Is our modern
Saturday the Sabbath?
A History of Calendar Change
How can we be sure that the Saturday of our modern week is the original Sabbath of the Scriptures?
It is commonly
believed that many calendar changes have taken place since the time of Yeshua.
This is not true. There has been only one change. This change, from the Julian
calendar to the Gregorian Calendar, had no effect whatsoever upon the order of
the days of the week. Julius Caesar instituted the Julian Calendar in 46 BC. The
month of July was named in honor of Julius. When Augustus Caesar succeeded
Julius, he also wanted a
month named after himself, so he gave the month
following July (originally Sextilis) the name of August. Since August only had
30 days, and Augustus considered himself as important as Julius, whose month of
July had 31 days, Augustus took one day from February and added it to August.
The changes made by Augustus did not affect the order of the days of the
week.
The Julian Calendar remained unchanged for 1600 years. It made provision for a year of 365.25 mean solar days. But the year actually consists of 365.242195 days. Because of this slight discrepancy, as the centuries passed, the seasons began to shift. By 1582 AD this discrepancy had grown to ten days. In that year Pope Gregory XIII established a new calendar which corrected the discrepancy, and is known as the Gregorian Calendar.
Pope Gregory XIII omitted ten days following October 4, 1582. What would have been October 5 became October 15.
Spain, Portugal, and Italy abopted the new Gregorian Calendar at once. France waited until December, and it adopted the change by calling the 10th of December the 20th of December. The Catholic states of Germany adopted the calendar in 1583. The Protestant states of Germany did not adopt the new calendar until 1700. About the same time, Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark adopted the new calendar. England adopted the calendar in 1752.
The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed. vol. 4, p. 988, tells us:
The week is a period of seven days, having no reference whatever to the celestial motions--a circumstance to which it owes its unalterable uniformity... It has been employed from time immemorial in almost all eastern countries.
The Hebrew people spoke of the days of the week by number rather than by name. The only day that had a name was the seventh day which was called Shabat, the Sabbath, or the rest day. The day prior to the Sabbath was designated the preparation day. On this day, preparations were made for the family so that the Sabbath might truly be a day of rest for the entire family. All the days were numbered and spoken of in reference to the Sabbath. The first day was "first toward the Sabbath." The second day was "second toward the Sabbath, and so on. This was also the practice among the Syrians, Arabians, etc. In at least 108 different languages the name for the seventh day, corresponding to our "Saturday", is a word meaning "rest day."
Can we be sure that the Sabbath has never been lost since Creation? G-d
sanctified the seventh day at Creation (Gen. 2:1-3). Even if the weekly Sabbath
had been lost through the years, it was certainly re-established when G-d
instructed the Israelites to not gather manna on Sabbath (Ex. 16:4). G-d later
announced to the Israelites at Mount Sinai that keeping His Sabbath holy was
part of His Ten Commandment law (Ex. 20:8-11). Since Mount Sinai the Jews have
faithfully kept G-d's Sabbath, despite captivity, persecution, and dispersion,
right down to our current day. Orthodox Jews, the Catholic church, Protestants,
historians, and astronomers all agree with each other that there is no evidence
that time
has ever been lost. The same Sabbath that Yeshua and the apostles
worshipped on (Luke 4:16,31; Acts 13:14-16,42,44) is the same seventh day
Sabbath that Sabbath-keeping Christians worship on today.
by S. Berkowitz
Shewing the UNCHANGED ORDER of the Days and the true Position of the SABBATH, as proved by the combined testimony of Ancient and Modern Languages. No. LANGUAGE (Where Spoken, Read, or Otherwise Used 1 2 3 4 5 6 Name of the SEVENTH DAY
The CHART OF THE WEEK, is over a hundred years old. It is extremely valuable and almost impossible to find today. Dr. William Meade Jones lived over a hundred years ago, and was a well-known London, England, research expert. He discovered in his studies that the Seventh-day Sabbath was the only weekly Sabbath ever commanded by God in the Bible. Jones decided that, since Scripture clearly shows that the Bible Sabbath was first given to mankind at end of Creation Week, --If Genesis 2:1-3 is really true, then two important facts would have had to be known throughout the ancient world: First, a fixing of the seven-day weekly cycle on a world-wide basis, and second, an ancient world-wide knowledge of the Seventh-day Sabbath. Jones was convinced of this for several reasons: 1. Adam and Noah were both earnest worshipers of God and would therefore have been faithful Sabbath keepers. 2. They would have taught their descendents about the Bible Sabbath, who would be aware of its original sacredness. 3. The truth that God is to be worshiped on the seventh of each seven-day week, requires a seven-day week, even though they may have later turned to idols and left the worship of the True God. 4. Therefore, as the descendents of Adam and Noah spread out all over the world, they would have carried with them these two important facts: Each week has seven days, and the seventh day of the week is the holy Sabbath given by God to mankind. Even though many of Adam's and Noah's descendents would become scoffers, Jones reasoned, all of them would still carry with them the twin truths of the six-day Creation Week, of Genesis 1 (by their keeping of the seven-day weekly cycle, and the Seventh-day Sabbath by naming the seventh day of the week in their language as the day of Sabbath rest). William Mead Jones decided that if Genesis 1 and 2 were really true, and that if God really created the world in six days and then rested on the Seventh day, then a majority of the languages of the world would prove the fact! And this, in turn, would be a powerful proof, not only that the Seventh day (and not the first) was the true Sabbath of God, but also a dramatic proof that Genesis 1 and 2 are genuine, and that God is our Creator! Thinking about both of these facts is stunning in the light of the abundance of corroborating evidence given on this amazing chart that proves them to be true!
Author unknown