The Septenary 364-day Biblical Year

"More than any astronomical aspect, the 364-day year is characterized by its numerical harmony. In fact, the best definition for the year is neither a 'solar' nor 'luni-solar' year but rather a seven-based (septenary) schematic year. This definition gives the best account for most manifestations of this sectarian reckoning. " - Jonathan Ben-Dov 


The 364-Day Year: General Characteristics

More than just encompassing the astronomical aspects of the sun and the moon, the 364-day Calendar retrieved in Qumran is neither ‘solar’ nor  ‘lunar’. This calendar is instead uniquely defined as a "septenary calendar", because of its numerical harmony of the 7-day creation week with the heavenly motions. With the arithmetical and schematic dimensions of the week of Genesis as its first rule while, the 364-day calendrical year is not just a mere mathematical calendar, for it also unites the cycles of the celestial bodies using a seven-based (septenary) schematic cycle. While the observation and calculation of the heavenly motions remain an integral part of the Original Calendar, its 364-day year does not accept any preference for a particular luminary over another, but rather harmonizes them both around the perfect septenary arithmetical possibilities and traits of this number.

Although some claim that the 364-day year in the astronomical book of the book of Henock is primarily a solar year, possibly because they overstated the primacy of the solar model in chapter 72, this is certainly not the case. The 364-day year is not designated as a solar year anywhere in the Astronomical Book, nor is there a preference for the sun over the moon in the determination of times. On the contrary, it is the purported aim of the astronomical book to achieve a harmony between all heavenly luminaries by means of the Divine mechanism of the 364-day year.

360 day year

The 364-day year finds its core structure in the 360-day year, which consists of 12 schematic 30-day months.

The traditional Mesopotamian astronomy was based on the ideal year of 360 days, which is most suitable for astronomical and administrative calculations. The 360-day year is then completed with the four cardinal days, to reach the number of 364.

The year always begins imminently after the spring equinox as the beginning of the year always falls on a Wednesday. Therefore, the festival of Passover always falls in the first month, following the biblical decree in Exodus chapter 12. The emphasis on the synchronization of the Calendar to the solar movements and its seasons through out the year, is an important characteristic of the 364-day calendar tradition.

It is divided symmetrically into a hierarchical order of time periods, (1 En 82:9–20; Jub 6:29–31; 4Q328, 4Q329)

The Calendar structure underlines the division of the year into 52 weeks and hence into 4 quarters of 13 weeks or 91 days each. The neat division of the year into 52 weeks had great value in the Hebrew culture, where, since biblical times, the number 7 has been considered sacred, laying special emphasis on full weeks (the 1st day of the week Sunday to the last day of the week Sabbath). In this respect the 364-day year is greatly advantaged with regard to the standard gregorian or even Jewish luni-solar calendar, in which the number of days in the year is ever changing with observation.

Therefore, the 364-day year has the great virtue of dividing exactly into 52 weeks, and subdividing into 4 seasons of 13 weeks each, and has the further practical advantage that the annual holidays fall on the same day of the week very year, and never fall on the Sabbath.