Table Of Contents...

The Jews And The Sabbath.

 

The Jews And The Sabbath.
The Lunar based Observational Hebrew Calendar is the
key that unlocks the true Abrahamic Hebrew Faith,
and the only way to find the Sabbaths and Feasts
of the CREATOR.

(Daniel 7:25[1]) (KJV) And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

(Lamentations 2:5-6 (AMPC) ⁵The ETERNAL has become like an enemy; He has destroyed Israel. He has destroyed all its palaces, has laid in ruins its strongholds, and has multiplied in the Daughter of Judah groaning and moaning and lamentation. ⁶And He has violently broken down His temple like a booth or hedge of a garden; He has destroyed the place of His appointed assembly. The ETERNAL has caused the solemn appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion and has spurned and rejected in the indignation of His anger the king and the priest.

Today, some people vehemently insist that the Jews are still keeping the Sabbath as required by Scripture. Here is an excerpt from an otherwise excellent web site of knowledge, concerning the ETERNAL CREATOR, and the Hebrew Scriptures also known as [The Old Testament]. In it, the author claims that because modern-day Jews everywhere are not 'all mixed up' as to which day to keep the Sabbath, namely 'Saturday' or 'Saturn's Day' as it was known back in the time of the destruction of the second temple in 70 AD, that this is somehow conclusive proof that, 'Saturday' IS the true Sabbath Day. The author goes on to state that time [the Sabbath] could not have been lost because of the fact that Jews everywhere are in universal agreement on this issue. However the author completely disregards the above scripture which states that not only time, but the very Laws of the ETERNAL have been changed, and will remain that way until the future dividing of time when the Third Temple becomes established under King David. This is a prime example of believing the traditions of men, over the Infallible Word of the Almighty CREATOR:

The first thing we notice about this supposed 'PROOF OF THE JEWS', is that, it is no 'PROOF' at all! Where are the Scriptures that back up this so-called 'PROOF'? As Shakespeare put it in Macbeth, all this fable is, is a tall tale, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing at all.

The author of the above so-called 'PROOF OF THE JEWS', and those with similar opinions, would do well to stop bowing down to the Jews, and start believing the Almighty CREATOR and Scripture when He says that 'times and laws have been changed:' [including His calendar and the seventh-day Sabbath, and all other Feasts and appointed times that depend upon it], and that they will remain changed until the future 'dividing of time' when they will be restored under King David. The ETERNAL makes it even clearer that HE 'has caused the solemn appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion'. For an in-depth study on the Seventh-Day Sabbath of Scripture, be sure not to miss this fact-based article: 'The Lunar Calendar Of The Scriptural Sabbath'.

And what will be the consequence to Israel and the Jews for misleading people into keeping the incorrect seventh-day Sabbath:

(Hosea 2:8-11 (TLB) ⁸She doesn't realize that all she has, has come from me. It was I who gave her all the gold and silver she used in worshiping 'Baal', her 'god'! ⁹But now I will take back the wine and ripened corn I constantly supplied, and the clothes I gave her to cover her nakedness; I will no longer give her rich harvests of grain in its season or wine at the time of the grape harvest. ¹⁰Now I will expose her nakedness in public for all her lovers to see, and no one will be able to rescue her from my hand. ¹¹I will put an end to all her joys, her parties, holidays, and feasts.

Religious denominations and individuals who observe a Saturday Sabbath commonly believe that the Jews have always kept perfect track of when the true Sabbath occurs. Their reasoning is this: "The Jews would never worship on any other day but the true Sabbath, therefore, because they themselves worship on Saturday that must be the true Sabbath of Scripture".

As we shall see, although they know the difference, the Jews no longer keep the Scriptural Sabbath, but one kept based upon the Jewish Calendar instituted by Hillel II in the 4th century AD. In this study we shall see the evidence both Scriptural and historical against 'Saturday', or indeed any fixed day of the so-called 'WEEK' being the same Sabbath as that which was given to Moses, by the CREATOR in the desert of Sinai.

While it is a fact that the Jews never lost track of the true Sabbath, they did However, deliberately and knowingly, change their monthly calendar by which the true Sabbath was originally determined from one of lunar observations, to one of yearly solar observations and man-made calculations based upon the vernal equinox. The following quotes, taken from Jewish scholars and historians are but a small sampling of the evidence available to support the fact that the Jews, by their own admission, changed the calendar established by Yahweh at Creation which eventually became lost, and which was again reestablished by Yahweh and given to Moses to be written down.

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 and Holidays (incl. Sabbath): The Jewish Calendar: Changing the Calendar," www.torah.org). NOTE: [This statement of history has been scrubed from their website. I guess the truth hurts. Lies are easier. However the archived page containing the actual statement can be found: HERE].

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

Maimonides and most other Jewish chronologers agree that the modern Jewish calendar is based upon the "mean motions of the sun and moon, the true having been set aside." (Maimonides, Kiddusch Ha-hodesch, Tr. Mahler, Wein, 1889.)

Intercalations [of the calendar] were determined at meetings of a special commission of the Sanhedrin. But Constantius, following the tyrannous precedents of Hadrian, prohibited the holding of such meetings. How difficult the fixing of the annual calendar consequently became may be judged from an enigmatic letter addressed to Raba and preserved in the Talmud.

Almost the whole Diaspora depended for the legal observance of the feasts and fasts upon the calendar sanctioned by the Judea Sanhedrin; yet danger threatened the participants in that sanction and the messengers who communicated their decisions to distant congregations. As the religious persecutions continued, Hillel determined to provide an authorized calendar for all time to come, though by so doing he severed the ties which united the Jews of the Diaspora to their mother country and to the patriarchate. (I. Singer and S. Mendelsohn, "Hillel II," www.JewishEncyclopedia.com.)

One thing is abundantly clear; the Jews decided for themselves, without any authorization from the CREATOR, to adopt the calendars used by the inhabitants of the areas in which they dwelt. Later, they decided to finally institute their own calendar which is still in use today. (CALENDAR, HISTORY OF:," www.JewishEncyclopedia.com.)

Initially, from the time of Adam through Solomon, the months of the year and the Feasts of the ETERNAL, were based on the lunar cycle (Genesis 1:14; Psalm 104:19; Leviticus 23). A month began with the new moon [Rosh Hodesh in Hebrew] which came to mean "month". (The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, "Calendar," p. 631.)

Since Biblical times the months and years of the Hebrew calendar have been established by the cycles of the moon and the sun. The traditional law prescribes that the months shall follow closely the course of the moon. In the early times of our history the solution was found by the following practical procedure: The beginnings of the months were determined by direct observation of the new moon.

In the fourth century, Hillel II established a fixed calendar based on mathematical and astronomical calculations. This calendar, still in use, standardized the length of months and the addition of months over the course of a 19 year cycle, so that the lunar calendar realigns with the solar years. (Judaism 101, "Jewish Calendar", www.jewfaq.org/calendar.htm.)

This method of observation and intercalation was in use throughout the period of the second temple (516 B.C.E. - 70 C.E.), and about three centuries after its destruction, as long as there was an independent Sanhedrin. In the fourth century, however, when oppression and persecution threatened the continued existence of the Sanhedrin, the patriarch Hillel II took an extraordinary step to preserve the unity of Israel; he made public the system of calendar calculation which up to then had been a closely guarded secret. It had been used in the past only to check the observations and testimonies of witnesses, and to determine the beginnings of the spring season.

In accordance with this system, Hillel II formally sanctified all months in advance, and intercalated all future leap years until such time as a new, recognized Sanhedrin would be established in Israel. This is the permanent calendar according to which the New Moons and Festivals are calculated and celebrated today by the Jews all over the world. Like the former system of observation, it is based on the Luni-Solar principle. (Arthur Spier, The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar, excerpted at www.jewishcalendar.com). NOTE: Now accessable by username and password only. Do they have something to hide?

It [the Sabbath] was probably originally connected in some manner with the cult of the moon, as indeed is suggested by the frequent mention of Sabbath and New-Moon festivals in the same sentence (Isaiah 1:13; Amos 8:5; 2 Kings 4:23). The Sabbath depending, in Israel's nomadic period, upon the observation of the phases of the moon, it could not, according to this view, be a fixed day . (www.jewishencyclopedia.com, "Sabbath").

The week of seven days was connected with the lunar month, of which it is, approximately, a fourth. The quadripartite division of the month was evidently in use among the Hebrews and other ancient peoples; but it is not clear whether it originated among the former. It is unnecessary to assume, however, that it was derived from the Babylonians, for it is equally possible that observations of the four phases of the moon led the Hebrew nomads spontaneously and independently to devise the system of dividing the interval between the successive new moons into four groups of seven days each. There is ground, on the other hand, for the assumption that both among the Babylonians and among the Hebrews the first day of the first week of the month was always reckoned as coincident with the first day of the month." (www.jewishencyclopedia.com, "Week.")

Over time, the observance of the New Moon as a day of consecration dwindled in importance.

In the Diaspora the New Moon came to occupy a secondary position in contrast to the Sabbath; the prohibition against work and the carrying on of commerce was lifted, and the New Moon, although still celebrated by means of increased offerings, soon was reduced to the rank of a minor of half holiday. Its importance was confined to the fact that it remained of great value and necessity for the fixing of the festivals. (Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, "New Moon," Vol. 8, p. 171.)

The belief, that the week has come down uninterrupted since Creation, is not an assumption shared by modern Jewish scholars who know their history. 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 Yahweh's law] and create a social world of their own. (The Seven Day Circle: the History and Meaning of the Week by Eviator Zerubavel, The Free Press, New York, 1985, p. 11.)

One "proof" given to support belief in a Saturday Sabbath is the fact that the word for the seventh day of the week in many languages is, or bears a resemblance to, the word "Sabbath." This, too, is explained by Zerubavel:

The Jewish and astrological weeks evolved quite independently of one another. However, given the coincidence of their identical length, it was only a matter of time before some permanent correspondence between particular Jewish days and particular planetary days would be made. A permanent correspondence between the Sabbath and "the day of Saturn" was thus established [some time] later than the first century of the present era, Jews even came to name the planet Saturn Shabtai, after the original Hebrew name of the Sabbath, Shabbath. Moreover, as they came into closer contact with Hellenism, their conception of their holy day was evidently affected by the astrological conception of Saturn as a planet that has an overwhelming negative influence (a conception which, incidentally, is still evident even from the association of the English word "saturnine" with a gloomy disposition.) There are traditional Jewish superstitious beliefs about demons and evil spirits that hold full sway on the Sabbath, and an old Jewish legend even links the choice of "the day of Saturn" as the official Jewish rest day with the superstition that it would be an inauspicious day for doing any work anyway! (Ibid., p. 17.)

Zerubavel clearly understands the origins of the ancient Hebrew calendar, as well as the connection to the Creator:

The dissociation of the week from a natural cycle such as the waxing and waning of the moon can be seen as part of a general movement toward introducing a supranatural deity. Not being personified as any particular natural force, the Jewish CREATOR was to be regarded as untouched by nature in any way. Accordingly, the day dedicated to the Almighty was to be regarded as part of a divine temporal pattern that transcends even nature itself. That obviously involved dissociating the week from nature and its rhythms. Only by being based on an entirely artificial mathematical rhythm could the Sabbath observance become totally independent of the lunar or any other natural cycle. (Ibid., p. 11.)

The significance of a CREATOR who stands separate and above the planetary calendar He has created, was a concept used by Abraham the patriarch when attempting to witness to the Chaldeans in Ur. According to Josephus (c.a., A. D. 37 - A. D. 101), a Chaldean historian, Berosus, mentions Abraham as having great knowledge of astronomy: "In the tenth generation after the Flood, there was among the Chaldeans a man [Abram] righteous and great, and skilful in the celestial science" (as quoted by Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews.)

Unfortunately, the Chaldeans had already apostatized from the worship of Yahweh the ETERNAL CREATOR. In turning from the CREATOR to the creation, the city of Ur had for its patron 'god', the moon 'god', Sin. Josephus states:

He [Abram] was a person of great sagacity [wisdom], 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 happened then to have concerning the CREATOR; for he was the first that ventured to publish this notion, that there was but one ETERNAL CREATOR, the only SOVEREIGN of the universe; and that, as to other 'gods', if they contributed anything to the happiness of men, that each of them afforded it only according to his appointment, and not by their own power. (Antiquities of the Jews, Book I, chapter VII, verse 1.)

The very fact that both the solar and lunar years are differing lengths requiring intercalation (adding extra days or months, respectively, during "leap" years) was used by Abraham to prove that nature itself was not 'god', but that the ETERNAL was a Being superior to nature that was its CREATOR:

Therefore, Abraham's opinion was derived from the irregular phenomena that were visible both at land and sea, as well as those that happen to the sun and moon, and all the heavenly bodies, thus:- "If [said he] these bodies had power of their own, they would certainly take care of their own regular motions; but since they do not preserve such regularity, they made it plain, that in so far as they co-operate to our advantage, they do it not of their own abilities, but as they are subservient to Him that commands them; to whom alone we ought justly to offer our honour and thanksgiving." (Ibid.)

It was this very teaching which according to Josephus, was a contributing factor in Abraham's decision to leave Ur: "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 ETERNAL, he came and lived in the land of Canaan." (Ibid.)

The belief that Saturday must be the Sabbath of the Bible (because the Jews worship on that day) is a false assumption that all Sabbatarians and Christians have made. However, in light of the fact that the Jews themselves admit that their modern calendar is not the same as that used before the 4th century C.E., Bible scholars and all who love the Sabbath, would do well to reexamine this long-held belief. If it is important to worship on a precise, specific day, than the calendar by which you calculate that day must also be the correct calendar. The lunar calendar is the only calendar which has roots in the Bible. It was established by Yahweh at Creation. All other calendars have roots in paganism. To truly keep the fourth commandment, the Sabbath should be calculated by the Creator's calendar: the moon.

Footnotes:

[1] [a]All scriptural links point to the Bible Gateway, A Searchable Online Bible In Over 100 Versions And 50 Languages, located at "BibleGateway.Com", a vast biblical resource containing all the major texts and reference materials useful for in-depth bible studies. Most scriptual quotations are from the (KJV) of the Bible, however versions noted in (parentheses) should also be consulted. [b]All Strong's scriptural references point to the Blue Letter Bible Lexicon, located at "BlueLetterBible.Org", another vast biblical resource which has over 4,000,000 links available, pointing to more than 165,000 pages of concordances, lexicons, dictionaries, commentaries, images, and several Bible versions.