Page 282 of 319
274 attested by the Book of Jubilees, an extrabiblical book pre- sumed to have been written in Hebrew in Jerusalem in the years following the Maccabean revolt (now available only from its Greek, Latin, Syriac, Ethiopic, and Slavonic transla- tions). It retells the history of the Jewish people from the time of the Exodus in time units of Jubilees—the 50-year units decreed by Yahweh at Mount Sinai (see our chapter IX); it also created a consecutive calendrical historical count that has since become known as Annu Mundi—“Year of the World” in Latin—that starts in 3760 B.c.£. Scholars (such as the Rev. R.H. Charles in his English rendition of the book) converted such “Jubilee of years” and their “weeks” to an Anno Mundi count. That such a calendar was not only kept throughout the ancient Near East, but even determined when events were timed to happen, can be ascertained by simply reviewing some pivotal dates (often highlighted in bold font) given in our earlier chapters. If we choose just a few of those key his- torical events, this is what transpires when the “B.C.E.” is converted to “N.c.” (Nippurian Calendar): EVENT Sumerian civilization. Nipput calender begins The Tower of Babel incident Bull of Heaven killed by Gilgamesh Sargon: Era of Akkad begins First Intermediate Period in Egypt; Era of Ninurta (Gudea builds Temple-of-Fifty) Nabu organizes Marduk’s followers; Abraham to Canaan; War of the Kings Marduk’s Esagil temple in Babylon Hammurabi consolidates Marduk’s 3460 2860 2360 2160 300 900 1400 1600 2060 1700 1960 1760 1800 2000 supremacy New dynasty (“Middle Kingdom”) in Egypt; new dynastic rule (‘‘Kassite’’) 1560 2200 THE END OF DAYS B.C.E. N.C. 3760 0