The Biblical Sabbath is from Dawn to Dawn, by Rev. Travis Fentiman (pdf)

The Biblical Sabbath is from Dawn to Dawn

by Rev. Travis Fentiman

Introduction

As Scripture teaches that we are to “remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy,”2 so the question of ‘When does the Sabbath begin?’ is of concern to every person. This article will demonstrate in detail from Scripture that the Biblical, Sabbath since Creation has always been from, and is to be observed from, dawn to dawn.

It is commonly assumed that the Old Testament teaches an evening-to-evening reckoning of the Sabbath, largely as this has been the dominant practice of Judaism since the rabbinic era. The numerous Jewish testimonies that will be quoted otherwise may be surprising. Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, one time chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary,3 has conceded that “…the [Biblical] festival calendar clearly alludes to a division of time that regards the evening as part of the day just ended…” and he speaks of “the talmudic innovation of reckoning a day from the eve before…”4

Many articles about when the Sabbath begins only bring into account about a quarter or a third of the available Biblical evidence, leaving their analyses fragmentary and their conclusions ill-founded.5 Hence, there is a need for a fresh, comprehensive survey and analysis, in one place, of all the relevant, scriptural material in order to establish this Biblical doctrine.6 In doing this, we will also show that the erroneous, rabbinic practice of keeping the Sabbath evening-to-evening was of a late-development. Arguments against the midnight-to-midnight view will be given along the way.7

To summarize the Biblical evidence, in short: the Hebrew word for ‘morning’ in Gen. 1 more specifically, and in context, means dawn, which closes the day’s activities after evening and begins the next day. This morning-to-morning reckoning is confirmed by above 30 scriptures in the Old Testament. The first explicitly recorded, regular observance of the Sabbath by Israel (in the wilderness, Ex. 16:22-30) was prescribed by the Lord to be morning-to-morning. The Fourth Commandment does not explicitly mention when the Sabbath begins, assuming that the hearers already understand this information or that it can be known by the light of nature. The Levitical calendar for numbering the holy days of Israel, and its sacrificial system, reckoned according to natural days. The calendrical counting of the Passover and Day of Atonement were no exceptions to this, though their holy rites started in the evening. Nor does the prescribed beginning of these holy rites reflect upon the timing of the observance of the weekly Sabbath. Lastly, in the Old Testament, the passage about the closing of the gates of Jerusalem by Nehemiah in the evening before the Sabbath is too ambiguous to make certain conclusions on, though we find it to favor the morning reckoning.

The Gospels and Acts continue this reckoning by natural days in numerous verses and account the hours of the day from sunrise, as did the Jewish Temple. Mk. 1:32, about persons bringing their loved-ones to Jesus to be healed on Saturday evening, is inconclusive for an evening-to-evening reckoning of the Sabbath, and the influence of the rabbis upon the common people for such a reckoning has often been over-estimated. The most plausible passage for an evening-reckoning of the Sabbath in the New Testament, concerning the events of Jesus’ burial and the buying of spices on Friday evening (Lk. 23:50-56), is found to be incompatible with an evening-reckoning and consistent with the morning-view.

The Resurrection accounts assume continuity with a morning reckoning, and are clear, from the larger Scriptural context, that Jesus rose at dawn, which was the beginning of the first day of the week. Jn. 20:19 speaks of Jesus meeting with his disciples on that Resurrection Day in the evening, accounting it to be the first day of the week. Acts 20:7-11 evidences a morning reckoning of the Sabbath by the apostolic Christians.

As extra-Biblical evidence is often brought into this question and deserves to be considered, so this article will give one of the fullest surveys and analyses of the extraBiblical data available, and show that there are significant reasons to believe that there was a morning-to-morning keeping of the Sabbath by a significant portion of the Jews in the first century. The strongest, datable evidence for a certain, evening-to-evening Sabbath in Israel during the first century is not found in the Word of God, but in the ancient Jewish historian Josephus. How this bears on the complex, historical picture will be treated of in the conclusion of this article. The witness of Christian, reformed theologians from the Reformation and puritan eras, as well as individuals from later periods, will also be surveyed on the topic.

While affirming that other modes of time-reckoning besides from dawn are morally lawful and pragmatically useful, especially in living in civil societies that often reckon time variously, yet the Fourth Commandment holds out God’s resting on the First Sabbath in Creation Week (Gen. 2:2-4), from dawn-to-dawn, as an obliging example to us (Ex. 20:11). The beginning and ending of the Day which God positively8 sanctified with his resting thereon and his blessing is not indifferent or to be relegated purely to civil custom.

While we are content to argue a dawn-to-dawn reckoning of the Sabbath from Scripture alone, and will, we would also note that, as this teaching derives from Creation, so it likewise has been written into the Book of Nature. The most natural way of reckoning the beginning of a day is by starting with the morning, when the sun rises.9 This reckoning has been common to a large share of societies throughout world history and we often use this method in everyday speech. Morning is when we get up; it is when daylight allows us to begin working, and it is, practically speaking, when our day begins. So far from nature being contrary to Scripture, we will find that Scripture confirms and perfects this pattern woven into nature from Creation.10

We hope to leave no doubt in your heart and mind as to when the Lord’s Sabbath begins and ends, that you may be accounted with the early Christian disciples who “rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.” (Lk. 23:56)

......Continue Reading

The Biblical Sabbath is from Dawn to Dawn (pdf)

The Biblical Sabbath is from Dawn to Dawn, by Rev. Travis Fentiman.pdf

Source: https://reformedbooksonline.com

The Biblical Sabbath is from Dawn to Dawn, by Rev. Travis Fentiman.pdf

1.07MB