Biblical Year is 360 days, and

Created Date: 26-Nov-2019

A Day For a Year

Last updated: 28-Jun-2021

Time Period Used in Scriptures  
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Sections
 
1 Calendar Year in the Scriptures 2 Scriptural use of 30-Day Months
3 Other Ancient Cultures with 30-Day Months 4 Two Events Changed the Calendar
5 Year for a Day, Week is Seven Years, 1000 Years is a Day    

Calendar Year in the Scriptures

God has always used 360 days in a year in the Scriptures.  This is necessary to understand prophetic scriptures that are in our future along with our edification on details on events that are listed in the history of the people and places in the scriptures.  The question for many Christians is why did God use 360 days for a year?

In our current time period, using the Julian Calendar Year definition, we know that the calendar year is actual 365.25 days long excluding leap years.  In the Old Testament Period there were two events that changed the length of a s calendar year of 360 days to 365.25 days per year.  These events change the procession of the Earth's orbit slightly to accomplish the

  1. Long Day of Joshua in the Scripture of Joshua 10:11-14
  2. Hezekiah period where God moved time backwards for 10 minutes in 2 Kings 20:8-11.
Joshua 10:11-14
(Long Day of Joshua)
11 And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Beth-horon, the Lord threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword. 12 At that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon. 13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. 14 There has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel.
2 Kings 20:8-11
(10 Minutes of 2 Kings event)
8 Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the Lord on the third day from now? 9 Isaiah answered, This is the Lord s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps? 10 It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps, said Hezekiah. Rather, have it go back ten steps. 11 Then the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.

Scriptural Use of 30-Day Months

In the account of the Great Flood of Noah, we are given a five-month period of 150 days in the scriptures of Genesis 7:11, Genesis 7:24 and Genesis 8:4.

Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
Genesis 7:24 And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.
Genesis 8:4 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

Notice the interval of "Second Month on the Seventeenth Day" and 150 days later it was the "Seventh Month and the Seventeenth Day".  150 divided by 5 months is 30-day months.

In Deuteronomy 34:8, Israel morns the death of Moses for 30 days.  In Numbers 20:29, Israel morns the death of Aaron for 30 days.  The Holy Spirit uses 30 days and not 29 days or 31 days, which implies a one-month period.

Deuteronomy 34:8 And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping in the mourning for Moses were ended.
Numbers 20:29 And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they wept for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.

The current Earth's Moon cycle is approximately 27.322 days.  This is the number of days it takes the Moon to make one cycle around the Earth, where many Biblical Scholars assert the Moon was previously a 30-day cycle before the Long Day of Joshua and 10 Minutes of 2 Kings event.

Genesis 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

Other Ancient Cultures with 30 Day Months

There were many well-recognized civilizations prior to the Long Day of Joshua which had 30-day months but changed the length of a calendar year at that time.  The following list is not exhaustive and the list should help confirm to the reader that the entire world had a 360-day calendar that suddenly changed. 

As read in many books on ancient cultures, the new moon was counted:

As time went by, all cultures on the planet would have recognized the pattern of moon cycles, using stars to navigate and most likely absorbed the naming conventions for period of times which we call months of the year.  These are five of the most commonly known:

Babylonians 360-day year composed of 12 months that were each 30 days long.
Assyrian 360-day year composed of 30-day months which started from the crescent moon.
Persian 360-day year composed of 12 months that were each 30 days long.
Egyptian 360-day year
China 360-day year composed of 12 months that were each 30 days long.

There are many great books to look in very deep detail on the changes in Earth's calendar such as Immanuel Velikovsky's book "Worlds in Collision" that has some theories that this author doesn't embrace completely but gives a possible method.

Two Events Changed the Calendar

As stated above, there are two events in the Scriptures that God changed the hours of the day which effected the calendar from 360 days to the current 365.25 days.  The first event was the Long Day of Joshua and the second was the 2 Kings 20 event.

Year for a Day, Week is Seven Years, 1000 Years is a Day

In the scriptures, there are sometimes a reference to a time period referred to as a year or week or day.  These are consistently referring to:

Day  
Numbers 14:33-34 33 And your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your whoredoms, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness. 34 After the number of the days in which ye spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my alienation.
Ezekiel 4:4-6 4 Moreover lie thou upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity. 5 For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be unto thee a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6 And again, when thou hast accomplished these, thou shalt lie on thy right side, and shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah: forty days, each day for a year, have I appointed it unto thee.
Seven Days/Years

Laws set down by Moses prescribed the seventh day of the week to rest, and so was the seventh year.

Exodus 20:8-11 8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath unto Jehovah thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
A "Times"

A "time" represents a Year.  This Scripture means 3 and 1/2 Years.

Revelation 12:14 And there were given to the woman the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness unto her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
  One Time + Times (is twice ~ more than one) + 1/2 a time = 3.5 Years
1000 Years

One day is "like" a thousand years, and thousand years is as one day.  Also use of thousand years.

2 Peter 3:8 But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 
Revelation 20:2-7 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be finished: after this he must be loosed for a little time. 4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years should be finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: over these the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. 7 And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

(The interesting point of this scriptural passage, is some Biblical Scholars state that God is just keeping Lucifer in prison, in the "abyss" which is Sheol, for a short time, and this is like a day only to God.  Note that the implication from the reference of "bound" is basis for this author's belief that Lucifer and Fallen Angels can enter Sheol and leave it unless they are bound there, unlike Demons when sent to Sheol cannot leave/escape.  Sheol is not the Lake of Fire.)

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