Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

At 08.47 06/12/99 +1100, George Athas wrote:
>> [...] If you actually read all the post you seem to be responding to I
did give
>> George some other indications for my reasoning. However, George accepts the
>> status quo for some reason and I was fishing for some relevance for
>> accepting that status quo by asking for some dating. You also accept the
>> status quo and are liable to provide dating rather than hiding behind
>> authority.
>
>Well, Ian, we do have differing views on the dating of various biblical
books. You're
>dating most texts to the Hellenistic era, whereas I'd date most of the
'Former Prophets'
>to the Persian Era (but with a few elements perpetrated from before 586
BCE). 

I'll give you a bit more time, George!   (-:

(But let me say I'm not arguing for all of a book that deals with the
sabbath as seventh day being that late. It may just be the sabbath materials.)

>That, however, IMHO, is fairly irrelevent to the Sabbath=New Moon debate. 

Sorry, George, but it seems I may have confused you here. The argument is
that sabbath is full moon. This is the parallel between Ps81 "new moon,
full moon and feast day" with Hos2:11 "new moon, sabbath, feast day" (and
Isa1:13 "new moon, sabbath, convocation day"). The order of "new moon,
sabbath, feast day" is logical if sabbath equals "full moon", but the order
in Chr, "sabbath, new moon, feast day" is logical if sabbath equals
"seventh day". Other texts like Amos8:5 put the two terms "new moon" and
sabbath on equal terms, somehow related to each other.

When the first day of the month was considered the new moon then the
fifteenth day (shapattu) was the full moon. (Lunar months are of course 29
or 30 days long, so one can't consider the possibility that after a month
the weeks of a month would be maintained in a static manner.)


Cheers,


Ian

>Regardless of when the
>texts were written, I still can't see a concrete connection between the
Sabbath and New
>Moon. I can certainly see where you're coming from and it's an interesting
proposition.
>However, it just doesn't quite reach the line. There seem to me to be
bricks missing in
>the wall. Perhaps the bricks are out there and perhaps the Sabbath was
originally a New
>Moon festival or a lunar festival of some sort. However, going from the
texts, I don't see
>the connection being quite made.