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"...the Moon gives the sign for the festival..." (Sirach, Chapter 43:7).

"...let all the festivals and sabbaths and new Moons...be days of exemption..." (1 Mac-
cabes, Chapter 10:34).

"...the festival of weeks...[perhaps lunar-based weeks] (2 Maccabes, Chapter 12:3).

"...[Feasting] occurs at...'Sabbatwn', and at...'noumhniwn' (or the New Moons)..." (Judith
8:6).

1 Samuel 20:5-6,18,24,27; 21:5.

"[A Temple sacrifice is required] every day, at the beginning and at the ending of the day;
but on the seventh day, which is called the Sabbath, [two are required]. At the new moon,
[yet additional sacrifices are required]." (Antiquities Of The Jews, by Josephus, Book 3,
Chapter 10:1).

"The high priest [officiated]...on the seventh days and new moons..." (Wars Of The Jews,
by Josephus, Book 5, Chapter 5:7).

Some historical researchers postulate that the Israelite Shabbath (an acknowledged lunar-
based cycle) must have originated in association with the Babylonian week (also lunar based).
Here, it is evident that the "the Babylonian...seven-day week...was the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th
days of every [lunar] month". ( Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, by Hastings, Sabbath:
Babylonian).

Some historians disagree -- at least in part -- with the premise that the Babylonian week is
the origin of the Israelite Shabbath, and instead, they prefer a slightly different hypothesis: "the
Babylonian Sabattu and the Israelite Sabbath, sprang from a common [Semite] source...." (Inter-
preter's Dictionary, First Edition: Sabbaths).

This indicated original lunar-based definition of the Sabbath cycle seems to indeed be de-
tectable in a number of biblical texts -- where calendar terms: new moons (or technically: new be-
ginnings) and Sabbaths are chronologically linked together:

"And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither new moon [chodesh], nor
Sabbath. And..." (AV of 2 Kings 4:23).

"And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon [chodesh] to another, and from one
Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD." (AV of
Isaiah 66:23).

"Thus saith the Lord GOD; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be
shut the six working days; but on the Sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new
moon [chodesh] it shall be opened." (AV of Ezekiel 46:1).

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