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week became more and more DIVORCED FROM ITS LUNAR CONNECTION..."(volume 10,
1943. Article, "Week," p. 482).

Also, writes Hutton Webster, "the establishment of a periodic week ending in a Sabbath
observed every seventh day was doubtless responsible for the gradual obsolescence of the NEW
MOON FESTIVAL AS A PERIOD OF GENERAL ABSTINENCE, since with continuous weeks
the new-moon day and the Sabbath Day would from time to time coincide" (Rest Days, p. 255).

This obsolescence of the New Moon festival is also noted by the Universal Jewish Ency-
clopedia --

However, in the Diaspora the New Moon came to occupy a secondary position in contrast
to the Sabbath; the prohibition against work and the carrying on of commerce was
LIFTED, and the New Moon, although still celebrated by means of increased offerings,
soon was reduced to the rank of a minor of half holiday. Its importance was confined to
the fact that it remained of great value and necessity for the fixing of the festivals (volume
8, p. 171. Article "New Moon").

Eviator Zerubavel, in his book The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the
Week, observes that

The Jewish and astrological weeks evolved quite independently of one another. How
ever, given the coincidence of their identical length, it was only a matter of time before
some permanent correspondence between particular Jewish days and particular planetary
days would be made. A PERMANENT CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE SAB-
BATH AND "THE DAY OF SATURN" WAS THUS ESTABLISHED...[some time]
later than the first century of the present era, Jews EVEN CAME TO NAME THE
PLANET SATURN SHABTAI, AFTER THE ORIGINAL HEBREW NAME OF THE
SABBATH, SHABBATH. Moreover, as they came into closer contact with Hellenism,
their conception of their holy day was evidently AFFECTED BY THE ASTROLOGICAL
CONCEPTION OF SATURN AS A PLANET that has an overwhelming negative influ-
ence (a conception which, incidentally, is still evident even from the association of the
English word "saturnine" with a gloomy disposition). There are traditional Jewish super-
stitious beliefs about demons and evil spirits that hold full sway on the Sabbath, and an
old Jewish legend even links the choice of "the day of Saturn" as the official Jewish rest
day with the superstition that it would be an inauspicious day for doing any work anyway!
(New York: The Free Press, 1985. P. 17).

Commerce and the Sabbath

On page 11 Zerubavel makes some interesting comments about the Jewish divorcement of
God's true Sabbath day from the lunar phases --

...the dissociation of the week from a natural cycle such as THE WAXING AND WAN-
ING OF THE MOON can be seen as part of a general movement toward introducing a su-
pranatural deity. Not being personified as any particular natural force, the Jewish god

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