Is Yom Kippur called ‘Sabbath’?

Posted by on Sep 30, 2020

Question: Is Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) called ‘Sabbath’ as the weekly Sabbath?

Answer: The Seventh Day of the week and Yom Kippur are indeed called ‘Sabbath’. The Hebrew word Shabbat is not a name of a day, as the Biblical days of the week do not have names, nor do the months have names.

Unlike the non-Biblical calendars, such as the Rabbinical and Christian calendars, which have pagan names for days and months, the calendar of the Creator numbers the days of the week and months: 1st day, second day, etc., and 1st month, 2nd month, etc., like we find them in Genesis 1 and Exo 12:2.

Literally, the word Shabbat (transliterated from Greek as Sabbath) means “cessation” in a sense of stopping from any activities. Hence, the Creator of the universe has commanded us to stop any work on the seventh day of the week and have a complete rest; no work is to be done on Sabbath.

Also, Shabbat is closely related to the word shavua, week, and to another word sheva, seven. Hence, it is natural to call seventh day of the week Shabbat or Sabbath.

The word Shabbat is derived from the primitive verb shava, which means “to complete”, therefore, Shabbat literally means “completeness” as the Creator completed His work on the seventh day of the Creation. He completed His work on the seventh day, meaning He must have worked on the first Shabbat too. Read more here.

Shabbat is also related to shevuah, an oath, and to the verb shava, to swear.

Hence, both days, the Seventh Day of the week and Yom Kippur (more correctly Yom Kippurim or Day of Atonement), are called ‘Sabbath’: days of a complete rest and celebration. The Seventh Day of the week and Yom Kippur are also called ‘Shabbat Shabbaton‘, which means Sabbath of Sabbaths, a term interchangeable with ‘Shabbat’. Therefore, the Seventh Day and Yom Kippur are considered the holiest days: the Seventh Day is the Sabbath of the week, and Yom Kippur is the Sabbath of the year.

Although both appointed time of the Creator are called by the same name, they have signification and reason: the weekly Sabbath originated from the creation, and the annual Sabbath, from … But for more insight on these high holidays of the Creator and how the Messiah has fulfilled them, visit The Appointed Times of YHVH.