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SABBATH [Heb šabbāt (שַׁבָּת)]. The word “sabbath” designates in the Bible the weekly seventh day of festal rest which is a day of abstention from secular work that follows each six-day working week.
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A. Sabbath Terminology
1. Hebrew Terminology
2. Greek Terminology
B. Modern Research on Sabbath Origins
1. Babylonian Origins
2. Kenite Origin
3. Arabic Origin
4. Ugaritic Origin
5. Sociological Origins
C. Sabbath in the OT
1. Pentateuch
a. Narrative Texts
b. Legal Texts
2. Prophetical Writings
3. Historical Writings
D. Sabbath in Extrabiblical Texts
1. Sabbath Attacks on Ancient Israel
2. Yabneh-Yam Ostracon
3. Aramaic Ostraca and Papyri
E. Sabbath in Intertestamental Literature
1. Qumran Literature
2. Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphical Literature
3. Historical Literature
4. Rabbinic Literature
F. Sabbath in the NT
1. Gospels
2. Acts
3. Letters
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A. Sabbath Terminology
The discussion of the terminology of the sabbath is in many ways interrelated with the quest for extrabiblical sabbath origins. It will be helpful, however, to describe the terminological evidence for the sabbath in both the OT and NT.
1. Hebrew Terminology. The Heb noun šabbāt, “sabbath,” occurs 111 times in the OT. Concentrations of usage are in the Pentateuch with 47 times (Exodus 15 times; Leviticus 25 times; Numbers 4 times; Deuteronomy 3 times), the prophetic literature with 32 times (Ezekiel 15 times; Isaiah 8 times; Jeremiah 7 times; Amos and Hosea 1 time each), and the historical books with 30 times (Nehemiah 14 times; 1–2 Chronicles 10 times; 2 Kings 6 times). It appears one time each in Ps 92:1 and Lam 2:6. The noun šabbātôn, “sabbath feast,” seems to be a derivative of the noun šabbāt (GKC §240) and appears eleven times. It is used by itself in Exod 16:23; 31:15; Lev 23:24, 39 in the sense of “sabbath feast” and in Lev 25:6 for “the sabbath of the land,” i.e., the sabbatical year. The combination šabbāt šabbātôn, “sabbath of complete/solemn rest,” appears for the seventh day (Exod 32:5; Lev 23:3), the annual Day of Atonement (Lev 16:31; 23:32), the annual Feast of Trumpets (Lev 23:24) and the sabbatical year (Lev 25:4).
The relationship between the noun šabbāt and the Heb verb šābat, “to stop, cease, keep (sabbath)” in the Qal, “to disappear, be brought to a stop” in the Nip˓al, “to put to an end, bring to a stop” in the Hip˓il, remains disputed. Scholars have argued that the noun derives from the verb (for example, AncIsr, 475–76; RGG 3 5:1259) or that the verb derives from the noun (for example, North 1955:185–87; KB, 496). While there is no conclusive answer, it seems certain that the noun šabbāt cannot be derived from the Akk term šab/pattu(m) (see B.1 below). A possible connection of šabbāt with the number “seven” has been left open (Hehn 1907, 1909; North NCE 12:780). In this case the Akk feminine form sibbitîm, “seventh,” may be considered as an ancestor of the Heb noun šabbāt, “sabbath,” also a feminine form, which, if the relationship holds, may have originally meant “the seventh [day].” On this supposition “the seventh day” in Gen 2:2–3 would receive further light.
2. Greek Terminology. The Gk neuter noun sábbaton, “sabbath,” (Mark 2:27–28; 6:2; Matt 12:8; Luke 6:5, etc.) translates the Heb noun šabbāt. It corresponds generally to Gk pre-NT usage. Whether the Gk noun sábbaton derives from the Aram šabbāh by means of the emphatic form šabbetâ or is a spontaneous creation seems to be immaterial (Pelletier 1972:441 n. 2).
The NT has 67 usages of the term sábbaton (Synoptics 43 times; John 13 times; the remaining usages appear in Acts and in a few letters). In some usages the plural form (Matt 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19; Acts 20:27) or the singular (Luke 18:12; Mark 16:9; 1 Cor 16:2) refers to “week”; otherwise the meaning is always the seventh day of the week, the sabbath.
B. Modern Research on Sabbath Origins
At the end of the 19th century appear the first modern attempts to find the origin of the sabbath outside of the OT. This modern quest for extrabiblical religio-historical sabbath origins was conditioned by the extensive redating of materials in Pentateuchal criticism and the discovery of texts from ancient Babylon.
1. Babylonian Origins. Various hypotheses and theories of Babylonian sabbath origins were put forth some years ago. It was suggested first that the Hebrew noun šabbāt and the Akk term šab/pattu(m), which were at first thought to be identical, meant approximately the same thing, i.e., “day of rest” (so Lotz 1938). The Akk term was brought into connection with ûmê lemnûti, “evil (taboo) days” of the Assyrian calendar, which appeared in approximately seven-day sequences. This hypothesis had to be abandoned when it became apparent that šab/pattu(m) was the 15th day of the month, the full moon day, and was never applied to taboo days. In the course of time it also became evident that the ûmê lemnûti are the 1st, 7th, 14th, 19th, 21st (added later) and 28th days of the month without fitting into a true weekly cycle. The 19th day was the most important day, but never fits into a seven-day schema.
The Akk term šab/pattu(m) cannot be etymologically related to the Heb term šabbāt and the latter cannot be directly derived from the Akk term. The Heb term has its middle consonant (radical) doubled, whereas the Akk term has its last consonant (radical) doubled. Comparative Semitic linguistics cannot adequately account for connections between the two terms because of the differing doubling of letters.
Beginning in 1905, J. Meinhold argued that the OT sabbath was originally a monthly full-moon day and as such was borrowed by Israel from ancient Babylon. His hypothesis has found sporadic support. It is recently defended by G. Robinson (1988) who argues that the sequence of “new moon—sabbath” in preexilic sabbath texts (Amos 8:4–7; Hos 2:11–15—Eng 2:9–13; Isa 1:10–14; 2 Kgs 4:22–23) shows that the sabbath after the monthly “new moon” is a monthly “full moon” day just as the sequence in Babylonian texts has arḫum-šapattu, “new moon–full moon.” In postexilic times the monthly (full moon) sabbath is said to have been transformed into the weekly sabbath. However, this alleged parallel has serious problems: (1) The sequence in all currently known Babylonian (and Sumerian) texts is arḫum-sebutu-šapattu, “1st (new moon), 7th, and 15th (full moon) days,” which is totally unaccounted for in the OT. (2) The 8th-century text of Hos 2:13—Eng 2:11 (cf. Amos 8:5; Isa 1:13) manifests the sequence of “feasts–new moons–sabbaths,” three festal celebrations in the order of increasing frequency of “yearly (feasts), monthly (new moons), and weekly (sabbaths)” celebrations. The sequence also appears in reversed form of decreasing frequency of “weekly (sabbaths), monthly (new moons), and yearly (feasts)” celebrations (Ezek 46:1, 3, 9; 1 Chr 23:31; 2 Chr 2:3—Eng 2:4; 31:3; cf. Ezra 3:5). Both sequences are unknown outside of Israel. (3) New moon and sabbath continue to stand next to each other in later and particularly postexilic texts (Ezek 45:17; 46:1; Neh 10:33; cf. 1 Chr 23:31; 2 Chr 2:3—Eng 2:4) where šabbāt refers clearly to the seventh day of the week. (4) The respective contextual settings are so distinct that they cannot be related to each other (Hasel 1988:37–64; Kutsch 1986:71–77). Furthermore, there is no compelling evidence in the OT for an alleged transfer from a preexilic monthly sabbath to an exilic/postexilic weekly sabbath.
Other Babylonian hypotheses hold that an early Semitic pentecontad calendar was used, based on the ḫamuštu(m) unit of Babylon, meaning “fifty days” (“pentecontad”) as first suggested. The sabbath is said to have been the 50th day of such a period (Morgenstern 1947:1–136; IDB 4:135–41) or an alleged last day of a reconstructed Babylonian seven-day week (H. and J. Lewy 1942:1–152) or one-fifth of a month of a sexagesimal calendar system (Tur-Sinai 1951:1, 14–24). These menological hypotheses have not received much support in scholarly circles, because (1) there is no clear evidence for a pentacontad calendar, and (2) ḫamuštu(m) is typically a five-day period and does not stand for fifty or six days respectively.
2. Kenite Origin. The Kenite hypothesis holds that the Israelites adopted the seventh-day Sabbath through Moses in the Sinai region from metal-working nomads known as the Kenites. The sabbath was supposedly Saturn-day of the nomadic Kenites (Eerdmans 1925:79–83; Rowley 1951:81–118). There is no documentary evidence in support of this hypothesis, and the biblical texts cited in its favor (Exod 35:3; Num 15:32; Amos 5:26) are highly disputed in their precise meaning. Accordingly this hypothesis has had only few followers and is hardly supported today.
3. Arabic Origin. D. Nielsen (1904:52–88) suggested that the sabbath originates through the linguistic link with the Akk šabattu which is supposedly derived from the Ar verb tabat, “sit,” a word used for the four monthly phases where the moon “sat.” Ancient Arabs worshipped the moon on the four days of the “sitting” of the moon each month, and thus provided the background for the seven-day intervals which in Israel were turned into weekly cycles. This lunar hypothesis has the same difficulties as the ones mentioned previously. The Akk term šap/battu(m) is never used for a seven-day cycle or for the four monthly stages of the moon and thus cannot provide a link. The lunar month has 29 days, but weekly sabbath cycles never harmonize or coincide with the phases of the moon. It is not surprising that this hypothesis has not attracted any supporters.
4. Ugaritic Origin. Texts from ancient Ugarit (Ras Shamra) have divisions of “seven years” in the Danel cycle and “seven days” in the Krt legend. These days have to do with a festival week and it is maintained that “it is only a short step to the assumption that the origin of the seven-day week was the festival week, which was carried over . . . from the cultic festival and from the cultic week to the reckoning of time as a whole” (Kraus 1966:87). There is no direct or indirect evidence in support of this connection. Some scholars build on the supposition that there was a universal “seven” structure on the basis of which the origin of the sabbath is to be explained (Negretti 1972, and earlier, Hehn 1907:59–61, 115–20).
5. Sociological Origins. Several scholars have suggested a variety of sociological contexts out of which the seventh-day sabbath is said to have evolved. H. Webster (1916:188–92, 101–23) sees the sabbath rooted in “special days” or “rest days” of primitive agriculturalists. Some suggest that the sabbath had its beginning in the “market days” (Jenni 1956:7–16). However, there is no evidence for a seven-day cycle of market days from the ancient Near East or anywhere else. The development from a market day to a regularly recurring cycle of weekly sabbath celebration remains likewise unaccounted for.
In spite of the extensive efforts of more than a century of study into extra-Israelite sabbath origins, it is still shrouded in mystery. No hypothesis whether astrological, menological, sociological, etymological, or cultic commands the respect of a scholarly consensus. Each hypothesis or combination of hypotheses has insurmountable problems. The quest for the origin of the sabbath outside of the OT cannot be pronounced to have been successful. It is, therefore, not surprising that this quest has been pushed into the background of studies on the sabbath in recent years.
C. Sabbath in the OT
The sabbath appears in a variety of texts in OT literature and in varied contexts of historical and theological import.
1. Pentateuch. The Pentateuch has been considered traditionally to contain the earliest references to the sabbath in the OT. Historical-critical redating of many Pentateuchal strata and traditions has called this into question for many modern scholars. However, there is no unanimity of scholarly opinion on matters of dating and caution remains in order. Also new methods of research throw new light on old questions.
a. Narrative Texts. There are two narratives in which the sabbath plays a prominent role. The creation account of Gen 1:1–2:4a climaxes in the creation sabbath (2:1–3). This pregnant passage reveals that God had finished his creative activity in six days after which he “rested” (šābat) on the “seventh day,” i.e., ceased from his creative activity (v 2). The “seventh day” means the sabbath even though the noun šabbāt is not used. The phonetic linkage between šābat and šabbāt is generally perceived to indicate sabbath-rest. This seems supported by other typical sabbath terminology which Gen 2:1–3 has in common with the fourth commandment of the Decalogue: “seventh day” (vv 2–3; Exod 20:10), “bless” (Heb bārak, v 3; Exod 20:11), “sanctify/make holy” (Heb qiddaš [Pi˓el], v 3; Exod 20:11; cf. 31:14), “make” (Heb ˓āśāh, vv 2–3; Exod 20:9–10; cf. 31:14–15), and “work” (Heb melā˒kāh, v 3; Exod 20:9–10; cf. 31:14–15). The “seventh day” sabbath is “blessed” as no other day and thereby imbued with a power unique to this day. God made this day “holy” by separating it from all other days. Rest-day holiness is something God bestowed onto the seventh day. God manifested himself in refraining from work and in rest as the divine Exemplar for humankind. The sequence of “six working-days” and a “seventh [sabbath] rest-day” indicates universally that every human being is to engage in an imitatio Dei, “imitation of God,” by resting on the “seventh day.” “Man” (˒ādām), made in the imago Dei, “image of God,” (Gen 1:26–28) is invited to follow the Exemplar in an imitatio Dei, participating in God’s rest by enjoying the divine gift of freedom from the labors of human existence and thus acknowledging God as his Creator.
Exodus 16 reveals “that through a miraculous rhythm in the provision of the manna Israel was both shown the keeping of the sabbath rest on each seventh day and was obliged to keep this divine ordinance” (Noth Exodus OTL, 132). The noun “sabbath” (šabbāt), the expression “sabbath feast” (šabbātôn), the explicit identification of sabbath as “seventh day,” the “sixth day” as preparation for the sabbath, the idea of “rest” on the sabbath for human beings, the notion of the sabbath as a feast and not a day burdened with fasting, and the sabbath being based on YHWH’s “commandments and laws” appear in Exod 16:22–30 for the first time. In Noth’s view this is “presumably the oldest Old Testament passage about the sabbath” (Exodus OTL, 136). For Childs “the existence of the sabbath is assumed for the writer” (Exodus OTL, 290). The idea that sabbath keeping is part of “laws and commandments” (v 28) has led Buber to say that the sabbath “is not introduced for the first time even in the wilderness of Sin, where the manna is found. Here, too, it is proclaimed as something which is already in existence” (1958:80). The nature (“holy”), function (“sabbath feast”), and purpose (“rest”) of the sabbath reveals religious, social, and humanitarian significance already in this wilderness setting.
b. Legal Texts. The fourth commandment of the Decalogue (Exod 20:8–11; Deut 5:12–15) is dated late in form-critical and traditio-historical study and is reconstructed into a supposedly short early (Mosaic?) commandment which was formulated either positively according to some scholars or negatively according to others. However, no scholarly consensus has emerged from these endeavors (Meesters 1966:84–111; Negretti 1972:173–224; Robinson 1988:143–54). The Mesopotamian tradition of old ANE law codes reveals that long and short laws can stand next to each other (ANET, 160–61, 162–63, 166–77) without necessarily involving a long development of either. Later Hittite laws (14th century b.c.) manifest that a later version of a law can be shorter or longer than the original version (Hasel 1982a: 28–29).
The sabbath commandment has a literary structure shared in common in the versions of Exod (siglum E) and Deut (siglum D): A–Introduction (E, v 8; D, v 12), B–Command (E, v 9; D, v 13), C–Motivation (E, v 10a; D, v 14a), B1–Command (E, v 10b; D, v 14b), C1–Motivation (E, v 11a; D, vv 14 c–15), D–Conclusion (E, v 11b; D, v 15b). It reveals that aside from the minor changes between the two versions the most noticeable change in wording appears only in the C1–Motivation. In Exod 20:11a the C1–Motivation grounds the sabbath in YHWH’s creation (Gen 2:2–3), whereas in Deut 5:14c–15a it is grounded in the redemptive Exodus experience. The soteriological and freedom-from-slavery emphasis in Deut 5:14c–15a and the creation freedom-from-labor emphasis in Exod 20:11a indicate that one is dependent on the other and that both are humanitarian in essence. Man is to rest on the seventh day because YHWH, as rest-providing Creator, sets an example of rest for human beings and because YHWH, as liberating Redeemer, sets an example of rest from slavery so that all are able to rest (Exod 5:5). Thus the covenant community is called upon to “remember/observe” (both infinitive absolutes functioning as strong imperatives). The command to “remember” points to the origin of the sabbath prior to Mt. Sinai, an obligation (cf. Exod 16:28) going back to the beginning (Childs Exodus OTL, 416), and Deuteronomy uses an equivalent expression in the term “observe.”
The Book of the Covenant (Exod 20:22–23:33) contains various covenant statutes and ordinances and among them an ordinance of sabbath rest on the “seventh day” (23:12) similar to Deut 5:14. The sabbath commandment of Exod 34:21 indicates that sabbath celebration shall not be interrupted even in times of plowing and harvest. The instruction for sabbath keeping in Exod 31:12–17 reiterates most of the known aspects of the sabbath. However, several major thoughts appear here for the first time: (a) “Whoever does any work on the sabbath shall be put to death” (v 14), (b) sabbath observance is a “perpetual covenant” (v 16), and (c) the sabbath is a “sign between me and you” (v 13). The death penalty is enjoined upon a member of the covenant community for sabbath disobedience (cf. Exod 35:2b; Num 15:32–36). There is no indication that such punishment should be inflicted outside of the realm of ancient Israel. As the Noahic covenant has a “sign” (Gen 9:13, 17) in the rainbow and the Abrahamic covenant has a “sign” (Gen 17:11) in circumcision, so the Sinai covenant has a “sign” in the sabbath. Its “sign” signification is commemorative of God as Creator and Redeemer where the sabbath-keeping community confesses its continuing relationship to its covenant Lord; it is also prospective in signification in that it is a “sign” of the covenant history moving forward to its appointed goal; it is at the same time a “sign” signifying the believer’s present posture vis-á-vis God with physical, mental, and spiritual renewal taking place in each sabbath celebration.
2. Prophetical Writings. The weekly sabbath appears in Amos, the oldest of the classical prophets. Amos 8:5 affirms the knowledge of the seventh-day sabbath in the N Kingdom (Israel). Greedy merchants could hardly wait for the sabbath to end, presumably at sundown, on which the sabbath began and ended as any other day (Gen 1:5, 8, 13, etc.; Lev 23:32; Ps 55:18—Eng 17; Neh 13:19). The sabbath is a day on which no business activities took place. The social-humanitarian aspect is present in the idea of rest, and the moral aspect manifests itself in the control of avarice and greed by refraining from commercial interests.
The widely discussed sequence of “new moon and sabbath” in Amos 8:5; Hos 2:13—Eng 2:11; and Isa 1:13, which are universally accepted 8th century sabbath passages, have been understood to occur “at equal intervals” and “that we have here an institution parallel to the Babylonian šab/pattú with monthly occurrence” (Robinson 1988:55, cf. pp. 59–60; see above on the alleged Babylonian parallel). The full sequence in Hos 2:13—Eng 2:11 is “feasts (ḥag), new moons (ḥōdeš) and sabbaths (šabbāt)” followed by an appositional phrase “and all her appointed festivals (mô˓ēd).” The term “feasts (ḥag)” stands in the OT only for the annual feasts, the designation “new moons (ḥōdeš)” is a monthly celebration, and “sabbaths (šabbāt)” are accordingly weekly celebrations. The sequence is clearly one of an increasing number of celebrations in the order from least frequent to most frequent, i.e., yearly–monthly–weekly, celebrations (Hasel 1988:38–45). Evidently the sabbath was celebrated weekly as a day of rest in both the Northern (Amos 8:5; Hos 2:13—Eng 2:11) and the Southern kingdoms (Isa 1:13; cf. 66:23) in the 8th century b.c. Isa 1:13 even indicates that the seventh-day sabbath institution was one of both rest and worship and could be abused, if it regressed into formal ritualism when emptied of a true relationship with God.
Later sections of the book of Isaiah contain pregnant sabbath passages (Isa 56:1–8; 58:13–14; 66:23). The sabbath belongs to YHWH (56:4), sabbath-keeping means holding fast “my covenant” (v 6; cf. Lev 26:42, 45), Israelite and non-Israelite sabbath-keepers receive divine blessings (Isa 56:2, 6).
Isa 58:13–14 is a most profound OT sabbath passage not to be separated from its context in this chapter. Three prohibitive injunctions protect the believer from having human and secular affairs diminish the sabbath, because the sabbath is a day of “delight” (˓onēg) and enjoyment on which humans are set free to experience liberation from everyday pursuits. The sabbath is not a legalistic, ritualistic, and burdensome institution, but one that creates “delight” in all spheres of human existence. The sabbath-keeper will be the recipient of such superb divine promises as being fed with the heritage of Jacob and riding on the heights of the earth. Isa 66:23 has the context of the new creation, in which universally “all flesh” will worship YHWH “from sabbath to sabbath.”
Jeremiah’s prose sermon about the sabbath (17:19–27) keeps sabbath-breaking and sabbath-keeping within the confines of the covenant and the instruction given to the “forefathers” (v 22). The sabbath is a day of rest on which no commercial enterprises are to be enacted. The idea that sabbath-keeping is the condition for the survival of Jerusalem (and Judah) is rooted in the notion of obedience to the covenant stipulations contained in the Decalogue, the breach of which had profoundest concern for Jeremiah (7:8–10; cf. Lam 2:6).
The book of Ezekiel has a high concentration of references to the sabbath (20:12–24; 22:8–26; 23:38; 44:24; 45:17; 46:1–4, 12). The sabbath belongs to YHWH (20:12–13, 20–21, 24; 22:26; 23:38; 44:24) and is a covenant “sign” (20:12, 20) between YHWH and his people. Its profanation is cited among infractions of God’s law (20:13, 16, 21, 24, 26; cf. 22:8–26; 23:38). The exile did not come because of sabbath profanation. The latter is but an external sign for covenant breaking, a key theme in Ezekiel, of which the sabbath is the “sign.” The sabbath is to be “sanctified/hallowed” (20:20; 44:24; cf. Gen 2:3; Exod 20:8, 11). The sabbath “may well have become a touchstone of loyalty to YHWH from the time of the assimilatory reforms of Manasseh onward” (Greenberg Ezekiel 1–20 AB, 367) and therefore is singled out by Ezekiel (and Jeremiah, as also in the later parts of the book of Isaiah) as a special sign of faithfulness to the covenant God.
3. Historical Writings. 2 Kgs 4:22–23 indicates that there was no travel restriction for visiting a man of God on “the new moon or sabbath.” The sequence of the two festivals is here also one of increasing frequency of celebration. The new moon arrived monthly and the sabbath weekly. This text may be safely dated to the 9th century b.c. and gives evidence of knowledge of the seventh-day sabbath in the Northern kingdom at that time.
In 2 Kgs 11:4–12 (= 2 Chr 23:4–11) the sabbath is the day of the week on which the ruling monarch was overthrown, presumably since he visited the temple for religious purposes. 2 Kgs 16:17–18 mentions the removal of a structure “for the sabbath” in the time of Ahaz (735–715 b.c.).
The sabbath has a variety of connections in the work of the Chronicler (1 Chr 9:32; 23:31; 2 Chr 2:4; 8:13; 31:3; 36:21) with reference to temple, land, covenant, rest, redemption, and restitution.
Sabbath observance was lax in the time of Nehemiah. The sabbath was “profaned” (Neh 13:17–18) and there was need to bring the sabbath back to its rightful place (9:6–37; 10:31–34; 13:15–22) as a day of rest, worship, and enjoyment from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday (13:19).
D. Sabbath in Extrabiblical Texts
There are various archaeological discoveries that have been linked directly or indirectly to the sabbath in biblical times.
1. Sabbath Attacks on Ancient Israel. Sennacherib’s letter written on his Judean campaign in 701 b.c. refers to his capture of Lachish on Hezekiah’s “seventh time” (ina 7-šu, lit. “in his 7th (time),” Na˒aman 1974:26). Shea (1988:178) has suggested that Hezekiah’s “seventh time” refers to the sabbath, the day when its defenders rested and the Assyrians captured Lachish. If this suggestion is correct, this cuneiform text from Sennacherib “becomes the earliest extrabiblical reference to the Sabbath” (Shea 1988:179; cf. Shea 1989:22–23). It corresponds to such passages as Amos 8:4; Hos 2:11—Eng 13; and Isa 1:13 where the weekly sabbath is also depicted as a day of rest.
The publication of the Chronicles of the Babylonian Kings by Wiseman in 1956 provided the date for the capture of Jerusalem “on the second day of the month of Adar” (Wiseman 1956:72–73), i.e., March 16, 597. The day was a sabbath (Johns 1963:483–84). Also the day for the first assault against Jerusalem on January 15, 588, is again a sabbath, based on the synchronism of the biblical date (2 Kgs 25:1; Jer 52:4; Ezek 24:1–2) with the Babylonian records. Again the fall of Jerusalem on the 9th day of the 4th month of Zedekiah’s 11th year (Jer 52:5–8) is calculated to fall on a sabbath (Johns 1963:485). Based on these calculations, it appears that the military strategy of the Assyrians and Neo-Babylonians utilized the seventh-day sabbath rest of the Israelites to accomplish their military-political goals.
This strategy was again used later by the Seleucids at the beginning of the Maccabean period when Jews were attacked on the sabbath but refused to resist on this day (Josephus Ant 12.6.2; 1 Macc 2:33–38).
2. Yabneh-Yam Ostracon. The so-called Yabneh-Yam (Meṣad Ḥashavyahu) ostracon, discovered in 1960 by J. Naveh and dated to about 625 b.c., contains in lines 5–6 the Heb phrase lpny šbt, “before sabbath” (Cross 1962:45 n. 45; Albright ANET, 568; Delekat 1970:455; Lemaire 1977:261). Some scholars have emended šbt into šbty and vocalized it as šibtî, “I stopped” (Robinson 1988:91), but there is no reason to emend the text of the ostracon. The term šbt seems contextually best rendered “sabbath” (Shea 1989:22). In this case, the Yabneh-Yam ostracon provides extrabiblical evidence for a seventh-day sabbath in preexilic times, the time of the reign of Josiah of Judah.
3. Aramaic Ostraca and Papyri. The Aram Elephantine ostraca, dated to the 5th century b.c., contain four ostraca which refer to the sabbath. A certain Jedaniah who was imprisoned makes reference to “the [d]ay of the sabbath” ([y]wm šbh CAP 44); a Uriah refers to a shipment which needs to take place before “the day of the sabbath” (ywm šbh CAP 186); another ostracon refers to someone who will arrive at “the eve (of the sabbath) [˓rwbh])” (CAP 204); and the fourth ostracon is addressed to a woman urging, “Meet the boat tomorrow on sabbath (šbh) lest they [vegetables] get lost/spoiled” (Porten 1969:116; cf. Dupont-Sommer 1949:31). These brief remarks in private letters seem to indicate that the sabbath as special day was important to the Jewish community at Elephantine in Upper Egypt.
The personal name Shabbethai, meaning “born on the sabbath,” appears a number of times in the Elephantine ostraca as it does in the OT (Ezek 10:15; Neh 8:7; 11:16). Porten (1969:117) believes that in some instances in Elephantine this name is used also by non-Jews, indicating that they had apparently adopted sabbath observance.
An Aram papyrus from Saqqâra (not later than 5th-4th century b.c.) mentions the words šbt˒ and šbt, which may refer to the “sabbath” or perhaps be interpreted as the personal name Shabbatai (Segal 1983:95). In either case it seems to give evidence for the sabbath at Saqqâra in Egypt.
The Aram name šbty, “Shabbatai,” appears on a sarcophagus in Assuan, Upper Egypt, presumably belonging to a non-Jew (Kornfeld 1967:9–16).
E. Sabbath in Intertestamental Literature
The development of the sabbath in intertestamental times shows variance in observance and reveals significant intensifications.
1. Qumran Literature. The recent publication of the Shabbath Songs (4QShirShabb), a fragmentary liturgical composition from Qumran in thirteen sections, one for each of the first thirteen sabbaths of the year, describes the heavenly priesthood of angels serving in the heavenly sanctuary each sabbath, supposedly corresponding to sabbath worship on earth (cf. Jub. 2:30). 4Q403 1 i 30 is translated by Newsom, “Song of the sacrifice of the seventh Sabbath on the sixteenth of the month” (1985:211), followed by a call to praise addressed to angels.
The Damascus Document (CD), dated to ca. 100 b.c., enjoins strict sabbath observance (VI, 18), but does not call for the death penalty for sabbath profanation (XII, 3–4). A long section outlines appropriate sabbath observance (X, 14–XII, 5). Sabbath prohibitions include such things as walking further than 1,000 cubits (X, 21), eating that which is prepared on the sabbath (X 22), drinking outside of the camp (X 23), drawing water up into any vessel (XI 2), voluntary fasting (XI 4–5), opening of a sealed vessel (XI 9), wearing of perfume (XI 9–10), lifting of stone or dust at home (XI 10b–11a), aiding a beast in birthing (XI 13a), lifting an animal that has fallen into a pit (XI 13–14), lifting a person that has fallen into a place full of water (XI 16–17), and having sexual relations in the city of the sanctuary (XII 1). These rigid demands are more or less like the sabbath halakhah of normative Judaism outside of the Qumran community (cf. Kimbrough 1966:498–99).
The Temple Scroll (11QTemple), dated not later than the third quarter of the 2d century b.c., makes it clear how the Qumran community took the famous expression “on the morrow after the sabbath” (Lev 23:10–11; cf. 23:15–16), which has caused the so-called Pentecost controversy that divided Jewish sects in pre-NT times and ever since. The rabbis and normative Judaism took “sabbath” in this context to mean Passover. The Sadducees, the Samaritans, and other sects took it to mean a regular seventh-day sabbath. The Temple Scroll changes Lev 23:15–16 to read, “And you shall count seven full sabbaths from the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; you shall count to the morrow after the seventh sabbath, counting fifty days” (11QTemple 18, 11–12). Based on the 364-day and 52-week solar Qumran(-Jubilees) calendar and beginning the year on Wednesday Nisan 1 (March/April), the Temple Scroll takes the “sabbath” under dispute as the first sabbath after the entire Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is dated to the 25th of the 1st month so that the “morrow of the seventh sabbath” was the 15th of the 3rd month, a Sunday, the 50th day after Pentecost (Yadin 1983:2.76). In this way these festivals always fall on a Sunday, the day after the seventh seventh-day sabbath of the year (Maier 1985:71–73).
2. Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphical Literature. The author of Jubilees (ca. 150 b.c.) has the sabbath fall regularly on the seventh day of each week according to its calendar of 364 days. In Jub. 2:17–33 the sabbath is depicted as a specially holy day to be observed only by Israelites and not made for any other people (Jub. 2:30). The author strongly maintains the death penalty for any transgression of the sabbath (Jub. 2:25–27). The list of sabbath halakhah in Jub. 50:6–13 corresponds in many aspects with the ones in the Damascus Document (see E.1 above). The following section is typical, “And (as for) any man who does work on it [sabbath], or who goes on a journey, or who plows a field either at home or any (other) place, or who kindles a fire, or who rides an animal, or who travels the sea in a boat, and any man who slaughters or kills anything, . . . or who fasts or who makes war on the day of the sabbath, let the man . . . die so that the children of Israel keep the sabbath . . .” (Jub. 50:12–13, trans. Wintermute, OTP 2:142).
Fragment 5 of the work of Aristobulus (ca. middle of 2d century b.c.) explains the sabbath in relationship to cosmic orders, also linking the sabbath to wisdom (Frag. 5.9–10) and the sevenfold structures of all things (Frag. 5.12). This work is an attempt to bring the sabbath into relationship with Hellenistic thought similar to that of Philo.
3. Historical Literature. In earlier times Israelite enemies captured Jerusalem on the sabbath (see D.1 above). In Jub. 50:13 fighting is still prohibited on the sabbath. Ptolomy I Soter (323–283/82 b.c.) took Jerusalem on a sabbath unopposed and ruled it harshly (Joseph. Ant 12.1.1). Apollonius, a commander of an army corps of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, in 168 b.c. “waited until the holy sabbath day” to “rush into the city with his armed men and killed great numbers of people” (2 Macc 5:25–26), because Jews did not fight on the sabbath. Sabbath attacks continued (1 Macc 2:38), and Mattathias and his followers decided that they needed to defend themselves on the sabbath (vv 39–41) in order to avoid annihilation. According to Josephus this practice continued (Ant 12.6.2). By the time the Romans engaged in war against the Jews, the latter would even attack viciously on sabbath (Joseph. JW 2.17.10; 18.1).
4. Rabbinic Literature. Rabbinic literature is filled with sabbath regulations and detailed instructions that go far beyond anything found elsewhere in Jewish literature. The most extensive regulations are gathered together in the Mishnah (Šabb. 7.2; Beṣa 5.2; and in ˓Erubin, cf. TDNT 7:12–14). Many of these instructions are aimed at protecting the sabbath from profanation. In cases of emergency, however, particularly as regards threats to life, one could flee on sabbath (Tanḥ. 245a), act as a midwife on sabbath (Šabb. 18.3) to preserve life, and put out a fire on sabbath (Šabb. 16.1–7). These are exceptions and sabbath sacredness is to be maintained in cases of doubt (Tanḥ. 38b). The rabbis followed the thought that the sabbath was made for the Jews and not for anyone else (Midr. Exod. 31.12 [109b]; Exod. Rab. 25.11; Deut. Rab. 1.21). A Gentile who keeps the sabbath, according to Rabbi Simeon b. Laqish (mid 3d century a.d.), “deserves death” (Sanh. 58b). Sabbath-keeping and Jewish identity were one concept in normative Judaism.
F. Sabbath in the New Testament
The sabbath appears in the teachings of Jesus, in his conflicts with religious leaders, and in the later NT church.
1. Gospels. Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry in Galilee, “went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day” (Luke 4:16). The phrase “as his custom was” indicates that Jesus continued to worship on the sabbath. He remained a faithful disciple of OT scripture following his established custom of attending the synagogue each sabbath (cf. Mark 1:21, 29; 3:1; Luke 4:44; 13:10; etc.).
The four Gospels record among eight sabbath incidents six controversies in which Jesus “rejected the rabbinic sabbath halakah” (Jeremias 1973:201), i.e., two are recorded in the three synoptics (Matt 12:1–8 = Mark 2:23–28 = Luke 6:1–5; Matt 12:9–14 = Mark 3:1–6 = Luke 6:6–11), one is recorded in two synoptics (Mark 1:21–28 = Luke 4:31–37) and the remainder are found in Mark (1:29–31), Luke (13:10–17; 14:1–6) and John (5:1–18; 9:1–41) only. The authenticity of these pericopes seems well established (Rordorf 1968:54–74; Lohse TDNT 7:21–30; Goppelt 1981:94). Only Jesus’ inaugural sabbath sermon in Nazareth (Luke 4:16–30) and the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law on the sabbath (Mark 1:29–31) are outside of explicit controversy contexts. All except two (Luke 4:16–30; Mark 2:23–28) of the nine sabbath pericopes involve sabbath miracles.
After Jesus had started to preach in the synagogue in Capernaum a man with an unclean spirit interrupted him. Jesus drove the unclean spirit out of this demon-possessed man (Mark 1:21–28 = Luke 4:31–37). Subsequently, Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law from a fever on the sabbath (Mark 1:29–31). Jesus continued to preach in the Galilean synagogues presumably on the sabbath and cast out demons (v 39).
At times Jesus is interpreted to have abrogated or suspended the sabbath commandment on the basis of the controversies brought about by sabbath healings and other acts. Careful analysis of the respective passages does not seem to give credence to this interpretation. The action of plucking ears of grain on the sabbath by the disciples is particularly important in this matter. Jesus makes a foundational pronouncement at that time in a chiastically structured statement of antithetic parallelism: “The sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27). The disciples’ act of plucking grain infringed against the rabbinic halakhah of minute casuistry in which it was forbidden to reap, thresh, winnow, and grind on the sabbath (Šabb. 7.2). Here again rabbinic sabbath halakhah is rejected, as in other sabbath conflicts. Jesus reforms the sabbath and restores it to its rightful place as designed in creation, where the sabbath is made for all mankind and not specifically for Israel, as claimed by normative Judaism (cf. Jub. 2:19–20, see D.3). The subsequent logion, “The Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath” (Mark 2:28; Matt 12:8; Luke 6:5), indicates that man-made sabbath halakhah does not rule the sabbath, but that the Son of Man, not man, is Lord of the sabbath. It was God’s will at creation that the sabbath have the purpose of serving mankind for rest and bring blessing. The Son of Man as Lord determines the true meaning of the sabbath. The sabbath activities of Jesus are neither hurtful provocations nor mere protests against rabbinic legal restrictions, but are part of Jesus’ essential proclamation of the inbreaking of the kingdom of God in which man is taught the original meaning of the sabbath as the recurring weekly proleptic “day of the Lord” in which God manifests his healing and saving rulership over man.
The seven miraculous sabbath healings of Jesus indicate once again that Jesus restores the sabbath to be a benefit for humankind against any distortions of human religious and/or cultic traditions. The healing of the man with the withered hand (Mark 3:1–6 = Matt 12:9–14 = Luke 6:6–11) brought about another confrontation with Pharisees and scribes, because healing on the sabbath was only permitted in case of danger to life (m. Yoma 8.6) which obviously was not the case here (cf. Luke 14:1–6) or elsewhere in sabbath healings (John 5:1–18; 9:1–41). Jesus maintained here as always, against the rabbinic position, that “it is lawful to do good on the sabbath” (Matt 12:12).
In his eschatological discourse (Matthew 24), Jesus urged his followers to pray that their flight “may not be in winter or on the sabbath” (Matt 24:20; Mark 13:18 omits “on the sabbath”). Jesus anticipated that his followers would continue to regard the sabbath as holy in the future. His request for them was that they be spared from having to flee on the sabbath, but he presupposes that they would flee if they had to. Lohse maintains, “Mt. 24:20 offers an example of the keeping of the Sabbath by Jewish Christians” (TDNT 7:29). A society governed by many rabbinic sabbath laws would make it rather difficult for Christians to flee on the sabbath.
In short, Jesus declared himself Lord of the sabbath. He consistently rejected man-made sabbath halakhah. He freed the sabbath from human restrictions and encumbrances and restored it by showing its universal import for all men so that every person can be the beneficiary of the divine intentions and true purposes of sabbath rest and joy. Carson has concluded, “There is no hint anywhere in the ministry of Jesus that the first day of the week is to take the character of the Sabbath and replace it” (1982:85).
2. Acts. Aside from two casual references to the sabbath (Acts 1:12; 15:21), the sabbath is mentioned in connection with the establishment of churches in Pisidian Antioch (13:13–52), Philippi (16:11–15), Thessalonica (17:1–9), and Corinth (18:1–4). The Western text includes Ephesus (18:19). Paul, as Jesus before him, went to the synagogue on sabbath “as his custom was” (Acts 17:2; cf. 24:14; 28:17). There is silence on the subject of sabbath abolition at the Jerusalem Conference (15:1–29). There is also no evidence for the abrogation of the sabbath after the Jerusalem Council in the apostolic age or by apostolic authority in the early church (Turner 1982:135–37). Early Jewish and non-Jewish Christians continued to worship on the seventh day as far as the evidence in the book of Acts is concerned.
The single reference to “the first day of the week” in Acts 20:7–12, when Christian believers broke bread in a farewell meeting at the imminent departure of Paul is debated in its meaning. Some scholars suggest that Roman reckoning is used so that “the first day of the week” means Sunday night (Rordorf 1968:200–2; Turner 1982:128–33) and other scholars suggest that Jewish reckoning is used and in that case it means Saturday night (Bacchiocchi 1977:101–11; Mosna 1969:14–17). This passage hardly supports Sunday-keeping on the part of the apostolic church, since this was an occasional farewell meeting lasting till after midnight (v 7) and the breaking of the bread is hardly the Lord’s Supper.
3. Letters. The meaning of the term “sabbath” in Col 2:16 is controversial. Among the major suggestions are those that take it to refer to the seventh-day sabbath which is thought to be done away with; ceremonial sabbaths of the Jewish cultic year; some Jewish aspect of the sabbath without denying true sabbath-keeping; perverted sabbath-keeping in honor of the elemental spirits of the universe; weekdays that were designated to be sabbaths; or sabbath sacrifices prescribed in Num 28:9–10. Within the context of the Galatian Judaizing heresy, “sabbath” seems to refer to something other than wholesome weekly sabbath-keeping as the majority opinion holds.
Hebrews 4:9 states, “There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” The words “sabbath rest” translate the Gk noun sabbatismos, a unique word in the NT. This term appears also in Plutarch (Superst. 3 [Moralia 166a]) for sabbath observance, and in four post-canonical Christian writings which are not dependent on Heb 4:9 (Justin Dial. 23:3; Epiph. Panar. haer. 30, 2.2; Martyrdom of Peter and Paul, chap. 1; Const. Apost. 2.36.2) for seventh-day “sabbath celebration” (Hofius 1970:103–5). The author of Hebrews affirms in Heb 4:3–11, through the joining of quotations from Gen 2:2 and Ps 95:7, that the promised “sabbath rest” still anticipates a complete realization “for the people of God” in the eschatological end-time which had been inaugurated with the appearance of Jesus (1:1–3). “Sabbath rest” within this context is not equated with a future, post-eschaton sabbath celebration in the heavenly sanctuary; it is likewise not experienced in the rest that comes in death. The experience of “sabbath rest” points to a present “rest” (katapausis) reality in which those “who have believed are entering” (4:3) and it points to a future “rest” reality (4:11). Physical sabbath-keeping on the part of the new covenant believer as affirmed by “sabbath rest” epitomizes cessation from “works” (4:10) in commemoration of God’s rest at creation (4:4 = Gen 2:2) and manifests faith in the salvation provided by Christ. Heb 4:3–11 affirms that physical “sabbath rest” (sabbatismos) is the weekly outward manifestation of the inner experience of spiritual rest (katapausis) in which the final eschatological rest is proleptically experienced already “today” (4:7). Thus “sabbath rest” combines in itself creation-commemoration, salvation-experience, and eschaton-anticipation as the community of faith moves toward the final consummation of total restoration and rest.
Bibliography
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Bacchiocchi, S. 1977. From Sabbath to Sunday. Rome.
———. 1985. The Sabbath in the New Testament. Berrien Springs, MI.
Buber, M. 1958. Moses: The Revelation and the Covenant. New York.
Carson, D. A., ed. 1982. From Sabbath to Lord’s Day. Grand Rapids.
Cross, F. M. 1962. Epigraphic Notes on Hebrew Documents of the Eighth–Sixth Centuries B.C., II. BASOR 165:34–46.
Delekat, L. 1970. Ein Bittschriftentwurf eines Sabbatschänders (KAI 200). Bib 51:453–70.
Dupont-Sommer, A. 1949. L’ostracon araméen du Sabbat. Sem 2:29–39.
Eerdmans, B. D. 1925. Der Sabbat. Pp. 79–83 in Vom Alten Testament, Festschrift für Karl Marti, ed. K. Budde. BZAW 41. Berlin.
Goppelt, L. 1981. Theology of the New Testament. Vol. 1. Trans. J. E. Alsup. Grand Rapids.
Gruber, M. 1969. The Source of the Biblical Sabbath. JANES ul 1:14–20.
Hasel, G. F. 1982a. The Sabbath in the Pentateuch. Pp. 21–43 in The Sabbath in Scripture and History, ed. K. A. Strand. Washington, D.C.
———. 1982b. The Sabbath in the Prophetic and Historical Literature of the Old Testament. Pp. 44–56 in ibid.
———. 1988. “New Moon and Sabbath” in Eighth Century Israelite Prophetic Writings (Isa 1:13; Hos 2:13; Amos 8:5). Pp. 37–64 in “Wünschet Jerusalem Frieden”: Collected Communications to the XIIth Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament, Jerusalem 1986, ed. M. Augustin and K.-D. Schunck. Frankfurt am Main.
Hehn, J. 1907. Siebenzahl und Sabbat bei den Babyloniern und im Alten Testament. Leipzig.
———. 1909. Der israelitische Sabbat. Biblische Zeitfragen 12:463–96.
Hofius, O. 1970. Katapausis: Die Vorstellung vom endzeitlichen Ruheort im Hebräerbrief. WUNT 11. Tübingen.
Jenni, E. 1956. Die theologische Begründung des Sabbatgebotes im Alten Testament. ThStud 46. Zollikon-Zurich.
Jeremias, J. 1973. Neutestamentliche Theologie. Pt 1, Die Verkündigung Jesu. 2d ed. Gütersloh.
Johns, A. F. 1963. The Military Strategy of Sabbath Attacks on the Jews. VT 13:482–86.
Kimbrough, S. T. 1966. The Concept of the Sabbath at Qumran. RQ 20:483–502.
Kornfeld, W. 1967. Aramäische Sarkophage in Assuan. WZKM 51:9–16.
Kraus, H.-J. 1966. Worship in Israel: A Cultic History of the Old Testament. Trans. G. Buswell. Richmond, VA.
Kutsch, E. 1986. Der Sabbat—ursprünglich Vollmondtag? Pp. 71–77 in Kleine Schriften zum Alten Testament. Zum 65. Geburtstag herausgegeben, ed. L. Schmidt and K. Eberlein. Berlin.
Lemaire, A. 1977. Inscriptions Hébraïques. Vol. 1, Les ostraca. Paris.
Lewy, H. and J. 1942. The Origin of the Week and the Oldest West Asiatic Calendar. HUCA 17:1–152.
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Mosna, C. S. 1969. Storia della domenica dalle origini fino agli inizi del V secolo. AnGreg 170. Rome.
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———. 1989. The Sabbath in Extra-Biblical Sources. Adventist Perspectives 3/2:17–25.
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2:
Sabbath — (Heb. verb shabbath, meaning “to rest from labour”), the day of rest. It is first mentioned as having been instituted in Paradise, when man was in innocence (Gen. 2:2). “The sabbath was made for man,” as a day of rest and refreshment for the body and of blessing to the soul.
It is next referred to in connection with the gift of manna to the children of Israel in the wilderness (Ex. 16:23); and afterwards, when the law was given from Sinai (20:11), the people were solemnly charged to “remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Thus it is spoken of as an institution already existing.
In the Mosaic law strict regulations were laid down regarding its observance (Ex. 35:2, 3; Lev. 23:3; 26:34). These were peculiar to that dispensation.
In the subsequent history of the Jews frequent references are made to the sanctity of the Sabbath (Isa. 56:2, 4, 6, 7; 58:13, 14; Jer. 17:20–22; Neh. 13:19). In later times they perverted the Sabbath by their traditions. Our Lord rescued it from their perversions, and recalled to them its true nature and intent (Matt. 12:10–13; Mark 2:27; Luke 13:10–17).
The Sabbath, originally instituted for man at his creation, is of permanent and universal obligation. The physical necessities of man require a Sabbath of rest. He is so constituted that his bodily welfare needs at least one day in seven for rest from ordinary labour. Experience also proves that the moral and spiritual necessities of men also demand a Sabbath of rest. “I am more and more sure by experience that the reason for the observance of the Sabbath lies deep in the everlasting necessities of human nature, and that as long as man is man the blessedness of keeping it, not as a day of rest only, but as a day of spiritual rest, will never be annulled. I certainly do feel by experience the eternal obligation, because of the eternal necessity, of the Sabbath. The soul withers without it. It thrives in proportion to its observance. The Sabbath was made for man. God made it for men in a certain spiritual state because they needed it. The need, therefore, is deeply hidden in human nature. He who can dispense with it must be holy and spiritual indeed. And he who, still unholy and unspiritual, would yet dispense with it is a man that would fain be wiser than his Maker” (F. W. Robertson).
The ancient Babylonian calendar, as seen from recently recovered inscriptions on the bricks among the ruins of the royal palace, was based on the division of time into weeks of seven days. The Sabbath is in these inscriptions designated Sabattu, and defined as “a day of rest for the heart” and “a day of completion of labour.”
The change of the day. Originally at creation the seventh day of the week was set apart and consecrated as the Sabbath. The first day of the week is now observed as the Sabbath. Has God authorized this change? There is an obvious distinction between the Sabbath as an institution and the particular day set apart for its observance. The question, therefore, as to the change of the day in no way affects the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath as an institution. Change of the day or no change, the Sabbath remains as a sacred institution the same. It cannot be abrogated.
If any change of the day has been made, it must have been by Christ or by his authority. Christ has a right to make such a change (Mark 2:23–28). As Creator, Christ was the original Lord of the Sabbath (John 1:3; Heb. 1:10). It was originally a memorial of creation. A work vastly greater than that of creation has now been accomplished by him, the work of redemption. We would naturally expect just such a change as would make the Sabbath a memorial of that greater work.
True, we can give no text authorizing the change in so many words. We have no express law declaring the change. But there are evidences of another kind. We know for a fact that the first day of the week has been observed from apostolic times, and the necessary conclusion is, that it was observed by the apostles and their immediate disciples. This, we may be sure, they never would have done without the permission or the authority of their Lord.
After his resurrection, which took place on the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1), we never find Christ meeting with his disciples on the seventh day. But he specially honoured the first day by manifesting himself to them on four separate occasions (Matt. 28:9; Luke 24:34, 18–33; John 20:19–23). Again, on the next first day of the week, Jesus appeared to his disciples (John 20:26).
Some have calculated that Christ’s ascension took place on the first day of the week. And there can be no doubt that the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost was on that day (Acts 2:1). Thus Christ appears as instituting a new day to be observed by his people as the Sabbath, a day to be henceforth known amongst them as the “Lord’s day.” The observance of this “Lord’s day” as the Sabbath was the general custom of the primitive churches, and must have had apostolic sanction (comp. Acts 20:3–7; 1 Cor. 16:1, 2) and authority, and so the sanction and authority of Jesus Christ.
The words “at her sabbaths” (Lam. 1:7, A.V.) ought probably to be, as in the Revised Version, “at her desolations.”
Easton, M. (1996, c1897). Easton's Bible dictionary. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
3:
SABBATH Derivation of a Hebrew word that means “cease” or “desist.” The Sabbath was a day (from Friday evening until Saturday evening in Jesus’ time) when all ordinary work stopped. The Scriptures relate that God gave his people the Sabbath as an opportunity to serve him and as a reminder of two great truths in the Bible—Creation and redemption.
In the Old Testament The relationship between Creation and the Sabbath is first expressed in Genesis 2:2–3. God “ceased” his work in Creation after six days and then “blessed” the seventh day and “declared it holy.” In the fourth commandment (Ex 20:8–11), God’s “blessing” and “setting aside” of the seventh day after Creation (the words used are the same as those in Genisis) form the basis of his demand that people should observe the seventh day as a day of Sabbath rest.
The idea of God resting from his work is a startling one. It comes across even more vividly in Exodus 31:17, where the Lord tells Moses how he was refreshed by his day of rest. This picture of the Creator as a manual laborer is one the Bible often paints. No doubt it is presented in vividly human terms in Exodus to reinforce the fundamental Sabbath lesson that people must follow the pattern their Creator has set for them. One day’s rest in seven is a necessity for individuals, families, households, and even animals (Ex 20:10).
The Sabbath’s setting in the biblical account of Creation implies that it is one of those OT standards that are meant for all people and not just for Israel. The inclusion of the Sabbath law in the Ten Commandments underlines this important truth. The Decalogue occupied a special place in OT law. Alone of all God’s instructions, it was spoken by his audible voice (Ex 20:1), written by his finger (31:18), and placed in the tabernacle ark at the heart of Israel’s worship (25:16). The NT, too, confirms the strong impression that the Decalogue as a whole embodies principles that are permanently valid for all people in all places at all times. Whether or not Sunday is recognized as the Christian Sabbath, one is obliged to accept the central principle of this biblical teaching as far as the Sabbath is concerned. God’s instructions require people to observe a regular weekly break from work.
Significantly, the second main strand of the Bible’s Sabbath teaching—that of redemption—also features in a list of the Ten Commandments. The Sabbath law (already noted in Ex 20:8–11) reappears in Deuteronomy 5:12–15, but here a different reason is attached to its observance: “Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out with amazing power and mighty deeds. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day” (v 15, nlt).
The differences between these two accounts of the fourth commandment are important. The first (Ex 20) is addressed, through Israel, to all people as created beings. The second (Dt 5) is directed to Israel as God’s redeemed people. So the Sabbath is God’s signpost, pointing not only to his goodness toward all people as their Creator but also to his mercy toward his chosen people as their Redeemer.
There is one other significant point in Deuteronomy’s version of the Sabbath commandment that must not be missed. The prohibition of all work on the Sabbath day is followed by an explanatory note—“On that day no one in your household may do any kind of work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your oxen and donkeys and other livestock, and any foreigners living among you. All your male and female servants must rest as you do” (Dt 5:14, nlt). Practical concern for others is a feature of all the OT’s covenant teaching. So God’s loving concern for Israel in her Egyptian slavery must be matched by the Israelite family’s loving concern for those who served them. The Sabbath offered an ideal outlet for the practical expression of that concern. Jesus was especially keen to rescue this humanitarian side of Sabbath observance from the mass of callous regulations that threatened to suffocate it in his day (see, e.g., Mk 3:1–5).
The OT’s provision for a “sabbatical year” develops this humanitarian theme further (see Ex 23:10–12; Lv 25:1–7; Dt 15:1–11; also the regulations for the “year of jubilee” in Lv 25:8–55). Every seventh year the land was to lie fallow and be uncultivated (Lv 25:4). It needed a regular rest just as much as the people it sustained. The primary purpose of this law was benevolent: “But you, your male and female slaves, your hired servants, and any foreigners who live with you may eat the produce that grows naturally during the Sabbath year. And your livestock and the wild animals will also be allowed to eat of the land’s bounty” (vv 6–7, nlt). Deuteronomy 15:1–11 extends the same humanitarian principle into the world of commerce. The sabbatical year must see the canceling of all debts within God’s redeemed community. For the tight-fisted who might be tempted to refuse a loan if the sabbatical year was imminent, the law added a warning and a promise: “Do not be mean- spirited and refuse someone a loan because the year of release is close at hand. If you refuse to make the loan and the needy person cries out to the Lord, you will be considered guilty of sin. Give freely without begrudging it, and the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do” (Dt 15:9–10, nlt).
Observing the sabbatical year was obviously a great test of the people’s obedience to God and of their willingness to depend on him for their livelihood. Sometimes the temptation to turn a blind eye was too strong. But history testifies to Israel’s courage in observing the letter of this law on many occasions, despite threats of invasion and famine. Both Alexander the Great and the Romans excused Jews from paying taxes every seventh year in recognition of the depth of their religious convictions.
Returning from the seventh year to the seventh day, the OT law codes go to considerable lengths to buttress the Sabbath ban on work by defining what may and may not be done by God’s people on the Sabbath day. The prohibitions were not meant to rule out activity of any kind. Their aim was to stop regular, everyday work, because if God had set aside the Sabbath (Ex 20:11), the most obvious way of profaning it was to treat it just like any other day. Rules were spelled out in specific terms that the farmer (34:21), the salesman (Jer 17:27), and even the housewife (Ex 35:2–3) would understand.
The details may seem trivial, but obedience to the Sabbath law was seen as the main test of the people’s allegiance to the Lord. It was made quite clear that willful disobedience was a capital offense (Ex 35:2), and the fate of the person found gathering wood in defiance of Sabbath regulations showed that this was no idle threat (Nm 15:32–36).
Hemmed in by so many rules and regulations (and with the death penalty overhanging all), the Sabbath easily could have become a day of fear—a day when the people were more afraid of committing an offense than worshiping the Lord and enjoying a weekly rest. But the Sabbath was intended to be a blessing, not a burden. Above everything else, it was a weekly sign that the Lord loved his people and wanted to draw them into an ever-closer relationship with himself. Those who valued that relationship enjoyed the Sabbath, calling it a delight (Is 58:13–14). Nowhere does the OT express its sheer joy in Sabbath worship more exuberantly than in Psalm 92, which has the title “A Song for the Sabbath.”
The later prophets, were, however, far from blind to the darker side of human nature. They knew that a great deal of Sabbath observance was a sham. Many people treated the Sabbath day more as holiday than holy day, an opportunity for self-indulgence rather than delighting in the Lord (Is 58:13). Some greedy tradesmen found its restrictions an annoying irritant (Am 8:5).
As God’s spokesman, the prophets did not shrink from exposing such neglect and abuse (Ez 22:26). Those who go through the motions of Sabbath worship with unrepentant hearts nauseate the Lord, Isaiah said (Is 1:10–15). As a symptom of rebellion against God, Jerusalem’s Sabbath breaking will bring destruction on the city, thunders Jeremiah (Jer 17:27). The Lord has been very forbearing with his people, warned Ezekiel, but prolonged neglect of his Sabbath makes judgment a certainty (Ez 20:12–24).
When the ax of judgment fell (in the exile to Babylon, 586 bc), the surviving remnant of the nation took the lesson to heart. Sabbath keeping was one of the few distinctive marks faithful Jews could retain in a foreign land, so it assumed extra significance. At the prompting of prophets like Ezekiel, who set out rules for Sabbath worship in the rebuilt temple at Jerusalem (Ez 44:24; 45:17; 46:3), and under the leadership of men like Nehemiah, the returning exiles were more careful than their predecessors in observing the Sabbath day (Neh 10:31; 13:15–22).
In the New Testament Prior to the first century, some Jews in Palestine developed several rules for promoting the observance of the Sabbath. Two tractates of the Mishnah are devoted exclusively to these Sabbath rules and regulations. Their main purpose is to define work (one tractate does so under 39 headings) in an attempt to show every Israelite what is and is not permitted on the Sabbath. Unfortunately, this led to such hairsplitting complexities and evasions that ecclesiastical lawyers often differed among themselves in their interpretations, with the inevitable result that the main purpose of the Sabbath became lost beneath a mass of legalistic detail. The rabbis themselves were aware of how much they were adding to the straightforward teaching of the OT. As one of them put it, “The rules about the sabbath … are as mountains hanging by a hair, for Scripture is scanty and the rules many.”
Jesus had many confrontations with the Jewish religious leaders over Sabbath observances. From their perspective, Jesus was a Sabbath breaker and therefore a lawbreaker. Jesus, however, never saw himself as a Sabbath breaker. He went to synagogue regularly on the Sabbath day (Lk 4:16). He read the lesson, preached, and taught (Mk 1:21; Lk 13:10). He clearly accepted the principle that the Sabbath was an appropriate day for worship.
His point of collision with the Pharisees was the point at which their tradition departed from biblical teaching. He made this clear when he defended his disciples by appealing to Scripture, after they had been accused of breaking Sabbath tradition by walking through grainfields and breaking off heads of wheat (which fell into the category of “harvesting,” according to the Pharisees; Mk 2:23–26). He followed this up with a remark that took his hearers straight back to God’s Creation purpose for the Sabbath: “The Sabbath was made to benefit people, and not people to benefit the Sabbath” (Mk 2:27, nlt).
Rabbinic tradition had exalted the institution above the people it was meant to serve. By making it an end in itself, the Pharisees had effectively robbed the Sabbath of one of its main purposes. Jesus’ words must have sounded uncomfortably familiar in his opponents’ ears. A famous rabbi had once said, “The Sabbath is given over to you, but you are not given over to the Sabbath.”
More than anything else, Jesus’ Sabbath healings put him on a collision course with rabbinic restrictions. The OT does not forbid cures on the Sabbath day, but the rabbis labeled all healing as work, which must always be avoided on the Sabbath unless life was at risk. Jesus fearlessly exposed the callousness and absurd inconsistencies to which this attitude led. How, he asked, could it be right to circumcise a baby or lead an animal to water on the Sabbath day (which tradition allowed) but wrong to heal a chronically handicapped woman and a crippled man, even if their lives were not in immediate danger (Lk 13:10–17; Jn 7:21–24)? The Sabbath, he taught, was a particularly appropriate day for acts of mercy (Mk 3:4–5).
Jesus, the man from heaven, claimed that he was Lord of the Sabbath (Mk 2:28; cf. Mt 12:5–8). Just as God kept working, despite his Creation rest, to sustain the world in his mercy, so Jesus would continue to teach and to heal on the Sabbath day (Jn 5:2–17). But one day his redemptive work would be complete, and then the Sabbath’s purpose as a sign of redemption would be accomplished.
Living on the other side of Jesus’ death and resurrection, Paul was quick to grasp the significance of both for Sabbath observance. He did not go so far as to ban all observance of the Jewish Sabbath. Indeed, he attended many Sabbath synagogue services himself in his evangelistic travels (see, e.g., Acts 13:14–16). Jewish Christians who insisted on keeping up their Sabbath practices were free to do so, provided they respected the opinions of those who differed (Rom 14:5–6, 13). But any suggestion that observing the Jewish calendar was necessary for salvation must be resisted (Gal 4:8–11). For Paul considered the Sabbath to be a shadow, while Christ himself is the reality of that shadow (Col 2:17).
Finally, it is the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews who explains how the twin biblical “sabbath themes” of creation and redemption find their joint fulfillment in Christ. He did so by linking together the ideas of God’s rest after Creation and his redemptive act in bringing Israel to her “rest” in Canaan, and by showing how both relate to the present and future rest that Christians can and do enjoy in Jesus (Heb 4:1–11).
God intends all his people to share his rest—that is, his promise (Heb 4:1). He showed this intention clearly when he brought Israel to the Promised Land, but that did not mark the complete fulfillment of his promise. The full, complete rest still waiting for the people of God is in heaven. Christ has already entered there. He is resting from his work, just as God did after the Creation. And because of his redeeming work, he invites all those who believe in him to share that same “sabbath rest” now (v 9).
See also Lord’s Day, The; Sabbath Day’s Journey; Commandments, The Ten.
Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). Tyndale Bible dictionary. Tyndale reference library (1146). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.
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SABBATH (Heb. shabbāt, “repose,” i.e., “cessation” from exertion; Gk. sabbaton). The name Sabbath is applied to various great festivals but principally and usually to the seventh day of the week, the strict observance of which is enforced not merely in the general Mosaic code but also in the Ten Commandments.
Origin. The account of the creation states that God “rested on the seventh day” (Gen. 2:2). The assertion that the Sabbath rest was a Babylonian as well as a Hebrew institution and the inference that the Hebrews may have borrowed the idea from the Babylonians requires some ingenuity to demonstrate. By way of answer the following should be noted: (1) The Babylonians paid special attention to the nineteenth day as well as those that were multiples of seven; they called only the fifteenth day shabatum. (2) The Babylonian tablets call the seventh day “an evil day” or “an unlucky day,” whereas Scripture describes it as “a holy day.” (3) The Babylonians placed prohibitions only on the “king,” “seer,” and “the physician,” whereas the OT makes the Sabbath binding on all. (4) There was no cessation of business activity on Babylonian special days. (5) Though Babylonians had special regard for days that were multiples of seven, those days rarely ever fell on the seventh day of the week in their lunar calendar and thus were not equivalent to he Hebrew Sabbath.
Jewish Sabbath. The Jewish Sabbath was distinctive and was treated at length in the Bible.
Origin. The Sabbath was of divine institution and is so declared in passages where ceasing to create is called “resting” (Gen. 2:3; Ex. 20:11; 31:17). The blessing and sanctifying of the seventh day have regard, no doubt, to the Sabbath, which Israel, as the people of God, was afterward to keep; but we are not to suppose that the theocratic (Jewish) Sabbath was thus early instituted. The Sabbath was instituted by Moses. It is in Ex. 16:23–29 that we find the first indisputable institution of the day, as one given to and to be kept by the children of Israel. Shortly afterward it was reenacted in the fourth commandment. Many of the rabbis date its first institution from the incident recorded in Ex. 15:25. This, however, seems to lack foundation. We are not on sure ground until we come to the unmistakable institution in chap. 16, in connection with the gathering of manna. The opinion of Grotius is probably correct, that the day was already known, and in some measure observed as holy, but that the rule of abstinence from work was first given then, and shortly afterward more explicitly imposed in the fourth commandment.
Purpose. The Sabbath was a means of binding together more closely the chosen people and keeping them apart from the rest of mankind. Two reasons are given for its observance in Israel—God’s resting on the seventh day of creation (Ex. 20:8–11; 31:16–17) and Israel’s having been a “slave in the land of Egypt” and having been brought “out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm” (Deut. 5:15). “These are not the subjects of Sabbath celebration; indeed, the Sabbath has no one event as the subject of its observance, but is only the day which Israel is called to sanctify to the Lord its God, because God blessed and hallowed the day at the creation by resting on it. The completion of creation, the rest of God, is His blessedness in the contemplation of the finished work, the satisfaction of God in His work, which overflows in blessing upon His creatures. This blessedness was lost to the world through the Fall, but not forever, for, through redemption, divine mercy will restore it. The rest of God is the goal which the whole creation is destined to reach. To guide to this goal, the Sabbath was enjoined by way of compensation for the losses which accrue to man under the curse of sin, from that heavy, oppressive labor which draws him from God. Thus the Sabbath was hallowed, i.e., separated from other days of the week to be a holy day for man, by putting the blessing of his rest on the rest of this day. The return of this blessed and hallowed day is to be to him a perpetual reminder and enjoyment of the divine rest. This significance of the Sabbath explains why its keeping through all future generations of Israel is called a perpetual covenant and a sign between Jehovah and the children of Israel forever (Ex. 31:17)” (Keil, Arch., 2:2ff.).
Observance. According to Mosaic law the Sabbath was observed: (1) By cessation from labor (Ex. 20:10). The idea of work is not more precisely defined in the law, except that the kindling of fire for cooking is expressly forbidden (35:3), and the gathering of wood is treated as a transgression (Num. 15:32–36); wherefore it is evident that work, in its widest sense, was to cease. “Accordingly, it was quite in keeping with the law when not only labor, such as burden-bearing (Jer. 17:21–27), but traveling, as forbidden by Ex. 16:29, and trading (Amos 8:5) were to cease on the Sabbath, and when Nehemiah, to prevent marketing on this day, ordered the closing of the gates” (Neh. 10:31; 13:15, 19). (2) By a holy assembly, the doubling of the daily offering by two lambs of the first year, with the corresponding meat and drink offerings (Num. 28:9–10) and the providing of new bread of the Presence in the Holy Place (Lev. 24:8). Thus the Sabbath was to Israel a “day of … gladness” (Num. 10:10; cf. Hos. 2:11), “a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable” (Isa. 58:13). From such passages it will appear that the essence of Sabbath observance is placed in the most unconditional and all-embracing self-denial, the renunciation of the whole natural being and natural desires, the most unconditional dedication to God (see Isa. 56:2; Ezek. 20:12, 21). The object of this cessation from labor and coming together in holy convocation was to give man an opportunity to engage in such mental and spiritual exercises as would tend to the quickening of soul and spirit and the strengthening of spiritual life. In this higher sense it is evident that our Lord meant that “the Sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27).
Reward. According to Ezekiel (20:12, 20) the Sabbath was to be a sign between Jehovah and Israel, “that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them.” That is, “that Jehovah was sanctifying them—viz., by the Sabbath rest—as a refreshing and elevation of the mind, in which Israel was to have a foretaste of that blessed resting from all works to which the people of God was ultimately to attain” (Keil, Com., ad loc.). The penalty of defiling the Sabbath was death (Ex. 31:15; cf. Num. 15:32–36). But if the law of the Sabbath was broken through ignorance or mistake, pardon was extended after the presentation of a sin offering. At times the Jews dispensed with the extreme severity of the law (Isa. 56:2; Ezek. 20:16; 22:8; Lam. 2:6; Neh. 13:16); indeed, the legal observance of the Sabbath seems never to have been rigorously enforced until after the Exile. See Lord’s Day; Sunday; Synagogue.
Typology. The Sabbath commemorates God’s creation rest. It marks a finished creation. After Sinai it was a day of legal obligation. The Sabbath is mentioned often in the book of Acts in connection with the Jews. In the rest of the NT it occurs but twice (Col. 2:16; Heb. 4:4). In these passages the Sabbath is set forth not as a day to be observed but as typical of the present rest into which the believer entered when he “also rested [ceased] from his works” (v. 10) and trusted Christ.
Contrast to the First Day of the Week. As the Sabbath commemorates God’s creation rest, the first day speaks of Christ’s resurrection. The seventh day marks God’s creative rest. On the first day Christ was unceasingly active. The seventh day commemorates a finished creation, the first day a finished redemption. In the present dispensation of grace Sunday perpetuates the truth that one-seventh of one’s time belongs to God. In every other particular there is contrast.
See also Festivals. m.f.u.
bibliography: J. Orr, The Sabbath Scripturally and Practically Considered (1886); C. L. Feinberg, The Sabbath and the Lord’s Day (1952); R. T. Beckwith and W. Stott, This Is the Day (1978); N. Turner, Christian Words (1980), pp. 388–89.
Unger, M. F., Harrison, R. K., Vos, H. F., Barber, C. J., & Unger, M. F. (1988). The new Unger's Bible dictionary. Revision of: Unger's Bible dictionary. 3rd ed. c1966. (Rev. and updated ed.). Chicago: Moody Press.
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SABBATH (Heb. šabbāṯ, from the root šāḇaṯ, ‘to cease’, ‘to desist’). In the Bible the principle is laid down that one day in 7 is to be observed as a day holy to God. From the reason given for keeping the sabbath day in the Ten Commandments we learn that the example for the sabbath rest had been set by God himself in the creation. The sabbath therefore is a creation ordinance (Ex. 20:8–11).
In the account of creation the actual word ‘sabbath’ is not found, but the root from which the word is derived does occur (Gn. 2:2). The work of creation had occupied 6 days; on the 7th God rested (lit. ‘ceased’) from his labour. Thus there appears the distinction between the 6 days of labour and the one day of rest. This is true, even if the 6 days of labour be construed as periods of time longer than 24 hours. The language is anthropomorphic, for God is not a weary workman in need of rest. Nevertheless, the pattern is here set for man to follow. Ex. 20:11 states that God ‘rested’ (Heb. wayyānaḥ) on the 7th day, and Ex. 31:17 says that he ceased from his work and ‘was refreshed’ (wayyinnāp̱aš). The language is purposely strong so that man may learn the necessity of regarding the sabbath as a day on which he himself is to rest from his daily labours.
It has been held in contradistinction to what has been stated above that the institution of the sabbath derived from Babylonia. It is true that the Babylonian word šabbatum is related to the corresponding Hebrew word, but the force of the words is quite different. For one thing the Babylonians had a 5-day week. Examination of contract tablets reveals that the days designated šabbatum were not days of cessation from labour. Contracts from Mari (Tel el-Harîrî) show that work was performed, sometimes over a period of several days, without any interruption every 7th day. The Bible clearly attributes the origin of the sabbath to the divine example.
The fourth commandment enjoins observance of the sabbath. In Genesis there is no mention of the sabbath apart from the creation account. There is, however, mention of periods of 7 days (cf. Gn. 7:4, 10; 8:10, 12; 29:27ff.). We may also note in the narrative in Job that the seven sons celebrated a feast each on his day, and this was followed by the prayers and sacrifices of Job for the benefit of his children (Jb. 1:4–5). This was not a single round, but was regularly practised. It may be that here is an intimation of worship on the 1st day of the cycle. At least the principle that one day in 7 is holy to the Lord appears to be recognized here.
In Ex. 16:21–30 explicit mention is made of the sabbath in connection with the giving of manna. The sabbath is here represented as a gift of God (v. 29), to be for the rest and benefit of the people (v. 30). It was not necessary to work on the sabbath (i.e. to gather manna), for a double portion had been provided on the 6th day.
The sabbath was therefore known to Israel, and the injunction to remember it was one that would be understood. In the Decalogue it is made clear that the sabbath belongs to the Lord. It is therefore primarily his day, and the basic reason for observing it is that it is a day which belongs to him. It is a day that he has blessed and that he has set apart for observance. This is not contradicted by the Decalogue given in Dt. 5:12ff. In this latter passage the people are commanded to keep the sabbath in the manner in which the Lord has already commanded them (the reference is to Ex. 20:8–11), and the fact that the sabbath belongs to the Lord is again stated (v. 14). An additional reason, however, is given for the observance of the command. This reason is merely additional; it does not conflict with those already given. Israel is commanded to observe the sabbath day, in order ‘that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you’. Here is a humanitarian emphasis; but here also is emphasis upon the fact that the sabbath was made for man. Israel had been a slave in Egypt and had been delivered; so Israel must show the mercy of the sabbath towards those in her own midst who were slaves.
Throughout the remainder of the Pentateuch the sabbath legislation is found. It is interesting to note that there is a reference to the sabbath in each of the four last books of the Pentateuch. Genesis presents the divine rest; the remaining books emphasize the sabbatical legislation. This shows the importance of the institution. Sabbath legislation, it may be said, is integral and essential to the basic law of the OT and the Pentateuch (cf. Ex. 31:13–16; 34:21; 35:2ff.; Lv. 19:3, 30; 23:3, 38).
In this connection the significance of the sabbatical legislation appears in the severe punishment that is meted out upon a sabbath-breaker. A man had been gathering sticks upon the sabbath day. For this act a special revelation from God decreed that he should be put to death (cf. J. Weingreen, From Bible to Mishna, 1976, pp. 83ff.) This man had denied the basic principle of the sabbath, namely, that the day belonged to the Lord, and therefore was to be observed only as the Lord had commanded (cf. Nu. 15:32–36).
Upon the Pentateuchal legislation the prophets build; their utterances are in accordance with what had been revealed in the Pentateuch. The ‘sabbaths’ are often linked together with the ‘new moons’ (2 Ki. 4:23; Am. 8:5; Ho. 2:11; Is. 1:13; Ezk. 46:3). When prophets like Hosea (2:11) pronounced divine judgment on new moons, sabbaths and other appointed feasts, they were not condemning the sabbath as such; they were condemning a misuse of the sabbath and of the other Mosaic institutions.
On the other hand, the prophets do point out the blessings that will follow from a proper observance of the sabbath. There were those who polluted the sabbath and did evil on that day (Is. 56:2–4), and it was necessary to turn from such things. In a classic passage (Is. 58:13) Isaiah sets forth the blessings that will come from a true observance of the day. It is not a day in which man is to do what pleases him, but rather one on which he is to do the will of God. God, not man, must determine how the sabbath is to be observed. Recognizing that the day is holy to the Lord will bring the true enjoyment of the promises.
During the Persian period emphasis was again laid upon observance of the sabbath day. The pre-exilic ban on engaging in commercial transactions on the sabbath (Am. 8:5) or carrying burdens on that day (Je. 17:21f.) was reinforced by Nehemiah (Ne. 10:31; 13:15–22). During the period between the Testaments, however, a change gradually crept in with respect to the understanding of the purpose of the sabbath. In the synagogues the law was studied on the sabbath. Gradually oral tradition made its growth among the Jews, and attention was paid to the minutiae of observance. Two tractates of the Mishnah, Shabbath and ‘Erubin, are devoted to a consideration of how the sabbath was to be observed in detail. It was against this burdening of the commands of God with human tradition that our Lord inveighed. His remarks were not directed against the institution of the sabbath as such and not against the OT teaching. But he did oppose the Pharisees who had made the Word of God of none effect with their tradition. Christ identified himself as the Lord of the sabbath (Mk. 2:28). In so speaking, he was not depreciating the importance and significance of the sabbath nor in any way contravening the OT legislation. He was simply pointing out the true significance of the sabbath with respect to man and indicating his right to speak, inasmuch as he himself was the Lord of the sabbath.
As Lord of the sabbath, Jesus went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom (Lk. 4:16). His observance of the sabbath was in accord with the OT prescription to regard the day as holy to the Lord.
In his disagreement with the Pharisees (Mt. 12:1–14; Mk. 2:23–28; Lk. 6:1–11) our Lord pointed out to the Jews their complete misunderstanding of the OT commands. They had sought to make the observance of the sabbath more rigorous than God had commanded. It was not wrong to eat on the sabbath, even if the food must be obtained by plucking corn from the ears. Nor was it wrong to do good on the sabbath day. To heal was a work of mercy, and the Lord of the sabbath is merciful (cf. also Jn. 5:1–18; Lk. 13:10–17; 14:1–6).
On the first day of the week the Lord rose from the dead, and therefore it early and increasingly became the day above all others—‘the *Lord’s day‘ (Rev. 1:10)—on which Christians met for worship (cf. Acts 20:7; also Didache 14. 1; Justin, First Apology 67. 3).
Bibliography. J. Orr, The Sabbath Scripturally and Practically Considered, 1886; N. H. Snaith, The Jewish New Year Festival, 1947; J. Murray, Principles of Conduct, 1957, pp. 30–35; W. Rordorff, Sunday, 1968; F. N. Lee, The Covenantal Sabbath, 1972; R. T. Beckwith and W. Stott, This is the Day, 1978; W. Stott, NIDNTT 3, pp. 405–415; A. Lamaire, RB 80, 1973, pp. 161–185; S. Bacchiocchi, From Sabbath to Sunday: An Historical Investigation of the Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity, 1977. e.j.y. f.f.b.
Wood, D. R. W., Wood, D. R. W., & Marshall, I. H. (1996, c1982, c1962). New Bible Dictionary. Includes index. (electronic ed. of 3rd ed.) (1032). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.
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Sabbath (from Heb. shabbat, ‘to cease, desist’), the weekly day of rest and abstention from work enjoined upon the Israelites.
Origin: An etiological origin for the Sabbath is supplied in Gen. 2:1-3, which speaks of God ceasing from the work of creation on the seventh day, blessing the day, and declaring it holy. Scholarly explanations of the Sabbath’s origins have focused on certain days in the Babylonian monthly calendar on which normal activities of the king and certain professions were restricted. These days, known as ‘evil days,’ were determined by the lunar cycle, corresponding with the quarters of the moon. While the postulating of a dependence on the Babylonian calendar is tempting, it cannot be objectively sustained. The biblical Sabbath was ordained as a weekly institution with no relation whatsoever to the lunar cycle. Moreover, the somber nature of the Babylonian ‘evil days’ stands in stark contrast to the joyous nature of the Sabbath.
Of uncertain relation to the lunar ‘evil days’ was the day of the full moon on the fifteenth of the month, known as shapattu, a term possibly related to sabbath. This day was described as a ‘day of pacifying the heart [of the god]’ by certain ceremonies. No significant similarities between this day and the Sabbath are known, however. The closest analogy between the biblical Sabbath and Babylonian culture is the shared literary motif of the god(s) resting after having created humans (see Enuma elish 7.8, 34). Even here, the parallel is distant: the biblical God rests at the conclusion of his creative efforts, while the Babylonian gods are freed from the labors required to feed themselves since humans were created to relieve them of that task.
Observance: The Sabbath was a cornerstone of Israelite religious practice from earliest times. This can be seen from the consistent mention of the Sabbath throughout all the strata of Pentateuchal and extra-Pentateuchal sources, with the exception of wisdom literature. In the Pentateuch, Sabbath observance is legislated repeatedly in general terms (Exod. 20:8-11; 23:12; 31:12-17; Lev. 23:3; Deut. 5:12-15), though the types of work prohibited are relatively limited; those mentioned include gathering food, plowing and reaping, kindling a fire, and chopping wood (Exod. 16:29-30; 34:21; 35:3; Num. 15:32-36). The positive specifications of Sabbath observance include giving rest to one’s servants and animals (Exod. 20:10; 23:12; Deut. 5:14).
Outside the Pentateuch, evidence relating to the practical observance of the Sabbath is not overabundant, but it is more extensive than that found for most laws. During the monarchial period (ca. 1050-586 b.c.), the Sabbath (as well as the New Moon) was marked by visits to prophet and Temple (2 Kings 4:23; Isa. 1:13). Business activity came to a halt (Amos 8:5). The Sabbath was a joyous day, much like the festivals (Hos. 2:13; Lam. 2:6). Its desecration was severely attacked by Jeremiah, who lashed out against those who carried burdens from their houses or through the gates of Jerusalem (Jer. 17:19-27). During the period of the restoration, Nehemiah enforced observance of the Sabbath by locking the city gates of Jerusalem in order to prevent traders from selling their wares (Neh. 13:15-22). Contemporary documents from a Jewish colony in Elephantine, Egypt, likewise mention the Sabbath, attesting to its recognition by Diaspora (i.e., non-Palestinian) Jews in the fifth century b.c.
In addition to these features of popular observance of the Sabbath, one can also piece together a picture of Sabbath observance in the Temple. The Pentateuchal prescriptions of additional sacrifices and changing of the showbread on the Sabbath (Lev. 24:8; Num. 28:9-10) apparently reflect accepted practice (cf. Ezek. 45:17; 46:4-5; 1 Chron. 9:32; 23:31; 2 Chron. 2:3; 8:13; 31:3). The sacrificial service may have been accompanied by a special psalm (Ps. 92:1). There is also a somewhat cryptic reference to the changing of the royal guards at the Temple on the Sabbath (2 Kings 11:4-12).
Purpose: Two major rationales for Sabbath observance are presented in the Pentateuch. The concept of the Sabbath as a memorial of God’s resting from the work of creation is expressed in Gen. 2:1-3 and repeated in Exod. 20:11 and 31:17. The latter passage broadens the concept in defining the Sabbath as ‘a sign forever between me and the people of Israel.’ Although God had already sanctified the seventh day at the time of creation, he did not reveal its special status to humankind at large, but only to his people Israel. Thus, Israel’s observance of the Sabbath underscored its special relationship with God. This rationale was emphasized by Priestly writers.
Along with the theological rationale, a distinctly humanistic approach is to be found in Exod. 23:12 and Deut. 5:14-15, both of which ground the observance of the Sabbath on the need to give servants, strangers, and work animals an opportunity to rest. The added reminder in Deut. 5:15 of Israel’s experience in Egypt most likely intends to bolster the owner’s feeling of compassion for the weak and destitute (cf. Deut. 15:15; 16:12).
Sabbath observance took on an added significance with the prophets active shortly before and during the exilic period. Jeremiah attaches the very fate of Jerusalem to the observance of the Sabbath, thereby expressing a radical new conception (Jer. 17:19-27; cf. Neh. 13:17-18). Ezekiel subscribes to the same line of thought in equating the Sabbath with all the other commandments (Ezek. 20:11-24). The prophecies in Isaiah 56:2-7 and 58:13-14 likewise single out the Sabbath as the primary commandment, observance of which will bring personal as well as national salvation. The mention of the Sabbath in the Elephantine papyri and the appearance of the personal name Shabbetai, meaning ‘born on the Sabbath’ (Ezra 10:15) likewise attest to its importance in this period.
This unique prophetic idea may stem from the ever-growing need for Israel to preserve its own identity in the face of a hostile pagan world. To this end, Ezekiel significantly draws from the Priestly formulation in describing the Sabbath as a ‘sign’ between God and Israel (Ezek. 20:12), though his stress on the national consequences of Sabbath desecration represents a new application of the Priestly concept. Another explanation for the prominence of the Sabbath in the exilic literature is the fact that observance of the Sabbath was not dependent on the Temple cult. Although some of the old Sabbath practices, such as the additional sacrifices, became impossible with the destruction of the Temple, the continued observance of the Sabbath on the lay level would ensure Israel steadfastness to its faith.
In addition to the weekly seventh day of rest, the term ‘Sabbath’ and its related form Shabbaton occur elsewhere in the Pentateuch referring to some of the festival days and to the seventh ‘Sabbatical’ Year, on which the land was to lie fallow (Lev. 16:31; 23:24, 32, 39; 25:2-6; 26:34, 35, 43). Each of these occasions shares the chief characteristic of the weekly Sabbath, namely, the restricting of work. It has been suggested that the Sabbath day and the Sabbatical Year express the belief that Israel’s time and land belong ultimately to God.
In the earliest Christian community, observance of Sabbath regulations fell into disuse among Christians of Jewish descent, principally because Jesus himself had been lax in his obedience to them (e.g., Matt. 12:1-8; Mark 3:1-5; Luke 13:10-17; John 5:1-10) even though he continued to take part in synagogue services held on the Sabbath (e.g., Luke 4:16). Jesus’ claim to lordship over the Sabbath (Mark 2:28) was an important element in the hostility he aroused in those who felt that Sabbath traditions were incumbent on all Jews (e.g., Mark 3:6; John 5:18). Jesus’ attitude toward the Sabbath, coupled with the tradition that his resurrection occurred on the first day of the week (Sunday; cf. Matt. 28:1), meant that Sunday rather than the Sabbath (Saturday) became the chief liturgical day for Christians.
Bibliography
Greenberg, M. ‘Sabbath.’ Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 14. Pp. 557-62.
Porten, B. Archives from Elephantine. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1965. Pp. 122-33, 150, 173. D.A.G./J.H.T.
Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row, P., & Society of Biblical Literature. (1985). Harper's Bible dictionary. Includes index. (1st ed.) (888). San Francisco: Harper & Row.
7:
Sabbath (Heb. šabbāṯ)
The seventh day in a seven-day week, established in the OT as a day of rest. The OT records the institution of the sabbath in the laws given to Moses. The first command concerning the observance of the sabbath is found in Exod. 16:22–30. The Israelites were given manna daily and were told to gather twice as much on the sixth day so they would not have to gather on the seventh day. The inclusion of the sabbath law in the Decalogue both in Exodus and Deuteronomy established this command as a permanent law of the nation of Israel. In Exod. 20:8–11 the requirements of the law explicitly state no work shall be done by any person or livestock on the sabbath day. The theological defense for resting on the seventh day is derived from Gen. 2:1–3, in which God rests on the seventh day of creation. Israel is to rest because God rested.
Once the sabbath had been instituted, specific commands and prohibitions were given. The sabbath was not only a day of rest, but also a feast day. Because of this, the requirements of feast days were enforced, including holy convocations, public worship, and worship in the home. Special sacrifices were to be offered and the bread of the presence was to be renewed.
While the sabbath was to be considered a joy and privilege, it was also of such supreme importance that a violation of sabbath law carried the death penalty (Num. 15:35). This reflects the sabbath’s two-sided nature: it was both a blessing and a requirement for the nation of Israel.
In the intertestamental period, two rabbinic traditions developed concerning the sabbath. One maintained a strict sabbath observance, with an emphasis on the rules of the sabbath, while the other emphasized the concept of internal, spiritual rest.
There are six recorded confrontations between Jesus and Jewish religious leaders over sabbath observance. Five involve healing on the sabbath, and the remaining incident involves picking corn on the sabbath (Mark 2:23–26 par.). This was a violation of the law according to the Pharisees. Using the legal format of finding a similar case, Jesus argued that this was like the situation in 1 Sam. 21:1–6, in which David and his men eat the consecrated bread. The similarity was that human need overrides ritual law.
In Mark 3:1–6 par. Jesus heals a man with a withered hand. In Luke 13:10–17 he heals a woman who was bent over in sickness caused by evil spirits. In Luke 14:1–6 Jesus takes the offensive and asks the Pharisees if it is right to heal on the sabbath. Receiving no response, he heals a sick man. Jesus defends his actions by pointing out that any one of the Pharisees would rescue an animal who had fallen in a well on the sabbath day. In John 5:1–17 Jesus makes the Jewish leaders angry by healing a sick man and telling the healed man to carry his pallet. This was a twofold problem, because Jesus was both healing on the sabbath and encouraging the healed man to violate the sabbath by carrying a pallet. In John 7:21–24 Jesus is still being sought because of healing this man. He points out that the Jewish leaders circumcise on the eighth day, even if it falls on the sabbath. How much more important is it to heal an entire man. In John 9:1–34 Jesus heals a blind man by making clay and putting it on the man’s eyes. Not only does Jesus heal on the sabbath, but he also makes clay, which is against the law of the Pharisees. In all six sabbath confrontations, Jesus did not question the principle of a day of rest. Rather, the right use of the day is at the heart of these controversies. In some cases, such as in the picking of grain on the sabbath, human need overrides the ritual law. In other cases, Jesus is challenging the kind of regulations which go against the purpose of the law, which is to bring healing and wholeness. Although Jesus broke with rabbinic traditions about the sabbath, he did not seek to annul the observance of the sabbath day.
Considering the role of sabbath laws in the OT and in the Gospels, one might expect to find much more about the sabbath. If the sabbath is to be kept, one would assume that the gentile converts would need to be instructed in this. If the sabbath is to be annulled, one would assume that the Jewish believers would need to have this explained to them.
Six NT texts outside the Gospels and Acts impact discussions of sabbath theology and practice. There is evidence in Acts 20:7 that the first day of the week, Sunday, became a regular day of worship, but it does not replace or override the Jewish sabbath observance at this time. Rom. 14:5–6 contains no direct mention of the sabbath, but these verses renounce the idea of sacred days. All days are to be considered God’s days, and no day has any special sacredness. Galatians contains an argument against Gentiles adopting Jewish practices and upholding Jewish ritual laws. In Gal. 4:10 there is an injunction against observing Jewish ritual time; although the sabbath is not specifically mentioned, it seems to fall under the idea of observing special days. In Col. 2:16 the argument is that the sabbath (along with food and festival regulations) was a type, a shadow, of what was to come in Christ. Therefore, now that Christ has come, there is no need for the shadow. Heb. 4:9 states that the sabbath rest in some way remains. This describes a sabbath rest which is probably not the once-a-week day of rest, but a rest of heart, provided by Christ. This rest appears to be spiritual rather than temporal, but this text has caused some confusion about a post-Gospels understanding of the sabbath.
Rev. 1:10 describes “the Lord’s Day,” which refers to Sunday, the day on which Jesus was resurrected. However, this early practice of meeting for worship on Sunday was not linked to the sabbath rest until much later. Therefore, this reference to the Lord’s day does not appear to be linked to the sabbath laws at this time.
The Scriptures have left some questions concerning the sabbath unanswered. Not only are some particulars of sabbath regulations unclear, but the fundamental question of whether or not the sabbath was completely fulfilled by Christ’s first coming has plagued Christianity and is still a debated topic. The choice of the day also presents a point of disagreement, with some groups continuing to adhere to the Jewish practice of a Saturday sabbath. Lastly, the relationship of the sabbath to the Lord’s Day becomes an issue in later centuries.
Bibliography. N.-E. A. Andreasen, The Old Testament Sabbath (Missoula, 1972); D. A. Carson, ed., From Sabbath to Lord’s Day (Grand Rapids, 1982); W. Stott, “Sabbath, Lord’s Day,” NIDNTT 3:405–15; K. A. Strand, ed., The Sabbath in Scripture and History (Washington, 1982).
Ann Coble
Freedman, D. N., Myers, A. C., & Beck, A. B. (2000). Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible (1145). Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans.
