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When does the Sabbath day begin?

(A) A "24 HOURS DAY" CONSISTS OF DAYTIME AND NIGHTTIME. SABBATH IS RECKONED FROM SATURDAY MORNING TO SUNDAY MORNING BECAUSE SABBATH IS THE SEVENTH "24 HOURS DAY".

<1> (GENESIS 1:3-5) "Then God said, Let light be; and there was light. And God saw the light, that (it was) good, and God separated between the light and the darkness. And God called the light, Day, and He called the darkness, Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day."

The first 'day' of creation was very special, it consists of NIGHT, DAY, evening, NIGHT, and ended at morning, which was also the beginning of the second day. From the second day onward, a 24 hours day consists of morning, DAY, evening and NIGHT. Sabbath is the seventh day, it is reckoned from Saturday morning to Sunday morning. Many interpret "and was evening and was morning" as evening comes first and morning follows, or a day begins at evening, then NIGHT, then morning, then DAY. However, the Scriptures indicate that there was no light in the beginning of the first day, after God said, "Let there be light" was there light. Then God called the light "DAY" and called the darkness "NIGHT". Therefore, the first day began at "NIGHT", and then "DAY", and "there was evening", and followed by "NIGHT", and "there was morning", which was the end of the first day and the beginning of the second day.

(Jeremiah 33:25) "Thus says YHWH: If My covenant (is) not with day and night, I have not appointed the ordinances of Heaven and earth," Clearly, the covenant of the LORD is with "DAY and NIGHT" not Halakhic "NIGHT and DAY"! Rabbi Samuel b. Meir (1100-1160) remarked: "It does not say that it was night time and it was day time which made one day; but it says 'it was evening,' which means that the period of the day time came to an end and the light disappeared. And when it says 'it was morning,' it means that the period of the nighttime came to an end and the morning dawned. Then one whole day was completed." (Fig. 1)

<2> (LEVITICUS 23:27) "Also, on the tenth of this month shall be a day of atonement; you shall have a holy convocation..."

(LEVITICUS 23:32) "It is a sabbath of rest to you, and you shall humble yourselves in the the ninth of the month at evening; from evening until evening you shall keep your sabbath."

This is a special sabbath, not the seventh day of the week! The special way of keeping this day of atonement cannot be applied to the way of keeping normal weekly Sabbath day. Suppose a day begins with evening and is followed by daytime, then there will be an inconsistency, because if the Israelites keep Yom Kippur from evening (beginning) of the ninth day until evening (beginning) of the tenth day, then they will only keep the entire ninth day and will miss the daytime of the tenth day, on which they shall have a holy convocation. (Fig. 2)

Suppose daytime comes before nighttime, then there will be no contradiction.

Since Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) falls on the tenth day of the seventh month, and according to the Torah, a day starts in the morning, then if some one fast from the morning of the tenth day until the morning of the eleventh day, it would be as same as to fast from the evening (or night) of the ninth day until the morning of the eleventh day, which is more than 30 hours (people normaly weak up in the morning with a empty stomach). That is why God instructed the Israelites to keep the tenth day as Yom Kippur by fasting from the evening of the ninth day until the evening of the tenth day. People can eat before the evening of the ninth day, then fast from that evening to the next day, after the evening of the tenth day, people can eat again. (Fig. 3)

Of cause one could say that when we observe Yom Kippur (and Sabbath), it is not enough for us to observe the bare minimum, but we should show our love for it by starting it a few minutes early and finishing it a few minutes late, as if we want to get as much of it as possible. So the verse says - start it on the ninth in the evening, meaning at the end of the ninth in the evening, just before the tenth begins. Then the verse continues by saying "from evening until evening you should keep the Sabbath". Just like you lengthened it at the start, in the first evening, do the same thing at its close - extend it a few more minutes. (Fig. 4)

Figure 4 above shows that people keep the sabbath from the evening of the ninth day until the evening of the tenth day. This will include the whole Day of Atonement. But the problem is that if we go back to (Genesis 1:3-5), when God said, "Let there be light" and there was light, seems there was no "morning", since God called the light "Day", not "morning", and He called the darkness "Night". And was evening, and was morning. Therefore, if "evening" is the beginning of the day, then contradict (Lev 23:32) as shown in (Figure 2). On the other hand, if "evening" is the end of a day, where is the "morning" located? went back some 12 hours, located at "middle of the day"? That just doesn't make sense. Did Bible say, "and was morning, and was evening"? No! (Fig. 5)

<3> (LEVITICUS 7:15) "As to the flesh of the sacrifice of the thanksgiving peace offerings, it shall be eaten in the day of his offering; he shall not leave of it until morning."

(LEVITICUS 22:30) "It shall be eaten on that day; you shall not leave of it until morning..."

(DEUTERONOMY 21:23) "His body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; ..."

As long as not "over night", it should be on "the same day".

These verses show clearly that a day does not begin at evening.

<4> (EXODUS 16:21-30) "And they gathered it in the morning, ...,on the sixth day, they gathered double manna, ... And he said to them, that (is) what the LORD said, tomorrow is a rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD; ..., to keep it until the morning. And they laid it up until the morning, ... And Moses said, eat it today, for today (is) a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field."

This was the first time that God commanded the people to observe the Sabbath. If the Sabbath began at Friday sunset, then it would be difficult to explain why Moses mentioned it to the people in the morning, because at that moment, half of the time of the Sabbath would have been passed. Did not Moses tell the people on Friday morning, "This is what YHWH said, Tomorrow is a rest, a holy sabbath to YHWH; what you will bake, bake, and what you will boil, boil; and lap up for yourselves all that is left over, to keep it until the morning."? When the people gathered double manna, and all the leaders came and reported to Moses. (Exodus 16:22,23) And they laid it up until the morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, and no maggot was in it. And Moses said, Eat it today, for TODAY (is) a SABBATH to YHWH; today you will not find it in the field. (Exodus 16:24,25) Therefore, if Sabbath began at Friday sunset, why Moses did not mention it at all on Friday morning? or Friday sunset? But he mentioned it on Saturday morning!

<5> (EZEKIEL 46:13) "And a lamb, a son of a year, perfect, you shall prepare a burnt offering daily to the LORD; from dawn to dawn you shall prepare it."

(LAMENTATIONS 3:23) "(They are) new every morning; great (is) Your faithfulness."

<6> (NEHEMIAH 13:15-21) "...And I testified (again them) in the day (in which) they sold food...Men of Tyre also lived in it, who brought fish and all wares, and were selling on the Sabbath to the sons of Judah and in Jerusalem. And it came to pass, when the gates of Jerusalem began to be shaded before the Sabbath, that I commanded that the gates should be shut, and commanded that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath... So the merchants and sellers of all of the wares stayed the night outside Jerusalem once or twice...Why do you stay around the wall? If you do (so) again, I will send a hand against you. From that time they did not come on the Sabbath."

First, "began to be shaded" does not necessary mean "sunset". Suppose it is sunset. This passage only shows that Nehemiah commanded the gate to be closed at Friday evening. The Sabbath could have started at Saturday morning; the gate close at previous evening is to prevent people from going into the city and stay (see verse 16 '...also lived in it...'). The servants of Nehemiah closed the gates on Friday before sunset, some merchans might brought wares planned to stay inside Jerusalem (see verse 16 '...also lived in it...'), and to sell the wares on the Sabbath, but they found out the gates were closed, not awared of what was happened, they stayed one night (Friday night), on the next day, which was Sabbath, the gates still closed whole day until evening, some went back, some stayed the second night (Saturday night), then on the morrow, which was Sunday morning, when the gates re-opened, Nehemiah testified against them and said to them, Why do you stay around the wall? If you 'do (so) again', I will send a hand against you. From that time they did not come on the Sabbath. This passage only shows when the gates were closed, not when the Sabbath began.


(B) WITH REGARD TO THE LAWS OF TEH TEMPLE SERVICE THE NIGHT FOLLOWS THE DAY, THERE SHOULD BE NO EXCEPTION ACCORDING TO THE TORAH, IF WE COUNT THE DAY CORRECTLY

<1> "The Halakhic 'day' of twenty-four hours usually begins at nighttime with the appearance of three medium-sized stars ([Hebrew text]); hence, according to the Talmud, the day follows the night rather than the other way round. An exception occurs, however, with regard to the laws of the Temple service. In this case the day is considered to begin in the morning (at dawn or at sunrise), and hence as far as these laws are concerned the night follows the day." (THE TALMUD, The Steinsaltz Edition, By Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, Vol 1, P.281, New York, 1989)

<2> "That in the earliest period of Israelite sojourn in Palestine, under Calendar I, the day was reckoned from morning to morning is established by a superabundance of evidence...." (Supplementary Studies in The Calendars of Ancient Israel, HUCA, X, p.16,17, by Julian Morgenstern, Hebrew Union College Press, Cincinnati, 1935)

<3> "The first evening was not the gloom, which possibly preceded the full burst of light as it came forth from the primary darkness, and intervened between the darkness and full broad daylight. It was not till after the light had been created, and the separation of the light from the darkness had taken place, that evening came, and after the evening the morning; and this coming of evening (lit. the obscure) and morning (the breaking) formed one, or the first day. It follows from this, that the days of creation are not reckoned from evening to evening, but from morning to morning...because the time from evening to morning does not constitute a day, but the close of a day." (COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT, The First Book of Moses, P.51, By C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, reprinted May 1975)

(C) "DAY AND NIGHT" INSTEAD OF "NIGHT AND DAY"

<1> (GENESIS 7:4,12) "...forty days and forty nights...forty days and forty nights..."

<2> (DEUTERONOMY 9:9) "...I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights..."

<3> (1 KING 8:59) "...by day and by night..."

<4> (JOB 2:13) "...seven days and seven nights..."

<5> (ISAIAH 4:5; 28:19) "...by day...by night...by day and by night..."

<6> (JEREMIAH 33:25) "...if my covenant is not with day and night..."

<7> (JONAH 1:17) "...three days and three nights..."

ALSO (LEVITICUS 8:35) "...day and night for seven days"

"Day and night" occurred almost 3 times more than "night and day" in the whole Bible.


(D) CONCLUSION

Sabbath is reckoned from Saturday morning to Sunday morning. Sabbath Day (Saturday) is the Holy Blessed Day of God and it is to be observed under grace - remembering His creation and the promised redemption with the hope of eternal rest in the age to come. Friday is the preparation day. The whole day of Saturday including morning, daytime, evening & night-time constitute the holy Sabbath day!

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