It’s the head of the year! Across the Jewish world, the greeting echoes: Shanah Tovah—“A good year!” And yet, every year without fail, those two simple words ignite controversy.
I’ve watched it unfold across social media feeds—Christian voices respond, emotions rise, and what could be a meaningful conversation quickly becomes confrontational. Some Christian enter the discussion with sharp objections: “That’s rabbinic tradition!” they insist. “It’s not Rosh HaShanah!” Others go further still, accusing Jewish leadership of replacing God’s commands with human invention.
Let me be clear: that claim is not biblical. Not even close.
While the confusion may be understandable, the hostility is not. At its core, this rejection often flows from two deeply unhealthy roots—replacement theology and subtle anti-Semitism. It is yet another attempt to strip the Jewish people of their God-given role in redemptive history and to cast suspicion on their stewardship of the Scriptures God entrusted to them.
So let’s slow down, open the Word, and allow Scripture—not emotion—to guide us.
Many Christians rediscovering the biblical festivals eventually ask an honest question: “Didn’t God already establish the first month, Nisan, as the new year?” After all, Scripture does say, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you” (Exodus 12:2). That verse is true, authoritative, and uncontested. Nisan is the first month on the Jewish calendar. Jewish tradition has never denied that. Tishrei has always been the seventh.
The mistake we make as Christians comes when we take one verse and build an entire theology while ignoring the rest of Scripture. God did not leave us with a single data point. He gave us a pattern.
Twice, the Torah refers to the Feast of Ingathering—Sukkot—as occurring “at the end of the year” (Exodus 23:16; Exodus 34:22). Sukkot falls squarely in the seventh month. And since Sukkot occurs in the middle of that month, the logical conclusion is unmistakable: the year turns at the beginning of the seventh month.
The evidence becomes even stronger when we consider the Jubilee. Scripture commands that the Jubilee year be proclaimed on the Day of Atonement—also in the seventh month (Leviticus 25:9–10). A year cannot be declared halfway through itself. The proclamation only makes sense if the year begins in that season.
There is no contradiction here, only misunderstanding.
Still Confused? Think about a school year, it “ends” with graduation — not the last day of the calendar year. Or, a fiscal year, it often ends months before the calendar year does. “End of the year” refers to harvest completion, not a calendar reset.
When studying the Bible, we will recognize that God’s calendar contains multiple new years, each serving a different purpose. Scripture itself demands it. One new year governs kings and festivals. Another governs agricultural cycles. Another governs Sabbatical years and Jubilee. This isn’t human tradition replacing God’s Word, it is faithful stewardship of all God’s Word.
The more important question is not whether there is more than one new year, but which one carries the greater prophetic weight.
Nisan marks Israel’s redemption from Egypt—a mighty, holy, and necessary act of deliverance. But Tishrei speaks of something even larger. It carries imagery of ingathering, judgment, renewal, Jubilee, and restoration. It points beyond the redemption of one nation toward the redemption of all creation.
Some Jewish teachers have said it beautifully: Nisan celebrates the redemption of Israel; Tishrei anticipates the redemption of the world.
For followers of Jesus, that should stir our hearts.
Our ultimate hope is not merely a past exodus, but a future one—the return of the King. Scripture tells us that Christ will return with the sound of a trumpet, the resurrection of the dead, and the renewal of all things (1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16). That imagery is unmistakably seventh-month imagery.
The Kingdom of God is moving toward restoration, judgment made right, and creation renewed. The shofar will sound. The King will come. The dead will rise. And the world itself will be made new.
So no—Rosh HaShanah is not a rabbinic conspiracy. It is not a rejection of Scripture. It is Scripture taken seriously in its fullness.
When you hear Shanah Tovah, don’t bristle—rejoice. Hear it as both a cultural blessing and a prophetic call. It reminds us that time belongs to God, that history is moving toward redemption, and that our King Jesus Christ, is closer than we think.
Shanah Tovah.
A good year.
And may it be the year when the Kingdom of God breaks forth in fullness in your life.
