Jewish Calendar

Days

From the remotest time to the present the Israelites have computed
the day (y�m) from sunset to sunset, or rather from sunset to the
appearance of the first three stars which marked the beginning of
a new day [Cf. Lev. 23:32; II Esd. (Nehem.) 4:21; etc.]. Before
the Babylonian Exile the time between sunrise and sunset was
divided into "morning", "midday", and "evening" (Ps. 54:18; Heb.
55:17); but during the stay in Babylon the Hebrews adopted the
division into twelve hours (Cf. John 11:9), whose duration varied
with the length of the day. On an average, the first hour
corresponded to about 6 a.m.; the third hour to 9 a.m.; the end of
the sixth to noon; while at the eleventh the day was near its
close. Earlier than this division of the day by hours was that of
the night into three watches: the first till midnight; the second
or middle watch (cock-crow) till 3 a.m.; and the third or morning
watch till about 6 a.m.

Weeks

Seven consecutive days form the week, or second element of the
Jewish calendar. As in our ecclesiastical calendar, the days of
the Jewish week are numbered, not named. They are called the first
day, the second day, the third day, and so on to the seventh,
which last is also called "sabbath" (sh�bbath) a name likewise
used to designate the week itself. The sixth day, our Friday, is
also known in the New Testament, in Josephus, and in Rabbinical
writings as "the eve of the sabbath", or as "the day of the
preparation", the paraskeue, a term still employed by the Latin
Church in connection with Good Fridays (Cf. Mark 15:42; Josephus,
Antiquities of the Jews, XVI, vi, 2; Talmud of Jerusalem, Treatise
Pesah�m, chap. iv, I).

Months

The third and most important element in the Jewish arrangement of
time is the month. The two Hebrew words for month are yer�h, and
hodesh, whose primitive meaning, "moon", "new moon", points to the
dependence of the Jewish month on the phases of the moon. As a
matter of fact, the Hebrew months have always been lunar, and
extended from one new moon to another. The beginning of the month
with the appearance of the new moon was--as it is still--of great
practical importance among the Hebrews, inasmuch as the first of
every month was to be observed as New Moon's Day, and certain
feasts were affixed to the 10th, 14th, or other days of the month.
The earliest appearance of the new moon was long ascertained by
direct observation, and authoritatively settled by a commission of
the Sanhedrin, and the intelligence then made known to the Jews at
large, first by means of fire signals, and later on through
special messengers. In the present day, and for many centuries,
this very primitive manner of fixing the beginning of the month
has given way to a systematic calculation of the latter's
duration, and the Jewish calendar is now constructed on the basis
of a mean lunation of 29 days, 12 hours, 44 min., and 30 sec.
Besides being indicated by means of numerals, the first month, the
second month, etc., the Hebrew months have been designated in the
course of Jewish history by two sets of names. Of the former set--
going back probably to Chanaanite times--only four names have
survived in the Hebrew Bible. These are: 'Abh�bh (A.V. Ex. 13:4,
23:15; Deut. 16:1), subsequently the first month; Z�w (III K.
6:1), subsequently the second month; 'Ethan�m (III K. 8:2),
subsequently the seventh month; and B�l (III K. 6:38),
subsequently the eighth month. The latter set of names, certainly
of Babylonian origin, began to be used after the Exile. Of its
twelve names now found in the Jewish calendar only seven occur in
the Hebrew text, but the whole twelve appear as the main divisions
of the Megillath Ta'anith (Scroll of Fasting), which in its
original form is referred to a date before the Christian Era.
These twelve names are as follows:

1.N�san (Nehem. 2:1; Esth. 3:7)
2.'Iyyar (not named in Scripture)
3.S�wan (Esth. 8:9; Baruch 1:8)
4.T�mm�z (Cf. A.V. Ezek. 8:14)
5.'Abh (not named in Scripture)
6.'El�l (Nehem. 6:15; I Mach. 14:27)
7.T�shr� (not named in Scripture)
8.M�rheshwan, or simply Heshwan (not named in Scripture)
9.K�slew (Zach. 7:1; Nehem. 1:1)
10.Tebeth (Esth. 2:16)
11.Shebhat (Zach. 1:7, I Mach. 16:14)
12.'Adar (I Esdras 6:15; Esth. 3:7, 8:12, etc.)

Years

The twelve months thus named made up the ordinary year (shanah),
or next important element in the Jewish calendar. As they were
lunar months they formed a mean year of 354 days, a year
consequently shorter than the solar year by ten or eleven days.
This difference, as can be readily seen, would have, in the course
of time, completely disordered the months in relation to the
seasons of the year; thus the first month, or N�san,
(corresponding to the end of March or the beginning of April), in
the middle of which the first ripe barley was to be presented to
Yahweh in connection with the paschal feast (Ex. 12:1 sqq., 13:3
sqq; Lev. 23:10-12), might have fallen in the middle of winter;
and some other festivals depending likewise on the products of the
seasons would also have been materially interfered with. Hence it
was soon felt--how soon cannot now be ascertained--that the
difference between the lunar and the solar years should be
equalized by the intercalation of a month. The year in which such
an intercalation should be made was for a while determined by an
authoritative decision of the Sanhedrin, and ultimately fixed in a
permanent manner by astronomical calculation. In a cycle of
nineteen years the third, sixth, eighth, eleventh, fourteenth,
seventeenth, and nineteenth are made leap-years with an average
length of 384 days, by the addition of a month following the
twelfth ('Adar), and usually called We-'Adar (Second Adar). It is
plain, therefore, that the Jewish year has long been, and still
is, a luni-solar year. The Hebrew year thus far described is one
constituted in harmony with ritual requirements, and hence it is
called the sacred Jewish year. Together with it the Jews have had
from time immemorial what may be called a common or civil year
commencing in the month of T�shr� (corresponding generally to part
of September and part of October), on or immediately after the new
moon following the autumnal equinox. The beginning of the Hebrew
civil year practically coincides with that of seed time in
Palestine, while the beginning of the sacred year corresponds to
that of the harvest season in the same country.

Eras

There now remains to consider the era, or last element of the
Jewish calendar. As might well be expected in connection with a
people whose history has been so checkered, the Hebrews have
adopted various points of time from which to reckon the succession
of years. Their principal ancient eras have been:

�the one which was dated from the deliverance from Egypt;

� the regnal era, or computation of time from the year of
accession of the Jewish kings to the throne;

� the Seleucid era, introduced after the Babylonian Exile,
beginning 312 B.C., and used by the Jews probably till the twelfth
century.

For centuries they have employed their present method of counting
by anno mundi (A.M.). (See the table below for the yearly
arrangement of the principal festival days.)

According to the current Jewish reckoning the calendar is dated
from the Creation of the World, which is considered to have taken
place 3760 years and 3 months before the commencement of the
Christian Era. To find the number of the Hebrew year, beginning in
the autumn of a given year of our common era, we have to add 3761
to the number of the latter. Thus the Jewish year beginning
September, 1908, is 5669 A.M.

FRANCIS E. GIGOT
Transcribed by Rick McCarty

From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.

Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).

This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the  entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this  worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For  more information please download
the file cathen.txt/.zip.

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