CHRONOLOGY
294
CHRONOLOGY
(nais'«nn n'jbttjKh) occurs in Judg. vU, 19, where the connection of watches with military affairs is evi- dent : **■ And Gideon and the hundred men that [were] with him went down unto the extremity of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch ; [and] they had but set the watchmen D*^*])^^^*'' '^^ morning- watch ((^i^Sin n^bll^K) is mentioned in Exod. xlv, 24, and 1 Sam. zi, li ; in the former caae, in the ac- count of the passage ot the Bed Sea; in the latter, in that of Saul's surprise of the Ammonites when he re- lieved Jabesh-gilead. Some Rabbins hold that there were four watdies (Ideler, Handbuch^ i, 486). In the N. T. four night-watches are mentioned, which were probably adopted from the Romans as a modification of the old 83rstem. All four occur together in Mark xiii, 85 : ^1, the late watch ; fuaovvKTiov, midnight ; dXiKTpo^wvia, the cock-crowing ; and n-pwt, the early watch. See Watches of Night.
(8.) WeekC^^n^, ahebdomad).~The Hebrew week was a period of seven days, ending with the Sabbath ; therefore it could not have been a dlvisiop of the month, which' was lunar, without intercalation. But there was no such intercalation, since the Sabbath was to be every seventh day ; its name is used for week, and weeks are counted on without any additional day or days. The mention together of Sabbaths and new moons proves nothing but that the two observances were similar, the one dosing the week, the other com- mencing the month. The week, whether a period of seven days, or a quarter of the month, was of common use in antiquity. The Egyptians, however, were with- out it (with Dion Cassius, xzxvii, 19, comp. Lepeius, ChronoL d. JEg. i, 181, 188), dividing their month of 80 days into decades, as did the Athenians. The Hebrew week, therefore, cannot have been adopted fhnn Egypt; probably both it and the Sabbath were used and ob- served by the patriarchs. See Week; Sabbath.
(4.) Montk OTDJ, W^'n, d-'p; ttS-Th).— The months by which the time is measured in the account of the Flood may have been of 80 days each, possibly form- ing a year of 860 days, for the 1st, 2d, 7th, and 10th months are mentioned (Gen. viii, 18 ; vli, 11 ; viii, 14, 4, 5). Ideler, however, contests this, arguing that as the water first began to sink after 150 days (and then had been 15 cubits above all high mountains), it must have sunk for some days ere the ark could have rested on Ararat, so that the second date must be more than 150 days later than the first (Handbuch, i, 69, 70, 478, 479). This argument depends ti^n the meaning of ** high mountains,'* and upon the height of those — ** the mountains of Ararat" (viii, 4), on which the ark rested, questions connected with that of the universal- ity of the Flood. See Deluge. On the other hand, it must be urged that the exact correspondence of the interval to five months of 80 days each, and the use of a year of 860 days, in prophetic passages of both Tes- taments, are of no slight weight. That the months from the giving of the Law until the time of the Sec- ond Temple, when we have certain knowledge of their character, were always lunar, appears from (he com- mand to %eep new-moons, and frt>m the unlikelihood of a change in the calendar. These lunar months have been supposed to have been always alternately of 29 and 80 days. Their average length would of course be a lunation, or a little (44^) above 29^ days, and therefore they would in general be alternately of 29 and 80 days; but it is possible that occasionally months might* occur of 28 and 81 days, if^ as is highly proba- ble, the commencement of each was strictly deter- j mined by observation ; that obrarvation was employed i for this purpose is distinctly affirmed in the Babyloni- I an Talmud of the practice of the time at which it was written, when, however, a month was not allowed to be less than 29, or more than 80 days in length. The first day of the month is called XoHn^ ** new moon ;"
Sept. vtofoiviaf from the root IZT^ <o be mew ; and in speaking of the first day of a month this word was sometimes used with the addition of a number fw the whole expression, " in such a month, on the first day," as mn 01*3 .... '^^■'iWH ©"Tha," On tbe third new-moon .... on that day" (Exod. 3dx,l); hence the word came to signify month, though tiiea ft was sometimes qualified (Q^^ ^?^)* The new-moon was kept as a sacred festival (q. v.). In the Penta- teuch and Joshua, Judges and Ruth, we find but one month mentioned by a special name, the rest being called according to their order. The month with a special name is the first, which is called a'^ntOl trtn (Sept fii^v rCiv vioiv), '*the month of ears of cors,^ or " Abib,'* that is, the month in which tbe ears of con became full or ripe, and on the 16th day of wbich,tbe second day of the feast of unleavened bread, ripe ears, 3*i3M, were to be oflfered (Lev. ii, 14 ; comp. zziii, 10, 11, 14). This undoubted derivation shows how erro- neous is the idea that Abib comes fhnn the Egyptian Ep^. In 1 Kings three other namee of months oc- cur, Zif, ^1f or int, the second ; Ethanim, d^Sr "iX, tbe seventh ; and Bui, b^a, the ei^th. Theae names ap- pear, like that of Abib, to be connected with the {Ae- nomena of a tropical year. No other names are found in any book prior to the Capitivity, but in the books written after the return the later nomendatnre still in use appears. This is evidentiy of Babylonian origin, as the Jews themselves afilrm. See Month.