Sheerit Yisrael—www.age-end.com
PO Box 473
Calder, Idaho 83808, USA
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With a Different Approach to the Questions of
Religion, Philosophy, Faith, Hope and the Future
All in the Context of a Coming World Government under Man’s Control
New World Calendar
By an unworthy servant
(Notice to Readers and especially Christian theologians. Please use what you can here—But with Credit to this website. Please do not do as most Christian Preachers do by plagiarizing and stealing words from others. The least you can do is to give credit when you take from others, to include taking from this website).
Of all of the different people and factions of the Israel Identity movement, perhaps the sorriest of the lot are the leaders of the Sheldon Emry Christian Identity (CI) definition. This fact was brought home to me one day some years ago when I had an occasion to be in Sandpoint, Idaho, home of the America’s Promise CI ministry led by Emry son-in-law Dave Barley. Emry had died some years earlier; and Barley took over his ministry in Arizona and moved it to Sandpoint in North Idaho, evidently in the early 1990s.
This writer knew of Emry’s work back in the 1970s. As I am a Seventh-day Sabbath keeper, I really had no particular interest in it since I believed it was just more of the traditional Sunday keeping sun worship which I didn’t approve of or support Scripturally. But my interest perked up in about 1997 when a friend told me that Barley was conducting his weekly religious services on the Seventh-day Sabbath. So the next time I was in Sandpoint, I made a point of stopping by his headquarters/home where he resided.
On meeting Barley, the first thing that impressed me was the fact that he was a man with very obviously mixed behemah-Negro genes—both physically (he showed it physically and especially with the bone structure of his head) and mentally/intellectually (as it was clear to me that his IQ level was much like a Negro would exhibit).
It was plain that he was not very Scripturally informed; though I allowed at first that he knew some things on race and other complex subjects from the Word. Well, he didn’t or at least he didn’t give me any indication that he knew much from the Scriptures he claimed to teach from to others. But the thing that really set him apart was his gross arrogance and big shot attitude that he quickly showed me.
Anyway, in our brief visit, I mentioned that a friend had told me that he had switched to having his meetings on the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath instead of the Emry penchant for Sunday worship. Barley then told me that yes he and his group had recently held some Saturday meetings but they had decided to switch back to Sunday meetings as being more convenient and better suited. He added that it didn’t matter in his religion which day they met on; but instead made their decision on the basis of convenience and suitability.
Apparently, some other person or persons had taken him to task over the subject because he immediately got testy and wanted to be argumentive with me for daring to ask him about it. He arrogantly proclaimed to me that I could not prove to him that the present weekly cycle with the present Saturdays was the same one that is described as set apart as the Sabbath in the Scriptures. Well, in my mind, I immediately realized that I could not prove anything to him because he was too arrogant, proud and mean spirited for me to have any useful dialogue with him on anything from the Book.
He then went on to communicate how intelligent he was and how dumb I was when he arrogantly proclaimed that he had a book showing that there had been some calendar changes over the years and that because of these changes we today cannot know which day is the Seventh-day Sabbath. In that sense, Barley said he and his people can worship on any day and meet the needs of the Fourth Commandment in the Decalogue. In my later review of the beliefs of the other fall-out preachers from Emry’s teachings (like Weiland in Nebraska, Downey in Washington state, Bruggerman in NC, etc), it appears that all of them are of the same bent.
It was then clear to me that Barley and his Emry colleagues are in the same profile as the Jehovah’s Witnesses—in that they don’t formally set aside any day for worship since they claim that they worship every day (all the while they in practice do their weekly worshipping on the sun worship Sundays—evidently for convenience sake).
Well, long ago, I learned that it is impossible to be civil and have any presence of a conversation and mutual exchange with such arrogant, stupid people. There would be no allowance for my position or even the real world of the Scriptures and history. The only view that would prevail is that of the stupid, ignorant fool wanting to show off how smart he thinks he is. So I dropped it with Barley and said no more.
The purpose of this article is to show the real IQ level of Barley and what is the truth about the present weekly cycle in the vein of history and the prospects of a soon coming new world calendar (with a disruption of the historic weekly cycle) which Barley and his Emry colleagues will gladly accept without a whimper.
Backdrop to Rome and her Situation
Before broaching any alleged changes to the present Julian-Gregory calendar, it must be said that the preceding calendar in pre-Julian Rome and possibly in some other parts of Europe seems to have been both unscriptural and a mass of confusion.
This situation in the West in Europe must be contrasted with the calendar situation generally in the East, and certainly in Palestine where the Scriptural (so called Jewish) calendar prevailed with an established fact of variable lunar months; but with a stable/fixed separately existing weekly cycle of seven days which operated independently of the lunar months to regulate most of the activities and functions of the collective population much of the time (this has been the traditional Israel/Jewish calendar method of presentation from Genesis 1-2 and undeniably since Moshe and the Exodus in c1464 BCE).
Though Rome had its fair share of pagan gods (as was true all over the world and even in the ancient House of Israel when Jeroboam introduced sun worship and changed the annual Sukkot dating from the seventh month to the eight month and perhaps changed the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath worship to Sunday), the pagan worshippers in the East (like the Mithra cult in Persia, Zeus cult in Greece and the Ra sun worshipers of Egypt) were also committed to the weekly cycle of seven-days and weekly worship on the first day/Sunday of the seven-day week.
Rome and its pagan gods anciently were seemingly not as dedicated to the weekly sun-worship practice on Sundays as found in parts of the East. As established in several studies at www.age-end.com, Rome under Romulus was evidently founded by Israelites fleeing from the Assyrian conquests in the 8th to 7th centuries BCE (Rom 4:1; 9:3-6; 11:13). While they were into sun worship in Palestine and in Europe, it is clear that they were not as passionate about Sunday sun worship on the first day of the week as other sun worshippers were so dedicated.
When one adds the strong support for the weekly cycle of seven days from the religiously committed Israelites/Jews in Palestine to the similar devotion of many of the pagan sun worshippers in the East, it becomes manifestly clear that the importance of the weekly cycle of seven-days was profoundly established in the East in sharp contrast to the situation in Rome which did not share in that sincerity.
Some Early History from Rome
From the days of Romulus, the Roman calendar was theoretically based on the lunar cycle with so called market days linked to three [not the actual four] of the moon phases (although some rulers saw fit from time to time to alter the length of days in various months/cycles for political reasons). Despite the possible calendar alterations for political reasons, the generally followed lunar months persisted in Rome as well as in most of the rest of the ancient world.
But please note that these three market days did not constitute weekly cycles as they were not exactly eight days apart; nor were they in fact weekly cycles as some people try to allege. The truth to be shown below is that there were evidently three of them in their lunar moon periods; and they were irregular and only sometimes were eight days apart. Also, in order to meet the needs of designated festivals and legal days, the Romans seem to have periodically intercalated days/months on occasion. So, the ancient Rome calendar was indeed a mass of uncertainty and confusion.
Webexhibits.org had this on the early, pre-Julian, Roman calendar: “The Romans did not have weekdays in the same sense as our Monday, Tuesday, etc, however, they did have defined markers within each month. Originally, the month and the markers were based on the moon.
“At the time of their early kings, Roman months were of a length identical to the lunar cycle. Each month was divided into sections that ended on the day of one of the first three phases of the moon: new, first quarter or full. All days were referred to in terms of one of these three moon phase names, Kalends, Nones or Ides.
“At that time a pontifex (priest) was assigned to observe the sky. When he first sighted a thin lunar crescent he called out that there was a new moon and declared the next month had started. For centuries afterward, Romans referred to the first day of each month as Kalendae or Kalends from the Latin word Calare (to announce solemnly, to call out). The word calendar was derived from this custom.
“Day of Kalends. Of the three sections, Kalends was the longest – it had more days than the other two combined. That’s because it spanned more than two lunar phases, starting from the day after full moon and continuing thru its last quarter and waning period, then past the dark new moon until another lunar crescent was sighted. The day of Kalends itself began a new month. It was dedicated to Juno, a principal goddess of the Roman Pantheon.
“Unnamed days in the early Roman month were assigned a number by counting down following the day of each named phase, day by day, ending with the next of those three phases. The first numbered day in each section had the section’s highest value. Each succeeding day was one number lower than that of the day before. (Similar to the modern count-down when coordination of a group of people is required for a complicated activity such as launching a rocket.)
“Latin for ‘the evening before’ is ‘Pridie,’ a word that was used to refer to the day before each of these named phases. So Pridie was always the day that would otherwise have been numbered two. The count-down was inclusive; the day from which they started as well as that of the moon phase to which they were counting down, day one, were both included.
“Day of Nones. Nones (Latin nonus or ninth) was originally the day when the moon reached its first quarter phase. When the pontifex initially saw the lunar crescent he noted its width and, using empirical knowledge, calculated the number of days that were expected to elapse between then and the first quarter moon. He then specified that number after he announced the new crescent. If he called out the number six, the day following Kalends would be referred to as the sixth day before Nones.
“In any given year, the second day of Martius might well have been designated as the sixth of the Nones of March: ‘ante diem VI Non. Mart.’ If this were the case, Nones would be the seventh day and Ides would be the 15th day of that month. The difference between these two dates, eight days, was always the length of the Ides section.
“Use of the word ‘Nones’ (nine) was intended to express the inclusive number of elapsed days between first quarter and full moons. Actually, the time between moon phases now averages about 7.4 days, but they sometimes occur eight days apart. Eight-day separations of first quarter and full moons now usually come grouped in consecutive lunations. They then give way to mostly seven-day periods.
“Six of the first seven lunations of 1997, for instance, had their first quarter and full moon phases eight days apart (inclusive nine-day spans). Also, July 1 of 1998 had a first-quarter moon followed by a new moon on July 9, a nine-day period. This helps explain why the unlikely term of Nones, meaning ninth, was used to designate one fourth of the moon’s period that now averages about 29.53 days.”
Tyndalehouse.com gives the details on the ancient Roman calendar in use during the Republic days preceding the Julian calendar. As Tyndale gives it, the calendar at that time was essentially a 12-month lunar calendar of 355 days with evidently an extra intercalcary month every third year or so to keep it in line with the solar equinoxes. With this outline, months could run from 23 to 31 days—perhaps due to the varying lunar cycles and the roles of leaders to periodically alter the calendar for their own political purposes.
Importantly, the ancient Romans used the three market days to number the days in the month (with usually a count of days proceeding to the next market day, although it was theoretically possible to also count the days after a market day). Along with counting the days numerically, there is evidence that some of the early calendars used alphabetic characters to define the days monthly and cause still more confusion.
To the extent that ancient Rome did follow a lunar calendar, there would have been of necessity some variation of the three market days since there is variation between the moon phases astronomically. With the coming of the Julian calendar, this variation ended and initially the Julian calendar sought to establish the market days in definite counts but not subject to exact lunar calculations.
This practice of designating the three market days continued with basically the same three market days from the late Republic period to the early institution of the Julian calendar (the difference being that they became fixed days instead of variable days with the lunar variations). In that vein, the following article defines the old system under the Republic and its later modification somewhat under the Julian calendar.
For this further clarification, roma.andreapollett.com had the following material on Kalendae, Nonae, Idus which effectively addresses the calendar in the immediate post Julian days but with also some application to the nearby pre-Julian days. It said: “The most amazing feature of Rome's calendar system, though, was how days were calculated within each month. In fact, they were not simply numbered, as we do nowadays, requiring rather unpractical calculations.
“Each month had three ‘fixed days’, which bore a specific name:
Kalendae, the 1st day of all months
Nonae, the 5th day (but the 7th day in March, May, July and October)
Idus or Eidus, the 13th day (but the 15th day in March, May, July and October)
“The meaning of Nonae is actually ‘the ninth day before the Idus, which should be counted keeping in mind the roman inclusive numbering criterion (i.e. we would now consider this as the eighth day before the Idus).
“The name Idus (Eidus), instead, comes from the verb iduare, ‘to divide’, thus meaning ‘the central day of each month’
“The days immediately before and after the above-said dates were called their pridie and postridie, respectively. All others were referred to as the number of days before the following fixed ones, by using the complicated expression ante diem + the number of missing days + the following fixed date…”
Roma.andreapollett.com then gives an illustration of how the monthly days were presented for four different months of four different monthly durations in days (just after the imposition of the Julian calendar; although the pre-Julian calendar months were of a similar fashion in terms of presentation of the three markers; but primarily differing with the number of days leading from the Idus to the Kalendae which instead of 13 or 15 apparently could be 12 to 16 depending on the actual lunar cycle)—as follows:
Please note that the name of each section (Kalendae, Nonae or Idus) generally came at the end of the period/phase involved and was so named at the end of the phase, period or cycle. The naming of days in the following/pridie fashion was not in general at the start of the phase or definition as some may suppose (although it was theoretically possible to count more than one day of the preceding/postridie period shown above).
Thus, in historic Roman times, the phase defined as Kalenae started at the end of the Idus (theoretical full moon) phase and ran to its close at the next new moon which was named Kalendae. Nonae started at the new moon named Kalendae and ran to its supposed first quarter which was named Nonae. Idus started at the alleged first quarter moon named Nonae and ran to the theoretical full moon named Idus.
Hence, the named last day of the period of the three markers became the first day of the next marker period. The days named Kalendae, Nonae or Idus were effectively numbered and counted in both the ending period cycle and the next starting day period. Consequently, they were generally counted twice.
The point of the above quotation is that the ancient Roman calendars were not presented in the fashion that soon evolved with the Julian calendar (certainly by the time of Augustus, to be discussed below). Instead, all days in the lunar month (or in the number of days in the months as decreed by the ruling authorities) were presented in sequence without interruption. But there were the three markers or specifically defined days (Kalendae, Nonae and Idus) which allowed the intervening days from these markers to be defined by their pridie and postridie positions with the expression ante diem to the next marker.
Obviously, if the moon cycle is about 29 and a half days (as it is) and if its phases are 7.4 days apart (actually slightly less than 7.4 days), it is factually true that the use of any eight-day weekly cycle would soon be totally out of alignment with the moon phases. It is absolutely impossible to divide the moon cycle of 29.53 days into four quarterly phases of eight days each (nor will five, six, seven, eight, nine or any other day-period correspond to lunar phases; though on some rare, fluke occasion, an 28-day moon cycle might surface with phases 4x7 days apart and/or 5x6, 3x10 or 2x15-day periods might result in lunar months of 30 days).
Other than on some rare occasion, with a 28-day moon-month cycle (which does sometimes surface in an isolated, singular fashion among other longer-period lunar cycles), weekly cycles of seven-days are impossible to maintain in the variable lunar cycles. Tragically, for fools sucked into following them, they disrupt and alter the true weekly cycle of seven-days as defined at creation in Genesis 1-2. All it takes to disrupt and alter the YHWH created week of seven-days is one lunar month with one or two extra days to deal with (as is common with 29 and 30-day lunar months). Any one day will change the week of seven-days as ordained by The CREATOR.
Therefore, there was potentially and often great variation in the ancient Roman calendar and its system in trying to tie its three market days to specific days in the lunar month (because there was great variation in the lunar cycle and the presentation of its phases). The Julian calendar sought to end the variation and fix the calendar and its days in a more definable manner.
Incidentally, this problem with calendar variations to disrupt the pattern of living by the general population was not a problem in the East where the Scriptural use of the seven-day weekly cycle existed without reference to the lunar or solar cycles. With the Scriptural seven-day week, it is easy to have market/trade days, Sabbatical rest days, legal days or any other desired weekly designated days set forth in a weekly pattern not subject to the uncertainties of variation as present with the lunar and solar cycles (though most Scriptural feast days are defined in their monthly lunar periods, but still fixed on that day in the lunar cycle without regard to the day of the week).
In any case, it is absurdity to try to argue that the ancient Romans or anyone else had eight-day weeks based on the lunar phases. Any people using an alleged eight-day week could not possibly have based it on the lunar cycle. In fact, in actual practice, there was only one defined block of eight days in the Roman cycle (called the Idus period, though some persons incorrectly refer to it as the Nonae phase) along with a 5 or 7-day marker (named the Nonae) and a 13 or 15-day marker (near the full moon in pre-Julian times) to divide the month and produce a cycle named the Kalendae.
There was no such thing as a Roman eight-day weekly cycle based on moon phases in the old pre-Julian calendar days or thereafter under the Julian calendar. Such cycles simply didn’t exist--because they were impossible.
What the Romans actually had was three market (marker) days which did somewhat correspond to three lunar phases in pre-Julian days (omitting the last quarter’s phase which played no role in the count). Apparently, the sighted new moon (at the visible crescent and not the astronomical new moon) was a market day and usually some five or seven days later (during the nones period) the next market day would arrive to produce the next market day on the first quarter moon day. Next, some eight days later the approximate full moon/Idus day arrived with another market day.
Then, from Idus forward to the next new moon, the next market day arrived (which was called the Kalenae period and could be something from 12 to 16 days later depending on the actual lunar cycle during the month involved and/or the actual days in that cycle; although with the initial Julian calendar this apparently became fixed at 13 or 15 days).
To cause problems with the lunar months, the moon cycles can vary anywhere from 28 to 31 days apart (though irregular, they do arrive in a pattern that can be calculated), despite their overall average of 29.53 days. Thus, with the late, old, pre-Julian calendar, and initially after the adoption of the Julian calendar, the Romans seem to have a market-day cycle first of five or seven days, next of eight days and last of 13 to 15 days (which in the Julian calendar soon lost its relationship to the lunar cycle).
Hence, to add to the confusion existing with these so called market days, there were apparently only three of them defined in the lunar month of 29 and a half days (if there would have been a fourth market day on the three-quarters moons of seven or eight days, they still would have ended up with some odd, left-over days). So the market days could not have been precisely set at eight-day intervals.
Clearly, the Roman market days were a mass of confusion from the standpoint of a standardized calendar to guide people on times. It is no wonder that the Julian calendar soon standardized the weekly cycle of seven-days to end the confusion over the use of the ancient, Roman, market days which were based on paganism, pure and simple, since they had no basis whatsoever in the Scriptures (nor were they even consistent with the actual lunar cycle).
The pre-Julian Roman calendar is discussed in Wikipedia in its article on Roman Calendar which said:
“Because the nundinal cycle was absolutely fixed at eight days under the Republic, information about the dates of market days is one of the most important tools we have for working out the Julian equivalent of a Roman date in the pre-Julian calendar. In the early Empire, the Roman market day was occasionally changed. The details of this are not clear, but one likely explanation is that it would be moved by one day if it fell on the same day as the festival of Regifugium, an event that could occur every other Julian leap year. When this happened the market day would be moved to the next day, which was the bissextile (leap) day.
“The nundinal cycle was eventually replaced by the modern seven-day week, which first came into use in Italy during the early imperial period, [^ P. Brind'Amour, Le Calendrier romain: Recherches chronologiques (Ottawa, 1983), 256–275] after the Julian calendar had come into effect. The system of nundinal letters was also adapted for the week, see dominical letter. For a while, the week and the nundinal cycle coexisted, but by the time the week was officially adopted by Constantine in AD 321 the nundinal cycle had fallen out of use.”
The Roman Imperial period started in January 27 BCE when Augustus became Emperor. By then, or soon thereafter, the seven day week as found in the East (Babylon, Persia, Greece, Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia, etc) became the Roman standard in the Julian calendar as well. This suggests that the early Julian calendar perhaps did not always define the weekly cycle as such until the time of Augustus in 27 BCE. Yet, some/many of the early Julian calendars may have had both presentations for the seven-day weeks as well as the traditional market days (evidently of varying lengths) as allowed in the above comments.
More on the Julian Calendar
The mass of calendar confusion in Rome must have contributed to the need for some standardization with the Julian calendar. The Internet has a host of articles and references detailing the story of the current Julian-Gregory calendar in use in the Western Christian world. Perhaps one of the best outlines is from Wikipedia which has a lengthy article with the complete historical outline of how it came about by Julius Caesar in 45 BCE and subsequently as follows:
“The Julian calendar began in 45 BC (709 AUC) as a reform of the Roman calendar by Julius Caesar. It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year (known at least since Hipparchus).
“The Julian calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months with a leap day added to February every four years. The Julian year is, therefore, on average 365.25 days long. The motivation for most calendars is to fix the number of days between return of the cycle of seasons (from spring equinox to the next spring equinox, for example), so that the calendar could be used as an aid to planting and other season-related activities. The cycle of seasons (tropical year) had been known since ancient times to be about 365 and 1/4 days long.
“The more modern Gregorian calendar eventually superseded the Julian calendar: the reason is that a tropical year (or solar year) is actually about 11 minutes shorter than 365.25 days. These extra 11 minutes per year in the Julian calendar caused it to gain about three days every four centuries, when compared to the observed equinox times and the seasons. In the Gregorian calendar system, first proposed in the 16th century, this problem was dealt with by dropping some calendar days, in order to realign the calendar and the equinox times. Subsequently, the Gregorian calendar drops three leap year days across every four centuries.
“The Julian calendar remained in use into the 20th century in some countries as a civil calendar, but has been replaced by the Gregorian calendar in nearly all countries. The Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches and Protestant churches have replaced the Julian calendar with the Gregorian calendar. However, the Orthodox Church still uses the Julian calendar for calculating the dates of moveable feasts, including Easter or Pascha. Some Orthodox churches have adopted the Revised Julian calendar for the observance of fixed feasts, while other Orthodox churches retain the Julian calendar for all purposes. The Julian calendar is still used by the Berber people of North Africa, and on Mount Athos.
“The notation ‘Old Style’ (OS) is sometimes used to indicate a date in the Julian calendar, as opposed to ‘New Style’ (NS), which either represents the Julian date with the start of the year as 1 January or a full mapping onto the Gregorian calendar. This notation is used in reference to dates from tsarist Russia (the country did not switch to the new calendar until 1918).”
The full Wikipedia article on the Julian Calendar gives the backdrop on the Julius Caesar change which came from Egyptian sun worshippers and one which caused some major alterations in the months and years in the calendar in use in 45 BCE in Rome with the change (despite the major problems of converting over to the new calendar in 45 BCE, which caused an irregular year in 45 BCE, it appears that none of the changes in 45 CE directly affected the weekly cycle to the extent that it existed in Rome; nor did they affect the empire in the East where the seven-day week was already an established fact and continued unaltered).
In any case, it is clear that any use of the Julian calendar in the East would have marked the weekly cycle of seven days in some fashion along with possibly noting the three Roman market days. Thus, the adoption of the Julian calendar affected the months and years; but clearly had nothing directly to do with the seven-day week or the historic market cycle which were different issues.
The early Julian calendars did not look in presentation like our modern calendars at all; although in Rome the market days were usually designated by an identifying letter. It is not clear how the Julian calendar looked in the East where the seven-day week was observed. But it is likely that the weekly seven-day cycle was defined in some manner in the early Julian calendars, certainly as used in the East (as allowed above in comments from Webexhibits.org which say that the seven-day weekly cycle coexisted with the Roman market day cycle).
Thereafter, the Julian tropical calendar became a fixed solar calendar despite some few alterations in changing the names of months and by dropping days from one month to add to another as happened in the reign of Augustus in 27 BCE to 14 CE. And, as noted above, the weekly cycle of seven days became the norm by 27 BCE or thereafter in even Italy; thus it would have been certainly marked on the Julian calendar in some fashion even in Italy.
Then, in 1582 CE, the Julian calendar became out of alignment from 325 CE with the spring equinox because the application of the leap year every fourth year (which was about one day too much every hundred years). To correct the Julian calendar for the overstatement, Pope Gregory ordered the drop of ten days. Britain and her colonies were slow to accept this change; although it was finally accepted in 1752 CE in Britain (to include the US) by dropping eleven days.
But none of these changes in early Rome or later by Gregory had any affect whatsoever on the seven-day weekly cycle involved. In October, 1582, Thursday the 4th was followed by Friday the 15th in Italy and a few other countries (over the years, other countries followed suit). The Gregory drop of days in Britain happened in September 1752 when Wednesday 2 September 1752 was followed by Thursday 14 September 1752 (per Wikipedia).
There was also some disagreement to define the exact day that the New Year started. The Roman position of starting the new year on Jan 1 prevailed. The British started their new year on March 25 for years while most of the rest of Europe soon opted for Jan 1. But with the calendar change in 1752, the British changed the start of their civil new year from March 25 to Jan 1 (this is also where the reference to Old Style or New Style arose). But none of this had anything to do with the established weekly cycle.
The one thing which did not change after the adoption of the Julian calendar in 45 CE and subsequently with the Augustus and Pope Gregory alterations was the weekly cycle (as followed certainly in the East). While some parts of Europe (including some part of Rome, but not to include the Jews or people from the East living in Rome) had been and were still using the so-called lunar market days in 45 CE, the weekly cycle of seven days was well established in the East (because of the influence of the Jews and Judaism in Palestine) and in Egypt and Greece regardless of what Europe was doing at that time.
Julius Caesar had spent some time in Egypt before 45 CE. This fact must have played a role in the adoption of the Egyptian solar calendar and the transition in Rome from the confused, pagan, moon-phase, market cycle to the seven-day weekly cycle. Along with Jewish and Eastern influence on the need for a seven-day week, Christianity came on the world scene in the East to demand a weekly cycle of seven days (probably by 31 CE in Samaria with Simon Magus and at least in Antioch by 45-46 CE).
Evidently, from its inception, Christians have seemingly always worshipped on the seven-day weekly Sundays. Weekly Sunday worship and a weekly cycle of seven days was so strong that by c325 CE, at the Catholic Council of Nicaea, they became the mandatory standards throughout the Roman Empire to calculate Easter. If anyone wants to make a case that the Seventh-day Sabbath followed by the Jews and some NT believers changed, why don’t they take generic Christianity to task since it has diligently followed a seven-day week and Sunday worship for almost 2,000 years (since 31/45-46 CE).
It seems clear from my study of calendar history that the initial adoption of the Julian calendar from Egypt did not attempt to impose either a seven-day weekly cycle or an irregular market cycle on the collective Roman Empire (although this apparently happened by the time of Augustus in 27 BCE). Likely, peoples in different parts of the empire used either the seven-day week or irregular market day cycle as they had been accustomed to do before the advent of the Julian calendar. Not only was the seven-day week the standard in the Eastern Empire, but it seems to have had substantial support and following in Rome as well. So it was well known and assuredly used throughout the Roman world.
Therefore, the historical evidence says that from the adoption of the Julian calendar in 45 BCE in Rome, there were vast numbers of peoples keeping a seven-day weekly cycle which continued thereafter and irrespective of the few changes by Augustus and Gregory (changes which did not affect the weekly cycle).
More from the Seventh-day Adventists
TheCreatorsCalendar.com, a Seventh-day Adventist oriented site, had an article on Lunar Weeks vs Unbroken cycles of successive Weeks which, though not correct on the alleged Roman eight-day weekly cycle, said:
“An unbroken continuous weekly cycle was first generated among the pagans in 600 B.C. The Julian calendar of 45 B.C., applied this same unbroken continuous weekly cycle to their new eight-day week. At the time of Christ Yahushua (Jesus) and the apostles, Rome's weeks were eight days in length, making it impossible for them to have followed that time sequence. This continuous eight-day week remained in place until the fourth century, when Constantine officially changed the length of the week to seven-days, but kept the pagan unbroken cycling weekly system in place.
“Just as it had been for Julius Caesar and all that followed, Constantine too was committed to keeping the calendar free from any resemblance to that of the Jews. In the mid-1st century B.C. Julius Cæsar invited Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, to advise him about the reform of the calendar, and Sosigenes decided that the only practical step was to abandon the lunar calendar altogether. Months must be arranged on a seasonal basis, and a tropical (solar) year used, as in the Egyptian calendar. ’The Julian Calendar,’ Encyclopedia Britannica.
“This change from the lunisolar to a fixed solar calendar occurred in Rome during the repressive measures which were enacted against ALL Jewish customs. . . during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. With the fall of the Nazarene headquarters... at Jerusalem, this new Roman calendar quickly spread throughout 'Christendom.' This new calendar not only replaced yearly festival dates such as Passover, but it also revamped the concept of the week and its seventh day. Iranaeus 2nd Century A.D.
“ ‘In the years following Clement of Alexandria's time, an ominous change started to take place that was to radically change the Christian concept of the Sabbath.’ Records the Encyclopedia Biblica: ‘This intimate connection between the week and the month was soon dissolved. It is certain that the week soon followed a development of its own, and it became the custom -- without paying any regard to the days of the month (i.e. the lunisolar month) . . . so that the New Moon no longer coincided with the first day of the month.
“Then, on page 4179 of the same encyclopedia, we read: ‘The introduction . . .of the custom of celebrating the Sabbath every 7th day, irrespective of the relationship of the day to the moon's phases, led to a complete separation from the ancient view of the Sabbath. . .Encyclopaedia Biblica, 1903 p. 5290.
“The modern seven-day week came into use during the early imperial period, after the Julian calendar came into effect, apparently stimulated by immigration from the Roman East. For a while it coexisted alongside the old 8-day nundinal cycle, and fasti are known which show both cycles. It was finally given official status by Constantine in 321. Roman Calendar Encyclopedia, Days of the Week.
“A Profession Of Faith From The Church Of Constantinople in the year 325 C.E. (A.D.) Under The Emperor Constantine: ‘I renounce all customs, rites, legalisms. unleavened breads & sacrifices of lambs of the Hebrews, and all other feasts of the Hebrews, sacrifices, prayers, aspersions, purifications, sanctifications and propitiations and fasts, and new moons, and Sabbaths, and superstitions, and hymns and chants and observances and Synagogues, and the food and drink of the Hebrews; in one word, I renounce everything Jewish, every law, rite and custom and if afterwards I shall wish to deny and return to Jewish superstition, or shall be found eating with the Jews, or feasting with them, or secretly conversing and condemning the Christian religion instead of openly confuting them and condemning their vain faith, then let the trembling of Gehazi cleave to me, as well as the legal punishments to which I acknowledge myself liable. And may I be anathema in the world to come, and may my soul be set down with Satan and the devils. Source: Parks, James The Conflict Of The Church And The Synagogue Athenaeum, New York, 1974, p. 397-398.”
Please note above that this source also acknowledges the presence and use of the seven-day week (in Italy) from the early days of imperial Rome where it coexisted with the lunar market day cycle (by 27 BCE with Augustus). If the Roman Catholic Church wanted to change the seven-day weekly cycle, once she came on the scene in the lst century CE in Rome, she certainly had a golden opportunity to do so at the Council of Nicaea and its edict establishing the pagan festival of Easter. Yet, she did not do so. If anything, Rome verified and demanded a seven-day week from then on to our time today.
More from Another Church
Ecclesia.org has this on Has the Calendar been Changed?:
“How can we be absolutely sure our seventh day is still the Sabbath? Could the calendar have been changed? Is the seventh day of the week the same as in the time of Christ and Moses? This is very important. The seven day week, as well as the Bible Sabbath, had a common origin in history. Both originated at the Creation of our world. Scientists, historians, and astronomers affirm that the seven day weekly cycle has continued uninterrupted on down to our own day.
“Languages. Both ancient and modern languages support the regular, weekly cycle. And, in at least 108 of them, the name for the seventh day of the week is not Saturday, or Saturn Day, but Sabbath! Let me give just a few examples:
“Ancient Syriac: shabatho, Babylonian: sabatu, Arabic: assabt, Etheopic: sanbat, Armenian: shapat, Polynesian: hari sabtu, Swahili: assabt, Latin: Sabbatum, Italian: Sabbato, Spanish: Sabado, Russian: Subbota, Polish: Sobota, Assyrian: Sabata, Tigre: Sanbat, Kurdish: Shamba, Georgian: Shabati, Morduin: Subbota, Portuguese: Sabbado, New Slovenian: Sobota, Prussian: Sabatico.
“So you see, the languages of the world also remind us of God's holy Sabbath day. Most languages of the world still call Saturday the Sabbath. All of these names mean ‘Sabbath’ or ‘rest day’ in their various languages. Except for those languages that have adopted the pagan names for the days of the week, the seventh day is still called the Sabbath, as the Lord named it at the time of the creation of the world.
“Why the Seven-day weekly cycle? Actually, the only reason we have a seven-day weekly cycle in the first place is that God created it during the creation week in the beginning. Have you ever wondered why we have the week? We have the yearly cycle because of the seasons, and the monthly cycle because of the moon. But nothing in nature indicates a seven-day weekly cycle. If the theory of evolution were correct, every nationality would, by the law of averages, have come up with a different weekly cycle, some 5 days, some 10 days, etc. But we all have the same seven-day weekly cycle because God established it at the Creation and it has continued to the present day.
“The Calendar. Has the calendar been changed? Yes, but the weekly cycle has never been changed. The Julian calendar was in use when Jesus was on earth. The calendar, which continued in use for 15 centuries was not accurate in length of its year, for it was a quarter hour too long. By 1582, it was 10 days off. Pope Gregory initiated a change in the calendar by going to the Gregorian Calendar, and to make up for the error in the Julian calendar, 10 days were added to the calendar.
“In October, 1582, Thursday the 4th was followed by Friday the 15th in Italy and a few other countries. England and America changed its calendar in 1752 and Russia finally in 1914. Yet the weekly cycle was never affected. During the time that England, Russia, and Italy had different calendars, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were always the same in each country. [As a side note, the beginning of the year began March 1st under the Julian calendar, whereas the beginning of the year begins January 1st under the Gregorian calendar].
“We do the same thing today, because every four years we change our calendar; it's called ‘leap year.’ At the end of February, we add one day every four years to our calendar. But notice the days of the week never change, it is only the number of the day that changes. For example, when that extra day is added, it might go from Thursday the 28th to Friday the 29th; the days of the week remain the same, only the numbers of the day change. There is no difference when 10 days are added to the calendar as well.
“History has exact calendar records going back to Julius Caesar, several decades before Christ, and the weekly cycle has always remained intact. We have exactly the same weekly cycle today as was used in Jesus' day, and Jesus said that the day then called the Sabbath by the Jews, the seventh day of the week, was His day, the true Lord's Day. Yes, the amount of days in a month has changed, the amount of days in a year has changed, the amount of weeks in a month has changed, the amount of weeks in a year has changed, and the amount of months in a year has changed. But the amount of days in a week has never changed since man was first created on earth.
“Scientific and Historical Evidence. Our heavenly Father has given us more than scientific and historical evidence, though. He has given us the Jews! Every other Near East ethnic group has disappeared - the Hitites, Canaanites, Amorites, Amalekites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Sumarians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Moabites, Philistines - but the Jews remain and, with them, the seventh day Sabbath. They have faithfully kept it since the time of Moses, 3500 years ago, and have continued to keep track of the Sabbath each week.
“Any Jew will tell you that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and that it falls on the Saturday of each week. It would be absolutely impossible to mix up a whole nationality overnight and have them all wake up unified and worshipping on another day, thinking it was the Sabbath. Moreover, since Jesus has commanded us to worship on that day to show allegiance to Him, don't you think He would preserve its identity?
“Conclusion. Christ risked his life and mission to rescue the Sabbath from the legalistic perversions of the Pharisees, and to show what was in harmony with the original law (Matthew 12:1-13, Mark 1:21-34; 2:23-28; 3:1-5; 6:1-6, Luke 4:16-18,31-41; 6:1-10; 13:10-17; 14:1-6, John 5:5-18; 9:13-16). He spoke no word implying the abolition of the Sabbath day. Why should he so carefully define, defend, and clear from superstitious accretions the Sabbath if it was to be abrogated? No one repairs a house as a preliminary to burning it down, or re-etches the letters of a monument prior to its destruction.
“Now, if the Sabbath day was to cease following Jesus’ death, this exhortation would be totally uncalled for. But such is not the case, because the Sabbath day will continue to be a day of rest, worship, and rejuvenation for God’s people (Isaiah 66:22-23). The Sabbath was intended by God to be a day of freedom, a day of delight, and the highlight of the week (Isaiah 58:13-14).”
More from the Church of God (7th Day)
The Bible Advocate Press (of the Church of God [7th Day]) has probably the best summary of why the weekly cycle has never changed. Here is what it says in an article on The Weekly Cycle:
“Questions about the historic continuity of the weekly cycle are of interest to two religious groups. First, those who observe the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath; and second, those who seek to honor the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the week, calling it ‘the Lord’s Day.’
“Christians who observe the Sabbath want to know that the day they observe is actually the seventh day of the week. However, it is uncommon for Christians who observe the Sabbath to have serious doubts that the day called Saturday, the seventh day of the week, is the Sabbath referred to throughout the Bible.
“Many mainline Protestant denominations do not believe that the fourth commandment, as a reference to the seventh day of the week, pertains to Christians. But in their seeking to honor Christ’s resurrection weekly on the first day, it is of at least some concern to them to identify which day of the week it is.
“The Church of God (Seventh Day) is confident that observing the commandment to keep the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath is God’s will for Christians, and that the day of the week called Saturday is the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath referred to in the New and Old Testaments of the Bible.
“This is not a matter of great concern to Christians who attach no significance either to the Sabbath or to the first day of the week as a religious observance. But the majority of Jews and Christians share a common interest in preserving the weekly cycle without interruption so they can identify their respective day of worship.
“Some Doubt Continuity. Some find it hard to believe that the continuity of the weekly cycle has been maintained for thousands of years. Many are of the opinion that it has not been kept accurately over the centuries.
“Some believe that the Sabbath was not observed from Creation until Moses and that therefore the weekly cycle of Israel’s Sabbathkeeping was not a continuation of unbroken weeks.
“Some believe that the Babylonian captivity disrupted the weekly cycle and that the dispersion of the Jews prevented its continuity after the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon.
“Some believe that since there were calendar reforms subsequent to Christ’s resurrection, these changes caused the cycle to be interrupted again. In other words, they think it is impossible, as well as unimportant, to know which day of the week is the seventh day.
“Some propose that the Bible itself proves that continuity of the weekly cycle was not important to God, because during Joshua’s leadership in taking the land of Canaan from its inhabitants, the sun stood still for about a day. This extra daylight period is thought to be proof that the weekly cycle was disrupted.
“The Miracle of a Day. The assumption that the extra daylight of Joshua’s period confused the calendar ignores the fact that a ‘day’ in the Bible is a night period and the subsequent daylight period. It is from sunset to sunset.
“It also ignores the fact that this whole, long daylight period is not referred to in the Bible as two days, but as one day: ‘So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. And there has been no day like that, before it or after it’ (Joshua 10:13b, 14a).
“The fact is that God continued to hold Israel responsible for Sabbathkeeping as though there had been no long day. The weekly cycle and the Sabbath Israel observed had God’s sanction, shown by His holding Israel accountable for Sabbathkeeping throughout the Old Testament, from their deliverance from Egyptian slavery onward.
“The Miracle of Manna. There is no Bible record of Sabbath observance after its institution at the end of Creation until Israel’s exodus from Egypt. However, just before Moses received the Ten Commandments from God on Mt. Sinai, calling for Sabbath observance on the seventh day of the week, God positively identified with a miracle which was the seventh day of the week. This miracle continued for the forty years Israel journeyed in the wilderness.
“The miracle was a food called manna, which appeared on the ground on the first six days of the week, with a double portion on the sixth day. Then no manna fell on the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. If there had been any loss of continuity or identity of the Sabbath from Creation until then, God left no doubt about its identity with this forty year-long miracle (see Exodus 16:15-30; Joshua 5:11, 12; Nehemiah 9:13-15).
“There were regular confrontations between God’s prophets and Israel because of their failure to observe the Sabbath. However, a remnant of people always remained faithful to God. Even when Elijah thought he alone was faithful, there were still 7,000 like him among Israel (1 Kings 19:18). The evidence does not suggest loss of continuity of the weekly cycle or Sabbath observance during the time of the judges and kings of Israel.
“Sabbath After Captivity. After returning from Babylonian captivity, Ezra and Nehemiah knew which day of the week was the Sabbath and took careful note to instruct the returning Jews to observe it (Nehemiah 10:31; 13:15-22).
“Josephus relates that under the leadership of the Maccabees, the Jews refused to fight with the soldiers of Antiochus on the Sabbath. These events occurred during the period between the end of the prophets (Malachi) and the first coming of Christ (see Josephus, Book XII, Chapter VI). This evidence suggests a continuity of the weekly cycle from the time of the latest Old Testament writings until the time of Christ’s ministry.
“During the Ministry of Jesus. The Gospels frequently reflect on accounts of Sabbathkeeping in the life and ministry of Christ. Accounts abound in confrontations between Christ and the Jews on just about every conceivable charge the Jews could bring against Him. However, there is no record of any disagreement between Him and the Jews regarding which day was the Sabbath. It is inconceivable that the identity of the Sabbath would be a problem when the Son of God was involved weekly in attending the synagogues of the Jews on the Sabbath (Luke 4:16), giving tacit approval of the time they set aside to worship.
“From Jesus to the Present. Many are confident that the apostles initiated observance of the first day of the week as a day of worship honoring the resurrection of Christ. They see this in Paul and others meeting on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7), in taking up a collection on the first day of the week (1 Corinthians 16:2), in John’s expression ‘the Lord’s day’ (Revelation 1:10), and in the admonition of Hebrews 10:25 not to forsake ‘the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some.’
“This line of reasoning suggests that the Christian church is concerned to identify the first day of the week for worship from the resurrection of Christ until now. The first day of the week is observed by most Christians as a day of worship in celebration of Jesus’ resurrection.
“Several questions help us put the problem regarding the preservation of the weekly cycle in perspective for the period from Christ’s death to the present:
“How likely is it that even during times of persecution, all Jewish communities scattered worldwide would lose track of which day of the week is the Sabbath?
“If such a situation had developed, would there not be some historical record of how they agreed which day they should establish again as the Sabbath?
“In the same vein, how likely is it that during the times of Roman persecution of Christians, all the Christians in various communities throughout Europe and Asia would have lost track of which day of the week was the Sabbath or the first day of the week?
“If such a situation had developed, would there not be a historical record of how all those Christian communities came together in agreement as to which day of the weekly cycle is the first day of the week?
“How does it happen that Jews and Christians who observe the Sabbath and those who observe the first day of the week all agree which day is the seventh and which is the first?
“The factual answer is not complicated! Jews and Christians agree because the weekly cycle has not been interrupted in the time between Christ’s birth and the beginning of the twenty-first century. Their agreement is not because of a mutual decision to arbitrarily reestablish the weekly cycle.
“What do we find? As the Roman government became concerned with the religious activities of the Christian and Jewish communities, the early church councils discussed observing the first day of the week and not observing the seventh-day Sabbath, which they considered Jewish. They admonished people who were observing the Sabbath not to do so, but instead to observe ‘the Lord’s Day,’ meaning the first day of the week.
“This indicates a keen awareness on the part of religious and civil authorities which day of the week was the first and which was the seventh. Friction and tension caused by the divergent view of first-day observance versus Sabbath observance has been constant ever since observing the first day of the week began being taught among Christians.
“The Question of Calendar Changes. Another question needs consideration. Did calendar reform change the weekly cycle? Is there a record of the calendar changes that have taken place? Indeed, there is such information! Many sources supply this information in detail, telling exactly how and when the calendar was changed in different countries (they were not all simultaneous). All sources verify that the changes in the calendar did not affect the weekly cycle. The major calendar reform taking place in the Christian era was the replacement of the Julian calendar by the Gregorian calendar in 1582.
“One thing is common in the adoption of the calendar reform by various countries around the world and over an extended period. A certain number of days were deleted in the monthly cycle, but no days of the week were added or deleted in any of the calendar changes as the Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian calendar. For example, ten days of October, 1582, were dropped to make the calendar coincide with the solar year. The record indicates exactly what happened so far as the weekly cycle is concerned, as well as the very days of the month that were deleted in that month of October.
“History records that days were dropped only from the number of days in a month, but calendar reform did not interrupt the weekly cycle. Note the following from the Catholic Encyclopedia (1910 Edition, Vol. 3, page 740, in the article ‘Chronology’): ‘It is to be noted that in the Christian period, the order of days in the week has never been interrupted. Thus, when Gregory XIII reformed the calendar in 1582, Thursday, 4 October, was followed by Friday, 15 October. So in England, in 1752, Wednesday, 2 September, was followed by Thursday, 14 September.’
“A different number of days were dropped in England than earlier in Rome under Gregory XIII because of the two-century delay before England adopted the Gregorian calendar. During that time, as England continued under the Julian calendar, the calendar in England deviated from the solar year one more day. (See Encyclopedia Britannica, article ‘Calendar,’ volume 4, pp. 671, 677, 1902 edition.)
“The Gregorian calendar was adopted by the German states in 1700, by England in 1752, by Sweden in 1753, and by Russia as late as 1918. (See Will and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. VII, ‘The Age of Reason Begins,’ p. 595.)
“There is no record of the seven-day weekly cycle ever having undergone a change. Hence, we can be certain of the seventh-day Sabbath or the first day of the week!
“Various schemes, however, have been proposed for stabilizing the week, months, and years. Had they been adopted, they would have interrupted the weekly cycle. One such scheme had the approval of the Durants:
“Ideally the calendar would have thirteen months, each of twenty-eight days, with a dateless holiday (or in leap years, two) at the close of the year. Such a one-page calendar, with rotary devices to indicate the month and the year, could serve for every month indefinitely; each day of the week would fall on the same dates every month and every year; the business year would be evenly divisible into equal months and equal quarters. But, alas, this would confuse the saints. (Will and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. VII, ‘The Age of Reason Begins,’ p. 595.)
“Similar systems have been seriously considered by various governments, but too much opposition is generated by such proposals. Consequently, no such scheme has been adopted simultaneously by all nations, though it has been proposed again and again.
“The Rational Conclusion. So what is the rational conclusion? The weekly cycle has continued uninterrupted since Israel began observing the Sabbath in the wilderness. If it had been interrupted previously, the cycle was obviously reestablished and validated by the miracle of manna appearing six days each week, but not on the Sabbath, for forty years in the wilderness (see Joshua 5:12).
“Questionable? The Sabbath as observed by the Jews was recognized as valid by our Lord Jesus Christ in New Testament times. Since then, the Christians’ and Jews’ insistence to uphold their convictions and practices to observe their respective days of worship has made it impossible for a disruption of the weekly cycle.
“Why Discuss This Subject? Some may be puzzled as to the need for this discussion. The need arises from all sorts of arguments that are made to discredit observance of the seventh-day Sabbath. One argument is that no person can be sure which day is the seventh day of the week and that Sunday is just as likely the seventh day as is Saturday. Some think that Sunday actually is the seventh day of the week.
“Another argument is that ‘one in seven’ is all that matters. When all these arguments are carefully considered, there is no valid reason for trying to discredit Sabbath observance on the basis that its identity in the weekly cycle has been lost. The Bible and history do not support such an argument.”
More from British-Israel.com
British-Israel.ca had this summary of the role of the word Sabbath and its ties to the seventh day in various languages of man in an article on The Weekly Cycle Has Never Changed which said:
“The writings of historians, the records of chronographers, the languages of earth, the calendars of time, and the existence of the Jewish race—all testify to the fact that the weekly cycle on our calendars today is the same as in earlier centuries—going back to the time of Christ, to Moses, and beyond.
“In the beginning, God gave us the weekly seven-day cycle, with the Sabbath as the last day. That pattern has never changed. The seventh day of the week today is the true Bible Sabbath. Our seventh day is the Sabbath which Jesus kept; it was the Sabbath in the time of Moses when the Ten Commandments were written down. Historians and scientists all agree that this is true.
“If there had been any change in the weekly cycle, between the time of Creation and the time of Moses, a correction would have been made when the Ten Commandments were given to the Hebrews. From that time, on down to the present, there have always been Jews to testify as to the true Sabbath. It is the same seventh day of the week which is on our calendars. While all the other ancient races are now intermingled, the Jews have been kept separate so they could testify to the fact that our seventh day is the Bible Sabbath!
“The yearly cycle has been changed. In 1582, the length of the year was changed to include the leap year. This changeover resulted in October 1582 having only 21 days! But each week remained the same seven days in length. Thursday, October 4, was followed by Friday, October 15. God has divinely protected the weekly cycle down through the ages. If He had not done this, it would be impossible to keep the Sabbath holy, as He has commanded. But, because He has, we have no excuse not to. The seventh day is a holy day, made holy by the command of God. All calendars agree: The seventh day is the Sabbath. Sunday is the first day; the day called ‘Saturday’ in the English language is the Sabbath.
“However, in 108 of the 160 languages of mankind, the seventh day is called ‘the Sabbath’! Did you know that? Dr. William Mead Jones of London prepared a chart proving this. (A copy of this chart can be obtained free of charge from the publisher of this book: Ask for ‘The Chart of the Week’ [BS–28-29]. English is one of the few major languages in which the seventh day is not called ‘the Sabbath.’
“Here are ten examples: Hebrew: Shabbath / Greek: Sabbaton / Latin: Sabbatum / Arabic: Assabit / Persian: Shambin / Russian: Subbota / Hindustani: Shamba / French: Samedi / Italian: Sabbato / Spanish: Sabado.
“ ‘By calculating the eclipses, it can be proven that no time has been lost and the creation days were seven, divided into 24 hours each.’—Dr. Hinkley, The Watchman, July 1926 [Hinkley was a well-known astronomer].
“ ‘The human race never lost the septenary [seven day] sequence of week days and that the Sabbath of these latter times comes down to us from Adam, though the ages, without a single lapse.’—Dr. Totten, professor of astronomy at Yale University.
“ ‘Seven has been the ancient and honored number among the nations of the earth. They have measured their time by weeks from the beginning. The origin of this was the Sabbath of God, as Moses has given the reasons for it in his writings.’—Dr. Lyman Coleman.
“ ‘There has been no change in our calendar in past centuries that has affected in any way the cycle of the week.’—James Robertson, Director American Ephemeris, Navy Department, U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C., March 12, 1932.
“ ‘It can be said with assurance that not a day has been lost since Creation, and all the calendar changes notwithstanding, there has been no break in the weekly cycle.’—Dr. Frank Jeffries, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and Research Director of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, England.
“It is remarkable how complete is the Biblical and historical evidence corroborating the fact that the Bible Sabbath was given to us by the God of heaven. Let us keep the Sabbath that Jesus kept! He worshiped on the Bible Sabbath, and never told us to stop keeping it. No one else in the Bible said to either. The seventh day is the Sabbath, for God never changed it.
“How very thankful we can be that our God is so reliable. He does not change this way or that. He has a holy law which we must obey. But He sent His only begotten Son to die in order to enable us to do it.
“Soon we will be in heaven, and praise Him for His great Gift.
“THE
CHART OF THE WEEK —
“The seventh day of the week continues to be called ’Sabbath’ or ‘day of rest’ in over a hundred languages.
“INTRODUCTION—This is incredible information! This Chart of the Week is over a hundred years old. It was prepared by Dr. William Meade Jones, a research expert in London, England. Well over a hundred languages prove that the week, everywhere, has seven days;—and that, in most languages, the native word for the seventh day is ‘Sabbath’ (which means ‘rest’ or ‘rest day’) or ‘rest day.’
“Jones, a well-known British researcher, decided that since Scripture clearly shows that the Bible Sabbath was first given to mankind at the end of Creation Week, then two important facts would have had to be known throughout the ancient world: First, a fixing of the seven-day weekly cycle on a worldwide basis and, second, an ancient worldwide knowledge of the seventh-day Sabbath.
“Jones was convinced of this for four reasons:
1 - Adam and Noah were both earnest worshipers of God and would therefore have been faithful Sabbath keepers.
2 - They would have taught their descendants about the Bible Sabbath; these descendants would then be aware of its original sacredness.
3 - The truth that God is to be worshiped on the seventh day of each seven-day week—would require a seven-day weekly cycle everywhere. If the first generations kept the weekly Sabbath given at Creation, then their descendants would continue to keep a seven-day week, even though they might later have turned to idols and left the worship of the true God.
4 - Therefore, as the descendants of Adam and Noah spread out all over the world, they would have carried with them these two important facts: (1) Each week has seven days, and (2) the seventh day of the week is the holy Sabbath given by God to mankind.
“Jones reasoned that, even though many of Adam and Noah’s descendants would become scoffers, all of them would still carry with them the twin truths of the seven-day Creation Week and the seventh-day Sabbath rest. So all the world would have a seven-day week;—and, embedded in most of those languages, the seventh day would generally be called the ‘rest day’ (‘Sabbath’).
“William Meade Jones was certain that, because Genesis 1 and 2 were really true, and God really created the world in six days and then rested on the seventh day,—that a majority of the languages of the world would prove the fact!
“This, in turn, would be a powerful proof—not only that the seventh day (and not the first) was the true Sabbath given by God to mankind,—but also a dramatic proof that Genesis 1 and 2 are genuine, and that God is our Creator!
“William Meade Jones’ Chart of the Week is stunning proof that the book of Genesis is really true! This amazing chart is filled with corroborating evidence.
1 - In all languages the seven-day weekly cycle is maintained; that is, no language group anywhere has a week with more or less days than seven.
2 - In spite of the fact that 6,000 years has elapsed since Creation Week when our world was created (Genesis 1-2), and regardless of many language adaptations down through the centuries, the seventh day of the week continues to be called ‘Sabbath’ or ‘day of rest’ in over a hundred languages.
“WHAT WE HAVE DONE WITH THIS CHART—The original Chart of the Week is too large to be placed on your computer screen. In addition, because it includes samples from well over a hundred languages of mankind, it could only be reproduced as a graphic,—which would requires a long period of time to load in. Below is an abbreviated version of the chart, with a more complete listing of languages to follow.
|
No. |
LANGUAGE |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Name of the |
|
1 |
Shemitic |
Day One |
Day Second |
Day Third |
Day Fourth |
Day Fifth |
Day the Sixth |
Yom hash-shab-bath |
|
2 |
Hebrew |
One into the Sabbath |
Second into the Sabbath |
Third into the Sabbath |
Fourth into the Sabbath |
Fifth into the Sabbath |
Eve of Holy Sabbath |
Shab-bath |
|
3 |
Targum of Onkelos |
Day One |
Day Second |
Day Third |
Day Fourth |
Day Fifth |
Day the Sixth |
Yom hash-shab-bath |
|
4 |
Targum Dialect of the |
Day One of the Seven |
Day 2nd of the Seven |
Day 3rd of the Seven |
Day 4th of the Seven |
Day 5th of the Seven |
Day of Eve |
yoy-met sha-bat kodesh |
|
5 |
Ancient Syriac |
One into Sabbath |
Two into Sabbath |
Three into Sabbath |
Four into Sabbath |
Five into Sabbath |
Eve |
Shab-ba-tho |
|
6 |
Chaldee Syriac |
One into Sabbath |
Two into Sabbath |
Three into Sabbath |
Four into Sabbath |
Five into Sabbath |
Eve |
Shap-ta |
|
7 |
Samaritan |
Day One |
Day Second |
Day Third |
Day Fourth |
Day Fifth |
Day Sixth |
Shab-bath |
|
8 |
Babylonian |
First |
Second |
Third |
Fourth |
Fifth |
Sixth |
Sa-ba-tu |
|
9 |
Assyrian |
First |
Second |
Third |
Fourth |
Fifth |
Sixth |
sa-ba-tu |
|
10 |
Arabic |
Business Day |
Light Moon |
War Chief |
Turning Day or Midweek |
Familiar or Society Day |
Eve |
Shi-yar |
|
11 |
Arabic |
The One |
The Two |
The Three |
The Four |
The Fith |
Assembly |
as-sabt |
|
12 |
Maltese, Malta |
One (day) |
Two (and day) |
The 3 (3rd d.) |
The 4 (4th d.) |
Fifth (day) |
Assembly |
Is-sibt. |
|
13 |
Ge-ez or Ethiopic |
One (day) |
Second |
Third |
Fourth |
Fifth |
Eve (of Sabbath) |
san-bat |
|
14 |
Tigre |
One (First day) |
Second |
Third |
Fourth |
Fifth |
Eve (of Sabbath) |
san-bat |
|
15 |
Amharic, Abyssinia |
One |
Second |
Third |
Fourth |
Fifth |
Eve (of Sabbath) |
san-bat |
|
16 |
Falasha |
One |
Second |
Third |
Fourth |
Fifth |
Sixth |
yini sanbat |
|
17 |
Coptic / Egypt |
The First Day |
The 2nd Day |
The 3rd Day |
The 4th Day |
The 5th Day |
The 6th Day |
pi sabbaton |
|
18 |
Orma or Galla |
Lady, Virgin Mary Day. |
Second day. |
3rd Day to the Sabbath. |
4th day to the Sabbath. |
Fifth (day) |
Assembly (day) |
Last day of the half-week |
|
19 |
Tamashek or Towarek. |
First day |
Second day |
Third day |
Fourth day |
Fifth day |
Assembly Day |
a-hal es-sabt. |
|
20 |
Kabyle or Berber. |
Day the One (First) |
Day the Two (2nd) |
Day the Three (3rd) |
Day the Four (4th) |
Day the Fifth |
The Assembly Day |
ghas or wars assebt |
|
21 |
Hausa |
The One (1st) |
The Two (2nd) |
The Three (3rd) |
The Four (4th) |
The Fifth |
The Assembly |
assebatu |
|
22 |
Urdu or Hindustani |
One to Sabbath. Sunday |
2nd to Sabbath. Moon-day |
3rd to Sabbath. Mars |
4th to Sabbath. Mercury |
5th to Sabbath. (Eve of Juma) |
Assembly (day) |
sanichar - Saturn |
|
23 |
Pashto or Afghan |
One to the Sabbath |
Two to Sabbath |
Three to Sabbath |
Four to Sabbath |
Five to Sabbath |
Assembly (day) |
khali - Unemployed-day, |
“Here is a list of languages in which the vast majority indicate a seven day weekly cycle and the seventh day means Sabbath or Rest.
Shemitic—
Hebrew Bible Yom Hash Shabbath or Day of the Sabbath
Hebrew (ancient and modern) Shabbath or Sabbath
Targum of Onkelos (Hebrew literature) Yom Shviaa or Day Seventh AND Sabbath or Sabbath
Kurdistan Jews (Targum dialect) Yoymet Shabbat Kodesh or Holy Sabbath Day
Ancient Syriac Shabbatho or Sabbath
Chaldee Syriac (Kurdistan; Urumia, Persia) Shapta or Sabbath
Samaritan (Nablas, Palestine) (use old Hebrew letters) Yoma Hasheviah or Day the Seventh AND Shabbath or Sabbath
Babylonian (Euphrates and Tigris Valleys, Mesopotamia) Sabatu or Sabbath
Assyrian (Euphrates & Tigris Valleys, Mesopotamia) Sabatu or Sabbath
Arabic (very old names) Shiyar or Chief or Rejoicing Day
Arabic (ancient and modern; W. Asia, E, W & N Africa) Assabt or The Sabbath
Maltese (Malta) Issibt or Sabbath
Tigre (Abyssinia) Sanbat or Sabbath
Amharic (Abyssinia) Sanbat or Sabbath
Falasha (Jews of Abyssinia) Yini Sanbat or The Sabbath
Hamitic—
Coptic (Egypt; a dead language for 300 years) Pi Sabbaton or The Sabbath
Orma or Galla (south of Abyssinia) Zambada or Sabbath
Tamashek or Towarek (ancient Libyan or Numidian) Ahal Essabt or The Sabbath Day
Kabyle or Berber (Ancient Numidian; N Africa) Ghas or Sabbath Day
Hausa (Central Africa) Aseebatu or The Sabbath
Japhetic—
Sanscrit (India) Shanivar or Saturn-day
Hindi (India) Shumiwar or Saturn-day
Pali (India) Sanivaro or Saturn-day
Urdu or Hindustani (Islamic and Hindu, India) Shamba or Sabbath; And Sanichar or Saturn
Pashto or Afghan (Afghanistan) Khali or Unemployed day; And Shamba or Holiday, Sabbath
Pahlavi or Pahlavi-Pazand (Ancient Persian) Kevan or Saturn; And Shambid or Fragrance - The pleasantest day of the week; And Dies Sabbati or Sabbath
Persian (Persia; Modern Iran) Shambih or Holiday, Sabbath
Armenian (Armenia) Shapat or Sabbath
Kurdish (Kurdistan) Shamba or Sabbath
Brahuiky (Beluchistan) Awalihafta or First or Chief of the Seven; And Shambe or Sabbath
Tartaric—
Mongolian (Sharra-Mongolian; Eastern Mongolia) Sanitear and Bemba or The Son of the Sun, Saturn
Kalmuk (Western Mongolia) Bembe Graku or Saturn Planet
Turkish (Osmanlian; Turkey) Yomessabt or Day the Sabbath
Lazen (Pashelik of Trebisond) Ssabatun or Sabbath
Monosyllabic—
Chinese (Roman Catholic; earlier) Chanlitsi or Worship-day Seven
Mohammadan Chinese Saibitai or Sabbath
Annamite (Annam) Ngaythubay or Day in order Seven
Ancient Peguan (Pegu-Burma) T'pauh or (Day) Seven
Khassi (Cossyah Hills, East of Bengal) Ka sngi sait-jain or A day to wash clothes; Purification-day
Tibetan (Tibet) Za-pen pa or (Planet Seven)
Boutan (Little Tibet) Pen-pa or Eye of God=Saturn; AND Odsardunpa or Seventh Brilliant Star
Georgian (Caucasus) Shabati or Sabbath
Suanian (Caucasus)Ingouish (Caucasus) Sammtyn or Sabbath
Aware or Avar (Daghistan; Cis-Caucasus) Samat qo or Sabbath Day
Polynesian—
Malayan (Sumatra) hari Sabtu or Day Sabbath
Javanese (Java) Saptoe (saptu) or Sabbath
Sunda (West Java) Saptu or Sabbath
Dayak (Borneo) Sabtu or Sabbath
Makssar (Southern Celebes and Salayer Islands) Sattu or Sabbath
Bugis (Celebes) Sattu or Sabbath
Malagassay (Madagascar) Alsabotsy or The Sabbath
Nuforian (NW New Guinea) Ras Fiek or Day Seven
African—
Swahili (East Africa) Assabu or The Sabbath
Congo (West Africa) Satade or Saturday; AND Kiaosabulu or Sabbado: Sabbath
Isolated Languages—
Wolof (Sengambia, W Africa) Alere-asser or Last Day - Sabbath
Fulah (W Africa) Essibt or The Sabbath
Mandingo (South of Senegal, W Africa) Sibiti or Sabbath
Teda (Central Africa) Essebdu or The Sabbath
Bornu or Kanuri (Central Africa) Sibda or Sabbath
Fulfulde (Central Africa) Assebdu or Sabbath
Sonyal (Central Africa) Assebdu or Sabbath
Logone (Central Africa) Se-sibde or Sabbath
Wandals (Central Africa) Sidba or Sabbath
Bagrimma (Central Africa) Sibbedi or Sabbath
Maba (Central Africa) Sab. or Sabbath
Miscellaneous—
Norman French (10th and 11th centuries) Seabedi, Samaday, Semadi or Sabbath Day
Ancient French (12 and 13th centuries) Samedi or Sabbath Day
D’oc. France (ancient and modern) Dissata, Dissate or Day Sabbath
Ecclesiastical Roman Sabatum
Parliamentary (British) Dies Sabbati
Basque (Spain and France) Larumbat or One Quarter (moon)
Finnish (Finland) Lauvantai or Corruptions of Icelandic Laugardagur
Estonian (Estonia) Lau-paaw or Bathday
Livonian (Baltic Russia) Puol-paava or Half Day
Lap (Laplanders, Norway) Lavardak or Corruption of Ice. Lang.
Morduin (Russia) Subbota, Suota or Sabbath
Tsheremissian (Russia) Kuks-keca or Dry-day (day without work)
Permian (Russia) Subota or Sabbath
Votiak (Russia)
Hungarian (Hungary) Szombat or Sabbath
Ostiac (Russia) Chotmetchatl or Sixth-day; AND Juolynchatl or Hinder end-day
Greek (Greece) (Sabbath)
Modern Greek (Greece) (Sabbath)
Latin (Italy) Sabbatum or Sabbath; AND Dies Saturni or Day of Saturn
Italian (Italy) Sabato or Sabbath
Spanish (Spain) Sabado or Sabbath
Portuguese (Portugal) Sabado or Sabbath
French (France) Samedi or Sabbath-day
Roman (Spain, Catalonia) Dissapte or Day-Sabbath
Wallachian (Romania or Wallachia) Sambata or Sabbath
Old High German (South Germany) Sambaztag or Sabbath's day
High German (Germany) Samstag or Sabbath's day
Icelandic (Iceland) Laugardagur or (of bath-day)
Swedish (Sweden) Lordag or Corruption of Icelandic Laugardagur
Danish (Denmark) Laverdag or Corruption of Icelandic Laugardagur
Old Slave (Bulgaria) Subbota or Sabbath
Russian (Russia) Subbota or Sabbath
Illyrian (Dalmatia, Serbia) Subota or Sabbath
New Slovenian (Illyrie in Austria) Sobota or Sabbath
Bulgarian (Bulgaria) Subbota or Sabbath
Polish (Poland) Sobota or Sabbath
Bohemian (Bohemia) Sobota or Sabbath
Lusatian (Saxony) Sobota or Sabbath
Polabic (borders of the Elbe) Subuta or Sabbath
Lithuanian (Lithuania) fubata or Sabbath
Prussian (Prussia; Germany) Sabatico or Sabbath
English Bible (England) The Seventh Day, The Sabbath.”
This Writer on one of the Most Important Proofs of All for the Seven Day Week and Sabbath
Probably the greatest proof of all on the validity of the weekly cycle of seven days and the weekly Sabbath has to be from the Scriptural record. The book of Romans, by the Jew Shaul, has this remarkable statement: “Romans 3:1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? 3:2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.”
It must be profound that The CREATOR chose to commit His oracles/words/rules to the Jews for preservation (this must include the Hebrew language, the Hebrew Scriptures and the seven-day weekly cycle as demanded in the Fourth Commandment in Ex 20:8-11). For sure, the Jews have had and do have the right information on the weekly cycle of seven days and the resulting Sabbath. Please tell me when and where in history is there any record that the Jews lost or altered the weekly cycle and Seventh-day Sabbath? Of course, there is no such record.
And here, please don’t be so absurd to start mumbling something about the Scriptural Hebrew calendar and how the Jews define it. The truth is that the Scriptural calendar of cycles of months and years has absolutely nothing to do with the weekly cycle. The weekly cycle is always independent of the cycles for months and years. Any attempt to force lunar months of 28-31 days and solar years of 365-366 days into an agreement with the weekly cycles of seven days won’t hack it. It is impossible; though admittedly the book of Jubilees and the Essenes experimented with such an effort with a 364-day year.
In the New Testament (NT) and NT environment, YESHUA and the Apostolic Assembly always kept the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath the same as the rest of the Jews. There is no record and no possibility of any alternative on this. If YESHUA or the NT Assembly would have dared try to change the weekly cycle and Sabbath, there would have been a major outcry and probably their deaths from the zealous Jews. And please don’t start mumbling something about YESHUA’s healings on the Sabbath day as being a change. And while some few Jews did object, most (certainly the majority in the form of the Hillel Pharisees) accepted His healings without objection.
But Persistent Opposition Comes from Lunar Sabbath Observers
Over the years, and especially in modern times, men have tried hard to dispute the real world of truth and verity on the weekly cycle of seven days and the authority of the Seventh-day Sabbath. Most such people are extremely ignorant and uninformed as is the case of Christian Identity leader Dave Barley, as cited above. And too, some of them are as arrogant and impossible to talk to on the subject, as again per the situation with Dave Barley.
In the last several years, some ignorant people opting for a lunar Sabbath cycle (of having Sabbath days on moon phases like the ancient Romans did in part with their market days) have been some of the most passionate about their stupid beliefs. The first big thing about these so called lunar Sabbaths is that they disrupt and alter the continuous weekly cycle of seven days observed by believers from antiquity (along with the reality of being totally unscriptural).
This writer will not attempt to address the utter stupidity of the so called lunar Sabbaths here in this article. For those interested, there is a study on the Lunar Sabbath at this web site of www.age-end.com, at the right menu herein. But I will cover some more of this stupid material, next below.
WorldsLastChance.com had this on “Continuous Weekly Cycle” Proven False:
“Modern Sabbatarians insist that Saturday is the Sabbath of the Bible because they believe that the seven-day week has cycled without interruption ever since Creation. One reason for this belief is the fact that when the Julian calendar changed to the Gregorian calendar in 1582, no days of the week were lost. Thursday, October 4, 1582, on the Julian calendar was followed by Friday, October 15, on the new Gregorian calendar. Therefore, it is assumed, because no days were ‘lost’ when the calendars transitioned from Julian to Gregorian, the modern week is identical to the Biblical week.
“This assumption is proven false in the historical facts of the Julian calendar itself. The calendar of the Roman Republic, like all ancient calendars, was originally based on lunar cycles. Pagan Roman priests, called pontiffs, controlled the calendar by announcing the beginning of months.
“These pontiffs, who could also hold political office, shamelessly manipulated the calendar for political reasons, intercalating extra months to keep favorite politicians in office longer or, conversely, leaving needed intercalations out in order to shorten the terms of political opponents. By the time of Julius Cæsar, the dates of the calendar were completely out of alignment with the seasons. Julius Cæsar exercised his right as pontifex maximus (high priest) and reformed what had become a cumbersome and inaccurate accounting of time.
“In the mid-1st century B.C., Julius Cæsar invited Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, to advise him about the reform of the calendar, and Sosigenes decided that the only practical step was to abandon the lunar calendar altogether. Months must be arranged on a seasonal basis, and a tropical (solar) year used, as in the Egyptian calendar . . . .
“Notice that Sosigenes’ big innovation was an abandonment of lunar calendation.
“The great difficulty facing any [calendar] reformer was that there seemed to be no way of effecting a change that would still allow the months to remain in step with the phases of the Moon and the year with the seasons. It was necessary to make a fundamental break with traditional reckoning to devise an efficient seasonal calendar.
“To bring the new calendar back into alignment with the seasons required adding an additional 90 days to the year, which ever after became known as the Year of Confusion. However, the Julian calendar of 45 B.C., even the Julian calendar of Christ’s day, did not look like the Julian calendar when Pope Gregory XIII modified it, and thus did not look like the Gregorian calendar of today. There was no Saturday (or seventh-day Sabbath at the end of the week) on the original Julian calendar.
“The Julian calendar, like the calendar of the Republic before it, originally had an eight-day cycle. Every eighth day was a nundinæ, or market day. The calendars were not constructed in grids as are modern calendars, but the dates were listed in columns. For example, January started with day ‘A’ and would proceed on through the eight days of the week (A through H), ending the month at day ‘E’.
“Unlike the Hebrew calendar, the Roman calendar had a continuous weekly cycle throughout the year, with a little adjustment at the end of the year. Because January ended on day ‘E’, February began on day ‘F’. Likewise, February ending on day ‘A’ started March off on day ‘B.’”
To try to prove the point here, on a continuous weekly cycle throughout the year in Rome, this Worlds Last Chance presentation recounts the finding of a pre-Julian calendar dating from the 60s BCE where the first week is painted in red to start the cycle. But since this point is irrelevant to the theme of what happened with the Julian calendar and thereafter in 45 BCE, the discussion is omitted herewith.
The Worlds Last Chance article then proceeds with some material attempting to prove that an eight-day week was known in some parts of Europe at early times. While this may be true in some parts of Europe, it was not true with Rome and its use of market days on lunar phases as I cover above. Anyway, that point is not in dispute by me herein as I noted that possible situation in some parts of Europe in Volume 15 on the Calendar in Ezekiel and YHWH’s Judgment for the Good News People at www.age-end.com.
But going on, Worlds Last Chance adds: “It is important to remember that the Biblical week as an individual unit of time defined in Genesis 1, consisted of only seven days: six working days followed by a Sabbath rest on the last day of the week. The eight-day cycle of the Julian calendar was in use at the time of Christ. However, the Jews would not have kept the seventh-day Sabbath on the eight-day weekly cycle of the Julian calendar. This would have been idolatry to them.”
Of course, I agree with much of that summation on the Jews. They would never have agreed to a weekly cycle of eight-days based on moon phases.
Then, in furtherance of its theme, Worlds Last Chance adds the following (which is interesting reading and some good points on truth, though it is largely irrelevant to the issue at hand): “In his book, Romani Calendarii A Gregorio XIII P.M. Restituti Explicato, Clavius reveals that when the Julian calendar was made the ecclesiastical calendar of the Church at the Council of Nicaea, the Church deliberately rejected Biblical calendation and instead adopted pagan calendation.
“Referring to the differing systems of calendation used for determining the Biblical Passover versus the pagan substitute of Easter, Clavius states: ‘The Catholic Church has never used that [Jewish] rite of celebrating the Passover, but always in its celebration has observed the motion of the moon and sun, and it was thus sanctified by the most ancient and most holy Pontiffs of Rome, but also confirmed by the first Council of Nicaea.’ The ‘Pontiffs’ he is referring to are the ancient priests of Roman paganism.
“Modern Christians have assumed that the Gregorian Saturday is the Biblical Sabbath. However, Christians who lived at the time the Julian calendar was enforced by civil legislation had no doubts or confusion over the matter: the ‘Sabbath’ was calculated by the Biblical luni-solar calendar; the ‘Lord’s day’ (Sunday) by the pagan solar calendar. As David Sidersky noted, ‘It was no more possible under Constance to apply the old calendar.’ Apostolic Christians, however, did not obey the new edict.
“At every step in the course of the apostasy, at every step taken in adopting the forms of sun worship, and against the adoption and the observance of Sunday itself, there had been constant protest by all real Christians. Those who remained faithful to Christ and to the truth of the pure word of God observed the Sabbath of the Lord according to the commandment, and according to the word of God which sets forth the Sabbath as the sign by which the Lord, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, is distinguished from all other gods.
“These accordingly protested against every phase and form of sun worship. Others compromised, especially in the East, by observing both Sabbath and Sunday. But in the west under Roman influences and under the leadership of the church and the bishopric of Rome, Sunday alone was adopted and observed.
“The Council of Nicaea (A.D. 321-324) outlawed the Biblical luni-solar calendar for ecclesiastical use, and supplanted the Julian calendar in its place, commanding that people everywhere ‘venerate’ the day of the Sun. Some began to compromise. While many Christians clung to keeping the original Sabbath by the luni-solar calendar, others, with the rabbinical Jews, kept the seventh day of the Julian calendar: Saturday. Still others kept Saturday as well as Sunday. This did not satisfy the Church at Rome. She wanted everyone worshipping exclusively on Sunday. When the edict of Nicaea did not have the desired effect on the people, the Council of Laodicea was convened approximately 40 years later to enforce the acceptance of ‘the Lord’s Day’ in place of the Biblical, lunar Sabbath.
“In order, therefore, to the accomplishment of her original purpose, it now became necessary for the church to secure legislation extinguishing all exemption, and prohibiting the observance of the Sabbath so as to quench that powerful protest [against worship on Sunday]. And now . . . the ‘truly divine command’ of Constantine and the council of Nicaea that ‘nothing’ should be held ‘in common with the Jews,’ was made the basis and the authority for legislation, utterly to crush out the observance of the Sabbath of the Lord, and to establish the observance of Sunday only in its stead.
“Canon 29 of the Council of Laodicea demanded: ‘Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honor, and, as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ.’
“It is important to know that the word ‘Saturday’ has been supplied in the English translation. According to Catholic bishop, Karl J. von Hefele’s History of the Councils of the Church from the Original Documents, the word used was actually ‘Sabbath’ in both the Greek and the Latin and the word ‘anathema’ (accursed) in place of ‘shut out’. The Latin version clearly does not contain any reference todies Saturni (Saturday) but instead uses Sabbato, or ‘Sabbath’:
“Quod non oportet Christianos Judaizere et otiare in Sabbato, sed operari in eodem die. Preferentes autem in veneratione Dominicum diem si vacre voluerint, ut Christiani hoc faciat; quod si reperti fuerint Judaizere Anathema sint a Christo.
“Only in recent years, as the facts of history have been forgotten, has Saturday been assumed to be the Biblical Sabbath. When the Julian calendar was being enforced upon Christians for ecclesiastical use, no one at the time confused dies Saturni with Sabbato. Everyone knew that they were two different days by two distinct calendar systems.
“A few days before His death, Christ made a profound statement that should be considered in the context of the controversy over true versus counterfeit calendars. He said, ‘Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.’ Christ was here establishing an important principle that was to govern every area of life. Worship does not belong to Cæsar. It belongs solely to the Creator.
“An ancient proverb states: ‘He who controls the calendar, controls the world.’ Who controls you? The day on which you worship, calculated by the calendar you use, reveals which God/god is in control of you. Worship on the true Sabbath is a sign of loyalty to our Creator. Only the Creator, the One in control of the sun, moon and stars, His calendar, has the right to tell His people when to worship and, by virtue of that right, to receive that worship.”
I have included herewith some of the above comment from Worlds Last Chance, not because they are relevant to the theme or because they are factually true or correct (as Worlds Last Chance makes several obviously incorrect assertions and especially on the presence of an alleged eight-day weekly cycle in Rome which did not exist); but I am including them herewith because the comments are interesting and contain some truths worth addressing.
Hope-of-Israel.org is another lunar Sabbath group trying to argue against the present weekly cycle in an article on Time’s Greatest Conspiracy Theory: The Continuous Weekly Cycle by Elaine Vornholt and Laura Lee Vornholt-Jones with the following article also containing some obviously incorrect information on an alleged eight-day week in Rome:
“Assumptions are dangerous, particularly when they are made in the realm of religion. If a belief is based on a faulty assumption, the ‘logical conclusion’ will be in error. Christians who worship on Sunday base this practice on the belief that Christ arose from the tomb on Sunday. Jews and Christians who worship on Saturday do so because it is the seventh day of the week. Both parties base their belief, and thus their practice, on an assumption.
“The assumption is that because the progression of days was not changed at the time the Julian calendar transitioned to the Gregorian, the modern week is identical to the Biblical week. Therefore, the ‘logical conclusion’ is that Saturday is indeed the Bible Sabbath and Sunday is the day on which Christ arose from the grave. The facts of the Julian calendar itself, however, prove this assumption is false.
“A well-known adage is that those who forget history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of history. Likewise, those who have never learned the facts of calendar history have built an entire belief structure on a faulty foundation: the assumption that weeks have cycled continuously and without interruption ever since Creation. It is of vital importance to all, regardless of their religion, to study the history of the Julian calendar. Assembling the missing puzzle pieces of historical fact reveals when a continuous weekly cycle of seven days became the standard measurement of time – and it was not at Creation.
“Julian Calendar Established.
“The calendar of the Roman Republic was based on lunar phases. Pagan Roman priests, called pontiffs, were responsible for regulating the calendar. Because the pontiffs could also hold political office, it provided opportunity for abuse. Intercalating an extra month could keep favored politicians in office longer, while not intercalating when necessary could shorten the terms of political opponents.
“By the time of Julius Cæsar, months were completely out of alignment with the seasons. Julius Cæsar exercised his right as pontifex maximus (high priest) and reformed what had become a cumbersome and inaccurate calendar.
“In the mid-1st century B.C. Julius Cæsar invited Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, to advise him about the reform of the calendar, and Sosigenes decided that the only practical step was to abandon the lunar calendar altogether. Months must be arranged on a seasonal basis, and a tropical (solar) year was used, as in the Egyptian calendar...
“Notice that Sosigenes' big innovation was an abandonment of lunar calendation:
“The great difficulty facing any [calendar] reformer was that there seemed to be no way of effecting a change that would still allow the months to remain in step with the phases of the Moon and the year with the seasons. It was necessary to make a fundamental break with traditional reckoning to devise an efficient seasonal calendar.
“To bring the new calendar into alignment with the seasons required adding an additional 90 days to the year. This was done in 45 B.C., creating a year of 445 days. ‘This year of 445 days is commonly called by chronologists the year of confusion; but by Macrobius, more fitly, the last year of confusion. The first puzzle piece in establishing the truth of the calendar, is to realize that the Julian week of 45 B.C., did not look like the Julian week when Pope Gregory XIII modified it, and thus did not look like the modern Gregorian week of today. This is the first assumption made by both Jews and Christians, regardless of the day on which they worship.
“The Julian calendar, like the calendar of the Republic before it, originally had an eight-day cycle.
“The Roman eight-day week was known as internundinum tempus or ‘the period between ninth-day affairs.’ (This term must be understood within the context of the ancient Roman mathematical practice of inclusive counting, whereby the first day of a cycle would also be counted as the last day of the preceding cycle.) The ‘ninth-day affair’ around which this week revolved was the nundinæ, a periodic market day that was held regularly every eight days.
Early Julian calendars were not constructed in grids as are modern calendars, but the dates were listed in columns, with the days of the week designated by the letters A through H. For example, January started with day ‘A’ and would proceed through the eight days of the week, with the last day of the month being day ‘E.’ Unlike the Hebrew calendar, the Roman calendar had a continuous weekly cycle. Because January ended on day ‘E’, February began on day ‘F’. Likewise, February ending on day ‘A’ started March off on day ‘B’:
“Following is a reconstruction of the Fasti Antiates, the only known pre-Julian calendar still in existence dating from the 60s B.C. found at the site of Nero's villa in Antium…
“This calendar was painted on plaster with the letter A painted red to indicate the start of the week. The months are arranged in 13 columns. January, on the left, begins on day ‘A’ and ends on day ‘E’. At the bottom of each column are large Roman numerals showing the number of days in that month. The far right hand column is the 13th, intercalary month. Additional letters appear beside the week-day letters. These indicated what sort of business could or could not be conducted on that day.
“All examples of Julian fasti, or calendars, date from the time of Augustus (63 B.C. – 14 A.D.) to Tiberius (42 B.C. – 37 A.D.). If the assumption is correct that Saturday is the Bible Sabbath because the weekly cycle was not interrupted at the calendar change from Julian to Gregorian, than this should be easily proven from the early Julian calendars still in existence. An example of a Julian fasti is preserved on these stone fragments and provides the second, confirming piece of the puzzle in establishing the truth of calendar history. The eight-day week is clearly discernible on them verifying that the eight-day week was still in use by the Romans during and immediately following the life of Christ.
“It is important to remember that the Biblical week as an individual unit of time defined in Genesis 1, consisted of only seven days: six working days followed by a Sabbath rest on the last day of the week. The eight-day cycle of the Julian calendar was in use at the time of Christ. However, the Israelites would not have kept the seventh-day Sabbath on the eight-day weekly cycle of the Julian calendar. This would have been idolatry to them. Even when the Julian week shortened to seven days, it still did not conform to the weekly cycle of the Biblical week nor did it resemble the modern week in use today.
“Seven-day Planetary week.
“The decline of the eight-day Roman week was caused by two factors: A) the expansion of the Roman Empire which exposed the Romans to other religions and led, in turn, to B) the rise of the cult of Mithras. The role Mithraism played in restructuring the Julian week is significant for it was a strong competitor of early Christianity.
“It seems as if some spiritual genius having control over the pagan world had so ordered things that the heathen planetary week should be introduced just at the right time for the most popular Sun cult of all ages to come along and exalt the day of the Sun as a day above and more sacred than all the rest. Surely this was not accidental.
“Under these two factors, the Julian week began a centuries-long evolutionary process that ended in the week as it is known today. The original seven-day planetary week is the third and final piece of the puzzle proving that Saturday is not the Bible Sabbath, nor Sunday the first day of the Biblical week. This transformation took several hundred years. Franz Cumont, widely considered to be a great authority on Mithraism, links the acceptance of the seven-day week by Europeans to the popularity of Mithraism in pagan Rome:
“It is not to be doubted that the diffusion of the Iranian [Persian] mysteries has had a considerable part in the general adoption, by the pagans, of the week with the Sunday as a holy day. The names which we employ, unawares, for the other six days, came into use at the same time that Mithraism won its followers in the provinces in the West, and one is not rash in establishing a relation of coincidence between its triumph and that concomitant phenomenon.
“In Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans, Cumont further emphasizes the pagan origins and recent adoption of a seven-day week with its holy day being Sunday: ‘The pre-eminence assigned to the dies Solis [day of the Sun] also certainly contributed to the general recognition of Sunday as a holiday. This is connected with a more important fact, namely, the adoption of the week by all the European nations.
“The immense significance of this for Christians is found in the fact that Sunday cannot be the day on which Christ arose from the dead, because Sunday did not exist in the Julian calendar of Christ’s day. Nor can Saturday be the Biblical seventh-day Sabbath because the pagan planetary week originally began on Saturday.
“The following drawing of a stick calendar found at the Baths of Titus (constructed A.D. 79 – 81) provides further proof that neither the Biblical Sabbath nor the day of Christ's resurrection can ever be found using the Julian calendar. The center circle contains the 12 signs of the zodiac, corresponding to the 12 months of the year. The Roman numerals in the left and right columns indicate the days of the month. Across the top of the stick calendar appear the seven planetary gods of the pagan Romans.
“Roman Stick Calendar.
“Saturday, (or dies Saturni -- the day of Saturn) was the very first day of the week, not the seventh. As the god of agriculture, he can be seen in this preeminent position of importance, holding his symbol, a sickle. Next, on the second day of the pagan planetary week, is seen the sun god with rays of light emanating from his head. Sunday was originally the second day of the planetary week and was known as dies Solis. The third day of the week was dies Lunæ (day of the Moon – Monday). The moon goddess is shown wearing the horned crescent moon as a diadem on her head. The rest of the gods follow in order: dies Martis (day of Mars); dies Mercurii (day of Mercury); dies Jovis (day of Jupiter); and dies Veneris (day of Venus), the seventh day of the week.
“When the use of the Julian calendar with its recently adopted pagan planetary week spread into northern Europe, the names of the days dies Martis through dies Veneris were replaced by Teutonic gods. Mars' Day became Tiw's Day (Tuesday); Mercury's Day became Woden's Day (Wednesday); Jupiter's Day became Thor's Day (Thursday); and Venus' Day became Friga's Day (Friday.) The influence of the pagan astrological day-names is still seen today. Latin-based languages, such as Spanish, retain astrological names for Monday through Friday, with the Christian influence being seen in their words for Sunday (Domingo, or Lord's day) and Saturday (Sabado, or Sabbath.)
“According to Rabanus Maurus (A.D. 776-856), archbishop of Mainz, Germany, Pope Sylvester I attempted to rename the days of the planetary week to correspond with the names of the Biblical week: First Day (first feria), Second Day (second feria), etc. Bede, the ‘Venerable’, (A.D. 672-735), renowned English monk and scholar, also reported Sylvester's attempts to change the pagan names of the days of the week. In De Temporibus, he stated: ‘But the holy Sylvester ordered them to be called feriæ, calling the first day the Lord's [day]; imitating the Hebrews, who named [them] the first of the week, the second of the week, and so on the others.’ The astrological names, however, were too deeply ingrained. While the official terminology of the Roman Catholic Church remains Lord's Day, Second Day, Third Day, etc., most countries clung in whole or in part to planetary names for the days.
“The astrological influence is obviously even more pronounced around the fringes of the Roman Empire, where Christianity arrived only much later. English, Dutch, Breton, Welsh, and Cornish, which are the only European languages to have preserved to this day the original planetary names of all the seven days of the week, are all spoken in areas that were free of any Christian influence during the first centuries of our era, when the astrological week was spreading throughout the Empire.
“ ‘The ecclesiastical style of naming the week days was adopted by no nation except the Portuguese who alone use the terms Segunda Feria etc.’
“The fact that both the Julian calendar and the pagan planetary week have been accepted for use by Christians reveals an amalgamation of Christianity with paganism of which the apostle Paul warned when he wrote:
“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
“The pagan planetary week, like the Julian calendar that adopted it, is irreparably pagan. Historical facts reveal that neither the Biblical Sabbath nor the Biblical First Day can be found using the modern calendar. If it is important to worship on a specific day, than it is also important to know which calendar to use and when the change in calendation occurred.”
The Lunar Sabbath People Missed the Essence Here
But this article from the Vornholts is much like the previous one from Worlds Last Chance in presenting some interesting material from ancient history; but material which is largely irrelevant to the theme at hand and some of it is very incorrect--like the assertion of a eight-day weekly cycle in Rome, which simply didn’t exist. True, there were three market days anciently based somewhat on the moon phases in the lunar calendar; but this situation did not constitute eight-day weekly cycles and certainly not with the Julian calendar (although they were surely important to moon worshippers in ancient times as well as today).
Interestingly, the presentation of the stick calendar above is useful--not to prove an eight-day weekly cycle (which didn’t exist), but rather to prove a seven-day weekly cycle evidently in Italy with the seven pagan deities set forth in the calendar (though their sequence may or may not be relevant in this one instance, as the Vornholts try to assert, but this was in the West and not in the Scripturally conscious East; regardless, it supports a week of seven days and not eight as the Vornholts are attempting to prove).
In terms of the sequence of the seven pagan gods set forth in the above cited stick calendar, crystalinks.com has an article on the Ancient Roman Calendar which disputes the conclusion of the Vornholts as follows: “The days of the week were dedicated to the seven planets. They were (note the similarities of some of the days with French and Spanish and other Romance languages):
“Sunday Dies Solis (day of the sun)
Monday Dies Lunae (day of the moon)
Tuesday Dies Martis (day of Mars)
Wednesday Dies Mercuri (day of Mercury)
Thursday Dies Iovis (day of Jupiter)
Friday Dies Veneris (day of Venus)
Saturday Dies Saturni (day of Saturn)”
Thus, per the above cite, the placement of the days of the week in ancient Rome must have been consistent with what is present in the Julian-Gregory calendar that we follow today. There is no denying that the days in the seven-day week have come to be named after the pagan gods, just as is true with the months in the years have been named after the pagan gods (even in ancient, pre-Julian Rome with the pagan names attached to its lunar calendar and thereafter in Europe with the adoption of the Julian calendar).
Both of the above lunar advocating writings from Worlds Last Chance and the Vornholts, and a few similar ones found on the Internet, attempt to justify lunar Sabbaths based on moon phases as observed in ancient Rome and a few other places in Europe. As I note above, they both present some incorrect information and both are unscriptural and disrupt/alter the weekly cycle of seven days as established at creation in Genesis 1-2.
Certainly, none of this material from these lunar Sabbath proponents supports the theory of lunar Sabbaths (as I detail in the article at www.age-end.com on the Lunar Sabbath, at the right menu) and some of it is patently wrong. But I am including some of it above because it is interesting and it does show some of the depravity of pagan Christianity.
This writer is not taking issue with the fact that there were some persons in the Roman Empire in the West (in Europe) which may have kept a somewhat market cycle of eight or so days in part in very ancient times (before the Julian calendar and perhaps concurrently with it for a while from 45 to 27 BCE before the seven-day week was standardized). Over ten years ago, I noted that eight-day possibility in some parts of Europe in my work on the Calendar (volume 15) of Ezekiel and YHWH’s Judgment for the Good News People at www.age-end.com at the left menu herein.
But I am taking the stand that the weekly cycle (whether eight [or more or less] days in parts of Europe or seven days in the East) was an independent issue totally separate from the otherwise months and years presented in the beginning of the Julian calendar (though in time, the Julian calendar and its successor the Julian-Gregory calendar became standardized to show the seven-day weekly cycles as a part of the calendar).
In other words, the Julian/Gregory calendars did not establish the weekly cycle as observed by people in the West or East. True, the calendar has come to present the weekly cycles in the Julian-Gregory format; but they effectively did not establish the weekly cycles which long preceded the Julian calendar (by almost 4,000 years).
To the extent that any calendar may show the weeks does not pretend to establish the first week in antiquity and its continuity. All these calendars do is recognize their existence and set them forth with the Julian-Gregory months and year dates. In other words, the establishment and definition of the weekly cycle did not come from the works of Julius Caesar or Pope Gregory. When the Council of Nicaea addressed the weekly cycle in its calculation of Easter, it was only addressing the weekly cycle issue as already being an established fact from antiquity.
Consequently, this material above from the Vornholts and Worlds Last Chance is largely irrelevant to the question of the weekly cycles and their presence and role in establishing the Julian or Gregory calendars. Actually, the already in use weekly cycles (whether eight or whatever market days as found in some places in Europe or seven days as found in the East, by the Jews, and by believers of Genesis 1 and/or 2) had nothing whatsoever to do with the establishment of the months and years established by the Julian, Council of Nicaea and/or Pope Gregory actions.
My position and that of most Seventh-day Sabbath keepers is “so what” in terms of the message from the Vornholts and Worlds Last Chance. They are attempting to use the claim that there were some people in the ancient world in Europe using an eight-day (or five, seven, nine or 12 to 16-day), moon-phase, market cycle as proof someway that the Scriptural weekly cycle is tied to moon phases which have been altered and changed over the years to the present weekly cycle of seven days; and that the weekly cycle of seven days today in the Julian-Gregory calendar is not the one in Gen 1 and/or 2. But these persons have failed miserably in presenting any proof of what they are trying to put over.
Going further, the lunar Sabbath advocates of course hope to prove that their concept of the establishment of Sabbath days by the lunar cycle is someway the Scriptural position. Too bad, but they fail since their message about the lunar Sabbaths has nothing whatsoever to do with the weekly cycle of seven days established at creation. It’s like trying to compare an apple with a pecan nut. The two are not the same and should not be mixed as these lunar Sabbath people are trying to do.
Yet, I am presenting their arguments to first of all show that they are stupid and irrelevant to the issue at hand; and second to introduce the real theme of this presentation—that of a coming new world calendar which will do what the Vornholts and Worlds Last Chance are trying to do—alter and stop the continuous seven day weekly cycle since creation.
The Vornholts and Worlds Last Chance want to alter the weekly cycle of seven days to justify their hopes of having lunar Sabbaths based on the observable moon’s cycle instead of the weekly cycle that is not known or defined by astronomical events; but can be known and defined only on the basis of historical knowledge passed down from generation to generation. In other words, man can’t know the weekly cycle by watching the sun, moon, or stars. Instead, it can only be known through empirical knowledge passed down from believers and observers to succeeding generations.
To go back to my encounter with the arrogant and very uninformed Dave Barley in Sandpoint, Idaho, let me state that I don’t know what writing Barley had in his possession when he charged that he had one which proved changes in the seven-day weekly cycle/weekly Sabbath days in the Julian-Gregory calendar over the years. He probably was not referring to the work of these lunar Sabbath people since Barley and his mentor Emry were not lunar Sabbath observers. They seem to have been regular users of the Julian-Gregory calendar but users in the context that the weekly Sabbath day/weekly cycle had been changed in some way to make them unsure of which day is the seventh day in our time.
Regardless, I am presenting this lunar Sabbath nonsense as it is the only material that I can find which even alleges changes in the Julian calendar over the years that disrupted the weekly cycle. And again, this lunar Sabbath nonsense introduces the following material below which is very relevant to our time—a new calendar which will disrupt and alter the historic seven-day week cycle which goes back to creation in Genesis 1-2.
Age-End Efforts for a New Calendar
This takes us to modern efforts by secular people to do what the lunar Sabbath people hoped to do but failed miserably in their stupid works.
There are several different motions underway for a new world calendar which will do several things—including the disruption and alteration of the historic seven-day week which believers believe date to Genesis 1-2. About the only religious people who will be unaffected by this move will be the lunar Sabbath proponents, described above, who do not attribute the present seven-day weekly cycle to anything but paganism. They will be completely satisfied with a new world calendar which does disrupt the seven-day weekly cycle with an alteration of the Seventh-day Sabbath as stipulated in the fourth commandment of the Decalogue (Ex 20:8-11).
LawOfTime.org has this on one of the more kooky efforts as set forth by Dr. José Argüelles, Office of Universal Calendar Reform, in his article on Why We Need a New Calendar:
“On the Gregorian calendar, January 24th happens to be my birthday. That is why I took special note of a news story brought to my attention the other day. The headline read: ‘Monday, Jan. 24, called worst day of the year.’ The subheadline states, ‘British psychologist calculates most depressing day.’ It was the calculations of Dr. Cliff Arnall, a psychologist at the University of Cardiff, Wales, who specializes in ‘seasonal disorders,’ that most aroused my curiosity.
“The news story states that Dr. Arnall created a formula that takes into account numerous feelings to devise people's lowest point. The model is: {W + (D-d)} x TQ, M x NA
“The equation is broken down into six identifiable factors; (W) weather, (D) debt, (d) monthly salary, (T) time since Christmas, (Q) time since failed quit attempt, (M) low motivational levels and (NA) the need to take action.
“This highly amusing piece of academic psychology perfectly demonstrates how a calendar is the macroprogramming device of the culture or society that uses it. This research has no meaning if you are not following the Gregorian calendar and, consequently, living in a consumer based society programmed by that calendar to have its peak spending experience in the last month of its calendar year. This peak consumer blowout is followed by the calendar's ‘new year's’ program in which the excesses of the holiday season are redeemed by some kind of resolution - which, according to Dr. Arnall's research, holds no longer than the first seven days of the new year. The formula devised by Dr. Arnall pivots on the underlying philosophy of the Gregorian calendar, ‘time is money.’ After all, the word ‘calendar’ itself is derived from a Latin word meaning ‘account book.’
“This piece of research we call ‘thinking inside of the box.’ It is riddled with unexamined assumptions, due to a lack of awareness that the investigations are totally limited by the unexamined box within which they are operating. The box, in this case, is the Gregorian calendar as an annually repeating mental program. Take away the Gregorian programming device and what do you have? The emperor without any clothes.
“Of course, Dr. Arnall was conducting his research in the UK, so his findings are valid for the UK, or possibly most of the Western consumer world governed by the Gregorian calendar. But just to show how relative these findings are and how arbitrary are the behavioral conditionings of the Gregorian calendar, consider what happens if you live in a society that does not follow this calendar. What if that day was, instead, Dhul -hajj? Hmm. You've just completed the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Not much depression there, unless you are thinking about those Americans in Iraq. Or how about Hong Kong or Shanghai - it's Ding Jou, and you're thinking, ‘The real New Year is still two weeks away!’ Yet Dr. Arnall presents his findings as if there were no other way things could be.
“According to Dr. Arnall's findings, the Gregorian calendar programs you for debt, depression and spiritual failure. And you are powerless about it. Why follow a calendar that programs you for depression, that saddles you with worries about when you have to pay your bills, and whether your salary will compensate your debt? Or even worse, why go along with a calendar with a built-in loser streak syndrome so that, like an alcoholic who can't get a grip, you are set up to break your new year's resolutions - by Dr. Arnall's calculations - one week later? Yes, programmed for spiritual failure!
“Add to that, that next year, January 24th won't fall on a Monday. Monday being the beginning of the work week is always more depressing, for instance, than Friday. So will the most depressing day be January 23, which will fall on a Monday? Which gets to another point: The irrational irregularity and lack of coherent order to the Gregorian calendar. Not only does it program you for depression, debt fear, and spiritual failure, it also programs you to get numbed-out when you think about time. The days of the week and the days of the month never correlate. It is hard to figure anything out that way. It affects your mind when the most you can say about the calendar is ‘30 days hath September, etc.’ Is this the way it will always hopelessly be in the dominant civilization of planet Earth, or is there a better way?
“We need a new Calendar! Of course a new calendar would also mean a new society and a new way of doing things. For precisely that reason, the world has not gotten a new calendar - despite the appeals of common sense and many noble efforts over the past century and a half.
“The problem has been that we always need to wait for the Vatican, the President or Congress, or the UN to approve the new calendar. As society has gotten more complex, the odds of it happening this way have decreased. But that has only made the programming of the old calendar that much worse. We can't wait any longer. The old time is literally killing us. Waiting for the decision topdown - forget it. The thing to do now is to change the calendar yourself.
“That's right. The way to beat the hopeless depression built-in to the old calendar is to begin to live by a standard that is harmonic and which might make you hopelessly happy, because it is harmonic.
“I speak from experience. I no longer follow the old calendar. I live by a different calendar in which there is no January 24th, but instead, the date is Resonant Moon, Dali 15. In fact, there is no more September, November, June or July, much less Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. All the millennia of worry and superstition loaded into those names is gone for me. So I don't have anything to get depressed about. But I do have something new to learn and new values to program into my habits and character. Values like peace and harmony and cooperation and joy. Maybe I was prescient and knew that if I changed the calendar my birthday wouldn't have to be the worst day of the year anymore! It is a sweet irony that, as a figurehead in a world-wide movement to change the calendar, my birthday would happen to fall on the ‘most depressing day’ of the old calendar year!
“Since 1989, I have promoted a new calendar, a perfect harmonic standard of thirteen months of 28 days each. The idea has caught on. Today more and more people from over 90 countries worldwide are doing the same thing. They are not waiting for the Vatican or the UN to say it is OK. They are following a new calendar that they know will help make them happier, more peaceful human beings, and, if adopted by all humans, would bring peace to the human race. The numbers of people adopting the new calendar increase as we see typical news stories trapped in the hopelessness of the old time: ‘Terrorism in 2020 will be even more sophisticated and impossible to track.’ Or ‘By 2033 one third of the world's population will live in slums.’ or ‘By 2015 there will be a major water shortage.’ Or ‘By 2010 the Gulf Stream won't be flowing.’
“You see, a calendar that is a hopeless irregularity cannot be programmed for peace or harmony - only for irregularity. And with a calendar in which depression and irregularity are routinely programmed you will only add to the helplessness felt in the face of an increasingly complex world where depression, we are told by WHO (World Health Organization), only increases as more and more jobs are spent shackled to a computer. The fact is, there is no way we can keep the information revolution from crushing us from an avalanche of unregulated information - enough new gigabytes of information in 2002, if translated into books, that would have required 37,000 new Libraries of Congress! Mentally you can't even cope with that. The old calendar only enhances the hopelessness.
“These are just a few more reasons why we need a new calendar. We've already built the tower of Babel. We can't hear ourselves think anymore and there is too much to choose from to even begin to be able to discriminate. We have to start over again on a new, more streamlined, more harmonious program. We need to call a ‘Time out from war!’ in order to change to a new time. And in that ‘time out’ we can say, ‘Let's put down our guns for a little while and see what it's like to live without them so we can shift gears. We've run out of time for anything else!’
“Though there is a professor at Johns Hopkins University who says he's got a new calendar ready for next January 1, 2006 - a variation of the Gregorian calendar - there is already a large worldwide movement of people following a new calendar, a really new calendar. It's called the Thirteen Moons of Peace. And the movement to change the calendar is called the World Thirteen Moon calendar Change Peace Movement. The world-wide organization networking this movement is called the Planet Art Network AN), while the Foundation for the Law of Time is its information source and coordinating base. Since the mass media still has not discovered this Movement, here are a few consciousness raising facts about it:
“Beat the depression. Beat the end of the world. Change the calendar! It is already an evolutionary movement in progress. 2012 is the deadline. We can meet it!”
In another approach, which is tied to ancient Mayan sun worship, 12-12-12.org had this in an article entitled 11.150 The New Civil Calendar December 22, 2012 (01/01/01 ACH):
“I have decided to merge ALL the civil calendars of the World into a new Global one. Of course, religious calendars based on lunar cycles will continue for those who wish to use them while the moon as we know it exists.
“I direct businesses to start planning now for the 1 ACH computer bug. The date December 22nd 2012 will be replaced with the date ‘1st of ……. in the year 01’ and be written 01/01/01 dd/mm/yy format. ‘A C H’ stands for ‘Anno Concordia Humanus’ which in Latin means ‘in the year the human race became civilised’.
“Effective at one second past midnight on December 22nd 2012, the new civil calendar celebrating Global Peace and security will be born. It will mark several days of celebrations starting from December 12th, 2012 until the end of the first new day of the new calendar.
“From 1 ACH all months will be 30 days in length with the exception of the 12th month every year, which will be 35. Leap years will cease as you know them. They will be replaced with a 3 day leap year every twelve years, starting in 12 ACH (2025 CE). Special events, celebrations and festivals will take place throughout the universe every time Earth has a leap year in future.
“As a sign of observance by the manufacturers of ‘western’ diaries, I direct all diaries from 2003 to start on December 12th and end on December 31st. The extra 20 days will cost hardly anything to manufacture or store. So do it .
“Why have I chosen December 22nd and not December 12th to either mark the end or start of the new year? Well, it's not for religious ‘sun’ worship purposes. I'm happy when it's a sunny day, but I don't worship astronomical phenomenon such as stars. Neither is it as a sign of acceptance to the Mayan belief that the end of the 5th Age (or epoch) will occur sometime between December 21 2012 and December 23 2012. No, it's because I am a neat, organised sort of person and want the winter/summer solstice to mark planetary year boundaries regardless of planet. It's much more tidy to use a cosmic standard.
“(Here's an interesting coincidence for those who like this sort of thing. Compare Mayan Chronology with Biblical Chronology. Note the death of the first man Adam is in the same (all inclusive) year as the start of the Mayan 5th Epoch).
“I have also decided that the new calendar will replace all references to egotistical Roman Emperors and tribal ‘Gods’ by renaming all the months. I have already decided the new naming convention but am still open to suggestions.”
The UN Calendar Reform
While the above two works probably will never see daylight, there is still one more underway from the UN which may become reality, perhaps in 2012 or later.
Aristean.org had this on UN plans in an article on WORLD CALENDAR REFORM as follows:
“Communication dated 28 October from the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations to the Secretary-General
“The Secretary-General circulates to the members of the Council the following communication received from the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations:
“WORLD CALENDAR REFORM
“The Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations presents his compliments to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and has the honour to state that the Government of India consider that the plan for the reform of the Gregorian Calendar (Annex I) proposed by the ‘World Calendar Association, Inc.’, (630 Fifth Avenue, New York 20, N.Y.) is of great importance to the nations of the world. The purpose of the plan is to adopt for the whole world, from 1 January 1956, a new, fixed, uniform and invariable calendar, regulated astronomically according to the movement of the Earth around the Sun, and more regular, scientific and advantageous than the Gregorian Calendar. It is, therefore, requested that the plan for the reform of the calendar be included in the agenda for the eighteenth session of the Economic and Social Council to be held in 1954.
“An explanatory memorandum on the subject is enclosed.
“E/2514 Annex English
“Memorandum on the question of World Calendar Reform
“I The ideal of the whole world is to have a logical and perpetual calendar to replace the present Gregorian Calendar, because it is widely recognized that the calendar we now use is unsatisfactory for the economic, social, educational, scientific and other activities of man. Modern progress demands the change.
“Such a revision has been the subject of study and research on the part of experts, institutions and international organizations for many years. The consensus of opinion is that a new time system is necessary, adhering to the customary twelve months; but that it should be uniform; an invariable calendar, perpetually the same, more regular, scientific and advantageous from every point of view than the present Gregorian Calendar.
II Our present Calendar is to all intents and purposes, the same as that introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC which, due to its irregularity and the time difference caused by erroneous length of the year, was corrected and readjusted in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII.
“The divisions in the Gregorian Calendar of year, months, quarters and half-years are of unequal length, the months being from twenty-eight to thirty-one days. As a result, the number of days in the four quarters are, respectively, ninety (ninety-one in a leap year), ninety-one, ninety-two and ninety-two. As a result, again, the first half year, contains two or three days less than the second. The number of weeks in the quarters and half-years is also unequal. There is consequently considerable confusion and uncertainty in economic dealings and in the preparations and analysis of statistics and accounts. The comparability of salaries, interest, insurance, pensions, leases and rent of one period of the year with another is greatly vitiated due to the unequal length of months which have from 24 to 27 weekdays plus Sundays.
“Further, the calendar is not fixed and changes each year. The year, in fact, consists of fifty-two weeks plus one or two days. Thus, if the first day of the year is a Sunday, in the following year it is a Monday (or even a Tuesday in the case of a leap year). The exact reproduction of the calendar of any year only takes place once every twenty-eight years. Thus, the day of the month falls each year on a different day of the week from the one on which it fell the previous year.
“Consequently, the dates of periodical events can never be fixed with precision. Such a date can in fact, only be determined in two ways: either by the day of the month (15th August for example) or by the day of the week in the month (the third Tuesday in October). If the day of the month is fixed for periodical events, this day may sometimes fall on a Sunday or general holiday. Each year the authorities have, therefore, to make a special decision, as for instance for the meeting of a tribunal, the convocation of Parliament, the dates of holidays, fairs, markets, the fixing of summer-time, etc. On the other hand, if a special day (the first Monday in the month, for example) is fixed for these events, other difficulties arise, as the date corresponding to this day varies continually from month to month and from year to year. If the calendar were fixed, the dates of these events could be fixed once and for all. They would fall on the same dates as well as on the same days of the week.
“The greatest drawback from a statistical and commercial point of view is that, since the various days of the week are not of the same value as regards volume of trade, and the years and the months do not from year to year include the same number of individual weekdays, there can be no genuine statistical comparison between one year and another, while the various subdivisions of the year itself -- the half years, quarters and months -- are likewise incapable of comparison.
“III The proposed scheme of the World Calendar has overcome all the above drawbacks of the present Gregorian Calendar. It is scientific, uniform, stable and perpetual with but one unvarying calendar every year. It retains the present 12 months; thus the four quarters are always equal; each quarter has 3 months, 13 weeks, or 91 days, beginning on Sunday and ending on Saturday; each month contains an exact number of 26 working days plus Sundays; and days and dates always agree from year to year, and holidays are permanently fixed. The calendar remains identical from year to year. It offers harmony and order to all strata of society -- government, finance, industry, labour, retail trade, administration of justice, homelife, transportation and education. All statistics compiled on the basis of a month, a quarter or a year are strictly comparable with one another.
“IV The 365th day of the year in the World Calendar is proposed to be an international holiday, without any weekday name, dedicated simultaneously in every country of the world to the universal harmony and unity of mankind, thus knitting all races, creeds, peoples and nations into a closer bond of fellowship, creating world-wide citizenship in the ‘One World’. The potentialities of ‘Worldsday’ for strengthening and promoting international peace among all nations are of great value.
“In leap years another similar international holiday is interposed between 30 June and 1 July.
“V The only feasible time for adopting a new calendar is when both the old and the new calendars coincide, enabling the changeover to be instituted with a minimum of disturbance. Both the outgoing Gregorian and the incoming World Calendars coincide on Sunday, 1 January 1956, giving the nations of the world two years' time to prepare for this significant and historical reform if adopted by the United Nations now.
“VI The subject of Calendar Reform has been exhaustively studied by the United Nations Secretariat as shown in a report by the Secretary-General in document E/465, dated 14 July 1947. It gives the entire history of the movement and the progress made up to that time. The report concludes that the proposal ‘is the plan which has received the most favourable comments.’”
In mentioning the so called benefits to be derived in making such a calendar change is when the cycles converge/coincide on a Sunday on Jan 1. Such a convergence surfaces on Jan 1, 2012 which will be a Sunday.
2012.tribe.net had this on New world calendar starting 2012? Which noted that the present Christian calendar is disrespectful to all other religions of the world and therefore proposed a call for a new calendar. This one suggests that 2012 would be a good date to start a new calendar.
The Bottom Line
While the hopes of the lunar Sabbath people and the above kooky calendars cited above must be discounted, it would be foolishness to ignore the push for a new world calendar at the UN. The proposal from India has proven to be the most likely one and especially since it has much support from Khazar Jew-led commercial interests and the present push for world government. With the current Khazar imposed depression worldwide, the views for a new calendar will receive a new focus for sure in 2012.
By having four calendar quarters which are exactly the same in days, weeks, months and years, commercial interests will find it the best of all. Since this count of 52 seven-day weeks totaling 364 days, twelve months of 364 days, and four quarters exactly the same totaling 364 days, it only leaves one or two extra days which can be accounted for as world holidays and not counted in the cycles (these world holidays will disrupt the seven-day weekly cycle when inserted). We must not rule such a future out. It is very probably on the way. The only question is when.
For purposes of observing the Seventh day Sabbath, such a calendar event will be as disastrous to man as the idiotic lunar Sabbath proposals cited above. The weekly cycle will be disrupted to bring on a new Sabbath every time a world holiday is intercalated into the system (which will be one or two times a year). We must not rule this out. It could easily happen soon.
THE END
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