Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>]

Hi all,

some time last year (about the time of Passover) I was interested in
researching how the Hebrews went about deciding the start of the year each
year. Obviously, this was a crucial task to determining the date of the
festival of Passover. In the course of my research I remember reading an
unsubstantiated claim that before the implementation of the various
mathematical systems of the Hebrew calendar the ancient Hebrews quite simply
looked each year for when the Barley was ripe. If it was not yet ripe then
they added another month to the year. If it was ripe it was declared that
the month of Aviv had started (at the new moon, of course). I remember
finding this proposition interesting and a good agriculturally based claim
but noted that the claim was not referenced in any way. Just today while
reading through Exodus I noticed verse 31 of chapter 9.

Any thoughts?

James Christian