Some say that because Gen 1 says the moon was created on the 4th day then it cannot indicate the start of the week. But that is illogical for a number of reasons.
(1) First God clearly starts the month based on the New Moon in Exodus 12:1-2 even though it was created on the 4th day of the first week of creation and therefore first month (30 or however many days) of creation.
(2) Secondly Adam and Eve were created on the 6th day, one day before the first seventh day. So did they work on the 6th day and rest on the seventh day or rest on both days or work on both days?
So we can see how the first 7 days of creation do not align with the six days you shall work and the seventh day have a sabbath principle documented first in Exodus 16.
In the scriptures it seems that the Hebrew word yareach (H3394) refers to the moon and general but chodesh (H2320) refers to the new moon in particular and also to month.
Gen 7:11 having to do with Noah and the flood is the first occurrence of the word month which in Hebrew is chodesh (H2320). Chodesh is also the word for new moon.
Hence it is abundantly clear that in the bible the new month started with the new moon. So where month appears in Gen 7:11 one could easily substitute new moon.
This would mean that the phrase “the seventeenth day of the month” in Gen 7:11 means 17 days after the 2nd new moon of the 600th year of Noah’s life, not the 600th year of creation.
Since the bible uses the new moon to start a new month (Exodus 12:1-2) and since the new moon may start any day of the calendar week with respect to the Julian calendar, it follows that the 7th day after the new moon starts will not always be on a Saturday.
For example, for August 2023 the New Moon starts on August 16 which is a Wednesday. That means the sabbath (7th day) for that month will always be on a Tuesday not Saturday.
Given all of this uncertainty as to what scripture says hopefully people will at least come to realize that what they thought might not be true and that hopefully, they are willing to unlearn untruth as I certainly am.
Hopefully they are willing to at least say those who look to Col 2:16 for guidance are possibly right in saying Col 2:16 tells us not to judge folks on Sabbath days and holy days because none of us really know what days in modern calendaring system correspond to the actual days in biblical times especially in the days of Moses.
My position is that once the Israelites disbursed outside of the land of Israel and the Jerusalem Temple and associated command and control structure was destroyed (which Jesus prophesized about) that kind of knowledge eventually got lost. And God knew it would and that is why Col 2:16 is in the Holy scripture.
God can see down the road a lot further than humans can. He knew all the difficulty and difference of opinion as to when the Sabbath starts.
God knew there would be a time when there was no Moses with elders under him and heads of tribes under them and so on with an organization where info could flow where everyone would understand and enforce the same law and rules the same way.
God knew there would be 24 hour artificial sunlight where people would work at midnight.
God knew his salvation plan would be in places like Barrow Alaska where the sun does not set for months.
So God says let no man judge you as to Sabbath day (Colossians 2:16). Christ nor Colossians 2:16 says the Sabbath is done away with under Christ but does demonstrate we are not to judge one another (Matthew 12:1-8) so as to take away their liberty in Christ to do whatever is good and right for them to do according to the law of Christ. For Christ is the Lord not man and Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath not man.
The old law of Moses and the new law of Christ are shadows (Hebrew 10:1; Colossians 2:17). With respect to the Sabbath, the old foreshadows restful liberty in Christ (Hebrews 4:3) and the new that new heaven and earth where every moment will be a moment of restful worship (Hebrews 4:9).
Afterall it is about the work-rest cycle and taking time to rest and focus on him not making money.
So if starting your Sabbath (rest day) at 6pm on Friday works for you then so be it. Or if starting it at 12am on Saturday works for you then so be it. Or if starting it at 9am on Saturday works for you then so be it. Or if starting it at 12am or 9am or other time on Sunday or Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday or Friday works for you then so be it.
After all Exodus 20 does not specify a specific calendar day of the week. It says 6 days of work then rest.
Again, God is wise. He knew different ways of measuring and utilizing time would exist in different cultures and geographies especially as humans used the intelligence he gave them to move from an agriculture based economy to more technology based societies all over the globe not just in Israel land.
God is a God of good old fashion common sense. He simply says don’t work yourself to death and don’t work others to death.
Sabbath is not a mandatory community gathering except perhaps for special Sabbaths such as feast sabbaths. It is about setting aside some time for rest and to focus more so on God than work having faith he will provide.
This is the essence of Christ saying the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath.
So I say let everyone have a holy convocation in his own household and outside of his household with other households on whatever day they consider their sabbath in spirit rather than letter (Leviticus 23:3; 2 Cor 3:6).
With respect to the law of Moses and the keeping of time and seasons and sabbaths in scripture I offer the below.
According to some the month is not based on the phases of the Moon such as the New Moon Phase. They say “New Moon” or “Chodesh” does not mean the PHASE called the new moon. It simply means “Month”.
So they say the months are based on a standard number of days as set forth in the Apocrypha book of Jubilee as set forth below. The Book of Jubilee talks about a certain number of days in months and 364 days in a year.
The problem with that approach is that the number of days per month is not found in the core 66 canonized books but in rather those writings called the Apocrypha which are not considered authentic by the church in general:
But unless Moses or one of the other nameable prophets (such as Jeremiah or Ezekiel or Isaiah, etc.) in the bible talks about 364 days or certain number of days in the months, I do not consider the certain number of days approach credible.
A chart of months and days with corresponding Hebrew month names is given below. The book of Jubilees, an Apocrypha book, has number of days in each month in the sixth chapter.
(Spring)
Month 1- 30 days – Nisan
M2- 30 days – Iyar
M3- 31 days – Sivan – Pentecost is Sivan 6
(Summer)
M4- 30 days – Tammuz
M5- 30 days – Av
M6- 31 days – Elul
(Fall)
M7- 30 days – Tishri
M8-30 days – Cheshvan
M9-31 days – Kislev
(Winter)
M10-30 days – Tevet
M11- 30 days – Shevat
M12- 31 days – Adar
This seems to yield the following:
13 sabbaths(91 days) per season
52 sabbaths a year
364 days divisible by 7 to yield 52 weeks.
Additional References:
New Moon Scriptures: Ps 81:3
Daniel 3:23, 25 is used by some to say heathens changed God’s calendar in that they say enemies of God changed the time but it says he shall think (or try or intend) to do so not that he did so.
1 Samuel 20 that some use to show that month and new month are functionally the same and align.
Apocrypha: Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 43:6-8
To illustrate the difficulty of calculating the Sabbath uniformly consider the difficulty of calculating Pentecost which uses the Sabbath.
People calculate Pentecost (AKA feast of Weeks and Shavot) differently arriving at different dates. The base scripture for calculating Pentecost is Leviticus 23:15-16.
All seems to start at the point centered around the start of Passover (Nisan 14) and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15). But does the count start on Nisan 14, 15, or 16? The start is related to when the sheaf of wave offering was done. Also, does the count end on the first day after 7 sabbaths or after seven weeks?.
Catholic use Easter as the starting point counting seven sabbaths after Easter such that inclusive of Easter Pentecost is the 8th Sabbath.
Traditional Jews say Pentecost is a festival held on the 6th or 7th (usually the 6th) of Sivan, fifty days after the second day of Passover.
Now consider the Reformed Church of God (RCG) calculation of Pentecost. They calculate Pentecost from Sunday to Sunday different from Jews and Catholics. For example in 2024 RCG say Pentecost is June 16 whereas Catholics say it is May 19 based on Easter being March 31. Jews say Pentecost is June 12 which is Sivan 6 counting 50 days from April 22, 2024. For RCG and Catholics Pentecost is on a Sunday but for Jews it is on a Wednesday for 2024.
Catholics do use Saturday as a Sabbath (not the Lord’s Day) to count 7 sabbaths from Easter (March 31, 2024) to get May 19, 2024 as Pentecost. This shows that the Catholic Church yet considers Saturday as the biblical Sabbath though they do not recognize it as binding under the New Covenant.
Some folks point to the names of the seventh day on the calendars of nations that exist today as many of them have names that seem to be based on the Hebrew (shabbath) or Greek(sabbaton) word for Sabbath.
The problem with that claim is that words that are commonly used in modern times does not mean those were the words used in ancient times. For example consider the Greeks.
According to one source ancient Greeks once named the days of the week after the sun, the moon and the five known planets, which were in turn named after the gods Ares, Hermes, Zeus, Aphrodite, and Cronus.
Greeks seems to have later changed to call the seventh day using a sabbath type name but when does not seem to be conclusively determinable.
Indeed, one would not have expected the Greeks of Bible days to have the word Sabbath as their seventh day unless the Jews had taken over and influences Greece rather than Greeks taken over and influencing the Jews. Moreover, the Romans seemingly in New Testament time to be the one who had taken over and influences both Greeks and Jews.
Reference Links:
When is the 7th day Sabbath: Good reference but just his opinion of which a lot of it I disagree with. With regards to Leviticus 23:15-16 regarding the 7 Sabbaths used to calculate Pentecost he changes the word sabbath to read seven weeks. Depending on when the week starts that might contradict with the usual view of the word sabbath.
