Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

[On the sixteenth is the Sabbath of Happizzez. On the twen]ty-third is the Sabbath of (4) [Pethahiah.
On the thirtieth is the Sabbath of Jehezkel. The firs]t of the sixth month is (5) [after the Sabbath. On
the seventh is the Sabbath of Jachin. On the fo]urteenth (6) [is the Sabbath of Gamul. On the twentyfirst
is the Sabbath of Delaiah. On the twenty-]second (7) [is the Festival of Oil. On the twenty-third is
the Festival of W]ood [Offering] . . .
26. Heavenly Concordances (OTOT - 4Q319A)
As we have seen, the Qumran calendrical texts are based upon an understanding of the Creation
narrative of Genesis. No portion is more significant for these texts than Gen. 1:14, which the authors
might have understood as 'Let there be lights in the expanse of heaven to separate the days from the
night, and let them be for "signs" (otot), and for festivals and for days and for years.' Given the belief
that this verse had to do with the proper keeping of God's holy festivals and, more generally, with
keeping track of time, what did the Qumran authors believe was meant by the term otot? Clearly the
usual understanding of modern scholars of the text - that the term refers to portents of extraordinary
events and divine judgements and to phenomena prognosticating changes in the weather - makes little
sense when defining a natural rhythm, the basis of a calendar. Rather than the extraordinary, one then
seeks the ordinary.
The author of the present text understood 'sign' to refer to a year in which the sun and moon were once
again perfectly aligned at the year's beginning - that is, a year in which the vernal equinox coincided
with a new moon. According to the more general scheme of the Qumran calendrical texts that could
only happen in Years 1 and 4 of the six year cycle of priestly rotations. Since Years 3 and C were
intercalated at year's end, Years 1 and 4 did begin with the heavenlies once again in temporary
agreement. The years were named, as was usual in Qumran parlance, after the priestly courses;
because the years were always Years 1 and 4 in the cycle, only two priestly courses give their names
to otot years: Shecaniah and Gamul. Further, the cycle begins with Shecaniah. This oddity results
because at the Creation there had been no prior intercalation. Accordingly the reference is to the
course in service when intercalation was first necessary in Year 3.
The purpose of the present text is to record all such concordant years until the cycle begins to repeat,
and to align that cycle with both the seven-year cycle of sabbatical years and the 'jubilees' that
measured longer periods of time. An otot cycle of 294 years emerges (6 x 49). The text also counts all
the otot years and takes special notice when such a year coincides with a sabbatical year. It names
each special year by the relevant priestly course and also names each jubilee (in a more complicated
way, however, as explained below). But in constructing this alignment of the sexennial priestly
rotation with the jubilees, the text encounters a basic difficulty: 49 is not precisely divisible by 6. The
otot years will therefore not always fall at the beginning and end of jubilee periods. As a consequence
the text uses 'jubilee' in two slightly different senses. The term refers first to that period (only
approximating to 49 years) that aligns with the cycle of otot. We can call this the 'jubilee of the otot'.
At other times the term denotes the actual period of 49 years. At the end of 294 years the differences
are made good as Table 2 illustrates:
The text relates the 'jubilee of the otot' to the actual 49-year jubilee in two ways. The first is through
its reference to the 'sign of the conclusion of the jubilee'. Only once, in 2:18-19, does the author