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contend that this reckoning of the days of the week and the taboo prescribed for the sev-
enth day [which falls on the moon's phases] probably belonged to the age of Hammurabi.

The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, also acknowledges that

The idea of the week, as a subdivision of the month [was found]...in Babylonia, where
each lunar month was divided into four parts, CORRESPONDING TO THE FOUR
PHASES OF THE MOON. The first week of each month BEGAN WITH THE NEW
MOON, so that, as the lunar month was one or two days more than four periods of seven
days, these additional days were not reckoned at all. Every seventh day (sabbatum) was
regarded as an unlucky day. This method of reckoning time spread westward through
Syria and Palestine, and WAS ADOPTED BY THE ISRAELITES, probably after they
settled in Palestine (vol. 10, p. 482. Article "Week.").

The Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopedia states that "among ALL early nations the
lunar months were the readiest large divisions of time...(and were divided into 4 weeks), corre-
sponding to THE PHASES OR QUARTERS OF THE MOON. In order to connect the reckoning by
weeks with the lunar month, we find that ALL ANCIENT NATIONS observed some peculiar so-
lemnities to mark the day of the New Moon" (1904, p. 1497).

Almost all scholars today agree that the primal seven-day calendar, as used among the very
ancient Semites (including the Babylonians and Hebrews), was based upon the moon. Furthermore,
this unique weekly cycle was observed in tandem with the lunar phases. An example of the early
week, based upon the phases of the moon, is described in the Fifth Tablet of the Semitic Story of
the Creation (12-18). Note that the moon is said to "make known the days" and its horns "the sea-
sons" creating the Sabbath on the 7th and 14th days of the lunar month --

[The moon] He caused to shine, ruling the night:
He set him then as a creature of the night, to make known the days.
Monthly unfailing, He provided him with a tiara.
At the beginning of the month then, appearing in the land,
The horns shine forth to make known the seasons.
On the seventh day the tiara perfecting,
A sa[bath] shalt thou then encounter, mid-[month]ly.
(From Hastings, on Sabbath: Babylonian).

Another ancient reference -- a writer by the name of Aristobulus -- refers to Sabbaths and
Holy Days being associated with lunar phases rather than with the modern practice of consecutive
days. Notice!

Homer and Hesiod let us know, what they learned out of our books, that the seventh day
was a holy day. Thus, says Hesiod: There is the first day of the 'month,' and the fourth,
and the seventh, that holy day (Eusebius' Praep. Evang. 13:12, 13).

The seventh day of the lunar 'month' implies knowledge of a lunar-phase calendar! Aris-
tobulus continues by saying:

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