StrongerBible

noumēnia

νουμηνία

GreekG3561“new moon, new moon festival, ...”

Appears 1 time · tap a cell to see the verses

Col 2:16
Compound of
neosνέοςnew25G3501
mēnμήνmonth18G3376
Word studyResearch-gradenoo-may-NEE-ahnoun

What noumēnia means

new moon: the first day of a lunar month, and the monthly holy day Israel kept on it

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

In Israel a month did not begin on a fixed date but on a sighting. Watchers looked for the first thin crescent after the moon had gone dark, and once their testimony was accepted the new month was declared. The day itself was a holy day, and it carried real weight:

  • the law prescribed a fuller set of offerings for it than for any other monthly rite
  • silver trumpets were sounded over those offerings at the sanctuary
  • ordinary buying and selling slowed, and households gathered for a meal

Amos pictures merchants impatient for the day to be over so they can sell grain again, and 2 Kings treats it as one of the obvious days to go and see a prophet.

The word covers both the date and the observance. Greek speakers already used it for the plain first of the month, the day rent came due and new contracts began, and also for a monthly holy day of their own. Greek-speaking Jews took it over for the Hebrew term behind it (חֹדֶשׁ) wherever that word meant the opening day rather than the month as a stretch of time, and kept a separate word for the month itself (μήν).

Its single appearance in the New Testament, at Colossians 2:16, comes inside a set phrase: a festival, a new moon, or sabbaths. That trio, the yearly feast (ἑορτή), the monthly new moon, and the weekly rest day (σάββατον), runs all through the Greek Old Testament as shorthand for Israel's entire sacred calendar. Paul is not singling out three odd practices. He is naming the calendar whole, and then denying anyone the right to use it to pass judgment on the believers at Colossae.

Everything else on that calendar hung on this one day. A wrong sighting in the spring would put Passover on the wrong date, and a wrong sighting in the autumn would move the Day of Atonement. That is why the court guarded the declaration so carefully, and why the community at Qumran broke with the rest of Judaism over whether the moon should set the calendar at all.

Col 2:16
Col 2:16

What kind of religious setting the Colossian teachers were pressing new moon observance in.

  • contestedA confident Diaspora synagogue was presenting itself as Israel's authentic wisdom tradition and pressing its calendar and purity rules on the believers, so the observance was ordinary Jewish covenantal life.; James D. G. Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 148-51, 173-79; James D. G. Dunn, "The Colossian Philosophy: A Confident Jewish Apologia," Biblica 76 (1995): 153-81; N. T. Wright, The Epistles of Paul to the Colossians and to Philemon, TNTC (Leicester: IVP, 1986), 101-02, 118-20
  • contestedA Jewish core had been absorbed into a wider mixture of Hellenistic mysticism and local piety in which cosmic powers were held to govern the cycles of time and to require observance.; Eduard Lohse, Colossians and Philemon, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1971), 115-17, 127-28; Peter T. O'Brien, Colossians, Philemon, WBC 44 (Waco: Word, 1982), 138-42; Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 46-60, 219-25
  • contestedThe days were kept as ritual defense against hostile spirit powers of magic and astrology, in the folk religion of the Lycus Valley.; Clinton E. Arnold, The Colossian Syncretism: The Interface between Christianity and Folk Belief at Colossae, WUNT 2/77 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1995), 158-94, 214-19
  • contestedJewish visionaries fasted on the festivals and new moons as ascetic preparation for heavenly ascent and for sharing in the worship of angels.; Ian K. Smith, Heavenly Perspective: A Study of the Apostle Paul's Response to a Jewish Mystical Movement at Colossae, LNTS 326 (London: T&T Clark, 2006), chs. 5, 8; Jerry L. Sumney, Colossians: A Commentary, NTL (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008), 149-56; Scot McKnight, The Letter to the Colossians, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018)
Col 2:16

Whether Colossians 2:16 leaves new moon observance in place or retires it.

  • majorityPaul forbids only the judging, not the keeping: his verb is "let no one judge you," not "do not observe," and he denies the Colossian teachers the right to condemn believers who do not keep the days, on the same pattern as Romans 14:5-6.; James D. G. Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 173-79; Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 219-24; Markus Barth and Helmut Blanke, Colossians, Anchor Bible 34B (New York: Doubleday, 1994), 336-43; David W. Pao, Colossians and Philemon, ZECNT (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 180-89
  • minorityThe shadow and substance contrast of the next verse effectively retires the observances: they may still be kept, but they have lost their function now that Christ, the reality they anticipated, has come.; G. K. Beale, Colossians and Philemon, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019), 224-27
  • minorityPaul is defending the observance of the days against ascetic critics who wanted them fasted rather than feasted.; Samuele Bacchiocchi, From Sabbath to Sunday: A Historical Investigation of the Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity (Rome: Pontifical Gregorian University Press, 1977); Ron du Preez, Judging the Sabbath: Discovering What Can't Be Found in Colossians 2:16 (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2008)

What scholars say about noumēnia

The lexicons converge with little remainder. LSJ glosses νουμηνία as "the new moon: the first of the month"; BDAG defines it as "the festival celebrated at the beginning of the month," identifies the Colossians 2:16 instance as the Jewish new moon festival, and cross-references Numbers 28:11-15, 1 Samuel 20:5, 2 Kings 4:23, Isaiah 1:13, and Ezekiel 45:17; Louw and Nida place it in the domain of festivals (§51.5); Muraoka gives "new moon, i.e., the first day of a (lunar) month" for Septuagint usage. Delling's TDNT article on μήν, νεομηνία treats the two spellings as identical in sense, the uncontracted νεομηνία being Ionic and standard in the Septuagint and the contracted νουμηνία Attic (prescribed by Phrynichus); NA28 prints νεομηνίας at Colossians 2:16 while the Textus Receptus and Byzantine tradition read νουμηνίας, a difference of spelling only. Moulton and Milligan document the ordinary commercial life of the term in Ptolemaic and later papyri, where the new moon was the due date for rent, wages, and debt, and Mikalson describes the Athenian civic noumenia sacred to Apollo and the household gods, a day Plutarch called the holiest of days. In the Septuagint the word renders חֹדֶשׁ wherever the sense is the new moon day rather than the month (for which μήν was preferred), and occasionally רֹאשׁ חֹדֶשׁ (Numbers 10:10; 28:11); the distribution is broad, from Numbers and 1 Samuel through Ezra, Nehemiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, and Amos. The decisive datum for Colossians 2:16 is that ἑορτή / νουμηνία / σάββατον is a fixed Septuagint idiom for Israel's total sacred calendar (1 Chronicles 23:31; 2 Chronicles 2:4; 8:13; 31:3; Nehemiah 10:34; Isaiah 1:13-14; Ezekiel 45:17; Hosea 2:11), with Ezekiel and Hosea giving it in Paul's own annual, monthly, weekly order and with the same plural for the sabbaths; Lightfoot already called the phrase an exhaustive enumeration in 1875, Dunn calls the identification beyond dispute, and Decker has argued the case at length as an Old Covenant colloquialism. For first-century practice, Philo ranks the new moon third among the ten Jewish feasts (Special Laws 2.140-44) and catalogues the Numbers 28 offerings (1.177-80), distinguishing the sacred new moon of the seventh month at 2.188; Josephus paraphrases the same offerings (Antiquities 3.238-39) and records the priestly trumpet signal from the Temple (Jewish War 5.230); Mishnah Rosh ha-Shanah 1:3-2:8 preserves the crescent-witness procedure, the interrogation of witnesses, and the signal fires later replaced by messengers; and the Qumran 364-day calendar polemic (Jubilees 6:32-38, with VanderKam, Beckwith, Talmon, and Ben-Dov) shows by its very vehemence how universal empirical lunar reckoning was, though Stern has questioned how functional the sectarian scheme really was. Sanders summarizes the day in first-century practice as a time of rest and religious observance on which the shops closed, though less rigorously than on the sabbath.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • Walter Bauer, Frederick W. Danker, W. F. Arndt, and F. W. Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), s.v. νεομηνίαlexicon
  • Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, and Henry Stuart Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. with rev. suppl. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), s.v. νουμηνίαlexicon
  • Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed. (New York: United Bible Societies, 1989), §51.5lexicon
  • Takamitsu Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Leuven: Peeters, 2009), s.v. νεομηνία / νουμηνίαlexicon
  • Gerhard Delling, "μήν, νεομηνία," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. G. Kittel and G. Friedrich, trans. G. W. Bromiley, vol. 4 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1967), 638-42theological dictionary
  • James Hope Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament Illustrated from the Papyri and Other Non-Literary Sources (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1930), s.v. νεομηνία / νουμηνίαlexicon
  • H. Eising, "חֹדֶשׁ ḥōdesh," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, ed. G. J. Botterweck and H. Ringgren, vol. 4 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), 225-44theological dictionary
  • Shemaryahu Talmon, "New Moon," in Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman, vol. 4 (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 1005-06dictionary
  • J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon (London: Macmillan, 1875; rev. 1879), 193commentary
  • James D. G. Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon: A Commentary on the Greek Text, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 173-79commentary
  • Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 219-25commentary
  • Peter T. O'Brien, Colossians, Philemon, WBC 44 (Waco: Word, 1982), 138-42commentary
  • Eduard Lohse, Colossians and Philemon, Hermeneia, trans. William R. Poehlmann and Robert J. Karris (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1971), 115-17, 127-28commentary
  • Markus Barth and Helmut Blanke, Colossians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, trans. Astrid B. Beck, Anchor Bible 34B (New York: Doubleday, 1994), 336-43commentary
  • N. T. Wright, The Epistles of Paul to the Colossians and to Philemon, TNTC (Leicester: IVP; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986), 118-20commentary
  • G. K. Beale, Colossians and Philemon, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019), 224-27commentary
  • David W. Pao, Colossians and Philemon, ZECNT (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 180-89commentary
  • Jerry L. Sumney, Colossians: A Commentary, NTL (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008), 149-56commentary
  • Clinton E. Arnold, The Colossian Syncretism: The Interface between Christianity and Folk Belief at Colossae, WUNT 2/77 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1995), 158-94, 214-19monograph
  • Ian K. Smith, Heavenly Perspective: A Study of the Apostle Paul's Response to a Jewish Mystical Movement at Colossae, LNTS 326 (London: T&T Clark, 2006)monograph
  • Timothy L. Decker, "The Feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths of Colossians 2:16 in Old Testament and Ancient, Non-Biblical Literature: A Case for an Old Covenant Colloquialism," Journal of IRBS Theological Seminary (2018): 45-73article
  • T. C. G. Thornton, "Jewish New Moon Festivals, Galatians 4:3-11 and Colossians 2:16," Journal of Theological Studies 40.1 (1989): 97-100article
  • Troy W. Martin, "Pagan and Judeo-Christian Time-Keeping Schemes in Gal 4.10 and Col. 2.16," New Testament Studies 42 (1996): 105-19article
  • Jon D. Mikalson, "The Noumenia and Epimenia in Athens," Harvard Theological Review 65 (1972): 291-96article
  • Sacha Stern, Calendar and Community: A History of the Jewish Calendar, Second Century BCE to Tenth Century CE (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 21-22, 116-20monograph
  • James C. VanderKam, Calendars in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Measuring Time (London: Routledge, 1998), 74-90monograph
  • Roger T. Beckwith, Calendar and Chronology, Jewish and Christian, AGJU 33 (Leiden: Brill, 1996)monograph
  • Jonathan Ben-Dov, Head of All Years: Astronomy and Calendars at Qumran in Their Ancient Context, STDJ 78 (Leiden: Brill, 2008)monograph
  • E. P. Sanders, Judaism: Practice and Belief, 63 BCE to 66 CE (London: SCM; Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1992), 132-33monograph
  • Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions, trans. John McHugh (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1961), 469-70monograph
  • Emil Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, rev. and ed. Geza Vermes, Fergus Millar, and Matthew Black (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1973-1987), 1:587-601monograph

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of νουμηνία

genitive f s

νεομηνίας

Col 2:16