Maybe the Torah's Calendar was never a Lunar or Lunisolar Calendar?

First some terminology clarification.  The traditional Rabbinic Hebrew Calendar we're used to calling a Lunar Calendar is strictly speaking a Lunisolar Calendar, the phases of the Moon come first but synchronization is done with a Solar year so the seasons don't drift out of place.  The same is true of the popular variants I've discussed already like the Samaritan Calendar, the Kariate reckoning and the proposed Lunar Sabbath model.  A strictly Lunar Calendar would be something like the Islamic Calendar which makes no attempt to reconcile and so Ramadan has fallen all over the Gregorian Calendar.

But I've lately been questioning the traditional assumption that the Torah's Calendar is Lunar at all.

Let's start with the fact that the Torah has completely different words for Month and Moon, that is not what I'd expect from an ancient strictly Lunar month based culture.  Month is Chodesh/Hodesh (Strongs Number 2320) while Moon is Jerah/Yerach (3394).  There are a few places where the latter word is used of a passage of time, but that's because even without a lunar calendar the concept of a month is still tied poetically to the Moon somewhat as it's phases come at least close.

Japan for example had a Lunar Calendar until 1873, and that's why their language uses the same word for both Month and Moon, Tsuki.  That's why in the English version of episode 6 of my favorite Anime, Noir, it sounds weird when Mireille says "so many Months and Years have passed", in a language where all the word "month" means is a fraction of a year my mind goes "why even include months in that expression?".  But I'm pretty sure in the Japanese she's saying "so many Tsuki and Hi", Hi being an alternate word for both Sun and Year and sometimes Day.  So a more poetic yet equally literal translation would be "so many Moons and Suns have passed" which sounds more right even if technically equally as redundant.

The phrase "Rosh Chodesh" gets translated "New Moon" sometimes because of our traditional assumptions, but Rosh means the beginning or head of something not quite "New".  Colossians 2:16 is the one New Testament reference to the Jewish concept of the "Rosh Chodesh", and it again uses a Greek word for Month, not Selene the word for the Moon.

Because we think of it as the Crescent New Moon so much talk about Rosh Chodesh is spent on saying we don't know for certain exactly when it is till it happens.  With Dispensationalists saying it typologically fits the Pre-Trib Rapture and "no man knowth the day or the hour" verses.  But there is one clear Biblical reference to people knowing for certain the next day is a Rosh Chodesh, 1 Samuel 20:5.

The Torah never talks about the Full Moon, even in regards to the Holy Days that should happen about then on a Lunar or Lunisolar calendar.  Two verses elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible are often translated as referring to the Full Moon, but those are highly disputable as I've discussed before.  For Psalm 81 I don't know how to translate it but my hunch is it's about the Jubilee Yom Kippur sounded Shofar.  The word for "feast" used here is sometimes used of Sacrificial animals like Exodus 23:18, Psalm 118:27 and Isaiah 29:1, so that could be the Yom Kippur Sin Offering in this verse.  The root of the word thought to refer to the Full Moon appears in Leviticus 16:13 where it's translated "cover".

And then there is all the evidence that The Bible clearly thinks of a Month as being 30 days not 29 and a half.  It's there when you do the math of the Flood chronology of Genesis 7 and 8 with 5 months being exactly 150 days beginning on the 17th of the second month and ending on the 17th of the seventh month.  And it's also in Revelation with 42 Months, 1,260 days and three and a half years being treated as synonymous time periods.  

However there is one thing often taken as evidence for a 365 day year in the Torah, and that is how that number happens to be the number of years Enoch lived. But that could be a coincidence.

Genesis 1:14-19 discuses the Sun (greater light), Moon (lesser light) and stars being made for signs and for seasons and for days and for years.  But you'll notice in verse 16 the Sun is made and talked about first, it has priority.  And months are seemingly missing from the discussion.

It is well known that the Hebrew Calendar was influenced by the Babylonian Calendar during the Captivity, the names we're now used to calling the months come from Babylon for one thing.  Well the thing is Babylon had a Lunisolar Calendar, so even that aspect of it could be Babylonian in origin.

Lunar Calendars were more popular with the ancient Pagans then you might expect given the modern popular narrative that ancient Paganism always started with Sun worship.  In fact the most prominent not at all Lunar Calendar used by Pagans in classical antiquity was the Civil Egyptian calendar, but even they originally had a Lunar one which they kept using for ceremonial purposes.  Actually even in Greece the Attic Lunar Calender's main purpose was for how they observed Pagan festivals.

Now as much as we love to see all things Egyptian as bad, it wasn't the Egyptians much of the Torah is telling the Israelites not to be like, it was the Canaanites, (When Jerusalem is derogatorily called "Sodom and Egypt" it's about them being inhospitable to strangers not any particular customs.).  One of the Canaanite tribes was the Amorites, Babylon first became a major player in Mesopotamia under it's Amorite dynasty, so that Babylonian calendar could be Canaanite in origin.

There is one indisputable difference between the Torah Calendar and the Civil Egyptian Calendar, and that is when to start it.  Exodus 12 proclaims Aviv (the time of the Barley Harvest, early Spring) to be the first month while the Egyptian Calendar starts near the Autumnal Equinox.

It is a common traditional conjecture that before Exodus 12 the first season was Fall rather then Spring, and that in Exodus 12 YHWH is swapping the First and Seventh months.  I'd been thinking of making a post on how we can't entirely prove that using Scripture alone and so shouldn't build so many theories on it.  But since they were in Egypt for several generations it's very possible the Egyptian Calendar was their starting point and what month to make the first month was the only change YHWH is making in Exodus 12.  Though different agricultural and climate circumstances in Canaan probably brought further differences, the Egyptian Calendar was organized around 3 seasons rather then 4 because of how much they were ruled by the flooding of the Nile.

In a hypothetical Torah based Solar Calendar the Intercalary month of five or six days (if that was the method used for synchronization) would go between Adar and Nisan rather then in September.  (BTW, those 5 days were when the Egyptians observed the birthdays of Osiris and Horus, not anywhere near Christmas.  And the Egyptian new year was September 11th on our calendar coincidentally enough.)  Or maybe you would try to put them before the Seventh Month to keep Yom Teruah close to the Fall Equinox.  

Genesis 1:14 is possibly using Signs in place of Months, I have over the years gone back and forth on the Mazzaroth/Gospel in the Stars theory.  Maybe fellow Mazzaroth proponents like Rob Skiba should consider that the Star Signs can be an alternative to the Moon for how to determine the months of the year.  Josephus did refer to Nisan as being when the Sun is in Aries, in the first century the Sun entered Aries around the Spring Equinox, and that month is indeed when the Barley Harvest happens.  The Romans had a Seven Day Barley Festival similar to Unleavened Bread that was the 12-18th of April, but due to the awkwardness of Caesar's revisions that may be off from when in the Sun's journey it was supposed to be.

It is popular to theorize that Revelation 12:1 is describing some astronomical alignment involving the Moon. If it is it could be an exception and not proof the months are usually defined by the Moon.  But I'm skeptical of that altogether, I think it's probably a purely supernatural vision and not something predictable using Stelarrium.

Now I do believe the Passover through Pentecost of Christ's Passion, Resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit was likely based on what the Jews of the time were doing regardless of if it was still accurate.  But it may be it happened to be a year when they did line up, or at least close enough that First Fruits was the right Sunday.  Since I favor 30 AD and a Thursday Crucifixion on the 14th of Nisan followed by a Sunday Resurrection on the 17th of Nisan, I have long placed the Passion on the 6th of April 30 AD and The Resurrection of the 9th.

But maybe not all the Jews were already using the Babylonian Calendar in Christ's time?  Maybe it was originally mainly the Pharisees, who became the only sect to survive the 70 AD war?  It was the Sadducees who actually controlled the Priesthood and The Temple, and according to Josephus they were a Torah only sect.

The Qumran Community who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls also rejected the Lunar Calendar, the Temple Scroll is our main source on their Calendar but it's discussed in other scrolls too.  I don't think that Calendar is right either, like the Lunar Sabbath model it wants to synchronize the monthly and yearly cycle to the weekly cycle by giving every 3rd month an extra day creating a 364 day year.  As I've talked about before the language in Leviticus 23 about Firs Fruits and Pentecost is clearly assuming they won't always line up.  They make the first day of the year a Wednesday because that was the day the Sun and Moon were created.  But at least they correctly placed First Fruits and Pentecost on Sundays.  Weeks are not even remotely mentioned in the Genesis 1 account of the fourth day, so they aren't connected to the sun, moon or stars.

The Book of Jubilees was popular with them because it too rejected the Lunar Calendar (Chapter 6 verses 32-37).  Something I bet Rob Skiba didn't notice when using the book for his agendas (This Calendar also seems to be endorsed by Enoch 72-82).  But indeed Jubilees has the same problem as the Temple Scroll system.  In fact it's criticism of the lunar system is a little hypocritical since it doesn't line up perfectly with the seasons either, being one day short of a solar year will inevitably create the same issue even if it'd take longer.

The Hebrew Roots movement has a lot of irrational fear of Sun Worship wrapped up into it.  Obviously actually worshiping the actual Sun or Moon or any other inanimate object is a Sin.  But Malachi does call Jesus the Sun(Shamash) of Righteousness, there is no equivalent title making the Moon a symbol of Jesus.  So I have no problem believing Jesus Rose from The Grave at Sunrise on a Sunday Morning, or that he was born on or soon after the Winter Solstice.  I'd rather base my calendar on the astronomical object that is explicitly a symbol of Jesus then one that is not and was frequently the basis for Pagan ceremonial calendars.

You might ask "are you gonna also question if Biblical days begin and end with Sunset?"  Well I did consider it, but I concluded that they do.  Genesis 1 lists them as Evenings and Mornings, and later Torah verses after Exodus 13 do the same, like Exodus 16 which is also the proper origin of the Sabbath.  Also Exodus 27:21 and Leviticus 24:3.  Instead I'm just going to point out that even that is also determined by the the Sun, when the Sun sets.  [Update: on this paragraph I've had a change of mind since.]

But I'm not just disagreeing with the current Hebrew Roots movement here.  This may shock you to learn but the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and other mainstream Christian Churches do use the Moon to calculate "Easter".  It's just that explaining why it doesn't always line up with Rabbinic Passover is complicated.  In most Languages "Easter" is just called Pascha.  If Catholic "Easter" was just a Christianized Spring Solstice festival as many allege it would consistently happen in the 20s of March.

Also remember that as a Six-Day Young Earth Creationist I do believe originally the Solar and Lunar cycles were in sync and there was no need to choose between them.  I think that was the case at least until the Flood but maybe also till the time of Joshua or even Hezekiah.

I'm not ready to propose a specific calendar model just yet.  I merely want to open up this line of discussion.

Or maybe I am.  But take everything below with a grain of salt, it's all stuff I could easily abandon.  What I've talked about above is the point of this post.

In Fact ignore everything below, I've revamped it all here.

https://midseventiethweekrapture.blogspot.com/2021/09/biblical-calendar-proposal.html

[Update 2023: I have an even newer idea to add.

https://solascripturachristianliberty.blogspot.com/2022/04/passion-week-chronology-completely.html]

Firstfruits and Pentacost are the First Day of the Week

I already did a post about people like Rob Skiba who are now trying to say The Resurrection happened on The Sabbath, and every time you see “Week” in the New Testament it should be translated Sabbath.

Part of my response was simply pointing to the Feast of Firstfruits, and regardless of the accuracy of the usual ways Christians justify connecting that to the Resurrection, which I’ll get into latter, it does show that the “Sunday” after Passover is important for something.  Likewise with Pentecost which indisputably fell on the same day of the week seven weeks later.

I have not yet seen someone try to argue that we’re misreading Leviticus 23:9-22 and that Firstfruits was on the Sabbath not the day after.  But I want to prepare in advance for anyone who might try to.

In the King James English of Leviticus 23:9-22 I could see someone looking at “morrow” and thinking it means morning and consider that the intent might have been to say the morning of the Sabbath.  But no one who really knows the Hebrew would make that mistake.

There are a few different words translated “Morning” (some might refer to the Sunrise itself while others to a broader time frame) none of them are what’s translated “morrow” here.  This word is also sometimes translated “tomorrow”, it means the day following something.  So even when the YLT chooses to render it "morrow of the Sabbath" that language still means the day after, however that YLT wording is bad, I like YLT often but this mistake is embarrassing.

The Rabbinic Jewish reckoning of it being the 16th of Nisan is based on saying the Sabbath meant here is the 15th of Nisan as a special Sabbath.  But Leviticus 23 doesn’t describe the 15th of Nisan as a Sabbath, it only calls these special days of rest Sabbaths for the Tishri days, which I think might have to do with Tishri being the Seventh Month.  I would say to both this view and the Lunar Sabbath view that if the intent was for this always to fall the same day of the Month, God would have just said that as He did for other days in the same chapter.

But that’s not what I’m dealing with today.  These Sabbath Resurrection people could instead say following similar logic to what I just used “why didn’t God simply say First Day of the Week?”  The difference is identifying things by a day of the Week is not as common in the Torah’s terminology as using the Day of the Month is, and is mostly only used in defining The Sabbath itself in Genesis 1&2 and Exodus 16.

Firstfruits and Pentecost are the first and last days of a period of fifty days.  And we’re also clearly told there were only seven Sabbaths within that fifty days.  If Firstfruits and Pentecost were on Sabbaths then Pentecost would be the Eight Sabbath not the morrow after the seventh.

Now lesser then this error is the claim of Wednesday Crucifixion supporters that Jesus Rose while it was still the Sabbath but the Women found the Tomb Empty on Sunday/Firstfruits.  To me however a careful reading of Matthew 28 and Mark 16:2&9 shows Jesus Rose at Sunrise.  I believe He rested on The Sabbath.

Now what can be confusing is what Firstfruits means.  Throughout the Hebrew Bible the many places you see Firstfruits or “first fruits” in English are not always exactly the same in Hebrew.  Sometimes it’s two words and sometimes it's one, and at least 3 different words are used.  But only two of them appear in Leviticus 23:9-22 and neither of them is a word that actually means fruit. 

The Spring feasts are mostly about the Wheat or Grain Harvest. the harvest of the fruits comes later.  A Hebrew word for Fruit is used in Leviticus 23:40 (translated "boughs" in the KJV) talking about Tabernacles in the Seventh Month.  That’s why we know this is the time of the Grape Harvest (Revelation 14).

The New Testament references to Firstfruits don’t have such variety in the Greek however, they are in verses that all use aparch or aparche, and it doesn’t etymologically actually refer to fruit either.  My break down of the Greek Etymology of the word leads to me conclude it's equivalent to the Hebrew word translated Firstfruits in Leviticus 23:10 rather then Bikkurim which is more directly associated with Pentecost.  And the Septuagint Translation agrees with that, I would never base a theory solely on the Septuagint but I'm glad this one lines up. 

Most times the New Testament uses this word (especially Paul) it’s about the subject of the Resurrection, but exactly how kind of varies.  In 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 Jesus is the Firstfruits of the Resurrection, so in that context unique of His Resurrection.  But Romans 8:23 and 11:15-16 seem to use it of all the Resurrected, or all of the "First Resurrection" at least.  And in my view Revelation 14:4 uses it of the 144 Thousand resurrected.  But even if not every NT use of Firstfurits is about Resurrection, in 1 Corinthians 15 it's definitely about how Jesus fits into The Resurrection as a whole.

None of these verses are for the purpose of saying when Jesus Rose.  But since that seems to be when anyway, it works.

This Sun Worship paranoia from people like Rob Skiba who support the Mazzaroth and using Virgo to interpret Revelation 12 I find highly hypocritical.  Malachi 4 calls Jesus the Sun (Shamash) of Rightness, and Mark 16’s account of the Resurrection specifically refers to Sunrise.

But more important than that, the “First day of the Week” wasn’t a Sun Worship day when the New Testament was written.  Originally the Greeks and Romans didn’t have a Seven Day Week, there is no evidence of them being aware of the idea until they made contact with the Jews.  That’s why the New Testament doesn’t use the modern Greek word for Week, because it wasn’t coined yet.  The first Greco-Roman references to the idea of a seven day week involve them saying the Sabbath is the day to Worship Saturn/Kronos because they identified the Jewish and the Pagan Semitic El with Saturn/Kronos.

So the first day of the Week became Sunday because of people associating Jesus with the Sun, not the other way around. 

I will say this.  The Triumphal Entry is never referred to as being on the first day of the week.  Now it might be a detailed breakdown of the timeline of the Gospels can show it probably did happen the same day of the week as the Resurrection a week earlier.  But typologically I believe it happened on the 10th of Nisan when the Passover Lamb was presented.  So people commemorating the Passion using a Hebrew Calendar should keep it on that day not a day of the week. 

A Thursday Crucifixion on the 14th Model would fit the 10th falling on Sunday.  But people emotionally invested in a Friday Crucifixion model should change it to Palm Monday.  Sometimes the resurrection of Lazarus is estimated to be the previous day, though John 11 actually seems to imply more of a gap.  I’ve often been attracted to associating the events of John 11 with Purim.  What John 12 places the day before the Triumphal entry is Mary of Bethany anointing Jesus and Judas throwing a fit over it.

Jesus wasn't Buried the same day He was Crucified.

Matthew 27:57-58 after Jesus had died says.

"When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered."

That is in the Hebrew reckoning the beginning of the next day, when the Evening had come.  Mark's account of the same event in 15:42-44 also says this.  It's lacking from Luke and John's accounts but isn't contradicted, maybe because they were writing for more gentile audiences.

All the ongoing debates on what day to place the Crucifixion seem to not be aware of this detail.  Typologically it can also fit Numbers 33:4 which says the 15th of Nisan was the day the Egyptians buried their First Born.  Jesus is the Firstborn of Creation.

John 19 (verse 14) calls when Jesus was on The Cross the Preparation Day of the Passover, which was the 14th of Nisan, unambiguously.  Later in John 19 (31 and 42), and in the Synoptic accounts, Jesus burial is described as being on the Preparation Day of the Sabbath.  It seems people have assumed they must be the same Preparation, but they are not, if the Sabbath fell on the 16th of Nisan, then the first day of Unleavened Bread would also be the Preparation day for the weekly Sabbath.

The strongest argument the Friday Crucifixion people have is their insistence we're torturing the text in insisting the 15th of Nisan would be called a Sabbath regardless of the day it fell on.  While Leviticus 23 does say not to do servile work that day, those restrictions have been interpreted as not as strict as the weekly Sabbath.  The Tishri Holy Days use the word Sabbath to describe these days, but it's not used of the first day of Unleavened Bread, though you could argue it is of the seventh day of Unleavened Bread in that the word Seventh is essentially the same word.

The basis for defining Friday as preparation for the Sabbath goes back to the Manna account in Exodus 16.

The Friday Crucifixion people are also right that you don't need a full 72 hours to get to the Third Day.   The desire of Wednesday proponents like Chuck Missler to mock that is unwittingly also mocking how the day for Circumcision and the Eight day of Tabernacles are counted.  I personally see every reference to Jesus Rising on the Third Day as the Third Day of Unleavened Bread, the 17th of Nisan.  The 17th of Nisan is also important in Esther and possibly in The Flood account.

However Friday proponents can't get three days AND three nights.  They can only get two nights (Friday/Saturday and Saturday/Sunday).  And it's similar with this new argument that every "First day of The Week" in the New Testament is really the Sabbath, I don't see how that model can get three nights either, because the third night has always been in Hebrew reckoning Sunday night.

Debating what day Jesus was Crucified I've seen rarely looks at the arguments typologically in Genesis 1.

Wednesday model supporters are also often people paranoid about doing anything on Sunday being Sun worship.  Well in the Biblical Week the Sun and Moon were created on Woden's day.

I place the Crucifixion on Thursday, now with a different argument then I used to.  That's the day God first Created Life, because Biblically plants aren't Life.

I now place Jesus burial on the Sixth day.  The same day the First Adam was formed out of The Earth is the day the Last Adam was placed in it.

Then Jesus Rested on The Sabbath, and rose again on the Eight Day, a New Beginning.  But also the Third Day of Unleavened Bread.  It's also First Fruits and the day God made Light.  It was also on a Sunday that the Manna first fell from Heaven.

The Ressurection was on Sunday

So Rob Skiba is again promoting something bizarre.

He's recently argued that EVERY reference to "the first day of the Week" in The New Testament is really The Sabbath.  Now I have shown on this Blog that there is no overturning of The Sabbath in the New Testament.  But Sunday is not inherently evil just because Pagans named it after the Sun.

It's already popular among Sabbath worshipers to say the Resurrection was actually on The Sabbath and it was only "The first day of The Week" that the Women found The Tomb empty.  And I've already argued against that silliness.  I don't think the Risen Jesus lingered there for 12 hours.

There is a modern Greek word for "week" that Rob says should have been used if the text meant week.  Problem is we can't even prove that was used yet in NT times.  I've never seen any solid proof the Greco-Romans observed 7 day weeks before they adopted Christianity.  It's used in the NT texts only as a word for Seven, and once is used with the word for day to refer to a period of seven days, but if it meant week it wouldn't have needed the word for day.  And The Septuagint is a Christian document far younger then the NT texts.

The NT texts borrow many Hebrew words, and the Hebrew word for Week comes from the same root as the word for Sabbath.  It even has a form then ends with an N.

The parable he references cannot fit his interpretation, you can't Fast twice in 1 day, you have not Fasted at all until you have not eaten for a whole day.

This website explains why the term is translated this way and why It's accurate.  It's wrong on saying there was any call for weekly Sunday worship, but that's another post I already linked to.

In the video Rob applied this logic to both when the Tomb was found Empty and Pentecost.  He never once stopped to realize how he was dismantling the fulfillments of First Fruits and Shavot, which were both REQUIRED by Leviticus 23 to be on Sundays.

Look I agree the italics of the KJV adds some things they shouldn't (Rob himself since he became a Flat Earther is unwilling to notice what isn't in the Hebrew in Genesis 11).  But when it suites him he is determined to proclaim anything in the italics besides the most basic pronouns to be part of some massive conspiracy to distort God's Word.  I believe God's promise to preserve God's Word.  Greek is a far more precise language then English, there is often much implied in the Grammar that is difficult to translate word for word, so just because something lacks a word for it in the text doesn't mean what the text says doesn't justify it being there.  Neither I or Rob is a Greek expert.

Leaving all that aside, the entire context and set up of the Women finding the Tomb empty does not fit this theory of it being on The Sabbath.  We are told they did not anoint Jesus Body when they first buried him because the Sabbath was about to start.  And we are told the Sabbaths (plural) had passed when they came to the tomb on Sunday morning.  And you can't just say they were only skipping the 15th of Nisan (which I do place on a Friday) because, the restrictions on those special Holy Convocations were actually less then the Weekly Sabbath's restrictions.

I believe Jesus Rested on The Sabbath.

The Sabbath is important, but it's not impossible for God to do things on other days.  The First Day of a Week can also be an Eight Day, this is why the Gemetria of Iesous is 888 in contrast to 666 as the Gemetria of The Beast which I think has a connection to the 6th day of the Week.  The first day of the Week symbolizes New Beginnings, just like the Eight Day of Tabernacles.  I believe the Creation week was Tabernacles.  Circumcision is on the Eight Day and so is the first verse of Leviticus 9.  And the 8th of Tishri is the day the dedication festival for Solomon's Temple began.

Sunday is also the day God created Light, so it's not a coincidence the Pagans wound up affiliating that day with the Sun.  Jesus is The Light of The World and the Sun of Righteousness of Malachi, which is why I believe He Rose from The Dead at Sunrise.  It was also a Sunday the Manna was first given in Exodus 16.  So the First Day is not without Torah significance.

Can Sunday worship be the Mark of the Beast?

Seventh Day Adventists and similar groups are obsessed with this idea, tying it into The Pope being The Antichrist theories.

Obviously it departs from the plain reading of The Text of Revelation 13.  Which says it is the Number of the Name of a Man (Anthropos).

Some people will try to deny it actually is a number by saying no other time does The Bible use Gemetria, it always spells out numbers phonetically.  Problem is the Greeks texts all put a line over the Chi-Xi-Stigama which in the rules of Koine Greek tells us it's Gemetria.  The Bible does it different here because the context tells us Gemetria is what it is about.

But for Seventh Day Adventists (who I think are right that there is no NT basis for replacing The Sabbath with a different day) everything revolves around The Sabbath issue which is why they name themselves that.

First of all, Sunday worship does not actually break The Sabbath law, even if you think we are still under the Law.  The Sabbath Law can only be broken by what you do or don't do on The Sabbath.  Nothing in the Sabbath commands make it a sin to, if you're able, also rest a different day.  In modern America most people get both Saturday and Sunday off work.  So even if some global Law DEMANDING Sunday observance was made as Adventists predict, it would not stop Torah observing Christians or Jews from doing what they do on The Sabbath.

The only way it could be even remotely possible to violate The Sabbath with what you do on a different day would be maybe on Friday.  We see for example with The Manna that Israelites tended to do extra work on Friday to prepare for The Sabbath.  But on the First Day of the Week the Sabbath is over, so it's the least likely to be a day you would even be worrying about the Sabbath issue.

Meanwhile nothing in Revelation 13 can be taken as pointing to Sunday.  Nothing about the First Day of the Week, and nothing about Sun-Worship.

If you really want to twist the text of Revelation 13 to allude to a Day of the Week, the Sixth Day is what makes sense, 666 being a multiple of 6.  And I've observed reasons before to thematically link this part of Revelation 13 to Genesis 2 and Adam's creation.  And that the Gemetria of Iesous is 888 has been thematically linked to the Resurrection being on Sunday.

The Antichrist would presumably be taking titles of Christ for himself.  One of those is The Last Adam.  Gnosticism and Kabbalah have given the Last Adam concept their own special meanings.

Islam interestingly does call for weekly observance on Friday to commemorate the creation of Adam.  Because Islam has actually canonized the Apocryphal legend that God ordered The Angels to worship Adam.

Main article: Jumu'ah

The Quran acknowledges a six-part Creation period (32:4, 50:38) and the Biblical Sabbath as the seventh-day (yaum as-Sabt: 2:65, 4:47, 154, 7:163, 16:124), but Allah's mounting the throne after Creation is taken in contradistinction to Elohim's concluding and resting from his labors, and so Muslims replace Sabbath rest with jumu'ah (Arabic جمعة ). Also known as "Friday prayer", jumu'ah is a congregational prayer (salat) held every Friday (the Day of Assembly), just after midday, in place of the otherwise daily dhuhr prayer; it commemorates the creation of Adam on the sixth day, as a loving gathering of Adam's sons. The Quran states: "When the call is proclaimed to prayer on Friday, hasten earnestly to the Remembrance of Allah, and leave off business: That is best for you if ye but knew" (62:9). The next verse ("When the prayer is ended, then disperse in the land ...") leads many Muslims not to consider Friday a rest day, as in Indonesia, which regards the seventh-day Sabbath as unchanged; but many Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh, do consider Friday a nonwork day, a holiday or a weekend; and other Muslim countries, likePakistan, count it as half a rest day (after the Friday prayer is over). Jumu'ah attendance is strictly incumbent upon all free adult males who are legal residents of the locality.

I remain highly skeptical of the Islamic Antichrist theory, but this is an interesting observation.

But of course a Friday reverence can be connected to Catholic and other heretical Christian beliefs via the completely unsupported by Scripture Friday Crucifixion tradition.  Perhaps the counterfeit mortal wounding and healing of the Beast will follow the Catholic model.

The fact remains, the plain reading of Revelation is that it's a name not a day of the week.

The Lords Day is The Sabbath not Sunday

First I want to make clear I'm not a Seventh Day Adventist or a member of any any other Sabbath based sect. I do not support Legalism, Christians are not bound to observe any weekly service, at all. I'm writing this to refute the notion that The New Testament "Lords Day" is Sunday.

Not everyone who believes weekly Sunday worship is Biblical defines it as Sunday supplanting the Sabbath.  Some like Chris White  just define it as the New Testament ordaining weekly Sunday worship as a separate thing from The Sabbath.  I'm making this post in response to any form of suggesting The New Testament ordains weekly Sunday worship.

In The New Testament the term "The Lord's Day" occurs only once. Revelation 1:10 "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet".

We're not told what day of the week this is, or if it's a weekly day at all. Sunday supporters just assume this phrase means something distinct from the Sabbath and therefore it backs up their other reasons for saying The New Testament calls for worship on the First Day of The Week.

But in Matthew 12:8 Jesus said he was the Lord of the Sabbath, and Isaiah 58:13-14 calls the Sabbath, "The LORD's Holy Day". So using Scripture to Interpret Scripture this can only mean the Sabbath.

As far as extra Biblical references go (which don't actually matter to me). The Didache (supposedly the oldest Extra-Biblical Christian writing) also does not say when "The Lord's Day" is, just refers to it. The one quote of Ignatius of Antioch often used in this debate dated to 110 A.D. says in the only surviving Greek text (which is the language he wrote in) "If, then, those who had walked in ancient practices attained unto newness of hope, no longer observing Sabbath, but living according to the Lord's life ...". Clearly not about when or if we should do a weekly observance at all, simply referring to us not being bound by The Law. Some later Latin texts add "The Lord's Day" to this, and some even make clear it's Sunday, but these are clearly latter corruptions.

It's not till the second half of the Second Century A.D. that indisputable references to The Lord's Day being Sunday occur, in texts like the Apocryphal Gospel of Peter, or Acts of Peter, or Acts of Paul, or Acts of John, or Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth in 170 A.D. You might think that sounds sufficiently early, but they're after the Bar Kochba revolt which occurred around about a third of the way into the Second Century. That is when the Church started taking on Anti-Semitic tendencies in response to the persecution of Christians carried out under Bar Kochba, I've written on this elsewhere. I feel this separation of Christian observance from the Sabbath was based solely on that agenda.

Now, for Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 16:2.

The Corinthians reference is to me certainly not about weekly observance. "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." One could argue that Paul expected his Epistle to be read to the congregation on a Sabbath meeting, and that they should then begin saving up this money the very next day.

Acts 20:7 I don't really see as calling for anything. It just says they broke bread together, and then Paul preached.

I personally find the debating that goes own between Protestant and Evangelical denominations on when to observe the "Lord's Supper", should it be Weekly, Monthly or Yearly, and so on to be silly. Jesus told us when in the actual account of the Supper itself "when ye eat". It's not supposed to be an appointed ceremony, it's simply a matter of whenever we eat we remember that Jesus's Body was Broken and his Blood was Shed for us.

And Paul I don't think needed a special day to Preach on either, Preaching is simply what he did.

But another thing about the Acts reference is it's a Translation issue.

If your ability to check the Greek is only via using a Strongs, or a Strongs based Computer Program, then you probably just saw that the two words translated "first day of the week" here are the same every time that phrase is used of The Resurrection of Jesus. But the thing is the Strongs tells us nothing about grammar or word forms. And the word for Week here, even used in this exact same form "Sabbatwn" is also used in contexts that are indisputably about the Sabbath day, like in Acts 13:14 and 16:13 and Colossians 2:16. The Colossians reference BTW clearly implies in context that early Christians were keeping all those observances refereed to.

Almost no English Translations translate this phrase differently, but that doesn't mean the majority can't be wrong. What leads me to support the minority view here is the anomaly that occurs in my Greens Interlinear Bible.

In the Column on the side where the Greens puts things in a way that grammatically works in English, it reads like most translations "The first day of the week". But where the English words are placed under the actual Greek text it reads "on one of the Sabbaths". Reading the whole narrative in context I feel supports that reading.

Acts 20:6-7 "And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days. And on one of the Sabbaths, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight."

Being so soon after the Days of Unleavened Bread means this is during the counting of the Omer, the Seven Sabbaths that pass between First fruits and Pentecost. So "one of the Sabbaths" probably means one of those Seven Sabbaths.

Even if we take the KJV at face vale, that it's between First Fruits and Pentecost means it's not a First Day of the Week that wasn't already ordained by the Torah in Leviticus 23.

Likewise The Resurrection and Pentecost were on Sundays because Leviticus 23 ordained them to be, those Sundays being important did not introduce anything new.

I keep hearing that ALL of Jesus post Resurrection appearances were on Sundays from the Evangelical Sunday supporting people.

Besides that it's well known The Ascension was a Thursday being day 40 of the Omer (Acts 1:3).  Most of them aren't clearly dated at all besides ones that occurred on the very Sunday of the Resurrection.  Or what John 20:26 says for the Doubting Thomas incident which mathematically does NOT tell me it was the same Day of the Week as the previews event.  Eight Day would make it at the same day of the week, but after eight days makes it a day later.

When you read through Acts, you'll see Sabbath observances are definitely still kept by Early Christians, even Paul. Even if the word Sabbath isn't used, if Paul is disputing with Jews in a Synagogue, you can infer that it is a Sabbath or a New Moon or a Holy Day. And for this reason it's clear that even the Mars' Hill Sermon was preached on a Sabbath not a Sunday, in Acts 17:16-19.

Ezekiel 45 clearly has the Sabbath still being observed in the Messianic Temple.  And I believe that is the New Heaven and New Earth not The Millennium.

So what day we do a weekly observance is not something to be Dogmatic on. Or even if we do a weekly observance at all.  I'm ultimately against the entire modern definition of what a church is, archaeology shows no church buildings were built till the Third Century. But the evidence both Biblical and Extra-Biblical shows that the first 2 or 3 generations of The Church met on the Jewish Sabbath, not Sunday.

But there is something else I want to note on the Western Sunday worship issue.  I was raised Catholic, and I remember during a catechism class on the Ten Commandments they showed a corny little video about a kid being a stubborn brat for not wanting to wake up early on Sunday morning to go to church.  I felt like the whole being a Day of Rest part of the command was being contradicted by forcing someone to wake up before it came naturally to them.  I didn't say that because I knew they'd just find applying that logic to be outright bizarre.

You see besides just changing what Day we should observe the Sabbath command on, we don't follow the Biblical definition of when a day begins either.  Sunset of the previous day is when the Day begins for Jews.  Jews and Torah observing Christians do their Sabbath worship service after the Sun sets on Friday, they do not worry about waking up early in the morning.  The Priests in The Temple may have had to get up early to make the morning offerings, but their responsibilities were different from most people.  If an additional Synagogue service happened during the daylight hours of The Sabbath, it wasn't first thing after Sunrise.

The Women came to Jesus Tomb early Sunday morning precisely because it wasn't a Sabbath, they came to do something they couldn't do on The Sabbath.  If you want to do a Sunday service based on The Resurrection, when they fond the Tomb Empty isn't the time you should use, but rather much later in the day when Jesus appeared to the Disciples which was at dinner time, or the Road to Emmaus which was a little earlier then that.  The reference to Bread there isn't a coincidence, they keeping the seven day feast of unleavened bread, of which I believe the Resurrection and First Fruits of that years was the third day, the 17th of Nisan.

But now after all that I want to advice my fellow Sabbath advocates not to make the ridiculous "Sunday is because of Sun worship" argument.  As I showed early on there were pre Constantine Christians claiming the Lord's Day was Sunday because of Anti-Semitism.  Constantine probably choose Sun Worhip to try and meld Christianity with because they happened to be worshiping that day already.

Each day of the week has a Pagan god attached to it on secular calendars.  That the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday was used by confused ancient Pagans like Tacitus to argue the Jewish God was actually Saturn.  That the Pilgrimage Feast days all revolved around the Harvest cycle probably would have backed that if he'd been aware of it, with Saturn being the god of the harvest.

Jesus is called by Malachi the Sun of Righteousness, and Genesis 1 says he Sun, Moon and stars were given for times and for seasons.  So I think it's fitting that He rose from the dead at sunrise on Sunday.