Let them be for Signs and for Seasons, and for Days and Years

Today, on the first day of the first month of a new year, it seems appropriate to look at the biblical background for days and months and years.  The concept of time and divisions of time is a frequent and important topic in the Bible.  We don't get very far into the first chapter in the Bible before we find something on this topic.

Genesis 1:14 ESV - And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,...

We can get some sense of the importance of this topic by looking the frequency of the words day, month, and year in the Bible. Let's start with Hebrew.  (I am using Accordance Bible Software to look up this data.)

• day (Hebrew: ‏יום  / yom): 2303 hits in 1929 verses
• month (Hebrew: ‏חדש / hodesh): 283 hits in 224 verses
• year (Hebrew: ‏שנה / shanah): 879 hits in 646 verses
• day or month or year: 3465 hits in 2539 verses
• day and month and year: 57 hits in 14 verses

Three texts that use all three words— day, month and year— are interesting because they illustrate the precision of the biblical calendar.  The people of the Bible seem to have taken the measurement of time quite seriously.

Genesis 7:11 ESV - In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.

Esther 3:7 ESV - In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that is, they cast lots) before Haman day after day; and they cast it month after month till the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.

2 Chronicles 8:12 ESV - Then Solomon offered up burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord that he had built before the vestibule, 13 as the duty of each day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses for the Sabbaths, the new moons (Hebrew: ‏  / חדשיםhodashim - months), and the three annual (Hebrew: ‏בשנה / ba-shanah - in the year) feasts--the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths.

The text above, in Esther, mentions that the "first month" is the "month of Nisan."  The concept of a "first month" in a year is introduced in Exodus 12.  It isn't until Exodus 13 that we learn the name of the first month.

Exod 12:1 ESV - The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 "This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household.... 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

Exod 12:50 ESV - All the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 And on that very day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.

Exod 13:1 ESV - The Lord said to Moses,... 3 Then Moses said to the people, "Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. 4 Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out.

Abib can also be written as Aviv.  The Bible only mentions Abib a few more times after this.

Exodus 34:18 ESV - "You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt.

Deuteronomy 16:1 ESV - Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

In Exodus 12:2 we read that Abib was "the first month of the year."  In Esther 3:7 we read, "In the first month, which is the month of Nisan..."  The Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, by Benjamin Davidson, defines Nisan (Hebrew: ניסן) as "the first month of the Hebrew year, called also Abib (Hebrew: אביב)".  You can read this definition in the Internet Archives.

The Wikipedia entry for Nisan defines it as "the first month of the ecclesiastical year and the seventh month (eighth, in leap year) of the civil year, on the Hebrew calendar. The name of the month is Babylonian; in the Torah it is called the month of the Aviv, referring to the month in which barley was ripe. It is a spring month of 30 days. Nisan usually falls in March–April on the Gregorian calendar. In the Book of Esther in the Tanakh it is referred to as Nisan."

In Exodus 12:2, we read, "This month shall be for you the beginning (Hebrew: ‏ראש / rosh) of months. It shall be the first month of the year (Hebrew: ‏השנה / ha-shanah) for you."  If we put beginning and year together we get beginning-of-the-year or Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: ראש השנה).  The Wikipedia entry for Rosh Hashanah defines it as "a Jewish holiday commonly referred to as the 'Jewish New Year.' It is observed on the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, as ordained in the Torah, in Leviticus 23:24."

Leviticus 23:24 ESV - "Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation.

The Wikipedia article goes on to say that "Rosh Hashanah is the start of the civil year in the Hebrew calendar (one of four "new year" observances that define various legal "years" for different purposes)."

To summarize, Rosh Hashanah is the "Jewish New Year" and it is observed in the "seventh month" and it is "one of four new year observances".  This is starting to sound complicated.  Calendars, the Hebrew calendar included, are complicated.  There are many varieties of calendars and New Years used through out human history and disputes over calendars have been a frequent source of religious disagreement.  Time and the measurement of time in the Bible is a theme that I will return to in the future.

Happy New Year!