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.
Brenda Ross is a co-author of the book, "The Gospel Worth Dying For." She is a former major market radio and television broadcaster who has served as Single’s Ministry Director at one of Houston’s Memorial Drive-area churches, a Jews for Jesus staff volunteer, and participated in mission outreach activities in Costa Rica, Mexico, and China. Urban mission experience includes volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity and catering to the homeless in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district.
Hi , Brenda,
Could you please explain how to find ‘first year’ of six-year of priestly cycle. The cycles are started some thousand years ago. Can we, for example, find some years of priestly cycle in the first century BCE
Thank you.
With matching the sun, moon, and stars with the 6 years found in the DSS with years 2019 thru 2024 we have found a starting point.
I have read 1 Enoch 82 and I can’t find anything about a complete week being intercalated at the end of the 6th. Why would this be the case when Yah’s calendar is continual throughout the generations? We don’t have anything about this, even in the book of Enoch. What Enoch says is that the year is 364 days, 52 weeks of 7 days and Jubilees confirms this.
You talk about the “new moon”, but this meaning was a later translation because the Judeans had come from Babylon and began sighting the new moon like the pagans. Rosh Chodesh means head of the month, and it would be day 1 of each month according to the Sun, which is the timepiece, and its tracking through the constellations brings in the year.
How do you get March 11 as the beginning of the year when the sun is not at vernal equinox. God gave His laws in the heavens, and we don’t know if the priesthood was on the right calendar when the dead sea scrolls were written. If we see what the Bible says, the priesthood had not been doing things God’s way. They did violence to the Torah. They were worshipping other gods in the Temple and many other things. So I don’t believe we can rely on writings of men. They could have been in error.
What if the signs in the heavens you’re seeing are signs of something else?
I don’t see anything in Scripture about the 6 priestly families or the 6 year course.
I’m curious about these things because I’ve been studying the calendar also and I’m convicted to keep the solar calendar as described in Enoch. I’ve found that the essene/qumran calendar doesn’t match the heavens. I believe the heavens have the laws and we look to them for confirmation, not to the writings of men or what men were doing.
John, the Immerser (Baptist), and the Zadok/Levitical priests were at Qumran during Yeshua’s ministry on earth. John was immersing folks at Bethabara (very near Qumran) including Yeshua (John 1:28-34). The righteous/rightful priests had left the temple at Jerusalem because of all the corruption. John was the rightful High Priest during that time.
The world would have us believe the Essenes were at Qumran, however, Rachel Elior was the first in our generation to devulge that it was not the case to my knowledge. It turns out that the Essenes, a group of monks were down at Engedi not Qumran.
Yah created the sun, moon and stars as signs to start a calendar for mankind on Day 4 of creation. King David assigned the priestly order in 1 Chron 24 and the priests at Qumran lived the course in DSS 4Q319-330.
The biggest decision with any calendar choice is when to intercalate and when to start the year. What we found in our DSS studies is that the Zadok priests did not intercalate or break their assigned weekly priestly service course during the six year priestly course. It was 6 years of 364 days each year for a total of 2184 days. Each priestly family would serve 13 weeks throughout the course which is the number of weeks in each of the four seasons. There are 24 priestly families and 24 seasons during the six year period. The Zadok Priestly calendar is truly a beautiful part of our walk.
If we don’t intercalate a week somewhere the year will eventually fall back to start in winter. Many groups chose to intercalate a week after the March 20, 2025 equinox and started their year on March 26th this year, but our group finished the 6 year priestly course on March 11, then intercalated 7 days and started our new year count on March 19 just as the sun rose in Pisces. See the YouTube videos to understand where we are in the choices we make for what we believe to be Yah’s calendar.
https://youtu.be/byPh8yEd8sY?si=Rd4IquW4nfI9IDVg
https://youtu.be/ES1Y_TJO6ao?si=dxVMslv35QdwaHqo
Thank you very much, I have watched all four of the videos several times and now I understand. This is amazing new revelation to me and I am so grateful for all your work in discovering these things. It all makes perfect sense to me now! Also, I am thankful that I found your website and your videos in time to acknowledge when the first day of the new biblical year is just before it began. I was thinking that it would be March 26th (from other Zadok calendar websites) but now I can see how March 19th is actually the correct date for 2025. Yah Bless!
Shabbat Shalom! Thank you so much for this research! We are so excited for the potential it holds. Our question is this- How is the missing almost half day every six years accounted for? With 7 days every six years that accounts for all but roughly .5 days (365.24-364=1.24 * 6= 7.44. 7 days added so 0.44 not accounted for). Over the 294 years this is a 21.56 day variance (294/6=49 * 0.44 = 21.56). Should we be adding a week in every so often perhaps to account for this in addition to the week every 6 years? Thank you again!
Hi Sara, I had this same question. I asked Gina Sparks @ Restored 7’s Calendar. In her recent blog post she mentions another pattern that they are researching. There is another possible intercalation week every 40 years. Please read her blog post about this. If I’m understanding correctly, it seems the numbers are still a little off, but we’re getting really close!
.24 x 40=9.6
9.6 -7=2.6
The calendar was NOT intercalated, it is perfect over 294 cycles, It realigns with 293 tropical years exactly. Six Jubilees (294 cycles) is 107,016 days and 293 tropical years (293 x 365.2422) is 107,016 days. It was the same period studied by Enoch who observed it’s accuracy. Do not add or subtract a day. It’s perfect.
Hi Phil, By not intercalating wouldn’t the festivals shift out of proper season?
it does not align like you think it does. with no intercalation at all, and only doing a perpetual rotation of 364 days every year, the start date of the new year slowly drifts backward through the seasons, until the new year starts in winter, then eventually in fall , then in summer , and then finally back to spring on the equinox (4th day of the week). all this happens in,.. you guessed it,..294 years. most of that 294 years, the appointed times would be in the wrong season. i have the excel sheet i ran the calcs out to 400+ years..
That’s exciting- thank you so much Cally! I didn’t know about that site so I will check it out and share with my husband.
Shalom Cally- I can’t seem to find Gina’s site. I don’t know if these comments will let a link be posted or if not, do you have more information on how to find it? I did see something potentially on Facebook but as I don’t have an account I couldn’t verify if that was it or not.
Hi Sara. Here is the link to Gina’s website: https://www.restored7scalendar.com/
Shabbat shalom Brenda! Thank you so much!
Hi, I read thru some of your material. If you would like some help on this topic I can share what I have found on this journey of the Qumran calendar. I’ve been doing this since 2016. There are a few items that I think will be important to point out so you don’t waste a lot of time. For we are almost out of time.
We are in the 120th jubilee, 6th week, 4th year with Gamul heading the year.
I am interested in getting more information
Hello, my name is Michael,
I would like to get in touch with you regarding the Zadokite calendar.
If you are able to share some of your knowledge from your research, I would be happy to learn.
Of course, only if it’s not too much trouble.
Thank you,
Michael
Hi Michael,
Check our YouTube channel @gospelworthdyingfor for videos that explain in detail how the Zadok calendar functions and its origins/connectins to scripture. We also have a sister ministry devoted solely to Zadok Priestly calendar research – prophecyvine.com. Hope this helps.
Shalom, I would like to know why does the course begin with Gamul instead of Jehoiarib? Show me where I’m wrong please.
View the response below to Constance. The video will help you understand.
It is because Jehoiarib needed to be serving the temple during Yom Kippur (in the first year) on the 10th day of the 7th month. That can only happen if Gamul serves in the first week of the year.
It seems that Yom Kippur in the first year was either the Spring or Autumnal Equinox.
Every Jubilee it would move by two months until it realigned perfectly after 6 Jubilees.
I am trying to understand the new way of determining the intercalation week. So if the week is to be added March 11, 2025 does that mean that the last one was in March of 2019 at the end of of the Biblical year (and before the new year began? When exactly was the last intercaltion made? What were the dates on the Gregorian calendar? Thank you.
Hi Constance,
We have just posted a new video to the GWDF YouTube Channel titled “Understanding the Zadok Priestly Calendar – The Priestly Courses.” We plan another video to go into more detail regarding intercalation soon. Get in touch after you have viewed the video if you still have questions. Here is the link: https://youtu.be/V4wj2HRcxrU?si=37GJX1NwYWUn0KNe
Hello folks,
does this mean that the previous GWDF-Zadok calendars were not correct?
Your new approach does not convince me.
So far we have added a leap-week every 5-6 years to stay close to the Equinox at New Year.
If you continue counting 7 Jubilees using the new method, you lose 14 days in relation to the solar year.
Best regards
Peter
Yes, With our new found information about the priestly courses / moon phases that lined up with 2019 we believe there should have been no intercalation from then (2019) until now.