defb (n) is the word for Month; and these have no fuch Affinity to one another: And indeed, 4. In the Hebrew Bible, there is, I think, no one Text either in the Books of Mofes, or in any other of the Books of the Old Testament, that can intimate the Ifraelites to have obferved the Day of the New-Moon in any of their Feftivals. The Ifraelites were to offer their Burntofferings unto the Lord in the Beginnings, not of their Moons but [UN] be-Rafhei Chadfheicem, on the Beginnings of their Months (e), and the Expreffion is the fame, Numb. x. 10. The Ifraelites are there commanded to blow with the Trumpets. on the Beginnings of their Months; nothing relating to the Moon is fuggested to them. And this is the Expreffion, which runs thro' all the Texts of Scripture, in which the LXX have used the Word v8unvic or vsounvía, or we in English, the New-Moons: When the Shunamite would have gone to the Prophet, her Husband faid unto her, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day? It is neither, we render the Place, New-Moon nor Sabbath, the LXX fay & νεομηνία ἐδὲ σάββατον ; but the Hebrew Words are loa Chodesh ve loa Shabbath (p), it is not the Month-day, nor the Sabbath. Thus again, the Pfalmift directs, to blow up the Trumpet, not as we render it, in the New-Moons, nor as the LXX Ev vɛojnvig; but, ba Chodesh, upon the Month-Day (q). In none of the Texts that fuggeft

(n) Gen. viii. 4. Exod. xii. 2. Levit. xxiii. 24. Deut. i. 3. 1 Kings iv. 7, &c. (0) Numb. xxviii. 11. (p) 2 Kings iv. 23. (9) Pfalm lxxxi. 4. The latter Part of the Verfe is thought by fome Writers to intimate fomething contrary to what I am offering: Blow up the Trumpet, fays the Pfalmift, on the Month day, after which follow's in MD] baccefeh lejom chaggenu,

The

geft this Festival, is there any mention ha fareach or bal Lebanab of the Moon; for not the first Day of the Moon, but the first Day of the Month was the Day obferved by them: It is remarkable that this Signification of the Hebrew Texts was fo undeniable to the Jewifh Rabbins, that they could not but own, that their obferving the firft Days of Months upon New-Moons did not arise from any Direction of the Words of the Law (s), they

The Word cefeh, they fay, is derived from the Verb cafah to cover, fo that baccefeh may fignify at the covering, or when the Moon is in Conjunction with the Sun, covered, as it were, fo as to give no light: Thus thefe Writers think this Verfe to intimate the New-Moon to have been a folemn Festival: But I would obferve the Expreffion thus taken is fo fingular, unlike any thing to be met with, in any other Place of Scrip ture, notwithstanding the frequent mention of the Festival here intended, that I should think we cannot fafely build upon it. Others derive the Word cefeh from DD cafas to number out, and accordingly render baccefeh upon the appointed Day; but were this the Senfe of the Place, the Word would perhaps have been written not O baccefeh but NDO baccefea, Jee Proverbs vii. 21. The Reader may fee what has been offered upon this Text in Scalig. de Emendat. Temp. lib. 3. p. 153. Cleric. Comment. in loc. and will, after all, find the Paffage to be obfcure, at most but doubtfully explained by thofe who have wrote upon it.

is the הן הסכת .21 .See Proverbs vii :ביום is the fame as

known Expreffion for the Feast of Tabernacles. Deut. xvi. 13. And I have been apt to fufpect that Tranfcribers have mifplaced the Letter in the Word cafeh, and wrote inftead of D i. e. baccefeh for haffuccoth: In the Hebrew the Letters of the one Word might readily be wrote for the Letters of the other: And if we may make this Emendation, hafuccoth lejom haggenu, will fignify on the Day of our Feast of Tabernacles; and the Pfalmift will appear to recommend the obferving two folemn Feafts, which fell almoft together in the fame Month; the one the Month-Day or first Day of the seventh Month, on which was to be a Memorial of blowing of Trumpets. Levit. xxiii. 24: the other the firft Day of the Feast of Tabernacles. See Ver. 34. (s) Maimonid. more Nevoch. P. 3. c. 46.

fay

fay it was one of the Matters which Mofes was taught in the Mount, and by Tradition was brought down to them (): It is, I think, undeniable, that the Jews did admit the Ufe of a new Form of computing their Year fome time after the Captivity, which differ'd in many Points from their more anoient Method, and which obliged them in Time to make many Rules for the Tranflation of Days and Feafts, an Account of which we may find in the Writers of their Antiquities (u); but the Law, as Mofes or Joshua left it to the Obfervance of their Fathers, or as it was obferved until after David's Times or Solomon's, feems to have been a Stranger to all these Regulations: I might perhaps fay, that the Jews in following these were in many Points led contrary to Mofes's Directions: When our Saviour was betray'd, he was apprehended on the Night of the Paffover after he had eaten the Paffover with his Difciples (w), and carried early in the Evening to the High-Prieft's House first (x), and afterwards before Pilate into the JudgmentHall (y); for the Jews who profecuted, had not then eat the Paffover (a), and upon this Account could not go into the Judgment-Hall: They intended our Saviour's Accufation fhould be capital; the Law had appointed, that Perfons defiled with the dead Body of a Man fhould be kept back, and not eat the Paffover until the fourteenth Day of the fecond Month (b); they judged the Perfons, who were to accuse

(1) Abarb. in Parafch. (a) See Godwin's Mofes and Aaron, Lib. 3. c. 7. (w) Mat. xvii. 17.- -31, &c. Mark xiv. 12.-27, &c. Luke xxii. 7. 34, &c. (x) Mat. xxvi. 57. Mark xiv. 53. Luke xxii. 57. John xviii. 13 (3) ĺbid. ver. 28, (a) Ibid. (6) Numb. ix. 19, 11.

Our

our Saviour, fo as to bring him unto the Death, would be under the Reftriction of this Law, and therefore they left off their Profecution until they fhould go home and eat the Paffover: On the next Morning, on the Day after the Paffover, they affembled, and carried him again to Pilate, and took Counsel against him to put him to death (c), and in this Morning paffed the feveral Matters that are related to have preceded our Saviour's Crucifixion; namely Pilate's fending him to Herod (d), Pilate's Wife's Meffage to Pilate upon account of her Dreams (e), Herod's remanding Jefus back again to Pilate (f), Pilate's then delivering him to the Jews to be crucified (g), upon which they immediately led him away and crucified him (b), and the next Day was the Sabbath (i); fo that in this Year, the Jews had at leaft a Day between the Evening of cating the Paffover and the Sabbath; but had they at this time proceeded according to Mofes's Inftitutions, I fhould think the first Day of unleavened Bread, the Day immediately following the Evening of the Paffover, would have been the Sabbath (k).

Mark xv. 1.

Luke xxii. 66. (d) (f) Luke xxiii. 11. xxvii. 27-35. Mark John xix. 16John xix. 31.

-18.

(k)

(c) Mat. xxvii. 1. Luke xxiii. 7. (e) Mat. xxvii. 19. (g) Luke xxiii. 21—24. (b) Mat. xv. 16-24. Luke xxiii. 26-33. (i) Mark xv. 42. Luke xxiii. 54. According to the Jewish Calculation of the Year, after they ufed lunar Years, the Interval between the Paffover and the Sabbath following it, was different in different Years: For Inftance, there was a Day between in the Year of our Saviour's Crucifixion, the Day of the Paffover falling that Year as on our Thursday: But it is evident, a Jewish lunar Year ordinarily containing but 354 Days, that the Paffever in the next Year would fall as on a Tuesday, and confequently there would be three Days between the Passover and the Sabbath, &c.

I have now offered the Reader what I have for fome time apprehended, the Inftitutions of Mofes's Law do hint to have been the first and moft ancient Method used by the Ifraelites for computing and regulating their Year: I have much wifhed to find fome one learned Writer directing me in this Matter; but as I cannot fay I do, I hope I have expreffed my felf with a proper Diffidence: If the Reader fhall think what I have offered may be admitted; a small Correction must be made in what I have fuggefted concerning the ancient Jewish Year in my Preface to my firft Volume: And if I fhall find my felf herein mistaken, I fhall be hereaf ter better able to retract what I have thus attempted in a Preface only, than if I had given it a Place in the following Books amongst the Obfervations upon the Law of Mofes. I have ta ken no notice of a Sentiment of Scaliger's, which feems to be admitted by Archbishop Uher; that the ancient Ifraelites computed their Year in 12 Months of 30 Days each, adding five Days at the End of the twelfth Month yearly, and a fixth every fourth Year (kk); because it is a Thought for which I find no Shadow of Proof from any Hint of Scripture or Remain of Antiquity: Scaliger indeed attempts to compute the Year of the Flood to have been reckoned up by Mofes to contain 365 Days(); but in order to give Colour to his Suppofition, he represents the Raven and the Dove fent by Noah out of the Ark, to fee, if the Waters were abated, to have been sent out at forty Days Interval the one from the other (m); but Mofes's Narration intimates nothing like it;

(kk) Scaliger lib. de Emendat. Temp. p. 151. Ufher's Chronol. Epiftle to the Reader. (1) Scaliger p. 152, &c. (m) Gen. viii. 7, 8.

nor