A brief proposal for solving the issues of the 364 day solar Qumran calendar

[anastasis888]

This is so simple a solution that it may seem quite sophomoric when it is stated, however, I believe this is the missing link in the 364 day Jubilean/Enochian/Qumran solar calendar. I've read all sorts of elaborate and  absurd epagominal and intercalary proposals to solve for this and may I simply state that none of them are necessary as Hebrews began the count at 0. Yes, 0. The solution is that simple. 

What happens when we do not count the 1st day until the end of the following evening as is the Biblical regular pattern in Genesis? We arrive at 365 days, not 364 days. When the Qumran scrolls read '364' days, they assume the reader is counting as they count - from 0. The Hebrew method of counting at this time was end to end, not beginning to beginning. However, even in our western mode we do not consider a child to be one year old until the end of the first year, not the beginning of the first year.

Ergo, all the proposed solutions to this alleged dilemma are moot. Time reckoning on the sundial is counted this way as well from end to end. Therefore, the 1st hour of the day was not 1st hour till the end of the 1st hour going into the 2nd hour. This again is opposite of our western mode where the ecclesiastical hours were counted from beginning to beginning.

In short, when Enoch and Jubilees state that there are 364 days in the solar cycle, they assume the reader is beginning the count at 0, not 1. When the method is employed, we arrive at a full 365 day year used among the Essenes as their solar cycle to calibrate the lunar cycle.

I have seen scholars at the post-graduate level going off the deep end in speculating about this intercalary week and that necessary epagomenal cycle and every ludicrous theory in between. None of them is necessary if we simply begin our count at 0. Of course, that probably won't sell many scholarly periodicals as the method can be explained in a grand total of one sentence.

Edited November 11, 2022 by anastasis888

[anastasis888]

Jesus himself gives us an indicator of how Jews counted the sundial hours. For if one were to say that it was half past the 11th hour, it would mean that 11 hours had past and you were halfway into the 12th hour. 

Notice that those hired at the 11th hour only worked one hour. If hours were accounted from the beginning and not the end, they should have worked two hours, not one.

Matthew 20 - The Parable of the Eleventh Hour Laborers

1For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. 2And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. 5Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. 6And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? 7They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.

8So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. 9And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. 10But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. 11And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, 12Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. 13But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? 14Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. 15Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? 16So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

Edited November 10, 2022 by anastasis888

[anastasis888]

So, how exactly does one go about making this count? From end to end. 0-364 is indeed only 364 days in our reckoning if you count from beginning to beginning. But the Jews didn't count from beginning to beginning but from end to end. Therefore, we must count one more from 364-0, which brings us back to 0 and completes our yearly count and is 365 days in our western mode of count.

Therefore, the Essenes were not so ignorant as to misunderstand the true length of the year. They had a different method of counting.

As for that partial day of .2419 (5 hours 37 minutes) that completes the solar tropical year, it is irrelevant as you will always begin your new year on the succeeding evening, not at 12:00AM. Thus your year count is always in line with the solar year if you count this way from end to end.

Edited November 10, 2022 by anastasis888

[anastasis888]

Think of it this way. You have a 365.2419 day tropical year in the reckoning of Julius Caesar's days. That is the same as saying you have 364 days of 24 hours and one day of 29 hours 37 minutes. That is also the same as saying that your new year's day, whichever day you choose, will have to be 18 hours 23 minutes long if you are to have a 365 day year (or a 364 day year in Essene counting method). That's perfectly fine if you define a day as having an evening and a morning and not necessarily 24 equal hours. 

Therefore, a 364 day year by Essene reckoning cuts out all of the complication of Caesar Julius's calendar leap years, or Gregory's revised leap years. All this means is that the west has greatly over-complicated the matter and the Essenes simplified it.

If you count after the divine pattern in Genesis, your days will always be on track. Caesar would have us move from light to darkness. God in Genesis is moving us from darkness to light. And if we go from darkness to light, we find our calendar always stays on course.

Edited November 10, 2022 by anastasis888

[anastasis888]

Here is my replica of the Qumran sundial. After working with it for a while, I've come to understand its uses. It keeps the hour of the day after the fashion of any sundial, but it also has 30 notches to keep track of the lunar day with a piece of string as I suspect they were using flax thread wrapped similarly to how I have it here. You can also keep days of the week by making a wrap per day with another string. 

It does in fact mark solstices, equinoxes, and crossquarters at the solar noon hour as well so you can always keep track to see if you need to add an additional lunar month if your count has come to about 30 days beforehand.

Not a bad piece of kit for 2000 years old.

 

[tim_from_pa]

Nice replica of the sundial.  

I can see from this replica that its construction demonstrates the understanding of ancient man in that the style is vertical and all your markings emanate from the style. So that's how I know this vertical pole is acting as the style (the shadow casting part of the sundial that tells the time as opposed to gnomon). This creates an azimuthal dial of sorts.

Until we understood the concept of our polar axis and that the sun moves around that line at a relatively even rate of 15 degrees per hour. they struggled with the idea of equinoctial hours.  Hours were seasonal - shorter day in the winter and thus 12 shorter hours and vice versa. There's a simple trigonometric relation to figure the number of equinoctial hours in a day depending on the season.

But my assumption was that those seasonal hours were then divided up into equal hours or as close to equal as they could determine.  But with such sundials as what you show here, I can see that even those seasonal hours would not be uniform. The Qumran community lived at the same latitude as Israel, so especially during the summer season, there is a far greater azimuthal change near to noon than in the mornings:  in short  less azimuth change in the mornings/evening but greater altitude changes and then vice versa close to midday.  

Now one thing baffles me:  The Greeks and Romans used hemispherium dials with a nodus casting the shadow, so you'd have an inverse (shadow) path of the sun at various seasons.  It totally escapes me for as mathematically advanced the Greeks were why they could not see that the paths at other seasons of the year were somewhat greater or less (angular measure) than at the equinox when the path would make a great circle arc.  You see where I'm going here?  If the winter path was shorter by so many degrees, they'd derive the idea of equinoctial hours and for that matter, some "mysterious" line which determines it that just so happened to be the parallel to  the polar axis of the earth, not that they would have understood that. in fact we know very little about sundials of the past.  I know the Egyptians used the "L" shaped dial which more closely approximates the polar axis at that latitude (i.e. a style laying horizontal would be more uniform than a vertical one).  However, they projected the shadow also on a level surface when it would work more uniformly on a vertical one.  A horizontal surface is based on a tangential function for "equal" hours.

In the end, I guess it's best just to use them empirically and enjoy them for what they are:  errors and all.