The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

46 WHAT’S INACALENDAR?
line 9; partly restored in 4Q325 frag. 2.7). These particular “holy seasons”
lack an explicit biblical base. However, they are seemingly
anchored in pertinent scriptural texts in which the “wood offering” and
the offerings of “new wine and (new) oil” are mentioned next to “firstfruits
of corn” and “trees,” etc. (Num 18:12; Deut 18:4; Neh 10:35–40).
It is plausible that also the summaries of the number of days in each
annual quarter (of which only one is partly preserved in col. 2 lines
6–11) were originally recorded in 4Q394 frags. 1–2, and presumably
also the annual total of 364 days (4Q394 frags. 3–7 lines 1–3), as suggested
by the following passage:
On the twenty-third in it (the second month) Sabbath. The thirty[e]th [in
it] Sabbath. On the seventh of the third (month) Sabbath. On the fourteenth
in it Sabbath. The fifteenth of it is the feast of Weeks. The [twentyfir]st
[in] it Sabbath. On the twenty-eight [in it] Sabbath. After the Sabbath
[the first and] the second day (of the week) a day is added, (Pswn Mwy), and
the quarter is completed in ninety-one days.…[On the twenty-fir]st in it
(the sixth month) Sabbath. On the twenty-second in it the festival of the
(New) oil…
As said, the smooth rotation of fifty-two weeks annually and the permanent
congruence of every day of the week with fixed dates in the annual
cycle, ensure that all feasts are riveted forever to the same day of the week,
and that year in year out all Sabbaths will unvaryingly fall on the same
monthly dates. This diurnal order can be achieved only in a time register
of 364 days per annum, in which the year and its constituent quarters subdivide
neatly into units of seven days. In this respect the Qumran/
Jubilees/Enoch solar calendar compares to advantage with the Jewish lunar
calendar of 354 days which requires special computations of the weekdays
on which the festivals will fall in a given year.
The Cycles of Priestly Watches
It should be noted that the yah[ad’s calendrical works are not in the form
of an almanac in which all days of the year are enumerated. Only “holy
seasons,” that is to say Sabbaths and festivals, are registered. Secular
workdays are altogether omitted, with the exception of the twenty-ninth
and the thirtieth day of every third month which intervene between the last
Sabbath on the twenty-eighth of the month and the “added day” Pswn Mwy,
at the end of every quarter.