Commentaria in Numeros
6. IT IS A CONTINUAL HOLOCAUST, WHICH YOU OFFERED IN MOUNT SINAI.—From this it is sufficiently gathered that the Hebrews in the desert did not offer these lambs, nor sacrifice, after the departure from Sinai, for 38 years; but that the continual sacrifice was offered in Sinai is plain from Leviticus ix, 17; Exodus xxix, 38. For in Sinai the priesthood and sacrifices were instituted, and there Aaron and his sons celebrated their firstfruits by sacrificing.
OF AN OFFERING BY FIRE.—In Hebrew, of ignition, that is, of a sacrifice kindled and burned to God. See what was said on verse 2.
9. AND ON THE SABBATH DAY YOU SHALL OFFER TWO LAMBS.—These are the victims for the feast of the sabbath, namely two lambs. On the morning of the sabbath, therefore, three lambs were sacrificed, namely one for the continual sacrifice, two for the sabbath; this is plain from the Hebrew, as I shall presently show.
AND TWO TENTHS OF FLOUR SPRINKLED WITH OIL, FOR A SACRIFICE,—for a sacrifice, namely for the mincha; for this commonly in Leviticus signifies “sacrifice,” namely so that it be a meal offering, not a flesh offering.
WHICH ARE DUTIFULLY POURED OUT EVERY SABBATH, FOR A PERPETUAL HOLOCAUST.—In Hebrew and Chaldee it is: The holocaust of the sabbath on its sabbath, that is, every sabbath the two lambs aforesaid shall be offered, besides the continual holocaust and its libation. And so what our version renders, and the drink offerings, etc., is to be understood in the same way, as if to say: Besides the sacrifice of the sabbath you shall offer also the libations, that is the drink offerings, which are duly poured out according to the law every sabbath, that is, every day (for sabbath often signifies these), in, or for, the continual and perpetual holocaust. So Abulensis. Whence it is plain that on the sabbath, as on other feasts, the daily continual sacrifice was kept; but that besides this it was proper to the feast of the sabbath that on account of the sabbath two other lambs were sacrificed, which in the morning, like the other victims, were sacrificed together after the offering of the continual sacrifice. So Abulensis. Moreover, if two feasts coincided on one day, the proper sacrifices of each feast were made on that day, and besides the continual sacrifice, which was first and went before the rest. So the feast of Trumpets always fell on the new moon, namely on the first day of the seventh month, and it might happen that this first day was a sabbath, and then the victims both of the sabbath and of Trumpets and the new moon had to be offered after the continual sacrifice. So the pasch and pentecost might fall on a sabbath, but not on the first day of the month, because the pasch fell never on the first, but always on the fourteenth day of the first month; and pentecost always on the sixth day of the third month.
11. AND ON THE FIRST DAYS OF YOUR MONTHS YOU SHALL OFFER A HOLOCAUST.—The calends were the first day of the month, which is also called the neomenia or new moon, because the Hebrews computed their months according to the course of the moon, namely from one new moon to another, so that the first day of the month always fell on the new moon. This first day of the month was not properly a feast, because on it there was no cessation from servile work by command of God; though perhaps from devotion many ceased from work, which St. Augustine hints at when he says: “The Jewish women would do better to spin on the new moons than to dance immodestly on them.” Whence in Leviticus xxiii the new moons are not numbered among the feasts. Yet it was itself solemn by the sound of trumpets and by sacrifices, as is plain from this place, and from Psalm lxxx, 4: “Blow the trumpet in the new moon, on the noted day of your solemnity.”
Moreover, the new moon and the first day of the month, although they fell on the same day, did not always fall in the same hour; for since from one new moon to the next there pass 29 days and 12 hours, and each day has 24 hours, hence it came about that the month of the Hebrews had alternately now 29, now 30 days, the surplus 12 hours of each month, namely the present and the past, being joined together to make up a thirtieth day.
Wherefore if we suppose, e.g., that in the first month, which is of 29 days, the new moon and the first day of the month begin at the same hour, it is necessary that in the following month, which has 30 days, the new moon begin, not at the first hour of the first day, but after 12 hours, namely in the evening of the same day. For the twelve hours from the preceding new moon and month are thrown into the following month and its first day, after which the following new moon begins.
Hence it is plain that there were no intercalary months of the Hebrews of 22 and 23 days, as Sigonius and some others have maintained; but that all were of 29 or 30 days: for otherwise the calends would have been celebrated on another day than that of the new moon, and the first day of the month would not have fallen on the new moon; which from what has been said is plain to be false.
Whence the Jews even now, when the new moon is at hand, climb little towers in their synagogues, and diligently watch the rising of the moon, and when it has risen, straightway proclaim the neomenia by the sound of a trumpet. In like manner the ancient Romans reckoned their months by the lunations, before the reformation of the year by solar months, as Macrobius teaches, book I of the Saturnalia.
Hence it is plain, secondly, that the year of the Hebrews sometimes began before the vernal equinox, sometimes after it; for the intercalation, which was made in alternate years, or in every third year, brought it about that the first month of the following year fell after the equinox; the reason of which was that the intercalary month was the last of the year, and therefore not the first but the thirteenth, which was therefore nearer to the equinox than the first month of the following year; and consequently the first month of the following year ought not to precede the equinox, but to follow it, as Abulensis teaches on Leviticus xxiii.
It is plain, thirdly, that the months of the Hebrews did not correspond exactly to the Roman solar months. For so also now we see that the new moon often does not coincide with the first day of the month, but takes place much later, and therefore one lunation, one lunar month, falls partly in one solar month, partly in the following.
You will ask what were the causes why God instituted the neomenia? I answer: The first was to recall the benefit of the divine government; for as on the sabbath the Hebrews celebrated the memory of creation, so on the neomenia that of the divine government. For this is aptly signified by the new moon; for the moon rules these lower bodies, and is wont to alter them most at the new moon. So Lyranus here, and St. Thomas, I-II, Question CII, article 4, reply to 10. By celebrating the neomenia, therefore, the Jews gave thanks to God for the benefit of government, and for all of it, but especially for that which God bestows on us through the influence of the sun, the moon and the other heavenly bodies.
For this reason the Roman Gentiles “consecrated the year to Jove, that is, the sun, the months to Juno, that is, the moon. For the sun makes the year, the moon the months. Moreover the moon is called Juno from growing young, and Lucina as it were the bright one; and they think that she brings help to women in childbirth, whence that line:
By the azure pole of the stars, And the moon that hastens birth.
For women most easily seem to bring forth their offspring about the full moon;” says Plutarch in his Roman Questions.
Again, the Gentiles, to profess the divine government, taught that twelve gods presided over the twelve months. For Juno was believed to have the tutelage of January, Neptune of February, Minerva of March, Venus of April, Apollo of May, Mercury of June, Jupiter of July, Ceres of August, Vulcan of September, Mars of October, Diana of November, Vesta of December, as Giraldus teaches, in Syntagma 4.