Thoughts on the Lunar Sabbath

By Eugene Prewitt

In the last decade several persons have approached me with data that they understood to promote  lunar Sabbath calculation. They believed that the weekly cycle gets a fresh start each month so that the Sabbath always falls on the 8^th, 15^th, 22^nd, and 29^th of a given lunar month.

Practically, this means that while there are generally seven days from Sabbath to Sabbath, there are eight or nine days between the 29^th Sabbath and the next 8^th Sabbath. The last of these days, the eighth and/or ninth day, as lunar Sabbath proponents understand, is a new moon day. As such it is not counted as a work week.

I have concluded that the data in support of this idea is faulty. Various parts of it are either speculative, strained, inference-based, or uninspired. Whether approached Biblically or from the Testimonies, the idea has not stood up to scrutiny.

The Assertions

First, let me summarize the nature of evidence that I have seen so far as given in support of the idea.

1.  It is suggested that Sabbath falls on the 15^th of three Biblical months in a row (the three months beginning with the Exodus from Egypt). As moon cycles are only 29.5 days long, the Sabbath could not fall on three of them in a row unless the Sabbath was lunar based.

2.  It is asserted that no Sabbath in scripture can be shown to occur on any day other than an 8^th, 15^th, 22^nd, or 29^th of a lunar cycle. As only about 15% of Gregorian-style Sabbaths fall on those days, this is taken as corroborative evidence for lunar Sabbaths.

3.  It is asserted that the lunar calendar was essential to the determination of the date October 22, 1844. As this calendar has been affirmed by Ellen White when she validated that date, it must be a valid calendar. And if the calendar is right for calculating feast-day dates, it must be right for calculating Sabbath dates as Sabbaths are among the feasts.

4.  It is asserted that ancient authorities trace the seven-day week to Babylonian sources and that the Jews anciently kept the Sabbath on a lunar basis. This Jewish habit was changed by the Roman power and is the reason that Jews currently honor Saturday as found on the Gregorian calendar.

5.  Circumstantial evidence, it is asserted, points to Lunar Sabbaths in the time of Joshua, Solomon, and Hezekiah, and Paul.

6.  The New Moons do not count as “working days” and so there are still 6 working days in each weekly cycle in the new moon calendar.

While other thoughts have appeared here and there in lunar documentation, these are the ones that appear repeatedly in the documents I have read. What appears in not one of the documents is a “thus saith the Lord” teaching that new moons interrupt the weekly cycle.