Thepentecontad calendar (fromKoine Greek:πεντηκοστή,romanized: pentēkostē,lit. 'fiftieth') is an agriculturalcalendar system thought to be ofAmorite origin in which the year is broken down into seven periods of fifty days (a total of 350 days), with an annual supplement of fifteen or sixteen days. Identified and reconstructed by Julius and Hildegaard Lewy in the 1940s, the calendar's use dates back to at least the 3rd millennium BCE in westernMesopotamia and surrounding areas. Used well into the modern age, forms of it have been found inNestorianism and theEthiopian Jews[1] and among theFellahin of modernPalestine.[2]
InAkkadian, the pentecontad calendar was known ashamšâtum[3] and the period of fifteen days at the end of the year was known toBabylonians asshappatum.[4]
Each fifty-day period was made up of sevenweeks of seven days and seven Sabbaths, with an extra fiftieth day, known as theatzeret.[5]
Used extensively by the variousCanaanite tribes ofPalestine, the calendar was also thought to have been used by theIsraelites until the official adoption of a new type ofsolar calendar system bySolomon.[6]
Philo expressly connected the "unequalled virtues" of the pentecontad calendar with thePythagorean theorem, further describing the number fifty as the "perfect expression of the right-angled triangle, the supreme principle of production in the world, and the 'holiest' of numbers".[7]
The calendar was used amongEthiopian Jews for a millennium. Till modern timesShabbat festivals are still celebrated currently by theBeta Israel.[8] According to this tradition: "The Sabbaths are divided into cycles of seven. A special prayer, is recited at sunset and reflects the particular characteristics of each Sabbath. The seventh Sabbath, theLegatä Sänbät, is the holiest of all, and there are extra prayers, festivities and a special sanctification service."[9]
Tawfiq Canaan (1882–1964) described the use of such a calendar amongPalestinians in southern Palestine, as did his contemporaryGustaf Dalman, who wrote of the practices ofMuslimagriculturalists who usedChristian designations for the fiftieth day, "which in turn overlaid far more ancient agricultural practices: grape-watching, grape-pressing,sowing, etc."[10]
Julian Morgenstern argued that the calendar of theBook of Jubilees has ancient origins as a somewhat modified survival of the pentecontad calendar.[11][12]
Several different calendars are reflected in theQumran calendrical texts, some of which were used by theEssenes atQumran. Their year was marked by festivals such as the Feast of New Wine, the Feast of Oil, and the Feast of New Wheat.[13] But rather than a pentecontad calendar, with its fifty-day period, the Qumran texts mostly refer to a 364-day calendar tradition that divides the year into four quarters of three months each.[14] Nevertheless, the pentecontad calendar is reflected in some Qumran texts such as theTemple Scroll (11Q19 13-29).
In the Temple Scroll's pentecontad calendar, the year was divided into seven fifty-day periods, each marked by an agricultural festival. The offering of firstfruits of the harvest at the Temple was connected with this.[15]
Several other texts at Qumran have been found to contain pentecontad calendars. Among them are 11Q20 1–6, 4Q325, and 4Q365.
The calendrical exposition by Lewy was widely adopted initially by many scholars. Yet it was challenged in the more recent research. Ben-Dov (2012) cast some doubt on the early attestations of such a pentecontad calendar.[16]
ProminentAssyriologists likeBenno Landsberger were quite skeptical, and even Julius Lewy did not support it later on.[17][18]
While some biblical passages, such as Deut 16:9 and Lev 23:15–16 do give support to a pentecontad calendar by referring to a count of seven weeks during harvest time, these biblical sources do not reflect a full-fledged pentecontad calendar more generally.[19]
The seven-fold based thinking is relatively common in thepriestly sources of theTorah. According to Ben-Dov, pentecontad calendars were "the fruit of a later history of development", which emerged from such priestly and other sources. Thus, their real development occurred during the late Hellenistic or early Roman period.
Further development of pentecontad calendars occurred primarily in certain Jewish circles associated with apocalyptic traditions, as well as in the Pythagorean-minded circles influenced by Philonic thought. Later, these traditions also gained popularity in some Christian and Jewish communities.[20]
Pentecontad festivals are still celebrated currently by theBeta Israel.[8] "The Sabbaths are divided into cycles of seven. A special prayer, is recited at sunset and reflects the particular characteristics of each Sabbath. The seventh Sabbath, theLegatä Sänbät, is the holiest of all, and there are extra prayers, festivities and a special sanctification service."[9]
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