CALENDAR (come from the word calere,  that means "to call," because the priests called the people to notice that it was new moon). An ecclesiastical handbook indicating the special days and seasons to be observed.

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Jewish.

 The Israelites divided their year according to natural phenomena exclusively, combining the solar and lunar year. The months began with the new moon, but the first month was fixed (after the Exodus and by the necessities of the Passover) by the ripening of the earliest grain, namely, barley. The lunar month averaging 29 1/2 days, a year of twelve months of 30 and 29 days alternately resulted; but this involved a variation of 11 and 22 days alternately in eighteen out of nineteen years. To reconcile this lunar year with the year of the seasons, a thirteenth month was inserted about once in three years. That the Jews had calendars wherein were noted all the feasts, fasts, and days on which they celebrated any great event of their history is evident from Zech 8:19. Probably the oldest calendar is the Megillath Taanith ("volume of affliction"), said to have been drawn up in the time of John Hyrcanus, before 106 BC See Chronology.

 

Roman.

The ancient Roman year consisted of twelve lunar months, of 29 and 30 days alternately, making 354 days; but a day was added to make the number odd, which was considered more fortunate, so that the year consisted of 355 days. This was less than the solar year by 10 days and a fraction. Numa is credited with attempting to square this lunar year of 355 days with the solar of 365; but how he did it is not known for certain. The Decemviri, 450 BC, probably introduced the system of adjustment afterward in use, namely, by inserting biennially an intercalary month of 23 days between February 24 and 25, and in the fourth year a month of 22 days between February 23 and 24. But this gave the year an average of 366 1/4 days. It was the business of the pontiffs (popes) to keep the calendar in order by regular intercalation. Their neglect produced great disorder. The mischief was finally remedied by Julius Caesar, with the assistance of the mathematician Sosigenes. To bring the calendar into correspondence with the seasons, the year 46 BC was lengthened so as to consist of fifteen months, or 445 days, and the calendar known as the Julian was introduced January 1, 45 BC The use of the lunar year and the intercalary month was abolished, and the civil year was regulated entirely by the sun. Caesar fixed this year to 365 1/4 days, which is correct within a few minutes. After this the ordinary year consisted of 365 days, divided into twelve months, with the names still in use.

(extracted from The New Unger's Bible Dictionary. (c) 1988.)

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For many  Decades, the calendar has been a recurring source of doctrinal controversy in the Church of Elohim. Many articles and papers have proposed different methods of calculating the dates of the annual festivals, and at least a half-dozen different calendars and calculation methods have been offered.

This has troubled many sincere brethren who want to do what pleases Elohim. With all the controversy, they are unsure. But does Elohim really expect each individual Church member to become an expert on calendar matters? We can understand the “calendar issue” by  practicing  a prayerful study.

 

The Jewish calendar is based on three astronomical phenomena: the rotation of the Earth about its axis (a day); the revolution of the moon about the Earth (a month); and the revolution of the Earth about the sun (a year). These three phenomena are independent of each other, so there is no direct correlation between them. On average, the moon revolves around the Earth in about 29½ days. The Earth revolves around the sun in about 365¼ days, that is, about 12.4 lunar months.

The civil calendar used by most of the world has abandoned any correlation between the moon cycles and the month, arbitrarily setting the length of months to 28, 30 or 31 days.

The Jewish calendar, however, coordinates all three of these astronomical phenomena. Months are either 29 or 30 days, corresponding to the 29½-day lunar cycle. Years are either 12 or 13 months, corresponding to the 12.4 month solar cycle.

The lunar month on the Jewish calendar begins when the first sliver of moon becomes visible after the dark of the moon. In ancient times, the new months used to be determined by observation.

 

When people observed the new moon, they would notify the Sanhedrin.

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The problem with strictly lunar calendars is that there are approximately 12.4 lunar months in every solar year, so a 12-month lunar calendar is about 11 days shorter than a solar year and a 13-month lunar is about 19 longer than a solar year. The months drift around the seasons on such a calendar: on a 12-month lunar calendar, the month of Nissan, which is supposed to occur in the Spring, would occur 11 days earlier in the season each year, eventually occurring in the Winter, the Fall, the Summer, and then the Spring again. On a 13-month lunar calendar, the same thing would happen in the other direction, and faster.

 

To compensate for this drift, the Jewish calendar uses a 12-month lunar calendar with an extra month occasionally added. The month of Nissan occurs 11 days earlier each year for two or three years, and then jumps forward 30 days, balancing out the drift. In ancient times, this month was added by observation: the Sanhedrin observed the conditions of the weather, the crops and the livestock, and if these were not sufficiently advanced to be considered "spring," then the Sanhedrin inserted an additional month into the calendar to make sure that Pesach (Passover) would occur in the spring (it is, after all, referred to in the Torah as Chag he-Aviv, the Festival of Spring!).

 

Numbering of Jewish Years

The year number on the Jewish calendar represents the number of years since creation, calculated by adding up the ages of people in the Bible back to the time of creation. However, this does not necessarily mean that the universe has existed for only 5700 years as we understand years. Many Orthodox Jews will readily acknowledge that the first six "days" of creation are not necessarily 24-hour days (indeed, a 24-hour day would be meaningless until the creation of the sun on the fourth "day").

Jews do not generally use the words "C.E." and "B.C." to refer to the years on the civil calendar.

Instead, we use the abbreviations C.E. (Common Era) and B.C.E. (Before the Common Era), which are commonly used by scholars today.

The "first month" of the Jewish calendar is the month of Nissan, in the spring, when Passover occurs.

The names of the months of the Jewish calendar were adopted during the time of Ezra, after the return from the Babylonian exile. The names are actually Babylonian month names, brought back to Israel by the returning exiles. Note that most of the Bible refers to months by number, not by name.