By Prof. Sacha Stern
Source: The Torah
Photo Source: Unsplash,
Earliest Sources for the Lunar Calendar
In Jewish tradition, the calendar is lunar, with the months beginning at the new moon. Years are made up of twelve such months, but sometimes a thirteenth month is added, to keep up with the seasons, ensuring that Passover is celebrated in the spring, Sukkot in the fall, etc.
Such a lunar calendar is already assumed by Philo of Alexandria (ca. 25 B.C.E.–50 C.E.) in his Special Laws (2, 41, 140–142), and of course, in rabbinic literature (e.g. Mishnah Rosh ha-Shanah). But long before them, it is already implicit in Ben Sirah (Sirach, early 2nd cent.
B.C.E.), who describes the moon as “an indicator of times … a sign of the festival … after whom the month is named” (43:6-8 LXX); also “וּכְיָרֵחַ מָלֵא בִּימֵי מוֹעֵד” (“like the full moon in the days of the festival,” 50:6 Heb) implies a lunar calendar in which most festivals fall on the full moon.
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