How the calendar started

SHIN BOK-RYONG
The author is a former emeritus professor of history at Konkuk University.

The question non-believers have when reading the Old Testament is the age of the characters ranging from 700 to 900. It is blasphemy to find fault with the record that Noah’s grandfather Methuselah lived for 969 years (Genesis 5:21-27), as it’s the sum of several generations of the family. Moses died at the age of 120 (Book of Deuteronomy 34:10). In the primitive age, that was possible.

The lunar calendar was used in the beginning. The Middle East always has a summerlike weather and didn’t have a solar calendar. Instead, a lunar calendar was used because the moon’s periodic and visual effects were evident. A 28-day cycle of the moon changing its shape was designated as a month. Arabs had advanced mathematical and business skills and charged interest by the day. The word “calendar” originates from “cal,” or calculate, and “lend.”

As the summer-oriented Middle Eastern culture transferred to the Latin culture, where four seasons are clearly distinguished, a solar calendar was needed. At the time, one year was 10 months, as there are 10 fingers. The first month was March, in commemoration of Mars, the god of war, and the tenth month was December, using Deci, the root of the word “ten.”

But the seasons did not fit the 10 months as one year. Solon, the king of Greece, added two months — January after Janus and February after Februa, meaning “purification.” So, March became the third month, October the tenth month and December came as the twelfth month.

According to this method, Moses’ 120 years are “28 days × 10 months × 120 years = 33,600 days.” If you divide 33,600 days by 365, his age was 92 years according to the modern calendar. This is not something to be investigated scientifically, as the calculation is to hush non-believers and atheists who attack religion and theology with science. If you try to explain everything with science, theology loses its divinity.