linke Rand, wenn von der südlichen Erdhälfte aus beobachtet) wieder vom direkten Sonnenlicht erhellt. Diese Mondphase ist das Neulicht. Die Phase vorher heißt Neumond, weil sich der Mond in ihr scheinbar „erneuert“. Die letzte sichtbare Phase vor dem Neumond heißt Altlicht. Der zweite Neumond in einem Monat und der dritte Neumond einer Jahreszeit mit vier Neumonden wird als Black Moon bezeichnet“]   (Wikipedia) 

By the way, there is no doubt about this in science, not only the Jews (according to the biblical calendar), but also the Muslims begin each month with the "new light." This is also the only reliable value, because neither with a new moon (nothing to see for days) nor with a full moon (full light for days) could a beginning of the month have been determined with certainty. This is exactly the task of the moon, namely not only to give light in the night, but also to be able to determine the times and feast days (the meetings or assemblies with God) safely and uniformly, at which all should appear before God at the same time and not on different days:

Genesis 1:14-16: And 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 [Hebrew moed, Strong 4150: appointed time, place, or meeting, festival times; literally: agreed time, gathering time], and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.

Psalm 104:19: "He made the moon to mark the seasons [Hebrew moed, Strong 4150: appointed time, place, or meeting, festival times; literally: agreed time, gathering time]; the sun knows its time for setting."

The biblical months are only determined by the moon and without the moon the seven feast days (info), i.e. the seven annual High Sabbaths cannot be defined uniformly. 

There is another problem because many Bibles have been translated inaccurately. For example, Lev 10:10 does not speak of the "new moon", but "at the beginning of the month" and that is only when the first crescent moon is visible. Psalm 81:4 is the only biblical passage in which the new moon and the full moon occur together. The Hebrew word literally means "newness" (Hebrew chodesh; Strong 2320) and also means "month"; it occurs in almost 300 biblical passages in the OT. And "newness" means the period when the "new light" can be seen for the first time.

Psalm 81:3: "Blow the trumpet at the new moon [literally: newness; i.e. new moon or month], at the full moon, on our feast day."

During the darkness that lasts up to three days before the appearance of the new light, blowing the trumpet makes no sense at all because no one could know when to start? So the trumpet would be heard in different places at different times and everyone would be confused.

In the Greek New Testament, Gal 4:10 speaks of "months" (Strong 3376; 18 occurrences), but not "new moons." In Col 2:16, the "new moon" (noumenia, Strong 3561) was mentioned only once in the NT, but literally this word is derived from "neos" (Strong 3501), which means "young, youthful, new, fresh." So it is about the "young month", which some concordant Bible translations even name so correctly.

Col 2:16: "Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon  [literally: young moon; i.e.young or fresh month] or a Sabbath."

The tradition of the new light as the beginning of the month goes back a long way and was used not only in Israel but also by numerous other peoples. This is not secret insider knowledge, but can also be found on Wikipedia:

"The Jewish calendar was shaped in its development both by its own Israelite traditions and by elements of foreign cultures, especially during the Babylonian exile. Every Hebrew month today begins approximately at the new moon. Since Babylonian times, the beginning of the month was determined by witnesses according to visible evidence of the "birth of the moon"; news of this was spread by signal fires and court messengers, which could take a long time in bad weather."

[Original: "Der jüdische Kalender wurde in seiner Entwicklung sowohl von eigenen, israelitischen Traditionen geprägt als auch von Elementen fremder Kulturen, besonders während des babylonischen Exils. Jeder hebräische Monat beginnt heute ungefähr bei Neumond. Seit babylonischer Zeit wurde der Monatsbeginn nach dem sichtbaren Beweis der „Geburt des Mondes“ durch Zeugen bestimmt; die Nachricht darüber wurde durch Signalfeuer und Gerichtsboten verbreitet, was bei schlechtem Wetter lange dauern konnte"] (Wikipedia). 

No one needs several witnesses who do not see anything on several days and thus do not know when to proclaim the new month, but the people need witnesses who see and proclaim the exact beginning of the month, the new light (new moon).

The Encyclopaedia Britannica writes about this: 

"The Sumerians were probably the first to develop a calendar based entirely on the recurrence of lunar phases. Each Sumero-Babylonian month began on the first day of visibility of the new Moon."

Here again this problem of definition becomes apparent, because "new moon" means the invisible moon according to the definition widely used today. If we speak here of the first "visibility" of the new moon, then this also coincides with the biblical passages and the "new moon" that appears with the new light. Many therefore understand the "new moon" to mean the visible moon (not the invisible time). The Encyclopaedia Britannica writes further:

"In late Second Temple times (i.e., 1st century BCE to 70 CE), calendrical matters were regulated by the Sanhedrin, or council of elders, at Jerusalem. The testimony of two witnesses who had observed the New Moon was ordinarily required to proclaim a new month."

Wikipedia also makes it very clear, so that there cannot actually be any disagreement about the biblical beginning of the month:

"In many lunar and lunisolar calendars, the new light marks the beginning of a new month. In the meantime, the beginning of the month is usually based on the calculated point in time at which the new light should theoretically be visible, regardless of possible weather influences. Few calendar practices still make it dependent on the act of seeing the new light. Until the 2nd millennium BC, on the other hand, the beginning of a new month was usually announced only after the crescent of the new moon was actually sighted. In the Jewish calendar, this was the case until the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple (70 AD). A few calendars, for example the non-cyclical variant of the Islamic calendar, are still based exclusively on observation. In Egypt, for example, the beginning of Ramadan is determined by the sighting of the new light in Aswan, with the sighted new light being reported by telephone to Cairo and then the proclamation of Ramadan being made (as of before 1985)."

[Original: "In vielen Lunar- und Lunisolarkalendern markiert das Neulicht den Beginn eines neuen Monats. Dabei wird inzwischen für den Monatsbeginn meist jener berechnete Zeitpunkt zugrunde gelegt, an dem – unabhängig von eventuellen Witterungseinflüssen – das Neulicht theoretisch sichtbar sein müsste. Wenige Kalenderpraktiken machen ihn noch vom Akt der Neulichtsichtung abhängig. Bis zum 2. Jahrtausend v. Chr. wurde hingegen zumeist der Beginn eines neuen Monats erst verkündet, nachdem die Sichel des neuen Mondes tatsächlich gesichtet wurde. Im jüdischen Kalender war das bis zur Zerstörung des Jerusalemer Tempels (70 n. Chr.) der Fall. Einige wenige Kalender, zum Beispiel die nichtzyklische Variante des islamischen Kalenders, basieren auch heute noch ausschließlich auf Beobachtung. So wird beispielsweise in Ägypten der Beginn des Ramadans durch die Sichtung des Neulichtes in Assuan bestimmt, wobei das gesichtete Neulicht telefonisch nach Kairo gemeldet und anschließend die Ausrufung des Ramadans vorgenommen wird (Stand vor 1985)"]  (Wikipedia). 

The Talmud (which shows how the Jewish rules were understood and interpreted by the rabbis in practice and in everyday life) is also clear and there is a great deal of literature on this, e.g.:

"Since the correct determination of the feast days in the year also depended on the exact determination of the beginning of the month, the determination of the beginning of the month (Rosh ha Chodesh) was an important task of the council of elders, the Sanhedrin (Synhedrion), in ancient Israel, which relied on the testimony of two witnesses who had independently perceived the new moon. Then the sanctification of the new month (Qiddush ha Chodesh) was proclaimed, which took place with the sacrifices and special songs in the Temple provided for this purpose... In earlier times, the beginning of the month was associated with the visibility of the new moon (Rosh Chodesh in Hebrew). The appearance of this new moon was witnessed by at least two men before the Jerusalem court, which then had the new month proclaimed publicly."

[Original: "Da von der genauen Bestimmung des Monatsbeginns auch die korrekte Festlegung der Festtage im Jahr abhängt, war die Bestimmung des Monatsanfangs (Rosch ha Chodesch) eine wichtige Aufgabe des Ältestenrats, des Sanhedrin (Synhedrion), im Alten Israel, der sich auf die Aussagen zweier Zeugen berief, die unabhängig voneinander den neuen Mond wahrgenommen hatten. Alsdann wurde die Heiligung des neuen Monats (Qiddusch ha Chodesch) verkündet, die mit den hierfür vorgesehenen Opfern und besonderen Gesängen im Tempel erfolgte... Der Monatsbeginn war in früherer Zeit mit dem Sichtbarwerden des Neumonds (hebr. Rosch Chodesch) verbunden. Das Erscheinen dieses neuen Monds wurde von mindestens zwei Männern vor dem Jerusalemer Gericht bezeugt, das daraufhin den neuen Monat öffentlich ausrufen ließ"]  (Talmud-1;  Link2).

So the observation of the "new moon" meant the time when the first visible crescent moon, the "new light", could be detected. And this also agrees with many other sources and Bible encyclopaedias. So we must always consider the historical contexts and not just focus on today's definition, which did not even exist in this way in biblical times. 

Centuries before the birth of Jesus and later also during the lifetime of Jesus, at least two priests had to see the first crescent moon over Jerusalem in order to be able to announce the beginning of the month to the people with the sound of a trumpet. When the Jews were expelled all over the whole world by the Romans in 70 AD, they could no longer see the moon over Jerusalem. Consequently, they were also no longer able to determine the biblical months and feast days. Thanks to Hillel's mathematical calendar, which was not invented until the end of the 4th century AD, the Jews, who were scattered all over the world, were able to determine all the months and thus also all the feast days on the basis of mathematical values and also to plan feasts uniformly worldwide in advance. When the Jews were allowed to return to Israel in 1948, they kept Hillel's calendar. This explains why in some years the feasts can fall on different days of the week in the Jewish calendar (based on statistical averages) and in the biblical calendar (the new light determines the beginning of the month) (see Calendar and Feasts). Most of the time, however, they are identical, as was the case with the Passover in 2020, when the 14th of Nisan fell on a Wednesday and the 17th of Nisan on the "first Sabbath" (Mark 16:9), i.e. the "first" of the seven weekly Sabbaths counted each year until Pentecost and seen in every Jewish calendar even with Gregorian dates. God's calendar is a purely astronomical calendar which is always based on the new light; but the mathematical Jewish calendar is based only on statistical averages and, although it always begins in the area of the visible crescent moon, it can also be off by up to 3 days. Therefore, it is important to always orientate prophetic calculations only on God's clearly defined astronomical calendar, because the Jewish calendar, which was only invented at the end of the 4th century, is too inaccurate. God created the heavenly bodies and He gave them to determine the time (Gen 1:14-16; Psalm 104:19) and not mathematical calculations and considerations of men.

Not only from the Bible, but also from historical (determination of the new light by the priests) and scientific sources we know that the biblical month always began with the new light. This was also the case in Israel's original calendar, which was changed by the Jewish patriarch Hillel after the expulsion of the Jews in the 4th century AD. So when the Bible speaks of the "new moon", it always refers to the visible new moon, i.e. the time when the first crescent moon, the so-called "new light", can be seen for the first time. This is the only time from which the beginning of a month can be clearly defined. The Jews (and from the 7th century AD also the Muslims) have always correctly determined the beginnings of the month. But some self-righteous and arrogant Christians want to change God's calendar on their own authority and now have the month begin in the deepest darkness. To do this, they must choose one of the three days of the new moon entirely according to speculation. Even if they have the astronomical data of NASA at their disposal, they overlook the fact that the Israelites at the time of Moses and at the time of Jesus did not have these data and that their biblical determination of the month has always begun with the new light for thousands of years. The Jews, Muslims and also those Christians who orientate themselves on God's calendar today always calculate every biblical month with the new light, just as the Israelites did before and during the lifetime of Jesus (i.e. when the Jewish calendar of Hillel did not even exist). Jesus never complained about this, because it is about the old order prescribed in the Torah. The biblical month began and continues to begin with the new light. 

 "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil"

(1Thess 5:21-22)

"Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them"

(Eph 5:11)