X AND DWQ IN THE CALENDRICAL SCROLLS: ARE WE CLOSER TO AN IDENTIFICATION?

Introduction

The argument I wish to present to this audience today focuses on the specific topic of X and dwq, a set of dates recorded in the Mishmarot documents 4Q320, 4Q321 and 4Q321a. These dates are recorded on the specific day of their occurrence within the priestly cycle, within the base 364DY framework, and, within a loosely termed lunar framework, which, for the sake of clarity, I will refer to as the Qumran lunar calendar in acknowledgement of its distinctive nature when compared to the rabbinic lunisolar calendar. More specifically, the X date is given both in terms of the Qumran lunar calendar and in terms of the 364DY, as illustrated by 4Q321a Frg 1 [text 2 handout]; dwq is dated only in the 364DY, as illustrated also by the same text. It is my contention that a consideration of the textual evidence, both in its extant and in its reconstructed form as suggested by the editors of DJD xxi, will highlight some elements that will allow further identification of X and dwq. For lack of space and time I will not delve into the meaning of the phenomena, nor will I present any innovative etymological analysis. Rather, I will focus on their identification as lunar phases. In short, my argument can be stated as follows: (1) the double dating of X recorded in the documents allows identification of a daytime observable phenomenon which marked both the end of one lunar month and the beginning of the next lunar month at Qumran. This was marked by the observatin of the disappearance of the last crescent in the day-time sky; (2) the single dating of dwq, on the other hand, suggests the identification of a nighttime phenomenon, recorded regularly 16 or 17 days after X, thus indicating a nighttime observable phenomenon at or around the time of the full moon.

In developing my argument I propose first to recall some of the early scholarly proposals on the issue. For lack of time and space this will necessarily be unexhaustive. I will then consider in turn the X and dwq in the textual evidence. In a concluding part I will offer a few observations with regards to a recent proposal on the identity of X and dwq.

X and dwq in recent scholarship

Milik was the first to suggest in 1959, based on his consideration of 4Q321, then classified as MiBA, an identification of dwq with a specific lunar phase: the first
crescent. Milik derived the etymology of duqah from !" = to observe. Milik was also the first to suggest that, I quote, the Essenes computed the beginning of their lunar month from the full moon, not the new moon.

In 1991 Talmon and Knohl suggested that dwq derived from the root " = thin. They thus suggested that dwq was, I quote, the designation of the day in the middle of the lunar month that is preceded by the night in which the full moon begins to wane. For them, X was then the day at the end of the lunar month that follows upon the night in which the moon is in full darkness (1995, 297). It was Albani (1992) who first noted the importance of the Prologue of 4Q320 [Text 1 on your handout]. d %&# '& #(!)$#* d[ #$ ] d$ dr r ,[)]* d 1& d [-]# "!+,- .,&/# (,0 d -$2& # d [),$-#] (-/- \///- $ !- "2 d! d& r [4] #3/- '!/,$# /"!1* * 1rr #3[!/,$#]
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
[

.1 .2 .3 .4 .5

[ ]to its being seen (or: appearance) from the east ]to[ sh]ine[ in ]the middle of the heavens at the foundation of [Creatio]n from evening until morning on the 4th (day) of the week (of service) [of Ga]mul in the first month in [the fir]st (solar) year vacat2

1. S. Talmon, U. Glessmer, and J. Ben-Dov, eds, Qumran Cave 4 XVI Calendrical Texts, Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XXI (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001), 423. 2. Talmon, Glessmer, and Ben-Dov, Calendrical Texts, 42.

Albani interpreted the phrase from evening until morning as a reference to the full moon phase. It followed that the moon had been created full at the beginning of creation [see the table at the top of your handout] Since the publications by Talmon/Knohl and by Albani the identity of X and dwq has been debated among Scrolls scholars. The early debates tended to follow the identification of dwq as the first crescent, as originally suggested by Milik. VanderKam (Calendrical Texts and the Origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1994) adduced further support for a Full moon start of the month at Qumran (Mimarot A 2 I 3-5; 4QSe 1 V 10-11; Targum Pseudo Jonathan on the creation of the sun and the moon). Further support was also drawn from 4Q317 and 4Q503 by Abegg (Does Anyone Realy know What Time it is?, 1999) and by Gillet-Didier (200102 Calendrier Lunaire, Calendrier Solaire, Gardes sacerdotales) to name a few. There is no space to review here all publications on the issue. Of note, however, is M. Wises (1994) comprehensive etymological study of the term dwq. Wise, with Milik, concluded that the term came from the Aramaic verb Observe, and suggested that what was observed was the astronomical full moon. Consequently, X marked the last day of lunar visibility at the end of the lunation - the very last visible lunar phase.
Now to the internal textual evidence.

Internal textual evidence

The following passage from 4Q321a Col. I (Frg. 1) [text 2 on the handout] illustrates the scheme of the dating of X and dwq in the calendrical corpus: [ ] [ #/&1'!/)$"1)*!&4#2-$)#3!/)$# #3/# ] 3 [)!- $/2 #2-/- #,%!2&- #//- ! !"! (,3/# )!- .,/!*/- #,2",-]
1. 2. [ ] [The first year: On the fourth (day) in (the week of) Gamul (which falls) on the first (day) of the first (month). On the fifth (day)]

1 2 3

3. Talmon, Glessmer, and Ben-Dov, Calendrical Texts, 84.

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3. [in (the week of) Jedaiah (which falls) on the thirtieth in it (the first month) the second (occurrence of X); and duqo (is) on the sixth (day) in (the week of) Maoziah, (which falls) on the seventeenth in it].4

Admittedly, the text is reconstructed by the editors of DJD xxi. But 4Q320 1 I 3-4 and, to a lesser extent, 4Q320 3 I 9-12, allow for the reconstruction. Both the X and dwq dates are present in this text. Both sets are also specifically recorded together in 4Q321 Col.. I:1 - IV:8. In these fragments they occur according to the following pattern: dwq follows X by sixteen or seventeen days, while X always takes place thirteen days after dwq. To put it another way, dwq is attached to the sixteenth day of a twenty nine-day Qumran lunar month, and to the seventeenth day of a thirty-day Qumran lunar month.5 The X date alone is recorded in 4Q320 (frg. 1-2), and falls sequentially on the 29th or the 30th day of the Qumran lunar month, starting with the twenty ninth in the first lunar month, the thirtieth in the second lunar month, and so on, as illustrated by the extract from 4Q320 1 I [text 3 on the handout]: d >d >>/// /// ///* # rr !- > > ,[2",- \\///.6 ,3/> >> * 5! [ # (-/ ] .7 6 d >/// /// ///* -,/[,*)- /-] ,/*/- >>/// /// ///- > .8
6. 7. 8. [on the 5th (day) in Jeda]iah at (or: coinciding with) the 29th (day of the lunar month), on the 30th in it (the first solar month) [Sabbath in Ha]qqos at the 30th on the 30th in the second (solar month) [on the first (day) in Elia]shib at the 29th on the 29th in the third (solar month)7

As observed by various specialists (Wise 1994; VanderKam 1998; Talmon et al DJD xxi 2001), 4Q320 (Frg. 1-2) appear to be a register of the last day of the month in the Qumran lunar calendar and its equivalent date in the 364DY.
4. Talmon, Glessmer, and Ben-Dov, Calendrical Texts, 85. 5. Michael O. Wise, Second Thoughts on, in Pursuing the Text. Festschrift B. Z. Wacholder, eds J. C. Reeves and J. Kampen, JSOTSup 184 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994), 100. 6. Talmon, Glessmer, and Ben-Dov, Calendrical Texts, 434. As is the case for 4Q326 and 4Q318, the author used symbols to express numbers greater than 10. Units are indicated by /, and tens by >, so that //// = 5, and >> = 20. As indicated by Talmon, Glessmer, and Ben-Dov, Calendrical Texts, 137 notes 1115, such system was known in other documents from the Second Temple period. See also chapter 4 above, notes 15 and 20. 7. Talmon, Glessmer, and Ben-Dov, Calendrical Texts, 44.

The X date

Both 4Q320 1 i 6 and 4Q321a Col. I 2-3 [texts 3 and 2 repectively on the handout] indicate that the first recorded X date falls on the fifth (day) in (the week of) Jedaiah. 4Q320 1 i d >>/// /// ///* # rr 6. !- > >>,[2",- \\///-]
6. [on the 5th day in Jeda]iah at (or: coinciding with) the 29th (day of the lunar month), on the 30th in it (the first solar month)

4Q321a Col. I (albeit reconstructed by the editors in DJD xxi) 3. [)!- $/2 #2-/- #,%!2&- #//- ! !"! (,3/# )!- .,/!*/- #,2",3 [in (the week of) Jedaiah (which falls) on the thirtieth in it (the first month) the second
(occurrence of X); and duqo (is) on the sixth (day) in (the week of) Maoziah, (which falls) on the seventeenth in it]

Further, if the reconstruction of the text by the editors is correct and accepted, it can be inferred from 4Q321a Col. I 3 [text 2] that X occurs on the thirtieth day in the first month of the 364DY. 4Q320 1 i 6 [text 3] is more precise in its extant form and indicates that this thirtieth day of the first month in the 364DY is actually the twenty-ninth day of the first Qumran lunar month. This suggests that X, in the first month of the first year, follows the pattern Qumran lunar month date Y = 364DY date - 1. This equation holds true only for the first month in Years 1 and 4. The evidence suggests that the day in the 364DY and the day in the Qumran lunar calendar do not coincide exactly, the lunar reckoning starting only once the day in the 364DY reckoning reached evening. This hypothesis is consonant with Gen 1:18 where it is specified that the sun (mentioned first) rules the day, while the moon (mentioned second) rules the night. evidence possibly supporting sunrise reckoning: 4Q408 Morning and Evening Prayer; 4Q492 I 8-9; 6Q11 Allegory of the Vine; CD 9:26-10:8.

evidence possibly supporting sunset reckoning: CD 10-14-15; 4Q266 Da 6 I 4; 4Q503 Daily Prayers; 11QTa Col.. L So in the first year of the triennial cycle, the evening of the first day in the first month in the 364DY marked the onset of the first day in the first month in the Qumran lunar calendar [p. 2 handout]. It follows, therefore, that the day-time part of day 1 in the Qumran lunar calendar coincided with the day-time part of day 2 in the 364DY, in the first month of the first year. As to the night-time, it pertained to the same day in both reckonings, that is, the first night-time pertained to day 1, whether in the 364DY or in the Qumran lunar calendar. As a result, an observable phenomenon which belonged to the day-time part of the day in the first month of the Qumran lunar calendar would engender a situation in which its dating Y would have a corresponding dating in the 364DYT of Y+1 in the first month of the first year of the triennial cycle. The situation just described corresponds very well with the data recorded in 4Q320 [text 3]. The equivalent of the Qumran lunar date Y is date Y+1 in the 364DY. If the hypothesis here proposed is correct, the double dating of X, according to the pattern 364DY date = lunar calendar date + 1 in the first month, is an indication that X referred to a day-time observable phenomenon, or possible even a time span measurement. It is a logical explanation which accounts for the doubledating of X according to the pattern exemplified by the text. On the strength of 4Q320 1 I 3-6 the editors of DJD xxi (2001, 85) suggest that 4Q321a I 3 [Text 2] further identifies this X phenomenon, taking place on the thirtieth day of the first month of the 364DY, as being the second (occurrence of X). [(note that there is no indication of the Qumran lunar dating here)]. This, to my mind, raises the question: if there is a preceding X in the first 364DY month, why is it not recorded in the text? The answer, I propose, lies implicit in the text itself. The argument offered above, that the double dating of X points to a daytime phenomenon, may offer an explanation. There is one particular period of time in the first month of the 364DY that has no equivalent in the Qumran lunar month, that is the day-time part of day 1, and I suggest that this is the time when this unnamed and undated first X was noted. In a world view in which the start of the first year on the fourth day of Gamul marked the reenactment as it were of the time when creation started to be governed by the luminaries and the cycle of time began, the lunar reckoning could not start before its appointed time, that is at the onset of

the first evening in the 364DY. Thus, technically the time when a first X was observed, the day-time part of the first day in the 364DY, did not quite exist in its lunar reckoning for the simple reason that this lunar reckoning had not yet started at the beginning of time as it were. The textual evidence gives us a second clue. The regular intervals of time occurring between X and dwq are- 16 to 17 days. Between one X to the next X they oscillate sequentially between 29 and 30 days [handout p.1] Counting twenty nine days back from the first dated X (twenty ninth in the Qumran lunar calendar, thirtieth in the 364DY of the first month) one falls on the day-time part of day one in the 364DY. If one, however, were to count thirty days back, then one would fall altogether outside of the first 364DY month, or, to put it another way, on the last day of the twelfth month of an hypothetical previous 364DY. In this particular case, however, there would be no need to specify in the text that the 29th of the first Qumran lunar month, which is the thirtieth of the first 364DY month, marks the second occurrence of X. The very indication in the text that this particular X is the second in this first month indicates that this X must pertain to this first month. To sum up our findings on the X date: the indication that the first recorded X date is actually the second occurrence of X in the first 364DY month points to the conclusion that the first X occurred during the day-time part of the first day of the first 364DY month. It was not recorded because, as a lunar phenomenon, its ephemeris had not yet started. Further, X, as indicated by its occurrence on the 29th or the 30th day of the Qumran lunar month, clearly marks the end of the lunar month, and the onset of the following lunar month. As a daytime visible lunar phenomenon marking the end of the lunar month X must therefore be the last lunar crescent at the end of the lunation, which disappears in the daytime sky. In other words, X belongs to the last day of lunar visibility, day here meaning daytime. It is the difference of day reckoning between the 364DY and the Qumran lunar calendar which explains the indication of the existence of a first X phenomenon in the first 364DY month, undated in the lunar reckoning because it falls before the actual start of this first Qumran lunar month. Yet this first X is indicated implicitly, I suggest, because it is this very observation that governed the synchronisation of the two calendars at Qumran, synchronization that is illustrated by the mishmarot documents. It is the X phenomenon in the day time sky, which marked the start of the triennial and sexennial cycles.

The dwq date

While X is dated in both the lunar terms and the 364DY reckoning, dwq is given only one date, seemingly according to the 364DY in the extant texts. If the reconstructed text suggested by the editors of DJD xxi is accepted, 4Q321a i 2-3 [Text 2] may be taken as illustrative of the scheme: [ ] [ #/&1'!/)$"1)*!&4#2-$)#3!/)$# #3/# ] 8 [)!- $/2 #2-/- #,%!2&- #//- ! !"! (,3/# )!- .,/!*/- #,2",-] 1. 2.
3.

.1 .2 .3

[The first year: On the fourth (day) in (the week of) Gamul (which falls) on the first (day) of the first (month). On the fifth (day)] [in (the week of) Jedaiah (which falls) on the thirtieth in it (the first month) the second (occurrence of X); and duqo (is) on the sixth (day) in (the week of) Maoziah, (which falls) on the seventeenth in it].9

It is significant that the dwq date only appears in its 364DY dating. Developing on the argument offered here, the single dating of dwq may indicate the recording of an observable phenomenon during the night-time. Such night-time would pertain to the same numbered day in both reckonings in the first month of the first year. I suggest, therefore, that dwq registers/marks the observation of a nighttime phenomenon. This much had been suspected by scholars, although I am not aware of any attempt at advancing the present argument. The identity of this phenomenon is none other than the lunar phase occurring 16 or 17 days after the disappearance of the last crescent in the sky, i.e. a lunar phenomenon around the full moon, observed at night. There is one more perplexing fact. The argument that the nighttime parts of any given day in both ephemeris coincide works for the first month but should break down once dwq is tracked in subsequent months. However the extant textual sources indicate quite the opposite: i.e. dwq is dated in 364DY terms only in all
8. Talmon, Glessmer, and Ben-Dov, Calendrical Texts, 845. 9. Talmon, Glessmer, and Ben-Dov, Calendrical Texts, 85.

subsequent month. That the scribes did not see the need to record dwq in its lunar date may be a veiled indication that dwq played no significant role in the synchronisation of the 364DY calendar and the Qumran lunar calendar. This particular role was played by the tracking of the X date. This is another indication that the calendrical practice at Qumran, although based on a 364DY Jubilees-like calendar, it contrasted sharply with Jubilees sharply anti-lunar position, as recorded in Jubilees 6:32-38.

External evidence

In an article entitled The Babylonian Lunar three in Calendrical scrolls from Qumran (2003) J. Ben-Dov and W. Horowitz have provided additional evidence from Babylonian sources, which, they argue, partly allow confirmation of the identification of X and of duqah. In a text describing lunar months (Tablet BM 32327) they identify three phenomena that have been described as the Lunar Three (Sachs 1948; Hunger 1999). Two of these record dates and time spans after the full moon. These are: a) the name of the month followed by the number 1 or 30, 1 meaning that the preceding month counted thirty days, 30 indicating that the previous month was hollow (twenty nine days); b) a phenomenon called na, indicating the day on which the moon set for the first time after sunrise (after the full moon phase); c) a phenomenon called KUR, which recorded the last visibility of the moon and its setting in the day-time sky at the end of the lunar month. They observed that KUR occurred 13 or 14 days after na, while na was visible 16 or 17 days after KUR. Ben-Dov and Horowitz compared these data with that found in 4Q320, 4Q321 and 4Q321a and concluded that the Lunar Three were direct equivalents to the data in the Qumran documents. [see table on handout] First, the pattern for naming the month and indicating the number of days in the previous month in the Babylonian text mirrored the pattern found in the Qumran material .

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Second, the intervals between na and Kur in the Babylonian text were similar to those measured between X and dwq in the Qumran material; Third, na and KUR and X and dwq were standard attributes of the lunar month in their respective traditions, each consistently presented with an indication of the number of days in the previous month. On this basis Ben-Dov and Horowitz proposed to identify dwq with na, and X with KUR, and suggested that the X date marked the time from moon rise to sunrise (so at night) when the moon was last visible after sunrise (during the day) towards the end of the lunar month. As for dwq, it marked the day on which the moon set first in the sky after sunrise. Ben-Dov and Horowitzs identification of X as the day upon which the moon sets for the last time after sunrise at the end of the lunar month, i.e. immediately before the lunar conjunction, agrees partially with the interpretation I have suggested above. The problem with partial agreement is that there is partial disagreement. This disagreement is quite significant and resides in that Ben-Dov and Horowitz consider X to be a night-time measurement, and not a day-time period as I have argued. For them, I quote,
KUR occurs at the end of the lunar cycle and marks the time from moonrise to sunrise when the moon is last visible around sunrise towards the end of the last lunar month (2003, 113).

In favor of their interpretation is that none of the Lunar Six pays attention to the day-time part of the day when the last crescent disappeared in the sky. This may not be surprising as the lunar month was not reckoned in Babylon to start at that time but at the time of the appearance of the new crescent in the evening sky, which the Babylonians did record as part of the Lunar Six (as defined by Sachs 1948 and Hunger 1999): NAn = the time between sunset and the setting of the moon, when it has become visible for the first time after conjunction. From the Qumran perspective it is perhaps strange to single out a phenomenon which supposedly indicated the end of the lunar month and the start of the following lunar month a few hours before the change over from one month to the next actually took place.

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As for dwq, it was recorded in the text with a single-dating custom. It was suggested above that this points to a night-time phenomenon. From this perspective, Ben-Dov and Horowitzs identification of dwq with na, a day-time measurement in Babylonian sources, is also problematic. If the hypothesis drawn from the textual evidence that single dating of dwq indicates a night-time phenomenon or measurement then dwq cannot coincide with na. If the above hypothesis is correct, dwq cannot be identified with the Babylonian na. The latter marked the measuring of a day-time interval between sunrise and moon set, when the moon set for the first time after sunrise in Babylonian Diaries.10 There were, however, two other intervals of time measured during the night around the full moon in Babylonian Diaries. The first, , measured the interval of time from moon set to sunrise.11 The second, GE6, a usual logogram for night in such texts, measured the interval between sunset and moonrise.12 Both were nigh-time measurements and might qualify as equivalent to dwq. To ascertain beyond doubt which of and GE6 corresponded to dwq at Qumran is beyond the scope of the present undertaking. Both were night-time measurements around the full moon phase, and in some way both could qualify as dwq, an observed, night-time phenomenon.

Summary

Concluding very briefly: if the arguments presented here are correct then our enquiry of the X and dwq dates has shown that the X date at Qumran recorded the lunar phenomenon which took place in the day-time sky, and marked the end of the lunar month, as first suggested by Wise. This also marked the start of the next lunar month. It was the last time the moon set after sunrise during any one lunation. Likewise, the dwq date at Qumran marked a night-time phenomenon, thirteen or fourteen days before the X phenomenon, and must have been the observation of
10. A. Sachs, Diaries from 652 B.C. to 262 B.C. Texts, vol. Volume I of Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia, ed. Hermann Hunger, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse Denkschriften, 195. Band (Wien: Verlag der sterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1988), 20. 11. Sachs, Diaries from 652 B.C. to 262 B.C. Texts, 21. 12. Sachs, Diaries from 652 B.C. to 262 B.C. Texts, 20.

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either a lunar phenomenon (full moon phase), or the measurement of an interval of time during the night involving a particular lunar phenomenon. It may have corresponded to one of two possible dates recorded in Babylonian Diaries, both of which measured time intervals during the night: either or GE6.

WORKS CITED

Ben-Dov, J., and W. Horowitz. The Babylonian Lunar Three in Calendrical Scrolls from Qumran. Ziestchrift fr Assyriologie 95 (2005): 10420. Hunger, Hermann. Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia Vol. 5: Lunar and Planetary Texts. sterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften: Philosophisch-Historische Klasse Denkschriften, 299. Band. Wien: Verlag der sterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2001. Sachs, A. A Classification of the Babylonian Astronomical Tablets of the Seleucid Period. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 2 (1948): 27190. ________. Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia. Vol. Volume I, Diaries from 652 B.C. to 262 B.C. Texts. Ed. Hermann Hunger. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse Denkschriften, 195. Band. Wien: Verlag der sterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1988. ________. Sirius Dates in Babylonian Astronomical Texts of the Seleucid Period. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 6, no. 3 (1952): 10515. Talmon, S., U. Glessmer, and J. Ben-Dov, eds. Qumran Cave 4 XVI Calendrical Texts. Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XXI. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001. VanderKam, James C. Calendrical Texts and the Origins of the Dead Sea Scroll Community. In Methods of Investigation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Khirbet Qumran Site, edited by M. Wise, N. Golb, J. Collins, and D. Pardee. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 722, 37186. New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1994. Wise, Michael O. Second Thoughts on. In Pursuing the Text. Festschrift B. Z. Wacholder, eds J. C. Reeves and J. Kampen. JSOTSup 184, 98120. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994.