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Line 7: On the SABBATH of the course of Hakkoz is THE THIRTIETH DAY OF THE LUNAR
MONTH, on the thirtieth day of the second solar month.

Line 12: On the SABBATH of the course of Seorim IS THE TWENTY-NINTH DAY OF THE
LUNAR MONTH, on the twenty-fifth day of the seventh solar month.

Going now to manuscript 4Q321 Mishmerot Ba (fragment 1, column 1) we read --

Lines 4 & 5: ...and the FIRST CRESCENT [of the moon] is on the SABBATH of the course of
Pethahiah, ON THE NINTH OF THE MONTH.

Finally, in manuscript 4Q321a Mishmerot Bb we discover --

Line 5: The FULL MOON IS ON THE SABBATH of the course of Koz, on the thirtieth day of the
second month...

Right here is plain evidence that the priests in Jerusalem were keeping the lunar-based cal-
endar that included weeks pegged to the phases of the moon! This was in the first few centuries
before Christ. In a note found in The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation we find mentioned
that without correction "the LUNAR CALENDAR of the scroll writers lost nearly half an hour a
month. These differences might be relatively insignificant for a few years, but eventually the sea-
sons would begin to wander through the year, and THE PHASES OF THE MOON would not
correspond to what was expected" (Wise, Abegg and Cook. San Francisco: Harper Collins,
1996. P. 298).

The New Testament Era

One thing is self-evident -- Christ had absolutely no problem with the day of the week the
religious leaders of His day (the Pharisees) were observing the Sabbath on! He had plenty to say
about the wall of restrictions and the dos and don'ts surrounding the Pharisees' concept of the Sab-
bath, and blasted them for their nit-picking and hypocrisy. But He never once corrected them over
the TIMING of the Sabbath. So when were the Pharisees -- and the main part of the populace --
keeping the Sabbath? And, later, when were the early Christians keeping the Sabbath?

In the article Shawui Sabbath: Ancient Sabbath Observance we find written the follow-
ing: "Most theologians and some scholars assume that mainstream Jewish society, at the time of
Jesus...was practicing a fixed seven-day week which was the same as the modern fixed seven-day
week. This is extremely doubtful. The change, from a lunar to a fixed week, was brought about by
the power and influence of Rome. As long as the Nazarenes held power in Jerusalem, all Roman
practices and customs, including that of THE CONSECUTIVE WEEK, WERE HELD AT BAY"
(http://www.geocities.com/Athens/3607/sabat.htm).

This article goes on to explain that

Yeshua...observed a Sabbath, but this Sabbath was NEITHER SATURDAY NOR SUN-
DAY. The Nazarene Sabbath was a LUNAR Sabbath observed on the seventh, four-

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