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This page was last updated on 26 July, 2018.
6+1 disproves the Luni-Solar calendar?





Yellow = New Moon Day (NMD)
White = Work day.
Brown = Sabbath.















Lev 23:3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; you shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.

Using the 8, 15, 22, 29 system breaks the above command 12 or 13x a year.
Does that invalidate the calendar? I don’t think so because if it did all calendars in existence break that command.

A continues cycle of 6+1=7 days, be it on the Gregorian or present Jewish calendar, seems to be perfect because it never breaks Lev 23:3. Wrong! All calendars are breaking Lev 23:5 by God’s own command as I will prove.


Not 8 or 9 working days in a row
It’s often claimed the luni-solar day means 8 or 9 work days between Sabbaths. That’s half true.  There are indeed 8 days between the last Sabbath of the month and the first Sabbath of the next month when it’s a 29 day month. During a 30 day month that’s 9 days.


In a 30 day month Sabbath of the 29th would be kept in a normal way. 30th would be a regular work day. After that the 1st of the next month follows. *

In a 29 day month Sabbath of the 29th would be kept in a normal way. Immediately after that the 1st of the next month follows. *

* = The 1st of the next month is a New Moon day click here for a Scriptural definition of that day. As a summary I can say the rules concerning this day are somewhere between a regular Sabbath and a regular work day.

So while there can be 8 or 9 days between 2 full blown Sabbath day, they are never more that 6 full blown work days between Sabbaths. In a way the calendar gives more instead of less rest because New Moon days are extra days that somebody has to work hard. It’s also an extra worship day because the Temple is open on that day. When someone is in the Temple he/she isn’t at work. Plus there are restrictions on certain things that day so the workload gets even less. A bit like  4.5 Sabbath day a month.


Obvious exceptions
I’m wondering how literal Lev 23:3 should be taken because many people are obviously excluded from that command. Sick people, very young children, women in the last days of pregnancy, very old people, people without a job, farmers during the winter, handicapped people, newly weds being in ‘the room’ for 7 days, guests at their wedding, people on holiday, people that are so rich they don’t need to work, etc. They all work less than 6 days a week. So at best it can be argued “A maximum of 6 days in a row.”


Drift
Because a continuous cycle of 6+1=7 days never fits in a month the (Sabbath) days will fall on a different day of the month each time. For example the first Sunday of 2014 fell on 5 January while the first Sunday of 2015 falls on 4 January. Likewise the weekday of your birthday varies every year too. On the Luni-Solar calendar those days would always fall on the same date/day in the calendar. Except if you were born on a leap day. But that so on every calendar.


Feast of Trumpets and Atonement Day

Lev 23:24 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, (Tishri 1) shall you have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.
Lev 23:27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month (Tishri 10) there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation to you; and you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.

Both the 1st and the 10th day are annual Sabbath days. Days no work is allowed to be done. Needless to say there is no way  a 6+1 cycle fits  between those days. Is this command from God conflicting with Lev 23:3. Or is it more likely that God’s command don’t conflict at all and 6+1 is misunderstood?


Feast of Tabernacles

Lev 23:34 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth (Tishri 15) day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days to the LORD.
Lev 23:35 On the first day shall be an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.
Lev 23:36 Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD: on the eighth day (Tishri 22) shall be an holy convocation to you; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and you shall do no servile work therein.

The 6+1 cycle only fits when Tishri 15 and 22 are weekly Sabbaths. Because the weekly Sabbath floats on the calendar the 6+1 cycle will be broken often.




















Green = Weekly Sabbath.
Yellow = Annual Sabbath.
Red = Annual and weekly Sabbath fall on the same day.

The left column shows the date on the Hebrew calendar. The numbers in the other columns are the days of the week. 1=Sunday,….. 7=Saturday.


The picture shows us several things:
a] The 6+1 pattern is broken several times because of the 3 annual feasts.
b] The amount of weekly Sabbaths varies.
c] The date of weekly Sabbath’s varies due to the drift. Every column shows one of the seven possible days of the week.

The Lunar Sabbath only ‘suffers’ from point a. If a continuous 6+1 is true.
Please note that the effects of the annual Sabbaths are also noticed in the week before and after those annual Sabbaths because those weeks are in most cases also ‘broken’ by the annual Sabbaths.


Feast of Unleavened Bread

Lev 23:5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD's passover.
Lev 23:6 And on the fifteenth (Nisan 15) day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the LORD: seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
Lev 23:7 In the first day you shall have an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.
Lev 23:8 But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD seven days: in the seventh (Nisan 21)day is an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.

Again we see each and every annual Feast that doesn’t fall on a weekly Sabbath breaks the 6+1 week/cycle.



Error correction
Assume there was a continuous 6+1 cycle since beginning of time. If for whatever reason a mistake was made in the 6+1 count the Sabbath would be celebrated on the wrong day ever after unless it's corrected (by another mistake). Such a mistake is much harder to make on the LuniSolar calendar because a trained eye can see the day by looking at the moon. If the count went wrong anyway it would be corrected at the next new moon.


God mentions 3 fixed work days

Exod 12:2 This month shall be to you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
Exod 12:3 Speak you to all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day  of this month they shall take (=trading lambs) to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:
Exod 12:4 And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
Exod 12:5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: you shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
Exod 12:6 And you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill (=work) it in the evening.

Lev 23:5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD's passover.
Lev 23:6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the LORD: seven days you must eat unleavened bread. Lev 23:7 In the first day you shall have an holy convocation (=Sabbath): you shall do no servile work therein.
Lev 23:10 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you be come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest:
Lev 23:11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath (16th) the priest shall wave (=work) it.  

In the above verses God states that 10, 14 and 16 Nisan are work days. That makes a continues 6+1 cycle impossible because Sabbath would once in a while fall on those days.


Clement

‘Neither worship as the Jews...[for] if the moon is not visible, they do not hold the Sabbath, which is called the first; nor do they hold the new moon, nor the feast of Unleavened Bread, nor the Feast, nor the Great Day’”
The Stromata, chapter 5). Clement of Alexandria (circa 150-215 A.D.)

Clement shows that during the second century the Jews still observed weeks synced to the new moon.


Ezekiel

Ezek 46:1 Thus said the Lord GOD; The gate of the inner court that looks toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.

Ezek 46:3 Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the LORD in the sabbaths and in the new moons.

2Kgs 4:23 And he said, Why will you go to him to day? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well.

Amos 8:5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

Three types of days are mentioned in the above verses:

As proven on this page New Moon day isn’t a working day; that means an unbroken 6+1 is flawed because that New Moon Day isn’t part of ‘6’ and neither is it part of ‘1’.
Some may argue that God just repeated Himself and a New Moon day is a Sabbath day. If that were so then that would mean a new month (signaled by a new moon) always starts with a Sabbath.  That isn’t so on the Gregorian calendar or present day Jewish calendar. And even if it was 6+1 doesn’t fit in a month there is no way to have whole 6+1 weeks fitting in 29 or 30 days. So the verse proves the calendar that most Christians use is wrong.


Exodus math

Num 33:3 And they departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the morrow after the passover the children of Israel went out with an high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians.


Lev 23:5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD's passover.

Lev 23:6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the LORD: seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

Lev 23:7 In the first day you shall have an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.


The 15th day of the 1st month is a Sabbath.



Exod 16:1 And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

.....

22 And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.

23 And he said to them, This is that which the LORD has said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath to the LORD: bake that which you will bake to day, and seethe that you will seethe; and that which remains over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

They arrived on the 15th (v1). Plus 6 days later (v23) makes the 21st. The next day (v23) is the 22nd a Sabbath.


As you see in the diagram below it’s impossible to have a Sabbath day on both the 15th and on the 22nd of the next month when using the 6+1 cycle.
Using the Luni-Solar calendar this no problem at all. This example proves without any doubt the 6+1 calendar is wrong.




Conclusion: This calendar does not conflict with Lev 23:3; but the 6+1 calendar does conflict with lots of Scripture

◊──────────────────◊──────────────────◊

Philo

“And this feast is begun on the fifteenth day of the month, in the middle of the month, on the day on which the moon is full of light, in consequence on the providence of Elohim taking care that there shall be no darkness on that day.” Philo’s Special Laws II, The Fifth Festival, Section XXVIII (155)

A full moon on the 15th.

“The moon… perfects… in its own configurations on each seventh day…” [Sabbath]. Works of Philo translated by C.D. Yonge Allegorical Interpretation I, IV (8, 9) I VI (16) pp. 25-26

“…like a full moon at the height of its increase at the end of the second week…” Works of Philo, translated by C.D. Yonge, January 2000, On Mating with Preliminary Studies, XIX (102) p.313

Full moon at the end of the second week. 2x7=14th. Philo doesn’t contradict his previous quote; no he proves the two weeks come after the new moon day. 2x7=14+1=15.

New moon day is proven to be not part of a regular week, and that proves that unbroken 6+1 cycle is wrong.



“…there is one principle of reason by which the moon waxes and wanes in equal intervals, both as it increases and diminishes in illumination; the seven lambs because it receives the perfect shapes in periods of seven days—the half-moon in the first seven day period after its conjunction with the sun, full moon in the second; and when it makes its return again, the first is to half-moon, then it ceases at its conjunction with the sun.” Philo, Special Laws I, (178)

that star having the greatest sympathy with the things on earth.  And the changes which the moon works in the air, it perfects chiefly in accordance with its own configurations on each seventh day.  At all events, all mortal things, as I have said before, drawing their more divine nature from the heaven, are moved in a manner which tends to their preservation in accordance with this number seven.  … Accordingly, on the seventh day, Elohim caused to rest from all his works which he had made.”
Philo, Allegorical Interpretation, 1, Section IV (8-9), Section VI (16)

Philo ends with stating God rested on the seventh day and by that he states all those seven in the above quote also mean Sabbath.


“…the Hebrew Sabbathon … was celebrated at intervals of seven days, corresponding with changes in the moon’s phases...”
Encyclopedia Biblica, 1899. p. 4180

At first sight that quote seems to support a continuous 6+1 cycle, but that assumption can easily be proven wrong. A month is 29.54 days long and rounded to 29 or 30 days.  It’s impossible to fit multiples of 7 in a 29, 29.54 or 30 day month. 4x7=28. The remaining days don’t fit in the ‘intervals of seven days’, so it can’t mean a unbroken 6+1 day cycle.
The Sabbath also is aligned with the phases of the moon. Impossible. Instead of explaining why I just point to a any source with a Jewish calendar. You will see they start their month with the new moon but week day they start the month on changes every month. If you look a little further you see their Sabbaths most often don’t align with the phases of the moon.

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Traveling
We all know that at all times half of the earth is dark and half of the earth has daylight. The boundary of dawn (‘dawn-line’) slowly moves over the earth; completing its cycle in 24 hours.

If we start traveling at noon, when the sun is in it’s highest point in the sky, toward the rising sun at exactly the same speed as the ‘dawn-line’, then we would always live at noon time…


Imagine a group of nomads that keep a continuous 6+1 calendar. They decide to split up. One group travels east toward the rising sun. The other group travels west toward the setting sun. After many miles of walking the 2 groups meet each other exactly halfway the of the earth. Both groups have very accurately kept track of time.

When they meet the east traveling group will be 12 hours ahead of time. The west traveling group 12 hours behind of time relative to their starting point.
The would keep their Sabbath rest 1 full day differently. That’s the reason we have a dateline.

The problem wouldn’t exist when they would have kept the calendar shown on this site because the months are re-synced to NMD (New moon day) every month. The NMD starts at dawn after conjunction.  Because the time of dawn differs from where you are on earth the calendar get’s automatically synced to the location on earth. That means that depending in which direction you travel the months get a little longer or shorter.

So the 2 nomad groups do experience different times/starts of their Sabbath days. At the extreme one group lives at midnight and the other group at noon. But as they move closer to their meeting point their starting point of the day moves closer together. Simply because the sunrise they experience gets closer and closer until they meet. Then they both experience the same sunrise. And with that the same start of the month. And with that the same Sabbaths.

They would still have that 2x12 hour difference but live on the same calendar date. And that 2x12 hour difference is just a theoretical thing because in reality their days begin at dawn.


The above example may look like theoretical nonsense, but it isn’t. Timekeeping started at the Garden of Eden and from there spread over the whole world. And with the whole world populated and people migrated from different places it can’t be that God planned for several Sabbath days during the week depending from were your ancestors came.


Gen 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years.

Ps 104:19 He appointed the moon for seasons. The sun knows his going down.

H4150
moed
BDB Definition:
1) appointed place, appointed time, meeting
  1a) appointed time
    1a1) appointed time (general)
    1a2) sacred season, set feast, appointed season
1b) appointed meeting
1c) appointed place
1d) appointed sign or signal
1e) tent of meeting

◊──────────────────◊──────────────────◊


Quotes showing the link between moon phases and Sabbaths


"On the eighth of the month, the moon rules all the day in the midst of the sky...and when the sun sets, its light ceases to be obscured, and thus the moon begins to be revealed on the first day of the week".
The Dead Sea Scrolls, A New Translation, pp 301-303  

When using a continuous seven day cycle the moon starts on a different day of the week each month.



Later on, in the second century A.D., proof that the Jews were still keeping the Sabbath day according to the lunar week can be found in the writings of Clement of Alexandria (circa 150-215 A.D.): "[Peter] inferred thus: 'Neither worship as the Jews...[For] if the moon is not visible they do not hold the Sabbath

The Stromata, or Miscellanies, chapter 5).



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. "This intimate connection," records the Encyclopedia Biblica, "between the week and the month was soon dissolved.

The MacMillan Company, 1899, p. 5290



The [lunar]...calendar was used by all the original disciples of Yeshua...This original Nazarene lunar-solar calendar was supplanted by a Roman "planetary week" and calendar in 135 C.E. -- when the "Bishops of the Circumcision" (i.e. legitimate Nazarene successors to Yeshua) were displaced from Jerusalem. This began a three hundred year controversy concerning the true calendar and the correct Sabbath


The [early] Hebrews employed lunar seven-day weeks, which ended with special observances on the seventh day, but none the less were tied to the moon’s course.
Rest Days, p. 254-255 by Hutton Webster


. . . the Jewish festivals being regulated solely by the moon, may fall on any day of the [Roman] week.
Oxford English Dictionary, 1971 Edition, Vol. 2, “Pentecost.”


The invention of the continuous week was therefore one of the most significant breakthroughs in human beings’ attempts to break away from being prisoners of nature [and from under God’s law] and create a social world of their own.”
The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week, Eviator Zerubavel, New York: The Free Press, 1985. p.11.



These imported [from Babylon] superstitions eventually led Jewish rabbis to call Saturn Shabbti, ‘the star of the Sabbath.’ [and] it was not until the first century of our era, when the planetary week had become an established institution, that the Jewish Sabbath seems always to have corresponded to Saturn’s Day [Saturday].
Rest Days, p.244 by Hutton Webster


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. 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.
…
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.
Encyclopedia Biblica, 1903


It should be noted that the oldest dated Christian inscription to employ a planetary designation [Sunday – Saturday, unbroken cycle of weeks] belongs to the year 269 A.D. Inscriptiones Christianae urbis Romae, ed. De Rossi, 1861, i, No. 1. We shall be taken for Persians [Mithraists], perhaps . . . The reason for this, I suppose, is that it is known that we pray towards the east . . . Likewise, if we devote the day of the Sun to festivity (from a far different reason from Sun worship), we are in a second place from those who devote the day of Saturn, themselves also deviating by way of a Jewish custom of which they are ignorant.
Tertullian, Apologia.


Sabbath and New Moon (Rosh Hodesh), both periodically recur in the course of the year. The New Moon is still, and the Sabbath originally was, dependent upon the lunar cycle.
Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 410.


The connection of the Sabbath with lunar phases, however, was (later) discarded by the Israelites
The New Schaff–Herzog Religious Encyclopedia, p. 135-136.


It is powerfully urged by the believers in a primitive Sabbath, that we find from time immemorial the knowledge of a week of 7 days among all nations — Egyptians, Arabians, Indians — in a word, all the nations of the East, have in all ages made use of this week of 7 days, for which it is difficult to account without admitting that this knowledge was derived from the common ancestors [Adam and Eve] of the human race. Among all early nations the lunar months were the readiest large divisions of time. . . In order to connect the reckoning by weeks with the lunar month, we find that all ancient nations observed some peculiar solemnities to mark the day of the New Moon. Accordingly, in the Mosaic law the same thing was also enjoined (Numbers 10:10; 28:11, etc.), though it is worthy of remark that, while particular observances are here enjoined, the idea of celebrating the New Moon in some way is alluded to as if already familiar to them. In other parts of the Bible, we find the Sabbaths and New Moons continually spoken of in conjunction; as (Isaiah 1:13, etc.) the division of time by weeks prevailed all over the East, from the earliest periods among the Assyrians, Arabs, & Egyptians. It was found among the tribes in the interior of Africa….The Peruvians counted their months by the moon . . . without having any particular names for the week days.
The Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopedia 1904. Vol. 3, p. 1497.


A continuous seven-day cycle that runs throughout history paying no attention whatsoever to the moon and its phases is a distinctively Jewish invention [based upon principles from Babylon and Egypt]. Moreover, the dissociation of the seven-day week from nature has been one of the most significant contributions of Judaism to civilization...it facilitated the establishment of what Lewis Mumford identified as “mechanical periodicity thus essentially increasing the distance between human beings and nature.

Quasi weeks [weeks whose cycle restarts with the New Moon] and weeks [continuously cycling] actually represent two fundamentally distinct modes of temporal organization of human life, the former involving partial adaptation to nature, and the latter stressing total emancipation from it. The invention of the continuous week was therefore one of the most significant breakthroughs in human beings’ attempts to break away from being prisoners of nature [time beaconed by the sun, moon, and stars] and create a social world of their own. (The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week, Eviatar Zerubavel, New York: The Free Press, 1985. P.11)

It was only in Alexandria [Egypt] that three distinct practices that had evolved quite independently of the Chaldean planetary theory -- an astronomical practice of arranging the seven planets in a certain invariable order, a mathematical practice of subdividing the daily cycle into twenty-four hours, and an astrological theory known as the doctrine of “Chronocratores” -- were nevertheless integrated with it so as to produce the astrological seven-day week in its final form. This cycle is therefore the product of the successful Hellenistic fusion of astronomy, astrology, and mathematics, as well as the great cultural heritage of Egypt, Babylonia, and Greece. (The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week, Eviatar Zerubavel, New York: The Free Press, 1985. p.14)


The Babylonians, at a very early period, divided their months into seven-day cycles.... (Ancient History, Hutton Webster, p. 20)


The change, from a lunar to a fixed week, was brought about by the power and influence of Rome. As long as the Nazarenes held power in Jerusalem, all Roman practices and customs, including that of the consecutive week, were held at bay. (Shawui Sabbath: Ancient Sabbath Observance)


“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 luni-solar 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)


It should be noted that the oldest dated Christian inscription to employ a planetary designation [Sunday -- Saturday, unbroken cycle of weeks] belongs to the year 269 A.D. (Inscriptiones Christianae urbis Romae, ed. De Rossi, 1861, i, No. 1)


The present Jewish calendar was fixed [to the Roman planetary weekly cycle] in the fourth century. (Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Letter by Louis Finkelstein to Dr. L. E. Froom, Feb. 20, 1939)


The week, which was based on the Mosaic Law that requires rest from labor every seventh day, was not recognized in the calendar of the ancient Greeks, and did not appear in the Roman calendar until about 400 A.D. (Funk and Wagnall’s Standard Reference Encyclopedia, 1961, Vol. 5, p. 1662 “Calendar”)