[Hours-list] Hy should an astronomer write a commentary on the Bible? Becau

[ideas, t. f. g. d. <hou...@li...>]

, the sun once set, deep darkness soon covers everything. Such
artificial lights as men then had would now be deemed very inefficient.
There was little opportunity, when once darkness had fallen, for either
work or enjoyment. But, when the moon was up, how very different was the
case. Then men might say-- "This night, methinks, is but the daylight
sick; It looks a little paler: 'tis a day, Such as the day is when the
sun is hid." In the long moonlit nights, travelling was easy and safe;
the labours of the field and house could still be carried on; the
friendly feast need not be interrupted. But of all men, the shepherd
would most rejoice at this season; all his toils, all his dangers were
immeasurably lightened during the nights near the full. As in the
beautiful rendering which Tennyson has given us of one of the finest
passages in the _Iliad_-- "In heaven the stars about the moon Look
beautiful, when all the winds are laid, And every height comes out, and
jutting peak And valley, and the immeasurable heavens Break open to
their highest, and all the stars Shine, and the Shepherd gladdens in his
heart." A large proportion of the people of Israel, long after their
settlement in Palestine, maintained the habits of their forefathers, and
led the shepherd's life. To them, therefore, the full of the moon must
have been of special importance; yet there is no single reference in
Scripture to this phase as such; nor indeed to any change of the moon's
apparent figure. In two cases in our Revised Version we do indeed find
the expression "at the full moon," but if we compare these passages with
the Authorized Version, we find them there rendered "in the time
appointed," or "at the day appointed." This latter appears to be the
literal meaning, though there can be no question, as is seen by a
comparison with the Syriac, that the period of the full moon is referred
to. No doubt it was because travelling was so much more safe and easy
than in th