Earlier chapters identified a core problem with identifying where a calendar day begins and the impossibility of establishing a fixed international dateline without speed of light communication or advanced computer aided calculations. Even something as simple as establishing your longitude or timezone was beyond known human ability until less than 400 years ago.

In the chapter on Where Does the Day Start we introduced the idea that the first "timezone" to see the sign of the new month establishes the dateline for that month. With this method everyone everywhere regardless of how primitive their mathematical and astronomical skills had the ability to obey the commands as given in Torah. But every time we solve one problem we introduce another, if starting a new month moves the "dateline" then every couple of months your home location will move to the other side of a date line.

There is a well known solution to this problem which many know as a "Lunar Sabbath" where the Sabbaths are kept on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th day of each month. The theory of a lunar sabbath is strongly supported by independent evidence which this chapter will present, but what is unique to this book is the first principles, physics based approach that demonstrates why a Lunar Sabbath is the only practically observable approach throughout the ages.

Nature of the Sabbath

All of that said we must first establish the true nature of the sabbath. Is it a command each individual follows to work six days and rest on the 7th or is it a holy set-apart time with rules about what people are allowed to do in this set apart time. It is more than just a set apart time, it is set apart "space-time" for everyone who follows a sabbath based upon their local time.

Anyone passionate about "Saturday Sabbath" will go to great lengths to argue against those keeping "Sunday" and think "Lunar Sabbath" folks are down right crazy.

The Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday not by any biblical command or apostolic authority, but by the Roman Catholic Church centuries later. No man, no pope, no council has the authority to alter what God Himself established and declared holy from the foundation of the world. The seventh day remains the Sabbath—man cannot move what God has fixed.

— Jim Staley, Passion for Truth Ministries

We've all been told that the Sabbath is now on Sunday. But how many of us have truly tested that? … The Scriptures never authorize a change from the seventh-day Sabbath established at creation and commanded in the Torah. No apostolic writing, no word from Yeshua, transfers or abolishes this perpetual sign. Man-made tradition cannot override what God declared holy forever.

— 119 Ministries

The Sabbath was not instituted for the Jews alone; it was made for man. … It is the sign of God's power to create and to redeem. … No man can change it.

— Ellen G White (7th day Adventist Founder)

The Sabbath was established by God at creation as the seventh day, declared holy forever, and commanded in the Torah as a perpetual covenant sign. Yeshua never changed it, the apostles never transferred it to Sunday—no Scripture gives any man, church, or council the authority to move what Yahweh Himself fixed and sanctified. The change to Sunday came from human tradition and ecclesiastical power, not from the Word of God. We must return to the biblical Sabbath, for no one has the right to override the Creator's command.

— Michael Rood (A Rood Awakening Ministries)

The primary argument for this type of position is that God blessed the Day and made the Day holy. The holiness of the day pre-dates the command to respect the day's holiness.

And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

— Genesis 2:2-3

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work… For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

— Exodus 20:8-11

If the day is holy then no man can change the day, we can only discover it and remember it and honor it by resting like the LORD did. Scripture goes on to say that the Sabbath is a sign that He is our God and that they are an appointed time:

You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, 'Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.'…Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.

— Exodus 31:13, 16-17

Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.

— Ezekiel 20:12

And keep my Sabbaths holy and make them holy, that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.

— Ezekiel 20:20

Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts [mo'adei] of the LORD that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts [mo'adai]. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places.

— Leviticus 23:2-3

And God said, 'Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years,'

— Genesis 1:14

There is no way around the fact that the Sabbath day qualifies for 3 of the 4 purposes of the lights in the heavens: it is a sign, an appointed time, and a type of day. This connects closely to the idea that months are a larger unit of time which are divided into weeks called Sabbaths which are subdivided into days.

From renewed moon to renewed moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the LORD.

— Isaiah 66:23

The different classification of days is defined by Ezekiel:

This is what the Lord GOD says: 'The gate of the inner courtyard facing east shall be shut for the six working days; but it shall be opened on the Sabbath day and opened on the day of the renewed moon.'

— Ezekiel 46:1

There is a logical contradiction in instruction if it is possible for a Renewed Moon day to fall on a work day as the gate cannot be open and shut at the same time. You would have to assign a priority to renewed moon day over work days, but that is not found in the text.

So now the full nature of the Sabbath comes into view, it is a sign, and appointed time, a week long structure, a day of rest and separate from Renewed Moon days. It is objective, existing outside any individual person having started before man was created. All of these properties are why those who care about the Sabbath argue so strongly against any person taking it upon themselves to change or redefine it.

The common problem with all of the passionate arguments for Saturday is that they never define the dateline and depending upon the dateline one chooses the sanctified time might fall on a different day of the Gregorian week. And if the dateline is celestial and moves every month then that could change everything!

The temporal mechanics of the traveling across the international dateline are enough to cause most people's head to spin, so I will save that argument until the end of this chapter. I will first present to you how I originally proved the Lunar Sabbath to myself before I grasped the deeper underlying issue baked into the structure of creation that forced it.

Recall the principle of the Terrain vs Map from the chapter on Principles of Evaluation. I pointed out that if you have 100 maps you cannot prove which map is true by comparing them to each other, you must go out into the real world to known events and find the "ground truth" and then see which maps align with reality. This is exactly how I went about proving the Lunar Sabbath.

32 AD Sabbath Implications

In the chapter titled 32 AD Resurrection I detailed many fully independent proofs to show that John the Baptist started his ministry at the start of the 15th year of Tiberius which is universally understood to be fall of 28 AD when he turned 30 years old. Yeshua was baptized just before Passover 29 AD shortly before his 30th birthday and then went immediately into the wilderness and thus no documented Passover activity in 29 AD. That year also happened to be the 7th year of the Sabbath cycle which started at the 1406 BC Jordan river crossing and was confirmed by Josephus when Herod the Great took Jerusalem. This means that Yeshua declared the Year of the Lord's Favor at the end of the 7th year as commanded by Torah and by this we precisely identify Luke chapter 4 near the start of his ministry in fall 29 AD. Six months later at Passover 30 AD we are told the temple has taken 46 years to build which lines up exactly with the timeline Josephus gives us. This is the first Passover of 3 mentioned, which makes 31 AD the second and 32 AD the year of the cross. Finally 32 AD happens to be the 490th year from the order to restore and rebuild Jerusalem which aligns perfectly with the prophecy given to Daniel.

The evidence for this is overwhelming if you allow the plain reading of the text and historical accounts to speak for itself without otherwise irrational twisted interpretations to support an unchallengeable assumption that Saturday was the Sabbath of the time. So for the sake of this discussion, trust that 32 AD is the year of the cross and then verify it later. In 32 AD the traditional calendar puts Passover on Monday or Tuesday which makes resurrection on the first day of the week 6 or 7 inclusive days and totally incompatible with Yeshua being raised on the 3rd day even if you use the most extreme interpretations of a full 72 hours in the tomb.

If, on the other hand, a Lunar Sabbath calendar was being used by the Jewish faction in charge of the temple, then Passover would always be on the 6th day of the week. This would then line up with abundant evidence that First Fruits was always on the 16th of the month (see the First Fruits Paradox section below). All of the evidence pointing to 32 AD and First Fruits always on the 16th is therefore compatible with Lunar Sabbath but incompatible with all other known calendars.

Testing Known Weekly Sabbaths

Once we know that 1406 BC was the year of the Jordan River crossing, established in its own dedicated chapter, we can determine that 1446 BC is the year of the Exodus. From this we can determine where Saturday fell in the first, second and third months. We know that the 8th, 15th and 22nd of the second month were sabbaths from the story of the manna. They arrived on the 15th grumbling, that same night they got quail and the next morning was their first serving of manna. They received manna for 6 days and got a double portion on the 21st in preparation for the Sabbath on the 22nd. If the 22nd is a sabbath then the 15th must be a Sabbath considering that the Sabbath has been established since creation and was not created at Mt. Sinai.

For the sake of this experiment we will consider two traditional calendar theories, one the starts the month the first sunset after the dark conjunction and the other starts the month the first evening a visible crescent is plausible to been seen with the naked eye. The year will start the first "New Moon" after the spring equinox. We will then look at the day of week on the continuous cycle for the 15th of the second month, this will tell us what calendars, if any, are compatible with a continuous weekly cycle and the Exodus narrative.

The results show that the first visible crescent seen by two witnesses would make the 15th of the second month a Friday which is entirely incompatible with the Exodus narrative. Some would be tempted to claim that they just couldn't see it, but that evening the moon age was 1.5 days with 2.4% illuminated which is considered easily visible by any standard. This leaves only calendars that rely on calculation of the dark conjunction, a sign without any light, as potentially compatible with a weekly sabbath. This in turn contradicts the recorded oral tradition of two human witnesses making an observation and undermines the credibility of the Rabbinic Jews for faithfully transmitting the true calendar. Their modern calendar is closer in operation to a dark conjunction, but is built on top of a calculated "molad" which is accurate on average but individual months can differ by up to 12 hours from the real dark conjunction.

Calendar	Julian Date	Lunar Date	Day of Week
Dark	5/23/1446 BC	2/15	Saturday
Visible	5/24/1446 BC	2/15	Friday
Full	6/6/1446 BC	2/15	Saturday

…you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.

— Leviticus 23:10-11

We know that Yeshua was raised on First Fruits and that he was raised on the first day of the week.

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep….But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward.

— 1 Corinthians 15:20

So now we can go to the story of Joshua where we are shown they ate first fruits on the 16th of the month.

Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. And they ate of the stored produce (from prior year) of the land on the day after the Passover (15th), unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the stored produce of the land (day after 15th is 16th); and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.

— Joshua 5:10-12

From this text we can clearly establish that the 16th is the first day of the week (being first fruits) because they could not eat of the produce of the land that year (1406 BC) until after first fruits. This means the 15th had to be a weekly sabbath. We can now calculate a table showing the day of week on each of the calendars:

Calendar	Julian Date	Lunar Date	Day of Week
Dark	5/2/1406 BC	1/15	Sunday
Visible	5/3/1406 BC	1/15	Monday
Full	6/6/1406 BC	1/15	Sunday

What we discover is that none of the calendars have Saturday on the 15th of the 1st month in 1406 BC. So we now have three witnesses that prove the visible crescent wasn't in use in 1446 BC (1406 BC, and 32 AD) and two witnesses that the Dark Conjunction or Molad were not in use (1406 BC and 32 AD). The terrain is simply not compatible with the Saturday sabbath map.

We can now establish another First Fruits witness from the Exodus. Recall from the chapter on When Does the Day Start? that they journeyed from Rameses and camped in Succoth. This is approximately 20 miles (or less in some estimates) and is about 1 days travel.

And the children of Israel removed from Rameses, and pitched in Succoth.

— Numbers 33:5

The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children… Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.

— Exodus 12:37, 13:2

Here we see the introduction of the typology of "first fruits" when they camped after a days journey. The First Fruits Paradox section below provides the evidence that first fruits is always on the 16th of the month, and that aligns perfectly with them leaving the night of the 15th, traveling all night and into the day on the 16th where they setup camp just in time for the narrative to mention first fruits. Since first fruits is always on the first day of the week this means that the 15th was a weekly Sabbath in the first month.

The implications of this are huge because the scriptural narrative naturally suggests that the 15th of both the 1st and 2nd month are weekly sabbaths and yet that is mathematically impossible because a month as 29 or 30 days, neither of which are divisible by 7. What is powerful about this witness is that it is entirely independent of the actual year of the Exodus.

The First Fruits Paradox

The debate over the timing of first fruits goes back over 2000 years and this debate tells us far more than most people realize. Lets explore what we can conclude from the debate itself, independently of which side you end up on.

So what is the debate? The Septuagint, Josephus, Philo, and examples in the Bible (Joshua and Exodus) all tell us that First Fruits is always observed on the 16th of the first month, the 3rd day from Passover on the 14th. Josephus reports that this was the practice in the Temple. Scripture also tells use that we are to count 7 complete sabbaths from First Fruits until the 50th day, which is declared to be "the day after the 7th Sabbath".

I will provide the evidence for the above claims in a bit, because I want to get to the point quickly. If the understanding from the Septuagint and every historian that survived was practiced in the temple, then scripture gives us an apparent contradiction:

And ye shall number to yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day on which ye shall offer the sheaf of the heave-offering, seven full weeks: until the morrow after the last week (sabbath) ye shall number fifty days, and shall bring a new meat-offering to the Lord.

— Leviticus 23:15-16 (Brenton's Greek Septuagint)

And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven full (undivided) weeks (sheva shabbatot) shall they be. You shall count fifty days until the day after the seventh week (shabbat), and you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the LORD.

— Leviticus 23:15-16 (Hebrew)

If you start "from the day after the sabbath, aka from the day of first fruits", which everything from the Septuagint to Josephus says is always on the 16th and then count 7 full sabbaths (weeks) which you interpret as exactly 50 days will you end up on "the day after the 7th sabbath"?

In 6 out of 7 years you will not land on first day of the week if you use the continuous weekly cycle. The only way to escape this paradox is if first fruits is not always on the 16th but is the first Sunday after Passover and this is many people attempt to resolve it. But we have already seen how that breaks down with historical narratives in 1446 BC, 1406 BC, and 32 AD. Scripture strongly points to First Fruits always being on the 16th.

We can gain some more insight into the nature of this count by looking at how Josephus describes it. He notes it is called the feast of weeks and the unit of what is being counted is a week.

When a week of weeks has passed over after this sacrifice, (which weeks (sevens) contain forty and nine days) on the fiftieth day, which is Pentecost, but is called by the Hebrews Asartha, which signifies Pentecost, they bring to God a loaf, made of wheat flour…

— Antiquities of the Jews (Book 3, Ch 10, Section 6; 3.252 in Whiston's numbering).

This aligns with what scripture strongly implies. The Sabbath is defined as six days of work followed by a day of rest. This structure of the sabbath is demonstrated in Genesis and referenced multiple times. There are over 20 occasions in scripture where the word "Sabbath" is used as a synonym for week and not just a reference to a single day of rest.

The nature of a "Sabbath" count referring to a "week" structure rather than a "day" in the context of the Pentecost instructions is revealed by the use of "complete/perfect sabbaths". A complete or perfect sabbath would have to be 7 days long with the 7th being the day of rest. This seems to be the most logical way to understand the difference between "complete sabbath" and "incomplete sabbath" because how else would a "sabbath day" be considered "incomplete".

As a result of this dispute, people fall into one of three camps:

• Keep First Fruits aligned and let Pentecost fall where it may
• Keep Pentecost on the first day of the week and move First Fruits
• Understand the month as 4 weeks (sabbaths) and only count the days that are part of the sabbaths (6+1 days). Renewed Moon days are separate and outside of the count.

The last approach has one other winkle in that there is a possible reading of Leviticus as: "from the day after the sabbath (week) from (that starts) the day you brought first fruits, count 7 complete sabbath weeks". The question is whether this is a Hebraic parallelism or a way of identifying the "sabbath week" you start the count of weeks from or merely a way of identifying the "sabbath day" you start the count from. In other words, is the week of unleavened bread part of the count or do you start counting after the week of unleavened bread. Considering the context is counting weeks (sabbaths) and not days, it could be argued either way.

The second way of interpreting it places Pentecost on the 16th of the 3rd month. This is documented in the book of Jubilees (which is not scripture, but that doesn't automatically make it wrong so long as it doesn't conflict with a legitimate interpretation of scripture).

And it came to pass in the first year of the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt, in the third month, on the sixteenth day of the month, that God spake to Moses, saying: 'Come up to Me on the Mount and I will give thee two tables of stone of the law and of the commandment, which I have written, that thou mayst teach them'

— Chapter 1:1 (R.H. Charles translation)

For it is the feast of weeks and the feast of first fruits: this feast is twofold and of a double nature: according to what is written and engraved concerning it, celebrate it.

— Chapter 6:21 (R.H. Charles translation)

And in the fifth year of the fourth week of this jubilee, in the third month, in the middle of the month, Abram celebrated the feast of the first-fruits of the grain harvest.

— Jubilees 15:1 (R.H. Charles translation)

And she bare a son in the third month, and in the middle of the month, at the time of which the Lord had spoken to Abraham, on the festival of the first fruits of the harvest, Isaac was born.

— Jubilees 16:13 (R.H. Charles translation)

From this we have further evidence about how this was counted by a major sect of ancient Israel (especially the Essenes). So how did the Essenes come to this conclusion? Their 364 day calendar has 30 days per month, so the 16th of the 3rd month is 60 days from the 16th of the first month. It turns out they count first fruits from the 26th… which we know cannot be because Jesus was raised on first fruits.

I submit for your consideration that we are witnessing the effect of attempting to map an older true calendar tradition on to newer corrupted calendars where it just doesn't quite fit.

Some sects stuck with the 16th tradition for the first month and moved Shavuot in the 3rd month to the 6th even though it is rarely the day after a sabbath day. Others stuck with Shavuot the 16th of the 3rd month and moved the first month to the 26th. However, what if the deeper truth is that first fruits is always on the 16th of the first month and Shavuot / "pentecost" on the 16th of the 3rd month and we count weeks on a Lunar Sabbath calendar? This would resolve all conflict, and explain why we count weeks and not days. It would be a clever way of encoding the Lunar Sabbath into scripture in such a way that it would be hard to erase without leaving inconsistencies.

Now that I have made my case, here is the supporting primary evidence for First Fruits always being on the 16th.

The Septuagint (LXX) translation of specifies the timing of the First Fruits sheaf offering as occurring on the "morrow of the first day" (implying the day after the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or the 16th of the first month).

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them, When ye shall enter into the land which I give you, and reap the harvest of it, then shall ye bring a sheaf, the first-fruits of your harvest, to the priest; and he shall lift up the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you. On the morrow of the first day [of unleavened bread] the priest shall lift it up. And ye shall offer on the day on which ye bring the sheaf, a lamb without blemish of a year old for a whole-burnt-offering to the Lord. And its meat-offering two tenth portions of fine flour mingled with oil: it is a sacrifice to the Lord, a smell of sweet savour to the Lord, and its drink-offering the fourth part of a hin of wine. And ye shall not eat bread, or the new parched corn, until this same day, until ye offer the sacrifices to your God: it is a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings. And ye shall number to yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day on which ye shall offer the sheaf of the heave-offering, seven full weeks: until the morrow after the last week ye shall number fifty days, and shall bring a new meat-offering to the Lord.

— Leviticus 23:9–16 Brenton's English, Septuagint

Josephus describes the First Fruits offering as occurring on the 16th of the first month (the second day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread). As a first-century Jewish historian who lived through the period leading up to the Temple's destruction in 70 AD, his account reflects the Pharisaic practice observed in the Temple during that era:

But on the second day of unleavened bread, which is the sixteenth day of the month, they first partake of the fruits of the earth: for before that day they do not touch them. And while they suppose it proper to honour God, from whom they obtain this plentiful provision, in the first place, they offer the first-fruits of their barley, and that in the manner following. They take an handful of the ears, and dry them: then beat them small, and purge the barley from the bran: they then bring one tenth deal to the altar, to God; and casting one handful of it upon the fire, they leave the rest for the use of the Priests.

— Antiquities of the Jews (Book 3, Ch 10, Section 5)

Philo of Alexandria describes the sheaf offering (First Fruits) as a festival succeeding the first day of the paschal feast (implying the 16th of the first month, the day after the 15th):

And there is also a festival on the day of the paschal feast, which succeeds the first day, and this is named the sheaf, from what takes place on it; for the sheaf is brought to the altar as a first fruit both of the country which the nation has received for its own, and also of the whole land.

— On the Special Laws (Book 2, Section XXVIII, 162)

Philo gives a another witness supporting Lunar weeks even though he starts the month with the dark moon per Babylonian and Egyptian tradition:

For it is said in the Scripture: On the tenth day of this month let each of them take a sheep according to his house; in order that from the tenth, there may be consecrated to the tenth, that is to Elohim, the sacrifices which have been preserved in the soul, which is illuminated in two portions out of the three, until it is entirely changed in every part, and becomes a heavenly brilliancy like a full moon, at the height of its increase at the end of the second week.

— On Mating with the Preliminary Studies, XIX (102)…

In Philo's allegorical interpretation of the Passover lamb selection on the tenth day of the month, he compares the soul's gradual consecration to the moon's waxing phases. The soul advances through stages of illumination until it reaches full transformation, described as the brilliant fullness of the moon at its peak. This climax, he states plainly, happens at the end of the second week.

The assumption here is unmistakable: "weeks" are not independent seven-day units but divisions aligned with the moon's cycle. In a lunar month, the full moon appears reliably around the fourteenth or fifteenth day—precisely where the second week concludes when counting begins at the new moon. Philo offers this as an obvious parallel, one his readers would grasp instantly without explanation.

This reveals that in his first-century Jewish context, at least among Alexandrian thinkers, weeks were understood as lunar quarters: new moon to first quarter, first quarter to full, full to last quarter, and last quarter to new. The full moon naturally marks the end of the second segment, making the "end of the second week" a direct reference to mid-month lunar fullness.

The tenth day serves as a symbolic milestone—well advanced in illumination, roughly two-thirds toward perfection—leading to the full moon four days later. The analogy's clarity and force depend entirely on this lunar structure. If weeks were detached from the moon's phases, the precise timing of full brilliance at the "end of the second week" would feel arbitrary rather than poetically inevitable.

Thus, the passage quietly confirms that weeks were framed within the moon's observable rhythm, with the seventh-day rest falling at the natural turning points of light in the heavens. This embeds the weekly cycle inside the monthly lunar order, rather than allowing it to float free.

While this is strong evidence of a Lunar Sabbath being known in the days of Yeshua (Philo was a contemporary of Yeshua and Josephus), I believe it is mistaken with respect to the phase of the moon which starts the month as I have proven in the chapter When Does the Month Start?.

Now that we have addressed much of the evidence for Lunar Sabbath in scripture I hope you have the motivation to follow the deeper underlying physical reality that compels a lunar sabbath. All of creation testifies!

Destruction of Temple after Sabbath

Another way of testing the Sabbath is the documented claim that the 9th of Av was a weekly Sabbath when both temples fell. Since we know these years with high levels of confidence we can see which calendars are compatible with the claim:

When the Temple was destroyed for the first time, that day was immediately after Shabbat, and it was immediately following a Sabbatical year, and it was the week of the priestly watch of Jehoiarib, and it was the Ninth of Av. And the same occurred when the Second Temple was destroyed.

— Babylonian Talmud, Ta'anit 29a (c. 500 CE)

The Temple was destroyed the first time on the ninth of Av and it was the end of the Sabbath [motza'ei Shabbat], and it was the end of the Sabbatical year… And similarly for the Second Temple.

— Babylonian Talmud, Arakhin 11b

But the tenth day of the month Lous [Av] was come, which is the day that had been fatal to the temple of old, when it was burnt by the king of Babylon; for the same day it was now burnt by this present Roman general.

— Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War 6.4.5

The flames took their way as far as the rooms that joined to the holy house, and which were situated the upper height of them; at which time one might guess at the vast riches of what was in those rooms… But as for the holy house itself, it was burnt down in the month Lous, on the tenth day of the month, the same day and month wherein it had been burnt formerly by the king of Babylon.

— Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War 6.4.8

As you can see from these quotes there is some disagreement on whether the temple fell on the 9th or 10th of Av and the consequence is to give some wiggle room by selectively trusting some sources and not others.

As you can see, the talmudic claims of the 9th of Av are incompatible with their claims that it fell the day after the Saturday Sabbath in 70 AD because the 9th of Av is Saturday, but it is compatible in 587 BC; however, only on the observable sliver calendar. Remember we already invalidated the visible crescent for the start of manna in Exodus. The 9th of Av is also incompatible with scripture which agrees with Josephus that the temple fell on the 10th:

Now in the 5th month, on the 10th day of the month—which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, who served the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the LORD, and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.

— Jeremiah 52:12-13

If you only consider the 10th of Av, then the Talmudic claims work in 70 AD and 587 BC, but only on the dark conjunction moon. This makes another invalidation of their fable about starting the month the evening the first visible crescent is seen if you hold to a Saturday Sabbath understanding.

Josephus records that the Romans learned that the Jews refused to pro-actively fight on the Sabbath though they would defend if directly attacked.

And indeed it was a hard thing to fill up that valley, by reason of its immense depth, especially as the Jews used all the means possible to repel them from their superior situation; nor had the Romans succeeded in their endeavors, had not Pompey taken notice of the seventh days, on which the Jews abstain from all sorts of work on a religious account, and raised his bank, but restrained his soldiers from fighting on those days; for the Jews only acted defensively on Sabbath days.

— Josephus, The Jewish War

Which thing when the Romans understood, on those days which we call Sabbaths they threw nothing at the Jews, nor came to any pitched battle with them; but raised up their earthen banks, and brought their engines into such forwardness, that they might do execution the next day.

— Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 14, Ch 4, S3

A consequence of this strategy is that Jerusalem would tend to fall a day or two after the Sabbath. Enemies would build the ramps on the Sabbath but not attack, so as not to give the Jews license to break their rest. Then the very next day they would be ready to attack with full force.

Josephus records that the ramps were completed on the 8th of Av, which, according to Josephus' other testimony, implies that the 8th of Av was a Sabbath day being observed and this would be 100% compatible with the Lunar Sabbath theory.

And now two of the legions had completed their banks, on the 8th day of the month Lous [Ab]. Whereupon Titus gave orders that the battering rams should be brought, and set over against the western edifice of the inner temple.

— The Jewish War (Wars of the Jews), Book 6, Ch 4

Putting everything together, the Rabbinic tradition is internally self-contradictory by simultaneously claiming Saturday was the sabbath, that the month started by seeing the crescent, and that both temples fell the day after the sabbath. They also contradict scripture and Josephus which claims the 10th was the fall. The only way to start to save them is to adopt a month starting "first sunset after dark conjunction" and the 10th of the month for the fall. This resolves many contradictions but remains incompatible with claiming 1406 BC First Fruits falling on Sunday.

The real tell is Josephus saying the ramps were built on the sabbath (while the Jews rested) and that they were completed on the 8th day of the month. Josephus has generally proven to be far more reliable a witness than the Rabbinic Jews who frequently demonstrate their willingness to bend facts to support their "high moral principles".

So how does moving dateline impact the Sabbath?

A dateline that moves every month based upon where the moon is located at the start of the month means that you can stay in one location and still "cross the celestial dateline". On a lunar calendar you may cross this dateline every 2 or 3 months. If you use one of the solar calendars then you will cross this moving dateline about once every 4 years. The mere thought of this is enough to cause a panic attack in the minds of those who like the deceiving simplicity of counting 7 days with a fixed dateline and the aid of computer programs like Stellarium and societal conventions like the international dateline.

Before doing an example with the celestial dateline, lets look at some real world case studies with international travel and even extreme cases like astronauts under the conventional 7 day cycle that people have such zeal for.

Traditional Jewish Sabbath Case Study

Suppose a traditional Jewish sabbath observer, who reckons each day from one personally sighted sunset to the next, boards a hypothetical nonstop westward flight from Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand departing at noon on Friday—while it is still the sixth day, hours before LA sunset at 7 PM. These planes generally fly faster than half the Earth's rotational speed, so the Sun appears to move westward at less than half its normal apparent rate relative to the traveler. The flight lasts 14 hours of elapsed time, with solar time advancing by only 7 hours during the journey. Departing at noon (7 hours before sunset), the Sun progresses slowly toward the horizon but never reaches it—no sunset is sighted from takeoff to landing. Midway, after about 6 hours (before 6 PM LA time, which is still before sunset in Los Angeles), the plane crosses the International Date Line, immediately advancing the calendar date from Friday to Sunday afternoon at the crossing point, skipping Saturday entirely even as continuous time passes in the air. The traveler lands in Auckland precisely at sunset solar time on Sunday evening. From noon Friday to the first personally observed sunset on Sunday night, no sunset intervenes, and no labeled Saturday occurs—no sunset marks the start of the Sabbath, no sunset marks any day transition during the journey, and the entire skipped day passes unmarked in the air. In this strict sunset-sighting framework, the traveler experiences no part of a Sabbath, leaving on the middle of the 6th day of the week arriving on the start of the 2nd day of the week.

Some Jews take issue with an individual's travel producing the result that they entirely skip local Sabbath for over 7 subjective days and believe that in these dateline crossings the individual should find a way to keep a 24-hour sabbath period around the time of their travel. These Jews have adopted a number of different "rules" which either have you keep Sabbath on your departure timezone or keep multiple consecutive sabbaths if traveling east. They generally adopt some policy that ensures each individual never experiences more than 6 consecutive days (144 hours) without a Sabbath.

Extreme cases like astronauts (e.g., Ilan Ramon on the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003): With multiple sunrises/sunsets per orbit and crossings of the IDL-equivalent issues, he observed Shabbat based on the time at his last residence (Cape Canaveral), following consultations with rabbis and precedents like the Tiferet Yisrael on polar/Arctic travel where local sunset is unreliable or absent.

In doing this they change the principle of the sabbath being connected to the objective time of the land, the day God sanctified, to it being a personal command detached from the locals during transitions. Once this principle is accepted those keeping every Sunday are still following the command because the principle that an "objective day" has been declared holy has left the room. One could argue that each person has their own personal sabbath cycle that starts the day they are born.

The idea of personal sabbath cycles conflicts with the goal of community synchronization and gatherings that are expected on the sabbath. This elevates the gathering to the highest priority over all other issues and establishes the principle that the majority has the power to change the Sabbath day because it is no longer about a cycle that continues back to creation but community unity.

A purely principle based approach must conclude that for each location God declared a specific window of time to be holy and any individual in that location during that time must respect the holiness of that space-time. To truly know the sabbath and respect its holiness one must know both the when and where boundaries. This is similar to the special rules that only apply when you enter the physical location of the temple. A principled approach concludes the Sabbath is a multi-demential objective space-time concept just like the temple. Any rule of thumb that converts the Sabbath to a subjective experience such that different people in the same location reach different conclusions about whether their shared space-time is holy is likely in error (adding to or taking away from scripture) regardless of good intentions.

Sabbath with Dynamic Celestial Dateline

Lets get more precise for a minute and work through an example of what a moving celestial dateline means in practice. We will start with a working assumption that the first month the dateline is Jerusalem. This means that this is the first location anywhere on earth that was able to view the sign of the start of the month (whether sliver moon, full moon, dark moon, etc). 29 days later the moon has not returned to the same phase because it takes 29.53 days to orbit; therefore, those in Jerusalem add a 30th day. Those on the other side of the world (e.g. Hawaii) happen to see the sliver moon because it takes the earth 12 more hours before their sunset/sunrise and so they only have a 29 day month for the first month. So while Jerusalem started the first month 12 hours ahead of Hawaii, they start their second month 12 hours behind Hawaii.

This is mind bending because it would be as if the number of days in "January" in a given year depended upon your location! Each person has a trivial calendar with their own local observations, but now converting a local date/time in one location to the same moment in time in a different location is far more involved. We moved the complication of knowing when to observe dates to knowing how to covert between local calendars. One is required for Torah observance that is accessible to all, the other is only required for international trade that only applies to the few and only in an era where speed of light communication and computers makes it trivial to automate.

What happened the moment the first "timezone" was able to observe the sign of the new month? Did it define a new international global date line for that month? If so, when do those who added a 30th day cross it? After the 30th day they will also confirm that the new month has begun, but they know that their observation isn't authoritative because they had to add a 30th day — some other timezone observed the sign before they did.

The 30th day spends half the day moving into the "future" and once the first timezone observes the sign to start the new month and establishes a new dateline they are virtually teleported back a day. It is as if the 30th day of the 1st month was another way to express the "0th day" of the second month. We know this because the first day of the second month is always after the 29th and 30th day of the first month. This means the timezone that was once 12 hours behind has suddenly become 12 hours ahead in "absolute time" assuming we apply the rule that the furthest advanced calendar month/day is the true marker of the heavenly clock.

For the sake of simplicity, lets assume the 29th day of the first month was a Friday. Jerusalem moves into Saturday on the 30th of the 1st month, which they attempt to observe as a Sabbath. Hawaii moves into Saturday as the first day of the second month. Since the first day of the second month is always after the 30th day of the 1st month, it means that Jerusalem is now on the "day before the first of the second month" or the 0th day of the 2nd month. The "0th day" or "30th day" is truly phantom, it is like the day a person gains or loses when they cross the international dateline by airplane.

And so Jerusalem is now left to decide if Saturday the 30th of the 1st month in Jerusalem is before or after Saturday the 1st of the second month in Hawaii. Some will likely suggest that Jerusalem should just keep its own weekly cycle regardless of the day of the month, but now the international dateline issue at creation shows up. The fixed cycle requires an objective fixed dateline which requires a central authority and real time global communication or advanced computation to follow.

Common Objections

There are a number of knee-jerk responses that people give when they first hear about a Lunar Sabbath that deserve to be addressed up front.

"The Bible never once says to reset the week at the new moon—adding uncounted days is pure eisegesis."

The Bible also never once mentions a 13th month or when to add it, but most are willing to accept the silence on this issue. The Bible also never explicitly says that weeks go on forever, this is pure anchoring bias, tradition bias, and majority bias.

"Genesis 2 shows a 7-day cycle before the moon was even created; you can't make the Sabbath lunar-dependent."

Genesis also shows "morning and evening" before the sun was created. All this proves is that space-time exists outside of the heavenly clock created on the 4th day. The sun, moon, and stars communicate the time they do not define the times anymore than changing your wrist watch causes you to time travel.

"Exodus 16 starts the manna count on the 16th without mentioning a new moon reset—your consecutive 15ths theory forces the text to say what it doesn't."

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The text only describes a single week and doesn't expand directly upon the broader cycle. That said, the rules regarding "Sabbath Years" and "Jubilee Years" show that in some years he provides enough for 3 years.

"Your 1446 BC and 32 AD dates rely on your own chronology; change one assumption and the whole 'mismatch' disappears—circular reasoning."

These dates require their own evidence and that evidence is provided in this book. The reality is that the traditional calendar forces motivated reasoning by eliminating years that are incompatible with the calendar conclusion. My approach ignored the calendar and looked for the strongest independent evidence and then let the best fit calendar be revealed.

A moving dateline every month would make community-wide observance impossible in practice—God would not hide His holy day behind such confusion.

This appeal to "community-wide observance" is really an appeal to "global observance" which I have already demonstrated is impossible on Saturday sabbath without faster than light communication and/or advanced computational capabilities and centralized authorities. Those that set the feast days by visible signs rather than the Jewish fixed calendar already have a "moving dateline" they just don't think of it as such. Not only does it move but it isn't even consistent at the same longitude in the north and south. All confusion only stems from attempting to do date/time conversions between different timezones and/or converting between different calendar types. If you follow the simple rules every local community will have a trivial time following and obeying.

Every objection either applies equally to the continuous-cycle view or collapses under its own logic when the text's actual silence and practical realities are considered. The lunar model doesn't add more assumptions—it removes contradictions while staying faithful to creation's design and Torah's observability for all people, everywhere, in every era.

Summary of Argument for Lunar Sabbath

The Sabbath is more than a personal rest day. It is an objective, holy "space-time" — a fixed window of time God set apart as a sign of His identity, a mark of sanctification, and one of His appointed times (mo'edim). It is tied to the same heavenly lights that mark signs, seasons, and sacred times.

Heavenly lights govern time: The sun, moon, and stars were created to signal appointed times, days, and years. The Sabbath fits three of these purposes: it is a sign, an appointed time, and a weekly structure. New moons and Sabbaths are repeatedly paired as sacred markers, and temple gates open for both while closed on ordinary workdays.

Fixed weekly cycles create practical problems: Without instant global communication or precise longitude knowledge (impossible until recent centuries), no one could reliably maintain a single, unbroken 7-day cycle across the planet. A moving celestial dateline based on the first sighting of the new moon solves access for everyone, but it shifts monthly — requiring Sabbaths to reset with the lunar month.

Lunar Sabbath resolves contradictions: Sabbaths fall on fixed lunar dates (8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th). This allows consecutive 15ths in adjacent months to both be Sabbaths (impossible in a 29- or 30-day month with a continuous cycle). It also keeps First Fruits consistently on the 16th while making Pentecost land on the 16th of the third month, matching ancient patterns.

Historical narrative tests fail continuous cycles: In 1446 BC (Exodus year) and 1406 BC (Jordan crossing), no continuous-cycle calendar (dark conjunction, visible crescent, or modern fixed) places the 15th on Saturday where the text requires it. Lunar fixed dates align perfectly. In 32 AD, the crucifixion/resurrection timeline fits only when Passover lands on the 6th day of the week — again compatible with lunar Sabbath.

First Fruits must be fixed on the 16th: Ancient sources (Temple practice, first-century historians, and biblical examples) place the sheaf offering on the 16th. Counting seven complete weeks from there drifts Pentecost in a continuous cycle but aligns perfectly when counting "Sabbath weeks" and excluding new moon days — a lunar structure.

Philo confirms lunar weeks: A first-century writer describes the full moon arriving at the end of the second week, treating weeks as lunar quarters (new moon to first quarter, to full, etc.) — evidence that lunar-tied weeks were understood in Yeshua's time.

Travel and dateline examples expose the issue: Real-world cases (flights skipping days, astronauts using home time) show that even modern fixed cycles require subjective rules to "save" the Sabbath. A lunar system with local moon observation keeps the holy time objective and community-synchronized without needing technology or central authority.

What It All Means

The Sabbath is not a man-made tradition or a personal choice — it is a divinely declared, objective holy space-time embedded in creation's design through the moon's cycles. A continuous 7-day week detached from the moon cannot be reliably observed across the ancient world, leads to contradictions in key biblical events, and fails practical tests of global accessibility. The lunar Sabbath — resetting with each new moon — harmonizes the scriptural patterns, historical alignments, and physical reality of timekeeping. It is the only model that keeps the Sabbath both celestial (marked by heavenly lights) and universally observable without modern tools. After ruling out the impossible, the Lunar Sabbath that remains is most likely the truth however unconventional it may be.