For Noah, all the months had thirty days

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Of the readings in the Revised Common Lectionary for 2 December 2013 (Monday after the First Sunday of Advent), I chose to reflect on Genesis 8:1-19.

For Noah, all the months had thirty days

The reading from Genesis for today covers the period of the flood itself in the tale of Noah.  There is no physical evidence of a worldwide flood, which is a major reason to consider this myth, yet the chronology of the flood given here is itself a major reason to not accept this as literal truth.  The leaving of the ark seems strangely drawn out, and it seems to be for no other reason than to make the whole flood cycle last a whole year.  But that's not the only clue here.  The months here are not lunar months as we typically think of as being part of the Jewish calendar, but thirty day months.  In Ancient times, the thirty day month was a feature of the Egyptian calendar.  Also the season of the Nile flood in Egypt from its beginning in Upper Egypt to its final end in Lower Egypt happens to be roughly the five months given as the time of that the flood waters are upon the earth in the flood account.  I think it is quite clear that what has happened is that a chronology of the annual flooding of the Nile (and by extension other Egyptian observances) has at some point been melded into the Mesopotamian flood myth.  If this theory is correct, then it is also likely that at some point, weeks were converted into days, but instead of using Egyptian ten day weeks, the converter used Mesopotamian seven day weeks.

[Chief Justice PiT]

     Perhaps I am missing something, but where do you find that the months in the flood myth are all thirty days?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Genesis 7:17 "In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened."

Genesis 8:3-4 "At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat."

So as you see, Genesis has one hundred fifty days be the period between the seventeenth day of the second month and the seventeenth day of the seventh month.  That certainly is too many days for lunar months, so it can't be a lunar calendar that is being referred to here. Now granted, it doesn't guarantee that all the months were exactly thirty days, but the Egyptian calendar with its thirty day months (plus a five day epagomenal period) fits the given chronology in a way that no other known ancient calendar does.

[Chief Justice PiT]

     Interesting. I notice that this chronology actually fits the modern Gregorian calendar very accurately. Obviously people at the time would not have used the Gregorian calendar, but I wonder if this section was a factor in determining the division of months that we employ in our calendar today.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The Julian/Gregorian calendar (as well as some others) spread out the extra days over twelve months to make them occur more evenly over the solar year, but the result is that they have typically have no period of five consecutive months that total 150 days.  The only such period in the Julian/Gregorian calendar is the five month sequence February to June. In any case, as you point out the Julian calendar itself is not sufficiently antique to have been the model and the pre-Julian Roman calendars all had epagomenal days not part of any month.  The Egyptian calendar is the only known calendar of sufficient antiquity to not be lunar or lunisolar.  Besides, the weights and measures used in the Bible show a mixture of Mesopotamian and Egyptian influences with the Mesopotamian predominating, so that the chronology in the Bible would show similar influences is not unexpected.

[muon2]

Ever since I read about the concept as a youth in the early 70's I've been fascinated by the concept of the flood as a tsunami from an asteroid or comet impact. Research continues as both the Burckle crater in the south Indian Ocean and the Umm al Binni lake in southern Iraq have been suggested as possible relics of an impact in the third millennium BCE.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Ever since I read about the concept as a youth in the early 70's I've been fascinated by the concept of the flood as a tsunami from an asteroid or comet impact. Research continues as both the Burckle crater in the south Indian Ocean and the Umm al Binni lake in southern Iraq have been suggested as possible relics of an impact in the third millennium BCE.

That's what's most interesting to me; the initial event that implanted the idea of a giant flood in our memories.