Hypothesis
One day of creation, an Evening/Morning in Genesis chapter 1, represents not only Passover, but a variable length period called a Passover Year. The Passover Year has two intervals. Each interval is related to the type of day created, either good, by explicit label, or very good, as labeled by Gen 1:31.Details
The length of a Passover Year corresponds to the type of day.A good day, represents a Passover Year which spans from the start of Passover of an initial year, to the end of Passover of the subsequent year.
A very good day represents a Passover Year which spans from the start of Passover of an initial year, to the end of Shavuot of the subsequent year.
Summary
By virtue of these variable-length years, in combination with scripture which shows how to expand the days of creation, this paper will attempt to highlight how the creation of Genesis 1 can be used to calculate the age of the universe to corroborate modern science.Supporting Scripture
The numeric expansion is described in Psalm 90, a prayer of Moses:
"...For in Your sight a thousand years are like yesterday that has passed..." Psalm 90:4The start of time:
"2. This month shall be to you the head of the months; to you it shall be the first of the months of the year." Exodus 12:2, referring to the month of Nissan, containing Passover.
From Darkness to Light
Passover represents the flight from slavery in Egypt to a feast to God in the desert. Like the week of creation, which spans from light to Shabbat, Passover takes place over 7 days.Each day represents a microcosm of the meaning of the week, a temporal migration from darkness/Night/Evening to light/Day/Morning.
Expanding the Days of Creation
In order to reconcile Passover as consecutive units of time, it is proposed to construct a Passover Year. A Passover Year starts on a preceding Passover, traverses a Judaic year, to end at the termination of either Passover or Shavuot of the subsequent year. The length of a Passover Year is proposed to be based on the type of creation day: either good or very good.Consecutive Passover Years will be contiguous. They will each start on the first day of Passover.
Consecutive Passover Years will be complete. They will span a complete year plus the number of days to the end of the subsequent Passover or Shavuot.
The Hebrew letter shin appears to be a graphic representation of a Passover Year in that the outer elements of the character represent the start and end of a discreet year, while the inner element represents the end of a previous year.
If the letter shin is perhaps a graphic represention of a Passover Year, the start of the next Passover Year is hidden between the center and rightmost stems.
Calculations
The following descriptions present examples using a mean solar year length for consistency and simplicity:
A "good" day to a Passover Year
Using a solar year of 365.2472 days, it is calculated: 365.2472 + 7 = 372.2472.A "very good" day to a Passover Year
The very good days in Genesis chapter 1 are here presented as day 2 (heaven) and part of day 6 (man). They are not explicitly labeled until Gen 1:31, when they are declared to be very good.When considering the relationship between heaven and man, it becomes clear that without Torah, man is lost on the path to heaven. It was for this reason that Shavuot (celebrating the giving of Torah) was a natural choice to place at the end of the very good Passover Year.
Measured from the start of Passover to the end of Shavuot of the following year: 365.2472 + 50 = 415.2472.
Declarations, rules, constants, setup:
The equations to calculate the age of the universe are as follows:GPYL - Good Passover Year Length
VGPYL - Very Good Passover Year Length
good years = GPYL x #-good-days-in-year x 1,000
very good years = VGPYL x #-very-good-days-in-year x 1,000
Age = (good years + very good years) *
(6 * 1,000)
The days of creation are expanded to be a year. The year is expanded into days. The year-days are scaled by 1,000 and summed. The days of creation are summed (to 6) then scaled by a multiple of 1,000, as they are explicitly labeled days. The sum of year days are then multiplied by the sum of creation days. It is the view if the author that there is no double-counting.
Passover Year Calculations: Age of the Universe
The following calculations are completed using approximate lunar months. The number of days calculated in this first step ranges from 2299 to 2318, or within a fractional deviation from the 2300 presented.- 353 + 7 = 360
- 354 + 50 = 404
- 383 + 7 = 390
- 353 + 7 = 360
- 353 + 7 = 360
- 383 + 50 - 7 = 426*
- Net of days: 2300
- 2300 × 1000 = 2,300,000
- 2,300,000 × 6 = 13,800,000,000
- 13.8 billion years
* day 6 has here been shown to be 50 days less 7 days as the day is a mixture of good and very good. Without this offset, the number of approximate lunar days is 2306.
That the sum of the days of years aggregate near 2300 seems to allude to the 2300 days mentioned in the book of Daniel.
Whether using a lunar or solar year, the expansion and calculations show, if logic holds, that the age of the universe is 13.8 billion years.
That the sum of the days of years aggregate near 2300 seems to allude to the 2300 days mentioned in the book of Daniel.
Whether using a lunar or solar year, the expansion and calculations show, if logic holds, that the age of the universe is 13.8 billion years.
Summary and Conclusion
An hypothesis has been presented that the Evening/Morning of Genesis chapter 1 represents the Passover holiday, which has been called the start of the year in scripture.In order to make Passover contiguous, an interval is proposed called a Passover Year. Like a lunar year, a Passover year varies in length.
A Passover year begins on Passover of in initial year. The end of the Passover Year aligns with the end of either Passover or Shavuot of the subsequent year, beyond the start of the subsequent years Passover.
A Passover Year has been classified to be either Good or Very Good, with each category reflecting different intervals of time anchored by holy days.
In the case of a Good Passover Year, the interval is defined to start at the beginning of Passover of an initial year, to the end of Passover of the subsequent year.
The interval of a Very Good Passover Year is defined to extend from the beginning of an initial Passover, beyond the start of the subsequent Passover to end at the completion of Shavuot the subsequent year.
Shavuot was selected is due to its relation to heaven and man. Shavuot is directly related to that which was not labeled good at the time of creation, heaven and man, and therefore becomes very good by Gen 1:31. Torah is the force that binds heaven and man, and therefore appears to be a logical holiday to associate with creation and time.
The number of days in a year is multiplied by 1,000 to arrive at the duration of the scaled year. The scaled years are summed. The six days of creation are multiplied by 1,000 and this value is multiplied by the summed days of the scaled years. The resulting value is 13.8 billion. This value is presented as the age of the universe, assuming the expansion has merit.
The current estimated and generally accepted value for the age of the universe is 13.799 billion years[1]. The deviation between accepted and this paper's calculated value are statistically insignificant.
Ages: Scientific Estimate & Genesis
1. Currently accepted value: 13.799 billion yrs2. As calculated by Genesis: 13.800 billion yrs
[1] Wikipedia; Age of the universe, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_universe
