Which verse specifies Saturday?
It’s totally Sunday.
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).
There are loads of verses that refer to the Sabbath. Wikipedia details here. And the Sabbath is Saturday. The Hebrew word for Saturday is Shabbat, or sabbath.
Sunday - Yom Rishon (First Day)
Monday - Yom Sheini (Second Day)
Tuesday - Yom Shlishi (Third Day)
and so on til…
Saturday - Shabbat
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.
First day on sunday? Obviously the first day of the week is monday, silly americans. 
Very old British poem:
Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for his living,
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.
Ergo to us the Sabbath, culturally, is Sunday, the seventh day, the one on which God rested, and Monday is the start of the week - which is how all our calendars are set up. (Outlook and Google Calendar even adapt themselves to this based on geography, though one can override it in Settings.)
For me, Saturday. Why? Because that’s what I decided when I was a kid, probably because it’s the first day of the weekend; the day that the routine changes in other words. And since it’s really fairly arbitrary I’ve never bothered to think of it any other way.
Except that the 7-day cycle has continued regularly by the Jews since it was established, and when the Romans adopted it from them, they simply renamed they days, with the day that eventually became “Sunday” set on the Hebrew “First Day”.
Say you have a repeating cycle:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
…and at some point, someone establishes the following regarding the same cycle:
1=x
2=f
3=u
4=b
5=s
6=k
7=w
…then x will always equal 1. Therefore, Sunday will always be First Day.
In other words, it’s not a matter of tradition, its a matter of bookkeeping.
Great. Now the Bangles ‘Manic Monday’ is playing through my head.
When I was a kid, I just automatically assumed Monday was the start of the week because it was the “first” day of school. Imagine my horror when learned Sunday was the traditional first day. It never stuck though. Monday is still the first day for me. And Sunday-first calendars look funny.
I’m with Guano Lad in that visually, the calendar starts with Sunday but practically the week starts with Monday.
Culturally dependent. For me, having grown up in Spain, Monday; in the liturgical week, Sunday; in Portugal, Sunday.
I once asked a coworker (American) whether it was possible to set the company-mandated electronic calendars to start on Monday (one of those programs where everybody else can see your meetings); for some reason she got stuck on “but WHY?” instead of answering the question or saying “I have no idea”. I eventually found the setting by the method of exploring every single menu item.
Of course it’s sunday, but in my mind, it will forever be Monday.
I’m in the UK and am voting Monday.
And contrariwise, in modern Chinese Monday is “First Day”, Tuesday is “Second Day”, etc.
The work week starts Monday, but the week starts Sunday. The “weekend” includes Saturda and Sunday because they are at the two ends of the week (one being the first day, and one the last).
This is also consistent with the calendar, and tradition. And the Bible – Jesus was raised on the day after the sabbath (Saturday) “on the first day of the week” (Sunday).
ETA: Also, plenty of people don’t start their work week on Monday. I used to work Thurs - Mon and my “weekend” was Tue-Wed, but that didn’t mean the week started on Thursday.
Well in Oracle it depends whether you use the WW or the IW format.
Monday. I am not religious and so I count the first day of the work week as the first day.
Didn’t the Chinese adopt the 7-day week rather recently?