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  • From: James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>
  • To: "G. Zack" <atdgz AT hotmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] FW: Hebrew calender, years, months, weeks and days
  • Date: Wed, 13 May 2009 19:56:36 +0100


Further, reconstruction of a broken tablet seems to define the rarely attested Sapattum or Sabattum as the 15th day of the lunation, more or less the full moon. This word is cognate with Hebrew Shabbat, but is monthly rather than weekly; it is regarded as a form of Sumerian sa-bat ("mid-rest"), attested in Akkadian as um nuh libbi ("day of mid-repose"). This conclusion is a contextual restoration of the damaged Enûma Eliš creation account, which reads: "[Sa]bbath shalt thou then encounter, mid[month]ly."[1]

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_calendar

James Christian

Quoting "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
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