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What is the first day of the week?
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I guess it would seem rather trivial and too technical a question (as I was told by the first person I consulted on this) but I just really have to know. What do you teach your kids when it comes to the question of “what is the first day of the week? Sunday or Monday?”
I grew up actually being taught Monday was the first day until mid-grade school when the teachers decided it was actually Sunday. But… if I had to go to the Creation Story and Leviticus 23:3, the seventh day was & should be a day of R&R. Isn’t that how we all spend our Sundays?
I’m really confused as to what I should teach 🙁 I’d love any advice on this topic.
Thanks 🙂
Sarah
Biblically, Sunday is the first day of the week. That’s when we assemble because that’s the day Jesus rose from the dead. Acts 20:7 and I Corinthians 16:2 mention Christians coming together on the first day of the week to do things like communion and tithing/giving. Saturday is the 7th day, which was the Jews’ Sabbath/day of rest.
I think it depends on the family. We go to church Saturday nights and my husband is off Friday/Saturday and works Sunday. We do a couple school lessons in Sunday’s. So Sunday is the first day of our school week with Saturday being our sabbath.
Technically I teach a Sunday-Saturday week. Not a Monday-sunday week.
For us, Sunday begins the week for similar reasoning as Caedmyn shared. (If I remember correctly, Jews begin their Sabbath at sundown on Saturday and it goes to sundown on Sunday? Anyone on this forum Jewish to confirm or correct that?)However, I have a friend who, traditionally, would be the same as my family, but her family currently lives in the United Arab Emirates and church and Sabbath observance is on Saturday in that country, so they follow the local custom and hold services on Saturday instead.
Jewish Sabbath begins on Friday evening and goes to the evening of Saturday (it starts and ends when the sun goes down). We aren’t Jewish, but previously attended a Christian church that incorporated Jewish customs and holidays. It’s main focus was reaching out to the Jewish community. Also, in Spanish, Saturday is Sabado which sounds much like Sabbath!
Our Christian Sabbath switched to Sunday because Christ was resurrected on a Sunday. Since our rest is now in Him, we now celebrate it on Sundays. I’d previously wondered about this same question and looked into it. lol
We also teach Sunday as the beginning of the week.
I don’t believe your question is trivial at all.
According to Scripture the Sabbath begins at sundown on the sixth day of the week (Friday evening) and ends sundown on the seventh day of the week (Saturday evening). I believe it to be inherently wrong to call it the Jewish Sabbath since it is first recorded in Scripture in Genesis by our Creator that the evening and the morning were the first day and so on, and on the seventh day He rested. As Christians I believe we make faulty conclusions when we make assumptions. Without going back to what God has recorded as the reckoning of time we automatically assume Christ rose on Sunday morning rather than at the close of the Sabbath and dawning of the first day of the week. And with that incorrect reasoning we read the rest of Scriptures and conclude that the Sabbath day has been changed to Sunday (the day of the Sun). For example in Acts 20:7 it’s translated in the KJV as the first day of the week but in the original Greek text it says the first of the Sabbaths.
Since our God is holy and unchanging the first day of the week would be Sunday and the seventh day would be the Sabbath (Saturday).
May Jehovah the Lord be with you in your journey.
Well, I guess I’m a little more practical about it. French is my first language, and French calendars begin with Monday, so I grew up with the understanding that Monday was the first day of the week. Because English calendars start with Sunday, I’ve taught my (EFL) kids that Sunday is the first day.
You’ve asked two questions and they are more complicated than it seems on the surface. You have the Biblical Calendar, the Jewish calendar, and the Gregorian Calendar as it relates to Western Civilization.
As reasoned above, from a Judeo-Christian based solar-calendar-only perspective which America follows, Sunday is the first day of the week – from midnight to midnight. Apparently, the international calendar begins with Mon and ends on Sunday, so now other European countries do that; and then there’s the Islamic calendar and the Julian calendar still used in the Orthodox Christian world, to my knowledge.
A strictly Biblical day is sunset-to-sunset, but the Sabbath is from 18 min. before sunset to 42 min. after sunset, so 25 hours in order to guard/keep it from desecration, as it is holy time. The Jewish calendar is both solar and lunar. The work week in Israel is Sunday to midday Fri.
In the Hebrew Bible (OT) and the New Testament, the first day of the week actually began after sunset (motzei Shabbat), after Shabbat was finished; not at midnight like our solar calendar. So, it wasn’t uncommon for Jewish believers to come together again (after observing the Sabbath-Acts:20-7-8) on the “first day of the week” which spanned from Sat. night to Sun. night (hence, Paul teaching from after the Sabbath to midnight or so). The Jewish believers, and later gentile ones, met on various days of the week, too.
To answer this question: “…if I had to go to the Creation Story and Leviticus 23:3, the seventh day was & should be a day of R&R. Isn’t that how we all spend our Sundays?”
Sunday isn’t the seventh day in the Bible anywhere. Also, that is the L-rd’s Shabbat established for Israel specifically and gentiles who wanted join in (like the G-D Fearers in the NT; ger in the OT). The requirements to observe/keep and remember the seventh day Shabbat as laid out in the Torah and the Prophets, and as we can see in the Jewish Believers and early gentile (i.e. G-D Fearers first) believers, are more strict than what is required for a Sunday day of rest and worship.
The Hebrew word used for work as related to Israel’s Shabbat is ‘melachah’, which is creative work. Ceasing from creative work, as G-d did; inc. no cooking, lighting fires, handling of money, etc and how that is interpreted through the centuries. Sunday doesn’t have this same implication.
Sunday was chosen partly for the reasons mentioned in the above post (Resurrection), but not only because of what is in the Five bks of Moses or what’s in the NT. Sunday was chosen over time for historical reasons, too (for ex: the Jewish rebellion, destruction of the Temple, Roman persecution of both Jews and Christians, strained relations between Jewish believers and the greater Jewish community toward the end of the 1st cen. due to the above mentioned history) and finalized by Constantine in the 4th cen.
So, no; Gentile believers are not required to observe the seventh day Shabbat, nor required to take on all of the Biblical or rabbinical requirements established to guard it and then apply it to Sunday (per your question). Does that make sense? However, Jewish believers are still under their covenant previously made between themselves and G-d; so Sunday doesn’t replace Shabbat for Jewish believers, as the NT clearly shows. Fellowship with gentile Christians is in addition to their Shabbat observance.
Though many good and right “do’s and don’t’s” were incorporated from the Torah into Sunday observance, how those are manifested depends upon your denomination.
All of this may be more than you were looking for, but I hope that it helped dig into, and/or clarify a little more of the background in order to answer your questions, which have centuries of history in religion, in misunderstandings, and in powerful ruling nations behind them.
This is a great discussion, and a topic I struggled with several years ago. There are several Christian churches who still observe the Biblical Sabbath and are not Jewish. Seventh Day Adventists, Sabbath Baptists and Church of God are some Sabbath keepers. Here is an article in wikipedia on it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbath_in_seventh-day_churches
I encourage you to pray about it and read the Scriptures and come to your own convictions on it. Read through all accounts in the gospels of the crusifixion and resurrection and try to map out the days. Also there was a “high” Sabbath which was a holy day, and then the regular weekly Sabbath.
We have not found a Sabbath church near us to join so we still have our day of rest on Friday sundown to Saturday sundown and we stay home and rest. On Sunday, we go to church and come home and clean. I really look forward to our day of Sabbath rest.
I am not trying cause trouble, just to have something clarified. @teachme2learn: I would PM you, but I can’t so I hope this is read as I’m respectfully responding to an opinion you posted here that has troubled me:
“I believe it to be inherently wrong to call it the Jewish Sabbath since it is first recorded in Scripture in Genesis by our Creator that the evening and the morning were the first day and so on, and on the seventh day He rested.”
I just noticed this sentence amongst the posts. Why would you say this? It’s taking the post somewhat off topic, but it’s a serious statement as it verges on Replacement Theology. It stands against history and religion; and against the clear words and context of the rest of the Bible. Was Genesis not written by Jewish people (or Moses, depending upon your view), for Jewish people? Gentile Christians only have it in their canon due to the adoption into the family of the G-d of Israel through Messiah (and that inclusion was debated among gentile Christians when creating the canon)
If one only reads Genesis and then skips to the NT Epistles, then I suppose one could come to this conclusion? Genesis is literally, the explanation of the “beginnings” of the world, human beings, the dispersion of the sons of Noah, and then quickly narrowing down solely to the history of a particular people descended from Shem and then Abraham through their descent into Egypt. Ultimately, it is less the story of the Nations, but the beginnings of the Story of the Jews.
Yes, it is G-D’s and holy to Him…and He gave it to Israel. It is a commemoration of Creation (Exodus), a remembrance of the Exodus (Deut.) and the looking forward to the Messianic Age; indicated and reaffirmed many times, these are just a few examples:
The first mention of the Sabbath after Genesis in the Torah after the Exodus, is when the Jewish people were in the wilderness gathering the manna on the sixth day. Exodus 16:29 says: “…the L-RD has given you the Sabbath”. (context Ex: 16:22-30).
Then, Israel became a Nation at Sinai with their Covenant in Ex: 19:3-6 and in Ex: 20:8-11, it is the longest commandment of the ten and it is an expansion of the Sabbath command given to Israel earlier. The idea is further expanded and reinforced with the instructions for the Tabernacle in Ex: 31:14-17. Three times is it said for Moses to say to the Israelites to “keep” it and two times that it is specifically “...a sign between Me and the people of Israel”; “…as a covenant for all time”.
In Lev. 23, “Again the L-rd spoke to Moses saying: Speak to the Israelite people…These are My fixed/appointed times, which you (the Israelites) shall proclaim…” The annual sacred times (sabbaths) given to Israel, beginning with the weekly, 7th day Shabbat, repeatedly saying”law for all time”. In the Deuteronomy Decalogue, the Sabbath command at this point in history, is related to the Exodus, not the Creation. The Jewish Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekial, Hosea, Amos, and Nehemiah talked about the Sabbath to whom? The Jewish people.
Lastly, Jesus spoke to his fellow Jews, as a Prophet, too, about the Sabbath. He obviously thought it was His and his fellow Jews’. As did the disciples and then Paul and history proves that the earliest Jewish believers did, too. There’s a prayer that was added after the Temple was destroyed that was directed at the Nazarenes (and Essenes, too) so that they could be identified in the synagogues and later the church made all Mosaic/Sinaic Covenant observances illegal.
There is both particularism and universalism in the Torah, Prophets and the NT. Thankfully, Paul was able to transfer Torah principles to the gentile Christians, without making them Jews nor making Jews into gentiles. That discussion began in the Torah.
It’s imperative to be able to discern this, so as not to deny or usurp each one’s role to play, roles that have been designed especially for each by G-D for this world.
There is a specific Jewish Sabbath and there is a Christian Sabbath. Confirmed by the Bible and/or history. I agree with you that G-d did not change the one He specifically created, but the Christian Sabbath is still a valid day for gentile Christians to rest and worship. My post specifies some of the major distinctions between the two types.
FWIW, there have been and are sabbaths in paganism, too. The One G-d didn’t make theirs for them, either.
So, again, where do you get the idea that it is “inherently wrong”, a strong statement, with so much that indicates the exact opposite; as it is the highest day within their Constitution, the Torah?
You may email me to take this conversation off this post if you like. rachel_white@windstream.net
Rachel, your concerns are appreciated. I’ll do my best to clarify. On reviewing my post I realize now it was rather sketchy and my word choice could have been different.
When God came on Sinai with His commands written in stone, He issued them to the entire house of Israel (the twelve sons of Jacob). He made a covenant with the house of Israel, the Hebrews, to display His character to the nations all around but as Scriptures says at different times they were a “stiff-necked” people (not unlike us). Therefore they were oppressed and suffered all sorts of calamity at the hands of the surrounding nations. Ten tribes were taken from the land given to them and dispersed among the nations. Finally the house of Judah was taken into captivity into Babylon and after seventy years they returned to the promised land as prophesied. It is my understanding that these returning families were what came to be called the Jews. It is for this reason that I would not call it the Jewish Sabbath since the command was given to the Hebrew people as a whole. Also in various places of the Torah the Sabbath is referred to as the Sabbath of the LORD and not to a people group.
I hope this makes sense. I will email you as well.
Hi Sarah,
Great question!! I was faced with this same question about six years ago when I started teaching my son the days of the week. As I searched, God revealed a Biblical truth to me. Check out http://www.SabbathTruth.com.
God started it:
“On the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Genesis 2:2, 3). Because God rested on the seventh day, he designated it a holy day to be remembered for all time. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” He says in the fourth commandment. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:8-10).The Reason for the Sabbath
God designed the Sabbath for two main reasons: to commemorate creation and as a sign of our salvation. “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:11). “I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the Lord made them holy” (Ezekiel 20:12).Don’t take another’s word or explanation. Read the Bible for yourself!
Christ’s blessing on your search.
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