predate it from its earliest known appearance, in the third-centuryBCEAstro-
nomical Book of Enoch.^107
On the basis of this later dating, some have argued more recently that the
origin of the 364-day calendar may have been Babylonian. This argument is
largely dependent on the increasingly accepted notion that the astronomical
contents of the book of Enoch, especially Enoch’s description of the solar and
lunar courses, are derived from Babylonian astronomy and in particular from
the classical, seventh-centuryBCE astronomical compendium MUL.APIN.
This compendium assumes a theoretical or ideal year-length of 360 days
(twelve 30-day months) which, as we have seen, seems to have been also
assumed in the earlier textual layer of 1 Enoch, where it is most likely of
Babylonian origin.^108 But the 364-day year of 1 Enoch’s later textual layer has
also been ascribed a Babylonian origin, on the basis on an inference from a
short passage of MUL.APIN which states that the year consists of twelve
(lunar) months and ten days, and that one intercalation is therefore made
every three years.^109 Assuming that twelve lunar months equal 354 days
(based a regular alternation of 29-and 30-day months), this passage would
imply a year-length of 364 days. The argument, therefore, is that this short
passage would have been the source of the Judaean 364-day calendar, as well as
of its synchronization with the three-year lunar cycle that is attested in
Qumran sources.^110
This argument, however, is implausible on more than one count. The
inference of a 364-day year from this passage of MUL.APIN is unconvincing
not only because this year-length is unattested in Mesopotamian astronomical
sources, but also, more specifically, because the calendar used throughout
MUL.APIN is the 360-day year (e.g. Hunger and Pingree 1989: 139–40); if a
364-day year were assumed in this short passage, it would be inexplicably
inconsistent.^111 Furthermore, this passage discusses the length of the year only
(^107) Thisex silentioargument has not been proposed, to my knowledge, elsewhere. For my
earlier, less decisive view, see Stern (2001) 2–3. See also Ben-Dov (2005) 241–2, (2008) 2.
(^108) Albani (1994) 173–272, Glessmer (1996a). On MUL.APIN, see Ch. 2 n. 92. The 360-day
year is also assumed in 4Q318 (4QZodiology: J. Greenfield in Pfannet al.2000: 259–74), an
astrological work from Qumran containing other elements of Mesopotamian origin. Similarly,
Ben-Dov and Horowitz (2005) have shown that the lunar dates that are listed in Qumran
synchronistic calendars (duqahand‘x’, on which see further Ch. 7, near n. 16) correspond to
elements of the‘Lunar Three’tradition in Babylonian astronomical sources, which would
confirm the influence that Babylonian astronomy exerted on Jewish astronomical literature of
the Hellenistic period (see also Ben-Dov 2008: 153–287).
(^109) MUL.APIN II ii 11–12 (Hunger and Pingree 1989: 94).
(^110) Horowitz (1994) 94, (1998); also Albani loc. cit. and 278, Glessmer (1996a) 278, 281,
(1997) 143–4, (1999) 217, 274–5, Ben-Dov (2008) 166–7, 182–3.
(^111) Koch (1996), refuting Horowitz (1994) but failing, all the same, to provide a satisfactory
explanation of this passage. See Horowitz’s rejoinder and remarks (1998). Koch also points out
that the inference is based on the assumption that twelve lunar months equal 354 days, which
itself is not mentioned anywhere in MUL.APIN (see also Hunger and Pingree 1989: 153).
198 Calendars in Antiquity