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  • From: James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>
  • To: Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew calender, years, months, weeks and days
  • Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 08:40:22 +0100

Thanks for the reply Yitzhak. That was the kind of thing I was hoping for. I'm not prepared for a detailed response. I'm going to have to look into the points you have made a bit further. But, the idea of competing calendar systems sounds, in substance, like a worthy lead to follow. And I agree that each book should be approached independently. This is fundamental to an objective study. And you may be right about approaching each part of each book separately. Especially, for accounts reported in Genesis which probably survive to the Torah as oral traditions handed down from generation to generation.

Thanks again. That was definitely food for thought.

However, I keep calling to mind that Jesus was executed on the Preparation of that year, which was a Friday, and asking myself whether that was a day 6 of the week because it just fell that way that year or whether it fell that way every year. Could it possibly be that we have no primary source evidence from that period in Jewish history?

James Christian

Quoting Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>:

Hi James,

I will try to make this short. Basically, what you have noticed is
the apparent inconsistency between two parts of the calendar --
the week, and the year. This inconsistency is found throughout
various cultures, and it seems to me that it is the product of the
last centuries BCE. I will try to analyze the various possible
factors here, but really, you should keep in mind that a full
discussion has to consider why it came about everywhere else
too.

The whole issue of calendars is much much more complex than you
might seem to imagine. There are literally books written on the
subject, and the fact that the non-existent Essenes followed their
own calendar only means it becomes a subject of much more intense
debate. Here are just three from many others:

Calendar and Chronology, Jewish and Christian, by Roger Beckwith
http://books.google.com/books?id=6j-fDxGEeGIC
http://bookreviews.org/pdf/2771_1351.pdf

Calendars in the Dead Sea Scrolls, by James VanderKam
http://books.google.com/books?id=5XANRaargeUC
http://bookreviews.org/pdf/21_204.pdf
This book includes a long introduction to all aspects of the
calendar.

The Date of the Last Supper, by Annie Jaubert
(originally: La Date de la céne.Calendrier biblique et liturgie
chretienne, 1957)
(Jaubert's theory is important not because of her theory itself,
with which most scholars today would disagree, but because
she offered a clear comprehensive description of the calendar
just at the time the scrolls were being discovered)

The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East, by Mark Cohen

Time at Emar, by Daniel Fleming
http://books.google.com/books?id=mN6pOFeouXIC
(In this book it seems little connection is made directly with
the Bible, although the author has explored the possible
implications of the Emar calendar with ancient calendars
observed by Judeans and Israelites in other articles).

(Count the pages in all the above books, and you'll understand
what "short" means when it comes to calendars).

Now, the observance of the Sabbath was not prone to any kind
of disaster that could have upset the count. The Jews were very
meticulous about it, and they refused to take up arms in defense
during the Hasmonean war on the Sabbath because of its
holiness. They also did not live in a vacuum, and they could
easily correlate their calendar with Egyptian, Babylonian, and
Roman calendars and thus -- even if the count would have been
temporarily upset -- could have recovered the original seven day
cycle.

The 364 day calendar may have had its earliest origins in the 7th
century BCE. Around this time, the Babylonians finally found
that the year was at least 364 days. It was only a short time
before they later found that the year was at least 365 days. The
364 day calendar may have direct relevance to the week. In the
364 day calendar, there are exactly 52 weeks, so that on any
given year a particular day of the month falls on the same day of
the week.

It is also the first calendar to separate the observance of holidays
from natural, specifically lunar, phenomena. In ancient culture, the
day of the full moon was a day when people could go out in the
night. Other days were too dark, and it was dangerous to move
about. This made the day of the full moon naturally a time for
celebration. Passover was celebrated at the full moon -- at night.
Tabernacles was also celebrated starting with the full moon. In
other calendars of the ANE, the full moon is also a day for
festivals.

The only one of the Hebrew festivals that does not fall on the
full moon is the Pentecost. Well, it doesn't fall on the full moon
in the lunisolar calendar. In the 364-day calendar, it falls exactly
on the 15th. Now, in the 364 day calendar the 15th would not
fall on the full moon in any consistent manner, but in my opinion
(this is my opinion only -- not a summary of research), it is
reasonable to suppose that originally the Pentecost was also
celebrated on the 15th in a lunisolar calendar. At some point,
the Jews observed a solar calendar, and this 15th was placed
in a more complex framework of being the 49th day after the
Sabbath. Note how the 49th day fits perfectly in a 364 day
calendar where the week has additional sanctity. Following the
Hasmonean revolt, some sects returned to the lunisolar calendar
(and some may have never switched), and the wider framework
of the Pentecost's date at the 49th day after the Sabbath was
kept.

The basic implication of all this is that some of the Bible
has different kinds of calendars underlying its text. In the
story of the flood, we find the flood takes a period of a
solar year, ending 10/11 days after the end of the lunar
year. Other details in the story of the flood also give
hints of the calendar system in use. The 150-day period
of five 30 day months suggests a solar calendar. The
feast of wine and the dates for the rain suggest an
autumnal new year. The Flood is also represented differently
in other books. For example, in Jubilees which is clearly
based on the 364 day solar year, it takes exactly one year,
and the feast of wine takes place exactly on the first of the
year. So, really, we have to approach each book of the
Bible, and each part of every book of the Bible with care,
since one calendar that may underlie one paragraph does
not necessarily underlie the next.

The week may have received its sanctity from the period
of time during which the Jews observed a 364 day year.
It is probable that this took place only during the Second
Temple period. Prior to it, there would be no incentive to
replace the Temple calendar and it is too likely that this
Temple calendar was originally a lunisolar one. When the
Temple was rebuilt, it was an opportunity to introduce a
different calendar. Also, those who rebuilt the calendars
were under heavy Persian influence, which may have
influenced the choice of a solar calendar.

Since different calendars may underlie different Biblical
texts, the word "Sabbath" in some Biblical texts may
indeed refer to the the full moon day. This is perhaps
even more likely in texts that were written without a
364-day solar calendar underlying them. Such verses
that contrast the new moon and the Sabbath are clear
examples of this.

In this sense, the Sabbath was an integral part of the
lunisolar system -- identifying the full moon. In the
364 day calendar, it was an integral part of the system
marking off weeks. Following the revival of the lunisolar
calendar after a background of a 364-day calendar, we
find two independent systems -- a lunisolar year system,
and a separate 7 day week system. (I did not discuss
here the 360 12x30 day calendar, which was probably
intercalated every sixth year, but if this too was invoked
after a 364 day calendar, we would find two systems).

Yitzhak Sapir
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