been observed at the stated times; the seasons of era of contracts; because after they fell under Palestine, on which they depended, not answer- the government of the Syro-Macedonian kings, ing to that purpose. To assign the reasons on they were forced to use it in all their contracts which this opinion is founded, however, would about civil affairs. When they were driven from occupy more space than can be devoted to it the East, A. D. 1040, they adopted the era of the here; reference is therefore made to another creation, which, according to their computation, work, where it will be seen that the present is in the present year of the Christian era (1836), Jewish calendar is carried up a month too high.* 5596. In writing, they generally contract this, 4. We have already stated that the Jews had by omitting the thousands, writing only 596. If two kinds of years, viz., the civil and the sacred. to the Jewish year, then, as usually expressed by (1) The civil year commenced with the month them, we add 1240, we get the year of the ChrisTizri, because it was an old tradition that the tian era, as 596+1240, gives 1836. world was created at that time. This is believed to be the same with the patriarchal year; and by it the Jews computed all their civil affairs. (2) The sacred or ecclesiastical year commenced with the month Nisan, the seventh of the civil year, which was the time of their departure from Egypt; and all their religious matters were regulated by it. Lamy mentions two other Jewish years; viz., the year of cattle, which commenced with the month Elul, when the beasts were tithed, and the tenth paid to the Levites; and the year of trees, beginning with the month Shebeth, because they paid tithe-fruits of the trees which budded at that time.† II. After the Babylonish captivity, the Jews complied with such methods of computing time as were used by the nations to whom they were subject the Chaldeans, the Persians, and Grecians. They probably took the names of their months from the Chaldeans and Persians, and perhaps their manner of dividing the year and months also. But we cannot be sure of this, not knowing exactly the form of the Chaldean months. 1. It has been a custom with the Jews to reckon their years from some remarkable eras in their history, a knowledge of which is indispensable to avoid mistakes in their chronology. From Gen. vii. 11, and viii. 13, it seems they reckoned from the births of the patriarchs, that is, of the most eminent characters among them; afterwards from the departure from Egypt (Numb. xxxiii. 38, 1 Kings vi. 1); then from the building of Solomon's temple (2 Chron. viii. 1); and also from the reigns of their kings. See the Books of Kings and Chronicles throughout. Inlater times, the Babylonian captivity furnished them with a new epoch, whence they computed their time. See Ezek. xxxiii. 21, xl. 1.‡ At the retaking of Babylon by Seleucus, A. A. C. 312, they adopted the era of the Seleucidæ, called by them the *See Carpenter's Calendarium Palestinæ, pp. 39-75. 2. The Jews, after their dispersion, having no opportunities of regulating their feasts by the appearance of the moon, were obliged to have recourse to astronomical calculations and cycles. They at first employed a cycle of 84 years; but this being found defective, they had recourse to a cycle of nineteen years, which had been invented by Meton, the illustrious Athenian philosopher, who flourished A. A. C. 432. The authority of this cycle was established by the rabbi Hillel Hannasi about A. D. 360, and the Jews say it is to be observed till the coming of the Messiah. 3. The editor of Calmet has shown that in some parts of the East, particularly in Japan, the year ending on a certain day, any portion of the preceding year is taken for a whole year; so that, supposing a child to be born in the last week of December, it would be reckoned one year old on the first of January. If this mode of computation obtained among the Hebrews, which is very likely, it will account for those anachronisms of single years, or parts of years taken as rchole ones, which occur in the sacred writings. It removes the difficulties which concern the half years of several princes of Judah and Israel, in which the latter half of the deceased king's last year has hitherto been supposed to be added to the former half of his successor's first year.§ And the conjecture is greatly strengthened by observing that the Hebrews really adopted this principle when reckoning by days. Thus, "three days and three nights," the time during which our Saviour is said to have remained in the tomb, included only a part of the two extreme days.¶ 4. If the reader be desirous of seeing the complete Jewish Calendar, containing the festivals, fasts, &c., he will find it in a work already referred See Prideaux, vol. i., Pref. and sub. A. A. C. 162, 432. We have given this perpetual table in pp. 341, 342. § Calmet's Bib. Ency., art. "Year." ¶ We may farther observe, in support of this opinion, that Aben Ezra, speaking of the law for circumcising an infant on the eighth day, says, if the infant was born but one hour before the first day was ended, it was counted for one whole day.-Ad Lev. xii. 3. to-Calendarium Palestina, in which is also in- | lunar cycle, 19; and if the new moons did not serted the principal events in the Scripture history, in their chronological order. III. Besides the natural divisions of time into days, months, and years, there are others formed of the less obvious consequences of the planetary revolutions, which are called cycles, from the Greek zuzλos, a circle, because they contain a circulating period, at the expiration of which certain celestial phenomena return to the point whence they originally set out. The most remarkable of these modes of computation are the following: 1. THE CYCLE OF THE SUN, consisting of a revolution of 28 years, in which time the days of the months return again to the same days of the week; as does likewise the sun's place to the same signs and degrees of the ecliptic, in the same months, and on the same days of the months, so as not to vary one degree in a century. The leap-years also begin their course over again, with respect to the days of the week on which those of the months fall. The first seven letters of the alphabet-A, B, C, D, E, F, G, have been employed to mark the several days of the week; the first letter standing for the first day of January, and so on: and as one of them must in course stand against Sunday, it is called the Dominical or Sunday letter, for the year. As the Julian period of 365 days contains 52 weeks and one day, it is obvious that it must begin and end on the same day of the week (except in the case of leap-year); and consequently, the next year must commence on the day following. 2. THE CYCLE OF THE MOON, called also the metonic cycle and the golden number, consists of a revolution of 19 years, or 6940 days, at the end of which the conjunctions, oppositions, and other aspects of the moon, are within an hour and a half of being the same as they were at the commencement of the cycle. It is by this cycle that certain festivals, as Easter, are fixed. 3. THE ROMAN INDICTION consists of a revolution of 15 years, and was used by the Romans for indicating the times of certain payments of tribute made by the subjects to the government. It is also called the pontifical indiction, because employed by the popes in their bulls. 4. THE CYCLE OF EPACTS need not be explained here, further than to say, that by the epact of any year is understood the age of the moon on the 1st day of January of that year; or it is the number of days elapsed since the last new moon. 5. THE CYCLE OF EASTER, PASCHAL CYCLE, or DIONYSIAN PERIOD, is a revolution of 532 years, found by multiplying the solar cycle, 28, by the gain upon this cycle, Easter-day would always be upon the Sunday next following the full moon after the 21st of March. But in consequence of this anticipation, to which no proper regard was paid before the alteration of the style, the ecclesiastical Easter has frequently been a week different from the true Easter. This cycle, which was invented by Victorinus of Agintain, A. D. 463, includes every possible variety of Easter. IV. It may be necessary to say something of the different eras used in computations. 1. By the Usherian year of the world the reader is to understand the chronological computation of Archbishop Usher; who supposed that 4000 years exactly had elapsed from the creation of the world to the birth of Christ. 2. The Alexandrian Era is that chronological computation which was used by the people of Alexandria; who began their reckoning 5502 before the vulgar year of Christ, 1. 3. The Antiochan Era is a correction of the preceding, in the 4th century, by Pandorus, an Egyptian monk, and used by the people of Antioch; it differs only from the Alexandrian by subtracting ten years. 4. The Constantinopolitan Era is that still in use in the Greek church, which reckons 5508 before the year 1 of the Incarnation, according to the Vulgar Era. 5. The Julian Period is a factitious era, conceived by Joseph Scaliger, to facilitate the reduction of the years of any given epoch to that of another. This period is the result of the Lunar and Solar Cycles, and the Indictions, multiplied by each other. Thus multiply 19 the Lunar Cycle, by 28 the Solar Cycle, and the product will be 532; multiply this sum by 15, the Cycle of the Indictions, and you will have 7980 years, which constitute the Julian Period. The first year of the Vulgar Era is placed in the 4714th year of the Julian Period: whence it follows, that to find any year of our Lord in this Period, 4713 years must be added to that year: e. g., to find the year of this Period, answering to the year of our Lord 1812, add 4713, and you will have 6525, which is the year of the Julian Period sought. 6. The Era of the Seleucido, sometimes improperly called the Era of Alexander, commenced 12 years after the death of Alexander the Great, 312 years before the Incarnation, according to the vulgar reckoning, and was properly the first year of the Syro-Macedonian empire. 7. By the year before the Vulgar Era of Christ, is meant, that correct chronological reckoning which showed that the vulgar or common reckoning of the A. D., or year of our Lord, is deficient not. less than four years: so that the year 1812 should be, according to strict chronological precision, 1816. 8. The mode of computing by Olympiads derived its origin from the institution of the Olympic Games, which were celebrated every four years, for five successive days, at the time of the first full moon, after the summer's solstice. They were held on the banks of the river Alpheus, near Olympia, a city of Elis, from which they derived their name. The first Olympiad commenced 776 before the Incarnation of our Lord. It need scarcely be added, that each Olympiad consists of four years; hence the first, second, third, or fourth year of any particular Olympiad. 9. Year of the building of Rome is an important Era among the Roman historians it commenced 753 years before the birth of Christ. 10. The year of Augustus, or years after the Battle of Actium, is the computation of time from the commencement of the Roman EMPIRE, which took place after the Battle of Actium, 27 years before our Lord: from this time Augustus became sole governor. 11. The Cæsarian Era of Antioch was a monument which the city of Antioch erected to the honour of Julius Cæsar, in commemoration of his victory at Pharsalia: this was obtained 48 years before the commencement of the Christian Era. 12. The Spanish Era: this was kept in commemoration of the entire subduction of Spain, by Augustus Cæsar, which took place in the year of Rome 715, or 39 years before the Vulgar Era of Christ. 13. The Julian Era, or as it is sometimes called, the Era of Julius Cæsar: this had for its foundation, the reformation of the Roman Calendar by Julius Cæsar: and the change was made 45 years before the birth of Christ. Other Eras might have been noticed, but those mentioned above were judged to be the most important. V. On the subject of general chronology we may remark, that considerable difference exists in the chronology of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint, and Josephus, the adjustment of which has been attempted, with more or less success, by different learned men, whose works are referred to below.* The following tables may be found useful. * Jackson's Chronological Antiquities, 3 vols., 4to, 1752; Scripture Chronology, folio, 1730; Hales's Analysis of ChroAllen's Chain of Scripture Chronology, 4to., 1659; Bedford's nology, 3 vols., 4to., 1809-1812. |