Year

"year." This word has cognates in Ugaritic, Akaddian, Arabic, Aramaic, and Phoenician. Biblical Hebrew attests it about 877 times and in every period.

This Hebrew word signifies "year": "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years" (Gen 1:14, the first biblical occurrence of the word). There are several ways of determining what a "year" is. First, the "year" may be based on the relationship between the seasons and the sun, the solar year or agricultural year. Second, it can be based on a correlation of the seasons and the moon (lunar year). Third, the "year" may be decided on the basis of the correlation between the movement of the earth and the stars (stellar year). At many points the people of the Old Testament period set the seasons according to climatic or agricultural events; the year ended with the grape and fruit harvest in the month Elul: "[Thou shalt keep] the feast of harvest, the first fruits of thy labors, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field" (Exod 23:16).

The Gezer calendar shows that by the time it was written (about the tenth century b.c.) some in Palestine were using the lunar calendar, since it exhibits an attempt to correlate the agricultural and lunar systems. The lunar calendar began in the spring (the month Nisan, March-April) and had twelve lunations, or periods between new moons. It was necessary periodically to add a thirteenth month in order to synchronize the lunar calendar and the number of days in a solar year. The lunar calendar also seems to have underlain Israel's religious system with a special rite to celebrate the first day of each lunar month (Num 28:11-15). The major feasts, however, seem to be based on the agricultural cycle, and the date on which they were celebrated varied from year to year according to work in the fields (e.g., Deut 16:9-12). This solar-agricultural year beginning in the spring is similar to (if not derived from) the Babylonian calendar, the names of the months are Babylonian derivatives. These 2 systems, therefore, appear side by side at least from the time of Moses. An exact picture of the Old Testament "year" is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain.

is used (a) to mark a point of time at or from which events take place, e.g., Luk 3:1 (dates were frequently reckoned from the time when a monarch began to reign); in Gal 3:17 the time of the giving of the Law is stated as 430 "years" after the covenant of promise given to Abraham; there is no real discrepancy between this and Exo 12:40; the Apostle is not concerned with the exact duration of the interval; it certainly was not less than 430 "years;" the point of the argument is that the period was very considerable; Gal 1:18, Gal 2:1 mark events in Paul's life; as to the former the point is that three "years" elapsed before he saw any of the Apostles; in Gal 2:1 the 14 "years" may date either from his conversion or from his visit to Peter mentioned in Gal 1:18; the latter seems the more natural (for a full discussion of the subject see Notes on Galatians by Hogg and Vine, pp. 55ff.); (b) to mark a space of time, e.g., Mat 9:20, Luk 12:19, Luk 13:11, Joh 2:20, Act 7:6, where the 400 "years" mark not merely the time that Israel was in bondage in Egypt, but the time that they sojourned or were strangers there (the RV puts a comma after the word "evil"); the Genevan Version renders Gen 15:13 "thy posterity shall inhabit a strange land for 400 years;" Heb 3:17, Rev 1:20-7; (c) to date an event from one's birth, e.g., Mar 5:42, Luk 2:42, Luk 3:23, Joh 8:57, Act 4:22, 1Ti 5:9; (d) to mark recurring events, Luk 2:41 (with kata, used distributively); Luk 13:7; (e) of an unlimited number, Heb 1:12.

originally "a cycle of time," is used (a) of a particular time marked by an event, e.g., Luk 4:19, Joh 11:49, Joh 11:51, Joh 18:13, Gal 4:10, Rev 9:15; (b) to mark a space of time, Act 11:26, Act 18:11, Jam 4:13, Jam 5:17; (c) of that which takes place every year, Heb 9:7; with kata [cp. (d) above], Heb 9:25, Heb 10:1, Heb 10:3.

denotes "a space of two years" (dis, "twice," and No. 1), Act 24:27, Act 28:30.

denotes "a space of three years" (treis, "three," and No. 1), Act 20:31.

Note: In Luk 1:7, Luk 1:18, hemera, "a day," is rendered "years."

akin to A, No. 3, denotes "lasting two years, two years old," Mat 2:16.

denotes "a hundred years old," Rom 4:19.

"last year, a year ago" (from pera, "beyond"), is used with apo, "from 2Co 8:10, 2Co 9:2.

Note: In Heb 11:24, AV, ginomai, "to become," with megas, "great," is rendered "when he was come to years" (RV, "when he was grown up").