Time and Calendar in Hebrew Scripture

Extracted text from Marking_Time_BT2013_28Nov13.pdf:

Marking time: calendar and time in biblical Hebrew Ronald J Sim [ronnie_sim@sil.org] [prepared for BT13, October 11-16, Dallas] Abstract:: Narratives sequence events in time, and languages have a variety of devices to keep track of ordered events. In longer stories and chronicles, and in other genres, the passage of time is marked in other ways. For example, ancient Israels calendar is often in the background of much of its historical record. The calendrical background often has significant implications for readers, but these are easily missed by modern readers. There is also a significant body of literature in the Hebrew Bible concerned with the nations future under God, and this literature broadens the scope of expressions which mark time. Following a brief outline of Israels philosophy of time, its calendar, and links to its annual festivals, the paper presents an overview of a number of basic temporal and calendrical expressions, and then of a range of more general temporal expressions. Throughout, the paper raises the implications for translation at the levels of lexicon, syntax and cultural representations.

1. Introduction [[Beginning Comment: Those who are closely involved in Bible translation at the chalk -face are in general much less familiar with the Old Testament and with Hebrew than they are with New Testament Greek. This paper is an attempt to pick up on one small aspect of the blank slate. In spite of the title, the paper goes a little way beyond the Hebrew Bible corpus. The work underlying this paper was also used for preparing three entries for the American Bible Societys forthcoming Dictionary of Bible Translation, on The nature and philosophy of time; The calendar and time; and Israels festivals. In this paper, I use the simples t transcription of Hebrew and Greek terms; very occasionally, I have used Greek orthography when a roman transcription was too irritating! The discussion of lexical items could be significantly expanded, but is hopefully sufficient to show the value of bringing discussion within the scope of a discussion on Time & Calendar. The papers major goal must be a plea for translators to give some serious attention to calendar and time in both Hebrew and RL.]]

Our life and experience as human creatures is inescapably time-bound. Time is therefore a cultural factor in all societies. All ancient societies which have left traces, have left traces of their concept of time, and one ventures to guess that awareness of passing time is a feature of all societies, in every place, and in every generation. In this paper we will have reason to consider several ancient societies briefly, but for now, the ancient society of Israel in the Old Testament is the one most familiar to us, and a moments reflection will recall how time is anchored in its thought. Most memorable is the paragraph in Genesis 1.14-19.

And God said, Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons [leotot ve-lemoadim] and for days and years [veleyamim ve-shanim], 15 and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth. And it was so. 16 God made the two great lightsthe greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the nightand the stars. 17 God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. [Gen 1.14-19 NRSV] 14

However you read this, in a statement which may go back to mid-second millennium BCE, two lights separate day from night, set up days and years, and provide signs and seasons. The day and the year are inbuilt from the beginning in the created system, and from an earthly perspective. The dominance of recurring days is unmistakable and unavoidable in human organisation of life. Years too, provide recurring cycles, in this case, more dependent on long observation and systematisation, before their recognition by calculation. The lunar cycle and its changing phases are less dominant, especially in modern societies which provide their own light-polluted darkness, but in a lesser way they too provide recurrent cycles which link up with several human experienced phenomena, as well as provide an intermediate measure between the short day and the long year. [[The two most

obvious features of lunar months are their ancient link to female menstrual cycles and to the nine month gestation cycle. Even before the invention of written calendars and diaries, women counted passing time in these two integral characteristics of their life-experience in lunar months.]] A second memorable passage is that of Eccl 3.1-8:

For everything there is a season, and a time [zeman ve-et] for every matter under heaven: a time [et] to be born, and a time [ve-et]to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; 7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. [Eccl 3.1-8 NRSV] 1 2

Here is time in a different sense, less precise, less concrete, less tied to measurement. Here is Israels concept of abstract time; not very abstract, and strongly linked to events of life. In some of these expressions, time is tagged to recurring events like planting and harvesting [v.2b] but, in most cases, time that is tagged to events that are not essentially recurrent and predictable, but almost random happenings, and which are just as much a feature of our human experience of time. In this Wisdom tradition, Hebrew philosophy of time is much more practical and down to earth than st European philosophy from Plato and Aristotle through to the 21 century. So, Ecclesiastes 3 continues

He has made everything suitable for its time [et]; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future [olam] into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 14 I know that whatever God does endures for ever [leolam]; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him. 15 That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already is; and God seeks out what has gone by. [Eccl 3.11, 14-15 NRSV] 11

He brings everything to pass precisely at its time; He also puts eternity in their mind, but without man ever guessing, from first to last, all the things that God brings to pass. 14 I realised, too, that whatever God has brought to pass will recur evermore: Nothing can be added to it And nothing taken away from it and God has brought to pass that men revere Him. 15 What is occurring occurred long since, And what is to occur occurred long since: and God seeks the pursued. [Eccl 3.11, 14-15 Tanakh, 1985]1

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For comparison, the Orthodox Jewish Bible translates this passage thus:: 11 Hashem hath made every thing yafeh in its et (season); also He hath set HaOla m in their lev, yet so that no adam can find out the maaseh that HaElohim hath done from the beginning to the end. 14 I have daas that, all that HaElohim doeth will endure lolam; nothing can be added to it, nor any thing taken from it; HaElohim doeth it, that men should fear before Him. 15 That which is hath been already; and that which is to be hath already been; and HaElohim will call that which is past to account.

The intended sense of the expression he has set eternity [olam] in their hearts [KJV, also Tanakh, 2000] is the most difficult, but clearly not the only problem. In what follows, this paper will cover in turn the nature and philosophy of time, in the ancient near east and specifically in the Hebrew Bible the calendar used in tracking time in the ancient near east, specifically looking briefly at the Egyptian and Babylonian calendars, which had influence for ancient Israel the calendar in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, including various points of calendrical reference in the OT Israels festivals, which are at the heart of calendrical interest in the Hebrew Bible some of the major lexical expressions for marking time in the Hebrew Bible and NT, with brief notes on some of the more theologically important expressions matters of some theological interest, and comments on the translation of time terms The paper will then making some concluding observations on translation.

2. The nature and philosophy of time in ANE and Hebrew Bible 2.1. Life [Time] as both cyclical and non-cyclical The observable regular recurrence of natural climatic and astronomical phenomena and the correlation of these with the regular, recurrent performance of both agricultural labour activities and 2 associated cultic observances, together lead to the conscious construction of calendars. In many societies, the regular recurring temporal cycle of climate, agriculture and astronomical events (including day, month, and year) was thought to reflect the innately cyclic nature of life, and Time was frequently perceived as a wheel, patterned in recurrent, endless cycles of birth, death and rebirth. Many traditional societies have a cyclic sense of time, which recurrently re-enacts mythical events [Eliade 1976: 72-73.]. Through this re-enactment, these societies retain a perpetual link to the mythical age. In Egyptian myth, for example, the goddess Nut gave birth to the sun daily [Hornung 1992: 96-97, 113]; the moon and the year were also viewed as cyclic rebirths. But human life is also subject to non-recurrent experiences, seemingly unpredictable and purposeless, which are either under the caprice of the gods; rationalised as destiny or fate; or random. According to Simon de Vries, ancient Egyptians conceived time to be an endless, meaningless continuum, caught in a perpetual seasonal pattern Individual human life had no goal or purpose (de Vries 1975: 344). Mesopotamian societies had a greater sense of history and event, but also saw little direction in the progress of time. Time was hazardous rather than telic or purposeful. What happened was accidental, capricious, and arbitrary. This leads to two concurrent ancient conceptions of time, as (i) an unending, recurrent cycle, or as (i) non-cyclic and generally a-telic. Religion and ritual tended to pessimism and to different forms of divination for manipulating more predictable and benevolent circumstances in life through proper regard for menacing forces (de Vries 1975: 344). The extent to which time is telic varies, and is generally low in ANE societies.

2.2. Philosophy of Time in OT First, some cautions. The Bible seldom addresses time as a topic [Eccl 3.1-15 is exceptional], and never in the abstract as did Plato and Aristotle. It maintains a practical and realist view of time, which surfaces in a fragmentary way, and is only reconstructed by deriving underlying presuppositions and 2

Prehistoric human interest in astronomy lies here, linking the sky, climate, and agriculture ; perhaps the first science humanity expressed intellectual interest in?

assumptions from the text, and by what we can infer from the words of the Hebrew lexicon. The concept is not equally clear in every part of scripture. That is, there is no clear, coherent position adopted. While western thought tends to conceive of time abstractly as a line reaching back into the past and stretching forwards into the future, biblical thought is perhaps more a continuum of events, an eventline from the past, in which the flow of events is more salient and not abstract time, which plays a supporting role, what has been called the temporal event (de Vries 1975: 34-35). As creation has a beginning point, so by implication, has time. We could make the case that Time is addressed on the first day of creation, and Space only on succeeding days, Gen 1.5,8,10. God exists outside both space and time (Gen 1.1; Isa 57.15; Ps 90.2; Rev 1.8; 22.13). He did not afterwards withdraw from creation; he is everywhere present, sustains it, and it remains under his purpose. He is able to intervene, bringing change to the natural world and human affairs, and transition from one period to another. In human experience, lifes events fill time (Eccl 3.1-15; 2 Cor 4.18b); periods of time come, endure, end, and transition to new periods. God has placed everything in its own right time, giving humanity a sense of passing time, while time and God himself remain ultimately mysterious [Eccl 3.11].

2.3. God created cyclical time Gen 1.14-19 stands out for its remarkable explanation, in which two sky-lights separate the day from the night; and [are] for signs and for seasons and for days and years. They are given no names; they are just lights. In their own context, what the early readers of Genesis were confronting was polytheism and syncretism in all surrounding nations, and the most plausible reason for the truly radical account in Genesis 1 is that it avoids introducing words which were the names of divinities in Canaanite and other ANE religions: Shemesh and Yerach, for example. They are lights, not deities, 3 created by God, and for fixing times. Furthermore, cyclical calendrical events, affecting both climate and agriculture, are subject to Gods benign authority from the beginning [Gen 1.14-19; Dt 11.14-15; Mt 5.43; Acts 14.17] and includes seedtime and harvest, summer and winter, day and night, with which the text even claims God is in covenant [Gen 8.22; Jer 31.35-36; 33.20,25]. When we see covenant as a commissive speech act and institution, we can recognise how strong this claim is.

2.4. Non-cyclical time is also under Gods hand Eccl 3.1-11 deals largely with non-cyclical time, through the events of life that overtake people everywhere, and over which they have little control for the most part. But, in spite of the neutral tone of vv. 1-8, the following verses of the section place all such temporal events in Gods hands , again with remarkably neutral tone. So, neither are one-off events random, capricious and a-telic, but under the control of Israels God [my times are in your hands, Ps 31.16], so the individual non-recurrent events of prosperity, health and fertility [Dt 7.12-15; 11.15]; and human affairs and political fortunes [Dan 2.21; 4.17b, 25b; 4.3435; 8.14,26], as well as disasters such as drought and famine [Ex 711; Joel 2.23-24; Amos 4.7,9; 3 4

This iconoclasm is true throughout Gen 1. On successive days, the gods of light and darkness, of sky and sea, of land and vegetation, and the gods of sun, moon and stars are dismissed. The final two days strip the animal and human of all possible divinity, while the whole human race is accorded inherent divine likeness. On each day of creation another set of idols is smashed. The [phenomena of nature] are the creations of that transcendent One who is not to be confused with any piece of the furniture of the universe of creaturely habitation. The creation is good, it is very good, but it is not divine. Hyer 1982: 823. 4 For expression of the unpredictability of evil times, see Eccl 8.5b-9; 9.11-12. The juxtaposition of conflicting views in Ecclesiastes might be put down to different voices in the form of debate.

8.9-10; Hag 1.10-11]. Time irregularities are an unusual special case of intervention [Jos 10.12-14; 2 Ki 20.9-11 // Isa 8.7-8]. The concept is not equally clear everywhere, but overall, the Bible develops an understanding of time which is purposeful, providential, and with generally benign ends (Mt 5.43; Acts 14.17); that is, it is telic, and linear. Under divine benevolence what happens does so at the right time, a concept lexicalised in et and kairos, see below. This notion of time that is historical and linear is an innovation of the first importance in Judeo Christian thought, in which "time is no longer (only) the circular Time of the Eternal Return; it has become linear and irreversible Time" [Eliade 1976: 79; 1963: 65]. Reinforcing Eliade, Eric Rust comments, "A new religious structure became available. In the Judaeo-Christian religionsJudaism, Christianity, Islamhistory is taken seriously, and linear time is accepted. ... The Christian 5 myth gives such time a beginning in creation, a center in the Christ-event, and an end in the final consummation." [Rust 1981: 60, see also Zimmer 1972: 19-20] Two common cultural assumptions underlie ANE understandings of life. First, divine benevolence rests upon the righteous (and conversely); and secondly, there are means available for predicting and manipulating lifes temporal events and their outcomes. Both assumptions address the potentially adverse effects of temporal-events, in different ways. Taking the second presupposition first, the Bible sometimes countenances these means of manipulation, prediction and protection, but finally asserts Gods authority over non-recurrent timeevents. The general OT prohibition of all forms of divination should be viewed against this presupposition [Dt 18.9-14]. The OT is ambivalent about astrology. Gods government (huqqot and mishtar in parallel) extends over stars and constellations [mazzarot, perhaps to be construed zodiac; Job 38.32-33]. The same is true of individual stars or constellations Orion or the Pleiades. To whatever extent celestial events are portentous (and Isa 47.13 and Jer 10.2 are at least sceptical), the implication seems to be that these portents are not autonomous or mechanistic; whatever significance they may have is divinely shown and disclosed on an occasional basis [Job 9.7-10; see also Mt 2.1-12]. Time and life are in Gods hands, are purposeful, and cannot be manipulated. The most striking treatment of the first presupposition comes from Jo bs friends, which Job strenuously denies in his own case. See also Eccl 6.1-4; 8.7-8a; 9.11-12; and in the NT, Lk 13.1-5; Jn 9.1-4. All of this may appear to lead to a strongly deterministic concept of time, but in general, divine intervention is benevolent or restorative. The Hebrew Bible never reduces human destiny to 6 impersonal fate or caprice, nor to the vindictive judgement of God. The nature of time = only partly cyclic, and also linear and telic. Events occupy attention, the temporal-event, rather than an abstract time-line. The philosophy of time = divinely ordained and benevolent; there is conflict between an imperfect present and a final climactic good, but never dualistic.

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Eliad and Rust are using myth in its technical sense, which need not distract us here. But here is the lasting dilemma! A conundrum limits Gods general benignity. Blessing is not always to the good, as Ecclesiastes pessimistically warns!

The dominant western view of time as linear is probably drawn largely from the Bible, although it no longer views time as telic, and is open to new cosmological hypotheses about cyclicism in parallel universes.

3. Calendar and Time The concept of calendars rests firmly on the regular recurrence of natural phenomena, astronomical, 7 climatic and agricultural.

3.1. Background Calendars were originally a way of keeping track of both the climatic/agrarian year and the cultic year, which were closely interconnected for many societies, in which the changing night sky was the means of measurement. In each nations pantheon of gods, the sun, moon, and significant stars were envisaged as divine entities. Natural events like day and night, rain, flooding and drought, seedtime and harvest, were considered to be in the hands of the gods, and to be divine activity if not actual manifestations of divinity, often mythologised as competing powers. The recurrence of days, months, and seasons was linked to the celebration of cultic festivals, and the recurrence was often perceived as reflecting the cyclic nature of life and time. These cycles were frequently perceived as innate and endless life-cycles of birth, death and rebirth, just as human life was patterned. It is easy to imagine how the coincidence of seasonal change with these dominant light-providing bodies could appear to be mysteriously divine. The beginning of each new day and month is self-evident from sunrise and new moon respectively, but there is no corresponding evidence for the beginning of the new year. That requires a decision, usually related to the seasons. To correlate the agricultural year with astronomical data presupposes cumulative observation, a degree of technology for recognising solstices and equinoxes, and a determination of when a year begins.

3.2. Problems In a natural way that can hardly be missed, the sun marks the progression of days, and the moon marks monthly cycles, and these are empirically derived recognitions in calendrical systems. Similarly, the sun and stars mark the passage of solar years which link up with regularly recurring climatic seasons. But the regularity is not exact, and the fit is problematic. The lunar and solar years are out of step. A year of twelve lunar-months was usually recognised, but the solar year is not a whole number of lunar months. From early times in the ANE, this was recognised and steps taken in different ways to synchronise months and years. The most common system was to add an intercalary month from time to time (see below). Secondly, marking the start of new year comes from conventional decisions to link the seasons with astronomical observation. The week has no natural place. In addition, unlike the day, month, and year, the week has no natural place in a calendrical system. The lunar month [approx. 29 days] is not an exact multiple of a seven-day week, and indeed, 29 is a prime number which cannot be factored. Not surprisingly, in different societies, at different times, cycles of other sizes (five or ten days, for example) have been in use. However, the phases of the moon, from new, half, full, half to new again occur at roughly seven day intervals, and may have been influential in defining a weekly interval (Hebrew is shavuot, sevens).

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Ancient Empires usually constituted their own Calendars around their own local interests.

Climate is variable. Thirdly, the agrarian year is not sufficiently precise or regular from year to year, or across a larger territory. Climatic irregularity (eg, rainfall and drought, wind and temperature) creates problems for agriculture, and when a community regulates its agrarian and cultic activity by calendar, irregularities affect both. For example, in Israel, harvest is roughly one month later in the north than in the south. (This may partly underlie Jeroboams reform [1 Ki 12.32-33]. See below on Calendar Reform.) Intercalation. Twelve lunar months result in a year of 354 days. In various societies, a thirteenth month was added (intercalation) whenever necessary to bring the lunar year into better correspondence with the solar year. Intercalation is not mentioned in OT, but was derived from the Babylonian calendar and regulated by the priests, who saw that the feasts were observed at the set time. Sometime in Israels calendar, and certainly by post-exilic times, an intercalary month was added after the month of Adar, called Second Adar, in four years out of every eleven (Jewish Encyclopedia). The th nature of the decision is interesting: If the sun had not reached the vernal equinox by the 16 Nisan, 8 the month was declared Second Adar, with Nisan following. For reasons such as these, and because the calendar regulated religious ritual activities, ancient calendars were the responsibility of priests, whether or not there were political implications, and initially were empirically based on observation, and only later on calculation.

3.3. The Egyptian year In Egypt, the year began when the star Sirius (Egyptian god Sothis) was first seen before sunrise, after moving far enough away from the suns glare following an absence of 70 days. This rising occurs nd just before the summer solstice (22 June) and heralded the imminent Inundation, or flood season of th the Nile. 17 June celebrated the Night of the Drop, when the celestial tear fell to earth and caused the Nile to flood. The minor deity Hapi brought Inundation, which was celebrated with sacrifice and hymns, although Hapi had no temple. The three seasons were Flooding(achet), the Inundation season, which ran from August (July) through October (September); followed by Emergence (peret) as the flooding receded from November (October) through March when sowing took place; then Heat/Harvest (shmiw) from April through July. Harvest of barley and flax was around April (which approximately locates Ex 9.31-32. Flax was harvested while in bloom), followed by wheat. Earlier months in brackets refer to southern, others to northern Egypt. In the earliest Egyptian calendar the three seasons were more prominent than months, although lunar months had growing prominence over time. It also seems to be general that days and months were numbered and only acquired names later. In 360 day years, a second month of five days was used. This was the norm until in the Roman Empire months came to have different numbers of days in a 9 365-day year. This gave the Egyptian calendar a simple link to astronomy: after New Year occurs at the heliacal rising of Sirius, which is annually determined, it is the seasons which dominate passing time. Egypt was also the first known nation to divide night into twelve parts by the rising of twelve stars; these twelve parts (dekans) are not equal, precise, or measurable.

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Further adjustments for accuracy came in during modern times. Compare the Roman calendar, now in international use, in which days were added to some months, to yield a twelve month year of 365 days. 9 This is probably reflected in the five days of Pagome in the modern Ethiopian calendar.

3.4. The Babylonian year In Babylonian mythology, the flow of events is displays an on-going struggle between chaos and order. When their creation myth was recited over the New Year period, the creation of cosmos from chaos was re-enacted by revelry. Time, which was profane as the old year ended, was abolished and recreated as sacred. [Eliade 1959]. In the Babylonian calendar, New Year was the first new moon following the spring equinox (March 22) at barley harvest. Months are named in a twelve month year, of alternating 30 and 29 days. An intercalary month was inserted by decree as required (originally perhaps by observation of the heliacal rising of Sirius or the Pleiades). From new moon, every seventh day was celebrated as a holy day dedicated to one or other deity, with abstaining from various activities. There seems to have been a seven day week, with an eight or nine day final week leading up to the next new moon. Years were given unique names.

3.5. The Canaanite calendar Here we make only two points, based on evidence in Ugarit found at Ras Sharma. First, in the Canaanite pantheon, Baal was God of weather storms, thunder and lightning, wind, rain and the seasonal renewal of vegetation and fertility, which are all obviously interconnected. Secondly, in a cyclic myth, Mot [Death] entered Baals palace and swallowed him, inducing drought until he is released and returns to life (with the new rains). At different times, Canaanite calendars came under the varying influence of the Egyptian and Assyrian-Babylonian empires. It appears that Canaanite calendars gave names to months, several of which appear in the Hebrew text. Also, apparently there were twelve (lunar) months in a year. The OT makes no overt reference to Egyptian, Babylonian or Canaanite calendars, each of which had some influence over Israels calendar, eg, in the post-exilic month names from Babylonia.

4. The Calendar in Ancient Israel & the Bible The Bible does not set out a complete calendar, and we must piece together what we can from the agricultural and cultic references and passing mentions of time settings. As with other aspects of life, the calendar in ancient Israel developed and changed, and there are some indications of this in the text, and perhaps also indications of some Egyptian and Babylonian influence. The New Testament came together in a narrow period of time, and its literature shows Jewish, Greek and Roman influences.

4.1. The Old Testament Calendar There are five partial, agrarian-cultic calendars in the Torah (see below, Israels Festivals). Many other temporal mentions in the OT assume a calendar. Before the exile the priests determined the beginning of each month by the appearance of the new moon. After the exile calculation was used to supplement and correct observation, and the calendar followed the Babylonian system.

The agrarian year In Israel, the wet season runs from October to March/ April, the rest of the year being dry. The early part of chorep rainy season is yoreh early rains when zera seed-time begins as soon as the early rains make ploughing possible. Following malqosh latter rains, the grain harvest (barley) begins around April in the lower Jordan around the Dead Sea, but is a month or so later further north and in the hill country. It is followed by wheat harvest, which is complete some fifty days later (Feast of Weeks).

The dry months are qayits, fruit-harvest or qatsir, harvest, and the fruit harvests (of pomegranate, figs, grapes, olives, dates; Dt 8.8) occur from August into September. The Gezer calendar is an inscribed limestone tablet discovered in 1908 during excavations of the ancient Canaanite city of Gezer, 30 km west of Jerusalem, and dating to the 10th century BCE. The language and script are either Phoenician or paleo-Hebrew. The inscription lists agrarian tasks in monthly and bimonthly periods. It runs from September through August and reads: Two months gathering Two months planting Two months late sowing One month cutting flax One month reaping barley One month reaping and measuring grain Two months pruning One month summer fruit [olives] [grain]

[vine]

The beginning in September, at the time of ingathering the fruit harvest is noteworthy; did the civil year begin in September (at the equinox?) although this does not correspond to either the agricultural year or the ritual year (see below). Nor does it correspond to the new year in either Egyptian or Babylonian calendars, when New Year began at summer solstice and vernal equinox respectively. It has been suggested that the Gezer calendar might have been intended for collecting taxes from 10 farmers, a schoolboy's memory exercise, or the text of a song.

The civil and cultic year The Feast of Trumpets, 1 day of seventh month (Tishri) celebrates Jewish New Year, although it never carries the name Rosh HaShanah in OT. In contrast, the agricultural and festival year begins th with Passover full moon on the 14 day of the first month [Abib/Nisan], called rosh chodashim the beginning of months [Ex 12.2; 23.14-16; Dt 16.1,6; also Josephus Ant., I, iii, 3]. It is debated whether Trumpets/ New Year is a relic of an earlier calendar. Ingathering is stipulated to be at the end of the year [be-tset hashana lit. going out of the year, Ex 23:16b] or the turn of the year [tkufat hashana Ex 34:22; Lev 23.39-43], although the expression might perhaps be read as the end of the harvest year, as Clines notes, references to the end (set) or the turn of the year in the autumn invariably have to do with the cycle of the agricultural year or of the festival calendar insofar as it is based on the agricultural seasons, and therefore they are irrelevant to the question of the beginning of the calendar year of months. (Clines 1974: 29) The Sabbatical Year also commenced with trumpets on the Day of Atonement (Lev 25:8-10), perhaps suggesting that this had been the beginning of the year. If these are relics of an earlier calendar, then Passover never entirely succeeded in replacing the earlier celebration. Whether or not this explains the origins of the discrepancy, scholarly opinion favours distinguishing the cultic and civic years, just as we separate fiscal and calendar year today. Thiele has postulated st

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The tablet includes the name Abijah, who may have been the scribe. It is displayed in the Museum of the Ancient Orient, Istanbul.

that during the divided monarchy, Judah observed New Year around vernal equinox, and Israel 11 around autumnal equinox.

Epochs marking the passage of years There is no common reckoning of an epochal era in the Old Testament. In the absence of a recognised system, the passage of years was linked to major historical or local events, Passover [Ex 16.1; 19.1; 40.1, 17; Nu 9.1-5; 10.11; 33.3, 38; Dt 1.3]; the Exodus [1 Ki 6.1; see also vv. 37-38]; the division of the monarchy [1 Chr 16.1] according to Rabbinic tradition; or, especially in Ezekiel, the date of Exile [Ezk 33:21; 40:1]; or the now vague reference to the Earthquake [Am 1:1]. Major events such as these, especially the Exodus [1 Ki 6.1] or division of the monarchy [1 Chr 16.1] potentially might have served to define an epochal era had they been widely adopted. During the monarchical period, dates were usually fixed by the regnal years of the kings of Israel and Judah [Isa 6.1; 36.1], and of Persian kings after the Exile [Neh 1.2; 2.1; Zec 1.1,7]. Events are tied to the current kings regnal year, dating from his accession upon the death of the preceding king [2 Ki st 8.23-24,25-26], and according to m.Rosh.Hash was counted from 1 Nisan. This leads to some ambivalence, since one kings final year is also counted as the following kings accession year, 12 appearing to count these years twice. The books of Kings and Chronicles also cross-date the accession year of a king of Judah or Israel with a reference to the regnal year of the other king [eg, 2 Ki 8.16]. In the Intertestamental period there may be some slight indication of a recognised national epoch, according to the inscription on a series of coins dated by the years of the independence of Israel, after Simon Maccabee gained independence from the Seleucid kings in 143/2 or 139/8 BCE [1 Macc 13:41; 15:6,10], but this had no lasting significance.

Dating events Events are dated by numbering the day, month, and sometimes the year (usually a regnal year; see above), in various word orders, with minor grammatical differences, also occur. See, for example, year/month/day [Gen 7.11; Jer 39.2; Ezk 30.20; Hag 1.1] day/month/year [Ezk 1.2] month/day/year [2 Ki 25.8; Jer 52.12] month/year/day [Ex 40.17] year/day/month [Num 33.38; Dt 1.3]. The order month/year occurs in Est 3.7; day/month [Ezra 6.19; 8.31; Est 9.21] month/day [Ezra10.9,16,17]. Year alone [Ezra 1.1; 3.8; 4.24], and month alone [Ezra 3.1]. This is a significant degree of variation in order, for unknown reasons, but which translators need to note. 11

Following m.RoshHash. 1.1 there were four new years. The 1st of Nisan (April) was used for counting the regnal years of kings in ancient Israel, and commences the festival year with Passover. 1st of Elul, (the sixth month, August) determined the annual start for the animal tithe to the priests; it is no longer observed. 1st of Tishri, Rosh Hashanah, is the familiar Jewish New Year (September). The Jewish calendar year advances and is traditionally the date of creation. It was also used for calculating the start of Sabbatical and Jubilee years and certain vegetable tithes. 15th of Shvat is the new year for trees (January/ February). According to the Torah fruits cannot be consumed from trees less than three years old and 15th Shvat was used as the starting date for determining the age of the trees. It is still widely observed as a minor Jewish holiday. 12 This is not the only difficulty; regency periods also affect tracing the record; it is also generally thought that Northern Israel and Judah held to different civil and cultic calendars. See Thiele 1951.

The Flood narrative, Gen 78, sets out a careful chronology of the event giving month/day [Gen 7.11,13,24; 8.3,4,5,13-14], according to which the waters rose from the17th day of the second month th until the 7 day of the seventh month, which is summed as 150 days, and therefore assumes a regular month of 30 days. In the Massoretic text, the flood lasts overall from the17th day of the th second month until the 17 day of the second month of the following year, while in the LXX it lasts th until the 27 day, ten days more. The simplest rationalisation of this is that MT assumes a lunar year of 354 days, and LXX a solar year of 365 days.

Calendar reforms There is a little indirect evidence in the Hebrew Bible of calendar change or perhaps, reform. Jeroboam I [931-910 BCE, Thieles dating] delayed the Feast of Tabernacles from the seventh to the eighth month [1 Ki 12.32-33], said to be bada milibad contrived from his own mind. This is usually taken to be an on-going calendar change. It may also have been partly motivated to adjust to the northern agricultural year, which is approximately one month later than that of Judah, but the effect was to introduce discrepancy between the festival calendars of Judah and northern Israel. Hezekiahs [716/5-686 BCE, Thieles dating] attempt to hold a joint Passover [2 Chr 30.1-4] conceded a one month deferment (which would coincide with the northern date and was permitted in certain circumstances under the regulations of Num 9.6-14, although this is not the ostensible reasoning in the text, which is simply to allow priests more consecration time). Three generations later, Josiah of Judah seems to have reverted to the traditional date [2 Chr 35.1-18; compare the brief mention in 2 Ki 23.21-23]. After the Exile, Babylonian month names and intercalation crept in, and calculation was introduced alongside observation for regulating the calendar.

Calendars in other Hebrew literature The Book of Jubilees [135105 BCE] condemns the intercalated calendar strongly, and proposes by revelation from the angel Uriel, a solar calendar, consisting of a civil year of 12 months (eight of 30 days and four of 31 days). Thus each year would have four quarters of 13 weeks, divided into three months of 30 days with one extra day each quarter. The year begins on a Wednesday, all festivals th fall on the first day of the week every year, except the Day of Atonement on 10 Tishri, with the Feast th of Weeks (Pentecost) falling on the 15 of Siwan [Jubilees, i. 1, 26; vi. 22 et seq., 38; xlix. 14; and Charles, 1902: 55 et seq.], and no festival falls on a Sabbath. The Qumran calendar is similarly based, and is certainly known to have observed festivals on different days from the Temple calendar. The Commentary on Habakkuk [30-1 BCE] reveals a calendrical dispute between Qumran and Jerusalem, advocating that the Day of Atonement be 13 observed at a different time. 1 Enoch 7282 [ca 50 BCE70 CE] probably reflects an older calendar, recognising both solar [72.32; 74.10,12; 75.2; 82.4-6] and lunar [73.1-17; 78.6-17] years, with details on the phases of the moon, 14 and alternating 29 and 30 day months, an additional day at solstices and equinoxes to yield a year of 364 days, divided into four seasons of 91 days each. The emergence of greater astronomical technology after the Babylonian exile seems obvious here.

13

1QpHab XI.4-8; see F.F. Bruce, The Dead Sea Habakkuk Scroll The Annual of Leeds University Oriental Society I (1958/59): 17. 14 In the solar year, the months 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11 are 30-day months, while 3, 6, 9, 12 are 31 days. In the lunar year, months 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, are 30 days long, and 4, 5, 6, 10,11, 12 are 29 day long.

4.2. The New Testament Calendar The NT has no calendrical interest except for scattered references to some major Jewish festivals, for example Passover [Jn 2.13, 23; 4.45; 6.4; 11.55; also in the Passion narrative and Lk 2.41-42; see also Acts 12.3-4]; and Unleavened Bread [Acts 20.6]; Pentecost/Weeks [Acts 2; 20.16]; Booths [Jn 15 7.2]; and the Day of Atonement fast [Acts 27.9]. In practice, tThe NT is usually translated before the OT, but names of festivals need to take both Testaments into account when choosing names, and certainly decisions made for the NT should not drive choice for the OT. Lukan writings include occasional loose (relative) time references Lk 1.5; 2.1-2; 3.1-2; Acts 11.28; 18.2], but the Gospels and Acts show astonishingly little interest in either dating or locating events in the life of Jesus or the first generation church. The feasts in John have contextual and theological 16 value, but no interest in the calendar as such.

Alternative calendars It seems assured to say that by Jesus lifetime, there were compet ing sectarian calendars in Judea, addressed in literature which includes 1 Enoch, Book of Jubilees, and the Qumranic Commentary on Habakkuk. Pharisees and Sadducees disagreed over following Jubilees. Such disparity may contribute to explain the differences in dating Passover as we find them in the Synoptics versus John. See Jaubert (1957). The Synoptic tradition is strong, that considers the Last Supper to be a Passover meal; this would place it in the evening beginning Passover [Mt 26.17ff; Mk14.1,14ff; Lk 22.1,7ff]. So the lamb would have been selected four days previously, and slaughtered in the afternoon for the Last Supper. The Gospel of John, however, which does not overtly describe a Passover meal, appears to place Jesus trial on the Day of Preparation, that is, before Passover [Jn 18.28; 19.14]. So, Jesus betrayal is the day before Passover, and his death at Passover. The simplest resolution of the disparity is that Synoptics and John follow different calendars, 17 presumably deliberately and for their own theological purposes. There is opportunity here for a useful glossary entrycautious, balanced, tentative in translations where it would be appropriate.

5. Israels festivals Mosaic law legislated for daily sacrifices at sunset and sunrise [Ex 29.38-42; Num 28.1-8], and each new month [Num 28.11-15]. On Sabbath the daily morning and evening sacrifices were double those of weekdays [Num 28.9-10]. In addition, there were formal festivals through the year [see Table]. The major legislative references are Ex 23, 34, Lev 23, Num 28-29, and Dt 16, with differences of focus and detail. Our knowledge of the calendar in ancient Israel is focused around the festivals in these passages. What follows focuses on what was prescribed there, rather on practice, about which less is known. The festivals are concentrated in the first and seventh months of the year, around the equinoxes, except for Weeks, and the later additions of Hanukkah and Purim. Passover, Booths and Purim, are th celebrated on the full moon, on the 14/15 day of the month. Most are to be occasions of joy, except 15

References to festivals in the epistles are generally figurative and didactic [1 Cor 5.7; Heb 11.28]. The few references to a cultic calendar are permissive not prescriptive (non-Jewish) Christians keeping the Jewish Calendar [Gal 4.10; Rom 14.5; Col 2.16]. 16 The NT pays no attention to the Greek or Roman calendars, although from Constantine onwards Christianity increasingly impacted the paganism of the latter. 17 Another contributing explanation might be the common tendency to pin significant events to close calendrical events, suggesting that the Last Supper may have been attached to Passover because of its close proximity in time; Helen Bond, University of Edinburgh, personal communication.

the Day of Atonement. Jews continue to celebrate these feasts to this day, either in families or the local Jewish community.

Table Feast Passover * Unleavened Bread Firstfruits Weeks /Shavuot * Trumpets /New Year Atonement Tabernacles/Booths* Ingathering Hanukkah Purim 1st 10th 15-21st ? 15 25th 14/15th Day 14 th

Month 1 [Abib/Nisan] 1st 1st st

Background references Ex 12-13; Lev 23.4-5; Num 28.16-15; Dt 16.1-8; Ex 12-13; 23.15; 34.18; Lev 23.6-8; Num 28.18-25; Dt 16.3-8 Lev 23.9-14 [barley harvest]; Ex 23.16; 34.22; Lev 23.15-22; Num 28.2631; Dt 16.9-12; [wheat harvest] Lev 23.23-25; Num 29.1-6; Lev 16.1-34; 23.26-32; Num 29.7-11; Ex 23.16; Lev 23.33-36; Num 29.12-38; Dt 16.13-15; [fruit harvest] Ex 23.16; 34.22; Lev 23.39-41 1 Macc 4.36ff; 2 Macc 1.18ff; Jn 10.22; Est 9.18-32;

15-21st 16th

50 days after Passover 7th [Tishri] 7th 7th 7th 9th (Kislev) 12th

Notes on feasts At three festivals, Unleavened Bread, Weeks, and Booths, all males were to make annual pilgrimage [hag] to appear before the Lord in Jerusalem, with joy, and no one is to come empty-handed [Ex. 23.14-17; 34.20-23; Dt 16.16-17]. In the case of Passover, the texts are ambiguous between a family festival observed at home, and a national pilgrimage. Passover led immediately into the week-long Unleavened Bread; indeed the two names sometimes coalesce. The week-long celebration of Booths, exactly six months later, commemorates Israels nomadic time in the Wilderness [Lev 23.42-43]. All three are specifically linked to commemorating the Exodus from Egypt [Lev 23.42-43; Dt 16.3]. Although it was the principal feast, there are few narrative accounts of Passover being observed. Apart from the Exodus itself [Ex 12-13], there is the first Passover in Canaan [Jos 5.10-12]; Hezekiahs Passover [2 Chr 30]; Josiahs Passover [2 Ki 23.21-23 // 2 Chr 35.1-18]; and after the return from Exile [Ezra 6.19-22]. Sometimes the celebration is noted as exceptional [2 Chr 35.18] or reinstated [Ezra 6; Neh 8].

Passover/Unleavened Bread coincide with barley harvest [Ex 9.31-32]. The first day of Unleavened Bread is followed by Firstfruits [Lev 23.9-14], when the first barley sheaves are presented to the 18 19 Lord. Thus the cultic and agricultural year begins with barley harvest (March/April). Only Weeks is not linked to a day and month, but falls seven full weeks, that is, 50 days after the Sabbath of Passover/Unleavened Bread. Strictly speaking, It is to be celebrated each year on the morrow after Sabbath [Lev. 23.15-16], the first day of the week. It celebrates the completion of wheat harvest, and its presentation before the Lord. Traditionally this is also the journey-time from Egypt to Sinai, and marks the Covenant and the giving of the Law. The NT refers to it by the Greek term Pentecost fifty. Ingathering celebrates the end of the harvest year with the five species [pomegranate, fig, grape, oil, date], coinciding with the week-long celebration of Booths [sukkoth shelters], during which all Israelites lived in shelters made from tree branches. There were prescribed sacrifices each day, with 20 decreasing numbers of animals, until the eighth day, which is probably alluded to in Jn 7.37. Linking these feasts to the agricultural year presupposes a setting in the land, although the legislation in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy ostensibly is given in the wilderness. The focus on harvest fosters a spirit of thanksgiving [Lev 23.39-41]. Strikingly, there is a total lack of ritual or festival to ensure fertility for rain, sowing, livestock, family or household in contrast to Canaanite nature religions [see Dt 7.12-15]. Trumpets, 1 Tishri, became New Year, Rosh Hashanah, a term which is not used in OT. The Day 22 of Atonement (Yom Kippur) is a twenty-four hour period of self-denial or fasting, and repentance. The additional feasts of Hanukkah and Purim both have national rather than religious character. Hanukkah is an eight-day festival commemorating the rededication of the Temple in 165 BCE, and 23 referred to in Jn 10.22, the Feast of Dedication. Purim commemorates how Esther overturned Hamans plot for the extermination of the Jews, as recorded in the Book of Esther (Est 9.20 -28). There is a remarkable absence of calendrical commemorations of individuals or their achievements. Even the death (or birth) of Israels greatest figures are unmarked in the calendar, although there were periods of mourning [2 Chr 16.14; 21.18-20]. Even for Purim primary attention is focused on the event and not on the individuals. Most references to festivals and sacrifice in the prophets speak disparagingly of merely formal observation. During the Exile, Ezekiel envisions various feasts in an anticipated and renewed cult [Ezk 45.17-25]. st 21

Comment Names for the festivals form an important OT key terms set, and the five partial calendars deserve translators careful comparison. The feasts can be read and interpreted without paying much attention to the calendrical references, but when calendar and history are taken into account, reading makes 18

This apparently preserves a Judean perspective; further north, harvests are approximately one month later. April is also barley harvest in Egypt. De Vaux 1980: 499. 19 How much to make symbolically of the sequence of Passover Unleavened Bread Firstfruits in an NT perspective is open to the fertile imagination! 20 At some point, a water-pouring ceremony was introduced, alluded to in Jn 7.37f, perhaps as a recognition of rain as a gift from God as implied in Zec 14.17; see Dt 11.14-15. 21 In the Jewish calendar, this is (symbolically if not literally), the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve. 22 Following the destruction of the second Temple in 70 CE, when all sacrifices were suspended, the day has continued to provide a national day of repentance in Judaism. 23 See 1 Macc 4.36ff; 2 Macc 1.18ff. It is sometimes called the Festival of Lights, and a central feature is the lighting of candles each evening.

more sense within the beneficiary communitys own calendar, and a richer understanding follows from taking cultural assumptions into account. This at least gives hope of the Festivals achieving some 24 relevance for readers. In deciding names, the OT should be normative, and the choice of names brought forward into NT, rather than the reverse. The Christian calendar sometimes unfortunately imposes Easter upon Passover, even when Hebrew pesach is preserved in Pascha, and this can detract from biblical interpretation. Since the NT draws upon the cultic calendar, the relevance of its oblique mentions ought to be clear, either in footnotes or glossary entries.

6. Lexical expressions for time reference Biblical Hebrew uses a variety of means to express temporal relationships, but only the more lexical ones will be mentioned here. The simplest expressions are derived directly from the calendar and daily experience: day, week, month, and year. In every respect, the primary unit of time is yom day.

What follows cannot do justice to these expressions, which require a full-length study, but it will hopefully serve to show what could be done.

6.1. Specific terms Day [yom, pl. yamim] Since yom occurs over 3,100 times in the OT, we need to do some work organising and categorising its occurrences. The scheme set out here is a revision of those in de Vries 1975 and Verhoef 1997. A. Yom referring to a historical day that could be pencilled on the calendar. Yom (ca 1500x) denotes ambiguously either the period of daylight [Gen 1.5a; 7.4; 29.7; Ex 24.18] or the diurnal (24 hour) period [Gen 1.5b; 7.24; 50.3; Lev 8.35; Job 3.6], as in English and many other languages. Layla is specifically night time. 1) day is the time to be up and doing the activities of life. 2) yom occurs frequently with prepositions, b-, l-, k-. 3) yom occurs frequently in construct state with nouns, events nouns, V inf, Rel.Cl. with asher. It is usually held that in the Hebrew scriptures the day began with evening (sundown) and the diurnal period ran through until the next sundown following Gen 1. The Jewish calendar still follows this practice, and Sabbath runs from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. This also fits beginning each month with observation of the new moon at evening, festivals are prescribed to begin in the evening [Ex 12.6, 8, 10, 18; Lev 23.32]. In the rules of purity, purity is restored, not immediately on completing the prescribed ritual, but at evening [Lev 11.24-28; 15.1-12; 16-24; 22.1-9. See also Josephus, Ant. III.x.1; Mk 15.42; Lk 23.54; Jn 19.31-42]. However, there is also evidence that, for practical reasons, each days activities began with sunrise, and this suggests a morning to morning diurnal period [de Vaux 181-182], which some scholars consider to have been an earlier convention [Dt 28.67 (but cf. v.66); 1 Sam 30.12; 28.19; Jer 33.20]. In general, sacrificial ritual would appear to be a day-time activity. yom is used deictically, hayom hazzeh yom besorah This day is a day of good news [2 Ki 7.9] and e anaphorically, be-yom hazzeh b esem hayyom hazzeh On that day on that very day [Gen e 7.11, 13]; and calendrically (see cultic use below) on this very day (b esem hayyom hazzeh) I brought your divisions out of Egypt [Ex 12.17; 13.3].

24

That is, relevance achieved without resorting to allegorical or typological interpretation.

Deuteronomy is a text reiterating past, reflecting on present, and anticipating future experience, and uses several temporal references, repeatedly using hayyom for deictic reference [59x] viz., hayyom e e hazzeh this day, today, b yyom hahu on that day; k hayyom right now [[see also the use of baet hahi at that time, attah now [derived from et time].]] Idioms include yom yom each day; b yom k yom daily; miyamim yamima from days to days signifies annually [Ex 13.10; Jud 11.40]; layla veyom night and day signifies continuously [Isa 27.3]; baim beyamim coming in the days signifies old, aging [Gen 18.11; Jos 13.1; 1 Ki 1.1]. B. Extended usage to refer to calendrical periods. yom is frequently used to denote individual events in time, and in plural refers to extended, indefinite periods of time, in such expressions as In the day(s) of or to characterise a period of time in the day of . 1) With a name or personal noun, especially with yamim (pl): days of Adam, Abraham, the ancestors. Thus In the day(s) of [Gen 2.4; 1 Ki 10.21; Neh 12.46-47;] 2) For epitomising a period of time by identifying a characteristic feature/property. There is a wide range of such expressions (de Vries 1975: 44). Thus, in the day of [distress Dt 16.3; misfortune, ruin, calamity, distress Obad v.12-13; Midian Isa 9.4; Ezk 30.9]. 3) For referring to and recalling a day of divine activity in the past; again there is a wide range of usage, for specifying a particular event (de Vries 1975: 43). A recurring one is the day when I brought them out of Egypt [Exod 12.17; Jud 19.30; 2 Sam 7.6; Jer 7.22; Hos 2.17(H15)]. C. Gnomic use. This is the use of yom in aphoristic expressions of general truth rather than of specific events. For example, the English Every dog has his day; An apple a day keeps the doctor away. In expressions like these, day has no historical referent whatever. The OT has expressions such as day of wrath Prov 11.4; of distress Nah 1.7; of slaughter Jer 12.3; of my calling to you Ps 56.9(H10) ; and in plural the days of youth Eccl 11.19; 21.1; of vigor Job 33.25; of vanity Eccl 7.15; of service Lev 25.50; Job 14.14 (de Vries 1975:45). D. Cultic use, expressing the calendrical recurrence of cultic events (de Vries 1975: 46). This use is found in expressions such as the Day of Atonement, an annual ritual; the days of unleavened Bread, of firstfruits Num 28.26, of the Sabbath Ex 20.8 inter alia, and in many less common expressions. Thus, the day of guilt offering Lev 5.24; bringing the sheaf for waving Lev 23.15; entering the sanctuary Ezk 44.27; anointing Lev 6.13; 7.36; uncleanness Lev 14.57; cleansing Lev 14.2, 57; days of unclean flow Lev 15.25f; days of cleansing Lev 12.4, 6. Note also day of fasting Isa 58.3; rejoicing Num 10.10; feasting and rejoicing Job 1.5; Est 9.22. Circumcision was performed on the eighth day from birth; see Gen 17.12; Lev 12.3; Lk 1.59; 2.21. E. A futuristic use. This is especially frequent in the prophets, for a future time generally and eschatologically the latter days, the Day of the Lord [see below]. So we find yom Yhwh the day of the Lord; yom habba the coming day; yom baim a day is coming; hayyom hahu/bayyom hahu (on) that day. Again it occurs with a wide range of epitomes (de Vries 1975: 49). e e

Week [shavua, shavuot, sevens] ca 20x The story of creation sets up a seven day period, not yet designated week, of Gods six days of creative activity completed by a day of rest [Gen 1]. This seventh day rest contrasts sharply with the 25 25

The suggested etymology of English week shows ho w far a common word for this time-construct has travelled!

birth/rebirth cycle of other ANE calendars (but is evident in the Babylonian calendar), and was built into Israels cycle of work and rest [[See Ex 20.8-11; 31.13-17; the parallel in Dt 5.12-15 adds a memory of unending toil in Egypt as a further reason for a day of rest throughout Israel]]. Days of the week were numbered one through seven, and only Shabbat is named. A strict seven day period gets quickly out of step with the lunar month, but there is no clear evidence in OT that this was recognised or adjustments made. Daniels weeks are literal in 10.2-3, but revelatory periods of time in 9.24-27. 26

Month [chodesh] [chodesh 242x including new moon; yerach 40x including moon] The month began with the first evening sighting of the new crescent moon at sunset, and ran until the sighting of the next new moon (29 or 30 days later). Difficulties in observing the first day of the new moon by observation may have led to celebration over two days, as perhaps reflected in 1 Sam 20:27. Although yerach moon, month occurs in both Hebrew and Canaanite, the preferred OT term is chodesh new moon. It is not clear whether this is simply because new moon signals the beginning of a new month, or to avoid naming a Canaanite deity by association. The OT gives evidence of three systems of referring to months: a) Numbering months within the year; b) Canaanite month names; c) Babylonian month names. Israel numbered the months within the year [1 Chr 27.1-15]. Perhaps this avoided Canaanite or 27 Babylonian names and associations with other religions, although it was apparently also Egyptian practice also. As previously noted, the cultic calendar specifies day and month by number for all feasts except Weeks/Harvest. In NT, the infancy narrative in Luke makes rare reference to the progress of Elizabeths pregnancy in months, see Lk 1.24,26,36. Names for months occur occasionally. Not all Canaanite names have survived in Scripture, and of pre-exilic names we only find the following, whose names have seasonal meaning: Abib is Ripening [first month Ex 9:31; 13.4; Lev 2:14]; Ziv [second, 1 Ki 6.1] refers to flowers in spring; Ethanim [seventh, 1 Ki 8.2] at the end of the dry season means perennial, probably referring to dry season rivers or springs; and Bul rain [eighth, 1 Ki 6.38] is the month when the rainy season began. Abib refers to barley ripening, and there is some indication that the new cultic year began when barley was ready for harvesting, [Ex 13.4]. Because of the mismatch between the lunar month and the solar year, the ambivalence needs negotiated between beginning the cultic year at the new moon nearest to spring equinox, and the readiness for barley harvesting. The Canaanite name yerach Bul month of Bul has chodesh shminu eighth month in apposition [1 Ki 6.38; 8.2], and yerach Etanim month of Ethanim has chodesh shbi seventh month in apposition [1 Ki 8.2]. This is presumably a deliberate attempt to create a link between the Canaanite name and its

26

The word derives from a root meaning rest, although similar to the numeral seven. The practice of counting Jewish Sabbath as seventh day, with a new week beginning the following day, continues in the international calendar to this day, although most recent practice has tended toward a Saturday/ Sunday weekend, with the working week beginning on Monday. 27 There does not seem to be any reflection of Egyptian month names in Torah, nor clear menti on of Egypts three climatic seasons.

place within the traditional Israelite (cultic) year; notably, it is the Hebrew that is explanatory, in 28 apposition. After the exile, Babylonian names for months began to creep in [in order]:: Nisan [Neh 2.1], (Iyyar), Sivan [Est 8.9], (Tammuz), (Ab), Elul [Neh 6.15], (Tishri), (Marchesvan), Chislev [Zech 7.1], Tebet 30 [Est 2.16], (Sebat), Adar [Est 3.7]. Names in brackets do not occur in the Hebrew Bible. Neither Ezekiel nor Daniel, which fall within the context of exile, use Babylonian names for months; th th however, in Esther we find the 13 day of the first month Est 3.12; the 13 day of the twelfth month, rd the month of Adar Est 3.13; 8.12; 12; 9.1,15,17,19,21; on the 23 day of the third month, the month of Sivan Est 8.9. Ezra and Haggai use numbering rather than Babylonian month names; Nehemiah mixes systems, with Babylonian months named in 1.1; 2.1; 6.15 and only numbered in 7.73; 8.2; 9.1; as does Zec 7.1 (in contrast to 1.7). 29

Year [shana, (ca 874x)] The year was composed of twelve (lunar) months [1 Ki.4.7; 1Ch 27.1-15], although the Flood narrative [Gen 7,8] seems to reckon on 30-day months. Some take the expression be-tset hashana the going out of the year [Ex 23.16b] to refer to the autumnal equinox (late September), being the end of the calendar year, although we have noted [pp. 9,10] with Clines (1974) that the evidence for taking this as the end of the cultic year is persuasive. e Similarly, lit shubat hashana the return of the year [1 Ki 20.26; 1 Ch 36.10] denotes the spring 31 equinox (late March), and beginning of the cultic year at the nearest new moon [Ex 40.2; also Jos. th Ant. 3.8.4]. The Passover full moon is to be the 14/15 day of the first month, Abib, later Nisan. Solar and lunar years get progressively out of step but there is no clear evidence in OT that this was recognised or adjustments made, although Judah later uses an intercalary month, second Adar for this purpose.

Comment Since day, month, and year are natural times, apart from weeks, there will generally be translation equivalents (perhaps not always), and the major translation issue lies with the range of idiomatic and extended usage, especially of yom.

6.2. Measuring chronological time Mention of different seasons occurs [Gen 8.22; Zec 10.1], but these are natural periods, and not measured time. There were no clocks as we know them in biblical times, and daytime was divided into natural parts. References to the suns moving shadow and sundials indicates some division of the day into shorter periods [2 Ki 20.9-11 // Isa 38.8]. 32

28 29

If we regard the major expression as from a language of Canaan, then it is a metarepresentational expression. This influence is explicitly acknowledged in the Talmud, y.Rosh Hash. 1.56d They carried the names of the months back with them from Babylonia. 30 There are none in Ezra, but some in Nehemiah. The longer text of Greek Esther, Judith, Baruch, Maccabees, 1 Esdras, Joseph and Asenath add more names. Among documents from Elephantine, some Egyptian month names occur. 31 De Vaux (1980:190) construes the opposite; going out is the beginning, and return is turning beyond mid year. In either case, both occur at the equinoxes, although OT makes no obvious reference to either equinoxes or solstices. 32 Water clocks were known in OT times, and by NT times there were sand and water clocks and candles marked in hours, but none of these are referred to in the Bible.

Natural times of day Hebrew has several terms with broad denotations for parts of the day, as is probably the case for all societies and languages: boqer morning ca 200x [Gen 19.27; Jud 19.8] shahar dawn/daybreak [Gen 19.15; 32.25] nogah dawn [Prov 4.18] ha-shemesh hatsa sunrise [Gen 19.23; 32.31] tsohar midday/noon 22x [often plural, tsohorayim: 2 Sam 4.5; 1 Ki 18.26,29; 2 Ki 4.20; Songs 1.7] ereb evening ca 125x [Gen 15.12,17] nesheph twilight/dusk/dawnlight ca 12x [2 Ki 7.5,7 also be-nesheph; Psa 119.147; Isa 5.11] Occasionally, dawn and dusk are also referred to metonymically as the time for morning or evening sacrifice or prayer [2 Chr 29.27; Acts 3.1]. In the temporal event [de Vries], the event is often more salient than the time of occurrence. There are also some idiomatic expressions: ha-arbayim dusk, twilight [Ex 12.6; 16.12; 29.39,41; 30.8; Lev 23.5; Num 9.3,5,11; 28.4,8; see also de Vaux 182, who takes it as between the evenings; but it is probably a distributive plural each evening]. chom hayom the heat of the day [Gen 18.1; 1 Sam 11.11; 2 Sam 4.5] hayom gadol the height of the day [Gen 29.7] sheyapuah hayom the breath/cool of the day [2x; Songs 2.17; 4.6], Hebrew shaah is a short period of time within the day, in no way precise or measured, but oftern translated hour. By New Testament times, daytime was divided into twelve hours [as recognised in Jn 11.9] starting from dawn at a nominal 6 am (so Jesus crucifixion ran from the third hour, 9 am, through the sixth hour, 12 noon, until the ninth hour, 3pm; see Mk 15.25,33-34 // Mt 27.45-46 //Lk 23.44). Otherwise, 33 there are few references to a numbered hour. For effective use in a parable, see Mt 20.3,5,6,9. See also about the tenth hour Jn 1.39; about the sixth hour Jn 4.6; yesterday at the seventh hour Jn 4.52; only the third hour of the day Acts 2.52; about the ninth hour Acts 10.3,30; about the sixth hour Acts 10.9. There is mention of a period of time of about three hours Acts 5.7; or about two hours Acts 19.34. Natural times are also found, eg,very early while still dark [MK 1.35]; ' when it grew late [Mk 6.35, 2x] 'when evening was coming the hour is well on[Mt 14.15 2x // Lk 9.12]. In New Testament times Friday was the Day of Preparation for the Sabbath [Lk 23:54]. Night-Time In pre-exilic times, the night was divided into three watches, ashmurah (see Jud 7.19; Ex 14.24; 1 Sam 11.11; Ps 90:4; 119:148; Jer 51:12; Hab 2:1). In the Roman system, day begins at midnight, and runs through until the following midnight. Daytime is divided into twelve hours, and night-time into four watches of three hours each [phulake watch occurs in Mt 14.25 //Mk 6.48; Mt 24.43; Lk 12.38]. We find both Jewish and Roman systems in the New Testament [see Acts 3.1; 10.3, 9, 30; 20.7].

33

Mention of about the sixth hour (Jn 19.14) makes Jesus crucifixion come after the sixth hour. It is the only time mention in the day, for John, and it can possibly be regarded as fixing the crucifixion roughly during the middle part of the day. Westcott suggested that John is using the Roman method, of counting from midnight, so that 6th hour would be 6 am; cf Jn 18.28.

Comment For translation, some natural times of day with broad denotation are likely in all languages. Many communities will be increasingly familiar with the international division of twelve hours, and may be prepared to assign and understand numbered hours; however, they are also more likely than not to begin counting from dawn, and the real ambiguity is to know whether to begin counting from dawn or midnight/midday [western] practice.

6.3. Generic terms et, zeman, moed, and olam. Body metaphors are used for both spatial and temporal orientation, eg, achar behind/after frequently refers to the future [Isa 42.23]; qedem in front of [Jer 30.20; Dt 33.15; 2 Ki 19.25; Isa 19.11; 23.7; 37.26; 51.9] and lipne before [lit. in the face of] refer to the past. So Hebrew views the 34 known past as in front, and the unknown future as behind. Time nouns such as day, month, and year are the most common; Yom/yamim day(s) in all its extended uses is the most frequently used. More generic nouns like et and olam are also frequent.

et Its derivation is uncertain; perhaps from a root believed to mean occasion/occurrence, lexicons gloss et the right time. So et (ca 300x) is not a neutral abstract word for time [contra Barr]. The LXX commonly translates et by kairos, which is also glossed as the right/opportune time. et is used in ways similar to those of the much more frequent yom. It is used in phrases with other nouns or deictic words, and can generally refer to either past or future. In many references, et is used with prepositions b-, l-, or k-, in deictic expressions, eg, baet hahi at that time(past or future), and to make specific or general time references, bekol et all the time, at this time tomorrow etc. (Morisada e Rietz 2009). See the double baet hazzot at this time and l et kazzot for this time (Est 4.14). et is used to make reference to the time of an event or circumstance [et+ Event Noun], which may be 35 a (regular) recurrent event, phases of human life (birth, adolescence, menstruation, old age, and 36 37 death), common activities of life, or a period of time. The expression The time when kings go out to war (2 Sam 11:1; 1 Ki 20:22) probably refers to the end of the rainy season in Nisan. The character of appropriateness comes out in Hag 1.2,4,: for Judah it is not the et for rebuilding the Temple, while God retorts is it an et to live in houses while my house lies in ruins? Like yom, et is used to characterise or epitomise a period, eg ettot bassara times (pl) of trouble [Psa 9.9[10]; 10.1]; time of distress [Jer 14.8; Jud 10.14]; time of Jacobs distress [Jer 30.7] . Perhaps the component of appropriateness in both et and kairos is what, more than anything else, creates connection between event, time, and revelatory word, and according to de Vries this connection is the source of Israels historiography [de Vries 1975: 34 -35]. Under God, events in Israels history occur at the opportune time, and are understood by means of a prophetic witness to their significance. In calendrical time, the priest observed rituals in the form of a recurrent, prescriptive 34

Compare English before and after, although in the abstract English perceives the past as behind and the future as ahead. English-speaking society also tends to view time horizontally, earlier to left, later to right. According to Boroditsky et al, Mandarin speakers are more likely to view time vertically, with earlier time above and later time below. 35 See: rain, Lev 26.4; Jer 5.24; Zec 10.1; Ezra 10.13; harvest, Jer 50.16; 51.33; Hos 2.11[9]; threshing, Jer 51.33; pruning, Song 2.12; fruitage, Ps 1.3; bringing the cattle home, Gen 29.7; migration of birds, Jer 8.7; drying up of seasonal streams, Job 6.17; breeding time of animals, Gen 31.10; animal birthing, Job 39.1,2. 36 See: birth, Gen 38.27; Hos 13.13; adolescence, Ezk 16.8; menstruation, Lev 15.25; old age, 1 Ki 11.4; 15.23; Psa 71.9; death Job 22.16; Eccl 7.17; 9.12. 37 Meal-time, Ru 2.14; Ezk 4.10; Eccl 10.17; campaigning, 2 Sam 11.1; auditing accounts, 2 Ki 5.26.

event, focused on remembered tradition. In contrast, the prophet brought a sense of divine imminence in event. Events need interpretation, and prophets imbued time with purpose. Temporal event is potentially revelatory.

attah now [425x] Formed from et, it is more frequently used with a logical sense than purely temporal [attah 134x veattah 265x; de Vries 1975: 41]. Temporal present How can you turn to me now when you are in trouble? we are now turning back to you [Jud 11.7-8]. Response to the current situation Now we will deal worse with you than with them [Gen 19.9]; for now I know that you fear God [Gen 22.12]; and now judge between me and my vineyard [Isa 5.3]. In prophetic discourse, attah is used for enforcing immanence the prophetic present. Behold [hin ni] I am doing something new, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? [Isa 43.19]; Now I will arise, says Yhwh, now I will be exalted, now I will be lifted up [Isa 33.10]. As is often the case with temporal connectives, a logical or sequential implicature rides on the back of the temporal sequence. We can now make an instructive comparison of time reference in Deuteronomy, which repeatedly recalls events in past time, reflects on their consequence for the present, and impresses present (inchoative) action on Israel: baet at that time (past) 1.9,18; 3.12,18,21; 10.1; (ve)attah (and) now 2.13; 4.1; 5.25; 9.1; 10.12; hayyom today/this day xxxxxxxxx 5.1; 6.6; 8.1,19; 9.3; hayyom hazzeh (at) this day 2.25; (ka.) 4.38; 6.24; 8.18; e

zeman zeman (ca 20x, an Aramaic loanword in late biblical Hebrew ) is used to locate an event in a time period, particularly the time for set [recurrent] events [Ezra 5.3; Est 9.27,31; Dan 3.7-8; 4.36[33]; Dan 6.10,13[11,14]], or the time required for an event [Dan 2.16; Neh 2.6]. In Eccl 3.1, et and zeman occur in parallel. 38

moed Sun and moon mark moadhim seasons [Gen 1.14; Psa 104.19]. moed can be used for both 39 appointed place and time [1 Sam 9.24; 13.8; 20.35], and by extension can also carry the sense of appointed festival [Lev 23.2;4,37,44; 1 Chr 23.31; Isa 1.14; 33.20; Hos 2.11; 9.5; 12.9]. LXX often translates the temporal sense by kairos.

olam olam (ca 400/440x) refers to remote time, the distant past or future, and to indefinite, long-lasting periods of time or circumstances. It is used to refer to ancestral times [Gen 6.4; Jos 24.2; 1 Sam 27.8; 38

zeman does not occur in the major Qumran documents, but in the Mishnah it usually replaces et.

Of the ca 220 uses of moed, the great majority denote congregation/assembly, another group denote a festival, and only about 10% denote a set time. 39

Jer 28.8], mountains and hills [Gen 49.26; Dt 33.15; Hab 3.6; Ezk 36.2], landmarks, the sanctuary, ruins. There is often a connotation of durability or permanence. Looking to the future, olam denotes the durability/permanence of the earth, the sun and moon, and Sheol [Psa 104.5; 78.69; 148.6; Eccl 1.4]. It may be duration relative to human life, as in Ex 21.6; Dt 15.17; 1 Sam 27.12; Jer 20.7. It is frequently used with prepositions l- or ad. Thus le olam, ad olam the rest of his life [Ex 19.9; 1 Sam 1.22; 20.15,23]. God is praised as min haolam ad haolam from the remote past to the remote future [Neh 9.5; 1 Chr 216.36; 29.10; Psa 41.14[13]; 106.48; 115.18], or, as some translations have it, fr om everlasting to everlasting. In context it may have the sense of in perpetuity or unending, and so a practical notion of eternity. It is used extensively in the Dead Sea Scrolls, in similar ways, and in Mishnaic Hebrew, note the expressions olam hazzeh this age and olam habba the coming age. Other less frequent terms are adh, netzah, and dor,generation.

New Testament In NT day is frequent; year less frequent [see Lk 3.1]; and month rare [see Rev 9.15]. The word groups kairos, chronos, and aion all denote indefinite periods of time, kairos and derivs. (LXX for et), >85x; and kairos often includes a component of opportuneness, chronos and derivs, 54x; chronos is measurable time, without a component of opportuneness, aion and derivs. (LXX for olam), >100x; aion is indefinitely long, but not formally eternal.

The NT also uses hora hour (ca 87x, only 4x in Epistles), usually an unspecified period of time, usually short but without implying precision, and divided between literal and extended usage, and used to convey the imminence of Gods action in the Messiah. Only occasionally is hora used as a specific measure of time. See the unusual attempt to time Christs crucifixion, Mt 27.45-46; Mk 15.25,33,34; Lk 23.44; Jn 19.44. See also the time reference in Jn 1.39; 4.6,52; Acts 2.15; 10.3,9,30; 23.23. For effective use in a parable, see Mt 20.3,5,6,9.

Comment Translators from western contextual backgrounds may be tempted to lay abstract connotations upon biblical words, when they are in fact more concrete, and time is more closely linked to events occurring at good and bad times. Eternity is often as elusive for translators as it actually is in biblical text, where it is the less abstract indefinite period rather than the infinitude of western thought. So, when all is said and done, it may be easier to find suitable concrete terms when we recognise that purely abstract notions of time are not what is required.

7. Time, the end of the age, and salvation Time is forward looking in the prophets. We can say little in this section, which really needs much more space in its own right, just to spell out usage and sense, apart altogether from doing theology.

The end of the age Israels experience of political success was limited in spite of covenant ble ssings [Dt 28.1-14], and, 40 partly in response, various prophets projected Israels ideological hope to a coming Day of the Lord, which is a day of Yahwehs decisive action that will resolve the ambiguities of the present age [de Vries 341]. There may be repeated days of Yahweh. It is most characteristically a day of judgement, 40

The literature draws different distinctions in the biblical data, between secular vs sacred time (Eliade), or between mans vs Gods time, while de Vries [1975: 343] prefers to distinguish between quantitative and qualitative conceptions of time, which embrace cyclical and linear concepts.

but also a means of restoration or salvation. There is a strong telic component [Isa 46.10]. See also Am 5.18,20; Isa 13.6,9; 58.13; Jer 46.10; Ezk 13.5; 30.3; Joel 1.15; 2.1,11,31; 3.14; Obad 15; Zep 1.7,14; Mal 4.5. hayyom the day is conceived to be imminent [sometimes even machar tomorrow], but in some prophetic or apocalyptic texts, it is less intimately related to the present, and becomes an age/epoch in itself. A teleological concept of eschaton is most strong in the later prophets, where anticipation of a Day of Yahweh and a Messianic Age are increasingly perceived to resolve Israels dilemma, between covenant promises and historical reality (Dan 7.18,27; 8.17). By extension, that day comes to refer to the time when God will establish his kingly rule, within time, not by suspending the time-order. In the New Testament this increasingly seems to entail the end of history or time, which will be an end for creation, for human life as currently known, of final restoration and judgement. Yom / yamim occurs in general eschatological references as in the latter days, the Day of the Lord [Joel 2.31; Amos 5.20; Isa 49.8], or simply The Day. Shana can be also used for general reference to a period of time [Gen 7.11] and to divine activity in time [Isa 34.8; 61.2; 63.4; Jer 11.23], increasingly with eschatological connotations. Isa 61.3 uses yom and shanah year in parallel. See also moed [Hab 2.3]. Expressions with yom that have clearly eschatological reference, have theological significance which translations ought to preserve. The collocation of day with the wide range of epitomising expressions and with expressions that carry eschatological significance will best be considered together as a large group. Following de Vries advice, we must work to avoid a too sharp clear distinction between only two ages. Gods activity is not all left to a future age, but occurs, as far as the OT is concerned, repeatedly in Israels history.

Time and Salvation The human individual survives death; in OT this is vague, but there is constant reference to the ancestors and to being laid to rest with them. The concept is clearest in NT. This present creation will itself be turned by God into a new creation [1 Cor 15.23-24; 2 Pet 3.4-13], with resurrection of the whole person [Mt 22.29-32; 1 Cor 15]. There is no rebirth or reincarnation. Whether time will end is unclear; Rev 10.6 is better rendered no more delay. In Christian perspective, Jesus Christ, as Messiah, embodies all these hopes as the climax of forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to God. It is in this context that Jesus answer in terms of times and seasons (Ac 1.6-7) is to be understood. Christians tend to recognise that God is over both regular recurrent events in nature and the individual, unpredictable events of life to which we are all vulnerable. His role in calamity remains perplexing. Wisdom literature offers a poetic, meditative view of the brevity of life (in contrast to the endless cycle of time) questioning pride and advocating humility before God [Eccl 12.1-8]. It also encourages full use of the opportunities of life for work, leisure, and serving God [Eccl; Eph 5.16]. The radical distinctive Christian hope is a focus on eternal life, not simply endless but qualitative, a resurrection in a final perfect world. This single change in focus shaped early Christian attitude to persecution and lifes difficulties.

The festivals in a Christian perspective Passover/Unleavened Bread and Booths overtly commemorate Gods decisive action for Israel in past times, while Firstfruits, Weeks and Ingathering celebrate Gods continued providence in agricultural bounty. For Christians, Passover has become the Easter/Paschal celebration of Christs death and resurrection which theologically incorporates Day of Atonement [Heb 9.7-8, 11-12, 25-26], and Pentecost [Weeks] marks the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Christian community [Acts 2]. Christian churches often celebrate harvest thanksgiving. The few references to a cultic calendar appear to permit observance, but do not advocate (non-Jewish) Christians keeping the Jewish Calendar [Gal 4.10; Rom 14.5; Col 2.16].

8. Translation At a time when translation of the Old Testament is about to mushroom, it is salutary to note that reading the OT receives far less attention from most Christians than does the NT. Apart from narratives, it remains a difficult, obscure, almost closed body of literature. Part of the reason for this undoubtedly is that readers have so little of the needed contextual background to making reading with understanding comfortable. Concepts of time and calendrical references are two topics which have received little or no attention as yet from translators, and deserve attention. Although they are not thematic in OT, time potentially forms an important conceptual framework, and there is frequent reference to matters of calendar. The distinctive differences between the developing biblical view of time (of linearity, telicity) and those of traditional or cyclic views deserve attention. While the OT affirms both cyclic and non-cyclic aspects of time, it is quite radical in affirming that both are in Gods hands. There is a benign divine covenant commitment to maintain climatic and agricultural regularities, and also to have care over the unpredictable events of life. These are important claims to establish in emerging Christian communities, and a translation ought to be sensitive to conflicting assumptions in beneficiary communities. This paper has affirmed Gods benevolence in these matters, and yet the OT text repeatedly also speaks of God bringing distress of various kinds, usually in response to his peoples heedlessness; this needs to be developed. It will be a less objectionable concept for non-western communities than it is in the west, but while God may bring retribution through natural disasters, it is not possible to reverse the logic and trace natural disaster back to God. There are theological implications here that the west seems not to have developed. Moreover, many communities traditionally resort to forms of divination and witchcraft to shield themselves from adverse evil forces, and the OT specifically and precisely prohibits these. The legislative passages that speak to these issues may turn out to be more relevant in emerging Christian communities than in western societies. But the prohibitions occur in parallel to an alternative claim that God controls human circumstances, temporal events, and normally does so benignly; they are not in the hands of lesser and less morally good forces. Consultants and translators, would do well to think through the theological implications, and be aware of what conflicting assumptions lie in beneficiary communities. Turning to more specific issues, probably many languages lexicalise time and eternity more concretely and relatively, as Hebrew does, rather than by the abstract terms of western thought. If this is true, it should make translation of basic time-expressions easier. The lexical variety and varied use of biblical time-expressions will repay attention. Calendrical references also deserve more attention than they receive. The calendar is in the background in the biblical text, providing a framework rather than a focus of attention, but its references are coherent once we uncover them. It might be that there are a few real points of contact

between it and traditional calendars that have survived in some minority communities, and perhaps these points of contact might be relevant in translation. Although calendar is a small part of context, and in the background, the OT can be read with greater insight when the links between the climatic, agrarian, (astronomical), and cultic aspects of the calendar are clear. The significance of the different festivals in the OT, and the links between OT and NT are also useful. In both OT and the NT didactic use of festivals, important contextual assumptions and implications concerning their significance for Israel should be accessible to readers. It also helps to notice the slight (developmental) differences between the festival calendars in Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; and the probable distinction between ritual and civil New Year. The differences can be at least partly explained contextually, and the danger of harmonising differences must be resisted. References to festivals in the NT epistles are generally figurative, and didactic, as in 1 Cor 5.7; Heb 11.28, and their didactic significance draws upon their historical significance for Israel, which must therefore be accessible. The variety of time expressions and dating formulas in historical and prophetic literature (full forms like d/m/y or y/m/d, and abbreviated forms of these; see above under Dating) deserve comparison. Differences in the order of terms seem to be unconstrained, but there may be naturalness constraints in other languages. The dating formulas in historical literature seem ostensively intended to anchor the events in a historical frame, while dating formulas in prophetic literature also seem to authenticate the recorded prophetic word to which they are attached, as oracle, historical note, and so on. The eschatological distinction between this present age and that day/age also deserves careful consideration. Best practice will respect the sense needed for the passage in its own context at the time. But because of eschatological significance, these expressions should be translated as concordantly as possible. The biblical data have been explained by different eschatological schemes, differing according to the presuppositions and implications they engage. Translators need to avoid reading individual schemes back into the biblical data.

Appendix: note on modern calendars The present international civil calendar has developed from the Roman calendar with significant later influence from the Christian Church. The word calendar comes from Latin kalend new moon. The Roman Year originally began on 1st March, but how or when it moved to 1st January is uncertain. There were several calendar reforms to adjust to the solar year, including the Julian [46 BCE] and Gregorian [1582 CE]. The Julian calendar is still in use in some places. The Christian era, which underlies the modern civil calendar, is based on the traditionally reckoned year of the birth of Jesus Christ. This dating system was devised in 525 CE, and established the year of his birth (thought to be accurate at the time, but an approximation). The year AD 1 [Anno Domini] immediately follows the year 1 BC [Before Christ], there being no year zero in the scheme. The system was not widely used until after 800 AD/CE. In recent times, in an attempt to be more neutral, the terms Common Era [CE] and Before Common Era [BCE] are increasingly used in inter-faith contexts. The modern Jewish calendar is based on a creation epoch. This fixed creation at 3,830 years before the destruction of the second temple [70 CE], or 3760 BCE. This would be the end of Year 1, so that 2000 AD/CE is 5761 in the conventional Jewish system.41 The Islamic Hijri calendar consists of 12 lunar months in a year of 354/355 days, so that it regresses by 10/11 days annually in comparison with the solar year and the Gregorian calendar. Muslims everywhere 41

This is based solely on the Genesis record, and many Jews recognise that the data in Genesis are insufficient for establishing a calendar of years, that creation is not a literal six day period, and that Genesis does not attempt a scientific explanation.

use it to determine the annual fast of Ramadan, Hajj, and other Islamic festivals. The Islamic era began when Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina, known as the Hijra, in 622 CE. Each numbered year is designated either H or AH [from Latin Anno Hegirae]. The Gregorian calendar from approximately 26 November 2011 (evening) to 14 November 2012 (evening) is 1433 AH.

Appendix 2: questionnaire on calendars in traditional societies Here I might put in a plea for more systematic research and description into Calendar issues in the communities where Bible translation is taking place. Some basic knowledge is needed to handle time and calendar reference in the Hebrew Bible (in particular), and that provides a good opportunity for brief but careful research in relevant societies. If sufficient people are interested, it would be good to collate results in an open-access forum. 1. Do names for months survive? Or are months numbered? List these in order , from the start of the year. How is the beginning (end) of each month marked? [eg, is it by first appearance of new moon?] Are the months lunar, or are there adjustments beyond simple observation of a 29 day cycle? Is there a system for naming or numbering years? Are years lunar [eg, twelve lunar months], or solar? If solar, how is the beginning of each year decided? [eg at solstice or equinox? Or by a starts appearance?] Is a week recognised? How many days make a week? How are days named or numbered? [it is not uncommon that days are named for the sequence of markets, and may not be of seven days, or be linked to the calendar.] Does the surviving evidence on days, weeks, months, years, suggest that a traditional calendar has been assimilated to a national or international calendar? Are there climatic or agricultural seasons? How are they named in sequence? How does a calendar based on observation of sun or moon correlate with the seasons?

6. Are there religious observances linked to climate, agriculture or calendar? Describe these.

References Adler, Cyrus & Isodore Singer (eds). 1906. Jewish Encyclopedia. New York / London : Funk & Wagnalls, 1901-1906 Barr, James. 1962. Biblical Words for Time. London: SCM. Boroditsky, Lera, Fuhrman Orly, McCormick, Kelly. Do English and Mandarin speakers think about time differently? Cognition 118.1 (January 2011): 123-129. Brown, Colin (ed). 1978. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology. [Translated with additions and revisions from the German Theologisches Begriffslexikon zum neuen Testament]. Exeter: Paternoster. Charles, R.H. 1902. The Book of Jubilees. London: A & C Black. Clines, D.J.A. 1974. The evidence for an autumnal New Year in pre-exilic Israel reconsidered JBL 93: 22-40.

de Vaux, Roland. 1961/1980. Ancient Israel: its life and institutions. London: Darton, Longman & Todd. de Vries, Simon J. 1975. Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: time and history in the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. Eliade, Mircea. 1959. The Sacred and The Profane: the nature of religion. New York : Harcourt. Eliade, Mircea.1963. Myth and Reality. (Reprinted1968). New York: Harper & Row. Eliade, Mircea. 1976. Myths, Rites, Symbols: A Mircea Eliade Reader. Vol. 1. (eds. Wendell C. Beane and William G. Doty). New York: Harper & Row. Enns, Peter. 1997. shana in VanGemeren (ed), NIDOTTE #9102, pp.1911-93. Freedman, David Noel. (ed). 1992. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York, London: Doubleday. Hornung, Erik. 1992. Idea into Image: essays on ancient Egyptian thought. [Transl. E.B. Timken]. New York: