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"...consequently, the Babylonian word sabattu is probably the Hebrew word sabbat, Sabbath, the
7th day of EACH LUNAR WEEK" (Babylonian Menologies, pp. 91-92).

We have seen that all authorities state that the present seven-day cycle is ARTIFICIAL --
having no relationship to any natural phenomena. Most archaeologists that specialize in ancient
Assyria believe that "...the role of seven as a symbolic number is ultimately connected with the
moon changing her phases at intervals of approximately seven days" (Rest Days, by Hutton
Webster. 1916. p. 224-225). As a matter of fact, this is the ONLY thing in the entire scope of na-
ture resembling such a pattern.

There are approximately 29.5 days in the lunar cycle beginning with the sighting of the first
small crescent just after sunset. Lunar months are most conveniently estimated at 30 days, but when
laid out in a succession of months, they can be most conveniently calendarized ONLY BY periods
of 29 and 30 days in alternation (Rest Days, pp. 178-179). None of these numbers, obviously, are
divisible evenly by 7. "However," relates Jonathan Brown, "in a Babylonian calendar dated at
about 700 B.C., a scheme of rest days on 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th of the moon cycle are recorded.
Those days coincide with the first quarter (half-moon), full moon, third quarter (half-moon in re-
verse), and the day of the moon's disappearance" (Keeping Yahweh's Appointments, p. 51). This
is exactly the SAME cycle that God revealed to the Israelites in Exodus 16!

Further evidence that the moon was used to determine God's weekly Sabbath day is found
in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Fragments of lunar days 4 through 25 were uncovered at Qumran describ-
ing the moon's appearance and movements in relation to the sun. Wise, Abegg and Cooke, in their
book The Dead Sea Scrolls, A New Translation, translate the fragment for lunar day 8 as
follows:

On the eighth of the month [chodesh], 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 (pp. 301-303).

The same thing is repeated in the fragment for the 22nd day of the month (chodesh). Unfor-
tunately, the fragments for the other moon quarters are either more fragmentary, contain less infor-
mation, or are altogether missing information pertinent to the moon phases. What is significant is
that these fragments are the oldest written references in Paleo-Hebrew CONNECTING THE
QUARTERS OF THE MOON TO THE WEEKS.

Dated to the 1st century B.C., these fragments are probably a copy of a much earlier writ-
ing. Notice how the fragment for the eighth day describes the moon being in the sky during the day-
light hours. Then, after sunset, "its light ceases to be obscured." This is just how the first quarter
appears with the moon's light continuing for several hours past sunset, thus marking THE FIRST
DAY OF THE WEEK. According to one of the authors (Martin Abegg, Jr. -- Director of the Dead
Sea Scrolls Institute) the Hebrew text reads echod beshabat, literally meaning "FIRST OF THE
COUNTING OF THE SABBATH [!]"

As stated earlier, those who reckon by moons begin their lunar month with the first appear-
ance of this crescent in the western sky. "Then, as Langdon said, the month AND week began with

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