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What's interesting about this is the fact that considerable changes were made to the calen-
dar 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 obser-
vances, including those mandated in the Holy Scriptures, were observed. Calendar control
thus involved the ULTIMATE POLITICAL AUTHORITY in Judaism.. During the Sec-
ond 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 Ha-
naniah, 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 de-
struction 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 in-
violate, but when control passed to the Babylonian Jews events occurred that affected the calendar
and the keeping of God'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

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