When Does A Biblical Day Start (PART 3)

Today, on this Real Israel Talk Radio program, Episode 177 and PART 3, I will continue in this series,  When Does A Biblical Day Start? With the morning or with the previous evening?  According to my understanding of Genesis 1:2-5, it appears that a biblical day begins anew with each sunrise (and actually, slightly before this at "Shachar," based on the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:4-5. Here is a basic summary of what I have covered so far:

a.   God called the LIGHT DAY, and the DARK, He called NIGHT. 

b.   He came to be erev – a pre-morning mix [later to be called shachar]

c.    Also, he came to be boker – the morning sunrise [Day]

d.   He came to be One “DAY,” Yom Echad – that is, Pre-morning AND Morning.

e.   Therefore, we are given a repeating formula for the Creation week – Day ‘X’, which is used for days 2 through 7. 

Transcript

Shalom! I’m Avi ben Mordechai, and this is Real Israel Talk Radio. Today, we will continue examining the question, “When does a Biblical day start?” This is PART 3. 

We know that Jewish culture and tradition teach and practice the principle that a biblical day begins with the evening of the prior sunset. This is based, at least partly, on interpretations of Genesis 1:5 and Genesis 1:31.

• Genesis 1:5. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So, the evening (erev) and the morning (boker) were the first day.
• Genesis 1:31. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed very good. So, the evening (erev) and the morning (boker) were the sixth day.

From these statements, erev or “EVENING” comes first in the sequence of thought. Boker or morning comes second. A grammatical formula for the week is then introduced and repeated after each day: 

And it was evening (erev), and it was morning (boker), day X.

For centuries, academic and Jewish religious scholars have interpreted Genesis 1:5 through 1:31 as a summary of the creation week structure. FIRST, they say, comes the evening based on sunset. SECOND, comes the morning based on sunrise, implying that a biblical day starts with the onset of erev or Evening. Previously, from PART 2 in this series, I expounded upon Genesis 1:2-5 and tried to accurately present the concepts as I understand them from within the written Hebrew context. Before explaining anything further, let us briefly summarize much of what I previously presented.

• In Genesis 1:2, a blanket of DARK SAMENESS overshadowed the whole of creation. The Hebrew phrase used is tohu v’vohu. Think of this idea as blindness.
• In Genesis 1:3, God fashioned, shaped, and formed from OUT OF HIS OWN LIGHT – the LIGHT OF THE MESSIAH, based on Isaiah 45:7, “I FORM LIGHT and CREATE DARKNESS.”
• In Genesis 1:4, from Genesis 1:3, He injected this into the Genesis 1:2 tohu v’vohu blanket of dark sameness and created a blanket of LIGHT, resulting in a perfectly balanced “Middle Gray,” as we might understand the concept. 

In Genesis 1:5, God created a line of distinction in the “Middle Gray” between the LIGHT and between the DARK. I purposely repeated the statement “BETWEEN the LIGHT AND BETWEEN THE DARK” for a good reason. Because it is written that way in the Hebrew text in Genesis 1:4 –בֵּ֥ין הָא֖וֹר וּבֵ֥ין הַחֹֽשֶׁך (Bein HaOr U’Vain HaChoshech). Why write it this way, twice repeating the word “between”? Perhaps God wants us to consider that after the fourth day, a DAY will be defined according to four different parts: 

• A)  DAYBREAK or SHACHAR
• B)  MORNING or BOKER 
• C)   EVENING or EREV
• D)  NIGHT or LILAH

However, we must revise our terminology because we are still only on the first day, and what is described above is linked to the definitions of the fourth day and Genesis 1:14, after the luminaries were created. So, let’s say it differently based on Genesis 1:4 –בֵּ֥ין הָא֖וֹר וּבֵ֥ין הַחֹֽשֶׁך (Bein HaOr U’Vain HaChoshech) of what is defined as ONE DAY or in Hebrew – Yom Echad.

• A)  THE FIRST EREV (FIRST MIXTURE)
• B)  THE LIGHT OF THE MORNING (DAY) 

Here, we learn that a biblical day is represented by the context of the different dayparts. In Genesis 1:5, it would be my understanding that the first use of the term erev should NOT be defined as “evening” as we would understand the idea; that is, the physical setting of the sun and the arrival of the day's darkness. 

Instead, we should understand the FIRST USE of erev in Genesis 1:5 as a pre-morning mixture because this IS what the Hebrew word erev refers to. Following the creation of the luminaries on DAY 4, the term erev comes to be called evening in the sense of the onset of darkness after sunset. Therefore, sequentially, after YHWH creates the physical luminaries on DAY 4, the first use of the Hebrew term erev is adapted to reflect the sense of shachar, describing what we could call the “pre-morning” of a DAY, because the “pre-morning” of a day is, in fact, a mixture between dark and light. 

DAY PART NUMBER 1 – EVENING and SHACHAR

The first place in scripture where “evening” appears is in Genesis 1:5 – “So, erev and boker were the first day. “Evening,” like its complementing term “morning,” makes little sense here. Yes, we are led to believe that it makes good sense here, but truthfully, the context does not support a connotation like this. Why? Because evening and morning on the First Day are terms that uniquely apply to the created luminaries beginning with Day Four. In Hebrew, erev refers to a mixture of time, people, landscapes, or boundaries. The Hebrew root for ayin-resh-vet gives us a broad range of ideas, such as 

A)  Erev, in the sense of evening, as a mixture between the day's light and the night's darkness. Some biblical examples: 

1. Genesis 24:63. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the erev(in the evening – the descending light of the afternoon, including sunset, and the darkness of the lilah or night); and he lifted his eyes and looked, and there, the camels were coming.
2. Deuteronomy 23:11. But it shall be, when erev (evening) comes, that he shall wash with water; and when the sun sets, he may come into the camp.

B)  Arab (Arabia), in the sense of groups (such as the Nabateans) or individuals (Arabs) associated with the desert regions and Arabian tribes.

• 1 Kings 10:15. …besides that from the traveling merchants, from the income of traders, from all the kings of the Arab (Arabia), and from the governors of the country.
• Jeremiah 25:23-24. Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all in the farthest corners; all the kings of the Arabs (Arabia) and all the kings of the mixed multitude who dwell in the desert…

C)  Aravah is a topographical mixed landscape bordering between animal grazing land and a desert region. 

• Numbers 26:3. So Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them (all Israel) in the Aravah (desert region) of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho.
• Jeremiah 17:5-6. Thus says YHWH: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from YHWH. For he shall be like a shrub in the Aravah (desert), and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land not inhabited.” 

D)  Arav, in the sense of mingling or mixing. 

• Exodus 12:38. An erev rav (mixed multitude) went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock.
• Psalm 106:35-36. But they arav (mingled) with the Gentiles and learned their works; they served their idols, which became a snare to them.
• Ezra 9:2. For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed is arav (mixed) with the peoples of those lands…
• Daniel 2:41. Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron [evening] mixed (“erev”) with ceramic clay.
• Daniel 2:43. As you saw iron [evening] mixed (“erev”) with ceramic clay, they will mingle (“erev”) [be evening] with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix (“erev”) [evening] with clay.

E)  Eruv (rabbinic concept, not explicitly written in the Torah) is a boundary line that acts as a separation for mixing and separating two spaces or zones. 

A division, wire, fence, or even a street. It is not necessarily a literal physical barrier but a symbolic construct that designates a permissible area for carrying on the Sabbath Day. 

• Acts 1:12. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey. 

So, as I think you can appreciate in scripture, the Hebrew word erev is not exclusively limited to a word that means “evening.” Instead, erev carries many other meanings involving mingling and mixtures. However, what we see in Hebrew is a newly introduced word for a morning mixture, which replaces the term erev after the Genesis Day Four luminaries are created. The word I am referring to is shachar, as it first appears in

• Genesis 19:15. When the morning dawned (hashachar), the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.”

Here, shachar describes the approaching day not as “morning” but as the idea of “pre-morning”—when the first rays of the light of day break through the night’s darkness and light up the morning sky. Hence, we get the English term daybreak or dawn. In Hebrew, shachar – “early morning” is related to the word shachor – the Hebrew term for the color black. Why so? Because shachar refers to the approaching morning light at the night's end. Shachar, more accurately, refers to the crack of dawn, even before the sun rises, again, “pre-morning,” so it cannot replace boker, because shachar is more like erev – a pre-morning mixture, NOT an end-of-day evening mixture. Here are some additional scripture references to consider as they are used in biblical Hebrew for morning or pre-morning.  

• Genesis 32:24. Then Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him “Aad Alah HaShachar” – until the rising up (the lifting up of) the morning mixture (the shachar that gives way to the light of the rising sun). 
• Isaiah 8:20. To the Law and to the Testimony! If they do not speak according to this Word, it is because there is no shachar (no dawn before the light of the rising sun).
• Job 30:30. My skin grows shachar (the mix of a black or dark spot) and falls from me.

Many may not realize that shachar or dawn is similar in meaning to the mixing or mingling word erev, in that both words, shachar and erev, speak of dark and light as well as light and dark mixtures. However, erev and shachar are NOT synonyms, but they are similar only in the sense that they both describe concepts of mingling and mixtures, whether nonphysical or physical. Thus, erev and shachar biblically describe 

1)   Blends and mixtures of Darkness to Light

2)   Blends and mixtures of Light to Darkness

When a biblical context calls for mixing time, such as between dark and light, or light and dark, this blend causes objects to appear featureless; one cannot discern distinctions and differences because there is not enough light to make the necessary distinctions. This is why the dawning of a day (daybreak) is called shachar and the dusk part of a day (evening) is called erev.

DAY PART NUMBER 2: BOKER – LIGHT of the MORNING (“THE DAY”)

Whereas shachar is a point earlier than boker—let us call it “pre-morning,” boker follows shachar, beginning with the sun disc rising over the eastern horizon. Bokeris is understood biblically as sunrise until noon, the zenith or peak of the day. Boker, which expresses the idea of morning, is NOT a mixture of dark-to-light, as is shachar. Rather, boker is full-on sunlight. 

The Hebrew root for boker is beit-quf-resh, and though translated in the Hebrew Bible as “morning,” its core meaning is the idea of investigation, examination, seeking something out, and discernment. Biblically, only in the Light of Day can one truly investigate, examine, discern, and seek out the truth of any matter because it is to shine, expose, and cause definite distinctions between light and dark.

Light is the only possible means to accomplish this; otherwise, a proper investigation is impossible in the dark because there is no light to make distinctions. Here are some scripture references that concern the Hebrew word boker:

• Genesis 21:14. So Abraham rose early in the boker (rising of the sun disc) and took bread and a skin of water; and putting on his shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and sent her away.
• Exodus 7:15. Go to Pharaoh in the boker (rising of the sun disc), when he goes out to the water.
• Judges 9:33. And it shall be, as soon as the sun is up in the boker (rising of the sun disc), you shall rise early and rush upon the city.
• Ezekiel 12:8. And in the boker (rising of the sun disc) the Word of YHWH came to me, saying…

In Genesis 1:5, boker DOES NOT express the idea of morning any more than erev expresses the concept of evening. These are translational prejudices emerging from Judaism. Again, before the fourth day of the creation of Genesis, evening and morning were terms that uniquely defined a nonphysical kind of darkness and a nonphysical kind of daylight. We could call them representations for the evening and morning. 

DAYPART NUMBER 3: EREV – THE SECOND MIXTURE BELONGING TO THE DAY, LATER REFERRED TO IN SCRIPTURE AS “EVENING”

This concept is straightforward and needs no further explanation. Within the biblical daypart of “evening,” as we understand the idea, this refers to the sun descending downward towards the horizon until darkness, when three stars become visible in the night sky.  In scripture, look for erev paired with or near the word “sun” or “sunset”— בּ֥וֹא הַשָּֽׁמֶשׁ = bo hashemesh, “coming of the sun.” Here are some examples in scripture of how erev, in the sense of evening, is used to express a late afternoon mingling of light with a descent into the darkness at sunset:

• 2 Chronicles 18:34. The battle increased that day, and the king of Israel propped himself up in his chariot facing the Syrians until evening (erev); and about the time of sunset (bo hashemesh), he died. 
• Deuteronomy 23:11 (Hebrew: v.12). But it shall be, when evening (erev) comes, that he shall wash with water; and when the sun sets (bo hashemesh), he may come into the camp.
• Joshua 8:29. And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until evening (erev). And as soon as the sun was down (bo hashemesh), Joshua commanded that they should take his corpse down from the tree…

In scripture, another related idea to express “evening” is the term “twilight,” which is from the peak of the day, “high noon,” to an end-of-day sunset. In Hebrew, it is read as beyn haArbayim – בֵּ֥ין הָעַרְבָּֽיִם, which is translated to English as “in-between the evenings.” Said differently, halfway between noon and sunset, the midday sun begins leaning into the west, causing a slow descent into darkness at sunset. In the case of Yeshua’s crucifixion, his death occurred at about the 9th hour – beyn haArbayim, or what Roman chronology refers to as about 3:00 pm. Here are a couple of examples: 

• Exodus 12:6. Now you shall keep him (the lamb) until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall slaughter him at twilight (“in between the evenings”). 

This explains why Yeshua expired at about the 9th hour:

• Matthew 27:45. Now from the sixth hour (noon) until the ninth hour (3:00 pm), there was a darkness over all the land. 

DAYPART NUMBER 4: LILAH (THE NIGHT)

Lilah is the Hebrew word that defines the dark of night. Lilah is not a mixture, a blend, or mingling of darkness and light. It is defined as beginning about the time when three stars become visible in the night sky. Here are some scriptural samples:

• Exodus 12:30. So Pharaoh rose in the lilah (night), he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt.
• 2 Samuel 7:4. But it happened that lilah (night) that the Word of YHWH came to Nathan, saying…
• Jeremiah 9:1. ‘Oh, that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep boker (day) and lilah (night) for the slain of the daughter of my people!’

So, here you have the four biblical dayparts: 

• A)  EREV NUMBER 1 – THE FIRST MINGLING OF PRE-MORNING
• B)  BOKER – THE LIGHT OF SUNRISE 
• C)  EREV NUMBER  2 – THE SECOND MINGLING OF DUSK
• D)  LILAH – THE DARK OF NIGHT

THE RELATIONSHIP TO GENESIS 1:5

So, how does all this relate to Genesis 1:2-5? Let us look closely at two independent clauses that give us the Genesis 1:5 declaration:

• A)  Genesis 1:5a. God called the LIGHT DAY, and the DARK, He called NIGHT. 

Yeshua was likely referring to the first part of Genesis 1:5 when he said: 

• John 11:9-10. “Are there not twelve hours in THE DAY? If anyone walks in THE DAY, he does not stumble, because he sees THE LIGHT of this world. But if one walks in THE NIGHT, he stumbles, because THE LIGHT is not in him.” 

Let’s now read the second part of Genesis 1:5, because this fundamentally is a subsection to describe the daylight that defines the term DAY and when it begins: 

• B)  Genesis 1:5b. “Also, erev and boker were ONE DAY.”

Here, I am expressing the Hebrew letter Vav as “ALSO” and not “AND,” even though the typical approach is to express “Vav” as “And.” However, Hebrew does not work this way. The Vav is more varied than its English counterpart, at least when reading biblical Hebrew. The letter Vav can do the work of “but,” “so,” “then,” “also,” “with,” “when,” “who,” “that,” “on the contrary,” and several other ideas including that of expressing a motive or a purpose for some action. I am not going to take this any further right now, as it must be kept for learning at another time. The point that I want to make is that Genesis 1:5 contains two independent parts or sentence clauses. The first defines 12 divisions of LIGHT and 12 divisions of DARK, which we know as DAY and NIGHT. (The Book of Enoch divides 18 parts between daylight and darkness.) The second part of Genesis 1:5 is structured in Hebrew to read (and I’m taking the liberty of giving you a paraphrase): 

• Genesis 1:5. “…ALSO [there was] pre-morning (shachar) and sunrise(boker) are ONE DAY.”

SUMMARY OF POINTS –  

In Genesis 1:2-5, God established a blanket of tohu v’vohu – undefined blackness. To create distinctions in his tohu v’vohu of undefined blackness, he took LIGHT from His existing, eternal nature, shaping it and forming it as the LIGHT of the MESSIAH, based on Isaiah 45:7. 

From that mingling which creates a kind of “Middle Grey,” this action made “DAY,” a definition that contains a “pre-morning” shachar and a morning “boker.” The approaching LIGHT of boker and the lifting DARK of shachar each have their own divisions with expressions of mixing and mingling, which is how I am reading Genesis 1:4 in Hebrew:

וַיַּבְדֵּ֣ל אֱלֹהִ֔ים בֵּ֥ין הָא֖וֹר וּבֵ֥ין הַחֹֽשֶׁךְ

And Elohim caused a division BETWEEN THE LIGHT AND SO BETWEEN the DARK

To my understanding, this clarifies the context of Genesis 1:5. 

• a.   God called the LIGHT DAY, and the DARK, He called NIGHT. 
• b.   He came to be erev – a pre-morning mix [later to be called shachar]
• c.    Also, he came to be boker – the morning sunrise [Day]
• d.   He came to be One “DAY,” Yom Echad – that is, Pre-morning AND Morning.
• e.   Therefore, we are given a repeating formula for the Creation week – Day ‘X’, which is used for days 2 through 7.