The Enoch Calendar and Biblical Chronology

One in a series on Biblical Chronology.

The Enoch Calendar also has 364 days. Thus it appears to have the same problem as the calendar espoused by the Book of Jubilees. It therefore would fall out of alignment with the seasons of the year.

However, a close reading of the book of Enoch reveals that an angel did tell Enoch to insert extra weeks.[i]

13 The moon brings on all the years exactly, that their stations may come neither too forwards nor too backwards a single day; but that the years may be changed with correct precision in three hundred and sixty-four days. In three years the days are one thousand and ninety-two; in five years they are one thousand eight hundred and twenty; and in eight years two thousand nine hundred and twelve days.
14 To the moon alone belong in three years one thousand and sixty-two days; in five years it has fifty days less than the sun, for an addition being made to the one thousand and sixty-two days, in five years there are one thousand seven hundred and seventy days; and the days of the moon in eight years are two thousand eight hundred and thirty-two days.
15 For its days in eight years are less than those of the sun by eighty days, which eighty days are its diminution in eight years.
16 The year then becomes truly complete according to the station of the moon, and the station of the sun; which rise in the different gates; which rise and set in them for thirty days.

It is clear that the Book of Enoch acknowledges that over time its calendar will have in three years thirty days less than the solar year; in five years fifty days less than the solar year; and in eight years eighty days less than the solar year. These verses not only acknowledge the need for correction but also authorize it.

The angel authorizes Enoch to change the calendar. The question is when the change is to be made. The first part of verse 13 must contain the answer: “The moon brings on all the years exactly, that their stations may come neither too forwards nor too backwards a single day; but that the years may be changed with correct precision in three hundred and sixty-four days.”

The annotations to the R.H. Charles translation contains these comments: “In this [eight-year] cycle an intercalary month of 30 days was inserted in the third, fifth and eighth year of the cycle in order to reconcile the lunar and solar years, which were reckoned respectively at 354 and 365.25 days.”[ii]

The new Hermeneia Commentary, containing the Book of the Luminaries with chapters 72-82, should be released soon. I will blog again on this topic after I have had the opportunity to review the new Hermeneia Commentary and also The Books of Enoch: Aramaic fragments of Qumrân Cave 4 edited by J. T. Milik; with the collaboration of Matthew Black.


[i] 1 Enoch 73:13-16; translated from Ethiopic by Richard Laurence, London, 1883. In the 2004 translation by Nickelsburg and VanderKam, these verses appear in 1 Enoch 74:12-17; in the 1912 R.H. Charles translation these verses appear in 1 Enoch 73:12-17. It should be noted that Charles translation starts: “And the sun and the stars bring in all the years exactly.”
[ii] Charles, 160.

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