Приложения. Справочных сведений и таблиц к библейской истории Ветхого Завета

I. Biblical timekeeping For a more complete understanding of many events in Biblical history, some familiarity with biblical timekeeping is necessary. The Jews counted the day from one sunset to the next, and such a count is accepted in the Bible, as can be seen from the definition of the length of the Sabbath day: “from evening to evening you shall celebrate your Sabbath" (Lev. 23:32). Such a count is still preserved in the church charter and in the liturgical books of the Orthodox Church. To designate a day, i.e. 24 hours of time, there was no special word, and in this case the expression evening and morning was used, as can be seen from the very history of the creation of the world (Gen. 1:5). The day in the proper sense of the word was divided into three parts: evening, morning and noon (Ps. 54:18), which in turn were divided into even smaller parts. In fact, there were two evenings, one of which was at the very beginning of sunset, and the other at the end of it, and later Jewish sects argued a lot among themselves regarding the exact distinction of this division of the evening. The ancient Jews did not know, and the very word shaa - “hour” is first found in the prophet Daniel, and moreover, more in the sense of a short time in general than an hour in the proper sense of the word (see. eg Dan. 5:5). Only after the Nativity of Christ did the Jews begin to divide the day into twelve hours, counted from sunrise to sunset, but this division was not particularly accurate, since the hours either lengthened or shortened in length, depending on the length or shortness of the days in the summer or winter months of the year. Before the Babylonian captivity, the Jews divided the night into three watches (Ps. 63:7; 89:5); the first watch lasted from sunset until 10 o'clock at night (Lam. 2:19), the middle from 10 to 2 o'clock in the morning (Judg. 7:19) and the third or morning watch until sunrise (Ex. 14:24). After the conquest of Palestine by the Romans, the Jews came into use of the Roman custom of dividing the night into four watches. Seven days or days made up a week (Gen. 29:27–28). The seventh day was dedicated to the Lord - in memory of the Creator’s rest at the end of the creation of the world, from which it was given the name Saturday, i.e. rest (Genesis 2:2; Exodus 20:11). Individual days did not have special names, but were designated simply by numbers: the first, second day, etc., starting from Saturday (Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1, John 20:1). The Hellenistic Jews called Friday παρασχευή, i.e. preparation, since they dedicated this day to preparing for the celebration of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was very important in the social life of the Jews and was strictly observed until later times. Just as days were determined by the setting and rising of the sun, so the months were determined by the movement of the moon (Sir. 43:6–8). The months were completely lunar, and since the rotation of the Moon around the Earth takes place in 29 ½ days, the months of the Jews alternated in 29 and 30 days, with the first being called “insufficient” and the latter “full”. At first, they did not have special names and differed only in their numerical designation - the first, second month, etc. (Gen. 7:11; 8:4-5), but over time, special names also came into play, although in the Pentateuch only one month of Abib bears this name, i.e., the month of new ears of grain, which became the beginning of the sacred year and subsequently received the name Nisan (Ex. 12:2; 23:15; Deut. 16:1). During the Babylonian captivity, the Jews adopted the Chaldean names for the months, which came into final use. Here are these names in sequential order of the months of the sacred year, with the designation of the corresponding months according to our calendar: 1) Nissan, ancient Aviv (Neh. 2:1), in 30 days, corresponds to March. 2) Ziph (1 Kings 6:1), the month of flowers, with 29 days, corresponds to April. 3) Sivan (Bar. 1:8), in 30 days, corresponds to May. 4) Tammuz in 29 days, corresponds to June. 5) Ab in 30 days, corresponds to July. 6) Elul (Neh. 6:15), in 29 days, corresponds to August. 7) Tisri or Athanim (1 Kings 8:2), in 30 days, corresponds to September. 8) Bul (1 Kings 6:38), the month of rains, also called Marheswan, with 29 days, corresponds to October. 9 (Haslev (Zech. 7:1), in 30 days, corresponds to November. 10) Tebo (Esther 2:16), in 29 days, corresponds to December. 11) Shevat (Zech. 1:7), in 30 days, corresponds to January. 12) Adar (Esther 3:7), in 29 days, corresponds to February. The number of months was usually twelve (1 Kings 4:7; 1 Chronicles 27:1-15), but every three years, in order to equalize the lunar year with the solar year (against which it is 11 days shorter), the Jews added another month to the twelve ordinary months - the thirteenth, which was called Veadar, i.e. additional Adar; it was placed between Adar and Nissan and consisted of 29 days. According to the seasons, the months fell into six separate groups, which designated the periods of various agricultural work, and they proceeded in the following order: I. Sowing time: Tisri last half, Marheswan and Haslev first half (early rains). II. Growing time: Haslev is the last half, Tebeo and Shevat is the first half. III. Cold time: Shevat last half, Adar and Nissan first half (late rains). IV. Harvest time: Nissan last half, Ziph and Sivan first half (spring equinox, barley ripening and Passover; in Sivan wheat ripening, Pentecost). V. Summer: Sivan last half, Tammuz and Ab first half. VI. Hot time: Ab is the last half, Elul and Tisri are the first half (in the latter, the gathering of fruits). Thus, in total, six months, from the last half of Tisri to the half of Nisan, were spent in cultivating the land, and the rest in reaping and gathering fruits. It should be noted that the above correspondence with our months is only approximately correct, since for the most part the Jewish months, as lunar months, did not exactly coincide with our solar months. Therefore, Nissan, for example, must be considered somewhere between March and April, and so on. As for the year, the Jews differed in two years - sacred and civil. The holy year began with the month of Nissan. It was established with the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and received special significance in the sense of the year in which all the great holidays and sacred celebrations that were connected with the event of liberation and legislation were distributed. In everyday life, the usual civil year remained in use, beginning with the month of Tisri - September, since, according to Jewish tradition, the world was created in the fall. II. Biblical scales and money 1) Libra. The unit of biblical weight was the shekel, the shekel - “weight"; the shekel was divided into two bekahs or half-shekels (Exod. 30:3; Lev. 27:25; Num. 18:16), and subsequently into thirds (Neh. 10:32) and quarters (1 Sam. 9:8). A bekah counted ten geras, so twenty gerahs. constituted a full, so-called sacred shekel. In addition to these small units of weight, complex higher units of weight were used, this is the so-called mina, consisting of 60 shekels (Ezek. 45:12); 60 mina, in turn, constituted a talent - the highest unit of weight (Ex. 38:24, 26). It was probably round in shape. It contained 3,600 shekels. The weights were at first made of stone, and in order to constantly have a legal system of weight, Moses installed correct scales at the tabernacle, with which the people had to check their scales and weights and resort to them in case of any disputes. This weight was called sacred (sacred shekel - Ex. 30:13; Lev. 27:25), these scales and weights were subsequently transferred to the church and entrusted to the guard of the priests (1 Chron. 23:29). It is not known exactly what shape these weights had. Among the Assyrians and Egyptians, they took the form of various animals (lions, oxen, etc.), as can be seen from various images preserved on the monuments. In ordinary trade transactions, the seller and buyer usually used their own scales, which were constantly worn in a belt or in a special bag, and there were cases of deception using counterfeit weights (which is what the law is specifically directed against - Deut. 25:13). To determine the biblical weight, we have data only from the time of the Maccabees, namely silver shekels; but we can assume that they are of the same weight as was established under Moses. In this case, the biblical weight system can be represented in the following table: But such a weight was only for silver, as the most common and used metal. For gold, this weight changed somewhat and was greater, as can be seen from the following table: Using these tables, you can make a calculation to convert all the weight units found in Biblical history to our weight. Thus, Abraham’s servant, Eleazar, gave Isaac’s bride Rebekah, at his first meeting with her, “a gold earring weighing half a shekel and two bracelets for her hands, weighing ten shekels of gold.” This means: the earring weighed 2 gold 3 shares, the wrists weighed 40 spools and 60 shares. 2) Money. The Israelites (probably) did not have money in the sense of minted coins until later times, namely the Asmonean period. Purchase and sale were mostly carried out through the exchange of the objects themselves, although already early some objects, especially domestic animals, received the value of a kind of exchange coin, so that the value of a certain thing was determined by a certain number of calves, sheep, kids, and so on 445. But at the same time, the value of these items was soon transferred to precious metals, which began to be used as money, although they did not yet have a specific monetary value, which was determined solely by weight. Pieces of silver or gold, which circulated in the form of simple ingots, rings, and various figures, had a certain weight, and not only their value was determined by it, but their very name was also given to them. If a piece weighed a talent, a mina or a shekel, then it was called a talent, a mina or a shekel, and so on, so that the monetary system was originally quite consistent with the weight system, as defined above. The shekel (or piece of silver) in this sense is already mentioned in the book of Genesis. 20:16, and there are indications of its division into beks or half-shekels and gerahs, of which there were 20 in a shekel (Ex. 30:13). From large monetary units in Ex. 37:24 talent is mentioned. But the ingots of precious metals did not have an exact established weight, and, therefore, no value, and therefore, to determine their value, it was often necessary to resort to scales, as was the case in Egypt, where on monuments one can often see images of weighing ingots. In some places a special coin is mentioned, the so-called kesita (Jacob bought part of the field for one hundred “coins”, kesita - Gen. 33:19, etc.). What exactly is meant by this name is unknown, but judging by the fact that 70 Greek. interpreters and in the Vulgate this word is translated by the word “lamb” (άμνϖν - agnis), one might think that these were this kind of ingots that had the shape of a lamb and went at a certain certain price, having a certain weight. The biblical monetary system can thus be expressed in a table corresponding to weights, from which together it will be clear that in this system some deviations from the weight system are made. But in order to determine the value of this or that weight of metal and, above all, silver, we take the Russian silver ruble (1889) as the standard. It contains 4 spools of 21 shares of pure silver. Since there are 4.05 shares of silver per kopeck, then the following. and a ger of silver will be equal to 3.91 kopecks. (15.86: 4.0 = 3.91). For the calculation of roundness, we assume the value of a ger at 4 kopecks. and then the entire monetary system will be expressed in the following table: To create a similar table for gold, you need to take into account the comparative values of these metals in biblical times. According to the most thorough research, it turns out that in ancient times in Western Asia gold was 13 times more expensive than silver (in Athens 12, and currently 15 1/2). Calculating according to this norm, we obtain the following table of a gold coin: After the Babylonian captivity, Persian chervonets, the so-called dariki, came into use among the Jews, with an image on the front side of a king with a spear in his right hand and a bow in his left hand, and on the back - an irregular quadrangle. These dariks, or darkmons in Hebrew, later became known as drachmas (1 Ezra 2:69, etc.). Their value is unknown, but is approximately estimated at 6 rubles 25 kopecks, therefore equal to half a shekel. Under the Maccabees, minted coins appeared for the first time. It was Simon Maccabee who received in 140 BC. from the Syrian king Antiochus VII the right to mint coins (1 Mac. 15:6) and from this time many coins that can be seen in museums have come down to us. On one obverse side of the Maccabean shekels is written “Shekel (or half-shekel) of Israel,” and on the reverse side: “Holy Jerusalem.” Under the Romans, shekels were also minted, on which an image of one or another Roman emperor was stamped on the obverse side, and on the reverse side - a woman under a tree with the inscription on the sides: Judaea capta (captive Judea). When measuring length, the Jews, like all ancient peoples, used the most natural means, namely various parts of the human body. Hence, the most common measure was the elbow (amma), by which we mean the lower part of the arm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. There is no precise and clear definition of the elbow in the Bible, and therefore it has to be determined according to private instructions and considerations. It is approximately determined to be 21 inches, which is ¾ arshin or 12 vershoks. The cubit, in turn, was divided into two spans (zeref, σπιϑαμή), by which is meant the space from the end of the thumb to the tip of the little finger in their extended position (Ex. 28:16; 1 Sam. 17:4). The span is divided into three palms (tefak), corresponding to the natural width of the palm (Ex. 25:25, etc.). The palm is then divided into four fingers (Jer. 52:21). Of the larger measures of length, the so-called reed (kaneh) = “six full cubits” by the prophet Ezekiel is known (Ezekiel 41:8). This is what limits more or less certain measures of length. They can be presented in the following table: For an example of translating these measures into Russian, you can take the message in 1 Samuel. 17:4, which says that “Goliath was six cubits and a span in height.” In Russian terms, this means that the Philistine giant was 4 arshins and 14 vershoks tall, i.e. exactly 2 arshins taller than Peter the Great. VI. Measures of dry and liquid bodies The measures of capacity were the same for both bulk and liquid bodies, with the only difference being that the basic unit of Measure for bulk bodies was called ephah, and for liquid bodies - baht, with the same capacity (Ezek. 45:11). Ten ef. made up a homer (Num. 11:32; Ezek. 45:11), which was later also called kor (1 Kings 4:22). Then, in descending order, the ephah was divided into satas, which made up 1/3 of the ephah (Gen. 18:6), sata into two hins (Ex. 29:40); a hin for three kabahs (2 Kings 6:25); cab on four logs (Lev. 14:10). In addition to these measures, the ephah was also divided into ten omers (Ex. 16:36). At the same time, one cannot help but notice that the measures fall into two groups, one of which is decimal in nature (1 homer = 10 epham, and ephah = 10 goram) and the other is duodecimal. that is, the measures go in a progression determined by the number 12 or its component factors (1 efa = 3 satams, and sata = 2 ginams, etc.). But for us it is more important to determine the scope of these measures. To accurately determine them, we do not have solid data, but the rabbis, that is, Jewish scholars of a later time, believed that the contents of the log were equal to the contents of six chicken eggs. Based on this evidence, scientists calculated that six chicken eggs could contain 14.08 pars. cubic inches of water, and at the same time 6,588 grains of barley. Based on these data, a rough table of biblical measures can be compiled. Since we do not have one common measure for dry and liquid bodies, we will present a translation of biblical measures into the corresponding Russian measures for both dry and liquid bodies. With this calculation, we come out of the more or less generally accepted position that an ephah was equal to 20 French liters, which would be 6 garnets for bulk bodies and 6 circles for liquid bodies and a bucket. and 2 glasses 446. Accordingly, the following table is compiled: In accordance with this table, it is possible to determine the volume of certain biblical measures. So eg. known from Ex. 16:16 that manna was collected daily by an omerah per person. This means that each Israelite received a daily portion of 3/5 of a garnz of manna. Assuming that the entire people numbered 2 million souls, we must at the same time assume that the manna collected daily was 18,750 quarters. This figure alone is enough to refute the opinion that the manna on which the Israelites ate was nothing more than natural tamarisk manna, since the latter, even in good years, is produced on the Sinai Peninsula no more than 5-6 quarters a year. V. Synchronistic table of the most important events from the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt Exactly the same as in the primitive (Homeric) era of the Greek people, when things were valued by the number of calves, as can be seen from the famous passage of the Iliad: At that time, Kronion delighted Glaucus with reason: He gave the hero Diomedes his armor of gold and copper, The worth of a hundred taurus was exchanged for the worth of nine. Il. VI, 234–6. Science has not yet established a definite view on the actual scope of biblical measures, and such a norm is proposed as the most probable. It was compiled on the basis of the testimony of Jewish learned rabbis. According to a different view based on evidence! I. Flavia, this norm needs to be almost doubled (efa = 39.39 liters); but this norm is more difficult to reconcile with private data and it clearly reveals its unreliability. You might be interested in: