On the evening of March 23, a small group of Biblical literalists in Jerusalem were looking closely to the sky, scouring the horizon for the slightest sliver of a new moon at dusk. The same had already searched the northern Negev of Israel for barley heads turned golden in the abib stage.
Why do these literalists care about barley and moons? Let’s begin the journey at the fourth day of creation, when God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years;” (Genesis 1:14, NASB95) More…