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all-sovereign.” In the prophetical books of the OT the Sept. sometimes has
$
-
as the equivalent of “the LORD of hosts,” sometimes
$
8
, in
Job, it uses
8
to render the Hebrew divine title
-
(see
ALMIGHTY
).
SABBATH
1.
(
1
, 4521) or
&
the latter, the plural form, was
transliterated from the Aramaic word, which was mistaken for a plural; hence the
singular,
, was formed from it. The root means “to cease, desist” (Heb.,
; cf. Arab.,
, “to intercept, interrupt”); the doubled has an intensive force,
implying a complete cessation or a making to cease, probably the former. The idea is not
that of relaxation or refreshment, but cessation from activity.
The observation of the seventh day of the week, enjoined upon Israel, was a sign
between God and His earthly people, based upon the fact that after the six days of
creative operations He rested, Exod. 31:16, 17, with 20:8-11. The OT regulations were
developed and systematized to such an extent that they became a burden upon the people
(who otherwise rejoiced in the rest provided) and a byword for absurd extravagance. Two
treatises of the Mishna (the
-
and
, $
) are entirely occupied with regulations
for the observance; so with the discussions in the Gemara, on rabbinical opinions. The
effect upon current opinion explains the antagonism roused by the Lord’s cures wrought
on the “Sabbath,” e.g., Matt. 12:9-13; John 5:5-16, and explains the fact that on a
“Sabbath” the sick were brought to be healed after sunset, e.g., Mark 1:32. According to
rabbinical ideas, the disciples, by plucking ears of corn (Matt. 12:1; Mark 2:23), and
rubbing them (Luke 6:1), broke the “sabbath” in two respects; for to pluck was to reap,
and to rub was to thresh. The Lord’s attitude towards the “sabbath” was by way of
freeing it from these vexatious traditional accretions by which it was made an end in
itself, instead of a means to an end (Mark 2:27).
In the Epistles the only direct mentions are in Col. 2:16, “a sabbath day,”
RV
(which
rightly has the singular, see 1st parag., above), where it is listed among things that were
“a shadow of the things to come” (i.e., of the age introduced at Pentecost), and in Heb.
4:4-11, where the perpetual
is appointed for believers (see
REST
); inferential
references are in Rom. 14:5 and Gal. 4:9-11. For the first three centuries of the Christian
era the first day of the week was never confounded with the “sabbath”; the confusion of
the Jewish and Christian institutions was due to declension from apostolic teaching.
Notes:
(1) In Matt. 12:1 and 11, where the plural is used, the
KJV
(as the
RV
) rightly
has the singular, “the sabbath day”; in v. 5 the
KJV
has the plural (see above). Where the
singular is used the
RV
omits the word “day,” v. 2; 24:20; Mark 6:2; Luke 6:1 (“on a
sabbath”); 14:3; John 9:14 (“it was the sabbath on the day when …”). As to the use or
omission of the article the omission does not always require the rendering “a sabbath”; it
is absent, e.g., in Matt. 12:2. (2) In Acts 16:13, “on the sabbath day,” is, lit., “on the day
of the sabbath” (plural). (3) For Matt. 28:1, see
LATE
. (4) For “the first day of the week”
see
ONE
, A, (5).