Talk at the Jewish Calendar Seminar on
Wednesday, 17 Tevet (Dec. 29), 4-5 pm

Speaker: Prof. Ariel Cohen (Hebrew University)

Title: ""

Abstract
--------
According to the Septuagint text of the Bible, the number of years from
Adam to Noah is 1662 years, whereas according to the Masoretic text it is
only 1056 years. The difference increases to 3334 years compared to 1948
years counting from Adam to the birth of Abraham. In the Samaritan
Pentateuch text the number of years between Adam and Abraham is 2249. The
differences between the 3 texts result in most cases from adding or
subtracting 100 years from the ages of the Patriarchs when they gave birth
to their firstborn children, with almost no changes in the remainder of
the ages.

We show that the chronology in the different texts was dictated by
constraints imposed by Astronomical input regarding the lengths of the
year and of the month, thus showing that the differences in the
above-mentioned ages were introduced in order to meet the requirement that
in the year of creation the new moon of Nisan would fall on a Wednesday,
at a specified time gap from the beginning of spring, as well as at the
start of a great cycle discussed in the text.

Such changes became necessary in view of the different values for the
lengths of the year and of the month as adopted by the Babylonian, Greek
and the Land of Israel's scientific communities, and due to the changes in
the celestial coordinates of new moons relative to the Vernal Equinox
after several periods of 19 years.