Christ in the Sabbath

By Rich Robinson

What does the Sabbath mean to you? Christ in the Sabbath will take you on a “Sabbath tour” of the Bible. You’ll explore the themes of Shabbat (Hebrew for Sabbath) and rest in both Old and New Testament and then discover what it has meant to Jews and Christians for centuries. Rabbinical comments and a variety of traditions provide clarity and credibility to the study of Sabbath. While this volume does not resolve all the differences among Christians concerning the place of the Sabbath today, the journey undertaken in this book will help you in forming your own conclusions—or inspire you to continue exploring the meaning and significance behind the Sabbath.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Moody Publishers
• Release date: Apr 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9780802491169

Book preview

© 2014 by

RICH ROBINSON

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Edited by Pam Pugh

Interior design: Ragont Design

Cover design: Garborg Design Works

Cover image: Copyright © 2013 by tovfla/iStockphoto. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Robinson, Rich.

Christ in the Sabbath / Rich Robinson.

     pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8024-1199-0

1. Sabbath—Biblical teaching. 2. Bible. New Testament—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 3. Jesus Christ—Views on Sabbath. 4. Bible. Old Testament—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 5. Rabbinical literature—History and criticism. I. Title.

BV125.R63 2014

263’.1--dc23

2013042988

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To those who are weary and burdened in the hope of the Sabbath without end

CONTENTS

Glossary

Introduction

1. What’s in a Day?

2. The Sabbath in the Old Testament

3. More on the Sabbath Prior to Christ

4. Sabbath in the Time of Jesus

5. Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath

6. The Sabbath in Acts and the Letters

7. The Sabbath in Hebrews: A Brief History of Rest

8. Sabbath in the Jewish Community

9. Sabbath and Sunday in Church History

10. The Sabbath and Contemporary Christians

11. Taking a Sabbath Today

Epilogue: Sabbath in the Future—Final Fulfillment

Excerpt from Christ in the Passover

Appendix A: An Erev Shabbat Service

Appendix B: Tabernacle and Creation

Appendix C: A Brief History of the Sabbatical Year

Appendix D: List of the Thirty-Nine Prohibited Sabbath Labors

Appendix E: A Song about the Benefits of a Sabbath Rest

For Further Reading

Notes

Index

Acknowledgments

Friend,

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GLOSSARY

Amidah: One of the main synagogue prayers. Amidah means standing, the posture taken during this prayer. Also called the Eighteen Benedictions or Shemoneh Esrei.

Aramaic: A language closely related to Hebrew, spoken as the main daily language in Israel during the time of Jesus.

Blech: A special Sabbath burner used to keep food warm that was cooked prior to the Sabbath.

Challah: The special bread used on the Sabbath, often braided.

Chamin: A dish eaten by Sephardic (Mediterranean-area origin) Jews on the Sabbath.

Cholent: A dish often eaten by Ashkenazic (Eastern European-origin) Jews who observe the Sabbath; it is a kind of stew that has been cooked before the Sabbath and then kept warm.

Dead Sea Scrolls: A trove of documents dating from approximately 250 BC to AD 70. They include our earliest texts of the Old Testament books as well as descriptions of the Qumran community that produced the scrolls and instructions for their lifestyle.

Eighteen Benedictions = Shemoneh Esrei, see Amidah.

Erev: The eve of the Sabbath or any Jewish holiday.

Eruv: Not to be confused with erev, this refers to a boundary established around a neighborhood or city area. It enables observant Jews to carry objects freely on the Sabbath within the boundary area, since it legally makes a public area into a shared private one.

God-fearer: A Gentile who attended a synagogue and participated in the religious life of the Jewish people without fully converting to Judaism.

Haftarah: Literally, completion. It refers to the weekly portion read in the synagogue from the prophets or historical books of the Old Testament, following the reading from the Torah (Five Books of Moses). Usually the Torah and Haftarah portions are matched thematically. Sometimes spelled haftorah but is unrelated to the word torah.

Halakhah: Jewish law as developed by the rabbis over the past two thousand years.

Havdalah: The concluding ceremony of the Sabbath. Havdalah means division, since we divide the Sabbath from the rest of the week.

Kiddush: Meaning sanctification, it refers to the blessing over wine and bread on the eve of Sabbath and other occasions.

Midrash: A homiletical exposition of Scripture, often to derive an ethical point, offer an explanation of a tradition, or fill in the gaps in a biblical story where we would like to know more than is given.

Mishnah: A compilation of rabbinic discussions on Jewish law, set down in writing about AD 200. The Mishnah is the earliest part of the Talmud.

Mitzvah (pl. mitzvot): A biblical commandment, and in rabbinic Judaism can also refer to a rabbinic commandment.

Muktzeh: Set aside, referring to objects that cannot be moved or handled on the Sabbath as a precaution against accidentally using them to do work.

Oneg Shabbat: Literally, the joy of the Sabbath. Often refers to a gathering on Erev Shabbat where kiddush is recited and synagogue-goers enjoy refreshments and social interaction.

Prosbul: A ruling by the sage Hillel that allowed courts to collect debts even in the sabbatical year when debts were supposed to be forgiven. Prosbul was enacted as the lesser of two evils, inasmuch as some people refused to lend at all when they knew the sabbatical year was coming.

Qal vahomer: A rabbinic method of arguing from the lesser to the greater.

Qumran: The location west of the Dead Sea in Israel where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. The inhabitants of this wilderness area are referred to as the Qumran community.

Rosh Chodesh: The first day of each month (literally, head of the month).

Sabbath day’s walk: A distance interpreted differently by different Jewish groups in the first century. It was a stock phrase used to convey the measurement of distances.

Septuagint: The Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament made beginning around 250 BC and continuing over the next hundred or so years. Since Greek was the daily language of many Jews outside Israel, this provided the Bible in their own language.

Seuda Shlishit: The third meal of the traditional Sabbath meals.

Shalosh Seudot: Three meals, referring to the traditional mealtimes of the Sabbath.

Shema: The cardinal prayer of the Jewish people, taken from Deuteronomy 6:4: Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.

Shemoneh Esrei = Eighteen Benedictions, see Amidah.

Son of Man: Jesus’ frequent title for Himself, based on Daniel 7:13–14. While at first glance it may seem to be a title emphasizing His humanity, it actually underscores His deity.

Talmud: A compilation of rabbinic legal discussions that consists of the Mishnah and the much larger Gemara, which contains discussions of the Mishnah. The Talmud was put in writing in the fifth–sixth centuries AD. It is the chief foundation of Jewish law. A set of the Talmud runs to about twenty volumes.

Tzedakah: Charity or good deeds.

INTRODUCTION

The Sabbath—what does it mean to you?

For some, it suggests a day full of burdensome rules and regulations. For others, Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel’s description is more apt: The Sabbath is a day of joy and an anticipation of the future. Some think of the Sabbath as an irrelevant, antiquated custom or as part of someone else’s religion, while others argue that the Sabbath is God’s command for Christians today. Perhaps no biblical institution has brought forth such a diversity of responses from Jews and non-Jews alike.

There are many questions that surround the Sabbath: Why did God institute it? What meaning is it given throughout the Old and New Testaments? Why was Jesus in conflict with some of His contemporaries over Sabbath observance? What—if anything—does it mean for people today?

In this book, we will embark on a Sabbath tour of the Bible. We will explore its themes in both Testaments as well as what it has meant for Jews and Christians since Bible times. Rabbinical comments and a variety of traditions will provide side trips along the way. While this volume will not resolve the differences among Christians concerning the place of the Sabbath today (much to the disappointment of some readers!), the journey undertaken in the following pages should help you in forming your own conclusions—or inspire you to continue exploring the Sabbath on your own.

Chapter One

WHAT’S IN A DAY?

SHABBAT

Many of the Old Testament festivals are given several names in Scripture. Each name is meant to capture a particular aspect of that festival. The Sabbath, however, is known only by one name: Sabbath in English, and Shabbat in Hebrew (pronounced to rhyme with a cot).

The name Shabbat derives from a Hebrew verb, shavat, which means to cease. It is used seventy-three times in the Old Testament in verses such as these:

As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease [shavat]. (Genesis 8:22)

Then Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping [shavat] them (literally, making them cease) from working." (Exodus 5:5)

For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses (literally, make the yeast in your houses cease [shavat]), for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. (Exodus 12:15)

Shabbat is therefore a day of ceasing, a day when things stop. Though the word is not found until Exodus 16:23, the concept is found as early as Genesis 2:2–3:

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested (lit. ceased, shavat) from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested [shavat] from all the work of creating that he had done.

Shavat is commonly translated as rested in these verses, but a more accurate meaning would be that God ceased His work. After all, the God of the universe doesn’t need to rest as do His creatures!

The word shabbat is commonly used by Jewish people, including those who do not speak Hebrew, to refer to the Sabbath day. You may also hear the word shabbat pronounced as shabbos (rhymes roughly with mob us) by older Jews. This is the pronunciation in Yiddish, which in past generations was the language of most Jews of Eastern European origin.

SHABBATON

A word related to shabbat is the Hebrew term shabbaton (rhyming approximately with bob a tone).

Besides the weekly seventh-day Sabbath, the opening and closing days of certain Old Testament festivals are also times when things cease or stop. Shabbaton is used in the Bible specifically for those stop days during Rosh Hashanah (the Feast of Trumpets¹) and Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles).

How does shabbaton differ from shabbat? According to the biblical text, on shabbat no work at all may be done, but on a shabbaton only laborious work is prohibited. The specific difference between any work and laborious work was later delineated in Jewish law; the Scripture itself provides little detail on the differences.

Unlike shabbat, the word shabbaton has not retained its original meaning. Today, outside the land of Israel, shabbaton refers to a Sabbath weekend retreat, typically sponsored by a youth group or synagogue. In Israel, however, shabbaton refers to a sabbatical from one’s regular work.

SHABBAT SHABBATON

The two words are sometimes combined in Scripture to make the phrase shabbat shabbaton. When shabbaton is added to shabbat, it gives added emphasis—as TV cooking host Emeril used to say, it brings it up a notch. So shabbat shabbaton could be paraphrased as the Sabbath rest of all Sabbath rests, calling for the highest degree of ceasing. This combination phrase is used when referring to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement, on which no work may be done) and sometimes is also applied to the weekly Sabbath.

THE SEVENTH DAY

If the Sabbath is the day of ceasing, what exactly stops on that day? Many people would probably answer, Work is what stops. While that is true, to leave things there is to miss the positive emphasis of the Sabbath day. In order to appreciate the beauty of the Sabbath, we have to go back to creation itself.

People commonly speak of the seven days of creation. Yet as we read through Genesis 1, it becomes clear that God actually did His creative work in six days. The seventh day was different—not a day of creative activity but a day when the work of creating ceased.

In the account of creation (Genesis 1:1–2:3), the words create and make each occur seven times. In Genesis 2:2–3, the phrase seventh day is used three times, each time within a seven-word phrase. The repetition of these sevens underscores through literary artistry the wholeness and completeness of the creation.

When creation was completed, God did not merely stop working, as though He were a factory worker punching out at five o’clock. He did something far more positive, as Genesis 2:1–3 describes:

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested (lit. ceased, shavat) from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested [shavat] from all the work of creating that he had done.

In these verses we find three interrelated concepts: (1) the seventh day; (2) cessation from work; and (3) the sanctification of the seventh day (made it holy), meaning to set it apart. God not only ceased His creating on the seventh day, but He blessed the seventh day and made it holy. Having brought His creation to its intended goal, God set the day apart for Himself. Moreover, when God gives a blessing elsewhere in Scripture, He gives it to people or animals. Blessing the Sabbath day is a unique exception, emphasizing the special character of the day.

The descriptions of the first six days all end with, And there was evening, and there was morning—the (first, second, etc.) day. The seventh day is the only one that does not conclude that way. It is not said of the seventh day that there was evening, and there was morning. Because of this, the seventh day appears to be an endless day that was never meant to come to a close.

So God sanctifies the seventh day (Genesis 2:3), and there follows the description of life in the Garden of Eden before the fall of Adam and Eve. The seventh day is therefore the context of life in the garden; it is the setting for humanity. It is not simply a negative rest from work, since work was not laborious in Eden. For Adam and Eve before they sinned against God, the seventh day was life lived under God’s blessing and in fellowship with Him and with each other.

In essence, Sabbath is the condition characterizing life in Eden.

Had Adam and Eve not sinned, their life and fellowship with God would still be ongoing—an eternal Sabbath day.

LIFE IN THE GARDEN

What characterized the fellowship between God and mankind in the Garden of Eden? To put it another way, what did an eternal Sabbath life look like for Adam and Eve? What did their experience tell us about God’s intentions for humanity?

Gift

The very existence of Eden, as well as the fact that Adam and Eve found themselves living in such an environment, depended solely on God. God planted the garden, and He put the man there:

Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.… The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:8, 15)

Just as newborn children have done nothing to deserve their entrance into the world, so Adam and Eve did nothing to deserve either their very existence or their surroundings. These things were bestowed out of God’s love; they were divine gifts.

There is a well-known prayer in Jewish tradition called the Shehecheyanu. In English, the prayer is:

Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has kept us alive, and has sustained us, and has enabled us to reach this season.

This prayer thanks God for the gifts of life and sustenance. It is often recited when a Jewish holiday begins, when someone observes a Jewish ritual for the first time, or even for any first-time event such as the first snowfall of the year. Creation was full of firsts! In our imagination we can picture Adam and Eve reciting the Shehecheyanu prayer in gratitude for their lives and for the sustenance the Lord provided for them in Eden.

Purpose

All of us need a purpose and goals toward which to strive. So it was in Eden, where the purpose of Adam and Eve was not simply to worship God by praising Him and singing songs. God gave them tasks to do:

God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. (Genesis 1:28)

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:15)

These tasks have sometimes been misunderstood. This was not free rein to selfishly dominate the environment. Rather, Adam and Eve were to bring both the garden and the world outside the garden under God’s rule. Yet Eden was not the extent of the world. Genesis 2:8 tells us that the garden was planted in the east, in Eden, implying that there was more to the world than Eden alone.

But in its character Eden was a place separate from the rest of the world, and Adam and Eve were the gardeners. Eden was the model for what the entire world could become, and