Moon

The moon belongs to the second day's lesser light, set in the firmament to rule the night and to mark the seasons. Scripture follows the moon through several distinct registers: a created luminary, a calendar marker that organizes Israel's worship, a forbidden object of pagan devotion, and a sign whose darkening or transfiguration accompanies the day of Yahweh.

The Lesser Light

The moon is one of the two great lights made on the fourth day. "And [the Speech of] God made the two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars" (Gen 1:16). The night-rule belongs to it: "The moon and stars to rule by night; for his loving-kindness [endures] forever" (Ps 136:9). David lifts the same created order into praise: "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have appointed" (Ps 8:3).

The moon's appointment is not autonomous. Yahweh "gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night" (Jer 31:35). Ben Sira lingers on the appointment: "And also the moon he made for its due season, to rule over periods for an everlasting sign" (Sir 43:6); "By her festivals and the appointed times [are fixed], a light that wanes when she has come to the full" (Sir 43:7); "Month by month she renews herself, how wonderful [is she] in her changing! A beacon for the hosts on high, paving the firmament with her shining" (Sir 43:8).

The moon's brightness has its own glory. Job pictures it "walking in brightness" (Job 31:26). Paul, distinguishing resurrection bodies, distinguishes the celestial glories: "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory" (1 Cor 15:41). The Song of Songs draws on the same beauty as figure: "Who is she who looks forth as the morning, beautiful as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army with banners?" (Song 6:10).

Influences and Seasons

The moon governs the night and the months. "He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knows his going down" (Ps 104:19). Moses' blessing on Joseph names "the precious things of the fruits of the sun, and ... the precious things of the growth of the moons" (Deut 33:14), tying agricultural increase to lunar cycles. The pilgrim song promises protection against both day-strike and night-strike: "The sun will not strike you by day, nor the moon by night" (Ps 121:6).

Joseph's Dream

Joseph reads the heavenly bodies as family: "I have dreamed yet a dream: and see, the sun and the moon and eleven stars made obeisance to me" (Gen 37:9). The moon stands for the matriarchal half of his household.

When the Moon Stood Still

In Joshua's long day the lesser light is held in check together with the greater. Joshua commands, "Sun, stand still on Gibeon; and, Moon, in the valley of Aijalon" (Josh 10:12), and the narrator confirms: "And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies" (Josh 10:13). Habakkuk's theophany picks up the same arrest: "The sun and moon stood still in their habitation, at the light of [your Speech] as they went, at the shining of your glittering spear" (Hab 3:11).

The New Moon and the Set Feasts

The first day of each lunar month is a worship marker. Trumpets are blown over the offerings: "Also in the day of your⁺ gladness, and in your⁺ set feasts, and in the beginnings of your⁺ months, you⁺ will blow the trumpets over your⁺ burnt-offerings, and over the sacrifices of your⁺ peace-offerings" (Num 10:10). The new-moon offering rubric is fixed: "And in the beginnings of your⁺ months you⁺ will offer a burnt-offering to Yahweh: two young bullocks, and one ram, seven he-lambs a year old without blemish" (Num 28:11), with prescribed meal-offerings, drink-offerings, and a sin-offering "besides the continual burnt-offering" (Num 28:12-15). Returning exiles resume the practice: "afterward the continual burnt-offering, and [the offerings] of the new moons, and of all the set feasts of Yahweh" (Ezra 3:5). The Davidic and Hezekian arrangements specify it as standing duty: Levites are "to offer all burnt-offerings to Yahweh, on the Sabbaths, on the new moons, and on the set feasts" (1 Chr 23:31), and the king's portion supports "the burnt-offerings for the Sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts" (2 Chr 31:3).

The new moon also patterns ordinary life. David excuses himself from Saul's table on its eve: "Tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat" (1 Sam 20:5). The festal call goes out: "Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our feast-day" (Ps 81:3). Ben Sira's encomium on Simon the high priest pairs the moon with festal splendor: "Like a morning star from between the clouds, and like the full moon on the feast-days" (Sir 50:6).

When the worship is corrupted the new moon is the first thing rejected. "Your new moons and your⁺ appointed feasts my [Speech] has rejected; they are a trouble to me; I am weary of bearing them" (Isa 1:14). Hosea announces the same suspension: "I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feasts, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies" (Hos 2:11). And in Amos the merchants resent the suspension of trade that the new moon enforced: "When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat" (Amos 8:5).

Forbidden Worship

The moon is a creature, not a god. Israel is warned, "lest you will lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven, you will be drawn away and worship them" (Deut 4:19). The capital sanction follows for any who "has gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I haven't commanded" (Deut 17:3). Job's protest of innocence isolates the gesture: "If I have seen the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my mouth has kissed my hand" (Job 31:26-27).

The historical books and the prophets show the law breached. Josiah "put down the idolatrous priests ... that burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven" (2 Kgs 23:5). Jeremiah indicts the queen-of-heaven cult — "the sons gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven" (Jer 7:18) — and foresees the bones of the apostates "spread before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served" (Jer 8:2). The Egyptian-exile remnant defends the cult: "we will certainly perform every word that has gone forth out of our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to her" (Jer 44:17), claiming that abandoning her brought sword and famine (Jer 44:18-19). Yahweh's reply seals the verdict: "establish then your⁺ vows, and perform your⁺ vows" (Jer 44:25). The Diognetus author indicts the same instinct in Greek dress: "And then they attend to stars and moon, observing months and days. They distribute God's dispensations and the changes of seasons according to their own impulses, allotting some days to feasts and others to mourning" (Gr 5:1).

The Moon Dimmed Before God

The moon's brightness is derivative. Bildad says, "Look, even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his eyes" (Job 25:5).

Darkening on the Day of Yahweh

The day of Yahweh is announced by failure of the heavenly lights. Isaiah's oracle against Babylon: "For the stars of heaven and its constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine" (Isa 13:10). Ezekiel's lament over Pharaoh: "I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light" (Ezek 32:7). Joel uses the same formula for the locust day — "the sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining" (Joel 2:10) — and intensifies it for the great day: "The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and awesome day of Yahweh comes" (Joel 2:31). The darkening recurs in Joel's judgment of the nations: "the sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining" (Joel 3:15).

The Synoptic tradition takes up Joel's formula: "in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light" (Mark 13:24). The Apocalypse renders the same picture in its own seal and trumpet sequences. At the sixth seal "the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood" (Rev 6:12); at the fourth trumpet "the third part of the moon" is struck, "that the third part of them should be darkened" (Rev 8:12).

The terminus of the darkening sequence is Isaiah's positive image: "Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for Yahweh of hosts will reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem; and before his elders will be glory" (Isa 24:23). The lights are not destroyed; they are outshone.

Figurative Shining

The figure runs both ways. In one direction Yahweh intensifies the moon: "Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds up the hurt of his people" (Isa 30:26). In the other direction Yahweh replaces the moon: "The sun will no more be your light by day; neither will the moon give light to you for brightness: but Yahweh will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory" (Isa 60:19). The Apocalypse closes the figure: "And the city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine on her: for the glory of God lightened her, and her lamp [is] the Lamb" (Rev 21:23).

A Sign in Heaven

The Apocalypse's sole symbolical use of the moon places it under a woman's feet: "And a great sign was seen in heaven: a woman arrayed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" (Rev 12:1).