I read somewhere that the authors of the book of Enoch were four. You can see the style of writing change so it's more likely someone copied what Enoch said and it got passed down and then someone combined the different works into one. As to the length of a year, the Scripture bare out that before the flood the length was 360 days and after more, which would make sense.
For example, there is ample information showing that a year used to be 360 days long and that it will become 360-day year in the last days. I know that this sentence may be hard to swallow, but if you do a little research into this fact, according to scripture, you’ll find that there are ancient, world-wide, known facts to support this. I have to point out that even though there is strong historical and mathematical evidence, not including Scriptures, the scientific community largely dismisses this information as myth or mathematical ignorance. I find this incredibly arrogant. Think of it this way: when scientists dismiss information because it doesn’t fit their dogma, then it’s like those that deny the Holocaust happened. Because these events have not been “observed” today, they cannot reconcile ancient observable data when it contradicts the current planetary orbital data. This sound like double talk so let’s delve into Scripture and then into the evidence according to some extra-biblical information.
Let’s start with Noah and the flood – not what year, but how many days – because scripture tells us the number of days.
Flood begins Gen 7:11 Heshvan 17 (0 – Start counting)
Rains Ended Gen 7:12 Kislev 27 (40 days)
Ark Rested GGen 8:4nbsp; Nisan 17 (148 or 147 days by modern calendar)
Ark prevailed 150 days Gen 7:24; 8:3
*Heshvan is the second month since the first month started in Tishri. Nisan wasn’t made the first month until after the Exodus.
Genesis 8:3 “And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.”
If you count using today’s Hebrew calendar, you’ll find that the 150 days turn into 147 or 148 days. This is because the modern calendar contains a fix to accommodate the rules for feast days and Sabbaths and to synchronize to a solar year by adding the 5.25 days. From Heshvan 17 to Nisan 17, according to scripture, is 150 days. This is not the case in the Hebrew calendar used today. To prove scripture correct, you must assume that a year was 360 days, divided into twelve 30-day months. Assuming that from the second month (Heshvan) to the seventh month (Nisan) contains 30 days each, you get (7-2) * 30 = 150 days. What happened to make this change? Scripture answers the question:
Psalms 82:5 “They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.”
Before the flood, there was no hint of rain or snow and that the land was watered by the mist that came up from the ground.
Genesis 2:5-6 “…for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth…But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.”
When the flood started, it didn’t just rain, “…
the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up…” (Genesis 7:11), hinting that the earth also suffered great tectonic stresses. Imagine the earth was relatively smooth across the planet. In fact, the words “hill” and “mountain” are never mentioned prior to the flood. If there were an expansion of the surface of the earth due to these stresses, massive cracks would appear allowing the tectonic plates to form and slam into each other. Think of it this way. You bury your hand up to your wrist into the sand on the beach. You make it nice and smooth and then you move your fingers a little bit – cracks form and small “valleys” and “hills” develop. How would the earth expand?
Judges contain this odd verse:
Judges 5:20 “They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.”
Sisera was the captain of the army of Jabin, king of Cannan. Israel had fought for the land and again Sisera. But why would the stars fight a man on earth? The answer in a moment.
There is another reference in scripture to a 180-day feast that Ahasuerus gave.
Esther 1:4 “When he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty many days, even an hundred and fourscore days.”
John Gill states:
“The Persian feasts were very long, large, and sumptuous. Dr. Frye2 says, this custom of keeping an annual feast one hundred and eighty days still continues in Persia. Cheus3, a Chinese emperor, used frequently to make a feast which lasted one hundred and twenty days; though it cannot be well thought that the same individual persons here were feasted so long, but, when one company was sufficiently treated, they removed and made way for another; and so it continued successively such a number of days as here related, which was six months, or half a year; a year then in use consisting of three hundred and sixty days, as was common with the Jews, and other nations, and so the Persians4.”
2. Travels, p. 348. apud Patrick in loc.
3. In Martin. Sinic. Hist. l. 3. p. 78.
4. Prideaux's Connect. par. 1. p. 197.
The Real War of the Worlds
In an online book called “
Recovering the Lost World” (2010), the author Jno Cook explains that all the ancient literature, mythologies, and legends speak the same story worldwide: that the moon, Saturn, and Mars were once much closer to the earth; enough to cause horrific chaos, including the biblical account of the Flood. As outlandish as it sounds, this would explain almost every question about ancient calendars and why they changed worldwide twice between 720 BC and 685 BC. It was during this time that the axis of the earth shifted enough to turn the land of “milk and honey” into baron rock and dust over time – “climate change”! Al Gore would be proud.
According to a book called "
The Mars-Earth Wars" (1996) Mars had five “flybys” so close to the earth that it was the cause of the flood, shortening the length of the lunar month to 29.5 days, and lengthening the solar year to 365.25 days. I cannot refute their claims, but it does provide an understanding to how the length of time in Scriptures of old were different than today. Immanuel Velikovsky wrote in “
Worlds in Collision” that the old Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, Egyptian, Chinese, Roman (during the time of Romulus), Hindu, and Mayan calendars contained twelve 30-day months. This fact eludes scientists today because they refuse to look at these ancient writings as true accounts and dismiss them as sloppy mathematics. Even an astounding, well-known book describes Mars’ moons (which are far too small to see with the naked eye – today that is).
Gulliver's Travels, written in 1726 by Jonathan Swift, in the “Voyage to Laputa”, the astronomers discover two moons of Mars. Today, scientists credit the discovery of the moons of Mars to Asaph Hall, who discovered them in 1877, 150 year after the writings of Jonathan Swift. Because Jonathan Swift’s book is indeed fiction, they chalk it up to coincidence. However, the names were given
Phobos meaning panic/fear and
Deimos meaning terror/dread that, according to Greek mythology, traveled with their father Ares (Mars), the god of war, into battle. How did the ancient Greeks know what Jonathan Swift knew? All over the world, the legends, stories, and myths, depict Mars are being fearful and evil. According to these books, the closer Mars would get to the earth on its flybys, huge earthquakes would occur and massive lightning strikes between the two planets would occur. Everyone on the planet would certainly witness this kind of event. The stories, naming, and visibility of Mars’ moons were chronicled.
As shown in Psalms 82:5, the foundations of the earth are out of their courses. Because of the sins of man, God changed His perfect dance of the earth, moon, and sun into chaos for a while. He did changed it again for Hezekiah and Joshua by making the shadow on the sun dial go back ten degrees and hold the sun and the moon in place for the length of almost a day, respectively. Science cannot explain this because they reject the notion that the current placement of our solar system wasn’t always so.
Even during Jesus’ crucifixion something occurred. The “eclipse” could not have been the moon because the moon is full during Passover, which means that the earth is between the moon and the sun. So what caused the darkness?
Matthew 27:45 “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.”
It is my belief that the darkness was God. When He visited Abram it was in a horror of great darkness and God spoke to Moses from a thick darkness.
Genesis 15:12 “
And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.”
Deuteronomy 5:22 “
These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.”
God has promised that all the chaos would return in the last days. Here are a few verses:
Isaiah 13:9-13 “Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.”
Joel 2:30-31 “And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.”
Luke 21:25-26 “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”
Revelation 8:12 “And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.”
Now if you read this last verse carefully, you’ll notice that the only way to have the sun, moon, stars, night and day shine a third less, would be if the earth’s rotation increased by eight hours. Therefore, a day would no longer be 24 hours, but 18 hours long. So horrific will the last days be that Jesus Himself states:
Matthew 24:22 “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.”
If you do your own homework, you’ll come across an idea that Hezekiah was the first to increase the calendar, but if you read Scripture, Hezekiah repaired that Temple and called Israel and Judah to repent. This happened in Nisan and they did not finish sanctifying the House of the Lord nor themselves until the sixteenth of Nisan – after the date they should have had the Passover. Not having kept the Passover for so long, Hezekiah calls all of Israel and Judah to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover in the second month, the month Iyyar. So many people came that they had to enlist the help of the non-priest Levites to help with the sacrifices. They kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days and when it was finished, asked to keep an additional seven days with great joy. Many claim that this is proof that the calendar changed. I do not believe this to be true because the changing of the sun’s shadow didn’t happen until many years later. Sadly, there is a lot of open debate on this topic in the Talmud (
Tractate Sanhedrin), but that is because they choose their oral traditions over Scripture, or more accurately, their traditions blind them. I just want to point out that this story shows that though God commands men to keep His word, He is flexible and forgiving when it comes to the matter of the heart; whether it be humbled and repentant or not. (II Chronicles 29-32; II Kings 18-20; Isaiah 36)
Finally, Scripture implies that the calendar will revert to a 360-day year again. Daniel prophesied that when the antichrist desolates the temple, 1290 days would pass before the end. Daniel 12:7 and John in Revelation 12:14 speak of time, times, and half a time. Revelation 11:2 and 13:5 speak about the passage of 42 months before the end. Revelation 11:3 says the two prophets will preach for 1260 days, and in 12:6, the “woman”, i.e. Israel, would be carried away and protected for 1260 days. If a “time” is a year, then a “time, times and half a time” would be 3.5 years. 1260 days is exactly 3.5 years in a 360-day year, as is 42 months containing 30-day months! But Daniel says from the desolation to the end is 1290 days. If you count from 1 Nisan 3.5 years you get 1 Tishri, the day I believe Jesus will return to begin His reign on earth, at the Feast of Trumpets!
Just my 2 cents again