Great Library of Alexandria
Saint Augustine was influential in Christian and Western thought at the beginning of the medieval period. Through the Medieval and Renaissance periods, history was often studied through a sacred or religious perspective. Around 1800, German philosopher and historian Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel brought philosophy and a more secular approach in historical study. Image courtesy wikimedia.org
"The history of the world is the world's court of justice"
Friedrich Von Schiller (1759-1805), German poet, historian. It is from the archives of history that fulfill those words once prophacied in the Bible. Bible prophecy is history written in advance . . History is Bible prophecy fulfilled.
Lunar Calendation Quotes
"The changes in the calendric position of the weekly religious rest day have been few from pre-historic times to the present day. The Sabbath which came down to the Jews from pre-historic [prior to Moses] times was the seventh day of the lunar week. The lunar week and the lunar month gave the simplest form of time division to early man . . . Moon and month meant the same thing. The division of the month into four weeks of seven days left the so-called epagomenal days which had to be neglected,
and the weekly division begun again at the time of the next new moon. The change from the lunar week to the seven-day week running continuously through the year, while a momentous change, was unrecorded. The use of two styles of weeks seems to have existed together, and the more modern seven-day week slowly, but finally, supplanted its ancient but inexact competitor. The lunar week was simple and serviceable . . . We no longer say three barley corns round and dry make one inch, but that was a measure which served our ancestors very acceptably for all practical purposes. When the continuous seven-day week was generally accepted, then it was linked with the past, as we now date events before Christ by a scale unknown to the people and historians of those times. . . The lunar Sabbath was succeeded by the seven-day weekly Sabbath without confusion, and the mention of the Sabbath in Exodus 31:13 and elsewhere, may be taken to refer to the lunar day."
Sunday the World's Rest Day, "The Sabbath, the Day Which Divine Love Established and Human Love Must Preserve," Theodore Gilman, p. 479. Published for the New York Sabbath Committee, Doubleday, Page and Company, New York, 1916. [emphasis mine]
The above quote from the book, “Sunday the World’s Rest Day,” is newly republished and available at Amazon.com. Also, please note that it was a result of the 14th Congress of the Lord’s Day Alliance. The lunar Sabbath was a known fact among Sunday keepers all these years. This truth did not affect them, because they have never tried to be in harmony with the true Biblical Sabbath, as they believe they are no longer under the binding claims of the Old Testament law, but under grace and the new covenant of the Christian dispensation.
The term “epagomenal,” used above, refers directly to intercalary days (Oxford English Dictionary), which are the one or two days that are not included in the lunar seven-day weeks each lunar month. Also, as each author puts their personal spin on the facts, the broader truth can be seen as all the evidence is gathered. The author above states that this new cycling week was instituted without being recorded or without confusion. There was no confusion between the two week styles, as everyone understood Rome’s artificial week was instituted to replace the lunar week which was beaconed by the natural rhythms of the moon. This modern week was then adopted by the Jews in A.D. 358 under the leadership of Hillel II to end the persecution. For this new week to take hold, that all future generations might come to believe it cycled since creation and the cross, it was hushed after much debate and bloodshed.
"Several customs which prevailed during the age between the Exodus of the Israelites and the resurrection of Christ had so completely changed by the seventeenth Christian century that the translators of the "Authorized Version" of the English Bible were not able to perceive some important truths taught in the Greek version of the Old Testament and the Greek New Testament. Unseen truth would not be clearly translated into the English Bible. The student who of necessity was limited in his studies to the English version would not be able to see more truth than was expressed in the English version. . .
Second-Since the Jews for more than sixteen centuries have been observing a Saturday Sabbath, and since Christians have been for more than eighteen centuries having a fixed Sunday Sabbath, it is only reasonable to expect most Sabbath writers to try and interpret all Bible Sabbath teachings on the theory of fixed septenary cycles. But the noted Rabbi Hirsch believes and teaches that "The old (Jewish) Sabbath had no connection with a fixed week." Third-The passing out of sight of the old Bible lunar calendar and the now almost universal effort to interpret the Bible upon the basis of solar calendars. . . Sixth-The losing sight of the use of uncounted days in the Bible calendar. . . Because of the failure to note the above mentioned difficulties it has become quite difficult so to write or teach as to be clearly understood about the Bible Sabbaths." Sunday the World's Rest Day, The Sabbath-The Lord's Day, by Rev. Samuel W. Gamble, D.D. p. 81-82. Published for the New York Sabbath Committee, Doubleday, Page and Company, New York, 1916. ". . . the week of seven days was connected with the lunar month, of which it is, approximately, a fourth . . . [for] the Hebrews the first day of the first week of the month was always reckoned as coincident with the first day of the month. . . At the end of four weeks an interval of one or two days might intervene before the new week could begin. . ." The Jewish Encyclopedia, "Week" [emphasis mine] "The Assuan Papyri yield ample proof of the fact that at the time after the exile, no such fixed [week] cycle was in use among the Jews, and this would appear to be true also of the Talmudic period. . ." Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (1908), Vol.3, "Jewish Calendar," p.117. [emphasis mine] Quotes comparing Roman time to lunisolar time Utilizing three pieces of information, first it gives the Roman date of the month, the day of the Roman cycling week, and the lunar date as counted from the New Moon. The "Nones" of November is the same as November 5, which fell on the day of Venus (Friday). It was the 24th lunation that corresponded with this Roman date, making it the "Second Day" after the Sabbath.
"In the consulship of Claudius and Paternus, on the Nones of [5th] November, on the day of Venus [Friday], and on the 24th day of the lunar month, Leuces placed [this memorial] to her very dear daughter Severa, and to Thy Holy Spirit. She died [at the age] of 55 years, and 11 months [and] 10 days. The date of this inscription is Friday, November 5, 269 A.D." Inscriptions Christianae Urbis Romae, E. Diehl, Vol. 1, Part 1, p. 18., No. 11; Sunday in Roman Paganism, Robert L. Odom, p. 122.
". . . shabbat [weekly Sabbath] originally arose from the lunar cycle, containing four weeks ending in Sabbath, plus one or two additional unreckoned days per [lunar] month." The Universal Jewish Encycloepdia: An Authorative and Popular Presentation of Jews and Judiaism Since the Earliest Times. Volume 10 Cohen, Simon (1943 p 482-483.). "Week." In Landman, Isaac, [emphasis mine] "At first the New Moon festival was not counted among the seven days of the week; after 28 days had elapsed [7 days x 4 weeks], one or two days were intercalated as New Moon days, whereupon a new cycle of four weeks began, so that the Sabbath was a movable festival.... Later the week and the Sabbath became fixed [on the cycling planetary week]; and this gradually resulted in taking away from the New Moon festival its popular importance. . ." The Jewish Encyclopedia, "Pastoral Feast." [emphasis mine] "The [early] Hebrews employed lunar seven-day weeks, which ended with special observances on the seventh day, but none the less were tied to the moon's course." Rest Days, Hutton Webster, p. 254-255 [emphasis mine] The weeks do not continue in a regular cycle regardless of the moon. Each month has four weeks, the beginning with the New Moon. I have no doubt that this was the old Hebrew system. Babylonian Menologies and the Semitic Calendars, p. 89. "It is powerfully urged by the believers in a primitive Sabbath, that we find from time immemorial the knowledge of a week of 7 days among all nations -- Egyptians, Arabians, Indians -- in a word, all the nations of the East, have in all ages made use of this week of 7 days, for which it is difficult to account without admitting that this knowledge was derived from the common ancestors [Adam and Eve] of the human race. Among all early nations the lunar months were the readiest large divisions of time. . . In order to connect the reckoning by weeks with the lunar month, we find that all ancient nations observed some peculiar solemnities to mark the day of the New Moon. Accordingly, in the Mosaic law the same thing was also enjoined (Numbers 10:10; 28:11, etc.), though it is worthy of remark that, while particular observances are here enjoined, the idea of celebrating the New Moon in some way is alluded to as if already familiar to them. In other parts of the Bible, we find the Sabbaths and New Moons continually spoken of in conjunction; as (Isaiah 1:13, etc.) the division of time by weeks prevailed all over the East, from the earliest periods among the Assyrians, Arabs, & Egyptians. It was found among the tribes in the interior of Africa....The Peruvians counted their months by the moon, their half-months by the increase and decrease of the moon . . . without having any particular names for the week days." The Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopedia 1904. Vol. 3, p. 1497. [emphasis mine] "The connection of the Sabbath with lunar phases, however, was (later) discarded by the Israelites . . ." The New Schaff-Herzog Religious Encyclopedia, p. 135-136. [emphasis mine] ". . . the Jewish festivals being regulated solely by the moon, may fall on any day of the [Roman] week." Oxford English Dictionary, 1971 Edition, Vol. 2, "Pentecost." [emphasis mine] "It is certain that the Jews celebrated the sheaf-waving on Nisan 16 and Pentecost on the fiftieth day after . . . without regard in either case to the day of the [Roman] week." Oxford English Dictionary, 1971 Edition, Vol. 2, "Pentecost." [emphasis mine] "The resurrection of Christ is recorded to have taken place on the second day of the Passover, being that year the first day of the week. Seven weeks after that (and so again on the first day of the week) was the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. In commemoration of this, these two Christian festivals are always held on the first day of the week (Sunday), and so in most cases do not coincide with the Jewish festivals." Oxford English Dictionary, 1971 Edition, Vol. 2, "Pentecost." [emphasis mine] "The Greek Church had no such facilities of examining the authentic records . . . till the Julian Calendar had been adopted; still the true date of the crucifixion was less disguised by the Greeks than that of the nativity, but he [Constantine] wished, almost the necessity, of so keeping Easter as to make the day of crucifixion Friday, and of the resurrection Sunday, caused differences of opinion that led to persecution and bloodshed." Mazzaroth, The Constellations, Frances Rolleston, p. 133. Rivingtons, London, 1862. "The modern seven-day week came into use during the early imperial period, after the Julian calendar came into effect, apparently stimulated by immigration from the Roman East. For a while it coexisted alongside the old 8-day nundinal cycle, and fasti are known which show both cycles. It was finally given official status by Constantine in 321." Roman Calendar Encyclopedia, Days of the Week. "Even after Constantine's edict about Sunday, it took another generation or two for the seven-day week to catch on throughout the empire. The 24-hour system took longer, having to wait until the invention of the mechanical clock in the Middle Ages by monks anxious to observe with precision their canonical hours. Before this, people marked the passage of time during the night by using the stars and during the day either by eyeballing the sun or by listening to public announcements of the time." Calendar, David Ewing Duncan, p. 47, New York, Avon Books, 1998. [emphasis mine] "The Babylonians, at a very early period, divided their months into seven-day cycles, of which the last would contain more than seven days, since there are more than twenty-eight days in a lunar month." Ancient History, Hutton Webster, p. 20. [emphasis mine] "The Sabbath depending, in Israel's nomadic period, upon the observation of the phases of the moon, it could not, accordingly be a fixed day [on a cycling week]. The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History. Edited by Isidore Singer, Cyrus Adler. Volume 10, p. 590. "Most theologians and some scholars assume that mainstream Jewish society, at the time of Jesus...was practicing a fixed seven-day week which was the same as the modern fixed [cycling planetary designations] seven-day week. This is extremely doubtful. The change, from a lunar to a fixed week, was brought about by the power and influence of Rome. As long as the Nazarenes held power in Jerusalem, all Roman practices and customs, including that of the consecutive week, were held at bay." Shawui Sabbath: Ancient Sabbath Observance [emphasis mine] "These imported [from Babylon] superstitions eventually led Jewish rabbis to call Saturn Shabbti, 'the star of the Sabbath.' [and] it was not until the first century of our era, when the planetary week had become an established institution, that the Jewish Sabbath seems always to have corresponded to Saturn's Day [Saturday]." Rest Days, p.244 by Hutton Webster [emphasis mine] "The Hebrew seven-day week, ending with the Sabbath, did not, of course, originate in Babylonia. The Sabbath day -- both Hebrew and Babylonian -- originated with the creation week and was transmitted down through the flood to Babylonia where Abraham was born. "The celebration of new-moon and full-moon festivals, which both Babylonians and Hebrews appear to have derived from a common Semitic antiquity, underwent, in fact, a radically unlike evolution among the two kindred peoples. To dissever the week from the lunar month, to employ it as a recognized calendrical unit, and to fix upon one day of that week for the exercises of religion were momentous innovations, which, until evidence to the contrary is found, must be attributed to the Hebrew people alone." Rest Days, Hutton Webster, p.254. "In the years following Clement of Alexandria's time, an ominous change started to take place that was to radically change the Christian concept of the Sabbath." Records the Encyclopedia Biblica: "This intimate connection between the week and the month was soon dissolved. It is certain that the week soon followed a development of its own, and it became the custom -- without paying any regard to the days of the month (i.e. the luni-solar month) . . . so that the New Moon no longer coincided with the first day of the month. Then, on page 4179 of the same encyclopedia, we read: "The introduction . . .of the custom of celebrating the Sabbath every 7th day, irrespective of the relationship of the day to the moon's phases, led to a complete separation from the ancient view of the Sabbath. . . Encyclopaedia Biblica, 1903 p. 5290. [emphasis mine] "We shall be taken for Persians [Mithraists], perhaps . . . The reason for this, I suppose, is that it is known that we pray towards the east . . . Likewise, if we devote the day of the Sun to festivity (from a far different reason from Sun worship), we are in a second place from those who devote the day of Saturn, themselves also deviating by way of a Jewish custom of which they are ignorant." Tertullian, Apologia. [emphasis mine] "It should be noted that the oldest dated Christian inscription to employ a planetary designation [Sunday - Saturday, unbroken cycle of weeks] belongs to the year 269 A.D." Inscriptiones Christianae urbis Romae, ed. De Rossi, 1861, i, No. 1. [emphasis mine] Continuous Weekly Cycle From Creation . . Not A Chance
"The invention of the continuous week was therefore one of the most significant breakthroughs in human beings' attempts to break away from being prisoners of nature [and from under God's law] and create a social world of their own."
The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week, Eviator Zerubavel, New York: The Free Press, 1985. p.11.
"The present Jewish calendar was fixed [continuous weekly cycle] in the fourth century." Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Letter by Louis Finkelstein to Dr. L. E. Froom, Feb. 20, 1939. [emphasis mine]
Boyce, Mary (ed. & trans.). Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism. University of Chicago Press, 1984, p. 19-20. Tablets from the 6th-century BC reigns of Cyrus the Great and Cambyses indicate these dates were sometimes approximate. The lunation of 29 or 30 days basically contained three seven-day weeks, and a final week of eight or nine days inclusive, breaking the continuous seven-day cycle. inches, T.G. "Sabbath (Babylonian)". In Hastings, James. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. The seven-day week being approximately a quarter of a lunation has been proposed (e.g. by Friedrich Delitzsch) as the implicit, astronomical origin of the seven-day week. Problems with the proposal include lack of synchronization, variation in individual lunar phase lengths, and incompatibility with the duodecimal (base-12) and sexagesimal (base-60) numeral systems, historically the primary bases of other chronological and calendar units.
Zerubavel, Eviatar (1989). The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week. University of Chicago Press. The following examples demonstrate the many changes in the weekly cycle of many nations around the world. The seven day continuous weekly cycle came and went as nations continually attempted to modify their work schedules in an attempt to maximize their productivity.
Christian Europe
The seven-day weekly cycle has remained unbroken in Europe for almost two millennia, despite changes to the Alexandrian, Julian, and Gregorian calendars, demonstrated by the date of Easter Sunday having been traced back through numerous computistic tables to an Ethiopic copy of an early Alexandrian table beginning with the Easter of 311 AD. Neugebauer, Otto (1979). Ethiopic astronomy and computus. Verl. d. Österr. Akad. d. Wiss. China The earliest known reference in Chinese writings to a seven-day week is attributed to Fan Ning, who lived in the late 4th century in the Jin Dynasty, while diffusions from the Manichaeans are documented with the writings of the Chinese Buddhist monk Yi Jing and the Ceylonese or Central Asian Buddhist monk Bu Kong of the 7th century (Tang Dynasty). Japan The Chinese transliteration of the planetary system was soon brought to Japan by the Japanese monk Kobo Daishi. Surviving diaries of the Japanese statesman Fujiwara Michinaga show the seven-day system in use in Heian Japan as early as 1007. In Japan, the seven-day system was kept in use for astrological purposes until its promotion to a full-fledged Western-style calendrical basis during the Meiji era. France France discontinued the seven-day week for a ten-day week with the introduction of the republican calendar in 1793. The Concordat of 1801, which re-established the Roman Catholic Church in France, also restored the seven-day week, beginning with Easter Sunday, 18 April 1802. Soviet Union In 1929, the USSR discontinued the seven-day week for a five-day week, then a six-day week. While the days were still named according to the seven-day week, the work schedules were rotated in five- and six-day periods. The seven-day week was reintroduced on 27 June 1940. Lunisolar Calendar Quotes The following two quotes were copied from the pages of a book removed from their binding, from a vault at Andrews University. The name of the book was available but not the author's name.
"The month of the Jews was, as we have said, a lunar month, and extended from one appearing of the new moon to another. The time elapsing between one astronomical new moon and another consists of 29.5 days. . . But since the month consisted of entire days, they counted it with pretty regular alternation as 29 or 30 days. A month of 30 days was called a full month . . . if it had only 29 days, it was called an imperfect month . . . if it had only 29 days, it was called an imperfect month . . . The Jewish month could never have more than 30 days, and never fewer than 29. It began, not with the astronomical new moon, but with the new light; that is to say, when the first light of the renewed phase of the moon became visible." Chronological and Geographic Basis of the History of Jesus Christ, p. 5. , Section 7 [emphasis mine]
"But had the ancient Jews, and particularly at the time of Jesus, such lunar months and years with an intercalary month, as the Talmud asserts? The great majority of chronologists, amongst whom are Wurm, Ideler, Wieseler, V. Gumpach, and Winer, return an affirmative answer to this question. There have not been wanting, however, those who maintain the contrary, and claim for the Jews of the age of Jesus the reckoning by solar months and year. This view finds an advocate particularly in Seyffarth, in a treatise (Chronology Sacra, p. 43 ff.) which has the special object of vindicating the New Testament chronology of the Fathers. Among the assertions of the Fathers, there is one to the effect that the obscuration of the sun on the day of the crucifixion of Jesus was due to an astronomical eclipse. To maintain this position, solar months must be ascribed to the Jews; for if they reckoned by lunar months, and these months began with the new moon, the 15th Nisan must fall at the time of the full moon, in which an eclipse of the sun is impossible, since this can take place only at the time of a new moon. Seyffarth maintains that the Sanhedrin of Tiberias, which drew up the present Jewish calendar about A.D. 200, invented the lunar months and years, and got them surreptitiously introduced into the books of Jewish tradition. To this it must be objected that the Sanhedrin, if it had really practiced this deception, would assuredly have represented this newly-invented calendar as handed down in the lump by tradition. But this is not the case; on the contrary, the calendar of the modern Jews introduced by the Sanhedrin is in many respects different from that described in tradition, especially in the Mishna Rosh hashanna . . ." Chronological and Geographic Basis of the History of Jesus Christ, p. 7. Section 9 [emphasis mine] "In the mid-1st century B.C. Julius Cæsar invited Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, to advise him about the reform of the calendar, and Sosigenes decided that the only practical step was to abandon the lunar calendar altogether. Months must be arranged on a seasonal basis, and a tropical (solar) year used, as in the Egyptian calendar." "The Julian Calendar," Encyclopedia Britannica. [emphasis mine]
"This change from the luni-solar to a fixed solar calendar occurred in Rome during the repressive measures which were enacted against ALL Jewish customs . . . during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. With the fall of the Nazarene headquarters...at Jerusalem,
this new Roman calendar quickly spread throughout 'Christendom.' This new calendar not only replaced yearly festival dates such as Passover, but it also revamped the concept of the week and its seventh day." Iranaeus 2nd Century A.D. [emphasis mine]
The...calendar was used by ALL the original disciples of Yeshua...This original Nazarene lunar-solar calendar was supplanted by a Roman "planetary week" and calendar in 135 C.E. -- when the "Bishops of the Circumcision" were displaced from Jerusalem. This began a three hundred year controversy concerning the TRUE CALENDAR AND CORRECT SABBATH: This [calendar] controversy arose after the exodus of the bishops of the circumcision and has continued until our time" Epiphanius, HE4, 6, 4. [emphasis mine] "The early Christians had at first adopted the Jewish [lunar] seven-day week with its numbered weekdays, but by the close of the third century A.D. this began to give way to the planetary week; and in the fourth and fifth centuries the pagan designations became generally accepted in the western half of Christendom. The use of the planetary names by Christians attests to the growing influence of astrological speculations introduced by converts from paganism" Rest Days: A Study in Early Law and Morality. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1916. p. 220. "The present Jewish calendar was fixed in the fourth century." Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Letter by Louis Finkelstein to Dr. L. E. Froom, Feb. 20, 1939. regarding the present Jewish calendar. "... it appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul. ... Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way." Life of Constantine, Eusebius, Book 3, Chapter 18, [recorded words of Constantine] [emphasis mine] A Profession Of Faith From The Church Of Constantinople in the year 325 C.E.(A.D.) Under The Emperor Constantine: "I renounce all customs, rites, legalisms. unleavened breads & sacrifices of lambs of the Hebrews, and all other feasts of the Hebrews, sacrifices, prayers, aspersions, purifications, sanctifications and propitiations and fasts, and new moons, and Sabbaths, and superstitions, and hymns and chants and observances and Synagogues, and the food and drink of The Hebrews; in one word, I renounce everything Jewish, every law, rite and custom and if afterwards I shall wish to deny and return to Jewish superstition, or shall be found eating with The Jews, or feasting with them, or secretly conversing and condemning the Christian religion instead of openly confuting them and condemning their vain faith, then let the trembling of Gehazi cleave to me, as well as the legal punishments to which I acknowledge myself liable. And may I be anathema in the world to come, and may my soul be set down with Satan and the devils." Source: Parks, James The Conflict Of The Church And The Synagogue Athenaeum, New York, 1974, p. 397-398. The second half of the above oath is as follows:
"I accept all customs, rites, legalism, and feasts of the Romans, sacrifices, prayers, purifications with water, sanctifications by Pontificus Maximus (high priests of Rome), propitiations, and feasts, and the New Sabbath "Sol dei" (day of the sun), all new chants and observances, and all the foods and drinks of the Romans. In other words, I absolutely accept everything Roman, every new law, rite and custom, of Rome, and the New Roman Religion."
"Under the reign of Constantius the persecutions of the Jews reached such a height that . . . the computation of the [lunisolar] calendar [was] forbidden under pain of severe punishment." The Jewish Encyclopedia, "Calendar." [Search for "Calendar." Select "Calendar, History of." The Quote is the last paragraph under the Talmudic Section. [emphasis mine] "He shall insult the Most High, he shall torment/wear out the holy ones of the Most High, and he shall attempt to change the calendar and the ordinance" Daniel 7:25 (Twentieth Century Knox translation.) "The arrangement of the Jewish calendar as used in the time of Christ is no longer operative. Modern Jews are divided into two classes. The Karaite Jews, whose numbers are small, reject tradition and the Talmud, observe their feasts and festivals more nearly with those of Christ's time as regards the true season, while the larger number of Jews follow the Rabbinical Calendar, the product of Rabbi Hillel and others about 353 A.D., which incorporates into it many of the ancient rules of calculation, but begin their year, and feasts and festivals a month earlier in the season than the Karaites as compared with our Calendar, as we have in 1844 the atonement by the Rabbinical Calendar would be September 23rd, while by the Karaites it was about that time in October. By the Rabbinical calendar the First day of Nisan is always between March 12 and April 11, and is always one of four days, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday the first one after the new moon for that month." Creation Centered in Christ, by H.G. Guinness, D.D., page 276. Also from Approximate Chronology, H. H. Perry, p. 21-22. [emphasis mine] "Sabbath and New Moon (Rosh Hodesh), both periodically recur in the course of the year. The New Moon is still, and the Sabbath originally was, dependent upon the lunar cycle." Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 410. [emphasis mine] "The laws of God and the time of God were to be changed by this antichristian power . . . In the prophecy it is plainly shown that this papal power would with deliberate intention change the law of God . . ." Signs of the Times, Ellen White, 11/19/1894. [emphasis mine] "The beginning of the month with the appearance of the new moon was--as it is still--of great practical importance among the Hebrews... The earliest appearance of the new moon was long ascertained by direct observation, and authoritatively settled by a commission of the Sanhedrin, and the intelligence then made known to the Jews at large, first by means of fire signals, and later on through special messengers. In the present day, and for many centuries, this very primitive manner of fixing the beginning of the month has given way to a systematic calculation of the latter's duration, and the Jewish calendar is now constructed on the basis of a mean lunation of 29 days, 12 hours, 44 min., and 30 sec." Catholic Encyclopedia, "New Moons in the Jewish Calendar." [www.New Advent.org: Catholic Encyclopedia Online. Search for "Jewish Calendar." Scroll down under the section marked Month. Find that the Quote is the third sentence.] "The first day of the lunar month was observed as a holy day. . . As on the Sabbath, trade and handicraft work were stopped (Amos 8:5; Ezekiel 46:3) and the temple was opened for public worship.... It was an occasion for state banquets (1 Sam. 20:5-24)." Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884): "New Moon." [emphasis mine] More Quotes
"The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees, incense, lamps, and candles, votive offerings on recovery from illness, holy water, asylums, holidays and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on fields, sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the east, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the kyrie eleison, are all of pagan origin and sanctified by their adoption into the church." An Essay on the Development of the Christian Doctrine, John Henry "Cardinal Newman," p. 359.
The Roman eight-day week was known as internundinum tempus or "the period between ninth-day affairs." (This term must be understood within the context of the ancient Roman mathematical practice of inclusive counting, whereby the first day of a cycle would also be counted as the last day of the preceding cycle. The "ninth-day affair" around which this week revolved was the nundinae, a periodic market day that was held regularly every eight days. J. P. V. D. Balsdon, Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969), p. 59; P. Huvelin, Essai Historique sur le Droit des Marcheés et des Foires (Paris: Arthur Rousseau, 1897), p. 87; Ovid, Fasti (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1951), p. 6; Alan E. Samuel, Greek and Roman Chronology (Munich: C. H. Beck'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, 1972), p. 154. Day Begins at Sunrise
The sun alone indicated the hours for daily worship; at sunrise, when the day began, there was the morning sacrifice; at sunset, when the day closed, there was the evening sacrifice. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: "Astronomy" [emphasis mine]
http://www.internationalstandardbible.com/A/astronomy-i.html
In spite of new evidence being revealed as to when the Sabbath was to commence from Creation to the time of the Cross, most religious authors continue to assume the cycling planetary week instituted by Constantine has always been used by the Hebrews, on the basis that it is utilized today. But is this true?
"In order to assure against profanation of the Sabbath the Jews added the late Friday afternoon hours to the Sabbath." The Jewish Festivals: History and Observance, p. 13.
"If we look at the essentials of a day of rest and reflection which has a religious orientation, it is possible to justify the shifting of the Sabbath worship to Friday evening [the celebration of which was moved back to the eve of the feast] as early as the Middle Ages. . ." Judaism: Between Yesterday and Tomorrow, Kung, p. 518. [emphasis mine] "By cautioning the Colossian members not to let others judge them for how they observed the festivals, New Moon celebrations and Sabbaths, Paul didn't question whether they should be kept. The obvious implication of these verses is that these Gentile Christians were in fact observing these days, and in no way did Paul tell them to desist. . . the festivals, New Moons, and Sabbaths, since the calendar governing those days was determined by movements of the heavenly bodies." Sunset to Sunset: God's Sabbath Rest," p. 45. [emphasis mine] Most Saturday Sabbatarians have been taught to believe that the Council of Laodicea, Canon 29 stated:
"Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord's Day they shall especially honor, and, as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ."
However, the above quote is in error and a cause of misleading. According to Karl J. von Hefele, a Catholic bishop, in his History of the Councils of the Church from the Original Documents, states that the word "Saturday" (dies Saturni) does not exist either in the Greek or Latin text. Rather, the word "Saturday" was supplied in the English translation in place of the word Sabbato, meaning Sabbath. The following is the original text.
"Quod non oportet Christianos Judaizere et otiare in Sabbato, sed operari in eodem die. Preferentes autem in veneratione Dominicum Diem si vacre voluerint, ut Christiani hoc faciat; quod si reperti fuerint Judaizere Anathema sint a Christo." Council of Laodicea, Canon 29 [emphasis mine]
At the time the Julian calendar was being enforced upon Christians for religious purposes, no one confused the word Sabbato with dies Saturni. Simply everyone at that time knew these were names for two different days on two distinctly different calendar systems. It is only as the facts of history have been forgotten, that "Saturday" has been assumed to be the seventh-day Sabbath of Scripture. Therefore this historic quote from the Council of Laodicea, Canon 29, applies to lunisolar time-keeping only and not to the Julian or Gregorian calendar which keep the rhythm of the pagan unbroken cycling weeks. Lunisolar time-keeping was betrothed to mankind as an oracle of the government of heaven, and was the only time-system consistently kept by the Hebrew people during their times of faithfulness.
Josephus tells the story below of Mithridates, the Babylonian, who planned a surprise attack on Anileus, the Jew, during his Sabbath rest day. But when Anileus is informed of the surprise attack, he orchestrated his own attack during the fourth watch of the night prior to the Sabbath daylight. If the Sabbath began at sunset he would not have been able to attack any time during that night. This illustrates that Josephus was well aware that the Jewish Sabbath commenced at sunrise and not sunset, as kept by the modern Jews.
"Now when Mithridates, who was there at this time, heard that his villages were taken, he was very much displeased to find that Anileus had first begun to injure him, and to affront him in his present dignity, when he had not offered any injury to him beforehand; and he got together the greatest body of horsemen he was able, and those out of that number which were of an age fit for war. and came to fight Anileus; and when he was arrived at a certain village of his own, he lay still there, as intending to fight him on the day following, because it was the Sabbath, the day on which the Jews rest. And when Anileus was informed of this by a Syrian stranger of another village, who not only gave him an exact account of other circumstances, but told him where Mithridates would have a feast, he took his supper at a proper time, and marched by night, with an intent of falling upon the Parthians while they were unapprized what they should do; so he fell upon them about the fourth watch of the night, and some of them he slew while they were asleep, and others he put to flight, and took Mithridates alive, and set him naked upon an ass, which among the Parthians is esteemed the greatest reproach possible." The Works of Josephus, Vol. 2, Book XVIII, Chapter 9, p. 6. (Translated from original Greek, by Havercamp's Accurate Edition.), J. Grigg Publishing, 1825. |