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A correspondent in Israel alerted me of possi- The scroll explicitly describes the Sabbath
ble significance in the daylight and evening Cycle (or week) to commence in interface with
portions of the Sabbath Cycle. Simultaneous to these waxing/waning phases.
this, I was busy researching an article entitled:
"Have We Been Observing the Sabbath At the The information is especially significant be-
Wrong Time All These Years?," written by cause it identifies the evening following the
John D. Keyser, of [formerly] Triumph Minis- 14th day (the full of the Moon) to coincide
tries -- where Mr. Keyser cites the significance with "echod beshabet," and also the daylight
of the lunar week (or quarter-phase) of the portion of the daylight following the 14th day
moon as the basis of the biblical Sabbath. of waning (the dark of the Moon) to also coin-
cide with "echod beshabet."
In the articles, Mr. Keyser referred to [Dead
Sea] Scroll 4Q317 as follows: "Further evi- This peculiar date (echod beshabet) or literally
dence that the moon was used to determine the "ONE AMID THE SABBATHS" can also
God's weekly Sabbath day is found in the Dead seemingly be found at least 21 times in the He-
Sea Scrolls. Fragments of lunar days 4 through brew Bible (as the "Echad" to the Shabbath-
25 were uncovered at Qumran describing the Chodesh), and 7 times in the Greek New Tes-
moon's appearance and movements in relation tament (as the 'Mia Sabbatwn').
to the sun....What is significant is that these
fragments are the oldest written references in Based upon this significant indication, a formal
Paleo-Hebrew CONNECTING THE QUAR- Sabbath Cycle can rather clearly be recognized
TERS OF THE MOON TO THE WEEKS. in lunar stages of 7 + 7 days (plus an evening
Dated to the 1st century B.C., these fragments portion when the full moon is in the sky all
are probably a copy of a much earlier writing. night long), followed by stages of 7 + 7 days
Notice how the fragment for the eighth day (plus a daylight portion when the moon is ab-
desrcibes the moon being in the sky during the sent from the sky).
daylight hours. Then, after sunset, "its light
ceases to be obscured." This is just how the The possibility of this formal progression of
first quarter appears with the moon's light con- evenings and daylights seems to satisfactorily
tinuing for several hours past sunset, thus solve a number of riddles concerning the bibli-
marking THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK. cal Sabbath -- where the singular terms mia
According to one of the authors (Martin Abegg, and echad can -- at last -- be equated to the
Jr. -- Director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Insti- peculiar appearance of a specially celebrated
tute) the Hebrew text reads echod beshabat, evening, and a specially celebrated morning or
literally meaning "FIRST OF THE COUNT- daylight (which two intervals were formally
ING OF THE SABBATH [!]"" observed amid the waxing/waning lunar
stages).
(Scroll 4Q317 is fragmentary, and conse-
quently, the composite information was appar- (This formally observed sequence rather per-
ently filled-in using composite scrolls by J.T. fectly interfaces with a seven-weeks -- or pen-
Milik). tecontad -- cycle, and where previously, I had
According to the reconstructed information (as come to doubt that a seven-weeks cycle was
seemingly found on this scroll), the waxing and formally observed during the time of the Sec-
waning phases of the Moon progress in formal ond Temple, this new information removes al-
stages of 7 + 7 days (or 14 days of waxing), most all of my previously held suspicion).
followed by 7 + 7 days (or 14 days of waning).

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