13. M. G. Kline,
Treaty of the Great King. The Covenant Structure of Deuteronomy, 1963, p. 18. Gerhard von Rad recognizes the
“right of ownership” expressed by the Sabbath and says,
“it is the day which really belongs to God and sets a standard undefiled by any kind of human business..-—the celebration of the sabbath, at least in Israel’s earlier period, was discharged by abstaining demonstratively from productive labour, and symbolically handing the day back to God” (
Deuteronomy. A Commentary, 1966, p. 58).
14. A. T. Lincoln brings out this function of the Sabbath, saying,
“By bringing all routine work to a halt for twenty-four hours the people were acting out their allegiance and confessing that the covenant Lord was specifically Lord of their time. This is why the Sabbath could serve as a sign of
the whole covenant relationship. By demonstrably laying down her work and allowing the seventh day to, as it were, ‘lie fallow,’ Israel was acknowledging her complete dependence on her Suzerain” (
“From the Sabbath to the Lord’s Day: A Biblical and Theological Perspective,” in
From Sabbath to the Lord’s Day: A Biblical, Historical and Theological Investigation, D. A. Carson, ed., 1982, p. 354).
15. John Calvin acknowledges this function of the Sabbath, writing,
“under the rest of the seventh day, the divine Lawgiver meant to furnish the people of Israel with a type of the spiritual rest by which believers were to cease from their works, and allow God to work in them” (
Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1972, I, p. 339).
16. See
The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 1962, s.v.
“Holiness.” Johannes Pedersen explains that holiness as the experience of divine power through places or times functions as a regulating principle of the whole life (
Israel: Its Life and Culture 1940, III-IV, p. 287).
17. A. Martin points out that the divine choice of the Sabbath fulfills a double function.
“In the first place it is a time which man, object of divine election, sets apart for the service of God. Secondly, the exercise of setting aside time reminds the Christian that he himself has been set apart” (
“Notes sur le Sabbat,” Foi et Vie 5 [1975]: 18).
18. Ibid., p. 17.
19. Abraham Joshua Heschel writes:
“The Hebrew word le-kadesh, to sanctify, means, in the language of the Talmud, to consecrate a woman, to betroth. Thus the meaning of that word on Sinai was to impress upon Israel the fact that their destiny is to be the groom of the sacred day” (
The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man, 1951, pp. 51-52).
20. Nathan A. Barack remarks that the celebration of the Sabbath
“from sundown to sundown enables the observer to welcome it, and usher it out, by means of appropriate rituals. The day is complete and distinctive. The religious experience of welcoming, and taking leave from, the holy day makes the life of the observer also distinctive” (
A History of the Sabbath. 1965, p. 32).
21. M. L. Andreasen, The Sabbath:
Which Day and Why?, 1942, p. 243.
22. The influence of the Roman legislation against secret societies and gatherings (
hetaeriae) on Christian’s worship habits, is discussed in
From Sabbath to Sunday (n. 8), pp. 95-99.
23. This view is expressed by G. E. Mendenhall. He writes:
“The surprising infrequency of references to covenant in the NT raises great difficulties, even though it is understandable. The covenant for Judaism meant the Mosaic law and for the Roman Empire a covenant meant an illegal secret society. This two-sided conflict made it nearly impossible for early Christianity to use the term meaningfully” (
The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 1962, s.v.
“Covenant,” p. 722). Note that even the covenant meaning of the Lord’s Supper (
“new covenant in my blood”— I Cor. 11:25) is not found in the post-NT literature (such as Didache, 9, 10, 14), presumably because of the same Roman
hetaeriae (n. 22) legislation.
24. Louis Tamminga,
“Review of Promise and Deliverance by S. G. De Graaf,” Baptist Reformation Review 3 (1979): 31.
25. Philip Melanchthon,
On Christian Doctrine. Loci Communes 1555, trans. by Clyde L. Manschreck, 1965, p. 98. Emphasis supplied.
26. A. Martin (n. 17), p. 20.
27. Karl Barth (n. 5), p. 54.
28. Ibid.
29. George Foot Moore correctly points out that Sabbathkeeping was
“even more significant than circumcision. The latter sign of the covenant was imposed on an infant by his parents without his understanding or will, solely by virtue of his descent; whereas the keeping of the sabbath in the face of wordly interest was a standing evidence of th~ intelligent and self-determined fidelity of the man to the religion in which he was brought up from a child” (
Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era, 1927, p. 24).
30. Sakae Kubo comments that the Sabbath
“recalls to his [Christian] mind the time when his re-creation took place, his baptism which memorializes the once-and-for-all event. The Sabbath weekly reminds us of the once-and-for-all completed Creation event, our redemption by Christ, and our new creation” (
God Meets Man, 1978, p. 49).
31. Abraham Joshua Heschel (n. 19), p. 99.
32 Fritz Guy,
“Holiness in Time: A Preliminary Study of the Sabbath as Spiritual Experience,” a paper presented at Andrews University, 1961, p. 5.
33. For example, Hiley H. Ward writes:
“The day [Sabbath] is intangible, not something made with hands, according to Jewish rabbis. But is it really intangible? When it is defined, with regulations attached to keeping the day, a way of life imposed, it becomes as tangible as a millstone upon the neck of a person” (
Space-Age Sunday, 1960, p. 146).
34. A. Martin (n. 17), pp. 24-25.
35. Karl Barth (n. 5), p. 54. Cf. idem, III, part 1, p. 226.
36. Ibid., p. 227.
37. Karl Barth expresses eloquently this function of the Sabbath, saying:
“The aim of the Sabbath commandment is that man shall give and allow the omnipotent grace of God to have the first and last word at every point;... that he shall place himself, with his knowing, willing and doing, unconditionally at its disposal” (n. 5, p. 54).
(115.4)