Topics from Sanders, Judaism, Chapter Eight: The Festival Calendar
The Pharisaic Calendar:
Month = Full cycle of moon: 29.5 days [in practice: 29 or 30 days] as determined by court on the basis of testimony of witnesses.
Year = 12 months [12 x 29.5 = 354 days].
Because holidays are defined by solar agricultural seasons [e.g., Passover must be in "spring"] lunar years must be synchronized to solar, by periodic addition of extra month at end of year [before Passover] , as decreed by court.
24 Priestly courses
Fragment of Calendar Text (Mishmarot list) from Qumran |
Jubilees Calendar
[as followed by Book of Jubilees, Enoch, Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Community Rule, Damascus Covenant, War Scroll, etc.]:
Advocates of this calendar were aware that most Jews were using an "erroneous" reckoning.
Jubilees calendar ascribed (in Damascus Covenant) to Teacher of Righteousness.
364 days [7 x 52]
26 Priestly courses (instead of 24)
Months and festivals fall on same day of week every year!
Passover begins and ends on Tuesdays (14-21 of first month).
The "'omer" is brought on Sunday (26 of first month).
Exegetical roots of dispute:
Leviticus 23
[...after description of Passover...]:
And you shall count from the morrow after the sabbath , from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering ['omer]; seven full weeks shall they be, counting fifty days to the morrow after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a cereal offering of new grain to the Lord . (Leviticus 23:15-16).
...[Description of Pentecost]
Pharisees understood "sabbath" as referring to first festival of Passover. Hence count began on 16th day of first month, but not on a specific day of week.
- Pentecost would fall on sixth day of third month, but not on a specific day of week.
Samaritans understood the "sabbath" to be the Saturday within the Passover week.
Jubilees calendar understood "sabbath" to refer to first Saturday after Passover (25th of first month). The fifty-day count began on Sunday , the 26th and Pentecost turned out on Sunday, the 15th day of third month.
Additional comments:
- Septuagint translates Leviticus according to Pharisaic interpretation [sabbath = festival].
- Rabbinic sources refer to group called "Boethuseans" (from Judean desert region) who believed that sabbath =Saturday, and tried to confuse the calendar reckonings. Manuscripts can be read as two Hebrew words Beit [House of] Sin .
- Qumran documents suggest that the founder of the sect (Teacher of Righteousness) fled Jerusalem over calendar question.
- According to Pharisaic-Rabbinic reckoning, the date of the Pentecost coincides with and commemorates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai,
- Rabbis emphasize that the 'omer should be harvested even on the Sabbath . Staged elaborate ceremony:
[When the sheaf was harvested] on the Sabbath he would say to them: Is today the Sabbath? and they would respond: Yes!
Is today the Sabbath? and they would respond: Yes!
Should I harvest it? And they would respond: Harvest it!
Should I harvest it? And they would respond: Harvest it!
Each item would be repeated three times. Why so much? Because of the Boethusians who used to claim that the harvest of the sheaf was not on the morrow of the festival. (Mishnah Menahot 10:3).
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