Was the Jubilee Year an Ancient Calendar Formula?

[YHWH_will_uplift]

For those interested please view my blog entry Enoch, Priestly Order, New Moon, Full Moon, and Gregorian Calendars Synched. I updated the files posted here and included a legend key, along with the numerical sequences of the new and full moons.

 

[YHWH_will_uplift]

Ive studied calendar astronomy, including the Enochian calendar. The bottom line is that it takes 365.242 days for the earth to rotate around the Sun. So, if you want to prove your 364-day theory, you will have to add more than 4 intercalary days at the end of each season.

The other thing you will need to do, is explain why the Bible puts so much emphasis on new moons, and explain how they synchronised the solar and lunar cycles.

You will be interested in this file which will answer your question in more precisely and in depth. I didn't want to leave you empty handed by just stating that Enoch says so.

 

[Mockingbird0]

You will be interested in this file which will answer your question in more precisely and in depth.

According to the file, the first day of the first month of your calendar's year always begins in March. Is that so?

 

[Mockingbird0]

Hi, sorry to have taken so long. (Christmas)

I have made several adjustments to my original ideas, but the basic premise remains - that there exists in scripture an ancient calendar different from modern soli-lunar calendars. Thanks for pointing out where improvements were needed.

Here is my updated paper with charts and diagrams included:

And here is an updated video. I hope you find it as interesting as I have in studying it.

I notice you have revised the period of 17719 days to a period of 17718 days.

Some additional thoughts:

The month names "Ziw" (1 Kings 6.1), "Bul" (1 Kings 6.38) and "Ethanim" (1 Kings 8.2) are Canaanite/Phoenician names. They occur in the account of the building of a Phoenician temple by Phoenician craftsmen because the author is relying on Phoenician sources, or because the author wants to give some additional Phoenician color to his account. That they are not Israelite names is suggested by the way the author has to explain them, for example, "the month of Ziw, which is the second month." The Israelite tradition seems to have been to number the months, not name them. Do not think "Aviv" an exception. חדש האביב means no so much "Month of Aviv" as "Season of Aviv" or "Season of new grain."

There is no evidence that the jubilee year was ever observed in the preexilic period. The Babylonian Talmud is not a reliable source for the history of 11th-century BC society.

Indeed there is no evidence that the law of the jubilee year was ever "law" as we understand the term. Comparisons to cuneiform documents support the idea that the written laws were not statutes in our sense. They described the law, but they were not the law itself. The nearest modern equivalents are law-journal articles and legal hypotheticals. In the preexilic period the laws of release and jubilee may never have been more than wishful thinking on the part of one school of legal thought. The only preexilic release that is attested in Scripture is described in Jeremiah 34.8ff, and it is not an automatic release previously scheduled, but a release proclaimed by the king.

Nor is it certain that the Israelite year always began in the Spring. The Gezer calendar, a Hebrew inscription of the 10th century BC begins year in the Fall:

Two months of ingathering
two months of seed
two months of late seed
one month of cutting flax
one month of barley harvest
one month of harvesting and measuring
two months of gleaning
one month of summer fruit.

At some point the first month of the year was changed to the Spring for some purposes, perhaps under Babylonian influence. Exodus 23.16 dates the feast of ingathering to "the end of the year", but Exodus 34.22 dates it to "the turn of the year" according to some interpreters, perhaps reflecting this change.

 

[Gideon]

I notice you have revised the period of 17719 days to a period of 17718 days.

Yes, I realised my mistake after our previous discussion. Did you see my chart showing a regular 17718 days between the 1st Nisan and the 1st of Tishri in the 49th year?

Nor is it certain that the Israelite year always began in the Spring. The Gezer calendar, a Hebrew inscription of the 10th century BC begins year in the Fall:

The Gezer calendar has been seized upon by some to bolster their theories that Israel 'evolved' out of Canaan rather than suddenly appearing out of Egypt as per the Exodus account. They depict a primitive people, a simple understanding of astronomy, and a crude calendar.

However, other scholars say the Gezer calendar looks more like a schoolboy's memory exercise, or children's song. Besides that, Gezer was a Canaanite town - not an Israelite one. I think there is more evidence of Sabbatic/Jubilee cycles being kept than there is linking Gezer with Israels calendar.

As for the fall New Year, I believe it was changed from spring during the Greek era.

 

[Gideon]

(double post)

 

[YHWH_will_uplift]

According to the file, the first day of the first month of your calendar's year always begins in March. Is that so?

Yes that is so. Of course I could not have gotten the rest of the beginning dates right from 2017-2023 had I not got the equinox sighting confirmed (see our brother Jerry Morris' YouTube channel JerryMorris for his sundial equinox videos) on the 3rd Day of the Week on the 31st Day of the 12th Month in the week of Gamul: which is Tuesday, March 22nd, 2016 on our Gregorian calendar. Genesis 1:14-19 also confirms that the year always begins on the 4th Day of the Week while vv. 9-13 confirms that the year always begins in the spring as the heavenly lights were created one day after the plant life had sprung up.

 

[Mockingbird0]

According to the file, the first day of the first month of your calendar's year always begins in March. Is that so?

Yes that is so.

Then it cannot be the case that your calendar's year has always 364 days and not one day more. Some of the years must have a greater number of days, such as 371 days.

 

[Mockingbird0]

However, other scholars say the Gezer calendar looks more like a schoolboy's memory exercise, or children's song.

"Thirty days hath September" is a schoolchild's mnemonic, yet still an accurate description of our calendar. So also can the Gezer calendar be both.

Concerning your system of intercalations:

The paper says that the intercalations are "not always in the same order". What, then, determines the order?

The paper states that all but the last 6 months of a jubilee must have exactly 17718 days. It also states that the last six months of every seven years must have exactly 1260 or 1290 days. It also states that the last six months of a jubilee, plus the time to the subsequent Feast of Weeks, must have exactly 1335 days. The simplest way to satisfy these simultaneous constraints is to fix all months to a set number of days. Yet the paper says that the system would be combined "with actual sightings of New Moon". An "actual sighting" of the new moon, in order to be effective, would have to be able to add a day that is not compensated by deletion of a day later, or to be able to delete a day that is not compensated by addition of a day later. But with all the constraints on the number of days that must elapse in different parts of the cycle, where is there room for a sighting to do this?

 

[YHWH_will_uplift]

Then it cannot be the case that your calendar's year has always 364 days and not one day more. Some of the years must have a greater number of days, such as 371 days.

And you get his how?

 

[YHWH_will_uplift]

Then it cannot be the case that your calendar's year has always 364 days and not one day more. Some of the years must have a greater number of days, such as 371 days.

I see you only partially quoted what I said and ignored the rest.

 

[Gideon]

The paper states that all but the last 6 months of a jubilee must have exactly 17718 days.

Yes, and I provided a chart of cycles to prove it, from Solomon to the Babylonian captivity. Each cycle was 17718 days. Please check the dates and notice how each one fell on the 'new moons' of Nisan and Tishri.

It also states that the last six months of every seven years must have exactly 1260 or 1290 days.

I said "the last 31/2 years of every seven years." Here is the diagram.

Ancient calendar diagram

It also states that the last six months of a jubilee, plus the time to the subsequent Feast of Weeks, must have exactly 1335 days.

Not the subsequent feast. I said to the feast 31/2 years hence. Check it out for yourself; you must have the lunation tables?

 

[Mockingbird0]

Then it cannot be the case that your calendar's year has always 364 days and not one day more. Some of the years must have a greater number of days, such as 371 days.

And you get his how?

Arithmetic.

 

[Mockingbird0]

Not the subsequent feast. I said to the feast 31/2 years hence.

So substitute "3 1/2" years for "6 months" in my question above and answer the question. How does your system satisfy all the simultaneous constraints without making it impossible for observations to correct the calendar from time to time?

 

[Gideon]

The paper states that all but the last 6 months of a jubilee must have exactly 17718 days. It also states that the last six months of every seven years must have exactly 1260 or 1290 days. It also states that the last six months of a jubilee, plus the time to the subsequent Feast of Weeks, must have exactly 1335 days. The simplest way to satisfy these simultaneous constraints is to fix all months to a set number of days. Yet the paper says that the system would be combined "with actual sightings of New Moon". An "actual sighting" of the new moon, in order to be effective, would have to be able to add a day that is not compensated by deletion of a day later, or to be able to delete a day that is not compensated by addition of a day later. But with all the constraints on the number of days that must elapse in different parts of the cycle, where is there room for a sighting to do this?

In the short term - the month to month sighting of New Moon - there are 2 possibilities for error to occur. They are:

1. When cloud prevents the visibility of the crescent moon in its early stage.
2. When the crescent appears close to dawn, making it difficult to determine whether day one should be backdated to the previous evening, or forwarded to the next sunset.

So, small errors may have occurred within a space of several months. However it would have been 'fixed up' as soon as the next moon is determined and, at worst, a 29-day month may have been transposed with a 30-day month.

The longer term formula's (1260 days, 1335 days, and 17718 days) would have been used as a cross-check to ensure that minor short term errors were eliminated, and the long term integrity of the calendar was preserved.

Is this what you meant? I hope it answers your question.

 

[YHWH_will_uplift]

Arithmetic.

*round of applause* 52 x 7 = 364 arithmetically speaking: where are your scriptural proofs? What stories do you have to support your facts?

 

[YHWH_will_uplift]

Arithmetic.

If you mean that it does not follow the moon or our false solar calendars then, you are even mor in error as the Bible makes it clear that all man made solar calendars can be traced to Egypt; and, all man made lunar calendars can be traced to Babylon: the latter is the same as Babel which was founded by Nimrod who is the son of Cush while the former is known in the Hebrew as MiTSRaYiM (Mizraim): all of whom are descended from Ham who is the youngest son of Noah and taught the rebellion of Cain to his sons. So please stick to the solar Calendar of YHWH mentioned in the Bible.

 

[Mockingbird0]

According to the file, the first day of the first month of your calendar's year always begins in March. Is that so?

Yes that is so.

Note the word "always". You assented to my statement that the first day of your calendar's year always begins in March. That means that this year it will begin in march. Next year it will begin in March. For the next 25 years it will begin in March every single year, and so on. Do you withdraw your assent to the word "always"?

 

[YHWH_will_uplift]

Note the word "always". You assented to my statement that the first day of your calendar's year always begins in March. That means that this year it will begin in march. Next year it will begin in March. For the next 25 years it will begin in March every single year, and so on. Do you withdraw your assent to the word "always"?

I saw you put always and yes I am sticking that. Like I said I already saw proof for the equinox so, I need no further evidence that Enoch and Moses are correct in the vernal equinox beginning on the 31st day of the 12th Month and, the autumnal equinox beginning on the 31st day of the 6th Month. I am currently tracking get the moon sightings described in the DSS and they are lining up to the day. So if you want to stick to your silly calculations and without doing any field work on YHWH's Calendar to see if It is true then you'll be lost in the darkness.

 

[Mockingbird0]

I hope it answers your question.

Not really. The table in section F shows a system that approximates 606 synodic lunar months with 17895 days exactly. This gives an average synodic lunar month of 29.5297 days, which falls short of today's value, and falls even further short of 1st millennium BC values. It is still not clear to me how your system can make up the shortfall without violating one of its day-count constraints.