What is the definition of a day? When does a day start and when does it end? Does a day begin at sundown and end at sundown twenty four hours later, as is indicated in the first chapter of Genesis? Or does a day begin at midnight and end at midnight twenty four hours later as we observe it today? Or is the more accurate observation of the beginning and ending of a day as described throughout the Bible, occur from sunrise on one day to sunrise twenty four hours later the next day? Why shouldn’t we consider the start of a day at sunrise and call it a day, instead of considering the start of a day at the beginning of a night or halfway through a night and calling it a day. If a day starts at night, it should be called a night and not a day.
In the first chapter of the book of Genesis we are told about the creation process that occurred on each of the first six days. At the end of each day during the creation, God said: "And the evening and the morning were the first day." Then after every other day of creation, for the second through the sixth day, a similar statement was made, indicating that a certain day of creation had ended.
Throughout the years, Bible Teachers have interpreted that statement to mean that each day consisted of two parts, first the evening part, then the morning part which was the end of the day. In doing so, we were made to understand that a certain day began with the evening, at sundown, and ended at sundown twenty four hours later. If that had been the case, God may have very well said that the evening, morning, and the afternoon were the first day, indicating that every day began at the start of an evening period at sundown, and ended at the conclusion of an afternoon period, and the sundown twenty four hours later.
To state in another way how we have been taught when a certain day starts and ends, let us look at this example. On Monday afternoon at sundown the twenty four hour period known as Tuesday would then end at sundown on Tuesday afternoon.
Where our present day starts at midnight and runs to the following midnight, we have been taught that the day in Bible times started at sundown and ran to the next sundown. But I believe that the scriptures can prove to us that what many are teaching about when a certain day begins and ends is just a misinterpretation of what is said in the first chapter of Genesis.
In the twelfth chapter of Exodus God instructs His people to prepare for the Passover to be held on the fourteenth day of the month. The Passover Lamb would be killed in the evening of the fourteenth day and eaten that same night. Then according to Numbers 33:3, the Israelites departed from Rameses in Egypt
Note also that in Leviticus 23:5 thru 6 that it says the fourteenth day of the Month is the Passover day, and the next day after the Passover, on the fifteenth day of the Month begins the first day of unleavened bread. This feast of unleavened bread then runs for seven days and ends on the twenty first day of the Month according to Exodus 12:18. So then we see that there are eight days included in this time of celebration, the first day on the fifteenth of the month being the Passover, and the second day thru the eighth days are the seven days of the feast of unleavened bread. The last day of unleavened bread being the twenty first day of the Month. One additional thing to note is that the first and the last day of the feast of unleavened bread were designated as a day of holy convocation, in which no work was to be performed.
Another scripture, which is in the New Testament, which disproves the theory of the day beginning at sundown, is John chapter twenty, verses one and nineteen. In verse one it speaks of the morning of the first day of the week when Jesus rose from the Tomb, and in verse nineteen it speaks of Jesus appearing to His disciples in the evening of that same day. Now if the evening part of the day preceded the morning part of the day, this couldn=t have happened. So Jesus rose from the Tomb on the morning of the first day of the week, and later in that same day, at evening, He appeared to His disciples.
A lot of this misinterpretation of when a day begins and ends is caused by the wording used by the Bible Translators. In Genesis 1:5 the Bible reads as follows: "And the evening and the morning were the first day." The Translators added the word "were" after the word "morning" in this verse. This made it appear that the evening of a certain day came before the morning of the same day. But if the word "were" had not been used, and instead the word "ended" would have been inserted after the word "morning", it could take on a different meaning. But now why in the World would we even consider using the word "ended" in place of the word "were"?
Let us consider that God had just completed all of the creating He had planned for a certain day, and after the day was over He could have said: And the evening and the morning ended the first day, with a new day beginning at dawn. Yes I know this is just speculation, but what basis do you think the Translators had to add the word "were" in this scripture? I don=t believe they had any thought that someone would come along and interpret this to mean that a new day began at sundown, instead of in the next morning.
Look at the statements in Matthew 26 verses 19 and 20. The Disciples prepared the Passover meal for Jesus on the fourteenth day of the Month and that same night He sat down with them and ate it. Now if Sundown, or the Evening, began a new day, then He would have celebrated the Passover on the next day, on the fifteenth. The scriptures tell us in the book of Exodus that the Passover meal is eaten on the same day that it is prepared (Exo 12:6-8).
There we have examined several scriptures that refute the theory of a day beginning at sundown, at the evening hour, and ending twenty four hours later, at evening on the next day. But there are absolutely no scriptures outside of the first chapter of Genesis that support that the interpretation of the day begins at the evening hour.
In conclusion, I believe the scriptures as a whole support the observation of a day starting at sunrise, continuing through the morning, the afternoon and the evening and ending at sunrise the next morning.
I believe that Bible Scholars came up with that interpretation in order to build a foundation to support Jesus being in the Tomb for three days and three nights. For the scriptures in the four Gospels are not detailed enough to be able to verify the three day and three night event. But you see, verification or support is not necessary, or should not be necessary. Jesus said He would be in the Earth for three days and nights, and that is all the proof that we should need to believe that He was.
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