Early Jewish Calendar Identified Among Dead Sea Scrolls
Bible and archaeology news
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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Nonsense, James. We should look at Biblical statements through the beliefs and understandings of those who wrote the Biblical statements, etc. So the Crucifixion was on Friday before the start of the Sabbath at sundown on Friday, the first day before His Resurrection. The Saturday was the Sabbath, the second day before His Resurrection. Then the Sunday, the day He rose was the third day. The day of Passover with the Last Supper should be counted back from this. I don’t find Wednesday in this.
Looks like this 2011 article is nowhere. Links on BAR and on Brill end on page ́ot found. Where can we find it?
Hi Bernard,
Thank you for the opportunity to revisit and fix up this old article.
The article on Jacobus winning the 2011 Sean W. Dever Memorial prize has been linked to in the article above.
You can also access it here: https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/department/study-of-qumran-zodiac-earns-dever-memorial-prize/
Sincerely,
-BAS Site Admin
Norman, please provide a link to the calendar alignment you mentioned.
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.