TIME
411
TIME
Mosaic legislation certainly a different import from the Rabbinical onlinance (see Yriemoet, Obsei-r. Misc. p. 284 sq. ; Gerdes, />« Festo Claiu/oris [Duisb. 1700; also in his Exercit.Acad.Y). See New Moon. Nor does the expression " in the end of the j'ear" (nyi'il nX^B"), with reference to the Feast of Tabernacles (Exod. xxiii, 16), favor this assumption (see Idcler, p. 493). Other ])assages adduced (Job xxix, 4; Joel ii, 25), as well as the custom of many other nations (Credner, ut sup. yi. 209 sq.), are a very precarious argument. Neverthe- less, it is clear that even in the pre-exilian period of the theocracy, the autumn, as being the close of the year's labor, was often regarded among tlie agrarian population as a terminal date ( Ideler, CAro/io/. i, 493 sq. ; see Dresde, A nnus J ml. ex A ntiq. Illust. [ Lips. 1766 ; merely Rabbinic]; Selden, Z>e Anno Civili Vett. Ilvhr. [Lond. 1644; also in Ugolino, Thesanr. xvii]; Nagel, De Calendnrio Fe«. iifi/-. [ Altdorf, 1746]). Seyffarth maintains that even prior to the destruction of Jeru- salem the Israelites reckoned by lunar months {Zeitschr. d. deutsch. morgenl. GeselUch. ii, 344 sq.). The prevail- ing belief, however, that they had from the first such a year lias been of late combated by Biittcher {Proh. alt- test. Schrifterkldr. p. 283; De Inferis, i, 125) and Cred- ner {Joel, p. 210 sq. ), and most stoutly by Seyft'arth (Chronol. jSacra, p. 26 sq.). Credner holds that the Is- raelites originally had a solaryear of thirty-day mouths, and that this was exchanged for the liniar year when tlie three great festivals were accurately determined, i.e. about the time of king Uezekiah and Josiah (on the contrary, see Von Bohlen, Genes, p. 105 sq. : Bcnfey and Stern, Ueber die Monatsnamen, p. 5 sq.). Seyffarth, however, ascribes the solar vear to the Jews down to about 200 B.C.
A well-defined and universal sera was unknown among the ancient Hebrews. National events are sometimes dated from the departure out of Egypt (Exod. xix, 1; Numb, xxxiii, 38; 1 Kings vi, 1), usually from the accession of the kings (as in Kings, Chron., and Jer.), later from the beginning of the exile (Ezek. xxxiii, 21 ; xl, 1). Jeremiah reckons the Captivity ac- cording to the years of Nebuchadnezzar (xxv, 1 ; Hi, 12, 28 sq.), but Ezekiel (i, 1) otherwise. The post-exilian books date according to the regnal years of the Persian masters of Palestine (Ezra iv, 26; vi, 15; vii, 7 sq. ; Neh. ii, 1; v, 4; xiii, 6; Hag. i, 1, 2, 11; Zech. vii, 1). But as Syrian vassals the Jews adopted the Greek (1 Mace, i, 10) or Seleucid lera (H^TU"^ l!^?'?) 'S'"" (^^n- tractitum. since it was used in contracts generally, Arab. hnryakh dhu-lkerfin), which dated from the overthrow of Baljylon by Seleucus Nicator I (Olymp. cxvii, 1), and began with the autumn of B.C. 312 (see Ideler, llamlh. d. Chronol. i, 448). Tliis reckoning is employed in the books of the Maccabees, which, however, singu- larly differ by one year between themselves, the second book being about one year behind the first in its dates (comp. 1 Mace, vi, 16 with 2 Mace, xi, 21 ; 1 Mace, vi, 20 with 2 ]\Iacc. xiii. 1); from which it would seem that the author of 2 Mace, had a different epoch for the jer. Seleuc. from the author of 1 Mace, with the lat- ter of wliom Josephus agrees in his chronology. Inas- much as_l Mace, always counts by Jewish months in the Seleucid ngra ( i, 57 ; iv, 52, 59 ; vii. 43 ; xiv, 27 ; xvi, 14), and these are computed from Nisan (x, 21 ; xvi, 14) — the second book likewise counts by Jewish months (i, 18; x, 5; xv, 37; on the contrary xi, 21) — we might suppose that the former begins the Seleucid asra with the spring of B.C. 312, while tlie latter be- gins it with the autumn of the same year (Petav. Ra- tinnar. x, 45; Prideaux, ii, 267, etc.), a conclusion to which other circumstances likewise point (Ideler, id Blip. p. 531 sq. ; Wieseler, Chronol. Synopsis, p. 451 sq.). What Wernsdorf objects {Z)e Fide Maccah. p. 19 sq.) is not of much importance; but w^e cannot thence infer that the Babylonians began the Seleucid asra with the autumn of 311 (Seyffarth, Chronol, Saa-a, p. 20), See
Hosmann, De AUra Seleucid. et Regum Syria; Sticcessione (Kil. 1752). Still another national reckoning is given in 1 Mace, xiii, 41 sq., namely, from the year of the de- liverance of the Jews from the Syrian yoke, i. e. seven- teen ;er. Seleuc, or from the autumn of B.C. 143 (Jo- sephus, Ant. xiii, 6, 6), and this aera appears upon Sa- maritan coins (Eckhel, Doctrina Numor. Vett. I, iii, 463 sq.). On other Jewish a;ras see the Mishna {Gitlin, viii, 5). See Yp;ar.
2. Month (fin, lit. neir, sc. moon ; seldom and more Aramaic tlT^, the moon). The months of the Hebrews, as stated above, were lunar (as appears from the foregoing names), and began from the new moon as ocularly ob- served (the [synodic] huiar month has 26 d. 12 h. 44 min. 3 [strictly 2.82] sec. [Ideler, Chronol. \,A?>'\). This is certain from the post-exilian period (Mishna, Rosh Ilash-skanah, i, 5 sq.), but for pre-exilian times various conjectures have been hazarded (see above). The length of the lunar month in the later period depended ui)on the day when the apjiearance of the new moon was an- nounced by the Sanhedrim (see a similar reckoning in Macrob. Sat. i, 15, p. 273 ed. Bip.), which thus made the month either twenty-nine days ('^S'^ '^"!!'^> i- ^• short) or thirtj' days (X5'2 lii'lh, i. e.J'ull), according as the day was incliuled in the following or the pre- ceding month. The general rule was that in one year not less than four nor more than eight full months could occur (Mishna, ^ nvc/;. ii, 2). The final adjust- ment of the lunar to the solar year was by intercala- tion (MH"^ >'), so that whenever in the last month, Adar, it became evident that the Passover, which must be held in the following monih, Nisan, would occur before harvest, i. e. not at the time when the sun would be in Aries (Josephus, Ant. iii, 10, 5), an entire month (Va- dar) was interjected between Adar and Nisan, consti- tuting an intercalary year (ni31"?2 ln3C, which, how- ever, according to the Gemara, did not take place in a sabbatic year, but always in that which preceded it; nor in two successive years, nor yet more than three years apart). See Anger, De Temp, in A ct. Ap. Ratione, p. 30 sq.