second day of the Paschal Feast (Lev. xxiii, 10); nor could the harvest be fini^^hed before the Feast of Weeks, which would then fall in May ; nor could the Feast of Tabernacles, which was after the gathering of all fruits, accord with the month of September, because all these feasts depend on certain stages in the agricultural year, which, as he shows from the observations of travellers, solely coincitle with the states of vegetation which are found, in that climate, in the months of April, June, and October. Tliis has been confirmed by later ac-
chdsh ("-n"i), "to boil over" {Introd. to Gen. ii, 157). The modern Jews consider it a compound word, mar, "drop," and Cheshvan, the former betokening that it was wet, an<l the latter being the proper name of the month (De Sola's Mishna, p. 1G8, note). With regard to the meaning of the Syrian names we can only con- jecture from the case of Tammuz, which undoubtedly refers to the festival of the deity of that name men- tioned in Ezek. viii, 14, that some of them may have
derived from the names of deities. AVe draw atten- | counts; for the barley harvest does not take place even
!__.._. u... .- T71..1 ..,.1 *!,„ *_„!,.„.,„ .^^ ^j^^ warm district about Jericho till the middle of
April, and in the upland districts not before the end of that month (Robinson's Eesearches, i, 551 ; iii. 102, 145). Secondly, that the Syrian calendar, which has essen- tially the same names for the months, makes its Nisan absolutely [larallel with our April. Lastly, that Jose- phiis (All/, ii. 14, G) synchronizes Nisan with the Egyp- tian Pharmutli, which commenced on the 27th of March (Wilkinson, /. c), and with the Macedonian Xanthicus, which answers generally to the early part of April, though considerable variation occurs in the local calen- dars as to its place (comp. Ideler, i, 435, 442). He fur- ther informs us (iii, 10, 5) that the Passover took place when the sun was in Aries, which it does not enter un- til near the end of March. Michaelis concludes thai the later Jews fell into this departure from their ancient order either through some mistake in the intercalation, or because they wished to imitate the Romans, whose year began in March. Ideler says, " So much is certain, that in the time of Closes the month of ears cannot have commenced before the first days of our April, which was tlien the period of the vernal equinox" {Hand- bach der Clironuh(/ie, i, 400). As Nisan, then, began with the new moon of April, we have a scale for fixing the commencement of all the other months with refer- ence to our calendar; and we must accordingly date their commencement one whole month later than is commonly done: allowing, of course, for the circum- stance that, as the new moon varies in its place in our solar montlis, the Jewish months will almost invariably consist of portions of two of ours. For the details of each month, see C.vi.iixnAU, Jicwisir. See, in aildition to the treatises above noticed, Langenberg. JJe 7ite>ife rc- leriim lltbraorum luuari (Jen. 1713). Compare CiiRO- NOi.om.
Monthly Meeting. See :Mkkting.
Montholon, Ji:ax dk. a French ecclesiastic, was born at Aiiiiui near llie niidille of the 15th century. At an earlv agi.' he received the degree of doctor of laws, and was registered among the regular canons of St. Vic- tor, at Paris. His theological learning and his superior attainments in jurisprudence rapidly advanced his name among his fellows, and he was finally promoted to the cardinalship by pope Clement VH. Montliolon died in Paris in 1528. llis works are : rromjituarium seu Bre-
been
tion to the similarity between Elul and the Arabic name of Venus \]x&mti,Alil-at (Herod, iii, 8); and again be- tween Adar, the Egyptian Athor, and the Syrian Atar- gatis. Hebrew roots are suggested by (Jesenius for others, but without much confidence. The Hebrew forms of the names are: -,0^3, "n^N:, ',^0, '^^'S.V\, 2S,
b^ibx, indn, "iVdn-i-o, ibps, rn-j, -jnr, ".nx, and
Subsequently to the establishment of the Syro-Mace- donian empire, the use of the Macedonian calendar was gratUially adopted for the purpose of literature or inter- communication with other countries. Josephus, for in- stance, constantly uses the Macedonian months, even •where he gives the Hebrew names (e. g. in Ant. i, 3, 3, he identities Marchesvan with Dius, and Nisan with Xanthicus, and in vii, 7, G, Chisleu with Appellaeus). The only instance in which the Macedonian names ap- pear in the Bible is in 2 Mace, xi, 30, 33, 38, where we have notice of Xanthicus in combination with another named Dioscorinthius (ver. 21), wliich does not appear in tlie Macedonian calendar. Various explanations have been oftered with respect to the latter. Any attempt to connect it with the Macedonian Dius fails on account of the interval being too long to suit the narrative, Dius being the first and Xanthicus the sixth mouth. The opinion of Scaliger {Emend. Temp, ii, 94) that it was the Macedonian intercalary month rests on no founda- tion whatever, and Ideler's assumption tliat that inter- calary month preceded Xanthicus must be rejected along with it {Chronol. i. 399). It is most probable that the author of 2 Mace, or a copyist was familiar with the Cretan calendar, which contained a month named Dioscurus, holding the same place in the calen- dar as the Macedonian Dystrus (Ideler, i, 42G), i. e. im- mediately before Xanthicus, and that lie substituted one for the other. This view derives some confirmation from tlie Vulgate rendering, JHosvorns. We have fur- ther to notice the reference to the ICgyjitian calendar in 3 jNIacc. vi, 38, Pachon and Epii)hi in that jiassage an- swering to Pachons and Epep, the ninth and eleventh months (Wilkinson, A nc. Kr/yp. i, 14, 2d ser.).