Hebrew Bible

NNic
NNic Member Posts: 155 ✭✭
edited November 2024 in English Forum

Can someone explain to me how from Exodus 19:1a (On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt) the timescale of the third new moon is calculated to be in the region of 7 weeks. 




Comments

  • Graham Criddle
    Graham Criddle MVP Posts: 33,156

    the timescale of the third new moon is calculated to be in the region of 7 weeks. 

    Please clarify where you get this timescale from. Is it in the text somewhere, in a commentary, a Logos resource, something else?

  • NNic
    NNic Member Posts: 155 ✭✭

    Anchor Bible Dictionary, Oxford Bible Commentary and JPS Exodus Commentary

  • NNic
    NNic Member Posts: 155 ✭✭

    Plus ESV Study Bible; Eerdmans Bible Dictionary; Opening Up Exodus. BTW all  books referred to are all Logos 6 resources

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,811

    From Wikipedia:

    "The time between new moons, the synodic month, is about 29.53 days"

    Therefore counting:

    • new moon
    • 2nd new moon 29.53 days later; 4.22 weeks later
    • 3rd new moon  59.06 days later; 8.44 weeks later

    Hmmmm, I see your problem

    However:

    According to an old rabbinic tradition (B. Megillah 31a), two alternative readings are recorded for Shavuot. "Habakkuk" is the haftarah to be read in conjunction with Deut. 16:9ff. ("You shall count off seven weeks"), whereas "The Chariot" (Merkavah) account in Ezekiel 1 is to be recited with Exod. 19:1ff. ("On the third new moon"). The talmudic passage continues: "But now that there are two days [of the festival], we do both [sets of readings]—but in reverse [sequence]." That is, Ezekiel 1 and its Torah portion are read on the first day of Shavuot, Habakkuk 3 and its portion on the second.

    Fishbane, Michael A. Haftarot. The JPS Bible Commentary. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2002.

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."