Jewish calendar

[Smoky]

I read about the Jewish calendar, the months always start with the new moon, 12 months giving a 360 day year. In order to catch up to a 365 day year, an additional month is added about every 3 years. Wouldn't that give you 30 extra days to catch up in three years when you only need 15 ?

 

[Steve Petersen]

The length of the Jewish month today varies

Judaism 101: Jewish Calendar

 

[Smoky]

Is it not based on the moon cycles, starting with the new moon ?

 

[Steve Petersen]

Is it not based on the moon cycles, starting with the new moon ?

Yes it does. Read the link I posted.

 

[Smoky]

My point is the difference between a solar year (365 days) and a lunar year (360 days) is 5 days per year. After 3 years you're behind only 15 days to catch up. Adding an additional month would give 30 days. Looks like you would add an additional month every 6 years instead of after 3. Kind of confusing.

 

[Smoky]

Oh I see in the article the lunar year is actually about 11 days shorter instead of 5. I guess when people write about 360 day years or 365 day years the're not being very exact.

 

[Steve Petersen]

The Jewish "leap year", which occurs seven times in a 19-year cycle, has 13 months instead of the regular year's 12. This is so that the lunar-based Jewish year should remain aligned with the solar seasons (12 lunar months make up a total of 354 days — slightly more than 11 days short of the 365.25 day solar cycle). The added month is called "Adar I" and is inserted before the month of Adar (termed "Adar II" in leap years).

 

[Smoky]

I'm interested in this because if you could figure out the time of year Zechariah entered the temple to offer incense in Luke's gospel, you could figure out about the time of year Jesus was born. Does anyone know if that's really possible ?

 

[Steve Petersen]

I'm interested in this because if you could figure out the time of year Zechariah entered the temple to offer incense in Luke's gospel, you could figure out about the time of year Jesus was born. Does anyone know if that's really possible ?

Jesus' date of birth

 

[ralliann]

Jesus' date of birth

From what I have understood your calendar is inaccurate. All the priests served in the holidays but did not skip in their course due to that. There also is the issue of each course serving twice in the year for 48 weeks. But there are 52 weeks in the year. So the priests courses did not run

The Jewish "leap year", which occurs seven times in a 19-year cycle, has 13 months instead of the regular year's 12. This is so that the lunar-based Jewish year should remain aligned with the solar seasons (12 lunar months make up a total of 354 days — slightly more than 11 days short of the 365.25 day solar cycle). The added month is called "Adar I" and is inserted before the month of Adar (termed "Adar II" in leap years).

Each course served one week right?. There were 24 courses. Each course served twice in the year. The calendar you show Has course skips on holidays. This is not accurate according to what I have been told. I was told each course filled its week whether holiday of not.
Then another problem is the weeks in a year. There are 52, but only 48 weeks of service (24 x 2 = 24). Therefore the 49 th week would start the first course all over again, the 50th week the second course, 51st week the third course,etc.
By the thime the new year started the third or fourth course could have been in service. Then there were also the added months from time to time which threw things of even further. How is can it be reconciled to know?