(6.) Year (Ttjl^). — It has been supposed, on aoooont of the dates in the narrative of the Flood, as already mentioned, that in Noah*s time there was a year of 960 days. These dates may indeed be explained in ac- cordance with a year of 866 days. The evidence of the prophetic Scriptures is, however, dedstve aa to tbe knowledge of a year of the former length. The **tinie, times and a half" of Dan. (vii, 25 ; xii, 7), where <mm means year (see xi, 18), cannot be doubted to be equiv- alent expressbns to the 42 months and 1260 day? of Bev. (xi,2,8; xii, 6), for 860x8^=1260; and SO X 42 =1260. We have also the testimony of ancient writ- ers that such a year was known to some natioos, so that it is probable that the year of Noah was of this length, whatever may have been that of the months referred to by Moses in the narrative of the Flood (q. v.).
The characteristics of the year instituted at the Ex- odus can be clearly determined, though we cannot ab- solutely fix those of any single year. There can be no doubt that it was essentially tropical, since certain observances connected with the produce of tbe land were fixed to particular days. It is equally clear tiiat tile months were lunar, each commencing with a* new moon. It would appear, therefore, that there mnst have been some mode of adjustment. To ascertain what this was, it is necessary first to decide when tiie year commenced. On the 16th day of the month Abib, as already mentioned, ripe ears of com were to be offiBred as first-fhiits of the harvest (Lev. ii, 14 ; xidii, 10, 11). The reaping of the barley commenced the harvest (2 Sam. xxi, 9), the wheat following (Bolh ii, 23). Josephus expressly says that the oflfbring was of barley (Ant. iii, 10, 5). It is therefore necessary to find when the barley becomes ripe in Palestine. Ac- cording to the observation of travellers, the barley is ripe, in the warmest parts of the country, in the first dajrs of April. The barley -harvest therefi»re com- mences about half a month after the vernal equinox, so that the year would begin at about that tropical point were it not divided into lunar months. We msy conclude that the nearest new moon about or after tbe equinox, but not much before, was choeen as the com- mencement of the year. Ideler, whom we have thus tax followed as to this year, concludes that the right
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new moon was chosen through observation of the for- waidness of the barle}r..€rop8 in the warmer districts of the coimtrj (ffandbud^ i, 490). There is, however, this difficulty, that the diffarent times of barley-hai^ vest in varioos parts would have been liable to cause oonfbaion. It seems, therefore, not nnlikelj that the Hel^ews adopted the sorer means of determining their new-year's daj by observations of heliacal risings or similar steUar phenomena known to murk the right time before the barlej-harvest. Certainly the ancient Egyptians and the Arabs made ose of snch means. The method of intercalation can only have been that which obtained after the Captivity— the addition of a thirteenth month, whenever the twelfth ended too long before the eqninox for the first-finiits of the harvest to be offered in the middle of the month following, and the similar ofibrings at the times appointed. This method woold be in accordance with the permission granted to postpone the celebration of the Passover in tlie ease of any one who was either legally nndean or journeying at a distance, for a whole month, to the 14th day of the second month (Nam. ix, 9-13), of which per- mission we find Hezekiah to have availed himself for both the reasons allowed, becaase the priests were not sufficiently sanctified and the people were not collect- ed (2 Chron. zzx, 1-8, 16). The later Jews had two be^nnlngs to the year, or, as it is commonly, bat some- what inaccorately said, two years. At the time of the Second Temple these two beginnings obtained, the seventh month of the civil reckoning being Abib, the first of the sacred. Hence it has been hdd that the mstitotion at the time of the Exodas was merely a change of commencement, and not the introduction of a new year ; and also that ftom this time there were the two beghmings. The former opinion is at present parely hypothetical, and has been too much mixed up with the latter, for which, on the contraiy, there is some evidence. See Tkab.
(6.) iSsosoM.— The ancient Hebrews do not appear to have divided their year into fixed seasons. We find mention of the natural seasons, y^Qj "summer,** and 5)'lh, "winter," which are used for the whole year (in Psa. Ixxiv, 17 ; Zech. xlv, 8 ; and perhaps Gen. viii, 22). The former of these properly means the time of cntthig fruits, and the latter that of gathering fruits ; the on^ referring to the early fruit season, the other to the late one. Their true significations are, there- fore, rather summer and autumn than summer and win- ter. There can be no doubt, however, that they came to signify the two grand divisions of the year, both from their use together as the two seasons, and from the mention of the ."winter-house** (C]^Hh n*^a) and the "summer-house'* (y*^^^ H'^a, Amos iH, 15). The Istter evidence is the stronger, since the winter is the time in Palestine when a palace or house of diflbrent constroction would be needed from the li^t summer pavilion, and in the only passage besides that referred to hi which the winter-house is mentioned, we read that Jehoiakim " sat in the winter-house in the ninth month;'* that is, almost at mid-winter; "and [there was a fire] on the hearth burning before him" (Jer. xxxvi, 22). It is probable, however, that "winter," or S)*^, when used without reference to the jrear, as hi Job xxiz, 4, has its original signification. The phrase dhj 1*p, "cold and heat,** in Gen. viii, 22, is stOl more- general, and cannot be held to indicate more than the great alternations of temperature, which, like those of day and night, were promised not to cease (Idelcr, ffcmdlmch^ i, 494). There are two agricultural seasons of a more special character ^n the preceding in their ordinary use. These are 5'lt, "seed-time,** ■od *^-i:c^, <* harvest.** Ideler mak^ these equal to the foregoing seasons when similarly used together ; but he has not proved this, and the passage he quotes (Gen. L c.) cannot be held to afford any evMence of the