Sabbath - a natural law from the beginning?

[Guest]

Exd 20:11

...For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

Steve has taught that it cannot be demonstrated that Sabbath observance was required before Moses. I had presumed, from the Genesis account, that God blessed the seventh day only, but not necessarily every seventh day thereafter. However, my presumption appears to be incorrect as it was brought to my attention that in Exe 20:11 the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, not the seventh day. So, the Lord has not only set apart the first seventh day, but also the 14th, the 21st, etc,. If these days were indeed made holy, does it not follow that all humans, at all times, ought to observe the Sabbath by resting as God did?

Thanks
Peter

[Guest]

Justin Martyr, of the second century, had a discussion of several days with Trypho and other Jews. They discussed many matters, including whether or not Jesus was divine, and yes, the Sabbath. His comments may be helpful in understanding how to keep the true Sabbath.


JUSTIN MARTYR ANSWERS THE SABBATIZERS
This translation is taken from volume 1 of The Ante-Nicene Fathers.

Justin Martyr was a Christian who lived in the first half of the second century. In a discussion with Trypho and a number of other Jews, he had the following to say (titles mine):

Why God Commanded the Jews to Observe the Sabbath
God enjoined you to keep the Sabbath, and imposed on you other precepts for a sign, on account of your unrighteousness, and that of your fathers... Ch.21

For we too would observe the fleshly circumcision and the Sabbaths, and in short all the feasts, if we did not know the reason they were enjoined to you — namely on account of your transgressions and the hardness of your hearts Ch.18

God Is Ever the Same
But if we do not admit this, we shall be liable to fall into foolish opinions, as if it were not the same God who existed in the times of Enoch and all the rest, who neither were circumcised after the flesh, nor observed Sabbaths, nor any other rites... or that God has not wished each race of mankind to perform the same righteous actions, to admit which, seems ridiculous and and absurd. Ch.24

Before Moses the Righteous Did Not Sabbatize
Moreover, all those righteous men already mentioned [Abel, Enoch, Noah], though they kept no sabbaths were pleasing to God. Ch.19


Surely Such Observances Are Unnecessary Now
Remain as you were born. For if there was no need of circumcision before Abraham, or of the observances of Sabbaths, of feasts and sacrifices before Moses, no more need is there of them now. Ch.23

Nature Does Not Keep the Sabbath
Do you not see that the elements are not idle, and keep no Sabbaths? Ch. 23

God Does Not Keep the Sabbath
Be not offended at, or reproach us with, the bodily circumcision with which God created us; and think it not strange that we drink hot water on the Sabbaths, since God directs the government of the universe on this day equally as on all others. Ch. 29

Fire would have been necessary to heat the water. This was expressly forbidden on the Sabbath day.

How to Keep the Sabbath Under the New Covenant
The new law requires you to keep perpetual Sabbath, and you, because you are idle for one day, suppose you are pious! ... The Lord our God does not take pleasure in such observances. If there is any perjured person or a thief among you, let him cease to be so, if any adulterer, let him repent. Then he has kept the sweet and true Sabbaths of God!

Justin doubtless got this teaching about the true Sabbath from Hebrews chapters 3 and 4.

So then, there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God; for whoever enters God’s rest also ceases from his own labours as God did from His. Hebrews 4:9,10 RSV

[Guest]

I tend to think based on Jesus' statement that God had man's best interest at heart when he created the sabbath. I don't think it can be demonstarted that Jesus requires Christians to keep the sabbath.

Mar 2:27-28 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: so that the Son of man is lord even of the sabbath

[Guest]

Paidion,

I agree with your understanding of what the true Sabbath (Heb 4) is. Could anyone who lived before Hebrews was written, let alone before Moses, have been aware of the symbolism of the 7th day of rest?

Justin Matyr said,

Moreover, all those righteous men already mentioned [Abel, Enoch, Noah], though they kept no sabbaths were pleasing to God.

This information doesn't seem to be derived from scripture. How is it that Justin knows this?

Murf,

I agree, Jesus did not teach his followers to obey the sabbath.

Thanks,
Peter

[Guest]

Don't some believe that the Genesis Sabbath represents the perpetual 7th day of Creation that continues through our present time and on as God rests from Creation until time for the new Heavens and Earth?

[Guest]

Justin Martyr said,

Moreover, all those righteous men already mentioned [Abel, Enoch, Noah], though they kept no sabbaths were pleasing to God.

This information doesn't seem to be derived from scripture. How is it that Justin knows this?

Justin probably believed this because there is no indication in Scripture that God ever told them to observe it, or that they ever did.

There is no indication in Scripture that the commandment to observe the Sabbath was ever given by God prior to his giving the commandment to Moses.

[Guest]

There is no indication in Scripture that the commandment to observe the Sabbath was ever given by God prior to his giving the commandment to Moses.

This is the point which I was attempting to challenge. Namely, since God made every seventh day holy between creation to Moses, it may be not very far fetched to presume that it was also observed in some way by those who lived at that time. That observance would most likely have been in the form of imitating God - as He rested on the seventh day, so would humans who lived at that time.

Peter

[Guest]

Hi Peter,

My position is that there is no real evidence that every seventh day was to be regarded as holy prior to God's declaration to that effect at Sinai.

It may seem that Genesis 2:3 speaks of God hallowing the seventh day at the time of the completion of the creation, but I am not sure this is the correct way to read it. Genesis 2:1-2 speak of God resting on the seventh day, because His work of creation was complete. Verse 3 reads:

"Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."

It may be our assumption that the word "then", at the beginning of the verse, means "at that time." This is one possible meaning of "then," and if it is the intended meaning, then we would have to conclude that, on that very first seventh day, God declared it to be a holy day—though this is not the same thing as discovering whether God instructed man to do anything about it at that time.

But "then" can also have other meanings, such as "next..." or "subsequently..." or "at a later time..." If this is its meaning here, then it would simply be saying, "God rested on the seventh day. Subsequently (or at a later time, namely, at Sinai) God declared that this day is to regarded as holy."

If this is the meaning, then we can make the following observation:

There are two different treatments of the creation, the one, on Genesis one, covers the six days of creation, and the seventh day of God's rest and the other, in Genesis two, focusing on the separate creation of Adam and Eve. Each account ends by saying, in effect, "this is why we do such-and-such."

The second account concludes with, "For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh."

Moses, the writer, would be saying to Israel, in chapter one, "God made the cosmos in six days and rested on the seventh. Subsequently (and because of this fact), He has now (at Sinai) hallowed the seventh day for us too and commands us to rest on the sabbath."

In chapter two, Moses would be saying, "God made man and women separately with the intention that they correspond to each other in a certain fashion, after which He sovereignly brought them together into a partnership. This is why we now must honor the institution of marriage."

Moses would thus be affirming two divine institutions in Israel, and showing that the rationale from each arises from some aspect of God's creative activities. He would not, necessarily, be telling us that the hallowing of the sabbath occurred at the actual time of the first seventh day.

I see no reason why anyone should be compelled to see this matter in the manner I have described above, but it makes sense to me, and renders it possible that no one observed a sabbath prior to the exodus.

[Guest]

Actually, the word "then", "so", "therefore" or "and" has been supplied by translators in Genesis 2:3. There is no introductory word in the Hebrew.

The Septuagint used "and".

If we read it without the supplied words, we have:

On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation.

The passage does not indicate when God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it.

[Guest]

Steve,

Thanks very much for taking the time to answer. It is a much more well thought out answer than I realized the first time I read through it.

I am at the disadvantage of not knowing any Hebrew. Your understanding seems possible, but I am just a little hesitant to accept it for one reason. In Gen 2:3, Moses used the word for the ordinal number seven, rather than the Hebrew word for sabbath (which is used in Exd 20). Thus God seems to have blessed the exact same day that he had rested (day 7 of creation), rather than the same day-of-the-week at a later time.

On the other hand, the "for this cause" clause does allow the marriage analogy to work - even though marriage, unlike the Sabbath, was established from the beginning.

- Though this is not the same thing as discovering whether God instructed man to do anything about it at that time.

This is a key point. I am wondering if you know of any parallel examples in scripture of God making something holy, which men experience but yet where they are also not required to do anything about it?

As far as I know, even if the Sabbath were from a law from the beginning, the fulfillment understanding you've taught from Hebrews 4 would still be valid. It would only follow that at least one ceremonial law preceded Moses.

Peter