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Christianity and Islam

Similarity and Differences of Christianity and Islam

“Christianity and Islam” was written by one of the leading scholars of Islam in the last century, Carl Heinrich Becker. In this book he explores the historical correlations between the religions by highlighting the connections between the two doctrines.
He focuses on the rise of Islam and its impact on the Christianity of that period. In the book he examines what Muhammad knew of Christianity and the position of Christians under Islam.
Looking at their similarities, he concludes that metaphysically the doctrines are not that different and that both religions influence each other. Noting aspects of the daily life and doctrinal viewpoint of Islam, Becker compares these to Christian life and outlooks. Emerging outlooks at the time showed just how much these religions influenced each other.
Christianity and Islam are the two largest religions in the world and share a historical connection with some major theological differences. The two faiths share a common place of origin and consider themselves to be monotheistic.
Christianity is an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion which evolved out of Second Temple Judaism in the 1st century CE. It is established on the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and its followers are called Christians. Islam is an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion that evolved in the 7th century CE.
Islam, which means “submission to God”, was established on the teachings of Muhammad as an expression of submission to the will of God. Its adherents are called Muslims, which means “submitter to God”.

Muslims have a broad spectrum of views on Christianity, from viewing Christians to be People of the Book to considering them as kafirs (infidels) that commit shirk (polytheism) because of Trinitarianism and as dhimmis (religious taxpayers) under Sharia. Christian views on Islam are varied and range from considering Islam a fellow Abrahamic religion worshipping the same God, to believing Islam to be blasphemy or a religious cult that denies the Crucifixion and rejects the sanctity of Christ.
Islam recognizes Jesus as al-Masih, the Arabic term for Messiah, sent to teach the Children of Israel with a new revelation. Christianity believes Jesus to be the Messiah of the Hebrew scripture, the Son of God, and God the Son, while Muslims regard the Trinity to be a division of God’s Oneness and a grave sin (shirk). Muslims accept Jesus (Isa) as a messenger of God, not the son of God.
Christianity and Islam differ in their fundamental views concerning their doctrine, including their beliefs about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
Most Christians are Trinitarian and believe that Jesus is divine and God the Son. Christianity teaches that Jesus was condemned to death by the Sanhedrin and the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, crucified and resurrected, as per the Gospel narratives. Christians accept Jesus was divine and sinless.
Muslims and Christians both accept that Jesus was born to Mary, a virgin, and they both believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Islam teaches that Jesus was one of the most influential prophets of God, but not the Son of God, not divine, and not part of a God as part of a Trinity. In Islam, Jesus is a human prophet who, like the other prophets, sought to lead the children of Adam to the worship of the One God, termed Tawhid.

Muslims regard the creation of Jesus as being comparable to that of Adam and that Jesus was convicted to crucifixion but was miraculously saved from execution. Christianity and Islam have different scriptures, with Christianity using the Bible and Islam using the Quran, though Muslims accept that both the Quran and the Christian Gospel, termed Injeel, were sent by God.
Both texts provide a history of the life and works of Jesus. The belief in Jesus is an integral part of Islamic theology, and Muslims regard the Injeel as tahrif(distorted or altered), while Christians consider their Gospels to be authentic and the Quran to be a later, fabricated or apocryphal work. Both religions believe in the virgin birth of Jesus through Mary, but the Biblical and Islamic accounts disagree.

BELIEF	ISLAM	CHRISTIANITY
God	Only one god – called Allah	Only one God – a triune being called God or Jehovah
Jesus	A prophet who was virgin-born, but not the Son of God	Divine son of God who was virgin-born. He is God’s Word and Savior to humanity
Crucifixion	Jesus was not crucified. Someone was substituted for Jesus and He hid until He could meet with the disciples	A fact of history that is necessary for the atonement of sin and the salvation of believers
Jesus’ Resurrection	Since Muslims do not believe in the Crucifixion, there is no need to believe in the Resurrection	A fact of history that signifies God’s victory over sin and death
Trinity	A blasphemy signifying belief in three gods. In Islam, the Trinity is mistakenly thought to be God, Jesus, and Mary	The one God is eternally revealed in three coequal and coeternal persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit
Sin	Sin is disobedience to the established law. Sin does not grieve Allah.	Sin is rebellion against God. Sin grieves God
Man	Man is created by Allah and is sinless	Man is created in God’s image and is sinful by nature
Salvation	Salvation is achieved by submitting to the will of Allah. There is no assurance of salvation – it is granted by Allah’s mercy alone	Salvation is a gift accepted by faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ on the Cross and provided through God’s grace
Bible	Muslims accept the Bible (especially the Pentateuch, Psalms, and Gospels) insofar as it agrees with the Qur’an	The Bible is the inspired Word of God that is complete and not to be added to
Qur’an (Koran)	A later revelation that supersedes and corrects errors in the Bible	Not accepted as divine revelation

Carl Heinrich Becker

Carl Heinrich Becker, a German orientalist and politician in Prussia, was born on April 12, 1876 in Amsterdam, Netherlands and passed on February 10, 1933 in Berlin, Germany. Becker, the son of a banker, attended universities at Lausanne, Heidelberg, and Berlin, and travelled in Spain, Sudan, Greece, and Turkey before earning his doctorate in 1899.
In 1902, Becker became a privatdozent for Semitic philology at the University of Heidelberg, where he came into contact with Max Weber. They appointed him Professor of History and Culture of the Orient at the newly founded Kolonialinstitut and Director of the Seminar for History and Culture of the Orient in Hamburg in 1908. In 1910 he founded and became chief editor of the journal Der Islam.
In 1913 he accepted an offer from Bonn University, where he was Professor of Oriental Philology. He served as Minister for Culture in Prussia in 1921 and again from 1925 to 1930.
Carl Heinrich Becker was one of the founders of modern Islamic Studies in Germany and for his vision of entangled Histories and Culture of Europe and the Muslim world. As Prussian Minister of Culture and Education he supported the study of foreign languages, histories and culture as a part of national education and as a means to avoid conflict.
He carried out several public education reforms, and founded the Pedagogical Academy. In his works on the history of Islam, he showed the dominant role of socioeconomic factors in the formation and spread of Islam.

His Works:

Ibn Gauzi’s Manaqib Omar Ibn’ Abdelaziz (Dissertation, 1899)
Beitrage zur Geschichte Agyptens unter dem Islam (2 vols., 1902- 1903)
Papyri Schott-Reinhardt: Veroffentlichungen aus der Heidelberger Papyrus‐ Sammlung, Vol. 1 ( 1906)
Der Kanzel im Kultus des alten Islam (1906)
Christentum und Islam (1907)
L’Islam et la Colonisation de l’Afrique (1910)
Gedanken zur Hochschulreform (1919)
Kulturpolitische Aufgaben des Reichs (1919)
Kant und die Bildungskrise der Gegenwart (1924)
Islamstudien: Vom Werden und Wesen der islamischen Welt (2 vols., 1924- 1932)
Vom Wesen der deutschen Universitaet (1925)
Die preussische Kunstpolitik und der Fall Schilling (1925)
Die Paedagogische Akademie im Aufbau unseres nationalen Bildungswesens (1926)
Zu Beethovens 100. Todestag (1927)

To see more information about this topic or other religious topics, you may check the books and magazines available at www.wisdomebooksclub.com or visit our peals of wisdom page page by clicking on this link to access more interesting blog articles, games, quizzes, music videos, religious poems, Jewish recipes, popular sermons, and more.

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Chosen Peoples by Israel Zangwill

Practices and Rituals

Are the Jews the Chosen People?

The notion that the Hebrews are the “chosen people” and have a unique relation with Yahweh (Hebrew God) is pervasive in Hebrew writings. But, the essence of this relationship is not without complexity and doubt.
They embed the concept of Hebrews being chosen in many bible verses. For example, Deuteronomy 7:6 reads, “For you are a people consecrated to Yahweh your Elohim (God): of all the peoples on earth Yahweh your Elohim chose you to be his treasured people.” The 2 succeeding verses tell us why he made this choice. It says that Yahweh choose the Israelites because he loved them and had promised their ancestors, including Abraham, Jacob and Issac, that he would make an everlasting covenant with them.
In Genesis Chapter 12, Yahweh comes to Abraham and commands him to leave his father’s home.
A Rabbinic authority, accepted by the 12th-century Hebrew philosopher Maimonides, contends that it was actually Abraham who first turned to Yahweh. Only Abraham, amongst his generation, understood the folly of worshiping false idols, declaring that there was only one Elohim that reigned over the entire world. Yahweh only appeared to Abraham after he had demonstrated his faith to him.
The covenant between Yahweh and the Israelite slaves at Mount Sinaiestablished the fundamental concept of being the chosen people. This covenant established a bond that if the freed Hebrew slaves followed the laws of the Torah, they would receive Yahweh’s eternal protection. According to some Rabbi’s Yahweh chose the Hebrews for this purpose, only after offering the Torah to the descendants of Ammon, Esau, Ishmael and Moab, but when advised of the Torah’s restrictions against adultery, burglary and murder, they chose not enter this covenant with Yahweh. Only after the offering the Torah to every nation, did Yahweh offer it to the Hebrews. Therefore; no nation can ever lament not being his chosen people.
Exodus 19:5 points out when it declares “Now then, if you will obey Me faithfully and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all the peoples.” that the key attribute of the Hebrew people was making the decision to keep the covenant.

Though most of the Hebrew philosophers accept that Israelites were chosen by Yahweh as a set-apart people because of an oath established with their ancestors, some others thought differently.
For example, the medieval philosopher Judah HaLevi (1086-1145) postulated that the Hebrews’ decision to keep the covenant stems from an innate characteristic. According to HaLevi, the Hebrews were bestowed with “divine influence.”
A characteristic imbedded in one’s genetics and includes the capability to prophecy and the capacity to receive superior divine wisdom.
Similarly, the Reform leader Abraham Geiger (1810-1874), believed that the Hebrews eagerness to keep the covenant is because of its “native talent for religion.” However, many contemporary Jews are uneasy with the concept of being chosen, especially as it relates to genetics.
Some modern-day Jewish philosophers consider the belief that Yahweh chose the Israelites above all other nations is racist, and reject the idea that the Hebrews are a chosen people. Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983), the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, did not accept that God would grant favor to a specific people, and considered it immoral for any nation to claim superiority over another nations. Most modern-day practitioners of Judaism believe that they are a chosen people, while simultaneously trying to downplay the concept of superiority.

Israel Zangwill

Israel Zangwill was born on January 21, 1864 in London, England and died on August 1, 1926 in West Sussex, England. Zangwill was a British writer, playwright and activist. His best-known books include “The Children of the Ghetto Series, “The Melting Pot” and the “Big Bow Mystery”. He devoted his life to defending the downtrodden, and was connected to Jewish assimilation, Jewish independence, women’s right to vote and Zionist movements. Zangwill was a leader in the Zionist movement, and was a good friend of Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist Organization.
Zangwill eventually changed his mind about Zionism, subsequently rejecting the pursuit of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and becoming one of the primary leaders in the search for an alternative location to Palestine as the homeland.
Zangwill was schooled in Bristol and Plymouth as a young child. As a 9-year-old, his parents enrolled in the Jew’s Free School in east London, a school for Jewish immigrant children. The school’s curriculum included both religious and secular studies, and also supplied students with food, clothing, and health care.
He was an excellent student and became a part-time teacher, and subsequently a full-time teacher at the school. Currently, one of the school’s four houses is named “Zangwill” in his honor. During his time as a teacher at the school, he attended the University of London, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1884 with triple honors.
Israel Zangwill married Edith Ayrton, a novelist and feminist. Oliver Zangwill, the younger of their 2 sons, was a prominent British psychologist. His father, Moses Zangwill, was an immigrant from the Russian Empire, now Latvia, and his mother, Ellen Hannah Marks Zangwill, was from what is now Poland. His brother, Louis Zangwill, was also an author.

The “of the Ghetto” books:

Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People (1892)
Grandchildren of the Ghetto (1892)
Dreamers of the Ghetto (1898)
Ghetto Tragedies, (1899)
Ghetto Comedies, (1907)

Other Works

Chosen Peoples, (1919)
The Big Bow Mystery (1892)
The King of Schnorrers (1894)
The Master (1895) (based on the life of friend and illustrator George Wylie Hutchinson)
The Melting Pot (1909)
The Old Maid’s Club (1892)
The Bachelors’ Club (London : Henry, 1891)
The Serio-Comic Governess (1904)
Without Prejudice (1896)
Merely Mary Ann (1904)
The Grey Wig: Stories and Novelettes (1903) which include The Grey Wig; Chasse-Croise; The Woman Beater; The Eternal Feminine; The Silent Sisters

Playwrights and Associated Films

Children of the Ghetto, directed by Frank Powell (1915, based on the play Children of the Ghetto)
The Melting Pot, directed by Oliver D. Bailey and James Vincent (1915, based on the play The Melting Pot)
Merely Mary Ann, directed by John G. Adolfi (1916, based on the play Merely Mary Ann)
The Moment Before, directed by Robert G. Vignola (1916, based on the play The Moment of Death)
Mary Ann, directed by Alexander Korda (Hungary, 1918, based on the play Merely Mary Ann)
Nurse Marjorie, directed by William Desmond Taylor (1920, based on the play Nurse Marjorie)
Merely Mary Ann, directed by Edward LeSaint (1920, based on the play Merely Mary Ann)
The Bachelor’s Club, directed by A. V. Bramble (1921, based on the novel We Moderns)
We Moderns, directed by John Francis Dillon (1925, based on the play We Moderns)
Too Much Money, directed by John Francis Dillon (1926, based on the play Too Much Money)
Perfect Crime, directed by Bert Glennon (1928, based on the novel The Big Bow Mystery)
Merely Mary Ann, directed by Henry King (1931, based on the play Merely Mary Ann)
The Crime Doctor, directed by John S. Robertson (1934, based on the novel The Big Bow Mystery)
The Verdict, directed by Don Siegel (1946, based on the novel The Big Bow Mystery)

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The Antiquities of the Jews

Judean Antiquities

Antiquities of the Jews is a 20-volume historical composition, penned in Greek, by the Jewish writer Flavius Josephus in AD 94 during the 13th year of the reign of Roman emperor Flavius Domitian. In the foreword of Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus tells why he wanted to do this work.
He writes:“Now I have undertaken the present work, as thinking it will appear to all the Greeks worthy of their study; for it will contain all our antiquities, and the constitution of our government, as interpreted out of the Hebrew Scriptures.”
The book consists of a record of history of the Jewish society for Josephus’ gentile cohorts. In its first 10 volumes, Josephus describes the stories of the Hebrew Bible commencing with the creation of Adam and Eve. The next 10 volumes outline Jewish history beyond the scriptural text and up to the Hebrew War, or the First Hebrew–Roman War, 66 to 73 CE.

The Wars of the Jews

This publication, along with Josephus’s other notable work, The Jewish War (De Bello Iudaico), contributes valuable cultural knowledge for historians trying to learn 1st-century AD Judaism and the early Christian era.
Antiquities of the Jews incorporates an abundance of exclusive, and treasured, ancient information. This includes the history of Armenia, the Hellenistic states, Parthia, the Nabatean kingdom and Rome’s subjugation of the territories of Western Asia. Scholars regard this work of Josephus as one of the most influential publications in classical Roman history, along with the writings of Suetonius, Tacitus and Titus Livius. Jerome, one of the most knowledgeable Christian writers of the 4th–5th centuries, referred to Josephus Flavius as “Titus Livius of the Greeks”. Louis Feldman, a Josephean scholar, pointed out several falsehoods about the Hebrews that were being
They believed that the Hebrews had no outstanding historical leaders and no solid history of their societies. It was believed that they held hostility toward non-Hebrews, and were disloyal and unpatriotic. It is because of these sentiments throughout the Roman Empire that Josephus decided to produce an “apologia” of the Hebrew past.

Josephus omitted many stories in the Hebrew narrative. For instance, the “Song of The Sea” chanted by Moses and the Israelites after their salvation at the Red Sea is eliminated from Josephus’ work. Likewise, owing to his apprehension with pagan antisemitism, Josephus eliminated the full incident regarding the golden calf from his version of the story of Israelites at Mount Sinai. Other Hebrew scholars have proposed that he feared that the scriptural account could be used by Alexandrian anti-Semites to add credence to their charge that the Hebrews worshiped an ass’s head in the Temple (cf. Apion 2:80, 114, 120; Tacitus, Histories 5:4).

Josephus writes that Abraham himself educated the Egyptians in science, and they likewise educated the Greeks, and that Moses established a parliamentary clerical nobility which resisted sovereignty, like Rome. Josephus presented the major characters of the scriptural stories as philosophical leaders to make the history of the Hebrew’s more acceptable to his Greco-Roman advocates.
The surviving copies of this book, which all stem from Christian sources, includes 2 disputed verses about Jesus. They call the lengthier one the Testimonium Flavianum. If legitimate, it is one of the earliest nonbiblical accounts of Jesus, and is often pointed to as proof of the factual existence of Jesus.
In the 9th–10th centuries, a Hebrew translation known as the “Josippon”, appeared in Italy. It depicted Hebrew history and the major events throughout the earth from the time of the construction of the Tower of Babel to the seizure of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. This work was a truncated translation of Jewish Antiquities and The Jewish War, but Joseph ben Gorion was declared the author. With the advent of printing, Jossipon was actually published before the work of Josephus Flavius in1476, making it just as popular as the major work Antiquities of the Jews.

Publications

The first Greek translation of Antiquities of the Jews in Greek occurred in 1544. Other publications followed in 1611 and 1634 (Cologne), 1687 (Oxford), 1691 (Leipzig), 1700 (Oxford), 1726 (Leiden), etcetera. They translated Antiquities of the Jews into French, Italian, German and Spanish during the 15th – 16th centuries. It has been published in contemporary languages, Latin and Russian.
The best-known rendition of the Antiquities of the Jews was completed by William Whiston in 1737. Whiston’s version has been in publication since then. A cross-reference hierarchy for the Works of Josephus and the Biblical canon exists also.

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Ancient Hebrew New Year

Vernal Equinox

The vernal equinox determines the start of the year. Therefore, the year starts in the Spring not in the Winter like with the Gregorian calendar or in the Fall like the present-day Jewish calendar.
We use the Spring equinox to start the New Year, the same as the ancient Hebrews, as stipulated in the Torah and the Old Testament Bibles, which tells us that the Pesach (Passover) Festival occurs during the year’s first new moon cycle.
The first new moon is the last new moon before Pesach. New Year’s Day is established by the new moon which occurs closest to the Spring equinox (before or after) when the day and night are of equal length, which ensures the full moon of Passover always occurs after the equinox.
In the Gregorian system, the equinox can occur from March 21-23. The earliest date for the Ancient Hebrew New Year’s Day can be only 14 days before March 21. Thus, the earliest date possible for New Year’s Day is March 8th, and the latest is April 6th. This makes it impossible for Pesach to occur prior to the vernal equinox or later than April 20/21. For example, in Georgia (USA) where I live, the 2021 vernal equinox is on March 20th and the closest new moon to that date is March 13th, making it the 2021 Rosh Chodashim (New Year’s) date.

Chodesh Rishon

Chodesh Rishon (First New Moon) has 2 secondary names. It was occasionally referred to as Rosh Chodashim, which literally means “head of all new moons”, which we refer to as New Year’s Day and to Chodesh Aviv, the New Moon of Spring.
Both Philon Yedidia (aka Philo Judaeus) and Yosef ben Matityahu (aka Flavius Josephus), two prominent historical Hebrew writers and contemporaries of Yahusha the Messiah, verify that the Spring equinox was used to establish the start of a New Year in their time.
Philo, the Hebrew historian, says that Moses established the moon of the Spring equinox as the first month of the year. Josephus the Jewish historian also confirms this and defines it as “when the sun was in Aries”

Relevant Scriptures

And Yahweh spoke to Mosheh and Aharon in the land of Mitsrayim (Egypt), saying, (2) This new moon is the beginning of the new moons for you, it is the first new moon of the year for you. (3) Speak to all the congregation of Yisrael saying. On the tenth day of this new moon, each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.
This chart provides a brief summary of the holy days, the Shabbats, the equinoxes, the harvest seasons and other seasonal information.

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Scripturally Ordained Set-apart Days

The process for celebrating a festival or atoning for one’s sin has surely evolved since ancient times. We know the ancient temples were destroyed and that the priests are no longer required to perform burnt offerings, sin offerings or animal sacrifices to atone for our sins. This comes as no surprise, because the Scriptures tell us that the ultimate Pesach lamb came and He will seek atonement for our sins instead of the priests.
They also declare that the holy days must be celebrated for all generations to come. They will even be celebrated after the new heaven and earth are formed.
His linguistic background included proficiency in Hebrew, Latin, Greek and Roman. Many historians regard him as the “Father of Chronology”. Besides being an authority of biblical chronology, he was likewise an authority of biblical prophecy evidenced by being the first scholar who correctly interpreted the Prophecy of Daniel 8 and Daniel 9.

Chag Matzot

Chag Matzot (Festival of Unleavened Bread) along with Chag Pesach (Passover Festival) commemorates the Exodus from Egypt, but they are also a celebration of the beginning of the barley harvest. Chag Shavuot (Festival of Weeks) is a jubilee of the wheat harvest.

Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur is a day for repentance and atonement as described in great detail in Leviticus 16, and Yom Teruah is a day to sing and rejoice. Chag Sukkot (Festival of Booths) memorializes the wandering of the Israelites in the desert and Chag Asif (Festival of Ingathering) celebrates the final gathering of the years agricultural produce.
On three of the holy/set-apart days, the Hebrew men were directed to sojourn in order to congregate with their fellow believers. These Festivals recognize the four seasons of the year, four moments of history, four stages of human life and the four states of human consciousness.

The purpose of the holy days is to force you step back from the hustle of everyday life to appreciate and give thanks for what you’ve been given. To celebrate, to understand and reflect on the spiritual you. There are countless questions for you to ponder. Why did Yahweh emancipate the Hebrews from slavery? Why did he select the Hebrews as his chosen/set-apart people? How can I atone for my sins, and so on?
The holy days included in our Ancient Hebrew Calendar only encompasses those explicitly ordained in the Scriptures. It omits all secular holidays, regardless of its present-day acceptance or significance.

Relevant Scriptures

Exodus 34:23
Three times in the year all your men are to appear before the Master, Yahweh, the Elohim of Yisrael.
Deuteronomy 16:16
Three times a year all your males appear before Yahweh your Elohim in the place he chooses: at the Festival of Matzot, and at the Festival of Shavuot, and at the Festival of Sukkot. And none should appear before Yahweh empty-handed.

Holy/Set-Apart Days – Jerusalem (Israel)

Holy/Set-Apart Days – Georgia (USA)

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Scriptural Creation Timeline

There is no real consensus amongst Biblical scholars on the correct calculation for the start of Creation date. If everyone is using the same Biblical sources, then why isn’t there a consensus on the Creation Timeline duration you might ask?
The duration from Adam’s creation date to the Incarnation of Yahusha (Jesus) used in the ancient Hebrew Scriptures and in the Septuagint, are both around 5500 years to what we call 1 AD.
The Masoretic Text has a timeline of 3760 years to what we call 1 AD. Since the Masoretic Hebrew texts are the source of present-day English Biblical texts, so present-day English Bibles also have the 3760-year timeline.
The Ancient Hebrew Scriptural Texts, the Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Works and the Septuagint all placed the Messiah’s coming at around 5500 years after the Creation of Adam, in Julian Year 1 AD., which puts us at current Hebrew Year 7521. Historians Sextus Julius Africanus, called the Father of Chronology, Yusebius (Eusebius) Pamphii, and Yosef ben Matityahu (Flavius Josephus) were some of the most prominent proponents of the 5500-year timeline.

Mosheh ben Maimon (Maimonides) who wrote the Mishneh Torah and Yose (Jose) ben Halafta, who wrote Seder Olam Rabbah were two of the leading advocates of the 3760-year timeline. Maimonides calculated the duration from the Creation of Adam to Julian Year 1 AD. at 3760 years, which puts the current Jewish Year at 5781. Present-day Jewish calendars still use the calculations established by Maimonides centuries ago.
My research led me to conclude that the work of Africanus is the most accurate Creation Timeline.
The Creation Timeline proliferated by Africanus 2000 years ago is a match with the calculations of most present-day bible scholars who use the Septuagint LXX to calculate their timeline, though Africanus himself didn’t use Septuagint for his calculations. Instead, he used the ancient Hebraic Scriptural writings as the basis for his calculations. Additionally, Africanus built an alternate timeline of non-religious historical events that he used to substantiate and cross-check dates in his Scriptural timeline.

Timeline Summaries

Our “Scriptural Creation Timeline” is based on the timeline set forth by “the Father of Chronology” Sextus Julius Africanus.
He Places Creation in Hebrew Year 1 (5500 BC) the great flood in Year 2262 (3238 BC), Babylonian Captivity of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) in 4870 (630 BC).

And His Resurrection in Year 5531 (32 AD). According to Africanus’ both Adam’s Creation and the incarnation occurred on March 25th, exactly 5500 years to the day apart.

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Rosh Chodesh

New Moons – Months

The word used for new moon in Hebrew is “rosh chodesh” , which literally means “beginning, head, or renewal” of the moon and thus the beginning or head of the month. It’s a time of spiritual renewal. It is the name for the first day of every new moon in the Hebrew calendar . A new moon is the first lunar phase , when the Moon and Sun have the same ecliptic longitude , therefore the lunar disk is not detectable to the naked eye during this phase, except during a solar eclipse . Throughout the Scriptures, the new moon was a day when the Prophets received inspiration from Yahweh , it is a day designated for waiting on Yahweh, for discerning His purposes and for prophetic revelation. The Hebrews had to abstain from physical work, and any other activities forbidden by the Scriptures on Rosh Chodesh.
The new moons are named by their numeric place on the calendar. For example, the Chodesh Rishon (First New Moon), Chodesh Sheni (Second New Moon), and so on. The First New Moon is the new moon of the Exodus from Mitsrayim (Egypt) . Therefore, whenever an individual mentions the number of another new moon, they are in effect recalling the Exodus from Mitsrayim: we are in, say, the Fifth New Moon, that is to recollect that there were five new moons since the time of the Exodus. Thus, the numeric naming is a continual reminder of the Hebrew’s emancipation from slavery in Mitsrayim.
There are only 4 new moons in the Scriptures identified by use of a non-numeric name. These non-numeric names aren’t literal names of the new moons, but a description of what that particular new moon represents. For example, the 1st new moon was also referred to as Chodesh Aviv (New Moon of Spring) because it is the 1st new moon of the Spring. Even these four new moons are almost always referred to by their numeric place on the calendar, with the names serving merely as secondary titles accompanying their numbers.

Rosh Chodesh (New Moon) Table – Jerusalem, Israel

Rosh Chodesh (New Moon) Table – Georgia, USA

These tables include the New Moon’s with their Hebrew and transliterated English names, along with the dates on which they occur in their respective locations.

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Ancient Hebrew VS Modern Jewish Calendar Comparisons

Many of the practices included on the contemporary Jewish calendars are the same as those used in ancient times, but there are many differences as well. Our website calendar strictly adheres to the ancient Hebrew Scriptural commands given by the Torah and the Old Testament biblical texts.
We do not use Babylonian names, such as Nissan or Tammuz, for the new moons (months). Instead, we use numbers, i.e., Chodesh Rishon (First New Moon) (first month), as are used in the Torah and the Old Testament.

We do not use Babylonian names, such as Nissan or Tammuz, for the new moons (months). Instead, we use numbers, i.e., Chodesh Rishon (First New Moon) (first month), as are used in the Torah and the Old Testament.
We consider the date of creation, based on biblical creation timelines, to be 7520 years ago instead of 5781 years ago. One of our magazine articles examines and explains the Scriptural Creation Timeline.

We do not include additional holy days to account for travel by people who might be in diaspora. We strictly adhere to the Scriptural time-periods and give no special considerations for travel time as they gave none in ancient times.
We put the new moon’s and all holy days on the calendar on their exact date, we make no adjustments to prevent them from falling on Shabbat (the Sabbath).
Our new moon festivity durations are 1-day events, never 2-day events.
Our calendar does not include any holy days that are not explicitly ordained as such in the Scriptures like: Hanukah, Purim, Second Passover, Lag B’ Omer, the Three Weeks or the 15th of Av.
We do not refer to the holy day of Yom Teruah as Rosh Hashana (Head of the Year, New Year’s Day). We use the Chodesh Rishon (First New Moon) (1st month) of the year Aviv (the month of Spring) as stated in the Torah and in Exodus 12:1-2 as the Head of the Months (start of the year).

Ancient Hebrew Calendars, Jerusalem (Israel)

Ancient Hebrew Calendar, Georgia (USA)

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Ancient Hebrew Days of the Week

Calculations of years, months and days in the Gregorian calendar are based on fixed hours equal to 1/24 of a day. The ancient Hebrew’s day (yom) was based on the local time of sunset, and a day went from sunset to sunset and didn’t have a fixed duration. If you’re doing something on a Gregorian calendar day at a time after sunset, you’d be on the next day of the Hebrew calendar. For example, Pesach (Passover) would begin at sunset the day before the date specified as the holy/set-apart day and ends at sunset on the day specified.

The word yom pertains to the concept of time, not just for day(s), but for time in general. How yom is translated depends on its use in a sentence, it’s used similarly to the way the word day is used in the English language.
Yom is used in the name of numerous Hebrew festivals, such as, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) or Yom Teruah (Day of Blasting), and to identify the days of the week, such as, Yom Rishon (the First Day) or Yom Shabbat (the Sabbath Day).

Shabbat

Shabbat (Sabbath) is a day of rest and prayer for Hebrews. It starts at sunset on Yom Shishi, the 6th day of the week (Friday), and finishes at sunset on the 7th day (Saturday). They had to abstain from physical work, and any other activities forbidden by the Scriptures on Shabbat.
The Hebrew religion doesn’t have names for the days of the week. Sunday is called Yom Rishon (First Day) and Monday is Yom Sheni (Second Day), and so on. Because we are invariably counting down to the Shabbat each time we say the day of the week, it helps us fulfill the divine law of (Exodus 20:8) to always “remember Shabbat to keep it holy.”

Refer to the “Counting the Weeks Table” below for additional information pertaining to The Festival of Shavuot.

Counting the Weeks of Shavuot – Hebrew Names

Counting the Weeks of Shavuot – English Translation

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An Extract out of Josephus’s Discourse to the Greeks Concerning Hades

Flavius Josephus

Discourse to the Greeks Concerning Hades is a brief essay thought to be written by Hippolytusof Rome. This work is likewise known as Josephus’s Discourse to the Greeks Concerning Hades because it was incorrectly credited to the Jewish writer in the 9th century.
Although this addendum is still reprinted in versions of Whiston’s Josephus, modern academia’s believe crediting this work to Josephus is erroneous. Current scholars now credit this concise treatise to the church minister Hippolytus. The attribution to Josephus, chronicled by Photius in his Bibliotheca, did not go unquestioned even during his time, and the “Discourse” was likewise credited to Caius, Presbyter of Rome, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus.
The Writer asserts that: “Hades is a place in the world not regularly finished; a subterraneous region, wherein the light of this world does not shine; from which circumstance, that in this region the light does not shine, it cannot be but there must be in its perpetual darkness. This region is allotted as a place of custody for souls, in which angels are appointed as guardians to them, who distribute to them temporary punishments, agreeable to everyone’s behavior and manners.”

The writer depicts Hades as having “a lake of unquenchable fire” formed by God for an impending day of judgment. The unjust and the dead are constrained in different regions of Hades. Everyone in Hades must go through a gate secured by “an archangel with his multitude”, with the just being led to the right hand towards a zone of light called the Bosom of Abraham. The unjust are forcibly driven toward the left hand by angels, to a region marked by a fire that radiates “hot vapor”, from where the just may be seen but they cannot cross over because of the “chaos deep and large” that functions as a barricade.”
The writer reassures the Greeks he’s speaking to that God will resurrect the dead by raising their bodies, not by putting their souls into another body. The writer asserts that their resurrected bodies will no longer be susceptible to sickness or suffering. In contradiction, an unjust person’s body will be unchanged upon resurrection, including retaining their defects. Every person must be taken before the Judge, Jesus Christ. The writer clearly dismisses Minos and Rhadamanthus, whom the Greeks accepted as judges of Hades, as the mediators of humanity’s destiny.
As an alternative, Christ will employ “the righteous judgment of the Father towards all men”, with unending suffering for the evil and everlasting joy for the righteous. The writer calls upon his readers to accept God so they might receive the reward of the just. The book’s last paragraph cites a biblical saying of Christ, “In whatsoever ways I shall find you, in them shall I judge you entirely”, which the writer interprets to mean that if someone who is living a righteous way of life falls into sin, his righteousness will not save him from the punishment of the unjust, while a wicked individual who atones for his sins may yet be restored “as from a whitewash”.

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