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

SHEMARYAHU TALMON 51
{x} is on the second (day) in (the week of) Abiah (which falls) on the twentyfifth
(of the eighth lunar month); and duqah is on the third day in Mijamin
(which falls) on the twelfth in it (the eighth solar month).
According to the prevailing opinion this roster evinces an intention to
fully synchronize the solar with the lunar year, singling out the propitious
nights of the new and the full moon. In contrast, I maintain that the alignment
of only two specific days in every lunar month with concordant
dates in the solar calendar is intended to specify the ominous days (actually
nights) of the moon’s waning and total eclipse. These phases are
identified by dates in the solar calendar to enable the Covenanters to
beware of them. This interpretation of the text is supported by 1 Enoch
72:37. The author holds up the moon’s inconstancy, which can be most
clearly observed twice every month, as a sign of its inferiority to the sun,
which never changes: the sun “does neither diminish (in respect to its
brightness),” as the moon does in the night of duqa/oh when it begins to
wane, “nor take rest,” like the moon at its total eclipse in the night of x,
“but continues to run day and night.” 54
The advocates of the solar calendar decried the observance of the
lunar ephemeris as adherence to “the feasts of the gentiles, after their
errors and their ignorance” (Jub. 6:35). Rabbinic tradition turned the
accusation around: “Israel reckons by the moon and the Gentiles reckon
by the sun,” 55 and stressed the exclusive legitimacy of the lunar calendar
by quoting Ps 28:5:
“Because they do not pay heed to the deeds of YHWH nor the work of his
hands, he shall destroy them,” the “deeds of his hands,” these are the new
moons, as is written “he made (appointed) the moon for (determining the)
seasons” (Ps 104:19)…”he shall destroy them,” these are the heretics who
do not observe either appointed days or periods…he will destroy them in
this world and will not build them up in the world to come. 56
54. See also Shemaryahu Talmon, “Anti-Lunar Calendar Polemics in Covenanters’
Writings.”
55. Mekilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, Tractate Pish[a, ch. 2, 39–41 (trans. and ed. J. Z.
Lauterbach; Philadelphia: JPS, 1933), 1:18 (published in a new edition as Mekilta of
Rabbi Ishmael [trans. and ed. J. Z. Lauterbach; Philadelphia: JPS, 2001]).
56. Midrash Tehillim (ed. S. Buber; Lemberg, 1899, reprinted New York: OM Publishing,
1947), 230.