When is the Biblical Sabbath?

The question of the timing of the Sabbath is one that is heavily disputed in the Torah observant community. It’s a topic that tends to follow discussions on the calendar as there are numerous calendars followed by Pro-Nomians and while the timing of the sabbath and the calendar are not exactly the same topic, these two conversations often occur within the course of a single discussion and for some alternative calendars the discussion of the Sabbath's timing hinges on the calendar itself. That being the case, the calendars on which Sabbath timing hinges will be briefly outlined in the endeavor of covering the topic as a whole.

Most are familiar with the Saturday Sabbath concept. This is the Sabbath model adhered to by every sect of Judaism and most Messianic believers all over the world. It is even subscribed to by some fringe sects of the Hebrew Roots Movement(HRM from this point forward) with the modification that they only acknowledge the Sabbath as beginning at sunrise on Saturday and there are varying beliefs as to whether it ends at sundown Saturday night or at sunrise Sunday morning. 

Let it be noted here and now that the Messianic movement and the HRM are not the same thing and do not share the same origins. While both are sects of Torah Observant Believers, they differ on numerous points of theology, philosophy, politic, and observance. The Matters of the calendar and the timing of the Sabbath are such points of difference between the two. 

There are, generally speaking, 4 calendars observed within the Torah community. 

-The Hillel II Calendar(aka the Halachic Jewish Calendar) observed by all of Judaism and the majority of Messianics.

-The Enochian Calendar

-The Zadok Calendar

-The “Lunisolar” Calendar(also called the Creators Calendar)

The latter 3 are mostly observed by various groups within the HRM for various reasons based on numerous factors from interpretation of scripture to what books they consider as scripture.

The Enochian and Zadokite Calendars are adhered to by communities that consider the apocrypha and other various writings from the Dead Sea Scrolls to be scripture, or at the very least they value them enough to consider them prescriptive for practical observance. They are  practically identical in their structure. Both consist of a 364 day solar year made up of 52 weeks exactly divided into 4 quarters of 91 days with the weeks never drifting meaning festivals fall on fixed week days. Both Calendars also maintain the 7th day Saturday Sabbath day just like the Hillel II Calendar.

The Lunisolar calendar is one that some may be less familiar with and is mostly adhered to by some sects of the HRM. It’s worth noting that even though some call it “The Lunisolar calendar”, there are many other Calendars which are Lunisolar Calendars also. In fact the Hillel II Calendar is also a Lunisolar calendar. This simply means the Calendar comprises Lunar months and Solar years.

This calendar begins the month on the day of the new moon as the first day of the month but not the first day of the week. While the New Moon day itself is acknowledged as special and holy in scripture, it is not given the same equal status as the Sabbath and that is acknowledged for the most part by communities that adhere to this calendar. The New Moon day nevertheless occupies the same space as the Sabbath in the month. The Day after New Moon Day would be the first day of the week. By this rendering, the Sabbath will always fall on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th days of the month. Each month has 30 days. So when the Sabbath occurs on the 29th, the next day(the 30th) would be the first day of the week, followed by New Moon day as the first day of the next month, making the next day the first day of the week again. 

The Biblical defense for this calendar comes from various passages in the bible that outline the importance of the New Moon along with others describing the intended purpose of the celestial bodies as for distinguishing night from day and determining days, months, and seasons. 

The overall method of this calendar means that a continuous 7 day cycle is not maintained as the week resets with the beginning of every month. This means the sabbath does not fall on the 7th day of the week as reckoned by the Gregorian calendar. That point is actually part of the rationale for observance of this calendar. That it doesn’t subscribe to the 7 day cycle of the Gregorian calendar which didn’t exist in biblical times. 

This is where the question of Sabbath timing begins. 

All the other calendars acknowledge the 7th day Sabbath as Saturday in tandem with the Gregorian calendar but this calendar is unique and doesn’t subscribe to the same weekly cycle as the others. 

So which is the true biblical Sabbath? Is Saturday really the 7th day of the week? Is the biblical week a continuous 7 day cycle? Or, does the new month reset the weekly cycle?

These questions will be explored moving forward with an examination of evidence from Scriptural sources, Ancient Jewish sources, and historical Roman sources.

Textual evidence

Genesis 1 outlines the week of creation. Given the creation week spans the entire chapter it will not be quoted directly but readers should take the time to read Genesis 1. The chapter outlines a 7 day week with no indication that it’s not a continuous cycle. The Chapter also outlines that the sun is for reckoning days and the moon and stars are for Months, Seasons, and Holy Days. This aspect of the passage is often cited to justify this Lunisolar calendar. However, this aspect of the passage does not indicate that the Moon has any effect on the weekly cycle. The Hillel II calendar as well as the others acknowledge the month begins with the new moon because this is directly mentioned in the Torah in Exodus 12:2 which outlines the first month(Nisan/Aviv) beginning at the New moon. However, Exodus makes no mention of this new moon/ beginning of the month having an effect on the weekly cycle or interrupting the period of 7 days. Furthermore it doesn’t outline that the new moon day occupies the same position in the week as the weekly Sabbath. 

The Hebrew word for “week” is Shevua(Strongs 7620) which denotes a period of 7 days based on its root “Sheva” which is the cardinal number 7.

This 7 day cycle is further outlined later in the Torah more than once. 

For example:

You shall labor six days, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Hashem your G-d. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; for in six days Hashem made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Hashem blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.

-Exodus 20:9-11

 “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Hashem your G-d commanded you. You shall labor six days, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Hashem your G-d, in which you shall not do any work—neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Hashem your G-d brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore Hashem your G-d commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

-Deuteronomy 5:13-15 

These passages indicate a continuous 7 day cycle as any other model would increase/decrease the number of days between Sabbaths as the lunar sabbath model puts 1 or 8 or even 9 days between Sabbaths.

Scripture also outlines a specific example in which it can be determined that the weekly Sabbath occurred on either the 3rd or 4th day of the month.

The narrative of 1 Samuel 20-21 first gives a starting point for determining the calendar kept by Israel in the time of King Saul. 

David said to Jonathan, “Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to dine with the king; but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field to the third day at evening.

-1 Sam 20:5

 The passage later again repeats that the following day from the conversation David and Jonathan were having was the new moon and Jonathan establishes a plan by which David could determine the King's feelings towards him for his safety which he says would be executed after 3 days.

Jonathan caused David to swear again, for the love that he had to him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul. Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. When you have stayed three days, go down quickly and come to the place where you hid yourself when this started, and remain by the stone Ezel. I will shoot three arrows on its side, as though I shot at a mark. Behold, I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows!’ If I tell the boy, ‘Behold, the arrows are on this side of you. Take them;’ then come, for there is peace to you and no danger, as Hashem lives. But if I say this to the boy, ‘Behold, the arrows are beyond you,’ then go your way, for Hashem has sent you away. Concerning the matter which you and I have spoken of, behold, Hashem is between you and me forever.”

-1 Sam 17-23

The narrative continues in the next verse to expound that the king sat down to dinner on the day of the new moon-

So David hid himself in the field. When the new moon had come, the king sat himself down to eat food.

-1 Sam 20:24

The passage goes on to explain that the second day(the day after the new moon) David was absent a second time from the kings dinner-

On the next day after the new moon, the second day, David’s place was empty. Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why didn’t the son of Jesse come to eat, either yesterday, or today?”

-1 Sam 20:27

After this Saul flies into a fit of rage casting a spear at Jonathan and the narrative continues to the next day in verse 35

 In the morning, Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little boy with him.

-1 Sam 20:35

The events that follow this verse obviously take place on the 3rd day of the month at this point.

What follows is the execution of an earlier plan established by David and Jonathan in which a bow shot from Jonathan would signal whether or not it was safe for David to return to the kings presence. The shot Jonathan let loose signaled to David that it was not safe. So David went into Nob(Likely near the mount of Olives just north of Jerusalem and in sight of the city) and in the next chapter sought provision and assistance from a priest named Ahimelech.

Remember these events take place on the 3rd day of the month.

In verse 3 David asks for 5 loaves of bread from this priest and Ahimelech tells David he has no regular bread to offer David and his men. Rather, he only has consecrated bread which is intended only for the priests. However,in verse 4, Ahimelech says he will permit David and his men to eat this consecrated bread under the condition that they are ritual pure and have been kept from women.

The priest answered David, and said, “I have no common bread, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.”

-1 Sam 21:4

In verse 5 David assures Ahimelech they have been kept from women for the past 3 days. And Ahimelech gives David the bread. The consecrated bread is a key factor here. Because the text outlines this was the bread of the presence which had been removed from the temple to be replaced with freshly baked warm bread that very day.

So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the show bread that was taken from before Hashem, to be replaced with hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

-1 Sam 21:6

The reason this detail is important is because the Torah outlines that the bread of the presence is to be replaced with fresh loaves every Sabbath day.

“You shall take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes of it: two tenths of an ephah[a] shall be in one cake. You shall set them in two rows, six on a row, on the pure gold table before Hashem. You shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be to the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire to Hashem. Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before Hashem continually. It is an everlasting covenant on the behalf of the children of Israel. It shall be for Aaron and his sons. They shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him of the offerings of Hashem made by fire by a perpetual statute.”

-Leviticus 24:5-9

The conclusion this narrative brings one to, is that this third day of the month was either the Sabbath or the eve of the Sabbath making the Sabbath the 4th day of the month. Either way. This narrative in 1 Samuel shows the Sabbath which was honored by the priest Ahimelech was on the 3rd or 4th day of the month and not the 8th, 15th, 22nd, or 29.

This concludes the textual evidence but before moving onto Rabbinic evidence, it’s worth outlining a rational argument based on what is known from history.

In case it is argued that a change or deviation from the proposed HRM Lunisolar Calendar and the Lunar Sabbath model occurred between the time of Yeshua and the Talmudic era, there are a few factors which must be considered.

Between the New Testament and the Talmud it seems logical that some change or deviation in observance would be disputed. 

Rabbi’s of the Talmud disputed every little minutia ad nauseam. Something as extreme as changing the day and method of rendering the Sabbath would have certainly been disputed in the Talmud to no small degree, yet it is not. The myriad of volumes of the Talmud are vacant of even the slightest doubt on when the Sabbath occurs.

This means that any such change must have occurred prior to the first century and period of the sages the Talmud gives a record of and would have already been in practice among the Pharisees in Yeshua’s time.

While there are multiple examples in the NT of the Pharisees disputing what is allowable on the Sabbath, the actual day on which the Sabbath occurs was never a matter of dispute. For its part, the New Testament grants that Yeshua observed the same Sabbath as the Pharisees. So either Yeshua observed the incorrect Sabbath which was changed by the Pharisees prior to the era of the Talmud which never records a dispute over what day the Sabbath is. Or it was never changed and the Talmudic Sabbath has always been the correct Sabbath. 

For those who question the authority of the Pharisees to rightly discern when the Sabbath is and how the Calendar should be reckoned, Deuteronomy 17 establishes the precedent of the Shoftim(Judges aka the Sanhedrin) to make judgements. Furthermore, in Matthew 23 Yeshua commands his followers to obey the rulings of the Pharisees and acknowledges the Pharisees as those Shoftim who sit in Moses seat(which is to say they rule on his behalf).

With that outlined, rabbinic evidence will be briefly examined moving forward.

Rabbinic evidence

While the Talmud never records any dispute on what day the Sabbath occurs on, it does record many discussions and disputes on proper observance and process on things like holidays and offerings and how both of those should be handled on the off chance that they coincide with the Sabbath.

The Gemara asks: And do Beit Shammai accept the view that one should include the New Moon in the regular prayer? Wasn’t it taught in a baraita that with regard to a New Moon that occurs on Shabbat, Beit Shammai say: One must pray an Amida that includes eight blessings in the additional prayer, including a separate blessing for the New Moon; and Beit Hillel say: One must pray an Amida that includes seven blessings, as Shabbat and the New Moon are mentioned in the same blessing? Therefore, according to Beit Shammai, we do not include the New Moon and other days in the same blessing, and the fact that the New Moon does not have its own blessing on Rosh HaShana is because one mention of remembrance counts for both Rosh HaShana and New Moon. The Gemara comments: Indeed, this is difficult.

-Eruvin 40b:1 

This citation and the discussion that continues on that same page record a dispute between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel on whether or not an additional special blessing is required for the new moon if it happens to fall on a Sabbath(indicating that this could and does in fact occur).

This conflicts with the Lunisolar model where the new moon day occupies the same position in the month as every Sabbath day which follows it. What it demonstrates is that it was understood by ancient Rabbi’s that the new moon might(and possibly even monthly does) fall on a week day and not the Sabbath. It informs one that they had a set of prayers for the average new moon day which took place on a week day because their particular concern was whether or not something additional and special should be required on the rare occurrence that the day of the new moon coincides with the Sabbath day.

The bones of the Paschal lamb that contain edible marrow but cannot be eaten because it is prohibited to break the bones of the Paschal lamb; and the sinews; and the leftover meat should all be burned on the sixteenth of Nisan, immediately after the first day of the Festival. If the sixteenth occurs on Shabbat, they should be burned on the seventeenth, because the mitzva to burn them does not override Shabbat or the Festival. Therefore, they are burned on the first weekday.

-Pesachim 83a:4

This page of the Talmud cites the Mishnah Pesachim 7:10 stating the bones of the paschal lamb should be burned early the 16th day of the month(Immediately after the 15th day of Nisan aka Passover) unless the 16th day of the month falls on the Sabbath in which case it is postponed until the 17th day of the month which it clarifies would be the first day of the week. This would mean the 15th of the month began Thursday evening and ended Friday evening which would begin the 16th of the month and the weekly Sabbath. 

This contradicts the model of the HRM Lunisolar model which proposes that The Sabbath must fall on the 15th day of the month and that Passover must fall on the weekly Sabbath. In this case it seems to have been obvious to the Rabbi’s of the Talmud that Passover does not always fall on the weekly sabbath and that the weekly Sabbath could be on the 16th day of the month.

A person may pledge a meal offering of sixty tenths of an ephah of fine flour, and bring all sixty tenths in one vessel. If he says: It is incumbent upon me to bring sixty tenths of an ephah, he brings it in one vessel. If he says: It is incumbent upon me to bring sixty-one tenths of an ephah, he brings sixty tenths in one vessel and one tenth in another vessel, as the greatest number of tenths of an ephah that the community brings as meal offerings in one day is on the first festival day of Sukkot when it occurs on Shabbat, when sixty-one tenths of an ephah of fine flour are brought.

-Talmud Bavli, Menachot 103b:8 

This page of the Talmud cites Mishnah Menachot 12:4 regarding the amount of tenths of an ephah of fine flour which may be brought to the temple, the greatest of which is 61 tenths on the first day of sukkot “when it falls on shabbat” indicating this was not always the case and might even be more rare than common.

These examples are only a handful of the many which exist in the Talmud and what they illustrate is that according to the Rabbi’s involved in the discussion recorded in the Talmud, the weekly Sabbath doesn’t have to coincide with holidays, the new moon,  or the 15th of the month.

Concluding an examination of Rabbinic evidence, Historical evidence will be the next examination.

Historical evidence

Some who honor alternative Calendars make an appeal to the Qumran texts as an authoritative historical source on first century Jewish observance. However, most scholarship which affirms the practical application of these calendars is old and dates to the 1940s and prior while more recent and current scholarship suppose the alternative calendars in Qumran texts likely were not put into practice but might have represented an idealized perfect model in a perfect world under perfect circumstances. Dr. Greg Doudna writes-

“It has been suggested that the 364-day calendar of many Qumran texts might have been used in the temple in the time of John Hyrcanus I and Alexander Jannaeus and sporadically at later times (Glessmer 1999: 273-74). But others such as Baumgarten (1987) and Stern (2000, 2010) have suspected the 364-day calendar of the Qumran texts did not involve repudiation of the lunar calendar in practice, but could have represented an ideal rather than intended to be practiced in real life.”

-The Sect of the Qumran Texts and its Leading Role in the Temple in Jerusalem During Much of the First Century BCE: Toward a New Framework for Understanding (Part II)

Doudna cites the work of multiple scholars which concludes that the alternative calendars found in the Qumran texts were never replacements for the Jewish calendar(Which he here calls the Lunar calendar)

Doudna also continues to point out that some Qumran texts, such as the Zodiac(4Q318) scroll, have been demonstrated to be consistent with the modern Jewish calendar. He cites a 2010 study by Helen Jacobus which demonstrates harmony between the Zodiac Scroll and the modern Jewish calendar. Furthermore and to the point. None of the calendars in the Qumran texts have been found to break the continuous 7 day cycle and all conclude the same weekly Sabbath day as the Pharisees.

Finally, Doudna points out that Josephus seems to have been completely unaware of any disputes over the calendar in his own time. 

For those who would like to suggest that this is because the Hillel II calendar wasn’t in practice yet and so ONLY the “Lunisolar” calendar was in practice, see the argument above regarding the absence of any dispute over the calendar in the Talmudic period. 

Josephus rather, gives good reason to believe the continuous 7 day cycle.

He writes in his Wars of the Jews(Written somewhere between 75AD and 79AD), that a priest would blow a trumpet at the beginning and end of every 7th day in the evening to signal when work must cease and could resume.. 

“and the last was erected above the top of the Pastophoria, where one of the priests stood of course, and gave a signal beforehand, with a trumpet at the beginning of every seventh day, in the evening twilight, as also at the evening when that day was finished, as giving notice to the people when they were to leave off work, and when they were to go to work again.”

-Wars of the Jews, 4:582

In addition to Josephus, multiple Roman historians attest to the Jewish Sabbath coinciding with the Pagan Roman day of Saturn. 

Some may be tempted to argue that some Romans also kept a calendar which reset the week at the beginning of every month.

This was true for a time when Rome kept what is called a Nundinal cycle. 

This was a cycle which was mostly centered around the market place and the days of the month the market was open(Nundinae) which was every 8th day. Thus it was an 8 day week with days numbered corresponding to the letters A through H and this weekly cycle did reset at the beginning of every month. 

However, after the institution of the Julian calendar in 45BC and especially in 1BCE a continuous 7 day weekly cycle began to grow in popularity among Romans. This suggests that within a timeframe of less than 100 years from the time Romans encountered Jews and whatever Calendar Jews were keeping at that time, Rome began to abandon the Nundinal cycle which reset at the beginning of every month. 

This would indicate that it is far more likely that the continuous 7 day weekly cycle is something Rome learned from the Jews in the first century BC rather than something Jews learned from Romans in or post the early 4th century AD.

Josephus also speaks on this Jewish influence over the Roman Calendar and suggests that the Roman observance of the seventh day was influenced by the Jews not the other way around.

Nay, farther, the multitude of mankind itself have had a great inclination of a long time to follow our religious observances; for there is not any city of the Grecians, nor any of the barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, whither our custom of resting on the seventh day hath not come, and by which our fasts and lighting up lamps, and many of our prohibitions as to our food, are not observed; they also endeavor to imitate our mutual concord with one another, and the charitable distribution of our goods, and our diligence in our trades, and our fortitude in undergoing the distresses we are in, on account of our laws;

-Apion 2:282-283

Now to address the comments of Roman historians.

Fortinus, a Roman Tactician who lived between 40AD-103AD recorded in his Strategematicon(written about 84AD), that Vespacian attacked the Jews on the day of Saturn which the Jews were forbidden from commerce on and was therefore advantageous and crucial to the Romans victory. 

"The deified Vespasian Augustus attacked the Jews on the day of Saturn, a day on which it is sinful for them to do any business, and so defeated them".

-Strategematicon, Book II, 1:17

Fortinus Here states that the day of Saturn and a day on which Jews are forbidden from doing business. 

While some may argue that the written Torah doesn’t necessarily specify that no commerce or business may be done on the Sabbath, there are several verses from the Prophets which indicate that doing business on the Sabbath was forbidden among Jews.

“and if the peoples of the land bring wares or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy from them on the Sabbath, or on a holy day; and that we would forego the seventh year crops and the exaction of every debt.”

-Nehemiah 10:31

 “In those days I saw some men treading wine presses on the Sabbath in Judah, bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; and I testified against them in the day in which they sold food. Some men of Tyre also lived there, who brought in fish and all kinds of wares, and sold on the Sabbath to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said to them, “What evil thing is this that you do, and profane the Sabbath day? Didn’t your fathers do this, and didn’t our God bring all this evil on us and on this city? Yet you bring more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.” It came to pass that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut, and commanded that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. I set some of my servants over the gates, so that no burden should be brought in on the Sabbath day. So the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares camped outside of Jerusalem once or twice. Then I testified against them, and said to them, “Why do you stay around the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on, they didn’t come on the Sabbath. I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the Sabbath day. Remember me for this also, my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your loving kindness.”

-Nehemiah 13:15-22

“Hashem says, “Be careful, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. Don’t carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day. Don’t do any work, but make the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.”

-Jeremiah 17:21-22

“saying, ‘When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may market wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel large, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit;”

-Amos 8:5

Each of the above verses illustrates a working understanding of Israel that business is forbidden on the Sabbath. Therefore it is no leap in logic to conclude that this day on which Jews were forbidden from doing business, referenced by Fortinus as the day of Saturn when Vespasian laid siege to Jerusalem, was indeed the Jewish Sabbath day. 

Another Roman historian, Cassius Dio(lived between 155AD-229AD) wrote a compendium of the History of the Roman Empire and in it he writes about the siege of Jerusalem which took place in 63BC and was carried out by General Pompey(Not to be confused with the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD by Vespasian Augustus). This is what Cassius Dio wrote regarding that Siege –

“Most of the city, to be sure, he took without any trouble, as he was received by the party of Hyrcanus; but the temple itself, which the other party had occupied, he captured only with difficulty. For it was on high ground and was fortified by a wall of its own, and if they had continued defending it on all days alike, he could not have got possession of it. As it was, they made an exception of what are called the days of Saturn, and by doing no work at all on those days afforded the Romans an opportunity in this interval to batter down the wall. The latter, on learning of this superstitious awe of theirs, made no serious attempts the rest of the time, but on those days, when they came round in succession, assaulted most vigorously. Thus the defenders were captured on the day of Saturn, without making any defence, and all the wealth was plundered. The kingdom was given to Hyrcanus, and Aristobulus was carried away.

– Casssius Dio, Roman History 37.16.1-4 

According to Dio, the victory over the temple grounds was solely due to the refusal of the Jews held up within the temple to work on the Day of Saturn and this resulted in those Jews finally being captured on one such day of Saturn. This is another obvious reference to the Roman understanding that the Jewish Sabbath and the Roman day of Saturn were the same day. 

Dio also mentions that prisoners of this Siege on the temple were later allowed back into the temple on Saturn's day to resume sabbatical temple process.

“The Jews, indeed, had done much injury to the Romans, for the race is very bitter when aroused to anger, but they suffered far more themselves. The first of them to be captured were those who were fighting for the precinct of their god, and then the rest on the day even then called the day of Saturn. And so excessive were they in their devotion to religion that the first set of prisoners, those who had been captured along with the temple, obtained leave from Sosius, when the day of Saturn came round again, and went up into the temple and there performed all the customary rites, together with the rest of the people. These people Antony entrusted to a certain Herod to govern; but Antigonus he bound to a cross and flogged,—a punishment no other king had suffered at the hands of the Romans,—and afterwards slew him.”

-Cassius Dio, Roman History 49.22.4-6

Dio further notes that following the siege of Jerusalem in 70AD, the Jews continued to revere the day of Saturn and were subsequently charged a fine of 2 Denarii(aka the Fiscus Judaicus), yet continued to honor the Day of Saturn in spite of this even up to his own day(over 100 years later). 

Thus was Jerusalem destroyed on the very day of Saturn, the day which even now the Jews reverence most. From that time forth it was ordered that the Jews who continued to observe their ancestral customs should pay an annual tribute of two denarii to Jupiter Capitolinus.

-Cassius Dio, Roman History 65.7.2

Another Roman historian named Cornelius Tacitus(Lived between 56AD-117AD) criticized the Jews for resting on the day of Saturn as he believed it was out of laziness. He also associates this Idol of Saturn with the Jewish Sabbath.

They say that they first chose to rest on the seventh day because that day ended their toils; but after a time they were led by the charms of indolence to give over the seventh year as well to inactivity. Others say that this is done in honour of Saturn, whether it be that the primitive elements of their religion were given by the Idaeans, who, according to tradition, were expelled with Saturn and became the founders of the Jewish race, or is due to the fact that, of the seven planets that rule the fortunes of mankind, Saturn moves in the highest orbit and has the greatest potency; and that many of the heavenly bodies traverse their paths and courses in multiples of seven.

-The history’s, book 5, 4:11-14

It’s also interesting that Tacitus makes a big deal over the Jews also “giving over the 7th year” as this would indicate a continuous cycle of 7 for years and the comparison of this with the weekly cycle would clearly indicate a continuous cycle of 7 for the week as well.

In conclusion, There is a clear precedent for a continuous 7 day weekly cycle which culminates with the weekly Sabbath as the 7th day. This precedent is supported not only by the biblical text, but in ancient rabbinic sources which outline numerous examples of when the weekly Sabbath might not coincide with the New moon or Passover(which the “Lunisolar” calendar model requires), as well as ancient Roman historians who attest to the Jewish observance of a special day which coincided with their own day of Saturn. A day which those same Roman historians acknowledge took place every 7 days. Taken together with historical evidence which suggests Rome replaced their 8 day nundinal cycle which operated much more closely to the “Lunisoler” Calendar, with the continuous 7 day weekly cycle less than a century after encountering the Jews. It would seem that the notion of Judaism adopting the continuous 7 day cycle from the Romans is not just untrue, it is the opposite of what actually occurred according to historical sources. Rather it is Rome which had a weekly cycle that reset every month and the continuous 7 day cycle they adopted later was the result of them learning said cycle from the Jews. Ultimately after all evidence is taken into account, the conclusion which best harmonizes the text of scripture, rabbinic sources, and the historians of Ancient Rome, is that the biblical Sabbath is the 7th day of a continuous 7 day cycle which is no different than the one globally recognized today. The very same day which even in the modern era is named after Saturn in English speaking countries, yet named after the Sabbath in many other languages globally.