TR: chodesh → mēn (Month / New Moon)

The Chain

Hebrew OT              LXX (Greek OT)           Greek NT
───────────            ───────────────           ────────
חֹדֶשׁ (chodesh)    →   μήν (mēn)            →   μήν (mēn)
H2320, 224v             LXX co-occ: 107x          18v in NT
"new moon; month"       (PMI: 30.73)              "month"

                     →   νουμηνία (noumēnia)
                         LXX co-occ: 22x
                         "new moon" (cultic sense)

OT Usage (Hebrew)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
H2320	חֹדֶשׁ (chodesh)	224v	the new moon; by implication, a month

Root: H2318 chadash "to be new" — the word literally means "the new (thing)," referring to the reappearance of the moon.

Key OT passages: - Exo 12:2 — "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you" (calendar institution) - Num 28:11 — "in the beginnings of your months ye shall offer a burnt offering unto the LORD" (new moon sacrifices) - 1Sa 20:5 — "Behold, to morrow is the new moon" (new moon as social/cultic observance)

H2320-chodesh.md

LXX Bridge

Hebrew	Greek Translation	Co-occ	Notes
chodesh H2320	μήν (mēn) G3376	107x	Calendar-month sense — dominant rendering
chodesh H2320	νουμηνία (noumēnia) G3561	22x	New-moon festival sense
chodesh H2320	ἑορτή (heortē) G1859	24x	Contextual "feast" rendering

Reverse — what Hebrew words μήν translates:

Hebrew	Co-occ	Notes
חֹדֶשׁ (chodesh) H2320	107x	Dominant source (PMI 30.73)
שָׁנֶה (shaneh) H8141	51x	"year" — contextual overlap in date formulas
יֶרַח (yerach) H3391	7x	The alternate Hebrew word for "month"

Semantic split in translation: The LXX translators systematically divided chodesh into two Greek words based on sense. When chodesh refers to a calendar month (date formulas, durations), they used μήν. When it refers to the new-moon festival or observance, they used νουμηνία. This split confirms that ancient readers understood chodesh as carrying both an astronomical and a cultic meaning — the Greek language required two words where Hebrew used one.

NT Usage (Greek)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
G3376	μήν (mēn)	18v	a month (time unit only)
G3561	νουμηνία (noumēnia)	1v	new moon (Col 2:16 only)

Key NT passages: - Luk 1:24 — "his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months" - Gal 4:10 — "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years" (calendrical observance list) - Rev 9:5 — "they should be tormented five months" (prophetic time period) - Col 2:16 — "Let no man therefore judge you... in respect of... the new moon" (noumēnia — the only NT occurrence of the cultic sense)

G3376-men.md

Continuity and Shifts

What stays the same across testaments: - The calendar-month sense carries through without change: Hebrew chodesh → LXX μήν → NT μήν all denote a month as a time unit - The new-moon cultic observance is recognized in both testaments (OT new moon sacrifices → Col 2:16 noumēnia)

What shifts: - The NT uses μήν exclusively as a neutral time unit (durations, prophetic periods). The cultic "new moon" sense is entirely captured by νουμηνία (G3561) in the single occurrence at Col 2:16 - The rich OT texture — where chodesh simultaneously evokes astronomical observation, calendar reckoning, and cultic celebration — narrows in the NT to a simple temporal measurement word - The prophetic eschatological vision of Isa 66:23 ("from one new moon to another shall all flesh come to worship") has no direct NT quotation, though the concept of ongoing worship is carried by other vocabulary

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Generated from: gather_trace_data.py, search_strongs.py (--lxx-map, --hebrew-source, --lookup) Last updated: 2026-05-09