Sabbath

The seventh day of the Jewish week - from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday - the Sabbath commemorates the seventh day of creation, on which God rested. It is a divinely appointed day of rest (Exod. 20:8), to be devoted to prayer and study, and its observance is a mark of Jewish faith.

Christians have generally considered the Sabbath to be fulfilled by Christ's Sabbath rest in the tomb and celebrate, instead, the Lord's Day (Sunday) as a weekly day of worship. It is the first day of the new week, symbolic of the unending Day of the Lord, the day of Christ's resurrection and of his expected return. Some Protestant groups have traditionally called Sunday the Sabbath and apply to it the Old Testament Sabbath regulations (Sabbatarianism). In many places these have been given the force of civil law (Blue Laws).

L L Mitchell

Bibliography
T Gaster, Festivals of the Jewish Year (1953); H B Porter, Day of Light (1960); W Rordorf, Sunday (1968); Schauss, Hayyim, Jewish Festivals (1938).

Sabbath

Sabbath (Heb. verb shabbath, meaning "to rest from labour") is the day of rest. It is first mentioned as having been instituted in Paradise, when man was in innocence (Gen. 2:2). "The sabbath was made for man," as a day of rest and refreshment for the body and of blessing to the soul. It is next referred to in connection with the gift of manna to the children of Israel in the wilderness (Ex. 16:23); and afterwards, when the law was given from Sinai (20:11), the people were solemnly charged to "remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." Thus it is spoken of as an institution already existing. In the Mosaic law strict regulations were laid down regarding its observance (Ex. 35:2, 3; Lev. 23:3; 26:34).

These were peculiar to that dispensation. In the subsequent history of the Jews frequent references are made to the sanctity of the Sabbath (Isa. 56:2, 4, 6, 7; 58:13, 14; Jer. 17:20-22; Neh. 13:19). In later times they perverted the Sabbath by their traditions. Our Lord rescued it from their perversions, and recalled to them its true nature and intent (Matt. 12:10-13; Mark 2:27; Luke 13:10-17). The Sabbath, originally instituted for man at his creation, is of permanent and universal obligation. The physical necessities of man require a Sabbath of rest. He is so constituted that his bodily welfare needs at least one day in seven for rest from ordinary labour.

Experience also proves that the moral and spiritual necessities of men also demand a Sabbath of rest. "I am more and more sure by experience that the reason for the observance of the Sabbath lies deep in the everlasting necessities of human nature, and that as long as man is man the blessedness of keeping it, not as a day of rest only, but as a day of spiritual rest, will never be annulled. I certainly do feel by experience the eternal obligation, because of the eternal necessity, of the Sabbath. The soul withers without it. It thrives in proportion to its observance. The Sabbath was made for man. God made it for men in a certain spiritual state because they needed it. The need, therefore, is deeply hidden in human nature.

He who can dispense with it must be holy and spiritual indeed. And he who, still unholy and unspiritual, would yet dispense with it is a man that would fain be wiser than his Maker" (F. W. Robertson). The ancient Babylonian calendar, as seen from recently recovered inscriptions on the bricks among the ruins of the royal palace, was based on the division of time into weeks of seven days. The Sabbath is in these inscriptions designated Sabattu, and defined as "a day of rest for the heart" and "a day of completion of labour." The change of the day. Originally at creation the seventh day of the week was set apart and consecrated as the Sabbath. The first day of the week is now observed as the Sabbath.

Has God authorized this change? There is an obvious distinction between the Sabbath as an institution and the particular day set apart for its observance. The question, therefore, as to the change of the day in no way affects the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath as an institution. Change of the day or no change, the Sabbath remains as a sacred institution the same. It cannot be abrogated. If any change of the day has been made, it must have been by Christ or by his authority. Christ has a right to make such a change (Mark 2:23-28). As Creator, Christ was the original Lord of the Sabbath (John 1:3; Heb. 1:10). It was originally a memorial of creation. A work vastly greater than that of creation has now been accomplished by him, the work of redemption.

We would naturally expect just such a change as would make the Sabbath a memorial of that greater work. True, we can give no text authorizing the change in so many words. We have no express law declaring the change. But there are evidences of another kind. We know for a fact that the first day of the week has been observed from apostolic times, and the necessary conclusion is, that it was observed by the apostles and their immediate disciples. This, we may be sure, they never would have done without the permission or the authority of their Lord. After his resurrection, which took place on the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1), we never find Christ meeting with his disciples on the seventh day. But he specially honoured the first day by manifesting himself to them on four separate occasions (Matt. 28:9; Luke 24:34, 18-33; John 20:19-23).

Again, on the next first day of the week, Jesus appeared to his disciples (John 20:26). Some have calculated that Christ's ascension took place on the first day of the week. And there can be no doubt that the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost was on that day (Acts 2:1). Thus Christ appears as instituting a new day to be observed by his people as the Sabbath, a day to be henceforth known amongst them as the "Lord's day." The observance of this "Lord's day" as the Sabbath was the general custom of the primitive churches, and must have had apostolic sanction (comp. Acts 20:3-7; 1 Cor. 16:1, 2) and authority, and so the sanction and authority of Jesus Christ. The words "at her sabbaths" (Lam. 1:7, A.V.) ought probably to be, as in the Revised Version, "at her desolations."

(Easton Illustrated Dictionary)

Sabbath

The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week in which God ceased from his work of creation and declared the day blessed and holy (Gen. 2:1-3). Through the episode of the manna (Exod. 16), the sacred nature of the day was stressed to the Israelites. It was to be "a sabbath of the Lord," a day set apart for God and for rest. The Decalogue forbids work on the sabbath, both for the Israelites and for their servants and guests (Exod. 20:8-11). Deut. 5:12-15 implies that there is a humanitarian motive in the sabbath concept. In God's sight, no man or animal should be required to work seven days a week and to be enslaved as the Israelites were in Egypt. The sabbath is therefore a direct indication of God's consecration of Israel, as well as of his creation.

Violating the sabbath was a serious offense, and the person who worked on the sabbath was to be "cut off from among his people" (Exod. 31:14). During their wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites brought to trial a man found gathering wood on the sabbath. He was stoned to death according to the commandment of the Lord for profaning the sabbath (Num. 15:32-36). A fire was not to be kindled on the sabbath (Exod. 35:3), and admonitions to reverence the day are linked to reverence toward parents (Lev. 19:3) and reverence toward the Lord's sanctuary (19:30; 26:2). The sabbath terminated a week of work and was to be a complete rest unto the Lord, a distinguishing mark of God's choosing the Jewish people.

The sabbath was a joyous holy day, a day of spiritual refreshment and reverent worship. It seems to have been a popular day, an opportunity for man to imitate his Creator, to devote himself to contemplation and to community worship. Those that delighted in the Lord in this fashion were promised that they would "ride on the heights of the earth" (Isa. 58:13-14). Even foreigners who kept from profaning the sabbath and held to God's covenant were promised blessing and deep joy (56:6-8). Jewish tradition held that Isaiah declared the eventual universalization of the sabbath among all nations (note 66:23). Prophets such as Jeremiah and Ezekiel placed such stress on the importance of observing the sabbath that at times the fate of the Jewish people was directly linked in prophecy to attitudes toward the sabbath (note Jer. 17:19-27 and Ezek. 20:12ff.).

Josephus explains that during the first Christian century there were public discourses on the sabbath in the Jewish community. Jesus observed the sabbath, not only worshiping, but also teaching in the synagogue during that time of the week (Mark 6:2). The incidents regarding his disciples' plucking ears of grain or his healing on the sabbath were not a digression from the sabbath law, but were rather an indication that Jesus knew the content of the commandment very well. Not only his disciples, but also the apostle Paul and the early Jewish Christians observed the sabbath.

Jewish tradition has maintained the aspects of Torah observance, community worship, and joyful family participation to the present day. The mother prepares a special meal and kindles the sabbath candles remembering the holy day. As she wafts the aura of the candles toward her and recites the blessing over the candles, she symbolizes the putting of her daily cares from her and acknowledges the historic sacredness of the hour. Two loaves of bread are placed on the dinner table and covered with a cloth to symbolize the double portion of manna given during the wilderness wandering. Guests are often invited to share in this sabbath joy, and special prayers and hymns are recited, led by the father of the household. The family worships at weekly sabbath services at the synagogue. A farewell service is observed in a spirit of sadness that the blessed day has passed. Jewish tradition has proposed that if every Jew kept the sabbath for two consecutive sabbaths, the Messiah would return.

The Bible also made provision for a sabbath year. During the seventh year the land was to lie fallow so that the land might rest, the needy might feed on the aftergrowth, and the animals might eat the surplus. God promised an abundant harvest the sixth year to carry through the sabbatical period. In addition, debts were to be cancelled during that year (note Exod. 23:10-11; Lev. 25:1-7, 18-22; Deut. 15:1-11). At the close of seven sabbatical cycles a year of jubilee was instituted. Land that had been sold was to be returned to its former owner, and there were other sabbatical year provisions. These provisions underscored the fact that ultimately God owned the land.

D A Rausch
(Elwell Evangelical Dictionary)

Bibliography
A. E. Millgram, Sabbath: The Day of Delight; G. F. Moore, Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era; A. J. Heschel, The Sabbath; S. Goldman, Guide to the Sabbath; D. A. Carson, From Sabbath to Lord's Day; R. T. Beckwith and W. Stott, The Christian Sunday; N. E. Andreasen, Rest and Redemption.