Biblical Hebrew Forum

["G. Zack" <atdgz AT hotmail.com>]

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 Live™: Keep your life in sync. Check it out.
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail® goes with you. 
http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Mobile?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Mobile1_052009