Greetings Chuck and all~
chuckbaldwin wrote:Enoch 72 describes a 364-day year with "months"(?) of 30-30-31 in each quarter. This has the neat feature of making Sabbaths complete for the 91-day quarter (13 weeks), and for the entire 52-week year. Apparently the extra 1.2422 day didn't exist in Enoch's time.
We have studied Enoch's calendars a little, also. From what I've gathered, you are correct in that the time span in each gate is 30 to 31 days. Of course, they're not called months, but rather periods of time in which the light increasing over the darkness or decreasing. I do not see how this could make Sabbaths complete for a 91 day quarter because the Gregorian 7-day count is not precisely the same day at the beginning of the year. 365.25/7 = 52.178571... Yet 364/7 is 52 weeks. So we know when Yisra'el received the command to keep the Sabbath it was an impossibility for the Sabbaths to be in line with the year, even if there was a 7-day continual count.
chuckbaldwin wrote:Enoch 78 seems more oriented to the moon, and says that most months are 29 days, but some have 28 days. I would be interested in Bro Tewey's thoughts on this seeming contradiction.
According to the Ethiopian version, Enoch says that stated months are 29 days, and stated months are 30 days, "it also has a
period of 28 days." We know that the months are 29 or 30 days, so what is this reference to a 28 day
period?
Could it be the period of 4 shabuahs? Which could also correspond to the 28 days of visible light.
chuckbaldwin wrote:Enoch 82 again mentions the 4 91-day quarters/seasons and the 4 "intercalary days". It also describes the first 2 seasons,
and these descriptions sound very much like what we call "Spring" and "Summer", which combined, compose the Biblical
"Summer".
Ethiopian Enoch 71:12-13
When the sun rises in heaven, it goes forth through this fourth gate thirty days, and by the fourth gate in the west of heaven on a level with it descends. During that period the day is lengthened from the day, and the night curtailed from the night for thirty days.
Assuming that the year begins at this point, as how after this it describes all processes the sun goes through to return to this point again, we can see that the year begins at the crossing over into the 4th gate, that point is when the daylight increases over the night. Many people believe that the year begins at the equinox when the day and night are equal, which can last around 4 days. Yet, Enoch explains that this period begins with the increasing of light over darkness. In turn, the following three tekufahs (turnings or solstice/equinox) follow the same respective order.
chuckbaldwin wrote:For the notice of all you double-count Pentecosters, it also indicates that the wheat harvest STARTS in the Spring, but that all is gathered in from the fields during Summer. Enoch 80 mentions that in the "time of the sinners", everything will be out of whack -- both the heavenly luminaries and the harvests. I suspect that's the period we're in now.
I think that this time period might have started directly after the flood due to the phenomenon that took place, possibly being struck by objects, that in turn collapsed the canopy of water, striking the earth in such a manner to speed up its rotation. Thus explaining the 1.2422 day increase and moving the earth off of its axis to 23º, causing a dramatic climate change in the northern and southern hemispheres, hence we see the crops in the southern hemisphere not being in their prolific season. In other words, while the barley harvest in the spring taking place in the northern hemisphere, the southern hemisphere is entering their fall harvests.
chuckbaldwin wrote:It seems clear that there have been at least 2 different calendars in use at various times, and possibly even at the same
time.
I'm sure that there are those who would separate the time keeping of the luminaries into two different calendars: lunar and solar; but it seems to me that the lunar and solar are to be as one, echad, like the Father and Son. Although they are separated one from another in their esteem, yet they function as one. Maybe the problem lies in people separating the two, rather than seeing how they work in unity with one another. The esteem of the sun being the main source of all light, the esteem of the moon being a reflection of that light source, thus agreeing in unity, having their own specific functions. Both being witnesses to the true method of "time keeping".
~Greg