234 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Oct., 1904. 



Astronomy in the Old 



Bv ^^liss ]\I. A. Orr. 



The Jews were forbidden to study and forecast the 

 movements of the heavenly bodies, lest they should be 

 led away into star worship and star di\'ination. So says 

 the Talmud. Yet some knowledge of astronomy is neces- 

 sary to a nation, and especially to her priests; for only 

 by observation of the heavenly bodies can the dates of 

 festivals be accurately fixed. How far did this knowledge 

 extend with the Jews ? 



Professor Schiaparelli, who has written learnedly and 

 sympathetically on ancient Greek astronomy, now essays 

 to answer this question, by studying the text of the Old 

 Testament, and comparing it with the best translations 

 and commentaries.'" The data are scanty, and unfortu- 

 nately just where we might expect to find light — namely 

 in the ancient Jewish calendar — we are in the dark. The 

 month was evidently lunar, from its Hebrew name, and 

 from the frequent mention of festivals of the new moon ; 

 the year was as clearly solar, since the three great yearly 

 religious festivals were all connected with the seasons. 

 But a solar j'ear does not contain a whole number of 

 lunar months, and the problem of bringing the two into 

 accord has taxed the skill, and tested the knowledge, of 

 primitive astronomers of all nations. W'e cannot be sure 

 how the Jews solved the problem. They counted twelve 

 months in their year, and no mention is made of extra 

 days or intercalated months. Some such device, however, 

 there must have been. Some writers assume that astro- 

 nomical observations were made, which would have been 

 the only exact guide. Professor Schiaparelli thinks, with 

 some others, that a thirteenth month was added whenever 

 it was apparent that the crops would not otherwise be ripe 

 in time for the offering of first-fruits, which was made on 

 the fifteenth day of the ist month. In this way direct 

 terrestrial observations of the seasons would be used to 

 correct a calendar founded on celestial phenomena. The 

 Jubilee period of 49 solar years is almost exactly equal 

 to 606 lunations, and this would have given a useful 

 cycle ; but there is no reason to think that it was used 

 for this purpose. 



In connection with the custom of reckoning the day 

 from evening to evening, derived perhaps from the 

 method of beginning the month with the first appearance 

 of the crescent moon, Schiaparelli suggests an explana- 

 tion of the curious phrase " between the tv/o evenings." 

 (See marginal translation at Exodus xii. 6 and xxx. 8.) 

 The evening, he says, was divided into two parts, the 

 first beginning at sunset when it was still light enough 

 to work, the second at the moment when a crescent moon 

 would be visible, and ending when it had become quite 

 dark and all stars were visible. The second evening 

 would begin, on an average, half an hour after sunset, 

 and an hour before dark. This was the beginning of the 

 new day, and it was then that Aaron lighted the lamps 

 and burned incense. 



How were night and day divided ? There is no word 

 for hour in Hebrew, but only in the dialects which took 

 its place in Palestine after the Exile. The word in the 



* " L'Astronomia 

 (Milan : Hoepli.) 



neir Antico Testamento, " G. Schiaparelli. 



book of Daniel is Aramaic, and the expression " that 

 same hour" means merely "immediately." Much has 

 been written about the so-called dial of Ahaz. The fact 

 is, as Schiaparelli points out, that the word which in our 

 Authorised Version is given first as " degrees " and 

 then as "sun-dial" is in the Hebrew the same, and 

 means literally " steps." A glance at the marginal 

 notes will show that the rendering is a hypothesis 

 of the translators. Hezekiah, living about 700 B.C., 

 may have possessed a sun-dial, brought from Baby- 

 lon or elsewhere, but there is no internal evidence 

 to prove that he had ; and it seems quite as 

 likely that the passage : " Behold, I will bring again the 

 shadow on the steps, which is gone down on the steps of 

 Ahaz, ten steps backward" refers to a flight of palace 

 steps which the sick king could see from his bed, and 

 that he marked the lapse of time by the creeping of the 

 shadow from step to step. If dials were used, there 

 would surely be some mention of divisions of the day 

 more exact than " in the heat of the day," " early in the 

 morning," &c. 



The Hebrew week, with its seventh sacred day, Schia- 

 parelli thinks had no connection with the Babylonian 

 unlucky seventh day, since that was bound up with the 

 lunar month, while the former was an independent 

 period. 



A few stars and constellations are mentioned in the 

 Old Testament, but it is sometimes difficult to know 

 which are meant. Most commentators agree that the 

 Kesil and Kimah of Job and Amos are Orion and the 

 Pleiades, but there is a curious passage in Isaiah : " The 

 stars of heaven and the Orions (Kesilim) thereof," which 

 the Authorised \'ersion renders "the constellations 

 thereof," and the \'ulgate " the glory of them." Probably 

 Orion is here put for any constellation, being bright and 

 well known. " The sweet influences of the Pleiades " is 

 a free rendering of a puzzling expression. No one knows 

 what was really meant by the " chains " or " delights " 

 of the Pleiades, for the literal meaning is one of these. 

 Some have thought it an allusion to the time of year in 

 which the Pleiades were visible ; Maury saw in it a 

 reference to Alcyone as the central sun of the universe ! 

 To the present writer it seems that in this passage Job 

 is challenged to form or break up the constellations 

 which had been set in heaven by an immutable Divine 

 decree : " Canst thou bind the Pleiades into a cluster, or 

 scatter apart the stars of Orion ? " 



The Authorised \'ersion translation of Arcturus in the 

 eighth and thirty-eighth chapters of Job is open to ques- 

 tion. It is more often thought to be Ursa Major ; but 

 Professor Schiaparelli gives weighty reasons, too many 

 to detail here, for believing it to be Aldebaran, and the 

 " sons of Aldebaran " the Hyades. 



Less convincing, but ingenious, is the suggested ex- 

 planation of Job xxxvii., 9 : " Out of the Inner Chambers 

 comes the south wind, from Mezarim the cold." " The 

 Chambers of the South " are also mentioned in the ninth 

 chapter of Job among constellations, and Professor 

 Schiaparelli thinks that they were a Jewish constella- 

 tion, containing the brilliant stars of Argo and Centaur, 

 the inner chambers (= penetralia) of a house being where 

 jewels and precious things are kept. IMezarim should be 

 a northern constellation fo complete the antithesis : cor- 

 rect the reading to Mizrajim, the Threshing Flails, and 

 this aptly describes the forms of Ursa Major and Minor. 

 The Septuagint translates Mezarim as Arcturus, but 

 means (says Grotius) Arctos — i.e., Ursa Major. So old, 

 then is Shelley's mistake : — • 



" Daisies, those pearled Arcturi of the earth, 

 " The constellated flower that never sets," 



