Question: We all agree that whatever the Jews, at the time of Yahushua, were keeping as a day or Sabbath hours, must have been correct, otherwise He would have admonished them. So my question is this: If they were keeping as sacred, a 12 hour Sabbath only, then it must have changed some time later to a 24 hour Sabbath incorporating the period from sunset to sunset? Is there historical evidence for this?
Answer: This question is crucial to an understanding of why the Jews today keep a 24 hour, sunset to sunset Sabbath. In light of this, please understand that this cannot be demonstrated in a single sentence or paragraph.
Is it possible that the only reason Yahushua’s body was not embalmed during the dark hours after His death was because it was the sacred and holy “Feast of Passover” had commenced and not a seventh-day Sabbath? This Feast of Passover is a holy convocation, and also called a yearly Sabbath. This Feast of Passover was the only Holy convocation to be kept during the dark hours, which began at sunset on the 14th of Abib. This was not necessarily because a seventh-day Sabbath was to begin at sunset.
In addition, during the life of Yahushua there is no mention of His entering the synagogue as the Sabbath commenced at sunset. Nor is there any mention of dark Sabbath hours, or 24 hour Sabbath days. While Yahushua died on the sixth day, rested in the tomb on the Sabbath, then resurrected from the dead early on the first day of the week, these days were not Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The Roman Julian calendar, the forerunner to our current Gregorian calendar did exist at the time of Yahushua. In fact it came into existence in 45 B.C. and during its first 360 years operated with both an eight-day successive week cycle as well as a seven-day successive week cycle. The name “Friday” was applied to the seventh-day of the week. Since the Hebrews were still somewhat of a sovereign nation during the time of Yahushua until A.D. 70, which calendar do you think they would have chosen, an eight-successive week calendar or the luni-solar calendar beginning with a New Moon day followed by four seven-day weeks? Only one calendar is designed by the Creator. It all began:
In the mid 1st century B.C. Julius Cæsar invited Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, to advise him about the reform of the calendar, and Sosigenes decided that the only practical step was to abandon the lunar calendar altogether. Months must be arranged on a seasonal basis, and a tropical (solar) year used, as in the Egyptian calendar. “The Julian Calendar”, Encyclopedia Britannica.
1st Century (A.D. 70)
How great are the things the enemy did wickedly in the Holy place. They hated your glory in the midst of your solemnities. They placed their signs and banners on the highest places. . . . They burned with fire your sanctuary; they befouled the tabernacle of your name in earth. The kindred of them said together in their hearts; make we all the “feast days” of . . . [Yahuwah] to cease from the earth. Psalms 74:3, 7, 8 John Wycliffe Bible 1378
2nd Century (Emperor Hadrian)
This change from the luni-solar to a fixed solar calendar occurred in
2nd & 3rd Century (Clement of
In the years following Clement of Alexandria's time, an ominous change started to take place that was to radically change the Christian concept of the Sabbath.” Records the Encyclopedia Biblica: “This intimate connection between the week and the month was soon dissolved. It is certain that the week soon followed a development of its own, and it became the custom -- without paying any regard to the days of the month (i.e. the luni-solar month) . . . so that the New Moon no longer coincided with the first day of the month. Then, on page 4179 of the same encyclopedia, we read: "The introduction...of the custom of celebrating the Sabbath every 7th day, irrespective of the relationship of the day to the moon’s phases, led to a complete separation from the ancient view of the Sabbath. . . The MacMillan Company, 1899. P. 5290).
4th Century (Emperor Constantine in 321-325)
The modern seven-day week came into use during the early imperial period, after the Julian calendar came into effect, apparently stimulated by immigration from the Roman East. For a while it coexisted alongside the old 8-day nundinal cycle, and fasti are known which show both cycles. It was finally given official status by
Under the reign of Constantius the persecutions of the Jews reached such a height that. . . the computation of the calendar [was] forbidden under pain of severe punishment. The Jewish Encyclopedia, “Calendar.”
As you know, no where in Scripture, whether Old Testament or New is the word Friday used in Hebrew or Greek. The word itself was not a synonymous term with the 6th day of the luni-solar Hebrew calendar week. They simply are not in sync. Most Jews or trained Rabbi’s today are still deeply entrenched in their oral traditions which is not Scriptural.
Notice the following quote from the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia.
Sabbath and New Moon (Rosh Hodesh), both periodically recur in the course of the year. The New Moon is still, and the Sabbath originally was, dependent upon the lunar cycle. Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 410
Together Scripture, history, and astronomy present weighty evidence for Yahuwah’s ordained luni-solar calendar. While I believe there is numerous places in Scripture that present weighty evidence for a luni-solar calendar and a corresponding Sabbath, perhaps the most important one is displayed in a single verse that defines the parameters of the month, week and days, including seventh-day Sabbaths. I believe this to be Yahuwah’s sacred calendar “Rosetta Stone”. It is impossible to harmonize the Roman Gregorian Calendar to this uniquely defined format as demonstrated in Ezekiel 46:1.
Thus saith the Sovereign Yahuwah; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened. Ezekiel 46:1
So, here is a question for you. If you discover as I did that the Sabbath is found only on the luni-solar calendar, and/or is only 12 hours in length, are you willing to accept it with gladness and walk in the new light?
We are wisely counseled to, lay at the door of investigation all of our inherited and cultivated tendencies, as we search for truth.