Methodological Issues concerning the Astronomy of Qumran

Abstract

In the 21st issue of Dead Sea Discoveries, Dennis Duke and Matthew Goff offered their collaboration as physicist and Dead Sea Scrolls scholar in order to study the lunar theory of the Aramaic Astronomical Book (aab). They use the astronomical model of lunar elongation—the angular distance between the moon and the sun on the observed heavenly sphere—to compute the times of the moon’s visibility and invisibility. They conclude that the times written on the Aramaic fragments are closer to reality than the times written in the Babylonian sources of the aab. This paper concludes that lunar elongation is not the best explanation of the astronomical data of the aab, and Duke and Goff’s computations should be refined according to some astronomical, cosmological, textual, and historical considerations.

The First Jewish Astronomers: Lunar Theory and Reconstruction of a Dead Sea Scroll

“…Ben Dov first suggests that the gates are in fact a projection of the signs of the zodiac on the horizon (Ben Dov 2008, 185-189). Further evidence and development of this argument is found in Ratzon 2014; Ratzon 2015a; Ratzon 2015b, Jacobus 2014b, 260-388. In my previous publications, I claim that the gates system is a Jewish scientific theory attempting to explain a large number of astronomical, cosmological, and meteorological phenomena.…”

“…Therefore, no celestial sphere or even celestial dome exists in the AB. The firmament is spread over the earth like a sheet or a tent, which flows over the four pillars of heaven down to the edges of the earth (Ratzon 2012, 197-205; Ratzon 2015b, 207-209), but see Duke and Goff 2016, 85-87. There is no description of the movement of the sun and moon during the day and night, and the text refers only to the rising and setting points of the sun and moon on the horizon.…”