Adam’s Festivals?

They made him jealous with strange gods; with detestable things they provoked him. They sacrificed to the demons, not God, to gods whom they had not known, new gods who came from recent times; their ancestors had not known them.

Deuteronomy 32:16-17

There are eight specific days a year that the ancients used to honour their gods. Most of these days have been syncretized into modern culture such as Halloween, Christmas, ground hog day, and Easter. May Day and John the Baptist day were other days that coincided with ancient feast days. These days all have the cycle of the sun in common.

The nations of the world watched the sun very closely and associated it with their gods. They would celebrate the birth of the sun as the days started to get longer around the winter solstice. Rome also thought it was a good time to place the birth of the son of God. Over hundreds of years, the church has managed to syncretize all the ancient winter solstice festivals into what we call Christmas today. Deuteronomy 32:17, “They sacrificed to the demons, not God, to gods whom they had not known, new gods who came from recent times; their ancestors had not known them”.

I thought that these eight holy days, celebrated by witches and Christians alike, originally came from the Babylonian mystery religions. Enlil, Helel, Gilgamesh, Baal and Nimrod were all names for the arch enemies of Yahuah.

Isa 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
Isa 14:13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
Isa 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
Isa 14:15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

Lucifer was a name Jerome created in his Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible. The word that was translated to Lucifer is Strong’s H1966. Some believe this to be a variation of Enlil.

H1966
הילל
hêylêl
BDB Definition:
Lucifer = “light-bearer”
1) shining one, morning star, Lucifer
1a) of the king of Babylon and Satan (figuratively)
2) ‘Helel’ describing the king of Babylon

The Babylonian Talmud has something interesting in the section on idolatry. The Babylonian Talmud is commentary by Rabbis on the Mishnah. The Mishnah is the oral law that that was passed down, and eventually written down. These are great historical resources, and show us where many of the traditions in Judaism come from. These are the traditions the Pharisees taught as doctrine. Jesus rightfully upbraided them for doing this.

Mar 7:3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders,
Mar 7:4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.)
Mar 7:5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
Mar 7:6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
Mar 7:7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
Mar 7:8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

Many confuse the laws in the Mishna and Talmud with those in the Torah, which are the first five books of the Bible. People think that Jesus was teaching against the laws of God, when he was just upset that the Pharisees added all of these burdens in the Talmud to God’s law. I am in no way endorsing the Talmud as a place to derive doctrine, but it does give us many historical references and understanding of the things that were happening in the first century.

Here we see the rabbis crediting Adam with the eight festivals around the cycle of the sun.

Abuda Zara Babylonian Talmud:

GEMARA: The rabbis taught: Adam the first, when he saw
that each day of the week became shortened, cried: Woe is to me, the world becomes dark to me because of my sin, and it seems to be returned to chaos and ruin. And this is my death which was decreed by heaven. He arose and fasted and prayed eight days. Thereafter, when he lived to see the solstice of the month of Tabit, when the days become longer, he understood that such is the cycle of the world, and therefore established eight holidays. The next year, he also proclaimed the eight days on which he had fasted as holidays. He has established them to laud heaven; his descendants, however, made them holidays for the idols.

According to this, Adam declared these days to “laud heaven”, but his descendants turned the days into holidays for idols. This is very interesting if it is accurate, and explains how ancient and imbedded these days are. Every culture and people group, separated by thousands of miles, has honoured these days for their gods. Today, Christianity honours its gods with these same days, when the supposed God of Christianity, Yahuah, forbids worshipping Him this way.

Deu 12:29 “When Yahweh your God has cut off the nations whom you are about to go to, to dispossess them before you, and you have dispossessed them, and you live in their land,
Deu 12:30 take care so that you are not ensnared into imitating them after their being destroyed from before you, and so that you not enquire concerning their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods, and thus I myself want to do also.’
Deu 12:31 You must not do so toward Yahweh your God, because of every detestable thing they have done for their gods Yahweh hates, for even their sons and their daughters they would burn in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32 All of the things that I am commanding you, you must diligently observe; you shall not add to it, and you shall not take away from it.”

The apostles echoed this same commandment to the Gentile believers coming into the faith. It is the first thing they told them to do.

Act 15:19 Therefore I conclude we should not cause difficulty for those from among the Gentiles who turn to God,
Act 15:20 but we should write a letter to them to abstain from the pollution of idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood.

Why do Christians follow the footsteps of Adam’s descendants and the northern kingdom of Israel by embracing all these things polluted by idols? It seems to be human nature. Mankind wants to do the things Yahuah forbids. It started with a Adam and carried on through history with his descendants.

Deu 32:17 They sacrificed to the demons, not God, to gods whom they had not known, new gods who came from recent times; their ancestors had not known them.

Anytime we go against the instructions of Yahuah, with different holy days, gods, sabbaths and practices, we do it unto demons. All Yahuah wants is for us to do what He said to do.

Deu 5:6 ‘I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.
Deu 5:7 There shall not be for you other gods besides me.
Deu 5:8 ‘You shall not make for yourself a divine image of any type of form that is in the heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
Deu 5:9 ‘You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, punishing the guilt of fathers upon their children and upon the third and upon the fourth generation of those hating me,
Deu 5:10 but showing loyal love to thousands of those who love me and of those who keep my commandments.

Keeping Yahuah’s commandments is simple when a person lets the Spirit of grace control their life. Grace is divine influence of the heart. Yahusha tells us that his ways are not burdensome.

Mat 11:25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;
Mat 11:26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
Mat 11:27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Mat 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Mat 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Mat 11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

My advice to everyone is to stop rebelling and start following the commandments of Yahuah. It will be a life changing experience. Yahusha told us to, as well as all of scripture.

Mar 1:14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,
Mar 1:15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Notice that Jesus, or in Hebrew, Yahusha, said to “repent and believe in the gospel” before there was any mention of his death, resurrection or the cross. The message is the same today. Repent! The gospel, or good tidings, Jesus was referring to, was the fact that people of the nations could come into the covenant with Yahuah, the God of Israel. No one knew how these prophesies would be fulfilled up to this point, but the Messiah was to unite the scattered House of Israel and the House of Judah.

The featured image is by Joseph D’mello on Unsplash.