Two Different Weeks

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 16, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 36.

Two Different Weeks

WE present, in connection with this little article, a simple diagram showing the difference between the rival weeks which this world has known from indeterminate times. The older week is the Bible week, made up of seven Bible days. The later week differs radically from the former. This suggestion has come to us from Brother and Sister J. R. Shurvinton, and also the suggestion of this little study, for which we give them credit.

The Bible Week and Bible Days
Beginning at Sunset and Closing at Sunset — The Bible Week and Bible Days Beginning at Sunset and Closing at Sunset

The World's Week and the World's Days
Beginning at Midnight and Ending at Midnight — The World's Week and the World's Days Beginning at Midnight and Ending at Midnight

The one week he calls the Roman week,—it is really a world week; the other he calls the Jewish week, but it is really the Bible week. There is no difference, however, in the meaning. It will be noticed that the Bible week set forth in the first chapter of Genesis is made up of seven days; that each one of these days is made up of evening and morning.—“The evening and the morning were the first day,” “The evening and the morning were the second day,” etc.; that the names of these days are the numbers of the days, with the exception of the closing day of the week, which is the seventh day, or Sabbath. It will be noticed further that each one of these days is numbered with respect to the Sabbath, and that the Sabbath itself is the crowning day of the week. All the other days are given with reference to that one alone. The day begins with the evening, or sunset, and closes with the evening, at sunset. See Mark 1:32; Matt. 8:16; Luke 4:40.

The world’s day, received from the Egyptians through the Romans, noted also in the ancient Chinese calendars, evidently began from the watches in the night, the night being divided into four watches, and the division between the two watches beginning the day. It will be seen that one fourth of the Bible day is gone before the world’s day begins; consequently the world’s week begins one fourth of a day later than the Bible week. Hence the days are not synchronous. It can not be said that the first day of the Bible week is Sunday, because it includes only three fourths of Sunday. It can not be said that the seventh day of the Bible week is Saturday, because it includes only three fourths of Saturday. Saturday continues on for six hours longer than the Bible Sabbath. Note the contrast between the two sabbaths. The world’s sabbath comes to us at midnight and leaves us at midnight. The great part of the people of the world do not know when it comes to them, or when it leaves them. It comes as a thief, and it goes as a thief. It brings no blessing in its coming or in its going, more than do the other days of the week.

This, however, is not true regarding the Bible Sabbath. It comes to us at the close of a week of labor. All who observe it, know when it comes. It comes bringing with it all the blessing which God has placed in the day. After welcoming it with due worship offered to the Creator of the heavens and the earth, it puts us to sleep with the Sabbath blessing upon us. We wake in the morning and are still with the Lord in His Sabbath; and when the blessed friend leaves us at evening, we know that he leaves us with the blessing which is designed to continue all through the week to come, until a greater added blessing comes at the next Sabbath.

Observing the Lord’s Sabbath, there never could have been an idolater in the world, because the Sabbath itself would have been a reminder to the worshiper, of the one God who created the heavens and the earth.

Another thought: The seventh-day Sabbath can indeed be a Sabbath, or rest, after work, for “Sabbath” means rest, and implies labor previously performed; but the first day could never be a logical Sabbath, or rest from labor, because it comes before labor has even begun.

There are still other contrasts which could be drawn between the two. The more we study them, and study the way in which God gave His, and in which the unbelieving world has perverted it, the more beauty will we see in the Sabbath of the Lord; the more will we see in the attempt of Satan, many times through innocent men, to change the Sabbath in order to pervert the worship of God’s children. And seeing this, we will all the more turn from the man-made sabbath to the Sabbath of the Lord, which speaks to us of His creative power in the beginning, of His re-creative power manifest in the saving of men, and read in it all a glorious prophecy of a future which shall be made sinless by the same power, in which His people will reign with Him forever. Isa. 66:22, 23; Revelation 22.