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It is the moon that signals the feasts, a luminary that wanes after being full.
The month derives its name from hers, she waxes wonderfully in her phases, banner of
the hosts on high, shining in the vault of heaven (Ecclesiasticus 43:6-8).

This text was originally written in Hebrew in the time-frame of 190-180 B.C. and trans-
lated into Greek in approximately 132 B.C. Notice in verse 7 the word feasts. Its underlying Greek
word (heorte -- #1859) is the same as the one in the Septuagint Version of Leviticus 23:2 -- in
which verse 3 includes the seventh-day Sabbath. Although Ecclesiasticus is considered apocry-
phal, it runs contrary to its contemporaries (Enoch and Jubilees) which insist that the sun is the
only means by which to calculate feasts and Sabbaths.

The earliest manuscripts show that the moon was made for appointments -- the first of
which is the Sabbath. "At the very lest," states Jonathan Brown, "this shows that the lunar reckon-
ing of sabbaths and holy days was commonly known by the authors of the Bible."

The Polluting of the Calendar

Unfortunately, in the fourth century A.D., the rabbis of Babylonia polluted God's sacred
calendar by introducing the continuous week and postponements to prevent certain days from
clashing with the Saturday sabbath which they had created. When Hillel II introduced these
changes, not all of the religious leaders of the Jews went along with it. In fact, a large number of
the leaders continued to observe the new moons by observation -- as was done in Jesus' day.

In the book Saadia Gaon: His Life and Works, by Henry Malter, we read --

It is generally accepted that the Jewish festivals were, in Biblical times, fixed by observa-
tion of both the sun and the moon. Gradually, certain astronomical rules were also
brought into requisition, primarily as a test, corroborating or refuting the testimony of ob-
servation. Such rules are mentioned for the first time in the Book of Enoch, in the Book
of Jubilees, in the Mishna, and later in the two Talmudim [Babylonian and Jerusalem]. It
has been authoritatively proved that in spite of a more advanced knowledge of astronomy
the practice of fixing the new moon and the festivals by observation was in force as late
as the latter part of the fifth century [C.E., A.D.].

Continues Malter:

The right to announce the new moon after receiving and testing the witnesses who had
observed its appearance was the prerogative of the Palestinian Patriarchs, and the re-
peated attempts of the authorities in Babylonia to arrogate this right unto themselves were
promptly frustrated by interdicts from Palestine. With the beginning of the fourth century,
however, Palestine, owing to the terrible persecutions suffered at the hands of the Ro-
mans, gradually ceased to be the spiritual center of Jewry. Babylonia, where better condi-
tions prevailed under the Persian rule, took its place, and the religious right to fix the cal-
endar likewise passed over to the heads of its flourishing academies, though not without
protests from Palestine.

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