Scientists have solved the mystery of the 364-day calendar
Scientists have proposed an explanation for one of the long-standing mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls: did the Qumran community really use an unusual 364-day calendar or did it exist only as a religious and theoretical system. The study suggests that the calendar could have been used in the early years of the community's existence, but later its use became impractical due to differences with the seasons and changes in the political situation. The article "Izvestia" explains why a system with perfectly even 52 weeks could stop working in real life.
How was the Qumran community calendar set up?
The study by Eshbal Ratzon from Tel Aviv University is published in the journal Tarbiz: Quarterly for Jewish Studies. Scientists have been studying the calendar of the Qumran community for several decades, but the question still remained whether it was used in everyday life or represented a predominantly religious idea.
The calendar was different from the lunar-solar system that was used in Jewish religious life during the Second Temple period. There were exactly 364 days in it. This number is divisible by seven without remainder, so each year consisted of 52 full weeks. As a result, religious holidays fell on the same days of the week every year.
For the members of the community, such a structure had more than just mathematical significance. They perceived it as a reflection of the perfect divine order. At the same time, the calendar was also associated with a religious and political conflict with the leadership of the Jerusalem Temple.
The Temple authorities determined significant dates using the current calendar. Representatives of the Qumran community did not recognize the right of people to set these dates independently. According to their ideas, they were established by God at the creation of the world and should not have been changed by man.
Almost 20 scrolls discovered at Qumran are devoted to calendars and astronomy. The researcher also draws attention to the "Book of Jubilees", one of the important texts of the Qumran library. In it, the current lunar calendar is criticized, and the 364-day system is presented as the original calendar received by Moses on Mount Sinai.
Why did the ideal calendar start to diverge from the seasons?
The problem with the system was the length of the year: 364 days is about one day and a quarter shorter than the 365-day astronomical year. At first glance, the difference seems small, but it accumulates over time. According to the researcher's calculation, if you use such a calendar for 20 years, religious holidays will shift by almost four weeks relative to the seasons. In a few decades, a spring-related holiday could fall in winter or autumn.
This posed a practical problem for the community. Her religious holidays were associated with agriculture, harvesting, first fruits, and the seasonal cycle. Therefore, the gradual divergence of the calendar from the seasons became more and more significant.
In the materials of Tel Aviv University, this effect is compared with a clock that deviates by one minute every day. At first, the difference is almost impossible to notice, but after a long enough time, the clock stops showing the real time.
By the same logic, the 364-day calendar could remain accurate in terms of its own structure, but gradually diverge more and more from the natural seasonal cycle. It is this discrepancy that the researcher considers as one of the reasons why the calendar could subsequently cease to be used in practice.
Was the calendar actually used
This is where the main historical mystery arises. Some researchers suggested that the community could periodically add additional days or weeks to the calendar to compensate for the discrepancy with the seasons. Others believed that the 364-day system was not used at all in everyday life and represented only a religious model.
Ratson suggests another reconstruction. According to her version, the community did use this calendar at an early stage of its history, and disputes about the correct definition of religious dates became one of the reasons for its conflict with the religious leadership of Jerusalem. The study suggests that the calendar was actively used during the formation of the community in the 2nd century BC. Disagreements over how to define the sacred time could have contributed to its separation from the Jerusalem religious center.
At the same time, the Ration itself emphasizes the probabilistic nature of such a reconstruction. As one of the options, she assumes that the calendar was actually used for a certain period, and then ceased to perform a practical function. After that, the 364-day system could have been preserved as a religious ideal and an element of the community's identity.
How could the calendar turn from a practical system into a religious ideal
According to the proposed reconstruction, two circumstances could have influenced the change in the attitude to the calendar: the gradually accumulating discrepancy between the 364-day year and the seasons, and the change in the community's relations with the ruling Hasmonean dynasty. During the reign of Alexander Yannai, relations between them improved, which, according to Ratson, could facilitate the transition to a more practical calendar system used in the Temple.
Eshbal Ratzon
The Qumran calendar has long been considered one of the defining features of the Qumran sect, as well as one of the most mysterious mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
At the same time, the 364-day calendar might not completely disappear from the religious beliefs of the community. According to the reconstruction proposed by the researcher, it could have been preserved as an ideal system associated with the creation of the world and ideas about the end of time. Thus, Ratson suggests that the calendar could first be used in practice, and then lose its practical significance due to differences with the seasons and changes in the political situation, while retaining its religious role.
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