daf bit: Zevachim 118-119
(Today's daf is Zevachim 120, the last page in this tractate.)
Our rabbis taught: the duration of the tent of meeting (mishkan, tabernacle) was 40 years in the wilderness less one, then 14 years at Gilgal, then 57 years (combined) at Nob and Gibeon, then at Shiloh 370 less one. 39 years in the wilderness is known from torah; Moshe built the tabernacle in the first year and sent out the spies in the second. Gilgal is known from textual math based on people's ages; Nob and Gibeon are also deduced from time periods in text. This leaves 369 years for Shiloh because we know that the Temple was consecrated 480 years after the exodus. (118b-119a)
I don't know what the "N less one" notation signifies, versus just saying a number directly.
(I hadn't realized quite how much time had passed before Solomon's temple. I guess it's time for me to read the post-torah histories more closely.)
Our rabbis taught: the duration of the tent of meeting (mishkan, tabernacle) was 40 years in the wilderness less one, then 14 years at Gilgal, then 57 years (combined) at Nob and Gibeon, then at Shiloh 370 less one. 39 years in the wilderness is known from torah; Moshe built the tabernacle in the first year and sent out the spies in the second. Gilgal is known from textual math based on people's ages; Nob and Gibeon are also deduced from time periods in text. This leaves 369 years for Shiloh because we know that the Temple was consecrated 480 years after the exodus. (118b-119a)
I don't know what the "N less one" notation signifies, versus just saying a number directly.
(I hadn't realized quite how much time had passed before Solomon's temple. I guess it's time for me to read the post-torah histories more closely.)