There is no need to show any more Scriptural proof of WHEN a day REALLY begins. To those who need more facts other than the written word of Yahuwah, we will show historical records to uncover WHEN a day REALLY begins.

  Digging through historical & documented records reveals WHEN a day REALLY begins.. Wikipedia tells us "The Jewish day begins at either sunset or at nightfall (when three second-magnitude stars appear)."

  So a day begins at either sunset or when three second-magnitude stars would appear in the sky! Let us proceed onto looking at more historical records:

  According to Chapter thirty-nine of "The Temple- Its Ministry & Service" by Alfred Edersheim:

"Formally, the Sabbath commenced at sunset on Friday, the day being reckoned by the Hebrews from sunset to sunset. As no special hour for this was fixed, it must, of course, have varied not only at different seasons, but in different localities. Thus, the Rabbis mention that the inhabitants of a low-lying city, like Tiberias, commenced the observance of the Sabbath half an hour earlier, while those who lived on an eminence, such as at Sepphoris, continued it half an hour later than their brethren. If the sun were not visible, sunset was to be reckoned from when the fowls went to roost. But long before that the preparations for the Sabbath had commenced. Accordingly, Friday is called by the Rabbis 'the eve of the Sabbath,' and in the Gospels 'the preparation' No fresh business was then undertaken; no journey of any distance commenced; but everything purchased and made ready against the feast, the victuals being placed in a heated oven, and surrounded by dry substances to keep them warm. Early on Friday afternoon, the new 'course' of priests, of Levites, and of the 'stationary men,' who were to be the representatives of all Israel, arrived in Jerusalem, and having prepared themselves for the festive season, went up to the Temple. The approach of the Sabbath, and then its actual commencement, were announced by threefold blasts from the priests' trumpets. The first three blasts were drawn when 'one-third of the evening sacrifice service was over'; or, as we gather from the decree by which the Emperor Augustus set the Jews free from attendance in courts of law (Jos. Ant. xvi. 6, 2.), about the ninth hour, that is, about three p.m. on Friday.
When the priests for the first time sounded their trumpets, all business was to cease, and every kind of work to be stopped. Next, the Sabbath-lamp, of which even heathen writers knew (Seneca, ep. 95.), was lit, and the festive garments put on. A second time the priests drew a threefold blast, to indicate that the Sabbath had actually begun. But the service of the new 'course' of priests had commenced before that. After the Friday evening service, the altar of burnt-offering was cleansed from its stains of blood. The week was divided into seven days, of which, however, only the seventh- Sabbath- a name assigned to it, the rest being merely noted by numerals. The day was computed from SUNSET TO SUNSET or rather to the appearance of the first three stars with which a new day commenced."

  We also find more proof in a footnote from Mathetes-Epistle to Diognetus (Ante-Nicene Fathers - Volume 1):     

 FOOTNOTE: 14 This seems to refer to the practice of Jews in fixing THE BEGINNING OF THE DAY, and consequently of the Sabbath, from the rising of the stars. They used to say, that when three stars of moderate magnitude appeared, it was night; when two, it was twilight; and when only one, that day had not yet departed. It thus came to pass (according to their night-day (νυχθήμερον) reckoning), that whosoever engaged in work on THE EVENING OF FRIDAY, the beginning of the Sabbath, after three stars of moderate size were visible, was held TO HAVE SINNED, and had to present a trespass-offering; and so on, according to the fanciful rule described.

  A third historical reference of WHEN a day was considered to begin by the Hebrews can be found in "The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge":

"The civil day was reckoned by the Hebrews from SUNSET TO SUNSET, so that the day began at that time both on ordinary occasions and on Sabbaths and feasts."  (1954  GEORGE WILLIAM GILMORE, M.A.)

There is a fourth historical reference:

"³⁸² Now, however, the EVENING prevents us from doing so; for the day is drawing to its close, and it is right that we should now bring our disputation to an end. But an opportunity will be given you to-morrow to put questions to us on any points you are pleased to take up. And after these words they went their way."
Archelaus - Acts of Disputation 45-52 - Ante-Nicene Fathers (Volume 6)

  Yahuwah's blessed Sabbath Day is awesome! Our fifth witness can be found in "The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah" written by Alfred Edersheim:

"And now the weekly Sabbath, the pledge between Israel and God, had once more come. To meet it as a bride or queen, each house was adorned on the Friday evening. The Sabbath lamp was lighted; the festive garments put on; the table provided with the best which the family could afford; and the qidush, or benediction, spoken over the cup of wine, which, as always, was mixed with water. And as Sabbath morning broke, they hastened with quick steps to the Synagogue; for such was the Rabbinic rule in going, while it was prescribed to return with slow and lingering steps."

  According to "The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah" the Sabbath followers prepared for the Sabbath on Friday evening at the close of the afternoon AND the Sabbath commended, that is, it began on the Friday evening:

 "The tractate on the Sabbath begins with regulations extending its provisions to the close of the Friday afternoon, so as to prevent the possibility of infringing the Sabbath itself, which commenced on the Friday evening." (Book 6, Appendix 17)

  Again we read another text mentioning of when the Sabbath began in Albert Edersheim's "The Temple - Its Ministry & Service":

 "Formally, the Sabbath commenced AT SUNSET ON FRIDAY, the day being reckoned by the Hebrews from SUNSET TO SUNSET. As no special hour for this was fixed, it must, of course, have varied not only at different seasons, but in different localities." (chapter 9)

  A very reliable historical document written by Joseph ben Matityahu (Josephus Flavius), a Roman-Jewish Historian, gives detail as to when a day ended AND when the Sabbath began.

 "However, a considerable number of Simon's party fell, and many were carried off wounded; for the zealots threw their darts easily from a superior place, and seldom failed of hitting their enemies; but having the advantage of situation, and having withal erected four very large towers aforehand that their darts might come from higher places, one at the north-east corner of the court, one above the Xystus, the third at another corner over against the lower city, and the last was erected above the top of the Pastophoria, where one of the priests stood of course, and gave a signal beforehand, with a trumpet (19) at the beginning of every seventh day, IN THE EVENING TWILIGHT, as also at the evening when that day was finished, as giving "No one is to do any work on Friday from the moment that the sun's disk stands distant from the horizon by the length of its own diameter."

  The Sabbath was considered to begin on what the world calls Friday (day six) from the very moment the sun was the same distant from the horizon as its diameter (see image on above for example) to prevent any risk of breaking the Sabbath.

  To go along with Josephus Falvius' text of blowing a trumpet at evening WHEN THE DAY WAS FINISHED there is archeological evidence to back up this fact.

  The following excerpt is taken from the Biblical Archaeology Society:

"When we excavated the beautifully paved Herodian street adjacent to the southern wall and near the southwestern corner of the Enclosure Wall, we found a particularly large ashlar block. On the inside was a niche where a man might stand, especially if the ashlar were joined to another which would enlarge the niche.

  On the outside was a carefully and elegantly incised Hebrew inscription: LBYT HTKY H LHH [RYZ]; "To the place of Trumpeting to (declare)." If the restoration of the world 'declare' is correct, the rest of the missing part of the inscription probably went on to tell us more about the declaring of the beginning and the end of the Sabbath.

The stone had been toppled during the Roman destruction of the Temple onto the street below where it had lain for nearly two thousand years until we uncovered it.

notice to the people when they were to leave off work, and when they were to go to work again." (Wars of the Jews; Book 4, Chapter 9)

Lastly, the most interesting texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, "The Damascus Document" or "Damascus Rule" even gives witness to when the Sabbath began:

"It must have originally come from the pinnacle of the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount. From a spot on top ofthe Temple chambers a priest would blow a trumpet on Sabbath Eve, to announce the arrival of the Sabbath and the cessation of all labour, and to announce, on the following evening, the departure of the Sabbath and the resumption of all labor.

The entire city was visible from this spot on the southwest corner of the Temple Mount; the clarion call of the trumpet would reach the farthest markets of the city. Such a scene is recounted by Josephus in his work,"

The Jewish War. (IV, 582)." Editor, H. S. 2004; 2004. BAR 06:04 (July/Aug 1980). Biblical Archaeology Society.

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