Theological Branch: Anthropology


Topic: The Sabbath as time

There are basically two days that are similar in appearance but that differ in time(chronology). 

Gen 1:3 KJV And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

In Genesis one, on the first day, God made the light. The Hebrew word is Ori. The science behind the study of Light in modern academia belongs to the field of study known as Quantum mechanics/ Quantum Physics/ Quantum cosmology. 

Light is the basis of all living things. It is the basic building block of all sub atomic particles. Light is energy. It therefore makes sense that the Creator must begin by making light.

 Seems like the Hebrew scriptures here beat the other theories of creation, in that the gods of the world they create out of pre existing matter. While the God of the Bible creates, as they say in Latin Ex Nihil. 

Light being energy is basically nothing. Energy is electromagnet in nature. Therefore it's behaviour is more in the scientific area known as the  wave theory and less in material physics.

 But that is not so with light. Light is both. It's a wave that has mass. ie it is both a wave and a particle. The technical jargon for the unit of light is photon.

When God Called everything else into existence, light was the very foundation of creation. The first day God created nothing, but he created nothing in the material sense. Though from at a microcosmic level, at a Quantum level. He created so much, the basis for existance.

On the Seventh day God created nothing as well. 

Gen 2:1-2 KJV KJV Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

Gen 2:3 KJV And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

It is worth noting a change. From the materialistic machinations of the first day to the philosophical ideals of the seventh day. A blatant opposite is shown here. The syntax of verse 2 is as follows...

And on the            seventh day 
   God                        ended 
     his                          work which 
he had                                made; 
and he rested 
 on the seventh day 
 from all his work 
  which he had made.

Here the grammar of the text  shows us that..

 (1). There are two things that happened. This is shown by the doublet 'seventh day'.... Which is deterministic of what happened.

Cessation of work.

Blessing a day. The Hebrew word for blessing is Barak. Which is a designation of authority. That same word is used in connection with activities like magic and cursing (which is understood as the authority of words).

God becomes the voice of authority the one who gives 'honor to another'¹(the Hebrew meaning of Barak). 
This is a sheer contrast to the First day, where there's  massive physics going on though at a microscopic level. Whilst on the Seventh day there's not even a shred of work, not even at the microcosmic level. 
In verse 2&3 the word for rested is Shabbat... 

*The Sabbath is a mark of...*

 (A) the end of the creative process whose algorithm is deterministic... Rather than stochastic. The Hebrew word for week is also shabbat.

(B) authority to honor...

(C) Holiness: the Hebrew for holy  is qadosh, meaning to (Set apart from the rest for a special function.  separating and joining to something²)

(D) an Oath, as in a Covanent,  in the Hebrew culture the idea of seven denoted ''A common practice... to make seven declarations when making an oath. This declaration can be making the oath seven times or doing seven things to show the sincerity of the oath.³" (this idea is employed in Daniel 9:27, the use of sevens and covanents)

Any ideas that make the Sabbath any other day than the Seventh day militate against the: *a.* Authority of Jehova, *b.* Salvation in a covanent, *c.* Man's place in the Universe, as a being set apart for holy use. This idea is carried over in the Christian era, as is presented in Revelation 14:7, *d.* Theological ideas of the sovregnity and suzeranity of Jehova.

Reference.

1). AHLB - Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible - Jeff A. Benner, 1 Vol. 616 pages, 2005
2). Ibidem
3). Ibidem

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