VOXVERITAS
Sabbath By Any Other Name
Written by: Larry R. Lasiter
The Sacred Oracles of God were entrusted to the Jews, namely the Aaronic Priesthood from the tribe of Levi. (Rom. 3:1-2) They were given the responsibility to determine the new moons (beginning of months) and to announce them by the blowing of the shofar-silver trumpets were used on the first day of the seventh month which is where we get the term “Feast of Trumpets.”
Later these men became known as the Sanhedrin which existed during the time of Jesus and the Apostles. Each month was to begin on the new moon which was the first slight viewable crescent. Rather than to rely on clear weather and attempt to observe the first light of the moon they developed a method to calculate the beginning of months.
The Sanhedrin disbanded in the fourth century AD, and since they would no longer be providing a calendar for the holy days each year they released the method they had used so that others could properly determine the holy day dates beforehand which was needed since many people had to plan their travel. This is the official Hebrew Calendar that Judaism uses today.
It is not a “perpetual” calender which would be used to determine the dates of weekends, but the Calculated Hebrew Calendar to determine months and years with on reference to days of the week. (Unless of course a holy day postponement was deemed necessary)
We have three outstanding studies in our article section at the web site if you really want to study what calendar should be used in determining the holy days and why we use the calculated Hebrew calendar that was in use during of time of Christ and the Apostles-which they clearly kept as witnessed in the Gospels and in Acts. You can find the articles under the Holy Day / Traditional Holiday heading. “Why We Use the Hebrew Calendar” - “What Calendar did Jesus Use?” - “The Necessity of the Hebrew Calendar.”
Your friend is confusing the perpetual calendar with the Hebrew Calculated Calendar. The Hebrew Calendar has and always has had Saturday as the seventh day of the week. The Gregorian Calendar has been tampered with through the years but the seven-day week was never apart of the changes that they necessarily made.
If the question is, how can we be sure that Saturday, being accepted as the seventh day today is the same seventh day of creation week, then that’s a very easy question to answer. Having existed as God and as equal with God (the Father) from all eternity (Phil.2:6 / John 1:1-15) and that this same personage who left Heaven and came in the form of mortal man is the very one the Father used to create all things (John 1:10 / Col. 1:16 / Heb. 1:2)-namely Jesus, who refers to Himself as the “Lord of the Sabbath,” (Matt.12:8), then we would be foolish indeed to believe that He did not know which day of the week was the Sabbath day.
We need not go back to creation week to search for the true seventh day, we need only go back to the time of Jesus and His Apostles who kept the Sabbath, even entering the Jewish synagogues on the same weekday the Jews were keeping-there was and is no question of which day of the week is the seventh day. The fact that the Roman Church changed their “Sabbath” from the seventh day to Sunday, the first day means that they knew that Saturday was the seventh day. The Roman Empire, being sun-worshipers observed the first day of the week as their day of worship.
More than 100 ancient and modern languages the seventh day of the week was named "Sabbath" or its equivalent, here are just a few, notice -SPANISH, “Sabodo” - ARABIC, “Sabet” - ARMENIAN, “Shabat” - GREEK, “Savvato” - ITALIAN, “Sabato” - LATIN, “Sabbatum” PORTUGUESE, “Sabado” - RUSSIAN, “Subbota” -POLISH, “Sobota” - UKRANIAN, “Subota” - SOMALI, “Sabti” etc.
IS THERE ANY WONDER WHY GOD WOULD BEGIN THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT WITH “REMEMBER?” Everybody knows what day the seventh day is-it’s in the root of their own language.