The Sabbath

[Gus Foster]

THE SABBATH

Our Lord has always been concerned about how His people spend their time.

His first requirement was that Adam and Eve and their descendants should

"dress and keep the garden" (Gen 2:15-17), and then cease from their labors

on the seventh day of every week. 2500 years later at Sinai, He embedded His

Sabbath legislation in the heart of the Decalogue (Ex 20:8-11), and again

declared it binding on every living soul. Through 6000 years of human

history the weekly cycle has never been altered (cf. Matt 5:17-19).

For 4000 years and in unbroken succession, the Jews and their ancestors have

observed the Sabbath on Saturday, the seventh day of the week, in conformity

to the requirement of the Decalogue. When Constantine signed a decree to

honor the first day of the week as "the venerable day of the sun" in 321 AD,

it was the result of 180 years of controversy on the celebration of the

Pasch (Passover) on Nisan 14 or on the following Sunday, and the desire of

Quartrodecimans (Christians who insisted on keeping specific days) to

separate themselves from the persecuting Jews. Professed Christians who

claim to observe the first day of the week in honor of the resurrection of

Christ tacitly confirm that the day before is the seventh day. And if Sunday

is the first day of the week, we can rest assured that Saturday the seventh

is the Sabbath, and "remains" the day which its Lord requires all mankind to

observe (Mark 2:27, 28; cf Heb4:;9-12)

Sabbath is a transliterated Hebrew word. There are Biblical terms that have

no known meanings, such as cherubim, amen, selah, Urim and Thummim and many

others, including the word Sabbath. It would seem that God wanted us to

search and use long phrases in their descriptions to express their full

meanings.

Grammarians and lexicographers have given up on the translation of word

Sabbath, and say that it simply means 'rest'. Of course, this is true of the

result of Sabbath keeping, but does not give the etymology of the term.

While Seventh-day Adventist were discovering the peace and joy of the true

Sabbath rest in the early and middle 1800's, Robert Cox, an Edinburgh,

England attorney, spent his lifetime collecting books and pamphlets on the

Sabbath, although it appears he never was an observer of the seventh day. He

published a two-volume work, 'The Literature of the Sabbath Question'. In

this work he covers every important statement made by the church fathers and

the Jews, and he included the early church historians. He also wrote a book

covering the same subject as related by reformers during the 'dark ages'.

In his monograph, "Septenary Institutions". Cox included several of the

suggestions which have been made to provide an etymology (the history of a

word as shown by breaking it down into basic elements or by tracing it back

to its earliest known form and indicating its changing in form and meaning)

for the Hebrew word, Sabbath.

In the Hebrew trilateral, s, b, and th which forms Sabbath, the b is doubled

by the dagesh. Cox suggested that Sabbath consists of two syllables, sab and

bath, and then proceeded to analyze them. Sab has ab, the Hebrew for Father

(cf abbot and abbey) at its heart. The prefix s, an abbreviation of the

Hebrew ish, meaning man or manly in the qualitative and not the gender

sense, a word with a meaning similar to that of the Latin sahib, (respectful

sir). This syllable, sab, has the meaning 'respectful father', 'reverend

Father' or some such equivalent.

The second syllable of the Sabbath, bath, consists of the Hebrew prefix b,

which means in or at, and the Hebrew word oth (in some combinations ath or

eth) meaning a sign. Together they designate a house or a resting place, as

in Bath-sheba, "At the house-of-an-oath", or Elisa-beth,

"God-is-the-oath-of-her-house", or Beth-lehem,,

"At-the-sign-of-the-house-of-bread". Cox's definition is that Sabbath may

mean an equivalent of, "At the sign (or resting-place) of the Reverend

Father". This certainly fits well with Scripture-"is a sign between Me and

you throughout your generations; that you may know that I Am the Lord the

does sanctify you" (Ex 31:13, 17; cf Ezek 20:12, 20). This etymology

certainly explains why there has been such an incredible satanic attack on

our "Lord's Day" , and why we see it as a last day trial; for it deals with

the root of worship and relationship with our Lord.