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The Sabbath command

The seventh-day command with Deuteronomy 5's different grounding beside Colossians and Romans 14:5-6 — Seventh-Day observance, the Lord's Day, or fulfilled rest.

Exodus 20:8-11

8“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9You shall labor six days, and do all your work,

10but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates;

11for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.

Colossians 2:16-17

16Let no one therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day,

17which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.

What each tradition says

Rabbinic / Midrashic

Emil G. Hirsch, Joseph Jacobs, and Julius H. Greenstone state that the Sabbath is a sign between Yhwh and Israel and an everlasting covenant. Death or excision was the penalty for its profanation by work, as shown by the man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath and was condemned to die by lapidation.

Emil G. Hirsch (1851-1923), Joseph Jacobs (1854-1916) and Julius H. Greenstone (1873-1955), The Jewish Encyclopedia (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1901-1906), s.v. 'Sabbath'section 'Biblical Data'

Patristic

Barnabas says God does not accept the present Sabbaths. Instead, God accepts the rest He will give when He begins the eighth day, the beginning of another world. Therefore Barnabas says we joyfully keep the eighth day, the day Jesus rose from the dead.

The Epistle of Barnabas (anonymous, c. A.D. 130), The Epistle of Barnabas (trans. in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, eds. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson; Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885)ch. XV ('The false and the true Sabbath')

Catholic

Aquinas holds that the Sabbath-hallowing precept, understood literally, is partly moral and partly ceremonial. It is moral in that it commands man to set aside a certain time to be given to Divine things.

Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274), Summa Theologica, Part II-II, q. 122 (trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 1920; New Advent text)II-II, q. 122, a. 4, reply to objection 1

Orthodox

The Synod of Laodicea teaches that Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath; they must work on that day and instead honor the Lord’s Day, resting then as Christians if they can. It declares anyone found to be a judaizer anathema from Christ.

The Synod of Laodicea (fourth century), The Canons of the Synod of Laodicea, Canon XXIX, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ser. 2, vol. 14: The Seven Ecumenical Councils (ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1900; CCEL text)Canon XXIX

Reformed / Protestant

The Westminster Shorter Catechism teaches that from the beginning of the world to Christ’s resurrection, God appointed the seventh day as the weekly Sabbath. Since then, the first day of the week is to continue to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath.

The Westminster Assembly (1643-1653), The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 59, in Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. 3 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1877; CCEL text)Question 59 ('Which day of the seven hath God appointed to be the weekly Sabbath?')

Evangelical

Barnes notes that in the Old Testament "Sabbath" applies not only to the seventh day but also to other Hebrew days of holy rest, especially the beginning and close of their festivals. In Colossians 2:16, he says the plural refers to those days, not particularly to the Sabbath properly so called.

Albert Barnes (1798-1870), Notes on the New Testament, Explanatory and Practical, enlarged type ed., ed. Robert Frew (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House; CCEL text)note on Colossians 2:16