Читать книгу The dawn of astronomy. A study of the temple-worship and mythology of the ancient Egyptians онлайн

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Josephus[21] states that the miraculous shining of the jewels ceased two hundred years before his time, "God having been displeased at the transgression of His laws."

This remark of Josephus quite justifies the assumption that the effect of sunlight on the priest's jewels formed part of the ceremonial, and in this way. In the earliest times there is no doubt that the equinoctial temples were solar temples pure and simple, and the rising sun would always, in fine weather, shine into them at the equinox, which, while they were used as solar temples, marked New Year's Day. The influence of the later Babylonian astronomy, however, at length replaced the sun by the moon, and the year would commence, not at the equinox, but by a new or a full moon near the equinox. If either of these happened at the equinox, well and good; but if not, then the sun's declination might be widely different from 0°—it might amount roughly to 10° either N. or S.—and under these circumstances, as the amplitude would be greater, the sun's light could not enter the temple at all at the date of the feast. More than this, a mistake of a month might be made, or a question of old style and new style might come in, and that of course would make matters worse. In this way, then, the withdrawal of the sunlight from the temple at Jerusalem admits of being astronomically explained.