Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

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

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "G. Zack" <atdgz AT hotmail.com>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] FW: Hebrew calender, years, months, weeks and days
  • Date: Wed, 13 May 2009 17:00:15 +0000


Hi Yitzhak,

I have not followed the entire discussion and thread, and "discovered" it
only now and belatedly.

It does, however, touch an interest of mine.

In saying (see below) "...the word "Sabbath" in some Biblical texts may
indeed refer to the the full moon day" do you mean it being interchangeable
with "full-mooness", a synonym of sorts, co-denotation, or an actual
semantic relationship in Hebrew between, e.g., the Hebrew forms of Sabbath
and Full Moon etc.?

As well, would it be possible to trace how old, as in, what biblical strata
it appeared the earliest?

As a related but less of a purely language issue, and one that is more
regarding the underlying "culture" perhaps, are there any related words in
the Mesopotamia indicating the same concept and/or cycle and/or syntactic or
semantic origin?

Any bit of information will be appreciated...

Gad Zak
Quebec


> Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 03:23:51 +0300
> From: yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com
> To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew calender, years, months, weeks and days
>
> Hi James,
> >
> Now, the observance of the Sabbath was not prone to any kind
> of disaster that could have upset the count. The Jews were very
> meticulous about it, and they refused to take up arms in defense
> during the Hasmonean war on the Sabbath because of its
> holiness. They also did not live in a vacuum, and they could
> easily correlate their calendar with Egyptian, Babylonian, and
> Roman calendars and thus -- even if the count would have been
> temporarily upset -- could have recovered the original seven day
> cycle.
>
>
>
> The only one of the Hebrew festivals that does not fall on the
> full moon is the Pentecost. Well, it doesn't fall on the full moon
> in the lunisolar calendar. In the 364-day calendar, it falls exactly
> on the 15th. Now, in the 364 day calendar the 15th would not
> fall on the full moon in any consistent manner, but in my opinion
> (this is my opinion only -- not a summary of research), it is
> reasonable to suppose that originally the Pentecost was also
> celebrated on the 15th in a lunisolar calendar. At some point,
> the Jews observed a solar calendar, and this 15th was placed
> in a more complex framework of being the 49th day after the
> Sabbath. Note how the 49th day fits perfectly in a 364 day
> calendar where the week has additional sanctity. Following the
> Hasmonean revolt, some sects returned to the lunisolar calendar
> (and some may have never switched), and the wider framework
> of the Pentecost's date at the 49th day after the Sabbath was
> kept.
>
> >
> Since different calendars may underlie different Biblical
> texts, the word "Sabbath" in some Biblical texts may
> indeed refer to the the full moon day. This is perhaps
> even more likely in texts that were written without a
> 364-day solar calendar underlying them. Such verses
> that contrast the new moon and the Sabbath are clear
> examples of this.
>
> In this sense, the Sabbath was an integral part of the
> lunisolar system -- identifying the full moon. In the
> 364 day calendar, it was an integral part of the system
> marking off weeks. Following the revival of the lunisolar
> calendar after a background of a 364-day calendar, we
> find two independent systems -- a lunisolar year system,
> and a separate 7 day week system. (I did not discuss
> here the 360 12x30 day calendar, which was probably
> intercalated every sixth year, but if this too was invoked
> after a 364 day calendar, we would find two systems).
>
> Yitzhak Sapir
> _______________________________________________
> b-hebrew mailing list
> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew

Windows Liveā„¢: Keep your life in sync. Check it out.
_________________________________________________________________
HotmailĀ® goes with you.
http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Mobile?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Mobile1_052009



Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page