ALLUSIONS IN SACRKD BOOKS OP THE EAST. 



217 



The Tllrd of Dr. Charles' Sections of Eth. En., that is, 

 Chapters LXXII-LXXXII, is entirely concerned with the 

 courses of the Luminaries. Of it Dr. Charles says : 



" We are not to regard it as anything more than the attempt of 

 an individual to establish an essentially Hebrew calendar over 

 against the heathen calendars in vogue around." 



But it is a peculiar calendar which Pseudo-Enoch founds on 

 the motions of the sun and moon, and, it may be added that, in 

 the eyes of a practical astronomer, these motions attributed to 

 the sun and moon are very peculiar. It is worth while to 

 compare this " essentially Hebrew calendar " first with the one in 

 use in Palestine, and next with that put forward by the Medes 

 and Parthians with whom Pseudo-Enoch came in contact. 



The calendar enjoined by the Law of Moses, and observed by 

 faithful Jews, not only in their own land, but when dispersed 

 over the whole world, was and is a luni-solar one. The months 

 were regulated by the observation of the new moon ; the first 

 month of the year had the Passover at its fall moon ; the Feast 

 of Trumpets was at the new moon of the seventh month ; the 

 Great Day of Atonement was ten days later ; and the Feast of 

 Tabernacles followed at the full of the moon in the same month. 

 But the week, the month, and the year are not commensurable ; 

 no one of them, when multiplied, fits exactly into another ; thus, 

 four weeks and one or two days go to a lunation, fifty-two 

 weeks and one day, or twelve lunations and eleven days, to a 

 solar year. The great feast days, therefore, swing backwards 

 and forwards over a period in the solar year, as do our Easter 

 and Whitsuntide, and do not occur on a fixed day of the 

 week. The faithful Jew recognized that, for him, God had 

 " appointed the moon for seasons," and he was very careful to 

 observe these seasons aright. 



It is clear, then, that no faithful Jew could draw up a calendar 

 that did not depend on the observation of the new moon, of the 

 actual lunation ; no " essentially Hebrew calendar " could be 

 other than a luni-solar one. 



But we rind that Pseudo-Enoch lays down that 



" the year is exactly as to its days 364,"* 



that is fifty-two weeks precisely ; or rather, later he leads us to 

 infer that the year consists of 360 days and four intercalary 



* Eth. Enoch, lxxii, 32. 



