360 ÉTIENNE NODET Biblical scholars 26, but with some reservations for the special days 27. These observations can be strengthened by other details. The Creation week, discussed above, launches a non-lunar calendar, in which the days begin in the evening. However, in the definition of the days of the cultic calendar, they begin in the morning. For example, the Passover lamb must be slaughtered on the 14th of the first month and eaten in the evening, and the Israelites were brought out from Egypt “that very day” 28, which was the night of the 14th (Exod 12,6.17). The Day of Atonement falls on the 10th of the seventh month, but it begins “on the eve of the 9th day ”. This implies a reckoning of the days from the morning, for otherwise it would start one day before (Lev 23,32). According to Lev 22,29- 30, the sacrifices of thanksgiving shall be eaten on the same day, without leaving any of it until morning; so the “day” includes the following night. Indeed, this was the rule at the Jerusalem Temple (b.Hulin 83a). Any cleansing that was performed by daylight, only took effect after sunset of the same day (Num 19,7). Other passages suggest the same definition of the day 29. Al-Biruni adds that for the Maghariyya the beginning of the first month is a Wednesday with a full moon. This cannot be true See H. CAZELLES, “Sur les origines du calendrier des Jubilés”, Bib 43 26 (1962) 202-212, who cites many ancient sources. A major disagreement was voiced by B.Z. WACHOLDER, “Patterns of Biblical Dates and Qumran’s Calen- dar : The Fallacy of Jaubert’s Hypothesis”, HUCA 66 (1996) 1-40, but he fo- cuses on the later books (1-2 Chr, Est). In the Bible, the lunar calendar appears when the months are given Babylonian names (Nisan, Iyyar, and so on). See J.C. VANDERKAM, “The Origin, Character and Early History of the 27 364-Day Calendar: A Reassessment of Jaubert’s Hypothesis”, CBQ 41 (1979) 3 9 0 - 411 ; P.R. DAVIES , “Calendrical Change and Qumran Origin: An Assessment of VanderKam’s Theory”, CBQ 45 (1983) 80-89. A special problem arises regarding the seven days of Unleavened 28 Bread : they begin on the 15th according to Lev 23,6 and Num 28,17, but they run from the evening of the 14th to the evening of the 21st This is an anticipation prompted by the narrative, see É. NODET, “Pâque, azymes et théorie documentaire”, RB 114 (2007) 499-534. See J.Z. LAUTERBACH, Rabbinic Essays (Cincinnati, OH 1951) 446-450. 29 Other instances were given by J.MORGENSTERN, “The Sources of the Creation Story ”, American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literature 36 (1919) 176. R.T. BECKWITH, Calendar and Chronology, Jewish and Christian (Leiden 1996) 3-6, challenges the significance of these passages, but his short biblical analyses are unsatisfactory.