CHAPTER 4
by the late Samuele Bacchiocchi PhD
THE SAVIOR AND THE SABBATH
The human heart longs for constant reassurance of divine
forgiveness, acceptance, and salvation. We each want to know,
"Has God really forgiven and saved me?" In Scripture, the
reassurance of divine forgiveness and salvation is communicated
not only verbally but also through types and symbols. The
sacrificial system, baptism, the Lord's Supper, footwashing, and
the Sabbath are all institutions established by God to help
believers conceptualize and experience the assurance of
salvation.
The Sabbath occupies a unique place among the various
Godgiven institutions. It is unique in its origin, nature,
survival, and function. It is unique in its origin because it is
the first institution established by God to invite His people to
enter into the joy of His rest and fellowship (Gen 2:23; Heb
4:3-10). It is unique in its nature because it is not a material
object or a place accessible only to few, but a day (time)
available to all. Being time, the Sabbath invites the believers
to experience divine fellowship not through "holy objects," but
in time shared together.
The Sabbath is unique in its survival because it has
survived the Fall, the Flood, the Egyptian slavery, the
Babylonian exile, the Roman anti-Sabbath legislation (promulgated
by Emperor Hadrian in A.D.135), the French and Russian temporary
introduction of the ten-day week, and the recent attempts to
negate its validity for today by numerous Catholic and Protestant
doctoral dissertations, the Pope's Pastoral Letter "Dies Domini,"
and anti-Sabbath publications produced by former Sabbatarians. It
is unique in its function because it has helped Jews and
Christians to conceptualize, internalize, and experience the
reality of God's creative and redemptive accomplishments.
Importance of This Study.
This study derives its importance from the fact that many
Christians believe the Sabbath is an Old Covenant institution
that pointed to the Savior to come. Christ fulfilled the typolog-
cal function of the Sabbath through His redemptive mission. The
way Christ fulfilled the Sabbath, however, is understood
differently by different Christians. For some, Christ fulfilled
the Sabbath commandment by terminating its observance altogether
and by replacing it with an existential experience of salvation-
rest available to believers every day. This is essentially the
Lutheran position which recently has been adopted by the
Worldwide Church of God, Dale Ratzlaff in his book "Sabbath in
Crisis," and several independent "Adventist" congregations.
For other Christians, Christ fulfilled and terminated only
the ceremonial aspect of the Sabbath commandment - namely, the
specific observance of the seventh day which foreshadowed the
salvation rest offered by Christ. However, they believe that the
moral aspect of the Sabbath commandment, consisting in the
principle of observing one day in seven, was not abrogated by
Christ but was transferred to the observance of the first day of
the week, Sunday. This is essentially the Catholic and
Calvinistic position which has been adopted by churches in the
Reformed tradition.
The common denominator of both positions is the belief that
Christ fulfilled the ceremonial-typological function of the
Sabbath, thus releasing His followers from the obligation to
observe the seventh-day Sabbath. During the course of our study,
we have found that this prevailing view constitutes a major
attack against the validity and value of Sabbathkeeping for
Christians today and, consequently, deserves careful analysis.
Objective of This Chapter.
This chapter explores how the Sabbath relates to the Savior
to come in the Old Testament and to the Savior who has come in
the New Testament. The first part examines the sabbatical
typologies of Messianic redemption in the Old Testament and
Jewish literature. Here we focus on some significant Sabbath
themes that nourished the hope of redemption in the heart of
God's people in Old Testament times. The second part considers
the redemptive meaning and function of the Sabbath in the New
Testament. Our focus in this section is on the meaning of the
Sabbath for Christians today in the light of the Sabbath teaching
and ministry of Jesus.
The question at hand is the relationship between the
Messianic redemption foreshadowed by the Sabbath and Christ's
redemptive ministry. Simply stated, the question we wish to
address in this chapter is this: Did Christ fulfill the
sabbatical typologies of Messianic redemption by terminating the
function of the Sabbath, as in the case of the Temple's services
(Heb 8:13; 9:23-28), or by actualizing and enriching its meaning
and observance through His redemptive ministry?
Surprisingly, Sabbatarian literature largely ignores this
important aspect of the redemptive meaning and function of the
Sabbath in the Old and New Testaments. Its focus is primarily on
the creational origin of the Sabbath and its continuity during
the course of redemptive history. Yet an appreciation for the
theological development of the Sabbath, from a memorial of
perfect creation to a celebration of complete redemption and of
final restoration, can provide believers with a richer meaning
and experience of Sabbath observance.
PART 1
THE SABBATH AND THE SAVIOR
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
The story of creation is in a sense a redemption story:
redemption from disorder into order, from chaos into cosmos.
Within the creation event, the Sabbath reveals the purpose of
God's first redemptive act. It tells us that God created this
world not merely for the enjoyment of making something new and
beautiful out of formless matter (Gen 1:2) but for the special
pleasure of sharing Himself with His creatures.
This truth is reflected especially in the blessing and
sanctification of the Sabbath. Since it is the manifestation of
God's holy presence that makes a day or a place holy, the
sanctification of the Sabbath reveals God's commitment to bless
His creatures with abundant life through His holy presence. God
"sanctified" or "made holy" the seventh day (Gen 2:3) by setting
the day apart for the manifestation of His Holy presence among
His creatures. To put it differently, by blessing and sanctifying
the seventh day; God revealed His intent to offer mankind not
only beautiful things, but also the sweet experience of His
fellowship.
A Promise of Emmanuel.
When the prospect of a joyous life in the presence of God
was shattered by sin, the Sabbath became the symbol of divine
commitment to restore broken relationships. From being the
symbol of God's initial cosmological accomplishments (that is,
bringing into existence a perfect cosmos out of chaos), the
Sabbath became the symbol of God's future soteriological
activities (that is, the redemption of His people from bondage
into His freedom). From serving as a symbol of God's initial
entrance into human time to bless and sanctify human beings with
His divine presence, the Sabbath became a symbol of God's future
entrance into human flesh to become "Emmanuel - God with us." The
first as well as the second coming of Christ represents the
fulfillment of God's purpose for this world expressed initially
through the blessings and sanctification of the Sabbath.
In his book "Toward an American Theology," Herbert W.
Richardson rightly emphasizes the connection between the
sanctification of the creation Sabbath and the incarnation of
Christ. He writes: "God created the world so that the Sabbath
guest, Jesus Christ, might come and dwell therein. That is, the
world was created for the sake of 'Emmanuel, God with us.' The
incarnation is, therefore, not a rescue operation, decided upon
only after sin had entered into the world. Rather, the coming of
Christ fulfills the purpose of God in creating the world." 1
To trace how the Sabbath has fulfilled this redemptive
function in the Old and New Testaments is not an easy task for
three major reasons. First, the Sabbath has provided the basis
for constant new reflections. Various strands of sabbatical
concepts such as the themes of Sabbath "rest," "peace," and
"delight;" the cosmic week; the liberation experience of the
Sabbath years; and the sabbatical structure of time have all been
used to express the future (eschatological) expectations of
divine deliverance. Second, the liberation message of the Sabbath
has been applied, as we shall see, both to immediate national
concerns for political restoration and to future expectations of
Messianic redemption. This dual application to the same theme
readily creates confusion in the mind of an unwarned reader.
Third, the biblical and extrabiblical sources provide us with
fragmented information rather than systematic explanation of the
various levels of meanings attributed to the Sabbath. Also,
certain allusions to sabbatical themes in the Old Testament
become clearer in the light of their New Testament
interpretation, especially in Hebrews 3 and 4.
Adam's First Day.
In Old Testament times, the Sabbath served not only to
provide personal rest and liberation from the hardship of work
and social injustices, but also to nourish the hope for a future
Messianic peace, prosperity, and redemption. 2 The latter
function was apparently inspired by the role of the Sabbath in
God's original creation.
Genesis provides no information on the actual observance of
the Sabbath by Adam and Eve before their expulsion from the
Garden of Eden. Yet the picture of perfection and satisfaction
(note the sevenfold repetition of the phrase "it was good" - Gen
1:4,10,17,18,21,24,31) it portrays, especially through the divine
blessing and sanctification of the seventh day (Gen 2:3), could
easily offer to believers the basis for a vision of the Messianic
age.
The parallels and equivalences between the Sabbath of
Genesis, Adam's First Day after his creation, and the Last Days
of the Messianic age, though not always explicitly made, are
implicitly present in biblical and extrabiblical sources. To
illustrate how the creation Sabbath became the symbol of
Messianic redemption and restoration, we briefly examine a few
significant themes.
Sabbath Peace and Harmony.
The peace and harmony that existed between Adam and the
animals at the creation Sabbath will be restored in the Messianic
age when "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the
fatling together, and a little child shall lead them" (Is 11:6).
At that time, according to the same prophet, "the earth shall be
full of the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea" (Is
11:9). 3 This vision of the earth full of peace and of the
knowledge of God in the Last Days may well have been inspired by
the view of the First Days, of which the Sabbath is the epitome.
The link between the First Sabbath and the Last Days or world to
come, is suggested by those rabbinical Sabbath regulations which
prohibited killing insects or carrying weapons on the Sabbath
because the day represents a foretaste of the world to come. For
example, Rabbi Simeon B. Eleazar taught that "Vermin must not be
killed on the Sabbath: this is the view of Beth Shammai [a
leading rabbinical school].... If one kills vermin on the
Sabbath, it is as though he killed a camel." 4
The Mishnah, an ancient collection of Jewish laws, similarly
states that on the Sabbath, "A man may not go out with a sword or
a bow or a shield or a club or a spear... for it is written, 'And
they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears
into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn war any more.'" 5 These
rabbinical injunctions are derived from the notion of the absence
of death during the primordial Sabbath which served as a paradigm
of the world to come. The abstention from any form of killing on
the Sabbath represents a foretaste of that world.
Sabbath Prosperity.
The material prosperity and abundance which characterized
the creation Sabbath inspired the prophetic vision of
extraordinary material abundance during the Messianic age. Amos
declares: "'Behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord, 'when
the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes
him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine and
the hills shall flow with it'" (9:13). Similar descriptions are
found in Isaiah (4:2; 7:22; 30:23-25), Joel (4:19), Zephaniah
(3:13), Jeremiah (30:19; 31:24), and Ezekiel (34:13-14; 47:12).
Later Jewish and Christian works abound with descriptions of
the material prosperity of the world to come, often equated with
the cosmic Sabbath. 6 For example, The Epistle of Barnabas (c.
A.D. 135), included among the writings of the "Apostolic
Fathers," interprets the millennium as the cosmic Sabbath which
will follow the six thousand years typified by the six days of
creation and which will be characterized by the peaceful,
prosperous, and luminous reign of Christ upon this earth ("He
changes the sun and moon and stars, then he will rest well on the
seventh day" - 15:5).7
The typological meaning of the Sabbath, as a symbol of the
future age of rest and prosperity, presumably explains why the
rabbinical school of Shammai prohibited contributions for the
poor on the Sabbath in the synagogue or even the giving of a
dowry to an orphan to be married. 8 In rabbinical thinking, acts
of charity on the Sabbath would negate its prefiguration of the
material prosperity of the Messianic age.
Sabbath Delight.
The delight and joy of the Edenic Sabbath also inspired the
prophetic vision of the Messianic age. Theodore Friedman notes
that "two of the three passages in which Isaiah refers to the
Sabbath are linked by the prophet with the end of days (Is
56:1-7; 58:13-14; 66:20-24) .... It is no mere coincidence that
Isaiah employs the words 'delight' (oneg) and `'honor' (kavod) in
his description of both the Sabbath and the end of days
(58:13--'And thou shalt call the Sabbath a delight ... and honor
it'; 66:11-'And you shall delight in the glow of its honor'). The
implication is clear. The delight and joy that will mark the end
of days is made available here and now by the Sabbath." 9
The concept of "Sabbath delight" appears to derive from the
vision of the Edenic Sabbath - a day of joy, light, harmony, and
peace which serves as a paradigm of the Messianic age.
Sabbath Lights.
Sabbath delight is expressed in the Jewish tradition
especially by kindling lights on that day. This act, a
prerogative of the Jewish woman, is interpreted as symbolic of
the extraordinary light that God caused to shine out for 36 hours
in consideration of the Sabbath (that is, from Friday morning to
Saturday night). This conclusion is drawn from a curious rabbinic
interpretation of the title of Psalm 92: "A Psalm, a song for the
Sabbath day." "R. Levi said in the name of R. Zimra: 'For the
Sabbath day,' that is, for the day which darkness did not attend.
You find that it is written of other days 'And there was evening
and there was morning, one day' but the words 'There was evening'
are not written of the Sabbath ... The Sabbath light continued
throughout thirty-six hours." 10
The Midrash, an ancient Jewish commentary of the Old
Testament, interprets the text "God blessed the seventh day" (Gen
2:3) as meaning He blessed it with the blessing of light." Adam
was the first to benefit from such a blessing because God let His
light shine upon him though he deserved to be deprived of it by
reason of his disobedience." The redemptive role of the
primordial Sabbath in the Jewish tradition is impressive. 13
Being viewed as the symbol of primordial redemption from chaos to
a perfect cosmos, the Sabbath could effectively typify the future
Messianic restoration. The tradition of kindling lights on the
Sabbath was symbolically linked both to the supernatural light
that shone upon Adam during the first Sabbath as an assurance of
salvation and of the extraordinary light of the Messianic age.
The prophets envision the appearance of refulgent light
during the latter days: "Moreover the light of the moon will be
as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be
sevenfold, as the light of the seven days" (Is 30:26). The
comparison with "the light of the seven days" is presumably an
allusion to the seven days of creation, which, according to an
ancient Midrash, were bathed by extraordinary light more
brilliant than the sun. 14
Zechariah's remark that "there shall be continuous day ...
not day and not night, for at evening time there shall be light"
(Zech 14:7) probably refers to the seventh day of creation which
in Genesis has no mention of "evening and morning." Such a detail
was interpreted as signifying that the Sabbath was especially
blessed by supernatural, continuous light.
One should note that while Dale Ratzlaff appeals to the
absence of the phrase "evening and morning" for the seventh day
to argue that God sanctified not a literal seventh day but a
continuous condition of open fellowship with God irrespective of
the Sabbath 15 the Jewish tradition consistently interprets such
a detail as indicative of the extraordinary light that bathed the
seventh day. The prophetic vision of the extraordinary light of
the Messianic age most likely derives from the notion of the
supernatural light experienced by Adam on the first Sabbath -
light which, according to Jewish tradition, disappeared at the
close of the creation Sabbath because of his disobedience, but
which is expected to reappear in the Messianic age. 16
Sabbath Rest.
The theme of Sabbath rest (menuhah) which to "the biblical
mind," as Abraham Joshua Heschel explains, "is the same as
happiness and stillness, as peace and harmony," 17 has served as
an effective typology of the Messianic age, often known as "the
end of days" or "the world-to-come."
In the Old Testament, the notion of "rest" is utilized to
express both national and Messianic aspirations. As a national
aspiration, the Sabbath rest served to typify a peaceful life in
a land of rest (Deut 12:9; 25:19; Is 14:3) where the king would
give to the people "rest from all enemies" (2 Sam 7:1) and where
God would find His "resting place" among His people and
especially in His sanctuary at Zion (2 Chron 6:41; 1 Chron 23:25;
Ps 132:8, 13, 14; Is 66:1). 18
These references to political "rest" (menuhah) do not
mention specifically the Sabbath rest. However, it is reasonable
to assume, as noted by Ernst Jenni, 19 that it was the weekly
Sabbath rest experience that served as a model to typify the
larger aspiration for national rest. The two themes are often
connected in rabbinic literature. For example, in a rabbinic
comment on Psalm 92, we read: "A Psalm, a song for the Sabbath
day for the day when God's people abide in peace as is said: 'And
my people shall abide in a peaceable habitation, and in secure
dwellings, and in quiet resting-places" (Is 32:18). 20 This
comment clearly links together Isaiah's vision of messianic
peace, security, and quiet resting places with the notion and
experience of the Sabbath rest.
The connection between Sabbath rest and national rest is
also clearly established in Hebrews 4:4,6,8 where the author
speaks of the creation-Sabbath rest as the symbol of the promised
entrance into the land of Canaan. Because of disobedience, the
wilderness generation "failed to enter" (v.6) into the land of
rest typified by the Sabbath. Even later, when the Israelites
under Joshua did enter the land of rest (v.8), the blessings of
the Sabbath rest were not fulfilled because God offered His
Sabbath rest again long afterwards through David, saying, "Today,
when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts" (Heb 4:7)? 21
The fact that the blessings of the Sabbath rest were never
realized as a political condition of rest and peace challenged
God's people to look for their future fulfillment at and through
the coming of the Messiah. In Jewish literature we find numerous
examples where the Sabbath rest and the septenary structure of
time are used to signify the rest, peace, and redemption of the
messianic age.
For example, the Babylonian Talmud says "Our Rabbis taught:
at the conclusion of the Sabbath the son of David will come. R.
Joseph demurred: But so many Sabbaths have passed, yet has he not
come!" 22 The age of the Messiah is often described as a time of
sabbatical rest. At the end of the Mishnah Tamid we read: "A
Psalm, a song for the Sabbath day - a song for the time to come,
for the day that is all Sabbath rest in the eternal life." 23
These few examples suffice to show that the rest experience
of the Sabbath nourished the hope and strengthened the faith of
the future Messianic peace and rest. The time of redemption came
to be viewed, as stated in the Mishnah, as "all Sabbath and rest
in the life everlasting." 24
Sabbath Liberation.
The freedom, release, and liberation which the weekly and
annual Sabbaths were designed to grant to every member of the
Hebrew society also have served as effective symbols of the
expected Messianic redemption.
In the Deuteronomic version of the Fourth Commandment, the
Sabbath is explicitly linked to the Exodus liberation by means of
the "remembrance clause": "You shall remember that you were a
servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you
out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore,
the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath" (Deut 5:15).
The connection between the Sabbath and the Exodus
deliverance may explain why the Sabbath became ideologically
connected with the Passover, the annual celebration of the
deliverance from Egypt. 25 In a sense, the Sabbath came to be
viewed as a "little Passover" in the same way as many Christians
have come to view their weekly Sunday as a "little Easter."
The Sabbath was a real liberator of the Hebrew society by
providing a release from the hardship of life and social
inequalities, not only every seventh day but also every seventh
year, on the sabbatical year (Lev 25:8), and every "seven
sabbaths of years," on the jubilee year (Lev 25:8). At these
annual institutions, the Sabbath truly became the liberator
of the oppressed in Hebrew society. The land was to lie fallow to
provide free produce for the dispossessed and animals. The slaves
were emancipated and the debts owed by fellow citizens were
remitted. Though seldom observed, these annual Sabbaths served to
announce the future liberation and redemption to be brought about
by the Messiah. One reason for the Messianic function of the
Sabbath years is found in three significant features they
contained.
First, the annual Sabbaths promised release from personal
debts and slavery. Such a release provided an effective imagery
to typify the expected Messianic deliverance (Is 61:1-3, 7;
40:2). 26 In his dissertation on the jubilary theology of the
Gospel of Luke, Robert Sloan shows how the New Testament concept
of forgiveness ("aphesis") is derived largely from the release
from financial indebtedness and social injustices of the annual
Sabbaths. 27 These are referred to as "the release," "the Lord's
release," and "the year of release" (Deut 15:1,2,9; 31:10; Lev
25:10).
In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old
Testament), the Hebrew term for "release" (deror), is translated
as aphesis - "release," which is the New Testament word for
"forgiveness." Thus, the Lord's Prayer's phrase "forgive us our
debts" (Matt 6:12) derives from the release from financial
indebtedness of the annual Sabbaths. The sabbatical release from
financial endebtedness and social injustices came to be viewed as
the prefiguration of the future Messianic release from the moral
indebtedness of sin.
Isaiah 61:1-3 employs the imagery of the sabbatical release
to describe the mission of the Messiah who would bring jubilary
amnesty and release from captivity. Christ, as we shall see,
utilized this very passage to announce and explain the nature of
His redemptive mission.
A second Messianic feature of the Sabbath years is the
trumpet blast by means of a ram's horn (yobel - from which
derives the term "jubilee") which ushered in the Sabbath years.
28 The imagery of the Jubilee's trumpet blast is used in the Old
Testament to describe the Messianic ingathering of the exiles (Is
27:13; cf. Zech 9:9-14) and in the New Testament to announce the
return of Christ (1 Cor 15:52; 1 Thess 4:16; Matt 24:31).
A third Messianic feature of the Sabbath years is the date
of the tenth day of the seventh month (Atonement Day) on which
the ram's horn was blown to inaugurate the year of jubilee (Lev
25:9). It was the cleansing and new moral beginning offered by
God to the people on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:13-19) which
inaugurated the sabbatical release of the Jubilee year.
The connection between the Day of Atonement and the Jubilee
year was noticed by rabbis who said: "The Lord would forgive
Israel's debt on the seventh month, which is Tishri, at the blast
of the shofar, and just as the Holy One blessed be He has had
mercy on Israel in this age at the blast of the shofar, also in
the future I will have mercy on you through the shofar and bring
your redeemed ones near." 29
Sabbatical Structure of Time.
The unique Messianic features of the Sabbath years
apparently inspired the use of the sabbatical structure of time
used to measure the waiting time to the Messianic redemption.
Some scholars call this phenomenon "sabbatical Messianism" 30 or
"chronomessianism." 31
The classical place of sabbatical Messianism is found in
Daniel 9 where two sabbatical periods are given. The first refers
to the 70 years of Jeremiah's prophecy (Jer 29:10) regarding the
length of the exile before the national restoration of the Jews
(Dan 9:3-19) and consists of 10 sabbatical years (10 x 7). The
second period is of "seventy weeks (shabuim)" - technically
"seventy sabbatical cycles" - which would lead to Messianic
redemption (Dan 9:24-27). This sabbatical Messianism is found in
later Jewish literature such as "The Book of Jubilees" (1:29) and
a fragmentary text discovered in 1956 in Qumran Cave II (known as
11Q Melchizedek). 32 Other examples are present in rabbinic
tradition. For example, the Talmud says: "Elijah said to Rab
Judah... 'The world shall exist not less than eighty-five
jubilees, and in the last jubilee the son of David will come.'"
33
Conclusion.
This brief survey of Old Testament Sabbath themes shows that
in Old Testament times the weekly and annual Sabbaths served not
only to provide physical rest and liberation from social
injustices but also to epitomize and nourish the hope of future
Messianic redemption. Rabbi Heschel captures vividly the Old
Testament messianic function of the Sabbath in this way: "Zion is
in ruins, Jerusalem lies in the dust. All week there is only hope
of redemption. But when the Sabbath is entering the world, man is
touched by a moment of actual redemption; as if for a moment the
spirit of the Messiah moved over the face of the earth." 34 The
sabbatical typologies of messianic redemption we have found in
the Old Testament help us to appreciate the relationship between
the Sabbath and the Savior in the New Testament.
................
To be continued
The Sabbath under Crossfire #12Christ and the Sabbath #2
Continued from previous page:
by the late Samuele Bacchiocchi PhD
PART II
THE SABBATH AND THE SAVIOR IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
The existence in the Old Testament of a Messianic/redemptive
typology of the Sabbath has led many Christians to conclude that
the Sabbath is an Old Testament institution given specifically to
the Jews to remind them of God's past creation and of the future
Messianic redemption. Calvin, for example, describes the Old
Testament Sabbath as "typical" (symbolic), that is, "a legal
ceremony shadowing forth a spiritual rest, the truth of which was
manifested in Christ." 35 Therefore, Christians no longer need
to observe the Sabbath because Christ has fulfilled its
Messianic/redemptive typology. As Paul K. Jewett puts it, "by his
redemptive work, Jesus sets aside the Sabbath by fulfilling its
ultimate divine intent." 36
The view that Christ fulfilled the Sabbath by terminating
its observance is very popular today among both Catholics and
Protestants. During the course of this study, we noted that
recently this view has been adopted even by former sabbatarians
like the Worldwide Church of God, Ratzlaff in his book "Sabbath
in Crisis," and some newly organized independent "Adventist"
congregations. The popular acceptance of this view calls for
close examination of the New Testament teachings regarding the
relationship between the Sabbath and the Savior.
The basic questions addressed here are these: Did Christ's
redemptive mission fulfill the eschatological expectations
inherent in the Sabbath by terminating its function and
observance, as in the case of the Temple's services (Heb 8:13;
9:23-28), or by expanding its meaning and enriching its
observance as the celebration of His redemptive accomplishments?
Did Christ view the observance of the Sabbath as the
unquestionable will of God for His followers? Or, did Christ
regard the obligation of Sabbathkeeping as fulfilled and
superseded by His coming, the true Sabbath? Did Christ teach that
"New Covenant" Christians are to observe the Sabbath by
experiencing the "rest of salvation" every day rather than by
resting unto Lord on the seventh day? To find answers to these
questions, we briefly examine some Sabbath passages found in
Luke, Matthew, John, and Hebrews.
1. The Sabbath in Luke
Christ: A Model of Sabbathkeeping.
Luke's account of the opening scene of Christ's ministry
provides a suitable starting point for inquiring into the
relationship between the Savior and the Sabbath. According to
Luke, it was "on a Sabbath day" that Jesus officially inaugurated
His ministry in the synagogue of Nazareth, making a programmatic
speech. It is noteworthy that Luke introduces Christ as an
habitual observer of the Sabbath ("as his custom was"--Luke
4:16). Does Luke intend by this to set Christ before his readers
as a model of Sabbathkeeping? Max B. Turner, a contributor to the
scholarly symposium "From Sabbath to the Lord's Day," rejects
this possibility, maintaining instead that it is "Jesus' more
recently acquired habit of teaching in the synagogues that is
primarily in view," especially since Luke uses the same
expression in "Acts 17:2 in respect of Paul's (Sabbath) synagogue
ministry." 37
Without denying the possibility that Luke may have also
thought of Christ's custom of teaching on the Sabbath, it hardly
seems justifiable to conclude that the phrase "as his custom was"
"provides little real evidence of theological commitment on
behalf of Jesus to Sabbath worship." 38 Why? For at least five
reasons.
First, Luke speaks of Christ's customary Sabbathkeeping in
the immediate context of His upbringing in Nazareth ("where he
had been brought up"--v.16). This suggests that the allusion is
especially to the custom of Sabbath observance during Christ's
youth.
Second, if the phrase referred exclusively to Christ's
habitual Sabbath teaching in the synagogue, would not this also
provide a theological model? Has not the Christian Church adopted
the teaching model of the Sabbath (whether it be Saturday or
Sunday) by reading and expound the Scripture during the divine
service?
Third, the word "Sabbath" occurs in Luke's Gospel 21 times
and 8 times in Acts. 40 That is approximately twice as often as
in any of the other three Gospels. This surely suggests that Luke
attaches significance to the Sabbath.
Fourth; Luke not only begins but also closes the account of
Christ's early ministry on a Sabbath by mentioning that His
entombment took place on "the day of Preparation and the Sabbath
was beginning" (Luke 23:54). A number of scholars recognize in
this text Luke's concern to show that the Christian community
observed the Sabbath 41
Lastly Luke expands his brief account of Christ's burial by
stating emphatically that the women "rested on the sabbath in
obedience to the commandment" (23:56b--NIV). Why does Luke
present not only Christ but also His followers as habitual
Sabbathkeepers. This consistent pattern can hardly be construed
as insignificant or incidental. The many examples and situations
of Sabbathkeeping reported by Luke strongly suggest that Luke
intended to set before his readers Christ as "a model of
reverence for the Sabbath. 42
To understand such a "model," however, it is necessary to
study how Luke and the other evangelists relate the Sabbath to
the coming of Christ.
Messianic Fulfillment of Sabbath Liberation.
In His inaugural Nazareth address, Christ read and commented
upon a passage drawn mostly from Isaiah 61:1-2 (also 58:6) which
says: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed
me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim
release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to
set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18). 43
The vital function of this passage has been noticed by many
scholars. Hans Conzelmann correctly views it as a nutshell
summary of the "Messianic program." 44 The original passage of
Isaiah, as noted earlier, describes by means of the imagery of
the Sabbath year the liberation from captivity that the Servant
of the Lord would bring to His people. The fact that the language
and imagery of the Sabbath years found in Isaiah 61:1-3 (and
58:6) were utilized by sectarian and mainstream Jews to describe
the work of the expected Messiah makes Christ's use of this
passage all the more significant. This means that Christ
presented Himself to the people as the very fulfillment of their
Messianic expectations which had been nourished by the vision of
the Sabbath years.
This conclusion is supported by what may be regarded as a
brief summary of Jesus' exposition of the Isaianic passage which
is recorded in Luke 4:21: "Today this scripture has been
fulfilled in your hearing." In other words, the Messianic
redemption promised by Isaiah through the imagery of the Sabbath
year is "now" being fulfilled. As Paul K. Jewett aptly comments,
"The great Jubilee Sabbath has become a reality for those who
have been loosed from their sins by the coming of the Messiah and
have found inheritance in Him." 45
The theme of promise and fulfillment recurs in all the
Gospels. Many aspects of Christ's life and ministry are presented
repeatedly as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. The
risen Christ Himself, according to Luke, explained to His
disciples that His teaching and mission represented the
fulfillment of "everything written about me in the law of Moses
and the prophets and the psalms" (Luke 24:44; cf. 24:26-27).
How does the Sabbath fit into this theme of promise and
fulfillment? What did Christ mean when He announced His mission
to be the fulfillment of the sabbatical promises of liberation?
Did He intend to explain, perhaps in a veiled fashion, that the
institution of the Sabbath was a type which had found its
fulfillment in Himself, the Antitype, and therefore its
obligations had ceased? In such a case, Christ would have paved
the way for the replacement of the Sabbath with a new day of
worship, as many Christians believe. Or did Christ through His
redemptive mission fulfill the promised sabbatical rest and
release in order to make the day a fitting channel through which
to experience His blessings of salvation?
To find an answer to these questions, it is necessary to
examine the Sabbath teaching and ministry of Christ reported in
the Gospels. So far we have noticed that, according to Luke,
Christ delivered His programmatic speech on a Sabbath claiming to
be the fulfillment of the Messianic restoration announced by
means of the Sabbath years (Is 61:1-3; 58:6).
Early Sabbath Healings.
Christ's announcement of His Messiahship (Luke 4:16-21) is
followed in Luke by two Sabbath healing episodes. The first took
place in the synagogue of Capernaum during a Sabbath service and
resulted in the spiritual healing of a demon-possessed man (Luke
4:31-37; Mark 1:21-28).
The second healing was accomplished immediately after the
religious service in Simon's house and brought about the physical
restoration of Simon's mother-in-law (Luke 4:38-39; Mark
1:29-31). The result of the latter was rejoicing for the whole
family and service: "immediately she rose and served them" (Luke
4:39). The themes of liberation, joy, and service present in
embryonic form in these first healings are more explicitly
associated with the meaning of the Sabbath in the subsequent
ministry of Christ.
The Crippled Woman. The healing of the crippled woman,
reported only by Luke, further clarifies the relationship between
the Sabbath and the Savior's saving ministry. In the brief
narrative (Luke 13:10-17), the Greek verb "luein," usually
translated "to free, to untie, to loose," is used by the Lord
three times, thus suggesting intentional rather than accidental
usage of the term.
The first time, the verb is used by Christ in addressing the
woman: "You are freed from your infirmity" (Luke 13:12,). Twice
again the verb is used by Christ to respond to the indignation of
the ruler of the synagogue: "You hypocrites! Does not each of you
on the Sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead
it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of
Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this
bond on the Sabbath day?" (Luke 13:15-16).
Arguing from a minor to a major case, Christ shows how the
Sabbath had been paradoxically distorted. An ox or an ass could
be legitimately untied on the Sabbath for drinking purposes
(possibly because a day without water would result in loss of
weight and, consequently, of market value), but a suffering woman
could not be released on such a day from the shackles of her
physical and spiritual infirmity.
Christ acted deliberately against prevailing misconceptions
in order to restore the day to God's intended purpose. It should
be noted that in this as well as in all other Sabbath healings,
Christ is not questioning the validity of the Sabbath
commandment; rather, He argues for its true values which had been
obscured by the accumulation of traditions and countless
regulations.
Sabbath Redemption.
The imagery of loosing on the Sabbath a victim bound by
Satan's bonds (Luke 13:16) recalls Christ's announcement of His
mission "to proclaim release to the captives ... to set at
liberty those who are oppressed" (Luke 4:18). Does not Jesus' act
of freeing a daughter of Abraham from her physical and spiritual
bonds on the Sabbath exemplify how the Messianic liberation
typified by the Sabbath was being fulfilled (Luke 4:21)?
The connection between the redemptive typology of the
Sabbath and Jesus' healings on the Sabbath is recognized, for
example, by Paul K. Jewett who rightly observes that "We have in
Jesus' healings on the Sabbath, not only acts of love,
compassion, and mercy, but true 'sabbatical acts,' acts which
show that the messianic Sabbath, the fulfillment of the Sabbath
rest of the Old Testament, has broken into our world. Therefore,
the Sabbath, of all days, is the most appropriate for healing."
46
This fulfillment by Christ of the Old Testament Sabbath does
not imply, as argued by the same author, that "Christians
therefore are ... free from the Sabbath to gather on the first
day," 47 but rather that Christ by fulfilling the redemptive
typology of the Sabbath made the day a fitting memorial of His
redemptive mission. The redemptive meaning of Christ's Sabbath
healings can be seen also in the spiritual ministry Jesus
provides to those whom He heals (cf. Mark 1:25; 2:5; Luke 13:16;
John 5:14; 9:38).
Acts of healing people such as the crippled woman are not
merely acts of love and compassion but true "sabbatical acts"
which reveal how the Messianic redemption typified and promised
by the Sabbath was being fulfilled through Christ's saving
ministry. For all the people blessed by Christ's Sabbath
ministry, the day became the memorial of the healing of their
bodies and souls, the exodus from the bonds of Satan into the
freedom of the Savior.
Some scholars reject this interpretation, arguing that the
comparison between the loosing on the Sabbath of oxen and donkeys
from their cribs for drinking purposes and the freeing of a woman
from Satan's bond suggests that the Sabbath was not a
particularly appropriate day for Christ's works of mercy. They
reason that since the untying and watering of animals took place
daily, irrespective of the Sabbath, Christ's saving acts are
performed, not because it is Sabbath, but in spite of it. 48
Such an argument comes short on at least two counts.
First, the animals are explicitly included among the
beneficiaries of the Sabbath commandment ("your ox, or your ass,
or any of your cattle," - Deut. 5:14; cf. Ex. 20:10). Thus
showing kindness even to dumb beasts was especially appropriate
on the Sabbath. 49
Second, Christ challenges the contention of the ruler of the
synagogue that healing ought to take place only during the "six
days" rather than "on the sabbath day" (Luke 13:14) by affirming
exactly the contrary, namely, that the woman ought to be loosed
from her bond "on the sabbath day" (v.16). This implies that
Christ chose to heal her not in spite of the Sabbath but rather
because the day provided a most fitting occasion. 50
The physical and spiritual freedom that the Savior offered
to that sick woman on the Sabbath represents a token
manifestation of Christ's proclaimed fulfillment of the Sabbath
liberation (Luke 4:18-21), which had dawned with His coming. This
redemptive meaning of the Sabbath is further clarified in other
incidents to be examined. But, before leaving this episode, we
may ask, How did the woman and the people who witnessed Christ's
saving interventions come to view the Sabbath? Luke reports that
while Christ's "adversaries were put to shame; all the people
rejoiced" (Luke 13:17) and the woman "praised God" (Luke 13:13).
Undoubtedly for the healed woman and for all the people blessed
by Christ's Sabbath ministry, the day became the memorial of the
healing of their bodies and souls, of the exodus from the bonds
of Satan into the freedom of the Savior.
Sabbath in Matthew
The Savior's Rest.
Matthew does not introduce any Sabbath episode until almost
halfway through his Gospel. Then he relates two Sabbath pericopes
(Matt 12:1-14) which he connects temporally to Jesus' offer of
His rest: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for
I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matt
11:28-30). To understand the nature of the Savior's rest, it is
important to look at the wider and immediate context.
In the wider context, Jesus' offer of His rest is sandwiched
between several accounts of rejection or opposition: the doubting
of John the Baptist (11:1-6), the rejection by an unbelieving
generation (11:7-19) and by the Galilean cities (11:20-24), the
plotting of Pharisees (12:14), the rejection of Christ's healing
by Pharisees (12:22-37), the rebuke to an unbelieving generation
(12:38-45), and the misunderstanding by His relatives (12:46-50).
In this context of unusual opposition and misunderstanding,
Jesus disclosed His Messianic identity by proclaiming Himself to
be "the Son" who "knows" and "reveals" "the Father" in a unique
way (11:27). To support this Messianic claim, Christ offered the
Messianic rest typified by the Sabbath (11:28-30).
We noted earlier that the Sabbath rest in Old Testament
times served to nourish the hope of Messianic redemption. The
messianic age was expected to be "wholly Sabbath and rest in the
life everlasting." 51 In the light of the existing Messianic
understanding of the Sabbath rest, it appears that Christ, by
offering His rest immediately after His Messianic disclosure
intended to substantiate His Messianic claim by offering what the
Messiah was expected to bring--namely, the peace and rest
typified by the Sabbath.
The Savior's Rest and the Sabbath.
The connection between Jesus' rest and the Sabbath is also
indicated in Matthew by the placement of the former (11:28-30) in
the immediate context of two Sabbath episodes (12:1-14). The two
are connected, as noted by several scholars, not only
structurally but also temporally by the phrase "at that time"
(12:1). 53 The time referred to is a Sabbath day when Jesus and
the disciples went through a field.
The fact that, according to Matthew, Christ offered His rest
on a Sabbath day suggests the possibility that the two are linked
together not only temporally but also theologically. The
theological connection between the two is clarified by the two
Sabbath episodes which serve to explain how the Messianic rest
offered by Jesus is related to the Sabbath. The first story about
the disciples plucking ears of corn on a Sabbath (Matt 12:1-8)
interprets Jesus' rest as redemption-rest, especially through
Christ's appeal to the example of the priests who worked
intensively on the Sabbath in the Temple and yet were "guiltless"
(Matt 12:5). The second story about the healing of the man with
the withered hand interprets Jesus' rest as restoration-rest,
especially through Christ's illustration of the rescuing of a
sheep from a pit on the Sabbath (Matt 12:11-12).
Why were the priests "guiltless" though offering more
services and sacrifices on the Sabbath (Num 28:8, 9)? Certainly
it was not because they took a day off at another time during the
week. No such provision is contemplated in the Old Testament. The
absence of such a provision constitutes a direct challenge to the
one-day-in-seven principle so greatly relied upon by many
Christians to justify Sunday observance on the basis of the
Sabbath commandment. Donald Carson, editor of the scholarly
symposium "From Sabbath to the Lord's Day," acknowledges that "if
the Old Testament principle were really 'one day in seven for
worship and rest' instead of 'the seventh day for worship and
rest,' we might have expected Old Testament legislation to
prescribe some other day off for the priests. The lack of such
confirms the importance in Old Testament thought of the seventh
day, as opposed to the mere one-in-seven principle so greatly
relied upon by those who wish to see in Sunday the precise New
Testament equivalent of the Old Testament Sabbath." 54
The priests performed activities on the Sabbath which per se
were rightly condemned by the commandment; yet they were
guiltless because they were fulfilling the purpose of the
Sabbath, which is to supply the spiritual needs of the people.
But, how could Christ defend His actions as well as those of His
disciples by this example of the service performed by the priests
on the Sabbath, when neither He nor His disciples were fulfilling
the divine law of sacrifices on that day? The answer is found in
the subsequent statement Christ made: "I tell you something
greater than the temple is here" (Matt 12:6).
The symbolic function of the temple and its services had now
found its fulfillment and were superseded by the service of the
True High Priest. Therefore, on the Sabbath, and even by
preference on the Sabbath, Christ also must intensify His
"sacrificial offering," that is to say, His ministry of salvation
on behalf of needy sinners; and what He does His followers, the
new priesthood, must do likewise. In John 7:22-23 Christ
expresses the same concept. As the priest on the Sabbath extends
the blessing of the covenant to the newborn through the act of
circumcision, so Christ on the Sabbath must work for the
salvation of the entire person.
Christ finds in the redemptive work performed typologically
by the priests on the Sabbath a valid basis to justify His own
Sabbath ministry because He views it as "something greater than
the temple" (12:6). The redemption offered typologically through
the Temple services and sacrifices performed by the priests 55
is now being provided realistically through the saving mission of
the Son of Man, the Messiah. 56 Therefore, just as the priests
were "guiltless" in-performing their Sabbath services in the
Temple, so were Jesus' disciples in serving the One who is
greater than the Temple. 57
The Temple and its services provide Jesus with a valid frame
of reference to explain His Sabbath theology. This is because
their redemptive function best exemplified both His Messianic
mission and the divine intended purpose for the Sabbath. In fact,
by identifying His saving mission with the Sabbath, Christ
reveals the ultimate divine purpose of the commandment, namely,
fellowship with God. Through Christ's redemptive ministry, the
Sabbath becomes a time not only to commemorate God's past
creation but also to experience the blessings of salvation by
ministering to the needs of others.
The humanitarian dimension of the Sabbath unfortunately had
largely been forgotten in Christ's day. The claims of rituals had
taken the place of the claims of service to human needs. In the
statement reported by Matthew, Christ openly attacks this
perversion of the Sabbath, saying, "If you had known what this
means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have
condemned the guiltless" (Matt 12:7). For Christ, the disciples
are "guiltless" though they had contravened the Sabbath law of
complete rest because the true meaning of the commandment is
"mercy and not sacrifice."
What do "mercy" and "sacrifice" stand for? The prophet
Hosea, from whose book these words are quoted, rebukes his people
for "seeking the Lord ... with their flocks and herds" (5:6) as
if God could be propitiated by the many costly sacrifices (cf. l
Sam 15:22). The prophet reminds them that what God desires is
"mercy and not sacrifice" (Hos 6:6). This mercy desired by God is
characterized both in the Old and New Testaments by a
compassionate attitude that finds expression in helpful acts. In
the Gospel of Matthew, especially, "mercy" denotes the acts of
aid and relief that members of the covenant community owe to one
another (Matt 5:7; 9:13; 12:7, 23:23). It was this pity and
sympathy for anyone in distress that the Pharisees lacked.
Therefore, the hunger experienced by Christ and His disciples did
not kindle within their hearts any feeling of tenderness or
eagerness to help. Instead, they were condemning the disciples.
This showing of love by acts of kindness represents for
Christ the true observance of the Sabbath, since it acknowledges
the very redemptive activity of God, which the day commemorates.
In fact, as memorial of the divine redemption from both the
bondage of Egypt (Deut 5:15) and the bonds of sin (Luke 4:18-19;
13:16; John 5:17), the Sabbath is the time when believers
experience God's merciful salvation by expressing kindness and
mercy toward others. Therefore, the order of the true Sabbath
service which Christ sets up requires first the living-loving
service of the heart and then the fulfillment of cultic
prescriptions. It is a sobering thought that in the Gospels is
less said about the preaching ministry of Christ on the Sabbath
in the Synagogue and more about His ministry of compassion and
mercy on behalf of needy sinners.
Authority or Legality?
Some scholars argue that Christ used the example of David
and of the priests in order to show His authority to transcend
the Sabbath law rather than to prove the legality of the
disciples' action within that law. For them, "it is a question of
authority rather than of legality" that is at stake in this
passage. 58 The comparison between the priests and Christ is
allegedly supposed to show that "persons with authority" can
override the Sabbath. 59 The ultimate conclusion drawn from such
reasoning is that Christ's authoritative teaching supposedly
anticipates the change in the day of worship, which, however, did
not actually occur until after the resurrection. 60 Such
reasoning reveals a genuine desire to find grounds for Sunday
observance in Christ's teaching, but it cannot be legitimately
supported by Christ's arguments.
Did Christ appeal to the example of David and of the priests
to show that persons of authority have the right to supersede the
Sabbath law? Can human authority per se be regarded as a valid
criterion to transcend God's law? If this were true, there would
be constant conflict between human authority and divine precepts.
Such a conflict, however, does not exist in Jesus' reasoning.
What He tells the Pharisees is not that the law does not apply to
important persons such as David or the priests but, on the
contrary, that their exceptional conduct, like that of the
disciples, is contemplated by the law. This is clearly indicated
by the counter-question Christ asks twice: "Have you not read in
the law ... ?" (Matt 12:5; cf. v.3).
Note that it is within the law (not outside it) that Jesus
finds precedents to defend the legality of the disciples'
conduct. The disciples were "guiltless" then, not because their
authority (or that of Christ) transcended the law, but because
their action fell within the intention of the law itself. David
Hill stresses this point in his comment on Matthew 12:5: "The
verse provides a precedent for the action of the disciples within
the Law itself, and therefore places Jesus securely within the
Law." 61
Christ, the Interpreter of the Law.
All laws must be interpreted. The case of the priests
provides a fitting example. The law ordered them to work on the
Sabbath (Num 28:9; Lev 24:8), thus causing them to break another
law - that of the Sabbath rest (Ex 20:8-10). This means that the
letter of the law cannot be applied indiscriminately, but must be
interpreted discriminately when applied to specific cases. In
American society, the Supreme Court acts as the final interpreter
of the intent of the laws of the land. This is the authority that
Christ claims by proclaiming Himself "Lord of the Sabbath" (Matt
12:8; Mark 2:28). It is not the authority to abrogate or
substitute the Sabbath commandment but rather to reveal its true
divine intention. 62
Christ demonstrates this authority as interpreter of the
true meaning of the Fourth Commandment by presenting five
significant arguments to defend the innocence of His disciples.
First, the Lord refers to David to validate the general
principle that the law admits exceptions (Matt 12:3;
Mark 2:25).
Second, Christ provides a specific example of exceptional
use of the Sabbath by the priests to prove that the commandment
does not preclude but contemplates ministering to the spiritual
needs of people (Matt 12:5).
Third, Christ claims for Himself and His disciples the same
Sabbath privilages of the priests because, as the superior
Antitype of the Temple and its priesthood (Matt 12:6), He and His
followers also, like the priests, must provide a ministry of
salvation to needy sinners.
Fourth, by citing Hosea's statement, "I desire mercy, and
not sacrifice" (Matt 12:7), Jesus explains that the order of
priorities in the observance of the Sabbath is first a loving
service to needy persons and then the fulfillment of ritual
prescriptions.
Lastly, Jesus asserts His lordship over the Sabbath - that
is, His prerogatives interpret its meaning by reaffirming the
fundamental principle that the Sabbath was instituted to insure
human well-being (Mark 2:28). Consequently, to deny human needs
on account of the Sabbath is a perversion of its original
purpose.
The Man with the Withered Hand.
Christ's proclamation of lordship over the Sabbath is
followed immediately by a second healing episode of the man with
the withered hand (Matt 12:9-21; cf. Mark 3 :1 6). The function
of this healing was to demonstrate how Christ exerted His
lordship over the Sabbath by offering Messianic healing and
restoration on that day.
Jesus finds Himself in the synagogue before a man with a
paralyzed hand, brought there in all probability by a deputation
of Scribes and Pharisees. They came to the synagogue, not to
worship, but to scrutinize Christ and "see whether he would heal
him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him" (Mark 3:2).
According to Matthew, they ask Christ the testing question: "Is
it lawful to heal on the sabbath?" (Matt 12:10). Their question
is not motivated by a genuine concern for the sick man, nor by a
desire to explore how the Sabbath is related to the healing
ministry. Rather, they are there as the authority who knows all
the exemptions foreseen by the rabbinic casuistry and who wants
to judge Christ on the basis of the minutiae of their
regulations.
Christ reading their thoughts is "grieved at their hardness
of heart" (Mark 3:5). He accepts the challenge and meets it
fairly and squarely. First, He invites the man to come to the
front, saying, "Come here" (Mark 3:3). This step is possibly
designed to waken sympathy for the stricken man and at the same
time to make sure all are aware of what He is about to do. Then
He asks the experts of the law, "Is it lawful on the sabbath to
do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" (Mark 3:4). To
bring this question into sharper focus, according to Matthew,
Christ adds a second question in the form of a parabolic saying:
"What man of you, if he has one sheep and it falls into a pit on
the sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much
more value is a man than a sheep?" (Matt 12:11,12).
These questions raise an important issue. By the question of
principle, which Christ illustrated with the second question
containing a concrete example, did He intend to abrogate
radically the Sabbath commandment or did He aim at restoring the
institution to its original divine value and function? Most
scholars subscribe to the former option. For example, Leonard
Goppelt emphatically states that "Jesus' double question marks
the end of the Sabbath commandment: it is no longer a statutory
ordinance and it no longer has absolute validity if this
all-embracing, overlapping alternative is valid - namely to save
life." 63
This interpretation rests on the assumption that "to save
life" is contrary to the spirit and function of the Sabbath. Can
this be true? It may perhaps reflect the prevailing misconception
and misuse of the Sabbath, but not the original purpose of the
Sabbath commandment. To accept this supposition would make God
guilty of failing to safeguard the value of life when instituting
the Sabbath.
The Sabbath: A Day to Show Concern.
The original purpose of the Sabbath and its related
institutions is to emphasize the importance of loving one's
neighbor, especially the defenseless. In the various versions of
the Sabbath commandment, for instance, a recurring list of
persons appears to whom freedom to rest on the Sabbath is to be
granted. The ones particularly singled out are usually the
manservant, the maidservant, the son of the bondmaid, the cattle,
and the sojourner and/or alien. This indicates that the Sabbath
was ordained especially to show compassion toward defenseless and
needy beings. "Six days you shall do your work, but on the
seventh you shall rest; that your ox and your ass may have rest
and the son of your bond-maid and the alien may be refreshed" (Ex
23:12).
Niels-Erik Andreasen aptly comments that "the landlord must
be concerned with the human value of his subjects, just as Yahweh
was when he secured freedom for his people." 64 It is indeed
moving that the Sabbath was designed to show concern even for the
cattle, but, Hans Walter Wolf points out, "It is even more
touching that, of all the dependent laborers, the son of the
female slave and the alien are especially singled out. For when
such persons are ordered to work, they have no recourse or
protection. 65
This original dimension of the Sabbath as a day to honor God
by showing concern and compassion to fellow beings had largely
been forgotten in the time of Jesus. The Sabbath had become the
day when correct performance of a ritual was more important than
a spontaneous response to the cry of human needs. Our story
provides a fitting example of this prevailing perversion by
contrasting two types of Sabbath-keepers. On one side stood
Christ "grieved at the hardness of the heart" of his accusers and
taking steps to save the life of a wretched man (Mark 3:4-5). On
the other side stood the experts of the law who, even while
sitting in a place of worship, spent their Sabbath time looking
for faults and thinking of methods to kill Christ (Mark 3:2,6).
This contrast of attitudes may well provide the explanation
to Christ's question about the legitimacy of saving or killing on
the Sabbath (Mark 3:4); the person who is not concerned for the
physical and spiritual salvation of others on the Sabbath is
automatically involved in destructive efforts or attitudes.
Christ's program of Sabbath reform must be seen in the context of
His overall attitude toward the law. In the Sermon on the Mount,
Christ explains that His mission is to restore the various
prescriptions of the law to their original intentions (Matt 5
:17,21ff.). This work of clarifying the intent behind the
commandments was a dire necessity since the accumulation of
traditions had in many cases obscured their original function. As
Christ put it, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment
of God, in order to keep your tradition!" (Mark 7:9).
The fifth commandment, for instance, which enjoins one to
"honor your father and your mother," according to Christ, had
been made void through the tradition of the Corban (Mark
7:12-13). This practice consisted in translating a service or an
obligation to be rendered to one's parents into a gift to be
given to the temple. Likewise, the Sabbath commandment, unless
liberated from the many senseless casuistic restrictions, would
have remained a system for self-righteousness rather than a time
for loving the Creator-Redeemer and one's fellow beings.
By healing the man with the withered hand, Christ not only
clarified the intent of the Sabbath commandment but also
demonstrated how He fulfilled the Messianic restoration which had
been nourished by the celebration of the Sabbath. These
intentional healing acts performed by Christ on behalf of
incurable persons serve to clarify the relationship between the
Savior's rest and the Sabbath.
Summing up, in Matthew the Old Testament Sabbath rest is
seen as being actualized by Christ who offers to His followers
the Messianic rest. The two Sabbath episodes reported by Matthew
qualify the meaning of the Sabbath rest, first as Messianic
redemption through its references to mercy and to Sabbath
services performed by priests, and second, as Messianic
restoration through the example of the Sabbath rescuing of a
sheep and the restoring to health of a sick man. In the light of
this redemptive/Messianic understanding of the Sabbath, how was
the Sabbath observed in the Matthean community and in the
apostolic church as a whole? This question is addressed below in
the final section of this chapter dealing with the manner of
Sabbathkeeping in the Apostolic Church.
.......................
To be continued
NOTE:
The explanations given by Bacchiocchi on Christ and the Sabbath
is EXACTLY as I read and understood them as a young boy. Reading
with a child's mind at age 8,9,10,11 years old, in my "Red-letter
New Testament" (words of Christ in red) given to me as a gift, I
understood the work Jesus did on the Sabbath was intended to
instruct us in the correct way to observe the Sabbath as in
contradiction to the "man made laws of the Jews" via the scribes,
Pharisees, Sadducees, who had perverted the principles and heart
of the fourth commandment. As a child I NEVER thought of these
Christ/Sabbath passages as teaching us that the Sabbath can be
any day of the week or that this fourth commandment was now
"abolished" and hence we could forget about it, as to being
observed. The life and teaching of Christ to me in the Gospels,
as I read it from the mind of a child, was a life and teaching of
the perfect example of obeying all the Ten Commandments,
including the fourth one, which had respect to the 7th day of the
week. It was not until I was 19 (in 1962) years old that the
truth of Sunday being the first day of the week and not the 7th
day, was given to me through my Baptist landlord. Until that time
I believed all that I knew of the "Christian world" was observing
the 7th day of the week in accordance with the words of the
fourth commandment as stated in Exodus 20, and hence that
Christianity was also believing that Jesus in the Gospels taught
NOT that the Sabbath day was abolished, but taught HOW to observe
the Sabbath day in the correct attitude that God had always
wanted mankind to observe it.
What a disgusting SHOCK it was to me to find and read all the
arguments used to either CHANGE the Sabbath from the 7th day to
the 1st day, or to ABOLISH it completely!!
Oh, the heart of man, how deceitful and twisted it can get at
times. But, if you let in the light and Spirit of God, to work in
your mind and heart, you can know the truth and the truth will
set you free. You will then rejoice in the blessedness of the
fourth commandment; you will find rest, and peace, and
refreshment, as you observe the 7th day Sabbath.
Keith Hunt
The Sabbath under Crossfire #13Christ and Hebrews
Continued from previous page:
3. The Sabbath in John
In John's Gospel, the relationship between the Sabbath and
Christ's work of salvation is alluded to in two Sabbath miracles:
the healing of the paralytic (John 5:1-18) and of the blind man
(John 9:1-41). The two episodes are examined together since they
are substantially similar. Both healed men had been chronically
ill: one an invalid for 38 years (John 5:5) and the other blind
from birth (John 9:2). In both instances, Christ told the men to
act. To the paralyzed man He said, "Rise, take up your pallet,
and walk" (John 5:8); to the blind man, "Go, wash in the pool of
Siloam" (John 9:7). Both of these actions represent breaking
rabbinical Sabbath laws, and thus both are used by Pharisees to
charge Christ with Sabbath-breaking (John 5:10,16; 9:14-16). In
both instances, Christ repudiated such a charge by arguing that
His works of salvation are not precluded but rather contemplated
by the Sabbath commandment (John 5:17; 7:23; 9:4). Christ's
justification is expressed especially through a memorable
statement: "My Father is working until now and I am working"
(John 5:17; cf. 9:4).
Negation or Clarification of the Sabbath?
What did Christ mean when He formally defended Himself
against the charge of Sabbathbreaking by appealing to the
"working until now" of His Father? Did He use the example of His
Father to rescind the obligation of Sabbathkeeping both for
Himself and for His followers or to clarify its true nature and
meaning? To put it bluntly, does Christ's statement represent a
negation or a clarification of the Sabbath law?
In a previous study I showed that the "working until now" of
the Father and of the Son has historically received three basic
interpretations: (1) continuous creation, (2) continuous care,
and (3) redemptive activities. 66 The exponents of these three
views basically agree in regarding Christ's pronouncement as an
implicit (for some, explicit) annulment of the Sabbath
commandment. Does such a conclusion reflect the legitimate
meaning of the passage or rather arbitrary assumptions which have
been read into the passage? To answer this question and to
understand the significance of Christ's saying, we briefly
examine the role of the adverb "until now" - heos arti, the
meaning of the verb "is working"--ergazetai, and the theological
implications of the passage.
The Adverb "Until Now."
Traditionally, the adverbial phrase "until now" has been
interpreted as the continuous working of God (whether it be in
creation, preservation, or redemption) which allegedly overrides
or rescinds the Sabbath law. But the adverb itself ("until"),
especially as used in Greek in its emphatic position before the
verb, presupposes not constancy but culmination. The latter is
brought out by some translators through the use of the emphatic
form "even until now." 67
This adverbial phrase presupposes a beginning (terminus a
quo) and an end (terminus ad quem). The former is apparently the
initial creation Sabbath (Gen 2:2-3) and the latter the final
Sabbath rest envisaged in a similar Sabbath pronouncement as the
"night ... when no one can work" (9:4). What Jesus is saying,
then, is that though God rested on the Sabbath at the completion
of creation, because of sin He has been "working until now" to
bring the promised Sabbath rest to fruition.
The Verb "Is Working."
The meaning of the verb "is working" until now of the Father
is clarified by John's references to the working and works of God
which are repeatedly and explicitly identified, not with a
continuous divine creation nor with a constant maintenance of the
universe, but with the saving mission of Christ.
Jesus explicitly states: "This is the work of God, that you
believe in him whom he has sent" (John 6:29). And again, "If I am
not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if
I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works,
that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I
am in the Father" (John 10:37,38; cf. 4:34; 14:11; 15:24;).
The redemptive nature of the works of God is evident in the
healing of the blind man since the act is explicitly described as
the manifestation of "the works of God" (John 9:3). This means
then that God ended on the Sabbath His works of creation but not
His working, in general. Because of sin, He has been engaged in
the work of redemption "until now." To use the words of A. T.
Lincoln, one might say, "As regards the work of creation God's
rest was final, but as that rest was meant for humanity to enjoy,
when it was disturbed by sin, God worked in history to accomplish
his original purpose." 68
Theological Implications.
Christ appeals to the "working" of His Father not to nullify
but to clarify the function of the Sabbath. To understand
Christ's defense, one must remember that the Sabbath is linked
both to creation (Gen 2:2-3; Ex 20:11) and redemption (Deut
5:15). While by interrupting all secular activities the Israelite
was remembering the Creator-God, by acting mercifully toward
fellow-beings he was imitating the Redeemer-God. This was true
not only in the life of the people, in general, who on the
Sabbath were to be compassionate toward the less fortunate, but
especially in the service of the priest who could legitimately
perform on the Sabbath works forbidden to other Israelites,
because such works had a redemptive function.
On the basis of this theology of the Sabbath admitted by the
Jews, Christ defends the legality of the "working" that He and
His Father perform on the Sabbath. In John, Christ appeals to the
example of circumcision to silence the echo of the controversy
over the healing of the paralytic (John 7:22-24). The Lord argues
that if it is legitimate on the Sabbath for the priests to care
for one small part of man's body (according to rabbinic
reckoning, circumcision involved one of man's 248 members) 69 in
order to extend to the newborn child the salvation of the
covenant, 70 there is no reason to be "angry" with Him for
restoring on that day the "whole body of man" (John 7:23).
For Christ, the Sabbath is the day to work for the
redemption of the whole man. This is borne out by the fact that
in both healings, Christ looked for the healed men on the same
day and, having found them, He ministered to their spiritual need
(John 5:14; 9:35-38). Christ's opponents cannot perceive the
redemptive nature of His Sabbath ministry because they "judge by
appearances" (John 7:24). For them, the pallet and the clay are
more important than the social reunion (5:10) and the restoration
of sight (John 9:14) which those objects symbolized. It was
necessary therefore for Christ to act against prevailing
misconceptions in order to restore the Sabbath to its positive
function.
In the Sabbath healing of the blind man recorded in John 9,
Christ extends to His followers the invitation to become links of
the same redemptive chain, saying: "We must work the works of him
who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work"
(v.4). The "night" apparently refers to the conclusion of the
history of salvation, a conclusion which we found implied in the
adverbial phrase "until now." Such a conclusion of divine and
human redemptive activity would usher in the final Sabbath of
which the creation Sabbath was a prototype.
To bring about that final Sabbath, the Godhead "is working"
for our salvation (John 5:17); but "we must work" to extend it to
others (John 9:4).
The foregoing considerations indicate that the two Sabbath
healings reported by John substantiate the redemptive meaning of
the Sabbath we found earlier in Luke and Matthew--namely, a time
to experience and share the blessings of salvation accomplished
by Christ.
4. The Sabbath in Hebrews
The redemptive meaning of the Sabbath we found in the
Gospels is reflected in Hebrews 4:1-11 where the author draws
upon existing eschatological understandings of the Sabbath rest
to relate God's rest of the seventh day of creation (Heb 4:4) to
all the rest and peace God intends to confer on His people. The
discussion of the Sabbath in Hebrews is crucial to our study
because it reveals how Sabbathkeeping was understood and
experienced by the New Testament church.
In Chapter 3, we examined how the Sabbath in Hebrews relates
to the discussion about the Old and New Covenants. At this
juncture, our concern is to establish if the meaning of
Sabbathkeeping in Hebrews reflects the same redemptive meaning of
the Sabbath we have found in the Gospels.
The relationship between the Sabbath and the Savior is
established by the author of Hebrews by linking together Genesis
2:2 with Psalm 95:7,11. By means of these two texts the writer of
Hebrews explains that the Sabbath rest offered at creation (Heb
4:4) was not exhausted when the Israelites under Joshua found a
resting place in Canaan, since God offered again His rest "long
afterwards" through David (Heb 4:7; cf. Ps 95:7). Consequently,
God's promised Sabbath rest still awaited a fuller realization
which has dawned with the coming of Christ (Heb 4:9). It is by
believing in Jesus Christ that God's people can at last
experience ("enter"--Heb 4:3,10,11) the "good news" of God's rest
promised on the "seventh day" of creation (Heb 4:4).
Literal or Figurative Sabbathkeeping?
What inference can be legitimately drawn from this passage
regarding the actual observance and understanding of the Sabbath
among the recipients of Hebrews? The position of the majority of
commentators is that this passage provides no indication that
these "Hebrew" Christians actually observed the Sabbath or that
the author intended to give a Christian interpretation to such an
observance. We find this to be the position of Ratzlaff who
submits five reasons against a literal interpretation of
"sabbatismos--Sabbathkeeping" (Heb 4:9). Since we have already
dealt with Ratzlaff s reasons in chapter 3, at this juncture we
wish to consider three other basic reasons advanced to support a
figurative interpretation of the Sabbath rest in Hebrews.
First, some argue that since the author of Hebrews discusses
not the actual observance of the Sabbath but the permanence and
the fulfillment of its rest through the Christ-event, no
inference can be drawn regarding its literal observance.
Second, some point out that since "the Sabbath rest that
remains for the people of God" (Heb 4:9) is a future realization,
the exhortation to enter God's rest (Heb 4:10, 11) has no
implication for the present observance of the day.
Third, some assume that since the author of Hebrews in a
number of instances indicates that, with the coming of Christ,
certain Old Covenant institutions were made "obsolete" (Heb 8:13;
7:11-9:28), the Sabbath was presumably among those "obsolete"
institutions.
None of these arguments are convincing. The first argument
fails to recognize that the recipients of the Epistle (whether
Gentiles or Jewish-Christians) were so attracted to Jewish
liturgy (of which the Sabbath was a fundamental part) that it was
unnecessary for the author to discuss or to encourage its actual
observance. What those "Hebrew" Christians actually needed,
tempted as they were to turn back to Judaism 73 was to
understand the meaning of Sabbath observance in the light of
Christ's coming.
With regards to the second argument, one can hardly say that
in Hebrews the Sabbath rest is viewed primarily as a future
benefit, unrelated to the present observance of the day. The
Sabbath rest that "remains for the people of God" (Heb 4:9) is
presented primarily as a present experience into which those "who
have believed are entering" (Heb 4:3). The verb "are entering"
(Heb 4:3) is in the present tense and, in Greek, is placed first
in the sentence to stress the present reality of this "rest"
experience. The same is true of the verb "remains" (Heb 4:9). If
taken out of context, it could imply a future prospect; but in
its present context, it refers back to the time of Joshua (Heb
4:8) in order to emphasize the present permanence of the Sabbath
rest for God's people.
Obsolete or Remaining?
This leads us to the third argument, which maintains that
the Sabbath is an Old Testament shadow or type of the salvation
rest which Christ has fulfilled and, consequently, its function
terminated with His coming.
Does Hebrews teach that the Sabbath, like the temple and its
services, lived out its function with the coming of Christ? Or
did the Sabbath acquire fresh meaning and function with His
coming? Our study of the Sabbath material of the Gospels shows
that Christ fulfilled the typological and eschatological
Messianic Sabbath rest and release, not by annulling the actual
observance of the day, but by making it a time to experience and
share His accomplished salvation.
Let us now look at what Hebrews has to say on this point.
There is no question that the author clearly teaches that
Christ's coming has brought about "a decisive discontinuity" with
the sacrifical system of the Old Covenant. In chapters 7 to 10,
the writer of Hebrews explains at great length how Christ's
atoning sacrifice and subsequent heavenly ministry have replaced
completely the typological ("copy and shadow"-Heb 8:5) function
of the levitical priesthood and its Temple. These services Christ
"abolished" (Heb 10:9). Thus they are "obsolete" and "ready to
vanish away" (Heb 8:13). But, does the writer of Hebrews place
the Sabbath in the same category, viewing it as one of the
"obsolete" Old Covenant institutions? This is indeed the
conclusion that many have drawn, but it can hardly be supported
by a careful study of the passage.
The "sabbatismos-Sabbath rest" is explicitly and
emphatically presented, not as being "obsolete" like the Temple
and its services, but as being a divine benefit that still
"remains" (Heb 4:9). We noted in Chapter 3 that the verb
"remains--apoleipetai" is a present passive tense which literally
translated means "has been left behind." Thus, literally
translated, Hebrews 4:9 reads as follows: "So then a
Sabbath-keeping has been left behind for the people of God."
The contrast between the Sabbath and the sanctuary services is
obvious. While the latter are "obsolete," the former is "left
behind" and, therefore, is still relevant. A similar contrast is
found in the Gospel of Matthew. There the rending of the Temple
curtain in conjunction with Christ's death (Matt 27:51) indicates
the termination of the Temple services. On the other hand,
Christ's warning about the possibility that the future flight out
of the city might occur on a Sabbath (Matt 24:20) takes for
granted the permanence of its observance.
The exhortation given in verse 11 to "strive to enter that
rest" provides an additional indication of the permanence of the
Sabbath. The fact that one must make an effort "to enter that
rest" implies that the "rest" experience of the Sabbath is not
exhausted in the present but has a future realization also. This
Christian view of the Sabbath rest as representing not only a
present but also a future "rest" experience reflects to a large
extent what we have already found in the Old Testament and in
later Jewish literature. There we noted that the Sabbath was
understood not only as a present experience of personal rest and
liberation from social injustices but also as the anticipation of
the future rest and peace to be realized by the Messiah. Thus, in
his own way, the author of Hebrews reaffirms the Old Testament
understanding of the Sabbath in a fresh Christian settingnamely,
a day to experience the present rest of salvation while looking
forward to the future and final rest in the heavenly Canaan.
Literal or Spiritual Sabbathkeeping?
What is the nature of the "Sabbath rest" that is still
outstanding for God's people (4:9)? Is the writer thinking of a
literal or spiritual type of Sabbathkeeping? The passage provides
two important indications that support a literal understanding of
Sabbathkeeping as a faith response to God. Since we have already
discussed at some length both of these indications in Chapter 3,
we only briefly mention them in this context.
The first indication is the usage of the term "sabbatismos-
Sabbathkeeping" found in Hebrews 4:9. Though the term occurs only
in Hebrews 4:9 in the New Testament, it is used in secular and
Christian literature as a technical term for literal
Sabbathkeeping? 74 Consequently, the usage of
"sabbatismos-Sabbathkeeping" in verse 9 makes it abundantly clear
that the writer of Hebrews is thinking of a literal Sabbath
observance.
The second indication is the description of the Sabbath rest
as cessation from work which is found in verse 10: "For whoever
enters God's rest also ceases from his labors as God did from
his" (Heb 4:10). Historically, the majority of commentators have
interpreted the cessation from work of Hebrews 4:10 in a
figurative sense, as "abstention from servile work," meaning
sinful activities. 76 Thus, Christian Sabbathkeeping means not
the interruption of daily work on the seventh day but the
abstention from sinful acts at all times.
In support of this view, appeal is made to Hebrews'
reference to "dead works" (Heb 6:1; 9:14). Such a concept,
however, cannot be read back into Hebrews 4:10 where a comparison
is made between the divine and the human cessation from "works."
It would be absurd to think that God ceased from "sinful deeds."
The point of the analogy, as indicated in Chapter 3, is simply
that as God ceased on the seventh day from His creation work, so
believers are to cease on the same day from their labors.
This is a simple statement of the nature of Sabbathkeeping
which essentially involves cessation from works.
The Meaning of Sabbathkeeping.
Is the author of Hebrews merely encouraging his readers to
interrupt their secular activities on the Sabbath? Considering
the concern of the writer to counteract the tendency of his
readers to adopt Jewish liturgical customs as a means to gain
access to God, he could hardly have emphasized solely the
physical "cessation" aspect of Sabbathkeeping. This aspect yields
only a negative idea of rest, one which would only serve to
encourage existing Judaizing tendencies. Obviously, then, the
author attributes a deeper meaning to the act of resting on the
Sabbath.
The deeper meaning can be seen in the antithesis the author
makes between those who failed to enter into God's rest because
of "unbelief-apeitheias" (Heb 4:6,11) - that is, faithlessness
which results in disobedience - and those who enter it by "faith-
pistei" (Heb 4:2,3) - that is, faithfulness that results in
obedience.
The act of resting on the Sabbath for the author of Hebrews
is not merely a routine ritual (cf. "sacrifice"--Matt 12:7), but
rather a faithresponse to God. Such a response entails not the
hardening of one's heart (Heb 4:7) but the making of oneself
available to "hear his voice" (Heb 4:7). It means experiencing
God's salvation rest not by works but by faith, not by doing but
by being saved through faith (Heb 4:2,3,11). On the Sabbath, as
John Calvin aptly expresses it, believers are "to cease from
their work to allow God to work in them." 77
The Sabbath rest that remains for the people of God (4:9) is
not a mere day of idleness, for the author of Hebrews, but rather
an opportunity renewed every week to enter God's rest - to free
oneself from the cares of work in order to experience freely by
faith God's creation and redemption rest. The Sabbath experience
of the blessings of salvation is not exhausted in the present,
since the author exhorts his readers to "strive to enter that
rest" (Heb 4:11). This dimension of the future Sabbath rest shows
that Sabbathkeeping in Hebrews expresses the tension between the
"already" and the "not yet," between the present experience of
salvation and its eschatological consummation in the heavenly
Canaan.
This expanded interpretation of Sabbathkeeping in the light
of the Christ event was apparently designed to wean Christians
away from a too materialistic understanding of its observance. To
achieve this objective, the author of Hebrews on the one hand
reassures his readers of the permanence of the blessings
contemplated by the Sabbath rest and, on the other hand, explains
that the nature of these blessings consists in experiencing both
a present salvation-rest and the future restoration-rest which
God offers to those "who have believed" (Heb 4:3).
It is evident that for the author of Hebrews, the
Sabbathkeeping that remains for New Covenant Christians is not
only a physical experience of cessation from work on the seventh
day, but also a faith response, a yes "today" response to God. As
Karl Barth eloquently explains it, the act of resting on Sabbath
is an act of resignation to our human efforts to achieve
salvation in order "to allow the omnipotent grace of God to have
the first and last word at every point." 78
Hebrews' interpretation of the Sabbath rest reflects to a large
extent the redemptive understanding of the day we found earlier
in the Gospels. Christ's great promise to have come to offer the
expected sabbatical "release" (Luke 4:18) and "rest" (Matt 11:28)
represents the core of the "Sabbath rest" available "today" to
God's people (Heb 4:7, 9). Similarly, Christ's assurance that He
and His Father are "working until now" (John 5:17) to realize the
final Sabbath rest is reflected in the exhortation to "strive to
enter that rest" (Heb 4:1).
The fact that Hebrews 4 reflects the gospel understanding of
the Sabbath as a time to experience the blessings of salvation,
which will be fully realized at the end of our earthly
pilgrimage, shows that the Sabbath was understood in the
Apostolic Church as a time to celebrate God's creative and
redemptive love.
How did New Testament believers observe the Sabbath in the
light of its expanded redemptive meaning derived from Christ's
ministry? Initially, most Christians attended Sabbath services at
the Jewish synagogue (Acts 13:14,43,44; 17:2; 18:4). Gradually,
however, Christians established their own places of worship.
Matthew suggests that the process of separation had already begun
at the time of his writing, because he speaks of Christ entering
"their synagogue" (Matt 12:9). The pronoun "their" suggests that
the Matthean community as a whole no longer shared in Sabbath
services at the Jewish synagogue by the time the Gospel was
written. Presumably, they had organized their own meeting places
of worship by then.
5. The Manner of Sabbathkeeping
The distinction in Sabbathkeeping between Christian and
Jewish communities soon became not only topological but also
theological. The various Sabbath pericopes reported in the
Gospels reflect the existence of an ongoing controversy between
the Christian congregations and the Jewish synagogues which, in
some cases, may have been located across the street from one
another. The controversy centered primarily on the manner of
Sabbathkeeping in the light of Christ's teachings and example.
Was the day to be observed primarily as "sacrifice," that is, as
an outward fulfillment of the Sabbath law? Or was the Sabbath to
be observed as "mercy," that is, as an occasion to show
compassion and do good to those in need? (Matt 12:7).
A Day to Do Good.
To defend the Christian understanding of Sabbathkeeping as a
day to celebrate Messianic redemption by showing "mercy" and
doing "good" to those in need, the Evangelists appeal to the
example and teaching of Jesus. For example, in the healing of the
crippled woman, Luke contrasts two different concepts of
Sabbathkeeping: that of the ruler of the synagogue versus that of
Christ. For the ruler, the Sabbath consisted of rules to obey
rather than people to love (Luke 13:14). For Christ, the Sabbath
was a day to bring physical and spiritual liberation to needy
people (Luke 13:12, 16).
Christ challenged the Ruler's misconception by appealing to
the accepted customs of watering animals on the Sabbath. If the
daily needs of animals could be met on the Sabbath, how much more
the needs of "a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen
years"! Shouldn't she "be loosed from this bond on the sabbath
day?" (Luke 13:16).
This humanitarian understanding of the Sabbath is also
expressed in the episode of the healing of the man with the
withered hand, reported by all the three Synoptics (Mark 3:1-6;
Matt 12:9-14; Luke 6:6-11). In this instance, Jesus responds to
the testing question posed by a deputation of Scribes and
Pharisees regarding the legitimacy of healing on the Sabbath by
asking a question of principle: "Is it lawful on the sabbath, to
do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" (Mark 3:4; Luke
6:9).
It is noteworthy that in both Mark and Luke, Christ
substitutes for the verb "to heal" (therapeuein), used in the
question, the verbs "to do good" (agathopoiein) and "to save"
(sozein). The reason for this change is Christ's concern to
include not one type but all kinds of benevolent activities
within the intention of the Sabbath commandment. Such a broad
interpretation of the function of the Sabbath finds no parallel
in rabbinic concessions.
A Day of Benevolent Service.
According to Matthew, Christ illustrated the principle of
Sabbathkeeping as a time of benevolent service by adding a second
question that contains a concrete example: "What man of you, if
he has one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath, will not
lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man
than a sheep!" (Matt 12:11-12). Both by the question of principle
and by its illustration, Christ reveals the original value of the
Sabbath as a day to honor God by showing concern and compassion
for others. The believer who on the Sabbath experiences the
blessing of salvation automatically is moved "to save" and not
"to kill" others.
Christ's accusers, by failing to show concern for the
physical and spiritual well-being of others on the Sabbath,
revealed their defective understanding and experience of God's
Holy Day. Rather than celebrating God's goodness on the Sabbath
by being involved in a saving ministry, they engaged in
destructive efforts, looking for faults and devising methods to
kill Christ (Mark 3:2-6).
The new Christian understanding of the Sabbath as a time of
active, loving service to needy souls, rather than of passive
idleness, represents a radical departure from contemporary Jewish
Sabbathkeeping. This is attested to also in an early document
known as the "Epistle to Diognetus" (dates between A.D. 130-200),
where the Jews are charged with "speaking falsely of God" because
they claim that "He [God] forbade us [Christians] to do what is
good on the Sabbath-day - how is not this impious?" 79 This
positive humanitarian understanding of Sabbathkeeping is rooted
in Christ's fulfillment of the redemptive typology of the
Sabbath, which is brought out in the Gospels.
Conclusion
The preceding study of the relationship between the Sabbath
and the Savior shows that both in the Old and New Testaments the
Sabbath is closely linked to Christ's redemptive mission. In the
Old Testament, various themes - such as Sabbath peace and
prosperity, the Sabbath rest, the Sabbath liberation, and the
sabbatical structure of time - indicate that, in Old Testament
times, the weekly and annual Sabbaths served to epitomize and
nourish the hope of Messianic redemption.
In the New Testament, the coming of Christ is seen as the
actualization, the realization of the redemptive typology of the
Sabbath. Through His redemptive mission, Christ offers to
believers the expected sabbatical "release" (Luke 4:18) and
"rest" (Matt 11:28). In the light of the Cross, the Sabbath
memorializes not only God's creative but also His redemptive
accomplishments for mankind. Thus, "the Sabbath rest that remains
for the people of God" (Heb 4:9) is not only a physical cessation
from work to commemorate God's perfect creation, but also a
spiritual entering into God's rest (Heb 4:10) made possible
through Christ's complete redemption. The physical act of resting
becomes the means through which believers experience the
spiritual rest. We cease from our daily work on the Sabbath to
allow God to work in us more freely and fully.
In the New Testament, the Sabbath is not nullified but
clarified and amplified by Christ's teaching and saving ministry.
Viewing the rest and redemption typified by the Old Testament
Sabbath as realized by Christ's redemptive mission, New Testament
believers regarded Sabbathkeeping as a day to celebrate and
experience the Messianic redemption-rest by showing "mercy" and
doing "good" to those in need. This means that for believers
today, the Sabbath is the day to celebrate not only God's
creation by resting, but also Christ's redemption by acting
mercifully toward others.
In an age when the forces of chaos and disorder increasingly
appear to prevail - when injustice, greed, violence, corruption,
crime, suffering, and death seem to dominate - God through the
Sabbath reassures His people that these destructive forces will
not triumph because "there remains a sabbath rest for the people
of God" (Heb 4:9). Through the Sabbath, God reassures us that He
is in control of this world, working out His ultimate purpose.
God tells us that He conquered chaos at creation, that He has
liberated His people from the bonds of sin and death through the
saving mission of His Son, and that He "is working until now"
(John 5:17) in order to establish a New World where "from sabbath
to sabbath all flesh shall come to worship before God" (Is
66:23). In that final Sabbath, as eloquently expressed by
Augustine, "we shall rest and see, see and love, love and
praise."
.......................
NOTE:
The second half on Bacchiocchi's book "The Sabbath under
Crossfire" is already uploaded to this blog under "Paul and
the Sabbath."
Notes to chapter 4 are on the next page.
It is mind-blowing how many arguments people come up with to "do
away with" the FOURTH commandment. I think Samuele Bacchiocchi
and myself have answered just about all of them in the studies
under the Sabbath question on this Website. The 7th day Sabbath
was sanctified and holy from the beginning in the work God did to
create the present world in its physical state. The Sabbaths of
the Lord were a very important part of the type of the Kingdom of
God on earth under the nation of Israel. Jesus in His life time
on earth made it a custom to attend the synagogue on the Sabbath.
He upheld the Sabbath, gave not one word that it was ever going
to be abolished in this New Covenant age. Not one single verse in
the NT says the 4th commandment is abolished or changed from the
7th day to the 1st day of the week. There was never any
"ministerial conference" (like for the issue of physical
circumcision - Acts 15) to debate or officially render the 7th
day Sabbath as obsolete or taken out of the list of the Ten
Commandments or changed to the 1st day of the week.
Those who sit up nights dreaming up ideas to teach people that
the 7th day Sabbath is NOT to be obeyed by Christians today, are
very much in danger of what Jesus said in Matthew 5:17-20 and
will be on the outside looking in and saying, "But we did this in
your name, and we did works in your name." And Jeuss will look at
them and say, "I do not know you; depart from me you workers of
lawlessness (as the Greek is) - Mat.7:21-23.
You can soon find the Bible definitions of "law" -
"righteousness" - "sin" - "commandments" - "unrighteousness" -
"lawlessness" - by taking some time with Strong's Concordance of
the Bible and looking up every place in the Bible where those
words can be found. Now that is real Bible study work. Why not
put down and stop reading the books on "How to Study the Bible"
by this guy and that fellow, and just do some simple old
fashioned Bible study as mentioned above.
For those with a mind of a child, the fourth commandment is still
a part of the great Ten Commandments, simple to read, and
understand, and obey. But the carnal mind just does not want to
give up 24 hours to God and working the work of the Sabbath. The
carnal mind wants every single minute of every single day, every
single day of the week, to itself, to do what it wants to do.
I pray you will overcome your carnal mind and let the mind of
Christ be in you (Philip.2:5).
For the notes of Bacchiocchi's chapter 4 see the next page.
Keith Hunt (September 2009)
The Sabbath under CrossfireNotes for Chapter 4 NOTES FOR CHAPTER 4
1. Herbert W. Richardson, Toward an American Theology (New York,
1967), p. 139.
2. For my analysis of the Messianic typologies of the Sabbath in
the Old Testament, see Divine Rest for Human Restlessness (Rome,
1980), pp.134-145; also "Sabbatical Typologies of Messianic
Redemption," Journal for the Study of Judaism, vol. 17, no. 2
(1987).
3. See also Is 11:7-9; 65:25; Hos 2:20.
4. The Babylonian Talmud, Shabbath 12a; cf. also 12b.
5. Mishnah, Shabbath 6:2. The quotations are taken from The
Mishnah, ed. Herbert Danby (London, 1933).
6. For a convenient collection of texts, see Joseph Klausmer, The
Messianic Idea in Israel (New York, 1955), pp.43-44, 62-63,
85-86, 99101, 158-160, 175-177, 283-284, 342-345, 377-378,
409-410, 505-512. The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, an apocryphon
of the Old Testament composed between A.D. 1-50, alludes to the
seven-day millennial scheme. It says: "And I blessed the seventh
day which is the Sabbath ... God shows Enoch the age of this
world, its existence of seven thousand years" (32:3). A similar
scheme was developed by the rabbis. Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer
asserts: "The Holy One, blessed be He, created seven aeons, and
of them all He chose the seventh aeon only; the six aeons are for
the going in and coming out .... The seventh aeon is entirely
Sabbath and rest in the life everlasting" (trans. Gerald
Friedlander [New York, 1971], p.141). See also Shabbath 30b;
Kethubboth l l lb.
7. For my analysis of Barnabas and of the patristic
interpretation of the cosmic Sabbath, see From Sabbath to Sunday
(Rome, 1977), pp. 218-223, 278-285.
8. Tosephta Shabbat 16:22 reads: "Beth Shammai says:
'Contributions for the poor are not allotted on the Sabbath in
the synagogue, even a dowry to marry an orphan young man to an
orphan young woman. Quarrels between husband and wife are not
adjudicated and one does not pray for the sick on the Sabbath.'
Beth Hillel permits these activities."
9. Theodore Friedman, "The Sabbath: Anticipation of Redemption,"
Judaism 16 (1967): 445.
10. The Midrash on Psalms, trans. William G. Braude (New Haven,
1959), vol.2, p.112. In a similar vein, Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer
says: "He created the seventh day, (but) not for work, because it
is not said in connection therewith, `And it was evening and it
was morning.' Why? For it is reserved for the generations (to
come), as it is said, `And there shall be one day which is known
unto the Lord; not day and not night' (Zech 14:7)" (trans. Gerald
Friedlander [New York, 1971], p.137). Cf. also Shabbath 1 lb;
Berakhoth 58b; Rosh Hashanah 31a. Church Fathers also took notice
of the absence of any mention of "evening and morning" in
conjunction with the seventh day of creation and interpreted it
as representing the future eternal peace and rest of the saints.
For example, Augustine in his Confessions offers this sublime
prayer: "O Lord God, grant Thy peace unto us ... the peace of
rest, the peace of the Sabbath, which hath no evening. For all
this most beautiful order of things ... is to pass away, for in
them there was morning and evening. But the seventh day is
without any evening, nor hath any setting, because Thou hast
sanctified it to an everlasting continuance; that that which Thou
didst after Thy works, which were very good, resting on the
seventh day ... that we also after our works (therefore very
good, because Thou has given them unto us) may repose in Thee
also in the Sabbath of eternal life" (The Confessions of St.
Augustine 13, 50-51, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ed. Philip
Schaff [Grand Rapids, 1979], first series v.l , p.207). See also
Augustine's City of God, book 22, chapter 30.
11. Bereshith Rabbah 12:6.
12. According to the Midrash, the Sabbath acted as Adam's savior
when God was about to destroy him on Friday evening on account of
his sin: "At that moment the Sabbath arrived and became Adam's
advocate, saying to the Holy One, blessed be He: `During the six
days of Creation no one suffered punishment. And wilt Thou begin
it with me? Is this my holiness? Is this my rest?'And thus Adam
was saved by the Sabbath's plea from destruction in Gehenna. When
Adam saw the power of the Sabbath, he was about to sing a hymn in
her honor"( The Midrash on Psalms, trans. William G. Braude [New
Haven, 1959], vol, 2, p.112).
13. The redemptive role of the Sabbath is reflected especially in
the belief expressed by R. Eliezer of Modihim, that if Israel
kept the Sabbath, the Lord would give her the land of Israel, the
kingdom of the house of David, the future world, the new world
(Mekilta, Vayassah 5:6673). See also Shabbath 118b, 119b, 3a;
Mishnah Aboth 5:8; Jubilees 2:28. 14. See, for example, Bereshith
Rabbah 3:6; 11:2. For other sources, see Louis Ginzberg, Legends
of the Jews (Philadelphia, 1946), vol.5, p.8, n. 19.
15. Dale Ratzlaff, Sabbath in Crisis (Applegate, California,
1990), p.24.
16. See The Midrash on Psalms (n. 12), vol.2, p.112; Pirke de
Rabbi Eliezer (n. 10), p.144.
17. Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern
Man (New York, 1951), p.23.
18. On the development of the rest-theme in the Old Testament,
see Gerhard von Rad, "There Remains Still a Rest for the People
of God," in The Problem of the Hexateuch and Other Essays (New
York, 1966), pp.94-102.
19. Ernst Jenni, Die Theologische Begrundung des Sabbatgebotes im
Alten Testament (Zurich, 1956), p.282.
20. The Midrash on Psalms (n. 12), vol.2, p.113.
21. The author of Hebrews presents what may be called three
different levels of meaning of the Sabbath rest: creation-rest
(4:3), national-rest (4:6, 8), redemption-rest (4:3,7,9,10). For
my analysis of the passage, see Samuele Bacchiocchi, Divine Rest
for Human Restlessness (Rome, 1980), pp.135-136, 164-170; idem,
From Sabbath to Sunday (Rome, 1977), pp.63-69.
22. Sanhedrin 97a.
23. Mishnah Tamid 7:4. 24. Ibid.
25. See Mishnah Pesahim 10:5. The underlying connection among the
Sabbath, Passover, and the Day of Atonement appears to be not
only theological (i.e., redemption motif) and terminological
(i.e., Shabbath designation) but presumably also numerical. Saul
J. Berman notes that "The fact that the Jewish calendar can be
begun with either the month of Tishrei or with the month of
Nissan will allow us to recognize a further relationship of the
term, 'Shabbat,' to the number seven. Counting from the month of
Tishrei, the seventh month, Nissan, contains a Shabbat, namely
Pesah. Counting the months of the year from Nissan yields Tishrei
as the seventh month, and that month too, contains a Shabbath,
Yom Kippur ... Pesah, in the seventh month from Tishrei, and Yom
Kippur, in the seventh month from Nissan, together constitute the
Sabbath of months" ("The Extended Notion of the Sabbath," Judaism
22 (1973): 343). The weekly Sabbath appears then to share in
common the theme of redemption with the Sabbath of months and the
Sabbath of years (sabbatical and jubilee years).
26. For a perceptive discussion of the redemptive features of the
Sabbath years, see George Wesley Buchanan, Revelation and
Redemption (Dillsboro, North Carolina, 1978), pp.9-10; idem, The
Consequences of the Covenant (Leiden, 1970), p.18.
27. Robert B. Sloan, The Favorable Year of the Lord: A Study of
Jubilary Theology in the Gospel of Luke (Austin, Texas, 1977).
28. Julian Morgenstern maintains that "in all likelihood the
'great trumpet' (Is 27:13), a blast from which would inaugurate a
new and happier era for conquered and dispersed Israel, was a
yobel. All this suggests cogently that the ram's-horn trumpet was
of unusual character, used only upon extraordinary occasions and
for some particular purpose (cf. Ex 19:13) ... This year acquired
its name just because this unique, fiftieth year was ushered in
by this blast upon the yobel, whereas the commencement of
ordinary years was signalized only by a blast upon a shophar (2
Sam 15:10; cf. Lev 23:24)" (The Interpreter's Dictionary of the
Bible [Nashville, 1962], s. v. "Jubilee, Year of," vol.2, p.
1001).
29. Behodesh Hashebihi 172a, cited in George W. Buchanan,
Revelation and Redemption (Dillsboro, North Carolina, 1978), p.
13.
30. The term and concept of "sabbatical eschatology" is used and
explained by Buchanan, in Revelation and Redemption (note 26),
pp.3-6; also idem, The Consequences of the Covenant (note 30),
pp.9-17.
31. The terms "sabbatical messianism" and "chronomessianism" are
used by Ben Zion Wacholder in his article, "Chronomessianism. The
Timing of Messianic Movements and the Calendar of Sabbatical
Cycles," Hebrews Union College Annual 46 (1975), p.201.
32. For an edition and analysis of I IQ Melchizedek, see Joseph
A. Fitzmyer, "Further Light on Melchizedek from Qumran Cave II,"
Journal of Biblical Literature 86 (1967), p.25-41; M. de Jonge
and A. S. van der Woude, "11 Q Melchizedek and the New
Testament," New Testament Studies 12 (1865-1966), p.301-326.
33. Sanhedrin 97b.
34. Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern
Man (New York, 1951), p.68.
35. John Calvin, Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called
Genesis, trans. John King (Grand Rapids, 1948), p.106.
36. Paul K. Jewett, The Lord's Day: A Theological Guide to the
Christian Day of Worship (Grand Rapids, 1972), p.86.
37. M. Max B. Turner, "The Sabbath, Sunday, and the Law in
Luke/Acts," in the symposium From Sabbath to the Lord's Day
(Grand Rapids, 1982), p.102.
38. Ibid.
39. On the influence of the synagogue upon the Christian divine
service, see C. W. Dugmore, The Influence of the Synagogue upon
the Divine Office, 1964; A. Allan McArthur, The Evolution of the
Christian Year, 1953; Dom Benedict Steuart, The Development of
Christian Worship, 1953.
40. Luke 416,31; 6:1,2,5,6,7,9; 13:10,14,15,16; 14:1,3,5; 23:54,
56; Acts 1:12; 13:14,27,42,44; 15:21; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4.
41. See, for example, 1. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke (New
York,1978), p.883; F. Godet, A Commentary on the Gospel of Saint
Luke, (London, 1870), 11, p. 343; A. R. Leaney, A Commentary on
the Gospel According to Saint Luke (Grand Rapids, 1966), p.288.
The same view is implied by the translators of the New
International Version: "Then they went home and prepared spices
and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the
commandment" (Luke 23:56).
42. M. Max B. Turner (note 37), p.102.
43. The two crucial terms of the passage are "to proclaim" and
"release." Both of these terms, which recur twice, are technical
terms for the Sabbath years. For an informative treatment of this
question, see Robert B. Sloan (note 27), pp.32-42. P. Miller
rightly notes: "The tie that binds Isaiah 61:1-2 and 58:6
together in Luke 4 is the small word aphesis, the word translated
'release' for the captives and `liberty' for the oppressed ....
it is the catchword binding the two quotations together. Out of
the four sentences in Isaiah 58:6 that all say essentially the
same thing, the one chosen here in the gospel quotation is the
one that in the Greek translation uses aphesis" ("Luke 4:16-21,"
Interpretation 29 [October, 1975], p.419).
44. H. Conzelmann, The Theology of St. Luke (New York, 1960), p.
180. Similarly, G. B. Caird points out that Luke "places the
incident at the beginning of his story of the Galilean ministry
because it announces the pattern which the ministry is to follow"
(Saint Luke [Grand Rapids, 1963], p. 86). Robert C. Tannehill
also writes: "These words and acts [Luke 4:1630] have typical
programmatic significance for the whole of Jesus' ministry as
Lukes understands it . . . Luke chose to make this quotation
[Luke 4:18-19] the title under which the whole ministry of Jesus
is placed. He did so because it expresses clearly certain
important aspects of his own understanding of Jesus and his
ministry" ("The Mission of Jesus according to Luke 4:16-30," in
Jesus in Nazareth [Grand Rapids, 1972], pp.51,72).
45. Paul K. Jewett (note 36), p. 27. A. Strobel argues that
behind Christ's quotation lay an actual historical jubilee year
which is dated in A.D. 26-27 (Kerygma und Apokalyptik, [1967], p.
105-111). If this were the case, then Christ's speech would have
added significance since it would have been delivered in the
context of an actual jubilee year.
46. Paul K. Jewett (note 36), p.42.
47. Ibid., p.82.
48. This view is expressed, for example, by M. M. B. Turner who
writes: "There is no question here of the Sabbath being
particularly appropriate for such healing; any more than it is
particularly appropriate on that day to loose oxen and donkey
from their crib and to water them. The argument, in other words,
is not that the Sabbath is a special day, in this respect, but
precisely that it is not. The inbreaking kingdom, the loosing of
Satan's captives, is no respecter of days" (note 37, p.107).
49. Nathan A. Barack correctly affirms: "The Sabbath inspires its
beneficiaries to feel that the universe is the work of a
purposeful Creator, that human life has meaning and sanctity,
that all life must be preserved, and that even animals must be
provided with their necessary rest" (A History of the Sabbath
[1965], p. xii).
50. Robert Banks comments in this regard: "Luke desires to
highlight those works of Jesus which bring salvation and healing
to men, which as v. 16 makes clear, especially occur on that day"
(Jesus and the Law in the Synoptic Tradition [1985], p.131).
Similarly, I. Howard Marshall writes: "Hence it was necessary for
her to be released immediately, even though it was Sabbath,
perhaps indeed all the more fitting on the Sabbath" (The Gospel
of Luke [1978], p.559).
51. Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer (note 10), p.141.
52. For my extensive analysis of the literary context and of the
sabbatical nature of Christ's rest, see "Matthew 11:28-30: Jesus'
Rest and the Sabbath," Andrews University Seminary Studies 24
(Summer 1984), p.1-23.
53. See, for example, J. Danielou, Bible and Liturgy (South Bend,
Indiana, 1956), p.226; David Hill, The Gospel of Matthew (London,
1972), pp.209-210; D. A. Carson, "Jesus and the Sabbath in the
Four Gospels," in From Sabbath to Lord's Day. A Biblical,
Historical, and Theological Investigation (Grand Rapids, 1982),
p.66.
54. Donald A. Carson, "Jesus and the Sabbath in the four
Gospels," in the symposium From Sabbath to the Lord's Day (Grand
Rapids, 1982), p.102.
55. The book of Jubilees explains that "burning frankincense and
bringing oblation and sacrifices before the Lord ... shall be
done on Sabbath-days in the sanctuary of the Lord your God; that
they may atone for Israel with sacrifice" (50:10-11).
56. This view is held by various scholars. Gerhard Barth, for
example, comments that by the phrase "something greater than the
temple is here ... undoubtedly Jesus is meant, for in him the
Messianic fulfillment and consummation has come and he is
therefore more than the Temple" (Tradition and Interpretation in
Matthew [Philadelphia, 1963], p.82).
57. Ellen G. White perceptively notes: "The priests were
performing those rites that pointed to the redeeming power of
Christ, and their labor was in harmony with the object of the
Sabbath. But now Christ Himself had come. The disciples, in doing
the work of Christ, were engaged in God's service, and that which
was necessary for the accomplishment of this work it was right to
do on the Sabbath" (The Desire of Ages [Mountain View,
California, 1940], p.285).
58. Robert Banks, Jesus and the Law in the Synoptic Tradition
(Grand Rapids, 1967), p.117. Cf. Morna D. Hooker, The Son of Man
in Mark (New York, 1967), p.98; P. K. Jewett (note 36), p.37.
59. D. A. Carson (note 54), p.67.
60. Ibid., p.79. Cf. W. Rordorf, Sunday: The History of the Day
of Rest and Worship in the Earliest Centuries of the Christian
Church (Philadelphia, 1968), pp.70, 296.
61. David Hill, The Gospel of Matthew (1972), p.211.
62. This view is emphatically stated by Etan Levine: "The
Pharisees are not being told that the Sabbath injunctions should
be abrogated; rather, within their own realm of discourse they
are being reminded that plucking grain on the Sabbath is
legitimate for sacred purposes. Thus, Jesus does not abrogate the
Torah, but exercises his prerogative to interpret it, in this
case defining the `sacred' in term other than the Temple ritual,
as the text explicitly states" ("The Sabbath Controversy
According to Matthew," New Testament Studies 22 [1976]: 482).
Similarly, William L. Lane writes: "The divine intention was in
no way infringed by the plucking of heads of grain on the part of
Jesus' disciples" (The Gospel According to Mark [New York, 1974],
p.120).
63. L. Goppelt, Christentum and Judentum im ers ten and zweiten
Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1954), p.46, as cited in W. Rordorf (note
60), p. 71. Rordorf himself defends this view and goes so far as
to acuse Matthew of "beginning the moralistic misunderstanding of
Jesus' attitude toward the Sabbath" (note 60, p.68). This
misunderstanding allegedly consists in assuming "that the
obligation to love one's neighbour dispiaces in certain
circumstances the command to keep a day of rest" (ibid.).
One wonders whether Matthew really misunderstood or truly
understood Christ's meaning and message of the Sabbath, when he
wrote, "It is lawful to do good on the sabbath" (Matt 12:12). It
is true that in post exilic Judaism an elaborate fence had been
erected around the Sabbath to assure its faithful observance. The
multitude of meticulous and casuistic regulations, produced to
guard the Sabbath, turned the observance of the day into a
legalistic ritual rather than into a loving service. It was
Christ's intent to restore the Sabbath to the original divine
design.
64. Niels-Erik Andreasen, "Festival and Freedom," Interpretation
28 (1974), p.289.
65. Hans Walter Wolff, "The Day of Rest in the Old Testament,"
Concordia Theological Monthly 43 (1972), p.504.
66. For my analysis of John 5:17, see my article "John 5:17:
Negation or Clarification of the Sabbath?" Andrews University
Seminary Studies 19 (Spring 1981), p.3-19.
67. See, for example, George Allen Turner, Julius R. Mantey, O.
Cullman, E. C. Hoskyns, F. Godet on John 5:17.
68. A. T. Lincoln, "Sabbath, Rest, and Eschatology in the New
Testament," in From Sabbath to Lord's Day, ed. Donald A. Carson
(Grand Rapids, 1982), p.204.
69. Yoma 85b.
70. On the redemptive meaning of circumcision, see Rudolf Meyer,
"peritemno," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. G.
Kittel (Grand Rapids, 1973), vol. 6, pp.75-76.
71. For a presentation of the three reasons, see A. T. Lincoln
(note 68), pp.212-214.
72. Among the commentators who view the fulfillment of the
Sabbath rest as an exclusive fut ure experience are E. Kasemann,
O. Michel, H. Windisch, W. Manson; F.F. Bruce; Delitzsch, and R.
C. H. Lenski.
73. Bruce Metzger rightly remarks: "Many of them felt themselves
drawn to Jewish liturgy and were on the point of renouncing
Christianity and returning to their ancestral Jewish faith" (The
New Testament: Its Background, Growth and Content [Nashville,
1965), p.249).
74. The term sabbatismos occurs in the following works: Plutarch,
De Superstitione 3 (Moralia 1660); Justin Martyr, Dialogue with
Trypho 23, 3; Epiphanius, Adversus Haereses 30, 2, 2; Apostolic
Constitutions 2,36.
75. Andrew T. Lincoln, a contributor to the scholarly symposium
From Sabbath to the Lord's Day acknowledges that in both secular
and Christian literature "the term [sabbatismos] denotes the
observance or celebration of the Sabbath. This usage corresponds
to the Septuagint usage of the cognate verb sabbatizo (cf. Ex
16:23; Lev 23:32; 26:34f; 2 Chron 36:21) which also has reference
to Sabbath observance. Thus, the writer to the Hebrews is saying
that since the time of Joshua an observance of Sabbath rest has
been outstanding" (note 68), p.213.
76. For examples and discussion of the spiritual interpretation
of the Sabbath commandment, see W. Rordorf (note 60), pp.
100-108. Franz X. Pettirsch also notes: "The early fathers of the
Church applied the law of Sabbath rest only allegorically to
absention from sin; a literal application to work was foreign to
their thinking" ("A Theology of Sunday Rest," Theology Digest 6
[1958], p.116). The author explains how during the Middle Ages
the formula "servile work" was interpreted in a literal sense as
meaning "field work, any heavy work" (p.117). The spiritual
interpretation of the Sabbath rest as "self-renenciation" is
advocated also by John Calvin, in Commentaries on the Four Last
Rooks of Moses, trans. C. W. Bingham (Grand Rapids, 1950), p.
436.
77. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Grand
Rapids, 1972), vol.2, p.337. Karl Barth keenly observes that, by
resting on the Sabbath after the similitude of God (Heb 4:10),
the believer "participates consciously in the salvation provided
by him [God]" (Church Dogmatics [Edinburgh, 1961], vol.3, part 2,
p.50).
78. Karl Barth (note 77), p.51.
79. Epistle to Diognetus 4, 3, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand
Rapids, 1973 reprint), vol.l, p.26.
80. Augustine, City of God, XXII, 30, trans. Gerald Walsh,
Demetrius B. Zema, Grace Monahan (New York,1958), p.544.
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