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|| Bibletime Studies || Biblical Time Index || Hours Days Months || Hebrew Calendar || Reckoning methods || Inclusive Reckoning? || Righteous Reckoning? || Timing Events || Ages of People || Circumcised the Eighth Day || Hebrew Regnal Years || Righteous Reckoning Examples || Ambiguous Examples || Inclusive Reckoning Examples || Conclusion || Q and A ||

#5h BIBLICAL TIME - AMBIGUOUS EXAMPLES OF INCLUSIVE and RIGHTEOUS RECKONING

Introduction 5h

Before you do this bible study you need to understand what we mean by inclusive reckoning, and righteous reckoning. There are a number of examples here that are often used by advocates of inclusive reckoning to prove their case, but when we examine and compare them to the righteous reckoning method we will find that this method also works. This bible study examines several ambiguous examples of inclusive and righteous reckoning in scripture.

#5h1 Esther's Three days and three nights of Fasting

ESTHER 4:16
16 Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maids will fast likewise; and so will I go in to the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.

ESTHER 5:1
1 Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal robes, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, facing the king’s house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, facing the entrance of the house.

Note: The two scriptures above are often used by the advocates of inclusive reckoning to prove their case, but they are by no means conclusive. The case for inclusive reckoning would go like this. Notice that the people were to fast for three days, night and day, but Esther went into the king's house on the third day. This is an excellent example of how three days and three nights terminates on the third day.
Let us examine a case where the words were spoken by Esther shortly after mid-day; the diagram looks like this.

Because there are only a few hours left in the day when the request was made, that day would not be counted as the first day with righteous reckoning. Three days and three nights later, a full 72 hours, would bring us to shortly after mid-day on the third day, giving plenty of time to do the full fast and still go into the king on the third day. Righteous reckoning therefore works perfectly well with this scripture, and it by no means proves inclusive reckoning.

#5h2 A Child was Eight days old when he was Circumcised on the Eighth day

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

2nd

2nd

3rd

3rd

4th

4th

....

5th

5th

6th

6th

7th

7th

8th

8th

Cardinal Age Inclusively

1

2

3

4

....

5

6

7

8

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 examine the case of a child who 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.

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.

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.