Dial

DIAL. There is no mention of a Dial in He began to reign in the year of the World 3262, and died in 3278, before J. C. 722, before the Vulg. Æra 726.Scripture before the reign of Ahaz; and we do not clearly see, that even after the reign of this Prince, the Jews generally divided their time by hours: they continued to reckon still after their usual manner. The first time that we meet with the word Hour, is in Tobit; where it is said that Tobit and his son Tobias, continued prostrate on the earth for three Hours, which likewise is the reading of the Chaldee. This may serve to confirm their opinion, who maintain, that the invention of Dials came from beyond the Euphrates. Others believe, that this invention Herod. l. 2. c. 109.came from the Phœnicians, and that the first footsteps of it in antiquity are what Homer says of it:¹ There is, says he, an Island called Syria, lying above Ortygia, where the revolutions of the Sun are observed: that is to say, in this Island they see the returns of the Sun, the Solstices. As the Phœnicians are thought to have inhabited this Island, it is presumed, that they were the people, who left this monument of their skill in Astronomy.

About three hundred years after Homer, Pherecydes in the same Island set up a Sun-dial to distinguish the hours. Lastly, the Laert. in Greeks confess that Anaximander was the Pherecyd. first who divided the time by hours, and Laert. l. that he introduced Sun-dials among them 2. vide². Usher fixes the death of Anaximander in &

Suidam the year of the world 3457, under the reign & Euof Cyrus, and during the captivity of Baby- seb.

Præpar. lon, five hundred forty three years before l. x. the birth of Jesus Christ, and five hundred forty seven years before the Vulgar Æra. As this Philosopher had travelled into Chaldæa, he might have brought with him the Dial and the Needle, which were both in use there.

2 Kings xx. 2, &c.To return to Ahaz’s Dial, the account the Scripture gives us of it, is this: Hezekiah falling dangerously ill, Isaiah came and declared to him, that he should recover, and in three days time would be in a condition to go up to the Temple. Hezekiah said to him, what shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me? Isaiah answered, shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go back ten degrees? The King said, nay but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord, and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz. This happened in the year of the world 3291, about twelve years after the death of Cyrill. in Isai. l. 3. t. 4. p. 496. Hieron. in Isai. xxxviii.Ahaz.

Interpreters disagree among themselves concerning the form of Ahaz’s Dial: St. Cyril of Alexandria, and St. Jerom believe, that it was a stair-case disposed with so much art, that the Sun at his rising shewed the hours upon it by the shadow; and thus Pagn. Munst. Sanct. Vatab.the generality of Expositors understand it. Others believe that it was a pillar erected in the middle of a very smooth pavement, upon which the hours were engraved. The lines marked on this pavement, are, according to those Authors, what the Scripture has expressed by the word Degrees. Grotius described it thus, after Rabbi Elias Chomer. It was a concave Hemisphere, in the midst whereof was a globe, the shadow of which fell upon several lines, engraved in the concavity of the Hemisphere: These lines, say they, were eight and twenty in number. Which description comes pretty near the Dial, by the Greeks called Scapha, a boat, or Hemisphe­rion, the invention whereof VitruviusVitruv. l. 9. c. 9. attributes to a Chaldæan, whose name was Berosus.

This is what has been said concerning the form of Ahaz’s Dial. As to the shadow of retrogradation on this Dial, and the manner of it, whether the Sun did really go backwards, or whether the reflexion of its rays occasioned by some cloud formed suddenly and supernaturally produced this effect, is what opinions are likewise very much divided about. The Reader may consult our Dissertation concerning the Sun’s retrogradation on Ahaz’s Dial, prefixed to our Comment upon the second book of Kings³.

We have shewn in the article Hours, that they are distinctly taken notice of in Daniel, Tobit, and Judith; there must have been Dials therefore at that time of some kind or other, whether the hours were measured by feet upon the shadow of one’s body, or by the shadow of a gnomon, pillar, stair-case, or any other manner; for all these ways were formerly in use. Sun-dials are still very common at this day; and the country people still judge pretty right what a clock it is by the shadow of their body, or their house.

1 Kings xx. 11. and Isai. xxxviii. 8. מעלותMahaloth. LXX. ἀναβαθμός. Gradus, Vulg. Linea, & Gradus.The Hebrew word Maaloth, which in the Vulgate is translated horologium, linea, and gradus, signifies literally a stair-case, stairs; and consequently nothing can be from thence concluded as to the form of Ahaz’s Dial. Was it a stair-case made purposely to shew the hours, or did it serve for this use by chance only and occasionally? Was it a common stair-case or Sun-dial, with the name of degrees, by reason of the lines traced out and engrav’d upon it?

Another question as difficult to resolve as the first, is, to know whence the use of Clocks and Dials comes, in what manner soever they are understood; for it is easy to perfect an invention which is once found out. The use of them in Judæa, is, we see, particularly taken notice of in the reign of Ahaz, and in that of Manasseh, as we learn from the book of Judith. We observe the same use of it a good while after this in Chaldæa, beyond the Euphrates, as may be seen in the books of Tobit and Daniel: and we have no reason to believe, that the invention of it was new either in Judæa or Chaldæa, when these Authors spoke of it. The Egyptians glory in having begun the custom of dividing the day into twelve equal hours, and consequently in introducing the use of Dials; Tull. apud Victorin. a Macrob. citat. l. c. 21.since, as we have observed already, one can scarce go without the other. Some say, that Mercury Trismegistus, having made it his remark that the Cynocephalis urines twelve times a-day, and always at an equal distance, and howls regularly at particular times, divided the day into twelve equal parts, which we call Hours. Mercury Trismegistus is much more ancient than either Ahaz, Tobit, or Daniel, if it be true that he lived soon after Moses’s time.

Others maintain, that the invention of Dials comes from beyond the Euphrates, as it above mentioned. See our Dissertation on the retrogradation of the Sun in Ahaz’s Dial, prefixed to the second Book of Kings.

The Retrogradation of the Sun ten degrees in Ahaz’s Dial further requires a serious Pereira & Spinoza.examination. Some Authors believe the retrogradation was not real, but apparent only, and in people’s opinion; that the change which happened was only in the shadow, which fell on Ahaz’s Dial, and not in the motion of the Sun: this Luminary was in motion as usual, but the rays of it being reflected in an extraordinary manner by the opposition of a cloud, or some other way, naturally produced all that change in Ahaz’s dial, which was taken for a miracle. And supposing the thing had so happened, as they believe, can it at any time be thought otherwise than a miracle, to change the direction and determination of the Sun’s rays to some fixed point, in order to make the shadow in Ahaz’s Dial return back ten degrees?

They who hold the Sun to be in the center of the world which we inhabit, have no more trouble in disengaging themselves from any perplexities in this respect, than they who are of opinion that the Sun turns about the Earth. Without suspending at all the motion of the Sun or stopping it, it is easily conceivable, that its rays might be so reflected, as to make the shadow of the Sun appear ten degrees backwarder than it should be, according to the common course of it.

But whether these ten degrees denoted so many hours, is what we are no ways able to decide. There might be many degrees for one hour only, or one for every hour. The Scripture does not say, that this day was longer than any other. And in effect, if the miracle consisted only in changing the determination of the Sun’s rays to a particular point, and for a short time, the day must not have been longer than ordinary; and supposing the Sun to have stopped in its course, as the Text seems to say, it would not follow that the day would have been ten hours longer than any others, because, as has been observed, it is not certain, that every degree denoted an hour.

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