As a Seventh Day-Adventist I was taught that one of the reasons that the Sabbath must be observed today is because it is a “creation ordinance”. The argument is this; since the Sabbath was observed by God and Adam in the Garden every Saturday, man today must do so as well. Though there are many sources to demonstrate this claim in SDA teaching, one simply need search the writings of Ellen White for a clear example.
“In Eden, God set up the memorial of His work of creation, in placing His blessing upon the seventh day. The Sabbath was committed to Adam, the father and representative of the whole human family. Its observance was to be an act of grateful acknowledgment, on the part of all who should dwell upon the earth, that God was their Creator and their rightful Sovereign; that they were the work of His hands and the subjects of His authority. Thus the institution was wholly commemorative, and given to all mankind.” – Patriarchs and Prophets, Pg 48, Ellen White
“Adam kept the Sabbath in his innocence in Eden; he still kept it when, fallen yet repentant, he was driven from the Garden. All the patriarchs from Abel to Noah, to Abraham, to Jacob kept the Sabbath. When the Lord delivered Israel from Egypt, He proclaimed His law to the emerging nation.” – Love Under Fire, Pg 188, Ellen White
Look carefully at the claims that Ellen White puts forward in her writings above. Specifically, notice that she states that the Sabbath was committed to Adam, was observed in the Garden, and that it is given to all mankind. She doubles down on this and then claims that all of the Patriarchs in Genesis prior to Moses also kept the Sabbath.
In the Bible however we see that man sinned before the law was even given, meaning that there is no requirement for Adam and Eve to have even heard of or seen any law to have sinned in the first place.
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.” Romans 5:12-14 ESV
Also, we can see no record of the Ten Commandments or the Sabbath being given to Adam.
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created,in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.” Genesis 2:1-4 ESV
Read the above passage again if you have to, there is no mention of the Sabbath at all. It says Seventh Day, but it doesn’t associate it with Evening and Morning so we don’t even know if it’s a 24 hour day like the others. Also, we only see God keeping it, no mention of Adam and Eve receiving or keeping the Sabbath at all. The only laws given to them in this narrative are Marriage and the forbidden fruit. Read the rest of the story in Chapters 2 & 3 if you don’t believe me and see for yourself.
Since the concepts Ellen White conveys are foreign to the text it is fair to say she is not making a Biblical claim at all. Thus when SDA say the sabbath is in Genesis, they are not making a Biblical claim either. The story of a Sabbath in Eden is simply Bible Fan-fiction.
One should not be willing to just assume something into scripture between the lines. But for the sake of the argument let us run with this for a little bit. What if the ten commandments were given prior to the fall. Would that even make any sense according to the story in the Bible?
Below is a funny narrative that a friend of mine put together to illustrate this point. This is purely for entertainment purposes only, try not to read too much into it. But the point it does convey is the anachronism one must impose upon scripture to eisegete the Decalogue into Eden.
An Imaginary and Highly Improbably Eden Conversation – By Dave Melton
God: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
Adam: “Um, LORD? Where is Egypt?”
God: “Well, Adam, it is a far-off land to the west that you have never seen.”
Adam: [Confused.] “Oh.”Adam: “LORD, what is slavery.”
God: “That is where people own other people and make them labor for them, usually unwillingly.”
Adam: “ . . . other people . . .What other people? . . . Was I a slave?”
God: “Nevermind. I’m on a roll here . . .You shall have no other gods before me.”
Adam: “ . . . other gods . . .?”
God: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
Adam: “ . . . iniquity . . .? What are iniquities? Fathers? Children? Generations? . . . thousands of those who love you . . .? But LORD, it is just Eve and I here. I have no idea what you are talking about.”
God: “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”
Adam: “ . . . take you name in vain? Huh? And this guilt thing. What is that all about?”
God: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
Adam: “ . . . labor . . .? . . .son ? . . . daughter? LORD, what is a servant? A sojourner? What exactly is a gate?”
God: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”
Adam: “LORD, You are my Father. I don’t know what a mother is. I don’t know if I like the idea of long days, though.”
God: “You shall not murder.”
Adam: “ . . . murder . . . What does that mean?”
God: “It means to take another innocent person’s life.”
Adam: “But we can’t die. How . . .? Why . . .? I’m confused.”
God: “You shall not commit adultery.”
Adam: “What is adultery?”
God: “Well, in your case, it would be having sex with someone other than your wife, Eve?”
Adam: “You mean, like the aardvark?”
God: “Not exactly . . . Never mind. Don’t worry about it.”
God: “You shall not steal.”
Adam: “ . . . steal . . .?”
God: “That means don’t take things that don’t belong to you.”
Adam: “But you said all of this belongs to us, except for the fruit of that one tree . . .”
God: “Right.”
God: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
Adam: “I don’t have any neighbors . . .”
God: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Adam: “But I don’t have any neighbors, right? What is a house? How could I covet my neighbor’s wife, servant or animals, if I don’t have a neighbor?”
God: “Adam, have you got all that?”
Adam: “Um. Yeah. I guess so. Don’t eat from that tree. And don’t have sex with the aardvark. Got it.”
Adam: “But LORD?”
God: “Yes?”
Adam: “You have really given me a lot of things to think about. I never even thought about doing any of the those things until you brought them up . . .”
Through the use of humor Dave Melton brings up some very good points in his above illustration. The fundamental principles and purpose of the Ten Commandments simply have no meaning in the Garden. To assert that they existed before the Garden and were given to man in the Garden is a grotesque abuse of scripture that inadvertently places sin before the fall, as the chief purpose of the law is to reveal sin.
There simply is no Sabbath in Genesis. No Sabbaths of any kind are given to man until Exodus 16.
Wrapping Up
What are we left with when the concept of a creation sabbath ordinance is removed? Putting it simply, we have a law just like many others given in the old covenant. The Sabbath day had a specific purpose for a specific period of time that was fulfilled in Christ. If you would like a comprehensive Biblical breakdown of this theme I recommend that you check out an older blog post on the Sabbath which you can find HERE.
In the mean time though simply know that if someone is claiming the Sabbath was given to man in Genesis, then the burden of proof is on them. To fulfill that burden they must demonstrate a prescriptive command to man, or a descriptive example of man keeping it in Genesis.
Armchair Theologian 
Bro, your analogy is a Heresy….
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Can you be more specific?
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no sabbath in genesis is a common argument based on silence of the word saying “Adam kept the Sabbath
“Abraham kept the sabbath “
“the Egyptians kept the sabbath ” etc
we all think the seventh day was holy in genesis 2……and was never holy until exodus 16.i wonder if week two had evening and morning cycle with a seventh day ( which was no longer holy ) I suppose
week 3 had evening and morning cycles and may be a week was no longer seven days and the seventh day was may be a whole year long ?or 2000 years long was the seventh day ?
and then in genesis 16 God then organised time into working six days and resting on seventh day ,a pattern he never hinted in genesis 2 as God s seventh day in genesis has no evening and morning ?
we all think the absence of a command to keep it means it was only given as a command in exodus
I scanned old testament …I wondered how Jospeh would have known that adultery was sin
how Jacob asked his wives to put away idols .I wondered
I wondered what exactly Abraham kept as commandments and laws and judgments …..the bible is silent on details
the bible is silent when tithing started even though Abraham is just mentioned doing it it does not state when it started
Key areas of biblical silence in Genesis include:
between creation and the call of Abraham, covering roughly 2000 years in only 11 chapters……
The text is silent on how long Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden before the Fall, leaving open whether it was a few days or much longer.
Genesis 3 is silent no how satan fell and there is no details on technological ,civilisation before the flood
The text states Enoch “walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him” (Gen 5:24), but is silent on the details of his “walking with God”
Genesis operates as a “snapshot” or a “painting in broad strokes,” designed to establish the nature of God, the origin of the world, and the covenant relationship with humanity rather than an encyclopedic history.
What Adam did in week one and week two and week three and week 4 etc details are not given
When Adam fell we have no details ,
The Gospel of John explicitly states that Jesus did many other things that were not written down, noting that if every single act were recorded, “even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written” (John 21:25).
God handled matters in early generations and we have no full record of every event .my genealogy line is not important as the Messiah was never coming from my line anyway!but clearly here are some example …The Bible does not explicitly state when humans first started eating meat; however, it indicates a significant shift in dietary habits after the Flood of Noah. While the initial diet in Genesis 1-2 is described as vegetarian, meat consumption is formally permitted in Genesis 9:3, suggesting a change in divine allowance….hence leviticus 11 merely expands on what was previously never detailed but would have been known !does silence mean it never happened ?…they never knew it ?
in 2026 …….if the week is still seven days long …is it being sustained by the power of calendars or God carved it out in week one ?
if the seventh day was Holy in week one ………..we need a text that “UNHOLIED” the Sabbath between genesis and exodus
if Adam and Eve were married week 1 and marriage was holy ,were they still married in week 2 ,3 ,4 etc ?…was their marriage holy in week one ? and then no longer holy ?
I love my siblings who dont keep the sabbath ,they are loving christians but They dont spend time making arguments against sabbath ….Paul was told..Stop kicking against the pricks” is an idiom meaning
to cease useless, self-destructive resistance against authority, fate, or guidance. Originating from agriculture (oxen fighting against sharp goads), it symbolizes how rebellion only increases one’s own pain, advising surrender to a higher purpose or inevitable direction
what SDA s say should not be ammunition we use against some truths ….sabbath stands as truth without JEWS or SDAs!…in fact when God made it holy ,we were all present when to happened …WE WE WERE IN ADAMS LOINS ….and we kept the sabbath!..it was made for jewish and adventist men!?…it was made for man!..the LORD OF THE SABBATH i say Lord…we dont need to be jEWS! of SDAs!
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You gave me an essay here! Most of your arguments build on each other so I’ve analyzed your words and reduced them into nine thesis statements that I can address individually. If I misunderstood you in my analysis of each of your points please call me out and we can talk further. Each numbered statement is what I understood YOU to be saying and my response is beneath.
1. The “Argument from Silence” is a logical fallacy because the absence of an explicit record of a command does not prove the absence of the practice.
I think you’re missing a key distinction here. In Genesis 2, we don’t just have a “silence” regarding the practice; we have a total absence of a command. If you look at every other “Creation Ordinance,” God is vocal. He tells the humans to be fruitful and multiply, and He explicitly gives them the institution of marriage. But in Genesis 2:1-3, God is the only actor in the text. He rests, He blesses, and He sanctifies. He doesn’t say a single word to Adam or Eve about it. My argument isn’t based on what the text doesn’t say, but on what it actually says: God rested from His work. It was His rest, not a law handed to humanity. Moving from “God rested” to “Adam was commanded to rest” isn’t just filling in silence, it’s adding to the text.
2. Moral and ceremonial laws, such as those regarding adultery, idolatry, and tithing, were clearly understood and practiced by the Patriarchs despite no recorded commands in the Genesis text.
This is correct, many scholars believe they had an oral tradition. This is actually a good argument that reformers made against appeals to tradition over scripture. Before Moses we didn’t have a written word we only had tradition and obviously it didn’t last we ended up needing scripture. It’s a lasting testament to the fact that the Word of God surpasses even tradition. Here’s the thing though, Joseph knew adultery was wrong but he didn’t know about the sabbath as evidenced by the fact that he had no moral dilemma over the ten day work week that was the norm in egypt during the time he was a slave. So this point of yours actually works to make my argument stronger friend. Morality did exist before the law of Moses and the sabbath just wasn’t a part of it yet.
3. Genesis is a selective “snapshot” of history rather than an exhaustive record; therefore, the lack of detail regarding Adam’s activities does not preclude his observance of the Sabbath.
This argument cuts both ways, but I think my example there with Joseph makes my case well enough. He was a convicted man, willing to risk death and prison to avoid adultery. Yet he had no issue with the ten day work week. Compare that to Daniel for example in his refusal to eat the kings food. Wouldn’t you expect Joseph to make the same objection? Why did he have no problems with that?
4. If God sanctified the seventh day in Genesis 2, the day remains holy unless a subsequent biblical text explicitly rescinds that holy status.
The reason why the Sabbath is holy is because it pointed to our rest in Christ, Jesus is the fulfillment of this. Jesus is my sabbath rest, and he is indeed holy.
‘Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ‘Matthew 11:28
‘Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. ‘Colossians 2:16-17
This isn’t unusual either and you would likely agree with me on other topics here’s an example:
‘“Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin offering. In the place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin offering be killed before the Lord ; it is most holy. ‘Leviticus 6:25
Is the sin offering holy today? Was it made unholy? No. It was type and shadow of Christ. Jesus is my sin offering, he paid for my sins on the cross. Jesus is indeed holy, it’s the same basic idea.
5. The Sabbath is a “Creation Ordinance” analogous to marriage; as marriage remained holy from week to week, so did the Sabbath.
Like I made clear in the post we don’t see God commanding this ordinance you speak of in Genesis at all. We do see marriage being given though don’t we?
6. Dietary distinctions between clean and unclean animals in the Law of Moses were likely a formalization of knowledge that existed as far back as the Flood.
Flat out wrong, God instructs Noah that he can eat “every moving thing”, no such rules are given on clean vs unclean. And we know Noah even knew the difference between the two as different numbers of clean vs unclean animals entered the ark.
‘Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. ‘ Genesis 9:3
7. The Sabbath was “made for man” in a universal sense because all of humanity was “in the loins of Adam” when God blessed and sanctified the day.
That’s not what Jesus says, when Jesus says the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath he obviously meant it as a rebuke to the pharisee’s who were objecting to the Disciples feeding themselves when they were hungry on the sabbath. There are many examples of this ongoing dispute between Jesus and the Pharisees. His meaning here couldn’t be less clear, the rest during the sabbath typifies our rest in Christ it’s not meant to be a burden. Keep in mind when Jesus said this the old covenant was still in effect he hadn’t died on the cross yet.
8. The seven-day weekly cycle is sustained by God’s original design in the first week of creation rather than by human calendars.
I actually don’t object to the seven-day cycle at all. I see it as a beautiful pattern that God baked into the very fabric of creation. My point isn’t that the cycle is wrong, but that the pattern was always intended to be a typology of our rest in Him. I’m not “against” the Sabbath; I just believe that Jesus is the fulfillment of it. The weekly pattern pointed us toward a person, and now that the person, Jesus, has come. He has become my true Sabbath rest.
9. Resisting the Sabbath as a creation truth is a futile effort comparable to “kicking against the pricks.”
My rest is in Christ Jesus, I only need him.
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