SABBATH: AN INTROSPECTIVE REVIEW

When talk of the Sabbath comes up today, the major issue usually is what day of the week is the Sabbath observed! However, the question needs much deeper research and definition. In any true study of the Bible, we will find mysteries that humans can’t really understand fully. Many will be convinced that they know or have found answers to some of these mysteries and many may have done so. There are also many times when certain explanations of these mysteries need must more research, study, and prayer. Clearly, it seems that there are some mysteries that humans will understand fully only when they are with the Lord in Heaven. Apostle Paul talks often about the mysteries that were not known but were being revealed- the mystery of the Gospel. So, any human prior to the revelation of the Gospel did not understand that mystery- that includes all those Israelites who lived before the first coming of the Messiah, which includes Noah, Abraham, Moses, and many other leaders in the Old Testament. In fact, these Israelites- later to be called Jewish in 2 Kings- were looking for the Messiah, whom Isaiah called the Suffering Servant, but despite all the accurate predictions of the prophets of God so many of the Jewish people of all types still do not accept Christ as their Messiah. So, the mystery of the Gospel, that Paul talked about, is still misunderstood and not accepted. How does this relate to thoughts on the Sabbath?

Let’s begin with the first time we see a reference to the Sabbath. Exodus 22:9-11 reads “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you and your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore, the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.” (NASB). Then in Deuteronomy 5:12-14, Moses repeats this commandment again- although he added in verse 12 “Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your commanded you.” (NASB).

The sabbath is referred to again in Exodus 35:2 it says, “for six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day, a sabbath of complete rest; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.” (NASB). Then in Leviticus 23:3 it says, “For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.” (NASB),

That is it! It has all been decided that sabbath day means a Saturday. Certainly, for the Jewish religion and some others that is exactly what they believe. Let’s go back to the start in Genesis to see what the Lord said about the creation of the world. Genesis 2:1-2 states “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” (NASB). So, God said that the seventh day was a day of rest and the term “sabbath” is defined as a complete rest. The conclusion is that the sabbath is on the seventh day. I believe that is what God meant, and that seems to be a given. However, does it say in Genesis 2:1-2 or in anywhere in the description of the Creation in Genesis what the day was called. Could have God started the Creation on some other day than on Sunday? What about Wednesday or in God’s timing is any day described in Genesis really a 24-hour period as we believe today? More on this later.

Anyone is free to believe that what God meant was that the first day was Sunday and then the seventh day is Saturday. Is that wrong? Did He mean something else? Remember what we are told by Jesus when John wrote Revelation 22:18-19, “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.” (NASB). This is a devastating thought and it seems to be a promise. So, does the assumption that God started the Creation on Sunday- without it specifically saying that- raise to the level of “adding or changing” what it says in Genesis 2:1-2? What about “adding” the fact that the term “sabbath” means Saturday? Nowhere in the Bible can you find where it says that “sabbath” means Saturday. In the Ten Commandments it says that the “sabbath” is a complete day of rest- nothing else. It seems that it goes back to what it says in Genesis, where maybe the mystery is what did God mean by the “first day of the week”. We are certainly free to believe whatever, but remember Revelation.

Before anyone assumes that this will use the position by many that the real sabbath day is Sunday because of Jesus’ time on earth, it does not.  Remember what Jesus is quoted as saying that He came to fulfill the law (Ten Commandments) not to replace it. As Jesus was there at Creation, maybe He is indicating something about what “the first day of the week really was”. But Jesus does not specifically say what was the first day for starting the Creation either. Now let us take a look at how the Israelites selected the names of the week for them and what does their calendar really look like.

Where does it say anywhere that Friday, Saturday, or Sunday is the sabbath? These names were all named after pagan gods, which names can be found on the Roman calendar, that was inspired by Satan. Satan is the master of deception and he has deceived the whole world. The Biblical month begins with the New Moon, also called First Visible Silver. The Hebrew word for month is Hodesh which literally means New Moon and only by extension the period between one New Moon and the next. At the end of a New Moon, the moon is close to the sun and then reaches point of “conjunction”- when it passes between the Sun and the Earth. Ancient Hebrews knew that Hodesh was the sighting of the Crescent New Moon. It was nearly 1000 years after Moses that Babylon astronomers discovered how to calculate the moment of “conjunction”. Therefore, ancient Israelites would have had no way of knowing the moment of “conjunction” and would not have known on which day to observe the ”conjunction Moon Day”. This is not part of seventh day weekly cycle. The Roman weekly cycle and the identical Hebraic weekly cycle is nowhere found in the Scriptures. The origin of the name Saturday is from the Roman god Saturn.

Isaiah 66:3 states “And it shall come to you that from one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, shall also flesh come to worship before me, with the Lord.” According to the Gregorian Calendar, that gives the New Moon and weekly Sabbath for 2018, as in Isaiah, January 18^th at sunset with the New Moon Day on January 19^th– which makes the sabbath on Friday. Then for 2/17 and 2/18 the sabbath day is Sunday; and on 3/18 and 3/19 the sabbath day is Monday- and so on. So, in Scripture, the first crescent or new moon is used to describe weekly observance in any seven annual festivals in Judaism and in any of 8 pagan festivals (usually called “sabbat”) an annual secular holiday a year of rest in any festival. Sabbat is the where the sabbath is derived.

The Sabbath year was called a year of rest for the land, which means that the Sabbath year does not mean a Saturday year. See Leviticus 25:2-5 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, when you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard.”

  Like the secular calendar, the Jewish calendar includes 12 months.

The Jewish calendar traditionally has four different days dedicated to the new year, each with a different purpose. However, the Hebrew lunar year is about eleven days shorter than the solar year and uses the 19-year Metonic cycle to bring it into line with the solar year, with the addition of an intercalary month every two or three years, for a total of seven times per 19 years. Even with this intercalation, the average Hebrew calendar year is longer by about 6 minutes and 40 seconds than the current mean tropical year, so that every 216 years the Hebrew calendar will fall a day behind the current mean tropical year; and about every 231 years it will fall a day behind the mean Gregorian calendar year.

The Jewish calendar is based on the lunar cycle, with each month beginning when the first sliver of moon becomes visible after the new moon, as described above. The lunar cycle is approximately 29 1/2 days, so some months in the Jewish calendar have 29 days and some have 30. Nissan is the first month of the calendar and coincides with March and April in the secular calendar. The months that follow are in order, Iyar, Sivan, Tamuz, Menachem Av, Elul, Tishrei, Mar Cheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat and Adar. All months except Tamuz, Elul and Cheshvan include holidays. So, the Jewish/Hebrew calendar and its names for the days have their origin in pagan gods and their length of the year is shorter than ours.

Circling back to the opening thoughts, all of this may not solve the mystery of which day God considers to be the true day of rest, called Sabbath. However, it does provide some detailed issues that may provide some points to understand and consider. The main point of this article is that, while anyone can believe what they want, there seems to be nothing specifically in the Bible that clearly supports that the Sabbath means Saturday. Remember the word Saturday is not mentioned in the Bible- don’t forget what Genesis says and doesn’t say. `