DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15#0286
ASTRONOMY AND JEWISH FESTIVALS. 273
than into four periods of seven days each. Nor is
it a mere accident that in one of the books of that
little library of Hebrew works we call the Old
Testament, we find as the very earliest division of
time used for the hiring of labour the week of
seven days. Even those nations, if any such there
were (which I doubt), who did not in the beginning
of their existence worship either the sun or the
moon, or both, and often the other heavenly bodies
as well, yet adopted the belief that the sun and
moon and stars were set in the heavens for signs,
and for seasons, and for days and years. And as
I have shown, all the names for the moon which do
not refer to her light, indicate her use as a time-
measurer.1 I may also repeat here, that the times
of half-moon alone would be observed with any
exactitude, the time of full, like the time of new
moon, not being determinable with anything like
the same degree of accuracy. Moreover, I have
shown that soon after the use of the month and its
quarters for measuring time had been commenced,
it would be found necessary to employ successive
1 This ¡5 true of nearly all the Indo-European languages, though
in some, as in Greek, we have two names for the moon, one relating
to her brightness, the other to her time-measuring use ; while in
some, as in Latin, the latter name has disappeared, save as it re-
mains in derivations as mensis, the month, the connection of which
word with mensuration was noticed even by the Romans, as by
Cicero and others.
Τ
than into four periods of seven days each. Nor is
it a mere accident that in one of the books of that
little library of Hebrew works we call the Old
Testament, we find as the very earliest division of
time used for the hiring of labour the week of
seven days. Even those nations, if any such there
were (which I doubt), who did not in the beginning
of their existence worship either the sun or the
moon, or both, and often the other heavenly bodies
as well, yet adopted the belief that the sun and
moon and stars were set in the heavens for signs,
and for seasons, and for days and years. And as
I have shown, all the names for the moon which do
not refer to her light, indicate her use as a time-
measurer.1 I may also repeat here, that the times
of half-moon alone would be observed with any
exactitude, the time of full, like the time of new
moon, not being determinable with anything like
the same degree of accuracy. Moreover, I have
shown that soon after the use of the month and its
quarters for measuring time had been commenced,
it would be found necessary to employ successive
1 This ¡5 true of nearly all the Indo-European languages, though
in some, as in Greek, we have two names for the moon, one relating
to her brightness, the other to her time-measuring use ; while in
some, as in Latin, the latter name has disappeared, save as it re-
mains in derivations as mensis, the month, the connection of which
word with mensuration was noticed even by the Romans, as by
Cicero and others.
Τ