The Enoch Calendar

by John P. Pratt
7 Nov 2019, Deluge Day (E)

**The Book of Enoch.**

There is an ancient scripture called the Book of Enoch which was in the collection of books under consideration to be included in the Bible. After much debate, the Council of Nicea in AD 325 rejected it because it contained some difficult teachings, not because it was fraudulent. The Bible scholar R.H. Charles said that Jesus Christ had quoted from it over one hundred times in the New Testament. That endorsement by the Savior far outweighs rejection by others. In fact, in a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord's prophesied concerning that book: "These things were all written in the Book of Enoch, and are to be testified of in due time." (D&C 107:57, capitalization as in original).

The Book of Enoch had been lost to Europeans for centuries, but was discovered in Ethiopia by James Bruce, who returned with three copies to England in 1773. It had been in the Ethiopian version of the Bible after the Book of Job. Early Christians had taken it with them when they fled persecution. It was translated into English by Richard Laurence in 1821. In 1840 there was a very favorable book review recommending it by the LDS apostle Parley P. Pratt. Laurence's translation is readily available today and is still recommended.

The 364-day Enoch Calendar pattern.
The Book of Enoch contains several chapters devoted to describing a sacred calendar in detail. Before Christ, the Dead Sea community used the Book of Enoch to create their famous Qumran Calendar. The Enoch Calendar year is divided into four seasons of exactly 13 weeks each, with a total of exactly 52 weeks in the year of 364 days. Each season has the same structure: Three months of 30 days followed by on holy day which is either one of the two equinoxes or solstices. When an extra week is needed to be added to average the true value of 365.24 days, an entire extra week is added at the end of the year. That method meant that the year always began on the same day of the week.

Even though the Qumran society chose Wednesday as the first day of their year, in my work no such instruction was found included in the scriptural description. It became clear that Enoch expected the reader to know that the week begins on Sunday. Thus, every Enoch year begins on Sunday, usually on the first Sunday after the spring equinox (first day of spring). Sometimes that rule was even adjusted by a week to match the phases of the moon better, as instructed in the scripture.

As research progressed, it was discovered that not is it truly a sacred calendar, fitting to have been revealed by an angel to the Prophet Enoch as stated in the scripture, but God is apparently still using it today to schedule key religious events! It was found that many important dates during the restoration of the Lord's church through the Prophet Joseph Smith were holy days on the Enoch Calendar. The most important and rare Enoch Calendar date was the date of First Vision of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ to the prophet!