Biblical Perspectives, Vol. 10 No. 1-2, 2002.
Review article
The Sabbath
Kenneth A. Strand
; Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, SAD
Abstract
In both the OT and NT the weekly day for rest and special worship services was the -seventh day of the week (Saturday), called lie "Sabbath.” This word was also applied to certain annual holy or festal days, though its main use was for the seventh day of the week.
In post-NT Christian history the word “sabbath" eventually came to be applied in certain traditions to Sunday, the first day of the week, and is still used by various Sundaykeeping Christians to designate Sunday. In this article, when the word “Sabbath” is spelled with an initial capital letter, it refers to the seventh day of the week.
The Hebrew root from which “sabbath” is delivered is šbṯ, whose primary meaning is “to cease” or “desist” from previous activity. The noun form is šabbāṯ, and the verb is šābaṯ. Modern English versions usually render the noun as “sabbath” and the verb as “to rest” (or sometimes as “to keep sabbath”). Although these renditions are correct and appropriate, the underlying concept of “cession” suggests a relation to that which has preceded, rather than simply a recourse for weariness.
A further noun referring to the Sabbath in Exodus and Leviticus is šabbāṯôn, also derived from šbṯ, and often translated “solemn rest.” Six of eleven times it appears in the phrase šābaṯ šabbāṯôn (Ex. 31:15; 35:2; Lev. 16:31; 23:3, 32; 25:4). The occurrence of šābaṯ and šabbāṯôn together indicates in¬tensification.
In the NT the word for “sabbath” is the Greek sabbatoōn, or its apparent plural, sabbata. However, the latter may be simply a transliteration of the Aramaic Sabb‘šabbᵉtā, which is the emphatic state of the singular noun. Thus when the term sabbata occurs in the NT, the context must guide as to whether the meaning is singular or plural.
Sometimes sabbaton in the NT refers to the entire week. For instance, in Luke 18:12 the Pharisee boasts that he fasts twice tou sabbatou (in the week). Also in a number of references the first day of the week is indicated by the numeral “one” with sabbaton or sabbata (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2,9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1,19; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2), the noun “day” being clearly implied by the use of the feminine form of the numeral.
In Hebrews 4:9, the term sabbatismos is correctly translated as “sabbath rest.” In this general section of Hebrews (3:7-4:13), which employs the Sabbath as a metaphor for spiritual rest, the noun katapausis (rest) also occurs eight times, and the verb katapauō three times.
Keywords
Sabbath; Saturday; Day-of-the-Lord; Sunday; Forth-Commandment; Adventists
Hrčak ID:
99773
URI
Publication date:
20.12.2002.
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