Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On 10/22/07, Shoshanna Walker wrote:
> Also, the detailed chronology of the flood, giving the dates of its
> beginning, prevailing, declining and total length, are for the
> purpose of telling us that a year was a year and a month was a month
> - then as now.  First it records that the flood began in the 600th
> year of Noach's life on the 17th day of the second month, and it was
> all over after 12 months, stated as the 601st year of his life, and
> the Torah records that from the 17th day of the second month, to the
> 17th day of the seventh month (five months), 150 days elapsed, which
> equaled then as today 30 days per month.

The Flood is a chronological text.
That the flood begins on the 17th but ends on the 27th, is a recognition
of a lunisolar year being 10-11 days short of a solar year.  (Accordingly,
the flood took exactly one solar year).  Similarly, the use of 150 days =
5 months, is a reference to a 12 x 30 day calendar that was in use in
Second Temple period times.  Again, this cannot be studied without
reference to the books of Enoch and Jubilees, as well as additional
Dead Sea Sectarian literature.

Yitzhak Sapir