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#5e CIRCUMCISED THE EIGHTH DAY WHEN EIGHT DAYS OLD

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Introduction 5e

Before you do this bible study you need to understand what we mean by inclusive reckoning, and righteous reckoning. There are two considerations that we need to check when scripture refers to the ages of people. What method of time does the bible use to calculate their ages? There are two different kinds of time, actual time and calendar time. For the ages of people inclusive reckoning uses calendar time and rounds short periods up, but righteous reckoning uses actual time. This bible study explains how a child can be circumcised the eigth day when he is eight days old.

#5e5 CIRCUMCISED THE EIGHTH DAY WHEN EIGHT DAYS OLD?

GENESIS 17:12 (God)
12 And he who is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he who is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, who is not of your seed.

GENESIS 21:4
4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him.

LEVITICUS 12:2-3 (God)
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.
3 And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

LUKE 1:59
59 And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.

LUKE 2:21
21 And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, who was so named by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

ACTS 7:8 (Stephen)
8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.

PHILIPPIANS 3:5 (Paul)
5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; according to the law, a Pharisee;

Note: We have seen a quotation earlier of how to calculate this example according to inclusive reckoning.

"A short time in the morning of the seventh day is counted as the seventh day; circumcision takes place on the eighth day, even though, of the first day only a few minutes after the birth of the child, these being counted as one day."
Jewish Encyclopaedia Vol. 4, p. 475.

So a child born at any time on the first day would be counted as eight days old as soon as the eighth day began. If he was born a few minutes before sunset his actual age may be as little as just above six days when he is counted eight days old. However circumcision would normally take place in daylight hours on the eighth day, so this would mean that in actual time he would be above six and a half days old when it was done.

Ordinal Age Inclusively 1st  1st 2nd2nd3rd 3rd4th4th5th5th6th6th 7th7th8th8th
Cardinal Age Inclusively1234 5678

According to righteous reckoning the birthday of the child would only be counted as the first day if he was born before sunrise. If he was born during daylight hours it would be ignored. Also, eight days old would include any actual time above seven days twelve hours, up to and including eight days twelve hours. Let us suppose that a child was born a few minutes after sunset. His birthday would be counted as the first day, just as with inclusive reckoning, and a few minutes after sunrise on the eighth day he would be counted as eight days old. This would be no problem as circumcision usually takes place during daylight hours anyway.

7 days 12 hours for circumcision of child 1

Now if he was born very late in the day, say a few minutes before sunset, then with righteous reckoning his birthday would not be counted. He would be counted as eight days old any time after seven days twelve hours of actual time, which would bring us to sunrise on the eighth day. So he is able to be circumcised anytime during the daylight hours of the eighth day and still be eight days old.

7 days 12 hours for circumcision of child 2

It does not matter which extreme part of the day we select for the birth of the child, righteous reckoning always allows him to be circumcised on the eighth day when he is eight days old.

#5e6 Conclusion on All of the Above Examples

In three out of five cases inclusive reckoning does not work, but righteous reckoning works in every case.

Reference #5e1  #5e2  #5e3  #5e4  #5e5 
Inclusive reckoning? Red cross   Red cross 1  Green tick   Red cross 2  Green tick 1 
Righteous reckoning? Green tick   Green tick 2  Green tick 3   Green tick 4  Green tick 5 

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