New Moon

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

The term νεομηνία or νουμηνία (‘new moon’) as the name of a festal season occurs only once in the NT- Colossians 2:16. It is not used as a purely chronological term.

The Vulg.[Note: Vulgate.], it may be observed, uses a simple transliteration (neomenia) in the passage named, as also in some other places (e.g.  Isaiah 1:13,  Judith 8:6), whilst elsewhere it uses calendae as = ‘new moon’ (e.g. in 1 Samuel 20). The usage is not altogether consistent, but a rough distinction is perhaps intended between ‘new moon’ as denoting a festival and as simply a note of time. In ancient times the beginning of the month was proclaimed amongst the Jews by the high priest or president of the Sanhedrin when two witnesses had satisfactorily testified to the appearance of the new moon. The Romans had a parallel custom in the proclamation of the month by the Pontifex Maximus. Hence in this respect calendae, the Roman name for the first day of the month (the day of proclamation), was a good Lat. equivalent for the Hebrew rôsh-hâ-ḥôdesh, or ‘new moon.’ Note also Tertullian’s use of neomenia when referring to the new moon as a festival (de Idol. 14). ‘In later usage νουμηνία signifies generally the first day of the month, even when, according to the calendar employed, the months did not begin with the new moon’ (Schürer, HJP[Note: JP History of the Jewish People (Eng. tr. of GJV).]II. i. 377).

The NT stands in great contrast to the OT in its paucity of reference to the ‘new moon.’ ‘New moon’ figures in the OT as a familiar and important season in the time-scheme of Hebrew life (see 1 Samuel 20,  2 Kings 4:23) with some holiday relaxations and customs associated with it. So was it with other peoples from earliest times.

It would be to go beyond our limits to venture on a general treatment of the subject here. For this see, inter alia, the article‘New Moon’ by I. Abrahams in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols). Still it may be said that a reference to the moon and its changes naturally and inevitably entered into the first attempts of primitive man to mark periods of time. After the immediate and primary distinction between day and night, arising from the regular appearance and disappearance of the sun, the recognition of the month as the period covered by the surprising and ever-fascinating phenomena of the moon’s phases marked an important step in advance. And when due study of the procession of the seasons and the attendant solar phenomena led to the measuring of a year, the moon-period lost none of its importance. The ancients, however, soon found themselves confronted with puzzling problems in the effort to relate the months to the years. The fixed idea that every month must begin with the appearance of the new moon brought endless difficulties in its train. It took centuries to substitute the calendar month for the lunar month and secure as nearly as possible that the year should comprise twelve monthly periods preserving the same order of succession and a fixed correspondence with the seasons.

We can understand, too, how primitive man must instinctively have made the reappearance of the moon after obscuration an occasion for festal rejoicing. Even now we feel the charm of the first sight of the delicate pale crescent in the sky. And how natural it was that the celebration of the new moon should enter into the religion of nature-worshipping men, to whom the sun and moon were veritable gods and the terms ‘King of Day’ and ‘Queen of the Night’ more than poetic expressions! (As to the latter, we must not forget that the moon was regarded amongst some people as a masculine deity, as the German der Mond bears witness. Grimm [Teutonic Mythology, ed. Stallybrass, London, 1882-88, ii. 704] quotes an old Norse incantation, calling upon ‘New Moon, gracious Lord’ (cf. article‘Moon’ in Chambers’s Encyc. vol. vii. (1891)].) Traces of such deification are sufficiently present in the OT: see  Job 31:26 f.,  2 Kings 23:5, etc.; whilst the phrasing of  Genesis 1:16 in the creation-story surely echoes such conceptions of more ancient days.

The incorporation of the New Moon as a festival-both a holy day and a holiday-among Jewish feasts is best explained as the effort of monotheism to take up institutions already long existing, free them from objectionable features, and make them subservient to a worthier faith. Cf. the action taken by the Christian Church in relation to pagan festivals (e.g. Yule-Christmas), overlaying them with new religious associations.

When we consider how conspicuously the Sabbath figures in the NT, and what traces we have of such great annual feasts as Passover and Pentecost, it is singular that, save for a passing reference in  Colossians 2:16 and  Galatians 4:10, we have no hint that a monthly festival was still observed in apostolic times. We might have concluded but for these passages that the New Moon, so prominent in the OT, had fallen into desuetude. But in St. Paul’s phrasing in these two passages (especially  Colossians 2:16) there reappears the three-fold classification of Jewish feasts which had become fixed in post-Exilic times (see  Ezekiel 45:17, ‘in the feasts and in the new moons and in the sabbaths’; cf.  Ezra 3:5). The classification plainly rests on the fundamental time-scheme: year, month, week (see also the particularly interesting grouping in  Judith 8:6 : ‘the eves of the sabbaths, and the sabbaths, and the eves of the new moons, and the new moons, and the feasts and joyful days of the house of Israel’). St. Paul would not have spoken of ‘new moon’ and ‘months’ were it not that, as we know, the proclamation of new moon and the attendant celebrations were still regular features of Jewish life. But it is a noticeable fact that whilst the Christian Church developed a system of festivals closely parallel to that of the Jews in some of its outstanding features (Sabbath, Passover, Pentecost), it provided no counterpart to the festival of the New Moon.

In the 4th cent., it is true, we find St. Chrysostom vigorously denouncing Christians for observing the neomenia (Hom. 23: ‘in Kalendas’ or ‘in eos qui novilunia observant’-quoted by Joseph Bingham, Antiquities, XVI. iv. 17 [Works, new ed., vi. (Oxford, 1855) 226 n.[Note: . note.]]). He complains of their giving way to intemperance and excess and practising divination in the hope of good luck. The things he condemns, however, were pagan, not Jewish. There is no reason to suppose that St. Paul in deprecating the observance of seasons in this way had the thought of such disorderly practices in his mind. So far as divination, e.g., is concerned, its connexion with the new moon must be of very ancient origin. Babylon had her ‘monthly prognosticators’ ( Isaiah 47:13). Some quaint innocuous superstitions still lingering in folk-lore and connected with the first sight of the new moon, notions of good and bad luck attending thereon, no doubt have descended from some such ancient, far-off source. But Judaism has no trace of such features in the history of its New Moon celebration.

The Apostle is thinking of nothing but the observance of a system of times and seasons (the religious observance even) such as the Jews had, and its introduction into the life of the new community. He is apprehensive (‘I am afraid’ [ Galatians 4:11]) lest harmful results should follow, imperilling their Christian liberty and bringing them under a ‘yoke of bondage.’ The Epistle to Diognestus, iv. (early 2nd cent.?) speaks disparagingly, if not contemptuously, of Jewish ‘superstitions relating to the Sabbaths … and their fancies about fasting and the new moon,’ and shows that St. Paul’s warning was not lost upon Christians of the following generations. Still the Apostle’s own doctrine of liberty as touching the observance or non-observance of such seasons (see Romans 14) must not be overlooked; and in  Colossians 2:16, as Hort points out (Judaistic Christianity, Cambridge, 1894, p. 123), ‘the ceremonial distinctions do not appear to be condemned in themselves: the Colossians are simply warned in a strain hardly different from that of Romans 14 not to allow anyone to “judge” them in such.’

As to the mode of observing the day of the new moon in NT times, we know that (as in the case of other festivals) substantial changes had taken place as compared with what the OT reveals concerning earlier days. There was a time when, like the Sabbath, New Moon was observed by cessation of business ( Amos 8:5) and labour, although no Pentateuchal legislation provides for this. In the post-Exilic period this disappears except in the case of women. A faint and curious trace survives to this day in the fact that the Jewish house-wife, whilst freely discharging such domestic duties as cooking, makes a point of refraining from needlework and employments related to her personal convenience on the day of the new moon. Again, with the fall of the Temple, the appointed sacrificial rites ( Numbers 28:11 ff.) disappeared. At the same time the silver trumpets ( Numbers 10:10,  Psalms 81:3) ceased to sound. The only trumpet-blast that has since been heard in the synagogues of Jewry is that of the shôphâr, which is still sounded on the great New Moon, ‘the first day of the seventh month,’ i.e. the New Year’s Day of the civil year. It is pre-eminently a call to repentance.

No doubt St. Paul knew the sound of the shôphâr well; but there does not seem enough ground for suggesting, as Edersheim does, that  Ephesians 5:14 (‘Awake!’) was inspired by the thought of that call, or that in  Ephesians 5:8 we have an underlying reference to the appearance of the new moon (The Temple: its Ministry and Services, London, 1908, ch. xv. p. 300 f.).

The synagogue prayers now used for New Moon reflect in some portions, notwithstanding changes introduced in later periods, the usage of the synagogue whilst yet the Temple was standing. The constant petition that God will ‘establish a new altar on Zion’ so that ‘the burnt-offering of the New Moon’ may again be offered, is arrestive and may even seem pathetic to a Christian mind. But all can feel the beauty of the prayer: ‘Renew this month unto us for good and for blessing, for joy and gladness, for salvation and consolation, for support and peace, for pardon of sin and forgiveness of iniquity.’

Literature.-Besides the works alluded to in the article, see articles ‘New Moon’ and ‘Time’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols); ‘New Moon’ and ‘Month’ in Encyclopaedia Biblica; ‘Festivals and Fasts (Hebrew)’ in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics; ‘New Moon’ in Jewish Encyclopedia; J. Meinhold, Sabbat und Woche im Alten Testament, Göttingen, 1905; E. Schürer, HJP[Note: JP History of the Jewish People (Eng. tr. of GJV).]I. ii. [Edinburgh, 1890] App[Note: pp Appendix.]. Iii.; K Wieseler, A Chronological Synopsis of the Four Gospels, Eng. translation, Cambridge, 1864, p. 401 ff.

J. S. Clemens.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

The new moon was the commencement of each of the Hebrew months. See Month .

The Hebrews had a particular veneration of the first day of every month, for which Moses appointed peculiar sacrifices,  Numbers 28:11-15; but he gave no orders that it should be kept as a holy day, nor can it be proved that the ancients observed it as such: it was a festival of merely voluntary devotion. It appears that even from the time of Saul, they made on this day a sort of family entertainment; since David ought then to have been at the king's table and Saul took his absence amiss,  1 Samuel 20:5,18 . Moses implies that, besides the national sacrifices then regularly offered, every private person had his particular sacrifices of devotion,  Numbers 10:10 .

The beginning of the month was proclaimed by sound of trumpet,  Psalm 81:3 , and the offering of solemn sacrifices. But the most celebrated "new moon" was that at the beginning of the civil year, or first day of the month Tishri,  Leviticus 23:24 . This was a sacred festival, on which no servile labor was performed,  Amos 8:5 . In the kingdom of the ten tribes, it seems to have been a custom of the people to visit the prophets at the new moons, for the purpose of carrying them presents, and hearing their instructions,  2 Kings 4:23 . Ezekiel says,  Ezekiel 45:17 , (see also  1 Chronicles 23:31   2 Chronicles 8:13 ) that the burnt offerings offered on the day of the new moon were to be provided at the king's expense. The observance of this festival was discontinued soon after the establishment of Christianity,  Galatians 4:9,10   Colossians 2:16 , though the Jews take some notice of the day even now.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

New Moon. The first day of the lunar month was observed as a holy day. In addition to the daily sacrifice, there were offered two young bullocks, a ram and seven lambs of the first year as a Burnt Offering, with the proper Meat [Meal] Offerings and drink offerings, and a kid as a Sin Offering.  Numbers 28:11-15.

As on the Sabbath , trade and handicraft work were stopped,  Amos 8:5, and the Temple was opened for public worship.  Isaiah 66:23;  Ezekiel 46:3. The trumpets were blown at the offering of the special sacrifices for the day, as on the solemn festivals.  Numbers 10:10;  Psalms 81:3. It was an occasion for state banquets.  1 Samuel 20:5-24.

In later, if not in earlier, times, fasting was intermitted at the new moons.  Judith 8:6. The new moons are generally mentioned so as to show that, they were regarded as a peculiar class of holy days, distinguished from the solemn feasts, and the Sabbaths .  1 Chronicles 113:31;  2 Chronicles 2:4;  2 Chronicles 8:13;  2 Chronicles 31;3;  Ezra 3:5;  Nehemiah 10:33;  Ezekiel 45:17.

The seventh new moon of the religious year, being that of Tisri, commenced the civil year, and had a significance and rites of its own. It was a day of holy convocation. The religious observance of the day of the new moon may plainly be regarded as, the consecration of a natural division of time.

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

The Hebrews were very earnest in observing the first day of the new moon, not in any idolatrous manner it is to be hoped, but probably more for the calculation of time. We read much of their feasts and friendly meetings with each other. Moses appointed a burnt offering at the opening of each month. ( Numbers 28:11) But this was accompanied with no precept for any particular day, neither any service with it; and the new moon festival, it should seem to have been rather in the view of a pious sanctification of families, when meeting together as Job did, ( Job 1:5) than any immediate religious service towards the Lord. Hence we read of David being expected at the king's table on the first day of the new moon, and being particularly missed because it was that day. (See  1 Samuel 20:5-6; 1Sa 20:24; 1Sa 20:27) So we find the husband of the Shunamite making particular observations upon his wife's wishing to go to the prophet, when it was neither sabbath nor new moon. (See  2 Kings 4:23) We read also of the new moon festivals in other parts of Scripture. (See  1 Chronicles 23:31;  2 Chronicles 8:13;  Isaiah 1:13-14;  Ezekiel 45:17) I believe even in very late times, and perhaps with some even now, the Jews are attached to friendly visits with each other, more particularly in the new moon.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

(See Month .) On it work was suspended ( Amos 8:5), the temple was opened for worship ( Isaiah 66:23), and in northern Israel the godly repaired to the prophets for religious instruction ( 2 Kings 4:23). The trumpets were blown, in token of gladness, at the sacrifices peculiar to the clay ( Numbers 10:10;  Psalms 81:3); but there was no "holy convocation" as on the sabbath. The seventh new moon of the religious year was the feast of trumpets and began the civil year.

Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology

See [[Feasts And Festivals Of Israel]]

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

NEW MOON. See Feasts, § 2 , and Moon.

Holman Bible Dictionary

Festivals

Morrish Bible Dictionary

See MOON.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( חֹדֶשׁ , Cho ' Desh, strictly Newness; fully רֹאשׁ חֹדֶשׁ , beginning of the month [as in  Numbers 10:10;  Numbers 28:11], since חֹדֶשׁ stands likewise for "a month" [q.v.]; Sept. Νεομηνία or Νουμηνίαι ; Vulg. Calendce, Neomeni ) , Festival Of a regular observance among the Jews. Many ancient nations celebrated the returning light of the moon with festivities (Isidor. Orig. v. 33; Macrob. Sat. 1:15, p. 273, Bip. ed.; Tacitus, Germ vol. ii) — offered sacrifices (Suid. s.v. Ἀνάστατοι ; Meursii Graecia Ferial. v. 211 sq.) and prayers (Demosth. In Aristog. 1:799; Horace, Odes. 3:23, 1 sq.), feasted (Hor. Ov. 3:19, 9 sq.; comp. Concil. Trul. can. 62; Mansi, 10:974), and made merry (Theophr. Char. 5; Doughtaei A Nnal. 2:133; Spencer, Legg. Rit. 3:4, p. 1045 sq.). In the following account of this usage we bring together the Scriptural and the almidlical notices.

1 . Celebration And Sanctity Of This Festival . — All that the Mosaic code says on the subject is contained in the two passages enjoining that two young bullocks, a ram and seven lambs of the first year as a burnt-offering, with the appropriate meat-offerings and drink-offerings, and a kid as a sin- offering, are to be offered on every new moon in addition to the ordinary daily sacrifice, and that the trumpets are to be blown at the offering of these special sacrifices, just as on the days of rejoicing and solemn festivals ( Numbers 10:10;  Numbers 28:11-15). It is, however, evident from the writings of the prophets, and from post-exilian documents, that the new moon was an important national festival. It is placed by the side of the Sabbath ( Isaiah 1:13;  Ezekiel 46:1;  Hosea 2:3), and was a day on which the people neither traded nor engaged in any handicraft-work ( Amos 8:5), but had social gatherings and feastings ( 1 Samuel 20:5-24), resorted for public instruction either to the Temple ( Isaiah 1:13;  Isaiah 66:23;  Ezekiel 46:1;  Ezekiel 46:3), or to the houses of the prophets and other men of God ( 2 Kings 4:23); and no national or private fasts were permitted to take place, so as not to mar the festivities of the day ( Judith 8:6; Mishna, Taanith, 2:10).

The Hallel (q.v.) was chanted in the Temple by the Levites while the special sacrifices were offered; and to this day the Jews celebrate new moon as a minor festival. The day previous to it, i.e. the 29th of the month, which is called ראש חדש ערב , New Moon Eve, Ἡ Προνουμηνία ( Judges 8:6), is kept by the orthodox Jews, in consequence of a remark in the Mishna ( Shebaoth, 1:4, 5), as the Minor Day Of Atonement, and is devoted to fasting, repentance, and prayer, both for forgiveness of the sins committed during the expiring month, and for a happy new month. It is for this reason denominated יום כיפור קטן , since they say that, just as the great day of atonement is appointed for the forgiveness of sins committed during the year, this minor day of atonement is ordained for the remission of sins committed during each month. They resort to the synagogue, put on the fringed wrapper, or Tallith, (See Fringe), and the phylacteries; whereupon the leader of the service recites Psalms 102, offers a penitential prayer ( יום זה ), after which he recites Psalm viii, the prayer called Ashre ( אשרי ), and The Half Kadish. The scroll of the Law ( ספר תורה ) is then taken out of the ark, ויחל , or  Exodus 32:11-15;  Exodus 34:1-10, with the Haphtarah (q.v.),  Isaiah 4:6;  Isaiah 56:1-8, are read, being the appointed lesson for fasts, after which other appointed penitential prayers, together with the ordinary daily afternoon service, conclude the vespers and the fast, when the Feast of the New Moon is proclaimed, which, like all the feasts and fasts, begins on the previous evening. On the morning of the new moon they resort to the synagogues in festive garments, offer the usual morning prayer ( שחרית ), inserting, however,  Numbers 28:11-15 in the recital of the daily sacrifices. and the prayer יעלה ויבוא in the eighteen benedictions.

The phylacteries which are worn at the ordinary daily morning service are then put off, and the Hallel, with its appropriate benediction, is recited, all the congregation standing; after which the scroll of the Law ( ספר תורה ) is taken out of the ark, and  Numbers 28:1-15 is read in four sections: the first section (i.e.  Numbers 28:1-3) being assigned to the priest; the second ( Numbers 28:3-5) to the Levite; the third ( Numbers 28:6-10) to an Israelite; and the fourth ( Numbers 28:11-15) to any one. If new moon happens on a Sabbath, two scrolls of the Law are taken out of the ark, from the first of which the ordinary Sabbatic lesson is read, and from the other  Numbers 28:9-15, or Maphtir; and if it happens on a Sunday,  1 Samuel 20:18-42 is read as the Hatphtarah instead of the ordinary lesson from the prophets. Unlike their brethren in the time of the prophets ( Amos 8:5), the Jews of the present day work and trade on new moon. The new moons are generally mentioned so as to show that they were regarded as a peculiar class of holy days, to be distinguished from the solemn feasts and the Sabbaths ( Ezekiel 45:17;  1 Chronicles 23:31;  2 Chronicles 2:4;  2 Chronicles 8:13;  2 Chronicles 31:3;  Ezra 3:5;  Nehemiah 10:33). (See Festival).

The seventh new moon of the religious year, being that of Tisri, commenced the civil year, and had a significance and rites of its own. It was a day of holy convocation. (See Feast Of Trumpets).

2 . Mode Of Ascertaining, Fixing, And Consecrating The New Moon . — As the festivals, according to the Mosaic law, are always to be celebrated on the same day of the month, it was incumbent upon the spiritual guides of the nation to fix the commencement of the month, which was determined by the appearance of the new moon. Hence the authorities at Jerusalem, from the remotest times, ordered messengers to occupy the commanding heights around the metropolis, on the 30th day of the month, to watch the sky; these, as soon as they observed the moon, hastened to communicate it to the synod; and, for the sake of speed, they were even allowed, during the existence of the Temple, to travel on the Sabbath and profane the sacred day (Mishna, Rosh Ha-Shana, 1:4). These authorities also ordained that, with the exception of gamblers with dice, usurers, those who breed and tame pigeons to entice others, those who trade in the produce of the Sabbatical year, women and slaves, any one who noticed the new moon is to give evidence before the Sanhedrim, even if he were sick and had to be carried to Jerusalem in a bed (Rosh Ha-Shana, 1:8, 9). These witnesses had to assemble in a large court, called Beth Jazek ( בית יעזק ) , specially appointed for it, where they were carefully examined and feasted, so as to induce them to come; and when the authorities were satisfied with the evidence, the president pronounced the word מקודש , i.e. It Is Sanctified; whereupon all the bystanders had to repeat it twice after him, It Is Sanctified ! It Is Sanctified ! and the day was declared New Moon (Mishna, Rosh Ha-Shanam, 2:5, 7).

On beholding the new moon from his own house, every Israelite had to offer the following benediction: "Blessed be He who renews the months! Blessed be He by whose word the heavens were created, and by the breath of whose mouth all the hosts thereof were formed! He appointed them a law and time, that they should not overstep their course. They rejoice and are glad to perform the will of their Creator. Author of truth, their operations are truth! He spoke to the moon, Be thou renewed, and be the beautiful diadem (i.e. the hope) of man (i.e. Israel), who shall one day be quickened again like the moon (i.e. at the coming of Messiah), and praise their Creator for his glorious kingdom. Blessed be He who renewed the moons" (Sanhedrin, 42 a). Of such importance was this prayer regarded, that it is asserted, "Whoso pronounceth the benediction of the New Moon in its proper time, is as if he had been holding converse with the Shekhinah" (ibid.). To this prayer was afterwards added, "A good sign, good fortune be to all Israel! (to be repeated three times). Blessed be thy Creator! Blessed be thy Possessor! Blessed be thy Maker! (repeated three times). As I leap towards thee, but cannot touch thee, so may my enemies not be able to injure me (said leaping three times). May fear and anguish seize them. Through the greatness of thine arm they must be as still as a stone; they must be as still as a stone through the greatness of thine arm. Fear and anguish shall seize them. Amen, Selah, Hallelujah. Peace, peace, peace be with you" (Sopherimn, 2:2). This prayer, which during the period of the second Temple was offered up by every Israelite as soon as he beheld the new moon, is still offered up every month by all orthodox Jews, with some additions by the rabbins and the Kabbalists of the Middle Ages, and is called in the Jewish ritual קידוש לבנה , Consecration Of The New Moon. When the moon was not visible on account of clouds, and in the five months when the watchmen were not sent out, the month was considered to commence on the morning of the day which followed the 30th. According to Maimonides, the Rabbinists altered their method when the Sanhedrim ceased to exist, and have ever since determined the month by astronomical calculation, while the Karaites have retained the old custom of depending on the appearance of the moon. Astronomical knowledge was certainly acquired long after the destruction of Jerusalem; liless, with Michaelis and Jahn (Archaeol. 3:304), we find a trace of it, sufficiently obscure, in  2 Kings 25:27 (comp.  Jeremiah 52:33. See also Paulus, Comment. 3:543 sq.).

3. Origin Of This Festival . — That the Mosaic law did not institute this festival, but already found it among the people, and simply regulated it, is evident both from the fact that the time of its commencement is nowhere stated, and from the words in which the sacrifices are spoken of ("And on your new moons ye shall offer," etc.,  Numbers 28:11, etc.), which presuppose its existence and popularity. Several causes cooperated in giving rise to this festival. The periodical changes of the moon, renewing itself in four quarters of 73 days each, and then assuming a new phase, as well as the fact that its reappearance in the nocturnal sky to ancient cities and villages — the inhabitants of which were consigned to uttter darkness, great dangers, and "the terrors by night," during its absence, since they had no artificial means of lighting their roads — combined together to inspire the nations of antiquity both with awe and gratitude when reflecting on these wonderful phenomena, and beholding the great blessings of the new moon. This is the reason why different nations, from the remotest periods, consecrated the day or the evening which commences this renewal of the moon to the deity who ordained such wonders; just as the first and the beginning of every thing were devoted to the Author of all our blessings. There seems to be but little ground for founding on these traces of heathen usage the notion that the Hebrews derived it from the Gentiles, as Spencer and Michaelis have done; and still less for attaching to it any of those symbolical meanings which have been imagined by some other writers (see Carpzov, App. Crit. p. 425). Ewald thinks that it was at first a simple household festival, and that on this account the law does not take much notice of it. He also considers that there is some reason to suppose that the day of the full moon was similarly observed by the Hebrews in very remote times.

4. Literature . — Maimonides, Jad Ha-Chezaka, Hilchoth Kiddush Ha- Chodesh (translated into Latin by De Veil [Paris, 1669; Amsterdam, 1701] and by Witter [Jena, 1703]); Abrabanel, Dissert. De Princilio Mnni Et Consecratione Novilunii (Hebrew and Latin, appended by Buxtorf to his translation of The Cosri [Basle, 1659, p. 431 sq.]); Knobel, Commentary On Exodus And Leviticus (in Kurzgefasstes Exegetisches Handbuch Zum Alt. Test. [Leipsic, 1858, p. 531 sq.], where a vast amount of classical information is brought together to show that this festival existed among many heathen nations of antiquity); Carpzov, Apparat. Hist. Crit. p. 423; Spencer, De Leg. Heb. lib. 3, dissert. 4; Selden, De Ann. Civ. Hebrews 4, 11 ; Mishna, Rosh Ha-Shana, 2:338, ed. Surenhus.; Buxtorf, Synagoga Judaica, cap. 22; Ewald, Alterthiimer, p. 394; Cudworth, On The Lord ' S Supper, cap. 3; Lightfoot, Temple Service, cap. 11.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

[[[Festivals; Moon]]]