Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

-----Original Message-----
So far I've heard of only one claimed exception to the above rule, and it is
central to this group, namely Hebrew. Supposedly people continued speaking
Hebrew as a native tongue, using the same calendar as far as the dates are
concerned, yet used different names for those dates. It doesn't make sense.

Karl W. Randolph.



Karl, this is actually not quite true. Look at the calendars used in the
Muslim/Arab world today. As I'm sure that you know, the Muslim religious
calendar is purely lunar, and thus falls behind the solar calendar by 11
days a year. Because of the impracticality of this calendar, all Muslim
states except Saudi Arabia use the Gregorian Calendar for secular purposes.
However the month-names used vary from country to country. In those areas
that were under British rule, such as Egypt, Sudan and Kuwait, Arabic
pronunciations of the English names are used (e.g. Yanayir for January). In
those areas that were under French rule, Arabic pronunciations of the French
names are used (e.g. Janfi for Janvier). But in the Lavant (Lebanon, Syria,
the Palestinians and Iraq as well), the names that are used are Arabic
pronunciations of the Babylonian names (Tishrin, Sebat, Adar, Nisan, Ayar
etc.) - this when actually referring to the Gregorian months! In Turkey,
where the Julian calendar was used until 1917 when the Gregorian was
adopted, some months have European names, others have Middle-Eastern Names,
so: Subat, Mart, Nisan, Mayis. 

So, Karl, month-names, being more an administrative feature that an emic
linguistic one, do not really reflect which language is actually spoken.
Returning to the biblical period, since the pre-exilic Judahites did not use
names but simply numbered the months, when the administration of exilic and
post exilic Judah was integrated into that of the Empire, the "Imperial"
month-names were also adopted (and even before that, probably, by the Jews
in Babylonia). What made the process all that easier, was that it was NOT
really a "new" calendar, just new month-names.

BTW, my teacher Aaron Demsky has pointed out that in Ezra-Nehemiah, those
parts that are associated with Ezra the "scribe"/religious leader, use only
ordinal numbers (e.g. Ezra 7:8-9). However, in those parts connected to
Nehemiah, an officer of the Persian court, the "secular" names are used
(such as Neh. 1:1).

Yigal Levin