New Moon

Biblical Texts

The new moon was an Israelite observance kept on the first day of each month, when a new month began. The New Korean Revised Version renders this day as wolsak or choharu ("the first day of the month"). The character sak (朔) means the first day of the month.

• Sacrificial regulations: Numbers 10:10 commands that burnt offerings and peace offerings be presented and trumpets blown at the beginnings of the months. Numbers 28:11-15 prescribes the offerings for the day: two young bullocks, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old as a burnt offering, accompanied by grain offerings and drink offerings, along with one male goat as a sin offering.
• The new moon in daily life: In 1 Samuel 20, Saul holds a meal on the new moon. David avoids the gathering and makes a covenant with Jonathan. In 2 Kings 4:23, the husband of the Shunammite woman says, "it is neither new moon, nor sabbath." His words indicate that people sometimes visited a prophet on such days.
• Temple worship: 1 Chronicles 23:31, Ezra 3:5, and Nehemiah 10:33 list new moon sacrifices, together with the Sabbaths and the set feasts, among the regular duties of the temple. In Ezekiel 46:1-6, the east gate of the inner court of the restored temple is opened on the Sabbath and on the day of the new moon.
• Prophetic criticism: Isaiah 1:13-14 and Hosea 2:11 rebuke new moon observance kept without justice. Amos 8:5 portrays merchants impatient for the new moon to pass so that they can sell grain: "When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn?"

Background

Israel's calendar was lunar, following the waxing and waning of the moon, so the day on which the new moon was first sighted marked the beginning of a month. The Hebrew word chodesh, derived from a word meaning "to be new," refers both to the "new moon" and to the "month." Numbers 10:10 and 28:11 use the expression "the beginnings of your months," and later Judaism called the day Rosh Chodesh. Psalm 81:3 says, "Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day" (the New Korean Revised Version renders "in the time appointed" as "at the full moon").

The first day of the seventh month was kept separately as the Feast of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:24). Numbers 29:6 directs that the burnt offering of the new moon also be presented on that day. In later Judaism, the Sanhedrin is said to have proclaimed the start of each new month on the basis of testimony from witnesses who had seen the new moon.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

The new moon was an institution that set apart time for worship at the beginning of every month. Isaiah 66:23 depicts a future in which "from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me." In the New Testament, the new moon appears only once, in Colossians 2:16-17. This passage tells believers not to let anyone judge them "in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days," explaining that these "are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."

Interpretations and Debates

• Should Christians observe it? On the basis of Colossians 2:16, most Protestant denominations do not regard the new moon as an obligation for believers. Denominations differ on how to read the word "sabbath" in the same verse; this question is treated in Sabbath and the Lord's Day.
• Isaiah 66 and Ezekiel 46: Dispensationalist interpreters tend to read these passages as prophecies that temple worship will actually be restored during the Millennium. Many other interpreters regard them as figurative language expressing the unceasing worship of God's people.
• The text and later embellishments: Explanations are sometimes circulated to the effect that "if you dedicate the first day of the month to God, the whole month will be blessed." The biblical text, however, attaches no such promise to the new moon.

In the Korean Church

Some Korean churches hold a "new moon service" or "new moon prayer meeting" on the first day or in the first week of each month in order to begin the month with prayer. Because these gatherings are often held at dawn, they frequently double as a dawn prayer meeting. Those who hold such meetings describe them not as an obligation of the law but as a devotional practice of offering one's time to God. Critics, citing Colossians 2:16, caution against presenting the practice as though it were obligatory or linking it to offerings and blessings.