apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

712 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
calendar in Hamburger's Rcal-Encydopddie fur
Bibel u. Talmud ii.
p. 608 sq, will dissipate any such confidence. It is plain
that the
present Jewish calendar was not introduced till long after Polycarp's
time; that in his age there was no universally recognized and authoritative
rule; that the calendar varied from place to place, as well as from
time to time; that these fluctuations and divergences gave infinite
trouble to the leading spirits among the Jews;
and that conferences and
journeys were undertaken again and again ineffectually in order to arrive
at uniformity. It was an age of transition. The devastation of Palestine
under Hadrian had made the need of a central authority at once more
necessary and more difficult. The perplexities of the times affected
the calendar. The old mode of regulating the months by the first
appearance of the new moon had proved unsatisfactory. The need of
some fixed rule was felt. As regards Proconsular Asia more especially two
notices are preserved, bearing on this subject. Somewhere about the
middle of the second century the famous R. Meir took up his abode in
Sardis', where he lived until his death". He there framed a system of
intercalation (Talm. Babl. Megillah 18 b)^
In the first half of the third
century again two other Rabbis, Chiya and Simon, made a journey
to this same place; and they too are reported to have undertaken a
similar reform of the calendar* {Syn/iedrm 26 a).
The present Jewish calendar is regulated by a cycle of nineteen
years. There is every reason to believe that it was not framed before
the close of the Talmudic age, and therefore not till many generations
after Polycarp's time; nor indeed would it offer a solution of the problem.
Yet, if at that time any cycle had been introduced, it would most probably
be a period of nineteen years. This is the Metonic cycle. It
had long been known in Syria and the adjacent countries. It is the
simplest of application. It has ultimately triumphed over all rivals as
a main element in the regulation of Easter in the Christian Church.
A hypothesis, even though incapable of verification, will serve to show
the possibilities of the case, which are manifold. Let us suppose then,
that Rabbi Meir, when he migrated to Proconsular Asia owing
to the
Jewish calendar frequently fallen many we are told that R. Meir, not being able
days before F^eb. 25, before the Grego- to find there a roll of the Book of Esther,
rian reform of the Julian calendar.
wrote one from memory.
1
It is called *Asia' (kS'DK or N'-DU) ;
»
The expression in both cases is ")3y^
see Neubauer Geogr. du Talmud t^. 310. HJEi' 'to intercalate a year,' but this is
See also Hamburger Real-Encycl. 11. understood to mean 'to calculate a system
^
p. 714 sq, s. V. Mair, R. of intercalation,' as I learn from Dr
^
The notice illustrates the observance Schiller-Szinessy.
of the Feast of I'urim in these parts; for