Early Jewish Calendar Identified Among Dead Sea Scrolls

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Biblical Archaeology Society Staff July 29, 2011 4 Comments 2872 views Share

Early Jewish Calendar Identified Among Dead Sea Scrolls

A Dead Sea Scroll scholar at the University of Manchester in England has identified an early precursor to the traditional Jewish lunar calendar.

A Dead Sea Scroll scholar at the University of Manchester in England has identified an early precursor to the traditional Jewish lunar calendar. In a 2,000-year-old fragmentary scroll known to scholars as 4Q318, recent Manchester Ph.D. Helen Jacobus discovered an early Jewish zodiac calendar that uses the same month names still used by some Jews today. According to Jacobus, the calendar can still be used to find the moon’s position in the zodiac on a given date in the Jewish calendar. The end of the scroll also preserves a “thunder omen”-predictions about what will happen if thunder is heard when the moon is in a particular sign of the zodiac.

The recently published results of Jacobus’s research earned the 2011 Sean W. Dever Memorial prize, announced in the July/August 2011 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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4 Responses

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August 23, 2014 at 10:44 am

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Early Jewish Calendar Identified Among Dead Sea Scrolls – Biblical Archaeology Society

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try what he says says:

August 21, 2014 at 1:29 pm

try what he says

Early Jewish Calendar Identified Among Dead Sea Scrolls – Biblical Archaeology Society

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John says:

June 28, 2014 at 7:44 pm

Norman, please provide a link to the calendar alignment you mentioned.

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James Kelley says:

January 19, 2013 at 10:52 pm

What good is archaeology when we as christian don;t use it to correct mistakes made by Constantine and use it for what makes good common sense . The Passover was on Wendsnesday and not on friday as the dead sea calendar found supports.

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