Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew calender, years, months, weeks and days

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>
  • To: Jason Hare <jaihare AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: "b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew calender, years, months, weeks and days
  • Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 13:51:41 +0100

I agree with your sentiments. Even though the day officially starts at midnight I never really consider it to be the next day until morning has come (i.e. the sun has risen; this usually happens long before I wake up, though).

But I think that what he meant was that the period that begins in the evening and ends in the morning is what we would call 'night' in English. I don't think he was making any statements about when the day begins.

James Christian Read

Quoting Jason Hare <jaihare AT gmail.com>:

Ben,

It actually just makes sense to end a day at sundown. Midnight is
artificial for a day's beginning and is only truly possible with the
clock. Before people used regular clocks, all cultures began their day
either at dawn or at sundown. These are the natural marks for the
beginning of the new day. Anyone can look outside and see that the sun
is setting and know that the work day has ended. Similarly, anyone
would admit that dawn is a good time to start a new day, since it
actually *is* the beginning of the day. Both of these is perfectly
logical. It is the idea that somewhere in the dead of night the new
day begins that strikes me as odd.

Jason Hare
Rehovot, Israel

On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 2:24 PM, Ben Crick <ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk> wrote:
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!
_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew




--
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page