Texts in Conversation
1 Enoch sets the year at exactly 364 days as a law of the heavens. The Dead Sea scroll 4Q252 incorporates the same number of days into the Genesis flood story, timing Noah’s year in the ark to last precisely 364 days and follow the same calendar.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
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.
4Q252 2:2
Commentary on Genesis
Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Interpretation
1 In the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, 2 the earth was dry, on the first day of the week. On that day Noah went out of the ark, at the end of a complete 3 year of three hundred and sixty-four days, on the first day of the week, on the seventh 4 one and six, Noah from the ark, at the appointed time of a complete 5 year. And Noah awoke from his wine and knew what 6 his youngest son had done to him, and he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers.” But he did not 7 curse Ham, but only his son, for God had blessed the sons of Noah. “And in the tents of Shem may he dwell.”
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Notes and References
... The description of the Flood itself (4Q252 1 i 1—ii 5) follows the biblical account but retains only the portions relating to the timing of its various stages, supplying their precise dates and days according to the 364-day calendar. The author’s interest in chronology is further emphasized by the omission of all the details unrelated to dates, as observed by George Brooke. He also points out that none of the major stages of the Flood fall on Sabbaths or festivals. Thus, the presentation of the chronology of the Flood in 4Q252 follows the course of time as measured in the postdiluvian world, regulated by the 364-day calendar. Just as a new and permanent natural order is established following the Flood (Genesis 8:21—22; 9:14—16), represented in 4Q252 by the 364-day calendar, so also is there a new human race, to be fathered by the righteous survivor, Noah. ...
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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