Astronomy and archæology again claim a hearing on this point. The month Nisan, the Semite equivalent of the Accadian month Bar zig-gar (the month of the “sacrifice of righteousness”), we may gather from the evidence of the cuneiform tablets, had been the first month of a calendrical year in Babylon for many centuries—for millenniums, perhaps—before the date of Moses; and therefore archæology would teach us that the children of Israel were being recalled, from strange Egyptian modes of reckoning, to the observance of an ancient and patriarchal year and festival, when they were told that for them Abib was to be the first month of the year, and that on the 14th of that month, “a night to be much observed,” they were to sacrifice of the firstlings of their flock, and were to hold the great festival of the Passover on the fifteenth day.
If “Abib,” “Nisan,” and “Bar zig-gar” are names used by various nations to designate one and the same month, Abib could not have been, as has very generally been supposed, a month varying according to the uncertain ripening of agricultural crops, and one taking its name from the ears of corn presented to the priest, and waved before the Lord on some fixed day of that month; but rather it must have been (as we know, from Babylonian sources that Nisan was) a well calculated soli-lunar and sidereal month. Now, if we adopt this view, we must find some alternative derivation for the month name Abib. Nor is it by any means difficult so to do.
On the fourteenth night of the first month—Bar zig-gar, Nisan, or Abib—“a night to be much observed,” or rather, according to the marginal reading, “a night of observations”—the bright star Spica, which marks the ears of corn in the Virgin’s hand, rose above the eastern horizon as the sun set in the west, and at midnight must have shone down brilliantly on the Hebrew hosts; for Spica is so bright a star, that even the beams of the full moon riding close at hand could not have obscured its lustre.
The Indians of to-day name their months from the stars in their lunar Zodiac which are in opposition to, not from those in conjunction with, the sun. The close resemblance of the Arab and Indian lunar Zodiacal series suggests the thought that the Arabs may have followed the same system of month nomenclature as the Indians; and if this were the case it would furnish a reason why Moses, who had so lately returned from his forty years’ sojourn in Arabia, should—in recalling the Hebrews to the observance of such a year as that which was presumably followed by their forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—have yet spoken of the first month of the year according to a non-Babylonian method of nomenclature, and should have called it Abib, after the star in opposition to the sun.
If now we adopt the opinion that an astronomic method of counting the year did in reality obtain amongst the Hebrews, a great difficulty must present itself to our minds in regard to the generally accepted theory that only on a fixed day of the first month of the year might the first reaped handful of corn be waved before the Lord.
The seasons in Palestine are not more punctual than in other countries. To restrict a husbandman to a fixed day of a year (even such a year as ours) before which he might not begin to put his sickle into the corn, would be felt as a hurtful and arbitrary regulation; but to restrict the husbandman to a fixed day in a luni-solar year would be a still more hurtful regulation. The beginning of a soli-lunar year may vary to the extent of a whole month. A late beginning of such a year might coincide with a very early agricultural season, and vice versa an early calendrical year might occur in a late agricultural season.
Considerations of this nature may incline us to inquire carefully whether the “generally accepted theory” (concerning the waving of the ears of corn before the Lord during the Passover week) rests upon Scriptural authority or on Talmudic and traditional teaching. As against an almost unbroken array of commentators, it is possible in this connexion to quote from the work of a learned Hebrew scholar a clearly expressed opinion that from the Scriptures themselves, it is not possible to infer directly a connexion in date between the waving of the first fruits and the Passover festival.[89]
[89] Pentateuque, Traduction Nouvelle, par Rabbi Wogue (Lazare), tom. 3. Discussing an important difference of opinion which exists amongst Jewish scholars and commentators as to the exact day of the Passover festival, on which the priest was to wave the sheaf before the Lord, the writer says: “Le texte porte: ‘Le Lendemain du Sabbat,’ indication qui a donné lieu à une dissidence importante entre les Pharisiens et les Saducéens.... Nous avons adopté le système talmudique, qui a pour lui l’autorité des Septante, des targoumîm, de Josephe, et l’usage immémorial de la Synagogue; mais, à ne consulter que les textes sans parti pris, nous ne souscririons à aucune des deux doctrines. Ni la cérémonie de l’ômer, ni le comput des semaines, ne sont mis par nos textes en rapport avec la Pâque, mais uniquement avec les moissons, soit ici, soit dans le Deutéronome (xvi. 9). Dès la récolte de l’orge, le divin Législateur veut qu’on lui fasse hommage des prémices de cette céréale; il n’indique point de date, parceque la moisson, pas plus que la vendange, et pas plus en Palestine qu’ailleurs, ne commence à jour fixe. Mais une fois ouverte, elle se continue sans interruption; et comme les froments, en Palestine, sont coupés sept semaines après, les prémices du froment doivent être offertes au bout de sept semaines. L’Omer et la Pentecôte sont donc mobiles par exception, mais cette dernière est relativement fixe. Maintenant de quel ‘Sabbat’ est il question? Puisque tout ici est subordonné à l’ouverture de la moisson, ce sera naturellement le Sabbat qui suit cette ouverture.”
But if our enquiries should lead us to accept, as at least a probability, the existence in Mosaic times of an astronomically counted Hebrew year, and if this admission should require us to change long-held opinions regarding the right observance of Hebrew festivals, on the other hand, the fact that we might then trace Arabian rather than Babylonian influence in the name of Abib would have its weight on the conservative side of the controversy concerning the post or pre-exilic date of the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy.
The fact that in India the months are named after the stars in opposition to the sun suggested the above proposed explanations of the Hebrew month name Abib as that of the month when the sun was in conjunction with the constellation Aries, and in opposition to the star Spica, marking the Zodiacal ears of corn. But there is a further point of connexion to be observed between Indian astronomy and Biblical archæology, namely, that the first month of the Indian year is at the present date the month during which the sun is in conjunction with the constellation Aries. This month is called Chaitra, which is the Sanscrit name of the star Spica, and it is in fact the same sidereally marked month, which, according to the opinions here advocated, was the first month of the ancient Accadian, Babylonian, and Hebrew years.