This text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
I have perused the Paper which his pp
to Dr Prideaux & find it full of excellent propotionsremarks observations
concerning the ancient year: but do not perceive that they amount to
any thing more then a proof that the Kalendar of the ancient Lunisolar
year was consisted of twelve lunar months & each month Kalendar
month of 30 days. That they followed their Kalendar without correcting it from time to time by the courses of ethat proved thing to be proved.
The first nations an artificial cycles
Sun & Moon Gen 1.14. & the Lunar month consisting of 30 days in e
nearest round number & the solar year of
nearest round numbers, these round num it was obvious for those
nations to keep reccon time by such months & years & compose Kalen
dars thereof for knowing what days of each month were to be celebrated
as festivals & to what God. And hence came the year of 36 division
of the Ecliptick into 360 degrees, upon a supposition that the sun reccon Zodiac into 360 equal parts Ecliptic into 360 equal parts, supposing that the Sun
moved round the heavens in 360
in civil affairs they adhered to their Kalendar where they found
it differ from the courses of the Sun & Moon but rather corrected
it from time to time where they as often as the to make it agree taking a day or two from the month as
constandth
often as they found the month too long for the course of the Moon
& adding a month to the year as often as they found twelve lunar
months too short for the return of the seasons of the years &
fruits of the earth. And thus to correct the
business of the Priests. ch
And three to be added in
eight yearsexcepting once in
eight years: chold firstheris of the ancients chat
length finding that the Octaeteres in length of time differed manifestly
from eor their mended the form of the Octaeteris. ✝eed 5t & eighth years or in ed
5th & 8th months years to make these years agree better with the course of the Sun.ch
were added in nineteen years. But the Ægyptians for the sake of
navigation measuring the length of the Calenda Solar year more
exactly, added five days to the Luni-solar Kalendar year of 360
days, & to this year being received by the Chaldeans & Persians & by the Greeks in their Rhafi recconing in And the Arabi And Pope Gregory XIII made
ans at length omitted the intercalary month & made their year
to consist of only twelve Lunar months.
a new correction of the Roman Calendar year. And the Arabians
& Mahometans by neglecting all the intercalary months made their
year to consist of only twelve Lunar Months. And these areee neglecting all the intercalary months retain to this day the year of 12 Lunary months & 360
days correcting their months perpetually by the course of the Moon. And these are all the
the
1B Now when Moses reccons the duration of the flood by months
of 30 days, I understand him of the Calendar months of the Luni-solar
year not corrected by the course of the Moon the rainy cloudy weather
not suffering her to appear.
2 When Herodotus reccons by years of 360 days he understands
Lunisolar calendar years without correcting them by the courses of
the Sun & Moon
3 When he reccons by years of 12 & 13 months alternately he
understands the ancient Dieteris without correcting the Calendar lunar
months by the course of the Moon. For he saith that the leap months were
added to make the year agree th
When Manetho tells us that the ancient Egyptian year consisted L Calendar Luni-solar year
not corrected by the courses of the Sun & Moon chch
the Israelites brought out of Egypt was Luni-solar. And Diodorus tells
us that in the o Vranus king of Egypt e
& the months by the course of the Moon.
6 When Cleobulus Lindices one of the seven wise men
year to consist of twelve months & every month of 30 days he describes
the calendar year of the Greeks who in those ages & long after used
the lunisolar year. And in the same Hippocrates understands the same
calendar years when he saith that seven years are exactly 360
weeks. And so did Aristotle when he equals the fift part of a year
to 72 days the sixt part to 60 days & a month to 30 days. And so
according to e
at Athens 4 e
τρίας καὶ τριττυςeThey seem When they speak of a
certain number of days in their month or year they mean their
Calendar Month & calendar year, but in keeping an account of
time the Priests constantly corrected their calendar by the courses of
the sunn & Moon to make the four quarters of the
stantly to the same seasons. in their year & therefore corrected their Kalendar year of 360 days to make it keep constantly to the same four seasons. Solon recconed 30 days to eth
understood where he saith that their
Cyrus cut the River Gendus into 360 channels he might have relation to eold Kalend
number of days in the old Kalendar year of e
7 So where the Babylonians, as Diodorus tells us, say that there are
XII chief Gods & to every one of these assigne a Month & a signe in
the Zodiac &
every year & the Moon every month: they speak not of the
year of Nabonassar but of a solarlunar& measured by the revolution of the Sun, that is of the calendar
luni-solar year of 360 days
passes through the 360 degrees of the Ecliptick, & that e
the same in a month. This year the Iews during their stay at
Babylon made use of in their contracts & civil affairs & in their journey
from Babylon to Ierusalem, retaining
& ever after callingi-solar months by theof
the Babylonian Months if they ch
not have done if their
lonian. And Athenæus th day of the
month Lous the Babylonians annually celebrated the feast Sacæa. Which
is all one as to tell us that the sixteenth d feast Sacæa was kept by e
Babylonians upon the 16th day of the Moon & by consequence that the
Babylonian months were lunar. For the Month Lous was a lunar month
of the Macedonian year.
e
& 12 e
according to ehad
was from time to time corrected by the luminaries so as to make it keep to
the seasons. And when the B in like manner when the Babylonians, as Diodorus
tells us, say
4
(1 Chron 27) he had respect to e
considering the intercalary months. For when a month was added to e
the year, the cours che
might wait in e
first month of e
of appointing a proper course for the intercalary month.
1A When we read of the we are to
understand the
used in the ancient sacr religions or solemnities or of any years with inter
calary months, or of any years corrected by the courses of the Sun & Moon
we are always to understand it of the Luni-solar year.
In allusion to eeMedes or Assyrian
have cut e
When therefore Cleobulus one of the seven wise men, & & &
Aristotel &
as consisting of 12 Equal months or 360 days,
days in this year erected 360 statues to Demetrius,
the Calendar year not of the ancients not yet corrected by the courses of the sun &
Moon. corrected by the heavens so as to make it keep to the four seasons Herodotus intercales a month of 30 days every other
year he is to be understood of the Dieteris of the Ancients continued for 70
years together thLuminaries
reccons the duration of the flood by months of 30 days he is to be understood
of Calendar months not corrected by the course of the Moon by reason of the
cloudy rainy weather ch not suffer her to appear. And when David
appointed 12 courses of Guards one for every month of the year (1
he had respect e
intercalary months unprovided because they were uncertain, & might be suppli
by the 12 courses, the course che
next year se
upon the first month of the next year. And when the Babylonians, as
Diodorus tells us, say that there are XII chief Gods & to every one of
these assigne a Month & a signe in the Zodiac & say that through
these 12 signes the sun makes his course every year & the Moon
every month: they spe describe the Chaldaic year
equal mo lunar months whose days are represented by the degrees in e
zodiac & are to be understoo & mean the months & days in the
Calendar year not yet corrected by the courses of the Sun & Moon; &
by the relation che
the seasons of the year
lon made use of in their contracts & civil affairs & in their journey from
Babylon to Ierusalem brought it home with them calling their own
months ever after by the names of the Babylonian, ch
have done if their own Lunar months had not been the same with those of
Babylonian.
So then the Lunisolar Calendar was very ancient propa used by
Noah & propagated down from him to his posterity & giving occasion to ed
used in Egypt till their institution of the year of 365 days, in Chaldea till
men & long after & giving occasion
avoyding
by the Sun. And where we meet any number of years th
ancient author sacred or prophane we if the years be civil & practical we are
to understand so many Lunisolar years corrected by the heavens, the revolutions of
summer & winter, but
nor are to be corrected by the heavens we are to understand Calendar years of 360 days that
And where we meet th
we are to understand seven years or 30 years or 360 years. And these years are to
be taken for so many summers & winters unles But if his it appear that the author used either the solar year of 365 days or pp
the Lunar Year of the Mahometans.
th
or Lunar or the Calendars of these years. A year o practical year of 360 days would have run
round the seasons in 70 years & such a
Is. Newton S.P.
tamen ut Responsum tibi magis gratum sit, rescribam in hæc Lingua
licet minus orna stylo rudiore.
Anno 19 Nebuchadnezzaris perijsse Hierosolymam sub Sedcontigisse A. 162 subdubito Æræ Nabonass. subdubito. Evilmerodach successit pa
tri suo anno 37 Captivitatis Iehojachin, (2 Reg. 25.27) anno Nabonass
1
captivitas Iehojachin incidet in ann
Zedekiæ annorum 11 et
autem quartus Darij primi incidit in An. Nabonass. 230 juxta Canonem. Et
hic annus est septuagesimus ab interitu
reigned
annos vero 45 a victa Iudæa juxta sacras liter a quarto Iehojakim inclusive
juxta sacras literas: annos scilicet octo ad captivitatem Iehojakin & inde
annos 37 ad initium regni filij
autem a morte Nebuchadnezzaris ad quartum annum Darij Hystaspis
inclusive sunt 44 jux anni 44 juxta Canonem Ptolomæi. Ab summa
annorum ab aufer annos 19
urbis & conflagrationem Templimanebunt ab hoc interi
tu ad um annum Darij septuaginta
et menses aliquot quatuo quatuor. Et in fine hujus temporis Propheta dicere
potuit Quum jejuna retis ris & plangetisxistis quinto
Obsessa fuit Vrbs mense anno nono Zedeciæ mense decimo, et inde
ad anKanni
sunt I Et propterea in fine illius temporis Propheta dicere
potuit: O Iehova exercituum quous. Zech. 1.12.
The conquest of Iudæa by Nebuchadnezzar in ef
reign & f over Iudæa
some months
before the eleventh month of the second sixt middle of the second ye
year of Darius Hystaspis: & therefore from the conquest of Iudea by
Nebuchadnezzar in eth year of Iehojakim to e
from captivity in ewas
prophesies of Ieremiah.
senex annorum septuaginta aut amplius & ejus filius Barchiah esse
vir annorum plus minus quadraginta quinplu quadam
Propheta esse juvenis annorum plus minus viginti
cim, anno scilicet secundo Darij Hystaspis, Zechariah potuit esse vir
annorum 36 vel 40 ubi prophetare
Nothi et Ieshu id est annis lm t160 114 et Ieshuam toto illo tempore
sacerdotium summum gessisse non est admodum verisimile. Et multo
minus verisimile est senes tunc in vivis fuisse qui templum primum
viderant, ante annos 164Vel quod Ezra
cujus pater Serajah filius Azariæ occisus fuit anno excidij Templi
anno 20 vel 28 Artaxerxis Memonis (Nehem 12.36) senex annoru annos
plusquam ducentos natus.
XVIII
Iulian Calendar
No. 3
about
the Iulian Calendar