" THE MOSAIC CALENDAR." 



167 



Dr. J. K. FoTHERiNGHAM, M.A., F.R.A.S. : There is very little 

 in Mr. Maunder's paper, " The Mosaic Calendar," which I could 

 wish either to correct or to supplement. I should, however, be 

 inclined to endorse the accepted view that the feast of ingathering 

 is said to be " in the end of the year " rather because it comes at 

 the end of the year's agricultural operations than because it closes 

 " the bright part of the year." 



I fear that I cannot agree with Mr. Maunder that the new moon 

 described in the anecdote cited from the Mishna was not the new 

 moon of Tishri. It seems clear that the dispute took place a few 

 days after the observation of the new moon, and was followed by 

 R. Joshua's journey to Jamnia on Tishri 10 of his computation. 

 Moreover, as we shall see, there is strong evidence that the new 

 moon of Tishri was fixed by observation, and, if so, it was only 

 the new moon of Tishri that could affect the date of the fast of 

 the Atonement. In Tishri the altitude of the moon at sunset would 

 increase slowly from night to night, and the detection of the crescent 

 one night could more easily be followed by a failure to detect it 

 in a clear sky the following night in that month than in any other 

 month. Neither the Mishna nor the Talmud knows anything of a 

 fixed period of 177 days for the first six months reckoned from 

 Nisan. The Babylonian Talmud does, however, know of a means 

 adopted by some rabbis that Elul, the month preceding Tishri, 

 could never contain more than 29 days. In fact there are passages 

 in the Mishna (Rosh-ha-Shana i, 3, 4 ; Erubin iii, 7, 8), which 

 imply that uncertainty could exist as to the date of the beginning 

 of Tishri. 



I quote from my paper on " Astronomical Evidence for the Date 

 of the Crucifixion " in The Journal of Theological Studies, xii (1910), 

 pp. 125, 126 :— 



" This difficulty [viz. that of enabling the Jews of the dispersion 

 to know on what daj^ the new month was commencing at Jerusalem] 

 would be most seriously felt in the months of Nisan and Tishri, 

 which contained the most solemn days of the Jewish calendar, and 

 in particular at the festival of the new year [or Feast of Trumpets] 

 which fell on the first day of Tishri, and which might easily have 

 to be celebrated before news could come from Jerusalem announcing 

 the sanctification of the new moon. The Mishna is not unaware 

 of this difficulty, and mentions some rules adopted for the benefit 



