L. Bible Chronology

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L.  English

Calendars in the Old Testament
 
by—Paul Albert Hansen, revised 16 July 2006, 18 May 2010 

Introduction
                                                                                                          
If we use the Bible alone to determine what kinds of calendars were in use down through Old Testament history, we come up with, perhaps, four:

     1.  From Creation to the Flood
     2.  From the Flood until the Exodus
     3.  From the Exodus to the Babylonian Captivity
     4.  From the Babylonian Captivity
 
1.  Creation to the Flood
 
a.  This is a calendar that references the life of an individual patriarch and is seen with the example of Noah (Genesis 7:11, 24; 8:3-5, 13-14):

     Genesis 7:11—“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month,      
     on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the
     great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.”     
          
     Genesis 8:3-4—“and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the          
     end of one hundred and fifty days the water decreased.  And in the seventh 
     month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the 
     mountains of Ararat.”     
      
b.  Here we notice these facts:

The years were referenced to Noah’s life.

The time from the 2nd month, 17th day to the 7th month, 17th day was clearly stated as 150 days which explicitly spanned exactly 5 months.
 
c.  This information seems to invite an implicit extrapolation to arrive at a 360-day year composed of twelve 30-day months before the Flood.


2.  From the Flood to the Exodus
 
a.  Even if, as looks probable, the solar year changed after the Flood from 360 days to what it is presently, it does not change the fact that the eight people who embarked on the Ark also disembarked with the same calendar scheme in mind.  By then they would have known that a solar year is determined by the solstices (with the equinoxes as a mid-check), and these could be determined by marking the point of a mid-day shadow of the top of a tall pole (a mark for each day on a line on the ground), and then taking subsequent precise observations by means of sunset/sunrise alignment or sighting tubes (or poles, or rocks) to determine the equinoxes and solstices.  I believe that this would have been the mindset of the people who left the Ark—a fairly high tech group of early mechanical engineers who had just demonstrated their skill by constructing a formidable boat.

b.  If, as seems probable, the solar year had changed by some 5¼ days per year after the Flood, then the most straight forward mindset would have been to retain the 360 day precedent but add an “extra 5 days” every year for 3 consecutive years and then “6 extra days” every 4th year.  It would have taken, perhaps, twenty years to establish this pattern with confidence.  Herein lies the argument for retaining a continuous calendar of twelve 30-day months which in more recent times has evolved into spreading the 5 extra days throughout the year by changing five months to 31 days each throughout three years and six 31-day months every fourth year.  (Actually somebody thought it clever to rob February of 2 days so now we must have seven 31-day months and an extra day added to February every fourth year.)

c.  The present moon’s cycle, albeit tempting in the short run and not needing the elementary observational skills necessary to identify the equinoxes and solstices, if tried as a measuring means for an annual calendar would be found wanting and needing constant correction by the addition of a 13th month every second or third year as noted in the present day Hebrew calendar.


3.  From the Exodus to the Babylonian Captivity

a.  The history of the Jews was impacted by a series of foreign powers starting with Egypt, the principal foreign power mentioned in the Old Testament from the Flood to the time of the Divided Kingdom (Israel and Judah).  Then followed Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece (Old Testament) and finally Rome (Old and New Testaments).

b.  At the time of the Exodus God made a change in the numbering of the months.  It is important to note here that He did not change the length or measuring means (i.e., solar to lunar) nor does it appear that He changed the names or the order of the months.  All these calendar elements probably stayed the same as that to which they had become accustomed during the previous 430 years (Exodus 12:40-41).  After all, it was not so much an Egyptian calendar as it was a solar calendar recognized as such by those who made careful solar observations.

     Exodus 12:2—“This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to
     be the first month of the year to you.”
      
c.  It was something like saying today, “From now on the new year will start on July 1st instead of January 1st.  So, whatever month was the first month of the year in Egypt from after the Flood to the Exodus, now, at the Exodus, the children of Israel were to observe a different month as the first month of the year.  The new first month became Abib.

      Exodus 13:4—“On this day in the month of Abib, you are about to go
      forth.”
     
d.  Some people think that Nisan is the month of the Exodus.  No, Abib is the month of the Exodus.  Nisan is a different calendar (a Babylonian lunar/solar calendar) that is not mentioned in the Old Testament until the Babylonian Captivity.  What the children of Israel most probably had for a calendar during the Exodus was essentially the same calendar as the one they had in Egypt—a solar calendar—except now the starting month was changed to the month of Abib, which corresponded to the 7 month in the Egyptian calendar.  This same solar calendar was clearly still in use during the time of Solomon 480 years later.  See 1 Kings 6:1 quoted below.

e.  It would interest us to know all the names of the months of this calendar, their order, and the number of days in each month.  The Bible does not give this information.  The Bible does tell us the total number of months in this calendar (i.e. twelve, see later below) and it tells us the names of four of the the months:

     Exodus 23:15—“…in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt.”
     
     Exodus 34:18—“…for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.”
     
     Deuteronomy 16:1—“…for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought
     you out of Egypt by night.”
    
     1 Kings 6:1—“…in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of
     Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign
     over Israel, in the month of Ziv which is the second month, that he began
     to build the house of the Lord.”

     1 Kings 6:37—“In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the Lord
     was laid, in the month of Ziv.”
     
     1 Kings 6:38—“…in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month…”
     
     1 Kings 8:2—“…in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month.”
 
f.  We know that the number of months in these years was twelve from 1 Chronicles 27:2-15 where all twelve months are enumerated according to the armies of Israel which served each month.  It is especially important to notice the preface to this enumeration:

     1 Chronicles 27:1—“…who served the king in all the affairs of the
     divisions which came in and went out month by month throughout
     all the months of the year…”

g.  From this we may gather that “all the months of the year” were twelve, because this is the number mentioned in the rather elaborate sequence of verses 2 through 15.  Here we seem to have some additional support for the idea of a continuing solar year of recurring 12 months each which best handles “seasons, days and years.”

h.  There is further evidence for recurring 12-month years in 1 Kings 4:7-19 where the 12 deputies are specifically named:

      1 Kings 4:7—“And Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, who 
      provided for the king and his household: each man had to provide for
      a month in the year.” [Then follows the names of the twelve deputies.]     

i.  If, for example, 13-month years were in use during this time in Israel it would be imperative to also make provision for this situation as well.  This is, admittedly, an argument from silence, but the requirement for a 13th month is so frequent (every 2 or 3 solar years to realign a purely lunar calendar with solar years) that it seems conclusive that provision for this situation would have had to have been specified as well.


4.  From the Babylonian Captivity

a.  The last calendar is associated with Babylon and Persia.  Although Babylon conquered Judah, the empire of Persia was also in parallel existence with its capital in Susa, and the Persians conquered the Babylonians and brought about the Restoration of Israel under Cyrus.  The events of the book of Esther may well have occured during the 70 year captivity. See Esther 1:2-3, 3: 7, Daniel 6:1, 9:1-2, Ezra 4:6, (Mordecai is mentioned in Ezra 2:2, Nehemiah 7:7).  Here are the references to the calendar in vogue during the captivity:

     Esther 3:7—“In the first month, which is the month Nisan…”
     
     Esther 8:9—“…in the third month, that is, the month Sivan…”
     
     Esther 3:7—“…until the twelfth month, that is the month Adar.”
      
b.  In addition, the month Adar is also mentioned 6 more times in the book of Esther:  3:13; 8:12; 9:1, 15, 17 and 21.  This might be a good place to remind ourselves that a 13th month is never once mentioned or alluded to in Scripture not even in conjunction with the Babylonian nor Persian calendar references in the Bible.

c.  The last calendar is mentioned in three of the six Restoration books of the Old Testament:  Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zechariah.  During this the Post Exilic period these books tell of historical matters concerning the children of Israel after the 70 years of Babylonian Captivity.  It is very probable that this calendar was adopted by the Jews from the Babylonians, since the Israelites were captives and would naturally follow the calendar of those to whom they were captive.
 
d.  It is also probable that this calendar started out as a solar calendar if for no better reason than solar calendars were, evidently, the precedent since Creation and the Flood, easier to devise, use, and give more consistent and satisfying results, since this system agrees most readily with the seasons as they relate to the orbit of the earth around the sun.

e.  Here is a Bible summary of the months for the Babylonian calendar:

     Nehemiah 2:1—“And it came about in the month of Nisan…”
      
     Nehemiah 6:15—“So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul…”
     
     Nehemiah 1:1—“…in the month Chislev…”
    
     Zechariah 7:1—“…the ninth month which is Chislev…”
      
     Esther 2:16—“…in the tenth month which is the month Tebeth…”
     
     Zechariah 1:7—“…the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat…”
      
     Ezra 6:15—“...this temple was completed on the third day of the month  
     Adar…”
    
f. It is interesting that most of the references to this Babylonian calendar come from the book of Esther (10 of 16 to be exact).  Only 3 references to this calendar come from Nehemiah, one from Ezra, and 2 from Zechariah.  When we consider the content of Esther, the Jewish beauty who while in captivity, became queen, and saved her fellow captive people from slaughter, we should not be surprised at the idea that this calendar that begins with Nisan (Esther 3.7) and ends with Adar (Esther 3.7) was an ostensibly non-Jewish calendar having its origin in Babylon (if not Assyria) which during Esther’s day was still under the rule of Babylon with Susa being some 200 miles east of Babylon.

g.  It is true that the present day Jews have adopted this (pagan) calendar and sanitized it (so   to speak) for their own purposes, refined it even further as a lunar/solar calendar, and even retrofitted and extrapolated it all the way back to the Exodus (hence, Nisan) and even back to Creation! We are given the distinct impression that this was always the only Hebrew calendar!  Imagine this!  The Babylonian calendar is now misunderstood by many as being the original Hebrew calendar!

h.  The fact that the present Jews have made this lunar/solar calendar theirs today, and the fact that this is a lunar calendar, which must be constantly corrected for the seasons of the solar year (hence lunar/solar), does not somehow make it the calendar that Christians should adopt as being more “biblical”, or more Scriptural, any further back than to the time of the Babylonian empire.  It should be further observed that this Nisan calendar was not specifically ordained by God, but had its origins outside of the Old Covenant context—in a captivity context—and may be construed as Biblical only in the sense that it is mentioned in the Old Testament as pertaining to the captivity (Esther) and the restoration (the books of Zechariah, Ezra, Nehemiah).


Conclusion
 
a.  We have briefly looked at the four calendars alluded to in the Bible.  There is enough information in the Creation account of the 4th day to infer that a solar calendar is what God had in mind:

     Genesis 1:14—“Then God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the
     heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs,
     and for seasons, and for days and years”     

b.  A lunar calendar may work as signs for short months, but only a solar calendar will work “as signs for seasons, and for days and years.”  Nothing is said about months here.  The Bible does not support the idea of a lunar calendar being used by the children of Israel any earlier than the Babylonian Captivity.


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