sabbath Summary and Overview

(Heb. verb shabbath, meaning "to rest from labour"), the day of rest. It is first mentioned as having been instituted in Paradise, when man was in innocence (Gen. 2:2). "The sabbath was made for man," as a day of rest and refreshment for the body and of blessing to the soul. It is next referred to in connection with the gift of manna to the children of Israel in the wilderness (Ex. 16:23); and afterwards, when the law was given from Sinai (20:11), the people were solemnly charged to "remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." Thus it is spoken of as an institution already existing. In the Mosaic law strict regulations were laid down regarding its observance (Ex. 35:2, 3; Lev. 23:3; 26:34). These were peculiar to that dispensation. In the subsequent history of the Jews frequent references are made to the sanctity of the Sabbath (Isa. 56:2, 4, 6, 7; 58:13, 14; Jer. 17:20-22; Neh. 13:19). In later times they perverted the Sabbath by their traditions. Our Lord rescued it from their perversions, and recalled to them its true nature and intent (Matt. 12:10-13; Mark 2:27; Luke 13:10-17). The Sabbath, originally instituted for man at his creation, is of permanent and universal obligation. The physical necessities of man require a Sabbath of rest. He is so constituted that his bodily welfare needs at least one day in seven for rest from ordinary labour. Experience also proves that the moral and spiritual necessities of men also demand a Sabbath of rest. "I am more and more sure by experience that the reason for the observance of the Sabbath lies deep in the everlasting necessities of human nature, and that as long as man is man the blessedness of keeping it, not as a day of rest only, but as a day of spiritual rest, will never be annulled. I certainly do feel by experience the eternal obligation, because of the eternal necessity, of the Sabbath. The soul withers without it. It thrives in proportion to its observance. The Sabbath was made for man. God made it for men in a certain spiritual state because they needed it. The need, therefore, is deeply hidden in human nature. He who can dispense with it must be holy and spiritual indeed. And he who, still unholy and unspiritual, would yet dispense with it is a man that would fain be wiser than his Maker" (F. W. Robertson). The ancient Babylonian calendar, as seen from recently recovered inscriptions on the bricks among the ruins of the royal palace, was based on the division of time into weeks of seven days. The Sabbath is in these inscriptions designated Sabattu, and defined as "a day of rest for the heart" and "a day of completion of labour." The change of the day. Originally at creation the seventh day of the week was set apart and consecrated as the Sabbath. The first day of the week is now observed as the Sabbath. Has God authorized this change? There is an obvious distinction between the Sabbath as an institution and the particular day set apart for its observance. The question, therefore, as to the change of the day in no way affects the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath as an institution. Change of the day or no change, the Sabbath remains as a sacred institution the same. It cannot be abrogated. If any change of the day has been made, it must have been by Christ or by his authority. Christ has a right to make such a change (Mark 2:23-28). As Creator, Christ was the original Lord of the Sabbath (John 1:3; Heb. 1:10). It was originally a memorial of creation. A work vastly greater than that of creation has now been accomplished by him, the work of redemption. We would naturally expect just such a change as would make the Sabbath a memorial of that greater work. True, we can give no text authorizing the change in so many words. We have no express law declaring the change. But there are evidences of another kind. We know for a fact that the first day of the week has been observed from apostolic times, and the necessary conclusion is, that it was observed by the apostles and their immediate disciples. This, we may be sure, they never would have done without the permission or the authority of their Lord. After his resurrection, which took place on the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1), we never find Christ meeting with his disciples on the seventh day. But he specially honoured the first day by manifesting himself to them on four separate occasions (Matt. 28:9; Luke 24:34, 18-33; John 20:19-23). Again, on the next first day of the week, Jesus appeared to his disciples (John 20:26). Some have calculated that Christ's ascension took place on the first day of the week. And there can be no doubt that the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost was on that day (Acts 2:1). Thus Christ appears as instituting a new day to be observed by his people as the Sabbath, a day to be henceforth known amongst them as the "Lord's day." The observance of this "Lord's day" as the Sabbath was the general custom of the primitive churches, and must have had apostolic sanction (compare Acts 20:3-7; 1 Cor. 16:1, 2) and authority, and so the sanction and authority of Jesus Christ. The words "at her sabbaths" (Lam. 1:7, A.V.) ought probably to be, as in the Revised Version, "at her desolations."

(shabbath), "a day of rest," from shabath "to cease to do to," "to rest"). The name is applied to divers great festivals, but principally and usually to the seventh day of the week, the strict observance of which is enforced not merely in the general Mosaic code, but in the Decalogue itself. The consecration of the Sabbath was coeval with the creation. The first scriptural notice of it, though it is not mentioned by name, is to be found in #Ge 2:3| at the close of the record of the six-days creation. There are not wanting indirect evidences of its observance, as the intervals between Noah's sending forth the birds out of the ark, an act naturally associated with the weekly service, #Ge 8:7-12| and in the week of a wedding celebration, #Ge 29:27,28| but when a special occasion arises, in connection with the prohibition against gathering manna on the Sabbath, the institution is mentioned as one already known. #Ex 16:22-30| And that this (All this is confirmed by the great antiquity of the division of time into weeks, and the naming the days after the sun, moon and planets.) was especially one of the institutions adopted by Moses from the ancient patriarchal usage is implied in the very words of the law "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." But even if such evidence were wanting, the reason of the institution would be a sufficient proof. It was to be a joyful celebration of God's completion of his creation. It has indeed been said that Moses gives quite a different reason for the institution of the Sabbath, as a memorial of the deliverance front Egyptian bondage. #De 5:15| The words added in Deuteronomy are a special motive for the joy with which the Sabbath should be celebrated and for the kindness which extended its blessings to the slave and the beast of burden as well as to the master: "that thy man servant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thought. #De 5:14| These attempts to limit the ordinance proceed from an entire misconception of its spirit, as if it were a season of stern privation rather than of special privilege. But in truth, the prohibition of work is only subsidiary to the positive idea of joyful rest and recreation in communion with Jehovah, who himself "rested and was refreshed." #Ex 31:17| comp. #Ex 23:12| It is in #Ex 16:23-29| that we find the first incontrovertible institution of the day, as one given to and to be kept by the children of Israel. Shortly afterward it was re-enacted in the Fourth Commandment. This beneficent character of the Fourth Commandment is very apparent in the version of it which we find in Deuteronomy. #De 5:12-15| The law and the Sabbath are placed upon the same ground, and to give rights to classes that would otherwise have been without such--to the bondman and bondmaid may, to the beast of the field-is viewed here as their main end. "The stranger," too is comprehended in the benefit. But the original proclamation of it in Exodus places it on a ground which, closely connected no doubt with these others is yet higher and more comprehensive. The divine method of working and rest is there propose to work and to rest. Time then to man as the model after which presented a perfect whole it is most important to remember that the Fourth Commandment is not limited to a mere enactment respecting one day, but prescribes the due distribution of a week, and enforces the six days' work as much as the seventh day's rest. This higher ground of observance was felt to invest the Sabbath with a theological character, and rendered if the great witness for faith in a personal and creating God. It was to be a sacred pause in the ordinary labor which man earns his bread the curse the fall was to be suspended for one and, having spent that day in joyful remembrance of God's mercies, man had a fresh start in his course of labor. A great snare, too, has always been hidden in the word work, as if the commandment forbade occupation and imposed idleness. The terms in the commandment show plainly enough the sort of work which is contemplated-servile work and business. The Pentateuch presents us with but three applications of the general principle -- #Ex 16:29; 35:3; Nu 15:32-36| The reference of Isaiah to the Sabbath gives us no details. The references in Jeremiah and Nehemiah show that carrying goods for sale, and buying such, were equally profanations of the day. A consideration of the spirit of the law and of Christ's comments on it will show that it is work for worldly gain that was to be suspended; and hence the restrictive clause is prefaced with the restrictive command. "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work;" for so only could the sabbatic rest be fairly earned. Hence, too, the stress constantly laid on permitting the servant and beast of burden to share the rest which selfishness would grudge to them. Thus the spirit of the Sabbath was joy, refreshment and mercy, arising from remembrance of God's goodness as Creator and as the Deliverer from bondage. The Sabbath was a perpetual sign and covenant, and the holiness of the day is collected with the holiness of the people; "that ye may know that I am Jehovah that doth sanctify you." #Ex 31:12-17; Eze 20:12| Joy was the key-note Of their service. Nehemiah commanded the people, on a day holy to Jehovah "Mourn not, nor weep: eat the fat, and drink: the sweet, and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared." #Ne 8:9-13| The Sabbath is named as a day of special worship in the sanctuary. #Le 19:30; 26:2| It was proclaimed as a holy convocation. #Le 23:3| In later times the worship of the sanctuary was enlivened by sacred music. #Ps 68:25-27; 150:1|... etc. On this day the people were accustomed to consult their prophets, #2Ki 4:23| and to give to their children that instruction in the truths recalled to memory by the day which is so repeatedly enjoined as the duty of parents; it was "the Sabbath of Jehovah" not only in the sanctuary, but "in all their dwellings." #Le 23:3| When we come to the New Testament we find the most marked stress laid on the Sabbath. In whatever ways the Jew might err respecting it, he had altogether ceased to neglect it. On the contrary wherever he went its observance became the most visible badge of his nationality. Our Lord's mode of observing the Sabbath was one of the main features of his life, which his Pharisaic adversaries meet eagerly watched and criticized. They had invented many prohibitions respecting the Sabbath of which we find nothing in the original institution. Some of these prohibitions were fantastic and arbitrary, in the number of those "heavy burdens and grievous to be borne" while the latter expounders of the law "laid on men's shoulders." Comp. #Mt 12:1-13; Joh 5:10| That this perversion of the Sabbath had become very general in our Saviour's time is apparent both from the recorded objections to acts of his on that day and from his marked conduct on occasions to which those objections were sure to be urged. #Mt 12:1-16; Mr 3:2; Lu 6:1-5; 13:10-17; Joh 6:2-18; 7:23; 9:1-34| Christ's words do not remit the duty of keeping the Sabbath, but only deliver it from the false methods of keeping which prevented it from bestowing upon men the spiritual blessings it was ordained to confer.

SAB'BATH (rest). The word first occurs in Ex 16:23. but the institution of a day of rest is much older - is founded, indeed, in man's nature, and, like marriage, was instituted in Paradise. Gen 2:2-3. The word usually indicates the seventh day of the week, which by God's appointment was set apart for his service, but it is used also of other days or times separated and sanctified in a similar way. Lev 19:3, 1 Kgs 20:30; Lev 25:4, and in the original text of the N.T. for a whole week. Matt 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:2. In a spiritual sense it designates the eternal rest in heaven. Heb 4:9 (marg. and Greek). In the Christian Church the first day of the week has been substituted for the last. There is no explicit command on the subject, but the Church naturally commemorated the great event which was in a sense her birth, the resurrection of Christ. By changing the day the Church threw off the Jewish regulations which had loaded down the Sabbath, and turned it into a day of ecclesiastical bondage. The Jews were not peculiar in their day of rest. It is a natural institution, and was observed also by some pagan nations quite independent of Judaism. Originally it was devoted to simple rest from worldly toil. The fourth commandment, Ex 20:8-11; Deut 5:12-15, enjoins no specific religious service, except in the general direction to keep it holy. But the opportunity thus given was improved. Subsequent legislation made it a day of holy convocation. The sacrifices of the temple were doubled; the shew-bread was changed; the inner court of the temple was opened for solemn services; the prophets and the Levites took the occasion for imparting religious instruction to the people. It was a day of holy joy. There was freedom for so much social enjoyment. Indeed, the fear was that the day would be "wasted by idleness and degraded by sensuality and drunkenness" because it was so joyous. Neh 8:9-12; Hos 2:11. But after the Captivity arose the school of the Pharisees, and by them the attractive character of the Sabbatic observances was destroyed. In place thereof they imposed upon the people the yoke of a pedantic, scrupulous, slavish Sabbatarianism which made the Sabbath an end instead of a means, hampered the spirit of true worship, and laid greater stress upon a punctilious obedience to mere human regulations than upon the commands of the Law. Some of their ridiculous prohibitions are the following: Walking in the grass on the Sabbath, because the bruising would be a kind of threshing; wearing nailed shoes, because they would be a sort of burden; mounting a tree, lest a twig should be broken. It was against this perversion of the commandment that our Lord protested. He refused his sanction to Pharisaic legalism. Much to the consternation of the religious party of the day, he vigorously defended his Sabbath miracles. The example of Christ represents the Sabbath, not as a day of gloom, but as a pleasant and healthful day of rest, quiet religious service, and Christian benevolence. He kept the Sabbath in the highest sense of the term. He observed every jot and tittle of the Mosaic Law in the freedom of the spirit. From him we learn that religion is the uppermost business of the day, that acts of necessity and mercy are to be performed, that worldly occupations are to be put as far as possible out of our thoughts. It is true we transfer the fourth commandment to the first day of the week, but we do not thereby violate the spirit of the divine law: for what God asked for was the entire seventh of our time. We may therefore claim the blessing which God has pronounced upon those who keep the day holy. It is a matter of secondary importance, and yet it shows the natural basis of the fourth commandment, that this division of time is scientifically correct. The night's sleep does not restore all the waste of the day; additional rest, therefore, is demanded for health. It is an interesting fact that the blasphemous abolition of Sunday by the French Revolutionists and the substitution of a day of rest every ten days was found poor policy, as the rest was insufficient. The Christian Church keeps the first day of the week, which celebrates the close of the spiritual creation, just as the last day celebrated the close of the physical creation. We have the fullest warrant for this change. Upon the first day of the week Christ arose from the dead. We find the disciples, before the Ascension, assembled on that day, and Jesus appeared to them. John 20:26. According to tradition, which is confirmed by every probability, the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost was on Sunday. Paul preached at Troas on the first day of the week - evidently, among those Christians, the day of religious service. Acts 20:7. Paul tells the Corinthians that every one is to lay by him in store upon the first day of the week as he is prospered. 1 Cor 16:2. It was upon the Lord's day - and by this name he calls it - that John on Patmos saw through the opened door into heaven. Rev 1:10. The first day of the week is therefore the Christian Sabbath, the day of rest and worship. And God has further confirmed the change by giving it his blessing, as he blessed the Sabbath of creation-week. Around the Lord's day we do well to throw safeguards. It is, in a sense, the palladium of Christian liberty. The various states and cities have good laws for the protection of the civil Sabbath and against its open desecration. The positive observance of the religious Sabbath can, of course, not be enforced by law, and must be left to the individual conscience. The American churches are unanimously in favor of a quiet Sabbath, in opposition to the evils of the so-called "continental Sunday," and earnest efforts have been made to protect us against them. Our Lord states the case most concisely: "The Sabbath was made for man." Mark 2:27. It is the divine gift, which, when accepted and properly used,contributes to man's physical, moral, and spiritual happiness and welfare, and gives a foretaste of the saint's everlasting rest in heaven. The following are among the leading passages of the Bible respecting the Sabbath and its proper observance: The divine institution of the Jewish Sabbath. Gen 2:2-3; Ex 20:8-11; Deut 5:12, 2 Sam 20:15; Eze 20:12; Eze 44:24. Servile labor forbidden. Ex 16:23, 1 Chr 2:29; Ex 20:10-11; Ex 23:12; Ex 34:21; Ex 35:2-3; Deut 5:14-15; Jer 17:21-22; Mark 15:42; Mark 16:1-2; John 19:14, 1 Chr 24:31, 1 Chr 2:42. The profanation of the Sabbath the cause of national judgments. Neh 13:15-18; Eze 20:15-16; Eze 23:38, Eze 23:47. The Jewish Sabbath re-established under the gospel dispensation. Matt 5:17; Josh 12:12; Mark 2:27. The change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. Gen 2:2; Ex 20:11; Luke 23:56; John 20:19; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:2; Rev 1:10. The duties of the Sabbath enjoined. Lev 19:30; Num 26:2; Eze 46:3; Mark 6:2; Luke 4:16, 1 Chr 24:31; Acts 13:14-16, Gen 1:27, 1 Chr 2:42, Jer 48:44; Acts 17:2-3. Works of necessity and mercy to be done on this day. Matt 12:1, Num 1:3, 1 Chr 6:5, 1 Kgs 15:7, Jud 4:12, 2 Kgs 11:13; Mark 2:23, Gen 1:27; Mark 3:2-4; Luke 6:9; Luke 13:15-16; Lev 14:3, Deut 14:5; John 5:8-10, 1 Sam 30:18; John 7:22; John 9:14. Blessings promised to those who keep the Sabbath. Isa 56:2, Ex 6:4, 1 Chr 6:5, 1 Kgs 15:7; Isa 58:13-14. Threatenings against Sabbath-breakers. Ex 31:14-15; Num 35:2; Num 15:32-36; Jer 17:27; Eze 20:13, Ex 17:16, Heb 12:23, Jud 6:24; Rev 22:8, Acts 22:14, Eze 22:26, Eze 22:31; Eze 23:38, Eze 23:46. Sabbath privileges taken away. Isa 1:13; Lam 1:7; Am 2:6; Hos 2:11; Am 8:10-11. See Lord's Day.

Hebrew "rest." Applied to the days of rest in the great feasts, but chiefly to the seventh day rest (Exodus 31:15; Exodus 16:23). Some argue from the silence concerning its observance by the patriarchs that no sabbatic ordinance was actually given before the Sinaitic law, and that Genesis 2:3 is not historical but anticipatory. But this verse is part of the history of creation, the very groundwork of Moses' inspired narrative. The history of the patriarchs for 2,500 years, comprised in the small compass of Genesis, necessarily omits many details which it takes for granted, as the observance of the sabbath. Indications of seven-day weeks appear in Noah's twice waiting seven days when sending forth the dove (Genesis 8:10; Genesis 8:12); also in Jacob's history (Genesis 29:27-28). G. Smith discovered an Assyrian calendar which divides every month into four weeks, and the seventh days are marked out as days in which no work should be done. Further, before the Sinaitic law was given the sabbath law is recognized in the double manna promised on the sixth day, that none might be gathered on the sabbath (Exodus 16:5; Exodus 16:23). The meaning therefore of Genesis 2:3 is, God having divided His creative work into six portions sanctified the seventh as that on which He rested from His creative work. The divine rest was not one of 24 hours; the divine sabbath still continues. There has been no creation since man's. After six periods of creative activity, answering to our literal days analogously, God entered on that sabbath in which His work is preservation and redemption, no longer creation. He ordained man for labour, yet graciously appointed one seventh of his time for bodily and mental rest, and for spiritual refreshment in his Maker's worship. This reason is repeated in the fourth commandment (Exodus 20:10-11); another reason peculiar to the Jews (their deliverance from Egyptian bondage) is stated Deuteronomy 5:14-15; possibly the Jewish sabbath was the very day of their deliverance. All mankind are included in the privilege of the seventh day rest, though the Jews alone were commanded to keep it on Saturday. Besides its religious obligation, its physical and moral benefit has been recognized by statesmen and physiologists. Its merciful character appears in its extension to the ox, ass, and cattle. Needless and avoidable work was forbidden (Exodus 34:21; Exodus 35:3). But like other feasts it was to be a day of enjoyment (Isaiah 58:13; Hosea 2:11). Only the covetous and carnal were impatient of its restraints (Amos 8:5-6). In the sanctuary the morning and evening sacrifices were doubled, the shewbread was changed, and each of David's 24 courses of priests and Levites began duty on the Sabbath. The offerings symbolized the call to all Israel to give themselves to the Lord's service on the Sabbath more than on other days. The 12 loaves of shewbread representing the offerings of the 12 tribes symbolized the good works which they should render to Jehovah; diligence in His service receiving fresh quickening on the day of rest and holy convocation before Him. The Levites were dispersed throughout Israel to take advantage of these convocations, and in them "teach Israel God's law" (Deuteronomy 33:10). The "holy convocation" on it (Leviticus 23:2-3) was probably a meeting for prayer, meditation, and hearing the law in the court of the tabernacle before the altar at the hour of morning and evening sacrifice (Leviticus 19:30; Ezekiel 23:38). In later times people resorted to prophets and teachers to hear the Old Testament read and expounded, and after the captivity to synagogues (2 Kings 4:23; Luke 4:15-16; Acts 13:14-15; Acts 13:27; Acts 15:21). Philo (De Orac. c. 20; Vit. Mos. 3:27) and Josephus (Ant. 16:2-3; Apion, 1:20, 2:18) declare the earliest Jewish traditions state the object of the sabbath to be to furnish means for spiritual edification (Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 33:10). Isaiah (Isaiah 1:13) condemns hypocritical keeping of sabbath. So Christ condemns the burdensome sabbath restraints multiplied by the Pharisees, violating the law of mercy and man's good for which the sabbath was instituted (Matthew 12:2; Matthew 12:10-11; Luke 13:14; Luke 14:1; Luke 14:5; John 7:22; Mark 2:23-28); yet inviting guests to a social meal was lawful, even in their view (Luke 14:5). Not inaction, but rest from works of neither mercy nor necessity, is the rule of the sabbath. Man's rest is to be like God's rest. His work did not cease at the close of the six days, nor has it ceased ever since (John 5:17; Isaiah 40:28; Psalm 95:4-5). God's rest was satisfaction in contemplating His work, so "very good," just completed in the creation of man its topstone (Genesis 1:31). So man's rest is in the sabbath being the dose of week day labour done in faith toward God. God orders "six days shalt thou labour," as well as "remember the sabbath" (Exodus 20:8-11). "Remember" marks that the sabbath was already long known to Israel, and that they only needed their "minds stirred up by way of remembrance." The fourth commandment alone of the ten begins so. The sabbath is thus a foretaste of the heavenly (sabbatism) "keeping of sabbath" (Hebrews 4:9-10 margin), when believers shall rest from fatiguing "labours" (Revelation 14:13). The Sabbath reminds man he is made in the image of God. Philo calls it "the imaging forth of the first beginning." It was to the Israelite the center of religious observances, and essentially connected with the warning against idolatry (Leviticus 19:3-4; Ezekiel 20:16; Ezekiel 20:20). As the Old Testament Sabbath was the seal of the first creation in innocence, so the New Testament Lord's day is the seal of the new creation. The Father's rest after creation answers to Christ's after redemption's completion. The Sabbath was further a "sign" or sacramental pledge between Jehovah and His people, masters and servants alike resting, and thereby remembering the rest from Egyptian service vouchsafed by God. The weekly Sabbath, moreover, was the center of an organized system including the Sabbath year and the Jubilee year. The Sabbath ritual was not, like other feasts, distinguished by peculiar offerings, but by the doubling of the ordinary daily sacrifices. Thus it was not cut off from the week but marked as the day of days, implying the sanctification of the daily life of the Lord's people. Leviticus 23:38 expressly distinguishes "the Sabbaths of the Lord" from the other Sabbaths (Colossians 2:16-17), namely, that of the day of atonement and feast of tabernacles, which ended with the cessation of the Jewish ritual (Leviticus 23:32; Leviticus 23:37-39). The Decalogue was proclaimed with peculiar solemnity from Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:16-24); it was written on tables of stone, and deposited in the ark (representing Himself) covered by the mercy-seat on which rested the Shekinah cloud of His glory; Moses significantly states "these vows the Lord spoke, and He added no more." The Decalogue was "the covenant," and the ark containing it "the ark of the covenant;" and therefore the Decalogue sums up all moral duty. The Sabbath stands in the heart of it, surrounded by moral duties, and must therefore itself be moral. God, who knows us best. has fixed the mean between the too seldom and the too often, the exact proportion in which the day devoted to His service ought to recur, best suited to our bodily and spiritual wants. The prophets foretell its continuance in the Messianic age (Isaiah 56:6-7; Isaiah 58:13-14; Isaiah 66:23). Christ moreover says "the sabbath was made for man," i.e. not for Israel only, but for universal "man" (Mark 2:27-28). The typical Sabbath (Hebrews 4:9) must remain until the antitypical sabbatism appears. In Romans 14:5 the oldest manuscripts omit "he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it." As the month of Israel's redemption from Egypt became the beginning of months, so the day of Christ's resurrection which seals our redemption is made the first day Sabbath. The Epistle of Barnabas, Dionysius of Corinth writing to Rome A.D. 170 ("we spent the Lord's day as a holy day in which we read your letter"), and Clemens Alex., A.D. 194, mention the Lord's day Sabbath. The judgment on the Jews for violating the Sabbath was signally retributive (2 Chronicles 36:21). The Babylonians carried them captive "to fulfill the word of the Lord by Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths; for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath to fulfill threescore and ten years" (Leviticus 26:34-36). There are exactly 70 years of Sabbaths in the 490 between Saul's accession, 1095 B.C., and Jehoiakim's deposition by Nebuchadnezzar 606 B.C. Even Adam in innocence needed the Sabbath amidst earthly works; much more we need it, who are fallen. The spirit of the command remains, though the letter is modified (Romans 13:8-10); the consecration of one day in seven is the essential thing. The choice of the first day is due to Christ's appearing on that day and to apostolical usage. Revelation 1:10 first mentions "the Lord's Day" . frontLORD'S DAY; REST.) The early church met to break bread on the first day (Acts 20:7); it was the day for laying by of alms for the poor (1 Corinthians 16:2). No formal decree changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day; this would only have offended the Jews and weak Christians. At first both days were kept. But when Judaizing Christians wished to bring Christians under the bondage of the law, and the Jews became open antagonists of the church, the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was tacitly laid aside, and the Lord's day alone was kept; see Colossians 2:16. Moses, the law's representative, could not lead Israel into Canaan. The law leads to Christ, there its office ceases: it is Jesus, the Antitype of Joshua, who leads us into the heavenly rest (Hebrews 4:8-9). So legal sacrifices continued until the antitypical sacrifice superseded it. As the antitypical Sabbath rest will not be until Christ comes to usher us into it, the typical earthly Sabbath must continue until then. A lawful Sabbath day's journey (Acts 1:12) was reckoned from the distance between the ark and the tents, judged by that between the ark and the people in Joshua 3:4, to repair to the ark on the Sabbath being a duty; namely, 2,000 paces, or about six furlongs, reckoned not from each man's house but from the wall of the city. The Levites' suburbs extended to the same distance from their walls (Numbers 35:5). (See GEZER.) Ganneau thinks Bethphage marked on the E. the boundary of the sabbatic zone which on every side surrounded the city. The Mount of Olives was exactly, as the writer of Acts says, "a sabbath day's journey from Jerusalem." What point in the mountain could this be except the village of the mountain, which occupied its principal summit, and now bears its name (Kefr et Tur, i.e. "village of the mount"; Bethphage)? (Israel Exploration Quarterly Statement, Apri1 1878, p. 60). Christ tells His disciples, as retaining Jewish feelings, in Jerusalem to pray that their flight might not be on the Sabbath, when they could only go 2,000 paces front the city walls (Matthew 24:20). Exodus 16:29 refers to not going from their place to gather manna on the Sabbath. frontMOUNT.)