Adam was placed*. But the premises, from which this inference is drawn, are somewhat uncertain, namely, that the ancient year was a fixed solar year, always beginning at the same season; whereas we have before shown, that the patriarchal year consisted of twelve months of thirty days each, which fell about five days short of the true solar year. Unless, therefore, we suppose, as some have donet, that they added five days to their last month, according to the form of the annus Nabonassarius, or the Egyptian year‡, which five days were called ημεραι επαγομεναι, this year must have been wandering, and the beginning of it have run through all the seasons. Nay, even supposing the addition of the nuɛfai ɛtaYouɛval, yet the neglect of five hours forty-nine minutes, by which the Egyptian year fell short of the true solar year, would make the beginning of it wander through all the seasons in about fourteen hundred years; so that, though it happened to begin at the autumnal equinox at the time when Moses regulated the Jewish calendar, it might have begun originally at another season. However, it is thought, that the feast of ingathering of the harvest, which must certainly be at autumn, being said to be" in the end of the year," Exod. xxiii, 16; xxxiv, 22, favours the opinion that the ancient year began at that season. Therefore, though some have supposed, that the world was created in spring §, the more commonly received opinion is, that it was created in autumn. In support of which some allege the following passage in the first chapter of Genesis, "The earth brought forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself," ver. 11; which, they say, must be in autumn, when the fruits are ripe.

As for the Jewish sacred, or ecclesiastical year, it began

* Vid. Meyer. de Temporibus et Festis Hebræor. part i, cap. i, p. 4—17, Amstel. 1724; et Fred. Spanhemii Chronol. Sacr. part i, cap. i; Talmud. tit. Rosh Hashanah, cap. i; Abarbanel de Principio Anni et Consecratione Novilunii ad Calcem, lib. Cozri, p. 443-445, edit. Buxtorf. 1660.

+ Vid. Spanheim. Chronol. Sacr. part i, cap. iii, p. 8, Oper. Geograph. Chronolog. &c. Lugd. Bat. 1701.

I See Strauchius's Chronology, by Sault, book iv, chap. xviii, p. 261, Lond. 1722.

§ Jacobi Capelli Observ. in Gen. i, 14, p. 583, edit. unâ cum Lud. Capell. Comment. et Not. Critic. in Vet. Test. Amstel. 1689.

with the month Nisan, the seventh of the civil year, about the vernal equinox, Exod. xii, 2, et seq. By this year the order of all their religious ceremonies was regulated; so that the passover, which was kept in the middle of the first month of this year, was, as it were, the mother of all the other festivals.

While the Jews continued in the land of Canaan, the beginnings of their months and years were not settled by any astronomical rules or calculations, but by the phasis or actual appearance of the new moon. When they saw the new moon, they began the month. Persons were therefore appointed to watch on the tops of the mountains for the first appearance of the moon after the change. As soon as they saw it, they informed the sanhedrim, and public notice was given by lighting beacons throughout the land; though after they had been often deceived by the Samaritans, who kindled false fires, they used, say the mishnical rabbies, to proclaim its appearance by sending messengers. Yet as they had no months longer than thirty days, if they did not see the new moon the night following the thirtieth day, they concluded the appearance was obstructed by the clouds, and without watching any longer, made the next day the first day of the following month*. But after the Jews became dispersed through all nations, where they had no opportunity of being informed of the first appearance of the new moon, as they formerly had, they were forced to make use of astronomical calculations and cycles for fixing the beginning of their months and years+. The first cycle they made use of for this purpose was of eightyfour years. But that being discovered to be faulty, they came afterwards into the use of Meto's cycle of nineteen years, which was established by the authority of Rabbi Hillel Hannasi, or prince of the sanhedrim, about the year of Christ 360. This they still use, and say, it is to be observed till the coming of the Messiah. In the compass of this cycle there are twelve common years, consisting of twelve months, and seven intercalary years, consisting of thirteen months.

We find the Jews and their ancestors computing their years

Vid. Mish. tit. Rosh. Hashanah, cap. ii, sect. i-vii; Maimon, de Consecratione Calendarum, cap. iii, sect. v-viii, p. 352.

+ Maimon. de Consecratione Calendarum, cap. v, sect. i-iii, p. 362. ↑ See Prideaux's Connect. part i, preface.

from different eras, in different parts of the Old Testament; as from the birth of the patriarchs; for instance, of Noah, Gen. vii, 11; viii, 13; afterwards from their exit out of Egypt, Numb. xxxiii, 38; 1 Kings vi, 1; then from the building of Solomon's temple, 2 Chron. viii, 1; and from the reigns of the kings of Judah and Israel. In later times the Babylonish captivity furnished them with a new epocha, from whence they computed their years, Ezek. xxxiii, 21; xl, 1. But since the times of the talmudical rabbies they have constantly used the era of the creation, which, according to their computation*, in this present year of the Chistian era, 1762, is A. M. 5522. They usually in writing contract this by omitting the thousands, writing only 5pm, 522+. If to the Jewish year, thus expressed, you add 1240 it gives the year of the Christian era, as 522 with the addition of 1240 makes 1762+.

If it be inquired, why God appointed a new beginning of the year to the Israelites at the time of their deliverance out of Egypt, the answer may, perhaps, be,

1st, The more effectually to distinguish and separate his own people from the idolatrous nations, and detach them from their customs; to which end the beginning their days, their weeks, their months, and their years at a different time from those of the idolaters, was undoubtedly subservient.

2dly, Because the month, in which they were delivered out of Egypt, and in which such a surprising series of miracles was wrought in their favour, might be well accounted a sort of mensis natalis of that nation, in which God as it were revived them from a state of death, and took them under his future special protection and providence; on which account, to set a particular mark upon that month, and to perpetuate the memory of so great a mercy, he ordered, that it should stand at the head of the months, and be reckoned the first of the year.

* The Jews reckon only 3760 years from the creation to the birth of Christ. See Scalig. de Emendat. Tempor. lib. vii, p. 628, and Strauchius's Chronol. by Sault, book iv, chap. ii, p. 168—171.

+ This is called the computus minor; when the thousands are expressed at length it is called computus major.

↑ Reland. Antiq. Heb. part iv, cap. 1, sect. viii, p. 428, 429, 3d edit.

CHAP. II.

OF THEIR FEASTS.

"As, among the Jews, their ordinary meals," saith Godwin, were not many in a day, so neither were they costly; and therefore they were called n aruchoth, which properly signifieth such fare as travellers use on their journies; whereas the extraordinary and more liberal kind of entertainment was commonly called no mishteh." There is no doubt, but the word aruchah, as it comes from the root m arach, iter fecit, properly and primarily signifies provisions on a journey, or such a meal as was common with travellers, which can hardly be supposed to have been either elegant or plentiful in those countries where there were no inns or houses of entertainment on the road, and where travellers used to carry their provisions with them; and though, as Godwin observes, the word is used for a mean and scanty meal in the book of Proverbs, chap. xv, 17, where pns aruchath jarak, a dinner of herbs, stands in opposition to a stalled or fatted ox; nevertheless, as the whole life of man is represented as a pilgrimage or journey, the word aruchah, in an allusive sense, is used for a meal in general, whether sumptuous or mean, whether plentiful or sparing. In the book of Jeremiah, chap. lii, 34, it is used for the daily provision, which the king of Babylon allotted to Jehoiakim king of Judah, after he had brought him out of prison, and set his throne above the thrones of all the kings that were with him in Babylon, and admitted him to eat bread continually before him, ver. 31-33; and no doubt the provisions of his table were plentiful and elegant.

The word no mishteh, from w shathah, bibit, answers to the Greek ovμmoσtov, and primarily signifies compotatio; or perhaps, as we call it, a drinking bout. And as delicious

liquors were always supposed to make a considerable part of an elegant entertainment, the word nu mishteh, is used, by a synecdoche, for a feast in general; such as Abraham made at the weaning of Isaac, Gen. xxi, 8; Pharaoh on his birth-day, Gen. xl, 20; Samson at his wedding, Judg. xiv, 10; and Isaac for Abimelech and his friends, who, it is expressly said, ate as well as drank, Gen. xxvi, 30. "A feast of fat things" is called no mishteh, as well as "a feast of wine," Isa. xxv, 6. And as the Hebrews sometimes denominated their feasts from drinking, so likewise from eating: "Jacob offered sacrifice on the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread," &c., Gen. xxxi, 54. Belshazzar made a great feast, pnb lechem, Dan. v, 1; see also Eccles. x, 19, which primarily signifies bread. At other times it was denominated from both: "Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled," Prov. ix, 5; see also Eccles. ix, 7.

It is Godwin's opinion, that the agape, or love feasts, of the primitive Christians, were derived from the Dn chiggim, or feasts upon the sacrifices, at which the Jews entertained their friends and fed the poor, Deut. xii, 18; xxvi, 12.

There were also feasts of much the same kind in use among the Greeks and Romans. The former were wont to offer certain sacrifices to their gods, which were afterwards given to the poor. They had likewise public feasts for certain districts, suppose for a town or city, towards which all, who could afford it, contributed, in proportion to their different abilities, and all partook of it in common. Of this sort were the Euroitia of the Cretans; and the Pidiria of the Lacedemonians, instituted by Lycurgus, and so called rapa s pias (the λ being changed into & according to their usual orthogra phy), as denoting that love and friendship which they were intended to promote among neighbours and fellow-citizens *.

The Romans likewise had a feast of the same kind, called charistia; which was a meeting only of those who were akin to each other; and the design of it was, that if any quarrel or misunderstanding had happened among any of them, they

Vid. Cragium de Republ. Lacedæm. lib. i, cap. ix; apud Gronov. Thesaur. Græc. Antiq. vol. v, p. 2541; et Stuckii Antiquitat. Convivial. lib. i, cap. xxxi.