" THE MOSAIC CALENDAR." 



165 



20th year of Artaxerxes before the Nisan of the same year, thus 

 suggesting that Tishri had been taken as the first month. Nehemiah 

 was in Shushan, the palace, when the events of which he spoke 

 occurred, and Artaxerxes was one of the earlier Persian kings. In 

 the book of Esther, it is recorded that Haman the Agagite, also in 

 Shushan, the palace, cast lots " in the first month, that is, the month 

 Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, 

 the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, 

 to the twelfth month, that is the month Adar." This seemed to 

 indicate that at that date the Persians had not decided at 

 what point in the year they should reckon its beginning. Later, 

 under the Arsacids, the Bundahish gives the rules for the calendar 

 distinctly. The year began with the spring equinox, not with a 

 new moon, and there were twelve months in the year, which were 

 not natural months or lunations. 



Also under the Mosaic law, the 1st of Tishri was a festival upon 

 which no servile work should be done. The Mosaic law was 

 binding on the whole Jewish nation, both men and women, not on 

 the priest and Levite alone, nor merely on the Eabbi, who devoted 

 himself to the study of the law. Now the bulk of the nation was 

 composed then, as now, of tradesmen and tradeswomen, the house- 

 wives in the home and the labourers in the fields. It would not be 

 possible for the labourer to know that he must not be found treading 

 the winepress, nor the " virtuous woman " laying her hands to the 

 spindle as her candle goeth not out by night, nor making fine Hnen 

 and selling it, on the solemn Feast of Trumpets, if it were only 

 proclaimed as such after its new moon had been observed. Before 

 the beacon fires had been lit, or the runners had reached them, the 

 whole nation would have already profaned this most holy Sabbath " 

 on which it was commanded " ye shall do no servile work." 



Eev. W. Laporte Payne alluded to the statement of the late 

 DesCn Burgon that if the Mosaic Calendar is applied to the story of 

 the Flood all the events narrated except one occurred on a seventh 

 day. 



Dr. A. T. ScHOFiEi.D said : When I was at Lemach, a station at 

 the southern end of the Sea of Galilee on the Damascus line, I found 

 a difficulty in discovering when the train was expected. At last I 

 found a time-table where the arrival at Lemach was 11, but it came 



