Enoch calendar

Solar calendar described in the Book of Enoch

See also: Qumran calendrical texts

The Enoch calendar is an ancient calendar described in the pseudepigraphal 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 Uriel. 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

[edit]

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."[1]

Pratt pointed out that by adding an extra week at the end of every seventh year (or Sabbatical year), 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:

(   52   w e e k s     1   y e a r   +   1   w e e k     7   y e a r s   +   1   w e e k     28   y e a r s   )   ×     7   d a y s     1   w e e k   {\displaystyle \left({\frac {\ 52\ {\mathsf {weeks}}\ }{\ 1\ {\mathsf {year}}\ }}+{\frac {\ 1\ {\mathsf {week}}\ }{\ 7\ {\mathsf {years}}\ }}+{\frac {\ 1\ {\mathsf {week}}\ }{\ 28\ {\mathsf {years}}\ }}\right)\ \times \ {\frac {\ 7\ {\mathsf {days}}\ }{\ 1\ {\mathsf {week}}\ }}}

= (   52 +   5   28   )     w e e k   year   ×     7   d a y s     1   w e e k   =   ( 365 +   1   4 ) d a y s     1   y e a r   {\displaystyle =\left(\ 52+{\frac {\ 5\ }{28}}\ \right)\ {\frac {\ {\mathsf {week}}\ }{\text{year}}}\ \times \ {\frac {\ 7\ {\mathsf {days}}\ }{\ 1\ {\mathsf {week}}\ }}={\frac {\ \left(365+{\tfrac {\ 1\ }{4}}\right){\mathsf {days}}\ }{\ 1\ {\mathsf {year}}\ }}}

=   365   d a y s     1   y e a r   +   1   d a y     4   y e a r s     . {\displaystyle ={\frac {\ 365\ {\mathsf {days}}\ }{\ 1\ {\mathsf {year}}\ }}+{\frac {\ 1\ {\mathsf {day}}\ }{\ 4\ {\mathsf {years}}\ }}~.} [1]

## Comparison to other ancient calendars

[edit]

The group whose writings were found at Qumran also used a 364-day calendar that was similar to that of Enoch (see Qumran calendrical texts). But their calendar was even more similar to that of the Book of Jubilees.

In Chapters 80-82 of the Book of Enoch, there are four special days; they are the four ‘leaders of the stars’ that preside over the four equal seasons of the year. The context here is further related to the agricultural seasons, and when different crops mature. In Chapter 82, the names of these leaders are given as Milkiel, Helememelek, Meleeyel and Narel, and each of them serves for 91 days.[2]

Formally, these four days are actually not counted as ‘days’ in the Book of Enoch, but they are more like the ‘leaders’ of the three 30-day months that follow them. According to Stern, these four days are generally believed to relate to solstices and equinoxes, or "the four cardinal points or tropes of the solar year", which will add to make four 31-day months within one year. These days are also referred to as the "leaders of the year" and of its four seasons.[3]

These four special days are also present in the book of Jubilees, and they are referred to as the “days of remembrance”, or “memorial days”.

## Book of Jubilees calendar

[edit]

The Book of Jubilees, also found at Qumran, shares many parallels with Enoch. The Enoch calendar and the Book of Jubilees are connected through their shared use of a schematic 364-day calendar, as well as a similar understanding of the division of the year into four seasons. Each year has 364 days, divided into 12 months of 30 and 31 days each.

Nevertheless, there are also differences, such as that the Jubilees focuses heavily on Sabbath-observance in the context of its calendar, whereas the Book of Enoch doesn’t even mention this topic, perhaps because the main focus of Enoch is primarily astronomical, without any special regard to Biblical events and festivals. The Jubilees' 364‐day calendar, in contrast, focuses especially on those.[3]

The four special days are also present in the Book of Jubilees, but these four 'days of remembrance' are now being placed at the beginning of the 31-day months, rather than at the end. They are placed as the first day of the first, fourth, seventh, and tenth months. As opposed to the Enoch version, they are now fully integrated into the calendar, and "are not explicitly identified as additional".[3] They are also referred to as the "days of appointed times" in Jubilees.[4]

It is believed that the Jubilees is a later work because it depends on Enoch in many of its passages. For example, since 2008, there has been a consensus that the Animal Apocalypse in 1 Enoch came first and Jubilees came later.[5]

## See also

[edit]

* Pentecontad calendar
* Hebrew calendar

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Pratt, John (January 2000). "Mapping Time: The Calendar and Its History, by E.G. Richards". American Mathematical Monthly (book review). Vol. 107, no. 1.
2. ^ BOOK OF ENOCH. The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament by R.H. Charles, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913. - Christian Classics Ethereal Library. ccel.org
3. ^ a b c Stern, Sacha (2011-01-02). "Qumran Calendars and Sectarianism". The Oxford Handbook of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Oxford University Press. p. 232–253. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199207237.003.0010. ISBN 978-0-19-920723-7. Retrieved 2025-05-13.
4. ^ WINTERMUTE, O. S. (1985). ‘Jubilees’ in J. H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2. New York: Doubleday, pp. 35–142. p.i
5. ^ Daniel C Olson (2013). A New Reading of the Animal Apocalypse of 1 Enoch: All Nations Shall Be Blessed" / With a New Translation and Commentary". Brill. pp. 108–109 n. 63.

## Further reading

[edit]

See the various writings of Julian Morgenstern, 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, 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, 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. Vetus Testamentum, 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.

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