The Orthodox Pages
ANSWERS TO EMAILS |
||||
Back |
|
|||
|
Question 119.
Greetings,
Thank you in
advance for any help that you can provide.
Dear Michael, If your dictionary is modern Greek then it won't have the word νουμηνίᾳ because it is an ancient Greek word. Literally it is a compound word of new and month but it means new moon. The Israelites didn't have a fixed calendar like we have today. The religious authorities waited for confirmation from two of three witnesses of the sighting of the first sliver of the new moon to announce the first day of the new month. The word νουμηνίᾳ is also found in verse 15 of the same chapter according to the Septuagint (verse 17 in the KJV). Nουμηνίᾳ could also be translated as the Feast of the new moon because every new moon was a religious feast in which the Jews were obliged to observe, by attending religious worship, and offering sacrifices (see Numbers 28:11). In this sense it is also used by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Colossians (2:16) "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath [days]".
In Christ Fr. Christopher Klitou
|
|