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There are about twenty different texts from Qumran which deal with a 364-day solar calendar.〔Talmon, 2000, p.108.〕 They are mainly very fragmentary, so the calendar is not completely understood. However, it is significantly different from the Babylonian lunar calendar which evolved into the 354-day Hebrew calendar as known today. The scrolls calendar divided the year into four quarters and recorded the feast days of the community. Feasts were fixed to the solar year and so occurred on different days from those indicated in the Babylonian-based calendar. Many of the texts are rosters of weekly shifts or courses of temple service for the twenty-four priestly families, known as ''Mishmarot''.〔Talmon, 2000, p.110.〕 The calendar is foreseen in the early sections of the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees, texts also found in large numbers at Qumran. ==Structure== The year is made up of twelve months, grouped in quarters. Each quarter contains two months of 30-days and one of 31-days, i.e. 91 days or 13 weeks, each quarter.〔Talmon, 2000, p.109.〕 The following table shows a quarter of the year. (The day names are provided only to facilitate of understanding. Other than the weekly Sabbath, the other days were merely numbered in the calendrical texts.) The year and each of its quarters starts on the same day, the fourth day of the week (Wednesday to us). This was the day when the sun was created in Genesis 1:14-18. However, the calendar as we know it is 364 days long, making it one and a quarter days short of a true year. This means, if it were put into practice, it would quickly become out of sync with reality. Because of this, Lawrence Schiffman has stated the view that "this calendar was never really put to the test except perhaps for a short period".〔Schiffman, 1994, p.304.〕 Uwe Glessmer has proposed on the basis of 4Q319 ("Otot") that the calendar was in fact intercalated, a week being added every seven years to keep it in sync with the solar year.〔Glessmer, cited in VanderKam, 1998, p.82.〕 Roger Beckwith suggested that the discrepancy between the calendar and the true year, though noticed, may not have been of concern to the community that used the calendar.〔Beckwith cited in Stern, 2000, p.180.〕 The calendrical documents 4Q320 and 4Q321 from the Dead Sea Scrolls outlining the 364-day solar calendar, six-year cycle of priestly courses, and 354-day lunar year cycles may be found (here ).〔Vermes, 1997, Mishmarot A - 4Q320, pp.336-348〕 In addition, an abbreviated Jubilee calendar from 4Q319 along with the priestly course serving on 1 Abib (the first day of the year) each year may be found (here ).〔Vermes, 1997, Calendric Signs (Otot) - 4Q319, pp.352-356〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Qumran calendrical texts」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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