To Correspondents by Editor

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 17, 1856

To Correspondents.

By Editor

A. H.:—We think your position that the twenty-four-hour day commences at dark, untenable for the following reasons:

1st. The rule for the commencement and ending of the day is plainly given, in Lev. xxiii, 32: "From even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath." The point of even is very clearly defined in at least seven different places in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, to be at the setting of the sun; and from this point we are positively commanded to commence the day. Even if your view is correct that the space of time between sunset and dark is what is called evening, you are still holden by the above text to commence the day at sunset; for it is evident from the very phraseology of the commandment that it is at the commencement of evening that we are to begin the day.

The above is positive testimony; and to disprove it, testimony as positive must be brought. But as your reasoning from Josh. viii, 29, &c., is merely inferential, it is not admissible.

2d. The Israelites were commanded to keep the passover lamb up until the fourteenth day of the month, and the congregation were to kill it in the evening. (Margin, between the two evenings.) Deut. xvi, 6, says that the lamb was to be slain at the going down of the sun. Between the two evenings, therefore, is at the going down of the sun. So say also, Greenfield and Robinson. But it is evident that this lamb was slain at sunset at the close of the fourteenth day of the month; because it was to be eaten the following night, (in this particular instance, at least,) which was to be the fifteenth day of the month. See Lev. xxiii, 5, 6. "In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord's passover; and on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread," &c.; and for these reasons, we consider the conclusions you draw from the morning and evening sacrifices, and from Josh. viii, 29, inferential, and, therefore, inadmissible.

Your references to Mark xv, 42-46, and John xx, 1-19, have no decisive bearing on the question at issue, since it is by no means certain that they refer to the evening which commences with sunset; as there were two evenings reckoned by the Jews, according to the testimony of both Scripture and history. An instance of this may be found in Matt. xiv. Verse 15 reads, "And when it was evening, his disciples came unto him saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away," &c. Then follows an account of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, the feeding of the multitude and sending them away. And, verse 23 reads, "And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray; and when" (the second) "evening was come, he was there alone."

Mark gives an account of the same occurrence, and makes the same distinction in the two evenings: only in introducing the subject, instead of saying, "When it was evening," as Matthew has it, he says, "And when the day was now far spent." Mark vi, 35. Then he says in verse 47, "And when even was come," &c. Thus we have the Scripture record agreeing with the testimony of historians, that there were two evenings reckoned among the Jews. The first evening, says Greenfield, commenced about the ninth hour of the day, and reached to sunset; the second from sunset till dark.

The evening referred to in Mark xv, 42, is undoubtedly the first one. That mentioned in John xx, 19, we think may be the same; and the translation of Macknight favors the idea.