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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

SUN

A luminary created by God to be one of the great lights in the heavens, “to rule over the day” (Gn 1:14-15). The new day begins with its setting, and the daily sacrifices were offered in accordance with its position: the first burnt offering with its rising (Ex 29:39; Nm 28:4). The hours of the day in rabbinic Judaism vary with the length of the solar day throughout the year.

The months in the Israelite year were determined by the moon, but the fact that the major festivals fell in the fall (Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles) and the spring (Passover) show that account was taken of the solar year. The Gezer calendar has 12 months according to the agricultural activities of the solar year. The Jewish calendar is based on a 19-year cycle in which extra months are added to seven of the years, thus harmonizing the lunar and solar cycles. Silence in the Bible about this system has led scholars to assume the intercalation of a 13th month was a late innovation. However, Aramaic documents from the Jewish colony at Elephantine show that in the fifth century BC the Jews there were using the 19-year cycle in their reckonings. It is probable that the monarchies of Judah and Israel were using a system of intercalation, even though documentary evidence is lacking.

Rabbinic Judaism recognizes four seasons, while the OT usually mentions only two, “seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter” (Gn 8:22). The four seasons are marked by phases of the sun. The fall (called setav, a word originally meaning rainy season, rain; Sg 2:11) begins with the fall equinox (September 21); the winter (horeph) begins with the winter solstice (c. December 22); the spring (aviv) begins with the spring equinox (March 21); and the summer (qayits) begins with the summer solstice (June 22). Recently, a temple was discovered at Beersheba, dating to the Hasmonean period (125 BC), that was oriented toward the sunrise of the summer solstice. A temple at Lachish with a similar ground plan and date seems to be oriented toward the winter solstice. The Arad temple from monarchical times faced almost due east, probably toward the equinox sunrise; such was probably the case with the Jerusalem temple.

The sun also plays a role in Hebrew poetic imagery. It was said to have a habitation (Hb 3:11), a tent set up by the Lord out of which he comes like a bridegroom (Ps 19:4-5). The sun is a symbol of constancy (72:5, 17), of the law (19:7), of the presence of God (84:11), and of beauty (Sg 6:10). Life in this temporal world is that which is “under the sun,” according to Qoheleth (Eccl 1:3, 9, 14; 2:11).

A time of chaos and wrath upon the earth will be marked by the darkening of the sun (Is 13:10; Ez 32:7; Jl 2:10, 31; 3:15; Zep 1:15; Mt 24:29; Rv 8:12). This is obviously an allusion to an eclipse, something viewed with terror by the ancients. The sun’s turning pale may also be derived from the effect of the sirocco, when sandstorms and hazy clouds often darken the sky. On the other hand, the day of the Lord’s victory will be characterized by the sun’s shining sevenfold brighter than at present (Is 30:26).