The Hebrew Calendar is a lunar-based calendar, and it frequently is all over the place relative to New Moons. Supposedly, the Hebrew Calendar month begins with the New Moon. The calendar can begin two, or even three days, late after the New Moon. And then, periodically, an entire month is inserted to adjust the calendar.

I have just read The Ancient Dead Sea Scroll Calendar by Dr. Ken Johnson. In the book Ken Johnson points out the belief of the Essenes that the lunar calendar was brought from Babylon after the Captivity, and is a pagan calendar. The Essenes, a Jewish sect that might be equated to cloistered Christian monks, considered the Pharisees to be “sons of darkness,” and themselves as “children of light.” It was the Essenes that hid the Scripture scrolls in desert caves that we now know as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Their calendar, which they believed came from the instruction of the Lord, begins the year with the Spring Equinox, March 20th on our Gregorian Calendar. This, of course, agrees with the command of the Lord that the month in which Passover occurs is the first month of the year (Exodus 12:2). The Essene Calendar has 364 days, which is exactly 52 weeks. This means that the calendar never changes. Every year begins on Thursday, and the Holy Days always occur on the same day of the week. Passover, for example, always begins Thursday evening at sunset.

This one fact causes me to accept that the Essene Calendar probably came from the Lord. God never changes. God is orderly. He does not do things randomly. The lunar-based Hebrew Calendar is not orderly. I know there is a structure, but sometimes it almost appears random.

Ancient cultures around the world are noted for their stone structures. The purpose of these structures, called lunisolar calendars, is to identify the Spring Equinox. Modern science attaches a “ritualistic nature” to these structures, but the point is – they were important to the people of that time and culture. Knowing when the days would begin to get longer and warmer was important for planting crops. Crops, or food, represented the difference between life and death, and food was also wealth.

Brother Johnson reviews several methods that have been proposed to correctly adjust the Essene Calendar. Personally, I believe the calendar is self-adjusting. If every year begins at the Spring Equinox there is no need for adjustment. I do not believe that an extra day between the end of their calendar year and the beginning of the next was material to that culture. Every year was correct to the day.

I have created a parallel Essene/Gregorian calendar. There are two versions; the normal year and the leap year. Because the Essene Calendar always begins on the same day, my parallel calendars will work for any year. You can research when any historic event occurred on this calendar.

Please click HERE, to see the calendar

The only caveat is whether or not the Essene Calendar is indeed the calendar prescribed by the Lord. I suspect that it is.