The mentioning of the sanctification in Genesis 2:3 has been called a case of prolepsis, or joining together in statement two events that were separated in time. Other examples of prolepsis may be found in Genesis 3:20, 4:20, and Matthew 10:4. No one can show where God sanctified the seventh day, much less where he commanded anyone to keep it, until after the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt. The seventh day of the week is first called the sabbath in Exodus 16, in connection with the giving of the manna to the Jews in the wilderness. In anticipation of the law soon to be given at Sinai, God instructed the people to gather two days’ supply on the sixth day and warned them not to expect any on the seventh day. The manner in which the sabbath is thus introduced shows that they were not accustomed to keeping it. In spite of these special instructions, some went out to gather manna on the seventh day and found none. This shows their lack of familiarity with the seventh day sabbath. The sabbath was a new institution soon to be established. Here it was first introduced. At Mt. Sinai a few days later it was made known. “Thou camest down also upon Mt. Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments; and madest known unto them thy holy sabbath and commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant ...” (Neh. 9:13, 14; see also Ex. 20:8-11, and Deut. 5:12-15). If they were already familiar with the sabbath, how could God have _made it known_ to them at Mt. Sinai? Soon after the sabbath command was given at Sinai, a Jew went out and picked up sticks on the sabbath day (Num. 15:32-36). That this ceremonial institution was new is shown by the fact that Moses put that man in jail until he could inquire from God what should be done. Don’t you know that if God’s people had been keeping the sabbath 2,500 years, _they would have known_ what to do with a man who violated it? (Incidentally, God commanded that he be stoned to death. I have not heard of any modern Sabbatarians thus punishing the violation of their favorite law. If the seventh day sabbath were still in force, _the death penalty for violating it would also still be in force_.) And so, my friends, I boldly declare that there is no verse of Scripture in the Bible which shows that any man ever kept the sabbath during the period from Adam to Moses. In the history that covers this period of approximately 2,500 years there is no commandment to keep the sabbath; there is no example of man’s resting on the seventh day; there is no promise of reward for his doing so; there is no threat of punishment for his failing to do so. Those who teach that the seventh day sabbath was in force during this period are urgently requested to cite the text that says so. Since they cannot do so, the first pillar in the foundation of the seventh day sabbath theory is completely destroyed. _It is simply nonexistent._