d Chisleu; or the
civil year may have been reckoned at the court of Shushan as beginning
with Tishri. It may be noted that Nehemiah does not define either of
these months in terms of the Jewish. Elsewhere, when referring to the
Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, he attributes it to the seventh month, in
accord with its place in the Mosaic calendar. An alteration of the
beginning of the year from the spring to the autumn was brought about
amongst the Jews at a later date, and was systematized in the Religious
Calendar by the Rabbis of about the fourth century A.D. Tishri begins
the Jewish year at the present day; the first day of Tishri being taken
as the anniversary of the creation of the world.

The Mishna, "The Law of the Lip," was first committed to writing in 191
A.D., and the compilation of the Babylonian Talmud, based on the Mishna,
was completed about 500 A.D. In its commentary on the first chapter of
Genesis, there is an allusion to the year as beginning in spring, for it
says that--

"A king crowned on the twenty-ninth of Adar is considered as
having completed the first year of his reign on the first of
Nisan" (_i. e._ the next day). "Hence follows (observes some
one) that the first of Nisan is the new year's day of kings,
and that if one had reigned only one day in a year, it is
considered as a whole year."[311:1]

It is not indicated whether this rule held good for the kings of Persia,
as well as for those of Israel. If so, and this tradition be correct,
then we cannot explain Nehemiah's reckoning by supposing that he was
counting from the month of the accession of Artaxerxes, and must assume
that a civil or court year beginning with Tishri, _i. e._ in the autumn,
was the one in question.

A further, but, as it would seem, quite an imaginary difficulty, has
been raised because the feast of ingathering, or Tabernacles, though
held in the seventh month, is twice spoken of as being "in the end of
the year," or, as it is rendered in the margin in one case, "in the
revolution of the year." This latter expression occurs again in 2 Chron.
xxiv. 23, when it is said that, "at the end of the year, the host of
Syria came up"; but in this case it probably means early spring, for it
is only of late centuries that war has been waged in the winter months.
Down to the Middle Ages, the armies always went into winter quarters,
and in the spring the kings led them out again to battle. One Hebrew
exp