170 



E. WALTER. MAUNDER, ESQ., F.R.A.S., ON 



that the next year would be or the last had been a sabbatical year. 

 In fact almost anything might affect the decision except the place- 

 of the year in a cycle."* 



I know of no authority for regarding the Jubilee period as a cycla 

 of intercalations. 



I do not think Mr. Maunder has consulted the best authorities on 

 early Babylonian intercalation. There are few subjects on which 

 the older papers have been so completely superseded. The subject 

 is very fully discussed in the light of our present knowledge in 

 Father Kugler's Steinkunde und Steindienst in Babel, II Buch, 

 2 Teil, 1 Heft (1912) and Erganzungen zum I and II Buch (1913), 

 and Father Kugler's conclusion is that in the time of the first Dynasty 

 of Babylon, contemporary with Abraham, intercalation was irregular. 



I imagine that the tradition that Hillel's calendar contained rules 

 observed, but kept secret, before its publication, is merely a part 

 of a Jewish tendency, observable also in the so-called " oral law " 

 to claim an immemorial antiquity for Avhat was really a late 

 development. 



On p. 159 Mr. Maunder refers to Nehemiah ii, 1, as a departure 

 from the Mosaic numeration of the months. I cannot admit that. 

 There is no instance either in the Old Testament or in the Apocrypha 

 of the months being numbered from any point except the new 

 moon of Abib or Nisan. But it does not follow that the years were 

 numbered from the same point. Nehemiah clearly numbers the 

 years of Artaxerxes from the new moon of Tishri, and thus the 

 ninth month comes before the first. Why not ? It is curious that 

 in the contemporary Elephantine papyri the Jewish month-names 

 are always associated with years reckoned from the new moon of 

 Nisan. 



Rev. A. H. Finn: (p. 136) " for signs and for appointed assemblies 

 (seasons). The Hebrew word " 0th means a sign, in the sense of 

 a token which signifies {e.g., the rainbow was the sign of the Covenant 

 with Noah ; circumcision, of that with Abraham ; the Plagues were 

 signs as well as wonders) ; it can hardly be taken as equivalent to 

 signals. " Mo'ed " is used for " appointed time " where assemblies 

 are out of the question (Gen. xvii,21,xviii, 14, xxi, 2 ; ii Sam. xx, 5). 



* Babl. Talmud, Synhedrin 10M3\ ed. Goldschmidt, vii (1902), 

 pp. 32-43. 



