172 



THE MOSAIC CALENDAR." 



Rain) beginning with " the former rain " and ending with " the 

 latter." 



If this year was the ancient system, and the transference of the 

 " beginning of months " was due to God's decree concerning the 

 Passover, then the arrangement by which the calendar was auto- 

 matically adjusted to the luni-solar year is of Divine origin. 



The commencing of the year with the slack time (after harvest) 

 agrees with the Oriental practice of commencing a day with the 

 previous eve (see Gen. i, 8). 



P. 155. Was not the Jubilee cycle one of 50 years ? The Jubilee 

 year was proclaimed in the 49th, but the Jubilee year was the 50th 

 (Lev. XXV, 10). Would this affect the reckoning of the intercalary 

 months, or did that run on independently of the Jubilee ? 



Lt.-Col. G. Mackinlay : Mr. Maunder's explanation of the details 

 of the Mosaic calendar are most instructive, and expressed in clear, 

 terse language. His consequent deduction of the early date of the 

 Pentateuch therefore seems to be correct. 



It is stated in the book of Leviticus (xxiii, 10, 15, 16) that the feast 

 of harvest was as long as seven weeks after the waving of the 

 sheaf, " the firstfruits of your harvest." Where is the parallel to 

 this observance in the Babylonian Calendar ? 



But this arrangement readily follows from the conditions described 

 in the Pentateuch of the wave sheaf, commemorating the season of 

 the first Passover observed in Egypt, just before which we are told 

 " the barley was in the ear, but the wheat and the rie were not. . . . 

 grown up " {cp. Ex. ix, 32 with xii, 14). 



In the Promised Land the climate of the hot Jordan Valley resembles 

 that of Egypt (Gen. xiii, 10). Sheaves could therefore be sent from 

 theuce for" the wave offering at an early time in the year, while the 

 main harvest in the Judaean plains, some thousands of feet higher, 

 would come much later. 



Surely the Jewish celebrations connected with harvest point to 

 some ancient connection between the Holy Land and Egypt, and 

 not to a more recent influence of the Babylonian Calendar ? If so, 

 the antiquity of the Pentateuch is thus further demonstrated. 



