Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

I agree with your sentiments. Even though the day officially starts at  
midnight I never really consider it to be the next day until morning  
has come (i.e. the sun has risen; this usually happens long before I  
wake up, though).

But I think that what he meant was that the period that begins in the  
evening and ends in the morning is what we would call 'night' in  
English. I don't think he was making any statements about when the day  
begins.

James Christian Read

Quoting Jason Hare <jaihare AT gmail.com>:

> Ben,
>
> It actually just makes sense to end a day at sundown. Midnight is
> artificial for a day's beginning and is only truly possible with the
> clock. Before people used regular clocks, all cultures began their day
> either at dawn or at sundown. These are the natural marks for the
> beginning of the new day. Anyone can look outside and see that the sun
> is setting and know that the work day has ended. Similarly, anyone
> would admit that dawn is a good time to start a new day, since it
> actually *is* the beginning of the day. Both of these is perfectly
> logical. It is the idea that somewhere in the dead of night the new
> day begins that strikes me as odd.
>
> Jason Hare
> Rehovot, Israel
>
> On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 2:24 PM, Ben Crick <ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk> wrote:
> > On Wed  6 May 2009 (00:12:50 +0100), j.read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk wrote:
> > > Among the things I was always interested in understanding were things
> > > like
> > >
> > > 1) How do we know that Hebrews designated days from evening to
> > > evening? Do we have any written evidence of this other than
> > > interpretations of statements in Genesis 1?
> >
> >  [probably off-topic for B-Hebrew]
> >
> >  That is the way the Jews designate the Day change; why, I know not.
> >  In Genesis 1 the Days of Creation are enumerated, "the 1st, 2nd, 3rd,...etc
> >  Day". Each day is terminated with the statement "And the evening and the
> >  morning were the first day, etc.". The term `eReB BoQeR evening/morning is
> >  used elsewhere in Scripture to mean a "Day"; whereas surely an   
> > "`eReB BoQeR"
> >  is not a Day at all, but a Night!  One would have thought that the command
> >  Y:HiY 'oWR (Genesis 1:3) would correspond to Dawn, not to Dusk!
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