Which Day of the Week Is The Sabbath?

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Despite doctrinal differences on various other topics, most Christians agree that a day of rest is an integral part of the Christian life. But on which day are we to rest?

"By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done" (Genesis 2:2, 3). The very word "sabbath" means rest, and to rest implies that you have labored. It's logical, then, for God to have designated the last day of the week a day of rest. "The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God" (Exodus 20:10).

Language reflects the customs of the culture that speaks it. Nearly every culture, from Babylon through modern times, rested on the seventh day. As languages developed, the name for the seventh day of the week remained "rest day." In the mid 19th century, Dr. William Meade Jones created this "Chart of the Week," listing the name for the seventh day in 160 languages, including some of the most ancient (shown below). Babylonian, in use hundreds of years before Abraham or the giving of the Ten Commandments at Sinai, calls the seventh day of the week sa-ba-tu, meaning "rest day."

Even today more than 100 languages worldwide, many of them unrelated to ancient Hebrew, use the word "Sabbath" for Saturday—and none of them designate any other day as a day of rest. Though the world's language groups have evolved so as to be unintelligible from each other, the word for the seventh day of the week has remained fairly recognizable.

The Sabbath predates Judaism

For the thousands of years since Judaism began, an entire nation of Jews has kept track of the weekly cycle and observed the seventh day Sabbath, sometimes even without a calendar. Nevertheless, many rationalize that it's impossible to verify which day of the week is actually the biblical Sabbath because Pope Gregory XIII changed the calendar. The Julian calendar, instituted by Julius Caesar around 46 B.C., calculated the length of the year as 365 ¼ days. In reality, the year is 11 minutes less than 365 ¼ days. So by the 1580s, the calendar and the solar cycle were ten days off. In 1582, Gregory changed the calendar so that Friday, October 5, became Friday, October 15, creating the Gregorian calendar we use today. But it did not confuse the days of the week; Friday still follows Thursday, Saturday still follows Friday, and so on and so forth.

Exodus 16 recounts a series of weekly Sabbath miracles over a period of forty years. God reiterated the Sabbath at Sinai (Exodus 20:8-11), and the Jews were still observing the seventh day when Jesus was born. Jesus kept the Sabbath (Luke 4:16; 23:54, 56; 24:1) until his death, which Luke indicates occurred on the day before the Sabbath: "Going to Pilate, [Joseph of Arimathea] asked for Jesus' body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin" (Luke 23:52-54). Luke goes on to describe the actions of the women who followed Jesus. "The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it.

"Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb" (Luke 23:55, 56; 24:1). The women discovered that Jesus had risen on Sunday morning; Christians acknowledge this fact by celebrating Easter. The day on which the women rested between the preparation day (Friday) when Jesus died, and the first day of the week (Easter Sunday) when Jesus rose again, had to be Saturday. Scripture clearly portrays God designating the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath, and throughout the centuries of history recounted in the Bible, His followers celebrated it as such. Unless it was changed, the seventh day is still the Sabbath. So why do so many people today honor Sunday, the first day of the week, instead of the seventh day? (Why do so many people worship on Sunday?)

Chart of the Week (Showing the position of the true Sabbath)

Compiled by Dr. William Meade Jones, 1887

LANGUAGE (Where Spoken, Read, or Otherwise Used)	1	2	3	4	5	6	Name of the SEVENTH DAY
Shemitic Hebrew Bible world-wide	Day One	Day Second	Day Third	Day Fourth	Day Fifth	Day the Sixth	Yom hash-shab-bath Day the Sabbath
Hebrew (Ancient and Modern)	One into the Sabbath	Second into the Sabbath	Third into the Sabbath	Fourth into the Sabbath	Fifth into the Sabbath	Eve of Holy Sabbath	Shab-bathSabbath
Targum of Onkelos (Hebrew Literature)	Day One	Day Second	Day Third	Day Fourth	Day Fifth	Day the Sixth	Yom hash-shab-bath Day the Sabbath
Targum Dialect of the Jews in Kurdistan	Day One of the Seven	Day 2nd of the Seven	Day 3rd of the Seven	Day 4th of the Seven	Day 5th of the Seven	Day of Eve (of Sabbath)	yoy-met sha-bat kodesh Holy Sabbath Day
Ancient Syriac *Each day proceeds on, and belongs to the Sabbath	One into Sabbath	Two into Sabbath	Three into Sabbath	Four into Sabbath	Five into Sabbath	Eve (of Sabbath)	Shab-ba-tho Sabbath
Chaldee Syriac Kurdistan and Urdmia, Persia	One into Sabbath	Two into Sabbath	Three into Sabbath	Four into Sabbath	Five into Sabbath	Eve (of Sabbath)	Shap-ta Sabbath
Samaritan (Old Hebrew Letters) Nablus, Palestine	Day One	Day Second	Day Third	Day Fourth	Day Fifth	Day Sixth	Shab-bath Sabbath
Babylonian Euphrates Tigris Valleys Mesopotamia (Written lang. 3800 B.C.)	First	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Sixth	Sa-ba-tu Sabbath
Assyrian Euphrates and Tigris Valleys, Mesopotamia	First	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Sixth	sa-ba-tu Sabbath
Arabic (Very old names)	Business Day	Light Moon	War Chief	Turning Day or Midweek	Familiar or Society Day	Eve (of Sabbath)	Shi-yar Chief or Rejoicing Day
Arabic (Ancient and Modern) Westn. Asia, E,W & N. Africa	The One	The Two	The Three	The Four	The Fifth	Assembly (day, Muham)	as-sabt The Sabbath
Maltese, Malta	One (day)	Two (and day)	The 3 (3rd d.)	The 4 (4th d.)	Fifth (day)	Assembly	Is-sibt. The Sabbath
Ge-ez or Ethiopic Abyssinia (Ge-ez signifies "original")	One (day)	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Eve (of Sabbath)	san-bat Sabbath
Tigre Abyssinia (Closely related to Ge-ez)	One (First day)	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Eve (of Sabbath)	san-bat Sabbath
Amharic, Abyssinia (Nearly related to Ge-ez)	One	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Eve (of Sabbath)	san-bat Sabbath
Falasha (Language of the Jews of Abyssinia)	One	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Sixth	yini sanbat The Sabbath
Coptic Egypt (A dead lang. for 200 years)	The First Day	The 2nd Day	The 3rd Day	The 4th Day	The 5th Day	The 6th Day	pi sabbaton The Sabbath
Orma or Galla South of Abyssinia (This language has two sets of names, the first being the oldest)	Lady, Virgin Mary Day. Great or Festival Sabbath	Second day. First Trade Day	3rd Day to the Sabbath. Second Trade Day	4th day to the Sabbath. Fourth (day)	Fifth (day)	Assembly (day)	Last day of the half-week inclusive of 4th day Little or Humble or Solemn Sabbath (A day of no ceremonial display and no work)
Tamashek or Towarek (From ancient Lybian or Numidian). Atlas Mountains, Africa.	First day	Second day	Third day	Fourth day	Fifth day	Assembly Day	a-hal es-sabt. The Sabbath Day
Kabyle or Berber. (Ancient Numidian) North Africa	Day the One (First)	Day the Two (2nd)	Day the Three (3rd)	Day the Four (4th)	Day the Fifth	The Assembly Day	ghas or wars assebt The Sabbath Day
Hausa (Central Africa)	The One (1st)	The Two (2nd)	The Three (3rd)	The Four (4th)	The Fifth	The Assembly	assebatu The Sabbath
Urdu or Hindustani (Muhammadan and Hindu, India) (Two names for the days)	One to Sabbath. Sunday	2nd to Sabbath. Moon-day	3rd to Sabbath. Mars	4th to Sabbath. Mercury	5th to Sabbath. (Eve of Juma)	Assembly (day)	sanichar - Saturn shamba - Sabbath
Pashto or Afghan Afghanistan	One to the Sabbath	Two to Sabbath	Three to Sabbath	Four to Sabbath	Five to Sabbath	Assembly (day)	khali - Unemployed-day, Shamba - Sabbath

The table above includes some of the oldest languages known to man. One of these, the Babylonian language, was in use hundreds of years before the Hebrew race was founded by Abraham. That language designated the seventh day of the week as "sa-ba-tu", meaning rest day -- another indisputable proof that the Bible "Sabbath" was not, and is not, exclusively Jewish.

Very few realize that the word "Sabbath" and the concept of resting from work on the seventh day of the week (Saturday) is common to most of the ancient and modern languages of the world. This is evidence totally independent of the Scriptures that confirms the biblical teaching that God's seventh-day Sabbath predates Judaism. The concept of a Saturday holy day of rest was understood, accepted, and practiced by virtually every culture from Babylon through modern times.

In the study of the many languages of mankind, you will find two important facts:

In the majority of the principal languages the last, or seventh, day of the week is designated as "Sabbath."
There is not even one language that designates another day as the "day of rest."

From these facts we may conclude that not only those people who called the last day of the week "Sabbath," but all other peoples and races, as far as they recognized any day of the week as "Sabbath," rested on the seventh day. In fact, it was recorded by the great historian Sozomen that in his time the whole known world, with the exception of Rome and Alexandria, observed the seventh day of the week.

"The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria" (Socrates, "Ecclesiastical History," Book 7, chap.19).

Another interesting fact is that the words in the original languages that are used to designate the seventh day of the week as the "Sabbath" have continued to be very similar while the other words have been so changed over time that they are unintelligible to people of other language groups. This is another proof that the Sabbath and the words used to designate the seventh day of the week as the "Sabbath day" originated at Creation in complete harmony with the biblical record found in Genesis 2:1–3.

Language List

Language	Word for Saturday/7thDay	Meaning
Greek	Sabbaton	Sabbath
Latin (Italy)	Sabbatum	Sabbath
Spanish (Spain)	Sábado	Sabbath
Portuguese (Portugal)	Sabbado	Sabbath
Italian (Italy)	Sabbato	Sabbath
French (France)	Samedi	Sabbath day
High German (Germany)	Samstag	Sabbath
Prussian (Prussia)	Sabatico	Sabbath
Russian (Russia)	Subbota	Sabbath
Polish	Sobota	Sabbath
Hebrew	Shabbath	Sabbath
Afaghan	Shamba	Sabbath
Hindustani	Shamba	Sabbath
Persian	Shambin	Sabbath
Arabic	Assabt	The Sabbath
Turkish	Yomessabt	Day Sabbath
Malay	Ari-Sabtu	Day Sabbath
Abyssinian	Sanbat	Sabbath
Lusatian (Saxony)	Sobota	Sabbath
Bohemian	Sobota	Sabbath
Bulgarian (Bulgaria)	Subbota	Sabbath
New Slovenian (Illyria, in Austria)	Sobota	Sabbath
Illyrian (Dalmatia, Servia)	Subota	Sabbath
Wallachian (Roumania or Wallachia)	Sambata	Sabbath
Roman (Sapin, Catalonia)	Dissapte	Day Sabbath
Ecclesiastical Roman (Italy)	Sabbatum	Sabbath
D'oc. French (ancient and modern)	Dissata	Day Sabbath
Norman French (10th -11th Centuries)	Sabbedi	Sabbath Day
Wolof (Senegambia, West Africa)	Alere-Asser	Last Day Sabbath
Congo (West Equatorial Africa)	Sabbado or Kiansbula	Sabbath
Orma (South of Abyssiania)	Zam-ba-da	Sabbath
Kazani - TARTAR (East Russia)	Subbota	Sabbath
Osmanlian (Turkey)	Yome-es-sabt	day of the Sabbath
Arabic (Very old names)	Shi-yar	Chief or rejoicing day
Ancient Syriac	Shab-ba-tho	Sabbath
Chaldee Syriac (Kurdistan,Urumia,Persia)	Shaptu	Sabbath
Babylonian Syriac (A Very Old Language)	Sa-Ba-tu	Sabbath
Maltese (Malta)	Is-sibt	the Sabbath
Ethiopic (Abyssinia)	San-bat	Sabbath
Coptic (Egypt)	Pi sabbaton	the Sabbath
Tamashek (Atlas mountains, Africa)	A-hal es-sabt	the Sabbath
Kabyle (North Africa, Ancient Numidan)	Ghas assebt	the Sabbath day
Hausa (Central Africa)	Assebatu	the Sabbath
Pasto (Afghanistan)	Shamba	Sabbath (pleasantest day of the week)
Pahlivi (ancient Persian)	Shambid	Sabbath
Persian (Persia)	Shambah	Sabbath
Armenian (Armenia)	Shapat	Sabbath
Kurdish (Kurdistan)	Shamba	Sabbath
Ndebele (Zimbabwe)	Sabatha	Sabbath
Shona (Zimbabwe)	Sabata	Sabbath
Miscellaneous Middle Ages Languages
Georgian (Caucasus)	Shabati	Sabbath
Suanian (Caucasus)	Sammtyn	Sabbath
Ingoush (Caucasus)	Shatt	Sabbath
Malayan (Malaya, Sumatra)	Hari sabtu	day Sabbath
Javanese (Java)	Saptoe or saptu	Sabbath
Dayak (Borneo)	Sabtu	Sabbath
Makassar (s. Celebes & Salayer islands)	Sattu	Sabbath
Malagassy (Madagascar)	Alsabotsy	The Sabbath
Swahili (east equatorial Africa)	Sabato	The Sabbath
Mandingo (west Africa, s. of Senegal)	Sibiti	Sabbath
Teda (central Africa)	Essebdu	The Sabbath
Bornu (central Africa)	Assebdu	The Sabbath
Logone (central Africa)	Se-sibde	The Sabbath
Bagrimma (central Africa)	Sibbedi	Sabbath
Maba (central Africa)	Sab	Sabbath
Permian (Russian)	Subota	Sabbath
Votiak (Russian)	Subbota	Sabbath

- Emily Thomsen

Can’t we keep holy any day of the week?

Separation of Church and State

What about the seventh year and the year of jubilee?

The Blessings of the Sabbath

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