Time to Commence the Sabbath.
A CORRESPONDENT asks for a concise statement of the evidence respecting the time to commence the Sabbath. We shall but state a fact which must be in accordance with every one's sense of propriety, when we say that the Sabbath must be observed according to the Bible method of reckoning days. Inquiry 1. When does the day commence according to Bible reckoning? It begins at even, which, as will hereafter appear, is at the setting of the sun. Proof. Lev. 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.” But, says one, this was the day of atonement, and has nothing to do with the weekly Sabbath. Very true; but it was nevertheless a particular day of the month, and being such, it is a guide to the reckoning of all other days. It was the tenth day of the month, and was to be wholly regarded as a day of rest, from the even of the ninth day to the even of the tenth. Now if this was not the usual method of reckoning the days, then it was not one particular day of the month, but a part of two days. Thus if the days commenced then, as now, at midnight, from the ninth day of the month at even, would be a portion of the ninth day, and the tenth day to even, would be only a portion of that day; so that the day of atonement, instead of being the tenth day of the month, as the Lord commanded that it should be, would be a part of the ninth and tenth days. It is thus sufficiently evident that every day of the month, and consequently every day of the week commenced with even. Inquiry 2. When is even? It is at the setting of the sun. Proof. Mark 1 : 32 : “And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.” Why were not these afflicted ones brought to Christ before the setting of the sun on this day? Because it was the Sabbath; see verse 21; and their traditions did not allow them to bring their sick to be healed on that day. Matt. 12 : 10; Luke 13 : 14. But as soon as that day ended, which was when the sun did set, then they brought unto him all that were afflicted, and he healed them. So this text shows not only that even was at the setting of the sun, but also that that was the point where one day ended and another commenced. Deut. 16 : 6 : “But at the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun.” Lev. 22 : 6, 7 : “The soul which hath touched any such shall be unclean until even, and shall not eat of the holy things, unless he wash himself with water; and when the sun is down, he shall be clean.” Deut. 23 : 11 : “But it shall be when evening cometh on, he shall wash himself with water; and when the sun is down, he shall come into the camp again.” The Bible reckoning of days is further shown by the record of the first week of time; for the reckoning of that week necessarily determines that of all the rest; and if we can determine how days were reckoned then, we know how they should be reckoned still. The record states that the evening and the morning were the first day. The marginal reading, “And the evening was, and the morning was,” does not at all change the sense; for if we say the evening was and the morning was, the first day, it is just the same as saying, And the evening and the morning were the first day. It took the evening and the morning, the period of darkness and the period of light, to make the day of twenty-four hours; and the darkness came first; the day commenced with the evening. On the word day, Dr. Hales, Chron., vol. i. p. 10, remarks: “The evening and the morning were the first day.” Gen. 1 : 5. Here the word ‘day’ denotes the civil or calendar day of twenty-four hours including the ‘evening,’ or natural night, and the ‘morning,’ or natural day; while the sun is either below or above the horizon of any place, in the course of the earth’s diurnal rotation between two successive appulses of the same meridian to the sun: corresponding, therefore, to a solar day in astronomy. It is remarkable that the ‘evening’ or natural night precedes the ‘morning,’ or natural day, in the Mosaic account. Hence the Hebrew compound, ‘evening-morning’ is used by the prophet Daniel, to denote a civil day, in his famous chronological prophecy of the 2300 days. Dan. 8 : 14. And also the Greek compound, νυχθήμερον, to denote the same. And hence Hesiod, the oldest of the Greek poets that have reached us, represents the occultation of the Pleiades as lasting νύκτας τε καὶ ἡμέρας τεσσαράκοντα, ‘forty nights and days,’ that is, calendar days. And following the primeval order, the ancient Gauls and Germans counted times and seasons by the number of nights, not of days; as we learn from Cæsar and Tacitus; a usage still retained by their descendants; for in old French, annuit signifies to-day; and in English, sevennight, fortnight, ‘seven nights,’ ‘fourteen nights.’ Thus is sacred history verified by primitive tradition, handed down to the present time; ‘the night seeming to usher in the day.’” In accordance with the foregoing plain Scripture proof upon this subject, it is not strange that we find all authorities agreeing that the Jews began their days at sunset. Kitto. “The Jewish civil day began, as it still does, not with the morning, but the evening—thus the Sabbath commences with the sunset of Friday and ends with the sunset of Saturday.” Cyclopædia, art. Day. Bloomfield. “The Sabbath had ended when the sick were brought” . . . “after sunset.” Note on Matt. 8 : 16. Am. Tract Society’s Bible Dictionary. “The Hebrews began their day in the evening.” Cruden. “The Hebrews began their civil and ecclesiastical day from one evening to another.” To these we might add the Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Angus’ Bible Hand-book, Smith’s Bible Dictionary, and we know not how many others, all testifying to the same point.