Theological Branch: Literary Criticism



Topic: Sabbath and Contemporary Scholarship.

What have others said about the Sabbath?

God also made the Sabbath holy.[1]

Gerhard  Hasel argues that four activities are associated with the seventh day in Genesis 2: (1) God had finished His creative work on that day; (2) God rested from all His creative work on that day; (3) God blessed that day; and (4) God made it holy.[2]

This day alone he sanctified.[3]
 
The root קדשׁ  was used for the first time in connection with the creation of the Sabbath. [4]
  
When God is the subject of blessing (the verb  בּרך (barak)  is used), it means He is giving His presence; He grants prosperity, well-being, and future. His favor extends to every aspect of life, and His gracious blessings are even warranted by covenant [5]

The Sabbath is holy because God fills it with His presence; therefore, the Sabbath is not just a day; but a Person [6]

The Sabbath is teaching us to stop, to finish our work as God finished His and paused (Gen 2:1-3). The idea about finishing is stressed four times in the biblical text (two verbs are used,  כּלה  and שׁבת and each is employed twice in this short passage). Sabbath is about ceasing[7]

*References*

1). Heschel, Niels-Erik  A.  Andreasen argues in his published dissertation: *The Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, was a time in which holiness was concentrated (The Old Testament Sabbath* : A Tradition-Historical Investigation  [Missoula, MT: The Society of Biblical Literature, 1972], 204).

2). Hasel, *The Sabbath in the Pentateuch* .

3). Hamilton,  *The Book of Genesis* .

4). Wayne Muller,  *Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest*  (New York: Bantam Books, 1999).

5). A. C. Myers, *Bless, in  The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia*  (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), 1:525; D. C. Davis, ÒBless, Blessing, in  The  Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible  (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975,1976), 1:625.

6). Richard M. Davidson,  *A Love Song for the Sabbath: How to Experience the Joy that God Intended When He Gave Us the Sabbath*  (Washington, DC: Review & Herald, 1988)

7). Victor P. Hamilton,  *שׁבת   (shabbath) cease, desist, rest, in  Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament,* ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer,  Jr.,  and  Bruce  K.  Waltke (Chicago: Moody, 1980)

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