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I believe the Bible mentions "winter" a total of 16 times. (I am hopeful the following is an appropriate question)

For example Matthew 24:20

Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath.

When the bible refers to winter in the 17 different verse what type of climate is it referring to? Most specifically does "winter" mean the same thing for all the 16 verses, or is there any specific way to tell?

Climate Map Full image

More importantly how much snow fall are we dealing with or was there not any snow in the demographics/time the bible was written?

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Winter refers to what climate

According to ISBE, Winter is the "rainy season." The rainy season ushers in a marked change in temperature from highs during the summer ranging from 85°F to triple digits. The "winter" months have both hard frosts and snow each year.

Apparently the biblical writers were not focused as much on "seasons" as they were on times when various events were taking place; planting, harvest, rain, drought, etc.

Two words stand out with regard to "times/seasons," namely, môʿēḏ (from which come the "appointed times") and ʿēṯ. These words stand out in passages such as:

For more on this, especially seasons/times, see ISBE Volume 4, page 375

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    What is ISBE? Surely it isn't Illinois State Board of Education which is the top Google result? Do you have a link? Apr 2, 2014 at 19:25
  • @Cohen_the_Librarian So sorry. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.
    – DrFry
    Apr 2, 2014 at 19:34
  • The best way to add additional information to your post is by editing it, with the edit button. It is more visible that way, and comments are mainly for secondary, temporary purposes. Comments are removed under a variety of circumstances. Anything important to your post should be in the post itself.
    – Dan
    Apr 2, 2014 at 22:27
  • If you don't mind me asking how much snow/frost would you guess?
    – William
    Apr 3, 2014 at 0:36
  • @LiamWilliam Snowfall would be less than one inch annually (on average), although Jerusalem received approximately 12 inches of snow on December 13, 2013.
    – DrFry
    Apr 3, 2014 at 16:31
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In Aramaic of Peshitta this word for winter is ܒܣܬܘܐ and it can also (apart from winter) mean tempest, foul weather, stormy weather (according to Lexicon to the Syriac New Testament by William Jennings and J. Payne Smith's A Compendious Syriac Dictionary). You could think about interpreting Matthew 24:20 as referring to a stormy weather.

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