Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

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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