kept after the retom -wovld be coanled in tin flune er : ftt>m the nature of the institotions, it is rmSk- er to be supposed that tlie reckoning, in the ease, would be fipom the first cultivation of the < after its reoocupation. The recorded sabbatical ; do not enable ua to test this supporition, because wc do not know exactly the year of return, or that of the first cultivation of the country. The recorded dales of sabbatical years would make that next after the re- turn to commence in B.C. 528, and be current in B.O. 527, which would aiake the first year of the period B.C. 584-8, which would not improbably be tlra first year of cultivation ; but in the case of so short a pe- riod this cannot be regarded as evidence of jsmA eight. 8. There is no positive feooid of an j jnbaee year having been kept at any time. Tlie dates of tbiee sabbatical years have, however, been preserved. Tfaeae were current B.C. 168, 185, and 87, and therefore com- menced in each case about three months earlier than the beginning of these Julian years (Josephus, AfU, zfi, 9,5; xiii,8,l; xiv,16,2; xv,l,2; IFar,i,2,4; and 1 Mace, vi, 49, 58). 4. There are smne chronologieal indications in the O. T. that may not unreasonaUy be supposed to be connected with the sabbatical system. The prophet Ezekiel dates his first prophecy of those in the book ** hi the thirtieth year," etc, <' which [was] the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity" (i, 2): thus apparentiy dating $n the former case from a bet- ter known sra than that of Jehoiachin's captivity, which he employs in later places, withovt, however, in general again describing it This date of tlie HOCh year has been variously explained ; some, with Usher, suppose that the sera is the 18th year of Josiah, whca the book of the law was found, and a greet paseorer celebrated (see Hftvemick, CmnmtMar &er EnA. pu 12, 18). This year of Josiah would certainly be the first of the reckoning, and might be used as a kind of reformation-era, not unlike the sera of Simon the Mao- cabee. Others suppose that the tiiirtieth year of the prophet's lifo is meant, bnt this seems very nnlSkely. Others again, including ScaUger {De .ffwfaarfflrfieaf Temponm, p. 79, 218, ed. 1588) and BosemnOllcr {Schol. in loc.), hold that the date is from the com- mencement of the reign of Nabopolassar. There is no record of an era of Nabopolauar ; that Ung had been dead some years; and we have no instance in tlie O.Test. of the use of a foreign sera. The evidence, therefore, is in favor of Josiah's 18th year, B.C. 628^ There seems to be another reference to this date in the same book, where the time of the iniquity of Jo- dah is said to be 40 years ; for the final captivity of Judah (Jer. Iii, 80) was in the 41st year of this reck- oning. In the same place (Ezek. iv, 5, 6) the time of the hiiquity of Israel is said to be 890 years, which sum, added to the date of the captivity of this pait of the nation, B.C. 720, goes back to B.C. UlL Tins result leads to the indication of possible jubilee dstes ; for the hiterval between B.C. 1111 and B.C. 828-2 b 488-9 years, almost exactiy ten jubilee periods ; and it must be remembered that the seventy wedcs of the prophet Daniel seem to indicate the use of such a great cycle. It remains to be asked whether the aooomts of Joeiah*s reformation present any indlcatSons of cele- brations connected with the sabbatical system. The finding of the book of the Law might seem to pomt to its being specially required for some public senriee. Such a service was the great reading of the Law totiie whole congregation at the Feast of Tabernacles in ev- ery sabbatical year (Deut. xxxi, 10-13). The finding of the book was certainly followed by a public read- ing, apparently in the first month, by the king to the whole people of Judah and Jerusalem, and afterwards a solemn passover was kept. Of the latter cdetea- tion is it said in Kings, ** Surely there was not holdea such a passover from the days of the Judges thst judg- ed Israel nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, aor of the kings of Judah*' (2 Kings xxiii, 22>; and in
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CkrooklM, "Then was no pasBOver Uke to that kept in larael from tbe days of Samuel the prophet ; nel- thar did all the kangB of Iszaelkeep snoh a passover as Jaaiah kept" (2 Chnfti. zxy, 18). The mention of Samuel is rsmi^mhle, since in his time the eiM^ier sup- posed data (B.C. lUl) &Us/ It maj be objected that the pasaover is mnrluffe connected with the sabbatical reckooing; but these passovers can scarcely have been greater in sacrifices than at least one in Solomon's rei^n, nor is it likely that they are mentioned as char- acterized by. greater seal than any others whatever, sa that we are almost driven to the idea ci some rela- tioii to chronology. See Sabbatical Teab; Jubs-
4. jEras, — ^There are indications of several histor- ical »ras having been used by tbe ancient Hebrews, but oar hifonnation is so scanty that we are generally unable to come to positive condasions. -Some of these possible «ras may be no more than dates employed by writers, and not natbnal atas; others, however, can scarcely have been used in this special or individual manner from their referring to events of the highest impoftanee to the whole people. See Epooh.