Rather than being an isolated, primitive body of knowledge the Jewish calendar tradition of 364 days constituted an integral part of the astronomical science of the ancient world. This tradition--attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Pseudepigrapha--stands out as a coherent, novel synthesis, representing the Jewish authors' apocalyptic worldview. The calendar is studied here both "from within"--analyzing its textual manifestations --and "from without"--via a comparison with ancient Mesopotamian astronomy. This analysis reveals that the calendrical realm constituted a significant case of...

Time stands at the heart of human experience. In this book, new investigations illuminate the gamut of human engagement with time in antiquity.