Qumran Calendars: A Survey of Scholarship 1980—2007

Journal of Ancient Judaism , 2013

This paper re-examines 4QcryptA Lunisolar Calendar (4Q317), a scroll from Qumran in an esoteric Hebrew script with many emendations that aligns the moon’s daily waxing and waning to a 364-day calendar. It seeks to ascertain whether the calendar may be exegetically related to the Creation and also discusses the text’s arithmetical relationships with the cycles of the priestly courses from Qumran, possible intertextual allusions to other lunar calendars in the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QDaily Prayers [4Q503], 4QAstronomical Enocha-bar [4Q208–4Q209]), biblical passages, and parallels with another Mesopotamian calendar text. The first transcription of the largest fragments using a Cryptic A font is here published with a commentary (in the Appendix), focusing on the text’s unusual scribal features. A reconsideration of the calendar’s structure with a new arrangement of its dates is presented. [Please note there is a Hebrew transcription error in the Appendix, p.87 at 4Q317 frags 1+1a, line 9: the penultimate letter is cryptic waw, not a tav]

2014

Helen R. Jacobus demonstrates mathematically that the Aramaic calendar texts from Qumran were designed to show the position of the sun and moon in the zodiac for each day of the month forever

Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und …, 2005

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1994

Milik (1959) also referred to this text in Tm Tmrs o f f i c w n y in the Wilderness ofJuahu, trans. J. STRUGNELL: 73. SCM. London. Here he said, ''there is an Essene calendar giving the dates of certain historical events which were celebrated annually." He seems to be thinking of Mep'fht Taanzt in making this judgment about the text's function. While there are obvious analogies between the two texts, there is no evidence that the dates in the Qumran text were celebrated. 4 I follow the index given in REED, S. A. 1991. Dcad Sra h l l Inantmy Pttyect: List ofDocrrments, PhorOaaps and Mweum Phres. Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center. Claremont, CA.

JIL: Journal of Islamic Law

This article analyzes changes in the reference system of the Jewish Calendar. Initially, the Jewish Calendar reference was based on the movement of the Sun. However, the calendar system used by the Jewish community worldwide now refers to two celestial objects, the Sun and the Moon. This study is literature research with a qualitative approach and uses the Book of Enoch and the Sefer Yetzirah as primary sources. The authors found that the first reference system of the Jewish Calendar, which was based on the movement of the Sun (Solar), follows the description in the Book of Enoch and the Sefer Yetzirah. These two books explain the calendar system used by Prophet Idris to Prophet Moses. The Solar Calendar reference system was later replaced with the Lunar Calendar in the second century BCE. Six centuries later, the Jewish Calendar returned to using a Solar Calendar combined with the Lunar Calendar, known as the Lunisolar Calendar. The latest reference system is a mathematical calenda...

A review article with discussion of Mesopotamian background of the Second Temple Jewish and Early Christian/Ethiopian calendars.

The current Islamic calendar is based on the moon, and the months are based on the ‘sighting’ of the new moon. This has implications for the timing of Hajj and Ramadhan specifically, and generally for the sacred months. I decided to look into the Qur’an to see what calendar we are supposed to use as derived from the Qur’anic narrative. I present the case here for a solar calendar based on the Qur'an.