04-Introduction

Sabbath-observance did not originate with Adam. When I
say ‘sabbath-observance’, I mean man’s keeping of the day
as it had been appointed by God. True, God rested the
seventh day after his work of creation (Gen. 2:1-3) – and this
has a crucial bearing on the essential meaning of ‘sabbath’ –
but there is no hint in the first two chapters of Genesis that
he instructed Adam to keep the seventh day. Nor is there the
slightest intimation throughout the book of Genesis that any
of the patriarchs kept the day. It is in Exodus 16 that we first
meet sabbath-observance among men, when God gave it
(along with the manna) to Israel, in forging them into a
nation, after their exodus from Egypt.