Enoch's Solar Calendar
Calendars based on the Sun's motion (relative to the Earth) are called solar calendars. A solar calendar was originally used by Enoch and Noah, and later used in the first and second century BC by the Essenes, one of the Jewish sects. The normal year in Enoch's solar calendar consists of eight 30-day months and four 31-day months (the third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth month), making a total of 364 days and 52 weeks. A new solar year always starts on the Wednesday of the week within which the Vernal Equinox falls. With only 364 days per year, it is clear that the seasons of the calendar would be noticeably off after a few years. To keep the year in phase with the seasons, one needs to find a method to add extra days. In the book of Enoch, there is no explicit suggestion of a rule for adding the days.
Do the Scriptures provide any hint? Matthew recorded in Matthew 18:21-22, "Then Peter came to him and said, 'Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?' Yeshua said to him, 'I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.'" Seven appears to be a complete number to Peter, but seventy times seven [490] is the true complete number to Yeshua. Did Yeshua simply speak to his disciples figuratively? No, he may provide a hint about the solar calendar, as demonstrated below.
490 is the least common factor of 7, 49, and 70. The numbers: 7, 49, and 70 often appear in the Hebrew Bible, representing the sabbatical year (the 7th year), jubilee year (the 49th year), and 10 (complete) cycles of the sabbatical year, respectively. In the normal solar year, 52 weeks can be expressed as (7×7×7) + (7+7+7) = 364 days. If we simply add one week in the year number divisible by 7, adding one more week in the year number divisible also by 49 or 70, one can bring the solar calendar into line with the Equinoxes. With this intercalation method, the average number of days per year is equal to 364 + (7/7+7/49+7/70) = 365.242857 within 490 years. The intercalation is complete within one cycle of 490 years. As shown below, the "magic" number 365.242857 for the average number of days per Enoch's solar year is hidden in God's creation.
We will show in Chapters 6 and 10 that the creation year was in 3970 BC and that the average number of days per Hebrew lunisolar year within 7,000 lunisolar years (from Nisan 1 of 3970 BC to Nisan 1 of 3031) is exactly equal to 365.242857 (= 364 + 7/7 + 7/49 + 7/70). We thus see that the mystery of the year length is coded in God's perfect number: 7 and its multiples such as 49 and 70. Because God has 10 commandments, the number 10 is a complete number of God. Another of God's complete numbers is 12, which is related to Israeli 12 tribes, 12 apostles of Yeshua, and 12 months of a year. There are many 12's in chapter 21 of the book of Revelation. It is amazing that the age of the universe in terms of the human clock is exactly equal to 712 years (see Appendix C).
Now let us prove whether our speculation on the intercalation method for Enoch's solar calendar is correct or not. In 3970 BC, the Vernal Equinox fell at 9:17 on April 23 (which is obtained from the Stellarium Program), so the first day of the Enoch solar year was on April 20 (Wednesday). The Julian day number for 20 April 3970 BC is JD 271489 (obtained from the Stellarium Program). After 14 × 490 years = 6,860 years from 3970 BC, it comes to 2891. The first day of the Enoch solar year in 2891 will be on March 21 (Wednesday). The Julian day number for 21 March 2891 is JD 2777055. The total number of days within 6860 Enoch's solar years is 2,777,055 – 271,489 = 2,505,566, so the average number of days per Enoch's solar year within this period is 2,505,566/6,860 = 365.242857. Readers could easily verify the same number of days per Enoch's solar year within any multiple of 490 years from 3970 BC. Thus, we have proved the correct intercalation method, which we have figured out from the hint of Yeshua's words recorded in the Gospel of Matthew.