Lunar-based Sabbath keepers attempt to hinge the seven-day weekly cycle to the sighting of the new moon, which of course happens once every four weeks. Because the new moon does not appear every 28 days, each month therefore resets the seven day cycle... frequently causing an "extended Sabbath" or "non-day" period which is not counted or considered in the 7 day cycle. But does the Torah give us any instruction on how to deal with such a profound conundrum? And is there any historical witness which describes how Ancient Israel would have accommodated such a conundrum?
The Fatal Errors:
- Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) kept the same 7th day Shabbat cycle currently used by the Jews (See The “Lord of the Sabbath” has the Last Word on the “lunar sabbath”). There is no historical witness which indicates the 7-day week cycle was broken or changed since before or after the time of Yeshua. Vague attempts to pin the change on Hillel II are simply convenient and unsubstantiated. Hillel only changed the monthly calendar system in order to keep the Jews in the Diaspora from observing Feast days in seasons which they weren't intended since the Jews no longer had a Sanhedrin sitting in Jerusalem to determine the month of the-Aviv, which would reckon the new year when the Barley crop is found in the state of Aviv at the sighting of the New Moon. There is no evidence that he changed the actual weekly cycle. And references to Philo are taken out of context, for he himself plainly says during his treatise on the Decalogue (XX): "The fourth commandment has reference to the sacred seventh day, that it may be passed in a sacred and holy manner. Now some states keep the holy festival only once in the month, counting from the new moon, as a day sacred to the Almighty; but the nation of the Jews keeps every seventh day regularly, after each interval of six days". Philo was and is a respected Jewish historian who lived during the time of Yeshua, and there is no evidence that the Messiah parted from the same Sabbath day observed by the Jews (although He did part with some of the extra-biblical commandments added to Shabbat).
- Exodus 20:9-11 states, with no reference to the moon, that we are to work 6 days and rest on the 7th. Scripture does not make any allowance for the inevitable and controversial 8th and occasional 9th day at the end of every month. This is not just a conundrum. It plainly breaks the commandment which says to start work on the first day.
- The weekly cycle was instituted before the creation of the Moon (or for the GAP Creationists: before the Moon was illuminated). How then can the Moon govern the weekly cycle if it was not yet created or illuminated four days after the week began?
- The Counting of the Omer (7 weeks / 49 days) is disrupted by the Lunar-based Sabbath system.
All the Lunar-Sabbath keepers that I know are well-meaning and sincere believers in the Most High of Israel. I readily admit that they may ultimately be correct in their practice (at least partially), but I still have lingering and troubling questions, namely those above (which is why I currently think they are severely incorrect). Fortunately, Messiah indicated that the Prophet Elijah will come before the Great Tribulation starts and he will restore "all matters" (Matthew 17:10-14), including the correct calendar system if it indeed needs to be corrected.
Common question:
1.) Where is there proof or precedent in scripture which substantiates an unbroken 7-day week-cycle which is now adhered to by the Jews?
The counting of the Sabbath Years (an unbroken 7-year cycle) and the Jubilee years (an unbroken 49-year cycle) and the counting of the Omer (an unbroken 7-week cycle) are all proof of the use and observance of unbroken cycles of seven, all of which are microcosms or macrocosms of the others (see How do we know the Shmitta and Yobel Year Cycle?). There is precedent, but it seems "all roads lead to the moon" for the individuals who embrace this teaching, so it is difficult for them to see a precedent which would take them down a different road.
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