Every winter on the last day of December there is a big countdown to midnight. But why does the day end at midnight? The 24-hour cycle of a day in the bible is sunset to sunset. Why is it midnight to midnight across the world today?
If you think about the very first days of Adam and Eve, before they had developed ways of tracking time, they had to rely on what God gave them. God gave them the sun, the moon, and the stars.
“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:” Genesis 1:14
Even by that verse you can see that light governs the division of the day and night. Which lights were in charge of the daylight and the darkness? It was the sun and moon not the stars.
“And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.” Genesis 1:16
If it is light that divides the day and night, and the greater light is the sun, then the division is governed by the sun. As the sun appears and disappears, the darkness does the opposite. The division therefore is at sunset and sunrise, and the 24-hour day would begin and end at one of these two division points because God had given them no other definite points in time.
God, Himself, chose which of these two division points were the beginning of a 24-hour cycle. God tells us that darkness was first, then light. As creation began, each 24-hour day was established by starting with evening first, then morning.
“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Genesis 1:5
Therefore, the proper 24-hour day starts at evening with darkness first, then the daylight follows. This starting division point of evening is important to know, otherwise God’s instructions would be followed incorrectly which is a sin. You have 6 days to work and on the Sabbaths you must rest. Starting the 24-hour clock at any other time would lead to sin by having a portion of time which is not observed as the real Sabbath. Also, the appointed holidays would be observed incorrectly too.
So, for Adam and Eve, their 24-hour day started in the evening. This timekeeping was carried forth by the family line and was the only system until rebellion led to the people creating their own version of time.
At some point mankind began developing ways to track the sun in increments, and even found ways to track increments of the night. Once they had this ability, they made a decision to abandon God’s way of time and create their own. In rebellion, they made their own gods, their own rules of morality, their own version of a 24-hour day, their own calendars, and their own appointed holidays.
As the world entered full corruption, Noah held to God’s ways. Noah was saved because of his faith in God which brought forth obedience.
“And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;” 2Peter 2:5
When Noah and his family stepped off the ark into their new world, they brought with them knowledge from the old world. One of the things that surely was known by that generation was that the shadow of a tree would move as the sun moved through the sky. If you stood a gnomon (a stick or pillar) on the ground, you could track the sun by increments. All you had to do was put markings in the ground along the shadow’s path.
Noah’s sons grew up and dispersed in different directions repopulating the earth, and each taking with them their own experiences, knowledge, and ideas. Different groups of these descendants developed the gnomons into sundials but there were disputes over who got their ideas from who.
The Greek Historian, Herodotus, believed that the Greeks adopted sundials from the area of Babylon.
“the sunclock and the sundial, and the twelve divisions of the day, came to Hellas from Babylonia and not from Egypt.” Herodotus, Histories, Book 2, after Chapter marker 109, Section 3
The fact that Herodotus felt he had to address this means that the Egyptians were well established as the originator of the sundial and the 12 divisions of the day.
The Babylonians might have developed advanced gnomon sundials independently from Egypt, but it is in Egypt where we find the oldest known sundial artifacts. The latest of which was found by the University of Basel’s ‘King’s Valley Project’ in 2013.
University of Basel, Publications and Reports 2013, ‘Preliminary Report on the Work Carried out During the Season 2013’ pdf, and Wikipedia public domain
“In the terrain between KV 29 and KV 61 a limestone fragment (ostracon) with a painted sundial on its surface is discovered – worldwide the oldest of its kind.” University of Basel, Switzerland (Tombs section, 2014/15 dropdown)
Obelisks were sun god monuments and almost certainly derived from those original sun gnomons.
“All four sides of the obelisk’s shaft are embellished with hieroglyphs that characteristically include religious dedications, usually to the sun god, and commemorations of the rulers.” Encyclopaedia Britannica
Although obelisks’ humble beginnings were probably gnomons, it was easier and a lot more convenient to have portable miniature sundials for everyday use rather than having large stationary gnomons at designated locations. This is the same as having wrist watches rather than relying on a clock tower in a town square. As for the evolution of giant obelisks, the Egyptians developed a culture where balance was essential.
“Egyptian law was based on the central cultural value of ma'at (harmony and balance) which was the foundation for the entire civilization.” World History Encyclopedia
“Heka's first "creation" was ma'at, and so the concept of balance and harmony as an essential aspect of life became the most deeply held conviction of Egyptian society from the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150 - c. 2613 BCE) onwards. Although the personification of Ma'at as a goddess does not appear until the Old Kingdom (c. 2613-2181 BCE), the value she represented – as well as the magic which sustained that balance - seems evident in architecture and carvings of the Predynastic Period in Egypt (c. 6000 - c. 3150 BCE), establishing this value as the core foundation for the society which then developed.” World History Encyclopedia
To fit into this cultural idea, single obelisks became a thing of the past and they became erected almost exclusively in pairs at temples and tombs.
“Most worthy of mention among the many offerings which he dedicated in all the noteworthy temples for his deliverance from blindness are the two marvellous stone obelisks which he set up in the temple of the Sun. Each of these is made of a single block, and is over one hundred and sixty-six feet high and thirteen feet thick” Herodotus, Histories, Book 2, after Chapter marker 111, Section 4
The Karnak temple complex of the sun-god Amon-Re, which has a series of gates made with pylons (pairs of tall, wide walls with an entrance in between), had many pairs of obelisks set in place by succeeding kings.
“At the beginning of the New Kingdom (c. 1539–1075 BCE), Thutmose I (reigned 1493–c. 1482) enclosed this 12th-dynasty (1938–c. 1756 BCE) temple with a stone wall and fronted it with two pylons (the fourth and fifth), erecting two obelisks in front of the new temple facade. His son, Thutmose II (reigned 1482–79), added a broad festival court in front of the enlarged temple as well as another pair of obelisks. Hatshepsut then inserted a quartzite bark shrine dedicated to Amon in the centre of the temple, as well as two additional pairs of obelisks, one of which still stands” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Karnak
The only single obelisk known was started by Thutmose III and finished by his grandson Thutmose IV. It was erected in the temple at Karnak and eventually transported to Rome where it is now known as the Lateran Obelisk.
This lone Lateran Obelisk may have been originally part of a pair, Thutmose III started the construction but died before it was finished. His grandson found it and had it finished and put in the temple. So, it is difficult to say if Thutmose III had intended it to be a solo obelisk.
“The so-called Lateran obelisk is the largest standing obelisk in the world. Its inscriptions state that while it was begun during the reign of Tuthmosis III, it lay in the craftsmen's workshops for 35 years and was finally erected by his grandson Tuthmosis IV. The only single obelisk ever put up in Karnak Temple (obelisks usually came in pairs)” PBS.org, A World of Obelisks, Rome
Because obelisks were almost exclusively erected in pairs, it precludes them from being accepted for any practical use as sundials. Many of these obelisks were taken by conquering armies like the Romans. Once thought by the majority to be a sundial, the Solarium Augusti in Rome was created by Emperor Augustus using an obelisk from Heliopolis (Egypt). It was constructed on the Campus Martius in 10 B.C. making it the first solar dedication in Rome. The obelisk is now situated in the Piazza di Montecitorio.
Romans had strong ties to sun worship which would make the obelisks highly prized. Although some still hold the Solarium Augusti to be a sundial, it is now believed by most to be a Solar Meridian which indicates the point of midday throughout the year to track the changing length of days and nights. (see Pliny the Elder’s description in Natural History, Book 36 [72]–[73] starting at site marker {15}).
Egypt may have abandoned obelisks as timepieces, but their smaller sundials were used extensively throughout their empire. The 12-hour day that Herodotus had addressed can be seen in the King’s Valley artifact image above. The 12-hour night was also kept by using water clocks which dripped water at a precise rate. The oldest water clock found in Egypt is dated 1391-1353 BC and is held at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.
Egypt departed from God’s timekeeping by starting their day at dawn and creating a 10-day week. Alternatively, keeping a 7-day week testifies to the real God creating the world in 6 days and resting on the 7th. Egypt had created fictional gods, fictional weeks, and fictional 24-hour days.
“Most scholars agree that the Egyptian day began at dawn, before the rising of the sun, rather than sunrise. The daily cycle was divided into twenty-four hours: twelve hours of the day and twelve hours of the night, the latter apparently reckoned based on the movement of groups of stars (“decans”) across the night sky. Beginning in the New Kingdom (ca. 1500 B.C.), there is evidence that sundials, shadow clocks (12.181.307), and water clocks (17.194.2341) were used to measure the passing of the hours. There is no evidence that the Egyptians tracked minutes or seconds, although there are general terms for time segments shorter than an hour. The month was organized into three weeks of ten days each, with the start of the lunar month marked by the disappearance of the waning moon.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Egyptian sundials and timekeeping became known around the world. It is unclear if they had any influence on Babylonian timekeeping or vice versa. Sundials made their way to Greece and then Greece transported sundial technology with their settlers into southern Italy (Magna Graecia). The Samnite tribes of southern Italy had trade routes into Magna Graecia.
“In 290 BCE the first sundial, which had been captured from the Samnites, was set up in Rome” Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Romans originally had only two divisions of the daytime, the span of light from sunrise to noon and then the span of light from noon to sunset. Today’s cultural timekeeping still uses those pagan Roman roots including their designations of am and pm, abbreviations of the Latin ante meridiem (before midday) and post meridiem (after midday). Once the Romans were equipped with sundials and water clocks, they could do as the Egyptians did and follow an incremental 24-hour day. They simply expanded their ‘am’ and ‘pm’ ideology.
They reckoned that noon was the middle of the daytime and the fullest part of the day, so the opposite should be the most diminished part when expanding into a 24-hour day. By this, they decided that the beginning of this 24-hour cycle must be at midnight. Their timekeeping is centred on the fullness of the sun which aligns with their long history of sun worship.
Because Rome conquered much of the known world, everyone is still heavily influenced by this particular pagan culture. Almost the entire world still follows the Roman calendar, the Roman week, and the Roman 24-hour day. The detailed subdivision of hours and minutes was eventually adopted from the ancient Babylonians who had a preference for using numbers to the base of 60.
You can see that the time system we use today sprang from history’s dominating pagan cultures, and this system is still in place simply because our world is still governed by pagan people and ideas. Despite claims to the contrary, we are still in Rome, we are still in Egypt, and we are still in Babylon. We are living in the land of the enemy, living in the midst of an all-encompassing oppressive pagan society.
This pagan-structured timekeeping is not the way God instructed Adam and Eve to teach to their children. Noah’s descendants have strayed far from their righteous father and far from their righteous God. The Hebrews separated themselves from pagan timekeeping by always starting their 24-hour day in the evening at sunset, as in Genesis quoted above. Another example in Scripture,
The Day of Atonement begins on the tenth day of the 7th month,
“Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.” Leviticus 23:27
And, when does the 10th day start?
“It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.” Leviticus 23:32
Christ also followed YHWH’s instructions and taught the same. He never once corrected the Jews for using this time system because it was done correctly. Christ would never approve of a different version of God’s time as that would be against His Father’s instructions and so against God, and that would be a sin. Transgressing God’s instructions is the definition of sin. This definition was not changed by the resurrection, the apostles were always preaching against sin.
“Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” 1John 3:4
Anyone, even to this day, who has abandoned God’s timekeeping is either unaware of God’s ways or they are aware but following a different way according to alternate beliefs. The alternate beliefs of Rome have led to a pagan world running on pagan time, so even if you follow God’s timekeeping but want to converse with pagans and their time culture (that's pretty much everybody) then you have to communicate time in their way. But just as we are ruled by Roman culture today, the Jews were ruled by Rome in the time of Christ but both the Jews and Christ kept God’s time.
Here is an example of timekeeping in the New Testament,
“When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick,” Matthew 8:16
They brought the afflicted to Christ after the Sabbath day ended, the ending of the 24-hour day at sunset. The Jews would not ask Christ to heal them during the Sabbath due to the unlawful rules instituted by the Jewish leaders. As soon as the 24-hour cycle of the day ended at sunset, the Sabbath was over and the people were clear to approach Christ to be healed. It is of course lawful to heal on the Sabbath despite the manmade Sabbath rules policed by the Jews. Christ taught on the Sabbath in the Temple and corrected the Jews on the Word of God, He never once told them their evening to evening time system was wrong.
There are two ways that a “day” is used by the Hebrews. There is the “day” which means daylight, and there is a “day” which means the 24-hour cycle. It’s important not to confuse these two concepts.
In our modern times, the world still uses a Roman calendar and a Roman day, and that’s why you have a countdown to midnight. If they were using God’s timekeeping, then there wouldn’t be a countdown at all because the sunset times change daily and depending on the light it is somewhat subjective. A countdown is not reasonable by God’s timekeeping. This countdown to a precise point is a purely fictional idea, as is midnight as a starting point of a 24-hour day.
Even the New Year set at January 1st is a Roman idea based on the winter solstice (a solar midnight) where the sun starts out again to regain its fullness. YHWH sets the New Year in the spring, in the month of the Passover.
“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.” Exodus 12:2
The start of this spring month would be at the end of the new moon, at the time of the barley harvest. The first fruits of the barley harvest (Leviticus 23:9-14) are given right after Passover (end of Nisan 14, Leviticus 23:5), during the Feast of Unleavened Bread (beginning of Nisan 15 to end of Nisan 21, Leviticus 23:6, Exodus 12:18)
There are other yearly cycles that start and end at different times, like the planting year which starts in autumn. The end of that cycle depends on the plant, the barley is harvested in the spring, the wheat is ready about 50 days later, and all harvests will be completed before planting starts again in autumn. But our Calendar Year will always start in the spring.
You will see this in Exodus 23:16, where God mentions “the end of the year” regarding bringing in the remaining crops in autumn. He makes clear that this is the crop cycle but not the calendar cycle when He gives the command in Leviticus 23:39 where He tells us this happens in the “seventh month”.
Unfortunately, the Jews coming out of Babylon, adopted the Babylonian way of having two new years. One is in the spring and one in the fall. The Jews transformed God’s ‘Day of Trumpets’ or ‘Yom Teruah’ into their second new year celebration which they call the ‘head of the year’ or ‘Rosh Hashanah’. This is a violation of God’s Laws, and therefore is sin.
Pagan cultures like the Babylonians and Romans have led God’s people into sin. These calendars are not God’s calendar. Babylonian and Roman holidays are not God’s holidays.
Servants of Christ still follow a “sunset to sunset” schedule despite the pressures of pagan rule. Our 24-hour day, and so our Sabbath, still begins at sunset. It does not begin at midnight nor at sunrise. The beginning and end of our day changes as the sunset time changes. This causes us to clash with the Roman structure of time, as it should. I encourage you all to hold to the pattern of teaching that God gave, and not to give in to pagan pressure to change to pagan ways. Show Christ that YHWH is your Father too. Defend His ways, do not be ashamed of them. Realize that the whole world is in the wrong, and God is in the right.
It is not God’s people, who celebrate New Year’s according to the Roman calendar. Any person, whether Jew or Gentile, who observes a New Year at any other time is sinning because they are disobeying a direct command of God. Should we follow the ways of the nations, or should we do what pleases God? Your answer tells God who your heart really belongs to.
The countdown is on, but it isn't to midnight, the Day of Judgment is coming, make sure you are on the right side of the Law when the court begins session, once it starts there is no turning back. You must separate yourself from those who are not willing to let go of sin, or you will be counted as one of their number and suffer the sentence of the unrepentant. Remember Lot’s wife! Choose the right ways, choose life!
Commentaires