Month

MONTH, in Latin Mensis, in Greek Meen, in Hebrew Chodesch or Jerach The ancient Hebrews had no particular Names to express their Months. They said, the first, second, third, and so on. In Moses a we find Mention made of the Month Abib, or the Month of the young Ears of Corn, or of the new Fruits, which is probably the Name that the Egyptians gave to the Month, which the Hebrews afterwards called Nisan, and which was the first of the holy Year. Every where else this Lawgiver marks out the Months only by their Order of Succession. In the Books of Joshua, Judges and Samuel, we see the same Method continued. Under Solomon¹ we read of the Month Sio or Zif, which is the second Month of the holy Year, and which answers to that which afterwards had the Name Jiar. In the same Chapter we read of the Month Bul², which is the eighth of the holy Year, and answers to Marschevan, or October. Lastly, in Chap. viii. of the same Bookd we read of the Month Ethanim, or the Month of the Valiant, which answers to Tizri, or the seventh of the holy Year.

The Criticks are not agreed about the Origin of these Names of the Months. Scaliger³ thought that Solomon had borrowed them from the Phœnicians, with whom he had much Intercourse. Grotius⁴ believes they came from the Chaldæans, and F. Hardouin⁵ fetches ‘em from the Egyptians. However this be, we see nothing of ‘em, neither before nor after Solomon. But after the Captivity of Babylon, they took the Names of the Months as they found ‘em among the Chaldæans and Persians, among whom they had lived so long a Time. Here follow the Names of these Months, and the Order in which they follow one another, both in the Holy and Civil Year⁶.

At the Beginning, the Hebrews followed the same Distribution of their Year and Months, as they had found in Egypt. Their Year consisted of three Hundred and sixty five Days, and of twelve Months each of thirty Days. This appears by the Enumeration of the Days, of which the Year of the Gen. ch. vii.Deluge consisted. The twelfth Month was to have thirty five Days, and they had no intercalary Month, but at the End of one Hundred and twenty Years, when the beginning of the Year following was out of its Place thirty whole Days.

After the coming out of Egypt, which happened in the Month of March⁷, God ordained that the holy Year, that is the Calendar of Feasts and Ceremonies of Religion, should begin at the Month Nisan, which is the seventh Month of the Civil Year, which he did not meddle with, and which the Hebrews have always continued to begin at the Month Tizri, answering to our September. After the Babylonish Captivity, the Jews being but an Handful of People in the midst of other People surrounding them, were obliged to comply with the different Customs, and with those Manners of dividing Times and Seasons, as were in Use with the People that ruled over them. First of the Chaldæans, afterwards of the Persians, and lastly of the Græcians. They took the Name of the Months from the Chaldæans and Persians, and perhaps their Manner of dividing the Year and Months. However we cannot be sure of this, not knowing exactly what was the Form of the Chaldæan Months. But we see plainly by EcclesiasticusEcclus. xliii. 6., by the Maccabees, by Josephus⁸, and by Philo⁹, that in their Time they followed the Custom of the Grecians: That is, that their Months were Lunar, and their Years Solar¹⁰. Universi Græci annos juxta solem, menses verò & dies juxta lunam agebant.

These Lunar Months were each of twenty nine Days and an half, or, to speak more intelligibly, the first was of thirty Days, the next of twenty nine, and so on alternately: That which had thirty Days was called a full or compleat Month, and that which had but twenty nine Days was called incompleat. The new Moon was always the Beginning of the Month, and this Day they called Neomenia, New-Moon or new Month. They did not make it to commence from that Point of Time, in which the Moon is in Conjunction with the Sun, but from the Time at which she first appears. And to determine this Moment, ‘tis said they had People posted on¹¹ elevated Places, to give Notice to the Sanhedrim as soon as possible. And as soon as Notice was given, Proclamation was made, The Feast of the new Moon, the Feast of the new Moon; and the Beginning of the Month was proclaimed by the Sound of Trumpets. And for Fear of making any Failure in the Observation of that Command, that obliges them to certain Ceremonies at the Beginning of every Month, they made the Neomenia to last two Days, the first of which was called the Day of the Moon’s Appearance, the other of the Moon’s Disappearance. This is what the Rabbins say. But there is great Probability, that if this was ever put in Practice, ‘twas only in Provinces distant from Jerusalem. For in the Temple, and in the capital City, there was always a fixed Calendar, or at least a fixed Decision for the Festival Days, determined by the House of Judgment.

When we said above, that the Months of the Jews answered to ours, so that Nisan, for Example, answered to March, Jiar to April, &c. This must not be understood without some Latitude; for the Lunar Months can never be reduced exactly to Solar ones. The Vernal Equinox falls between the twentieth and twenty first of March, according to the Course of the Solar Year. But in the Lunar Year, the new Moon will fall in the Month of March, and the full Moon in the Month of April. So that the Hebrew Months will commonly answer to two of our Months, and partake of both.

The twelve Lunar Months making but three Hundred fifty four Days and six Hours, the Jewish Year was short of the Roman by twelve Days. But to recover the equinoctial Points again, from which this Difference of the Solar and Lunar Year would separate the new Moon of the first Month, the Jews took Care every three Years to intercalate a thirteenth Month into their Year, which they called Ve-adar, or the second Adar. And by this Means their Lunar Year equalled the Solar; because in thirty six Months, according to the Sun, there would be thirty seven according to the Moon. ‘Twas the Sanhedrim that regulated this Intercalation, and this thirteenth Month was put between Adar and Nisan; so that the Passover was always celebrated the first full Moon after the Equinox. Upon this Subject may be consulted F. Lami’s Introduction to the Scripture, and our Dissertation on Chronology, printed at the Beginning of our Commentary upon Genesis; and those that desire to see this Matter discussed to the Bottom, may see Scaliger de emendatione temporum, and Calvisius’s Introduction to Chronology.

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