Let’s look carefully at what Philo is saying. But to the seventh day of the week He has assigned the greatest festivals, in other words the greatest (longest) festivals have been assigned to the seventh day of the week (15th Sabbath) which begins the Festival and lasts for seven days. We know both of these seven day feasts begin on the 15th (Sabbath). Each of them lasts for seven days, and each one of these events were assigned to the seventh day of the week (15th) or weekly Sabbath to begin the Feast and it lasted seven days.

Philo goes on to say that each month (1st and 7th) should receive an especial honor of one sacred day of festival, for the purpose of refreshing and clearing the mind with its holiday. Notice he did not say they would receive two holydays of festivals, but one, the 15th. To prove the seventh day of the week is the same as the 15th, elsewhere Philo states, "Again the beginning of this feast is appointed for the fifteenth day of the month (or seventh day of the week) on account of the reason which has already been mentioned respecting the Spring season might receive special honor of one sacred day of festival."
In other words, Philo is saying the weekly Sabbath begins these feasts, and i s on the 15th. This proves the Sabbaths by the lunar calendar because there is no way the weekly Sabbath (15th) can begin these two festivals on the 15th in the 1st and 7th month each year, on a continuous seven day cycle by the calendar of today. Let’s continue:

F.H. Colson’s translation of THE DECALOGUE XXX (159) reads, ”The fourth, which treats of the seventh day, must be regarded as nothing less than a gathering under one "head" of the feasts and the purifications ordained for each feasts, the proper lustrations and the acceptable prayers and flawless sacrifices with which the ritual was carried out. By the seventh I mean both the seventh which "includes" the most creative of numbers, six, and that which does "not include" it but takes precedence of "it" and "resembles" the unit. "Both" these are employed by Him in reckoning the feast-times.” (Colson’s translation of Philo.)

What can be plainer than that? Let's analyze it. "The fourth, which treats of the seventh day, must be regarded as nothing less than a gathering under one "head" of the feasts." How can the weekly Sabbath day be regarded as a gathering under one head of the feasts unless it heads these feast i.e. begins them each year. This proves Lunar Sabbaths. Philo continues by saying, “by the seventh I mean “both” the seventh which "includes" the most creative of numbers, six, and that which does "not include" it but takes precedence of it and "resembles" the unit." The word precedence means it comes before the number six during the feasts, i.e. one of the sevenths comes before the number six during the 7 day feast and the other seventh comes after it and is combined with it.

This is impossible if he used the count for the Sabbath as the people of today. The word precedence also has a footnote that has the actual Greek word and states, "the verb, derived from the adverb ……., seem to be used as a thing which gets in front of something else and obscures it so here the idea may be that the unit or monad does not need six to make it equivalent to seven." (Spec. Leg. Iv.52).

This seventh is the weekly seventh and is in front of the six days during the feasts because to the weekly seventh day he has assigned these feasts. The footnote that says "…here the idea may be that the unit or monad does not need six to make it equivalent to seven…" This is because this single unit or monad does not need six to make it equivalent to seven because it is a seventh and both Yonge's and Colson’s translation says it is made to resemble the unit/first or number one.

Last but not least it says, "Both” these are "employed" by Him in reckoning the feast-“times." You cannot reckon feast-times with a seventh that jumps around during the 7 day feast, on a man-made calendar. Both the sevens have to be fixed not just the one that is on the 21st because He employed both sevens in reckoning the feast-times. If one of the sevenths could move it would also fall on the 21st at times and would also be combined with the number six and there would be only one seventh then. I could go on and on with quotations from Philo, but anyone can call me at 770.483.8542 if you’d like to discuss this matter further. To close we will place the facts from Philo from both the Yonge and Colson translations.

FACT #1: Both translation state that the full moon is at the end of the second week which has been argued that the weeks have nothing to do with the moon. FACT #2: They both state that the full moon is on the 15th. FACT #3: They both teach that the 15th begins both of the 7-day feasts/festivals each year, which is the same 15th/full moon that is at the end of the second week. (This is impossible with the Roman calendar) The question is, could this same 15th be the weekly seventh day that the festivals are assigned to? He says both of these festivals has been assigned to the seventh day of the week, yes it is the 15th that is at the end of the second week and it is the 7th day of the lunar week and the same seventh day that begins theses feasts. They were keeping lunar weeks, let’s examine fact number four and see.

FACT #4: Both translations conclusively teach that they are two sevenths in each of these festivals and both are connected in some way with the number six. When Philo states that there are two sevenths in both the festival of unleavened bread and the festival of booths is he somehow missing the point Saturday sabbatarians would bring up today - that there is a third seventh that will hit in between the 15th and the 21st the majority of years that the feasts come around? Why does Philo not mention this third seventh? It is because none exists. Philo only mention two sevenths in relation to the feast and the first of these two sevenths is none other than the weekly seventh day Sabbath that leads the feasts and is considered the first day of the feast - the 15th.

Does Philo men oftion the Sabbaths in connection with the waxing and waning of the moon? On page 17 of Ralph Marcus' translation of Philo’s work entitled “Questions and Answers, Exodus, Book 1”: in says, “9. (Ex. xii. 6a) Why does He command (them) to keep the sacrifice until the fourteenth (day of the month)? (Consisting of) two Sabbaths, it has in its nature a (special) honour because in this time the moon is adorned. For when it has become full on the fourteenth (day), it becomes full of light in the perception of the people. And again through (another) fourteen (days) it recedes from its fullness of light to its conjunction, and it wanes as much in comparison with the preceding Sabbath as the second (waxes) in comparison with the first. For this reason the fourteenth (day) is pre-festive, as though (it were) a road leading to festive rejoicings, during which it is incumbent upon us to meditate”.