ENGLISH

Head of All Years: Astronomy and Calendars at Qumran in Their Ancient Context (Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah)

By Jonathan Ben-Dov

Book information

Year
2008
ISBN
900417088X, 9789004170889, 9047424190, 9789047424192
LCC
CE35 .B395 2008
Open Library ID
OL16900716M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
2 MB (2187357 bytes)
Pages
331\353
Topic
Education
Scanned
yes
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

Rather than being an isolated, primitive body of knowledge the Jewish calendar tradition of 364 days constituted an integral part of the astronomical science of the ancient world. This tradition-attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Pseudepigrapha-stands out as a coherent, novel synthesis, representing the Jewish authors' apocalyptic worldview. The calendar is studied here both 'from within' - analyzing its textual manifestations - and 'from without' - via a comparison with ancient Mesopotamian astronomy. This analysis reveals that the calendrical realm constituted a significant case of inter-cultural borrowing, pertinent to similar such cases in ancient literature. Special attention is given to the "Book of Astronomy" (1 Enoch 72-82) and a variety of calendrical and liturgical texts from Qumran.

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