When Does The Biblical Day Start?

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It is very important for us to do our best at determining when the moedim are (the biblical feast days) as well as when Sabbath begins and ends.
These are “appointed times” with Yahweh, our Creator and Elohim.
But the topic is very confusing…
I’ve learned there are roughly 30 different biblical calendar ideas being used in Torah communities.
If someone has it right, that means 29 are wrong.
If no one has it right, then 30 are wrong!!

I’ve been studying the idea of when a biblical day starts for the last couple months.
I am not finished…
I’ll post a more in depth study soon, but I wanted to post a single verse that has me “backed into a corner.”
There are lots of verses all throughout the scriptures that apply to this idea, but it is difficult to find information that gives us a black and white, indisputable answer.
Depending on how you look at all of the details, day could start at sundown or a day could begin at sunrise.
But Matthew 28:1 seems to be fairly black and white.
I need to look at numerous bible translations, as well as interlinear resources.
I need to confirm the meanings of words used, and really dig into the idea.

But in simple English, taken word for word, Matthew 28:1 seems to dial this in for us…

But late in the sabbath, as it was dawning into day one of the week, Miryam from Maḡdala and the other Miryam came to see the tomb. [ISR2009 Scriptures]

Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. [NKJV]

In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. [KJV]

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. [ESV]

Now after Shabbat, as it began to dawn on the first day of the week, Miriam of Magdala and the other Miriam came to look at the tomb. [TLV]

After Shabbat, as the next day was dawning, Miryam of Magdala and the other Miryam went to see the grave. [CJB]

And on the eve of the sabbaths, at the dawn, toward the first of the sabbaths, came Mary the Magdalene, and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre, [YLT]

G2020
ἐπιφώσκω
epiphōskō

Strong’s Definitions (Strong’s Definitions Legend)
ἐπιφώσκω epiphṓskō, ep-ee-foce’-ko; a form of G2017; to begin to grow light:—begin to dawn, × draw on.

Thayer’s Greek Lexicon (Jump to Scripture Index)
ἐπιφώσκω; (imperfect ἐπεφωσκον); to grow light, to dawn (cf. Buttmann, 68 (60)): Luke 23:54; followed by εἰς, Matthew 28:1, on which see εἰς, A. II. 1.

This single verse appears to say that the Sabbath was coming to a close at dawn of the first day of the week.
Is this a slam dunk?
I’m not sure…
Prayer and more study is to come, but I wanted to share this verse.
Let me know what you think.

8 thoughts on “When Does The Biblical Day Start?”

  1. During the captivity of Israel by the Egyptians, they worked as slaves in brick, slime and mortar seven days a week, from sunup to sundown. At this time the Hebrew evening of twilight was redefined as sunset and measured day’s end by Egyptians, based on 12 hour shadows of sundials taskmasters used to govern the productivity of the Israelites. Both of those evenings are found in Lev 23:5 and in Ex 12:6, in the margins of our Bibles, from Hebrew translations: And, you shall keep your lamb (or your goat) until the fourteenth day of the same month, (Abib —Nisan), and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. In the margin of Ex 12:6 it says, Hebrew: between the evenings. The daytime of Nisan 14 extends from Ex 11:4 up to 12:18. Between two evenings, sunset and twilight, the Passover was killed, near day’s end of daytime, on the 14th, ending the 14th (like v32 did in Lev 23:27-32). Sunset is an Egyptian thingie, there is no 24 hour bible day.

    At the first evening of sunset, the Passover was killed. The starlight of the second evening began the feast of Passover and unleavened bread. Only one of these two evenings can be the evening as Gen 1:5 & v14-19, to end the day of Nisan 14, and begin the 15th: Ex 12:18. The first evening began with bleating sounds of the Passover being killed in the moonrise of the Egyptian evening, at sunset, Ex 12:6. From the second evening at starlight, 12:18, thousands of fires roasting the sacrifices of Passover, painted the moon and starlight of Rameses, red in smoke, ending the 14th, Ex 12:8-18, Nm 28:16-17.

    We don’t have to assume the gospels divided a month-day the way Moses did. They did: From the twilight of evening to evening. Jesus’ resurrection in Jn 20:1 shows it on the first day of the week, early, while it was still dark, agreeing with Moses: A new day began after twilight, as justified by v19: Then, that same day at evening, still on the first day of the week . . . confirms Moses, the evening of that day ended by its twilight, Gen 1:14. How could it be in the dark of night, on the first day of the week, in Jn 20:1, if the Biblical day started in morning, and that same day at evening, 20:19, still being the first day of the week, and anyone make sense of your anaolgie that the Biblical day began at sunrise?

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  3. G2020
    ἐπιφώσκω
    epiphōskō,
    as you have it.

    Strong’s is a great start for rendering the language beneath a literal NT translation. But the word actually is ἐπιφωσκούσῃ. it probably is the same, but I haven’t found it in any lexicon, and don’t have the ability to understand the last half of the word, which are used only two places in the Word. That includes the Greek LXX. It appears to mean night was about to begin in both places.

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  4. Darkness was before light. Therefore night was before and after the first day. God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day, Gen 1:1-5. God divided light from darkness by the lights in the expanse of the heavens, which has divided the day from the night, v14. The sunset, as the divider of nights and days, is unnatural to, and is insensible to defend that each day unnaturally contains two daytimes and one nighttime: There is almost an hour of daylight after sunset, divided by the nighttime, and after the nighttime would be a daytime divided by the sunset, unlike Gen 1:14-18, where Nautical Twilight, or the starlight of heaven has divided night and day. How can a sunset divide the days of Gen 1:14? By repeating it over and over? There is no 24 hour Bible day. Evening and morning were outside of a 12 hour day. The evening and morning were perimeters and part of the day, as the twilight of stars and planets divided night and day according to Gen 1:14. Josephus tells us, He divided the light from the darkness, calling the latter night and the former day, and naming the morning and the evening the dawn of light and its cessation, Ant. 1.1.27-28. To understand the Bible about the day’s end, it is not by the sunset, Ex 12:18, but by night, from the stars of twilight and the eyelids of morning, Job 3:9. The New Testament last days of Jesus were spoke of and lived like those of Moses.

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  5. The stories of the women of the cross and the women of the tomb are harmonious. The secret to seeing the harmony of the tomb visits is the location of the angels, and whether or not the two visits on the first day of the week are discerned, by which gospel author, and whether it was in the dark of night or whether after sunrise. Angels outside the empty tomb are of the first visit in the dark. Those in the tomb (whether both are noted or not means nothing), determine the second visit, which appears to be after the sun rose. Mt 28:1 says, In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn into the first day of the week, Mary Magdalena and the other Mary came to see the sepulcher. The word dawn in Greek here does not mean, at the light of day. It is used only one other NT time, Lk 23:54 — night was about to begin. This agrees with Mk 16:1-2 & 9, At the passing of the Sabbath, Mary Magdalena, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, having bought sweet spices, came to anoint him. The passing of the Sabbath is evening turned into night. Both Mk 16:9, & Jn 20:1 agree: Jesus rose early πρωï on the first day of the week; and, The first day of the week Mary Magdalena came early πρωï, when it was still dark, to the sepulcher, and saw the stone taken away from the sepulcher. These two agree with Mt 28:1, as a dawning, into the first day of the week was about to begin, the nightfall after Sabbath. Lk 24:1-3 says, Upon the first day of the week, very early, they (Mary Magdalena, Mary the mother of James, and others of Galilee, 23:55-56), returned to the sepulcher, and, 24:22-24, and they were early at the sepulcher, and found not the body. They told Peter, Someone removed Jesus. Something else that tells which visit it was, is whether sorrow or joy ended which tomb visit of the women, to go tell the disciples their news. Sorrow ends the first visit of not finding Jesus, but joy ends the second after seeing and embracing him. Luke has the first. John has both visits. Matthew notes angels lead the women into the tomb, rediscussing Jesus is risen, and the women’s joyful second visit embrace. Mark notes the second visit, noted by the risen sun, and the angels inside the tomb, Jesus having been seen by the women, with the joyful news to tell Jesus’ disciples. Matthew and Mark appear to tell mostly of the second visit, after Jesus was seen.

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  6. Mat 28:1  “Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.”

    Using Matt 28:1 to prove the new day begins at dawn is problematic because ‘dawn’ does not just mean when the sun rises.
    The word ‘dawn’ in English can also means  “the beginning of a phenomenon or period of time”
    i.e. ‘the dawn of a new era”

    In Greek the word used in Mat 28:1 is ‘epiphosko’

    The word Greek ‘epiphosko’ word which is translated as ‘dawn’ in Matt 28:1 is also translated as ‘drew near’ in Luk 23:54.
    In this example in Luk 23:54 of the use of the word ‘epiphosko’ it is clearly describing the period of time at sunset, not sunrise. As we know for certain that Yeshua’s body was not left on the cross all night and then put in the ground at sunrise.
    Luk 23:54, That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near. 

    In fact in Joh 20:1  we learn that it was dark when Mary was at the tomb, not light.
    Joh 20:1″Now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was yet dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.” 

    If the new day begins at sun rise then there is a problem with using this verse to prove it as Mary was clearly at the tomb before sunrise.

    I believe Yeshua rose as the Sabbath was beginning, in the evening and the light was growing dark, not in the morning as the light was growing light.

    I believe He rose as the High priest was in the field collecting the barley to wave as the First Fruits offering.
    In fact when Mary failed to recognise him, she thought he was a gardener, was it because he had his arms full of barley? He had not yet ascended at this time, and she could not touch Him (Joh 20:15-17).

    If the translators had been consistant with their translating, there would be no confusion, Matt 28:1 would say, “Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to draw on, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.”

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  7. It will be for you a Shabbat of complete rest, and you are to deny yourselves; you are to rest on your Shabbat from evening the ninth day of the month until the following evening.” (vi)
    Vayikra (Lev) 23:32 CJB
    Does this pertain?

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