I didn't say the ancient Jews knew the lunar calendar when other ancient cultures did not (the East Asian calendar is certainly lunar). I said they knew the exact length of a lunar month. The other ancient cultures came close, but their observation and scientific research fell short. The Jews knew because it was received from G-d . . . specifically, the beginning of Exodus chapter 12 is the point at which G-d gave Moses the information about the Hebrew calendar and the precise length of a lunar month.
This is a very deep and profound issue because it requires the use of two primeval "first new moons" from which to calculate. If one begins with only the first real, historical new moon one cannot arrive at the answer. One must also use a "theoretical" first new moon that never actually happened--part of a "year" that never actually occurred but which is necessary to calculate correctly the precise moment of the molad or "birth" of the moon each lunar month. Dr. Jeffrey Satinover has an entire chapter devoted to this issue in his book Cracking the Bible Code.
Also, as I understand it, ancient Egypt used a solar calendar, which was in turn inherited by Greece and Rome and forms the basis of our current Roman solar calendar.
” I said they knew the exact length of a lunar month. The other ancient cultures came close, but their observation and scientific research fell short...Dr. Jeffrey Satinover has an entire chapter devoted to this issue in his book Cracking the Bible Code.”
Okay, so your claim is that God revealed to Moses that the lunar month is exactly 29.53059 days long? Is there a verse in scripture where that number appears?
And did Satinover ever examine the Umma calendar of Shulgi which predates Moses by a millennium? It apparently doesn’t appear in his book.