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



minds of some (Ex. xvi, 3 ; Numbers xiv, 4 ; Acts vii, 39). 

 The beginning of an Israelitish month at the appearing of the 

 new moon was announced by the blowing of trumpets* 

 (Numbers x, 10). 



Our present calendar is the outcome of the old Egyptian one, 

 through Roman channels, several times altered, and not even 

 now uniformly adhered to in Europe, as Russia has not yet 

 adopted the last correction. The Hebrew calendar has lived on 

 unchanged, and it also forms the basis for regulating our 

 Easter and Whitsuntide. 



The Sabbath. — Some say that as the four quarters of the 

 moon (new, full, and the waxing and waning halves) are 

 periods of definite change, that the week of seven days has 

 its origin in being roughly the quarter of 29J days, which is 

 approximately the period of a lunation. But we must put 

 aside this vague guess, in view of the positive scriptural 

 statement that the Sabbath was instituted because " God rested 

 the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, 

 and hallowed it" (Ex. xx, 11), and we must conclude, in 

 agreement with the author of the article on "Astronomy" 

 in the Encyclopedia Britannica, that the origin of the Sabbath 

 is divine. 



It has been said that the Sabbath was borrowed from the 

 Babylonians, since tbey always began the month with the new 

 moon, — a day which was considered unlucky for some purposes,-)- 

 and every succeeding seventh day in the month was likewise so 

 distinguished ; the fifteenth day being called " Sobat," a word 

 which Dr. Pinches believes to be of ancient Accadian origin 

 and meaning " rest of the heart " or " middle " (of the month). 

 It is quite possible that the Babylonians may have retained 

 some trace of the divinely appointed Sabbath, and the actual 

 Hebrew word " Shabbath " may have been derived from the 

 same ancient language. The Hebrew arrangement of strictly 

 weekly Sabbaths was not the same as the Babylonian one of 

 unlucky days, as new moon and sabbath did not always fall on 

 the same day (u Kings iv, 23), and consequently, the 15th of 

 the month, the Babylonian " Sobat," could only sometimes be a 

 Hebrew Sabbath. 



* The Hindus blow trumpets on new moons. (Letter, Rev. A. 

 Margoschis, Tinnevelly, S. India.) 



t Hindus do not sow their fields or reap on new moon days and, in 

 general, important work is not undertaken on those days. (Rev. A. 

 Margoschis.) 



