Shadow on the Steps: Time Measurement in Ancient Israel.

• Author: Russell, Stephen C.
• Position: Book review

Shadow on the Steps: Time Measurement in Ancient Israel. SBL Resources for Biblical Study, vol. 64. By DAVID MIANO. Atlanta: SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE. 2010. Pp. xx + 267, illus. $34.95 (paper).

This revision of the author's 2006 University of California, San Diego, dissertation, supervised by William H. C. Propp, elegantly traces chronometry and chronology in ancient Israel and Judah and notes the implications of the former for the latter. Following a brief introduction stating his position on the sources of the Primary History (J, E, DtrH, and P), one long and one short chapter explore calendrical units of time--principally days, months, and years--and long-time reckoning. Two long chapters explore the genealogical chronologies of the Priestly material in the Pentateuch and the ruler-ship chronologies of the Deuteronomistic History. A short conclusion summarizes his findings, and two appendices treat the chronographic sources of the Deuteronomistic History and the fourteenth year of Hezekiah.

Miano advances several interesting calendrical theses. He argues from close readings of several biblical texts that all the main sources of the Primary History assume a new day that begins in the morning. The Priestly prescription of holy days that run from evening to evening is an innovation of P and applies only to the liturgical calendar. Daylight was perhaps divided into four watches totaling twenty "hours," and nighttime was divided into three watches. P began to use a month numbering system in the late preexilic period. The agricultural year had two primary divisions: seedtime and harvest. The civil calendar consisted of twelve months, beginning in the fall. The liturgical calendar likewise consisted of twelve months, but P moved the start of the year to the spring. The Judahite regnal year began in the fall, while the Israelite regnal year began in the spring. These several calendars coexisted and efforts were made within each of them to resolve the discrepancies between lunar and solar cycles.

Miano stresses that ancient Israelites and Judahites held both cyclical and linear views of time, reflected in calendars and chronologies. The two were intertwined: linear time was measured by counting cycles of time in sequence. Miano shows that biblical authors counted time inclusively. Furthermore, in adding two linear sequences of time, they did not combine the final (partial) unit of one sequence with the initial (partial) unit of the second...