More on that solar calendar

CALENDAR MYSTERY CONTINUED: Prof. Eshbal Ratzon's Tarbiz article about the ancient Jewish 364-day solar calendar is getting lots of attention.

The original TAU press release is posted by Popular Archaeology (and elsewhere): Hasmonean history is combined with the enigma of the Qumran calendar – to solve an ancient mystery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. You can download the full text of the Hebrew Tarbiz article at her Academia.edu page here.

A couple of other articles cover the issues throughly. I think Prof. Ratzon is interviewed in both, although the Haaretz article doesn't specify this:

Did Breakoff Ancient Jews Really Use a 'Divine' 364-day Calendar? While grimly pitted against the Romans, the Jews hated each other too, which may have led some to adopt an alternative calendar handed down to Moses, according to the apocrypha (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz). This one also has some good photographs of manuscripts of 1 Enoch and Jubilees in various languages.

Power of 7: Could an ancient political feud explain Qumran sect’s faulty 364-day calendar?. New theory offers a solution to one of the Dead Sea Scrolls’ longest-running puzzles, arguing the out-of-sync calendar was used for ideological reasons — until it felt safe to abandon it (Zev Stub, Times of Israel).

I noted the 2014 Haaretz piece on the Hebrew calendar by Elon Gilad (mentioned in the current Haaretz article) here, with comments. Happily, it did not disappear behind the paywall!

Background and comments on Prof. Ratzon's Tarbiz article here.

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