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calendar). The other group adhered to a more ancient Jewish determination which computed the
date of Passover according to the SABBATH CALENDAR (the same as the ancient Chodesh Cy-
cle -- or fixed weeks plus renewal [or new moon] days"(ibid.).

This passage from Socrates Scholasticus clearly shows that the Jews had gone astray by
the early 5th century and were no longer keeping the weekly Sabbath cycle (which was in tune
with the moon's phases) as ordained by God in Exodus 16. The fact that "others in the East kept
that feast [Passover] on the sabbath" indicates that this group was still keeping God's lunar
weekly Sabbath calendar -- under this calendar the first high day of Passover ALWAYS fell on a
weekly Sabbath (the 15th of Nisan).

Saturn and the Sabbath

Talking about the time prior to the Diaspora, Hutton Webster tells us that

an old and still common theory derives the Sabbath institution from the worship of SAT-
URN after which planet the first day of the astrological week [Saturday] received its des-
ignation. The theory is untenable for more than one reason. In the first place the Hebrews
did not name their weekdays after the planets, but indicated them by ordinal numbers. In
the second place SATURN'S DAY [SATURDAY] BEGAN THE PLANETARY WEEK,
while the Jewish Sabbath was regarded as the LAST DAY of the seven, a suitable posi-
tion for a rest day. And in the third place neither the Hebrews nor any other Oriental peo-
ple ever worshipped the planet Saturn as a god and OBSERVED HIS DAY AS A FESTI-
VAL (Rest Days: A Study in Early Law and Morality, p. 243).

However, in the Diaspora, this soon changed with the influence of the Zoroastrian revival
and the Roman planetary week --

These imported [from Babylon] superstitions eventually led Jewish rabbis to call Saturn
SHABBTI, "the STAR OF THE SABBATH," [and]...it was not until [after]the first cen-
tury of our era, when the planetary week had become an established institution, THAT
THE JEWISH SABBATH SEEMS ALWAYS TO HAVE CORRESPONDED TO SAT-
URN'S DAY [SATURDAY]" (ibid., p. 244).

"The association of the Sabbath Day with Saturday" explains Webster, "was probably
one reason why Saturn, a planet in Babylonian astrological schemes regarded as beneficent rather
than malefic, should have come to assume in late classical times the role of an unlucky star (sidus
tristissimum, stella iniquissima)...Dio Cassius [Roman historian born 155 A.D., died after 230
A.D.] also speaks of the Jews having DEDICATED TO THEIR GOD THE DAY CALLED THE
DAY OF SATURN [SATURDAY], 'on which, among many other most peculiar actions, they un-
dertake no serious occupation'...Tacitus [another Roman historian] (Historiae, V, 4) thinks that the
Jewish Sabbath may be an observance in honour of Saturn..." (Rest Days, p. 244-245).

Notes the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia: "With the development of the importance of the
Sabbath as a day of consecration and the emphasis laid upon the significant number seven, the

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