SUNRISE or SUNSET
When Does a Day Begin?
[Disclaimer: In this article, all references to the Roman and Yahudim (Jewish) replacement terms of the Lord, God, Adoni, and Jesus Christ have been returned to their original and true sacred Hebrew names.]
According to the weight of evidence in Scripture, a DAY is a mere twelve hours in length. It commences at sunrise and terminates at sunset. The night is not divided by hours, but by four watches commencing at sunset and terminating at sunrise. A civil calendar date is twenty-four hours long and is NOT synonymous with a day. In contrast, a civil calendar date includes all the components of both the day and the night, and commences at sunrise and not at midnight or sunset. A day is only the first half of a civil calendar date, while the night is the second half. The day and night occupy opposite portions of time in a civil calendar date because the sun rules the day, and the moon, together with the stars, rule the night (Genesis 1:16).
There has been for centuries much confusion over the use of the term DAY. No wonder there is so much muddle, as it has been interchangeably used in Scripture translations to denote both a period of 12 hours ruled by the sun, from sunrise to sunset, as well as the entire cycle of 12 hours plus four-night watches.
Yet, in spite of new evidence being revealed as to when the Sabbath was to commence from Creation to the time of the cross/stake of our Messiah, most religious authors continue to assume the DAY either commences at midnight as do the Romans, or sunset as with the Rabbinical Pharisee Jews. But is this true?
Historical Roman Day
In short, historically, the Romans, prior to 46 B.C., began their day at sunrise. It was measured by 12 hours, as defined by the shadow on a sundial, and nights were measured by the four Night Watches, exactly as recorded in Scripture (2 Kings 20:8-11; John 11:9; Psalms 63:6; Psalms 119:48; Mark 13:34). But over a period of 400 years, the Roman Emperors began changing all their units of time for various reasons of power, acclaim, and rebelliousness to the laws of Yahuah Alahim/Elohim. Ultimately, they created a calendar time-measuring system far and away different from that of the other nations and of Torah Scriptures. These egregious changes first began under Julius Caesar (mid-1st century B.C.), who first eliminated the moon from measuring years, months, weeks, and days. This single act allowed him to set up variable lengths of months, and fashion the new Roman eight-day week to cycle without end, no longer bound by the 29 and 30 numeric lunar phases.
“…the time of the transition from the reckoning of the day as beginning with morning to the reckoning of it as beginning with evening… that in the earlier calendar and in the literature which records this, the day was reckoned from the morning, presumably from sunrise, while in the later calendar and the literature pertaining thereto the day was reckoned from the evening… Elsewhere we have presented quite a mass of evidence which establishes conclusively that the earlier practice in Israel during the Biblical period was to reckon the [24 hour] day from sunrise to sunrise… That in the earliest period of Israelite sojourn in Palestine, under calendar 1, the day was reckoned from morning to morning is established by a super abundance of evidence… This in turn, together with other important considerations, would point to a time approximately about the beginning or the first half, of the third century B.C. as that of the introduction of the new system of reckoning the day.” Supplementary Studies in the Calendars of Ancient Israel, p. 1-148)
Later at the Council of Nicaea (321-325 A.D), Emperor Constantine the Great, because of His extreme hatred for all things Yahudim (Jewish), ensured that the changes he made to his new calendar would never harmonize with, nor pay homage to the Scripture’s Torah Law and its preordained time-measuring model. This he specified in His Creed, specifically renouncing the Creator’s New Moons, lunar seventh-day Sabbath, and lunar Feast Days. So when he legislated the change from the eight-day continuous weekly cycle made popular by Julius Caesar, to the seven-day cycle, it was so determined to NEVER SYNCHRONIZE with that of the Torah Law recorded by Moses, and its prescribed lunar phases, as utilized by the Yahudim (Jews). To this very day, the Roman updated planetary seven-day weekly cycle (Sunday-Saturday) remains utterly divorced from the moon and her phases and therefore is hopeless to meet the criteria as an ambassador of the creation week or a SIGN of our Creator’s handiwork.
Over a thousand years following Constantine, the Julian solar Calendar was replaced by Pope Gregory. This new Gregorian time-measuring system changed the formula for calculating leap years, and the commencement of the Roman legislated New Year was moved from March 25th of spring to January 1st of winter. Finally, 11 days were dropped from the month in September 1752. While this did not affect the order of the planetary days of the Roman mandated continuous weekly cycle, it did nothing to bring this rogue pagan week back into harmony with Scripture’s prophetic Astro-luni-solar calendar and its lunar week.
Historical Jewish Day
Coincident to that of the Romans, the Yahudim (Jews), when in Roman captivity (A.D. 70) were pressured to give up every unit of time from the Scripture’s Torah Law. This was finally accomplished in A.D. 358, under the Sanhedrin (Rabbinical Pharisee) leadership of Hillel II. He led the Yahudim (Jews), for all time to come, to adopt the long-familiar ancient Babylonian dark conjunction/crescent New Moon for months, and the measuring of days from sunset to sunset for 24 hour days. But stunningly, at that same time, they also embraced Rome’s new seven-day continuous weekly cycle.
The Document of Convention
To avoid the chaos that comes from uniting the lunar months with the Roman continuous weekly cycle and its Saturday seventh-day count, the Yahudim (Jews) of necessity had to create for themselves the Five Rules of Postponement. It was a document of intervention and convention to bring harmony to the two calendar factions that could not otherwise be coordinated. Without these newly implemented self-made rules, the Roman seventh day would cycle irresponsibly, falling on the lunar sacred days of the New Moon, Passover (Pasch), or Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).
Astonishingly, while most of us received some level of education with regard to the Roman Gregorian calendar changes from that of the Julian, simply none of us were clued in on the great assault to the entire stealth Roman calendar replacement system, and its cycling week has had on our Creator’s ordained Calendar since the fourth century A.D. Whether, in History or Bible class, our teachers were also ignorant of these facts. One can only instruct according to their own paradigms. And most in America and Europe inherited their long-held calendar traditions from Roman influence. Yet, the council remains:
“Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.” Titus 1:14
For far too long, good and honest people have been content to follow Rabbinical Pharisee Jewish and Roman fables (Titus 1:14) for measuring when the day, week, month, and the year begin that are not supported by the weight of evidence in Scripture. Yet, the truth has been there all along for the taking, with only a little effort, the evidence can be gathered from the original Hebrew or Greek text, exposing the false traditions of men.
The mere fact that at this late hour Yahuah Alahim’s time units are being revealed, should tell us our Messiah is returning soon for His obedient followers. The following light on this essential subject of TIME is designed to equip Yahuah’s followers for the battles over the truth that lies ahead in preparation for citizenship in His Eternal Kingdom government. But while all units of time will be touched upon, it is the aim of this article to expose errors and reveal the underlying TRUTH relevant to when the DAY begins.
