QUESTION ON THE SABBATH.
By C. P. B.
A CORRESPONDENT asks, “How can we prove from the Bible that Saturday, or Sabbath, is the seventh day?” The fourth commandment says: “Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. . . . The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Language could not be plainer, for in this it is expressly stated that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and no comment on, or alteration in, the wording could make it any more explicit. But right here it is objected by some that the commandment does not mean the seventh day of the week, but only the seventh day after six days of labor. But this too is definitely settled by the Scriptures. Referring to Matt. 28:1, we read: “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.” This text shows that the first day of the week is the one immediately following the Sabbath, consequently the Sabbath must be the seventh day of the week; and thus it is proved, and proved by the Bible, not only that the Sabbath is the seventh day but that it is the seventh day of the week. But possibly our querist wishes to know how we can prove by the Bible that the day commonly called Saturday is the identical seventh day observed by the Hebrews from Sinai to the present. This cannot be proved by the Bible alone; for the reason that even the latest book of the New Testament was written not later than about 66 years after the crucifixion; and no one ever claims that during that time any change was made in the days of the week. Indeed no author of any note whatever has ever set up the claim that the day now called Saturday is other than the seventh day of the Hebrew week. Indeed the existence of the week among all nations in all historic times, and the fact that the week is everywhere the same, and that it has always been the same, is positive and unimpeachable evidence that there has been no change in the days of the week, not only this side the cross, but that there has been no such change since the creation of man. There is absolutely nothing in nature to suggest the division of time into weeks, and if the original week had ever been lost confusion must have resulted. But there has never been any such confusion. On this very point the “Encyclopedia Britannica,” art. “Calendar,” says:— “As it [the week] forms neither an aliquot part8of the year nor of the lunar month, those who reject the Mosaic recital will be at a loss as Delambre remarks, to assign to it an origin having much semblance of probability.” Thus it appears that the existence of the week which has come down to us from the creation is at once an evidence of the truth of the Bible account of creation and an indisputable evidence that the ancient Sabbath has not been lost, but that it is the day now commonly known as Saturday, the seventh day of the week. C. P. B.