Moon

MOON, Luna. The Lord created the Sun and the Moon on the fourth Day of the World, that they might preside over the Gen. i. 15, 16.Day and the Night, and that they might serve to distinguish Times and Seasons. As the Sun presides over the Day, so the Moon presides over the Night; the Sun regulates the Course of the Year, and the Moon that of the Month; the Sun is as it were the King of the Host of Heaven, and the Moon is the Queen. Moses speaks of the Moon as of a luminous Body, not very much inferior to the Sun. Fecit Deus duo luminaria magna; luminare majus, ut præesset diei, & luminare minus, ut præesset nocti. Yet it is certain, that the Moon, when compared to the Sun, is but a very small Body. Astronomers are of Opinion, that it is about fifty two Times smaller than the Earth, and four Thousand one Hundred and fifty Times smaller than the Sun¹. But the sacred Authors often speak in a popular and inaccurate Manner. They call that a great Light which appears so to us, and which indeed is so as to us, without Regard had to the real Magnitude of other Bodies, which the common People are not in a Capacity of measuring, and of which they judge only by the Report of their Senses.

Gen. i. 14.The sacred Authors tell us likewise, that the Moon was appointed of God for the Distinction of Seasons, of Festival Days, and Days of assembling. Sint in signa, & tempora, Psal ciii. 19.& dies & annos. And the Psalmist says; Fecit lunam ut tempora. And the Author of Ecclesiasticus; He made the Moon also to Ecclus. xliii. 6, 7, 8, 9.serve in her Season, for a Declaration of Times, and a Sign of the World. From the Moon is the Sign of Feasts, a Light that decreaseth in her Perfection. The Month is called after her Name, increasing wonderfully in her Changing, being an Instrument of the Armies above, shining in the Firmament of Heaven. The Beauty of Heaven, the Glory of the Stars, an Ornament giving Light in the highest Places of the Lord. The Hebrews have varied in their Manner of reckoning their Months and their Years. We think that in the Time of Moses, and for a long Time after, they kept to the Solar Year; but after their Return from the Captivity of Babylon, they had only Lunar Years. This is what the Author of Ecclesiasticus insinuates in the Passage now quoted. It is true, however, that whether we keep to the Solar or Lunar Year, that the Moon marks out the Revolutions of Seasons, and that Men divided the Year into twelve Months, by following the twelve Revolutions that they observed in the Moon, in the Course of one Year.

I do not know whether the Hebrews knew the Cause of the Lunar Eclipses; but they always speak of them in such Terms, as intimate that they considered them as miraculous, and as Effects of the Power and Wrath of God. When the Prophets speak of the Destruction of Empires, they seldom fail to say, that the Sun shall be covered with Darkness, and the Moon withdraw her Light; and that the Stars shall fall from Heaven. Thus Isaiah speaking of the Fall of Babylon; Ecce dies Isai. xiii. 10.Domini venit crudelis, & indignatione plenus. —— Obtenebratus est Sol in ortu suo, & Luna non splendebit in lumine suo. And elsewhere; Then the Moon shall be confounded, and the Isai. xxiv. 23.Sun ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his Antients gloriously. And Ezekiel speaking of the Destruction of the King of Babylon; And when I shall put thee out; I will cover the Heaven, and make the Stars thereof dark; I will cover the Sun with a Cloud, and the Moon shall not give her Light. All the bright Lights of Heaven will I make dark over thee, and set Darkness upon thy Land, saith the Lord God. And Joel, The Sun and the Moon shall be dark, and the Stars shall withdraw their Shining. These Expressions are very common in Scripture, and I cannot perceive that there is any direct Mention of an Eclipse any where. So that the Hebrews, who did not conceive that the Sun turned round about the Earth, could not explain the Eclipses of the Moon or Sun in a physical Manner,

The Orientals in General, and the Hebrews in particular, paid more Respect to the Moon than the Sun. The Worship of the Moon among them was more extensive, and more famous, than that of the Sun. Moses Deut. iv. 19. xvii. 3.bids the Israelites take Care, that when they see the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, and the Host of Heaven, not to pay them any superstitious Worship, because they were only Creatures appointed for the Service of all Nations that are under Heaven. Job also speaks of the Worship of the Sun and Moon. If I beheld Job. xxxi. 26, 27.the Sun when it shined, or the Moon walking in Brightness; and my Heart has been secretly enticed, or my Mouth hath kissed my Hand, as a Token of Adoration. Particularly the Hebrews worshipped the Moon by the Name of Meni, of Astarte, of the Goddess of the Groves, of the Queen of Heaven, &c. The Syrians paid her their Adoration by the Name of Astarte, of Urania, or Cælestis; the Arabians by the Name of Alilat; the Egyptians by that of Isis; the Greeks by the Names of Diana, Venus, Juno, Hecate, Bellona, Minerva, &c.

Macrobius², and Julius Firmicus acquaint us, that Men dressed like Women, and Women in the Habit of Men, used to do Sacrifice to the Moon. And the Rabbin Maimonides thinks³, that this is what Moses intended to forbid, when he prohibited such an Exchange of Habits. The Moon was worshipped by the Name of a a God, and not of a Goddess, among the People of Syria, of Mesopotamia, and Armenia. The Sepharvites called her Anamelech, the gracious King. Strabo calls her Men. Isaiah gives her the same Name, lxv. 11. She was represented clothed like a Man; and there are Medals still to be seen, on which she is represented in the Habit and Form of a Man armed, having a Cock at his Feet, covered with a Phrygian or Armenian Bonnet. Spartian assures us⁴, that the People of Charri in Mesopotamia believed, that all such as held the Moon for a Goddess, would be always in Subjection to their Wives. He adds, that though the Greeks and Egyptians sometimes give her the Appellation of Goddess, yet they always give her the Name of a God in their Mysteries. In the Scriptures we have no Name for denoting a Goddess, and Astarte, which is the Moon, is called a God, as well as Baal, who is the Sun.

They offered several Sorts of Sacrifices to Isai. lxv. 11. Jerem. vii. 18.the Moon. We see in Isaiah and Jeremiah, that they offered to her in the high Ways, and upon the Roofs of their Houses, Sacrifices of Cakes, and such like Offerings. ‘Twas thus the Greeks paid Honour to Hecate, or Trivia, which is the same as the Moon. But elsewhere they offered to her human Sacrifices. Strabo relates⁵, that in the Countries bordering upon the Araxes, they chiefly worshipped the Moon, who has there a famous Temple. The Goddess has there several Slaves, and every Year they offer one of ‘em in Sacrifice to her, after having fed him very daintily for a whole Year before. Lucian speaks of the like Sacrifices⁶, which were offered to the Goddess of Syria, who was no other than the Dea cælestis, or the Moon. Fathers carried their Children, tied up in Sacks, to the Top of the Porch of the Temple, from whence they threw them down upon the Pavement; and when these unfortunate and innocent Victims cried and lamented, the Fathers would answer, that they were not their Children, but young Calves.

The Jews ascribed different Effects to the Moon. For Example, Moses speaks of Deut. xxxiii. 14.the Fruits of the Sun and the Moon. De pomis fructuum Solis & Lunæ. The Sun and Moon are considered as the two Principles of the Production of the Fruits of the Earth. The Moon furnishes them with the Moisture and the Juices that nourish them; the Sun concocts this Moisture, and exhales what is superfluous⁷. Lunæ fœmineum ac molle sidus atque nocturnum, solvere humorem & trahere, non auferre. Some Commentators think⁸, that the Fruits of the Sun are those that come but once a Year, as Wheat, Grapes, &c. and that the Fruits of the Moon are those that may be gathered at different Months of the Year; as Cucumbers, Figs, &c.

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