HARVESTING SABBATH GRAIN FROM THE CATHOLIC BIBLE: My Observations and Comments

by Rev. Paul L. Rothermel

There is no mention of Sabbath in Genesis. Only one commandment to Adam and Eve is mentioned, Dont eat from that tree! Did our first parents have only one day in seven to commune with God in the garden? Would Adam and Eve need to rest after just one day of existence in the garden? God rested from His creating, but Adam and Eve were creatures who did not create. The Talmud mentions that Abraham did not keep the Sabbath. Exodus 13:3 clarifies how Remember in the Sabbath commandment fits a recent law. One does not need to remember something that human nature itself always proclaims. Exodus 16 is the first place in history where the Bible locates the Sabbath command. Its rather long explanation fits a new commandment or a commandment long forgotten. Only after being freed from slavery were the Israelites free to give a set time to God. Using a creation week pattern is not the same as saying the Sabbath is as old as creation. Human nature teaches us to set aside a time for God often, but not how often or when. Human nature teaches us making images to worship them is wrong, but not making them. Keeping the weekly Sabbath was meant to set the Israelites apart from all other peoples. If the literal day remains for us all, why would not literal death remain for its violation? Circumcision (Genesis 17) and Tabernacle bread (Leviticus 24) were also to be perpetual. The Levitical priesthood was to be perpetual (Leviticus 16) but not forever (Hebrews 7)! How do Messianic Jews know Orthodox Jews misinterpret what Exodus 35:3 requires? Israelites were commanded to keep the Sabbath because God delivered them from Egypt. The commandments of Moses are also the commandments of God (Deuteronomy 8:11). It offended God for Jews, not Gentiles, to ignore the Sabbaths laws intended for Israel. It offended God for Jews and Gentiles to ignore the laws of God meant for both of them. Gods writing prophets condemned Israelites again and again for violating the Sabbath. Gods prophets condemned Gentiles again and again, but never for violating the Sabbath. The Israelites learned of the Sabbath commandment for the first time near Mount Sinai. The book of Job does not mention the Sabbath. Gentiles who enter Judaism will keep the covenant of Isaiahs day and its Sabbath, just as the next verse (Isaiah 56:7) shows that they will enter the temple and sacrifice animals. Isaiah 66:23 could be a conditional promise but never fulfilled because of disobedience. If it had been fulfilled, pork eaters would have been punished severely (Isaiah 66:17). If it had been fulfilled, Sabbath keepers would have kept Jewish new moon celebrations. God gave Israelites, not everyone, the Sabbath year, the new moon, and the Sabbath day. Ezekiel 20:40 shows that animal sacrifices will be important for these Sabbath keepers.

Ezekiel 44:9 teaches male Sabbath keeping worshipers would be physically circumcised. Should all Christians keep Jewish new moon celebrations as well as the weekly Sabbath? Might temporarily ending Sabbath keeping foreshadow a future permanent ending of it? Why do Messianic Jews regularly ignore nineteen biblical references to the Sabbath? Jesus put Tabernacle baking and priestly activities on the same level as Sabbath keeping. If Matt. 24:20 means Jesus commanded Sabbath keeping, then He limited travel distance. This could mean that Judean Sabbath customs would make it hard for Christians to flee. We know Jesus expected His apostles to teach us whatever He commanded them to do. How do we know that Jesus expected all Christians to do whatever He Himself had done? Adams creation was more important than the Sabbath because God created him first. By ceasing activity, God treated the first seventh day as different from creation days. Gods resting after creation was not itself a creation, but a pattern for a later creation. God created the Sabbath whenever He first commanded humans to keep the Sabbath. God created the Sabbath for the human beings who were also the descendants of Jacob. Nowhere in the Old Testament are Gentiles criticized for failing to keep the Sabbath. Christ taught His disciples to set aside Old Testament food laws even before His death. As its Lord, Jesus liberalized and/or totally set Sabbath keeping aside before His death. Jesus also wore tassels on His garments, killed Passover lambs, avoided eating pork, celebrated Hanukkah, paid tithes to Levites, and told healed lepers to go to their priest. The Sabbath commandment of rest applied as much to Jewish women as to Jewish men. Luke 23 describes what Jewish women did, not what Gentile Christian readers should do. Lukes companion Paul makes clear that some commandments have ended (Eph. 2:15). If Jesus did work on the Sabbath Day, why should Christians not follow His example? John 5:18 seems to suggest Jesus set aside Sabbath keeping even before His own death. Are healings by Jesus more important than His abiding by the Sabbath law about resting? Can the rotation of the earth transform something virtuous into something sinful to do? It was a virtue, not a vice, for Paul to join Jews in Sabbath worship to evangelize them. Acts 15 does not order Christians to keep the Sabbath or attend synagogues, but they must avoid Gentile vices so as not to offend those who do keep the Sabbath and attend. Acts 20:7 shows that it is not a sin for Christians to meet and worship God on a Sunday. Acts 21 shows that Gentile converts were not expected even by James to keep the Law. Romans 7 shows that the Ten Commandments are to be treated like the rest of the Law. Romans 14 shows Paul did not require Christians to treat any day differently from others. 2 Corinthians 3 shows what was written on stone was transitory like the rest of the Law. This is the only New Testament location that treats the Ten Commandments as a group. Galatians declares that the Mosaic Law as a whole was in effect only until Christ came. Galatians 4 is about Sabbath days because there were no pagan years of observance.

Not only the Galatians but also Jewish Paul once served the elements (Galatians 4:3). Ephesians 2 indicates Christ removed commandments separating Jews and Gentiles. Colossians 2 explains the Christian meanings of two OT signs, circumcision and Sabbath. NT authors sometimes use old rituals to symbolize what God requires of us in our hearts. NT authors sometimes use old rituals to prophesy what God will do for us in the future. A descending (year, month, day) pattern for festival, new moon, and Sabbath is biblical. Like all other usages of Sabbath in the New Testament, this one has a weekly referent. Col. 2:16 - This last reference in the NT to weekly Sabbath keeping seems very fitting. Those who kept the Sabbath in the past have not yet entered Hebrew 4s Sabbath rest. NT authors sometimes use old rituals to prophesy what God will do for us in the future. Hebrews 8 The Covenant of Ten Commandments (Ex. 34:28, Deut. 4:13) passes away. Revelation 12 shows end-time Christians will be faithful to all that God requires of them. There are no commands to keep the weekly Sabbath in the New Testament writings. How could former Gentiles need correction about idolatry but never about the Sabbath? NO command to Christians to keep the Sabbath survives in ANY early Christian writing. For the Jews in the pre-exilic Old Testament period: The Sabbath is a time of rest. For Jews after synagogues came about: The Sabbath is a time of worship as well as rest. For Jewish Christians: The Sabbath is a time of worship and rest before the Lords Day. For Gentile Christians and later Jewish Christians: The Lords Day is a time of worship. For Christians after Constantine: The Lords Day is a time of rest as well as worship. As a day for worship, the Lords Day is Apostolic (Acts 20:7), but not as a day of rest. The Apostles made the Lords Day a usual time for Christian worship, not a required one. Like many early Israelites before the Exodus, many of the earliest Christians were slaves. Only after being freed from slavery were many Christians free to give a set time to God. God instituted human government, and Jesus gave His authority to the Catholic Church. Civil and Church leaders used divine authority to require Christians to rest on Sundays. Catholic Bishops made Easter and Sundays the pre-eminent Holy Days of Obligation. Sunday is like a Sabbath in that both are regular, weekly, labor-ceasing days of worship. We would not know from the Bible alone that God requires Christians to keep Sunday. We could not know from the Bible alone all the inspired writings belonging in the Bible. The Bible alone does not teach that everything God requires of us is taught in the Bible. The official teachings of the Catholic Bishops at the ecumenical Council of Florence: Before the first coming of Jesus, circumcision and Sabbath were required for salvation. After Jesus death, treating circumcision and Sabbath as salvific seriously offended God. After Jesus death, circumcision and Sabbath became non-salvific but tolerated rituals. After the promulgating the Gospel, Jewish circumcision and Sabbath cannot be tolerated. A Christian who does Jewish circumcision and keeps the Sabbath seriously offends God. Orthodox Jews today do not believe that the Sabbath was commanded before the Exodus.