Decoding the Zadok Priestly Calendar
Editor’s Note (Updated May 2025):
This article has been revised to reflect updated research and a clearer understanding of how the Zadok Priestly Calendar is calibrated. We encourage returning readers to review the updated sections with fresh insight.
Sacred calendars often evoke strong opinions and debates. It is clear that the Father’s intention is for these calendars to bring His children closer together, yet they frequently lead to division. This experience is not unique to us; throughout history, calendar-related disputes have been a source of contention among believers of all backgrounds. The so-called “calendar wars” have deep roots.
This article does not aim to persuade you that our ministry has uncovered the definitive solution to the “true” creation calendar. However, during Sukkot 2024, we were blessed with new insights that prompted us to reevaluate our approach to calendar methodology.
In light of these revelations, our 2025/2026 Zadok Priestly Calendar has evolved. We have shifted away from relying solely on the Equinox as a key marker indicating the start of the year. Going forward we will incorporate the six year Zadok Priestly course as the primary tool to determine the start of the year
Without getting mired in the minutiae of how we calibrated this calendar, we will instead highlight key aspects of how it was put together.
A Quick Zadok Calendar Overview
David’s role in setting up the priestly order
And David said, Solomon my son is young and untested, and the house which is to be put up for Yahuah is to be very great, a thing of wonder and glory through all countries; so I will make ready what is needed for it. So David got ready a great store of material before his death.
1 Chronicles 22:5 Bible in Basic English Translation
David never saw Solomon’s house for Yahuah. However, it was in his heart to build it in Jerusalem during the 33 years he reigned over the “united people nation of Israel.”
1 Chronicles 24 tells us one of David’s first tasks was to divide the Levitical priesthood into divisions. Some would serve before Yahuah, some would sing and play instruments, and some would guard it with all their strength.
King David drew lots for sixteen Zadok families of the sons of Eleazar, and eight Ahimelech families of the sons of Ithamar, according to offices in their services. Both Zadok and Ahimelech were the high priests during the reign of King David.
The Zadok Priestly Calendar runs for 6 years straight and uses:
- Sun, moon, stars, and the Priestly courses
- Keeps the 7 day count set-apart per instructions given in Genesis
- Has 364 days, 12 months, 30-day month (+1 at the end of each season)
- There are 52 Shabbats per year, which are never disturbed by a Feast Holy Sabbath. This means you will never begin Sukkot on the weekly Shabbat or any other feast. The weekly Shabbats are set-apart just like the feasts.
How is this calendar intercalated?
A complete week is intercalated at the end of the sixth year. (Stars are a witness. 1 Enoch 82)
Insights Into Ancient Timekeeping
To correctly understand our Zadok Priestly Calendar you must also understand the priestly courses. There are 24 families of priests mentioned in 1 Chronicles 24. They remain the same throughout a six year cycle. The priestly family that serves at the beginning of each year of the six year course is as follows:
1st year = Gamul
2nd year = Yedaiah
3rd year = Miyamin
4th year = Shecaniah
5th year = Yeshebeab
6th year = Aphses
This priestly order ensured three outcomes:
- The 7 day shabbat will always remain unbroken.
- The priestly families stayed in order and served a total of thirteen weeks throughout the 6 year Priestly course.
- The families Gamul and Shecaniah would rotate beginning every three years as a sign “ot” that an additional thirty day month would be added that year, allowing the 354 day lunar cycle (3 x 354 + 30 = 1092) time to catch up with the 364 day solar cycle (3 x 364=1092) throughout the Zadok Priestly course. DSS 4Q319
Without the correct sign of the moon, your years will go astray and you won’t know which year the moon truly adds the extra cycle to back it up. This is most likely what Jubilees is talking about in Chapter 6:33-38. They lost the sign of the moon to witness the seventh year land rest Sabbaticals and Jubilees. So the moon does have a place in the calendar, it is just not for days, months, and years.
Using the book A New Translation: The Dead Sea Scrolls1 we found 4Q320 along with other fragments stating that a full moon was on the 4th day of the week (Wednesday) Month 1, Day 1 of the first year with Gamul serving, along with another full moon on the fifth day of the week on the 29th (day of a lunar month), and falls on the 30th of the 1st month (according to the solar month) with Yedaiah in service.
There are over 25 priest and moon conjunctions along with days of the week, Sabbaths, and Feast Day matches in 2019 alone. There were nine such matches in 2020 (year 2), And seven matches in 2023 (year 5).
With only the Dead Sea Scrolls book we concluded that the Spring Equinox was the marker for starting the year in 2022. But there was still more proof and patterns that needed to be matched.
So in 2024, using The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls by Geza Vermes we found the rest of the 6 year matches completing 2019-2024 to start 2025. When matching all of the records from the Dead Sea Scrolls onto the moon calendars of our time we were shocked to see that no week was added in the six year priestly course of the priests!
When no week was added in those six years we discovered that the Equinox was not the tool needed to decide when to intercalate but the six year Zadok Priestly Course itself. By intercalating at the end of the priestly six year course, the Sabbatical and Jubilee years recorded in the Dead Sea Scrolls now matched, with Gamul always serving the last three days of one six year course followed by a seven day intercalary week then finishing his service week at the start of the new six year course count.
A Jubilee period is 6 years of priestly course cycles. So 6 x 49 = 294
March 20, 2019was the start of the 295th year, the fiftieth year of the Jubilee count and the first year of the new 294 year count with Gamul returning as the priest. The first week of the new cycle of 294 years is what the Zadok priests considered “creation week” with the Equilux (equal day and equal night) occurring on Day 1 (Sunday) and on Day 4 (Wednesday), the Equinox and full moon occurring which is also Month 1 Day 1 of the first year of the next six year Zadok Priestly calendar count.
The “creation week” sequence of events which occurred in 2019 is a very rare event leading us to believe Yahuah and Yeshua are calling for “a united people nation of Israel” to return to the calendar Yahuah created during His creation week.
After conducting some straightforward calculations over several years of lunar cycles, we identified full moons coinciding with Gamul in 1726 AD and 1432 AD. Looking ahead, we found similar matches extending to 2050. By utilizing the Zadok Priestly courses we confirmed that the same patterns observed in the Dead Sea Scrolls remain consistent. Notably, an additional week is always added at the end of the sixth year, marking the beginning of the seventh year, which also serves as the first year of the subsequent six-year cycle.
In doing this research, another amazing find was discovered in 2024. After several years of watching the Constellations, a solid witness to the intercalation week was found.
On March 11 and 12, 2024 the sun entered Pisces. According to the priestly courses 2024 is a sixth year starting with Aphses on March 13. On September 14, the sun entered Virgo which was the first day of the seventh month on the Zadok Priestly Calendar according to this six year cycle. So far everything is matching up to the cycle.
Now when you get to March 2025, day 364 is March 11 and it’s year one again. So it’s time to add the interaction week with Pisces as our witness.
Back to the Future
What’s so special about the year 2019? Plenty. In 2019 the year began on March 20th, the 4th day of the week (Wednesday). On that day several things occurred:
- It was a full moon
- The Equinox occurred
- The sun was in Pisces
- It was the service week for the priest Gamul
The GWDF Priestly Calendar added an intercalary reset week beginning the 1st year of this new six year priestly cycle on March 19, 2025. In 2025 the full moon occurred on Friday, March 14th, the Equilux occurred on Sunday, March 16. In Texas, and other parts of the USA the “straight line day” occurred on Day 4, Wednesday, March 19th. Gamul was the priest in service at the start of the year and on the 30th day of the lunar cycle Yedaiah was the priest entering service under a full moon.
Who is Zadok?
Zadok was a Kohen (member of priestly class) and is noted in biblical texts as a descendant of Eleazar, the son of Aaron. He served as the High Priest of Israel during the reigns of Kings David and Solomon. Zadok is also the name of the priesthood mentioned in Ezekiel’s vision of a future house of Yahuah.
This area is set aside for the ordained priests, the descendants of Zadok who served me faithfully and did not go astray with the people of Israel and the rest of the Levites.
Ezekiel 48:11 New Living Translation
Final Thoughts
These new insights concerning this new Zadok Priestly Calendar for 2025/2026 are based on years of exhaustive research done by our ministry partners Gina Sparks and Sara Davis. We are also indebted to GWDF leadership team members Sherry Sanders and Robert Villa for their passionate love for the Scriptures and YHWH’s creation calendar.
If you want to know more about the calendar, or need clarification on topics mentioned in this article, feel free to contact us. Thank you for downloading the 2025/2026 Zadok Priestly Calendar and supporting this ministry. Shalom.
FOOTNOTES
1 The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation, translated and with commentary by Michael Wise, Martin Abegg Jr., and Edward Cook. Harper One, copyright 1996, 2005.
Art Attribution: Philip De Vere, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, The Phillip Medhurst collection.
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** By referencing the constellation Pisces or showing images from Stellarium Web, GWDF is not endorsing the practice of Astrology. We suggest you do research on the Mazzaroth which is mentioned in the Book of Job ( Job 38:32) in relation to the stars and their positions in the sky. Another reference is Frances Rolleston’s book Mazzaroth. (The first edition of “Mazzaroth” was published by James Nisbet & Co. in 1862). The word “Mazzaroth” in Hebrew (מַזָּרוֹת) generally refers to the constellations.