5. The sum of the matter is this. Since no mention is made in Scripture of intercalary months, and since therefore the probability is, that they were not used by the more ancient Jews; I conclude, in opposition to Mr. Marshall, that, if such months were not used by them, their year must have consisted, not of 12 months of 50 days each only (as that author maintains it to have consisted, collectively no less than singularly), but of 12 months of 30 days each and five supernumerary days not included in any of the months: and I moreover conclude, that an intercalation of a day must have been occasionally used to preserve the seasons in their proper places.

6. But, whether the more ancient Jews used this year or a year of 360 days corrected by monthly

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excreverant, mensem addebant, et sic per embolismos annos “lunares æquabant solaribus, tum ut chronicis et chronologia "aliarum gentium se suaque accommodarent, tum propter "Pascha et Pentecosten; ut illa congruo tempore a lege sta"tuto, puta post æquinoctium vernum 14 to die primi mensis semper celebrarent: alioqui enim, cum annus lunaris minor "sit solari, sæpe Pascha celebrare debuissent vel ante æqui"noctium vernum, vel alio mense quam primo. Unde Lyranus, qui origine fuit Hebræus et in Hebræorum rebus ver"satissimus, Falluntur, inquit, qui putant Hebræos talibus (lunaribus) annis usos aliquando; alioquin tota veteris instru"menti series vacillat. Idem asserit Galatinus. lib. iv. c. 14." Cornel. a Lapid. Comment. in Dan, ix. 25.

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intercalations

intercalations (and one or the other they must have used), is a matter of very little moment to the present question. Their two great festivals, being fixed both to a particular month and to a particular season of the year, prove (as it appears to me) beyond a possibility of doubt, that by some expedient or other the months Abib and Tisri were always made to fall out in spring and autumn: and, if this be evident, as it must be from the mode of celebrating those two great festivals, then it will follow, équally beyond a possibility of a doubt, that, whatever might be the form of a single Jewish year, a series of them taken collectively must have been equal to a corresponding series of natural solar years. Hence I conclude, that the 490 years of the seventy weeks are in effect and collectively 490 solar years, and not (as Mr. Marshall contends) 490 years of 360 days each, or about 483 solar years.

III. Although, as I have just intimated, it is sufficient for my purpose to have shewn that a series of Jewish years, whatever might be their individual form, was collectively equal to a corresponding series of solar years, it may not be amiss at the close of the present discussion to adduce from writers, who have considered the subject as fully as Mr. Marshall, some additional remarks on the chronology of the Hebrews.

1. "Abra

1. "Abraham, who was a practical astronomer," says Mr. Jackson, "brought the Chaldean year "into Canaan, which was the Noachic and origi"nal year of the world: but, as he settled amongst "the Canaanites, he probably used their year, "which commenced about the autumnal equinox,

as Taaut or Thoth, the son of Misor or Mizraim, "had settled it in Phenicia and afterwards in Egypt, according to the history of Sanchoniatho. "However Abraham, no doubt, preserved the memory of the epoch of the Chaldèan year in his family and amongst his posterity. When the "Israelites went into Egypt, they used the Egyp"tian year, which had the same epoch with the "Phenician: but, at their exodus, they were com"manded by God to begin the year at the original

year of

epoch of it, which was the vernal equinox; and to use this epoch only in their sacred institutions, "their feasts and fasts, and all religious matters: "but in civil affairs they still retained the epoch of "the Egyptian year. So the ecclesiastical "the Hebrews began at the vernal equinox, and all "their sacred rites were regulated by it: and the "Sabbatical and Jubilean years began at the au"tumnal equinox. The months were counted from "the vernal epoch of the year only. Hence the "month Abib or Nisan, which before was the se "venth month, was reckoned, by God's command

"to Moses, the first month of the year: and that, "which had been called the first, was thenceforth "called the seventh. Thus the Chaldee Para

phrast, on 1 Kings viii. 2, says, the month Etha"nim, which by the ancients was called the first, " is now called the seventh.

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"This account of the old and new year of the "Hebrews is evident from Scripture. In Exod. "xxiii. 16, the seventh month, in which was cele"brated the feast of the ingathering of all the fruits of the land, and in which they dwelt in "tabernacles seven days counted from the fifteenth day inclusive, is said to be in the end of the year: "and so in Deut. xxxi. 10. The same feast is said, Exod. xxxiv. 22, to be at the revolution (Tecuphath) of the year; that is, the cardinal "point, when the old year began at the autumnal

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equinox; and which was the seventh month from "the vernal equinox, which was the epoch of the 66 new ecclesiastical year. The Greek interpreters "render Tecuphath the dividing or middle of the "year*. And so it was: for the feast of taber"nacles for seven days, immediately after the in

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gathering of all the fruit of the land, was ap

pointed to begin on the fifteenth day of the se"venth month t; and this was exactly the middle

* Μεσολος τε ενιαυίς.

+ Levit. xxiii. 34, 39-44.

of

"of the year, or six months from the fifteenth day "of the first month Abib or Nisan, which was the "first day of the feast of unleavened bread, with "which the year began.

"Now it may hence be inferred, that the eccle"siastical, as well as the civil, year of the Jews was solar, and not lunar: and, had the months "been lunar, there would be more than six of them " from the Tecuphath or cardinal point of the vernal, to the Tecuphath of the autumnal equinox ; nor could the Tecuphath of the seventh month be "the middle of any but the solar year. Besides,

as the Egyptian year both for religious and civil

use was solar only, the Hebrew year would naturally be solar also, unless it was by express com"mand from God made lunar; of which there is

no testimony or evidence. It is likewise proba"ble, that the fifteenth day of the month Abib or "Nisan commenced with the sun's entrance into "the vernal equinoctial point of the zodiac, to "which the year was fixed. When the Israelites "went into Egypt, they knew no other than the "Chaldean lunisolar year of 360 days, which Abra"ham brought into Canaan, and which probably was the same with the Phenician and Egyptian

year, but commenced from a different epoch. "Whether any, or what, intercalation was then "used to reduce it nearer to the tropical year, is