Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

The Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar, based on the phases of the moon as it orbits around the earth (which takes approximately 27.32 days for each orbit), rather than a solar calendar (like the Gregorian calendar, which is based on the year-long orbit of the earth around the sun).

As a result, although the days of Jewish festivals and other religious observances may occur on the same day of the same month every year according to the Hebrew calendar, they take place on varying days and months in the Gregorian calendar from year to year.

The date of the Gregorian calendar corresponding to the date of the Hebrew calendar referenced in the question can thus fall on multiple possible dates in either March or April. (By my calculation, for the years from 2000 to 2040, the first day of the first month of the Hebrew calendar can range from 6 March through 6 April of the Gregorian calendar.)

September 21 2020 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Scott Broberg Fig Tree Ministries

The "first month" in Exodus correlates to the modern March/April. 

Many ancient calendars started in the early spring. Since cultures were so tightly linked to the agricultural seasons the beginning of the year would correlate with the beginning of spring. 

At one point, the Roman calendar system also started in March. The Roman calendar consisted of 10 months and did not include months in the winter season. Julius Caesar enacted calendar reforms which gives us the Julian calendar. Many of the names for our modern month names still reflect the ten month cycle:

September - was the 7th month
October - 8th
November - 9th
December - the 10th month.

September 22 2020 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report