dssdead-sea-scrolls
C — Calendars, Liturgies and Prayers
Part 4
A fragmentary astronomical text from Qumran, written in cryptic script, tracks the waxing and waning of the moon in fourteenths across a 364-day solar calendar. Days five through seven show the moon moving toward full coverage — fourteen portions covered — and days nine through eleven show it progressively revealing one, two, then three portions into the night cycle. The 364-day calendar is the same solar reckoning underlying the Enochic Moedim tradition, where the appointed feasts fall on fixed days and the heavenly luminaries serve as witnesses to covenant time.
1
Seventy-six fragments of an astronomical text written in a cryptic alphabet record the phases of the moon, divided into 1/14ths of the full size of the moon, over the consecutive days of a 364-day solar calendar. J. T. Milik has reconstructed a fourteen-line section, based on fr. ii, 2—14 and supplemented with other smaller fragments. For the text, see J. T. Milik, The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave, 68-9.
2
II.. On the fifth of it, twelve are covered and thus it enters the day. On the sixth of it thir]teen are covered and thus it enters the day. On the seventh of it fourteen are covered and thus] it enters the day. vacat On the eighth of it.. the firmament above.. its light is to be covered.. on the first of the Sabbath. vacat On the ninth of it one portion is revealed and thus it enters the night. On the tenth of it two are revealed and it enters the night. vacat On the eleventh of it three are revealed and thus it enters the night. vacat
