section_path: History/Month names
section_name: Month names
paragraph_text: Month names
  
  Biblical references to the pre-exilic calendar include ten of the twelve months identified by number rather than by name.
  
  Prior to the Babylonian captivity, the names of only four months are referred to in the Tanakh: Aviv (first month), Ziv (second month), Ethanim (seventh month), and Bul (eighth month). All of these are believed to be Canaanite names. The last three of these names are only mentioned in connection with the building of the First Temple and Håkan Ulfgard suggests that the use of what are rarely used Canaanite (or in the case of Ethanim perhaps Northwest Semitic) names indicates that "the author is consciously utilizing an archaizing terminology, thus giving the impression of an ancient story...". Alternatively, these names may be attributed to the presence of Phoenician scribes in Solomon's court at the time of the building of the Temple.
  
  During the Babylonian captivity, the Jewish people adopted the Babylonian names for the months. The Babylonian calendar descended directly from the Sumerian calendar. These Babylonian month-names (such as Nisan, Iyyar, Tammuz, Ab, Elul, Tishri and Adar) are shared with the modern Levantine solar calendar (currently used in the Arabic -speaking countries of the Fertile Crescent) and the modern Assyrian calendar, indicating a common origin. The origin is thought to be the Babylonian calendar.