Enoch calendar
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The Enoch calendar is an ancient
calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...
described in the
pseudepigrapha Pseudepigrapha (also anglicized as "pseudepigraph" or "pseudepigraphs") are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past.Bauckham, Richard; "Pseu ...
l Book of Enoch. It divided the year into four seasons of exactly 13 weeks. Each season consisted of two 30-day months followed by one 31-day month, with the 31st day ending the season, so that Enoch's year consisted of exactly 364 days. The Enoch calendar was purportedly given to Enoch by the
angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...
Uriel Uriel or Auriel ( he, אוּרִיאֵל ''ʾŪrīʾēl'', " El/God is my flame"; el, Οὐριήλ ''Oúriēl''; cop, ⲟⲩⲣⲓⲏⲗ ''Ouriēl''; it, Uriele; Geʽez and Amharic: or ) is the name of one of the archangels who is mentio ...
. Four named days, inserted as the 31st day of every third month, were named instead of numbered, which "placed them outside the numbering". The Book of Enoch gives the count of 2,912 days for 8 years, which divides out to exactly 364 days per year. This specifically excludes any periodic intercalations.


Evaluation

Calendar expert John Pratt wrote that "The Enoch calendar has been criticized as hopelessly primitive because, with only 364 days, it would get out of sync with the seasons so quickly: in only 25 years the seasons would arrive an entire month early. Such a gross discrepancy, however, merely indicates that the method of intercalation has been omitted."John Pratt, Review of ''Mapping Time:, The Calendar and Its History'', by E. G. Richards, ''
American Mathematical Monthly ''The American Mathematical Monthly'' is a mathematical journal founded by Benjamin Finkel in 1894. It is published ten times each year by Taylor & Francis for the Mathematical Association of America. The ''American Mathematical Monthly'' is an e ...
'', volume 107, number 1, January, 2000
Pratt pointed out that by adding an extra week at the end of every seventh year (or
Sabbatical year A sabbatical (from the Hebrew: (i.e., Sabbath); in Latin ; Greek: ) is a rest or break from work. The concept of the sabbatical is based on the Biblical practice of ''shmita'' (sabbatical year), which is related to agriculture. According to ...
), and then adding an additional extra week to every fourth Sabbatical year (or every 28 years), the calendar could be as accurate as the
Julian calendar The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandr ...
. : \left( 52\,\frac\text\text + \frac + \frac \right) \times 7\,\frac = 52\frac\,\frac\text\text \times 7\,\frac = 365.25\,\frac\text\text = 365\,\frac\text\text + \frac There is some evidence that the group whose writings were found at
Qumran Qumran ( he, קומראן; ar, خربة قمران ') is an archaeological site in the West Bank managed by Israel's Qumran National Park. It is located on a dry marl plateau about from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli ...
used a variation of the Enoch calendar (see Qumran calendar).


See also

*
Pentecontad calendar The pentecontad calendar (from πεντηκοντάς ''pentēkontás'') is an agricultural calendar system thought to be of Amorite origin in which the year is broken down into seven periods of fifty days (a total of 350 days), with an annual supp ...


References


Further reading

See the various writings of
Julian Morgenstern Julian Morgenstern (March 18, 1881 – December 4, 1976) was a Jewish-American rabbi, Bible scholar, and president of Hebrew Union College. Life Morgenstern was born on March 18, 1881 in St. Francisville, Illinois, the son of Samuel Morgenstern a ...
, James C. VanderKam and others. * "Sabbatical Years and the Year of Jubilee". Sidney B. Hoenig; ''The Jewish Quarterly Review'', New Series, Vol. 59, No. 3 (Jan., 1969), pp. 222–236. * "A Possible Method of Intercalation for the Calendar of the Book of Jubilees". E. R. Leach; ''
Vetus Testamentum ''Vetus Testamentum'' is a quarterly academic journal covering various aspects of the Old Testament. It is published by Brill Publishers Brill Academic Publishers (known as E. J. Brill, Koninklijke Brill, Brill ()) is a Dutch international a ...
'', Vol. 7, Fasc. 4 (Oct., 1957), pp. 392–397. * "Jubilee Calendar Rescued from the Flood Narrative". S. Najm & Ph. Guillaume. Retrieved 6/22/2008 from https://web.archive.org/web/20080503173530/http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/JHS/Articles/article_31.htm * "Sabbatical, Jubilee, and the Temple of Solomon." L. W. Casperson. ''
Vetus Testamentum ''Vetus Testamentum'' is a quarterly academic journal covering various aspects of the Old Testament. It is published by Brill Publishers Brill Academic Publishers (known as E. J. Brill, Koninklijke Brill, Brill ()) is a Dutch international a ...
'', Vol. 53, No. 3, 2003, pp. 283–296(14). * "Calendars of the Dead_sea-Scroll Sect". Edward L. Cohen; ''CUBO Mathematica Educacional''; Vol. 52 No. 2, (1-16). Junio 2003. * ''Biblical Calendars''. J. van Goudoever. Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1959. * "Tracing the Origin of the Sabbatical Calendar in the Priestly Narrative (Genesis 1 to Joshua 5)". Philippe Guillaume. Retrieved 6/22/2008 from https://web.archive.org/web/20110605001545/http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/JHS/Articles/article_43.htm. * "Studies in the Hebrew Calendar: (Interpretation of a Difficult Passage in the Palestinian Talmud)". Solomon Gandz. ''Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research'', Vol. 17, (1947-1948), pp. 9–17. * "Chronology of the Account of the Flood in P.--A Contribution to the History of the Jewish Calendar. Benjamin Wisner Bacon. ''Hebraica'', Vol. 8, No. 1/2 (Oct., 1891 - Jan., 1892), pp. 79-88. * "The Calendar of the Book of Jubilees, Its Origin and its Character."
Julian Morgenstern Julian Morgenstern (March 18, 1881 – December 4, 1976) was a Jewish-American rabbi, Bible scholar, and president of Hebrew Union College. Life Morgenstern was born on March 18, 1881 in St. Francisville, Illinois, the son of Samuel Morgenstern a ...
. ''
Vetus Testamentum ''Vetus Testamentum'' is a quarterly academic journal covering various aspects of the Old Testament. It is published by Brill Publishers Brill Academic Publishers (known as E. J. Brill, Koninklijke Brill, Brill ()) is a Dutch international a ...
'', Vol. 5, Fasc. 1 (Jan., 1955) pp. 34–76. * "The Judean Calendar during the Second Commonwealth and the Scrolls." Solomon Zeitlin. ''The Jewish Quarterly Review''. New Series, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Jul., 1966), pp. 28–45. {{calendars Calendars