Here is a article I came across on this issue that is a must read:
The Sabbath was created at the very beginning of human history. In Genesis 2:1-3 we read that God blessed and sanctified the seventh day. The Hebrew word translated 'sanctified' in Genesis 2:3 and 'hallowed' in Exodus 20:11 is qadash, a word meaning 'to hallow, to pronounce holy, to consecrate, to set apart for holy use.'
There is no denying that God was here setting aside the Sabbath as holy time. Is it logical to believe that God first created man, then the Sabbath, and then failed to mention to man that the seventh day was holy time? Certainly not! God must have immediately explained to Adam all about His sacred seventh day. We might say that God preached a sermon to Adam and Eve on the first Sabbath of human history, telling them how to observe His day as He wanted it to be observed.
Jonathan Edwards says in one of his sermons: What could be the meaning of God's resting the seventh day, and hallowing and blessing it, which He did, before the giving of the fourth commandment, unless He hallowed and blessed it with respect to mankind? . . . And it is unreasonable to suppose that He hallowed it only with respect to the Jews, a particular nation, which rose up above 2000 years after.
In Mark 2:27, Jesus says: 'The Sabbath was made for man.' The Greek has an article before 'man,' so the phrase could be rendered, 'The Sabbath was made for the man.' This is a likely reference to Adam, the first man and representative of the whole race that descended from him.
John Kitto says: . . . the most judicious commentators agree that Adam and Eve constantly observed the seventh day, and dedicated it in a peculiar manner to the service of the Almighty; and that the first Sabbath . . . was celebrated in Paradise itself, which pious custom [was] transmitted from our first parents to their posterity.
These are sensible and logical conclusions. It is just not reasonable to think that God would make the Sabbath for man and then keep it from him for over 2000 years until Moses. So the only fair conclusion is that Adam and Even were keeping the Sabbath from the very beginning.
The very fact that the seven-day week existed, is good evidence the Sabbath also existed. Joseph Scalinger is quoted as saying: The septenary arrangement of days was in use among the Orientals from the remotest antiquity. The arrangement of time into weeks of seven days carries with it the Sabbath, and Scaliger's statement is only one of many from authorities that the seven-day week is as old as the human race. The week is a time unit that, unlike all others, has proceeded in absolute invariable manner since what may be called the dawn of history.
A week of seven days is frequently met with in Scripture. In Genesis 7:4 and 8:10 and 12 we see that Noah was acquainted with a seven-day week. Unless the Sabbath was their pivot of time, people then could not have used such a measure of days. In fact, the marginal rendering of Genesis 7:10 is 'on the seventh day,' a reference to nothing but the Sabbath. We may be sure that Noah, a just man who walked with God (Genesis 6:9), knew about and kept God's seventh-day Sabbath.
In Genesis 29:27-28, we read that Jacob fulfilled a week for Rachel. The week here is not synonymous with the seven years Jacob served Laban for Rachel, nor does it mean seven years passed before Jacob married Rachel. The language shows Jacob married Rachel one week after he had married Leah, and then he served Laban another seven years, as explained in verses 29-30.
In Genesis 50:10, we find that Joseph mourned for his father Jacob seven days, that is, one week. So Joseph knew about the seven-day week.
Exodus 7:25 mentions a seven-day period in the time of Moses just before the Exodus. This is certainly an exact week, for we read, 'seven days were fulfilled.' In addition, Numbers 12:14-15 mentions a seven-day period following Israel's departure from Egypt and before they arrived at Mt. Sinai.
Again, in Judges 14:10-18, we read that Samson's marriage feast lasted for seven days, another reference to the week.
Once again, in Job 2:13, we are told that Job's three friends sat and grieved with him for seven days and seven nights � a complete week.
So it is obvious that a seven-day week with the seventh-day Sabbath was familiar to the patriarchs. It is as John Dudley has written: Adam, when put in the Garden of Eden, was placed in a state of trial, and must have been subjected to the same laws, both moral and religious, as now are and ever have been obligatory on all his descendants.
Of course he was subject to the same laws, and so were and are his descendants. And one of those unchanging laws is the law of the Sabbath.
Martin Luther wrote: Adam . . . held the seventh day sacred; that is, he taught on that day his own family. Luther is right. Having been told by God that the Sabbath was to be observed, he not only did so himself, but he certainly would have taught his family by precept and example to do the same.
This is proven in Genesis 4:3: And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD, and in verse 4: And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.
The words ;in process of time; are translated from the Hebrew mikkets yamim, meaning 'at the end of the days.' This can only be telling us that on the Sabbath, Cain and Abel, with the rest of Adam�s family, gathered to worship God. Theologian Adam Clarke says, 'it is more probable that it means the Sabbath, on which Adam and his family undoubtedly offered oblations to God, as the divine worship was certainly instituted, and no doubt the Sabbath properly observed in that family.' Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown say it was �probably on the Sabbath.
Another commentary has this to say: More likely this phrase denotes the Sabbath . . . the end of the weekdays. And as it is plain that the Sabbath was observed as holy time since its formal institution by God in Paradise, it was doubtless kept holy by such appointments of worship as would distinguish the day.
There is nothing in nature that can be pointed to as measuring the week; only the Sabbath marks it. And only the Sabbath could come 'at the end of days.' Clearly, the family of Adam and Eve kept every Sabbath sacred unto the Creator.
James Gilfillian, in his book on the Sabbath, says: Cain and Abel came together for Divine service. They were not the only persons present, as appears from Cain's postponement of his murderous deed till he and his victim were out of the sight of others in the field. He goes on to point out that the Hebrew word for brought is used never in reference to private and domestic sacrifices, but always of such as were in the times of the Jewish polity brought to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
As Gilfillian remarks earlier: The prevalence of public worship, with its various accessories, necessarily implies the obligation and observance of a Sabbath. Yes, without question, Cain and Abel, like all the family of Adam, regularly observed the Sabbath. In so doing, they were keeping an institution given to Adam at the very beginning.
The next man of God with whom we meet, was certainly keeping the Sabbath, is Enoch.
Lange, in his Commentary, says: Enoch, we cannot hesitate to believe, kept holy Sabbath, or holy seventh day . . .
Genesis 5:24 says Enoch walked with God. Hebrews 11:5 says he pleased God. Unless he was keeping God's laws, including the Sabbath, Enoch could have neither walked with God, nor pleased Him. To suggest that he did not know about the Sabbath when his ancestors did is to suggest God dealt differently with men from generation to generation, something utterly contrary to God's nature.
Here is an interesting quotation from the Church Father Tertullian, who was certainly no friend of the Sabbath:. . . Adam observed the Sabbath . . . Abel, when offering to God a holy victim, pleased Him by a religious reverence for the Sabbath; . . . Enoch, when translated, had been a keeper of the Sabbath . . . .
Next we come to Noah. We have already seen that he was well aware of the week. This man who walked with God (Genesis 6:9) certainly knew and kept the Sabbath. The reference to Noah building an altar to worship God in Genesis 8:20, follows Sabbath references in verses 10 and 12, which suggests he built an altar and worshipped God immediately upon leaving the ark, very possibly on the following Sabbath.
Here is another proof that Noah kept the Sabbath. Peter calls Noah a preacher of righteousness (II Peter 2:5). Psalm 119:172 says of God:All Thy commandments are righteousness. So righteousness amounts to being a commandment keeper. If Noah preached commandment-keeping to those around him, then he kept the commandments himself, and one of the commandments he certainly was keeping was the Sabbath.
Our next witness is Job, a man we have already seen knew of the week. This man is described by God Himself in Job 1:8 and 2:3 as perfect and upright, fearing God and eschewing evil, a man like whom there was no one else in the earth. Job was so careful about the possibility of sin that we read in Job 1:5 that he offered burnt offerings for his children after they had feasts because they might have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. He did this continually. Here was a man who truly feared and served God. Such a man certainly would have kept God's Sabbath.
We even find hints that Job may have been directly involved in conducting worship. In Job 4:3-4 we read that he had instructed many and his words had upholden him that was falling. The patriarch says of himself in Job 30:28: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation. Finally, in Job 42:8-9, God commands Job's three friends to offer seven bullocks and seven rams as a burnt offering while Job prays for them. When they did this, God accepted Job. All of this could have taken place the very next Sabbath.
Moving on from Job, we pass through the patriarchal period, a time when some claim there is no hint of Sabbath observance. But this claim is unfounded and will not stand up. Matthew Henry says in his Commentary: Sabbaths are as ancient as the world; and I see no reason to doubt that the Sabbath . . . was religiously observed by the people of God throughout the patriarchal age.
Lange, whom we quoted above, says this:
"To object that the Bible, in its few brief memoranda of their [the patriarchs] lives, says nothing about their Sabbath-keeping, any more than it tells us of their forms of prayer and modes of worship, is a worthless argument."
The Sabbath From Eden To Sinai
The Sabbath was created at the very beginning of human history. In Genesis 2:1-3 we read that God blessed and sanctified the seventh day. The Hebrew word translated 'sanctified' in Genesis 2:3 and 'hallowed' in Exodus 20:11 is qadash, a word meaning 'to hallow, to pronounce holy, to consecrate, to set apart for holy use.'
There is no denying that God was here setting aside the Sabbath as holy time. Is it logical to believe that God first created man, then the Sabbath, and then failed to mention to man that the seventh day was holy time? Certainly not! God must have immediately explained to Adam all about His sacred seventh day. We might say that God preached a sermon to Adam and Eve on the first Sabbath of human history, telling them how to observe His day as He wanted it to be observed.
Jonathan Edwards says in one of his sermons: What could be the meaning of God's resting the seventh day, and hallowing and blessing it, which He did, before the giving of the fourth commandment, unless He hallowed and blessed it with respect to mankind? . . . And it is unreasonable to suppose that He hallowed it only with respect to the Jews, a particular nation, which rose up above 2000 years after.
In Mark 2:27, Jesus says: 'The Sabbath was made for man.' The Greek has an article before 'man,' so the phrase could be rendered, 'The Sabbath was made for the man.' This is a likely reference to Adam, the first man and representative of the whole race that descended from him.
John Kitto says: . . . the most judicious commentators agree that Adam and Eve constantly observed the seventh day, and dedicated it in a peculiar manner to the service of the Almighty; and that the first Sabbath . . . was celebrated in Paradise itself, which pious custom [was] transmitted from our first parents to their posterity.
These are sensible and logical conclusions. It is just not reasonable to think that God would make the Sabbath for man and then keep it from him for over 2000 years until Moses. So the only fair conclusion is that Adam and Even were keeping the Sabbath from the very beginning.
The very fact that the seven-day week existed, is good evidence the Sabbath also existed. Joseph Scalinger is quoted as saying: The septenary arrangement of days was in use among the Orientals from the remotest antiquity. The arrangement of time into weeks of seven days carries with it the Sabbath, and Scaliger's statement is only one of many from authorities that the seven-day week is as old as the human race. The week is a time unit that, unlike all others, has proceeded in absolute invariable manner since what may be called the dawn of history.
A week of seven days is frequently met with in Scripture. In Genesis 7:4 and 8:10 and 12 we see that Noah was acquainted with a seven-day week. Unless the Sabbath was their pivot of time, people then could not have used such a measure of days. In fact, the marginal rendering of Genesis 7:10 is 'on the seventh day,' a reference to nothing but the Sabbath. We may be sure that Noah, a just man who walked with God (Genesis 6:9), knew about and kept God's seventh-day Sabbath.
In Genesis 29:27-28, we read that Jacob fulfilled a week for Rachel. The week here is not synonymous with the seven years Jacob served Laban for Rachel, nor does it mean seven years passed before Jacob married Rachel. The language shows Jacob married Rachel one week after he had married Leah, and then he served Laban another seven years, as explained in verses 29-30.
In Genesis 50:10, we find that Joseph mourned for his father Jacob seven days, that is, one week. So Joseph knew about the seven-day week.
Exodus 7:25 mentions a seven-day period in the time of Moses just before the Exodus. This is certainly an exact week, for we read, 'seven days were fulfilled.' In addition, Numbers 12:14-15 mentions a seven-day period following Israel's departure from Egypt and before they arrived at Mt. Sinai.
Again, in Judges 14:10-18, we read that Samson's marriage feast lasted for seven days, another reference to the week.
Once again, in Job 2:13, we are told that Job's three friends sat and grieved with him for seven days and seven nights � a complete week.
So it is obvious that a seven-day week with the seventh-day Sabbath was familiar to the patriarchs. It is as John Dudley has written: Adam, when put in the Garden of Eden, was placed in a state of trial, and must have been subjected to the same laws, both moral and religious, as now are and ever have been obligatory on all his descendants.
Of course he was subject to the same laws, and so were and are his descendants. And one of those unchanging laws is the law of the Sabbath.
Martin Luther wrote: Adam . . . held the seventh day sacred; that is, he taught on that day his own family. Luther is right. Having been told by God that the Sabbath was to be observed, he not only did so himself, but he certainly would have taught his family by precept and example to do the same.
This is proven in Genesis 4:3: And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD, and in verse 4: And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.
The words ;in process of time; are translated from the Hebrew mikkets yamim, meaning 'at the end of the days.' This can only be telling us that on the Sabbath, Cain and Abel, with the rest of Adam�s family, gathered to worship God. Theologian Adam Clarke says, 'it is more probable that it means the Sabbath, on which Adam and his family undoubtedly offered oblations to God, as the divine worship was certainly instituted, and no doubt the Sabbath properly observed in that family.' Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown say it was �probably on the Sabbath.
Another commentary has this to say: More likely this phrase denotes the Sabbath . . . the end of the weekdays. And as it is plain that the Sabbath was observed as holy time since its formal institution by God in Paradise, it was doubtless kept holy by such appointments of worship as would distinguish the day.
There is nothing in nature that can be pointed to as measuring the week; only the Sabbath marks it. And only the Sabbath could come 'at the end of days.' Clearly, the family of Adam and Eve kept every Sabbath sacred unto the Creator.
James Gilfillian, in his book on the Sabbath, says: Cain and Abel came together for Divine service. They were not the only persons present, as appears from Cain's postponement of his murderous deed till he and his victim were out of the sight of others in the field. He goes on to point out that the Hebrew word for brought is used never in reference to private and domestic sacrifices, but always of such as were in the times of the Jewish polity brought to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
As Gilfillian remarks earlier: The prevalence of public worship, with its various accessories, necessarily implies the obligation and observance of a Sabbath. Yes, without question, Cain and Abel, like all the family of Adam, regularly observed the Sabbath. In so doing, they were keeping an institution given to Adam at the very beginning.
The next man of God with whom we meet, was certainly keeping the Sabbath, is Enoch.
Lange, in his Commentary, says: Enoch, we cannot hesitate to believe, kept holy Sabbath, or holy seventh day . . .
Genesis 5:24 says Enoch walked with God. Hebrews 11:5 says he pleased God. Unless he was keeping God's laws, including the Sabbath, Enoch could have neither walked with God, nor pleased Him. To suggest that he did not know about the Sabbath when his ancestors did is to suggest God dealt differently with men from generation to generation, something utterly contrary to God's nature.
Here is an interesting quotation from the Church Father Tertullian, who was certainly no friend of the Sabbath:. . . Adam observed the Sabbath . . . Abel, when offering to God a holy victim, pleased Him by a religious reverence for the Sabbath; . . . Enoch, when translated, had been a keeper of the Sabbath . . . .
Next we come to Noah. We have already seen that he was well aware of the week. This man who walked with God (Genesis 6:9) certainly knew and kept the Sabbath. The reference to Noah building an altar to worship God in Genesis 8:20, follows Sabbath references in verses 10 and 12, which suggests he built an altar and worshipped God immediately upon leaving the ark, very possibly on the following Sabbath.
Here is another proof that Noah kept the Sabbath. Peter calls Noah a preacher of righteousness (II Peter 2:5). Psalm 119:172 says of God:All Thy commandments are righteousness. So righteousness amounts to being a commandment keeper. If Noah preached commandment-keeping to those around him, then he kept the commandments himself, and one of the commandments he certainly was keeping was the Sabbath.
Our next witness is Job, a man we have already seen knew of the week. This man is described by God Himself in Job 1:8 and 2:3 as perfect and upright, fearing God and eschewing evil, a man like whom there was no one else in the earth. Job was so careful about the possibility of sin that we read in Job 1:5 that he offered burnt offerings for his children after they had feasts because they might have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. He did this continually. Here was a man who truly feared and served God. Such a man certainly would have kept God's Sabbath.
We even find hints that Job may have been directly involved in conducting worship. In Job 4:3-4 we read that he had instructed many and his words had upholden him that was falling. The patriarch says of himself in Job 30:28: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation. Finally, in Job 42:8-9, God commands Job's three friends to offer seven bullocks and seven rams as a burnt offering while Job prays for them. When they did this, God accepted Job. All of this could have taken place the very next Sabbath.
Moving on from Job, we pass through the patriarchal period, a time when some claim there is no hint of Sabbath observance. But this claim is unfounded and will not stand up. Matthew Henry says in his Commentary: Sabbaths are as ancient as the world; and I see no reason to doubt that the Sabbath . . . was religiously observed by the people of God throughout the patriarchal age.
Lange, whom we quoted above, says this:
"To object that the Bible, in its few brief memoranda of their [the patriarchs] lives, says nothing about their Sabbath-keeping, any more than it tells us of their forms of prayer and modes of worship, is a worthless argument."
The Sabbath From Eden To Sinai
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