Historical lunar quotes

Edited by John D. Keyser.

 

Some of these quotes are of secular sources. This site disagrees on some topics.
 

“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.

 

With the destruction of the Temple (A.D. 70) the Sadducees disappeared altogether, leaving the regulation of all Jewish affairs in the hands of the Pharisees. Henceforth, Jewish life was regulated by the Pharisees; the whole history of Judaism was reconstructed from the Pharisaic point of view, and a new aspect was given to the Sanhedrin of the past. A new chain of tradition supplanted the older priestly tradition (Abot 1:1). Pharisaism shaped the character of Judaism and the life and thought of the Jew for all the future. (“Pharisees,” The Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol 9, [1901-1906 ed.], p. 666)

​

Pharasaism became Talmudism...[but] the spirit of the ancient Pharisee survives unaltered. When the Jew...studies the Talmud, he is actually repeating the arguments used in the Palestinian academies....The spirit of the [Pharisees’] doctrine has remained quick and vital. (Louis Finklestein, The Pharisees: The Sociological Background of their Faith, [Jewish Publication Society of America], Vol. 4, p. 1332)

​

The following quote compares Roman time to lunisolar time by giving 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 lunar phase that corresponded with this Roman date, making it the “Second Day” after the third Sabbath of the month.

​

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 Encyclopedia: An Authorative and Popular Presentation of Jews and Judaism Since the Earliest Times. Volume 10 Cohen, Simon (1943 p 482-483. “Week.” In Landman, Isaac)

 

...The Hebrew Sabbath (i.e. Creation Sabbath) was originally a Sabbathon -- i.e. a day of propitiation and appeasement; marked by atoning rites...it was celebrated at intervals of seven days, ..corresponding with the changes in the moon’s phases.... (Encyclopaedia Biblica, 1899, p. 4180).

 

The Hebrew month is a lunar month and the quarter of this period -- one phase of the moon -- appears to have determined the week of seven days. (Encyclopaedia Biblica, 1899, p. 4780)

​

And then the moon, ever punctual to mark the times, [as] an everlasting sign: It is the moon that signals the feasts, a luminary that wanes after being full. The month derives its name from hers. She waxes wonderfully in her phases, banner of the hosts on high, shining in the vault of heaven. (Ecclesiasticus 43:6-8, c.a. 190-180 B.C.)

​

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 [to the Roman cycling planetary 8 week]; and this gradually resulted in taking away from the New Moon festival its popular importance.... (The Jewish Encyclopedia, “Pastoral Feast.”)

 

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)

 

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)

 

The connection of the Sabbath with lunar phases, however, was (later) discarded by the Israelites.... (The New Schaff-Herzog Religious Encyclopedia, p. 135-136) 

 

...the Jewish festivals being regulated solely by the moon, may fall on any day of the [modern Roman] week. (Oxford English Dictionary, 1971 Edition, Vol. 2, “Pentecost”)

 

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 [modern Roman] week. (Oxford English Dictionary, 1971 Edition, Vol. 2, “Pentecost”)

​

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 [plus 50 days] (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”)

​

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)

 

A continuous seven-day cycle that runs throughout history paying no attention whatsoever to the moon and its phases is a distinctively Jewish invention [based upon principles from Babylon and Egypt]. Moreover, the dissociation of the seven-day week from nature has been one of the most significant contributions of Judaism to civilization...it facilitated the establishment of what Lewis Mumford identified as “mechanical periodicity thus essentially increasing the distance between human beings and nature.

​

Quasi weeks [weeks whose cycle restarts with the New Moon] and weeks [continuously cycling] actually represent two fundamentally distinct modes of temporal organization of human life, the former involving partial adaptation to nature, and the latter stressing total emancipation from it. 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 [time beaconed by the sun, moon, and stars] and create a social world of their own. (The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week, Eviatar Zerubavel, New York: The Free Press, 1985. p.11)

 

It was only in Alexandria [Egypt] that three distinct practices that had evolved quite independently of the Chaldean planetary theory -- an astronomical practice of arranging the seven planets in a certain invariable order, a mathematical practice of subdividing the daily cycle into twenty-four hours, and an astrological theory known as the doctrine of “Chronocratores” -- were nevertheless integrated with it so as to produce the astrological seven-day week in its final form. This cycle is therefore the product of the successful Hellenistic fusion of astronomy, astrology, and mathematics, as well as the great cultural heritage of Egypt, Babylonia, and Greece. (The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week, Eviatar Zerubavel, New York: The Free Press, 1985. p.14)

 

The Babylonians, at a very early period, divided their months into seven-day cycles.... (Ancient History, Hutton Webster, p. 20)

​

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 [planetary day of the modern Roman cycling week]. (The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History. Edited by Isidore Singer, Cyrus Adler. Volume 10, p. 590)

​

The belief, that the week has come down uninterrupted since Creation, is not an assumption shared by modern Jewish scholars who know their history. Rather, it appears they had a part to play in the change.

​

Judaism's Role in Changing YEHOVAH's Calendar 

​

A continuous seven-day cycle that runs throughout 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. Like the invention of the mechanical clock some 1,500 years later, it facilitates the establishment of what Lewis Mumford identified as "mechanical periodicity," thus essentially increasing the distance between human beings and nature.

 

Quasi [lunar] weeks and [continuous] weeks actually represent two fundamentally distinct modes of temporal organization of human life, the former involving partial adaptation to nature, and the latter stressing total emancipation from it. 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 the Creator’s law] and create a social world of their own. (Eviatar Zerubavel, The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week, The Free Press, New York, 1985, p. 11)

 

Most theologians and some scholars assume that mainstream Jewish society, 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)

 

In the years following Clement of Alexandria's time (A.D. 150-215), 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)

 

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)

 

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) 

 

The present Jewish calendar was fixed [to the Roman planetary weekly cycle] in the fourth century. (Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Letter by Louis Finkelstein to Dr. L. E. Froom, Feb. 20, 1939)

​

The week, which was based on the Mosaic Law that requires rest from labor every seventh day, was not recognized in the calendar of the ancient Greeks, and did not appear in the Roman calendar until about 400 A.D. (Funk and Wagnall’s Standard Reference Encyclopedia, 1961, Vol. 5, p. 1662 “Calendar”)

 

Each New Moon was celebrated with a fast. (Jewish Family Celebrations, p. 35)

​

...The sacred festival of the new moon, which people give notice of with trumpets, and the day of fasting, on which abstinence from all meats and drinks is enjoined.... (Philo Book 26, p. 159)

​

Some Dead Sea Scrolls, such as 4Q325, 4Q326, 4Q327, and 4Q394, contain fixed week calendar systems which may represent an early attempted transition from the more ancient lunar phase week toward the modern fixed week made mandatory by Rome a few centuries later. Dead Sea Scroll fragments also preserve a luni-solar calendar, along with new and dark moons which are unnecessary if they only kept the purely solar calendar of 364 days. [Author Unknown]

 

...There was a distinct break between the Old Testament requirements...dealing with the Sabbath worship....They wanted to show that Christianity was distinct from Judaism....The other thing that we should remember, too, is that our calendar that we follow, including Seventh-day Adventists, is not only a calendar that was devised by the Catholic Church, but also it is a calendar that’s based upon the solar year, not the lunar year and the Jewish calendar that was observed in the time of Christ follows a lunar [lunisolar] calendar....So the great irony is that even the Seventh-day Adventists themselves are not worshipping on exactly the same Sabbath day as the Jews of the time of Christ. (Patrick Madrid, Catholic Priest and conservative made the startling comment on EWTN, Global Catholic Radio Network on Jan 5, 2006 when answering a question about the Catholic Church changing the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday)

 

But to the seventh-day of the week He [YEHOVAH] has assigned the greatest festivals, those of the longest duration, at the periods of the equinox both vernal and autumnal in each year; appointing two festivals for these two epochs, each lasting seven days; the one which takes place in the spring being for the perfection of what is being sown, and the one which falls in autumn being a feast of thanksgiving for the bringing home of all the fruits which the trees have produced…. (F.H. Colson’s translation of Philo’s THE DECALOGUE XXX (159))

 

Referring to the quote above, let’s look carefully at what Philo is saying. “But to the seventh-day of the week He has assigned the greatest festivals.” In other words, the greatest (longest) festivals have been assigned to the seventh-day of the week [Sabbath the 15th], which starts the festival and lasts for seven days. We know both of these seven-day feasts begin on the Sabbath the 15th. Philo goes on to say that each of these two months (1st and 7th) should receive a special honor of one sacred day of festival, for the purpose of refreshing and clearing the mind with its holiday.

 

Notice he did not say they would receive two sacred days of festivals, but one, the 15th. To prove the seventh-day of the week is the same as the 15th, elsewhere Philo states, "Again the beginning of this feast is appointed for the fifteenth day of the month (or seventh day of the week) on account of the reason which has already been mentioned respecting the Spring season might receive special honor of one sacred day of festival."

​

In other words, Philo is saying the weekly Sabbath begins these feasts, and is on the 15th. This is evidence that the Sabbaths are by the lunar calendar because there is no way the [modern] weekly Sabbath of the 15th can begin these two festivals on the 15th in both the 1st and 7th month each year. This only works with a lunar month with lunar Sabbaths and not with the Gregorian calendar with its continuous weekly cycle.

​

Following the outbreak of the revolt, Hadrian called his general Sextus Julius Severus from Britain, and troops were brought from as far as the Danube. Roman losses were very heavy, and it is believed that an entire legion, the XXII Deiotariana was destroyed. Roman losses were so heavy that Hadrian's report to the Roman Senate omitted the customary salutation "I and the legions are well." Hadrian's army eventually defeated the revolt however. According to Cassius Dio, during the war 580,000 Jews were killed, 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed.

 

After the end of the war, Hadrian continued the religious persecution of Jews, according to the Babylonian Talmud. He attempted to root out Judaism, which he saw as the cause of continuous rebellions, prohibited the Torah law, the Hebrew calendar and executed Judaic scholars. The sacred scroll was ceremoniously burned on the Temple Mount. At the former Temple sanctuary, he installed two statues, one of Jupiter, another of himself. In an attempt to erase any memory of Judea, he removed the name from the map and replaced it with Syria Palaestina, after the Philistines, the ancient enemies of the Jews. He re-established Jerusalem as the Roman pagan polis of Aelia Capitolina, and Jews were forbidden from entering it. (Hadrian from Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia)

​

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.)

​

The...[lunar-solar] 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)

 

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. “This intimate connection,” records the Encyclopedia Biblica, “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 lunar month)." (Encyclopedia Biblica, The MacMillan Company, 1899. p. 5290)

​

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])

 

A Profession of Faith from the Church of Constantinople in the year 325 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. (The Conflict Of The Church And The Synagogue Athenaeum, Parks, James, 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 20 (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. (A Profession of Faith from the Church of Constantinople in the year 325 C.E. Under the Emperor Constantine)

​

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.])

​

He shall insult the Most High, he shall torment/wear out the righteous ones of the Most High, and he shall attempt to change the calendar and the ordinance” (Daniel 7:25, Twentieth Century Knox translation)

According to the Jews

​

Declaring the new month by observation of the new moon, and the New Year by the arrival of spring, can only be done by the Sanhedrin. In the time of Hillel II [4th century A. D.], the last President of the Sanhedrin, the Romans prohibited this practice. Hillel II was therefore forced to institute his fixed calendar, thus in effect giving the Sanhedrin’s advance approval to the calendars of all future years. (The Jewish Calendar: Changing the Calendar, www.torah.org.)

​

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)

​

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)

​

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”)

​

Has Constantine's Cycling Planetary Week Always Been Used?

​

In spite of new evidence being revealed as to when the Sabbath was to commence from Creation to the time of the Tree, 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)

​

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)

​

These...eventually led Jewish rabbis to call Saturn Shabbti, 'the star of the Sabbath.' 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, Hutton Webster p. 244)

​

Early historical records clearly confirm that very early Gentile Christians also kept the same Sabbath as the Nazarenes [Sabbato]. This practice was first changed by [Pope] Sixtus in 126 AD, and later officially changed by a royal Roman decree from the emperor Constantine. Observance of the Sabbath [Sabbato] day was made illegal and observance of a "Sunday" of a fixed [cycling planetary designated] week was made mandatory for all except farmers. Previous to this time the Roman Saturday [dies Saturni] was the first day of the Roman week. The veneration of the Sun in the second century AD began to pressure Roman culture to change the first day of their week from SaturnDay to SunDay. (Shawui Sabbath: Ancient Sabbath Observance [Scroll down to section 7: The Christian Sabbath Observance in History. The quote begins with the second sentence in this section.])

​

We hope that these quotes will stimulate your thoughts and actions to seek a deeper understanding of the truths of the Most High that have been proactively hidden by the enemy of souls.