The Origins of the Zadok Priestly Calendar

It is a Biblical calendar among the messianic movement. The discovery of about 1000 dead sea scrolls 70 years ago was the unfolding of the priestly calendar. After its publication, the scholars had fragments too minute to identify. A team of scholars from the University of Haifa reconstructed the pieces. They discovered the fragments were a 364-day solar year calendar. This calendar has the annual festivals never falling on a Saturday which, would have clashed with the Jewish Sabbath. The residents of Qumran promoted its use instead of the 354-day lunar calendar. They were adhering to the commandments of Jehovah as laid out in the Hebrew scriptures. The seasons and festivals were to follow the solar calendar that Jehovah authorized.

In the reconstructed fragments, they found a cryptic code. In 1970 the code was deciphered by Josef Milik a Polish dead sea scroll academic. He discovered the code was a compilation of ancient forms of the Hebrew script and other symbols like Greek letters. Cracking the code brought more questions than answers. It was discovered that the fragments were the priestly calendar already enumerated in other Hebrew ancient texts. So why was it coded? The answer may lie in the prestige certain scribes held on to and transferred to their work.

The Zadok calendar is by far the simplest. It is divisible by seven. It uses the sun and moon as witnesses and, it is in line with the priestly order laid out in 1 Chronicle 24.

Zadok Priestly Calendar @Torah is light