Dictionaries :: Year

Year:

Heb. shanah, meaning "repetition" or "revolution" (Gen 1:14; 5:3). Among the ancient Egyptians the year consisted of twelve months of thirty days each, with five days added to make it a complete revolution of the earth round the sun. The Jews reckoned the year in two ways, (1) according to a sacred calendar, in which the year began about the time of the vernal equinox, with the month Abib; and (2) according to a civil calendar, in which the year began about the time of the autumnal equinox, with the month Nisan. The month Tisri is now the beginning of the Jewish year.

Year:

yer (shanah, Aramaic shenah, "a return" (of the sun), like the Greek eniautos; yamim, "days," is also used for "year," and the Greek hemerai, corresponds to it (Jos 13:1; Lu 17,18); etos, is also employed frequently in the New Testament; for the difference between etos and eniautos, see Grimm-Thayer, under the word): The Hebrew year was solar, although the month was lunar, the adjustment being made in intercalation.

See ASTRONOMY

See TIME

Year: General Scriptures Concerning

Gen 1:14

Year: Divided into Months

Exd 12:2; Num 10:10; 28:11

See MONTHS

Year: Annual Feasts

Lev 25:5

See FEASTS

Year: Redemption of Houses Sold

Limited to one,

Lev 25:29, 30.

Year: Land to Rest for One

In seven,

Lev 25:5.

Year: Of Release

Deu 15:9

Year: Age Computed By:

Of Abraham,

Gen 25:7;

of Jacob,

Gen 47:9.

See LONGEVITY

Year: A Thousand

With the Lord is like one day,

Psa 90:4; 2Pe 3:8.

Year: Satan to Be Bound for a Thousand

Rev 20:2-4, 7

Year: References Concerning

See JUBILEE, YEAR OF; MILLENNIUM; TIME

Year:

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 Exd 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; 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. 55 ff.);

(b) to mark a space of time, e.g., Mat 9:20; Luk 12:19; 13:11; Jhn 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;" Hbr 3:17; Rev 20:2-7;

(c) to date an event from one's birth, e.g., Mar 5:42; Luk 2:42; 3:23; Jhn 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, Hbr 1:12.

Year:

originally "a cycle of time," is used

(a) of a particular time marked by an event, e.g., Luk 4:19; Jhn 11:49, 51; 18:13; Gal 4:10; Rev 9:15;

(b) to mark a space of time, Act 11:26; 18:11; Jam 4:13; 5:17;

(c) of that which takes place every year, Hbr 9:7; with kata
[cp. (d) above], Hbr 9:25; 10:1, 3.

Year:

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

Year:

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

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

Year:

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

Year:

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

Year:

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

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

Year:

The highest ordinary division of time. Two years were known to, and apparently used by, the Hebrews.

(1.) A year of 360 days appears to have been in use in Noah's time.

(2.) The year used by the Hebrews from the time of the exodus may: be said to have been then instituted, since a current month, Abib, on the 14^th day of which the first Passover was kept, was then made the first month of the year. The essential characteristics of this year can be clearly determined, though we cannot fix those of any single year. It was essentially solar for the offering of productions of the earth, first‐fruits, harvest produce and ingathered fruits, was fixed to certain days of the year, two of which were in the periods of great feasts, the third itself a feast reckoned from one of the former days. But it is certain that the months were lunar, each commencing with a new moon. There must therefore have been some method of adjustment. The first point to be decided is how the commencement of each gear was fixed. Probably the Hebrews determined their new year's day by the observation of heliacal or other star‐risings or settings known to mark the right time of the solar year. It follows, from the determination of the proper new moon of the first month, whether by observation of a stellar phenomenon or of the forwardness of the crops, that the method of intercalation can only have been that in use after the captivity,-the addition of a thirteenth month whenever the twelfth ended too long before the equinox for the offering of the first‐fruits to be made at the time fixed. The later Jews had two commencements of the year, whence it is commonly but inaccurately said that they had two years, the sacred year and the civil. We prefer to speak of the sacred and civil reckonings. The sacred reckoning was that instituted at the exodus, according to which the first month was Abib; by the civil reckoning the first month was the seventh. The interval between the two commencements was thus exactly half a year. It has been supposed that the institution at the time of the exodus was a change of commencement, not the introduction of a new year, and that thenceforward the year had two beginnings, respectively at about the vernal and the autumnal equinox. The year was divided into-

(3.) Seasons. Two seasons are mentioned in the Bible, "summer" and "winter." The former properly means the time of cutting fruits, the latter that, of gathering fruits; they are therefore originally rather summer and autumn than summer and winter. But that they signify ordinarily the two grand divisions of the year, the warm and cold seasons, is evident from their use for the whole year in the expression "summer and winter." (Psalm 74:17; Zechariah 14:18).

(4.) Months. SEE [MONTH].

(5.) Weeks. SEE [WEEK].