Notwithstanding that the bright portion of the moon’s disc, being always turned towards the sun,
* According to Sayce (EHH 250), Jericho 1n(*)¥ means ‘city of the moon-cod.’
implied that it received its light from that bedy, the moon is represented in Gn 1 as having been created at the same time as the sun, and appar- ently as shining by its own light. It was also, with the sun, set in the heavens to give light upon the earth, and as the ‘ lesser light’ to rule over the night, and to divide between the light and between the darkness, though this is, with reference to the moon, a very loose phrase, when we take into consideration the imperfect way in which it per- forms this office.
All these statements would, of course, lead one to suppose that the Hebrews had but avery imper- fect knowledge of astronomy, and especially of the movements of the luminary in question, though they must have seen and noticed the regularity of its motions, and it apparently became for them, in course of time, a kind of emblem of constancy and everlastingness, hence the expressions ‘ peace as long as the moon endureth’ (Ps 727), and ‘ estab- lished for ever as the moon’ (Ps 8957, likewise Ps 727 ‘as long as the sun and moon endure [lit. with the sun asl in the presence of the moon] through- out all generations’).
The calm, clear light of the moon seems to be noticed in the expressions ‘fair as the moon,’ parallel to the second member of the verse, ‘clear as the sun,’ both being comparisons referring to the Shulammite in Ca 6. Increase of the light of the moon to the equal of that of the sun is foretold for the day when the Lord should bind up His people’s hurt, and heal their wound (Is 3056). The influence of the moon on persons is apparently referred to in Ps 121°, in the phrase, ‘The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night,’ where the smiting by the sun being undoubtedly sunstroke, the smiting by the moon may well be regarded as an early instance of the belief that the rays of the moon could exert an influence so baleful as to produce lunacy, or to cause that a person might become ‘ moon-struck.’ That the moon was supposed to have this effect is hardly to be wondered at, as many people believe the same thing at the present time ; and in ancient days it was suppo also that its rays could bring on epilepsy, as is illustrated by the Greek text of Mt 43 and 17, where the original has σεληνιαζομένους and σεληνιάζεται, ‘epileptic’ (RV).
There is some uncertainty as to what is intended by the ‘precious things put forth by the moons’ in Dt 33% (AV). The phrase has been supposed to refer to the produce of the months in their order, which is not improbable. An Assyrian tablet exists in which the produce of every month is enumerated in order, and as moon and month are convertible terms it is not unlikely that something of the kind is intended here, rather than omens derived from the moon’s motions, such as are so often found among the numerous astrological fore- casts of Babylonia and Assyria. In fact we should probably translate ‘months,’ not ‘ moons,’ although ony certainly contains a play upon ΠῚ; ‘ moon,’ in poetical parallelism with sun (Driver, ad Joc.).*
With the nations around, the moon was, con- jointly with the sun and the other heavenly bodies, regarded as a deity, and divine honours were paid it as such. Among the Babylonians and Assyrians the moon, as a deity, was apparently not called irthu, but Sin (possibly also pronounced Sen), and it is this word that we meet with as the first element of the name of the well-known Assyrian king Sennacherib.t Besides this, however, he was aiso called Aku, and it is in all probability
* Steuernagel, who retains ‘moons,’ thinks the allusion is to the dew, which is traced to the moon as /ight is to the sun.
t With regard to the etymology of the word Sin, it has been suggested that this is for Zu-en, ‘knowledge-lord’ (generally
written En-zu-na—t.é. 80 as to be read Zu-en-na), one of his Accadian names.
this word that we find in the Babylonian royal name Eri-aku (Eri-eaku) or Arioch. Another not uncommon name of the moon-god among the Babylonians was Nannara, under which appella- tion he was worshipped at Ur (Mugheir or peace yer), a city probably possessing his oldest and most renowned temple.* The month Sivan was dedicated to the moon-god by the old inhabitants of Baby- lonia. Reference has already been made to the moon-goddess Aa, who was regarded as the consort of the sun-god Samas, and was probably the equivalent of the Ashtaroth-karnaim of the Phe- nicians.t
The name of the moon-god seems to have been Sin, not only in Assyria and Babylonia, but in other parts of the ancient East also. Thus we have reference to this deity in the name of Mount Sinai, the peninsula of which, even at the end of the 6th cent. B.C., was devoted to the worship of the moon. Antoninus Martyr relates that, at the time of the worship of the deity in this district, the marble of which the idols were made changed colour, and ultimately became black as pitch, returning when the festival was over to its original hue, at which he wondered presty: This was, of course, a symbolical festival, typifying the phases of the moon in its monthly journey, the change of the colour of the statues of the god being brought about artificially, but in such a way as to work upon the superstitions of the ignorant. The Phe- nicians seem to have worshipped the new moon under the name of win Hodesh (Baethgen, p. 61). See NEw Moon. The moon-god was represented either standing with his attributes, or seated upon a horse. In Palmyra he seems to have been called Yarkhibol (= Yareah-baal), and in the name Agli- bol we have a reference to the moon as a ‘ young steer,’ by the Assyrian equivalent of which it is designated in the hymn to the moon-god published in WATiv. pl. 9. In an Assyrian inscription the name of an Arab, .4a-kamaru, leads one to ask whether we may not have here two old names of the moon-deity: Aa, the Babylonian goddess of the moon as the consort of the sun-god; and kamaru, an Assyrian transcription of the Arabic kamar, ‘ the moon.’