130 LT.-COL. G. MACKINLAY ON BIBLICAL ASTRONOMY. 



examples, worshipping the host of heaven on the tops of their 

 own houses (n Kings xxiii, 12; Jer. xix, 13 ; Zep. i, 5). 



Not only was the worship of the heavenly host interdicted, 

 but a superstitious dread of any unusual appearance in the 

 heavens was forbidden : " be not dismayed at the signs of 

 heaven : for the nations are dismayed at them " (Jer. x, 2, R.V.). 



The close connection between the false religions of the 

 powerful nations on either side of the Holy Land and astronomy 

 may have given a bad repute to the study of the heavens 

 among the Hebrews themselves (Is. xlvii, 13) ; and we do not 

 find it recorded that any of them excelled in this study, unless 

 we except Moses, who was learned in all the wisdom of the 

 Egyptians (Acts vii, 22), Solomon, whose wisdom " exceeded 

 the wisdom of all the children of the East, and all the wisdom 

 of Egypt" (i Kings iv, 30); and Daniel and his three 

 companions, to whom God gave " knowledge and skill in all 

 learning and wisdom " (Dan. i, 17). The mention of the 

 wisdom of the Egyptians and of the children of the East in 

 the first two of these instances, and the fact that Daniel and 

 his companions gained this knowledge and skill in a foreign 

 land, all point to the conclusion that science in general 

 (including astronomy) was more studied in the great countries 

 of Egypt and Chaldea than among the Israelites. 



The Hebrew Calendar. 



The Bible account of the origin of the Hebrew nation tells 

 us that the founder Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees, 

 and that he was careful that his descendants should marry 

 among his own relatives ; his grandson Jacob also spent many 

 years of his life in Mesopotamia, and he eventually migrated 

 with all his descendants to Egypt, where they lived for some 

 215 years. We are further pointedly told that, although the 

 children of Israel lived in Egypt so long, they were only there 

 as " strangers " (Gen. xv, 13 ; Ex. xxiii, 9 ; Deut. x, 19 ; xxiii, 7), 

 and they left it by divine command to seek out their own long 

 promised land. Bearing these statements in mind, we should 

 expect to find that the Hebrews more nearly followed the 

 Babylonian than the Egyptian calendar (if we can trace what 

 each was), notwithstanding their long sojourn in the land of 

 the Pharaohs. 



The ancient records fully confirm this expectation ; we 

 rind from them that the Babylonians, who belonged to the 

 Semitic race as well as the Hebrews, had a calendar in which the 

 year was composed of twelve lunar months of 29 and 30 days, 



