When is the Weekly Sabbath?
A booklet form of this introductory study is currently being edited and formatted.
Many Christians in the world today believe the weekly, seventh-day Sabbath is on Saturday, while others believe it is now on Sunday (under the Christian dispensation). I began my Sabbath journey by keeping the weekly Sabbath from Friday evening to Saturday evening back in 1997. It started by me reading in the Bible that the 7th day is to be remembered as holy (Exodus 20:8-11). In my mind, Saturday was a better choice than Sunday, seeing it was the 7th day of our modern week rather than the 1st. From 1997 to 1999 I observed the Sabbath in this way, until further Bible study lead me in the direction of finding the weekly Sabbath by looking to the method of time calculation laid down by Yahweh from the very beginning. If I could not find my foundation for when to keep the Sabbath in the Bible I was reading, something had to be amiss.
Let me begin with a simple illustration. Let's say that you and I wanted to keep the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:26-32). We read in the Bible that this day takes place on the 10th day of the 7th month. We then turn to our modern calendar and find that the 7th month is the month of July, and make the decision to keep the Day of Atonement on July 10th. After all, this is the 10th day of the 7th month, right? Well sure it is, but is it the 10th day of the 7th month that Yahweh is speaking about in Leviticus 23?
Here lies the problem with how people generally "find" the 7th day Sabbath. We read verses of Scripture that teach the 7th day to be the Sabbath. We then look to the modern calendar to find when this 7th day is. We find that Sunday is the 1st day of the week and Saturday is the 7th day of the week. Is Saturday really the 7th day of the week? Yes it is, but is it the 7th day of the week that Yahweh is speaking about in Scripture? I do not believe so and I hope to spark your interest in why I take that position in this short booklet.
When I was first introduced to the possibility that the Sabbath might be determined by the moon (late 1999) I began by hearing three texts of Scripture explained:
Genesis 1:14-19
14 Elohim said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth;” and it was so. 16 Elohim made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. 17 Elohim set them in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. Elohim saw that it was good. 19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
Psalm 104:19
19 He appointed the moon for seasons. The sun knows when to set.
Leviticus 23:1-3
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘The set feasts of Yahweh, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my set feasts. 3 “ ‘Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no kind of work. It is a Sabbath to Yahweh in all your dwellings.
When these texts were shown to me, I was already familiar with each of them. I was already a Sabbath, New Moon, and annual Feast keeper. I'd witnessed to others about these holy times by showing them Genesis 1:14-19, Psalm 104:19, and Leviticus 23. The King James Version of these two texts uses the word seasons, and the underlying Hebrew word is moedim (moe-eh-deem), which is translated as "festivals" in other Bibles. This Hebrew word refers to an appointment, fixed time, festival, or season. When we read the Genesis passage, we get a brief overview of how time is to be properly reckoned. It is to be determined by the greater and lesser lights (the sun, moon, and stars (ref. Psalm 136:7-9; Jeremiah 31:35).
Yahweh set these heavenly lights in the sky so that man would be able to calculate time. Periods like days, weeks, months, and years, as well as holy appointments; appointments where He would meet with His people. The passage in Psalms helps us understand more about the specifics in Genesis, by telling us that it is the moon that was appointed to determine the seasons, festivals, or moedim in Hebrew. At that time in my life I knew of all this. I observed Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread by the solar and lunar cycle. I observed the New Moon (obviously) by the lunar cycle. I realized that these set appointments of Yahweh could not be found by looking to the modern calendar that began in the winter month of January. What I did not realize is that the weekly Sabbath is a festival of Yahweh as well. It is actually the first festival mentioned in Leviticus 23, a chapter dedicated to the appointed times of our Creator. This is where Leviticus 23:1-3 surprised me. I remember reading it over and over and coming to the realization that the Sabbath was the first appointed time mentioned in the chapter. I still remember thinking to myself that day, "If I keep all the other festivals of Yahweh by the moon, why do I not keep the primary festival, the Sabbath, by the moon?"
I was blessed at that time to already understand and celebrate the day of the New Moon as a sanctified day. It helped me greatly in understanding this next piece of information I am going to share with you.
Ezekiel 46:1
1 “ ‘Adonai Yahweh says: “The gate of the inner court that looks toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened.
This was one of the verses, about a year prior to my encounter with the "lunar Sabbath," that caused me to realize that I needed to be setting the New Moon day apart as a special, no work day to Yahweh. I knew other brothers and sisters in the faith that recognized the New Moon, but this only consisted of them determining when the New Moon would be and then going about their regular, daily routine. The passage in Ezekiel was one of many that persuaded me to do more than just recognize the New Moon.
What did I do? In about the middle of 1998 I began to have a special worship service on the day of the New Moon, and I started refraining from gainful, commercial employment (Amos 8:5). It felt strange at first, stopping my work week once a month, but at the same time it felt wonderful that Yahweh was showing me more in His word than I had understood before. After a while, I began feeling like I was more on His schedule than the world's schedule. Little did I know that He would soon place me even more in line with His schedule.
As I read the Ezekiel text over and over, my spiritual eyes began to open. I was already keeping the New Moon, but I was keeping it during one of the six working days. In other words I would keep the Sabbath on Saturday, work on Sunday and Monday, and then a New Moon would sometimes come in on a Tuesday, and I would keep the New Moon on that day, which was one of my six working days. That gave me Sabbath, two work days, New Moon, three more work days, then Sabbath again. This would vary from month to month.
As I read Ezekiel 46:1 time and time again, I began to see that the New Moon was separated from the six working days in the exact same context as the weekly Sabbath.
Here's my point. All Sabbatarians agree that the weekly Sabbath will never fall on one of the six working days, but the New Moon is mentioned in the same sentence as the weekly Sabbath here, disassociated from the six working days. This means that the New Moon, like the Sabbath, will not fall on one of the six working days.
This placed a huge "kink" in my way of doing things at that time. How could the Sabbath be on Saturday if neither the New Moon or the Sabbath could fall on one of the six working days? It wouldn't work, and I knew this first hand because I kept many New Moons on various days of the modern week.
After looking at all of these Biblical texts, a proposition was shared with me. It went like this. The New Moon begins the Scriptural month and is not one of the six working days. After the New Moon day you begin to work for six days. After working for six days you then rest on the seventh day Sabbath. This is done four times in a month (4x7=28), and brings you back to the New Moon again. The scenario looks like this:
Day 1 | New Moon
Day 2 - 7 | Working Days
Day 8 | Sabbath
My initial response was to wonder why the Sabbath day landed on day 8 instead of day 7. I remembered Exodus 20:8-11 which states that the 7th day is the Sabbath of Yahweh. This "problem" was soon resolved by recognizing that this 8th day was the 8th day of the month rather than the 8th day of the week. This method of Sabbath observance always yielded Sabbaths on the 7th day of each week, but at the same time it yielded Sabbaths on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th days of the month.
I also began to notice in my studies that the day of the New Moon was constantly showing up in Scripture right beside the Sabbath day. Scriptures like 2 Kings 4:23, Amos 8:5, Isaiah 66:22-23, Ezekiel 46:1-3, and Colossians 2:16 (among others ) mentioned the New Moon and Sabbath together. This seemed to be another "piece to the puzzle."
I began to meditate on these things, thinking much about calculating time naturally. Anyone who has studied the Biblical calendar knows that (1) the year does not begin in January, (2) the month doesn’t begin arbitrarily (or consist of 31, 30, 29, or 28 days), and (3) that the day doesn’t begin at midnight. If the year, month, and day can be found solely by Yahweh’s natural calendar, why not the week, and in turn the Sabbath? It did not make sense for me to keep most holydays by the heavenly lights, but turn to the calendar hanging on my wall in order to find the most essential holyday of all.
I found in nature a phenomenon in the cycle of the moon. The moon begins at the New Moon, and then about 7 days later (7.3) builds to a half orb, followed by a full moon in seven more days, then down to a waning half in another seven days, followed by a final sliver seven days after that. It is no coincidence that Yahweh timed the moon to phase at these intervals. The Bible does tell us that nature itself teaches principles in life (Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 11:15). Anytime nature teaches something, it is Yahweh who is teaching, because He is the creator and designer of nature.
After this, I was shown Exodus 16, the chapter where the manna rained down from heaven to feed the Israelites in the wilderness. I was once again familiar with this chapter in Scripture, but I had never seen what I am about to show you. The first verse of Scripture we walked through was this:
Exodus 16:1-2
The entire Israelite community departed from Elim and came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left the land of Egypt. The entire Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
I had read this text several times before, but I never really noticed that the 15th day of the month was specifically mentioned. The specific days of the month are not mentioned that often in the Pentateuch, unless there is something significant taking place. I began to see that it was no coincidence that here in a chapter about the weekly Sabbath, a day of the month - a day of the moon - was mentioned.
As I began to study Exodus 16 I saw that the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron on the 15th day of the month. I also saw that after this, they were promised manna for 6 days, beginning the next morning (Exodus 16:4-5, 8, 11-13). If the Israelites were grumbling on the 15th day of the month, that would mean manna would begin the next morning, the 16th day of the month. The 16th would be the 1st morning the manna fell. Counting from the 16th would yield this:
1st day of manna = 16th
2nd day of manna = 17th
3rd day of manna = 18th
4th day of manna = 19th
5th day of manna = 20th
6th day of manna = 21st
Counting the days of manna brings us to the 22nd day of the month/moon. This 22nd day of the month would be the 7th day of the week. The seventh day Sabbath that was mentioned directly after the sixth day of manna (Exodus 16:21-26). If the 22nd day of that month was the Sabbath, then counting backwards would make the 15th a Sabbath. This would in turn mean the 8th day of that month was a Sabbath as well. Counting forward (from the 22nd) yields a Sabbath on the 29th day of the month. Thus we have Sabbaths on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th days of the month. In this method, the New Moon day would not have to be counted as a working day, falling directly in line with what Yahweh said in Ezekiel 46:1.
At this point I thought to myself, "Could the weekly Sabbath really be determined by the moon?" It was not an easy thought. Letting go of something you believe to be truth is never easy. I had been honoring what I believed to be Yahweh's Sabbath (on Saturday), but that was slowly becoming more of a tradition in my mind. I couldn't find it in Scripture.
What was especially interesting about Exodus 16 is that it was a month that was not a festival month. What I mean is that the 2nd month on Yahweh's calendar is not a month in which annual festivals are commanded. Therefore I couldn't say that the Sabbath fell on the 15th because it was an annual Sabbath, like the first day of Unleavened Bread or the first day of Tabernacles. These were simply weekly Sabbaths or weekly festivals.
After this I was shown the instructions found in Numbers 29:12-38. In this text we have the instructions for all of the various offerings that were commanded by Yahweh to be offered during the Feast of Tabernacles. The first day of this Feast is the 15th day of the 7th month (Numbers 29:12). Yahweh instructs the Israelites concerning what to offer on this first day and He then continues to instruct them in the offerings for the second day, third day, fourth day, etc. Yahweh mentions that on the first day there is to be a sacred assembly, and it is not until what Yahweh calls the 8th day (Numbers 29:35) that He gives a commandment for another sacred assembly. If the first day is the 15th of the month, then the 8th day is the 22nd of the month, counting from the 15th.
This is significant because in these days there are no other commanded days of sacred assembly. This is also significant because these instructions were to be carried out year after year. These are not just instructions for one year but for all years. This was showing me that there did not exist any sacred assembly on days 16 through 21 of the 7th month. This would be impossible if the day I was keeping as Sabbath (Saturday) was really the Sabbath. According to these instructions in Numbers the weekly Sabbaths should always be on the 15th and 22nd days of the 7th month. I then thought to myself, "That would have to mean that counting backwards the 8th of the month was a Sabbath, and counting forward places the 29th of the month as a Sabbath."
You have probably guessed correctly that by this time my head was spinning with information. One of the first things that came to my mind after this was, "What about Genesis 1 and 2?" I asked myself this question seeing that in Genesis we had the very first count to the weekly Sabbath. The count began on day 1 and ended on day 7. I did not see a New Moon in this count, and to me this seemed like a problem if I was going to believe that the Sabbath count each month did not begin until after the day of the New Moon. I did not completely figure it out the day that "lunar Sabbaths" were introduced to me, but through continuing to study I found out that the creation of the heavens and earth (Genesis 1:1) actually took place before the first working day in Genesis.
Not only did it take place before the first working day, but it took place on the New Moon. I obtained this information by studying the instructions found in Leviticus 23:24 concerning what I then called the Feast of Trumpets. In Hebrew this day is termed Yom Teruah and a literal English translation of this day is Day of Joyful Noise. The word day in Hebrew (yom) literally means a space of time, and the word teruah refers to jubilation, noise, shouts, trumps, etc.
What was interesting to me was to read the instructions for this day in the Leviticus text. Yahweh said that this day was to be a memorial of teruah, a memorial of shouts or jubilation. What are we to memorialize on this day? In order to memorialize something, that something would have had to take place prior to its being memorialized. Furthermore, whatever took place prior to the memorial would have had to take place on the day of the New Moon seeing it was on the New Moon that Yahweh wanted us to memorialize the teruah. My study led me to the book of Job 38:1-7. In this text I found that Yahweh was answering Job's frustrated rant by asking him where he was when He (Yahweh) laid the foundations of the earth. In other words Yahweh was showing Job that he needed to trust in the Almighty Creator and he was not permitted to talk back to or question the working of the Most High. Yahweh's point was that Job was not there at the initial creation, so Yahweh was much mightier than Job. In this speech Yahweh mentions that as He was laying the foundations of the earth, the Sons of the Mighty One shouted for joy (Job 38:7). I knew that Sons of the Mighty One in Scripture were often angelic beings (Genesis 6:1-4; Job 1:6; 2:1), so this was showing me that the angels were there, but Job was not. When I looked up the word "shouted" in Job 38:7 I found that it was the Hebrew word ruah, which is a word closely related to teruah. The angels shouted for joy and applauded the handiwork of Yahweh, and this took place on the New Moon! This is why Yahweh gives the memorial of this occurrence to be on the New Moon.
I began to see how that the 7th month (Leviticus 23:24) was a replica of that first time period in Genesis 1. You had "in the beginning" (Genesis 1:1) which was a space of time correlating to what we call the New Moon. After the New Moon you had Yahweh working or advancing upon His creation for 6 days and then resting the 7th day. This is the 7th day of the week, but the 8th day counting from the space of time called "in the beginning." I soon began to relate this mention of "in the beginning" with the similar statements in the Hebrew Scriptures of "in the beginning" of your months" (Numbers 10:10; 28:11).
I was thankful at this point that I could harmonize everything Genesis had to teach me. I knew that Yahweh said the heavenly lights were to be for His calendar (Genesis 1:14-18) but now I was beginning to see how the 7th day Sabbath was determined by the great lights. I was seeing how that the sun, moon, and stars were not created on the 4th day, but rather were created "in the beginning" as part of the heavens (Psalm 8:3; 148:1-6). Yahweh rather appointed the lights in the heavens on the fourth day. Psalm 104:19 tells us (KJV) that Yahweh appointed the moon for seasons. When did He appoint the moon? It would have to be on the fourth day (Genesis 1:14-18). It is interesting to note that the same word translated appointed in Psalm 104:19 (KJV) is translated made in Genesis 1:14. The same Hebrew word is used in both cases (asah), in spite of two different English translations.
I soon came across the 7 consecutive marching days around the city of Jericho (Joshua 6:2-4). I had always wondered why Yahweh would have commanded an offensive march around the walls of Jericho on the Sabbath day. If the march was for 7 consecutive days then the Israelites would have had to march around the city on the Sabbath, that is, unless the Sabbath did not always come on consecutive 7 day intervals. I knew there were travel restrictions on the Sabbath (Exodus 16:27; Acts 1:12), but I always reasoned that the Jericho March must have been an exception to the rule. It bothered me though because this was not defensive action by the Israelites. This was offensive action, commanded by Yahweh.
However, if the Sabbath was to be counted towards, after celebrating the New Moon each month, then it was possible for the Israelites to march around Jericho for seven consecutive days without marching on the weekly Sabbath.
Further study led me to the book of Jasher 88:14 (mentioned in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18). Jasher tells us that the march around Jericho began on the New Moon! If the New Moon was day 1 of the march then day 7 of the march would have been on the 7th day of the month. This would place day 8 of the month (7th of the week) as the weekly Sabbath on which no offensive marching would have had to take place.
Something else I found in my studies dealt with the Sabbath of Leviticus 23:11. Here the Priest is instructed to wave the sheaf of the first fruits (of the barley harvest) on the morrow after the Sabbath. This begins the count to what is called Pentecost in the Apostolic Scriptures (Acts 2:1). I was very familiar with the debate amongst feast-keepers concerning what Sabbath was being spoken of in this text. Some said it was the 15th of the first month (Abib) while others said that it was the weekly (Saturday) Sabbath that falls within the Feast of Unleavened Bread. When you consult the Greek Septuagint (LXX) there is only one of these two choices that will fit. This is because the Septuagint text reads that the sheaf is to be waved on the morrow of the first day instead of reading the morrow of the Sabbath. The first day (Leviticus 23:11, LXX) is none other than the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread mentioned in Leviticus 23:6-7. Therefore, according to the Septuagint, the sheaf was to be waved on the 16th day of the first month. The interesting thing about this is that if we believe the Septuagint, but at the same time believe the Hebrew text (the morrow after the Sabbath), we are forced to believe that the Sabbath being spoken about is the 15th day of the first month. The Hebrew text calls this day the shabbat while the Greek text calls this day the first day, i.e. the first day of the Feast, the 15th. This places the 15th day of the first month as the shabbat each and every year. If the 15th day of the first month is a weekly Sabbath every year then the 8th, 22nd, and 29th days of the month would also have to be weekly Sabbaths each and every year. This could never happen if Saturday was the true weekly Sabbath day.
As I continued in my studies I ran across a piece of information that showed a lunar week to have existed during the time period when the scrolls known as the "Dead Sea Scrolls" were written. This particular fragment reads:
On the eighth day of the month, the moon [rules all the day in the midst] of the sky... and when the sun sets, its light [ceases] to be obscured, [and thus the moon begins to be [revealed] on the first day of the week. (The Dead Sea Scrolls, A New Translation, Translated with Commentary by Michael Wise, Martin Abegg Jr., and Edward Cook, Harper San Francisco Publishing, 2005, page 386.)
Notice how this scroll describes the moon as being in the sky during the day time period of the 8th day of the month. When I first read this I went outside on the 8th day of the month (or moon) to see if this was the case and I did see the moon (a first quarter moon) up in the sky during the day time. After sunset (just as the scroll says) the light of the moon becomes brighter and is much more revealed. The scroll finishes here by saying that this "after sunset period" is the first day of the week, i.e. the 9th day of the month. The only way the 9th day of the month can be the first day of the week is if the 8th day of the month was the 7th day of the week. This was astonishing to me, especially seeing this reference was originally written in ancient Paleo-Hebrew and connected the quarters of the moon to the weeks, dating to about the first century B.C.
Many people (myself included in the past) hear the word Babylonian and immediately put up a barrier to listening to anything else. In my calendar studies I was led to view the Babylonian calendar quite differently than I previously had. When the Babylonians took the Israelites captive, it just so happened that the Babylonian calendar included Sabbaths tied to the moons phases. The year began with the new moon around the spring equinox, the month began with the new moon, and the weeks were based upon the phases of the moon. Out of all the calendars found in Babylon, there were none that portrayed a continuous uninterrupted cyclical Sabbath. I also found in reading the book of Daniel, and seeing Daniel’s influence upon four separate Kings whilst in captivity, that he must have had a tremendous impact upon calendar calculations in Babylon.
So much more could be said about this method of calculating the weekly Sabbath, but that is not the purpose of this booklet. I have written much more extensively on this issue and continue to do so as Yahweh permits. This booklet just gives the reader a brief overview of what is being called now the "lunar Sabbath." I guess it is somewhat a personal testimony of mine. I want to make you fully aware of the fact that I did struggle with this concept for quite some time in the beginning of my journey. For the first few years of keeping the Sabbath by the lunar cycle I would often feel alienated from other Sabbath keepers. I reasoned about this very much in my mind, and I wondered if I had made a mistake in switching from Saturday to going by the moon. I almost switched back to Saturday one time in my journey, but I could never bring myself to go back after combing through the Scriptures again and again. Today I am persuaded that I am on the right track when it comes to the timing of the weekly Sabbath. I do not claim to understand it all, but I do believe that looking to Yahweh's original calendar, His created time pieces, can only lead to a much purer method of Sabbath observance.
I remember back to early 1998 when I was doing some work for a woman. As I was writing a receipt for her, we began to discuss the Scriptures. Soon into our discussion the Sabbath day was brought up. She asked me this question, "How do you know for sure that the Sabbath is on Saturday?" I remember a feeling of doubt come over me. I really did not know for sure. What did I tell her? I asked her to look at her calendar hanging in the kitchen. I told her that it placed Sunday as the 1st day of the week and Saturday as the 7th day of the week. I was very relieved when she said to me, "Well, that makes sense." I was relieved because I didn't know what I was going to say if she asked me how I knew the calendar on her wall accurately kept track of the Biblical Sabbath. I still remember driving home that day wondering what I would do if someone else asked me this question, but pressed me further on the issue.
Since I have been keeping the Sabbath by the moon (fall of 1999), I am always delighted when someone asks me about when the Sabbath is. I usually tell them that I keep the Sabbath, and they then ask, "You mean Saturday?" I say no. They reply, "You keep it on Sunday?" I say no. Then I have the opportunity to actually walk them through the Scriptures and explain to them Yahweh's calendar in the heavens. You would be surprised at how many people actually see it so quickly and clearly. They always remark at how simple it is and how awesome it is to see a natural calendar at work. Instead of worrying about what I will say in response to people's questions about the Sabbath, I now look forward to being able to explain my position based upon the written text of inspired Scripture.
For a more detailed examination of this topic, please visit our book section on this website, and read the book: Weekly Sabbath Days are Determined by the Moon.
Let me begin with a simple illustration. Let's say that you and I wanted to keep the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:26-32). We read in the Bible that this day takes place on the 10th day of the 7th month. We then turn to our modern calendar and find that the 7th month is the month of July, and make the decision to keep the Day of Atonement on July 10th. After all, this is the 10th day of the 7th month, right? Well sure it is, but is it the 10th day of the 7th month that Yahweh is speaking about in Leviticus 23?
Here lies the problem with how people generally "find" the 7th day Sabbath. We read verses of Scripture that teach the 7th day to be the Sabbath. We then look to the modern calendar to find when this 7th day is. We find that Sunday is the 1st day of the week and Saturday is the 7th day of the week. Is Saturday really the 7th day of the week? Yes it is, but is it the 7th day of the week that Yahweh is speaking about in Scripture? I do not believe so and I hope to spark your interest in why I take that position in this short booklet.
When I was first introduced to the possibility that the Sabbath might be determined by the moon (late 1999) I began by hearing three texts of Scripture explained:
Genesis 1:14-19
14 Elohim said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth;” and it was so. 16 Elohim made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. 17 Elohim set them in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. Elohim saw that it was good. 19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
Psalm 104:19
19 He appointed the moon for seasons. The sun knows when to set.
Leviticus 23:1-3
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘The set feasts of Yahweh, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my set feasts. 3 “ ‘Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no kind of work. It is a Sabbath to Yahweh in all your dwellings.
When these texts were shown to me, I was already familiar with each of them. I was already a Sabbath, New Moon, and annual Feast keeper. I'd witnessed to others about these holy times by showing them Genesis 1:14-19, Psalm 104:19, and Leviticus 23. The King James Version of these two texts uses the word seasons, and the underlying Hebrew word is moedim (moe-eh-deem), which is translated as "festivals" in other Bibles. This Hebrew word refers to an appointment, fixed time, festival, or season. When we read the Genesis passage, we get a brief overview of how time is to be properly reckoned. It is to be determined by the greater and lesser lights (the sun, moon, and stars (ref. Psalm 136:7-9; Jeremiah 31:35).
Yahweh set these heavenly lights in the sky so that man would be able to calculate time. Periods like days, weeks, months, and years, as well as holy appointments; appointments where He would meet with His people. The passage in Psalms helps us understand more about the specifics in Genesis, by telling us that it is the moon that was appointed to determine the seasons, festivals, or moedim in Hebrew. At that time in my life I knew of all this. I observed Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread by the solar and lunar cycle. I observed the New Moon (obviously) by the lunar cycle. I realized that these set appointments of Yahweh could not be found by looking to the modern calendar that began in the winter month of January. What I did not realize is that the weekly Sabbath is a festival of Yahweh as well. It is actually the first festival mentioned in Leviticus 23, a chapter dedicated to the appointed times of our Creator. This is where Leviticus 23:1-3 surprised me. I remember reading it over and over and coming to the realization that the Sabbath was the first appointed time mentioned in the chapter. I still remember thinking to myself that day, "If I keep all the other festivals of Yahweh by the moon, why do I not keep the primary festival, the Sabbath, by the moon?"
I was blessed at that time to already understand and celebrate the day of the New Moon as a sanctified day. It helped me greatly in understanding this next piece of information I am going to share with you.
Ezekiel 46:1
1 “ ‘Adonai Yahweh says: “The gate of the inner court that looks toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened.
This was one of the verses, about a year prior to my encounter with the "lunar Sabbath," that caused me to realize that I needed to be setting the New Moon day apart as a special, no work day to Yahweh. I knew other brothers and sisters in the faith that recognized the New Moon, but this only consisted of them determining when the New Moon would be and then going about their regular, daily routine. The passage in Ezekiel was one of many that persuaded me to do more than just recognize the New Moon.
What did I do? In about the middle of 1998 I began to have a special worship service on the day of the New Moon, and I started refraining from gainful, commercial employment (Amos 8:5). It felt strange at first, stopping my work week once a month, but at the same time it felt wonderful that Yahweh was showing me more in His word than I had understood before. After a while, I began feeling like I was more on His schedule than the world's schedule. Little did I know that He would soon place me even more in line with His schedule.
As I read the Ezekiel text over and over, my spiritual eyes began to open. I was already keeping the New Moon, but I was keeping it during one of the six working days. In other words I would keep the Sabbath on Saturday, work on Sunday and Monday, and then a New Moon would sometimes come in on a Tuesday, and I would keep the New Moon on that day, which was one of my six working days. That gave me Sabbath, two work days, New Moon, three more work days, then Sabbath again. This would vary from month to month.
As I read Ezekiel 46:1 time and time again, I began to see that the New Moon was separated from the six working days in the exact same context as the weekly Sabbath.
Here's my point. All Sabbatarians agree that the weekly Sabbath will never fall on one of the six working days, but the New Moon is mentioned in the same sentence as the weekly Sabbath here, disassociated from the six working days. This means that the New Moon, like the Sabbath, will not fall on one of the six working days.
This placed a huge "kink" in my way of doing things at that time. How could the Sabbath be on Saturday if neither the New Moon or the Sabbath could fall on one of the six working days? It wouldn't work, and I knew this first hand because I kept many New Moons on various days of the modern week.
After looking at all of these Biblical texts, a proposition was shared with me. It went like this. The New Moon begins the Scriptural month and is not one of the six working days. After the New Moon day you begin to work for six days. After working for six days you then rest on the seventh day Sabbath. This is done four times in a month (4x7=28), and brings you back to the New Moon again. The scenario looks like this:
Day 1 | New Moon
Day 2 - 7 | Working Days
Day 8 | Sabbath
My initial response was to wonder why the Sabbath day landed on day 8 instead of day 7. I remembered Exodus 20:8-11 which states that the 7th day is the Sabbath of Yahweh. This "problem" was soon resolved by recognizing that this 8th day was the 8th day of the month rather than the 8th day of the week. This method of Sabbath observance always yielded Sabbaths on the 7th day of each week, but at the same time it yielded Sabbaths on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th days of the month.
I also began to notice in my studies that the day of the New Moon was constantly showing up in Scripture right beside the Sabbath day. Scriptures like 2 Kings 4:23, Amos 8:5, Isaiah 66:22-23, Ezekiel 46:1-3, and Colossians 2:16 (among others ) mentioned the New Moon and Sabbath together. This seemed to be another "piece to the puzzle."
I began to meditate on these things, thinking much about calculating time naturally. Anyone who has studied the Biblical calendar knows that (1) the year does not begin in January, (2) the month doesn’t begin arbitrarily (or consist of 31, 30, 29, or 28 days), and (3) that the day doesn’t begin at midnight. If the year, month, and day can be found solely by Yahweh’s natural calendar, why not the week, and in turn the Sabbath? It did not make sense for me to keep most holydays by the heavenly lights, but turn to the calendar hanging on my wall in order to find the most essential holyday of all.
I found in nature a phenomenon in the cycle of the moon. The moon begins at the New Moon, and then about 7 days later (7.3) builds to a half orb, followed by a full moon in seven more days, then down to a waning half in another seven days, followed by a final sliver seven days after that. It is no coincidence that Yahweh timed the moon to phase at these intervals. The Bible does tell us that nature itself teaches principles in life (Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 11:15). Anytime nature teaches something, it is Yahweh who is teaching, because He is the creator and designer of nature.
After this, I was shown Exodus 16, the chapter where the manna rained down from heaven to feed the Israelites in the wilderness. I was once again familiar with this chapter in Scripture, but I had never seen what I am about to show you. The first verse of Scripture we walked through was this:
Exodus 16:1-2
The entire Israelite community departed from Elim and came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left the land of Egypt. The entire Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
I had read this text several times before, but I never really noticed that the 15th day of the month was specifically mentioned. The specific days of the month are not mentioned that often in the Pentateuch, unless there is something significant taking place. I began to see that it was no coincidence that here in a chapter about the weekly Sabbath, a day of the month - a day of the moon - was mentioned.
As I began to study Exodus 16 I saw that the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron on the 15th day of the month. I also saw that after this, they were promised manna for 6 days, beginning the next morning (Exodus 16:4-5, 8, 11-13). If the Israelites were grumbling on the 15th day of the month, that would mean manna would begin the next morning, the 16th day of the month. The 16th would be the 1st morning the manna fell. Counting from the 16th would yield this:
1st day of manna = 16th
2nd day of manna = 17th
3rd day of manna = 18th
4th day of manna = 19th
5th day of manna = 20th
6th day of manna = 21st
Counting the days of manna brings us to the 22nd day of the month/moon. This 22nd day of the month would be the 7th day of the week. The seventh day Sabbath that was mentioned directly after the sixth day of manna (Exodus 16:21-26). If the 22nd day of that month was the Sabbath, then counting backwards would make the 15th a Sabbath. This would in turn mean the 8th day of that month was a Sabbath as well. Counting forward (from the 22nd) yields a Sabbath on the 29th day of the month. Thus we have Sabbaths on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th days of the month. In this method, the New Moon day would not have to be counted as a working day, falling directly in line with what Yahweh said in Ezekiel 46:1.
At this point I thought to myself, "Could the weekly Sabbath really be determined by the moon?" It was not an easy thought. Letting go of something you believe to be truth is never easy. I had been honoring what I believed to be Yahweh's Sabbath (on Saturday), but that was slowly becoming more of a tradition in my mind. I couldn't find it in Scripture.
What was especially interesting about Exodus 16 is that it was a month that was not a festival month. What I mean is that the 2nd month on Yahweh's calendar is not a month in which annual festivals are commanded. Therefore I couldn't say that the Sabbath fell on the 15th because it was an annual Sabbath, like the first day of Unleavened Bread or the first day of Tabernacles. These were simply weekly Sabbaths or weekly festivals.
After this I was shown the instructions found in Numbers 29:12-38. In this text we have the instructions for all of the various offerings that were commanded by Yahweh to be offered during the Feast of Tabernacles. The first day of this Feast is the 15th day of the 7th month (Numbers 29:12). Yahweh instructs the Israelites concerning what to offer on this first day and He then continues to instruct them in the offerings for the second day, third day, fourth day, etc. Yahweh mentions that on the first day there is to be a sacred assembly, and it is not until what Yahweh calls the 8th day (Numbers 29:35) that He gives a commandment for another sacred assembly. If the first day is the 15th of the month, then the 8th day is the 22nd of the month, counting from the 15th.
This is significant because in these days there are no other commanded days of sacred assembly. This is also significant because these instructions were to be carried out year after year. These are not just instructions for one year but for all years. This was showing me that there did not exist any sacred assembly on days 16 through 21 of the 7th month. This would be impossible if the day I was keeping as Sabbath (Saturday) was really the Sabbath. According to these instructions in Numbers the weekly Sabbaths should always be on the 15th and 22nd days of the 7th month. I then thought to myself, "That would have to mean that counting backwards the 8th of the month was a Sabbath, and counting forward places the 29th of the month as a Sabbath."
You have probably guessed correctly that by this time my head was spinning with information. One of the first things that came to my mind after this was, "What about Genesis 1 and 2?" I asked myself this question seeing that in Genesis we had the very first count to the weekly Sabbath. The count began on day 1 and ended on day 7. I did not see a New Moon in this count, and to me this seemed like a problem if I was going to believe that the Sabbath count each month did not begin until after the day of the New Moon. I did not completely figure it out the day that "lunar Sabbaths" were introduced to me, but through continuing to study I found out that the creation of the heavens and earth (Genesis 1:1) actually took place before the first working day in Genesis.
Not only did it take place before the first working day, but it took place on the New Moon. I obtained this information by studying the instructions found in Leviticus 23:24 concerning what I then called the Feast of Trumpets. In Hebrew this day is termed Yom Teruah and a literal English translation of this day is Day of Joyful Noise. The word day in Hebrew (yom) literally means a space of time, and the word teruah refers to jubilation, noise, shouts, trumps, etc.
What was interesting to me was to read the instructions for this day in the Leviticus text. Yahweh said that this day was to be a memorial of teruah, a memorial of shouts or jubilation. What are we to memorialize on this day? In order to memorialize something, that something would have had to take place prior to its being memorialized. Furthermore, whatever took place prior to the memorial would have had to take place on the day of the New Moon seeing it was on the New Moon that Yahweh wanted us to memorialize the teruah. My study led me to the book of Job 38:1-7. In this text I found that Yahweh was answering Job's frustrated rant by asking him where he was when He (Yahweh) laid the foundations of the earth. In other words Yahweh was showing Job that he needed to trust in the Almighty Creator and he was not permitted to talk back to or question the working of the Most High. Yahweh's point was that Job was not there at the initial creation, so Yahweh was much mightier than Job. In this speech Yahweh mentions that as He was laying the foundations of the earth, the Sons of the Mighty One shouted for joy (Job 38:7). I knew that Sons of the Mighty One in Scripture were often angelic beings (Genesis 6:1-4; Job 1:6; 2:1), so this was showing me that the angels were there, but Job was not. When I looked up the word "shouted" in Job 38:7 I found that it was the Hebrew word ruah, which is a word closely related to teruah. The angels shouted for joy and applauded the handiwork of Yahweh, and this took place on the New Moon! This is why Yahweh gives the memorial of this occurrence to be on the New Moon.
I began to see how that the 7th month (Leviticus 23:24) was a replica of that first time period in Genesis 1. You had "in the beginning" (Genesis 1:1) which was a space of time correlating to what we call the New Moon. After the New Moon you had Yahweh working or advancing upon His creation for 6 days and then resting the 7th day. This is the 7th day of the week, but the 8th day counting from the space of time called "in the beginning." I soon began to relate this mention of "in the beginning" with the similar statements in the Hebrew Scriptures of "in the beginning" of your months" (Numbers 10:10; 28:11).
I was thankful at this point that I could harmonize everything Genesis had to teach me. I knew that Yahweh said the heavenly lights were to be for His calendar (Genesis 1:14-18) but now I was beginning to see how the 7th day Sabbath was determined by the great lights. I was seeing how that the sun, moon, and stars were not created on the 4th day, but rather were created "in the beginning" as part of the heavens (Psalm 8:3; 148:1-6). Yahweh rather appointed the lights in the heavens on the fourth day. Psalm 104:19 tells us (KJV) that Yahweh appointed the moon for seasons. When did He appoint the moon? It would have to be on the fourth day (Genesis 1:14-18). It is interesting to note that the same word translated appointed in Psalm 104:19 (KJV) is translated made in Genesis 1:14. The same Hebrew word is used in both cases (asah), in spite of two different English translations.
I soon came across the 7 consecutive marching days around the city of Jericho (Joshua 6:2-4). I had always wondered why Yahweh would have commanded an offensive march around the walls of Jericho on the Sabbath day. If the march was for 7 consecutive days then the Israelites would have had to march around the city on the Sabbath, that is, unless the Sabbath did not always come on consecutive 7 day intervals. I knew there were travel restrictions on the Sabbath (Exodus 16:27; Acts 1:12), but I always reasoned that the Jericho March must have been an exception to the rule. It bothered me though because this was not defensive action by the Israelites. This was offensive action, commanded by Yahweh.
However, if the Sabbath was to be counted towards, after celebrating the New Moon each month, then it was possible for the Israelites to march around Jericho for seven consecutive days without marching on the weekly Sabbath.
Further study led me to the book of Jasher 88:14 (mentioned in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18). Jasher tells us that the march around Jericho began on the New Moon! If the New Moon was day 1 of the march then day 7 of the march would have been on the 7th day of the month. This would place day 8 of the month (7th of the week) as the weekly Sabbath on which no offensive marching would have had to take place.
Something else I found in my studies dealt with the Sabbath of Leviticus 23:11. Here the Priest is instructed to wave the sheaf of the first fruits (of the barley harvest) on the morrow after the Sabbath. This begins the count to what is called Pentecost in the Apostolic Scriptures (Acts 2:1). I was very familiar with the debate amongst feast-keepers concerning what Sabbath was being spoken of in this text. Some said it was the 15th of the first month (Abib) while others said that it was the weekly (Saturday) Sabbath that falls within the Feast of Unleavened Bread. When you consult the Greek Septuagint (LXX) there is only one of these two choices that will fit. This is because the Septuagint text reads that the sheaf is to be waved on the morrow of the first day instead of reading the morrow of the Sabbath. The first day (Leviticus 23:11, LXX) is none other than the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread mentioned in Leviticus 23:6-7. Therefore, according to the Septuagint, the sheaf was to be waved on the 16th day of the first month. The interesting thing about this is that if we believe the Septuagint, but at the same time believe the Hebrew text (the morrow after the Sabbath), we are forced to believe that the Sabbath being spoken about is the 15th day of the first month. The Hebrew text calls this day the shabbat while the Greek text calls this day the first day, i.e. the first day of the Feast, the 15th. This places the 15th day of the first month as the shabbat each and every year. If the 15th day of the first month is a weekly Sabbath every year then the 8th, 22nd, and 29th days of the month would also have to be weekly Sabbaths each and every year. This could never happen if Saturday was the true weekly Sabbath day.
As I continued in my studies I ran across a piece of information that showed a lunar week to have existed during the time period when the scrolls known as the "Dead Sea Scrolls" were written. This particular fragment reads:
On the eighth day of the month, the moon [rules all the day in the midst] of the sky... and when the sun sets, its light [ceases] to be obscured, [and thus the moon begins to be [revealed] on the first day of the week. (The Dead Sea Scrolls, A New Translation, Translated with Commentary by Michael Wise, Martin Abegg Jr., and Edward Cook, Harper San Francisco Publishing, 2005, page 386.)
Notice how this scroll describes the moon as being in the sky during the day time period of the 8th day of the month. When I first read this I went outside on the 8th day of the month (or moon) to see if this was the case and I did see the moon (a first quarter moon) up in the sky during the day time. After sunset (just as the scroll says) the light of the moon becomes brighter and is much more revealed. The scroll finishes here by saying that this "after sunset period" is the first day of the week, i.e. the 9th day of the month. The only way the 9th day of the month can be the first day of the week is if the 8th day of the month was the 7th day of the week. This was astonishing to me, especially seeing this reference was originally written in ancient Paleo-Hebrew and connected the quarters of the moon to the weeks, dating to about the first century B.C.
Many people (myself included in the past) hear the word Babylonian and immediately put up a barrier to listening to anything else. In my calendar studies I was led to view the Babylonian calendar quite differently than I previously had. When the Babylonians took the Israelites captive, it just so happened that the Babylonian calendar included Sabbaths tied to the moons phases. The year began with the new moon around the spring equinox, the month began with the new moon, and the weeks were based upon the phases of the moon. Out of all the calendars found in Babylon, there were none that portrayed a continuous uninterrupted cyclical Sabbath. I also found in reading the book of Daniel, and seeing Daniel’s influence upon four separate Kings whilst in captivity, that he must have had a tremendous impact upon calendar calculations in Babylon.
So much more could be said about this method of calculating the weekly Sabbath, but that is not the purpose of this booklet. I have written much more extensively on this issue and continue to do so as Yahweh permits. This booklet just gives the reader a brief overview of what is being called now the "lunar Sabbath." I guess it is somewhat a personal testimony of mine. I want to make you fully aware of the fact that I did struggle with this concept for quite some time in the beginning of my journey. For the first few years of keeping the Sabbath by the lunar cycle I would often feel alienated from other Sabbath keepers. I reasoned about this very much in my mind, and I wondered if I had made a mistake in switching from Saturday to going by the moon. I almost switched back to Saturday one time in my journey, but I could never bring myself to go back after combing through the Scriptures again and again. Today I am persuaded that I am on the right track when it comes to the timing of the weekly Sabbath. I do not claim to understand it all, but I do believe that looking to Yahweh's original calendar, His created time pieces, can only lead to a much purer method of Sabbath observance.
I remember back to early 1998 when I was doing some work for a woman. As I was writing a receipt for her, we began to discuss the Scriptures. Soon into our discussion the Sabbath day was brought up. She asked me this question, "How do you know for sure that the Sabbath is on Saturday?" I remember a feeling of doubt come over me. I really did not know for sure. What did I tell her? I asked her to look at her calendar hanging in the kitchen. I told her that it placed Sunday as the 1st day of the week and Saturday as the 7th day of the week. I was very relieved when she said to me, "Well, that makes sense." I was relieved because I didn't know what I was going to say if she asked me how I knew the calendar on her wall accurately kept track of the Biblical Sabbath. I still remember driving home that day wondering what I would do if someone else asked me this question, but pressed me further on the issue.
Since I have been keeping the Sabbath by the moon (fall of 1999), I am always delighted when someone asks me about when the Sabbath is. I usually tell them that I keep the Sabbath, and they then ask, "You mean Saturday?" I say no. They reply, "You keep it on Sunday?" I say no. Then I have the opportunity to actually walk them through the Scriptures and explain to them Yahweh's calendar in the heavens. You would be surprised at how many people actually see it so quickly and clearly. They always remark at how simple it is and how awesome it is to see a natural calendar at work. Instead of worrying about what I will say in response to people's questions about the Sabbath, I now look forward to being able to explain my position based upon the written text of inspired Scripture.
For a more detailed examination of this topic, please visit our book section on this website, and read the book: Weekly Sabbath Days are Determined by the Moon.