1. Herbert W. Richardson, Toward an American Theology (New York, 1967), p.139.
 2. For my analysis of the Messianic typologies of the Sabbath in the Old Testament, see Divine Rest for Human Restlessness (Rome, 1980), Journal for the Study of Judaism, vol. 17, no. 2 (1987).
 3. See also si 11:7-9; 65:25; Hos 2:20.
 4. The Babylonian Talmud, Shabbath 12a; cf. also 12b.
 5. Mishnah, Shabbath 6:2. The quotations are taken from The Mishnah, ed. Herbert Danby (London, 1933).
 6. For a convenient collection of texts, see Joseph Klausmer, The Messianic Idea in Israel (New York, 1955), pp. 43-44, 62-63, 85-86, 99-101, 158-160, 175-177, 283-284, 342-345, 377-378, 409-410, 505-512. The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, an apocryphon of the Old Testament composed between A. D. 1-50. alludes to the seven-day millennial scheme. It says: “And I blessed the seventh day which is the Sabbath. . . God shows Enoch the age of this world, its existense of seven thousand years” (32:3). A similar scheme was developed by the rabbis. Pirkê de Rabbi Eliezer asserts: “The Holy One, blessed be He, created seven aeons, and of them all He chose the seventh aeon only; the six aeons are for the going in and coming out. . . . The seventh aeon is entirely Sabbath and rest in the life everlasting” (trans. Gerald Friedlander [New York, 1971], p.141). See also Shabbath 30b; Kethubboth 111b.
 7. For my analysis of Barnabas and of the patristic interpretation of the cosmic Sabbath, see From Sabbath to Sunday (Rome, 1977), pp.218-223, 278-285.
 8. Tosephta Shabbat 16:22 reads: “Beth Shammai says: ‘Contributions for the poor are not allotted on the Sabbath in the synagogue, even a dowry to marry an orphan young man to an orphan young woman. Quarrels between husband and wife are not adjudicated and one does not pray for the sick on the Sabbath.’ Beth Hillel permits these activities.”
 9. Theodore Friedman, “The Sabbath: Anticipation of Redemption,” Judaism 16 (1967): 445.
 10. The Midrash on Psalms, trans. William G. Braude(New Haven, 1959), vol. 2, p.112. In a similar vein, Pirkê de Rabbi Eliezer says: “He created the seventh day, (but) not for work, because it is not said in connection therewith, ‘And it was evening and it was morning.’ Why? For it is reserved for the generations (to come), as it is said, ‘And there shall be one day which is known unto the Lord; not day not night’ (Zech 14:7)” (trans. Gerald Friedlander [New York, 1971], p.137). Cf. also Shabbath 11b; Berakhoth 58b; Rosh Hashanah 31a. Church Father also took notice of the absence of any mention of “evening and morning” in conjunction with the seventh day of creation and interpreted it as representing the future eternal peace and rest of the saints. For example, Augustine in his Confessions offers this sublime prayer: “O Lord God, grant Thy peace unto us. . . the peace of rest, the peace of the Sabbath, which hath no evening, nor hath any setting, because Thou hast sanctified it to an everlasting continuance; that that which Thou didst after Thy works, which were very good, resting on the seventh day. . . that we also after our works (therefore very good, because Thou has given them unto us) may repose in Thee also in the Sabbath fo eternal life”(The Confessions of St. Augustine 13, 50-51, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ed. Phillp Schaff [Grand Rapids, 1979], first series v. 1, p.207). See also Augustine's City of God, book 22, chapter 30.
 11. Bereshith Rabbath 12:6.
 12. According to the Midrash, the Sabbath acted as Adam's savior when God was about to destroy him on Friday evening on account of his sin: “At that moment the Sabbath arrived and became Adam's advocate, saying to the Holy One, blessed be He: ‘During the six days of Creation suffered punishment. And wilt Thou begin it with me? Is this my holiness? Is this my rest?’ And thus Adam was saved by the Sabbath's plea from destruction in Gehenna. When Adam saw the power of the Sabbath, he was about to sing a hymn in her honor” (The Midrash on Psalms, trans. William G. Braude [New Haven, 1959], vol, 2, p.112).
 13. The redemptive role of the Sabbath is reflected especially in the belief expressed by R. Eliezer of Modihim, that if Israel kept the Sabbath, the Lord would give her the land of Israel, the kingdom of the house of David, the future world, the new world(Mekilta, Vayassah 5:66-73). See also Shabbath 118b, 119b, 3a; Mishnah Aboth 5:8; Jubilees 2:28.
 14. See, for example, Bereshith Rabbah 3:6; 11:2. For other sources, see Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews (Philadephia, 1946), vol. 5, p.8, n. 19.
 15. Dale Ratzlaff, Sabbath in Crisis (Applegate, California, 1990), p.24.
 16. See The Midrash on Psalms (n. 12), vol.2, p.112; Pirkê de Rabbi Eliezer (n.10),p.144.
 17. Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (New York, 1951), p.23.
 18. On the development of the rest-theme in the Old Testament, see Gerhard von Rad, “There Remains Still a Rest for the People of God,” in The Problem of the Hexateuch and Other Essays (New York, 1966), pp.94-102.
 19. Ernst Jenni, Die Theologische Begründung des Sabbatgebotes im Alten Testament (Zurich, 1956), p.282.
 20. The Midrash on Psalms (n.12), vol. 2, p.113.
 21. The author of Hebrews presents what may be called three different levels of meaning of the Sabbath rest: creation-rest (4:3), national-rest (4:6,8), redemption-rest(4:3,7,9,10). For my analysis of the passage, see Samuele Bacchiocchi, Divine Rest for Human Restlessness (Rome, 1980), pp.135-136, 164-170; idem, From Sabbath to Sunday (Rome, 1977), pp.63-69.
 22. Sanhedrin 97a.
 23. Mishnah Tamid 7:4.
 24. Ibid.
 25. See Mishnah Pesahim 10:5. The underlying connecting among the Sabbath, Passover, and the Day of Atonement appears to be not only theological (i.e., redemption motif) and terminological (i.e., Shabbath designation) but presumably also numerical. Saul J. Berman notes that “The fact that the Jewish calendar can be begun with either the month of Tishrei or with the month of Nissan will allow us to recognize a further relationship of the term, ‘Shabbat,’ to the number seven. Counting from the month of the year from Nissan yields Tishrei as the seventh month, and that month too, contains a Shabbath, Yom Kippur. . . Pesah, in the seventh month from Tishrei, and Yom Kippur, in the seventh month from Nissan, together constitute the Sabbath of months” (“The Extended Notion of the Sabbath,” Judaism 22 (1973): 343). The weekly Sabbath appears then to share in common the of redemption with the Sabbath of months and the Sabbath of years (sabbatical and jubilee years).
 26. For a perceptive discussion of the redemptive features of the Sabbath years, see George Wesley Buchanan, Revelation and Redemption (Dillsboro, North Carolina, 1978), pp.9-10; idem, The Consequences of the Covenant (Leiden, 1970), p.18.
 27. Robert B. Sloan, The Favorable Year of the Lord: A Study of Jubilary Theology in the Gospel of Luke (Austin, Texas, 1977).
 28. Julian Moregenstern maintains that “in all likelihood the ‘great trumpet’ (Is 27:13), a blast from which would inaugurate a new and happier era for conquered and dispersed Israel, was a yobel. All this suggests cogently that the ram's-horn trumpet was of unusual character, used only upon extraordinary occasions and for some particular purpose (cf. Ex 19:13). . . This year acquired its name just because this unique, fiftieth year was ushered in by this blast upon the yobel, whereas the commencement of ordinary years was signalized only by a blast upon a shophar (2 Sam 15:10; cf.Lev 23:24)” (The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible[Nashville, 1962], s. v. “Jubilee, Year of,” vol. 2, p.1001).
 29. Behodesh Hashebihi 172a, cited in George W. Buchanan, Revelation and Redemption (Dillsboro, North Carolina, 1978), p.13.
 30. The term and concept of “sabbatical eschatology” is used and explained by Buchanan, in Revelation and Redemption (note 26), pp.3-6; also idem, The consequences of the Covenant (note 30), pp.9-17.
 31. The terms and concept of “sabbatical messianism” and “chronomessianism” are used by Ben Zion Wacholder in his article, “Chronomessianism. The Timing of Messianic Movements and the Calendar of Sabbatical Cycles,” Hebrews Union College Annual 46 (1975), p.201.
 32. For an edition and analysis of 11Q Melchizedek, see Joseph A. Fitzmyer, “Further Light on Melchizedek from Qumran Cave Ⅱ,” Jorunal of Biblical Literature 86(1967), p.25-41; M. de Jonge and A. S. van der Woude, “11Q Mechizedek and the New Testament,” New Testament Studies 12 (1865-1966), p.301-326.
 33. Sanhedrin 97b.
 34. Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (New York, 1951), p.68.
 35. John Calvin, Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis, trans. John King (Grand Rapids, 1948), p. 106.
 36. Paul K. Jewett, The Lord's Day: A Theological Guide to the Christian Day of Worship (Grand Rapids, 1972), p.86.
 37. M. Max B. Turner, “The Sabbath, Sunday, and the Law in Luke/Acts,” in the symposium From Sabbath to the Lord's Day (Grand Rapids, 1982), p.102.
 38. Ibid.
 39. On the influence of the synagogue upon the Christian divine service, see C. W. Dugmore, The Influence of the Synagogue upon the Divine Office, 1964; A. Allan McArthur, The Evolution of the Christian Year, 1953; Dom Benedict Steuart, The Development of Christian Worship, 1953.
 40. Luke 416,31; 6:1,2,5,6,7,9; 13:10,14,15,16; 14:1,3,5; 23:54,56; Acts 1:12; 13:14,27,42,44; 15:21; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4.
 41. See, for example, I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke(New York, 1978),p.883; F. Godet, A Commentary on the Gospel of Saint Luke, (London, 1870),Ⅱ.p.343; A. R. Leaney, A Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Luke (Grand Rapids, 1966),p.288. The same view si implied by the translators of the New International Version: “Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment” (Luke 23:56)
 42. M. Max B. Turner (note 37),p. 102.
 43. The two crucial terms of the passage are “to proclaim” and “release.” Both of these terms, which recur twice, are technical terms for the Sabbath years. For an informative treatment of this question, see Robert B. Sloan (note 27), pp.32-42. P. Miller rightly notes: “The tie that binds Isaiah 61:1-2 and 58:6 together in Luke 4 is the small word aphesis, the word translated ‘release’ for the captives and ‘liberty’ for the oppressed. . . .it is the catchword binding the two quotations together. Out of the four sentences in Isaiah 58:6 that all say essentially the same thing, the one chosen here in the gospel quotation is the one that in the Greek translation uses aphesis” (“Luke 4:16-21,” Interpretation 29 [October, 1975], p.419).
 44. H. Conzelmann, The Theology of St. Luke (New York, 1960), p.180. Similarly, G. B. Caird points out that Luke “places the incident at the beginning of his story of the Galiean ministry because it announces the pattern which the ministry is to follow” (Saint Luke [Grand Rapids, 1963], p.86). Robert C. Tannehill also writes: “These words and acts [Luke 4:16-30] have typical programmatic significance for the whole of Jesus' ministry as Lukes understands it. . . Luke chose to make this quotation [Luke 4:18-19]the title under which the whole ministry of Jesus of his own understanding of Jusus and his ministry” (“The Mission of Jesus according to Luke 4:16-30,” in Jesus in Nazareth[Grand Rapids, 1972], pp.51,72).
 45. Paul K. Jewett (note 36), p.27. A. Strobel argues that behind Christ's quotation lay an actual historical jubilee year which is dated in A.D. 26-27 (Kerygma und Apokalyptik, [1967],p.105-111). If this were the case, then Christ's speech would have added significance since it would have been delivered in the context of an actual jubilee year.
 46. Paul K. Jewett (note 36), p.42.
 47. Ibid., p.82.
 48. This view is expressed for example, by M. M. B. Turner who writes: “There is no question here of the Sabbath being particularly appropriate for such healing; any more than it is particularly appropriate on that day to loose oxen and donkey from their crib and to water them. The argument, in other words, is not that the Sabbath is a special day, in this respect, but precisely that it is not. The inbreaking kingdom, the loosing of Satan's captives, is no respecter of days” (note 37, p.107).
 49. Nathan A. Barack correctly affirms: “The Sabbath inspires its beneficiaries to feel that the universe is the work of a purposeful Creator, that human life has meaning and sanctity, that all life must be preserved, and that even animals must be provided with their necessary rest” (A History of the Sabbath [1965],p.ⅻ).
 50. Robert Banks comments in this regard: “Luke desires to highlight those works of Jesus which bring salvation and healing to men, which as v. 16 makes clear, especially occur on that day” (Jesus and the Law in the Synoptic Tradition [1985], p.131). Similarly, I. Howard Marshall writes: “Hence it was necessary for her to be released immediately, even though it was Sabbath, perhaps indeed all the more fitting on the Sabbath” (The Gospel of Luke [1978],p. 559).
 51. Pirkê de Rabbi Eliezer (note 10), p.141.
 52. For my extensive analysis of the literary context and of the sabbatical nature of Christ's rest, see “Matthew 11:28-30: Jesus' Rest and the Sabbath,” Andrews University Seminary Studies 24 (Summer 1984), p.1-23.
 53. See, for example, J. Danielou, Bible and Liturgy(South Bend, Indiana, 1956), p.226; David Hill, The Gospel of Mattew (London, 1972), pp.209-210; D. A. Carson, “Jesus and the Sabbath in the Four Gospels,” in From Sabbath to Lord's Day. A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Investigation (Grand Rapids, 1982), p.66.
 54. Donald A. Carson, “Jesus and the Sabbath in the four Gospels,” in the symposium From Sabbath to the Lord's Day (Grand Rapids, 1982), p.102.
 55. The book of Jubilees explains that “burning frankincense and bringing oblation and sacrifices before the Lord . . . shall be done on Sabbath-days in the sanctuary of the Lord your God; that they may atone for Israel with sacrifice” (50:10-11).
 56. This view is held by various scholars. Gerhard Barth, for example, comments that by the phrase “something greater than the temple is here . . . undoubtedly Jesus is meant, for in him the Messianic fulfillment and consummation has come and he is therefore more than the Temple” (Tradition and Interpretation in Matthew [Philadelphia, 1963}, p.82).
 57. Ellen G. White perceptively notes: “The priests were performing those rites that pointed to the redeeming power of Christ, and their labor was in harmony with the object of the Sabbath. But now Christ Himself had come. The disciples, in doing the work of Christ, were engaged in God's service, and that which was necessary for the accomplishment of this work it was right to do on the Sabbath” (The Desire of Ages[Mountain View, California, 1940], p.285).
 58. Robert Banks, Jesus and the Law in the Synoptic Tradition(Grand Rapids, 1967), p.117. Cf. Morna D. Hooker, The Son of Man in Mark (New York, 1967), p.98; P. K. Jewett (note 36), p.37.
 59. D. A. Carson (note 54), p. 67.
 60. Ibid., p. 79. Cf. W. Rordorf, Sunday: The History of the Day of Rest and Worship in the Earliest Centuries of the Christian Church (Philadelphia, 1968), pp.70, 296.
 61. David Hill, The Gospel of Matthew (1972), p.211.
 62. This view is emphatically stated by Etan Levine: “The Pharisees are not being told that the Sabbath injunction should be abrogated; rather, within their own realm of discourse they are being reminded that plucking grain on the Sabbath is legitimate for sacred purpose. Thus, Jesus does not abrogate the Torah, but exercises his prerogative to interpret it, in this case defining the ‘sacred’ in term other than the Temple ritual, as the text explicitly states” (“The Sabbath controversy According to Matthew,” New Testament Studies 22[1976]: 482). Similarly, William L. Lane writes: “The divine intention was in no way infringed by the plucking of heads of grain on the part of Jesus' disciples” (The Gospel According to Mark[New York, 1974], p. 120).
 63. L. Goppelt, Christentum und Judentum im ers ten und zweiten Jahrhundert(Berlin, 1954), p. 46, as cited in W. Rordorf (note 60), p.71. Rordorf himself defends this view and goes so far acuse Matthew of “beginning the moralistic misunderstanding of Jesus' attitude toward the Sabbath” (note 60, p.68). This misunderstanding allegedly consists in assuming “that the obligation to love one's neighbour displaces in certain circumstances the command to keep a day of rest” (ibid.).
 One wonders whether Matthew really misunderstood or truly understood Christ's meaning and message of the Sabbath, when he wrote, “It is lawful to do good on the sabbath” (Matt 12:12). It is true that in postexilic Judaism an elaborate fence had been erected around the Sabbath to assure its faithful observance. The multitude of meticulous and casuistic regulations, produced to guard the Sabbath, turned the observance of the day into a legalistic ritual rather than into a loving service. It was Christ's intent to restore the Sabbath to the original divine design.
 64. Niels-Erik Andreasen, “Festival and Freedom,” Interpretation 28 (1974), p. 289.
 65. Hans Walter Wolff, “The Day of Rest in the Old Testament,” Concordia Theological Monthly 43 (1972), p.504.
 66. For my analysis of John 5:17, see my article “John 5:17: Negation or Clarification of the Sabbath?” Andrews University Seminary Studies 19(Spring 1981), p.3-19.
 67. See, for example, George Allen Turner, Julius R. Mantey, O. Cullman, E. C. Hoskyns, F. Godet on John 5:17.
 68. A. T. Lincoln, “Sabbath, Rest, and Eschatology in the New Testament,” in From Sabbath to Lord's Day, ed. Donald A. Carson(Grand Rapids, 1982), p.204.
 69. Yoma 85b.
 70. On the redemptive meaning of circumcision, see Rudolf Meyer, “peritemno,” Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. G. Kittel (Grand Rapids, 1973), vol. 6, pp. 75-76.
 71. For a presentation of the three reason, see A. T. Lincoln (note 68), pp. 212-214.
 72. Among the commentators who view the fulfillment of the Sabbath rest as an exclusive future experience are E. Kasemann, O. Michel, H. Windisch, W. Manson, F. F. Bruce, F. Delitzsch, and R. C. H. Lenski.
 73. Bruce Metzger rightly remarks: “Many of them felt themselves drawn to Jewish liturgy and were on the point of renouncing Christianity and returning to their ancestral Jewish faith” (The New Testament: Its Background, Growth and Content [Nashville, 1965], p.249).
 74. The term sabbatismos occurs in the following works: Plutarch, De Superstitione 3 (Moralia 1660); Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 23,3: Epiphanius, Adversus Haereses 30,2,2; Apostolic Constitutions 2,36.
 75. Andrew T. Lincoln, a contributor to the schloarly symposium From Sabbath to the Lord's Day acknowledges that in both secular and Christian literature “the term [sabbatismos] denotes the observance or celebration of the Sabbath. This usage corresponds to the Septuagint usage of the cognate verb sabbatizo (cf. Ex 16:23; Lev 23:32; 26:34f; 2 Chron 36:21) which also has reference to Sabbath observance. Thus, the writer to the Hebrews is saying that since the time of Joshua an observance of Sabbath rest has been outstanding” (note 68), p.213.
 76. For examples and discussion of the spiritual interpretation of the Sabbath commandment, see W. Rordorf(note 60), pp. 100-108. Franz X. Pettirsch also notes: “The early fathers of the Church applied the law of Sabbath rest only allegorically to absention from sin; a literal application to work was foreign to their thinking” (“ A Theology of Sunday Rest,” Theology Digest 6[1958], p.116). The author explains how during the Middle Ages the formula “servile work” was interpreted in a literal sense as meaning “field work, any heavy work” (p. 117). The spiritual interpretation of the Sabbath rest as “self-renenciation” is advocated also by John Calvin, in Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses, trans. C. W. Bingham (Grand Rapids, 1950), p. 436.
 77. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Grand Rapids, 1972), vol. 2, p.337. Karl Barth keenly observes that, by resting on the Sabbath after the similitude of God (Heb 4:10), the believer “participates consciously in the salvation provided by him [God]” (Church Dogmatics [Edinbrugh, 1961], vol. 3, part 2, p. 50).
 78. Karl Barth (note 77), p.51.
 79. Epistle to Diognetus 4, 3, The Ante-Nicense Fathers (Grand Rapids, 1973 reprint, vol. 1, p.26.
 80. Augustine, City of God, ⅩⅫ, 30, trans. Gerald Walsh, Demetrius B. Zema, Grace Monahan(New York, 1958),p. 544.
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