Genesis 1 contains the language of "evening came, then the morning" for each of the Six Days of Creation. This Biblical language of putting the "evening" first then "morning" second has lead the Jewish custom to count all of our days as starting/ending at sunset. So when they get ready for the Sabbath on Saturday, this means the Sabbath/Saturday actually begins at sunset on Friday afternoon. Though I had not thought about it, I had always assumed this to be what Genesis 1 meant because so many people had said this is what "evening then morning" meant. While that is a possible meaning, I came across someone claiming that "evening then morning" just refers to the night time, and that Genesis 1 was actually saying a day beings in the morning. This will be a short post discussing this possibility.
The best place to begin is by looking at how Genesis 1 uses the "evening then morning" language, which I will briefly show here:
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And it was so. 8 And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” 11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation.” And it was so. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds.” 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” 31 And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
It is customary to read the "evening then morning" language as saying the day starts in the evening, but it would make more sense to read "evening came then morning" as simply referring to the second half of each day. If "evening" comes around 6pm, and "morning" comes around 6am, that's only 12 hours. The language of "evening then morning" does not mean a full day, it means just the night time. Thus, Genesis 1 is not speaking in a strange manner at all, it is simply saying God worked during the daylight hours of 6am to 6pm, where nothing took place during the night hours each day. The theme being presented is that during the dark hours of the day, it's not when man can nor should be working. The night is this mysterious time when man is supposed to be sleeping, a mysterious state of being where one lives within dreams and rests and prepares for the next day. (It is noteworthy that "evening then morning" is not spoken of regarding the Seventh Day. But that would be a reflection for a different time.)
From a practical point of view, it doesn't make much sense to say a new
day begins in the evening, around 6pm, because the "start" of your day means you're tired from work and the darkness is quickly coming along and you're getting ready for bed. Thus, to say the day "begins" with you winding down for bed, then sleeping for 8hrs, then waking up, seems entirely backwards. It makes far more sense to say the day begins when daylight comes along in the morning, and the day winds down as evening comes, and the clock resets some time after pure darkness. This is basically how all humans have always lived. So I am very convinced this is the correct reading of Genesis 1.
Why is this significant? Because it means the Rabbinic and the Seventh Day Adventist idea that the Sabbath begins on Friday evening is most likely not correct. This isn't necessarily a major theological error, but it is significant because it means they have misread Scripture on a significant point, and even mislead people. In that case, there is some loss of "credibility" against them when they proudly claim they know the Bible better than us. We should expect these groups to have some sort of Biblical response, and I am interested to hear it.
I haven't seen what their response would be, but I came across a Reddit post citing a Seventh Day Adventist writing from 1855. The following are the proofs they present for the day starting at evening-time:
- Leviticus 23:32 says: "from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath"
On the surface, this looks to be a pretty solid proof. However, this passage from Leviticus 23:26-32 is speaking specifically of the Day of Atonement, and is not speaking of Sabbath days in general, for this "evening to evening" is not spoken of elsewhere. It is Sabbath in the singular. The full verse even says: "It
shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict
yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from
evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath." This is a special "ninth day" Sabbath, with the focus on "afflicting yourselves," that is fasting from food. This is not the standard Sabbath idea of having a large meal and a good time. Thus, this is not sufficient proof in my mind. The "evening until evening" parameters are more likely to prevent people from 'cheating' by eating a large meal the night before so they are full most of the Sabbath day.
- Nehemiah 13:19 says: "As soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day."
This text doesn't really suggest the Sabbath begins at sundown, for then they should have been preparing before sundown, like around noon on Friday. Instead, the natural reading is that Friday night is preparing to rest during the Sabbath starting in the morning. If you read the context of Nehemiah 13:15-22 where the Sabbath was being profaned, Nehmiah describes a bunch of people working in the market place. The common sense reading is that the buying and selling is going on during the daylight hours. Thus, the most straightforward reading is that the gates are shut Friday night as Friday is winding down, to prepare for the Sabbath, not to begin the Sabbath by closing the gates.
- Mark 1:32 says: "That evening [of Saturday] at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons."
The Adventist claim is that people brought their sick to be healed only after the sun went down, because that means the Sabbath had ended, because they weren't allowed to working during sabbath hours. While that is reasonable, the context is from 1:21-34, where Jesus healed two sick people during the Sabbath daytime hours already, and going to visit a neighbor is not intrinsically considered "work". So the waiting until the sun going down doesn't really prove anything conclusive. The context is that Simon's mother-in-law was just healed and recovering, so as she was getting back on her feet to serve Jesus and the Apostles some dinner time, then the same house was able to be welcoming other guests.
- John 20:1 says: "Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb."
The claim here is that the first day of the week was "while it was still dark," and thus the first day could not begin at sunrise, thus the "first day" must have began at sunset the prior day. This is understandable, but the "while it was still dark" detail could be more to emphasize that nobody else was up yet, and to emphasize the rolled away stone was not done by humans. In itself, the "while it was still dark" detail does not mean Sunday began at 6pm on Saturday. It could just as easily mean the day began at 6am on Sunday, and Mary was out at 6:05am while it was still dark outside. Many people head off to work at 6:30am before the sunrise, and it doesn't meant the workday began the previous evening.
IN CONCLUSION, while this information is news to me, I think the Rabbinic and Adventist position is not as likely as the 'straightforward' understanding that the day begins at around 6am. In fact, now that I think about it more, the New Testament often speaks of what "hour of the day" something is taking place at, which itself is even more conclusive. For example when we read of "the third hour of the day" (Mt 20:3; Mk 15:25; Acts 2:15), this clearly refers to 9am, meaning the day began at 6am. The Gospels say Jesus died at the "ninth hour" (Mt 27:45; Mk 15:33; Lk 23:44; Jn 4:6), which clearly means 3pm, and thus the day began at 6am (and thus noon is midday, the sixth hour). Given this, I would upgrade my original doubts to more of a surety that the Rabbinic and Adventist understanding is wrong, and that they both lose exegetical credibility here. Even worse, this misreading means they have not been keeping the Sabbath properly this entire time! You begin resting on the wrong day (Friday) and you stop resting when the sun goes down on Saturday, which can be as early as 5pm.
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