Zodiac Calendars in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Their Reception: Ancient Astronomy and Astrology in Early Judaism

556 Pages·2014·4.22 MB·English

by  Helen R. Jacobus

Zodiac Calendars in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Their Reception
IJS STUDIES IN JUDAICA
Conference Proceedings of the
Institute of Jewish Studies,
University College London
Series Editors
Markham J. Geller
François-Guesnet
Ada Rapoport-Albert
VOLUME 14
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ijs
Zodiac Calendars in the Dead Sea
Scrolls and Their Reception
Ancient Astronomy and Astrology in Early Judaism
By
Helen R. Jacobus
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jacobus, Helen R.
 Zodiac calendars in the Dead Sea scrolls and their reception : ancient astronomy and astrology in early
Judaism / by Helen R. Jacobus.
  pages cm. — (IJS studies in Judaica, ISSN 1570-1581 ; volume 14)
 Conference proceedings of the Institute of Jewish Studies, University College London.
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-28405-0 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-28406-7 (e-book) 1. Jewish calendar.
2. Jewish astronomy. 3. Dead Sea scrolls. I. Title.
 CE35.J315 2014
 529’.326—dc23
2014033847
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issn 1570-1581
isbn 978-90-04-28405-0 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-28406-7 (e-book)
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Contents
Acknowledgements  xi
List of Tables and Charts  xiii
List of Figures  xv
Abbreviations and Notes  xvi
Introduction  1
1 Clarification of the Тitle of 4Q318  3
2 A Forgotten Calendar?  4
3 Was There an Interest in Astrology at Qumran? A Note on 4QZodiacal
Physiognomy (4Q186)  6
4 Fate, Time and Divination  15
5 Some Strands of Thought in Early Jewish Calendar Scholarship  19
5.1 Talmon’s Theory of Schism  19
5.2 Jaubert’s Theory  24
6 The Neo-Jaubertian Consensus 29
7 Questions Regarding Some Scholarship on the Dead Sea
Scrolls  31
7.1 J.T. Rook’s Theory  31
8 Some Problems of Ethiopic Manuscripts and Qumran  34
9 Summary  39
10 Parameters of this Research  40
11 Structure of this Study  41
1 Towards A New Interpretation of 4QZodiac Calendar  44
1.1 Introduction  44
1.1.1 Date  44
1.1.2 Textual Structure and the 360-day Calendar  45
1.1.3 The Lunar Zodiac in 4Q318  47
1.2 Scholarship on 4Q318: Setting the Problem  52
1.2.1 The Question of the thema mundi and MUL.APIN  53
1.2.1.1 The 360-Day Calendar as a Qumran Issue  60
1.3 Background to the Micro-zodiac: The Zodiac and the Months  63
1.3.1 tcl 6.14: A Handbook of Astrology  65
1.3.2 The Names of the Micro-zodiac Sub-Divisions  72
1.3.3 The Gestirn-Darstellungen Texts  74
1.4 The Babylonian Calendar, the 360-day Year and Intercalation  83
1.4.1 The 360-Day Year and the Micro-zodiac  91
1.4.2 Cuneiform Horoscopes and 4QZodiac Calendar  99
viii Contents
1.4.3 4Q318 and the Rabbinical Calendar  115
1.4.3.1 The Rabbinical Calendar Tested with 4Q318  122
1.5 The Zodiac Sign Names in 4Q318  133
1.5.1 The Aramaic Numerals  145
1.6 Babylonian-Aramaic Month Names  148
1.7 Material Description and Measurements  157
1.7.1 Column iv of 4QZodiac Calendar  159
1.7.2 Material Reconstruction: Published and Unpublished
Reports  161
1.7.3 Textual Reconstruction of 4QZodiac Calendar  166
1.8 Summary and Conclusion  175
2 4QBrontologion: Transmission, Origins and Significance  177
2.1 Introduction  177
2.1.1 Background Scholarship  178
2.1.2 Paleographical Issues  179
2.1.3 Questions Raised by Geoponica  184
2.2 Byzantine Brontologia with Calendars  191
2.2.1 The Structural Twin to 4Q318  191
2.2.2 An “Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar”  197
2.2.3 More Byzantine Calendrical Omen Texts  201
2.2.4 Parapegma with a Lost Brontologion  204
2.2.5 Discussion  207
2.3 Mesopotamian Science and Omen Literature  208
2.3.1 Early Mesopotamian Lunar Omens and Thunder  209
2.3.2 A Mesopotamian Calendrical Text with Omens  214
2.3.3 Excursus: A Note on Medieval Brontologia and Zodiac
Calendars  216
2.4 Purpose  218
2.4.1 The Skills of the Descending Angels  221
2.4.2 Divine Poetry: The Stars in Liturgical and Literary Texts  229
2.4.3 The Question of the Practitioner  256
2.5 Summary and Conclusion  258
3 The Aramaic Astronomical Book of Enoch Reconsidered in the Light
of 4Q318  260
3.1 Introduction  260
3.1.1 The Question of the Zodiac in the Ethiopic Book of
Luminaries  263
Contents ix
3.1.2 The ‘Gates’ in 1 En. 72 Reconsidered  268
3.1.2.1 The 360+4 Day Year in the Ethiopic Book  272
3.1.3 Ethiopic Computus Treatises and Zodiac Substitution  274
3.2 The Solar and Lunar Months  283
3.2.1 Aligning 4Q209 Frag 7, Col. iii with the Zodiac: Winter Solstice
Sunrise  291
3.2.2 The Calendars in 4Q209 Fragment 7, Column iii and 4Q318
Compared  311
3.2.3 The Calendars in 4Q209 Fragment 7, Column ii, Lines 2–13 and
4Q318 Compared  316
3.2.4 4Q208 Fragment 24, Column i, Lines 1–8 and 4Q318
Compared  321
3.3 The Solar and Lunar Years  323
3.3.1 The 354-Day Year in 4Q209 Frag 26  324
3.3.2 Is There a 364-Day or a 360-Day Solar Year in the Aramaic
Fragments?  334
3.4 Summary and Conclusion  340
4 The ‘Enoch Zodiac’ and Greco-Roman Zodiac Sundials  344
4.1 Introduction  344
4.2 Questions of Transmission  348
4.3 Sundials in Greco-Roman Astrology  352
4.4 Introduction to ‘Enoch Zodiac’ Sundials  359
4.4.1 Ancient Zodiacal Sundials and the Winds  361
4.4.2 Globe Dial, Prosymna, Greece  364
4.4.3 Hemispherical Dial, Rome  368
4.4.4 Horizontal Plane Dial, Pompeii  372
4.4.5 Plane Dial from the Mausoleum of Augustus, Rome  374
4.4.6 The Horologium-Solarium of Augustus, Rome  376
4.4.7 Ptolemaic Ivory Sundial, Tanis, Egypt  379
4.4.8 The Scaiphe Dial, or Roofed-Spherical Dial from Roman
Carthage  381
4.4.9 Vitruvius’s “Winter Clock”  382
4.4.10 Later Zodiacal Sundials  383
4.5 Summary and Conclusion  385
5 Zodiac Calendars in Hellenistic Texts and Artefacts  389
5.1 Introduction  389
5.1.1 Co-existence of Zodiac Calendars with Non-zodiacal
Calendars  389