A Twenty-Eight-Day Month Tradition in the Book of Jubilees

This analysis of Jub 3:1-17 demonstrates that in this creation event a 28-day month is present in the Book of Jubilees. Whether this is an early, isolated tradition which the author of Jubilees adapted while unaware of the twenty-eight-day situation it depicts, or whether he is the originator of the tradition is a question which still remains to be answered. The story itself is consistent with the overall emphasis on purity within the Book of Jubilees. Although the thesis of Epstein that two calendars are operating within the work has not been proven, the groundwork has been laid for a reconsideration of his proposal concerning a calendar of thirteen months of twenty-eight days each. Perhaps the most important consideration is that another piece of evidence against the identification of the calendars of 1 Enoch, Jubilees and Qumran has been found. The suggestion that these calendars evidence the same solar calendars is no longer valid.