Jill Shannon. A Prophetic Calendar: The Feasts of Israel. Destiny Image, 2009.

I almost quit reading this book after making it through the first two chapters. In the long run, I am glad I did not. The author is a Jew who believes in Jesus (Hebrew – Yeshua; the common European name Jesus comes from the Greek transliteration). For nearly ten years I often fellowshipped with two ministries each led by a Jewish Christian. Both leaders had powerful testimonies and a heart for God that seemed almost inborn. The first part of A Prophetic Calendar: The Feasts of Israel was not like that.

I understand that many Jewish people are mistrustful of non-Jews, often for good reason. I had a friend who grew up in Chicago and said that from time to time the Irish boys in his neighborhood would beat him up, calling him a Christ-killer. I had a Jewish classmate once tell me that his father, a medical doctor with patients of many backgrounds, would never say the word goy (Hebrew for gentile, or non-Jew) without hissing and practically spitting. It is too bad he felt that way, but I get it.

As a gentile Christian, I felt like I was being hissed at when I finished the first chapter. The best I can say about chapter one of A Prophetic Calendar: The Feasts of Israel is that it is overstated. As early as the fifteen chapter of Acts, circa A.D. 51, the early church—which was, of course, primarily Jewish—tried to emphasize that gentile converts were not obligated to observe Jewish ceremonial laws. (Acts 15:23-30) There are also admonitions in the Epistles to avoid controversies about sabbaths and holidays. (Colossians 2:16 or I Corinthians 7:18) Yet, this book was saying that the church did not observe Jewish holidays out of antisemitism.

It is true that by the fourth century A.D. Jews and Christians had gone their separate ways and the majority of Christians were gentiles. However, until Emperor Constantine’s Edict of Toleration in A.D. 311, Christians were persecuted as much by the Romans as Jews, sometimes even more. It should come as no surprise, though, that in the fourth century when the Council of Nicaea decided on the day to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus, that it would use the widespread solar-based Roman calendar to set the date rather than the lunar-based Jewish calendar.

In most years, the Council’s calculation for Easter occurred during the same week Jews observe Passover. The years when they vary have to do with the differences between the lunar and solar calendar. Both dates could be considered accurate, it just depends on whose calendar you are using.

The author writes that the Roman Empire “declared the resurrection to be on a particular Sunday, pertaining to the vernal equinox.” (28) Well, the Jewish month of Nisan is also based on the vernal equinox, and Passover is the fifteenth of Nisan, or night of the full moon. Because the phases of the moon vary year to year in the same month, some years Passover falls on different days from Good Friday or Easter, but both are honest interpretations of the dates, just based on two different ways of marking the days and months of the years.

The author states that by the second century A.D. Christians often denied Judaism out of fear of the Romans. This makes it sound like Christians were deliberately anti-Semitic to curry favor with Rome. It is much less black and white than that.

For one thing, at the time of the Jewish Wars (A.D. 66-73), many Jews did not support the zealots’ opposition to Rome, most notably the historian and Levite Josephus. At the same time, Christians, still mostly Jews at this point, saw the wars as fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy that Jerusalem would be surrounded by armies, the Temple destroyed, and that believers should flee when they see gentile armies surrounding the city. See, for example, Luke 21:6 and 21:20-22.

The author suspects or blames some of the intolerance of the Jewish practices because of Hellenism and “the Greek mindset.” This is no doubt true, and even obvious, at least to a point. After all, the New Testament as we have it was written in Greek. Yes, certain Christian teachers and leaders used a more classical approach when faced with a Greek or Roman audience. A simple example is found in Acts 17 when the Apostle Paul does this. Speaking to an Athenian audience that knows nothing of Judaism, he cites Athenian religious practice and quotes two Greek poets to get them thinking about the idea of a supreme deity and the need for forgiveness. This makes sense and is not at all a rejection of Jesus’ Jewish origins. Paul himself notes that “I am become all things to all men.” (I Corinthians 9:18 cf. 10:38) For more on this see https://langblog.englishplus.com/?p=1195.

The book overstates the effects of Constantine’s Edict of Toleration, that somehow because the church was no longer persecuted it would adopt pagan elements at the expense of its Jewish background. In reality, Christianity did not become the state church for another two generations. The syncretism and idolatry did not really appear in the church until some time later after the fall of the Empire during a period when most Romans, including most Christian leaders, were illiterate and could not read the Bible. For a detailed look at how and why this really happened, see M. A. Smith’s The Church Under Siege.

Later in the book, when discussing the Sabbath, the author suggests that the Christian adoption of Sunday as the day of rest was also influenced by paganism. That also sounds doubtful. Not only is there the exhortation cited already about not quibbling over sabbaths, but the New Testament at least suggests that Christians may have already been meeting on the first day of the week. See, for example, Acts 20:7 and I Corinthians 16:1-2. Why? Not because of antisemitism but because that was the day Jesus rose from the grave. (Mark 16:9, John 20:1)

While the author blames the widening rift between the early church and the Jewish religion on gentile antisemitism, she makes one very glaring omission. After the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, there was a greater separation between Jew and Christian for reasons explained above. Sixty years later, though, this division became nearly insuperable, and it had nothing to do with Roman prejudice against Jews. After all, Christians were persecuted, too, regardless of their nationality.

In A.D. 132 a Jewish rebel going by the name of Simon bar Kochba started another Jewish rebellion against Rome. This rebellion, too, was crushed. Bar Kochba and many Jewish leaders, notably the Rabbi Akiva, considered him the Messiah, coming to restore Judah as an independent state. Christians naturally did not recognize this because they asserted that Messiah had already come and that his Kingdom was “not of this world.” (See John 18:36) From then on, Christians tended to see Jews as heretics for supporting a false messiah. The Jews saw Christians as disloyal or even traitors for not supporting this rebellion. Historically, this is when even the Christian Jews would say with Paul and Barnabas, “We are going to the gentiles.” (Acts 13:46; Isaiah 42:6)

Then in chapter two of this book, there is a more glaring inaccuracy. Here the book says that the name of the holiday Easter came from the Semitic goddess Ishtar and is another sign of antisemitism. The words may sound similar, but English is a very different language from the Semitic languages of the Middle East. The only thing we know about the word Easter was that in Old English it was the name of the month that corresponded to the April in the Roman calendar. According to the Old English historian Bede, the month was named after a pre-Christian Germanic goddess, but its root is the word east. The goddess was likely associated with the dawn. As the English adopted the Roman names for months, the word Easter became associated with the holiday in the season, not the actual month.

This is not anti-Semitic. Indeed, English and some of the other Germanic languages are the only ones that have this word for the holiday. Virtually every other international language uses some form of Pesach—the Hebrew word for Passover!—and where we get our adjective for the holiday, Paschal. The New Testament Greek uses Pascha; in French it is Pâques; Spanish, Pascua; Portuguese, Pascoa; and so on.

I should note that English has done the same kind of thing in labeling other holidays as well. For example, in Old English the word for the season spring was lent. Sometime in the Middle Ages, Lent became associated with the penitential forty days before Easter observed in many churches. Most languages call it by a name whose root means “forty” (e.g., Latin Quadragesima or Spanish Cuaresma) or self-denial (e.g., German Fastenzeit “fasting time”). That the word Easter is used in English simply illustrates the idiom of the language and is not meant as anything anti-Semitic.

Indeed, Hebrew has done the same kind of thing. As I write, many Jews have just observed a fast day, the 17th of Tammuz. Tammuz is a month in the Jewish calendar, but it is named after a Babylonian god. Does this mean the Jews accepted the Babylonian religion? No, they merely adopted the commonly used name. The heroes of the Feast of Purim are Esther and Mordecai. The name Esther truly is a Hebraism of the name Ishtar and Mordecai’s name comes from the Babylonian god Marduk. No one would say their names reflect a belief in those gods. Let’s be realistic about these things and not suggest a conspiracy where there is none. (See Isaiah 8:12).

Though perhaps not a settled, the book also makes a case that Jesus was not born on December 25. Most people would not argue with this, but the choice of the date was not completely random. It is likely that the early church fathers had access to sources that have since been lost. We do know, for example, the likeliest candidate for the “star” the Magi saw “come to rest” (Matthew 2:9), i.e. changed from retrograde to normal motion in the sky, did so on December 25, 2 B.C. This may have been as close as anyone could come to a birth date, though the Scripture seems to indicate that the wise men arrived some time after Jesus was born since they visited him in a house, not a stable. (See Matthew 3:11, cf. Luke 2:7, 2:12) For more on the December 25 date, see www.bethlehemstar.com

This does mean that it may be possible, though inconclusive, that Jesus may have been born during the Feast of Tabernacles two or three months earlier as the book suggests. The book makes a calculation based on when Zechariah’s (a.k.a. Zacharias, father of John the Baptist) course or division would have been serving in the Temple to that effect. I have seen another writing also based on when Zechariah’s division would have served that came to a different conclusion. Alas, I do not recall where, but it may have been more accurate because A Prophetic Calendar: The Feasts of Israel makes it sound like the course served the same time every year, but with the lunar calendar used by the Jews for their service, it would vary widely over the years when compared to the solar calendar.

Having tried to deal with what this review considers exaggerations, inaccuracies, and omissions in the beginning of the book, I almost quit. Does this author even know what she is talking about?

Well, once past the first half of chapter two, yes, she does.

Someone brought up in the Jewish religion and observing the Jewish holidays has an organic connection to the New Testament that gentile converts do not have. Once past chapter one, the author has something special to share. And she would like others to share what she has.

After the introductory material, A Prophetic Calendar: The Feasts of Israel devotes a chapter to each holiday: the four spring holidays (Passover, First Fruits, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost), the three fall holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Tabernacles), the two non-Mosaic holidays (Purim, Hanukah), and the pre-Mosaic holiday (Sabbath).

As these feasts are examined, we get many prophetic insights into them. The book observes, for example:

Leavened bread will spoil quickly, but unleavened bread will remain uncorrupted. Since the Lord’s body did not undergo decay in the grave [see Psalm 16:8-11 and Acts 2:25-31], his incorruptibility was a picture of pure and unleavened bread without any of the yeast of sin in His life. (38)

The Lord warned Pharaoh, “Israel is my firstborn son” (Exod. 4:22-23). Pharaoh would pay with his own son’s life for not allowing God’s firstborn son to go free…the Father has many adopted sons from the nations, but Israel is His firstborn son. Harming Israel is costly to the nations—more costly than they can bear. (42)

The secret sin of Joseph’s brothers was reaped in future oppression upon their generations, and innocent Hebrews suffered. (42)

The book notes that the Last Days will be like the Passover. As Jesus noted, “Two men will be standing in a field; one will be taken while the other is left to face upheaval and wrath.” (45) This is very similar to Passover when the blood covered the Hebrews and their allies while the rest of Egypt suffered. “There will be no protection or provision apart from the covering blood of the sinless one.” (45)

Notice that in all of these, she examines the prophetic significance of the Jewish feasts. This is not a calendar of prophecies, the popular type that outlines a sequence of events that are supposed to happen during the end times. No, this in this the book is more of a prophetic exhortation.

One exhortation throughout the book is that Christians ought to celebrate the Jewish feasts. The author notes that Jews have been celebrating Passover for 3,500 years, “even when their belief faltered.” The author calls it a “perpetual chain.” I understand. I have an acquaintance with Jewish ancestry who is completely secular. She still joins her family for Passover, though. She told me once, “I don’t know why I do it.” She still does.

One of the most meaningful religious experiences I have had was celebrating Passover with one of my oldest friends and his family. I happened to be in the area where they were living during the season. They were just doing it. There was no attempt to demonstrate or explain anything. It was just what they did.

Besides their own children, my daughter and me, there were two other Jewish people they had invited, a college student far from his Asian home and a bachelor friend from their synagogue. They are reformed Jews. They do not take everything Moses wrote literally. But they were Jews and this family celebration is simply part of who they are. It was such a blessing to be included. I know what Jill Shannon means when she writes:

[O]nce you have participated in Passover, and not just heard about it, you understand the Lord’s sacrificial death, atonement, and prophetic purposes in a far deeper way. (292)

As if the Lord Jesus (Yeshua) Himself is speaking, Shannon puts it this way:

I am standing in their midst in this celebration, which is Mine, and it is the door of their hearts I AM knocking on. This is the door I must open. (338, capitalization in the original)

Perhaps that was part of my experience. The Lord was there, even if the hosts were not aware of who He is.

There is an appendix that includes a Passover Haggadah (script or liturgy) for a Christian family or gathering. It emphasizes the preparation and is similar to what I recall from my friends’ Haggadah. However, her Haggadah did leave one thing out.

One tradition—and it is traditional, not biblical, it may even reflect a Hellenistic view of the four humors—is not merely that the children at the meal are to ask different questions, but that each child is to ask a different question according to the personality of the child (or, for the more orthodox, the son). There is a question for the wise child, the rebellious child, the simple child, and the quiet child. It so happened that my friends had four kids, and even though the youngest had just turned 21, they all knew which character trait typified each one. It added some humor and lightheartedness to the tone of the evening. It worked well in this family setting, but might be more of a problem with a larger group where people are not as comfortable with one another.

Just as the New Testament calls Christ “our Passover sacrificed for us” (I Corinthians 5:7-8), so the four spring festivals are largely seen as being fulfilled in the life of Christ and the early church.

The three fall festivals, however, are still awaiting prophetic fulfillment according to Shannon. We see this occasionally when people predict the Second Coming whether October 1844, September 1988, or the recent “Blood Moon” predictions. To this book, the fall feasts “create a stunning, three-fold revelation of Yeshua’s return.” (137)

The book emphasizes what Jesus did in His own end-times prophecies, especially in Matthew 24 and 25. The feasts are like future rehearsals, but when he comes, “The finality and irrevocability of His appearance in the skies cannot be overemphasized. It will be too late to rehearse for this play when opening night is upon us” (138, italics in original).

Rosh Hashanah, the first fall feast, is not a biblical term. It just means “head of the year.” The month of Tishri is the first month in the Jewish secular calendar but the seventh month in the Mosaic or Jewish biblical calendar (perhaps another reason why gentile Christians could not “get into” the Jewish lunar dating). It is usually translated Feast of Trumpets in the Bible. The author emphasizes the active verb in the Hebrew and calls it the Memorial of Blasting (i.e., trumpet blasts). There is a king and coronation coming.

In the New Testament apocalyptic writings (Matthew 24, I Corinthians 15, I Thessalonians 4:13-5:11, and Revelation) trumpets appear. Little is said in either Testament of this feast except as a preparation for the two feasts later in the month—the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot).

We are reminded that the Day of the Lord will be rough, even for his people. Honestly, many people having seen great evil in their day have asked why the Lord delays. But this book reminds us that Amos reminds us:

Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!
Why would you have the day of the Lord?
It is darkness, and not light,
as if a man fled from a lion,
and a bear met him,
or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,
and a serpent bit him.
Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light,
and gloom with no brightness in it? (5:18-20)

Zephaniah 1:15-16 and Joel 2:11-12 say virtually the same thing.

A Prophetic Calendar: The Feasts of Israel reminds us:

[W]e may be misunderstanding the terror and severity of that day of reckoning, on which the Lord Himself sounds the shofar…It will not only be dreadful for the unprepared, but I believe it will also be a dark and frightening day for the righteous. (147)

Imagine, she says, how Noah and his family may have felt to think of all their friends and relatives who perished in the flood.

This book also shares some things I had never read before about the Holocaust under Hitler. People often ask, “Where was God during the Holocaust?” The book attempts to answer that question in a very interesting way. It may not be enough to satisfy everyone, but it certainly gives some food for thought with a clear Old Testament connection.

So the ten days before Yom Kippur are meant to be a time of reflection, perhaps not unlike the season of Lent in some churches, but it is to insure that we are ready. The book notes that this is also a time of intercession—praying for your country (the author is American and notes various sins and injustices in that country), for family and friends, but also to insure that your own relationship to God is honest and genuine. She writes, “The holiday is a fire drill.” (156)

For Yom Kippur, the author notes well not just what Moses writes but what is written in the Book of Hebrews. Since the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70, there is only one biblical injunction for the holiday that can be observed: “deny yourselves.” Traditionally, that has meant fasting. As she puts it, “our flesh comes into alignment with our spirit, rather than the other way around.” (161)

As has been noted by many other commentators, the Feast of Tabernacles (Tents) not only is a reminder of the forty years the Israelites spent in the desert, but a prophetic indication of what will happen after the Day of the Lord.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4, cf. Isaiah 54:5, 25:8, 35:10)

There is so much more. This is a rich book. Sid Roth wrote a preface to it, one reason why it got my attention, and has been endorsed by a variety of well-known Christian leaders. Her vision? An end-times unity between Christian and Jew. Recognizing the holidays, she writes, can promote this.

My own experience has been that most Jews I know who have become Christians continue to observe the Jewish holidays. These festivals have more depth for them now. That is clearly the case with the author. Now she wants to share this with the church at large. Apart from the rough beginning, A Prophetic Calendar: The Feasts of Israel has accomplished that and more.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.