Counting Time: The Dead Sea Scroll Essene Calendar Explained
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Published 2022-03-09
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This lecture lays out the varied calendrical systems used in ancient Judaism. Calendars are complex things and lie at the core of our lives, as well as how most religious traditions function. How to count time was one of the most contentious issues between various ancient Jewish groups and sects--whether Pharisees, Sadducees, or Essenes. The issues involved the marking of the Jewish festivals, months, years, and Jubilee cycles, all of which were absolutely vital to the function of core religious observances. We now have the Dead Sea Scrolls, which propose a solar-lunar calendar. In this lecture Dr. Tabor attempts to "simplify" this most complex subject,, which remains controversial among Jewish, Christian, and Muslim groups today.
This lecture was part a Biblical Archaeology Society seminar, publishers of the premiere archaeology magazine, Biblical Archaeology Review. It is used with permission.
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All Comments (21)
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I’m very glad to hear you cover this information, Dr. Tabor. I am neither a Christian nor a Messianic, but there is a messianic group called Zadok Way that explains well how the calendar was intercalated. They are not a scholarly group, but their research is worth listening to. Also, I am wondering if you have listened to the lecture by Dr. Rachel Elior which she gave at the Chicago University School of Divinity. Every DSS scholar should hear her presentation, it is a fresh and fascinating perspective on the Qumran Community and the Priestly Calendar.
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"...and this was extremely satisfying to these people...." what a great way to pull the listener into the mindset of this portion of antiquity.. thanks.
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Very good lecture. I greatly appreciated it.
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(Jon Garnant here) Dr Tabor ...excellent overview of calendars in general, the Essene/DSS calendar specifics.... and the issues w the Rabbinic calendar as compared to the Karaite. You also referred to Annie Jaubert's fascinating work from the early 50s... Saulnier has now re-examined her "multiple calendar" theory for 2TJudaism. Thank you.
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Very insightful 👏
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I wish there were visuals. Couldn't find them on the website. It would help me follow what you are saying better.
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Very interesting presentation. A few points: 1) On the ark, Noah determined the start of the new year without a barley harvest to go by. 2) There are numerous Sabbath and Lev 23 Holy Day keeping Christian churches who use an observed luni/solar calendar. Some go by Jerusalem observation, some US groups go by US mainland observation. This presents a difficulty: is the time meant to be observed locally in every town, or in one location for all to follow. In the latter case, when the observation is done in the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere observers do not keep the holy days in season, as required by Scripture.
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One of your most fascinating talks Dr Tabor - thank you. Margaret Barker believed that a solar calendar was used in the First Temple, before the importation of the Babylonian lunar months, and so the solar calendar was seen as more "pure" and original by sectarian groups who saw the Second Temple as flawed.
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What about the odds? Wow! Great job Dr. Tabor!
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Hi professor Tabor, I don't know if you will get to read this but you should! The Jewish calendar was a relic of the mesopotamian calendars of the Sumerians. It was based on the Triple Saros lunar cycle which is in perfect synch with the cosmos (Book of Daniel confirms these lunar time scales as well as the Jewish Temple architecture and also Genesis). This lunar knowledge was not common knowledge even though the tools to work it out were contained in their scriptures. It was actually based on a 28 day biblical lunar month. The 29.5 day lunar month you talk about is actually an optical illusion caused by the SUN that makes it appear like a lunar month of 29.5 days simply because you are measuring it from one lunation (optical illusion) to the next lunation (optical illusion). It's earth time as opposed to the cosmic time of the Saros lunar cycles. It's the reason it appears out of synch with the SUN. During a lunation the Sun has moved forward in its own orbit and so has the earth but this means that for the moon to replicate the same lunation (optical illusion) it needs to travel a bit further around the earth to align correctly between the two. The ancient calendar would work on 13 months of 28 days giving 364 days and still have 7 leap years throughout the 18 year Saros period. Every 54 years it would synchronise very closely to within 33 mins and be marked each 18 years by an unmistakable perfect lunar eclipse. There were many other planetary mid way indicators to monitor these cycles as well as the position of the moon within the zodiac constellations which would also have matched 13 months and the 13 tribes of Israel. I don't know why the Saros was dropped in favour of lunations but it seems big changes happened in Mesopotamia around 1100bce with the Babylonians and Marduk who introduced Jupiter instead of the Moon as the way to track time. Abraham was a sumerian from UR so his skill was lunar astronomy from around 2100bce.
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2:46 I'm so happy you call Yom Kippur, Day of Covering and not the modern Day of Atonement. Rare and important. Thanks
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Thanks 🙏
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Nick Vanderlaan has a perfect enochian calander. That has calculated within and explaned the 0,25 missing day. He has a YouTube Chanel by his name.
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If we compare the first three days of creation with the last three days of creation, we discover that the author (Assumingly Musha aka Moses) has divided the six days into two separate blocks. The first block of three days describes the act of separating the heavens and the arets aka earth while the second block of three days describes the act of filling the heavens and the arets. Day 1 - Separating light and darkness. The first block of three days describes the act of separating the shamayim aka heavens and the arets while the second block of three days describes the act of filling the shamayim and the arets. Day 1 - Separating light and darkness. - 1st block Day 2 - Separating water and sky. - 1st block Day 3 - Separating the land from water. - 1st block Day 4 - Filling the light with the sun and the darkness with the moon. - 2nd block Day 5 - Filling water with fish and the skies with birds. - 2nd block Day 6 - Filling the land with plants and animals. - 2nd block Day 1 is about the separating of the light and darkness and day 4, its parallel, is about the filling of the light and darkness with the sun, moon and stars etc. Day 2 is about the separating of the water and the sky and day 5 is about the filling of the water with fish and the sky with birds etc. Day 3 is about the separating of the land from the water and day 6 is about the filling of the land with plants and animals etc. The first chapter of Barashith/Genesis, and the rest of Scripture for that matter, must be interpreted according to the Ancient Hebrews style of writing (poetry and block logic) and not from our own modern style of writing (prose and step logic). To summarize, the Ancient Hebrews did not believe in a flat arets or a spherical arets. From their perspective, the arets was what they could see from the land's end to the land's end and their concept of the world or universe was interpreted from this perspective. Continuing on, Day 2 - Separating water and sky. Day 3 - Separating the land from water. Day 4 - Filling the light with the sun and the darkness with the moon. Day 5 - Filling water with fish and the skies with birds etc. Day 6 - Filling the arets/land with plants and animals etc.
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Hello: I almost stopped watching your video, when you said the earth is spinning around the sun but I kept watching anyway. And I am glad I did. It seems You have come to some of the same conclusions that I have. I do not make comments on video's ever. but I got a little excited to see your conclusions. So I sent you some lousy video's that I made, it is not the video's that are important but the contents that I was describing. You may never watch them but time is very important to me, and so are the Moedeem. If you find the content interesting, I would love to hear from you, if not just consider me as spam. We pray you have a baruk Yaum.
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RE: your aside when recounting Genesis 1:14 "...signs, whatever that means." this is awkward for me to hear, whatever that means ~ penny for your thoughts? I appreciate all your excellent work. Thank you.
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16:31 - Eastern churches kept Easter on the Sunday after Passover
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Clearly the Bible establishes the phases of the moon as the SIGN for Gods Sabbaths, quite similar to the Babylonian calendar. The Republic of Rome also had a lunar calendar (and an 8 day week with no sabbaths) until Caesar changed the cornerstone of their months. So how did Israel go from observing Sabbaths anchored to the sanctification of New Moon as its cornerstone according to a lunar calendar codified by God beginning in Exodus 12, to a floating sabbath (in relation to the lunar cornerstone) created by Caesar and anchored to the Solar calendar he created as the Cornerstone of the Dragon-Beast? Do you think that might be related to Daniel 7:25 (he would calculate to change the times and laws) and the "beginning" of the "times of the gentiles" which clearly has its END in relationship to the Kingdom of God BEGINNING?
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I counted at least 18 different calendars in the DSS and some do absolutely use the moon.
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Any chance the Jubilee calendar was part of the inspiration for J.R.R Tolkien's Shire Reckoning?
