Doctrinal Disunity Impacts Evangelism (2)

This Part 2 is the continuation and conclusion to “Doctrinal Disunity Impacts Evangelism (1)”.  Part 1 should be read first.

There are presently more than 2.2 billion Christians worldwide.  But they are divided into more than 40,000 denominations, sects, or groups!  Disunity within Christendom not only divides the body of Christ, but the perception of Christian disunity also hinders evangelism both here and abroad.

Answers.com How Many Christian Denominations Are There? “Different people have different beliefs in Christianity. Unfortunately, those differences lead to divisions. God requires unity. Jesus’ last prayer was for His disciples to remain united (John 17). The Lord never intended for His church to be divided into competing groups teaching different doctrines. The Lord is not the Lord of confusion. Much of Christianity has been polluted by other false pagan religions, which has led to differing beliefs and unscriptural practices which has caused them to break apart.”  Unscriptural practices cause division!

The apostle Paul exhorted Titus in Ti.2:7, “Be an example of good works, with soundness in doctrine”.

The question was posed: What if all Christian beliefs and practices were based on scriptural doctrine, with no pagan or contradicting unscriptural practices based on man’s traditions that cause disunity?

Most Christian churches make the claim that their beliefs, teachings and practices are based on the Holy Bible.  The late Dr. Myles Munroe wrote in 2008, “The Bible is the Constitution of the Kingdom of God”.  Pastor Benny Hinn says, “The Holy Spirit authored the Bible”.  That’s the written scriptures.

The inspired word of God, the holy scriptures of the Bible, is the true standard for our faith!  1Ti.4:13 Paul told Timothy to do public reading of Old Testament (OT) scriptures in church.  The written word of God is the basis, the foundation, of true knowledge…unlike various dogmatic traditions of men.

Our topic is addressing four points of Bible doctrine which impact Christian unity and evangelism.  Part 1 addressed two causes of disunity…controversy concerning #1) Clean vs Unclean and #2) Blood.  (also see the topics “Unclean versus Clean Food” and “Acts 15 – Four Prohibitions”.)  Now in Part 2, we’ll address two other causes of disunity, #3) and #4), also pertaining to doctrine.

#3) 7^th DAY SABBATH rest:  There’s been much controversy in the church over whether Christians should keep the 7^th day sabbath of scripture, or the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) and Protestant Sunday of tradition, or neither.  Let’s see what the scriptures reveal.

The 7^th day sabbath has its beginnings at Creation.  The Holy Spirit and Christ, the Spirit and the Word, are the Creators (ref Ge.1:1-2, 26; Jb.33:4; Jn.1:1-3; Col.1:16), being the divine agents of Father God.   

When Creation was finished, Christ ceased (shabáth Strongs h7673, Hebrew verb) or rested.  Ge.2:1-3 “By the 7^th day God finished His work which He had done, and He ceased on the 7^th day. Then God blessed the 7^th day and sanctified it, because in it He ceased from all His work which He had created and made.”  Although the first six days were all good, only the 7^th Day did Christ bless and sanctify or make holy!  This is the great prototype of the weekly 7^th day sabbath, an intermission dedicated to God.

The 7^th day sabbath is a sign which identifies God as the Creator of all.  No other day of the week so reflects God as Creator.  By resting on the 7^th day, the believer shows that his God is the Creator.  We may choose to rest or worship God on other days too.  But as Lord of the 7^th day sabbath, Christ ordained at creation (when there were no Jews!) the 7^th day as holy or sanctified…and no other day of the week.  And throughout the Bible, Christ nowhere rescinded His 7^th day as holy time!

“Sabbath” is a holy day/period of cessation from certain activities.  JFB Commentary Ge.2:3 “The institution of the Sabbath is as old as creation.”  Benson Commentary Ge.2:3 “God blessed the seventh day’. He…separated it from common use…that it should be spent in His worship. It appears evidently by this, that the observation of the sabbath was not first enjoined when the law [Mosaic] was given, but it was an ordinance of God from the creation of the world.”

Theóphilus, bishop of Antioch (175 AD) To Autolýcus 2:12 “The 7^th day, which all men acknowledge.”  The 7^th day rest time is universal, from Ge.2:3.  Not Sunday, not any other day of the week is holy.

RCC Archbishop James Gibbons wrote in The Faith of Our Fathers, 1876, p.89 “You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.”

Irish RCC Father Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism, 1851, p.174 “She [RCC] substituted the observance of Sunday the 1^st day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the 7^th day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.”  The RCC admits the RCC made the change!  Christ didn’t.

Jesuit Father Martin J. Scott, Things Catholics Are Asked About, 1927, p.136 “Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that worship should be changed from Saturday to Sunday. The Church…instituted, by God’s authority, Sunday as the day of worship.”  These RCC admissions are surprising!?  Also non-RCC:

Evangelist Dwight L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting, p.47 “The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This 4^th commandment begins with the word ‘remember’, showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away when they will admit the other nine are still binding?”

Methodist theologian Harris F. Rall Christian Advocate, 1942, p.26 “The matter of Sunday…There are indications in the New Testament [NT] how the church came to keep the first day of the week as its day, but there is no passage telling Christians to keep that day, or transfer the Jewish Sabbath to that day.”

Pulpit Commentary 1Co.16:2 “This verse can hardly be said to imply any religious observance of the Sunday.”  Cambridge Bible Ga.4:10 “There is clearly no exemption here from the obligation of the observance of ‘the 7^th day’. The law of the Sabbath…is as old as the Creation.”

Adam Clark Commentary Co.2:16 “There is no intimation here that the Sabbath was done away, or that its moral use was superseded, by the introduction of Christianity. ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy’, is a command of perpetual obligation.”  JFB Commentary Col.2:16 “The weekly sabbath rests on a more permanent foundation, having been instituted in Paradise to commemorate the completion of Creation in six days.”  And Jesus Himself, the Creator in the flesh, observed the sabbath day (Lk.4:16).

Lutheran August Neander, The History of the Christian Religion and Church, p.186 “The festival of Sunday, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a Divine command in this respect…to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday.”  Jesus’ apostles didn’t try to change the 7^th day sabbath.  The NT never says Sunday is the church or gentiles’ sabbath, in the manner that Saturday is sabbath holy time.  It shouldn’t be about gentiles vs Jews racism!

Anglican priest and scholar Joseph Bingham, Antiquities of the Christian Church “The ancient Christians were very careful in the observation of Saturday, or the 7^th day. It is plain that all the Oriental churches, and the greatest part of the world, observed the Sabbath as a festival. Epíphanius says the same.” (v.2, b.20, ch.3, sec 1, 66)  “Athanásius says: They met on the Sabbath, not because they were infected with Judaism, but to worship Jesus, the Lord of the sabbath.” (b.13, ch.9, sec 3.)  The 7^th day sabbath and its observance long predates Judaism.

Many other reputable theologians say the 7^th day sabbath is holy time, unchanged by God since Creation.  (see “Sabbath 7^th Day” series, and “Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome” for man’s steps of change.)

Christ said in Ex.20:8, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy”.  Since it was holy at Creation.

The customary practice of setting aside Sunday as the day of Christian worship is man’s tradition.  But some Christians have rightly viewed God’s word, not the traditions of men, as the true authority!  Church traditions have divided Christ’s body.  Jesus accused the Pharisees in Mk.7:8-9, “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men”.  The Pharisees were popular.  Yet Jesus was against their wrong traditional dogmatic views (and their burdensome minutiae of sabbath observance).

The RCC Sunday tradition is a form of Phariseeism.  And most Christians ignore Christ’s holy time that has come & gone every 7^th day since Creation…to keep the RCC (and ensuing Protestant) tradition.  Dr. Dave Miller Unbelief and a Divided Christendom “When people introduce personal creeds, human interpretations, and religious additions to God’s doctrine, disunity inevitably results.”

Sabbath is cessation, rest.  Even most of those who customarily attend church on Sunday don’t really rest on that day.  We want Jews to be converted to Christ.  But mainstream Christianity appears false to them.  Christians eat the unclean (unlike Jews and many Muslims), and don’t fully rest (on Sunday) as religious Jews rest on Saturday.  Christian efforts at evangelism are thereby hindered.

There’s a health benefit too in sabbath rest.  The need for rest every 7 days is built into our human bodies, as Christ created us.  Wikipedia: Circaseptan “A circaseptan rhythm is a cycle consisting of 7 days in which many biological processes of life evolve.”  Several of our bodily processes and defenses reset approximately every 7 days.  For example: Immune response to infections, blood & urine chemicals, blood pressure, heartbeat, coping hormones.  (ref Erhard Haus Chronobiology in the Endocrine System.)

Mankind’s body clock is ticking to the ‘beat of 7’…we can’t annul it!  But we can violate it by not resting every 7 days.  Jesus said in Mk.2:27-28, “The sabbath was made for man”.  He’s the Creator of it; and He knows our physical and spiritual needs.  (I’m not Seventh Day Adventist.)

#4) FEASTS observance:  Some minority groups today think Christians should observe the OT pilgrim feasts which the Lord gave to ancient Israel…Passover, Péntecost/Shavúot, Booths/Tabernacles/Sukkót.

Scriptural guidelines regarding #1) Clean vs unclean, #2) Blood, #3) 7^th Day Sabbath rest…are seen in Genesis before there was ever a nation of Israel or Jews or the Mosaic Law.  But not so with the Feasts.  Unlike the weekly sabbath rest day of Ge.2:1-3, there were no pilgrim feasts prior to Moses.

The three pilgrim feasts of Israel were to be kept only at the location where God placed His Name, the site of the physical tabernacle/temple sanctuary.  De.16:5-6 “You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of the towns which the Lord your God is giving you, but at the place where the Lord chooses to establish His name.”  ref also De.12:5, 14, 17-18, 26, 14:23-25, 16:1-2, 10-11, 15-16, concerning keeping pilgrim feasts in that one place only.  God’s one place was in the Holy Land, not elsewhere in other nations!  The timing of the feasts was based on the agricultural cycle in Israel.

God’s people were to keep the feasts solely at the city where the sanctuary was, never at two or more locations simultaneously!  (see the topics “Feasts of the Lord and the Jews” and “Ark of the Testimony – Journeys”.)

Neither in the OT nor in the NT do we read of people, with or without the Holy Spirit, keeping pilgrim feasts in a town away from the environs of the central sanctuary in Israel where God had put His Name!  All NT passages about pilgrim feasts show them being kept only at Jerusalem, where the temple was.

Another of God’s requirements for keeping the ceremonial feasts was physical circumcision.  ref Ex.12:48, Ezk.44:9, Lam.1:10, Ac.21:28-29.  Uncircumcised gentiles weren’t allowed in the temple where the Passover and other pilgrim feasts were kept by circumcised Israelites/Jews & Jewish proselytes!  Outsiders could come no closer than the Court of the Gentiles.  (Note: Physical circumcision isn’t necessary for salvation.  see “Circumcision in the Bible” and “Passover and Peace Offerings”.)

G.J. Goldberg wrote, “With the destruction of the Temple, the pilgrimage festivals could no longer be observed in their prescribed forms.”  It’s impossible to really keep a scriptural pilgrim feast today!  For nearly 2,000 years, the required singular earthly sanctuary where God’s Name was…hasn’t existed!

Jews today do a ritual seder (‘order’) for a traditional retelling of ancient Israel’s exodus from Egypt.  But the seder isn’t an actual Passover feast (and isn’t meant to be), as the scriptures define Passover.  And 90% of Jews normally work during the pilgrim feast days of Sukkot/Booths and Shavuot/Pentecost.  Also, Muslims don’t keep these feasts.  (I’m not Jewish or Muslim.)

And in scripture, pilgrim feasts weren’t authorized to be kept just anywhere by people whose bodies are the temple of God via the Holy Spirit (1Co.3:16).  Without that one place available (Jerusalem temple), there was no lawful pilgrim feast!  Other simultaneous sites would be counterfeit pseudo-feasts.

In Ro.10:2, Paul wrote of those who “have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge”.  Although there are well-meaning ‘Hebrew roots’ groups and Christians who think they’re observing pilgrim feasts in other cities simultaneously…scripturally, such practice isn’t to be done (cf. 1Ki.12:32–13:5).

Christian groups who traditionally promote pilgrim feast-keeping today may pharisaically cause other Christians, who don’t claim to be observing pilgrim feasts, to feel less righteous or perhaps lacking in Bible understanding.  This harms the body of Christ and causes division.  And disunity is further caused by calendar differences even among the groups trying to promote and pinpoint the exact when for their pseudo-feast observances.  It is confusion.  (also see “Days Israel Observed – God-Ordained”.)

Concluding: The four scriptural points of doctrine addressed in Part 1 and Part 2…most (mainstream) churches rarely examine in-depth.  Yet these points contribute to our living a harmonious healthy life in Christ (Jn.10:10).  Perks of His Kingdom!  Jn.17:17 “Thy word is truth.”  That’s all the written scripture of the OT too.  Again, ref “Doctrinal Disunity Impacts Evangelism (1)”.  (for more on early evangelism, see the topic “Evangelism in the Apostolic Church”.)

I like to believe that, as time goes on, more of the church at large will honor these four points.  This will increase unity in Christendom.  A fractured Christianity has hindered evangelism.  Dr. Dave Miller op. cit. “Disunity confuses and discourages honest searchers of truth.”  Jn.17:11 Jesus prayed that His disciples would be unified, as one.  And this unity should contribute to furthering our evangelistic success…making Christians, Jews and Muslims more like-minded in these truths of God’s word.

As we and mankind learns the Lord’s principles of life (De.30:14-16), the church as a whole will benefit from less disunity and better (table) fellowship.  And when our days are fulfilled, we’ll live with Jesus in eternity!  Praise the Lord!

Days Israel Observed – God-Ordained

This topic identifies the days/occasions which God commanded His people ancient Israel to observe.

In the Old Testament (OT), these occasions are divided into three categories…feasts, new moons, sábbaths.  Concerning Israel, the Lord declared in Ho.2:11 LXX, “I will turn away all her gladness, her feasts [Strongs g1859 hehortáy, Greek], her new moons [g3561 noumenía], her sabbaths [g4521 sábbaton], all her public assemblies”.  (God would send away Israel captive to Assyria in 721 BC.)

Those days/occasions are entered in the two Tables below.  On the left side of the Tables, the sabbaths, new moons, and feast days are listed in rows.  The four columns across the top of each Table show the various Aspects of the Days/Occasions, and their differing characteristics.  A bullet dot ● means an Aspect applies to a Day or Occasion.  Analysis and discussion of the data is below the Tables.

DAYS ISRAEL OBSERVED – Table 1

Aspects (across):	Sábbath	No Work	Holiday	No Work
	Cessation	At All	Semi-Rest	“Servile”
Strongs numbers:	sábbaton	érgon	anápausis	latréutos
Greek = g	g4521	g2041	g372	g2999.1
Hebrew = h	shabáwth	melakáh	shabathón	abodáh
	h7676	h4399	h7677	h5656
DAYS/OCCASIONS:
Weekly 7th Day Sábbath	●	●	●
Day of Atonement	●	●	●
Land Sabbath – Year 7	●		●
New Moons
New Moon – Month 7			●	●
Passover Sacrifice
Unleavened Bread Day 1				●
Unleavened Days 2-6
Unleavened Day 7				●
Péntecost/Weeks				●
Feast of Booths Day 1			●	●
Booths Days 2-7
Last Great Day 8			●	●

DAYS ISRAEL OBSERVED – Table 2

Aspects (across):	Feast/	Do Only By	Assembly	Assembly
	Festival	God‘s Place	Summons	Feast Exit
Strongs numbers:	hehortáy	God‘s tópos	klaytós	éxodios
Greek = g	g1859	g5117	g2822	g1840.5
Hebrew = h	chag	mawkomé	miqrá	atzerét
	h2282	h4725	h4744	h6116
DAYS/OCCASIONS:
Weekly 7th Day Sabbath			●
Day of Atonement			●
Land Sabbath – Year 7
New Moons	●		●
New Moon – Month 7	●		●
Passover Sacrifice	●	●
Unleavened Bread Day 1	●	●	●
Unleavened Days 2-6	●
Unleavened Day 7	●		●	●
Pentecost/Weeks	●	●	●
Feast of Booths Day 1	●	●	●
Booths Days 2-7	●	●
Last Great Day 8		●	●	●

The above two Tables/grids reflect the days and occasions which the Lord gave to ancient Israel.  There are three categories of occasions…sabbaths, new moons, feasts.

The three categories were evident in the prophecy of Ezk.45:17 JPS Tanakh. “It shall be the prince’s part… in the feasts [Strongs h2250 chag, Hebrew], the new moons [h2320 chódesh], the sabbaths [h7676 shabáwth], in all the appointed seasons [h4150 móed] of the house of Israel.”

The apostle Paul wrote in the Greek New Testament (NT) Col.2:16, “Don’t let anyone judge you…with respect to a feast [g1859 hehortay] day, a new moon [g3561 noumenia], or a sabbath [g4521 sabbaton] day”.  (False teachers and Pharisees were acting as judges of how to keep various occasions.)

All days in my two Tables were an appointed time/season, h4150 moed.  There are 220 occurrences of this Hebrew term in the OT.  Moed h4150 had various meanings: Occasions both God-ordained and man-ordained (Zec.8:19), a personal meeting time (David & Jonathán in 1Sm.20:35, Amasá in 2Sm.20:5), a set meeting place (140 occurrences, Ex.27:21 tent of meeting), a signal (Jg.20:38), the regularity of migratory birds (Je.8:7), a period of years (Da.12:7).  The Greek LXX translation in English is season, time, assembly, signal, etc.  Moed h4150 didn’t refer solely to religious days/times of God.

Following is detail about the three categories of days, and a comparison:

1. Sabbath Strongs h7676 shabawth noun occurs 100 times in the OT Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT).  In the OT Greek Septúagint/LXX the corresponding term is sabbaton g4521.  In the NT, sabbaton g4521 occurs 60 times.  I commonly refer to the Hebrew shabawth & Greek sabbaton as “sabbath” in English.

The root of the Hebrew shabawth h7676 is shabáth h7673 verb, meaning ‘to cease, rest’.  Ge.2:2 “On the 7^th day God ended His work which He had made, and He ceased [h7673, g2664 katapáuo] on the 7^th day.”

Sabbath h7676 was a near-full cessation.  The only occasions which are sabbaths: The weekly 7^th day sabbath, the annual Day of Atonement (Yom Kíppur), and the land sabbath every 7 years (Le.25:1-7).  Although the land sabbath year of rest isn’t a ‘day’, I’ve included it among God’s other OT occasions.

Pertinent OT LXX and NT verses about the 7^th day sabbath g4521: Ex.16:23-29, 20:8-11; De.5:12-15; Ne.13:15-22; Is.56:1-6; Je.17:21-27; Mt.24:20; Mk.2:27-28, 6:2; Lk.4:16, 23:56; Ac.13:42, 16:13.

The Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur was a double sabbath, according to the LXX (Le.16:31, 23:32).  It was the holiest day of the year.  Verses pertaining to the Day of Atonement: Le.16:1-34, 23:26-32, 25:9; Nu.29:7; Is.58:5, 13; Ezk.40:1-ff; He.9:6-7.

2. New Moons Strongs h2320 chodesh Hebrew noun, meaning moon or month.  As a new moon (the 1^st day or beginning or head of a month), it occurs 30 times in the Hebrew MT: Ex.40:2, 17; Le.23:24; Nu.1:1, 18, 10:10, 28:11, 29:1, 6; De.1:3; 1Sm.20:5, 18, 24; 2Ki.4:23; 1Ch.23:31; 2Ch.2:4, 8:13, 29:17, 31:3; Ezr.3:5-6; Ne.8:2, 10:33; Ps.81:3; Is.1:13-14; Ezk.45:17-18, 46:1-6; Ho.2:11; Am.8:5; Hag.1:1.  In the Greek LXX, the 1^st/beginning of the month is often rendered as “new moon”/noumenia g3561.  In the NT, “new moon” (noumenia g3561) occurs only in Col.2:16.

In the OT, there’s no direct command for the general populace of Israel to observe all new moons.  However, a combining of the above verses (in bold) regarding new moons indicates they were kept.  The new moon traditionally was sort of a mini-holiday for women in some respects.  The religious importance of new moons (Rosh Hashánah excepted) was less than that for sabbaths and pilgrim feasts.  Recognizing each passing new moon maintained awareness of God’s calendar for annual festivals.

Rosh Hashanah was New Year’s Day.  It traditionally commemorated the ‘birthday of the world’ of Genesis 1 at creation.  Le.23:24 Rosh Hashanah is the new moon (day 1) of Month 7 (as in the above Tables), according to Israel’s sacred year/calendar which begins near the spring equinox.  However, Rosh Hashanah is the new moon of Month 1, according to Israel’s civil year/calendar which begins near the autumnal equinox.  The Month 7 new moon references in Le.23:24; Nu.29:1; Ezr.3:6; Ne.8:2…are according to the sacred calendar occasion of Rosh Hashanah which is around Sep 22.  Barnes Notes Le.23:24 “The 1^st day’ of this month was the 1^st day of the Civil year…and was observed as the festival of the New year.”  JFB Commentary “That was the 1^st day of the ancient civil year.”

Rosh Hashanah means ‘head of the year’.  Rosh Hashanah precedes the Day of Atonement by 10 days and the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles/Ingathering by 15 days; these were at the “end of the year” (Ex.23:16).  That is, when the old civil year ended and the new civil year began.  The onset of a Jubilee year was proclaimed on the Day of Atonement (Le.25:9-10).  cf. Ezk.40:1 (“beginning of the [civil] year”).

3. Feasts Strongs h2282 chag Hebrew noun, occurs 60 times in the OT.  The corresponding LXX term is hehortay g1859, which also occurs 27 times in the NT.

The three pilgrim feasts were Passover/Unleavened Bread, Péntecost/Weeks, Tabernacles/Sukkót.

Pilgrim feasts were based on the agricultural cycle in Israel.  The Lord commanded they be kept only at the one place where He dwelt, De.12:5, 16:16; 2Sm.6:2…never at two or more locations simultaneously.  Passover wasn’t allowed in their other various towns, De.16:5.  Those who didn’t come to Jerusalem for Booths/Tabernacles were to get no rain, Zec.14:16-19.  No location of man’s choosing was authorized.  (King Jeroboám’s attempted feast elsewhere failed, 1Ki.12:32–13:5.)  Pilgrim feasts, with their required offerings, were done only near/by God’s place (it was only in Israel).  see Table 2.

Israelite males were to attend three times each year.  ref Ex.34:22-24, De.16:16.  Benson Commentary Le.23:3 “Feasts were to be kept before the Lord in Jerusalem only, where all the males were to come for that end; but the sabbath was to be kept in all places, in synagogues, and in their private houses.”

Unlike the feasts, the weekly 7^th day sabbath and the Day of Atonement were observed in all their dwellings/towns.  see Le.23:3, 31-32.

Passover h6453 pésach occurs nearly 50 times in the MT.  The corresponding LXX term is g3957 pásha, which also occurs nearly 30 times in the NT.  ref Ex.12:1-11, 43-48; Le.23:5; Nu.9:1-14; De.16:1-8; Mk.14:12; Lk.22:1, 7; Jn.11:55.  Passover and the 7 Days of Unleavened Bread began on Abíb 14-15.

Passover was done only at one location (at a time).  Lk.2:41-42 Jesus’ parents took Him to Jerusalem every year.  It would have been sin for them to try to ‘keep’ Passover in a Galilee town, De.16:5.  (A man unable to do Passover at God’s sole place was allowed to keep it there the next month, Nu.9:9-14.)

After the initial Passover meals (and the Wave Sheaf ceremony, Le.23:9-14), the remainder of the seven days of Unleavened Bread can be kept in their home dwellings.  ref Lk.24:13-ff where two people were leaving Jerusalem on Sunday a few days after Passover, but still during the Days of Unleavened Bread.

During Israel’s history, the Passover became somewhat synonymous with the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Ezk.45:21 “Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.”  Lk.22:1 “The Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover….”  Interchangeable terms.

Unleavened bread h4682 matzáh occurs 50 times in the OT.  The corresponding LXX term, ázumos g106, also occurs 9 times in the NT.  ref Ge.19:3; Ex.12:15-20; Jdg.6:19-21; Ac.12:3, 20:6; 1Co.5:7-8.

The feast of Pentecost or Weeks (Ex.34:22-23) or Shavúot was 50 days later, Le.23:15-21.  Some may interpret v.21 as Pentecost can be kept “wherever you live” (CSB) in some circumstances?  Barnes Notes Le.23:21 “The Feast of Weeks was distinguished from the two other great annual [pilgrim] feasts by its consisting, according to the Law, of only a single day.”  In the OT, there’s no clear example of anyone traveling to the temple to observe Pentecost (there is in the NT, Ac.2:1-14, 20:16).  The apocryphal book of Tobit 2:1 shows him eating a meal in the land of Assyria at the time of Pentecost.  As Israelites migrated from captivity, many couldn’t afford the trip back to Jerusalem for this one-day observance.

The annual seven-day Feast of Booths/Tabernacles/Ingathering/Sukkot h5521 was very early in each new civil year (5 days after Atonement).  At the culmination of this feast was the 8^th Last Great Day called Shémini Atzerét.  ref Le.23:33-43; De.16:13-16; Ne.8:14-18; Zec.14:16-19; Jn.7:2, 37-39.  The Feast of Booths or Tabernacles too was kept only at the sole place in Israel where God’s Name dwelt.

Feasts and new moons weren’t complete rests…they weren’t shabawth h7676 or sabbaton g4521.  (see Table 1.)  Rather, extensive work could be done preparing the food they’d feast on.  No “servile” work was done.  They were holidays or semi-rests/near-rests, in that sense.  Assemblies/convocations were held at the tabernacle or temple during feast days.  (Assembly days for Occasions are noted with a ● in Table 2.)  Some days were shabathón h7677 or anápausis g372 rest (noun)…not a near-full cessation.

The Hebrew term shabathon h7677 noun occurs 10 times in the OT (all in Exodus and Leviticus): Ex.16:23, 31:15, 35:2; Le.16:31, 23:3, 24, 32, 39 (2), 25:5.  The LXX term is anapausis g372, which also occurs 5 times in the NT as “rest” KJV (not as “sabbath”/sabbaton g4521!).

Harvard grad William Converse Wood Sabbath Essays, p.130-131 “Sabbath days’ does not refer to Jewish festivals….feasts are often spoken of in the NT, but not one of them anywhere is called a sabbath, or credited with the nature of the sabbath….The feasts of trumpets [Rosh Hashanah] and tabernacles are termed merely shabathon….The Septuagint notes this distinction, not translating these feasts by the Greek sabbaton [sabbath], but by anapausis, rest.”  Shabathons were like sabbatóids.

Bible translations don’t always reflect the distinction between (Hebrew) shabawth h7676 and shabathon h7677.  They wrongly translate shabathon as “sabbath”.  e.g. Le.23:24, 39 KJV incorrectly rendered shabathon as “sabbath” for Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Booths Day 1, and Last Great Day 8.

Sabbaths did encompass the concept of semi-rest or near-rest, so they too were h7677/g372.  Yet more than that…sabbaths were near-total cessations.  Le.23:3 “Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work therein.”  The “sabbath” is a holy day/period of cessation from certain activities, most (tiring) activities.  see Table 1.

Pulpit Commentary Le.23:3 “The sabbath and the Day of Atonement were the only days in which no work might be done, whereas on the other festivals it was only no servile work that might be done.”  No work at all was done on the 7^th day sabbath h7676/g4521 (De.5:14).

Again, sabbaths weren’t feasts and feasts weren’t sabbaths.  The Lord prohibited extensive food preparation on the sabbaths (unlike the feasts).  The Day of Atonement sabbath was even a fast day!  Israel was taught the lesson in Ex.16 by gathering manna six days each week…for 40 years!  But they didn’t gather on the 7^th day.  No work of any kind was permitted on sabbath (other than priests may do God’s work, Mt.12:5).

Bible translations in English differ.  But God’s various occasions (with their Aspects) can be accurately identified by the Strongs numbers which are associated with the old Hebrew & Greek source terms.

The Hebrew OT Ex.20:8, “Remember the shabawth [h7676] day, to keep it holy”.  It doesn’t say, ‘Remember the shabathon [h7677] (semi-rest) day, to keep it holy’.  The Hebrew/Greek terms shabawth h7676/sabbaton g4521…aren’t shabathon h7677/anapausis g372.

In Mt.11:28-30, Jesus exhorts believers to come be yoked to Him and find “rest”.  v.29 the Greek term here is anapausis g372…not sabbaton g4521 sabbath.  Jesus didn’t say He is the sabbath/shabawth!  To see Jesus as the sabbath is wrongly adding to His words.  Jesus isn’t our sabbath.  God/Jesus is greater than the sabbath and all else He created or ordained!  Thus Jesus is Lord of the sabbath (Mk.2:27-28), and of all creation.  Since Christ ceased from creating on the 7^th day, the weekly sabbath identifies God as Creator.  Vincent’s Word Studies Mt.11:29 “By coming to the Savior, they would first take on them the yoke of the kingdom of heaven, and then that of the commandments, finding this yoke easy and the burden light.”  A rest from the Pharisees’ oral law yoke of bondage; cf. Ac.15:10, Ga.5:1.

Of all the days in the Tables, the 7^th day sabbath is the only occasion made holy (Gen.2:1-3) prior to Moses, the Old Covenant, and the Levitical order.  JFB Commentary Le.23:3 “The sabbath has the precedence given to it.”  Presbyterian scholar Ligon Duncan acknowledges in The First Things – The Creation Ordinances “In Genesis 1 and 2…there are four great creation mandates given….our four Creation ordinances are procreation [Ge.1:28], labor [Ge.1:28, 2:15], Sabbath [Ge.2:1-3] and marriage [Ge.2:21-25].”  Not Old Covenant Levitical feasts or new moon celebrations.  God’s four Creation ordinances supersede both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, and all priestly orders!  Therefore, the 7^th day sabbath is the only day in the Tables which may be applied to the present Christian order of Melchisedek.  Let’s not forget…the 7^th day has been holy time since Creation!

{Sidelight: My own personal practice for decades is to observe the 7^th day sabbath as a day of rest.  (I’m not Seventh Day Adventist.)  I may also worship the Lord and traditionally go to church on Sunday or any day.  I’ve found that putting out leavened bread for seven days each spring helps renew my resolve to put/keep sin out of my life.  (cf. Ac.20:6.  Paul figuratively related leaven to sin, 1Co.5:6-8.)  Also I fast on the Day of Atonement (cf. Ac.27:9) and may attend a church meeting on that day or on Rosh Hashanah.  Doing these things can help a Christian stay focused on God.  This isn’t to say that honoring the annual Days of Unleavened Bread, Yom Kippur, or Rosh Hashanah is a substitute for Jesus’ sacrifice.  “Repent and be baptized” (Ac.2:38), and belief in His blood…is vital.}

Much more can be said about God’s occasions (and other observances) and their timing on the calendar.  For more detail, see the topics: “Sabbath 7^th Day” (series), “Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome”, “Day of Atonement”, “Feasts of the Lord and the Jews”, “Passover and Peace Offerings”, “Passover and the Exodus Timing”, “Feast of Booths”, “Jesus’ Last Supper Timing”, “Christmas and Jesus’ Birth Month”, “Halloween All Souls Day”, “Wedding Pattern in Bible Holydays”.

Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome

This topic traces the church’s transition from meeting on the 7^th day sábbath to Sunday observance during the early centuries AD.  What factors led to the change?

Ge.2:1-3 “God blessed the 7^th day and made it holy.”  He sanctified His 7^th day cessation as holy time!  The vast majority of people today are unaware that since Creation a specific day of holy time comes & goes each week.  All things were created by Jesus the Word (Col.1:16, Jn.1:1-3, 14).  Jesus said the weekly sabbath was made for man, and He as Creator is Lord of the sabbath (Mk.2:27-28)!  Since Jesus said the sabbath rest was made for man, it is illogical to assume that God withheld knowledge of the sabbath day from man for millennia until the time of Moses!  (see the “Sabbath 7^th Day” series.)

We read in the New Testament (NT) that the saints of the apostolic church assembled together.  Originally the NT church was a gathering of people…it wasn’t the building where they met!  The Greek term rendered “church” is ekklésia, Strongs g1577; it occurs 118 times in the NT.

Lk.4:16 it was Jesus’ custom to attend the formal style of service of His day at synagogue (g4864) on the sabbath (g4521 sábbaton).  This custom resulted from the instruction God gave to Moses in Le.23:3. “On the 7^th day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. It is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.”  “Sabbath” is a holy day/period of cessation from certain activities.

But Jesus said His followers would become persecuted in synagogues, and eventually would have to leave them to avoid persecution.  Jn.16:2 “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue.”

Mt.18:15-20 Jesus authorized His own future assemblies or messianic Beit Din (‘House of Judgment’) with elders overseeing decisions…to “bind and loose” (forbid and permit), Mt.16:19.  Two or three local elders helped resolve internal disputes and made legal decisions for each local congregation.  Jewish synagogues were lay institutions with unpaid elders (zakén h2205, Hebrew).  Some Jewish Christians would call their own assemblies “synagogues” g4864, as James wrote in Ja.2:2.

But Jesus said church leaders aren’t to be lords (Mt.20:25-28).  Jesus is Lord (2Jn.1:3).  He is the ‘architect’ of His assembly (Mt.16:18)!  He died and rose again, and His NT church began in Acts 2.

All the earliest converts were Jewish Christians/Messianic Jews.  Then Ac.8:1-5, there was persecution at Jerusalem and a scattering (to Judea & Samaria) in the aftermath of Stephen’s martyrdom.

Then in Acts 10, uncircumcised gentiles (Cornelius et al) received the Holy Spirit too.

In Acts 13, Paul (Saul) went out evangelizing with Barnábas.  They went first to synagogues.  Eight synagogues are named in the NT where Paul is at synagogue.  Ac.13:14, 43-48 nearly all the people (Jews and gentiles) at Pisidían Antioch in Galatia went to synagogue on the sabbath day to hear Paul speak.  Paul said the gospel should be preached to the Jew first (cf. Ac.1:8).  Paul’s custom (and Jesus’ custom) was to attend synagogue on the sabbath day, ref Ac.17:1-2, 18:1, 4.

In Phílippi of Macedonia there were few Jews and no synagogue.  Yet Paul and Luke still worshiped on the sabbath day by the riverside with a few people to whom they could share the gospel, Ac.16:12-15!

Again, Jesus Himself attended synagogue on the sabbath day.  Lk.23:55-56 a few hours after Jesus died, the loyal Galilean women who witnessed His crucifixion “rested on the sabbath according to the commandment” (ref Ex.20:8-11).  The Jewish people (including Paul) have perpetuated the sabbath time God ordained at Creation.  The church emerged from this sabbath and synagogue background.  see the topic “Synagogue Influence on the Church”.

The gospel is also for gentiles, non-Jews (e.g. Ac.15:7-8).  Early-on these gentiles were God-fearers who frequented the synagogues (periphery of) on the sabbath day, Ac.13:14-16.  These God-fearers had different social customs, but believed the God of the Jews really is God! (cf. Ac.10:1-2.)

Jesus said synagogue persecution would come.  As Jewish Christians were forced out of synagogues, and the gospel spread into gentile areas, local assemblies with Jewish & gentile Christians together were raised up.  For various reasons, many of them began meeting after the sabbath day ended at sunset (Saturday evening), or on Sunday.  The reasons follow:

Earliest Christianity was viewed as another sect of Judaism.  Ac.24:5 Paul was a leader in the sect of the Nazarenes, Jewish Christians.  (see “Jewish Sects of the 1^st Century”.)

But near the end of the 1^st century, disbelieving Jews added a synagogue curse, the Bírkat HaMinim, upon Jewish Christian ‘heretics’ (so-called) in synagogues.  Everett Ferguson Backgrounds of Early Christianity “Gamaliél’s grandson Gamaliel II (active 80–120 AD) introduced into the Eighteen Benedictions the curse, ‘Let the Nazarenes and the heretics perish as in a moment, let them be blotted out of the book of the living’, which effectively excommunicated Christians from synagogues and formalized the break.”  Gary Morton Theological Vignettes “Around 100 years after the death of Christ, rabbis excommunicated the Christians, leaving them out of the synagogue and the Sabbath.”

Jewish Christians refused to recite the curse (against themselves), and quit the synagogues.  Marriage and forms of commerce with Christians became prohibited by Jews!

After the Jerusalem temple was destroyed in 70 AD, the Jewish temple tax was replaced by the fiscus judaicus tax of Emperor Vespasian (69–79 AD).  Jews paid it to the heathen temple of Jupiter Capitolinus!  Emperor Domitian (81–96 AD) broadened the levy to include other people who observed Jewish customs or lived like Jews.  (The tax continued until 360 AD.)

But if Christianity became a separate religion from Judaism…it wouldn’t be subject to the tax!  That’s what occurred.  Christianity became separate, no longer considered a sect of Judaism.

Lawrence Schiffman Christianity Parting of the Ways “The emperor Nerva (96–98 CE) freed the Christians (probably including the Jewish Christians) from paying the fiscus judaicus, the tax decreed as a punishment in the aftermath of the [Jewish] revolt of 66–73 CE. The Romans now regarded the Christians in general as a separate group.”

This discriminatory tax, paid to a pagan god, motivated gentile Christians to quit Jewish customs.  The customs included meeting on God’s 7^th day sabbath.  Historically, there was racial bias & animosity between Jews and gentiles anyway (ref Ac.11:2, 21:28).  Ingrained differences existed.  In any event….

Jewish and gentile Christians began the practice of meeting after the sabbath ended at sunset, or on Sunday…distinguishing them from hostile disbelieving Jews who met in synagogues on the 7^th day!

Also a factor in Sun-day meetings was the association of Jesus with the sun.  In scripture, Jesus is the prophesied “Sun of Righteousness” (Mal.4:2), and the symbolic “Sunrise from on high” (Lk.1:78).  Furthermore, Christ rose from the dead on a Sunday.  Commemorating the day of the week on which Jesus was resurrected became a primary reason for traditional Sunday observance over the centuries.

However, the 1^st day/Sunday isn’t referred to as ‘Resurrection Day’ in scripture.  That doesn’t appear until later writings.  Jesus didn’t designate worship of Him or rest on a Resurrection Day or Sundays!  Rather, that’s man’s tradition.  God never commanded in scripture Sunday/1^st day observance as a sabbath.  The leading NT apostles, Peter-John-Paul, didn’t try to change 7^th day holy time to Sunday!  Of note, Sunday isn’t mentioned in 1Clement, written from Rome to Corinth in the late 1^st century.

The Epistle of Barnabas, of uncertain authorship, is dated ca 100 AD.  It posits that the 7^th millennium fulfills God’s 7^th day sabbath rest.  Barn.15:9-10 “The 8^th day, that is, the beginning of the other world. In which cause we observe the 8^th day with gladness, in which Jesus rose from the dead.”  It advocates commemorating the eschatological 8^th day on the 1^st day of each week.  However, this epistle contains bias against Jews.  Graham Harter The ‘Letter of Barnabas’ “There is a definite undercurrent of hostility towards the Jewish people.”  Joe Watts Thoughts on Barnabas’s Epistle “Barnabas is stating that everything from Moses to Jesus is simply wrong. Barnabas several times says the covenant is ours (i.e. Christians) and not the Jews.”  Barnabas’ error contradicts Je.31:31 & He.8:8, which clearly states the New Covenant is with Israel/Judah.  Regardless of bias, Barnabas indicates Sunday meetings had begun.

The gentile Justin Martyr (100–165 AD) noted to a Jew in Dialogue With Tryphon XVI, “Cursing in your synagogues them that believe in Christ”.  Justin First Apology, Ch 68 (ca 150 AD) “But Sunday is the day on which we hold our common assembly, because it is the first day of the week and Jesus our savior on the same day rose from the dead.”  Sunday meetings were becoming widespread by 150 AD.

Also Sun–day meetings attracted heathens from old sun–worship (ref Ezk.8:16, Jb.31:26-28, 2Ki.23:5, 11, De.4:19) and from Míthraism.  Usage of the 7-day planetary week grew in the 1^st century.  (However, ancient Israelites and the Jews based their 7-day week on Ge.1:1–2:3 & Ex.16:22-30, and the Assyrians also had a 7-day week.)  The good news that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world (Jn.4:42) was accepted by non-Godfearers who’d viewed blood sacrifices as pleasing to their many heathen gods, 1Co.8:5 & 10:20.  (also see “Evangelism in the Apostolic Church”.)

The desire to attract pagans to Jesus led to more Sunday worship.  But this isn’t to say that all heathen gentiles as Christians worshiped the sun on Sun-day.  However, as these pagans came into the church, some of their past festive practices and art became assimilated…e.g. sun-disks, mistletoe, wass-ale-ing.

Pagan practices added to tensions between Jewish and gentile Christians, past idolators.  Gentiles BC had been viewed as outsiders, distinct from Jews.  (see “Gentiles’ in the Bible”.)  Racism existed.  The church gradually split into Jewish and gentile factions.  Gentiles began to outnumber Jews in the church.

In addition to persecution from disbelieving Jews (in and out of synagogues), Christians suffered persecutions from the heathen Roman Empire on-and-off for approximately 300 years.

In 274 AD, Roman Emperor Aurélian made the ‘Invincible Sun’ the official protector of the Empire!

Then in 312 AD, Emperor Constantine accepted a form of Christianity!  Christianity was formally recognized as a religion in 313 AD at Milan.  As a political move, Constantine instituted Sunday rest in his edict of 321 AD. “On the venerable day of the sun let the magistrates and people in cities rest.”  Although he was supposedly converted in 312 AD, Constantine still venerated the Sun/Sol in 321 AD.  Wikipedia: Sol Invictus “Constantine’s official coinage continues to bear images of Sol until 325 AD. His triumphal arch was carefully positioned to align with the colossal statue of Sol by the Colosseum.”

Sylvester I was Pope (314–335 AD) during Constantine’s reign.  “The same pope [Sylvester I] decreed that the rest of the sabbath should be transferred to the Lord’s Day [Sunday].”  Quoted by Rábanus Máurus (776–856 AD), archbishop of Mainz, Germany in De Clericorum Institutione (On the Institution of the Clergy), bk. 2, chap. 46, in MPL, Vol. 107, col 361. Trans. from the Latin.

Eusebius (264–340 AD), bishop of Caesárea and court theologian for Constantine, wrote in his 338 AD Commentary on the Psalms, (Ps.92) Vol. 23, cols 1171-2. “All things whatsoever that it was the duty to do on the Sabbath, we have transferred to the Lord’s Day.”  Rome and the church…men…made this change.  Not God!  Pressure from Rome and ‘the Church’ led to increased Sunday observance.

At the 363 AD Council of Laodicea, sabbath observance was officially banned. “Christians shall not Judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord’s Day, resting then.”  To an increasing extent, the 7^th day sabbath had become changed to Sunday!

In the Edict of Thessalonica of 380 AD, Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire.

Later, Pope Gregory 1 even associated sabbath day rest with Antichrist!  He wrote in 597 AD, Letters 13:1 “It has come to my ears that certain men of perverse spirit have sown among you some things that are wrong and opposed to the holy faith, so as to forbid any work being done on the Sabbath day. What else can I call these [men] but preachers of Antichrist.”

And yet it was Christ…not Anti-christ…who’d revealed His 7^th day sabbath rest to Moses/Israel!  e.g. Ex.16:11-30 manna, 20:8-11 keep the sabbath day holy.  (see “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.)

{Sidelight: It appears the NT church government was more an oligarchy, not a hierarchy.  As Peter, John & James went to the physically circumcised, Barnabas & Paul went to the uncircumcised gentiles (Ga.2:7-9).  Php.1:1 this letter was addressed also to the overseers/bishops (plural) and deacons in Philippi.  Plural bishops in one city.  In the apostolic church, there was no Pope!  The Holy Spirit is the ‘vicar of Christ’, so to speak.  The apostolic church wasn’t an indolent, immoral, corrupt monopoly.} 

But many Christians disregarded man’s attempt to change or ban meetings on God’s sabbath.  The 5^th century church historian Scholásticus wrote in Ecclesiastical History, Bk 5, Ch 22. “Although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries [of the Lord’s Supper] on the sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome have ceased to do this.”  Bk 6, Ch 8 “I mean Saturday and Lord’s Day of each week, on which assemblies are usually held in the churches.”

Furthermore, his contemporary Salmínius Sozómen wrote in Ecclesiastical History, Bk 7, Ch 19. “The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria.”  Rome essentially changed the sabbath to Sunday!  Others have followed suit.

Peter Heylyn, The History of the Sabbath, 1613 “Ambrose, the celebrated bishop of Milan, said that when he was in Milan he observed Saturday, but when in Rome observed Sunday. This gave rise to the proverb ‘When you are in Rome, do as Rome does.”  (Ambrose lived in the latter 300s AD.)

History indicates that some Christian masters in the Roman Empire gave their slaves both Saturday and Sunday off from work.  The late 4^th century Apostolic Constitutions, Bk 8, Ch 33. “Let the slaves work five days; but on the Sabbath Day and the Lord’s day let them have leisure to go to church for instruction in piety….The Sabbath is on account of the creation, and the Lord’s day of the resurrection.”

Yet the 7^th day as holy time/rest remains unchanged in scripture, regardless of other meeting days!  Roman Catholic Archbishop James Gibbons admitted in The Faith of Our Fathers (1876). “You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.”  Albert Smith, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, replied for the cardinal in a letter of Feb 10, 1920. “If Protestants would follow the Bible, they should worship God on the Sabbath Day, that is, Saturday. In keeping Sunday they are following a law of the Catholic Church.”  Not a law of God.  (I’m not 7^th Day Adventist.)  Again, ref the “Sabbath 7^th Day” series.

To recap, the main reasons behind the change from the 7^th day sabbath rest/observance to Sunday:

#1 Jewish Christians were forced out of synagogues which kept the sabbath; the synagogue curse was added.  #2 Rome levied the fiscus judaicus tax against those who observed Jewish customs (such as the sabbath).  #3 Prejudice between Jews and gentiles.  #4 Sunday meetings distinguished Christians from disbelieving Jews who met in synagogues on the 7^th day.  #5 Since Jesus rose on a Sunday, men began the tradition of observing Sundays.  #6 Heathens accustomed to pagan sun-worship were attracted to Christianity by Sun-day meetings.  #7 Roman Emperor Aurelius made the ‘Invincible Sun’ the official protector of the Empire; Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity and mandated “rest on the venerable day of the sun” in cities.  #8 The institutional church council outlawed 7^th day sabbath rest.

Thus Sunday meetings became prominent over the centuries, and through Roman Catholic Church influence.  Yet man cannot change the actual 7^th day holy time sanctified by God from the beginning!  God’s word in the scriptures is authoritative, regardless of man’s traditional practices or decrees.

However, the word ‘sabbath’ means ‘cessation’…not ‘worship’, not ‘go to church’.  (Though worship and church are done on the sabbath.)  We may worship the Lord and attend church gatherings/events any or every day.  But only the 7^th day sabbath is holy time, ordained by God for man at Creation.

Sabbath 7th Day (3)

The weekly sábbath was addressed in “Sabbath 7^th Day”, Parts (1) and (2).  This Part 3 concludes (1) and (2).  Part 1 contains the primary verses; so it should be read first.  Also, the change from Saturday to Sunday observance is outlined in “Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome”.  That topic includes early church background and meeting custom.  In regards to the change, statements by Roman Catholic Church (RCC) theologians were quoted in Parts (1) and (2).  Following are statements by non-RCC:

Anglican Isaac Williams Plain Sermons on the Catechism, vol.1, p.334-6 “Where are we told in the Scriptures that we are to keep the 1^st day at all? We are commanded to keep the 7^th; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the 1^st day. The reason why we keep the 1^st day of the week holy instead of the 7^th is for the same reason that we observe many other things, not because the Bible, but because the church has enjoined it.”  It’s a church tradition which comes down from 2^nd century Rome and the RCC.

Lutheran August Neander The History of the Christian Religion and Church, p. 186 “The festival of Sunday, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a Divine command in this respect, far from them, and from the early apostolic Church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday.”  Jesus’ apostles didn’t try to change the sabbath.

“Sabbath” is a holy day/period of cessation from certain activities.  The customary practice of setting aside Sunday as the day of Christian worship is tradition.  But the New Testament (NT) never says Sunday is the church or gentile sabbath, in the manner that Saturday is sabbath holy time.

1Clement was written from Rome to Corinth in the latter 1^st century.  It doesn’t mention Sunday church meetings.  Sunday observance first appears in 2^nd century writings.  And over the centuries, most Christians have continued observing and worshiping on the 1^st day, Sunday.  Men and the RCC have tried to do away with the Lord’s 7^th day sabbath rest!

This hoax exchanged a 1-hour church service Sunday morning for a 24-hour day of cessation and devotion to God.  In Parts 1 & 2 we referenced verses and commentaries which show the 7^th day sabbath was made holy by God at Creation in Ge.2:1-3.  Man is unable to alter God’s holy time!

RCC Archbishop James Gibbons admitted in The Catholic Mirror, 1893 “The Catholic Church ….by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.”  Many in the RCC so admit.

Peter Heylyn The History of the Sabbath, 1613 “Ambrose, the celebrated bishop of Milan, said that when he was in Milan he observed Saturday, but when in Rome observed Sunday. This gave rise to the proverb ‘When you are in Rome, do as Rome does.”  Ambrose lived in the latter 300s AD.

Anglican priest & scholar Joseph Bingham Antiquities of the Christian Church “The ancient Christians were very careful in the observation of Saturday, or the 7^th day. It is plain that all the Oriental churches, and the greatest part of the world, observed the Sabbath as a festival. Epíphanius says the same.” (v.2, b.20, ch.3, sec 1, 66)  “Athanásius…says: They met on the Sabbath, not because they were infected with Judaism, but to worship Jesus, the Lord of the sabbath.” (b.13, ch.9, sec 3)  The sabbath and its observance predates Judaism.

Over the centuries, others besides Rome have tried to enforce Sunday observance (e.g. the Puritans).  Continuing from Part 2, there are NT passages which some use to negate God’s 7^th day sabbath.  Re.1:10 John wrote, “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day”.  Some think John had in mind Sunday.  But in his gospel (Jn.20:1, 19), John refers to Sunday as the “first (day) of the week” (sábbaton Strongs g4521, Greek), not the “Lord’s day”.  Whereas Mk.2:28 shows that the sabbath is the Lord’s day!  Christ ceased on the 7^th day of Creation.  He’s the Lord of the sabbath, and He told ancient Israel about it.  In Is.58:13-14, Christ the Lord of hosts calls the sabbath “My holy day”.  Matthew Henry Commentary Is.58:14 “Even in Old Testament times the sabbath was called the Lord’s day, and is fitly called so still; for a further reason, it is the Lord Christ’s day, Re 1:10. If we thus remember the sabbath day to keep it holy, we shall have the comfort and profit of it.”

The first clear references to Sunday as the Lord’s Day aren’t until the mid-to-latter 2^nd century (Gospel of Peter, Dionýsius, 2Clement).  It became a tradition of men.

Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, v.4, p.2259-60 “Sunday was adopted by early Christians as a day of worship…It was called the ‘Lord’s Day’…no regulations for its observance are laid down in the New Testament, nor indeed, is its observance even enjoined.”  Christ didn’t change His sabbath.

Ga.4:8-10 Paul wrote, “In time past you were slaves to those who are no gods. Why do you return to the weak and worthless elements to which you desire to be enslaved? You observe days, months, times and years.”  Benson Commentary Ga.4:8 “No gods.’ This is a description of idols worshiped by the heathen.”  Those gods aren’t the true God who made the sabbath day holy.  e.g. astral veneration of Saturn isn’t holy.  Surely the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments which Christ gave to Moses/Israel, aren’t the “weak and worthless elements” to which Paul refers.  Ex.20 God’s Decalogue prohibitions against murder & theft, with His commands to keep the sabbath & honor one’s father/mother…obviously aren’t weak and worthless!  Paul himself wouldn’t knowingly violate any of the Decalogue.  (Paul wrote in Ro.7:12, “The commandment is holy, just and good”.)  Ac.16:12-14 Paul & Luke worshiped on God’s sabbath day in European Phílippi.  Cambridge Bible Ga.4:10 “There is clearly no exemption here from the obligation of the observance of ‘the 7^th day’. The law of the Sabbath…is as old as the Creation.”

Presbyterian T.C. Blake, D.D. Theology Condensed, p.474-475 “The Sabbath is a part of the decalogue – the Ten Commandments. This alone forever settles the question as to the perpetuity of the institution…Until, therefore, it can be shown that the whole moral law has been repealed, the Sabbath will stand…The teaching of Christ confirms the perpetuity of the Sabbath.”  De.5:12-14 allowing those under our charge (and our work animals) to rest on the sabbath is a moral principle of loving our neighbor!  To say we ‘rest in Christ’ (work animals?) is a good spiritual principle, but doesn’t abate physical fatigue.

The same sense regarding the Decalogue can be applied to the controversial Col.2:16-23.  A syncretistic form of religion with Jewish & pagan Gnosticism existed at Colóssae.  Paul in this passage merges: whether to eat/drink/fast, feasts, new moons, the sabbath, asceticism, worship of angels, man-made religion, commandments of men.  v.16-17 “Let no one judge you in eating and drinking, or in part of a feast or a new moon or the sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come; but the body of Christ.”

Besides God’s Day of Atonement, Jews ordained their own fast days (Zec.8:19); some fasted twice-a-week (Lk.18:12).  Dietary customs of neo-Pythagoréans were there.  God’s feasts, authorized to be kept only at the temple (no uncircumcised men), were Passover, Pentecost, Booths.  Jews ordained Hánukkah & Purím feasts.  Rosh Hashánah fell on a new moon.  New moons were traditional holidays for women.

But God sanctified the 7^th day sabbath at Creation!  False teachers, Pharisees, etc. were acting as judges of how to keep various occasions.  Ellicott Commentary Col.2:16 “Let no man judge you’, that is, impose his own laws upon you.”  Rather, the Body of Christ is the judge, not the “commandments of men” (v.22-23).  Christ authored His Ten Commandments, including the sabbath.  And it’s the longest of the Ten!

For Paul to disregard any part of the Decalogue would’ve been viewed as hypocrisy.  The sabbath is in God’s Top Ten!  Some do’s & don’ts of sabbathkeeping promoted by Judaism in Colossae were false.  Yet true sabbath rest is a divine blessing for the Body of Christ.  (I’m not 7^th Day Adventist/SDA.)

Peter’s “shadow” remained visible in the sunlight for healing; it didn’t disappear (Ac.5:15-16)!  Adam Clarke Commentary Co.2:16 “There is no intimation here that the Sabbath was done away, or that its moral use was superseded, by the introduction of Christianity. ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy’, is a command of perpetual obligation, and can never be superseded but by the final termination of time.”  JFB Commentary Col.2:16 “The weekly sabbath rests on a more permanent foundation, having been instituted in Paradise to commemorate the completion of Creation in six days.”  Fast days, pilgrim feasts, new moon observances, Israel’s sanctuary…were later additions.  The sabbath remains.

He.4:9 “There remains therefore a sabbath rest [g4520 sabbatismós, only NT occurrence] for the people of God.”  A sabbatism.  He.4:4 this cessation is associated with the 7^th day of Creation (Ge.2:1-3), which is the great prototype referred to in Ex.20:8-11. “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”  The book of Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians.  They were sabbathkeepers.  Joshua, David, Jesus, too were sabbathkeepers.  Its writer isn’t defending the 7^th day sabbath; sabbath observance is a given among those Israelites.  And 7^th day observance now foreshadows our future rest in glory.

JFB Commentary He.4:9 “It is Jesus, the antitype of Joshua, who leads us into the heavenly rest. This verse indirectly establishes the obligation of the Sabbath still; for the type continues until the antitype supersedes it….the typical earthly Sabbath must continue till then. The Jews call the future rest ‘the day which is all Sabbath.”  Ellicott Commentary He.4:9 “The Míshnah speaks of Psalms 92 as a ‘Psalm for the time to come, for the day which is all Sabbath, the rest belonging to the life eternal.”

In Ga.6:16, Paul referred to the “Israel of God”.  Most commentaries say Paul’s “Israel of God” meant all Christians, both Jewish and gentiles grafted-in…the church.  (Whereas the 1Co.10:18 “Israel after the flesh” meant disbelieving Jews.)  The early church kept the sabbath before Rome & men intervened.

Anglican clergyman Jeremy Taylor, The Whole Works of Jeremy Taylor, vol.IX, p.456 “The primitive Christians did keep the Sabbath of the Jews…therefore the Christians for a long time together, did keep their conventions on the Sabbath, in which some portion of the Law were read: and this continued till the time of the Laodicean council.”  At Laodicea in 363 AD the church outlawed resting on the sabbath!

Mt.24:20 “Pray your flight be not in winter, nor on the sabbath.”  Jesus indicated the sabbath day would still exist…His holy time wouldn’t have somehow become obsolete!  Barnes Notes Mt.24:20 “Jesus teaches his disciples to pray that their flight might not be on the Sabbath, because, if they should not go farther than a Sabbath-day’s journey, they would not be beyond danger.” (ref Ex.16:29, Ac.1:12, Is.58:13 relating to excessive/tiresome travel on the sabbath.)  JFB Commentary Is.58:13 “The Sabbath, even under the new dispensation, was to be obligatory.”  Bengel’s Gnomen Mt.24:20 “Because it is peculiarly miserable on that day, which is given to joy, to break off the rites of worship and flee.”

Shabáwth (h7676, Hebrew) implies a rest.  Besides the sabbath being time holy to God, the rest is needed for our physical bodies.  We’re refreshed.  The relatively new scientific field of chronobiology has found there is a circaséptan (Latin sept = 7) rhythm in the bodies of humans & animals.  Every 7–8 days our body clock, so to speak, resets or renews.  This is separate from cultural evolution or religion.  It’s not some new age bio-rhythm quackery.  Rather it’s an innate system we’re not conscious of which God hid in our cell structure.  Seven is God’s number, and is the ‘beat of life’ inherent in His creation!

Wikipedia: Circaseptan “A circaseptan rhythm is a cycle consisting of 7 days in which many biological processes of life are resolved.”  Jeremy Campbell Winston Churchill’s Afternoon Nap, 1988, p.75 “Circaseptan, or about weekly, rhythms are one of the major surprises turned up by modern chronobiology. Fifteen years ago few scientists would have expected that seven-day biological cycles would prove to be so widespread and so long established in the world. They are of very ancient origin.”

Erhard Haus Chronobiology in the Endocrine System. Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2007; 59(9-10):985-1014 “A seven-day cycle was found in the blood pressure fluctuations in the acid content in the blood, in erýthrocytes, in a heartbeat, the oral temperature, the temperature of the female breast, chemical and urine volume, rate of two important neurotransmitters – norepinéphrine and epinéphrine – and the increase and decrease of various body chemicals, such as coping stress hormone, cortisol.”

They say that approximately every 7 days our heart rate slows slightly (then resumes normalcy), and our immune system resets.  If our immune system is violated or becomes too stressed, sickness and even death can result.  Our Creator knew man needs His rest…animals too. (cf. chabad.org The Biological Shabbat Clock.)  De.5:14 “The 7^th day…that your ox and donkey and sojourner may rest.”  Work animals belonging to non–Jews need rest too…sabbath rest isn’t just for Jews!  SDA videos tell of bees in South America and beavers that are inactive on the sabbath…then resume normal activity on Sunday!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyYHG6jsTNY.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49T5unQEIbY.

The sabbath rest helps us be more aware of our dependence upon God for our spiritual and physical needs.  We can relax for a day and be refreshed, spiritually and physically.

From 1793-1805 AD, the First French Republic tried to replace the 7-day week with a secular week having rest every 10^th day.  The attempt was a total failure!  Then from 1929-1940, Stalin’s Communist Russia set up a rotating 5-day continuous work-week…80% of the people worked while 20% rested.  It too failed!  The work cycles in those undertakings violated the body clock God set within man.

Resting every 7 days is necessary for our innate body rhythm.  Jesus said in Mk.2:27, “The sabbath was made for man”.  Needless to say, Christ knew what He was doing when He made the 7^th day holy at Creation.  The ‘clock of seven’ within our body is ticking unyieldingly…we can’t escape it in this life.

God said in Is.55:3, “I will make an everlasting covenant with you”.  Isaiah was prophesying of the new covenant!  Is.56:1-7 “Thus says the Lord, ‘Blessed is the man…who keeps from profaning the sabbath. To the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant…I will give them an everlasting name. Also the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord…to be His servants, who keep from profaning the sabbath.”  The eunuchs & foreigners (even past hostile nekár h5236) who keep from profaning the sabbath will be blessed of the Lord!  JFB Commentary Is.56:2 “A proof that the Sabbath, in the spirit of its obligation, was to be binding under the Gospel.”  Gill Exposition Is.56:4 “The covenant of grace, the everlasting covenant.”  Matthew Henry Commentary Is.56:6 “The Gentiles shall be one body with the Jews, that, as Christ says, Jn.10:16, there may be one fold and one Shepherd.”  Observing the Lord’s sabbath in the everlasting/new covenant!

Count Zínzendorf (1700-1760), leader of the Morávian church (Czechoslovakia/America), in 1738 wrote of himself. “I have during my lifetime not eaten of the foods which were formerly forbidden them; I have employed the Sabbath for rest many years already, and Sunday for the proclamation of the gospel – that I have done without design, in simplicity of heart.”  (Budingsche Sammlung, 1742, sec.8, p.224.)

A study book of the United Lutheran Church, The Sunday Problem (1923), p.36 “We have seen how gradually the impression of the Jewish sabbath faded from the mind of the Christian Church, and how completely the newer thought underlying the observance of the first day took possession of the church. We have seen that the Christians of the first three centuries never confused one with the other, but for a time celebrated both.” (see “Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome”.)

We may worship the Lord every day.  But only the 7th day is the holy time God ordained for man.  His divine rest every 7^th day foreshadows our rest with Him for all eternity!  Shabbát shalóm!

Sabbath 7th Day (2)

In “Sabbath 7^th Day (1)”, we examined the 7^th day sábbath, beginning at Creation.  This Part 2 is a continuation and supplement to Part 1.  Part 1 contains the primary verses; so it should be read first.  Also, steps in the change from Saturday to Sunday observance are outlined in “Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome”.  That topic includes early church background and meeting custom.  Regarding the change to Sunday, here’s a few statements by theologians from the Roman Catholic Church (RCC):

Irish RCC Father Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism, 1851, p.174 “She [RCC] substituted the observance of Sunday the 1^st day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the 7^th day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.”

Father Peter R. Kramer, Catholic Church Extension Society (1975), Chicago “Regarding the change…to the Christian Sunday, I wish to draw your attention to the facts: That Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath. We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith. Besides the Bible we have the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us. We accept her change of the Sabbath to Sunday. We frankly say, yes, the Church made this change, made this law, as she made many other laws; for instance, the Friday abstinence, the unmarried priesthood…and a thousand other laws. It is always somewhat laughable to see the Protestant churches, in pulpit and legislation, demand the observance of Sunday, of which there is nothing in their Bible.”  The RCC admits the RCC instituted the change.

Jesuit Father Martin J. Scott, Things Catholics Are Asked About, 1927, p.136 “Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that worship should be changed from Saturday to Sunday. The Church…instituted, by God’s authority, Sunday as the day of worship.”

Notwithstanding the RCC change of the 7^th day to the 1^st day for worship, God made holy at Creation the 7^th day…before there was any Israel/Jews or RCC.  Ge.2:3 Septúagint/LXX “God blessed the 7^th day and sanctified [hagiázo Strongs g37, Greek verb] it.”  God sanctified/made holy the 7^th day.  cf. Mt.6:9 where Jesus prayed, “Our Father who is in heaven, holy [g37 hagiazo] be Your Name”.  God made the 7^th day holy, even as the Father’s great Name is holy!

In scripture, the 7^th day is the first thing God made holy!  The 7^th day (not the 1^st day) is holy time which God Himself ordained.  If there was no sabbath, there would exist no holiness of time in the world.

“Sabbath” is a holy day/period of cessation from certain activities.  Greek Bible scholar Spiros Zódiates, “Hagiazo means to separate or withdraw from fellowship with the world”.  As holy time, the sabbath isn’t just time spent in leisure pursuits or entertainment away from work.  The Lord said in Is.58:13, “Turn your foot from the sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day. Call the sabbath a delight.”  The sabbath is God’s time.  Our life consists of only so much time, and resting on the 7^th day reflects our commitment & obedience to God, and where our heart is.  It’s a time for praise, prayer, Bible reading/study, meditation, church preaching/teaching, doing good and mercy to others.

The Lord said in Ex.20:8, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy”.  Le.23:3 “On the 7^th day is a sabbath, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work. It is a sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.”  The sabbath is a holy assembly, it takes place during holy time.  JFB Commentary Le.23:3 “It was to be ‘a holy convocation’, observed by families ‘in their dwellings’; where practicable, by the people repairing to the door of the tabernacle; at later periods, by meeting in the schools of the prophets, and in synagogues.”  Pulpit Commentary Le.23:3 “Elsewhere it was observed only by the holy convocation and rest from all labor. It commenced at sunset on Friday evening, and continued till sunset on Saturday evening.”  Poole Commentary Le.23:3 “The sabbath was to be kept in all places, where they were, both in synagogues, which were erected for that end, and in their private houses.”

{Sidelight: The 7^th day sabbath (shabáwth h7676, Hebrew) differs from the pilgrim feasts of ancient Israel, which were to be kept solely near the tabernacle/temple.  The sabbath day is an appointed time (móed h4150).  But the sabbath isn’t a feast (chag h2282) in scripture.  God’s pilgrim feasts were shabathón (h7677), or sabbatoids, but weren’t sabbaths (h7676).  There’s a difference.  Benson Commentary Le.23:3 “In all your dwellings’. Other feasts were to be kept before the Lord in Jerusalem only, where all the males were to come for that end; but the sabbath was to be kept in all places, in synagogues, and in their private houses.”  Ellicott Commentary Le.23:4 “The feasts of the Lord’. Because the following are the festivals proper as distinguished from the Sabbath.”  Pilgrim feasts weren’t made holy time at Creation; they’re appointed later for the Holy Land.  see “Feasts of the Lord and the Jews”.}

The 7^th day sabbath, and the Decalogue/Ten Commandments for that matter, isn’t about ‘works’.  It takes no ‘work’ to refrain from murder, theft, adultery, making images of pagan gods!  No work is required to rest on the sabbath!  Attempting to blend the concepts of work and rest here is nonsense.

Evangelist Dwight L. Moody Weighed and Wanting, p.47 “The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word ‘remember’, showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away when they will admit the other nine are still binding?”  Re.11:19 the ark containing the Decalogue (Ex.25:21) is in heaven…the 7^th day sabbath is part of the Decalogue!  However, Jewish rabbinism added many burdensome rules to God’s sabbath guidelines.

Keep the sabbath rightly and a man will “take delight in the Lord” (Is.58:13-14).  Barnes Notes Is.58:14 “There is no intimation that the Sabbath was to be abolished. We are to refrain from ordinary traveling and employments; we are not to engage in doing our own pleasure; we are to regard it with delight, and to esteem it a day worthy to be honored; and we are to show respect to it by not performing our own ordinary works, or pursuing pleasures, or engaging in the common topics of conversation. Under the gospel, assuredly, it is as proper to celebrate the Sabbath in this way, as it was in the times of Isaiah, and God doubtless intended it should be perpetually observed in this manner.”  JFB Commentary Is.58:14 “As we ‘delight’ in keeping God’s Sabbath, so God will give us ‘delight’ in Himself.”  Pulpit Commentary Is.58:14 “A right use of the sabbath will help to form in men habits of devotion, which will make religion a joy.”

In the LXX & New Testament (NT) Greek, the word for sabbath is sábbaton g4521.  It occurs 60 times in the NT.  There’s no NT example of any Christian working on the sabbath.  Although Israel & the Jews were to keep the sabbath, in scripture it’s never called the ‘Jewish sabbath’, the ‘sabbath of the Jews’, or the ‘sabbath of Israel’.  Rather, God says it’s His sabbath, e.g. Ex.31:13 & Ne.9:14.  It’s the “sabbath of the Lord” (Ex.20:10).  Mk.2:27-28 Christ the Lord said the sabbath was made for humanity (not just for the Jew or Israel).  God made His sabbath for man at Creation…the Jews didn’t, not the RCC, nor any man.  Physical circumcision was required for men to fully be of ancient Israel.  But it wasn’t required for the sabbath day!  This is unlike a pilgrim “feast of the Jews” (Jn.7:2); the feasts weren’t authorized for physically uncircumcised men (Ex.12:48).  The 7^th day sabbath is for everyone.

Ac.17:1-2 & 18:4, Paul went to synagogue on the sabbath.  Ac.16:12-15 in Phílippi, there were few Jews and no synagogue; yet Paul and Luke still worshiped by the riverside with a few people on the sabbath!  Lk.4:16 Jesus attended synagogue on the sabbath.  Christ as the primordial Word of God (Jn.1:1-3, 14) had also ceased (shabáth h7673 verb) on the 7^th day of Creation (Ge.2:1-3).

The 7^th day sabbath is time dedicated to God, a temporary rest (anápausis g372, e.g. LXX Ex.31:15) from our work.  It’s from sunset Friday until sunset Saturday generally.  Days were reckoned beginning at sunset, when the fowls come home to roost, the first stars appear.  Le.23:32 “From evening until evening.”  Evening began the new date.  In the NT, Luke uses similar reckoning of the night preceding the day in Ac.27:27, 33, 39…where the 14^th night preceded the 14^th day.

Prior to when Christ gave Israel the Decalogue (Ex.20:1-17), He miraculously confirmed which day is the sabbath in Ex.16:4-5, 15-31.  Only on the 7^th day did He not provide them manna food to gather.  And only on the 6^th day did He provide them a double portion.  It wasn’t just any one day in seven!  And Ne.13:15-19 reaffirms that buying & selling food/merchandise, business, isn’t to be done on the sabbath rest.  Nehemiah ordered the city gates be shut as it grew dark to begin the sabbath.  Faith is needed to believe our needs will be provided as we cease from work on the 7^th day.  (I’m not 7^th Day Adventist.)

Jesus, Paul, and others in the NT kept the sabbath (e.g. Lk.23:54-56).  Since Creation, there’s no verse indicating Christ changed the 7^th day holy time.  Christ the Lord viewed willful sabbath-breaking as a very serious sin (Nu.15:29-36)!  Judaism devised many man-made directives for the sabbath day.  In the NT, neither Jesus nor Paul prescribed do’s and don’ts for the sabbath.  That’s caused some to not view the sabbath as holy time which comes & goes every week since Creation.  But the NT also didn’t address acts like beastiality, cannibalism, fathers marrying their own daughters.  Just because the NT is silent on those wrongs doesn’t mean they’re okay for Christians after the cross!  Christ forbad them in the Old Testament (OT).  It is written!  He.13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Yet there are a few NT passages referring to the first day of the “week” (mía ton sábbaton g4521) that some use in claiming the 7^th day sabbath is abolished.  (Although no man, not Paul or anyone, has the authority to change God’s holy time.  We’re mere mortals, unable to alter night and day.)

The Greek LXX term for “week” is hebdomás (g1439.1 Vanderpool).  ref LXX: Ex.34:22, Le.23:15-16, Nu.28:26, De.16:9, 10, 16, 2Ch.8:13, Da.9:24-27, 10:2-3.  The Greek hebdomas/week corresponds to the Hebrew shabuwá/week (h7620, occurring 20 times in the OT).  Yet no NT writer used the term hebdomas to indicate “week”!  In the 1^st century Roman Empire, the 8-day market week (among nones, ides, kálends) was still being used.  Concurrently, use of the heathen 7-day planetary week was starting to spread.  At the time, most converts were Jewish Christians and gentile Godfearers who’d learned about the true God in synagogues.  There they’d gained knowledge of the Decalogue and 7^th day sabbath (ref Ac.15:21).  Sabbath observance was known in all nations, as per Philo and Josephus (see Part 1).

So the NT writers identified a day of the week by its proximity to the 7^th day sabbath…ton sabbaton.  Even though “sabbath” doesn’t specifically mean “week” in either the Greek LXX or OT Hebrew!  Thus the NT writers avoided parlance of the 8-day market week and the 7-day planetary god week.  The 7^th day sabbath provided a holy day NT reference point amid the coexistent 7-day and 8-day weeks.  (Use of the 8-day market/núndinal week gradually faded.  The 7-day week was made official in 321 AD.)

It is meaningful, the NT writers used the term sabbath (sabbaton g4521) to denote “week”.  A Pharisee declared in Lk.18:12, “I fast twice in the week [sabbaton]”.  To mean, I fast twice on the sabbath, wouldn’t make sense.  The 1^st day of the week (Sunday) was called the 1^st (day) of/to the sabbath.  The practice of observing the 7^th day sabbath is apparent…and there’s no reference to heathen planetary gods!

We see a glimpse of this mode of expression using sabbaton g4521 in the LXX: Ps.23:1 “A psalm of David on the 1^st of/to the sabbath [sabbaton].”  Ps.47:1 “A psalm of praise for the sons of Core on the 2^nd of/to the sabbath.”  Ps.93:1 “A psalm of David to/of the 4^th of the sabbath.  Ps.92:1 “For the day before the sabbath.” (prosábbaton g4315, cf. Mk.15:42)  Israelites, unlike Rome, had known the 7-day week from much older times (so had Babylonians).  Their days of the week were called: 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th or preparation, 7^th or sabbath.  Each week, Israelites looked forward to the 7^th day sabbath.  Following are sources which attest to this Jewish & NT writers’ manner of denoting days in a week.

Johann Jahn Biblical Antiquities, p.51 “The Jews, in designating the successive days of the week, were accustomed to say, The first day of the Sabbath (that is, of the week), the second day of the Sabbath; that is, Sunday, Monday, etc.”  From soc.culture.jewish FAQ Observance “Judaism doesn’t make much distinction between the days of the week, except for Shabbát. In fact, the days of the week are called Yom Ríshon, Yom Shéni…(i.e., 1^st day, 2^nd day,….), and then Shabbat. The philosophical oddity is that not only is day 7 called ‘Shabbat’, but each day is ‘of the Shabbat’. In other words, ‘the first day’ (Sunday) is liturgically called ‘yom ríshon beshabbát’ when introducing the day’s psalm.”

R.C.H. Lenski The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel, p.1148 “The Jews had no names for the weekdays. They ‘designated them with reference to their Sabbath’. Thus, mia ton sabbaton means ‘the first (day) with reference to the Sabbath’, or ‘the first day of the week.”  John Lightfoot A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica “The Jews reckon the days of the week thus; One day (or the first day) of the sabbath: two (or the second day) of the sabbath.”

The Didaché (‘Teaching’) dates ca 100 AD.  Didache 8:1 “Let not your fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast on the 2^nd and 5^th day of the week.”  The Greek Didache says disbelieving Jews fasted on the deuterá (2^nd) and the pémpte (5^th) day of the sabbaton (week).  The 7^th day sabbath was still evident!

The KJV expression “first (day) of the week” occurs 8 times: Mt.28:1, Mk.16:2, 9, Lk.24:1, Jn.20:1, 19, Ac.20:7, 1Co.16:2.  The term used there by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul…is sabbaton/sabbath.  It is significant they used sabbaton (and not hebdomas) for “week”!  God-fearing gentiles knew the sabbath.  Ac.13:42-44 the whole city of Pisídian Antioch in Galatia (!) came to hear Paul on the sabbath.

Ac.20:6-11 Christians at Troás met to break bread with Paul on the night of the 1^st (day) of the week (mia ton sabbaton g4521) until daybreak, before Paul left town.  Many think it was a Saturday night meeting to begin the 1^st day; that Luke reckoned time starting with evening, as he did in Ac.27:27, 33 and Lk.23:54-56.  Ellicott Commentary Ac.20:7 “The Jewish mode of reckoning would still be kept…Saturday evening.”  It is said the early Christians’ meetings were Saturday night following the Jews’ synagogue service, at the end of the sabbath.  Thus Jewish Christians became distinct from disbelieving Jews.

1Co.16:1-3 circa 55 AD Paul told the Corinthians to lay up funds which he would collect for the needy saints on the 1^st (day) of the week/sabbaton.  Jewish Christians wouldn’t have done financial exchanges on the sabbath day.  Pulpit Commentary 1Co.16:2 “This verse can hardly be said to imply any religious observance of the Sunday.”  Meyer’s NT Commentary “It does not follow from this passage in itself that the Sunday was already observed at that time by assemblies for the worship of God.”  Not yet.

Methodist theologian Harris F. Rall Christian Advocate, 1942, p.26 “Take the matter of Sunday. There are indications in the NT how the church came to keep the first day of the week as its day of worship, but there is no passage telling Christians to keep that day, or transfer the Jewish Sabbath to that day.”

However, in the decades to follow, Sunday would become the church‘s common meeting day.  (see “Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome” for the transition from the 7^th day to the 1^st day.)  But meeting days don’t alter God’s holy sabbath time!

This series is continued and concluded in “Sabbath 7^th Day (3)”.

Sabbath 7th Day (1)

There’s been much controversy in the church about whether or not Christians should observe the 7^th day sábbath of scripture, or the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) & Protestant tradition of Sunday, or no specific day.  RCC Archbishop James Gibbons wrote in The Faith of Our Fathers, 1876, p.89, “You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.”  A surprising admission!?  Let’s see what the scriptures say about the 7^th day.

The 7^th day sabbath has its beginnings at Creation.  The Holy Spirit and Christ, the Spirit and the Word, are the Creators (being the divine agents of Father God).  ref Job.33:4, Ps.104:30, 33:6, Jn.1:3, Col.1:16.  They are God, the God-kind, the “Us” of Ge.1:26. “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”  God declared as “good” each of the first six days of Creation: Ge.1:4, 8 (LXX), 10, 12, 18, 21, 25.  Then Ge.1:31, “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”  Creation ends.

When Creation was finished, Christ ceased (shabáth Strongs h7673, verb).  Ge.2:1-4 “By the 7^th day God finished His work which He had done, and He ceased on the 7^th day. Then God blessed the 7^th day and sanctified it, because in it He ceased from all His work which He had created and made.”  Although the first six days were all good, only the 7^th Day did Christ bless and sanctify or make holy!  This is the great prototype of the weekly 7^th day sabbath; a temporary cessation/rest dedicated to God.

The 7^th day sabbath is a sign which identifies God as the Creator of everything.  No other day of the week so reflects God as Creator.  By ceasing or resting on the 7^th day, the sabbathkeeper witnesses that his God is the Creator God.  We may choose to rest or worship God on other days too.  But as Lord of the 7^th day sabbath, at creation Christ ordained the 7^th day as holy or sanctified/set apart, and no other day of the week.  And throughout the Bible, Christ nowhere rescinded His 7^th day as holy time!

“Sabbath” is a holy day/period of cessation from certain activities.  JFB Commentary Ge.2:3 “The institution of the Sabbath is as old as creation.”  Benson Commentary Ge.2:3 “God blessed the seventh day’. He conferred on it peculiar honor, and annexed to it special privileges above those granted to any other day; ‘and sanctified it’. That is, separated it from common use, and dedicated it to his own sacred service, that it should be accounted holy, and spent in his worship, and in other religious and holy duties. It appears evidently by this, that the observation of the sabbath was not first enjoined when the law [Mosaic] was given, but it was an ordinance of God from the creation of the world.”  The 7^th day sabbath long antedated Moses/Israel and giving the Decalogue.

An eternal law of God existed in the heavens.  In 2Pe.2:4, Peter wrote of the “angels who sinned”.  (cf. Jb.4:18)  Where no law is, there is no transgression or sin (Ro.4:15).  So a law existed which angels violated.  1Eno.99:2 spoke of those who transgress the “eternal law”.  (Jude 1:14 refers to 1Enoch.)  1Eno.106:13-14 “Some angels sin and transgress the law.”  Law & order exists in the heavenly realm.

The Book of Jubilees is dated 150 BC.  Jub.2:30 “We [the angels of the presence and sanctification] kept Sabbath in the heavens before it was made known to any flesh to keep Sabbath on earth.”  That indicates the sabbath day was observed in the heavenlies prior to Eden?  Pulpit Commentary Ge.2:3 “We conclude that a 7^th day sabbath must have been prescribed to man in Eden. Here was the 7^th day sanctified, or instituted in the interests of holiness, proclaimed to be a holy day.”

After the Flood, in Ge.8:8-12 Noah sent out a dove from the ark at 7-day intervals.  Barnes Notes Ge.8:10 “This points to the sacredness associated with the number arising from the hallowed character of the 7th day.”  Matthew Henry Commentary Ge.8:12 “Having kept the sabbath with his little church, he expected special blessings from Heaven.”  JFB Commentary “Seven days – a strong presumptive proof that Noah observed the Sabbath during his residence in the ark.”  Pulpit Commentary “The frequent repetition of the number seven clearly points to the hebdómadal division of the week, and the institution of Sabbatic rest.”  Ge.8:9 initially the dove Noah sent out could find no place of rest, so she returned to the ark for rest.  Noah didn’t send out the dove arbitrarily; he inquired of the Holy Spirit.  (Noah wasn’t Jewish.  Ge.7:1-2 God also gave the gentile Noah knowledge of clean & unclean animals, long before Moses.)

The Hebrew term for “seven” (sheba/shibah h7651) occurs 370 times in the Old Testament (OT).  It is “as the sacred full one; seven times”.  Seven signifies completeness or divine perfection.  For example: the seven days of Creation; the 7^th day sabbath; Re.1:4 the sevenfold Spirit (or seven spirits) at God’s throne; Zec.4:1-2 the golden lampstand has seven lamps & seven pipes; Job.42:8 friends of the patriarch Job were to offer seven bulls & seven rams to the Lord; etc.  Seven is God’s number, so to speak.

God said in Ge.26:5, “Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, My laws”. (cf. De.11:1)  The patriarch Abraham, a gentile/non-Jew, obeyed God’s (eternal) law centuries before there was a codified Mosaic law!  (see the topic “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?”.)  Henry Commentary Ge.2:1 “Sabbaths are as ancient as the world; and I see no reason to doubt that the Sabbath…was religiously observed by the people of God throughout the patriarchal age.”  Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, Joseph H. Hertz, Authorized Daily Prayer Book, p.579 “Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. The Patriarchs are often represented as having observed the Sabbath.”  Abraham was very obedient.  The Lord even visited him in Ge.18!  Ge.18:17 Christ didn’t hide what He was doing from Abraham.  It’s unlikely that Christ left Abraham in ignorance of His holy time that had come and gone every 7^th day since Creation!  Ellicott Commentary Ex.16:23: “Much can be said in favor of the primeval institution of the Sabbath, and of its having been known to the family of Abraham.”

God promised Abraham, Ge.22:16, “By Myself I have sworn,’ declares the Lord. ‘Indeed I will greatly bless you and multiply your seed.”  The term for “sworn/oath” is shabá h7650, occurring 180 times in the OT.  It means “to swear, to seven oneself or bind oneself by seven things.”  It’s the root of the term for seven h7651.  When God (or anyone) made a solemn oath, He ‘sevened Himself’.  (He.6:13 “When God made His promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself.”)  Is.45:23 “I have sworn [h7650] by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth. That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear [h7650] allegiance.”  The Lord and all humanity ‘seven themselves or bind themselves by seven things’.  It’s total.  Another example is Ps.89:49. “Thy lovingkindness O Lord, which You did swear [h7650] to David in Thy faithfulness.”  We can see the concept of seven and to seven oneself by an oath goes beyond which day we should attend church.

Christ the Lord is the God/Rock of ancient Israel (cf. De.32:4, 18 & 1Co.10:4; Is.6:1-5 & Jn.12:41-44).  Unlike the earlier patriarchs, the Israelites became slaves in Egypt (e.g. Ex.6:5-7, De.5:15); not resting on the 7^th day.  According to the supposed Book of Jasher (ref Josh.10:13, 2Sm.1:18), the Pharaoh of Moses’ youth did decree sabbath rest for the Israelites.  Jash.70:47 “Thus says the king, ‘For six days you shall do all your work and labor, but on the 7^th day you shall rest…as the king and Moses the son of Bathia have commanded.”  But the Pharaoh/king of 60 years later said to Moses regarding the Israelites, Ex.5:5, 9 “You would have them cease [shabath h7673] from their labors….Let the labor be heavier”.  So any sabbath rest allowed the Israelites was rescinded, no longer observed there by that generation.

Christ freed them and showed them clearly which day was the 7^th, His sabbath.  In Ex.16 the Israelites are no longer slaves, and Christ provides them manna in the wilderness based on His 7^th day cessation.  Ex.16:22-30 “This is what the Lord meant, tomorrow is a holy sabbath [shabáwth h7676] to the Lord.”  The Hebrew noun shabawth appears over 100 times in the OT; Ex.16:23 is the first time.  It’s from the root verb shabath h7673 to cease, seen in Ge.2:2 at Creation.  “That’s what the Lord meant” back in Ge.2:2 (which Moses also wrote), though as slaves the Israelites were denied (sabbath) rest.  Ex.16:4, 28 the 7^th day sabbath had been a law of God!  God gave them daily manna Sunday–Thursday and a double portion on Friday, so they wouldn’t need to gather any manna on the 7^th day Saturday.  Ex.16:30 so the people ceased [h7673] gathering food on the 7^th day.  This went on week after week for 40 years.  A total of 12,000 miracle feedings proved to them conclusively which day was the 7^th!  And it wasn’t any one day out of seven!  Christ was specific.

Adam Clarke Commentary Ex.16:23 “There is nothing either in the text or context that seems to intimate that the Sabbath was now first given to the Israelites.”  Ellicott Commentary “During the Egyptian oppression the continued observance would have been impossible.”  Catholic Encyclopedia XIII “The Sabbath is first met within connexion [sic] with the fall of the manna; but it there appears to be an institution already well-known to the Israelites.”  Benson Commentary “Here is a plain intimation of the observing a 7^th day sabbath, not only before the giving of the law upon mount Sinai, but before the bringing of Israel out of Egypt, and therefore from the beginning.”  Significantly, Ex.16 predates the giving of the Law.

Christ gave to Israel the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments so-called.  Ex.20:8-11 “Remember the sabbath [h7676] day to keep it holy. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, and rested [h5117 núwach] on the 7^th day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.”  The 7^th day is God’s holy time, unlike any other day ordained by men.  Poole Commentary Ge.2:3 “If we compare this place with Ex.20:8-11 we shall find that Moses there speaks of God’s blessing and sanctifying of the sabbath, not as an action then first done, but as that which God had done formerly at the creation of the world.”  The sabbath wasn’t created in 1500 BC at Mt. Sinai; ancient Israel was to “remember” it.  The 7^th day sabbath was codified in the law of Ex.20:8-11, but had existed previously, as commentaries indicate.  Poole Commentary Ex.20:8 “The word ‘remember’ here is very emphatical; it reminds us of a formal delivery of the substance of this command, Ge.2:3.”  The 7^th day sabbath is a creation ordinance.  The 7^th day was the first thing God made holy!  (I’m not 7^th Day Adventist.)

The 7^th day sabbath is Saturday, both traditionally and presently.  Over 100 languages use a form of the word sabbath for Saturday!  e.g: in Arabic Saturday is Shabet, in Bulgarian Sabota, Croatian Subota, Czech Sobota, Indonesian Sabtu, Italian Sabato, Polish Sobota, Portuguese Sabado, Romanian Sambata, Russian Subbota, Serbian Subota, Spanish Sabado (literally, “the sabbath”), Greek Savvato.  And the modern Greek word for Friday is Paraskevi, meaning literally “to prepare”.  The Bible preparation day preceded the sabbath rest (Ex.16:23).  cf. Mk.15:42 “It was the preparation day, that is, the day before the sabbath.”  In the Bible koiné Greek, the term for “preparation” was paraskeué g3904…which is their word for Friday in today’s Greek!  Circa 200 AD the Roman historian “Dio Cassio speaks of the Jews having dedicated to their God the day called the day of Saturn”, heathen reckoning.  So it is clear…when Jesus walked the earth the sabbath day was Saturday!  (see the topic “Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome”, for man’s steps in the transition from Saturday to the traditional Sunday.)

Jesus never sinned.  Therefore, He kept the 7^th day sabbath (cf. Lk.4:16).  Christ said in Ex.31:16-17, “Celebrate the sabbath as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, on the 7^th day He ceased [h7673] and was refreshed.”  Christ was refreshed.  For man, the 7^th day is a time of refreshing from the physical/mental demands and concerns of the workweek…perpetually week after week.  The 7^th day is sanctified time devoted to God.

Christ’s new covenant is with Israel.  Je.31:31 “Behold’, says the Lord, ‘I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and Judah.”  Gentiles may share in it, according to Paul (Ro.11:13-19).

Josephus Against Apion 2:40 “There is not any city of the Grecians, nor any of the barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, where our custom of resting on the 7^th day has not come!”  Philo On The Creation (89) “The 7^th…that day is a festival of all the earth; a day which alone it is the right to call the day of festival for all people, and the birthday of the world.”  The 7^th day rest time is universal from Ge.2:3!  Theóphilus bishop of Antioch, 175 AD To Autólycus 2:12 “The 7^th day, which all men acknowledge.”

Jesus said in Mk.2:27-28, “The sabbath [sábbaton g4521, Greek] was made for man, and not man for the sabbath”.  Man was made on the 6^th day, prior to the sabbath being instituted for man on the 7^th.  Christ Himself as God & Creator made the sabbath day (and He was refreshed), and thereby He is Lord of it.  v.28 “Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath.”  The Son of Man also has dominion over what pertains to man.  Jesus said the sabbath was made for man/ánthropos/humanity.  (Though Christ was refreshed, God doesn’t grow weary, Is.40:28.)  Jesus didn’t say the sabbath was made just for Israel or the Jews!  Jonathan Edwards Sermon XIII “It is unreasonable to suppose that He hallowed it only with respect to the Jews, a nation which rose up above 2,000 years after [creation].”  After Adam the human was created on the 6^th day, he rested (with Christ) on the 7^th.  It wouldn’t make sense to think that Christ made the 7^th day sabbath for man, but then delayed thousands of years before He gave/revealed it to man!  Family New Testament Notes Mk.2:27 “As the Sabbath was made for the whole human race, they have a right to its rest & privileges.”  The sabbath day is a universal blessing.

By the 1^st century, the Jews had devised a traditional code which had 39 categories (plus itemization) of prohibitions for the sabbath day; as if man was made for the sabbath!  These were a man-made burden.  But Jesus said the sabbath was made for man, not vice versa!  Matthew Henry Commentary Mk.2:28 “The sabbath is a sacred and Divine institution; a privilege and benefit, not a task and drudgery.”

Again, the sabbath is a holy day/period of cessation from certain activities.  It’s not a ‘work’.  Le.23:3 it’s a holy assembly.  It’s not for legal striving or burdensome do’s & don’ts.  However, a level of faith is necessary to believe and know that Christ will provide our daily bread/manna/needs on the 7^th day, while we rest from work.

After Israel didn’t gather any manna on the 7th day for 40 years, the younger generation knew without a doubt which day of the week is God’s sabbath!  So in De.5 when the Decalogue was repeated, there’s no admonition to “remember” it (unlike Ex.20:8 earlier).  De.5:12-15 “Keep the sabbath day. Six days shall you labor. But the 7^th day is the sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work, you or your son or daughter or your male or female servant or your ox or donkey or your sojourner; so that your male and female servant may rest as well as you.”  They’re to recollect they’d been slaves.

De.5:12-15 is quite revealing.  Mankind is expected to work, caring for his own and for the earth (Ge.2:15).  Also this passage shows that the sabbath is a moral command, not just ceremonial!  Male & female servants, our employees, temporary sojourners…they need rest too.  There’s an equality in sabbath rest.  Allowing others to rest relates to loving our neighbor as yourself.  Work animals need rest.  It’s not just oxen & donkeys belonging to Jews that need rest!  All peoples’ work animals need rest…all-inclusive.  And work animals don’t just ‘rest in Christ’ either.  The sabbath is an enduring moral principle, to allow those under our charge to have rest.  Christ the Creator knew His creatures require rest.  It’s a physical need.

The Decalogue of Ex.20 & De.5 contains ten points of obedience; the 7^th day sabbath is one.  Others are: the command to honor our father & mother, and prohibitions against idolatry, murder, theft, etc.  Christ’s 7th day cessation is seen at Creation, before other points.  It’s strange to hear people claim the sabbath day ended at Jesus’ cross, but the other points are still in effect.  No one says the cross freed us to dishonor our parents, or commit murder or theft, for example.  Yet the church says we’re ‘free’ to work on the 7^th day.  Why this inconsistency?  Who gave man the prerogative to change God’s holy time (as if that’s even possible)…was it Paul, Christian gentiles, the RCC, some other man?

Again, see the topic “Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome”.  I’ll close for now with The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, v.1, Sermon 25. “The moral law contained in the ten commandments, and enforced by the prophets, He [Christ] did not take away. It was not the design of His coming to revoke any part of this. This is a law which never can be broken. Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind, and in all ages.”  The 7^th day sabbath is part of it.

We’ll explore the sabbath issue further in “Sabbath 7^th Day (2)”.