Sabbath

Definition: Sabbath is taken from

the Hebrew shavath, meaning
rest, cease, desist. The sabbatical
system prescribed in the Mosaic
Law included a weekly Sabbath
day, a number of additional
specified days throughout each
year, the seventh year, and the
fiftieth year. The weekly Sabbath of
the Jews, the seventh day of their
calendar week, is from sunset on
Friday until sunset on Saturday.
Many professed Christians have
traditionally kept Sunday as their
day of rest and of worship; others
have adhered to the day set aside
on the Jewish calendar.
Are Christians under obligation to keep a weekly sabbath day?
Ex. 31:16, 17: The sons of Israel must keep the sabbath, so as to carry out the sabbath
during their generations. It is a covenant to time indefinite [a perpetual covenant, RS].
Between me and the sons of Israel it is a sign to time indefinite. (Notice that sabbath
observance was a sign between Jehovah and Israel; this would not be the case if everyone
else were also obligated to keep the Sabbath. The Hebrew word rendered perpetual
in RS is ohlam, which basically means a period of time that, from the standpoint of the
present, is indefinite or hidden from sight but of long duration. That can mean forever, but
not necessarily so. At Numbers 25:13 the same Hebrew word is applied to the priesthood,
which later ended, according to Hebrews 7:12.)
Rom. 10:4: Christ is the end of the Law, so that everyone exercising faith may have
righteousness. (Sabbath keeping was a part of that Law. God used Christ to bring that Law
to its end. Our having a righteous standing with God dependson faith in Christ, not on
keeping a weekly sabbath.) (Also Galatians 4:9-11; Ephesians 2:13-16)
Col. 2:13-16: [God] kindly forgave us all our trespasses and blotted out the handwritten
document against us, which consisted of decrees and which was in opposition to us . . .
Therefore let no man judge you in eating and drinking or in respect of a festival or of an
observance of the new moon or of a sabbath. (If a person was under the Mosaic Law and
was judged guilty of profaning the Sabbath, he was to be stoned to death by the whole
congregation, according toExodus 31:14 and Numbers 15:32-35. Many who argue for
sabbath keeping have reason to be glad that we are not under that Law. As shown in the
scripture here quoted, an approved standing with God no longer requires observance of the
sabbath requirement given to Israel.)
How did Sunday come to be the principal day of worship for much ofChristendom?
Although Christ was resurrected on the first day of the week (now called Sunday), the Bible
contains no instruction to set aside that day of the week as sacred.
The retention of the old Pagan name of Dies Solis, or Sunday, for the weekly Christian
festival, is, in great measure, owing to the union of Pagan and [so-called] Christian sentiment
with which the first day of the week was recommended by Constantine [in an edict in
321 C.E.] to his subjects, Pagan and Christian alike, as the venerable day of the Sun. . . . It
was his mode of harmonizing the discordant religions of the Empire under one common
institution.Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church (New York, 1871), A. P. Stanley,
p. 291.
Was the requirement of sabbath keeping given to Adam and thus madebinding on all
of his offspring?
Jehovah God proceeded to rest as to his works of material, earthly creation after
preparing the earth for human habitation. This is stated at Genesis 2:1-3. But nothing in the
Bible record says that God directed Adam to keep the seventh day of each week as a
sabbath.
Deut. 5:15: You must remember that you [Israel] became a slave in the land of Egypt and
Jehovah your God proceeded to bring you out from there with a strong hand and an
outstretched arm. That is why Jehovah your God commanded you to carry on the sabbath
day. (Here Jehovah connects his giving of the sabbath law with Israels deliverance from
slavery in Egypt, not with events in Eden.)
Ex. 16:1, 23-29: The entire assembly of the sons of Israel finally came to the wilderness
of Sin . . . on the fifteenth day of the second month after their coming out of the land of
Egypt. . . . [Moses] said to them: It is what Jehovah has spoken. Tomorrow there will be a
sabbath observance of a holy sabbath to Jehovah. . . . Six days you will pick [the manna] up,
but on the seventh day is a sabbath. On it none will form. . . . Jehovah said to Moses: . . .
Mark the fact that Jehovah has given you the sabbath. (Prior to this, there had been a
marking off of weeks of seven days each, but this is the first reference to a sabbath
observance.)
Is the Mosaic Law divided into ceremonial and moral parts, and is themoral law
(the Ten Commandments) binding on Christians?
Did J esus refer to the Law in a manner that indicated division of it intotwo parts?
Matt. 5:17, 21, 23, 27, 31, 38: Do not think I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I
came, not to destroy, but to fulfill. Now, notice what Jesus included in his further comments.
You heard that it was said to those of ancient times, You must not murder [Ex. 20:13; the
Sixth Commandment] . . . If, then, you are bringing your gift to the altar [Deut. 16:16, 17; no
part of the Ten Commandments] . . . You heard that it was said, You must not commit
adultery [Ex. 20:14; the Seventh Commandment]. Moreover it was said, Whoever divorces
his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce [Deut. 24:1; no part of the Ten
Commandments]. You heard that it was said, Eye for eye and tooth for tooth [Ex. 21:23-25;
no part of the Ten Commandments]. (So, Jesus mixed together references to the Ten
Commandments and other parts of the Law, making no distinction between them. Should we
treat them differently?)
When Jesus was asked, Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? did he
isolate the Ten Commandments? Instead, he replied: You must love Jehovah your God
with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind. This is the
greatest and first commandment. The second, like it, is this, You must love your neighbor as
yourself. On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets. (Matt.
22:35-40) If some cling to the Ten Commandments (Deut. 5:6-21), saying that they are
binding on Christians but that the rest are not, are they not actually rejecting what Jesus said
(quoting Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18) as to which commandments are the greatest?
When referring to the passing away of the Mosaic Law, does the Bibledirectly say that
the Ten Commandments were included in what cameto an end?
Rom. 7:6, 7: Now we have been discharged from the Law, because we have died to that by
which we were being held fast . . . What, then, shall we say? Is the Law sin? Never may that
become so! Really I would not have come to know sin if it had not been for the Law; and, for
example, I would not have known covetousness if the Law had not
said: You must not covet.(Here, immediately after writing that Jewish Christians had been
discharged from the Law, what example from the Law does Paul cite? The Tenth
Commandment, thus showing that it was included in the Law from which they had been
discharged.)
2 Cor. 3:7-11: If the code which administers death and which
was engravedin letters in stones came about in a glory, so that the sons of Israel could not
gaze intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, a glory that was to be
done away with, why should not the administering of the spirit be much more with glory? . . .
For if that which was to be done away withwas brought in with glory, much more would that
which remains be with glory. (Reference is made here to a code that was engraved in
letters in stones and it is said that the sons of Israel could not gaze intently at the face of
Moses on the occasion when it was delivered to them. What is this describing? Exodus
34:1, 28-30 shows that it is the giving of the Ten Commandments; these were the
commandments engraved on stone. Obviously these are included in what the scripture here
says was to be done away with.)
Does doing away with the Mosaic Law, including the TenCommandments, imply the ta
king away of all moral restraint?
Not at all; many of the moral standards set out in the Ten Commandments were restated in
the inspired books of the Christian Greek Scriptures. (There was, however, no restating of
the sabbath law.) But no matter how good a law is, as long as sinful inclinations dominate a
persons desires, there will be lawlessness. However, regarding the new covenant, which
has replaced the Law covenant, Hebrews 8:10 states: For this is the covenant that I shall
covenant with the house of Israel after those days, says Jehovah. I will put my laws in their
mind, and in their hearts I shall write them. And I will become their God, and they themselves
will become my people. How much more effective such laws are than those engraved on
stone tablets!
Rom. 6:15-17: Shall we commit a sin because we are not under law but under undeserved
kindness? Never may that happen! Do you not know that if you keep presenting yourselves
to anyone as slaves to obey him, you are slaves of him because you obey him, either of sin
with death in view or of obedience with righteousness in view? But thanks to God that you
were the slaves of sin but you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to
which you were handed over. (See also Galatians 5:18-24.)
Of what significance to Christians is the weekly Sabbath?
There is a sabbath resting that Christians share in every day
Hebrews 4:4-11 says: In one place [Genesis 2:2] he [God] has said of the seventh day as
follows: And God rested on the seventh day from all his works, and again in this
place [Psalm 95:11]: They shall not enter into my rest. Since, therefore, it remains for some
to enter into it, and those to whom the good news was first declared did not enter in because
of disobedience, he again marks off a certain day by saying after so long a time in Davids
psalm [Psalm 95:7, 8] Today; just as it has been said above: Today if you people listen to
his own voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had led them into a place of rest,
God would not afterward have spoken of another
day. So there remains a sabbath resting for the people ofGod. For the man that has entered
into Gods rest has also himself rested from his own works, just as God did from his own. Let
us therefore do our utmost to enter into that rest, for fear anyone should fall in the same
pattern of disobedience.
From what are Christians here urged to rest? From their own works. What works? Works
by means of which they formerly sought to prove themselves righteous. No longer do they
believe that they can earn Gods approval and gain eternal life by complying with certain
rules and observances. That was the error of faithless Jews who, by seeking to establish
their own righteousness, did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. (Rom.
10:3) True Christians recognize that all of us were born sinners and that it is only by faith in
the sacrifice of Christ that anyone can have a righteous standing with God. They endeavor to
take to heart and apply all the teachings of Gods Son. They humbly accept counsel and
reproof from Gods Word. This does not mean that they think they can earn Gods approval
in this way; instead, what they do is an expression of their love and faith. By such a course
of life they avoid the pattern of disobedience of the Jewish nation.
The seventh day, referred to in Genesis 2:2, was not merely a 24-hour day. (See page 88,
under the heading Creation.) Similarly, the sabbath resting that true Christians share is
not limited to a 24-hour day. By exercising faith and obeying the Bibles counsel, they can
enjoy it every day, and especially will they do so in Gods new system.
There is a thousand-year sabbath rest that lies ahead for mankind
Mark 2:27, 28: [Jesus] went on to say to them: The sabbath came into existence for the
sake of man, and not man for the sake of the sabbath; hence the Son of man is Lord even of
the sabbath.
Jesus knew that Jehovah had instituted the Sabbath as a sign between God and Israel, and
that it was meant to bring them relief from their labors. Jesus also was aware that his own
death would provide the basis for setting aside the Mosaic Law as having found its fulfillment
in him. He appreciated that the Law, with its sabbath requirement, provided a shadow of the
good things to come. (Heb. 10:1; Col. 2:16, 17) In connection with those good things there
is a sabbath of which he is to be Lord.
As Lord of lords, Christ will rule all the earth for a thousand years. (Rev. 19:16; 20:6; Ps. 2:6-
8) While on earth, Jesus mercifully performed some of his most amazing works of healing on
the Sabbath, thus demonstrating the kind of relief that he will bring to people out of all
nations during his Millennial Reign. (Luke 13:10-13; John 5:5-9; 9:1-14) Those who
appreciate the real meaning of the Sabbath will have opportunity also to benefit from that
sabbath rest.
If Someone Says
Christians must keep the Sabbath
You might reply: May I ask why you feel that way? Then perhaps add:What the Bible
says about it definitely should govern our thinking on the matter, should it not? . . . There are
some Bible texts that I have found helpful on this subject. Please let me share them with
you. (Then use appropriate portions of the material on the preceding pages.)
Why dont you keep the Sabbath?
You might reply: My answer would depend on which sabbath you have in mind. Did you
know that the Bible tells about more than one sabbath? . . . God gave sabbath laws to the
Jews. But did you know that the Bible speaks of a different kind of sabbath that Christians
are to keep? Then perhaps add:(1) We do not keep one day a week as the Sabbath
because the Bible says that requirement was to be done away with. (2 Cor. 3:7-11; see
comments regarding this on pages 348, 349.) (2) But there is a sabbath that we do keep
regularly. (Heb. 4:4-11; see pages 349, 350.)
Copyright 2014 Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

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