Post by Nepenthe on Dec 28, 2005 17:34:41 GMT -5
Well, I guess the information in the Jewish Encyclopedia confims EVERYTHING I said about the celebration of Passover and how it has been changed over the years. It has an incredible amount of infromation concerning the Passover, the history of the Jewish Calendar, Easter, the celebration of the Jewish Passover and the Christian Pascha (Easter) occuring at the same time for many years. The changing of the dates and calendar, the time of the Babylonian Calendar, the time of the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. ect.
The Biblical account connects the term with the root (= "to pass by," "to spare"; Ex. xii. 13, 23, 27; comp. Isa. xxxi. 5). As a derivative designates (1) a festival and (2) the sacrificial lamb and meal introductory to the festival.
The festival commemorates the deliverance of Israel's first-born from the judgment wrought on those of the Egyptians (Ex. xii. 12-13; comp. Ex. xiii. 2, 12 et seq.), and the wondrous liberation of the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage (Ex. xii. 14-17). As such, it is identical with the Maẓẓot (, Ex. xii. 17; , Lev. xxiii. 5-6) festival, and was instituted for an everlasting statute (Ex. xii. 14). Lev. xxiii., however, seems to distinguish between Passover, which is set for the fourteenth day of the month, and (the Festival of Unleavened Bread; ἑορτή τῶν ἀζύμων, Luke xxii. 1; Josephus, "B. J." ii. 1, § 3), appointed for the fifteenth day. The festival occurred in Abib (Ex. xiii. 4; Deut. xvi. 1 et seq., ), later named Nisan, (the Babylonian name) and lasted seven days, from sunset on the fourteenth day to sunset on the twenty-first day; the first and the seventh days were set aside for holy convocation, no work being permitted on those days except such as was necessary in preparing food (Num. xxviii. 16-25). During the seven days of the festival leaven was not to be found in the habitations of the Hebrews (Ex. xii. 19, xiii. 7). Leaven was not to be eaten under penalty of "excision" ("karet"; Ex. xii. 15, 19-20; xiii. 3; Deut. xvi. 3), and the eating of unleavened bread was commanded (Ex. xii. 15, 18; xiii. 6, 7; xxiii. 15; xxxiv. 18; Lev. xxiii. 6; Num. xxviii. 17). On the second day the omer of new barley was brought to the Temple (Lev. xxiii. 10-16; comp. First-Fruits).
This pastoral Pesaḥ was originally distinct from the Maẓẓot festival, but it merged all the more readily with it because both occurred in the spring, about the time of the vernal equinox. The Maẓẓot feast is distinctly agricultural, the maẓẓot cakes being both the natural offering from the newly gathered barley to the gods that had allowed the crop to ripen, and then the staple food of the harvesters. Offering and food are nearly always identical in the concepts and practises of primitive races. The difficulty of finding an adequate historical explanation for the maẓẓot is apparent even in the account of Ex. xii., which would make them emblematic of the hurry of the deliverance from Egypt, though it was the supposition that the maẓẓot had been used at the Passover meal before the Exodus.
The agricultural character of the Passover (or Maẓẓot) festival is evidenced by the fact that it is one of the three pilgrim, or season, festivals. Of course, when the pastoral Pesaḥ and the agricultural Maẓẓot came to be merged can not be determined definitely, but one is safe in saying that it must have been shortly after the occupation of Palestine, the tradition about the Pesaḥ observed by Joshua at Gilgal (see Biblical Data) suggesting and confirming this assumption.
For reasons well known (see Calendar; Festivals; Holy Days) Passover was extended to eight days, including the 22d of Nisan, and the 23d of Nisan came to be regarded as a semiholy day.
The history of the Jewish calendar may be divided into three periods—the Biblical, the Talmudic, and the post-Talmudic. The first rested purely on the observation of the sun and the moon, the second on observation and reckoning, the third entirely on reckoning.
The study of astronomy was largely due to the need of fixing the dates of the festivals. The command (Deut. xvi. 1), "Keep the month of Abib," made it necessary to be acquainted with the position of the sun.
Babylonian Calendar.
The Babylonian year, which influenced the French time reckoning, seems to have consisted of 12 months of 30 days each, intercalary months being added by the priests when necessary. Two Babylonian calendars are preserved in the inscriptions, and in both each month has 30 days as far as can be learnt. In later times, however, months of 29 days alternated with those of 30. The method of intercalation is uncertain, and the practise seems to have varied.
The Babylonian years were soli-lunar; that is to say, the year of 12 months containing 354 days was bound to the solar year of 365 days by intercalating, as occasion required, a thirteenth month. Out of every 11 years there were 7 with 12 months and 4 with 13 months.
Strassmeier and Epping, in "Astronomisches aus Babylon," have shown that the ancient Babylonians were sufficiently advanced in astronomy to enable them to draw up almanacs in which the eclipses of the sun and moon and the times of new and full moon were predicted ("Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch., 1891-1892," p. 112).
The Talmud (Yerushalmi, Rosh ha-Shanah i. 1) correctly states that the Jews got the names of the months at the time of the Babylonian exile.
There is no mention of an intercalary month in the Bible, and it is not known whether the correction was applied in ancient times by the addition of 1 month in 3 years or by the adding of 10 or 11 days at the end of each year.
Bound Lunar Year.
Astronomers know this kind of year as a bound lunar year. The Greeks had a similar year. Even the Christian year, although a purely solar year, is forced to take account of the moon for the fixing of the date of Easter. The Mohammedans, on the other hand, have a free lunar year.
It thus seems plain that the Jewish year was not a simple lunar year; for while the Jewish festivals no doubt were fixed on given days of lunar months, they also had a dependence on the position of the sun. Thus the Passover Feast was to be celebrated in the month of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Tabernacles, also called , took place in the fall. Sometimes the feasts are mentioned as taking place in certain lunar months (Lev. xxiii.; Num. xxviii., xxix.), and at other times they are fixed in accordance with certain crops; that is, with the solar year.
In post-Talmudic times Nisan, Siwan, Ab, Tishri, Kislew, and Shebaṭ had 30 days, and Iyyar, Tammuz, Elul, Ḥeshwan, Ṭebet, and Adar, 29. In leap-year, Adar had 30 days and We-Adar 29. According to Pirḳe Rabbi Eliezer, there was a lunar solar cycle of 48 years. This cycle was followed by the Hellenists, Essenes, and early Christians.
In the times of the Second Temple it appears from the Mishnah (R. H. i. 7) that the priests had a court to which witnesses came and reported. [by observing] This function was afterward taken over by the civil court (see B. Zuckermann, "Materialien zur Entwicklung der Altjüdischen Zeitrechnung im Talmud, "Breslau, 1882).
The fixing of the lengths of the months and the intercalation of months was the prerogative of the Sanhedrin, at whose head there was a patriarch or . The entire Sanhedrin was not called upon to act in this matter, the decision being left to a special court of three. The Sanhedrin met on the 29th of each month to await the report of the witnesses.
From before the destruction of the Temple certain rules were in existence. The new moon can not occur before a lapse of 29½ days and ⅔ of an hour. If the moon could not be exactly determined, one month was to have 30 days and the next 29. The full months were not to be less than 4 nor more than 8, so that the year could not be less than 352 days nor more than 356.
After the destruction of the Temple (70 C.E.) Joḥanan ben Zakkai removed the Sanhedrin to Jabneh. To this body he transferred decisions concerning the calendar, which had previously belonged to the patriarch. After this the witnesses of the new moon came direct to the Sanhedrin.
Very interesting read!~!
To read the entire article concerning Passover
www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=98&letter=P
The History of the Calendar and the errors concerning it
Click on the link in the article where it says 'see calendar'
In the Bible the Passover was to be celebrated in the Month of Abib, which in the Hebrew means:
1) fresh, young barley ears, barley
2) month of ear-forming, of greening of crop, of growing green Abib, month of exodus and passover (March/April)
Also from this site that explains in full the calculations used today:
quasar.as.utexas.edu/BillInfo/ReligiousCalendars.html
The Biblical account connects the term with the root (= "to pass by," "to spare"; Ex. xii. 13, 23, 27; comp. Isa. xxxi. 5). As a derivative designates (1) a festival and (2) the sacrificial lamb and meal introductory to the festival.
The festival commemorates the deliverance of Israel's first-born from the judgment wrought on those of the Egyptians (Ex. xii. 12-13; comp. Ex. xiii. 2, 12 et seq.), and the wondrous liberation of the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage (Ex. xii. 14-17). As such, it is identical with the Maẓẓot (, Ex. xii. 17; , Lev. xxiii. 5-6) festival, and was instituted for an everlasting statute (Ex. xii. 14). Lev. xxiii., however, seems to distinguish between Passover, which is set for the fourteenth day of the month, and (the Festival of Unleavened Bread; ἑορτή τῶν ἀζύμων, Luke xxii. 1; Josephus, "B. J." ii. 1, § 3), appointed for the fifteenth day. The festival occurred in Abib (Ex. xiii. 4; Deut. xvi. 1 et seq., ), later named Nisan, (the Babylonian name) and lasted seven days, from sunset on the fourteenth day to sunset on the twenty-first day; the first and the seventh days were set aside for holy convocation, no work being permitted on those days except such as was necessary in preparing food (Num. xxviii. 16-25). During the seven days of the festival leaven was not to be found in the habitations of the Hebrews (Ex. xii. 19, xiii. 7). Leaven was not to be eaten under penalty of "excision" ("karet"; Ex. xii. 15, 19-20; xiii. 3; Deut. xvi. 3), and the eating of unleavened bread was commanded (Ex. xii. 15, 18; xiii. 6, 7; xxiii. 15; xxxiv. 18; Lev. xxiii. 6; Num. xxviii. 17). On the second day the omer of new barley was brought to the Temple (Lev. xxiii. 10-16; comp. First-Fruits).
This pastoral Pesaḥ was originally distinct from the Maẓẓot festival, but it merged all the more readily with it because both occurred in the spring, about the time of the vernal equinox. The Maẓẓot feast is distinctly agricultural, the maẓẓot cakes being both the natural offering from the newly gathered barley to the gods that had allowed the crop to ripen, and then the staple food of the harvesters. Offering and food are nearly always identical in the concepts and practises of primitive races. The difficulty of finding an adequate historical explanation for the maẓẓot is apparent even in the account of Ex. xii., which would make them emblematic of the hurry of the deliverance from Egypt, though it was the supposition that the maẓẓot had been used at the Passover meal before the Exodus.
The agricultural character of the Passover (or Maẓẓot) festival is evidenced by the fact that it is one of the three pilgrim, or season, festivals. Of course, when the pastoral Pesaḥ and the agricultural Maẓẓot came to be merged can not be determined definitely, but one is safe in saying that it must have been shortly after the occupation of Palestine, the tradition about the Pesaḥ observed by Joshua at Gilgal (see Biblical Data) suggesting and confirming this assumption.
For reasons well known (see Calendar; Festivals; Holy Days) Passover was extended to eight days, including the 22d of Nisan, and the 23d of Nisan came to be regarded as a semiholy day.
The history of the Jewish calendar may be divided into three periods—the Biblical, the Talmudic, and the post-Talmudic. The first rested purely on the observation of the sun and the moon, the second on observation and reckoning, the third entirely on reckoning.
The study of astronomy was largely due to the need of fixing the dates of the festivals. The command (Deut. xvi. 1), "Keep the month of Abib," made it necessary to be acquainted with the position of the sun.
Babylonian Calendar.
The Babylonian year, which influenced the French time reckoning, seems to have consisted of 12 months of 30 days each, intercalary months being added by the priests when necessary. Two Babylonian calendars are preserved in the inscriptions, and in both each month has 30 days as far as can be learnt. In later times, however, months of 29 days alternated with those of 30. The method of intercalation is uncertain, and the practise seems to have varied.
The Babylonian years were soli-lunar; that is to say, the year of 12 months containing 354 days was bound to the solar year of 365 days by intercalating, as occasion required, a thirteenth month. Out of every 11 years there were 7 with 12 months and 4 with 13 months.
Strassmeier and Epping, in "Astronomisches aus Babylon," have shown that the ancient Babylonians were sufficiently advanced in astronomy to enable them to draw up almanacs in which the eclipses of the sun and moon and the times of new and full moon were predicted ("Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch., 1891-1892," p. 112).
The Talmud (Yerushalmi, Rosh ha-Shanah i. 1) correctly states that the Jews got the names of the months at the time of the Babylonian exile.
There is no mention of an intercalary month in the Bible, and it is not known whether the correction was applied in ancient times by the addition of 1 month in 3 years or by the adding of 10 or 11 days at the end of each year.
Bound Lunar Year.
Astronomers know this kind of year as a bound lunar year. The Greeks had a similar year. Even the Christian year, although a purely solar year, is forced to take account of the moon for the fixing of the date of Easter. The Mohammedans, on the other hand, have a free lunar year.
It thus seems plain that the Jewish year was not a simple lunar year; for while the Jewish festivals no doubt were fixed on given days of lunar months, they also had a dependence on the position of the sun. Thus the Passover Feast was to be celebrated in the month of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Tabernacles, also called , took place in the fall. Sometimes the feasts are mentioned as taking place in certain lunar months (Lev. xxiii.; Num. xxviii., xxix.), and at other times they are fixed in accordance with certain crops; that is, with the solar year.
In post-Talmudic times Nisan, Siwan, Ab, Tishri, Kislew, and Shebaṭ had 30 days, and Iyyar, Tammuz, Elul, Ḥeshwan, Ṭebet, and Adar, 29. In leap-year, Adar had 30 days and We-Adar 29. According to Pirḳe Rabbi Eliezer, there was a lunar solar cycle of 48 years. This cycle was followed by the Hellenists, Essenes, and early Christians.
In the times of the Second Temple it appears from the Mishnah (R. H. i. 7) that the priests had a court to which witnesses came and reported. [by observing] This function was afterward taken over by the civil court (see B. Zuckermann, "Materialien zur Entwicklung der Altjüdischen Zeitrechnung im Talmud, "Breslau, 1882).
The fixing of the lengths of the months and the intercalation of months was the prerogative of the Sanhedrin, at whose head there was a patriarch or . The entire Sanhedrin was not called upon to act in this matter, the decision being left to a special court of three. The Sanhedrin met on the 29th of each month to await the report of the witnesses.
From before the destruction of the Temple certain rules were in existence. The new moon can not occur before a lapse of 29½ days and ⅔ of an hour. If the moon could not be exactly determined, one month was to have 30 days and the next 29. The full months were not to be less than 4 nor more than 8, so that the year could not be less than 352 days nor more than 356.
After the destruction of the Temple (70 C.E.) Joḥanan ben Zakkai removed the Sanhedrin to Jabneh. To this body he transferred decisions concerning the calendar, which had previously belonged to the patriarch. After this the witnesses of the new moon came direct to the Sanhedrin.
Very interesting read!~!
To read the entire article concerning Passover
www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=98&letter=P
The History of the Calendar and the errors concerning it
Click on the link in the article where it says 'see calendar'
In the Bible the Passover was to be celebrated in the Month of Abib, which in the Hebrew means:
1) fresh, young barley ears, barley
2) month of ear-forming, of greening of crop, of growing green Abib, month of exodus and passover (March/April)
Also from this site that explains in full the calculations used today:
quasar.as.utexas.edu/BillInfo/ReligiousCalendars.html
Final Comment on Easter and Passover
If you pay attention to the dates of Easter and Passover from year to year, you will notice that although they usually fall within a week or so of each other, on occasion Passover falls about a month after (Gregorian) Easter. At the present time, this happens in in the 3rd, 11th, and 14th years of the Metonoic Cycle (i.e., when the Golden Number equals 3, 11, or 14). The reason for this discrepancy is the fact that although the Metonic Cycle is very good, it is not perfect (as we've seen in this course). In particular, it is a little off if you use it to predict the length of the tropical year. So, over the centuries the date of the vernal equinox, as predicted by the Metonic Cycle, has been drifting to later and later dates. So, the rule for Passover, which was originally intended to track the vernal equinox, has gotten a few days off. In ancient times this was never a problem since Passover was set by actual observations of the Moon and of the vernal equinox. However, after Hillel II standardized the Hebrew calendar in the 4th century, actual observations of celestial events no longer played a part in the determination of the date of Passover.
Similarly, you will notice that in many years Gregorian Easter (the one marked on all calendars) differs from Julian (Orthodox) Easter, sometimes by a week, sometimes by a month. Again, this is due to the different rules of calculation. A major difference is that Orthodox Easter uses the old Julian calendar for calculation, and the date of the Vernal Equinox is slipping later and later on the Julian calendar relative to the Gregorian calendar (and to astronomical fact). Also, the date of Paschal Full Moon for the Julian calculation is about 4 days later than that for the Gregorian calculation. At present, in 5 out of 19 years in the Metonic Cycle--the years when the Golden Number equals 3, 8, 11, 14 and 19--Orthodox Easter occurs a month after Gregorian Easter. In three of these years, Passover also falls a month after Gregorian Easter.
If you pay attention to the dates of Easter and Passover from year to year, you will notice that although they usually fall within a week or so of each other, on occasion Passover falls about a month after (Gregorian) Easter. At the present time, this happens in in the 3rd, 11th, and 14th years of the Metonoic Cycle (i.e., when the Golden Number equals 3, 11, or 14). The reason for this discrepancy is the fact that although the Metonic Cycle is very good, it is not perfect (as we've seen in this course). In particular, it is a little off if you use it to predict the length of the tropical year. So, over the centuries the date of the vernal equinox, as predicted by the Metonic Cycle, has been drifting to later and later dates. So, the rule for Passover, which was originally intended to track the vernal equinox, has gotten a few days off. In ancient times this was never a problem since Passover was set by actual observations of the Moon and of the vernal equinox. However, after Hillel II standardized the Hebrew calendar in the 4th century, actual observations of celestial events no longer played a part in the determination of the date of Passover.
Similarly, you will notice that in many years Gregorian Easter (the one marked on all calendars) differs from Julian (Orthodox) Easter, sometimes by a week, sometimes by a month. Again, this is due to the different rules of calculation. A major difference is that Orthodox Easter uses the old Julian calendar for calculation, and the date of the Vernal Equinox is slipping later and later on the Julian calendar relative to the Gregorian calendar (and to astronomical fact). Also, the date of Paschal Full Moon for the Julian calculation is about 4 days later than that for the Gregorian calculation. At present, in 5 out of 19 years in the Metonic Cycle--the years when the Golden Number equals 3, 8, 11, 14 and 19--Orthodox Easter occurs a month after Gregorian Easter. In three of these years, Passover also falls a month after Gregorian Easter.
