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The Solar Calendars of Daniel and Enoch

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The Solar Calendars of Daniel and Enoch THE SOLAR CALENDARS OF DANIEL AND ENOCH GABRIELE BOCCACCINI I. INTRODUCTION Daniel 7:25 blames the iniquitous king, Antiochus Epiphanes, for "changing times" in Temple worship. According to A. Jaubert and J. C. VanderKam, this marks the occasion on which the Hellenistic lunar calendar definitively replaced the old Zadokite solar calendar, which Jubilees and Qumran would seek in vain to restore after the Maccabean revolt. 1 The obvious implication of this hypothesis is that Daniel also used the solar calendar. Nevertheless, the book of Daniel itself is conspicuously absent in the discussion about the antiquity of the solar calendar that has involved many other ancient Jewish documents. In fact, the chronological references in Daniel are apparently too obscure to infer any calendar.2 While "the half week" of Dan 9:27 and "a time, (two) times and a half time" of Dan 7:25 and 12:7 are symbolic, yet quite consistent indications of time, the "2,300 evenings and momings" of Dan 8: 14 fall short of the three and a half years they should refer to, and the "1290-1335 days" of Dan 12: 11- 12 somehow go further. While none of these figures explicitly supports the solar or the lunar calendar, there are some indications that Daniel may have indeed used a solar calendar. I A. Jaubert, "Le calendrier des Jubiles et de la secte de Qumrän. Ses origines bibliques," VT 3 (1953) 250-64, esp. 263; J. C. VanderKam, "2 Maccabees 6:7a and Calendrical Change in Jerusalem," lSl 12 (1981) 52-74, esp. 60. See also E. Vogt, "Antiquum kalendarium sacerdotale," Bib 36 (1955) 403-408; J. C. VanderKam, "The Origin, Character, and Early History of the 364-Day Calendar: A Reassessment of Jaubert's Hypotheses," CBQ 41 (1979) 390-411; idem, Calendars in the Dead Sea Serails (London and New York: Rout1edge, 1998). 2 On the "times of the end" in Daniel, see J. J. Collins, "The Meaning of the End in the Book of Daniel," in H. W. Attridge, J. J. Collins, and T. Tobin, (eds.), OfScribes and Serails: Studies on the Hebrew Bible, Intertestamental ludaism and Christian Origins (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1990) 91-98; repr. in J. J. Collins, Seers, Sibyls and Sages in Hellenistie-Roman ludaism (Leiden: BrilI, 1997) 157-65. 312 GABRIELE BOCCACCINI First, in Dan 6:8, l3 the king's decree assumes that "30 days" is a sort of standard period. This is in fact the standard length of the month in the solar calendar. However, the 30-day period in Daniel 6 could have no relationship at all with the month, or could simply refer to the Mesopotamian calendar used at the king' s court. Second, the only recorded date in the book of Daniel is "the 24th day of the first month" (10:4). The practice of dating events to numbered months rather than to named ones is typical of the priestly literature after the Babylonian exile, and is generally taken as evidence of the solar calendar. Moreover, while the 24th of Nisan has no special relevance in the lunar calendar, the 24th day of the first month in the solar calendar is Friday, according to Jaubert a perfect time for visions before Sabbath. Dan 10:4 shows that Daniel was (or, at least, may have been) familiar with the sabbatical calen­ dar used in other Second Temple documents. Finally, in Dan 12:11-12, the difference between 1,335 and 1,290 days is 45 days. This figure makes sense only if we have two consecutive 30-day months, one month plus a half (30+ 15), which is possibile only in the solar calendar. Whoever wrote Daniel 12, therefore, knew a calendar in which the months were not calculated according to the moon, that is, in a sequence of 30-day and 29-day months. However, since Dan 12:5-l3 presents the "half week" (v. 7), the "1,290 days" (v. 11) and the "1,335 days" (v. 12) in aseries, we should expect the same proportion between the "half week" and the 1,290 days. According to the 364-day calendar of Jubilees and Qumran, three and a half years equal 1,274 days. The addition of 16 days to reach 1,290 days, and of a total of 61 days to reach 1,335 days, does not make much sense. How many days does the "half week" count in Daniel? The only ancient text that explicitly elaborates on the figure of Daniel is the Revelation of John, and it is strikingly straightforward. The time of persecution is aperiod of "42 months" (11 :2; l3:5), or "1,260 days" (11:3; 12:6), or "a time, two times and a half time" (12: 14). According to the book of Revelation, therefore, Daniel would have known a solar calendar of twelve 30-day months, which makes a year of 360 days. In fact, such a calendar allows us to establish a sensible relationship among the three calendrical references in Daniel 12. A consistent and proportioned series links the "half week" (1,260 days) to the 1,290 days (with the addition of one 30-day month), which in turn becomes 1,335 days with the .
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