Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Gezer Calendar and a 6-Month "Year"
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:24:02 -0400
Jim:
This "two" is a mere typo (should be "to") in Talmon's article. I
just saw /kwl/ (Ronzevalle's proposed word in line 5) in the footnote
and knew what it meant. I confess I did not see the typo until now.
In any case, the verb kaph-waw-lamed does not and cannot mean "two
measure." It means "to measure, measure out" -- what the farmer does
with grain during the harvest. If the author of the Gezer Calendar
divided years into spans of 6-months there is no hint of such in the
Gezer Calendar. There is no mention of any New Year, and even if you
trust Albright's old reading "month of harvest and feasting," you
still have no reason to postulate two New Year celebrations six
months apart in the GC (emphasis on in the GC). Allowing Albright's
reading, why isn't there a second month of feasting mentioned in the
GC? I also think yrh + w read as "two months" is no longer in any
doubt. The months have no proper names in the Gezer Calendar (neither
do the 12 months of the pre-exilic Israelian-Judean calendar, ha-abib
is not a month-name), but there are clearly 12 unnamed months in the
8 agricultural periods listed the GC: 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 1 =
12.