Was a Year 360 Days?

Was a Year 360 Days?

Once in the earliest versions of the chronology book I thought that a year might be 360 days during the time of the flood or at creation, or perhaps in the book of Revelation and the interpretation of Daniel 9. But this simplistic approach to certain pasasges was short lived as I realized that a year was actually 365 or 366 days for most of the world's history. And this was combined with the fact that those passages required the application of assumptions to be interpreted as pointing to a 360 day year.

What I would like to point out is what those assumptions are. This is because in most arguments for a 360 day year, the assumptions are not detected by either the person promoting it nor by the audience leading to the mistaken reasoning that a 360 day year is a logical conclusion of the data.

The Flood began on the 17th day of the 2nd month, and the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat on the 17th day of the 7th month. And this was a period of 150 days. It is typically assumed that 150 days is made of 5 months of 30 days each. After all 7 minus 2 equals 5. But Scripture does not say it was 5 months. Furthermore, if you count the months during which the ark was on the waters, it is 6! It was part of the 2nd month, the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and part of the 7th. So by an inclusive count it was 6 months.

But one may say that it was 5 thirty day periods, which requires all the month lengths to end with 30 days. But jumping to this conclusion is based on naive ignorance of the moons cycle. The moon can in fact go for up to four 30 day months without requiring a 29 day month. If the moon hit this phase of its cycle during those months of the flood, then it could be that there were four 30 days months and one 29 day month.

If we were to count from the 17th day of the 2nd month to the 16th day of the 7th month, then this would add up to 149 days. But the Scripture does not say we are supposed to exclude the 17th day of the 7th month from the count. If the 17th day of the 7th month is included in the count, then the total is 150 days!

Since counting the 17th day of the 7th month is a possibility, counting only to the 16th day of the 7th month is an ASSUMPTION! What if I told you that according to Biblical Chronology the flood was in the year 2483 BC, and that during that year, if we use the off the shelf VSOP87 software that Stellarium 0.19.0, then the new moons of the flood year so align just as I stated they might above?

First some disclosures, which I will not discuss here. (1) The calculation of four 30 day months and one 29 day month between the 2nd and 7th months of 2483 BC appears to work either with or without a correction for Joshua's long day. (2) We must keep in mind, that if the Almighty did not tell them when the first visible new moon of the 7th month was, there were only eight people to look for it from just one location. It is possible they may not have seen it on the first possible day of visiblity according to theory. I grade the moon for the 7th month as A - C. Easily visible on 10 October, 2483 BC, and possible but unlikely on the day before, and that is the "C" grade on the Yallop scale. (3) The value of Delta T does affect the outcome. I use Espenek and Meeus 2006 and to check for the long day a 12 hour offset with the same equation. It is possible to tweak the value of delta T, which on the parameter C = -32 about plus or minus 0.5., which is within the margin of error in this value! (4) The best months for human observation were, (a) the second month before the flood, and (b) the seventh month when the waters were near maximum.

None of these technical details do anything to lessen the possibility that that the year was anything but its ordinary length of 365 or 366 days. And in fact, the fact that the moon produced a string of 30 day months at that time makes it logically unnecessary to suppose a 360 day year to solve any interpretive dilemmas.

It is still possible before the flood that the year was some other length. This depends on the net outcome of various forces, some tending to make it shorter, some tending to make it longer. I think the calculation of such forces, and their net outcome, at this time, is way beyond the capability of human science. The point I am making is that a 360 day year before and until the flood is not a dogma that we MUST hold to based on what Scripture says.

Also that we can calculate Scripturally compatible astronomical results using the known science of the month and year with the year 2483 strongly suggests that the orbital mechanics of the earth-moon system were not sufficently put into a state of disequilibrium to upset the calendar functions. It is still possible for the earth to "roll" toward the Tibetan Plateau after the flood without the calendar functions being upset. The physics of turning a sphere do not upset the timing of the lunar orbit.

Now let us turn to Daniel 9. I will make this brief. A 360 day year is unnecessary to calculate it, as I have down that the ordinary year length is all that needs to be assumed in my book. Daniel 9 is explained by Sabbatical periods/years being inclusively counted between 445 BC and AD 34.

Moving on to Revelation. We have here 1260 days and 42 months, and a time, times, and half a time. The assumption is that 1260 days equals 42 months. But nowhere does Revelation state that these periods are equal! No where does Revelation say we should divide 1260 by 42 to arrive at 30 day months. A time is 360 days. But this is a schematic Babylonian year. We also have schematic lunar years, 353, 354, or 355 days, and if leap years around 383 days. We should not suppose from these other years that an actual solar year is anything but 365 or 366 days.

Some assume that a year was 360 days and a month 30 days because then the month divides exactly evenly 12 times into the year. I believe it is human reasoning to expect perfect symmetry in Creation. Human beings are not perfectly symmetrical in their bodies either. I believe there is no theological or doctrinal reason that can be Scripturally proved that something is wrong with a varying month of 29 and 30 days or a year varying between 365 and 366 days.