# What's the first day of the week?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-day-of-the-week/551476>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 25, 2010, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-day-of-the-week/551476 "2010-08-25T23:56:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 25

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**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-day-of-the-week/551476/25 "2010-08-26T08:28:29Z")

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> [@Alessan](#):
>
> > [@spark240](#):
> >
> > Which verse specifies Saturday?
> 
> Genesis, Chapter 1.
> 
> The seven-day week is a Jewish invention, and Jews have been counting the days of the week on an uninterrupted basis since the 6th Century BC. When the Romans adopted the 7-day week they gave the name Saturday to the same day the Jews referred to as Shabbat (Sabbath).

Really, chapter 1? :dubious:

Genesis 2:2-3; Exodus 16:23-30, 20:11, 23:12, 31:13-17, and 35:2-3; Leviticus 23:3; etc., refer to a “seventh day,” a day following six work days, sanctified and observed as such. I don’t see a specification for a _particular_ day.

Yes, I understand that the Jewish Sabbath is traditionally Saturday, or rather that Saturday is the day in the traditional Jewish count that they called Shabbat _as their designated Sabbath_.

But that’s just a tradition, _one possible_ proper observance. Because of the sundown-to-stars demarcation, it’s not even the same time frame for members of the same tradition in different places.

Beyond that, I understand in the Mishnah Rav Huna says that if a man is wandering in the wilderness and does not know which day it is in the common or traditional count, he should simply count off six days and then observe the next as a Sabbath. (A dissent says he should observe one day as Sabbath, then count off six.) He “recognizes his Sabbath” by the kiddush and havdalah rituals. It is the reverence and _act_ of observance which signifies his obedience to God, not the time frame per se.

So why would it matter if some group faithfully observed, and made traditional, another day? It seems to me it shouldn’t be theologically significant if some community kept their Sabbath on Tuesday, as long as they rested, did no servile work, kindled no fire, and so on.

If, you know, you believe in that stuff.

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