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In other words, a child "one year old" by American or Western idiom is "a son of TWO years" in
the Hebrew idiom. Therefore, in Hebrew thought, a person is not in his 30th year following his
30th birthday, but rather he would be in his 30th year following his 29th birthday! Consequently,
he would be in his 31st year following his 30th birthday. This is EXACTLY how the term "a son
of (XX) years" in Hebrew is used in the Bible.

Using another example, the Bible tells us that the Israelites were to circumcise their sons
on the eighth day after birth -- see Genesis 17:12. Most Westerners would calculate this as fol-
lows: Let's say a child was born on the Sabbath -- eight days later is the day following the next
Sabbath (i.e. the first day of the week), is it not? NO, IT IS NOT, not in the Hebrew mind! So just
how are those eight days to be counted? The fact is, it doesn't matter if the child was born five
minutes into the Sabbath or five minutes before the Sabbath is about to end --

That Sabbath ---------- is the 1st day
The 1st Day of the Week ---------- is the 2nd day
The 2nd Day of the Week ---------- is the 3rd day
The 3rd Day of the Week ---------- is the 4th day
The 4th Day of the Week ---------- is the 5th day
The 5th Day of the Week ---------- is the 6th day
The 6th Day of the Week (Preparation Day) ---------- is the 7th day, and
the 8th day is the following Sabbath.

If the child is born on the Sabbath, that child will be circumcised on the NEXT SABBATH
-- NOT on the first day of the week following that second Sabbath!

Now when the modern Olympic Games were established they were (and still are) played
every four years because this is the way they were played in the ancient world. But Josephus, the
first-century Jewish historian and priest, tells us that they were played every 5th year (Ant.
16:5:1)! Why? Josephus was not ignorant, and this is not an error in his book. Since 4 Olympic
years overlap 5 Hebrew years, Josephus was simply using normal Hebrew idiom to count time.
The Olympic and the Hebrew year do not exactly correspond. The Olympic year overlaps 2 He-
brew years, therefore 4 Olympic years fall during 5 Hebrew years, and by Hebrew idiom the
Olympic games are played every 5 years in the Hebrew calendar.

The ability to properly count in Hebrew idiom is AN ABSOLUTE PREREQUISITE for
solving many problems in chronology and in doctrine. It is a BASIC requirement before we can
even know how to properly count Pentecost, or the Jubilee year -- or 6 days before Passover.
Many misunderstandings about scripture, doctrine and chronology would never have occurred if
ministers and church leaders knew how to PROPERLY count as the authors of the Bible counted,
instead of forcing the interpretation of God's Word by the use of modern arithmetic and modern
Western idiom.

For those of us in our modern Western world culture, using our system of arithmetic is al-
most instinctual. We are taught this system in the very early years of our education and it has be-
come automatic when we use numbers to simply add or subtract to get the answer to most
arithmetic problems.

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