fold: lunary, political, and mixed. The reason of lunary translation was, that they might not observe the feast of the new moon until the old was quite ended; for the understanding of which three things are to be remembered: 1. The Hebrews counted their holy-days from night to night, beginning at six o'clock: so that from six o'clock at night till the following noon were just eighteen hours. 2. Always before the new moon there is a conjunction between the sun and moon, during which she was called "luna silens," by reason of her darkness; and all this time there is a participation with the old moon. 3. When the conjunction was over, before noontide, namely, in any of these first eighteen hours, then the new moon was celebrated the same day; but if it continued but one minute after twelve o'clock noon, then the feast was translated to the day following, because otherwise they would begin their holiday in the time of the old moon; and this translation they noted with the abbreviation, the Hebrew numerals for 18, because of those eighteen hours which occasioned it. So much for their lunary translation. The reason of their political translation was, that two sabbaths, or feast days, might not immediately follow each other: because, say they, it was unlawful, during those two days, to dress meat, or bury the dead; and it was likewise inconvenient to keep meat dressed, or the dead unburied two days; yet here two exceptions were allowed, when the meeting of two sabbaths could not be avoided; viz. 1. When the passover, or the 15th day of Abib or Nisan, which was the first month of their ecclesiastical year, fell on Saturday, which was their sabbath; for then the feast of Pentecost must needs fall upon Sunday. And 2. When their passover fell on our sabbath, for then their passover immediately followed Saturday, which was their weekly sabbath. The author

of this political translation, as it was called, was one Eleazar, who lived A.A.C. 350; and the several kinds of it were five. The first 178 Adu, the second 17 Bedu, the third Gez, the fourth Zebed, and the fifth Agu: for the understanding of which, we must know, that in these five words the letters only stand for numbers, and are applied to the seven days of the week thus: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; 7 and the way of applying them was as follows: 1. That neither their new year's day of the civil year, which was the first of the month Tisri, or September, nor their feast of tabernacles, which was the 15th of the same month should be celebrated on Adu, that is, on Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday:-not on Sunday or Friday, because then the Jewish weekly sabbath, on Saturday, would concur with it, by either going immediately before, or coming after; and not on Wednesday, because then the feast of expiation, which was on the 10th of that month, would fall on Friday, or the day before the Jewish sabbath. This instance which is given concerning the feast of Tisri, or the feast of trumpets, on the first day of the civil year, holds equally for the 15th, or the feast of tabernacles, because the 15th must always necessarily be on the same day of the week with the first. Therefore, if the first be not Adu, the 15th cannot be Adu. The second rule was, that the passover should not be observed on Bedu, that is, on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday; but it is needless to be particular about the reasons. The third rule was, that Pentecost was not observed on Gez, or on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The fourth rule was, that the feast of Purim should not be observed on Zebeb, or on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. And the fifth rule was, that the feast of expiation should not be obVOL. II. O o

served on Agu, or on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. Such were their rules for what was termed political translation. With respect to the mixed translation, it was that in which both the lunary and political met in the changing of days, and was divided by the Jews into simple and double. Simple translation was when the feast was translated to the next day following.-For example, if the moon changed after 12 o'clock on Sunday, the feast was translated for two reasons: the first lunary, because the point of the change was after 18 hours; the second political, because the rule Adu forbade Sunday to be kept. Notwithstanding, inasmuch as the next day, namely, Monday, was observed, the translation was termed simple. Of this sort was that translation which they called Betu-thekpet (,) a word of no particular meaning, but invented for the help of memory, each letter being a numeral, and thus resolved: equal to 2, 1 equal to 15, and ♫ equal to 589; the meaning of which is, that in the year following that one in which one whole month was intercalated, if the point of the change happened upon the second day of the week, that is, on Monday, and not before the 15th hour, and the 589th moment (1080 moments being an hour,) then the feast of the new moon was translated to Tuesday. But how the lunary and political translations work in this change, must be referred to Scaliger, de Emend. Temp. lib. ii. p. 87.— This, then, may serve as an explanation of simple mixed translation. And with respect to the double mixed translation, it was when the feast was translated, not to the next, but to some further day; as if the first day of the month Tizri, or the first day of their civil year, should happen upon Saturday; here, if the moon had not finished her conjunction before the afternoon, lunary translation removed this feast till Sunday, because of

the or 18 hours; and political translation removed it till Monday, as appeareth by the rule Adu, forbidding Sunday. Of this sort was Getred (,) a word of no meaning, but composed to assist the memory, of a set of numerals thus explained: signifies 3, signifies 9, and 204:-The meaning, therefore, is, that if in their common year, when a whole month was not inserted, the point of change happened on the third day of the week, viz. Tuesday, and not before the 9th hour, and the 204th moment of an hour, then the new moon was translated to Thursday.

The feast of tabernacles was observed in the month Tisri, and therefore that could not be observed on the morrow after the sabbath, as appeareth by the rule Adu. The passover was observed in the month Abib or Nisan, and therefore that might be observed the morrow after the sabbath, by the rule Bedu. Should it be asked, however, why the passover might be observed on the day after the sabbath, and the feast of tabernacles might not? I answer, that all the subsequent translations depended on the first translation of the first new moon in Tisri: but as that could not be changed so as to prevent all concurrence between the several feasts, they thought the above plan the most convenient, since the greater part of them were thereby prevented."

So much, then, concerning the Jewish methods of fixing the times of their feasts and fasts. They were, indeed, a solemn kind of trifling, but they show the desire which the Jews had for accuracy, and may gratify the curiosity of some of my readers. I might add, that the Jews never counted by the year of the world till A.D. 1040, when, being driven from the East, and

a Godwin's Moses and Aaron, book iii. ch. 8.: but to be found at large in Maimonides, de consecratione Calendarum, et de ratione intercalendi. Cap. 6-21.

forced to remove to Spain, France, England, and Germany, they learned it from some of the Christian chronologers. Their common method of fixing dates before that was, by the reigns of their kings; and afterwards by the æra of the Selucidæ, called by them the æra of contracts because, after they fell under the government of the Syro-Macedonian kings, they were forced to use it in all their contracts about civil affairs.-It began at the retaking of Babylon by Seleucus, A.A.C. 312.a

SECT. XI.

Commerce of Judea.

Internal; external with Arabia, Egypt, and Tyre; remarks on the nations that have distinguished themselves by trade. The fleets of Solomon to Tarshish and Ophir particularly considered. The situation of these two places.

THE Commerce of Judea was either domestic or foreign. The domestic commerce consisted in those numberless exchanges which the individuals of the tribes made with each other, either for money or produce; and the foreign, that which was carried on with other nations, either near or remote. With Babylon and Persia, on the north-east, the Jews seem to have had little intercourse, till a late period of their history, and even then it was rather military than commercial. They had more with the Arabs on the east, who were naturally of a restless turn, and acted as the carriers of their own surplus produce, and that of their more easterly neighbours. So early as the days of Joseph do we read of them going southward to Egypt in caravans: for they were the persons who bought him from his brethren, and sold him to Potiphar. The Egyptians and Jews had indeed a considerable traffic: for in times of scarcity the Jews

a Prideaux, Connect. sub Ann.

b Ecclus. xxvi. 29.