Lourié on 3 Maccabees, 2 Enoch, and the calendar

BASIL LOURIÉ: The Liturgical Cycle in 3 Maccabees and the 2 Enoch Calendar (proofs). Proofs posted at Academia.edu.

ABSTRACT
3 Maccabees provides a hagiographical legend related to a 50-day liturgical cycle. This cycle implies a modification of the already known calendar shared by 2 Enoch and the Joseph and Aseneth and covers the third pente-contad after the Passover within the 364-day year having its first day (1.I) falling on Sunday (not Wednesday) 3 Maccabees’s innovation consists in shifting the former New Wine pentecontad from the second to the third position while transforming the original day of the New Wine festival into a day of mourning. This kind of liturgical transformation of some feasts is not unique, however, in the Second Temple Judaism.