When
Does A Scriptural Day Begin?
Which starts the day
and how can we know Scripturally.
__________________________________________________
Most countries in our industrialized world have
accepted
The present worldly calendar begins the counting of
"days" with about six hours of darkness first, followed by twelve
hours of light, and ends with six hours of darkness. The midnight-to-midnight
system came from pagan
Other cultures determined the start of their day in
various ways. The Babylonians and Egyptians reckoned it from sunrise to
sunrise; the Umbrians from
The following excerpt from Eerdman's Bible Dictionary explains how the Israelites determined
their day:
"The Israelites, who divided the year according
to a lunar calendar, considered the day to start in the evening and end the
following evening. Accordingly they celebrated the Passover at sunset (Ex.
l2:l8 and Lev. 23:32; Neh. l3:l9). To them a 24-hour day consisted of a night
followed by a day (‘evening and morning,’ Dan.
In colonial
Some contend that Biblical days begin at sunset; while
others say that sunrise starts the new day as did the Egyptians and
Babylonians.
Comprehensive and reliable sources reveal that the
Hebrew week days as well as Feast days begin at sunset, for example, under day, The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge states: "The civil day was
reckoned by the Hebrews from sunset to sunset, so that the day began at that
time both on ordinary occasions and on Sabbaths and feasts."
It is vital that we learn correct Biblical principles
of counting time so that we faithfully follow Yahweh’s* calendar in observing
His Sabbaths. We cannot go by man’s erroneous time, thus worshiping in vain,
Isaiah 29:l3 (quoted by the Savior in Matt. l5:8-9).
Let us begin where the word "day" first
appears in the Scriptures.
Some of the confusion as to when the day begins comes
from the various definitions of "day" in the dictionary:
•A 24-hour period including night and day.
•The time between the rising and setting sun known as
daylight.
•The time (24 hours) that it takes the earth to
revolve once on its axis.
•The civil or legal day is from
We are focusing on the 24-hour calendar day here, so
that we can keep Yahweh’s observances correctly.
Darkness Comes First, Scripturally
Scripture
says that Elohim called the light DAY, and the darkness he called NIGHT. At
creation the night or darkness preceded the light or day, demonstrating that it
comes first in the creative order: "And
the earth was without form, and void; and DARKNESS was upon the face of the
deep. And the Spirit of Elohim moved upon the face of the waters. And Elohim
said, Let there be light: and there was light," (Genesis l:2-3).
Darkness was already present and therefore came first
on day one of creation. Darkness came first on each succeeding day as well.
Yahweh’s Spirit moved in darkness to create light.
The modern-day practice of designating
The Biblical convention is not all that different from
today’s practice of relating the oncoming of darkness more or less with the end
of the day—even though six hours of darkness remain until
The word "even" is from the Hebrew ereb (No. 6l53 in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance Hebrew Dictionary). It means dusk
and is translated variously as evening, dusk, and night. That days begin with
darkness is apparent from Genesis l:5, 8, l3, l9, 23, and 3l, where we read,
"the evening and the morning" were the first day, the second day,
etc.
This particular phraseology is used of the first six
days of creation. As Yahweh created the world, He was also creating time and
its proper determination.
Each period of 24-hours had an evening and a morning.
The hours of darkness, called evening, came first; the hours of daylight,
called morning, came second.
Yahweh began His work with darkness, which was upon
the face of the deep. How long His Spirit hovered ("brooded like a mother
hen") upon the waters, we don’t know (perhaps for l2 hours of darkness).
New Day Examples In The Bible
Let
us examine what the Bible says about the beginning or ending of the day:
Leviticus
On the Sabbath in Mark l:2l Yahshua taught in the synagogue. When a man with an unclean spirit tried to
disrupt the gathering, Yahshua rebuked the spirit. Later, Yahshua went to visit
Simon’s mother-in-law and lifted her up, ridding her of the fever. Immediately
she began ministering unto them.
Verse 32 clearly tells us that when the Sabbath was
over, "at even when the sun did set," Yahshua went to work curing all
who were brought unto Him. Except for emergencies, He did not habitually heal
during the Sabbath. But after the sun had set and the Sabbath had ended,
Yahshua healed all their diseases.
The people would not carry the sick and infirm on the
Sabbath, but waited until the Sabbath ended at sunset when the day of rest was
over. They then carried the sick and infirm to the Savior for His healing
touch.
The account in Luke 4:40 describes the incident with these words, "Now
when the sun was setting..." showing that the day began at sunset. One
day had ended and another had begun at the setting of the sun. During the
twilight hours, Yahshua still had enough light for healing of the people.
As we see from Matthew 12:10, the Jews were against
healing on the Sabbath: "And,
behold, there was a man which had [his] hand withered.
And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on
the sabbath days? that they might accuse him." After He healed the withered hand, the Jews planned to destroy Him, verse 14.
The following Scriptures deal with the time at
Yahshua’s death and show that sundown marked the new day.
Matthew 27:57—When the evening was come,
Joseph took the body of Yahshua and laid it in the tomb. This was just before
the High Sabbath began. One day was ending and the Sabbath was about to begin
at sunset, at the close of the day, when another day began.
Luke 23:54—That day was the
preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. They had to hurry to get the body down
and removed as the sun was going down in the western sky and the high Sabbath
was about to begin.
Mark l5:42—"Now when the even was come ["So as evening
approached," NIV], because it was the preparation day, that is, the day
before the [high] Sabbath..."
John l9:3l—The bodies should not remain
on the tree over the Sabbath, therefore, Yahshua was taken off the tree and
laid in the tomb before the [high] Sabbath began at sunset.
Matthew 28:l—"In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn
[draw on, Greek epiphosko] toward the
first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the
sepulchre." They came during the closing daylight hours before sunset as
the Sabbath day was ending (not beginning).
Epiphosko does not necessarily mean to dawn or grow light at
the breaking of the day or at sunrise. Epiphosko consists of the prefix epi from No. 1909 which in essence means
"placed before in time, place or order..." The suffix phosko is from No. 5316 and is
translated appear, seem, be seen, shine or think. Epiphosko has the sense of
the day about to arrive or about to begin or appear at sunset.
Epiphosko is used in one other place where it is
translated "draw on," Luke
Matthew 28:l-7—
The Jewish Encyclopedia (vol. 3, p. 50l), reveals that the Jewish
calendar reckons the days from evening to evening. See Genesis l:5, Exodus
l2:l8, Leviticus 23:32.
A
Person Unclean Until Sunset
Evidence is found for the sundown to sundown measuring
of a day in Leviticus ll:24-25, where anyone touching
or carrying the carcass of any unclean creature would be "unclean until the even." A new day began at even
(sundown) when the person would be considered clean.
To show when the person would be considered unclean,
note Leviticus 22:6-7, "The soul
which has touched any such shall be unclean until even...And when the sun is
down, he shall be clean..." Note carefully that the Bible does not say
a person shall be unclean until
Anyone touching an unclean thing would be considered
unclean until even, when the sun had set, which started a new day. Then he
would be considered clean again. He was not unclean until
To prepare for the time of cleansing, one was to wash
and cleanse oneself while the sun was still up, and after sunset there would be
sufficient light for him to find his way back to the camp.
Deuteronomy 23:ll gives us
two definite points of time: "But it
shall be when evening comes on, he shall wash himself with water; and when the
sun is down, he shall come into the camp again."
Notice that the unclean man was to wash himself as
sundown approached in anticipation of the new day. Then after the sun had set
he was free to return to the camp, clean once more because the new day had
arrived with sunset.
Pay special attention to the first part of Deuteronomy
23, beginning with verse l0, where the rite of cleansing was for
"uncleanness that chances him by night." Now if a new day begins at
sunrise, it would be perfectly acceptable for the unclean man to return to camp
at dawn. But Yahweh said he was to wait: "But
it shall be, when evening comes on, he shall wash himself with water: and when
the sun is down, he shall come into the camp again," verse 11.
Many Sunset Beginnings In Scripture
Judges
19:9 reads, "Behold, now the day
draws toward evening...the day grows to an end." Clearly, this teaches
that a day ends at the setting of the sun.
This observance existed in the New Testament times as
well, for we read in Luke 24:29, "Abide
with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." The word
evening is from the Greek hesperos meaning "evening or the eve." The new day began at sundown.
In Judges l4:l2 Samson
proposed a riddle at his wedding feast that his enemies were to answer within
the seven days of the feast. In verse l8 the men gave him their answer "on the seventh day before the sun went
down." Clearly the seven days ended at that seventh day sundown. They
solved the riddle just before the seven days had fully expired—at sunset.
Joshua hanged the King of Ai "until eventide; and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded
that they should take his corpse down from the tree," Joshua
In Joshua
Nehemiah
Mourning for the death of general Abner, king David
refused food, for he had made an oath not to eat until the setting sun ended
the day, 2Samuel 3:35.
A New Testament illustration is given us in John
19:31, where the impaled bodies of the Savior and the malefactors were not to
remain on the stake after sundown. Defilement of the land would result,
Deuteronomy 21:23. Note that they were to bury the corpse that day, which would be before the sun had set.
Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:26, "Let not the sun go down upon your
wrath." We are not to carry a grudge or let our anger carry over to
another day. He did not tell us, "Let not
Biblical Reckoning In Our Day
There
are some vestiges still with us from the Biblical way of determining the
beginning of days at sundown. For example, after sunset on December 24, many
act as if the 25th has already arrived and open gifts they gave to one another
on Xmas eve. Church programs are often held after sunset on December 24 in
anticipation of December 25th. (This is not an endorsement of Xmas, which is
firmly rooted in pagan, unscriptural worship. Write for information on Xmas.)
We also have New Year’s Eve, which is the beginning of
the celebration of the pagan new year the evening before. We are aware of Halloween
or "All Hallows Eve," the pagan time when the All Saints Day
celebration begins—at sundown the prior evening.
In all of these festivities of man the celebration
begins the previous evening at sundown. Even the expression
"fortnight," meaning fourteen nights, is a carryover from earlier
times when time was counted beginning with the night.
In spite of the fact that we have been using a Roman
calendar for centuries, the influence of Biblical timekeeping is still evident.
Clearly from the Bible, days begin when the sun sets
and the evening begins. It is a time everyone around the world can determine
without a clock, which is needed now to know when
Christianity also recognizes that the impaled Savior
was taken down from the tree before the sun set to comply with Yahweh’s law.
His body was not to remain on the tree beyond sunset, the beginning of the new
day.
"His
body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall in any wise bury
him that day; (for he that is hanged [is] accursed of Elohim ;) that your land
be not defiled, which Yahweh your Elohim gives you [for] an inheritance." (Deut. 21:23)
Passover was to be at a precise time. Luke
The lamb was to be kept until the fourteenth, which means to kill it after the thirteenth
ends and not after the
fourteenth ends. The exact hour is perfectly plain that the time changes at
sunset and the early part of the new day is between the two evenings (sunset
and total darkness) and not dark as some teach.
Passover is held as soon as the sun sets ending the
thirteenth and as the fourteenth begins. The Jewish Tanach refers to the time
as "dusk." The NIV and other versions read "twilight."
Some seek texts that mention day and night—in that
order—to give credence to a sunrise beginning of a day. There are many, many
instances where night is mentioned first.
One of the former is 1Samuel 30:l2. It says the man
did not eat or drink for "three days
and three nights.” The reason he puts the "day" before the
"night" in his reckoning is that verse 11 says he was an Egyptian.
The Companion Bible note says, "In ancient
Esther requests, "fast
you for me, and neither eat nor drink three days" (Est.
Paul tells of "my
prayers night and day," 2 Timothy 1:3. In 2 Corinthians
The conclusion is clear. From a variety of Biblical
perspectives, the scriptural day begins at sundown.
The most significant proof is in Genesis 1, the very creation
of our days, when "evening and
morning" made up the day. There is nothing in the Bible that changes
the basic truth that days end—and begin—at sunset, a time that even a child can
discern.
Thus, the Bible Sabbath begins as the sun sinks into
the horizon, ending the sixth day (Friday) and marking the beginning of the
Sabbath. There is still some 40 minutes of twilight or dusk of this new day
before complete darkness sets in.
We can know the Sabbath we are currently keeping is
the same as Yahweh taught Adam, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Savior would
certainly know which day was the Sabbath, for He was Master of it, "Therefore the Son of Man is Sovereign
also of the Sabbath." (Mark
The Catholic Church takes complete credit for changing
the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, and boasts "the whole world follows
in obedience" to their changing to Sunday. We have calendar records of the
days and years since the Savior and there has not been a change of days. Time
has not been lost. The Catholic Church has changed the day of obligation from
Saturday to Sunday.
Mankind is to work six days and rest the Seventh or
Sabbath day. This refutes the argument by those misguided ones who claim the
new moon day of each month changes the Sabbaths for that month to be the same
as the new moon day.
Months and new moons come and go, but humans are told
to work six days and rest the Sabbath, which is Saturday. It starts at Friday
evening and ends Saturday evening. It has been that way since creation.
The Sabbath is a holy time and one we are to keep even
today. It is the same day we will be keeping in the Millennium. Keep it now and
be able to help others keep it in the coming Kingdom!
"And
it shall come to pass, [that] from one new moon to another, and from one
Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, says
Yahweh." (Isa.
66:23)
© 2007 Yahweh’s Assembly in Yahshua
View us online at: www.YAIY.org
Call Toll Free: (877)
Main Line: (573) 642-4100
|