Which Comes First: Day or Night?

Light/Darkness, Day/Night

Genesis is the best place to begin to look for the definitions of words that are used in the remainder of the Scriptures.  Genesis 1:5a provides the primary definitions of day and night.

Genesis 1:5a (KJV, with Strong's Hebrew numbers) And God called the light²¹⁶ Day,³¹¹⁷ and the darkness²⁸²² he called Night.³⁹¹⁵

H216 אור 'or (ore)
From H215; illumination or (concretely) luminary (in every sense, including lightning, happiness, etc.).

H3117 יום yom (yome)
From an unused root meaning to be hot; a day (as the warm hours), whether literally (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figuratively (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverbially).

H2822 חשׁך chôshek (kho-shek')
From H2821; the dark; hence (literally) darkness; figuratively misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness.

H3915 לילה layelâh (lah'-yel-aw)
From the same as H3883; properly a twist (away of the light), that is, night; figuratively adversity.

A straight forward reading of Gen. 1:5 shows that the primary definition of Day is the daylight period, or the period from sunrise to sunset.  Strong's secondary definition of day as "from one sunset to the next" is not derived from this text, but I argue is based more on tradition and false translations of the Scriptures.

Evening/Morning

Now that day and night are defined, we have two more terms that need to be defined: evening and morning.

Genesis 1:5b (KJV, Strong's Hebrew Numbers) And the evening⁶¹⁵³ and the morning¹²⁴² were the first day.

H6153 ערב ereb (eh'-reb)
From H6150; dusk.

H6150 ערב ‛ârab (aw-rab')
A primitive root (rather identical with H6148 through the idea of covering with a texture); to grow dusky at sundown.

H1242 בּקר boqer (bo'-ker)
From H1239; properly dawn (as the break of day); generally morning.

H1239 בּקר bâqar (baw-kar')
A primitive root; properly to plough, or (generally) break forth, that is, (figuratively) to inspect, admire, care for, consider.
 

How can evening (dusk) and morning (dawn) equal one day?

Genesis 1:5b (Hebrew, with literal translation) w'yuhi ereb w'yuhi boqer, yom echad

"and then there was dusk and then there was dawn, day one"

compare w'yuhi 'or

 "And God said "Let there be light," and there was light."

Genesis 1:5b in other versions...

And there was evening and there was morning, one day. (Authorized Standard Version) 

Evening came and then morning--that was the first day. (Contemporary English Version)

Evening passed and morning came---that was the first day. (Good News Bible)

(Re)define Day

God did the work in the day "and then there was dusk and then there was dawn."

A new day was about to begin...

Evening and morning DO NOT equal a day.

Evening and morning ARE transitional periods.

The day/night order defined in Genesis 1:5 is the correct order.

Genesis 1:5a: And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.

How do you get from day to night? Evening or Dusk

How do you get from night to day? Morning or Dawn

The day/night order seen throughout the Scriptures is often overlooked and the rare cases of  night/day order are made to be the rule.  Below are two foundational verses that show the common order and association of day and night.

Genesis 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Exodus 10:13 And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the YHWH brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning,¹²⁴² the east wind brought the locusts.

Darkness First

Genesis 1:1-5a (KJV, with Strong's Hebrew numbers)  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided, the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.

What day of the month is the first Sabbath?

The 8th day.

What day of the "week" is the Sabbath?

The 7th day.

How do we reconcile the above "discrepancy?"

The events of each day of creation (following the initial creation) begin with "And God said, Let there be..."

The beginning of Genesis 1 introduces the beginning of a month.  We understand that the month begins the day following the lunar conjunction, or the DARK of the moon.

Seventh Day Sabbath

Genesis 2:1-3 (KJV)  Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested⁷⁶⁷³ on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.  And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested⁷⁶⁷³ from all his work which God created and made.

H7673 שׁבת shâbath (shaw-bath')

A primitive root; to repose, that is, desist from exertion; used in many implied relations (causatively, figuratively or specifically).

When the seventh day (daylight period) rolled around God desisted from exertion and instituted the Sabbath.

Exodus 23:12 Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.

We are not commanded to rest only on the Sabbath day, the period when we would normally be working.

Passover sacrifice instituted

Exodus 12:6 And ye shall keep it up until⁵⁷⁰⁴ the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in⁹⁹⁶ the evening.

H5704 עד ‛ad (ad)
Properly the same as H5703 (used as a preposition, adverb or conjugation; especially with a preposition); as far (or long, or much) as, whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until) or degree (equally with).
 

H996 בּין bêyn (bane)

Between.

Compare Deuteronomy 16:6 But, at the place which the YHWH thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt.

"Until the fourteenth day" uses the same preposition as in "until eventide" and "until this day" we will examine later in Joshua 8:29.   In the Joshua reference the bodies were taken down at the beginning of the evening and the stones were witnesses until the present time.  I understand that the lamb was selected on the tenth, held for observation the eleventh through thirteenth, and on the fourteenth prepared for the sacrifice to take place that evening.

Exodus 12:6 contains the first occurrence of "between the evenings."  In this case "between the evenings" is defined in Deu. 16:6 as "at even (dusk), at the going down of the sun."  I understand "between the evenings" as "in the midst of the evening" (Jeremiah 48:45) or between the beginning and the end of the evening transition.  Other times where "between the evenings" occurs are the lighting of the candles, the evening sacrifice and the Exodus 16:12-13 account of the quail.  I am thinking that the morning sacrifice comes just after dawn and the evening sacrifice is after sunset and before dark.
 

Passover meal/Unleavened Bread

Exodus 12:8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night (night of the fourteenth, refer back to verse 6), roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
Exodus 12:10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.
Exodus 12:18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.

One gets to the fourteenth day of the month, waits till evening, and begins eating unleavened bread until the end of the daylight period on the twenty-first.

Compare Yom Kippur on the tenth of the seventh month.  You start on the ninth day at evening and go to the tenth day at evening.  This way by morning of the tenth your stomach is empty.  YHWH then chose to release us from the fast at evening!

These two commands read as exceptions to the rule.  Both deal with eating.  If the weekly Sabbath was evening to evening I would expect to see it defined that way where the weekly Sabbath was introduced in Leviticus 23:1-3.

Hung on a tree

Deuteronomy 21:22-23 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain all night³⁸⁸⁵ upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which YHWH thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

H3885 לין lîyn (leen)
A primitive root; to stop (usually over night); by implication to stay permanently; hence (in a bad sense) to be obstinate (especially in words, to complain).

The command to bury the accursed relates to not "turning in" until the job is done.  Day here seems to include the associated night.  Below are two examples (we will see a third with Yeshuah).

Joshua 8:29 And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide:^{6256, 6153} and as soon as the sun⁸¹²¹ was down,⁹³⁵ Joshua commanded that they should take his carcass down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and raise thereon a great heap of stones, that remaineth unto⁵⁷⁰⁴ this day.

Joshua 10:26-27 And afterward Joshua smote them, and slew them, and hanged them on five trees: and they were hanging upon the trees until⁵⁷⁰⁴ the evening.⁶¹⁵³  And it came to pass at the time of the going down⁹³⁵ of the sun,⁸¹²¹ that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees, and cast them into the cave wherein they had been hid, and laid great stones in the cave's mouth, which remain until this very day.

H6256 עת ‛êth (ayth)
From H5703; time, especially (adverbially with preposition) now, when, etc.

H8121 שׁמשׁ shemesh (sheh'-mesh)

From an unused root meaning to be brilliant; the sun; by implication the east; figuratively a ray, that is, (architecturally) a notched battlement.

H935 בּוא bô' (bo)
A primitive root; to go or come (in a wide variety of applications).
 

I see "that day" in Deu. 21:23 as referring to the day that the deaths took place. Again, the work of putting one to death happens in the daylight period.  The Israelites were commanded to make the burial before the end of the night that following that daylight period.  I read in both examples that the going down of the sun defines both the beginning of evening and the beginning of night.  The bodies remained on the tree that day while the sun was up, or until evening.  The burial process began at sundown, or once evening had commenced.  In context, there seems to be no need to complete the burial before dark (during the evening period).  In fact, moving a "great heap of stones" and "great stones" may have taken to well into the night, but before they went to bed. 

Crucifixion/Resurrection

I have found light in the Day/Night order.  For those observing a Night/Day order, there is a big cost in reexamining this issue. 

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