This page illustrates the last month (XII) of the year and the first month (I) of the new year in the Essene Calendar parallel with the equivalent dates on the Julian calendar. Weekly Sabbaths and annual Sabbaths appear in bold red. The blue boxes mark the date of the vernal equinox. Determination of the dates on the Essene Calendar follow the simple rule that the first day of the new year must be the first Wednesday on or after the vernal equinox. As there are only 364 days a year in the Essene Calendar there must be a leap year when the vernal equinox falls on a Thursday. In that case the the first day of the month advances seven days to the next Wednesday. This provides then, as strange as it may seem, for the 31st of XII to last eight days. It is a period of "no time" as the date would remain the same but the days of the week would run normally.

Finegan believes, however, that the Essenes did not intercalate their calendar but simply allowed the discrepancy to accumulate. He writes:

It would theoretically take about 290 years for a discrepancy of a full year to develop. Likewise it is calculated that, if the calendar as in use from, say, around 124 B.C., the discrepancy would have amounted to to months by the time of the crucifixion of Jesus, and this in itself provides a difficulty for the theory that the Last Supper was observed in terms of the Qumran calendar. (Finegan 1998:49.)

He presents no evidence for his conclusion, but appears to be undermining the claim of Bargil Pixner that the Last Supper occurred on a Tuesday night. Finegan did not find, in the available literature, confirmation of intercalation. One must remember that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Moreover, the fact that the only internally consistent model for harmonizing the biblical accounts of the Passion Week require the Passover Sabbaths of the Essenes and the traditional Jews in CE 30 to be back-to-back, i.e., on Wednesday (Essenes) and Thursday (traditional Jews). In the critical period of time CE 29-33 only in CE 30 does the Essene Passover Sabbath, always a Wednesday, immediately followed by the traditional (priestly) Passover Sabbath. This is evidence of intercalation.

Thiering, on the other hand, argues for intercalation with the method being the insertion of 17 1/2 days every 14 years. This results in the new year alternating on a Wednesdays for 14 years then on  Saturdays for 14 years (Thiering 1992:189). This is not possible if the Essenes always had the fist of the first month on a Wednesday to keep their holy days consistent. Moreover, it is inconsistent with the Wednesday-Thursday adjacent Passover Sabbaths as in the years CE 29-42 she sets the first of month I on a Friday.

Page last updated: 12/13/04 07:21 PM.

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