START OF AGRICULTURAL YEAR

Whereas Abib (or Nisan) became the first month of the year in the sacred Jewish calendar following the exodus from Egypt, Ethanim continued to be viewed as the first month in a secular or agricultural sense. With this month, almost all the harvesting had been completed, marking the conclusion of the agricultural year. The early rains that thereafter fell softened the ground for the plowing that would follow, and which would denote the initiation of new agricultural operations. Jehovah referred to Ethanim as the turning point of the year when speaking of the festival of ingathering as being “at the outgoing of the year,” and “at the turn of the year.” (Ex. 23:16; 34:22) It is also notable that it was not in the month of Abib but in this month of Ethanim that the Jubilee year began.—Lev. 25:8-12.

The later name applied to the month, Tishri, means “beginning” or “opening,” and Tishri 1 is still observed by the Jews as their New Year’s Day or Rosh Hashanah (“head of the year”).

FESTIVAL MONTH

Ethanim was also a month of festivals. The first day was the “day of the trumpet blast.” (Lev. 23:24; Num. 29:1) Since each new moon was normally announced with a trumpet blast, this day likely was one of additional or extensive trumpeting. (Num. 10:10) On the tenth of Ethanim the annual day of atonement was observed. (Lev. 16:29, 30; 23:27; Num. 29:7) From the fifteenth to the twenty-first occurred the festival of booths or festival of ingathering, followed on the twenty-second day by a solemn assembly. (Lev. 23:34-36) Thus, a large part of the month of Ethanim was taken up by these festival seasons.

EVENTS OCCURRING IN ETHANIM

Since the Bible, from its first book forward, presents chronological data, and since the first mention of years of life is in connection with the life of Adam, it would seem that the ancient use of the month called “Ethanim” as the initial month of the year would give some basis for believing that Adam’s start of life was in this month. (Gen. 5:1-5) It was on the first day of Ethanim that Noah, after having already spent over ten months within the ark, removed the ark’s covering and observed that the floodwaters had drained off the ground. (Gen. 8:13) Over 1,300 years later Solomon inaugurated the completed temple at Jerusalem in Ethanim. (1 Ki. 8:2; 2 Chron. 5:3) After Jerusalem’s destruction in 607 B.C.E., the killing of Governor Gedaliah and the subsequent flight to Egypt of the remaining Israelites in the month of Ethanim marked the full desolation of Judah. (2 Ki. 25:25, 26; Jer. 41:1, 2) These events were involved in the reasons for the “fast of the seventh month” mentioned at Zechariah 8:19. Seventy years later, by this very same month, the released Israelite exiles had returned from Babylon to begin the restoration of Jerusalem.—Ezra 3:1, 6.

The evidence also indicates that Jesus’ birth took place during this month, as well as his subsequent baptism and anointing.—See JESUS CHRIST.

ETHBAAL

(Eth·baʹal) [with Baal].

King of the Sidonians, the father of Jezebel the wife of King Ahab. (1 Ki. 16:31) By giving his daughter in marriage to Ahab, Ethbaal entered into a political alliance with him. Ethbaal is evidently the Ithobalus mentioned in Josephus’ quotation of historian Menander as being the priest of the goddess Astarte (Ashtoreth). This priest got the kingship by murdering Pheles, a descendant of Hiram the king of Tyre with whom Solomon had dealings in connection with the building of the temple. Ethbaal is said to have ruled for thirty-two of the sixty-eight years of his life. (Against Apion, Book I, par. 18) Indicative of the commercial expansion carried on during his reign is Menander’s reference to Ethbaal’s building Auza in Libya. Menander also mentions that a one-year drought occurred during Ethbaal’s reign.—Antiquities of the Jews, Book VIII, chap. XIII, par. 2.

ETHER

(Eʹther) [riches; fullness; abundance; or perhaps, (place of) prayer].

A city of the Shephelah in the territory of Judah, but allotted to Simeon. (Josh. 15:33, 42; 19:1-9) Today it is generally identified with Khirbet el-ʽAter, about one mile (1.6 kilometers) NW of Beit Jibrin (Eleutheropolis). The account at Joshua 19:7 is nearly parallel with that of 1 Chronicles 4:32 and in this latter text Ether appears to be referred to as Tochen.

Some reference works consider that there were two Ethers, that at Joshua 15:42 being located between Libnah and Mareshah (at Khirbet el-ʽAter, above mentioned), and the other, referred to at Joshua 19:7, being situated near Ziklag to the S. While the other towns referred to in Joshua 19:7 are all in the S and many of those at Joshua 15:42 are more to the N, it may be noted, nevertheless, that in both texts the town of Ashan is mentioned, so that any clear division becomes difficult.

ETHIOPIA

(E·thi·oʹpi·a), Ethiopian (E·thi·oʹpian) [Gr., Ai·thi·o·piʹa, meaning “region of burnt faces”].

Ethiopia was the name applied by the ancient Greeks to the region of Africa S of Egypt. It thus corresponded generally with the Hebrew “Cush,” which embraced primarily the present Sudan and the northern part of modern Ethiopia. In Egyptian texts this region was likewise known by the name “Keesh.” When the Septuagint translation was made, the translators used the Greek “Ethiopia” to render the Hebrew “Cush” in all but two passages (Gen. 10:6-8; 1 Chron. 1:8-10). The Authorized Version follows this rendering in all cases except Isaiah 11:11, where it uses “Cush” instead of “Ethiopia”; the Revised Standard Version likewise follows the Septuagint except at Genesis 2:13 and Ezekiel 38:5. Some other translations (NW, JB) prefer Cush in yet other texts where the identification with ancient Ethiopia is not made certain by the context. As shown in the article on CUSH, the name “Cush” can also apply to peoples of Arabia.

The area originally designated by the name “Ethiopia” now consists of semiarid plains in the N, savannas and plateau land in the central region and tropical rain forest toward the S. One-time capitals of ancient Ethiopia were Napata and Meroe. Meroe was the seat of a kingdom in which the right of kingship was carried through the female line rather than the male. The queen mother was thus the one from whom her kingly son derived his right to the throne and at times may have been the virtual ruler of the land. The name Candace is mentioned by Greek and Latin writers as a title used by several such Ethiopian queens, evidently including the one referred to at Acts 8:27.

THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH

The Ethiopian eunuch who was ‘over the treasures’ of Queen Candace, and to whom Philip preached, was obviously a circumcised Jewish proselyte. (Acts 8:27-39) He was thus not viewed as a Gentile and hence did not precede Cornelius as the first uncircumcised Gentile convert to Christianity. (Acts chap. 10) For him to engage in worship at the temple in Jerusalem would require that the Ethiopian have been converted to the Jewish religion and aIso his having been circumcised. (Ex. 12:48, 49; Lev. 24:22) In view of the Mosaic law forbidding the entry of castrated persons into the congregation of Israel (Deut. 23:1), it is evident that the Ethiopian was not a eunuch in a fleshly sense. The Hebrew word for “eunuch” (sa·risʹ) in a broad or special sense also meant an officer, as at Genesis 39:1, where an officer of Pharaoh, Potiphar, a married man, is called a sa·risʹ. Had he been an actual eunuch the Ethiopian officer would not have been a proselyte and, if not