hidden in the Jewish texts....

Great Debates
1

Been having an email debate with my brother in law. He’s an extremely religious Jew, I’m a total atheist. I insist my facts be backed by evidence, so to backup his belief system he sent me the following. Sorry, let me clarify: he says the ancient Jewish texts, especially the Talmud, contain clear evidence of hard science that can’t be explained other than being given by an omnipotent creator.

Has anyone heard of the following… is he right in citing the sources? Does the math really add up? Is it really that hard to figure out or was this known elsewhere?

Here goes:

The Talmud Rosh Hashana 25a, completed 500 CE and which even atheists agree was written thousands of years ago / well well well before NASA, based on current manuscripts obtained and carbon dated – states (Rabban Gamliel) that “the renewal of the moon takes place after not less than twenty nine and a half days , two thirds of an hour and 73 of 1080 parts of an hour”. Maimonides discusses this to give some elaboration on Talmudic text (the Talmud is extremely succinct). (Maimonides, Laws of Sanctifying the Moon 6:2-3) “By these figures, the interval between two conjunctions of the moon and the sun is 29 days and 12 hours, and 793 parts of the 13th hour. That is the time which elapses between one conjunction and the other, and that is the duration of the lunar month”. Check the math = 23.53059 days.

The final number is correct, according to this link:
http://www.sizes.com/time/month.htm#synodic

What I don’t know is, are the figures quoted accurate? Is it really that hard to figure out? Or is this not as impressive as it appears to be on the surface?

Thanks!

2

I think it’s just as amazing as it seems. I don’t, however, think it’s supernatural.

If I remmeber correctly we had calendars that were pretty accurate back when Methusela was just knee-high. But the older I get, the foggier my

3

Nothing that can’t be explained by simple observation.

4

Oddly enough, the ancients could count as well as we can. :rolleyes:

5

Yea, I think they had pretty good long term time keeping capabilities. Agrarian societies somewhat rely on it.

6

Though I love watching History Bites (which makes no bones about that fact that pre-20th Century life really really sucked), I find it odd that anyone thinks it odd that ancient astronomers/mathemeticians were capable of accurate observations and measurements. Heck, they didn’t even have calculus and the Egyptians managed to slap up them Pyramids with precision. I’m sure the engineering scribes works for days or weeks on math problems we solve in seconds with our handy pocket calculators, but ingenuity is certainly not a recent invention.

7

Good points from everyone. Thanks!