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A Sabbath or sabbath has become altered for most in modern traditions of men to a weekly , monthly, or annual day of rest and/or time of worship that is observed in any of several faiths , but originally in scripture from the sixth evening to the seventh evening of creation . The term thus originates from the Hebrew shabbat (שבת), "to cease", which was first used in the Biblical account of the seventh day of Creation. Observation and remembrance of the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments (the fourth in the original Jewish, the Eastern Orthodox, and most Protestant traditions, the third in Roman Catholic and Lutheran traditions). Many viewpoints and definitions have arisen over the millennia. The term has been used to describe a similar weekly observance in any of several other faiths; the new moon; any of seven annual festivals in Judaism and some Christian traditions; any of eight annual festivals in Wicca (usually "sabbat"); and a year of rest in religious or secular usage, originally every seventh year.

Jewish tradition

The Jewish weekly Sabbath and High Sabbaths are also observed by a minority of Christians.

Weekly Sabbath

The original weekly Sabbath (shabbat, shabbos, shabbes, shobos, etc.) was a weekly day of rest created long before Israel even existed , now observed by some from sundown on Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The scripture also states this sixth evening to seventh evening Sabbath was instituted as a "perpetual covenant the people of Israel" (Exodus 31:13-17), a sign in respect for the day during which God rested after having completed the Creation in six evening to morning days (Genesis 2:2-3, Exodus 20:8-11); (Some prominent rabbis believe the Sabbath was originally kept according to the four phases of the moon, every seven or eight days.) Only sabbath desecration by Israel was officially punishable by death (Exodus 31:15); later Jewish tradition lists thirty-nine prohibited categories of work are listed in Tractate Shabbat (Talmud). In modern Jewish tradition Shabbat is ushered in by lighting candles shortly before sunset, at halakhically calculated times that change from week to week and from place to place. Several times a year, the weekly Sabbath is designated as one of the Special Sabbaths, such as Shabbat Teshuvah, the Sabbath of Repentance prior to Yom Kippur. (In a distinct minority, some European Reform Jews have moved Sabbath observances to Sunday.)

Sabbath as week

By synecdoche (naming a part for the whole), the term "Sabbath" also came to mean simply "week" in Jewish sources by the time of the Septuagint. Jesus's parable of the Pharisee and the Publican describes the Pharisee as fasting "twice a week" (dis tou sabbatou), literally, "twice of the Sabbath".

Annual Sabbaths

Seven annual Biblical festivals, called by the name shabbaton in Hebrew and "High Sabbath" in English, serve as supplemental testimonies to the plan of the weekly Sabbath. These are recorded in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy and do not necessarily occur on the weekly Sabbath. They include the first and seventh days of Unleavened Bread or Passover (Pesach); Pentecost (Shavuot); Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah); Atonement (Yom Kippur, the "Sabbath of the Sabbaths"); and the first and eighth days of Tabernacles (Sukkoth).

The modern Hebrew term shabbaton or shaboson also means a retreat or program for education, and usually celebration, that is held on a weekly Jewish Sabbath or over a weekend with special focus on the Sabbath.

Seventh-year Sabbath

The year of Shmita (Hebrew: שמיטה, literally "release"), also called the Sabbatical Year, is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah for the Land of Israel. During Shmita, the land is left to lie fallow and all agricultural activity—including plowing, planting, pruning, and harvesting—is forbidden by Torah law. Other cultivation techniques—such as watering, fertilizing, weeding, spraying, trimming, and mowing—may be performed as preventative measures only, not to improve the growth of trees or plants. Additionally, any fruits which grow of their own accord are deemed ownerless and may be picked by anyone. A variety of laws also apply to the sale, consumption and disposal of Shmita produce. A second aspect of Shmita concerns debts and loans: when the year ends, personal debts are considered nullified and forgiven. In similar fashion, the Torah required a slave who had worked for six years to go free in the seventh year.

Christian tradition

In Christianity, both those who observe the seventh day as Sabbath and those who observe the first day as Sabbath lay claim to the names "Sabbatarian" for themselves and "Lord's Day" for the Sabbath; so do others who hold to a strong Sabbath principle.

First-day Sabbath

For the majority of Christendom, the day of rest was decreed otherwise by a Roman Emperor to be (Sunday), a convenience as this was the day Romans were then used to worshipping their pagan sun god, now said to be kept in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ instead of the commemoration Jesus ordained in scripture Luke 22:11 And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? Luke 22:19 And, taking a loaf, he gave thanks, and brake, and gave unto them, saying—This is my body <<which in your behalf is being given: this, be ye doing, in remembrance, of me.>>

It is often the day of rest, and usually the day of communal worship. The Lord's Day is considered both the first day and the "eighth day" of the seven-day week (or, in some calendars, Sunday is designated the seventh day of the week). Relatively few Christians regard first-day observance as entailing all of the ordinances of the Jewish Sabbath. The related Latter Day Saint movement generally follows the stronger Christian Sabbatarian traditions, avoiding shopping, leisure activities, and idleness on the first day, and avoiding work unless absolutely necessary. Sometimes the Lord's Day is observed by those who believe the Sabbath corresponds to Saturday but is obsolete, but the original sabbaths of scripture were kept from evening to evening in scriptural definition, not in any agreement with the modern keeping of days ,so sabbath does not correspond to any modern day of the week; and in Oriental Orthodoxy, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has observed both a Sunday Lord's Day and a Saturday Sabbath for several centuries. As another minority view, some modern Christians uphold a Sabbath but do not limit its observance to either Saturday or Sunday, instead advocating rest on any chosen day of the week, or advocating the Sabbath as instead a symbolic metaphor for rest in Christ.

Seventh-day Sabbath

In several Christian denominations, the Sabbath is kept in similar manner as in Judaism, but observance ends at Saturday sunset instead of Saturday nightfall. Seventh Day Baptists have found the Sabbath an important part of their beliefs and practices since the mid-17th century, also informing the doctrine of the similar but larger Seventh-day Adventist group in the mid-19th century. They and others believe that keeping the seventh-day Sabbath is a moral obligation arising out of the Ten Commandments that honors God as Creator and Deliverer. They also use "Lord's Day" to mean the seventh day, based on Scriptures in which God calls it "my day" and "of the LORD". Adventists originally formally identified the problem of defining Sabbath worldwide on a round earth; some seventh-day Sabbatarians make use of the International Date Line, while others observe Sabbath according to Jerusalem time instead of local time. Many of the Lemba in southern Africa, like some other African tribes, are Christians yet claim common descent from the Jewish people, keep one day a week holy like the Jewish Sabbath, and have many beliefs and practices linked to Judaism.

Clearly the changing of ways of defining days and the introduction of the International Dateline less than four centuries ago have nothing to do with the original sabbaths defined by God , there are countless traditions but only one original sabbath .The scripture warns us that the world will think to change times and dates , speaking against teh words of god in scripture and unsurprisingly the prophecy has come true :

Daniel 7:25  And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws:

That is where we are today then, most men will not go back to the original because of accepting authorities other than God's scripture.

One might note that this apostasy (falling away of religion from God's truth before Jesus can return)is mentioned in the New Testament also:

2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

Monthly Sabbath

The new moon, occurring every 29 or 30 days, is an important separately sanctioned occasion in Judaism and some other faiths. It is not widely regarded as a Sabbath, but some native messianic Pentecostals, such as the New Israelites of Peru, do keep the day of the new moon as a Sabbath of rest, from dusk to dusk. Their new moon services can last all day.

Annual Sabbath

In South Africa, Christian Boers have celebrated December 16, now called the Day of Reconciliation, as an annual Sabbath (a holy day of thanksgiving) since 1838. Commemorating a famous Boer victory over the Zulu, the anniversary and its commemoration are intimately connected with various streams of Afrikaner and South African nationalism.

Millennial Sabbath

Since Hippolytus of Rome in the early third century, Christians have often considered that a thousand-year Sabbath, expected to begin six thousand years after Creation, might be identical with the millennium described in the Book of Revelation. This view was also popular among 19th and 20th century dispensational premillenialists. The term "Sabbatism" or "Sabbatizing" (Greek sabbatismos), which generically means any literal or spiritual Sabbath-keeping, has also been taken in Hebrews 4:9 to have special reference to this definition.

Other traditions

Buddhism

The Uposatha has been observed since Gautama Buddha's time (500 BC), and is still being kept today in Theravada Buddhist countries. It occurs every seven or eight days, in accordance with the four phases of the moon. Buddha taught that Uposatha is for "the cleansing of the defiled mind", resulting in inner calm and joy. On this day, disciples and monks intensify their practice, deepen their knowledge, and express communal commitment through millennia-old acts of lay-monastic reciprocity.

Islam

Jumu'ah (Arabic: جمعة ), also known as "Friday prayer", is a congregational prayer (salat) that Muslims hold every Friday, just after noon, in place of the otherwise daily dhuhr prayer. The Quran states: "O ye who believe! When the call is proclaimed to prayer on Friday , hasten earnestly to the Remembrance of Allah, and leave off business : That is best for you if ye but knew" (62:9). It is an obligation for men (and is recommended for women) to perform jumu'ah in congregation (jama'ah) at a mosque (or else to pray a regular dhuhr prayer).

Unification Church

The Unification Church has a regular day of worship on Sunday, but also has a Family Pledge service every eight days on the day of Ahn Shi Il, which cycles among the weekdays. The pledge recited at this event includes eight verses containing the phrase "by centering on true love".

Wicca

The annual cycle of the Earth's seasons is called the Wheel of the Year in Wicca and neopaganism. Eight sabbats (occasionally "sabbaths") are spaced at approximately even intervals throughout the year. Samhain, which coincides with Halloween, is considered the first sabbat of the year.

An esbat is a ritual observance of the full moon in Wicca and neopaganism. Some groups extend the esbat to include the dark moon and the first and last quarters. "Esbat" and "sabbat" are distinct and are probably not cognate terms.

European records from the Middle Ages to the 17th century or later also place Witches' Sabbaths on similar dates to the sabbats in modern Wicca, but with some disagreement; medieval reports of sabbat activity are generally not firsthand and may be imaginative, but many persons were accused of, or tried for, taking part in sabbats.

Secular

From the Biblical Sabbatical Year came the modern concept of a sabbatical, a prolonged, often one-year, hiatus in the career of an individual. Such a period is often taken in order to fulfill some goal such as writing a book or traveling extensively for research. Some universities and other institutional employers of scientists, physicians, or academics offer a paid sabbatical as an employee benefit, called "sabbatical leave"; some companies offer an unpaid sabbatical for people wanting to take career breaks.

Another secularism is the colloquial use of "Sabbath" as a simple synonym of "Saturday", which is a simplification of its use in religious contexts, where the two do not coincide.

Secular use of "Sabbath" for "Sunday", by contrast, while it refers to the same period of time as the majority Christian use of "Sabbath", is often stated to refer to different purposes for the rest day. In McGowan v. Maryland (1961), the Supreme Court of the United States held that contemporary Maryland blue laws were intended to promote the secular values of "health, safety, recreation, and general well-being" through a common day of rest, and that this day coinciding with the majority Christian Sabbath neither reduces its effectiveness for secular purposes nor prevents adherents of other religions from observing their own holy days. The Supreme Court of Canada, in R. v. Big M Drug Mart Ltd. (1985) and R. v. Edwards Books and Art Ltd. (1986), found some blue laws invalid for having no legitimate secular purpose, but others valid because they had no religious purpose.

Among many calendar reform proposals that eliminate the constant seven-day week in exchange for simplified calculation of days of the week and other calendrical data, some retain Sabbatical influences. The International Fixed Calendar and World Calendar both consist of 364-day years containing exactly 52 weeks (each starting on a day designated as Sunday), with an additional one or two intercalary days not designated as part of any week (Year Day and Leap Day in the International Fixed Calendar; Worldsday and Leapyear Day in the World Calendar). Reform supporters sought to accommodate Sabbatical observance by retaining the modified week and designating the intercalary days as additional Sabbaths or holidays; however, religious leaders held that such days disrupt the traditional seven-day weekly cycle. This unresolved issue contributed to the cessation of reform activities in the 1930s (International Fixed Calendar) and again in 1955 (World Calendar), though supporters of both proposals remain.

The point is then that the scripture itself predicts that mankind will be divided into aposatate traditions as we see for example from the above, but it is the scripture which is however the authority of God , not men in divided religion created by men in defiance of the words of God through compromise to pagan traditions ... One need not be afraid of this since ,as Jesus said, it is necessary , but some few might take account of it and not be taken in by divided tradition which clearly cannot be the one truth of God ... the answer is not in tradition of men, but in the scripture of God taken as a whole single truth , few do take that much trouble before deciding on a faith in men instead, so we have a plethora of traditions which can however be traced back through history to their pagan origins if one troubles to do so, or simply reproved by looking at all the scripture, not just selecting parts:

2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

2 Peter 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

We have millenia of rationalisation ,  alteration, and manipulative mis-interpretations of scripture , Jesus and the prophets pointed out that it not only would, but must come to this , but the original is still largely and widely available for reproof of divided traditions to God's truth about sabbaths 

As an example one might note that the Jewish hierarchy controversially accepted a halakhic dateline in place of theInternational dateline, for determination of days for sabbaths , changing the date and count of days to the despair of many Jews ... Equally one could cross a dateline and have two sabbaths or avoid all sabbaths according to commonplace tradition ... it is clear that God did not define this paradoxical system and indeed it is a modern invention inconsistent with itself and with the scripture 

 Looking for the solution to this widely ignored paradoxical modern standard, one might note that sunset  is not at the same (absolute) time at different places on the earth , thus defining a time by means of sunset requires nominating a place also ... Jesus showed mankind that that place is Jerusalem, by keeping sabbath at the same time as the Jews of that time in the Holy Land ... it is this sabbath which is defined as an unconditional blessing  in Genesis 2:3 

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