Go to Related Reading
About this book

1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 74

1 I observed another pattern and law for the moon and how she completes her monthly cycle. 2 Uriel, the holy angel who leads them all, showed me this. He revealed their positions and I recorded these positions as he showed them to me, as well as the phases of their lights over the course of fifteen days. 3 The moon completes her illumination in the east in seven parts, and her waning in the west also in seven parts. 4 In certain months, she changes her settings, and in other months, she follows a unique path. 5 Specifically, in two months, the moon sets with the sun, corresponding to the middle portals, the third and the fourth. 6 The moon circles for seven days and then turns around and returns through the same portal where the sun rises, completing all her illumination before receding from the sun. After eight days, she enters the sixth portal, where the sun emerges. 7 When the sun moves through the fourth portal, the moon also takes seven days to complete her phase before moving through the fifth. She then returns in seven days back to the fourth portal and completes her illumination. She then retreats and enters the first portal in eight days. 8 The moon returns again to the fourth portal in seven days, from which the sun emerges. 9 This pattern showed how the moon rose and the sun set during that period. 10 When five years are combined, the sun accumulates an excess of thirty days, and all the days that accrue to it for one of those five years, when they are complete, amount to 364 days. 11 The excess of the sun and of the stars amounts to six days: in five years, six days every year come to 30 days, and the moon falls behind the sun and the stars by 30 days. 12 The sun and stars manage to synchronize over time, not advancing or delaying their position by even a day, but they complete the year perfectly just in 364 days.⁠ 13 In three years there are 1092 days, and in five years 1820 days, so that in eight years there are 2912 days. 14 For the moon alone, over three years, the total is 1062 days, falling 50 days behind over five years. 15 In five years, there are 1770 days total for the moon, so in eight years, the moon totals 2832 days. 16 Over eight years, the moon falls behind by a total of 80 days; all the days she falls behind in eight years are 80. 17 The year completes accurately according to the world-stations and the positions of the sun, which ascends and descends through the portals every 30 days.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 74:12 and Jubilees 6:32

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions

Share:

Summary

1 Enoch describes a 364-day astronomical calendar, tracking how far the moon falls behind the sun each year. In Jubilees, this tradition becomes a command, with a warning to Israel not to follow anyone who organizes time with the moon.

Passages

1 Enoch 74:12

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
10 When five years are combined, the sun accumulates an excess of thirty days, and all the days that accrue to it for one of those five years, when they are complete, amount to 364 days. 11 The excess of the sun and of the stars amounts to six days: in five years, six days every year come to 30 days, and the moon falls behind the sun and the stars by 30 days. 12 The sun and stars manage to synchronize over time, not advancing or delaying their position by even a day, but they complete the year perfectly just in 364 days. 13 In three years there are 1092 days, and in five years 1820 days, so that in eight years there are 2912 days.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Jubilees 6:32

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
31 Thus it is engraved and ordained on the heavenly tablets. And there is no neglecting (this commandment) for a single year or from year to year. 32 And command the children of Israel that they observe the years according to this count — three hundred and sixty-four days, and (these) will constitute a complete year, and they will not disturb its time from its days and from its feasts; for everything will happen in them according to their testimony, and they will not leave out any day nor disturb any feasts. 33 But if they do neglect and do not observe them according to His commandment, then they will disturb all their seasons and the years will be dislodged from this (order), [and they will disturb the seasons and the years will be dislodged] and they will neglect their ordinances.
170–125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jubilees

References

... It was known already when Dillmann published the first modern translation and text of Jubilees that 364 as the number of days in a year was not unique to Jubilees, since the angel Uriel reveals a calendar of the same length to Enoch in 1 Enoch 72:32 (and through the entire chapter) as well as in 74:10, 12; 75:2; 82:6. As several passages in the astronomical chapters of 1 Enoch disclose, the writer is defending the thesis that the year consists of 364 days against others who advocate one of 360 days (with twelve months of thirty days each; 75:1-3; 82:4-7). 1 Enoch 72—82 and especially the Aramaic remains of the book (4Q208—211) show that the Enochic astronomical work devoted a great deal of attention to the moon and did not reject it from calendar calculations as Jubilees does. Moreover, the Enochic writer defines the length of the months in the 364-day calendar (and in the lunar one), unlike the author of Jubilees, who never explicitly indicates how long a month lasts. The calendar texts from Qumran demonstrate that, like Enoch, the writers used both a solar calendar of 364 days in a year (the number is stated and fully preserved in 4Q252 ii:3 and 11Q5 xxvii:5—6) and a lunar “year” of 354 days. ...
James C. VanderKam, Jubilees: A Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2018), 44–45.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Your feedback

1 Enoch 74:12 and Jubilees 6:32

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library