The option I would have voted for wasn't on the list.
My answer would be "yes," in the bible the 7th day of the week is the Sabbath, however that 7th day does not correspond to Saturday...or Sunday (or any particular day of our week).
It is ironic, the sun and moon were created on the 4th day. Moses knew that there were 3 days, with both morning and evening, without the sun and moon. The next three days, the sun and moon were present to mark the months, seasons and years. Of course on the seventh day, there were no morning or evening, morning and evening ceased when G-d rested from all of his good work. Our purpose is
not to estimate time, as to publish a calendar, but it is to remember our Creator; the ancients worshiped the sun and moon forsaking the Creator.
My contention is that the Israelite calendar was a lunar calendar (and certainly not our modern Gregorian Calendar). The beginning of the month was on the New Moon and always began with a Sabbath. Count out 7 days and you have your first sabbath of the month. Count out 7 days and you have your next sabbath of the month, and so on.
Lunar calendar is faulty. How can you count the days or weeks, without the sun and moon? There was light on the first day, without the sun and moon. If we only consider the light from the sun that began on the 4th day, we are missing 3 days from the lunar calendar. Calendars are only estimates of measuring time; Jacob had 12 sons, the 12 tribes of Israel. The moon orbits around the earth
slightly more than 12 times in a year; Jacob counted each of the two sons of Joseph as one of the 12 tribes of Israel. Pharisee Shaul considers himself an apostle; we know Yeshua had 12 original apostles. The clock are numbered 12, with two hands, three if you count the second hand; a strong or long right arm. Moses says nothing can be established without two or three witnesses. The egg farmers could have placed more than 12 eggs in a basket at your local grocery store, more or less than 12 jurors could have been selected for murder trial; John heard the angel counting 12,000 in each of the 12 tribes of Israel. I think there is a hidden message in the counting system. I doubt the estimates were designed to be a perfect 12, substitutes or replacements were also selected. We also have daylight savings time.
Today we use the luni-solar, Gregorian Calendar. Neither Saturday nor Sunday (nor any particular day of the week on the Gregorian Calendar) corresponds to the Sabbath as Moses would have recognized it. Moses' Sabbath is easy to identify though. It's the 8th day after the New Moon and every 7 days until the next New Moon.
Where does the moon start it's orbit around the earth, where does the earth begin it's journey around the sun? The new moon is certainly a sign from the realities, we would need a telescope to observe the moon and earth's race around the sun, however, we do not honestly know where the starting point of the race is located? Afterall, the moon does not finish it's journey around the earth, in the same time each month. I am sure the Egyptians had a calendar to estimate real time, if you honestly seek to honor sabbath you should observe torah.
Evidence for this can be found in Lev 23 (among other places).
At least by the time of the Selucid empire, Jews were no longer using a strictly lunar calendar (eg, 1 Macc, 1:54). During the Babylonian exile, the Jews seem to have adopted a Babylonian system (seen in the names of the months themselves), which was a luni-solar rather than a strictly lunar calendar. Daniel seems to have been using a strictly solar calendar (Daniel 12) as does the author of Genesis 7-8. Further evidence indicates that they ceased using a lunar calendar before the 1st Temple was destroyed. Ezekiel, a priest who would have been very familiar with Lev 23, says:
Eze
22:26 Her priests abuse my law and have desecrated my holy things. They do not distinguish between the holy and the profane, or recognize any distinction between the unclean and the clean. They ignore my Sabbaths and I am profaned in their midst.
Which I think was probably (at least in part) a reference to them ditching the lunar calendar in favor of a solar calendar seen in the priest's fascination and emphasis on the sun:
Eze
8:16 Then he brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house. Right there at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the Lord’s temple, facing east – they were worshiping the sun toward the east!
Calendars are always taken for granted in these discussions, but this is a critical mistake. I doubt anyone is following a Sabbath as instituted in the OT for the reason that nobody uses a lunar calendar like an ancient Israelites did as seen in Lev 23.
Are there 49 days in 7 weeks? The new moon repesents a new month,
not a new week. On the 8th day after birth, a male child is to be circumcised, the child's birthday determines when the new counting system of life begins, not the calendar. This does not mean we ignore the calendar, after all the calendar helps us keep track of time in a great race. We mark his birthday on the calendar, we have another celebration.
