Biblical Hebrew Forum

[ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk (Ben Crick)]

On Wed  6 May 2009 (00:12:50 +0100), j.read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk wrote:
> Among the things I was always interested in understanding were things
> like
> 
> 1) How do we know that Hebrews designated days from evening to  
> evening? Do we have any written evidence of this other than  
> interpretations of statements in Genesis 1?

 [probably off-topic for B-Hebrew]

 That is the way the Jews designate the Day change; why, I know not.
 In Genesis 1 the Days of Creation are enumerated, "the 1st, 2nd, 3rd,...etc
 Day". Each day is terminated with the statement "And the evening and the
 morning were the first day, etc.". The term `eReB BoQeR evening/morning is
 used elsewhere in Scripture to mean a "Day"; whereas surely an "`eReB BoQeR"
 is not a Day at all, but a Night!  One would have thought that the command
 Y:HiY 'oWR (Genesis 1:3) would correspond to Dawn, not to Dusk!
  
> 2) Why was a week seven days and not e.g. 10?

 It is remarkable that just about every tribe and culture uses the 7-day
 week. The Year is one circuit of the sun by the earth; a Month is one
 circuit of the earth by the moon. There is no natural delineator for
 the 7-day week. The Hebrews cite the 4th Commandment in Exodus 20:11 as
 the Divine rationale for the universal 7-day week. Attempts to have an 8-day
 cycle, or a 10-day cycle, have been made, but abandoned. The human frame
 needs a 7-day week for work and leisure. The Creator knows best!

> 3) How did the Hebrews decide when to stick an extra month in?  Why did 
>  they feel the need?

 If you look at the Ship's Log of Noah's Ark in Genesis 7, you will see that
 there were 30 days per month, and 12 months per year, making a 360-day
 year before the Flood. If you have access to Thibant's /Astronomie/ you
 will see that the ancient Hindu year was 12 months of 30 days, 360 days,
 as required by the Savana Year of the /Aryabhatiya/ (a Vedic work). The
 Chinese had a 360-day year. The Incas of Peru and the Mayans of Yucatan
 also had a 360-day year.

 After the Flood the earth's rotation speeded up, giving an extra 5.25 days
 on top of the 360. At the same time, the month was shortened from 30 earth
 days to 29.5 earth days. This caused havoc with the neat original calendar
 defined by the Sumerians. They were the first to divide the circle into 360
 degrees, one for each day of the year; and to use a mathematical base of 60
 for their calculations (60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour or a
 degree of arc). This enabled them to tabulate numbers in columns, enabling
 arithmetic to prosper. Try to work out "seventy times seven" using Hebrew
 or Greek or Roman numerals!

 The Jewish Calendar is Luni-Solar. The 12 months are of 30 and 29 days
 alternately. The difference between the Lunar year (354 days) and the Solar
 year (365.25 days) is made up by intercalating an extra 13th month of 30 days
 in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th year of the 19-year Metonic
 Cycle. This extra month is Adar Sheni (2nd Adar), and a year containing it
 is called a Leap Year.

 The Jewish Calendar (Anno Mosiae) dates from 3761 BC, the Jewish calculation
 of the year of the Creation. Whether the days of the week numbered in sevens
 with the seventh day as the Sabbath have been strictly preserved in
 unbroken sequence since the Creation is problematical. We have no means
 of knowing.

 The New Moon of Tishri starts off the calendrical year; but certain shifts
 are made so that the Day of Atonement YoM KiPPuR never falls on a Friday
 or a Sunday, or on the 7th day of Tabernacles, or on a Sabbath.

 Hope this helps...

 Ben
-- 
 Revd Ben Crick, BA CF  <ben.crick(at)argonet.co.uk>            ZFC Os

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