When does a 'Day' Begin in the Bible?
I have always heard that in Bible times the 24hr day began and ended at sundown. This is how those currently in Israel start their days, so it made sense. Having read Genesis 1 many times I never saw differently than that. But then I started studying the timing of Jesus death and resurrection. In that I went to the Old Testament and studied the first Passover. I came across something that didn't make sense.
Exodus 12:5-6 (all verses from NIV unless stated otherwise) says "The animals you chose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight."
Exodus 12:8 says "That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast"
Exodus 12:12 says "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord."
What we have here is three events: killing/preparing/cooking of the animal, eating of the animal, and God passing over. The part that got me was that if the 24hr day begins and ends at sunset then these events are taking place over two days. The killing/preparing/cooking would start on the 14th. These would take many hours and be ready to eat either before or after sundown. At sundown the 15th 24hr day begins. The Israelite's were told to eat at night. Then the event that gives it's name to the 14th day, Passover, happens on the 15th day. So two of the three events happen on the 15th instead of the 14th. How is this so?
I read one website that explained it by saying the killing of the animal happened after ‘evening’ (NIV says ‘twilight’), meaning after sundown. So the sun goes down on the 13th day (14th begins), animal is killed, prepared, cooked, eaten, and God passes over all before midnight (Exodus 12:29). That just doesn’t seem likely due to time constraints and to it all happening in darkness.
I looked into the meaning of the word ‘evening’ (twilight in Ex 12:6). It has a literal translation of ‘between the evenings’ (plural). I found this to have two possible meanings. One is that the first evening (since evenings is plural) is sundown and the second evening is when there is no more light (stars come out). This option didn't seem likely due to many reasons. A few being lack of time to get it all done and it being dark for the full process.The second option is that the first evening is high noon and the second evening is sunset. This second option gives many hours of time. So the Israelite's would have plenty of time to do the Passover killing, preparing, and cooking. But that still didn’t solve the problem with the three events happening on two different days.
Having been considering this issue I was trying to find a solution. I started searching on what the word 'day' means in the Bible. This took me back to the creation account in Genesis 1. I found the typical view that I was brought up with. That being the phrase "and there was evening, and there was morning" is a summation of the previous verses. Meaning that after the creation explanation, this phase summed it up by saying it began in the evening and then ended in the morning. For instance this site says:
"Genesis 1 reveals that the days of the week were originally measured "evening" then "morning." Each description of the seven days of creation uses this format, clearly indicating a day that began at sunset."
And similarly this site says:
"Certain Lunar Sabbath believers state that the day is only the period of day light, and that the 24 hour day begins at sunrise. We, on the other hand, choose to believe as the Bible says that "the evening and morning" were the first, second, third, etc... day".
So they separate the creation part from the evening/morning part. This is what I had thought my whole life so it is what I went with even though it didn't help with the 'two days' problem I was having. Then after more searching I found something very interesting. Once it was explained to me I now see Genesis 1 so very differently. So lets go back to Genesis and see the timing of how God created everything.
Genesis 1:3-5a says "And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." All of this happens in the daytime. It can be confusing here on day 1 because light is just being created but just go with me for a second. God creates and then what happens? Genesis 1:5b says "And there was evening, and there was morning -- the first day." Instead of separating this from the previous part, treat them both as one continuous event. So you have creation, evening, and then morning. Then a daytime count. What about 'night'? Well it is not mentioned but we know that night is between evening and morning. It all flows perfectly together. So instead of separating the two parts, keep them together. They are chronological. Lets move on and see if the pattern continues.
Genesis 1:6-8a says "And God said, "Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water." So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault form the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault "sky." Now remember this comes immediately after verse 5b, the daytime count. That being that it is morning and most importantly for this article, a new day! The morning does two things: ends the night and begins the day. Then Genesis 1:8b says "And there was evening, and there was morning -- the second day." God does not give the daytime count until morning. So morning is when the previous night ends and the next day begins.
If you continue on for the remaining 4 creation days you will see this same pattern. Each cycle is in the following chronological order:
This order of events mentioned above repeats itself for a total of 6 times. Those 6 times in Gen 1 where it says “and there was evening and there was morning” are all talking about night time (night time is between evening and morning). So that begs the question when is the daytime? Six times it tells us the daytime precedes the night time. God is creating during the daytime. 6 times God creates in the daytime, 6 times there is evening, 6 times there is an unwritten night time where nothing is reported to have happened, 6 times there is morning, 6 times God gives the count of the daytime. So what that means is that 'day' does not begin at evening (sundown) but instead at morning (sunrise).
So now if we look back at Exodus 12 it works much smoother. There is a morning of the 14th, after high noon the animal is killed, cooking begins, that night time the food is served (the night of the 14th day), and at midnight God passes over (the night of the 14th day). This works perfectly, all the pieces fit.
There is one more important piece of information about 'day'. In the article above I used 'daytime' for a specific reason. That is because 'day' is misused. See my What is the Bible's Definition of a 'Day' blog post.
I read one website that explained it by saying the killing of the animal happened after ‘evening’ (NIV says ‘twilight’), meaning after sundown. So the sun goes down on the 13th day (14th begins), animal is killed, prepared, cooked, eaten, and God passes over all before midnight (Exodus 12:29). That just doesn’t seem likely due to time constraints and to it all happening in darkness.
I looked into the meaning of the word ‘evening’ (twilight in Ex 12:6). It has a literal translation of ‘between the evenings’ (plural). I found this to have two possible meanings. One is that the first evening (since evenings is plural) is sundown and the second evening is when there is no more light (stars come out). This option didn't seem likely due to many reasons. A few being lack of time to get it all done and it being dark for the full process.The second option is that the first evening is high noon and the second evening is sunset. This second option gives many hours of time. So the Israelite's would have plenty of time to do the Passover killing, preparing, and cooking. But that still didn’t solve the problem with the three events happening on two different days.
Having been considering this issue I was trying to find a solution. I started searching on what the word 'day' means in the Bible. This took me back to the creation account in Genesis 1. I found the typical view that I was brought up with. That being the phrase "and there was evening, and there was morning" is a summation of the previous verses. Meaning that after the creation explanation, this phase summed it up by saying it began in the evening and then ended in the morning. For instance this site says:
"Genesis 1 reveals that the days of the week were originally measured "evening" then "morning." Each description of the seven days of creation uses this format, clearly indicating a day that began at sunset."
And similarly this site says:
"Certain Lunar Sabbath believers state that the day is only the period of day light, and that the 24 hour day begins at sunrise. We, on the other hand, choose to believe as the Bible says that "the evening and morning" were the first, second, third, etc... day".
So they separate the creation part from the evening/morning part. This is what I had thought my whole life so it is what I went with even though it didn't help with the 'two days' problem I was having. Then after more searching I found something very interesting. Once it was explained to me I now see Genesis 1 so very differently. So lets go back to Genesis and see the timing of how God created everything.
Genesis 1:3-5a says "And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." All of this happens in the daytime. It can be confusing here on day 1 because light is just being created but just go with me for a second. God creates and then what happens? Genesis 1:5b says "And there was evening, and there was morning -- the first day." Instead of separating this from the previous part, treat them both as one continuous event. So you have creation, evening, and then morning. Then a daytime count. What about 'night'? Well it is not mentioned but we know that night is between evening and morning. It all flows perfectly together. So instead of separating the two parts, keep them together. They are chronological. Lets move on and see if the pattern continues.
Genesis 1:6-8a says "And God said, "Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water." So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault form the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault "sky." Now remember this comes immediately after verse 5b, the daytime count. That being that it is morning and most importantly for this article, a new day! The morning does two things: ends the night and begins the day. Then Genesis 1:8b says "And there was evening, and there was morning -- the second day." God does not give the daytime count until morning. So morning is when the previous night ends and the next day begins.
If you continue on for the remaining 4 creation days you will see this same pattern. Each cycle is in the following chronological order:
- Creation events
- Evening
- (Night)
- Morning
- Daytime count
This order of events mentioned above repeats itself for a total of 6 times. Those 6 times in Gen 1 where it says “and there was evening and there was morning” are all talking about night time (night time is between evening and morning). So that begs the question when is the daytime? Six times it tells us the daytime precedes the night time. God is creating during the daytime. 6 times God creates in the daytime, 6 times there is evening, 6 times there is an unwritten night time where nothing is reported to have happened, 6 times there is morning, 6 times God gives the count of the daytime. So what that means is that 'day' does not begin at evening (sundown) but instead at morning (sunrise).
So now if we look back at Exodus 12 it works much smoother. There is a morning of the 14th, after high noon the animal is killed, cooking begins, that night time the food is served (the night of the 14th day), and at midnight God passes over (the night of the 14th day). This works perfectly, all the pieces fit.
There is one more important piece of information about 'day'. In the article above I used 'daytime' for a specific reason. That is because 'day' is misused. See my What is the Bible's Definition of a 'Day' blog post.
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