Calendriers bibliques: Salomon, Éléphantine, Jubilés, Dédicace

The book of Jubilees claims that the secret of the Biblical calendar has been lost. It urges a reform and uses a "solar" year of 52 weeks or 364 days, reckoned from morning to morning. It begins on a Wednesday and the months are numbered. The reform did occur, for it is witnessed by Qumran documents and rabbinic traditions ; its starting point was on 23 March in 156 BCE, a wednesday with an equinox and a full moon. Besides the Babylonian lunar calendar used in later books, all the Biblical datings in numbered months follow this "solar" system, both in the narratives and in the laws, starting from the week of the Creation. However, this is a literary device, which never actually worked. For the feasts, it was adapted to circumstances, as can be shown at various periods (Elephantine, Josephus).