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Morgan BooksTHE MEANING OF SABBATH(Sabbath doesn't actually mean Saturday)
By Amos Morgan
THE MEANING OF SABBATH
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Sept 2017 | Tishrei 5778 | |||||||||||||
S | M | T | W | T | F | S | S | M | T | W | T | F | S | |
1 | 2 | |||||||||||||
3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | ||||||||
10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | |
17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
October | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | ||
8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | |
25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 1 | ||||||||
(Tishrei is the first month on any Jewish calendar, but in the Torah we see that it is
referred to consistently as the seventh month, not the first. |
There is no way we can match our calendar to the Hebrew calendar. The closest we can do is to look at them side
by side and to note that September 21, 2017 on our calendar is Rosh Hosanna which is the first day of the seventh
Jewish month on the Jewish calendar. High, Holy Days (Sabbaths) are shown in yellow: now let's look in Leviticus;
• All Saturdays are Sabbaths: Lev 23:3. It is a day of rest; "ye shall do no work therein;"
• Tishrei 1 & 2; Rosh Hashanah. The first day of the seventh month is a Sabbath.
"In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath …" Lev. 23:24.
It is the feast of blowing the trumpet; now called Rosh Hashanah. In 2017 (Jewish year 5778), the first day of
Tishrei occurs on Thursday. There is a tradition of celebrating both the first and second day of Tishrei because
in the distant past it was not always possible to declare when the new moon (the first of the month) occurred to
people living far distance because only the priest could declare a new moon
• Tishrei 10; Yom Kippur. The tenth day of Tishrei is the Day of Atonement. Lev. 23:30-32.
"It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest." *Note that in 2017 the tenth day, the day of Atonement,
occurs on a Saturday Sabbath, but this is not always the case.
• Tishrei 15 to 21-22; Sukkot. The fifteenth day of the seventh month is the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot).
Lev. 23:39 "Ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eight
day shall be a Sabbath." Note that a Sabbath occurs on the eighth day (following the seven day feast of
Tabernacles).
Three more days are designates as Sabbaths in addition to those shown. From the foregoing we can see that Sabbath does not mean Saturday. It means a sanctified day, a day of rest, a Holy Day.
Learning about these seven Sabbaths solved a very long standing problem for me. Jesus said that as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly so would the Son of man be three days and three nights in the {tomb}. I could never make this work out; if he was crucified on Friday and rose again on Sunday morning; that's only two nights! Fortunately I had been taught that there are no contradictions in the Bible; that such illusions were because of flawed understanding on my part. I got that, but I struggled long and hard with the arithmetic and that the next day after the crucifixion was a Sabbath. But John 19:14, 31 makes it all very plain if you understand that the day after the crucifixion was a Sabbath because it was the first day of the Feast of unleavened Bread and not because it was a Saturday. This is a copy of the month in which the Passover was instituted and also the month in which Christ was crucified.
Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | |||||
3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
Date | First Passover | Passion Week |
---|---|---|
10th | The Pascal lamb is chosen | Palm Sunday |
14th | Pascal Lamb is slain | Jesus was crucified |
15th | First Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. A High Holy Day |
Good Friday |
16th | Saturday Sabbath | Saturday Sabbath |
17th | 17th Easter Sunday |
Now there are no more apparent conflicts! Jesus was in the tomb Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night. And he rose on the third day as he said.
Jesus ate the ‘Family’ Passover with his disciples, not the Synagogue Passover of Leviticus. Remember that the Pascal lamb was served after it was slain, but the reasons and explanation is clear from Jewish websites and perhaps someday we'll add it here also.