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The newly devised count of the week involved an uninterrupted flat count of 7-day cycles (where
each annual-circle was formally divided into a continuous run of 52 Sabbath cycles).

An interpretation of this period in history which sees the Second-Temple largely in ad-
herence to a lunar-based Sabbath is not contradicted from any of the first-century sources (in-
cluding Josephus).

The early adherence of mainstream Jews to a lunar-based Sabbath is additionally evident
-- and graphically so -- from the biblical sources and documents produced by some of the early
Christians.

Biblical Sources

The Sabbath (as it is defined in the biblical sources) was unquestionably celebrated ac-
cording to a reoccurring 7-day interval:

"Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the
LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy
manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For
in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the
seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." (Exodus
20:9-11).

"Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and
thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed." (Exo-
dus 23:12).

"Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD ... "
(Exodus 31:15).

"Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in har-
vest thou shalt rest." (Exodus 34:21).

"Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a
sabbath of rest to the LORD..." (Exodus 35:2).

"Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convoca-
tion; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings." (Le-
viticus 23:3).

"Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the
LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy
manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy
stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well
as thou." (Deuteronomy 5:13-14).

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