THE MOSAIC CALENDAR." 



14o 



sabbatti* the priest shall wave it. And ye shall offer that 

 day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish 

 of the first year for a burnt offering unto the Lord." 

 (Leviticus xxiii, 10-12.) 



These two injunctions fijxed the date of the Passover : — 



" One of the Jewish ordinances was that a sheaf of barley 

 should be offered before the Lord as the first fruits of the 

 harvest. This was to be done in the Abib, or month Nisan, 

 immediately after the Passover, on the second day of un- 

 leavened bread, which is the sixteenth day of the month. 

 If it were found before this day had arrived that the barley 

 would not be then ripe, it was evident that the season^ 

 according to the reckoning by lunar months, had been ac- 

 counted as arriving too early in the year. It must be made 

 to come later. The first day of the Abib is approaching ; 

 the first day of the new year ; the beginning of months. 

 But, by the sun, the spring season has not arrived ; the 

 barley is not ready for the reapers ; the lambs for the Passover 

 are not yet fit to be killed. The first day of the ceremonial 

 year must be postponed till the next lunation commences. 

 The current year which is coming to a close must be increased 

 in length by another month. "| 



I would ask your special attention to this point. It was not 

 the calendar that decided when the Passover was to be held : 

 it was the Passover which decided when the calendar of the year 

 was to commence. It began when the necessary provision for 

 the feast was seen to be ready, and not until then. 



The Luni-Solar Year. 



Twelve natural months contain 354 days, more or less. Thir- 

 teen natural months similarly give 384 days. But a natural 

 year is most generally 365 days in length : 11 days longer than 

 the one, 19 days shorter than the other. Therefore the beginning 



* This " Sabbath " is generally interpreted as referring to the " holy 

 convocation " of the fifteenth daj^ of the month. If so, the sheaf was 

 waved on the sixteenth day, but for our present purpose it is a matter of 

 no moment whether the sixteenth day of the month is meant or the 

 ordinary sabbath of the week. 



t Elements of the Jewish and Muhammadan Calendars, by the Rev. 

 Steward Beaumont Burnaby, M.A., F.R.A.S., London, 1901, pp. 13, 14. 



L 2 



