Leviticus 23:23-25

This has been called the Festival of the New Year. It is probable that the first day of the 7th month was associated with the reckoning of the commencement of a year (see further on Leviticus 25:9). There was evidently more than one mode of dating. In fact the Mishna (Tal. Bab. Rôsh Hashânâh, fol. 2a) gives four several months according to the purpose intended in each case. The old Hebrew year began in the autumn, as the Jewish civil year does now, while the Babylonian calendar made it commence in Nisan or March. If we consider the festival in the text to be a celebration of the New Year, it will be a survival of the old mode of reckoning. In Exodus 12:2 P makes the year commence in spring, though this dating does not necessarily imply a Babylonian influence. Indications of a spring commencement in the times of the monarchy are found in 2 Samuel 11:1; 1Ki 20:22; 1 Kings 20:26; 2 Chronicles 36:10, as referring to the time when kings go forth to war. See further HDB.Art. Time(I. Abrahams).