Hope of Israel Ministries (Ecclesia of YEHOVAH):
Have We Been Observing YEHOVAH’s Sabbath At the Wrong
Time All These Years?
|
The
centuries-encompassing debates, over which day of the |
John D. Keyser
For hundreds of
years a controversy has been raging between those who advocate a Sunday Sabbath
and those who keep a Saturday Sabbath. Most people have been reared in a
Sunday-observing world and, naturally, have taken Sunday observance for
granted. Nostalgic memories of musty pews, church picnics, choirs and family
togetherness are firmly lodged in the minds of millions. The idea of a
different day for the Sabbath day strikes them as fanatical and absurd. Some
people believe Saturday is the right day and insist that Saturday is the only
day the Bible anywhere commands us to keep. They even go as far as saying that
people are sinning -- that they have the “mark of the beast” and shall suffer
the seven last plagues -- if they observe Sunday instead of keeping the seventh
day on Saturday! To most Protestant Church Christians, these “Saturday keepers”
are legalistic, ritualistic and are decidedly on the “fringe” of accepted
mainstream religion -- out of step with the majority and perhaps a little
strange!
Notes author Jonathan Brown:
In
our day disputes between “Sabbatarians,” (Saturday sabbath) and “Lord’s Day”
keepers are of such a variety that they now even include the theories of
whether a “day” includes the “night” or dark hours where there is no sunlight;
and whether sabbath begins at noon because noon is actually the “evening.”
These arguments are all based upon the assumption that our current seven-day
cycle is something which has always been with mankind. Indeed, the Seventh-Day
churches fervently argue that Sunday through Saturday has run continuously from
creation. However, just because we grew up with this cycle doesn’t mean it
always existed (Keeping Yahweh’s Appointments. 1998, pp. 40-41).
Does the Bible
anywhere establish Sunday as the Lord’s Day, or was Saturday given for the
Jewish people only while Christians are commanded to keep Sunday as the Lord’s
Day? Why all the confusion?
Has anybody ever
stopped and asked: Is it just possible that both sides in this controversy
could be wrong? How do we know the present weekly cycle is the same that
YEHOVAH God established back in Genesis 1 and 2, and then re-revealed to the
Israelites in Exodus 16 after they left Egypt for the Promised Land?
A Bold Assertion?
In a booklet
first published by the Worldwide Church of God in 1952, this bold assertion is
made:
Is
it possible to know? YES! -- you can be sure -- you can PROVE -- which day of
the week today, is the same seventh day God rested on, blessed, and set apart
at Creation! Here is the PLAIN TRUTH -- seven separate proofs -- each
conclusive and irrefutable. Yes, you can be SURE!
The author, Herbert W. Armstrong, goes on to
say:
Granted,
the Bible says the SEVENTH day is the SABBATH
OF THE LORD THY GOD. Granted that God did, at creation,
make the seventh day HOLY TIME, and that He has commanded us to KEEP it holy.
But how can we know, today, WHICH day is the true seventh day God blessed and
made holy at CREATION? Has time been lost? Has the calendar been CHANGED? (Has
Time Been Lost, p. 5).
In the booklet, “Biblical
Holy Days, Yesterday – Today -- Forever,” we read: “The seventh day is
special to Yahweh and His chosen. It is a day we spend in close communion with
Him. Because the Sabbath comes around every week, the Fourth Commandment is one
of the most ignored and broken of all. Keeping any day other than the seventh
is nowhere sanctified in the Bible. Sunday was brought into churchianity by the
influence of pagan sun worshipers who observed ‘sun-day’ in honor of the sun
deity. The Roman church hated anything ‘Jewish,’ and was more than happy to
accomodate the pagans” (p. 12).
Reflects Herbert
W. Armstrong: “Would God set apart a certain day, put His blessing on it
(Genesis 2:1-3), make it HOLY TIME, command that it be KEPT HOLY FOREVER, and
then let that holy time become so lost we cannot tell when to keep it? TIME
LOST? If so, then you and I are LOST, for it is SIN to profane God’s Sabbath!”
(Has Time Been Lost?, pp. 21-22 ).
These are valid
questions and statements. But can we be sure, beyond a reasonable doubt, that
the day of Saturday in our Roman (Gregorian) calendar is the SAME day that
YEHOVAH God blessed in Genesis 2:3? And, is it the same day that YEHOVAH went
to great lengths to reveal to the Israelites after the Exodus? Has time indeed
been lost? How can we know? We need to be sure --our very life depends on it!
The Gregorian Calendar
The present
Gregorian calendar, which is solar based, came into being in March of 1582 --
when Pope Gregory issued a brief in which he abolished the use of the ancient
Julian calendar and replaced it with what became known as the Gregorian or New
Style Calendar. The originator of the system adopted by Pope Gregory was
Aloysius Lilius, or Luigi Lilio Ghiraldi, a learned astronomer and physician of
Naples; but the individual who contributed the most toward giving the
ecclesiastical calendar its present form was a man by the name of Clavius. He
was charged with all the calculations necessary for its verification, and
published in 1603 a great folio treatise of 800 pages explaining the new
calendar's development.
The previous
Julian calendar was founded on two suppositions that proved to be inaccurate --
namely that the year contains 365 1/4 days and that 235 lunations are exactly
equal to 19 solar years. It could not, therefore, long continue to preserve its
correspondence with the seasons, or to indicate the days of the new moons
with the same accuracy. The Julian year was 11 minutes and 14 seconds longer
than the solar year. This discrepancy accumulated until by 1582 the vernal
equinox occurred ten days early and Church holidays did not occur in the
appropriate seasons.
Explains Herbert W. Armstrong:
The
Julian calendar was imperfect -- it inserted leap years too frequently. Back in
45 B.C. they supposed the year was exactly 365 1/4 days long, and to take care
of the extra one-fourth day each year, added a day to the month of February
every four years. But it was found later the year was 12 minutes and 14 seconds
shorter than this. Consequently, by the time of Pope Gregory, the calendar had
drifted TEN DAYS away from the seasons. The Spring equinox, consequently, fell
on March 11th, instead of March 21st (ibid., p. 6).
Gregory's brief
or decree dropped ten days from the Julian calendar and restored the beginning
of the year to the same place in the seasons that it had occupied at the
time of the council of Nicea in 325 A.D. Gregory directed that the day
following the feast of St. Francis (October 5) be reckoned as October 15. By
this regulation the vernal equinox, which then occurred on March 11, was
restored to the 21st.
The Gregorian
calendar was slowly adopted throughout Europe and is used today throughout most
of the Western world and in parts of Asia. When this new calendar was adopted
in Great Britain in 1752, another correction of an eleven-day
discrepancy was made -- the day after September 2, 1752 became September 14.
The British also adopted January 1 as the day when a new year begins. The
Soviet Union adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1918, and Greece adopted it in
1923 for civil purposes, but many countries associated with the Greek Church
retain the Julian (or Old Style) calendar for the celebration of Church feasts.
How did this
affect the weekly cycle as observed in the old Julian calendar? Notes Herbert
Armstrong --
...ten
days were dropped from the calendar. But they were dropped only from the number
of days in the MONTH, not from the number of days in the WEEK! (Has Time
Been Lost, p. 6).
The Catholic
Encyclopedia concurs with this when it says, "Thus, every
imaginable proposition was made, only one idea was never mentioned, viz., the
abandonment of the seven-day week" (vol. 9, p. 251, under article
"Lilius"). The same encyclopedia (volume 3, p. 740) under the article
"Chronology," states that "it is to be noted that in THE
CHRISTIAN PERIOD, the order of days in the week has never been
interrupted." Notice here that in "THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD" the
order of days in the week had not changed. This insinuates that prior to this
period the order of days in the week had indeed been changed! We will see
shortly what the "Christian period" of the old Julian calendar was.
However, while
the order of days in the week were apparently not changed during "The
Christian Period," the seventh day in the Gregorian calendar DOES NOT
match the seventh day in the old Hebrew calendar! Notice --
What
happened when the new Gregorian calendar, the one now used, came into
existence? While the number of days in the week remained the same, the NUMBER
of the day the Bible God designated as the seventh WAS LOST FOREVER in the
rearrangement of the months. While Saturday remained the seventh day of the
week, the SEVENTH day in the old Hebrew calendar was NOT the SEVENTH day in the
Gregorian" (The Ten Commandments, by Joseph Lewis).
"The 'New
Julian' Calendar, however, did much more than merely shift the immovable Feasts
by thirteen days," states the Orthodox Christian Information Center.
"It achieved a far more INSIDIOUS goal -- it laid waste to the
historical validity of the Festal cycle altogether. Recall that the Vatican
sought to remove the difference of eleven minutes and fourteen seconds between
the Julian Calendar and the tropical year. It did so by the introduction of
'common centesimal years,' i.e., centesimal years indivisible by four hundred
(e.g., 1700, 1800, 1900, etc.), which are reckoned to have only 365 days."
"This is
why," continues the article, "the Papal reformers claim that approximately
every 128 years the Julian Calendar falls behind the Gregorian Calendar by
TWENTY-FOUR HOURS. Even if the Gregorian calculations were correct (let us not
forget that the length of the tropical year randomly fluctuates), nonetheless
the difference between the Julian Calendar year and the tropical year should
have been accounted for gradually over the centuries. This is even more
obvious for the 'New Julian' reformers, who, abruptly and with a boorish lack
of sophistication excised the 'cumulative error' of thirteen days from the
Church Calendar. Had the 'Pan-Orthodox Congress' been intelligent and
consistent in applying its calendric principles, the Feasts introduced into the
liturgical cycle of the Holy Church in the nineteenth century should have been
adjusted by only twelve days; the Feasts from the eighteenth century
should have been adjusted by only eleven days; and so forth."
Chides the
article: "If 'accuracy' had really been such a concern, then only the
Feasts dating from the twentieth century should have been shifted by a FULL
THIRTEEN DAYS, since this discrepancy supposedly accrued from the time of the
First Ecumenical Synod. We see, however, that not one of the Holy Fathers ever
saw a need to 'correct' the Church Calendar; in general, their attitude was,
'If it isn't broken, don't fix it'" (Liturgical Havoc Wreaked By the
"New Julian" Calendar).
The article Genesis
of the Gregorian Calendar points out that "its [the Gregorian
Calendar's] disadvantages are the fact that AN APPOINTED DAY IS NOT
ALWAYS ON THE SAME WEEK DAY. Besides, the month lengths are not equal
and the holidays, which have relations to the feast of Easter are moved within
the calendar from one year to another."
The Julian Calendar
Prior to its
change in 1582, the calendar was known as the Julian calendar because it
originated at the time of Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. Following his conquest of
Egypt in 48 B.C., Julius Caesar consulted the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes
about calendar reform since the "ab urbe condita" (i.e., "from
the founding of the city (Rome)") calendar then used by the Romans was in
total confusion and completely inadequate to the needs of the emerging empire,
which Caesar was poised to command. The calendar which Julius Caesar adopted in
the year 709 a.u.c. (what we now call 46 B.C.) was almost identical to the
Alexandrian Aristarchus' calendar of 239 B.C., and consisted of a solar year of
twelve months and of 365 days with an extra day every fourth year. It is
unclear why or how Aristarchus arrived at this calendar, but one may speculate
that BABYLONIAN data or theory was involved.
Sosigenes decided
that the year known in modern times as 46 B.C. should have two intercalations.
The first was the customary intercalation of 23 days following February 23, the
second, "to bring the calendar in step with the equinoxes, was achieved by
inserting two additional months between the end of November and the beginning
of December. This insertion amounted to an addition of 67 days, making a year
of no less than 445 days and causing the beginning of March, 45 B.C. in the
Roman republican calendar, to fall on what is still called January 1 of the
Julian Calendar" (Encyclopedia Britannica, article "The
Western Calendar and Calendar Reforms").
Evidently, Julius
Caesar wanted to start the year on the Spring Equinox or the Winter Solstice,
but the Roman Senate, which traditionally took office on January 1st (the start
of the Roman civil calendar year), wanted to keep January 1st as the start of
the year, and Caesar yielded to a political compromise.
According to
Macrobius (Roman grammarian and philosopher who flourished during the reigns of
Honorius and Arcadius (395-423)) the Roman date-keepers initially misunderstood
Caesar's instructions concerning the new calendar, and erroneously held every
third year, rather than every fourth year, to be a leap year. There is actually
some dispute as to exactly which years from 43 B.C. through to 8 A.D. were
actually leap years, but a reconstruction which is consistent with the
available evidence is that every third year following 43 B.C. (i.e, 40 B.C., 37
B.C., etc.) was a leap year. This was true until 10 B.C., after which Augustus
Caesar (Julius Caesar's successor) suspended leap years altogether --
reinstating them with the leap year of 4 A.D.!
Another source of
UNCERTAINTY regarding EXACT DATING OF DAYS at this time derives from
changes made by Augustus to the lengths of the months. According to some
accounts, the month of February originally had 29 days, and in leap years 30
days (unlike 28 and 29 today). It LOST A DAY because at some point in time
the fifth and sixth months of the old Roman calendar were renamed as Julius
and Augustus respectively in honor of their namesakes. The number of
days in August -- previously 30 -- now became 31 (the same as the number of
days in July), so that Augustus Caesar would not be regarded as inferior to
Julius Caesar! Therefore, the extra day needed for August was taken from the
end of February. However, there is still a lot of uncertainty regarding these matters
-- so all dates prior to 4 A.D. (when the calendar finally became stabilized)
are UNCERTAIN.
According to
Moustafa Gadalla, "in their attempts to have a different looking calendar
than the Egyptian system [Aristarchus' calendar of 239 B.C.], both the Julian
and the Gregorian calendars fell short of the [more] precise/accurate system,
as developed by the Egyptians. Additionally, we end up with twelve months, but
with a totally confused, illogical, and haphazard numeration of the
different months."
Not only that,
but the Julian Calendar still had the trappings of the old Roman calendar --
including the EIGHT-DAY WEEK! We are told by the Encyclopedia Britannica
that the old Roman calendar had become HOPELESSLY CONFUSED by the time of
Julius Caesar. Notes the Encyclopedia Britannica --
The
working of the Roman calendar was in the hands of the pontifices, who every
month used to watch for the new moon, and, when it was seen, proclaimed from
the Capitol the number of days, five or seven, to the Nones...
Independent
of the months were the EIGHT-DAY "WEEKS" called nundinae; these had
no individual names, WERE NOT CLOSELY CONNECTED WITH ANY RELIGIOUS
PRACTICES OF IMPORTANCE, and were simply THE SPACE FROM ONE
MARKET-DAY TO ANOTHER. They are marked on the surviving calendars with the
letters A-H...
The encyclopedia goes on to say --
Owing
to the clumsiness of the pontifices, and still more to political maneuvers, by
which intercalation was made or omitted recklessly to affect a magistrate's
year of office, the calendar got into HOPELESS CONFUSION by the end of the
republic, and Julius Caesar undertook its reformation. In 46 B.C. he
intercalated, and furthermore added 67 days between November and December,
making a year of 445 days, and so bringing the civil abreast of the natural
year. Then began the new, Julian calendar, which with small modifications,
lasted until the Gregorian reforms (volume 4, 1943. Article
"Calendar").
The Eight-Day Week
We should notice
here that the old Roman calendar was based on the moon and had an EIGHT-DAY
WEEK that was simply the PERIOD OF TIME BETWEEN MARKET DAYS! This
eight-day or MARKET WEEK was a wholly ARTIFICIAL PERIOD OF TIME and
was commonly used among peoples who had suffiently advanced in civilization to
have a regular trade. Explains the Encyclopedia Britannica --
This
is a WHOLLY ARTIFICIAL PERIOD of fairly frequent occurrence among peoples who
have suffiently advanced in civilization to have a regular trade. This is the
MARKET-WEEK, or the FIXED PERIOD OF DAYS in which a market is held. It varies
in length and lasts three days among the Muysca in Bogota, four among many West
African tribes, five in Central America, the East Indian Archipelago and
old Assyria, six among a tribe in Togo, EIGHT AMONG THE ANCIENT ROMANS (the
"nundinae"), and ten among the Inca people. On the MARKET DAY,
especially in Africa, WORK IS OFTEN FORBIDDEN, certain taboos are imposed,
and RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES PERFORMED (volume 4, article "Calendar").
Prior to, and for
some three hundrd years after Julius Caesar, Roman calendars included repeating
cycles of letters A through H to represent their eight-day marketing week. Such
days became occasions to conduct business, meet in assembly, and proclaim laws
or public decisions. Eventually, they were identified either as "dies
fasti," days (identified by the letter F) on which the court of the
urban prefect could convene and legal proceedings be initiated; "dies
comitiales," days (C) on which assemblies (comitia) could be summoned
by the magistrates and business brought before them; and "dies nefasti,"
days (N) on which judicial and civil business could not be transacted. There
also were days, although not identified as such in the calendar, in which
activity either was restricted in some way (dies religiosi), avoided
altogether as unlucky (dies atri), or, if immediately following the
Calends, Nones, and Ides, tainted by historical association (dies
postriduani).
Among the dies
nefasti were "feriae" (holidays), a word which, although
plural in form (like Calendae and Nonae), applied to a single day and comprised
both private celebrations, such as birthdays and days of mourning, as well as
public ceremonies, such as the Lupercalia or Saturnalia. Public holidays
included annual festivals, for which the dates were fixed and recorded (feriae
stativae); movable holidays (feriae conceptivae), which were
determined every year; and irregular holidays (feriae imperativae) that
were proclaimed in the event of a crisis or to celebrate a victory. The days
which feriae were celebrated were "dies festi." Religious
rites were performed and lawsuits were prohibited, and there was the
opportunity for rest, even for slaves. Although not holidays themselves, "ludi"
or public games also were celebrated then.
The eight-day
weeks were totally independent of monthly divisions called Calends, Nones and
Ides. At the end of each year the A through H cycle was BROKEN. The first day
of the next year was always designated by the letter "A" to begin a
NEW CYCLE, but the market day's letter itself changed. Now when Caesar
extended the year of 46 B.C. to 445 days and made other calendar changes, the
Roman eight-day week was NOT AFFECTED.
The "Christian Period"
This remained so
until 321 A.D. when Emperor Constantine (the "Great") created the
modern seven-day week by REDUCING THE ROMAN WEEKLY CYCLE BY ONE
DAY. However, neither month nor year lengths were modified by Constantine. In
effect, Constantine took the pagan Roman calendar with its eight-day week that
revolved around the market days and lopped a day off to create our present
weekly cycle. Thus began what is known as the "Christian period" of
the Julian calendar.
Also, the
seven-day week that Constantine created out of the old Roman calendar was
based, by him, on the GREEK CALENDAR -- even further complicating things!
"It was not
until the third century," explains Joseph Lewis, "that the practice
of measuring time in cycles of seven days, each of them dedicated to the seven
planets, was to any degree universally used. The division of time into seven
days to the week as the basis of our PRESENT calendar belongs to the Greeks.
(If the Greeks had known that there were ten planets instead of only the seven
with which they were acquainted, it is quite probable that they would have
provided for a ten-day week instead of the seven-day week, for in China the
ten-day week prevailed until almost the present era.) The very names of the
days, called after the planets, were made up by the Greeks" (The Ten
Commandments).
Continuing, Lewis states that,
the
first and seventh days of the week, and particularly the number seven, were
regarded by the Greeks as sacred to the god Apollo, probably because of their
supposed relation to the seven planets. References of the seventh day implying
some special, though vague, significance of a sacred character are frequently
mentioned in Homeric poems and other early Greek records. One writer quotes the
Greek historian Strabo who wrote before the Christian era: "The Greeks and
barbarians have this in common, that they accompany their sacred rites by a
festal remission of labor" (ibid.).
Before the Greeks
came up with their seven-day week based on the then known planets, they
actually had, like the Babylonians and Egyptians of the same period, a
thirty-day month divided into three "decades" of ten days!
Even people back
in the fifth century were confused and confounded by the changes made by
Constantine to the calendar! In a letter from Bishop Paschasinus of Lilybaeum
(Marsala), Sicily, to Pope Leo the Great (461 A.D.) we find discussed a
DISCREPANCY between the Roman and Alexandrian calculations of Pascha or Easter.
Paschasinus writes --
After
much scrutiny and debate, we found that what the Patriarch of the Church of
Alexandria had written to Your Beatitude was correct. Since the Roman
computation for the year in question [444 A.D.], the sixty-third year of its
cycle...was March 26, we were inclined to doubt that this date for Pascha was
correct, but in fact that it was on April 23. CONFUSED AND UNCERTAIN, we
consulted the Jewish calculation, now ignored by the Romans -- which is why
they sometimes fall into error...
For
the time being, let us not be afraid of the lateness of the date of
Pascha, lest by trying to avoid it, we fall into error, as happened during
the reign of your predecessor, Zosimas [418 A.D.]...At that time, by
hastening the celebration of Pascha from its date of April 22 to March 25...a
very grievous error was committed; so grave that the TRUE DATE was
proved by a miracle enacted by the Grace of the Holy Spirit...(Patrologia
Latina, by J.P. Migne. Vol. lviii, cols. 606-609).
If people were
having a problem determining the date of a festival within a hundred years of
Constantine's change to the week, how on earth can we be so sure we have the
correct day for YEHOVAH's Sabbath today?
Notes the Orthodox Christian Information
Center:
From
the fourth century to the twentieth century, the "correction" of the
Gregorian Calendar in relation to the Julian Calendar increased from one to
thirteen days; by analogy, in centuries preceding the fourth, it would be
necessary to introduce a negative "correction," because the vernal
equinox would need to be moved backwards according to the Julian Calendar.
Thus, for example, the New Calendarists should not celebrate the Nativity of
Christ on December 25, but on December 23, A TWO-DAY "CORRECTION" in
the opposite direction, since December 25 according to the Old Calendar, during
the period of the first century B.C. through the first century A.D., would have
corresponded to December 23 according to the New Calendar (Liturgical
Havoc Wreaked By the "New Julian" Calendar).
Irretrievably Lost?
It is quite
aparent that YEHOVAH's true weekly cycle with the Sabbath day on the seventh
day was never a part of the Roman calendar -- and even if it was, there is
absolutely no way this cycle could have been preserved throughout all the
changes. Remarks Joseph Lewis in The Ten Commandments --
In
shifting the calendar, making January instead of September the first month of
the year, what happened to that sacred "seventh" day? It was
IRRETRIEVABLY LOST, because when these changes were made [by Julius Caesar],
Rome was living under a calendar of an eight-day week!
With such a
jumble of days and dates and changes and festivals, how is it even possible to
designate the TRUE Sabbath day?
Contrary to what
Herbert W. Armstrong said earlier, it is NOT possible to know -- you CAN'T be
sure -- you CANNOT prove -- which day of the week today, is the same seventh
day YEHOVAH God rested on, blessed, and set apart at creation -- based on the
calendar system we have inherited today! Regardless of Herbert Armstrong's
"seven separate proofs -- each conclusive and irrefutable," it is
impossible to sort out all the calendar changes that have occurred over the
millennia and arrive at YEHOVAH's true Sabbath day!
I am baffled as
to how Armstrong completely overlooked the pagan origins of our week, the Roman
eight-day week, the breaking of the weekly cycle every year and the changes
Constantine made to an already confused calendar!
To point out the
confusion and utter hopelessness in trying to figure out YEHOVAH's true Sabbath
day from the Gregorian calendar we use today, Joseph Lewis makes this
observation --
To
complicate matters and make even more impossible the designation of the seventh
day, it must further be remembered that...the Hebrew calendar was based on
LUNAR reckonings. The lunar year is shorter than the solar year by about ten
days, twenty-one hours and twelve seconds. With such a great difference, it is
utterly impossible for the Hebrew calendar to run parallel with the months as
divided under the solar year. The lunar month contains 29 1/2 days;
consequently, every five months a new day is added to the month. This would
make the original seventh day, according to the lunar calendar of 28 days to
the month, or seven days to the week, the EIGHTH day, five months later it
would make it the NINTH day, and thus the original seventh day of creation would
be totally lost down the corridors of time (ibid.).
Further,
Idelsohn, in his Ceremonies of Judaism, makes this point:
"For instance, if Thursday, October 2, 1940, was the 5,701st year since
the world was created, according to the Hebrew calculation, how is it possible
for Saturday to be the seventh day of creation? According to this reckoning,
Wednesday of the following week would be the seventh day; and since the
reckoning of the New Year according to the Hebrew calendar is constantly
changing, this is ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE substantiating the claim that if
there was a "seventh" day of creation, it has been IRRETRIEVABLY
LOST" (pp. 51-52).
The Proof of the Jewish People?
"O.K.,"
you might say, "I can see how the true weekly cycle and the seventh day
could have been lost due to all the changes that have occurred in the various
calendars. But what about the Jews? Haven't the Jews kept the true
weekly cycle throughout all their generations? Haven't the Jews preserved
YEHOVAH's true calendar? The answer to the last question is a resounding
"YES," but, as we will show, the Jews have LOST SIGHT of which day in
the weekly cycle to observe YEHOVAH's Sabbath day on! Why? Because at some time
in their history the Jews DETACHED the seven-day week from the lunar calendar
and started keeping the Sabbath according to the reckoning of the Roman calendar!
Let's make some
basic assumptions here. The fact that Yeshua the Messiah DID NOT denounce the
Jews of his day for keeping the Sabbath day on the wrong day of the week, but
denounced them for making the Sabbath a "day of bondage," clearly
indicates that the Jews were then correct as regards to which day of the week
to keep. Later, in the works of the apostles Peter and Paul, we similarly find
no trace of these stalwart men of YEHOVAH God condemning the Jews for keeping
the wrong day. Since Paul was martyred in 67 A.D., and Peter followed him the
next year, it is probably safe to say that the Jews were keeping the correct
Sabbath day right up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. by the Romans.
Writes Herbert W. Armstrong --
Now
if we are convinced that Jesus set us a RIGHT example, and that He observed the
RIGHT seventh day, we need have no further difficulty.
Notice,
the day Jesus kept AS HIS CUSTOM (Luke 4:16) was the same day all the Jews
kept, for they were holding their religious service in the synagogue --
verses 17, 20.
About
43 years after this the Jewish people were driven into EVERY NATION ON
EARTH. From that time until now, they have been separated, scattered into all
nations. Through the Middle Ages, the Jews in China had no way of communicating
with the Jews of Africa; the Jews in Europe with those of other parts of the
world. Yet today, with communication restored over every part of the world, we
do NOT find the Jews all mixed up.
If
time had been lost, the Jews of one part of the world would be observing one
day, and the Jews of other parts other days. But everywhere -- in EVERY
NATION ON EARTH, we find the Jewish people having been keeping the
SAME IDENTICAL DAY -- the day we call SATURDAY -- the true seventh day (Has
Time Been Lost?, pp. 19-20).
This seems
logical at first glance. However, the fact that the Jews all over the world are
keeping the same day for the Sabbath only means they are all using the same
calendar! This does not confirm, in any way, that the calendar they are keeping
is correct in every detail or that they are correctly using it to determine the
true Sabbath!!
Palestinian Versus Babylonian Jews
Following the
halocaust that consumed Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the Palestinian Jews struggled
hard to retain control of the calendar. Notes the Encyclopedia Britannica:
The
calendar was originally fixed by observation, and ultimately by calculation. Up
to the fall of the Temple (A.D. 70), witnesses who saw the new moon came
forward and were strickly examined and if their evidence was accepted the month
was fixed by the priests. Eventually the authority passed to the
SANHEDRIN and ultimately to the PATRIARCH. When necessary, a second
"Adar" was inserted in order that the reaping of the corn should come
at Passover. Gradually observation gave place to calculation. The right
to determine the calendar was reserved to the PATRIARCHATE; the JEWS
OF MESOPOTAMIA tried in vain to establish their own calendar but
the perogative of Palestine was zealously defended.
Continues the encyclopedia --
So
long as Palestine remained a religious centre, it was naturally to the homeland
that the Diaspora looked for its calendar. Uniformity was essential, for if
different parts had celebrated feasts on different days confusion would have
ensued. IT WAS NOT UNTIL THE 4TH CENTURY A.D. THAT BABYLON FIXED
THE CALENDAR...The Talmud speaks of various New Year's Days. It may be
regarded as certain that in Palestine the New Year [Rosh Hoshana] began in
NISSAN (cf. Exod. xii.2) and IN BABYLON in TISHRI (volume 4, article
"Calendar").
What's
interesting about this is the fact that considerable changes were made to the
calendar by the Babylonian Jews at almost the SAME TIME that Emperor
Constantine made a MAJOR change to the Julian Calendar!
What is not
realized by many is that control of the calendar implied ultimate POLITICAL
AUTHORITY in Judaism. In other words, whoever controlled the calendar also
controlled the destiny of the Jewish people -- for good or for evil! In the
Talmud we find the story of a man who tried to exercise control over the
calendar in the days following the third Jewish revolt against the Romans --
According
to a story preserved in the Talmudim, Rabbi Hananiah, the nephew of Rabbi
Joshua, fled to Babylonia after the third Jewish revolt and there attempted to
intercalate the calendar. CONTROL of the calendar was of IMMENSE IMPORTANCE in
Jewish life because calendar intercalation determined the days on which all
religious observances, including those mandated in the Holy Scriptures, were
observed. Calendar control thus involved the ULTIMATE POLITICAL AUTHORITY in
Judaism.. During the Second Temple period (which ended in 70 C.E.), this
authority was very probably vested in the HIGH PRIEST. In the period after 70
C.E., THE RABBIS ARROGATED THIS AUTHORITY TO THEMSELVES. In the story
that appears in the Talmudim, Rabbi Hananiah, an emigre Judean scholar, tried
to assert the SUPREMACY OF BABYLONIAN JEWRY by asserting its right (that
is, his own right while in Babylonia) to intercalate the calendar. His attempt
was unsuccessful because it was SEVERAL CENTURIES TOO EARLY. This
authority remained for some time with the rabbis in the land of Israel (Christianity
and Rabbinic Judaism, edited by Hershal Shanks, p. 197).
Later, on page 262, Hershal Shanks elaborates
on this --
While
a sage in Babylonia attempted to intercalate the Jewish calendar following the
destruction in Palestine of the Bar-Kokhba uprising, this was considered almost
tantamount to heresy; THE THREAT TO PALESTINIAN HEGEMONY WAS THWARTED.
All
this BEGAN TO CHANGE IN THE THIRD CENTURY C.E.
Ultimately the rabbis of Babylonia themselves cited, in retrospect, the return
of one of their own, Rav (Abba), to Babylonia in 219 C.E., as the BEGINNING OF
A NEW ERA in the relative status of the two great Jewish communities: "We
have made ourselves [or, consider ourselves] in Babylonia like Eretz Israel --
from when Rav went down to Babylonia." While this may seem to telescope a
long drawn out process into one identifiable event, the fact is that the date designated
in that statement indeed POINTS ACCURATELY TO THE EARLY THIRD CENTURY, when
Babylonia's star began to rise (ibid., p. 262).
While the control
of the calendar remained in the hands of the Palestinian Jews it was inviolate,
but when control passed to the Babylonian Jews events occurred that affected
the calendar and the keeping of YEHOVAH's true Sabbath day. The environment
that brought this about is discussed by Hershal Shanks in the following pages
of his book: "As we enter the third century, we find that the Jews of
Babylonia have at their head an EXILARCH (resh galuta, 'head of the Diaspora')
with [false] claims to Davidic lineage...the exilarchate was undoubtedly a
POTENT FORCE throughout the Talmudic period in Babylonia -- the period which began
as the SASSANIAN DYNASTY assumed the local throne from their predecessors, the
Arsacids in 224 C.E."
Continues Shanks:
"In the face of the centralizing tendencies of the new monarchy, which
probably threatened (or was feared to threaten) the autonomous framework of
Jewish life, the exilarchate represented the Jewish community before the
authorities. At the same time it regulated much of the economic and social life
of the Jews of Babylonia. Their success was probably a major factor in the
continued THRIVING OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY on the banks of the Euphrates
and Tigris rivers."
"But the
exilarchate did not rule the Babylonian Jewish communities single-handedly.
Alongside the exilarch a new framework of leadership -- THE RABBIS OF BABYLON
-- emerged."
Notes Hershal
Shanks: "If the rabbis of Babylonia were PRUDENT in their relations with
the exilarch, they were EVEN MORE CAUTIOUS in defining and publicly stating
their attitude toward the GOVERNMENT. As we have already noted, it is in
Babylonia [not Palestine] that we encounter the well-formulated principle that
'THE LAW OF THE GOVERNMENT IS LAW.' Even when the
REVITALIZED ZOROASTRIAN RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENT took extreme steps
to ensure that the major tenets of its religion not be debased, these steps
were not construed by the local Jewish community as persecutions [how could
this be unless the Jews caved in to the country's religious
establishment?]" (ibid., pp. 263-264).
Shanks brings out
the fact that there were very marked differences in the ATTITUDE TOWARD
GOVERNMENT and the preservation of Jewish religion and life between the
Palestinian and Babylonian Jews. The Palestinian Jews jealously guarded their
religion and way of life while the Babylonian Jews were clearly willing to
accomodate the government of their area and COMPROMISE certain principles they
held. Hershal Shanks plainly highlights this in another part of his book --
One
enlightening example relates to the attitude of the two Talmudim to Gentile
governments under whose rule the local Jewish communities found themselves. The
underlying perception of many PALESTINIAN SAGES, already evident in the Mishnah
and even more so in the Palestinian Talmud, is that Roman rule of Palestine is
not only EVIL but in fact ILLEGITIMATE, at least within the boundaries of Eretz
Israel -- thus ENCOURAGING, for instance, anyone who might wish to REFRAIN
FROM PAYING TAXES to do so BY ANY MEANS at their disposal. The
accepted attitude in the BABYLONIAN TALMUD, on the other hand, is that
"THE LAW OF THE KINGDOM IS LAW" (dina de-malkhuta
dina), with all the concomitant requirements to remain a LAW-ABIDING
CITIZEN" (Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism, pp. 254-255).
Divorcing the Sabbath
The fact that the
Babylonian Jews prospered greatly by following the maxim of "the law of the
kingdom is law" indicates that compromises were made along the way --
including restructuring the week to parallel that used in the country in
which they were living. The New Schaff-Herzog Religious Encyclopedia
takes note of this radical change to the calendar:
"The
association of sabbath rest with the account of creation must have been very
ancient among the Hebrews, and it is noteworthy that no other Semitic peoples,
even the Babylonians, have any tradition of the creation in six days. It would
appear that the primitive Semites had FOUR CHIEF MOONDAYS, probably the first,
eighth, fifteenth, and twenty-second
of EACH month, CALLED SABBATHS from the fact that there was a tendency to end
work before them so that they might be celebrated joyfully. Among the
Babylonians these seventh days through astrological conceptions became
ill-omened, while the sabbath in the middle of the month was made a day of
propitiation, and its name was construed as meaning 'the day for ending the
wrath of the gods.' The Israelites, on the other hand, made the sabbaths [as
anchored to the moon] the feasts of a living and holy God. The work of man
became symbolic of the work of God, and human rest of divine rest, so that the
sabbaths became preeminently days of rest. Since, moreover, the LUNAR MONTH had
29 or 30 days, the normal lapse of time between sabbaths was SIX DAYS, although
sometimes seven or eight; and six working days were accordingly assigned to the
creation, which was to furnish a prototype for human life. THE CONNECTION OF THE
SABBATH WITH LUNAR PHASES, however, WAS DISCARDED BY THE ISRAELITES
[JEWS]...AND THE WEEKS WERE ACCORDINGLY DIVORCED FROM THE DAYS OF THE MONTHS
AND WERE MADE TO FOLLOW IN SUCCESSION THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, a more
regular correspondence with the week of creation being thus secured. [Or, a
more regular correspondence with the economic realities of the environment in
which they lived.] The first lunar day, however, or the day of THE
NEW MOON, retained, although no longer called sabbath, somewhat of
its sabbatical character, so that in the Old Testament IT FREQUENTLY APPEARS AS
A PENDANT OF THE SABBATH" (Edited by Samuel Macauley. 1912. Vol. X,
pp. 135-136).
In the Universal
Jewish Encyclopedia we find a similar entry that also points to the
Jewish divorcement from YEHOVAH's true Sabbath day --
The
idea of the week, as a subdivision of the month, seems to have arisen in
Babylonia, where each lunar month was divided into four parts, corresponding
to the four phases of the moon. The first week of each month began with
the new moon, so that, as the lunar month was one or two days more than
four periods of seven days, these additional days were not reckoned at all.
Every seventh day (sabbatum) was regarded as an unlucky day [an
obvious corruption of God's meaning for the day]. This method of reckoning time
spread westward through Syria and Palestine, and was adopted by the
Israelites, probably after they settled in Palestine. With the
development of the importance of the Sabbath as a day of consecration and the emphasis
laid upon the significant number seven, the week became more and more DIVORCED
from its lunar connection...(Volume 10, 1943. Article, "Week,"
p. 482).
In actual fact,
we will see that the Israelites adopted the lunar week shortly after leaving
the bondage of Egypt -- more of this later.
In his book
written in 1985, Jewish scholar Eviatar Zerubavel expounds on the fact that the
seven-day cycle (Sunday through Saturday) went through a number of
metamorphoses to finally be known as the ASTROLOGICAL WEEK. He also states
emphatically that this "week is not anchored in nature in any way..."
boasting that " a CONTINUOUS SEVEN-DAY CYCLE that runs through history
paying no attention whatsoever to the MOON AND ITS PHASES is a distinctly
Jewish invention. Moreover, THE DISSOCIATION OF THE SEVEN-DAY WEEK FROM
NATURE HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS OF JUDAISM TO
CIVILIZATION" [dissociation from nature = contributions?!] (The
Seven Day Circle, p. 14).
Earlier in his
book (on page 10) Professor Zerubavel comments that "only by establishing
a weekly cycle of an UNVARYING, STANDARD LENGTH could society guarantee that
the continuity of its life would never be interrupted by NATURAL PHENOMENA SUCH
AS THE LUNAR CYCLE. The DISSOCIATION OF THE WEEK FROM THE LUNAR CYCLE, is,
therefore, the most significant breakthrough in the evolution of this cycle
from its somewhat rudimentary and imperfect predecessor."
While I disagree
that YEHOVAH's weekly cycle is "somewhat rudimentary and imperfect,"
Zerubavel clearly brings out the fact that the Jews CHANGED the weekly cycle as
given by YEHOVAH God. And WHY did they change the cycle? So that commercial
enterprise would not be disrupted!! Notes Jonathan Brown --
It
is quite easy to see how flowing with the natural rhythm of the moon cycle
would disrupt commercial enterprise. When you're waiting with a truck load of
rotting vegetables, who wants to wait for the new moon to be gone? The uninterrupted
flow of our current seven-day cycle was thus very appealing to our predecessors
who were caught up in BUILDING COMMERCE" (Keeping Yahweh's
Appointments, p. 92).
Zerubavel adds:
"Hence the indispensability of a CONTINUOUS WEEK for the establishment of
settled life with a high level of social organization, particularly significant
since the RISE OF A MARKET ECONOMY, which involved orderly contact on
regular recurrent, periodic MARKET DAYS" (The Seven Day Circle,
p. 10).
Concludes Joseph
Lewis, "now that the Jews have ABANDONED THE OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH as
the bond between them and their God, they should discontinue the observance [to
be logical] of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur and COMPLETE their emancipation from
this demoralizing superstition" (The Ten Commandments).
While this
passage has an obvious anti-Semitic bent, it does highlight the fact that the
Jews have DIVORCED THEMSELVES from YEHOVAH's true Sabbath and weekly cycle! In
order to have their Sabbath come at regular intervals, they abandoned the lunar
cycle of their forebears and adopted the seventh day of the pagan week that was
prevalent in the world in which they lived. Instead of keeping their Sabbath in
accordance with the moon's changes, the Jews of Babylonia decided upon the
seventh day REGARDLESS of its coincidence with the moon's variations.
In the Wilderness of Sin
Where do we stand
now? We have seen that both the Jews and the world at large have lost sight of
YEHOVAH's true Sabbath day. Time indeed has been lost -- and with it the weekly
cycle as set up by YEHOVAH God in Genesis 1 and 2. What can we do? Are we lost
-- have we lost that "connection" to YEHOVAH God through the sign of
His holy Sabbath day? As Herbert Armstrong reflected -- "Would God set
apart a certain day, put His blessing on it, make it HOLY TIME, command
that it be KEPT HOLY FOREVER, and then let that holy time become so lost
we cannot tell when to keep it?...If so, then you and I are LOST, for it is SIN
to profane God's Sabbath!"
My friends, there
is hope, we have not been lost; YEHOVAH God has left us clues in His holy word
the Bible -- clues that we can easily piece together and learn HOW to determine
YEHOVAH's true Sabbath day! For the first clue, let's turn to the book of
Exodus, chapter 16:
And
they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel
came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, ON THE
FIFTEENTH DAY OF THE SECOND MONTH after they departed from the land
of Egypt. Then the whole congregation` of the children of Israel murmured
against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to
them, "Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt,
when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have
brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."
Then the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for
you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I
may test them, WHETHER THEY WILL WALK IN MY LAW
OR NOT" (New King James Version, verses 1-4).
These verses are
much clearer in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament,
which reads as follows --
And
they departed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel
came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sina; and ON THE
FIFTEENTH DAY, IN THE SECOND MONTH after their departure from
the land of Egypt, all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured
against Moses and Aaron. And the children of Israel said to them, Would we had
died smitten by the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots,
and ate bread to satiety! for ye have brought us out into this wilderness, to
slay all this congregation with hunger. And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I
will rain bread upon you out of heaven: and the people shall go forth, and they
shall gather their daily portion for the day, that I may try them WHETHER
THEY WILL WALK IN MY LAW OR NOT.
These verses
bring out TWO main points, (1) the Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron
on THE 15TH DAY OF THE SECOND MONTH after leaving Egypt and, (2) YEHOVAH
God was going to test the Israelites to see if they would WALK IN
HIS LAW OR NOT.
It is very
interesting that Moses should mention THE EXACT DAY that the Israelites
murmured against him and Aaron in the wilderness -- nowhere else in the
narrative of the Israelites' wanderings from Egypt to the Promised Land is an
exact date mentioned. This clearly indicates that this date was
IMPORTANT TO YEHOVAH GOD and that He wanted the Israelites to
remember it. Also, on this date He was going to teach the Israelites something
very important -- to test them and see if they would obey Him or not.
What was this
important lesson? Let's continue in Exodus 16 --
"And
it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it
shall be TWICE AS MUCH as they gather daily." Then Moses and Aaron
said to all the children of Israel, "At evening you shall know that the
Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt. And in the morning you shall see
the glory of the Lord; for He hears your murmurings against the Lord. But what
are we, that you murmur against us?"...Now it came to pass, as Aaron spoke
to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward
the wilderness, and behold, THE GLORY OF THE LORD APPEARED IN THE
CLOUD. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "I have heard the murmurings
of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, 'At twilight [between the two
evenings] you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with
bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God.'" So it was that
quail came up at evening and covered the camp...(Verses 5-13).
This day -- the
15TH DAY OF THE SECOND MONTH -- was so important to YEHOVAH God that He
appeared in the cloud before the Israelites and then caused thousands (maybe
millions) of quail to be blown into the Israelites' camp "between the two
evenings," i.e. the afternoon of the 15th. WHY was this day so important
to YEHOVAH God?
Writes Herbert W.
Armstrong: "I will show you that God was speaking to them [the children of
Israel] on a SABBATH. It is evident that the Eternal…first preached to men on
the FIRST SABBATH. Adam was created on the sixth day of creation week.
Evidently he was created in the late afternoon, since the creation of man was
the last act of creation on that day. When the sun had set, immediately after
Adam's creation, God preached to him, offering him the GIFT of eternal
life (through the tree of life), and warning that the wages of sin is DEATH”
(Gen. 2:15-17).
"And
here God is again preaching to Israel, through Moses, ON THE SABBATH"
(Which Day Is the Christian Sabbath, pp. 30-31).
Now let's continue with the narrative in
Exodus 16:
"...and
in the morning the dew lay all around the camp. And when the layer of dew
lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance,
as fine as frost on the ground. So when the children of Israel saw it, they
said to one another, 'What is it?' For they did not know what it was. And Moses
said to them, 'This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat'...So they
gathered it every morning, every man according to his need. And when the sun
became hot, it melted. And so it was on THE SIXTH DAY, that they gathered TWICE
AS MUCH BREAD, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation
came and told Moses. Then he said to them, 'This is what the Lord has said:
"TOMORROW IS A SABBATH REST, A HOLY SABBATH TO THE LORD. Bake what you
will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all
that remains, to be kept until morning!'" So they laid it up till morning,
as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. Then
Moses said, 'Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will
not find it in the field. SIX DAYS YOU SHALL GATHER IT, but on the SEVENTH
DAY, which is THE SABBATH, there will be none.'
"Now
it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but
they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, 'How long do you refuse to keep My
commandments and My laws? See! For the Lord has given you the Sabbath;
therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man
remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.' So the
people rested on the seventh day" (verses 13-30).
Starting on the
15th day of the month, YEHOVAH God provided food for the Israelites then, on
the seventh day after the 15th, He did not provide any manna -- thereby showing
that this day (the 22nd day of the month) was a Sabbath. Obviously, if the 15th
was seven days before the 22nd, it too was a Sabbath day! This Herbert
Armstrong clearly understood. We can see here that YEHOVAH was setting up His
weekly Sabbath cycle for the Israelites. If the 15th and the 22nd were Sabbath
days, then the 8th and the 29th of the month were also Sabbaths! So here we see
a pattern -- 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th. What significance do these dates have?
Just this -- THEY CORRESPOND TO THE PHASES OF THE MOON!! YEHOVAH was showing
the Israelites that His Sabbath days were to fall on the days corresponding to
the moon's phases, thus showing that the weekly Sabbaths were to be kept by
THE SAME CALENDAR or reckoning used to determine the annual Sabbaths or
feast days!
I ask you, WHY
would YEHOVAH God complicate the Israelites' lives by having them keep two
calendars or reckonings -- one for the weekly Sabbath and one for the annual
holy days? This makes no sense whatsoever! YEHOVAH God set up ONE calendar for
ALL of His days -- not two!
Babylon and the Dead Sea Scrolls
In this calendar, states Assyriologist S.
Langdon,
"the
weeks do not continue in a regular cycle regardless of the moon. Each
month has four weeks, beginning with the new moon. Days 29 and 30, or in
case of a 29-day month, day 29, are simply THROWN OUT of the four-week system.
I have no doubt but that this was the old Hebrew scheme...In other words the
fourth week has one or two extra days. Every month must begin with the first
day of the first week [as determined by the new moon]" (Babylonian
Menologies and the Semitic Calendars, p. 89).
The New Schaff-Herzog Religious
Encyclopedia notes that
"there
is general agreement that the seven-day period [as observed by the Hebrews] was
derived from Babylonia, where it was employed in pre-Semitic times -- this is
confirmed by the fact that not only were the seventh, fourteenth,
twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days of the month observed, but that
the nineteenth was also a special day...” (vol. VII, 1910, p. 492).
The reason for
the one-day discrepancy here as compared to the days YEHOVAH God set apart in
Exodus 16 is because the Babylonians did not consider the New Moon day to be a
rest day, whereas YEHOVAH’s calendar does.
Many facts tie
the ancient Hebrew calendar in with that of ancient Babylonia. There is a
phrase, found in the tablets uncovered by archaeologists, which was used in
Babylonia -- "day of rest of the heart = shabattum" (Hebrew and
Babylonian Traditions, pp. 134-139). Although the Babylonian term
"shabattum" was originally connected only with the full moon
rest day, it is technically a word which means "to divide." And, as
one etymological study concluded, "...consequently, the Babylonian word sabattu
is probably the Hebrew word sabbat, Sabbath, the 7th day of EACH
LUNAR WEEK" (Babylonian Menologies, pp. 91-92).
We have seen that
all authorities state that the present seven-day cycle is ARTIFICIAL -- having no
relationship to any natural phenomena. Most archaeologists that specialize in
ancient Assyria believe that "...the role of seven as a symbolic number is
ultimately connected with the moon changing her phases at intervals of
approximately seven days" (Rest Days, by Hutton
Webster. 1916. p. 224-225). As a matter of fact, this is the ONLY thing in the
entire scope of nature resembling such a pattern.
There are
approximately 29.5 days in the lunar cycle beginning with the sighting of the
first small crescent just after sunset. Lunar months are most conveniently
estimated at 30 days, but when laid out in a succession of months, they can be
most conveniently calendarized ONLY BY periods of 29 and 30 days in alternation
(Rest Days, pp. 178-179).
None of these
numbers, obviously, are divisible evenly by 7. "However," relates
Jonathan Brown, "in a Babylonian calendar dated at about 700 B.C., a
scheme of rest days on 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th of the moon cycle are
recorded. Those days coincide with the first quarter (half-moon), full moon,
third quarter (half-moon in reverse), and the day of the moon's
disappearance" (Keeping Yahweh's Appointments, p. 51). This
is almost the SAME cycle that YEHOVAH God revealed to the Israelites in Exodus
16!
Further evidence
that the moon was used to determine YEHOVAH's weekly Sabbath day is found in
the Dead Sea Scrolls. Fragments of lunar days 4 through 25 were uncovered at
Qumran describing the moon's appearance and movements in relation to the sun.
Wise, Abegg and Cooke, in their book The Dead Sea Scrolls, A New
Translation, translate the fragment for lunar day 8 as follows --
On
the eighth of the month [chodesh], the moon rules all the day in
the midst of the sky...and when the sun sets, its light ceases to be obscured,
and thus the moon begins to be revealed on the FIRST DAY OF THE
WEEK" (pp. 301-303).
The same thing is
repeated in the fragment for the 22nd day of the month (chodesh). Unfortunately,
the fragments for the other moon quarters are either more fragmentary, contain
less information, or are altogether missing information pertinent to the moon
phases. What is significant is that these fragments are the oldest written
references in Paleo-Hebrew CONNECTING THE QUARTERS
OF THE MOON TO THE WEEKS.
Dated to the 1st
century B.C., these fragments are probably a copy of a much earlier writing.
Notice how the fragment for the eighth day describes the moon being in the sky
during the daylight hours. Then, after sunset, "its light ceases to be
obscured." This is just how the first quarter appears with the moon's
light continuing for several hours past sunset, thus marking THE FIRST DAY OF
THE WEEK. According to one of the authors (Martin Abegg, Jr. -- Director
of the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute) the Hebrew text reads echod beshabat,
literally meaning "FIRST OF THE COUNTING OF THE SABBATH
[!]"
As stated
earlier, those who reckon by moons begin their lunar month with the first
appearance of this crescent in the western sky. "Then,” as Langdon said,
“the month AND week began with the sighting of the crescent as DAY ONE,
and day 28 is the fourth sabbath at the moon's 'disappearance.' It is
only logical then that days 29 and 30 are counted, in his terms, as 'the fourth
week having one or two extra days,' and thus being actually reckoned as a continuation
of the fourth sabbath, i.e. the feast of the new moon. This
process was, of course, in anticipation of sighting the crescent,
whereupon the first day of work for that month would commence" (ibid.,
p. 56). This counting, of course, does not consider the New Moon day to be a
rest day.
David and Saul
Assyriologist S.
Langdon earlier used the expression "thrown out" to explain that day
29 or days 29 and 30 were not counted depending on the length of the month.
Let's see how this "throwing out" of days 29 and 30, by continuing
from day 29 (the fourth sabbath, if treating the New Moon day as a rest day)
works. An allusion to this process is found in I Samuel 20 in the Old Testament
--
And
David said to Jonathan, "Indeed tomorrow is the NEW MOON [chodesh],
and I should not fail to sit with the king to eat. But let me go that I may
hide in the field until THE THIRD DAY at evening" (verse 5).
So
David hid in the field. And when the NEW MOON had come, the king sat down
to eat the FEAST. Now the king sat on his seat, as at other times, on a seat by
the wall. And Jonathan arose, and Abner sat by Saul's side, but David's place
was empty. Nevertheless Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought,
"Something has happened to him; he is unclean, surely he is unclean."
And it happened the next day, THE SECOND DAY of the month, that
David's place was empty. And Saul said to Jonathan his son, "Why has the
son of Jesse not come to eat, EITHER YESTERDAY OR TODAY?" (verses
24-27).
Explains Jonathan
Brown: "First, it appears from the context that it was a special
gathering because in verse 5 he states "behold, tomorrow is the
[chodesh -- new moon]," drawing attention to the fact that at that time
he "should not fail to sit with the king at meat." If it were just an
ordinary "day" then there would have been no need to deliberately
associate the "sitting down to meat" with the chodesh [new
moon]. He could have simply stated something like, "the king is expecting
me for an appointment at dinner tomorrow." But the chodesh [new
moon] is the focal point.
"Second,
he is going to hide himself in the field "unto the third day at even."
The point to which the term third may be referenced is the current day
he is speaking in, i.e. the day before the chodesh [new moon].
"Then
in verse 27, Saul notices David's absence again on the second of the chodesh
[new moon]. THIS SHOWS THE LENGTH OF THIS SPECIAL "NEW MOON"
GATHERING AT THE KING'S TABLE TO BE TWO DAYS IN A ROW. He tries to
explain to himself that David's absence was due to him being
"unclean." The events then culminate in Jonathan shooting arrows as
planned on the third day (counting from the day before the
chodesh) at even. Saul doesn't ask again the next day why David didn't
come. The special new moon gathering or chodesh appears then to have
ended -- AFTER TWO DAYS. We can safely assume then that because there were two
days in which David was expected, THAT PARTICULAR [LUNAR] MONTH WAS 30 DAYS IN
LENGTH. We can also assume that both those days were not normal "work
days" by the very existence of the feast" (Keeping Yahweh's
Appointments, pp. 57-58).
This also proves
that at the time of Saul and David the Israelites were observing the weeks (and
therefore the Sabbath) according to the LUNAR CALENDAR OR RECKONING!!
Continues Brown:
"The idea then that day 30 or both days 29 and 30 are "thrown
out" pertains to the fact that the first 28 days of the lunar cycle are
evenly divisible by four 7-day periods. Days 29 and 30 are "thrown
out" only in the sense of arithmetic: they obviously aren't
divisible evenly by 7. Even though there may be two "solar" days
extra at the month's end, those days when "thrown out" are
counted as ONE CONTINUOUS UNIT FROM DAY 29.
"So with
this story of David we can begin to understand how "feasting" is
attached to the chodesh or "new moon." Everyone just sort of
went "on hold" and enjoyed the barbeque! The sighting of the crescent
moon then ended it because that was the day wherein the counting of the month
and week began again" (ibid., pp. 57-58 ).
The one or two
day period at the end of each 29 or 30 day lunar cycle as being "on
hold" or "thrown out" as Langdon put it, can be understood a lot
easier when it is counted as one unit, that is, ONE DAY.
2007
-- MAY
|
Sunday |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday
|
Saturday |
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 Iyyar 16 |
5 Iyyar 17 |
|
6 Iyyar 18 |
7 Iyyar 19 |
8 Iyyar 20 |
9 Iyyar 21 |
10 |
11 Iyyar 23 |
12 Iyyar 24 |
|
13 Iyyar 25 |
14 Iyyar 26 |
15 Iyyar 27 |
16 Iyyar 28 |
17 |
18 |
19 Sivan 2 |
|
20 Sivan 3 |
21 Sivan 4 |
22 Sivan 5 |
23 Sivan 6 |
24 Sivan 7 |
25 |
26 |
|
27 Sivan 10 |
28 Sivan 11 |
29 Sivan 12 |
30 Sivan 13 |
31 Sivan 14 |
|
|
BLUE = Sabbath and Rosh Chodesh
2007
-- JUNE
|
Sunday |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
2 Sivan
16 |
|
3 Sivan
17 |
4 Sivan
18 |
5 Sivan
19 |
6 Sivan
20 |
7 Sivan
21 |
8 |
9 Sivan
23 |
|
10 Sivan
24 |
11 Sivan
25 |
12 Sivan
26 |
13 Sivan
27 |
14 Sivan
28 |
15 Sabbath Sivan 29 |
16 Sivan
30 |
|
17 |
18 Tamuz
2 |
19 Tamuz
3 |
20 Tamuz
4 |
21 Tamuz
5 |
22 Tamuz
6 |
23 Tamuz
7 |
|
24 Sabbath Tamuz 8 |
25 Tamuz
9 |
26 Tamuz
10 |
27 Tamuz
11 |
28 Tamuz
12 |
29 Tamuz
13 |
30 Tamuz
14 |
Even today conservative and Orthodox Jews observe two days for the new
moon at certain times --
Conservative
and Orthodox Jews observe two days for the new moon (Rosh Hodesh). If the month
is of thirty days, the FIRST TWO DAYS are thus observed; if it has but
twenty-nine, the LAST DAY of the preceding month is the first day of the new
month" (The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, article
"Calendar," p. 633).
Yet, strangely,
they don't seem to connect this with the lunar weeks and the correct
determination of the Sabbath! Amazing!
The Weekly and Annual
Sabbaths
Placing the first
day of the week following the eighth of the chodesh or new moon, as
found in Exodus 16, is the same counting pattern as the one for the feasts in
the Bible. Seven days following the eighth would bring us to the fifteenth,
etc. Using the numbers 8, 15, 22 and 29 instead of 7, 14, 21 and 28 permanently
encodes the Sabbaths and feasts with the reckoning of "day one" as a
rest day or “sabbath.”
We have seen that
the 7th century B.C. Babylonian calendar ascribed days 7, 14, 21 and 28 of the
lunar cycle as being the sabbaths. But in Exodus 16 we just saw that YEHOVAH
God revealed His Sabbath days as falling on day 8, 15, 22 and 29 of the lunar
cycle or calendar. While both the 7th century lunar calendar and the Hebrew
apparently contradict, the only difference is that in YEHOVAH’s calendar the
New Moon day is a rest day in which no work is to be done.
In the 7th
century B.C. Babylonian calendar the days – just as in YEHOVAH’s calendar
revealed in Exodus 16 -- are reckoned from the New Moon crescent which is
counted as day one of the month. Notice in Numbers 29:12 that the Hebrew word chodesh
is rendered "month." As, in all other places, it simply means
"new moon." In the Babylonian calendar this event begins on the first
crescent and is counted as a work day, whereas in YEHOVAH’s calendar the New
Moon day is NOT a work day. So, counting from the first crescent as day one,
we then arrive at what the Babylonian calendar called the 7th, but using
YEHOVAH’s reckoning day one starts the day FOLLOWING the New Moon day
and thus brings us to the 8th for the first Sabbath of the month.
Using the 8, 15,
22 and 29 sequence the writers of the Bible inadvertently let us know how it
worked.
The main point to
understand in all this is that the annual high days (with the exceptions of the
last day of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Atonement and the last day of
Tabernacles) ALWAYS FALL ON THE WEEKLY SABBATH! That this is so
can be corroborated by Ezekiel 46, where it says:
Verse 1: Thus says the Lord
God: "The gateway of the inner court that faces toward the east shall be
shut THE SIX WORKING DAYS; but on the SABBATH it shall be opened, and on
the day of the NEW MOON [chodesh] it shall be opened.
Verse 3: Likewise the people
of the land shall worship at the entrance to this gateway before the Lord on
the Sabbaths and the New Moons [chodesh].
Notice here that
it says the gate "shall be shut the six working days," then
EXCLUDES the Sabbath AND new moon from these days. Notice also, that the
annual "feasts" aren't specifically mentioned -- this would seem like
a huge oversight on Ezekiel's part. But we have just learned that three of the
annual high days fall on weekly Sabbaths, so they must therefore be implied in
the above verses. And again, the Law doesn't specify the new moon as a time of
worship -- but here it is certainly understood by Ezekiel. Now in the current
seven-day cycle we use today, the "new moon" as well as the
"feasts" appear randomly on various days of our week. If our present
weekly cycle had been in existence when the above passage was written,
then the six days in which the gate was to be shut would be INTERRUPTED ONCE
EVERY MONTH for the new moon, and at other times for the four high days.
So with this passage alone we can see a SABBATH PATTERN that includes the
NEW MOON and thereby the LUNAR CALENDAR!
Moving now to the
Book of Numbers we find, in chapter 29, further proof that YEHOVAH God expects
us to keep His weekly Sabbaths in the quarters of the moon. In numbers 29 there
is a pattern set up for the sacrifices to be made during the Feast of
Tabernacles. It states:
Verse 12: And on the
fifteenth day of the seventh month [chodesh] you shall have a holy convocation.
You shall do no customary work, and you shall keep a feast to the Lord seven
days.
The first day
of the Feast of Tabernacles is a sabbath wherein no work is to be done,
and an "holy convocation," just as in the Passover and
Unleavened Bread season.
The text then
lists certain sacrifices to be made on that day, followed with a sequence of
days through to the next high sabbath on the eighth day of the feast
week. It counts --
Vs. 17: on the second day...[certain sacrifices];
Vs. 20: on the third day...[certain sacrifices];
Vs. 23: on the fourth day...[certain sacrifices];
Vs. 26: on the fifth day...[certain sacrifices];
Vs. 29: on the sixth day...[certain sacrifices];
Vs. 32: on the seventh day...[certain sacrifices];
Vs. 35: on the eighth
day, (in addition to the sacrifices), "you shall have a sacred assembly.
You shall do no customary work.
Obviously, the
days in between the beginning and ending high sabbaths, i.e. day
two through day seven, constitutes six days, even
though they are numbered "two through seven." However,
NONE of those days mention assembling or refraining from work. Moreover,
NONE of those days and their prescriptions mention even the possibility of
being interrupted by a "weekly" Sabbath, in the event that one should
occur simultaneously to them. This is assuming, of course, for the sake of
argument, that our current seven-day cycle was then in force. As the saying
goes, silence is golden. What this outline of sacrifices does say -- loud and
clear -- is that it was a pattern of prescriptions meant to be used REPEATEDLY
during the Feast of Tabernacles -- year after year, again and again!
Because there
were specific instructions to assemble and refrain from work on the first and
last high holy days, but WERE NONE with regard to those six days in
between, the Book of Numbers has preserved for us a CLEAR glimpse of what was
second nature to the ancient Israelites – A WEEK OF THE LUNAR CALENDAR which
flowed throughout all sabbaths, new moons and annual high holy days.
What About the New Testament?
We have just
examined some instances in the Old Testament that show the weekly cycle and
Sabbath were linked to the phases of the moon -- but what about the New
Testament? Are there any instances in the New Testament that show this same
pattern? Remember, nowhere in the gospels do we find Yeshua the Messiah
berating the Jewish authorities for keeping the Sabbath at the wrong time. He
reproved them for adding too much "baggage" to the Sabbath and
turning it into a day of "bondage." Is there any corroboration in the
gospels for observing the weekly Sabbath in accordance with the phases of the
moon as set up by YEHOVAH God in Exodus 16? Indeed there is. Let's go to Mark
15:42 in the Jewish New Testament --
Since it was Preparation Day (that is, the day before a SHABBAT), as evening approached, Yosef of Ramatayim, a prominent member of the Sanhedrin who