When Does the Sabbath Begin (When Does a Day Begin)? Interesting Proof!

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When does the Biblical Sabbath begin according to Scripture?

When does the Sabbath begin? Well if you ask anyone nowadays when does the Sabbath begin? Almost everyone would tell you that it begins some time “Friday” evening.

This is because most Sabbath keepers follow the lead of the modern Jews who keep an evening to evening Sabbath.

However, have you ever really studied to see if it is biblical? That’s what we are going to do today:

1Thess 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

Jews, Torah and the Talmud

Now it is commonly held among Christians that most Jews follow the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible). However, we will be surprised to know that this is not so. The book of the Pharisaic, Rabbinical (Orthodox) Jews is the Talmud, a book of oral traditions handed down over time.

These Jews, like the Pharisees of old, hold the oral teachings (traditions of men) as being superior to the writings of Mosheh (Moses).

Anything they give us, therefore, has to be examined with a fine-toothed comb to see if it is the tradition of men. Have they added to or subtracted from the Shabbat?

An Introduction to When a Biblical Day Began

To introduce you to when a biblical day actually began, take a look at this post about Lot and his daughters.

Gen 19:34 The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.”

Plainly in that verse, we see that a biblical day did not begin in the evening. It shows explicitly that last night was not the start of the day.

The rest of this post will show even more clearly when a biblical day (and by extension a biblical weekly) Sabbath began. We will share many verses confirming this and prove the evening to evening Sabbath (day) to be a tradition of man (Matt 15:9).

Testing the Sabbath Day: When does a day begin in the Bible?

Today, we put the Shabbat to a tough biblical test. For this test, we will primarily prove when a day begins in the Bible. We will also prove when a Sabbath day begins at the same time.

Let us start in the beginning, Ha Bere’shiyth (Genesis).

Gen 1:1 In the beginning Elohiym created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of Elohiym moved upon the face of the waters.

So in the beginning, the earth was created without form and it was void (empty).

Gen 1:3 And Elohiym said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Gen 1:4 And Elohiym saw the light, that it was good: and Elohiym divided the light from the darkness.

So out of the darkness came light on the first day. And Abba saw the light that it was good. What about the darkness, no mention is made of him considering it good. So if it is not mentioned as good, then the darkness must be bad.

1John 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that YAHUAH is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

Now, what did he do next?

Gen 1:5 And Elohiym called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

The light, which he considered good, was called day.
The night, which he never mentioned as good, was called night.

Now look at this very carefully:

Elohiym divided the light from the darkness.

He called the light day and the darkness night. He used the evening to divide the light from darkness (the day from night). So right away there is a clear distinction between light and darkness, day and night. The two cannot mix.

So how do we get a day to start in the evening?:

Gen 1:5 And Elohiym called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And The Evening And The Morning Were The First Day?

When does the Sabbath begin? Now what is considered the biggest weapon is the well known: “And the evening and the morning were the first day.”

If we look at the Hebrew below, we see that the literal translation says (reading from right to left):

And were the evening and the morning, day the first.

Note everything, including the comma and full stop (Hebrew uses similar punctuation as English).

Now let us put the previous verse with it. Remember there was all darkness and he created light to separate from the darkness. And he created a space between light and darkness (evening). And he created all things in 6 DAYS, not 6 nights. His creation occurred in the DAY.

So “And were evening” means and evening came. The day is done, we are moving into night.
Notice it then says: “and the morning, day the first.”

It is actually saying and evening came and the morning was the first day! The evening came to end the day. Evening is the end of a day, then comes night.

Image Source: Barnabas Nagy.

The fact that evening came means no more creation until the next DAY. He created heaven and earth in 6 DAYS.

YAHUAH created nothing in the night because…

1 John 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that YAHUAH is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

1 Timothy 6:16 Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. So let it be.

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Yahusha his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

So day is day and night is night.

Now here is a resource I found on the web that corroborates this interpretation:

“And there was evening and there was morning,” to signal the completion of a divine day’s work. The Torah seems to be going out of its way to establish the fact that the day does not begin with the crack of dawn, but rather with the setting of the sun (or halakhicly, with the appearance of three stars).

And indeed, this has been the Jewish practice ever since. Our days are reckoned from sunset to sunset. We begin to fast on Yom Kippur the night before and welcome every festival by lighting candles at dusk (on Shabbat, a bit earlier). On the occasion of a Yahrzeit, we recite the first kaddish at the evening service known as Maariv. In short, a major feature of the Jewish calendar rests on an exegetical foundation that elegantly links the first chapter of the Mishna to the first chapter of the Torah.

But is this what the oft-repeated phrase actually means? Not according to the grandson of Rashi, Rabbi Samuel ben Meir, who was in his early twenties when his renowned grandfather died in 1105. In his own biblical commentary, famous for its uncompromising commitment to the plain, or objective, sense of the text (the peshat, or author’s intent), he departed from the long-standing talmudic interpretation. In his commentary on “And there was evening and there was morning,” he noted that the Torah spoke of “evening” and not “night,” thereby avoiding any attempt to define a complete day, the first half of which would have been nighttime. Rather, it wished merely to indicate that with the onset of evening one day of creation ended and with the coming of dawn a new one began.

Modern Jewish commentators have tended to confirm and amplify this independent insight of Samuel ben Meir by pointing out that throughout the Bible the unit of a day actually starts with the morning. Poetic passages have night following day as in the Psalm for the Sabbath: “It is good to praise the Lord…to proclaim Your steadfast love at daybreak and Your faithfulness each night (Psalm 92:2-3).”

You may view the full article here.

Now to another quote that asks a powerful question:

If “evening and morning were the first day” as Gen 1:5 states, then how could the first evening precede the first day?

Since evening comes at the end of a day, this can work for all subsequent days of creation week, but it can’t work for the first day. For the first evening to begin the first day, it would have to come at the end of a day that precede the first day – making the first day no longer the first day – by definition.” (Laurel Mississippi)

More Clues From The Creation Account

Now let’s go to the creation of lights for more juicy revelations.

Gen 1:14 And Elohiym said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

He created lights to divide the day from the night. Let that soak in: to DIVIDE or separate the day from the night. You know what? Let’s look at the meaning of divide to see what a radical word it is and what a radical thing YAHUAH did:

bâdal
baw-dal’
A primitive root; to divide (in various senses literally or figuratively, separate, distinguish, differ, select, etc.): – (make, put) difference, divide (asunder), (make) separate (self, -ation), sever (out), X utterly.

Can you feel the passion in that word? As you can see, it is a total separation. The day was distinguished from the night. The day differed from the night. The day was utterly severed from the night (light from darkness). How then are we mixing them starting a day in the dark?

Two Great Lights

Now it gets even more interesting:

Gen 1:16 And Elohiym made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

The sun rules the day. The moon rules the night. A day cannot start with the moon ruling (evening). That then would be a night. By the way, there is no Sabbath night in the Bible. Will look at this as well soon.

In the evening, at sunset, the sun is going down, giving up its ruler-ship of the day to the ruler of the night, the moon.

Gen 1:17 And Elohiym set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
Gen 1:18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and Elohiym saw that it was good.

So both were set in the heavens to

1) give light to the earth
2) to rule over day and night
3) divide the light from darkness

This rulership is confirmed in:

Psa 136:7 — Psa 136:9
To him that made great lights:
for his mercy endureth for ever:

The sun to rule by day:
for his mercy endureth for ever:

The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Here we dissect the Genesis creation account in this post: “Did a Biblical Day Start in Darkness (In the Beginning)? The Genesis Creation Account.” Click below to get to that post.

When Does The Sabbath Begin? How Many Hours In A Day?

Now a WHOLE DAY lasts for 24 hours, which is made up of the day(light) which lasts for 12 hours and the night which lasts for 12 hours. This unique relationship is brought about by the sun and the moon working together to give us time.

The moon defines the years (365 days) and months 12 months) and days (364 days), but the sun determines day and night. In other words, the sun sub-divides the day.

Let’s use scripture to simplify this.

John 11:9
Yahusha answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.

24-Hour Biblical Day

However, the word “day” is also used to describe the 24 hour period. It is much as we use it today. At 10:30 pm if we are asking the date, we don’t say “what is tonight’s date?” We say, “what is today’s date?” Even though we know it is not day, we still refer to the night as day. In essence, the night (darkness) does not lead the day (light).

So when we see this:

Num 19:11 He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.

It means it just as we use it; seven days to include the night, even though a day is totally separate from a night.

Here is biblical proof:

Num_11:32 And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.

So notice they stood up all that day (12 hours) + all that night (12 hours) and all the next day. A clear separation of day and night…but:

All that day (12 hours) plus all that night  (12 hours) equates to one day (24 hours), even though it clearly states a day separate from a night.

As we said before, this is where the moon day comes in matching up with the sun in harmony (Gen 1:14). The moon day is 24 hours but the sun divides the 24 hours into two, making it 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night.

Now how do we know it is implicitly referencing a single day (day + night) in Numbers 11:32? Because it is contrasted with the next day. So it is one day (day + night) contrasted with the next day.

Now, this also proves that the day begins in the morning. The evening comes before night. If the evening was the start of the day, it would not pair day and night and contrast it with the next day, as the next day would have begun in the evening (before the night). Got it?

The Second Day At Night

Well if you didn’t get it, let us make it even more simple. Here it explicitly speaks of a 24 hour day in the book of 2 Esdras:

2Es 10:2  Then we all overthrew the lights, and all my neighbours rose up to comfort me: so I took my rest unto the second day at night.

The second day at night is explicitly telling us that a day is sometimes also referred to as 2r hours (day + night). This is what causes the confusion, of starting the day in an evening.

But this biblical 24 hour day starts at dawn and ends before dawn the next day, not from evening to evening. For more clarity on this, check out Is Matthew 28:1 Telling Us Of a 24 Hour Sabbath? Conclusive Breakdown.

Clues from Yahusha’s burial (when the Sabbath “Drew On”)

When does the Sabbath begin? We will continue to prove it from the word.

Luk 23:54 And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.

Now to the one who only studies the Bible in English language, it would appear as if right after the preparation that evening, the Sabbath came. Many use this verse and this story to say this.

However, if we look at the Greek for “DREW ON” as used in the verse, we get a totally different and shocking meaning.

English: drew on
Greek: ἐπιφώσκω
Transliteration: epiphōskō
Pronunciation: ep-ee-foce’-ko
Definition: A form of G2017; to begin to grow light: – begin to dawn X draw on.
KJV Usage: begin to dawn (1x), draw on (1x).
Occurs: 2
In verses: 2

So DREW ON actually means “to begin to grow light” or to “begin to dawn!”

Now, if it was the preparation and the Sabbath began to light, it simply means that the time of the preparation that was described was in the dark and Sabbath begins after at daylight! Oh, the clues are all over, but if we seek we shall find!

When Does The Sabbath Begin? Clues from the Gathering of Manna

Now I am going to go to a popular story we have read many times, but never saw it as telling us exactly when a biblical day began.

Let us look at the story of the gathering of manna before and after the Sabbath.

Exo 16:15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which YAHUAH hath given you to eat.
Exo 16:16 This is the thing which YAHUAH hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.
Exo 16:17 And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.
Exo 16:18 And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.

That is just to give a background. Now here is the sweet part:

Exo 16:19 And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.
Exo 16:20 Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.

The instruction was, let no man leave it over until the morning. When they did so, it stank.

Exo 16:21 And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.

They gathered it every morning. Bear that in mind.

Exo 16:22 And it came to pass, that on the sixth day (in the morning) they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.

Now here is the powerful verse:

Exo 16:23 And he said unto them, This is that which the YAHUAH hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto YAHUAH: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

Stop, stop, stop! I thought the Sabbath began in the evening. Why didn’t Mosheh tell the children of Israel that this evening is the Sabbath of YAHUAH? Because the Sabbath does not begin in the evening, it begins in the morning! Look:

TOMORROW IS the rest of THE HOLY SABBATH unto YAHUAH: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

TOMORROW IN THE MORNING IS THE HOLY SABBATH OF REST!!!

Exo 16:24 And they laid it up till the morning (Sabbath began), as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.

Proof that the Sabbath began in the morning? Note: “And they laid it up till the morning…”

Exo 16:25 And Moses said, Eat that to day (in the morning); for to day is a sabbath unto YAHUAH: to day ye shall not find it in the field.

“To day” does not begin at sunset, it begins in the morning.

Now I could stop there, but there is so much proof in the Bible. I will continue to re-enforce it looking at verses that give proof that the biblical day began in the morning.

Leviticus 7:15
And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning.

If it is to be eaten the same day and they must not leave it till the morning, then morning must be the start of another day? Got it? If not, get this:

Match this verse:

Joh 20:1 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.

with this verse:

Joh 20:19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Yahusha and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

These events occurred the same day. Mary Magdalene came as it was about to dawn (Matthew 28:1) and on the same day at evening, the disciples were described as being in hiding!

At evening according to us should be a new day! See it? If not, well, look at this:

Ex. 32:5 “And when Aharon saw [it], he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow [is] a feast to YAHUAH.

Exo 32:6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play”.

Aharon proclaimed that To morrow is the feast. They rose up early on the morrow! How could they rise up early tomorrow if the tomorrow starts at evening? You don’t rise at evening! Got it? Well, try this:

Mark 4:35 And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.

At the SAME DAY when even was come! If the day starts in the evening, it would say it’s a New day, NOT the same day! Got it? Wait, there’s more:

Acts 4:3
And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide.

It was now evening, and they locked them up until the next day because it was evening. If evening started the day, there would be no mention of the next day!

Clues from the Word “Morrow”

Now one of the greatest clues as to when the biblical day begins is found in the word “morrow.” Why?

The Hebrew word mochŏrâth from which we get “morrow” literally means “tomorrow” or “the next day.”

Hebrew: מחרתם מחרת
Transliteration: mochŏrâth mochŏrâthâm
Pronunciation: {mokh-or-awth’} mokh-or-aw-thawm’
Definition: Feminine from the same as H4279; the morrow or (adverbially) tomorrow: – {morrow} next day.
KJV Usage: morrow (29x), next day (2x), next (1x).

Therefore, we can find when the day starts by examining the usage of this word in the Bible. Let’s start by looking in the book of Yahusha.

Joshua 7:13-16

Jos 7:13 Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith YAHUAH Elohiym of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.

They were to sanctify themselves tomorrow. Tomorrow is when the action will take place. So let us see when is tomorrow (the next day)

Jos 7:14 In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which YAHUAH taketh shall come according to the families thereof; and the family which YAHUAH shall take shall come by households; and the household which YAHUAH shall take shall come man by man.

See that? Tomorrow is in the morning.

Jos 7:15 And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of YAHUAH, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.

Jos 7:16 So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken:

Confirmation: tomorrow spoken about in verse 13 is confirmed as being in the morning. Now to another.

Judges 6:36-38

Judg 6:36 — Judg 6:38
And Gideon said unto Elohiym, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said,

Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.

And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.

There are two confirmations here. First rising up early on the morrow means early in the morning the next day. Secondly, dew comes in the mornings or evenings. However, early on the morrow is a straight reference to the morning, not the evening.

Judges 20:26-28

Judg 20:26 — Judg 20:28
Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of Elohiym, and wept, and sat there before YAHUAH, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.

And the children of Israel enquired of YAHUAH, (for the ark of the covenant of Elohiym was there in those days,

And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And YAHUAH said, Go up; for to morrow I will deliver them into thine hand.

They fasted that day till evening, which means the evening is still on that day. If you don’t believe so, verse 28 tells us that after they fasted all day till evening. Then (evening) YAHUAH promised them that tomorrow (the next day), he will deliver the enemy.

If evening started the day, he would have said “today” I will deliver them into your hand. But tomorrow (the next day) obviously does not start in the evening.

Judges 21:2-4

Judg 21:2 — Judg 21:4
And the people came to the house of Elohiym, and abode there till even before Elohiym, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore;

And said, O YAHUAH Elohiym of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one tribe lacking in Israel?

And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

The people abode in the house till evening and said asked about one tribe lacking “to day” (verse 3). That means today is the evening.

Now, if it (evening) started the day, how then can verse 4 refer to the next morning as tomorrow (the next day when the people arose early)? Simple, the day does not start in the evening. Tomorrow (the next day) starts in the morning. Got it? Well here’s another.

1 Samuel 19:11

1 Samuel 19:11
Saul also sent messengers unto David’s house, to watch him, and to slay him in the morning: and Michal David’s wife told him, saying, If thou save not thy life to night, to morrow thou shalt be slain.

This is a good way to summarize it. Here in 1 Samuel 19:11, we have an incident happening in the night: “to night.”Now Saul planned to slay David in the morning and David’s wife found out.

What did David’s wife tell David? He must save his life to night, or he will be slain to morrow! This is definitely without a doubt telling us that tomorrow (the next day) is in the morning and the day did not start from the evening before!

If the day started in the evening, she would have told him they planned to slay him today in the morning, not tomorrow! Got it?

Zepheniah 3:3

Zep 3:3 (KJV) Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow.

This one is better explained using another translation:

English Standard Version
Her officials within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves that leave nothing till the morning.

The judges are like evening wolves that leave nothing till the next day (morrow/morning). Evening and the coming morning should have been the same day (according to evening to evening believers). However, evening here is being shown as separated from the coming morning. Morning is the next day, evening, therefore, the day before.

No Sabbath Night in the Bible

Now also, isn’t it strange how the term Sabbath Day is used 56 times in the Bible in 50 verses, and the term Sabbath night is not used? There is not one instance in the Bible where Sabbath night is mentioned. The answer is simple, the Sabbath is a day (break of dawn to evening).

High Sabbaths

There is no Sabbath evening either, even though 2 of the feasts of YAHUAH in Leviticus 23 began in the evening. These 2 feasts are referred to as High Sabbaths. Both feasts, by the way, have 2 things in common: they both deal with food, and they both are fasts to varying extents.

The word “high” refers to the type of Sabbath they were preparing for. It is from the Greek word megas (G3173), which means large, or great (like our English word mega) and it is associated with two other Greek words, megistos (G3176), which means greatest, and meizon (G3187), which means greater, or more.

The reason they are referred to as “high” is that a regular Sabbath was and is from morning to evening. However, a high Sabbath, or megas Sabbath, is larger than usual due to the fact that a previous night has been attached to it. The Sabbath, therefore, begins in the evening.

Again, there are only two high, or large Sabbaths found in the entire Scriptures, and they are the first day of Unleavened Bread, which has the prior night of Passover attached to it, and the Day of Atonement, both observed from the evening of one day to the evening of another.

Unfortunately, proponents of the evening to evening Sabbath use these feasts as a sweeping “law” that all Sabbaths begin in the evenings. No, YAHUAH specified the start and end of each Sabbath. Where no time is stipulated, it starts at the beginning of a regular day, which is in the morning.

Related: Day of Atonement from evening to evening: Is this when all days and Sabbaths begin?

Passover

Although not a Sabbath, nevertheless, the Passover is a feast worth mentioning, as it is “attached” to the high Sabbath: the feast of Unleavened Bread. It is celebrated in the evening to commemorate the evening they ate the Passover meal in Mitsrayim (Egypt).

Feast of Unleavenend Bread:

Joh 19:31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the stake on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

They did not want the body of the Messiah to stay on the stake until the evening when Passover “merges” with the high Sabbath, Feast of Unleavenend Bread begins. Now a note on that merge.

While Elohiym intended the Passover (14th) and Feast of Unleavened Bread (15th) to be separate (though adjacent) observances, the Jews ended up combining the two during the Babylonian exile, as the Encyclopaedia Judaica confirms:

“The feast of Passover consists of two parts: The Passover ceremony and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Originally, both parts existed separately; but at the beginning of the [Babylonian] exile they were combined” (vol. 13, p. 169).

A lot of damage was done to YAHUAH’S word through the Babylonian exile. It is why we are in this “evening to evening” Sabbath problem that this post is trying to clear up.

Day of Atonement

Leviticus 23:32 It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.

That is the day of Atonement, which is a high Sabbath. Notice it didn’t say Sabbath evening. It said from evening to evening you should celebrate your Shabbat.

Clues from the Day of Atonement

Now to show that the normal day does not start at evening and that the day of Atonement is an exceptional case, let us look a little closer at the Day of Atonement.

Lev 23:27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto YAHUAH.

The day of atonement is on the 10th day of the month. However, here are the instructions for keeping it:

Leviticus 23:32 It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.

However, the instruction is for it to be kept from the 9th day. Advocates of an evening to evening Sabbath will get excited and say yes, this means that the 10th day starts from the 9th.

A huge problem now arises. If the day starts from the evening of the 9th and ends the next evening (as is popularly held), when is the 10th day on which we should keep the day of atonement? The day of atonement is one day. It is not 2 days. So from even to even must be 1 single, solitary, unitary day.

Hence, there can only be one possibility: the day of atonement starts from the evening of the ninth and continues into the NEXT DAY, which is the 10th (starts in the morning). That is the ONLY way a feast set for the day of the 10th can begin on the 9th and commence from evening to evening.

Got it? Study that carefully and let it sink in. You may also want to look at Day of Atonement from Evening To Evening : is this when all days and Sabbaths begin? by clicking the image above.

Nehemiah 13:19 – Another Scripture Used To Support An Evening Start To The Sabbath

Now for another instance that is used by those supporting an evening start to the day and to the Sabbath:

Neh. 13:19 “And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and [some] of my servants set I at the gates, [that] there should no burden be brought in on the sabbath day“.

This is a very popular verse to try to prove the Sabbath begins at dark. However, it says the dark comes BEFORE the Sabbath! So night comes, then the Sabbath. The Sabbath does not begin when dark. The Sabbath is day (light).

The sixth day is the Preparation Day. Therefore they needed to close gates at evening and continue their personal preparations.

Many people say “gates of the temple”. BUT this verse is actually talking about the gates of the city of Jerusalem. Instead of waiting until early Sabbath morning to close the gates, they do it from Preparation day. That is why it is called PREPARATION day.

They most likely would come in Friday evening to set up, just as the market vendors do in my town. They come in from “Friday” for the big “Saturday” market. Likewise, Wednesday vendors come in and set up from “Tuesday” evening into the night for “Wednesday” market.

Clues from the Times of Sacrifice

Lev. 6:20 “This [is] the offering of Aaron and of his sons, which they shall offer unto YAHUAH in the day when he is anointed; the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a meat offering perpetual, half of it in the morning, and half thereof at night”.

When does the Sabbath begin? Each day there was a morning offering and an even offering. Notice it does NOT say the offerings spanned over a 2 day period. Each day’s offerings consisted of a morning offering (mentioning morning first) and then an even offering.

Lev. 7:15-16 “And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning.
But if the sacrifice of his offering [be] a vow, or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth his sacrifice: and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten.

It was to be eaten the SAME day, none of it left until morning. The morning was the next day, not evening.

Clues from the Burial of the Messiah

Now to show definitively that the Sabbath does not begin at evening on preparation day, but on the morning of the 7th day, take a look at this verse that we have read so many times:

Mar 15:42 — Mar 15:43
And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of Elohiym, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Yahusha.

The evening was the preparation, the day before the Sabbath. According to our evening start of Sabbath, it would have been the Sabbath!

But wait, are you thinking this could be referring to the evening start of the preparation day? Example being from “Thursday” evening start to Friday evening as we now observe? Let’s solve that problem:

This was the same incident in the Book of Luke:

Luk 23:52 — Luk 23:54
This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Yahusha. And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.

So when he did it, the Sabbath drew on. But what does “drew on” mean?

English: drew on
Greek Transliteration: epiphosko
Pronunciation: ep-ee-foce’-ko
Definition: A form of G2017; to begin to grow light: – begin to dawn X draw on.
KJV Usage: begin to dawn (1x), draw on (1x).
Occurs: 2

That meaning proves 2 things:

1) That the incident referred to the preparation evening, which we would say is the beginning of Sabbath.

2) The Sabbath began to grow light shows that the Sabbath is at dawn!

Why not let’s add a little more icing to the cake?

Matthew 28:1
In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

The first day of the week began at dawn!

The Night Is Far Spent

Apostle Sha’ul writing in the book of Romans gives us more evidence that a day did not begin in the dark, but began at dawn. Examine this verse carefully:

Rom 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

1. The night is far spent means it is almost morning.
2. The day is at hand tells us a day did not begin the evening before but begins at dawn after night ends (day is at hand).
3. By using the term “works of darkness,” Sha’ul is figuratively comparing the night (darkness) with (spiritual darkness or sin).
4. By using the term “armour of light,” Sha’ul is figuratively comparing the light (day) with righteousness.

In other words, the night is darkness and day begins at dawn or daylight, which is the end of the night, not the evening before.

More Proof A Biblical Day Began in the Morning

By the way, there seems to be no shortage of proof in the Bible. I just found some more:

Jdg 19:5 And it came to pass on the fourth day, when they arose early in the morning, that he rose up to depart: and the damsel’s father said unto his son in law, Comfort thine heart with a morsel of bread, and afterward go your way.

Jdg 19:6 And they sat down, and did eat and drink both of them together: for the damsel’s father had said unto the man, Be content, I pray thee, and tarry all night, and let thine heart be merry.

Jdg 19:7 And when the man rose up to depart, his father in law urged him: therefore he lodged there again.

Jdg 19:8 And he arose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart: and the damsel’s father said, Comfort thine heart, I pray thee. And they tarried until afternoon, and they did eat both of them.

This one is easy to spot. The account began early in the morning on the 4th day and the son-in-law was told to tarry all night. Now according to evening to evening doctrine, the evening should be the next day to take us into the night! However, when does the next day begin?

Early in the morning (on the 5th day)! Evening to evening day totally nullified! But, there’s more.

Judges 19:9 And when the man rose up to depart, he, and his concubine, and his servant, his father in law, the damsel’s father, said unto him, Behold, now the day draweth toward evening, I pray you tarry all night: behold, the day groweth to an end, lodge here, that thine heart may be merry; and to morrow get you early on your way, that thou mayest go home.

The day draweth toward evening when the day comes to an end, but, very importantly: tomorrow you get up early. Tomorrow does not begin in the evening when the day ends but in the morning.

Jonah and the Worm

Here is strong evidence that a day begins in the morning. The story of Jonah, the gourd and the worm.

Jon 4:6 And YAHUAH Elohiym prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.

Now when did the gourd come up? For that, we have to jump ahead…

Jon 4:10 Then said YAHUAH, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:

The gourd came up in the night. Now if the day had started the evening before, how then can we get this?

Jon 4:7 But Elohiym prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.

The morning rose the next day! If the day was from evening to evening, the morning would be the same day as the night before! But on the contrary, it is obvious that the Biblical day began in the morning, at dawn (when the morning rose). Got it?

Why Is The Time of the Sabbath Important?

YAHUAH severed the light from the darkness and that light he called day and the darkness he called night. Mixing them up and starting his qodesh (holy) day in the night is putting his light (Sabbath) into darkness.

Then again, the truth is the truth, and the truth opens us up to more truth. At each step of the way, we don’t know what truth is awaiting us, but truth leads to more truth. Stop pursuing truth, revelations cease and people are destroyed: my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6).

Historically, evening to evening was learned by the Jews from Babylonian moon god worship. That is an abomination. See the historical sources I posted below.

Additionally, the spirit of Pharisees is quite evident here. They take pleasure in adding to the word. It makes the Sabbath an extra burden by adding an extra 12 hours. Many more persons would have accepted the Shabbat and brought into more truth had it been 12 hours as it was in the Bible.

Then again, it is also man trying to make night into day (change times). This was prophesied by Daniel. See also Jer 33:20.

Finally, this came from YAHUAH:

Jer 6:16
Thus saith YAHUAH, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

Note carefully this prophecy:

Jeremiah 33:19 – 21 And the word of YAHUAH came unto Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith YAHUAH; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.

That is a serious prophecy! We cannot make a day, night and night day! A night is a night and a day is a day: each has their season.

Evening to evening Sabbath is a tradition of man and not what was commanded or kept biblically. What’s more, He is an Elohiym of light and there is no darkness in him.

1 John 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that YAHUAH is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
1 John 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Yahusha HaMashiach his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

A Witness Against the Religious

Probably most importantly for us at this time when we look at the question when does the Sabbath begin? is that the revelation shows up those who are religious and choose religion and tradition over biblical truth. This is judgment. This post is a witness against the Pharisaic, religious spirit. Adventists beware!

When Does the Sabbath Begin?

When does the Sabbath begin? It starts when it begins to dawn (Matthew 28:1) and ends in the evening, which would be sunset, which divides the day from the night (Genesis 1:4), because:

John 11:9
Yahusha answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.

We have been fooled again by the religious. The sunset to sunset Sabbath is false and is yet another tradition of man.

Mat 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

I thank Pastor Walker of First Congregation of Yahweh for first bringing this truth to my attention.

Do you still need more? Check out 12 Hours Sabbath.

Please share this post if you found it useful.

Related:

And The Evening And The Morning Were The First Day: 3 Interpretations: which is right?

Day of Atonement from Evening To Evening : is this when all days and Sabbaths begin?

Biblical Proof Sabbath Begins in the Morning: Day of Atonement and Pentecost

Did a Biblical Day Start in Darkness (In the Beginning)? The Genesis Creation Account

Further historical evidence is given below (courtesy of Kendra Daniels):

Historical Evidence

Handbook of Chronology, op.cit., p.8 “Among the Greeks, the day was reckoned from sunset to sunset…”

Delitzsch in Dillmann’s commentary on Gen. i. 5 “Among the ancient Israelites, as among the Greeks, the day was reckoned from sunset to sunset. This was the custom also of the Gauls and ancient Germans, and was probably connected originally with the cult of the moon. There is, however, evidence that this was not the custom at all times…”

The Jewish Festivals: History & Observance, p.13 – 70 AD-200AD “The Jews in Palestine, about a century after the Babylonian exile, did NOT as yet know the STRICT Sabbath of the Babylonian Jews. At The Beginning of The Common Era…In order to assure against profanation of the Sabbath the Jews ADDED THE LATE FRIDAY AFTERNOON HOURS TO THE SABBATH.”

Lion Encyclopedia of the Bible, p.163 “…Early in the old testament period, when Canaan was under Egypt’s influence, the day started at sunrise… later, perhaps under Babylonian influence, the calendar seems to have changed. The day began at moonrise (1800 hrs)

NIV Study Bible, p.707 “The Israelites, like the Babylonians, counted their days from sunset to sunset…”

Eerdman’s Handbook to the Bible, “We know little about the old Israelite calendar, apart from the laws of the festivals. But the Mishnah (the collection of Jewish law made at the end of the 2nd century AD) fully describes the system which the Jews had worked out under Babylonian influence…”

What is a Jew, p. 108 “When the Jews returned to Palestine after their Babylonian exile (516 B.C.E.) they brought back with them the Babylonian astronomy and way of reckoning time…”

Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 591-597 “In order to fix the beginning and ending of the Sabbath-day and festivals and to determine the precise hour for certain religious observances it becomes necessary to know the exact times of the rising and setting of the sun. According to the strict interpretation of the Mosaic law, every day begins with sunrise and ends with sunset…”

New Catholic Encyclopedia -Volume 11, p.1068 “Days were reckoned from morning to morning… Following the reign of King Josia (c. 640-609), and especially after the Babylonian exile a number of significant and enduring changes occurred in the Israelite calendar showing that the Jews gradually adopted the Babylonian calendar of the time…the seven day week persisted despite its failure to divide evenly either the month or the year. The day however, was counted from evening to evening, after the Babylonian fashion…”

Exact Sciences in Antiquity, p.106 “So far as we know, the Babylonian calendar was at all periods truly lunar… the month began with the evening when the new crescent was for the first time again visible shortly after sunset. Consequently, the Babylonian day also begins in the evening…”

The Time of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, Chapter 5 “…Numerous scholars have argued for the existence in Bible times of a sunrise method of day reckoning…the evidence for the sunrise reckoning is significant and cannot be ignored…”

Ancient Israel, p.181-182 “In Israel, the day was for a long time reckoned from morning to morning…and it was in fact in the morning, with the creation of light, that the world began; the distinction of day and night, and time too, began on a morning (Gen. 1:3-5, cf. 14:16, 18). The opposite conclusion has been drawn from the refrain which punctuates the story of creation: “There was an evening and there was a morning, the first, second, etc., day”; This phrase, however, coming after the description of each creative work (which clearly happens during the period of light), indicates rather the vacant time till the morning, the end of a day and the beginning of the next work…The change of reckoning must therefore have taken place between the end of the monarchy and the age of Nehemia… this would bring us to the beginning of the exile…”

Commentary on the Old Testament, The First Book of Moses, p. 51 “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…It follows from this, that the days of creation are not reckoned from evening to evening, but from morning to morning…”

Encyclopedia Dictionary of the Bible, p. 497 “The nighttime is considered as belonging to the preceding period of daylight. From this there developed the meaning of ‘day’ in the sense of the cycle made up of one period of daylight and one period of darkness, or according to our modern reckoning, twenty-four hours… From the natural viewpoint, the twenty-four hour day begins at sunrise… However, besides this conception there arose another idea of the twenty-four hour day, according to which this daily period began at sunset. It was no doubt that the lunar calendar of the Jews which gave rise to this viewpoint… Although the earlier computation did not die out completely, the custom of considering the day as beginning at sunset became general in later Jewish times….”

Jacob Callel Lauterbach, Rabbinic Essays, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1951 p. 446 “There can be no doubt that in pre-exilic times, the Israelites reckoned the day from morning to morning. The day began with the dawn and closed with the end of the night following it.”

Peake’s Commentary of the Bible, p. 136 “…To the light He gave the name ‘day’ and to the darkness the name ‘night’… Thus the work of the first day, reckoned from morning to morning is accomplished. The period of light is followed by evening and darkness, which comes to an end with the next morning when the second day begins…”

Jack Finegan, The Handbook of Biblical Chronology, p. 7 & 8 “In the Old Testament, the earlier practice seems to have been to consider that the day began in the morning. In Genesis 19:34, for example, the ‘morrow’ or ‘next day’ clearly begins with the morning after the preceding night…”

Oxford Companion to the Bible, p. 744 “…In earlier tradition, a day apparently began at sunrise (e.g., Leviticus 7:15-17, Judges 19:4-19) …Later, its beginning was at sunset and its end at the following sunset… This system became normalized and is still observed in Jewish tradition, where, for example, the Sabbath begins on Friday evening at sunset and ends at Saturday sunset.”

The Itinerary of R. Benjamin of Tudela, IX, 5-8, ed. Gruhut-Adler (1904), p. 23 “…According to the Karaite historian Al-QirqisanI (ca. 975 CE), and the dissident Meswi al-Okbari (ca.850 CE), they broke from traditional Rabbinical Judaism in an attempt to get back to the original religion and began the reckoning of the day from sunrise.”