This document establishes that Genesis 2:1-3 provides a number of foundational principles on which the Sabbath would be based but does not institute the Sabbath for that was to come many years later.
Some of the principles are: (1) God not man rested on that first seventh day; (2) seventh day and (3) rest and (4) sanctification.
The number seventh will later be used to establish the seventh day of the week as the weekly sabbath. It will also be used to establish the seventh month as a special month for a number of feasts. It will also be used to establish the seventh year as a sabbath year.
Genesis 2:3 speaks of God blessing the seventh day and sanctifying it. We know that God blessed every day. However, he set the seventh day apart from the other days blessing it in a special way. Sanctification means to be set apart, to be holy, to be different from, to be in the world but not of the world. God would definitely do all of this with respect to the Sabbath when he later instituted it.
The Hebrew word for Sabbath does not appear in the Bible until Exodus 16:23.
Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that God did not institute the Sabbath for man until then.
Indeed, the Hebrew word for Sabbath (Shabbath, H7676) first appears in scripture in Exodus 16:23.
Thus, no one can establish through scripture that Sabbath was commanded or even celebrated prior to seven days after the fifteen day of the second month of the first year as God set the calendar in Exodus 12:1-2.
There are two Hebrew words in Genesis 2:1-3 related to the Sabbath; these words provide foundational principles for the Sabbath that God would later institute.
These Hebrew words are shebiiy (H7637) and sabath (H7673)
The Hebrew word in Genesis 2:1-2 is shebiiy (H7637). It means seventh not sabbath and sabbath does not mean seventh though in general sabbath is rooted in the principle of seventh.
Also the Hebrew word translated rested in Genesis 2:2 is sabath (H7673).
It is similar to the English word Sabbath and the Hebrew word Shabbath (H7676); but, it has one b not two b’s.
In fact, it is the root of the Hebrew word Shabbath (H7676).
Sabath (H7673) is the same word translated cease as in shall not cease in Genesis 8:22 thus it cannot mean keep the sabbath.
The word sabath (H7673) is also used in Exodus 12:15 translated as you shall put away and Leviticus 2:13 translated as to be lacking; therefore that word is not used to mean keep the sabbath but merely to more generally rest or related concepts.
Moreover, Genesis 2:1-2 is about what God did. It is not about what Adam and Eve did. God worked six days after which he rested (ceased from work).
Adam and Eve were not created until the sixth day. Therefore, they could not have worked for six days.
God did in Genesis 2:15 tell Adam to dress and keep the garden. So he and Eve as his helper could have worked for one day.
However, Genesis 2:1-3 does not say God, Adam, and Eve rested on that first seventh day. Genesis 2 says God rested on that first seventh day.
See the following video of a Sabbath day service:
