152 



£. WALTER MAUNDER^ ESQ., F.R.A.S., ON 



solar-sidereal year not the solar-tropical year.* It is, however, 

 a year of inimense archseological interest, for it preserves to us 

 in the threefold symbol, commonly called the " Triad of Stars," 

 so often foimd on Babylonian monuments, a record of the earhest 

 astronomical observation of which we know, one that takes us 

 back 6000 years, j 



It is evident, then, that the Mosaic method of deriving the 

 beginnings of their years differed essentially from the early 

 Babylonian. It differed also in important points from the late 

 Babylonian. Thus a number of tablets from the mound of 

 Kouyunjik, probably of the age of Hezekiah, show that the 

 equinox was determined at that time by direct measurement of 

 the equality of day and night. J Later still, rather more than a 

 century before our era, the Babylonians were computing the 

 actual times of conjunction of the sun and moon, not merely 

 observing the appearance of the crescent. It is evident, there- 

 fore, that the methods employed by the Rabbon Gamahel and 

 the other rabbis were not derived from the Babylonians, else 

 they would have adopted, as a httle later they actually did, the 

 method of computation, which was free from the drawbacks 

 attaching to the testimony of witnesses who might be ignorant 

 or corrupt. 



The Mosaic Calendar was very simple, but by its continual 

 reference to observation it had a property which not even the 

 Juhan or Gregorian calendars possess: it could not get out of 

 order. Both these Gentile calendars slowly slip from their 

 correspondence with the natural year. But the Mosaic Calendar, 

 the longer it was used, would give a value for the mean natural 

 month and year which continually increased in accuracy. 



The Modern Jewish Calendar. 



If we compare the Jewish calendar now in use with the Mosaic 

 Calendar, we notice several important differences : — 



1. Many more fasts and feasts are observed. The chief of 

 these are four fasts mentioned in the book of Zechariah viii, 19, 



* " Preliminary Paper on tlie Babylonian Astronomy," by R. H. ]M. 

 Bo?anq[uet, Esq., and Prof. A. H. Sayce. Monthly Notices, R.A.S., Vol. 

 xxxix, pp. 454-461, also " Note on the Date of the Passage of the Vernal 

 Eqiunox from Taurus into Aries,'' ihid., Vol. Ixiv, pp. 488-507. 



t The Ohservaiory, 1908, August, p. 303. 



i British Museum " Guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian Antiquities,'* 

 p. 53. Nineveh Gallery, Table— Case E, No. 57. 



