The Mayan Calendar 5200-year Great Cycle is a variation of the Long Count Initial Series. Formerly developed in conjunction with the Dresden Codex, the Long Count begins with the presumed Mayan Creation date, noted as 13.0.0.0.0. The most significant digits on the left are Baktuns (400-years), next are Katuns (20-years), and Tuns (360-days), and Uinals (20-days) and Kins (days). The Long Count measures 13 consecutive 400-year-Baktun-cycles or 5200-Tun-years. Therefore, conjecture rationalizes at least 12 Baktuns and possibly 13 Baktuns have elapsed prior to the onset of the Long Count. The 5200-year Great Cycle, on the other hand, introduces a cyclic calendar system whereby 5200-Tun-years repeat to mirror the 52-year Calendar Round. The secondary age category cumulatively adds to achieve 5200-Tun-years, or as some historians agree, 5200-Haab-solar-years in a Mayan 5200-year Great Cycle. The Great Cycle is generally associated with 5200-Tun-years having 360-days each. Depending on the context used, some opinions favor the 365-day-Haab-solar-year. The special treatment of the Wayeb 5-feast days between the 360-day-Tun-year and the 365-day-Haab-solar-year is usually included for Long Count projections.
The Antediluvian Calendar system applies 13 steps of 400-year-Baktun-cycles to describe the 5200-year Great Cycle from Adam to Enoch. Six 800-year Generation Cycles extend the secondary age category to represent the lives of six Patriarchs. The six secondary ages measure time since fatherhood until the character’s death. Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel and Jared each increment the secondary age category total by two 400-year-Baktun-cycles each. Extra time beyond the 800-year Generation Cycle expresses in terms of 260-day-Tzolken-sacred-years for the first example, Seth. The secondary age of Adam is the 800-year Generation Cycle in Genesis 5:4. The secondary 807-year age of Seth includes the 800-year Generation Cycle, plus 7-Tzolken-sacred-years (Genesis 5:7).
The secondary age category entails thirteen 400-year-Baktun-cycles in the vernacular of the Mayan Calendar. Each 400-year-Baktun-cycle is the halfway, midpoint position for the entire Patriarch’s 800-year Generation Cycle. The end of Adam’s first 400-year-Baktun-cycle in the secondary age category also identifies the end of 130-years in the primary age category. The end of Adam’s second 400-year-Baktun-cycle completes the first 800-year Generation Cycle in the secondary age category.
Seth’s secondary 807-year age follows the same pattern. The third 400-year-Baktun-cycle in the lineage is also Seth’s first 400-year-Baktun-cycle for the secondary age category. Again, at the halfway point, Seth’s primary 105-year age of solar-side time split ends simultaneously with Seth’s first 400-year-Baktun-cycle. The fourth 400-year-Baktun-cycle adds to the secondary age category for Seth. Seth’s secondary age 800-year Generation Cycle finishes at the end of the fourth 400-year-Baktun-cycle. A final period lasting 7-Tzolken-sacred-years or 1,820-days, adds the last primary age 5-Ethiopic-years according to the 364-day-Ethiopic-year. The familiar 365-day-solar-year adjusts by one day every year to add approximately 7-Tzolken-sacred-years from the last 5-years in Seth’s 105-year primary age.
The Holy Bible commits the bulk of this Holy of Holies to exploring given ages for the Antediluvian Patriarchs from Enos to Enoch. Ages of Adam harvested calendar information from several known sources. The Jewish Calendar, Egyptian Calendar and Sun Kingdoms’ Calendars of the Americas assist to discern fundamental requisites of lunar/solar calendar operations. Enhancing our view of ancient time recording, additional materials gathered from the Book of Jubilees, Dead Sea Scrolls, three Book(s) of Enoch and mythological inferences compile for better awareness about ancient calendar systems. Styles of writing and the consistency of meanings are useful in dating ancient texts. The purpose here is to extract pertinent fragmentary evidence offered by ancient writings to facilitate reconstruction of the oldest Antediluvian Calendar system.
Supplementary literature serves our calendar interests. Original Septuagint texts translate to compose most of the canonical Holy Bible. The Septuagint is aptly noted LXX, for the legendary seventy or so scholars involved. Ptolemy II (285-247 B.C.E.) requested six translators from each of the twelve tribes of Israel to work at the library at Alexandria. They translated the first five books of Moses or the Torah. The Pentateuch means the same name in Greek. Most scholars estimate the latter part of the third century for scripture translations into Greek. We are far more interested in the information disseminated in the text rather than every jot, yod or tittle (Matthew 5:18). In English, this compares to crossing t’s and dotting i’s. We can rest assured diligent care was exercised by Septuagint translators in creating Greek renditions of the Bible. According to the Letter of Aristeas, the Jerusalem high priest Eleazar, was to appoint trained Jewish sages to generate precise translations.
Noteworthy resources embrace various stages of correspondence with several collections attributed to be authentically Septuagint. A survey of the similarities and differences yields more specific calendar information targeted toward resolving the ages listed in chapter 5 of Genesis. Contributing texts present themselves against the background of accepted calendar systems. Several Apocryphal (false writings and not canonical) works also became known between 100 B.C.E. and 300 A.D.
Striking 100-year differences exists between the Antediluvian Septuagint calendar ages and those respective ages in the traditional Bible. A contrasting first 100-years of difference exists between the primary age of Adam, as reputed by the Septuagint and the accepted 130-year age in the later Holy Bible versions. The Septuagint mentions the primary age of Adam to be 230-years at Seth’s birth in Genesis 5:3. The Septuagint’s primary 230-year age of Adam departs from a wider set of l/s calendar terms, which indicate Septuagint translators were working with a discrete 100-years single term. Prominent 100-year differences lead us to distinguish 100-year single terms stood alone in the script.
This illustration suggests that 100-days-and-years are an isolated single term. Associated numerical matching of X-days with X-years bolsters a more comprehensive scheme that situates a difference between the 260-year-sacred-cycle and the 360-year midpoint type of cycle. Mayan calendar terminology substitutes for the equivalent 260-year-Tzolken-sacred-cycle and the 360-year-Tun-cycle. Important considerations that select 100-days-and-years graphically determine the difference between 260-day-Tzolken-years and 360-day-Tun-years to formulate the larger frames of 260-year-Tzolken-sacred-cycles and 360-year-Tun-cycles. A distinct 100-year single term is visible in multiple translated texts.
Emphasis for the primary age measures from the characters’ beginning to the primary age time at fatherhood. In the popular Holy Bible, Seth’s primary 105-year age revises to be 205-years in the Septuagint. Scrutiny of the Holy Bible primary 105-year age of Seth reinforces the notion that the 100-year portion was likely a 100-days-and-years single term and that 5-years shares the very same treatment by referring to a special 5-days-and-years single term. Ending the 360-day-Tun-year with the special 5-day Wayeb period agrees with ending a 360-year-Tun-cycle with an outstanding terminal 5-year Wayab. Seth’s last 5-years in the primary age or 1,820-days, link with 7-Tzolken-sacred-years in the secondary age category (Eqn. 13).
Proper historical credit belongs to the Holy Bible from older versions that translate Torah. Modern English versions of the Holy Bible better preserve original settings cast. The Greek Septuagint did a more accurate job of translating spiritual underpinnings as opposed to precise numbers. Modern word searches and the capabilities of the Internet enable exhaustive searching.
The secondary 800-year Generation Cycle age of Adam, measured from fatherhood until Adam’s death, also mutates regarding 700-years in the Septuagint. The primary and secondary ages of Adam offset by 100-years according to the Septuagint. The identical 100-year deviation between the sacred texts affects the secondary age of later characters in the secondary age category by the same amount. The mainstream of the Septuagint copies the generational flow from the character’s age at fatherhood until the characters death. Mesoamerican l/s calendar ages were ideally fixed for both 130-years as half of the 260-year-Tzolken-sacred-cycle and the 400-year-Baktun-cycle as half of the larger 800-year Generation Cycle.
Original Hebrew texts maintained accuracy in keeping with the Sun Kingdom’s calendars. Specific calendar units of measurement show the principal time reckoning ingredients embedded as bits and pieces. Differences lasting 100-years continue throughout the remaining Septuagint genealogy. Seth, for example, has 205-years in the primary age category at his fatherhood of Enos. The secondary 707-year age for Seth likewise indicates a 100-year shortfall from the Holy Bible account. Both cases for Adam and Seth eventually sum for the total age life spans of 930-years for Adam and 912-years for Seth, respectively.
Septuagint translators had access to Torah scrolls and other manuscripts that modern people may never know. Fire partially destroyed the library at Alexandria when Julius Caesar laid siege to the city in 48 B.C.E. The Septuagint was the first canon in the Greek before the New Testament. Books and parts of books were included in the canon. Greek editions of the Hebrew Bible in many different languages aided the spread of Christianity. Some early churches rejected Apocryphal and related works. Septuagint research through all stages, amplifications and modifications is a separate study. Every language and even dialect has particular meanings and interpretations akin to itself. New translations and revisions are undergoing development to this day.
Stringent rules for recopying Torah scrolls have always been in effect. Asserted in Deuteronomy 4:2 and 31:24-26, divine instructions preserve all scriptures intact. Orders prohibit any added or removed words or meanings. The Levite priesthood held stewardship of the scriptures. The New Testament later affirms the “oracles of God” are committed to the Jewish people (Romans 3:2).
The earliest scriptures designed to protect the sanctity and original meanings inherent to the Hebrew Bible determine the copy practices of the Levite priesthood. The chosen Levites were to make new copies of the Bible as older copies wore out. Meticulous rules were in effect for transcribing text. Every page needs to be an exact duplicate, word for word and letter by letter. Counting numbers of words and/or letters per page permitted comparisons to the original text. Up to three people eventually were required to make a copy. A copyist sat in full Jewish dress, accompanied by at least two others tasked with checking the manuscript for errors. Safeguarding the Sacred Text enabled the acclaimed “fence to the scriptures.” Words and letters remained locked into position. A single mistake caused the entire work’s destruction and the whole process started over.