Hebrew Lunar-Solar calendar / Roman Solar calendar
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A
Until c. 100 BC the Hebrew calendar was based on lunar months which followed the Babylonian practice. The new year began in the spring (March/April) and accommodated the agricultural seasons. To maintain this a second twelfth month (Adar) or sixth month (Elul) was periodically added to control the beginning or ‘return of the year’ at the time of the spring equinox (1 Ki. 20:26).
See: Judaism 101: Jewish Calendar
See: Judaism 101: Jewish Calendar
25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
26 But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.
27 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. note
26 But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.
27 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. note
A
One of my bible dictionaries state:
"The ancient Hebrew calendar year was composed of lunar months, which began when the thin crescent of the new moon was first visible at sunset. The day of the new moon thus beginning was considered holy.
The month (Heb. yeraḥ, *‘MOON’) was reckoned to consist of 29/30 days and, since the lunar year was about 11 days less than the solar year, it was periodically necessary to intercalate a thirteenth month in order that new year’s day should not fall before the spring of the year (March–April).
No precise details are known of the method used by the Hebrews to accommodate the agricultural with the lunar calendar. They may have interposed a second Adar (twelfth month) or second Elul (sixth month) within the lunar cycle of 3, 6, 11, 14, 17 or 19 years. There is some evidence for the Hebrew use of intercalated months after Adar (Nu. 9:11; 2 Ch. 30:2–3; cf. 1 Ki. 12:32–33), though possibly sometimes after Nisan (cf. 2 Ch. 30:2ff.) as was done in Mesopotamia.
The observation of the autumnal equinox, i.e. ‘the going out of the year’ (see Ex. 23:16), and of the spring or vernal equinox, called ‘the return of the year’ (1 Ki. 20:26; 2 Ch. 36:10, AV), was important for controlling the calendar and consequently the festivals. Thus the year began with the new moon nearest to the vernal equinox when the sun was in Aries (Jos., Ant. 3.201), and the Passover on the fourteenth day of Nisan coincided with the first full moon (Ex. 12:2–6)."
The Babylonian exile, in the first half of the sixth century B.C., greatly influenced the Hebrew calendar visible today in the names of the months. The Babylonian influence may also have led to the first practice of intercalating leap months.
The modern Hebrew calendar came into being when patriarch Hillel II, in his position as Nasi of the ancient Jewish Sanhedrin in 385 CE, broke with tradition and disseminated rules for calculating the Hebrew calendar such as including rules for intercalation over nineteen-year cycles. Prior to that time the calendar was regarded as a secret science of the religious authorities. Disagreement continued and it can be stated that between 70 and 1178 CE, the observation-based calendar was gradually replaced by a mathematically calculated one.
The Sanhedrin used to meet and evaluate reports of sightings of the lunar crescent. If sightings were not possible, the new month was begun 30 days after the beginning of the previous month. Decisions on intercalation were influenced, if not determined entirely, by the state of vegetation and animal life. Although eight-year, nineteen-year, and longer- period intercalation cycles may have been instituted at various times prior to Hillel II, there is little evidence that they were employed consistently over long time spans until Hillel II.
But note that a strictly SOLAR calendar was used in the book of Jubilees in 105 BC (cf. 1 Enoch 72–82).Throughout the Book of Jubilees, the author attempts to date all significant events by this method dating by weeks (seven year periods) and jubilees (forty-nine year periods). What is rejected is the lunar calendar consisting of 354 days, with six months having twenty-eight days and six months having twenty-nine days. Some argue that this could have been a constributing factor in the establishment as Sunday observance in the early church.
The Julian calendar, introduced by Juliius Caesar 46 BC , was a solar calendar with months of fixed lengths that replaced the Roman calendar. Every fourth year an intercalary day was added to maintain synchrony between the calendar year and the tropical year. It served as a standard for European civilization until the Gregorian Calendar 1582, also a solar calendar.
The Roman calendar is believed to originally have begun as a lunar calendar based on one of the ancient Greek Hellenic lunar calendars. The Romans borrowed parts of their earliest known calendar from the Greeks. The ancient calendar consisted of 10 months in a year of 304 days. The Romans seem to have ignored the remaining 61 days, which fell in the middle of winter. The 10 months were named Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December. The last six names were taken from the words for five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten.
Romulus, the legendary first ruler of Rome, is supposed to have introduced this calendar in the 700s B.C.E. Romans separated their months from the lunar cycle in the fifth century B.C.E. Month lengths then became fixed. At that time, Ides was assigned as the 15th day in all months given 31 days in length – March, May, July and October. It was designated as the 13th day in all other months. As a result, from then on the Kalends section had from 16 to 19 days, the Nones section had either four or six days and the Ides section, as before, always had eight days.
Sometime after Kalends, Nones and Ides were fixed on predetermined days of the month rather than being defined by phases of the moon, Romans used letters A thru H on the left side of each month’s calendar column to indicate days of their eight-day marketing week. The first day of each new year was represented by the letter "A."
The earliest Roman calendar originated as a local calendar in the city of Rome, supposedly drawn up by Romulus some seven or eight centuries before the Christian Era.
TODAY, there are six principal calendars in current use. These are the Gregorian, Jewish, Islamic, Indian, Chinese, and Julian Calendars. These calendars replicate astronomical cycles according to fixed rules.
The civil calendar in use around the world (Gregorian calendar) is a solar calendar.
Solar calendars are based on the progression through the seasons as the Earth revolves around the Sun, but neglect any attempt to keep the months synchronous with the lunar phases. A lunar calendar bases each month on a full cycle of the Moon's phases (called a lunation or synodic month) without regard to the solar year. Lunar calendars usually start each month with a New Moon or the first visible crescent moon after New Moon. Luni-solar calendars try to remain synchronous with both the solar year and the moon phases. However, a solar year does not contain an integral number of days or an integral number of lunar months. To compensate for this, many luni-solar calendars adjust the length of their years and months. Without such an adjustment the seasons will steadily drift through the months.
As you can clearly see, none of the early calendars were all that accurate (certainly not accurate enough to be called "God's calendar") and they all underwent change over the centuries to make them more accurate.
Furthermore, the Julian solar calendar was already established in Western Civilization by 46 AD long before Constantine and the rise of Roman Catholicism.
"The ancient Hebrew calendar year was composed of lunar months, which began when the thin crescent of the new moon was first visible at sunset. The day of the new moon thus beginning was considered holy.
The month (Heb. yeraḥ, *‘MOON’) was reckoned to consist of 29/30 days and, since the lunar year was about 11 days less than the solar year, it was periodically necessary to intercalate a thirteenth month in order that new year’s day should not fall before the spring of the year (March–April).
No precise details are known of the method used by the Hebrews to accommodate the agricultural with the lunar calendar. They may have interposed a second Adar (twelfth month) or second Elul (sixth month) within the lunar cycle of 3, 6, 11, 14, 17 or 19 years. There is some evidence for the Hebrew use of intercalated months after Adar (Nu. 9:11; 2 Ch. 30:2–3; cf. 1 Ki. 12:32–33), though possibly sometimes after Nisan (cf. 2 Ch. 30:2ff.) as was done in Mesopotamia.
The observation of the autumnal equinox, i.e. ‘the going out of the year’ (see Ex. 23:16), and of the spring or vernal equinox, called ‘the return of the year’ (1 Ki. 20:26; 2 Ch. 36:10, AV), was important for controlling the calendar and consequently the festivals. Thus the year began with the new moon nearest to the vernal equinox when the sun was in Aries (Jos., Ant. 3.201), and the Passover on the fourteenth day of Nisan coincided with the first full moon (Ex. 12:2–6)."
The Babylonian exile, in the first half of the sixth century B.C., greatly influenced the Hebrew calendar visible today in the names of the months. The Babylonian influence may also have led to the first practice of intercalating leap months.
The modern Hebrew calendar came into being when patriarch Hillel II, in his position as Nasi of the ancient Jewish Sanhedrin in 385 CE, broke with tradition and disseminated rules for calculating the Hebrew calendar such as including rules for intercalation over nineteen-year cycles. Prior to that time the calendar was regarded as a secret science of the religious authorities. Disagreement continued and it can be stated that between 70 and 1178 CE, the observation-based calendar was gradually replaced by a mathematically calculated one.
The Sanhedrin used to meet and evaluate reports of sightings of the lunar crescent. If sightings were not possible, the new month was begun 30 days after the beginning of the previous month. Decisions on intercalation were influenced, if not determined entirely, by the state of vegetation and animal life. Although eight-year, nineteen-year, and longer- period intercalation cycles may have been instituted at various times prior to Hillel II, there is little evidence that they were employed consistently over long time spans until Hillel II.
But note that a strictly SOLAR calendar was used in the book of Jubilees in 105 BC (cf. 1 Enoch 72–82).Throughout the Book of Jubilees, the author attempts to date all significant events by this method dating by weeks (seven year periods) and jubilees (forty-nine year periods). What is rejected is the lunar calendar consisting of 354 days, with six months having twenty-eight days and six months having twenty-nine days. Some argue that this could have been a constributing factor in the establishment as Sunday observance in the early church.
The Julian calendar, introduced by Juliius Caesar 46 BC , was a solar calendar with months of fixed lengths that replaced the Roman calendar. Every fourth year an intercalary day was added to maintain synchrony between the calendar year and the tropical year. It served as a standard for European civilization until the Gregorian Calendar 1582, also a solar calendar.
The Roman calendar is believed to originally have begun as a lunar calendar based on one of the ancient Greek Hellenic lunar calendars. The Romans borrowed parts of their earliest known calendar from the Greeks. The ancient calendar consisted of 10 months in a year of 304 days. The Romans seem to have ignored the remaining 61 days, which fell in the middle of winter. The 10 months were named Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December. The last six names were taken from the words for five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten.
Romulus, the legendary first ruler of Rome, is supposed to have introduced this calendar in the 700s B.C.E. Romans separated their months from the lunar cycle in the fifth century B.C.E. Month lengths then became fixed. At that time, Ides was assigned as the 15th day in all months given 31 days in length – March, May, July and October. It was designated as the 13th day in all other months. As a result, from then on the Kalends section had from 16 to 19 days, the Nones section had either four or six days and the Ides section, as before, always had eight days.
Sometime after Kalends, Nones and Ides were fixed on predetermined days of the month rather than being defined by phases of the moon, Romans used letters A thru H on the left side of each month’s calendar column to indicate days of their eight-day marketing week. The first day of each new year was represented by the letter "A."
The earliest Roman calendar originated as a local calendar in the city of Rome, supposedly drawn up by Romulus some seven or eight centuries before the Christian Era.
TODAY, there are six principal calendars in current use. These are the Gregorian, Jewish, Islamic, Indian, Chinese, and Julian Calendars. These calendars replicate astronomical cycles according to fixed rules.
The civil calendar in use around the world (Gregorian calendar) is a solar calendar.
Solar calendars are based on the progression through the seasons as the Earth revolves around the Sun, but neglect any attempt to keep the months synchronous with the lunar phases. A lunar calendar bases each month on a full cycle of the Moon's phases (called a lunation or synodic month) without regard to the solar year. Lunar calendars usually start each month with a New Moon or the first visible crescent moon after New Moon. Luni-solar calendars try to remain synchronous with both the solar year and the moon phases. However, a solar year does not contain an integral number of days or an integral number of lunar months. To compensate for this, many luni-solar calendars adjust the length of their years and months. Without such an adjustment the seasons will steadily drift through the months.
As you can clearly see, none of the early calendars were all that accurate (certainly not accurate enough to be called "God's calendar") and they all underwent change over the centuries to make them more accurate.
Furthermore, the Julian solar calendar was already established in Western Civilization by 46 AD long before Constantine and the rise of Roman Catholicism.