Counting Time: The Dead Sea Scroll Essene Calendar Explained

For more on this topic with lots of free and downloadable materials, see Dr. Tabor's blog: https://jamestabor.com. Just do a search for any topic that interests you. Also please subscribe to the blog--emails are secure and never shared--and also subscribe to this YouTube channel. This lecture lays out the varied calendrical systems used in ancient Judaism. Calendars are complex things and lie at the core of our lives, as well as how most religious traditions function. How to count time was one of the most contentious issues between various ancient Jewish groups and sects--whether Pharisees, Sadducees, or Essenes. The issues involved the marking of the Jewish festivals, months, years, and Jubilee cycles, all of which were absolutely vital to the function of core religious observances. We now have the Dead Sea Scrolls, which propose a solar-lunar calendar. In this lecture Dr. Tabor attempts to "simplify" this most complex subject,, which remains controversial among Jewish, Christian, and Muslim groups today. This lecture was part a Biblical Archaeology Society seminar, publishers of the premiere archaeology magazine, Biblical Archaeology Review. It is used with permission. I encourage viewers to subscribe to the incredible BAS Library, with thousands of articles, books, and videos. There is nothing like this rich archive that covers every major topic and discovery for more than 40 years. Unlimited access to the library is available for a small annual subscription price, see: https://www.baslibrary.org.