THE NEW YEAR CELEBRATION

 

In many ancient cultures the New Year was celebrated by reciting the deeds of the King for the past year and renewing their covenant with their ‘Lords’.  The deeds of the kings were kept in a daily chronicle or diary so that the passing of the year could be verified by reference to the book becoming full.  Cases were judged and sentence given; debts were calculated and payment made.

 

Many ancient pagan cultures had a New Year‘s celebration in which the King was honored as the time-giver.  Israel had a similar custom as mentioned in Nehemiah chapter 8, in II Chronicles 29:3-10.  1 Esdras 9:42 also mentions this ceremony.  Harrelson notes that: “The platform erected for Ezra probably continued the tradition whereby kings would appear before the people to reaffirm the covenant law on the festal occasion at the turn of the year (compare 2 Chr.20.5; 23.13; 29:4).” (OAA 21 n. 42).  Israel celebrated their God as King and Time-Giver.

 

We know that a certain period of time in the old Hebrew year was known as the “counting of ‘omer’,” Leviticus 23:11-15.  This word is from the root `mar.  Since the letters À and ע are often interchanged, (Ges. Lexicon, pp. 1 and 597), this may be related to the ‘counting of words,’ that is, the ritual reading of the Words of God, the Scriptures, as was carried out on certain feast days marking the passage of the seasons of the year.  While in pagan cultures, the deeds of their kings were read, in Israel, the ‘Acts of God’ were read from the Scriptures!

 

The orderly passing of time was no haphazard, unpredictable thing.  In 1 Esdras 4:37, Ezra has asked the question as to how long the evil seed is to prevail:

 

And Jeremiel the archangel answered them and said, ‘When the number of those like yourselves is completed; for he has weighed the age in the balance, and measured the times by measure, and numbered the times by number; and he will not move or arouse them until that measure is fulfilled.’

 

Rabbinic Judaism, like multitudes of other ancient religions, turned to worship of the created instead of the Creator.  They proposed that God had given Moses a second, oral law along with the written law.  The germ of truth in this is that God did give Moses the ‘Pattern of the Heavens’, meaning the knowledge of telling time by the movements of the heavens.  Gaster says: “The Mishnah declares that on New Year‘s Day all creatures pass before God like sheep before a shepherd, the while He ‘appoints the term’ and ‘decrees the fate’ of each….  The words rendered ‘appoints the term’ could also mean ‘performs a shearing’ while that rendered ‘decrees’ really means ‘cuts,’ and might refer to the same operation or to the incising of a distinctive mark” (Festivals, 292).  This, of course, is a perversion of the Biblical account.  God does offer Mankind His covenant, and allows them free choice that determines their fate.  This decisive moment does not await a particular day of the year but may occur at any moment.

 

THE ‘GREAT YEAR’

 

The patterns of time were repetitive.  There were ‘weeks’ of seven days, and ‘weeks of years’, seven-year periods.  Then there were jubilee years in which there were seven-sevens of weeks, or 49 weeks.  There was also a ‘Great Year’ of about 2160 sun years, which was the period of time when the precession had dropped back one whole month’s time.  Beyond this, and probably considered the ultimate ‘year,’ was the ‘Aleph Year’, referring to the great cycle of the precession of the equinox in which the equinox precesses through the entire circle of 360 degrees.  According to Ulansey this period would be 25,920 solar years.  If this be the period referred to in Revelation chapter 20, one thousand Aleph years would be literally 25,920,000 solar years, an unimaginable period of time!  It essentially means ‘forever’.  (See my Commentary at 1:8, “Alpha and Omega” and on Revelation 20:2, “Thousand Years.”)

 

Malina describes the ‘Great Year’: “When the vault of the sky returns to the position it had at the very time of creation, it will be with Aries at the point of preeminence, the head of the cosmos….  (Quoting Cicero: ‘But when all the stars return to the place from which they at first set forth, and, at long intervals, restore the original configuration of the whole heaven, then that can truly be called a revolving year.’)  For our author, John the Revelator, that year is already here” (Genre and Message, 240-1).

 

BIBLICAL TIME RECKONING

 

Biblical time-reckoning is far from ‘primitive’.  Primitive reckoning only observes time-indications without incorporating them into a systematic calendar (Nilsson p. 148).  Evidently, when God created the sun, moon and stars for signs of seasons, days and years, he gave Adam the ability to read these signs, (Gen. 1:14).  The fact that the aleph and tau are tied together, that is, are one and the same in meaning and in point of time, shows that they represent a continuous calendar system that had developed beyond the primitive time-reckoning stage.

 

PATTERN OF THE HEAVENS

 

The most important idea concerning the Biblical concept of time is the tabnîyth[1].  It is described as ‘structure’, by implication ‘a model’, ‘resemblance’.  It is translated by the words ‘figure’, ‘form’, ‘likeness’, ‘pattern’, ‘similitude’.  BDB defines it as a pattern according to which anything is to be constructed, for example, of the tabernacle, Exodus 25:9; utensils for the tabernacle, verses 2, and 40; an altar 2 Kings 16:10; the temple 1 Chronicles 28:11; 28:12 a chariot or cherubim; and 28:19 other objects for which the pattern is given.

 

The tabnîyth is sometimes used of the figures of idols in the form or ‘likeness’ of animals, as in Deuteronomy 4:16-18; Ezekiel 8:10; Psalm 106:20; or of man, Isaiah 44:13.  This form of idolatry may have been the result of syncretism, following the surrounding cultures who saw the ‘zodiac’ as a circle of animals and copied them for purposes of worship.

 

This tabnîyth, the ‘Pattern of the Heavens’, is what God showed to Moses on Sinai when He gave him the ten commandments.  Its basic importance to the life and worship of Israel cannot be overemphasized.  Moses was instructed to make all things according to the pattern that God showed him on the mountain.  These specialized instructions to Moses concerning the details of time-reckoning were what later became known as the ‘oral law.’  This idea that there was, in addition to the written law, an ‘oral law’ later became subject to all kinds of interpretations and perversions.  Word-of-mouth transmission notoriously corrupts and distorts a message where there is no written form for control.  Whether the distortions are innocent or promiscuous, an oral record varies and fluctuates with the speaker and the times.

 

In the case of this ‘oral law’, the Pharisees of the New Testament era used it to their own purpose and advantage, making it say what they wanted it to: “Fitting the words to the message.”  The original message of the technical aspects of time-telling was all but lost except in a ritualized form.  After the destruction of the Temple in AD 70  the Pharisees reorganized in opposition to Christianity and set about ‘collecting’ the fragments of what they purported to have been this ancient ‘oral law’.  When this ‘oral law’ was finally recorded in written form in about 210 AD, it became known as the Mishnah.

 

The word Mishnah carries within itself the fact that it originated from the time-reckoning function of the priesthood.  It is from the same root as the word for ‘year,’ and means ‘two-fold, double, or copy.’  (See Commentary at 1:3 “Christ as Time and Light.”)

 

According to tradition, Moses also invented the alphabet.  Actually, it was the numero-alphabet, representing both numerals and letters.  The numeral function would have been essential to the time-telling functions.  The written text was considered sacred from the time that it was first inscribed by the finger of God upon the two-stones given to Moses.  This original writing was thought to be a copy of the ‘writing’ upon the heavens.  It was a separate and distinct development from that of the spoken Semitic language, although it became the basis for the phonetic alphabet and phonetic writing.

 

HEBREW MONTH NAMES

 

Probably the first month names as given by God to Adam were numerals, (First Month, Second Month, etc.), as were the day of the week names, (‘First Day’, ‘Second Day’, etc[2].)  Some writers disagree with this, however.  “The early Israelites designated their months by names which they borrowed from the Canaanites or Phoenicians.”  Four of these are given in the Bible: Abib, Ziv, Ethanim, and Bul.  “About the end of the kingdom period the calendar was reformed, replacing the old names of the months with ordinal numerals, and changing the beginning of the year to spring” (“Calendar“, ZPBD, 139)

 

However, one need only look in a good concordance to see that references to the months in the Bible are overwhelmingly those of numbered months, (for example, the first month, the seventh month), not month names, although the number was the name.  This seeming contradiction may be reconciled by the fact that, while numbering may have originated as the counting of months, these months may have not necessarily been a continuous and consecutive time-reckoning system.  For example, the number of the months of a pregnancy may be counted, but not necessarily in relationship to eternity, or their relationship to the calendar year or larger periods of time.  Naming the months by their position within the fixed year may have been a later development, according to Nilsson, and provided for a continuous and consecutive order of time reckoning (Nilsson, 146-149; 226-237).

 

Some scholars see Israel’s calendar as being derived from Babylonian models.  Nilsson traces the ancient Semitic months as found in the archaeology of Babylon (Nilsson, 227-232).  He finds that the earliest phonetic ideograms furnished the basis for a fixed series of months.  These are some of the earliest known writings, but are only partially phonetic.  Gelb and Diringer call them ‘visual morphemes’[3].  The Nippur list of months was used in the Hammurabi dynasty and later was adopted by the Jews in exile, according to Nilsson.  The Biblical record shows, however, that this tradition could have come to Israel through Abraham who migrated from Ur of the Chaldees, a part of the Babylonian kingdom, not far from the time of Hammurabi.  In fact, according to the Biblical record, Shem, the son of Noah, would have been alive throughout Abraham’s life, and indeed outlived him by about 35 years!  Since the ark rested upon Mount Ararat and Noah and his sons descended into the plain of Shinar, (later location of Babylon), then the traditions from Shem’s descendants could well have found their way into Ur of the Chaldees.

 

We find in these records information about their celebration of the New Year.  In a list from the kingdom of Akkad, 28th to 26th centuries, the first month is itu ezen ganmaš, which Nilsson translates as “perhaps ‘month of the reckoning,’ i.e. of the profits of agriculture (Nilsson, 227-232).”  I believe the ‘reckoning’ in the first month was that of time as was also the custom in many other early civilizations.  The New Year celebration consisted of a ritual counting, reckoning, to establish the fact that, indeed, the time for the renewal of the year had come.

 

The seventh month was, later in the time of the ruler Dungi, changed to a festival in honor of Dungi, which Nilsson says is the oldest example of naming of a month from deified rulers (ibid.).  We see from this an example of how the time-reckoning function became prostituted to idol worship.  It was this same motive, (although much later), that prompted both Augustus and Julius Caesar to reform the calendar and to name a month for themselves.  It was, in effect, a claim to deity.

 

A list of months believed to be from Ur names the months for feasts of gods and deified rulers.  Although the time of this list is not given, it shows how the time-telling function of the priesthood had been corrupted to the worship of their ruler.  This may well have been the reason that Abraham was called out of Ur.  By the simple act of telling time by their methods one would be acquiescing to idol worship.

 

It is interesting to note also that it was the eleventh month that was doubled in intercalation, although there were twelve months.  This may point to an earlier system in which there were only eleven full month divisions in the ‘year.’  The ancient Biblical calendar had a double year; one New Year‘s day was at the spring equinox, the ‘first month’, and the other at the fall equinox, the ‘seventh month.’  The ‘seventh month’ could be called the ‘first month’ of the second half of the double year.  Therefore, the seventh month sometimes interchanges with the first month, and vice versa.

 

Nilsson follows the textual critics in relegating the writings of ‘the Deuteronomist’ and the ‘Priestly’ sections to the Exilic and post-Exilic era.  Because of this underlying assumption, he sees the calendar of Israel as largely a borrowing from Babylonia during and after the Exile.  There are other possible ways these influences could have entered Israel‘s calendar: (1) Abraham‘s nativity in Ur, and (2) the Exile.  Both of these probably had their influence in their proper time.  (3) A third possibility is that both the Babylonian and the Israelite calendars had a common Semitic background dating from the Sumerians.

 

The basic notion of time that Abraham had and which he no doubt had learned in Ur of the Chaldees, perhaps dating from a tradition that came from Elam, was probably much, much older than the Chaldean astronomy, for there was already the precise knowledge of the precession of the equinox and therefore precise knowledge of the movements of the heavenly time-indicators.  There was then, as always, widespread perversions of the knowledge of the heavens to idol worship, but these perversions have never and will never erase the truth.  I believe Abraham had the view passed down from Adam, Seth, Enoch, and Noah that the knowledge of the time-telling heavens is necessary for Man to order this world correctly.

 

SOME HEBREW TERMS FOR HEAVENLY FEATURES

The following quoted material is from BDB (s.v.):

1)  zeez:  “I. זיז…move, rise, come forth….i.e., …collectively, moving things (i.e. beasts) (etymology and exact meaning still rather dubious.)”

This word is found in Psalm 50:11 and 80:13 (RSV) “all that move in the field”; in Isaiah 66:11 “abundance.”

 

“II. זיז (be abundant…perhaps related to I…but this very dubious.) ii. …abundance, fullness only…Isaiah 66:11 ‘that ye may suck out and be delighted, from the abundance of her glory…'”

 

Gesenius gives the following (s.v.):  The words zuz and zeez are perhaps the same word simply spelled differently.  Zuz “(1) to move oneself about, (2) From swiftness of motion it is figuratively applied to shining or radiating…hence to spout forth like rays or in streams.”

 

Zeez “(l) any moving thing.”

It seems to me that the original ‘moving things’ which hold such ‘abundance’ are the signs of the heavens which bring the harvests, the rains, snows, sun and wind.  These ‘moving things’ are translated as ‘beasts’ in Revelation chapter 4, (KJV).

 

2)  Mazzâroth: “Probably equals mazzâloth…only (found in)…Job 38:32…perhaps understood of some particular star or constellation.” 

I believe this may come from the root mazar “(…possibly equal to spread out; Aramaic…stretch oneself…ii. mazor…perhaps net (as something extended)…compare As. mazuru, apparently a pole with an iron hook, but improbable.”  If we take this to mean the ‘spread out’ heavens, and the ‘pole with the iron hook’ as the pole star, then these meanings all have a common ground.

The word mazar may perhaps descend from an older biliteral root zer, “…circlet, border (originally that which presses, binds, cf. Aram….bracelet, … wreath, crown…Ex. 25:11, 25, 25; 30:3; 37:2,11,12,26;…”  (RSV translates these words as ‘molding’ or ‘molding of gold.’  This circlet, border, wreath or crown was probably a copy, or imitation of the original heavenly circle of the ecliptic.

 

3)  Mazzaloth:  “Constellations, perhaps signs of the zodiac (probably loan word from As….station, abode (of gods).”  This relates to the understanding that the section of the ecliptic representing a month’s time is called a ‘mansion’ or a ‘station’ of the moon/sun.

 

Gesenius sees mazzaloth and mazzaroth as the same word spelled differently.  He gives the meaning as: “…lodging places, inns,….The Hebrews gave this name to the twelve signs of the zodiac, called in Arabic…the circle of palaces; these were imagined to be the lodging places of the sun during the twelve months,…The Rabbins called the individual signs mazzal and the circle of them mazzalayyah galgal.”  (Gesenius, by saying “imagined to be the lodging places of the sun,” shows that he does not understand that the divisions of the ecliptic are indeed the area which forms the background stars for the sun during each of the twelve months.)

The relationship to the ecliptic may also be discerned in the following words as defined by Gesenius-Tregelles:

The root zahar means “To shine, to be bright hiphil (l)…(a) to teach…(2) to shine forth…to give forth light….niphal, to be taught, to be admonished….” (Now we have these heavenly lights teaching, as in Psalm 19.)

The form zayith is translated ‘an olive tree.’  Gesenius comments that: “A similar word is used in all the cognate languages….Etymologists acknowledge themselves to be ignorant of the origin of this word; which, it appears to me, should be sought in the root …to shine,…to adorn…to cause to shine…whence…a fair or splendid form.”  It seems to me that the translation ‘olive tree’ simply came from the word meaning ‘to shine’ because of its light-giving oil, and that the original symbol for the meaning was the rays from the heavenly lights.  The original letter zayin may have represented the point of the zenith, or the point of the pole star.  From this, then, also came the word Zion, the representation on earth of the heavenly zenith, the ultimate high mountain.

Strong’s #1366 g^ebûwl, from #1379, meaning to twist as a rope…to bound (as by a line);–be border, set (bounds about).  This word, g^ebûlôth, (plural), very possibly is intended to mean the great circles of the celestial equator and ecliptic.  They might well be described as the bounds of the earth.  Their intersections at the points of the equinox would make them wreathed together.

 

The name ‘Adam’ may have originally consisted of the two words ’ad, and ‘am.  The word ’ad being related to ‛ad, for ‘time,’ and the word ‛am being ‘people,’ the word would indicate ‘time people.’  We are first told that God named man ‘Adam’ in Gen. 5:2.  This is the place where the generations are first reckoned and the ages of each of the patriarchs are given.  In other words, this is the first written record of the reckoning of man’s life-time.  It is the numbering of a man’s days upon earth.  We are taught that:

 

“The years of our life are threescore and ten, or even by reason of strength fourscore; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away….So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:10, 12).