THE strict injunction (Ex. 20:8), "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy," is based upon the fact that the Sabbath is essentially God's day. Verses 9-11 associate its establishment with the period of creation in six days, or basic periods outlined in the first chapter of Genesis, followed by a seventh day, on which God rested or, more strictly, desisted from His work. In the account of the fourth commandment as given in Deuteronomy (5:12-15), however, the requirement of rest on the Sabbath day is viewed as constituting a perpetual reminder that God had delivered the ancestors of the Hebrews from servitude in Egypt. Therefore they, in their turn, should see to it that their weekly rest on the Sabbath was shared with their servants and visiting strangers and also with their animals.
Both accounts agree in stating, "The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work." Indeed, the Hebrew word for "sabbath" has the basic sense of "rest" or "intermission." The Hebrews observed and still observe the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, corresponding approximately to the modern Saturday, although strictly the day is counted as from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday, in accord with the repeated statement in the record of creation that evening preceded morning (see, for example, Gen. 1:5). Certain present-day Christian groups also count Saturday to be their Sabbath.
However, with the growth of the early Christian Church, stress was soon laid on the first day of the week, associated with Christ Jesus' resurrection and therefore termed "the Lord's day" (Rev. 1: 10). And since that time, about the close of the first century, the great majority of Christian Churches have transferred the weekly day of rest and worship ordained in the fourth commandment to what we term Sunday.
