TIME, as conceived by the authors of Qumran literature (in particular, the Temple Scroll, Miktsat ma'asei hatorah (MMT), Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, the Damascus Document, Blessings, the Psalms Scroll, the Calendars of Priestly Courses) and certain pseudepigraphic works (Jubilees, 1 and 2 Enoch), was not an arbitrary, man-made structure or human order, dependent on unstable observations and determinations influenced by external conditions, adjustments, and errors. It was of divine origin, a cosmic pattern obeying preordained, immutable laws, a cycle that had been recurring since sacred time was imprinted on nature during the seven days of Creation and consecrated through the sabbath day. Time was envisaged as the reflection of divine order in the universe, so designed as to perpetuate the cycle of life, blessing, and fertility, an order in which time and space are sanctified and interdependent from the earliest stages of Creation, which took place in time divided into seven days and in the space formed during those seven days.

The calendar was not entrusted to man, subject to adjustment and change, dependent upon human calculations or terrestrial considerations; for it represented the concept of a profound, comprehensive reality, a divine reality beyond the reach of the senses but reflected in the cyclic, numerical harmony revealed in the passage and changes of time. The calendar, based on a cycle of sabbaths and seasons, embodied the eternity of the primeval order, based on the eternal cycle of the sun and the cyclic motion of the celestial bodies, which could be precisely predicted by numerical calculation. The calendar also related to the secrets of the cyclic nature of procreation, dependent on counting and calculation, purification and oath, ensuring the continuity of abundance, life, and fertility.