Early Jewish calendars

The ancient mathematical basis of the Aramaic calendars in the Dead Sea Scrolls is analysed in this investigation. Helen R. Jacobus re-examines an Aramaic zodiac calendar with a thunder divination text (4Q318) and the calendar from the Aramaic Astronomical Book (4Q208 - 4Q209), all from Qumran. Jacobus demonstrates that 4Q318 is an ancestor of the Jewish calendar today and that it helps us to understand 4Q208 - 4Q209. She argues that these calendars were taught in antiquity as angelic knowledge described in 1 Enoch and the Book of Jubilees. The study also encompasses Babylonian, Hellenistic, Byzantine astronomy and astrology, and classical and Jewish writings. Finally, a medieval Hebrew zodiac calendar related to 4Q318 with an astrological text is published here for the first time.
https://brill.com/display/title/24917

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Copyright Year: 2015.
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h a k i m m o h a m m e d s a i d * The course o f history is generally thought to be along a progressive path, but there are occasions when its progress seems to come to a standstill, and it becomes quiescent and inactive. The release o f energy in such situations is converted into entropy, i.e. energy that cannot be used. Such situations and occasions are those that are opposed and are antithetical to the dynamism o f history, its usual characteristic. When man, forgetting his Creator and his Benefactor, takes to the worship o f the outward phenom ena o f nature and begins to ascribe the attributes o f Deity to man and prostrates him self before human beings who temporarily hold the reins of power, he becomes increasingly prone to the violation of God's laws, thereby generating conflict on earth and tending to ignore moral laws and ethics. He becomes, then, averse to light and takes to the worship o f darkness. The course o f history, in such a situation becomes static. Such inertia is not that is opposed to dynamics but represents that inactivity as has its birth in conflict and confusion. History in such a situa tion, seems to assume the State o f a spectator gazing at this spectacle with amazement and disappointment, and in utter dejection casts a look at the sky to find out what it has further in store for it. Perhaps, it is in such circumstances that the Heavenly Court decides how to do away with the obstacles that lay athwart the path o f progress and to remove these impediments cluttering up the course of history. These im pedim ents are represented and epitom ized by regressive, retrograde and unnatural cultures. God Almighty has H im self pointed to the condign punishments that visit nations viotlating His laws. And so we are told: * H am d ard F ou n d ation , Pakistan.

The difference in the chronology of Passion Week between the Synoptics and in the Gospel of John is often the focus of scholarly attention. In the Synoptics Jesus dies on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the first day following the Passover meal in the evening. In John, Jesus dies on the "Day of Preparation" prior to the Passover sacrifice and meal. By factoring in biblical festivals named in calendrical texts from Qumran, and the law on the Second Passover (Num 9:6-14), which is named "the Second Passover" ‫השני‬ ‫פסח‬ in the Qumran calendars of the priestly courses (mišmarot), I argue that the Johannine writers describe a different timeline of the Passion Week to that of the Synoptics. This study examines the question of whether Jesus was corpse contaminated at Passover (John 11:55), and his attitude to the law of Num 9:6-14 with respect to the narrative of Lazarus. It concludes that Jesus died on the day of the Second Passover which began that evening (John 12-19). The authors of the Fourth Gospel thereby preserve an interest in Jewish festivals after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.

PJoBR 22 (2023): 73-112

ISSN 1641-7224
Print only

Also see article in the Church Times, "Easter, One Month Later" April 19, 2024:
https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2024/19-april/faith/faith-features/easter-one-month-later

In the Jewish calendar, the period between 1 Tishrei (New Year) and 10 Tishrei (Day of Atonement) is one of penitence, but also of joy. The New Year’s opening holiday, today called rōʾš haššānāh (Head of the Year – Ez. 40,1), in the Hebrew Bible is named by yôm terûʿāh (Lv23,24; Nm29,1). Yôm terûʿāh is from the very beginning a celebration of the new months (Nm 10,10). This holiday comes over the years to gain a particular importance by being dedicated to God (Ne 8,10). 1 Tishrei means in the Jewish tradition the day God created the world, but also the day God will judge His creation [Talmud, 1918 (Tract Rosh Hashana 1,1): 13]. In the way of thinking of the Church Fathers, yôm terûʿāh indicates the precise time in the eschaton when the dead bodies will rise from the tombs at the hearing of the last trumpet – which meaning the angel’s voice (St. Cyril of Alexandria, 1991, p. 608). Since in the texts of the Old Testament terûʿāh indicates both an instrumental sound and a voice sound, our approach was primarily to clarify the term. Last but not least, the study accentuate the development of yôm terûʿāh holiday by exhibiting the theological symbolism in Judaism and Christianity, highlighting the eschatological meaning of the holiday.

The article consists of two main parts: an explanatory summary of the different types of calendars from Qumran in Hebrew, Aramaic and a Hebrew cryptic script with reference to use of the sun and moon in these calendars.
Having outlined their differences, the contribution discusses the relationships between the calendars, their similarities, divergencies and interconnections.
The Qumran calendars are part of ancient Near Eastern and Greek and Mesopotamian Hellenistic cultures where calendrical plurality was the norm during this period. The multiplicity of calendars at Qumran further suggests that in Second Temple Judaism, priests were mathematically creative and had contact with current astronomical culture in the region. It is likely that the calendars had different purposes.
This is the manuscript version of the chapter and includes Fig. 1, an image using the astronomical online program Stellarium which could not be printed in the book for technical reasons.

Abstract
It is demonstrated textually from the fragments that 4QAstronomical Enocha-b (4Q208–4Q209) is a zodiacal calendar related to that of 4QZodiac Calendar (4Q318 iv, vii-viii, 1–6).
Both calendars use a fixed 19-year cycle, known from fifth century BCE Mesopotamia and Greece. In addition to the Aramaic zodiacal calendars, the contribution discusses the question of whether astrology was of interest to the groups responsible for collecting and compiling the Dead Sea Scrolls taking on board the presence at Qumran of physiognomic texts, and Wisdom and Mystery texts containing some possible astrological terms.

“Astral Divination in the Dead Sea Scrolls” in Hellenistic Astronomy: The Science in its Contexts. Edited by Alan C. Bowen and Francesca Rochberg. Brill’s Companions to Classical Studies. Leiden: Brill, 2020. 539–550. (Available through institutional log-in)

https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004400566_044

(See also “Back Matter” for summary of the calendrical cycle (“Judean”): Historical Glossary of Important Terms in Hellenistic Astronomy”: under “Calendar,” pp. 631–652, at pp. 367–369. Open access:
https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004400566/back-1.xml)

The author traces the roots of the Islamic Calendar to the Jewish calendar.Beginning in 325 CE, the Sanhedrin’s role as keeper of the calendar wasdisrupted, its role abolished in 358 CE, and office of Nasi  (Patriarch) eliminated in 425 CE. This role was then taken over by Qussay ibn Kilab’s House of Assembly (the Dar al-Nadwah). Using etymological, historiographical and mathematical methods, the author shows that Qussay’s calendar incorporated all the aspects of the Jewish calendar, and introduced two innovations: 1)occasionally deleting Elul for the purpose of keeping Tishrei aligned with the Fall Equinox and 2) exchanging the “sacred” aspect of the four Jewish pilgrimage months to other months. The latter made possible because three ofthe pilgrimages had been forbidden by Rome. Ashura’s connection with YomKippur is explained, and the evolution of the Islamic “leap day” algorithm explored.

The Islamic or Hijra calendar is made up of 12 lunar months. Traces of Jewish holidays like Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Pesach (Passover) and Shavout (Pentacost) are still evident in this calendar. This can be understood by tracing the history of the Jewish Calendar. It is proposed that when the Sanhedrin was disbanded and a mathematical calendar proposed by Hillel son of R. Yehuda in 358 CE, this was the catalyst for three calendars to develop: 1) The modern Jewish Calender, 2) The pre-Islamic Lunar-Solar Calendar, and 3) a strictly Lunar Calendar that became the modern Islamic Calendar.

(Updated by 2020 paper "Reconstructing the Islamic Jewish Calendar" by same author)

It is proposed that the different dates and chronology in the sequence of events in the account of Noah’s Flood in the Septuagint (LXX) are dates in a calendar that can be reconstructed from the data. In the LXX the rains begin and the ark comes to rest on the 27th of the months in question. This differs from the Masoretic Text /Samaritan Pentateuch and the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q252 and 4Q254a) where these events take place on the 17th of the months concerned. In the LXX the mountain peaks appear in the 11th month and in the MT/ SP and 4Q252 the mountain tops are visible in the 10th month.

Henoch 36 (2/2014): 283-296