In the year 1869, the late George Smith, a well - known pioneer student of assyriology, discovered among the cuneiform tablets, in the archives of the British Museum in London, 'a curious religious calendar of the Assyrians, in which every month is divided into four weeks, and (the seventh days) or (Sabbaths) are marked out, as days, on which no work should be undertaken'.  Some six years later, sir Henry Rrawlinson published this calendar, in the fourth volume of his standard collection of cuneiform inscriptions.

Records Hutton Webster continues by saying:
"All the days are styled 'favourable': an expression that must indicate a pious hope, not a fact, since the words 'ud-khul-gal' or 'umu limnu', which means 'the evil day', are particularly applied to the seventh, fourteenth, nineteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days...  Concerning the reasons, which dictate the choice of the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days, two views have been entertained.  It has been held, in the first place, which the 'evil days' were selected, as corresponding to the moon's successive changes.  Thus, the seventh day marks the close of the earliest form of the seven-day week, namely a week bound up with the lunar phases."  (Ibid, p.224)

Hutton Webster explains:
"A similar association, with the moon's course, is set forth, in the case of a seven-day period, in a text, which specifically indicates the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days, as those of sin, the moon god."

Hutton Webster writes:
"In the fifth tablet of the Babylonian 'Epic of Creation', a work, which in its original form, is traced to the close of the third millennium B.C..  It is told, how the god Marduk, having created and set in order the heavenly bodies, then placed the moon in the sky, to make known the days and divide the month with her phases."  Webster elicits, "Although this interesting production, in its present mutilated state, mentions only, the seventh and fourteenth days, (we are entitled to believe that the original text also referred to the twenty-first and twenty-eighth days of the [lunar] month)."  (Rest Days: A Study In Early Law and Morality, pp. 228-229)

As is wont, with all humankind, the original meaning and intent of the Sabbath day, as revealed by YaHuWaH to Adam and his descendants, became perverted again, after the flood and was associated with pagan gods.  However, the timing of these Sabbaths or rest days were kept intact.

Continues Hutton Webster:
"A lexicographical tablet, from the library of the Assyrian king, Asshurbanipan, gives the names, attached to several days of the Babylonian month;  and among these, is the designation Shabattum, (applied to the fifteenth day of the lunar month).  Still more recently, a similar use of Shabattum has been found in a text, which contains an account of the course of the moon, during the [lunar] month.  Reference is here made, to the first appearance of the New Moon [Crescent], its ash-gray light until about the seventh day thereafter, its opposition with the sun on the fourteenth day, its aspects on the twenty-first and twenty-eighth days, and finally its disappearance on the twenty-ninth and thirtieth days, being the time of conjunction with the sun.  In this description, which for minuteness, recalls the Polynesian, naming of the nights from successive aspects of the moon, the fifteenth day again appears as Shabattum."  (Ibid, pp.  238-239)

It must be understood that the 15th day of Abib lunar month was an High Day Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  The 15th day of the seventh lunar month was an High Day Sabbath of the Feast of Tabernacles.  All Seventh Day Sabbaths, throughout the year, fell upon the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eight days of each lunar month.

In the next several pages of his book, Hutton Webster makes these observations:
"The choice of the fifteenth day as the Shabattum was obviously determined, by the length of the Babylonian month, which, in the earlier period, was regularly taken at thirty days duration.  However, we have seen that, (where lunar reckonings are employed, and the [lunar] month begins at sunset with the visible New Moon [Crescent]), the fourteenth day, more commonly, coincides with the full of the moon.  Shabattum, (being the technical expression for the fifteenth day as the time of full moon);  it is only reasonable to conclude, that the observances belonging to this day would be often transferred to the fourteenth of the [lunar] month, or to any other day, on which the moon became full...  And if for practical purposes, the fourteenth day might be a Shabattum, it is not difficult to assume that this was also the case with the days:(seventh, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth...), which marked other characteristic stages of the lunation.  In the developed Babylonian cult, all these were 'evil days,' when the alhym must be propitiated and conciliated."  (Rest Days, pp. 240-241)

Webster goes on, to associate the Babylonian 'Shabattum', with the Hebrew 'Sabbath', as found in the Old Testament:
"And it shall come to pass, that from one New Moon [Day] to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship in the presence of me, saith YaHuWaH."  This remarkable association of the Sabbath, with the Day of the New Moon, had been previously noticed, by such acute critics as Wellhausen and Robertson smith, who were unable to offer a satisfactory solution to the problem thus presented.  However, when the cuneiform records disclosed the fact that the Babylonian Shabattum fell on the fifteenth (or 14th) day of the [lunar] month, and was referred to the day of the full moon, it became clear, in these biblical passages, that we have another survival of what must have been the primary meaning of the Hebrew term Shabbath:(Sabbath).  Then, as late as the eighth century B.C., Popular phraseology retained a lingering trace of the original collocation of the New-Moon and full-moon Days, as festival occasions characterized by abstinence from secular activities.  How long-lived, were the old ideas, is further illustrated by the provision in Ezekiel's reforming legislation, that the inner eastern gate of the new temple at Jerusalem should be shut during the six working days, but should be opened on the Sabbath and on the New-Moon Day:(Dark-Moon Day), for the religious assemblage of the people.  That the term Shabbath, (the designation of the full-moon day), should have come to be applied to every Seventh Day of the [lunar] month, seems to be quite in accord with both Babylonian and Hebrew usage, which, as we have seen, led the [lunar] month itself to be called after the New-Moon Day.

"The Hebrew seven-day week, ending with the Sabbath, presented so obvious a resemblance to the Babylonian Septenary period, which closed with an 'evil day', that scholars have felt themselves compelled to seek its origin in Babylonia."  (Ibid., pp. 252-252)

"The celebration of New-Moon and full-moon Festivals", remarks Hutton Webster, "That both, Babylonians and Hebrews, appear to have derived from a common Semitic antiquity,...."  (Rest Days, p.254)

According to M. Jastrow, there is a passage in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament), which was in dispute several centuries before the Messiah, concerning its meaning:

In the 23rd chapter of Leviticus, the word 'Sabbath' appears to be used, in a sense, precisely the same as that of the Babylonian Shabattum, referring to the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the moon:(lunar month).  In this passage, it is directed, that 'on the morrow after the Seventh Day Sabbath', the sheaf of the firstfruits of the harvest is to be brought to the priest, who shall wave it on the morrow, after the High Day Sabbath of the Feast, in the presence of YaHuWaH.  They counted fifty days, from 'the morrow after the Seventh Day Sabbath', to the commencement of the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost.

The fact that the Babylonians kept Seventh Day Sabbaths that lined up with the phases of the moon, is noted by a number of different sources.

According to the encyclopedia of religion and ethics, by James Hastings:
"The Babylonian..Seven-day week...Is The week, with which, we are so well acquainted...  This was the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th days of every [lunar] month."

In the ten commandments, by Joseph Lewis, we find written:
"In 1869 George smith, well known as a pioneer student of assyriology, discovered, among the cuneiform tablets in the British Museum, 'curious religious calendars of the Assyrians, in which every month is divided into four weeks, and the seventh days or 'Sabbaths' are marked out, as days on which no work should be undertaken'.  Authorities contend that this reckoning of the days of the week and the taboo prescribed for the seventh day, [which falls on the moon's phases], probably belonged to the age of Hammurabi."

The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia acknowledges:
"The idea of the week, as a subdivision of the month, [was found] in Babylonia, where each lunar month was divided into four parts, corresponding to the four phases of the moon.  The first week of each [lunar] month began with the New Moon [Crescent], 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:(Shabbatum) was regarded as an unlucky day.  This method, of reckoning time, spread westward through Syria and Palestine, and was adopted by the Israelites AGAIN, after they settled in Palestine."  (Vol. 10, p. 482, Article Week)

The Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopedia states:
"Among all early nations, the lunar months were the readiest large divisions of time...  (and were divided into 4 weeks), corresponding to the phases or quarters of the moon.  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."  (1904, p. 1497)

Today, almost all scholars agree that the primal seven-day calendar, as used among the very ancient Semites, (including the Babylonians and Hebrews), was based upon the moon:(lunar month).  Furthermore, this unique weekly cycle was observed in tandem with the lunar phases.  An example of the early week based upon the phases of the moon is described in the fifth tablet of the Semitic story of the creation (12-18).  Note, that the moon is said to 'make known the days' and its horns 'the seasons', creating the Sabbath on the 7th and 14th days of the lunar month.

Like the ancient lunar calendars, the Hellenistic calendar counts days from sunset to sunset and not from sunrise to sunrise or midnight to midnight.  To the ancients in Athens, Jerusalem, and Babylon, each new lunar month began with the appearance of the Young Crescent Moon in the evening sky and NOT when the Moon was Dark, i.e. The New Moon Day.  This evening was celebrated with the lighting of torches and bonfires, to announce to all, in the countryside, that the new lunar month had officially begun.  The second day of the lunar month began on the following evening, and the third day began on the third evening.

According to Janet and Stewart Farrar, in The Witches Goddess:
"The modern use of seven day weeks, also stems from the ancient lunar calendar.  The first of every lunar month was marked as the first day of a new week, and a Sabbath was celebrated every seventh day, to mark the 4 quarters of the moon.  The last week was followed, by the Days of the Dark Moon, when the goddess was held to be menstruating and so an extended Sabbath was observed until the Waxing Crescent Moon Reappeared and the new [lunar] month began."  (Phoenix publishing, pp. 24-25, p.106)

		  Abraham Goes To Canaan

Abraham, the tenth generation from Noah through shem, was born in the Chaldean city of Ur--a thriving metropolis located in the land of Shinar, near the present junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in Iraq  Ur of the Chaldees was about 150 miles southeast of nimrod's onetime royal city of Babel, or Babylon, notorious for its unfinished tower of Babel.  The Chaldean civilization, with its advanced mathematics and astronomy, has always baffled the archaeologists.  However, this phenomenon can easily be explained, as resulting from an influx of people, from the Semitic branch of the family of Noah, after the flood.  In this country of the ancient Chaldees, the descendants of shem, who was the father of the children of Heber:(Ibiri, Abiri, or Hebrews), settled after the flood.

E.  Raymond Capt writes:
"This would explain the famous astrology of the Chaldeans.  The word 'astrology' is, in fact, synonymous with wisdom.  The early Chaldean priests were genuine astronomers.  They knew, the accurate value of the solar year, divided the day into 24 hours, and the circle into 360 degrees."  (Stonehenge and Druidism.  Thousand oaks: artisan sales, 1979,  p. 63).  They also kept a lunar month, with weeks based on the phases of the moon, and were able to calculate eclipses and recognize comets.  They also discovered that the sun was 'spotted'.

E.  Raymond Capt continues:
"They knew the 12 signs of the zodiac and from its constellations, developed their famous 'astrology'.  The existence of certain values, connected with the procession of the equinoxes, found in their records, indicate, they had rules and methods of calculation, but did not know the principles, which formed the basis of their calculations."  (Ibid)

The Jewish historian Josephus, (37 or 38-about 101 A.D.), makes reference to the Adamic origin of astronomy and mathematics:
"They, (the Sethites) also, were the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom, which is concerned with the heavenly bodies and their order."  "Ancient Persian and Arabian traditions also, ascribe the wisdom of astronomy to Adam, Seth and Enoch."  "Abraham inherited this fund of knowledge and became known as a man of great learning."

Berosus, the Chaldean historian, recorded:
"In the tenth generation after the flood, there was among the Chaldeans, a man named Abraham, who was righteous and great, and skilful in the celestial science."

"In Abraham’s day, however, the city of Ur had become steeped, in Babylonian idolatry and the worship of its patron moon-god sin."  Writes Josephus:(as quoted by Josephus in "Antiquities of the Jews").

"He, (Abraham) was a person of great sagacity, both, for understanding all things and persuading his hearers, and not mistaken in his opinions;  for which reason, he began to have higher notions of virtue than others had, and he determined to renew and to change the opinions all men, who occurred then to have their own opinions concerning YaHuWaH;  for he was the first, who ventured to publish this notion, that there was but one Almighty, eternal of the universe;  and that as to other [heavenly beings], if they contributed anything to the joyfulness of men, that each of them afforded it, only, according to YaHuWaH ALaHiYM appointment, and not by their own power."  (Antiquities of the Jews, book I, chapter VII, verse 1)

"As a result of Abraham’s preaching, the inhabitants of Ur rose up against him, and this was a factor in his decision to leave the city;  for which doctrines, when the Chaldeans and other people, of Mesopotamia, raised a tumult against him, he thought fit to leave that country;  and at the command, and by the assistance of YaHuWaH, he came and lived in the land of Canaan."  (Antiquities of the Jews, book I, chapter VII, verse 1)

"Abram and his family left Ur and traveled northeastward to Haran, some 600 miles distant, and remained there until the death of his father Terah.  Now 75 years old, Abraham began to move his household out of Haran to the land of Canaan, where he lived out the remaining hundred years of his life in tents as an alien and migratory resident.  With Abraham, went his wide-ranging knowledge of astronomy, and the sciences, and of course, his understanding of YaHuWaH ALaHiYM Sabbath and Feast days."  (Antiquities of the Jews)

Once established in Canaan, Nicolaus of Damascus tells us:
"Abram reigned at Damascus, being a foreigner, who came with an army out of the land above Babylon, called the land of the Chaldees."  (Cited in "Antiquities of the Jews", book I, chapter VII, verse 2)

			 The Move to Egypt

In Canaan, Abraham and his family continued to keep YaHuWaH ALaHiYM Sabbath and Feast days.  A fact brought out by Hutton Webster in Rest Days:
"The [early] Hebrews employed lunar seven-day weeks, which ended with special observances on the seventh day, but, indeed, were tied to the moon's course."  (Page 254.)  Truly, they were.

"It would appear that the primitive Semites had four chief moon days, seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eight 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 [15th] was made a day of propitiation, and its name was construed as meaning 'the day for ending the wrath of the alhym.  The Israelites on the other hand kept the Sabbaths, and the Feasts of YaHuWaH.  The work of man became symbolic of the work of YaHuWaH, and human rest of Divine rest, so that the Sabbaths became preeminently days of rest.  Moreover, since the lunar month had 29 or 30 days, the normal lapse of time between Sabbaths was six days, with one or two days at the end of the last lunar phase being Dark Moon Days.  The connection of the Sabbath with lunar phases, however, was [later] discarded by the Israelites...."  (Pp. 135-136)

"In time, a severe famine ravaged the land of Canaan, compelling Abraham and his household to move temporarily to Egypt.  Josephus describes, for us, Abraham’s reputation and stature in Egyptian society during his sojourn in the land."  (An account drawn from numerous ancient authorities).

"(The Pharaoh) gave him:(Abraham) leave, to enter into conversation with the most learned among the Egyptians;  from which conversation, his virtue and reputation became more conspicuous than they had been before;  for whereas, the Egyptians were formerly addicted to different customs, and despised one another's sacred rites, and were very angry with one another on that account;  Abram conferred:(held a conference) with each one of them, confuted:(proved to be wrong) the reasons, they made use of their different customs;  every one for his own practices.  Moreover, Abram demonstrated, that such reasonings were vain and void of truth;  whereupon he was admired, by them in those conferences, as a very wise man, and of great sagacity, when he discoursed on any subject he under, and this, not only, in understanding it, but to persuade other men to assent to him.  He communicated and delivered, to them, the knowledge of YaHuWaH;  for before Abram came to Egypt, they were unacquainted with the different customs of the gods;  for those customs came from the Chaldeans into Egypt, and from thence to the Greeks also."  (Antiquities of the Jews, 87-88)

"Abraham not only carried Mesopotamian culture and technology with him and 'boosted Egypt from the early Chalcolithic into the late bronze age,' but he, also brought with him YaHuWaH ALaHiYM calendar and Sabbath Days.  Egyptologists have discovered, that the earliest Egyptian calendar was based on the moon's cycles, and the hieroglyphic symbol for 'month', show a crescent moon:(the first visible Crescent of the New Moon) over a star.  After Abraham’s departure, modifications were made to the calendar, to give it a uniquely Egyptian flavor or character.  They started counting the year, when they saw the new moon right after the star Sirius.  There were 12 months: each month containing 29 1/2 days, for a total of 354 days.  Then the Egyptians added another month to the calendar, to ensure two factors: the Nile river and the calendar would always match each other in terms of when the Nile would flood and the date.  The calendar remained lunar based, however, until after the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt many centuries later."  (Antiquities of the Jews)

			From Joseph to the Exodus

"Years later, Joseph, the great-grandson of Abraham, was sold into slavery by his brothers, for 20 pieces of silver and transported to Egypt by his Midianite captors.  After being sold to Potiphar;  the chief of Pharaoh's bodyguard, Joseph eventually rose to become the second most powerful man in the land of Egypt, next to the Pharaoh himself.  In this position, Joseph introduced many innovations into the land, (see our article, Joseph and the engineering wonders of Egypt), and saved the Egyptian people from a severe seven-year famine."  (Antiquities of the Jews)

Samuel Kurinsky points out in his book, titled, "The Eighth Day", under the heading, "In the Hidden History of the Jewish Contribution to Civilization":
"The most critical and important factor, affecting the economy of Egypt, was the engineering of an effective control of its water resources.  Legends, both Hebraic and Arabic, have it, that Joseph and his people made a great and everlasting contribution to Egypt, in this regard.  The application, of the wisdom of YaHuWaH, served in the planning of new systems of irrigation and in expanding the primitive systems, previously installed in Egypt.  The storage of water is even more effective as a hedge against years of drought and famine, than the storage of grain, which, we are told, was a first step, recommended by Joseph to the Pharaoh."  (New Jersey: Jason Aaronson, Inc. 1994, p. 127)

Knowing that Joseph was a righteous man and a friend of YaHuWaH, there can be no doubt, that he introduced the Law of ALaHiYM into the land.  This included the Seventh Day Sabbath and Holy Feast days.  Moreover, in order to keep those days correctly, Joseph must have reintroduced the lunar calendar that was introduced by Abraham.  All evidence points to the fact that the Egyptians maintained a lunar calendar all through the middle kingdom:(the time of the Israelite presence in Egypt).

When the Israelites left Egypt in a mass exodus, at the end of the 12th and 13th dynasties of the middle kingdom, they were met by large numbers (the records indicate 240,000) of Amalekites, who were heading for Egypt, to fill the power vacuum, left by the collapse of the ruling dynasties.  These Amalekites, known to the historians as the Hyksos, brought with them, into Egypt, a new calendar.

There is a gloss, (a note of comment or explanation), found on a manuscript of Timaeus, (a Greek historian of Tauromenium, now Taormina, Sicily;  circa 356-260 B.C.) which states, that the Egyptian calendar, of a 360-day solar year, was introduced into Egypt by the Hyksos, following the fall of the middle kingdom.

When the seven-year famine forced Joseph’s father Jacob, to send his sons to Egypt for food, the Egyptian Pharaoh approved the move of Jacob and his household into the land, and gave them the very best of the land in Goshen.  History indicates that Jacob and his sons became masters in Egypt, and the island of Crete, which was, at that time, under Egyptian control.  There can be no doubt, that, with the powerful influence of Joseph and his family in Egypt, the Law of ALaHiYM and Sabbath Days were diligently kept, while they remained alive.  Moreover, there can be no doubt, that many of the Egyptians, (when confronted with the tremendous blessings, which Joseph and his kin received for obeying YaHuWaH), kept the Law of ALaHiYM, which included the Seventh Day Sabbath.  This enlightened state of affairs lasted until the death of Joseph

Then we read in Josephus:
"And having, in length of time, forgotten the benefits they:(the Egyptians) had received from Joseph, particularly the crown being now come into another family, they became very abusive to the Israelites, and contrived many ways of afflicting them."  (Antiquities of the Jews, chapter IX, verse 1)

Evidently, with the usurping of the Egyptian throne, by the founder of the 12th dynasty, a new dynasty came into power, which did not revere the memory of Joseph and all he had done for the country.  Moreover, following the Israelites plunge into virtual slavery, the memory of YaHuWaH ALaHiYM true Sabbath day became lost and they were forced to work around the clock making bricks and building waterways for the new pharaohs.

		  From Joshua to the Babylonian Captivity

After wandering for 40 years in the wilderness, because of their disobedience, the Israelites finally crossed into the promised land, under the able leadership of Joshua.  After conquering, only, a few of the various Canaanite tribes, the land was divided up and given to the 12 tribes as an inheritance.  During this time, and up to the Assyrian captivity of the house of Israel, the lunar calendar was observed, although, surrounding nations were moving away from this type of calendar.

In the year 1200 B.C., the Egyptian calendar was reformed to the Sothic calendar, in which the year started, when they could see a new moon right after the star Sirius.  The Egyptians were the first to replace the lunar calendar with a calendar based on the solar year.  They measured the solar year as 365 days, divided into twelve months of thirty days each, with five extra days at the end.

Meanwhile, according to Hutton Webster:

"In Palestine, the Hebrews employed lunar seven-day weeks, which ended with special observances on the seventh day, and which were tied to the moon's course for centuries preceding the exile."  (Rest Days, p.254)

Jonathan Brown, in his booklet "Keeping YaHuWaH ALaHiYM Appointments", explains these verses in a cogent manner:

"In 1 Samuel:(Shemuwal) 20:27, Saul notices David’s absence again, on the second of the Chodesh:(New Moon).  This show 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 in the morning.  The counting of the three days, which was covenanted between Jonathan and David, began on the Sabbath before sunset, which began the first Chodesh:(New Moon) Day.  The watch for chodesh:(new moon) crescent appears to have ended after two days.  Therefore, because there were two days in which David was expected, we can safely assume that the particular lunar month was 30 days in length.  Moreover, we can assume that these two days were not normal 'workdays', but were Dark Moon Days."  (pp. 57-58)

Up above, in the booklet, "Keeping YaHuWaH ALaHiYM Appointments":
Take note that Jonathan Brown wrote, "The counting of the three days, which was covenanted between Jonathan and David, began upon the Sabbath before sunset, which began the first Chodesh:(New Moon) Day."

It should be understood that the counting of the three days, began upon the Sabbath, before the first New Moon Day began after sunset.
Moreover, this proves, that, in the time of King Saul and David, the Israelites were still observing the weeks, (and therefore the Sabbath), according to the lunar calendar or reckoning.

Brown concludes:
"So, with this story of David, we can begin to understand, how (feasting is attached to the watching for the chodesh or new moon).  Everyone just sort of went (on hold) and enjoyed the barbecue.  The sighting of the crescent moon, then ended it, because that was the day, wherein, the counting of the new month and week began, again."  (Ibid, p. 58)

Further information is supplied by the Encyclopedia Biblica, (1899):
"The New Moon [Day] and the Sabbaths, alike, called men to the sanctuary, to do sacrifice as in: Isaiah 1:12-17, Isaiah 56:1-7, and Ezekiel 20:10-20.  Hosea explains, that in captivity, the Sabbath, along with the other Feasts, will not be kept by the children of Israel.  Because, in his day, a Feast implied a sanctuary.  The Sabbath is a mark of separation or division from the heathen.  In 1 Shemuwal 20:18, 24, and 27, the Dark Days of the Moon was celebrated two days.  The Sabbath is on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th days from each Observance of the New Moon [Crescent].  (Note: the Dark Side of the Moon would be 1 or 2 days)."  (The Macmillan Company, p. 4177)

The same encyclopedia, on page 5290, notes:
"The subdivision of the month was into weeks...  A week representing approximately a phase of the moon.  This quadripartite division of the month, into weeks, was inline with the phases of the moon.  The mode of reckoning, among the Israelites, was by dividing the first 28 days of each [lunar] month, into 4 weeks, i.e.  7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day and by making the first week of the new [lunar] month, always, begin with the [Observance] of the New Moon Crescent."

	From Babylon unto Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh) Christ:(MaSHiYCH)

The exile, of the house of Judah in Babylon, had a profound effect upon the calendar used by the Jews, as upon many other aspects of their religious life.

The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics state:
"It was during the exile, when they became acquainted with the names of the months, which they retain to the present day, and to which a Babylonian origin is actually assigned by the Talmud."  (Edited by James Hastings Vol. III.  New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1924, p. 117)

The Encyclopedia Britannica explains:
"The ancient Hebrew names, of the months, disappeared in the exile and were replaced by Babylonian names;  but... before the exile, the months were more commonly designated by numbers."

The Encyclopedia Britannica continues:
"In Babylon the Jews adopted the Babylonian names, seven of which, (Nissan, Sivan, Tebeth, Ellul, Kislev, Shebat, Adar), occur in Nehemiah and Esther, while six, (Tammuz, Ab, Ellul, Tishri and Shebat), are mentioned in the Assouan Papyri (5th century B.C.)."  (VOL. 4, p.580.  1943)

Therefore, it is obvious from scripture that the calendar of Israel, during the time of the Prophets, was a lunar based calendar of the type that incorporated weeks, which were determined by the phases of the moon.  The one or two solar days, occurring at the end of the fourth lunar phase, were counted as being a part of the 28th lunar day of the lunar month.  In addition, it is beyond any doubt that YaHuWaH ALaHiYM calendar of four lunar weekly phases of the moon was NOT LOST, from the time of the Prophets unto the days of Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh) Christ:(MaSHiYCH) and the Apostles.

To continue, click on this Link:  History Proves That the Seventh Day Sabbaths Were Set According To the Lunar Months During the Time of Jesus Christ, By Observing the New Moon Crescents