Zadok Priestly Calendar

Anchoring the Calendar to the Priesthood

The key to navigating these end times in which we are living is finding a calendar you can trust to keep you on track with Yah’s appointed times. Given the abundance of so-called Torah-based calendars available, this task can be quite daunting. 

We humbly submit that the Zadok Priestly Calendar provides a compelling conflict resolution to the ‘calendar wars’ that have erupted recently in the Torah community. Let us explain why we feel this way.

The Sabbaths, Feast Days, and Appointed Times are meant to unite us in fellowship as a covenant community anchored in the Torah. However, accurately pinpointing these dates and times have proved to be problematic, given the number of calendar changes that have occurred since Creation. And yet, we believe Yahuah has ensured that we can find our way back to the Truth by following the breadcrumbs He has left us. These breadcrumbs include:

• The 7 day Creation week
• The roles of the luminaries – Sun, Moon, and Stars
• Certain passages found in the Book of Jubilees
• Certain passages found in 1 Enoch
• Dead Sea Scroll calendar fragments 
• The Zadok Priestly Courses

The Key Components of the Calendar

Genesis 1 establishes a 7-day creation week, with day 7 designated as a day of rest from work. This adds up to 52 ‘regular’ Shabbats (Sabbaths) during the course of a 364 day year. The scriptures also make it clear that the sun’s role as the greater luminary gives it preeminence over the moon and stars in calendar formation. 

There is scriptural evidence for 12 month years and 30 day long months.  

Also included are the Priestly Courses and Shemitah/Jubilees occurrences that must be factored in. It is Prophecy Vine’s belief that these key components are essential in producing a viable calendar.

The Witness of Jubilees and Enoch

The agricultural Zadok calendar was prophesied by Enoch. Jubilees Chapter 4 tells us that the Prophet Enoch was the first man on earth to learn how to read, write, and keep time. Through Enoch’s writings we learn that the archangel Uriel informed him that the year consisted of four seasons of 91 days each, including an intercalary day between the seasons, making the creation calendar 364 days which is divisible by seven. Additionally, a year consisted of 52 Shabbats (Sabbaths), seven feasts, four first fruit memorials and more within the agricultural season of the first seven months.

The Priestly Courses & Divisions

The Zadok Priestly Calendar is the calendar that was used by the Zadok priests. To understand the Zadok Priestly Calendar you must include the priestly courses. King David, under the inspiration of the Ruach haKodesh established this order which mandated  how the priests would serve. (1 Chronicles 24) 

The Zadok priests were ‘sons’ of Aaron through Eleazar and Ithamar. 1 Chronicles 24:3 tells us:

Then David, with Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, divided them according to the schedule of their service. 

In verse 5 it states:

Thus, they were divided by lot, one group as another; for there were officials of the sanctuary and officials of the house of Elohim, from the sons of Eleazar and from the sons of Ithamar.

In the process of time, these priests would eventually flee to the wilderness of Qumran, northwest of the dead sea with the Temple scrolls during  the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes IV around 175 B.C.E. (This Seleucid King  had nominated replacement priests to facilitate tax collection and the imposition of the lunar calendar of the Greek empire.)

Witnesses in the Dead Sea Scroll Cave Fragments

Priestly courses  in the Dead Sea Scrolls have revealed to us the priest’s position in the calendar throughout the years. Scrolls like 4Q 319 represent a calendrical system based on the weekly rotation of the 24 courses during a six year period, constructed into 6 consecutive jubilees, i.e. 294 years. They contain the so-called ‘ot’ or ‘sign’ of the moon which recurs every three years. 

Gina Sparks and Sara Davis, our research partners, concluded that 2019 was a pivotal year, as it met all the prophesied qualifications to begin a new Jubilee count.

For a more detailed study of the Zadok Priestly Calendar, we encourage you to visit the Prophecy Vine YouTube Channel. There you will find teaching videos that offer a more detailed explanation of how the ZPC is calibrated. We encourage you to download the calendar and do your own independent research and draw your own conclusions. 

Please contact us with any questions or comments you may have. We encourage respectful dialogue and pray that the study materials and fellowship here are a blessing to all who enter. 

Sherry Sanders & Robert Villa
PV Calendar Team