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21st, and 28th day and by making THE FIRST WEEK OF THE NEW MONTH ALWAYS BEGIN
WITH THE NEW MOON."

Further, on pages 4178 and 4179, we read --

The four quarters of the moon supply an obvious division of the month...it is most signifi-
cant that in the older parts of the Hebrew scriptures THE NEW MOON AND THE SAB-
BATH ARE ALMOST INVARIABLY MENTIONED TOGETHER. The (Lunar) month
is beyond question an old sacred division of time COMMON TO ALL THE SEMITES;
even the Arabs, who received the WEEK at quite a late period from the Syrians, greeted
the New Moon with religious acclamations. Thus this must have been an old Semitic us-
age, for the word which properly means "to greet the new moon" (ahalla) is... etymologi-
cally connected with the Hebrew words used by any festal joy. Among the Hebrews...the
joy at the New Moon became the type of religious festivity in general. Nor are other
traces wanting of the connection of sacrificial occasions, i.e., religious feasts with the
phases of the moon among the Semites. That the FULL MOON as well as the NEW
MOON had a religious significance among the ancient Hebrews seems to follow from the
fact that when the great agricultural feasts were fixed to set days, the Full Moon was cho-
sen. In olden times these feast-days appear to have been SABBATHS....there seems to be
in I Samuel 20:27, compared with verses 18 and 24, an indication that in old times the
feast of the New Moon lasted TWO DAYS...It appears from Judith 8:6 that EVEN IN
LATER TIMES there were two days at the New Moon on which it was improper to fast.
We cannot tell (exactly) when the Sabbath became DISSOCIATED from the month
(ibid.).

In pre-exilic times the individual months were usually designated simply by numbering ac-
cording to their position in the year, from the 1st through to the 12th. However, four months were
actually named prior to the exile in Babylon -- namely Abib, the first month (Exodus 13:4); Ziv, the
second (I Kings 6:37); Ethanim, the seventh (I Kings 8:2); and Bul, the eighth (I Kings 6:38). The
meanings of these names are strictly seasonal, thus giving additional proof of a luni-solar year that
incorporated lunar months and weeks.

From Babylon to Christ

The exile of the House of Judah in Babylon had a profound effect upon the calendar used
by the Jews, as upon many other aspects of their religious life. "It was during the Exile," states the
Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, "that they became acquainted with the names of the months
which they retain to the present day, and to which a Babylonian origin is actually assigned by the
Talmud" (edited by James Hastings. Vol. III. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1924. P. 117).

The Encyclopedia Britannica explains that "the ancient Hebrew names of the months dis-
appeared in the Exile and were replaced by Babylonian names [as we saw above]; but...before
the Exile the months were more commonly designated by numbers." The encyclopedia goes on to
say that "in Babylon the Jews adopted the Babylonian names, seven of which (Nissan, Sivan, Te-
beth, Ellul, Kislev, Shebat, Adar) occur in Nehemiah and Esther, while six, (Tammuz, Ab, Ellul,
Tishri and Shebat) are mentioned in the Assouan Papyri (5th century B.C.)" (Vol. 4, p.580. 1943).

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