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teenth, twenty-first and twenty-eighth day of THE LUNAR MONTH. (A lunar month
starts on the New Moon). This was standard practice among the Beni-Aumen Nazarene
Order and most of the other orthodox Jewish sects of the time...Lunar Sabbath observance
is an ancient Semitic custom concurrent and ante-dating the time Yeshua..." (ibid.).

Further, states the article, "it is a mistake to assume the ancient followers of Yeshua...kept
the modern week consisting of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sat-
urday. THEY DID NOT. Their week was a LUNAR WEEK which started over EACH QUAR-
TER MOON. Most scholars agree that the modern concept of the week began in the first century
and was made popular by Rome, although there is not unanimous agreement on this point."

At the time of Christ the observance of the weekly Sabbath was a national law for those in
Judah. "All seven sects, including the Nazarenes and Osseaens, observed it, although NOT AL-
WAYS ON THE SAME DAY. The Ben-Zadok Order appears to have observed the Sabbath on a
fixed week irrespective of the lunar cycle, whereas the Beni-Aumen [Nazarenes] OBSERVED
THE SABBATH ACCORDING TO THE LUNAR QUARTERS (on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th
day of the lunar month)" (ibid.).

But what of the gentile Christians? Did this early split-off from the Nazarenes also observe
a lunar Sabbath cycle? Early historical records clearly confirm that at a very early date gentile
Christians ALSO KEPT THE SAME SABBATH CALENDAR AS THE NAZARENES!

In the article Shawui Calendar: Ancient Shawui Observance, the author expounds on the
fact that "the Sabbath observed by Yeshua (Jesus) and His family, was on NEITHER A SATUR-
DAY NOR A SUNDAY, and is calculated in a manner all together different than the modern cus-
tom of weekday observance...The method of calculating weekdays on Yeshua's calendar is at
variance with the modern fixed week system. According to the...system, each week begins on ei-
ther THE NEW, FIRST QUARTER, FULL MOON, or LAST QUARTER OF THE MOON."

Continuing, we read: "After the fourth lunar week of the month ends on the 28th, THE
NEXT DAY OR TWO IS A DARK MOON DAY which is not part of any lunar week. (A new
week does not begin until the following New Moon occurrence.) This may seem odd to one used to
using the modern fixed week, but to the ancients it made perfect sense to pause and prepare them-
selves before entering and beginning a new month and a new cycle of weeks" (ibid.).

James Dwyer, in his article Advanced Astronomy in Bible Texts, writes that "the early
Christian descriptions of a weekly cycle (containing periodic single days) are VERY CLEAR, and
this information (coupled with evidence provided by the measurable lunar/solar phenomena)
STRONGLY INDICATES THAT EARLY CHRISTIANS WERE PRACTICING A LUNAR-
BASED CALENDAR" (p.42).

The same author, in another article entitled A New Look At the Christian Sabbath, ex-
presses the fact that "it now seems almost certain that some additional definitions of the early Sab-
bath Cycle are missing from the modern tradition of the seven-day week. Essentially, the modern
week -- as a continuous cycle of seven days -- does not seem to equate to the definition of the
week AS IT WAS USED DURING THE EARLY CHRISTIAN ERA."

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