Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
(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. ” 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 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).
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
(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 (Genesis 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, (Genesis 8:7-12) and in the week of a wedding celebration, (Genesis 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. ” 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. (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.
(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. ” (Exodus 31:17) comp. (Exodus 23:12) It is in (Exodus 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.
(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— (Exodus 16:29; 35:3; Numbers 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.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898) & Schaff's Bible Dictionary
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. 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. " 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.