YASHPEH (MeV?), a precious stone which nearly all are agreed in regarding as the jasAer (LXX. Mores), a conclusion which the name itself (carried probably abroad by the Phcenicians) guarantees. The jasper is of the flint family ; its prevailing colour is dark red, frequently with cloudy or flammeous shades ; but specimens of yellow, red, brown, and green are found. That kind which is commonly known as the blood-slone, which has bright red spots on a dark green ground, is the most esteemed (Rosenmiiller, Biblical Mineralogy, p. 41).—W. L. A.
YEAR (n:ti). The Hebrew year consisted of twelve uneqtrial months, which, previously to the exile, were lunar, as may be seen from the names of the moon, em and rrYi, which signify respec tively a month (so with us moon from month, German viand); though Credner, relying too much on hypothesis, especially on the assumption of the late origin of the Pentateuch, has endeavoured to show that, until the 8th century before Christ, the Israelites reckoned by solar years. The twelve solar months made up only 354 days, constituting a year too short by no fewer than eleven days. This deficiency would have soon inverted the year, and could not have existed even for a short period of time without occasioning derangements and serious inconvenience to the Hebrews, whose year was so full of festivals. At an early day, then, we may well believe a remedy was provided for this evil. The course which the ancients pursued is unknown, but Ideler (Chronol. 49o) may be con sulted for an ingenious conjecture on the subject. The later Jews intercalated a month every two, or every three years, taking care, however, to avoid making the seventh an intercalated year. The supplementary month was added at the termina tion of the sacred year, the twelfth month (Fel). ruary and March), and as this month bore the name of Adar, so the interposed month was called Yeadar 010, or Adar the Second. The year, as appears from the ordinary reckoning of the months (Lev. xxiii. 34; xxv. 9 ; Num. ix. i ; 2 Kings xxv. 8 ; Jer. xxxix. 2 ; comp. Maccab. iv. 52 ; x. 21), began with the month Nisan (Esther iii. 7), agreeably. to an express direction given by Moses (Exod. xii. 2 ; Num. xi. 1). This commencement is generally thought to be that of merely the ecclesiastical year ; and most Jewish, and many Christian authorities, hold tbat the civil year originally began, as now, with the month Tisri ; the Rabbins conjecturally assigning as the reason that this was the month in which the crea tion took place. Josephus' statement is as follows:
Moses appointed that .Nisan should be the first month for their festivals, because Ile brought them (the Israelites) out of Egypt in that month ; so that this month began the year, as to all the solemnities they obsenred to the honour of God, although Ile preserved the: original order of the niontlis as to sellin,g and buying and other ordinary affairs (A/dig. i. 3. 3), Winer, however, is of opinion that the commencement of the year with Tisri, to gether with the beginning of the sacred year in Nisan, is probably a post-exilian arrangement, de signed to commemorate the first step of the return to the native soil of Palestine (Esther iii. ; Neh. vii. ; viii. seq.); an idea, however, to which they only can give assent who hold that the changes introduced on the return from Babylon were of a constructive rather than a restoratory nature—a class of authorities with which the writer has few bonds of connection. The reader should consult Exod. xxiii. 16 ; xxxiv. 22. But the commence ment of the civil year with Tisri, at whatever period it originated, had after the exile this advantage,— that it accorded with the era of the Seleucidm, which began in October. The ancient Hebrews possessed no such thing as a formal and recognised era. Their year and their months were deter mined and regulated, not by any systematic rules of astronomy, but by the first view or appearance of the moon. In a similar manner they dated from great national events, as the departure from Egypt (Exod. xix. ; Num. xxxiii. 38 ; Kings vi. i); from the ascension of monarchs, as in the books of Kings and Chronicles; or from the erection of Solomon's temple (1 Kings viii. ; ix. Io); and at a later period, from the commencement of the J3abylonish captivity (Ezek. xxxiii. ; xl. I). When they became subjects of the Grmco-Syrian empire they adopted the Seleucid era, which began with the year B.C. 312, v,dien Seleucus conquered Babylon.—J. R. B.