Genesis 1:5 says, “The evening and the morning were the first day.” A day began when the preceding day closed, at sunset. The dark part of the day came first, then the light part.
In describing how to honor one of the feast days, God instructed the Israelites, “From evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath” (Leviticus 23:32). In the Hebrew, the word for “even” is “‘ereb”, or “עָרַב”, which by definition means “evening, night, sunset.” More information on that can be found by referring to the Strong’s Concordance, and seeing that reference to “even” as being from עָרַב (H6150):
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H6153&t=KJV
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H6153&t=KJV
“Evening” is when the sun becomes even with the horizon, what we call sunset. “In the evening, at the going down of the sun …” (Deuteronomy 16:6). “That evening, after sunset …” (Mark 1:32).
Also, we read that the prophet Nehemiah after the Babylonian captivity taught the Israelites how to keep the Sabbath by ordering the gates of Jerusalem to be shut to keep the Sabbath holy “when the evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath” (Nehemiah 13:15-19).
So, the Sabbath hours begin when the sun goes down on Friday evening.
In His service,
BibleAsk Team
