Editing Hebrew calendar (section)

===Other calendars used by ancient Jews===
Calendrical evidence for the postexilic Persian period is found in [[Elephantine papyri|papyri]] from the Jewish colony at [[Elephantine]], in Egypt. These documents show that the Jewish community of Elephantine used the [[Egyptian calendar|Egyptian]] and [[Babylonian calendar|Babylonian]] calendars.<ref>Sacha Stern, "The Babylonian Calendar at Elephantine", ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'' 130, 159–171 (2000).</ref><ref>Lester L. Grabbe, ''A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period, Volume 1: Yehud: A History of the Persian Province of Judah'', T&T Clark, London, 2004, p. 186.</ref>

The [[Sardica paschal table]] shows that the Jewish community of some eastern city, possibly [[Antioch]], used a calendrical scheme that kept Nisan 14 within the limits of the Julian month of March.<ref>Eduard Schwartz, ''Christliche und jüdische Ostertafeln,'' (Abhandlungen der königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Philologisch-Historische Klasse. Neue Folge, Band viii, Berlin, 1905 [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Sn8TAAAAYAAJ Internet Archive link].</ref> Some of the dates in the document are clearly corrupt, but they can be emended to make the sixteen years in the table consistent with a regular intercalation scheme. Peter, the bishop of Alexandria (early 4th century CE), mentions that the Jews of his city "hold their Passover according to the course of the moon in the month of [[Paremhat|Phamenoth]], or according to the intercalary month every third year in the month of [[Paremoude|Pharmuthi]]",<ref>Peter of Alexandria, quoted in the ''Chronicon Paschale''. ''Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, Chronicon Paschale'' Vol. 1, Weber, Bonn, 1832, p. 7</ref> suggesting a fairly consistent intercalation scheme that kept Nisan 14 approximately between Phamenoth 10 (6 March in the 4th century CE) and Pharmuthi 10 (5 April).

Jewish funerary inscriptions from [[Zoara|Zoar]] (south of the [[Dead Sea]]), dated from the 3rd to the 5th century, indicate that when years were intercalated, the intercalary month was at least sometimes a repeated month of Adar. The inscriptions, however, reveal no clear pattern of regular intercalations, nor do they indicate any consistent rule for determining the start of the lunar month.{{sfn| Stern|2001|loc=pp. 87–97, 146–153}}