Aphrahat & the Jewish Sabbath

DEMONSTRATION 13: ON THE SABBATH

I. CONTENTS

1 summary of the commandments concerning the Sabbath, in which the Jews take pride

2 Sabbath for rest, not salvation: animals required to keep the Sabbath, yet they ‘sin’ on that day

3 in all of creation, only humans and their work animals are required to rest on the Sabbath, which demonstrates the purpose of that day 

4 Sabbath not given to Adam immediately, since he had not yet been condemned to work 

5 Noah justified by keeping his integrity, not by keeping the Sabbath: his integrity led him to refrain from marriage until God’s command made it necessary

6 proof that Noah had not married: he was much older than his predecessors at the birth of his first child 

7 Noah avoided marriage out of fear that his children would take wives from the cursed line of Cain; he only married in order to repopulate the world with righteous offspring 

8 Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph all justified by faith, not by the Sabbath: this faith was reflected in righteous deeds 

9 God instituted the Sabbath to express his care for all creation 

10 God ‘rested’ not because he was weary but because he had finished his work 

11 God’s ‘resting’ on the seventh shows how much those who do grow weary need rest from their work 

12 further proof that the Sabbath not for salvation: Joshua, the Maccabees, priests not condemned for Sabbath-breaking

13 true Sabbath keepers are those who choose what God desires and who keep their hands from what is evil; God’s Sabbath of rest awaits them

II. TRANSLATION

1. With respect to the day of the Sabbath, the Lord gave a command to his servant Moses that the Israelites should keep [it]. He spoke to them as follows: “You will do your work for six days, but the seventh day, the Sabbath, is a rest holy to the Lord your God, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and the seas and all that is in them, but on the seventh day he stopped and rested. For this reason, God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, since on it he rested from all of the works that he had done.”¹ He admonished them as follows: “You, your male and female servants, and your oxen and donkey must rest.” Moreover, he admonished them again: “The hired hand and the foreigner and every grazing animal that labours and toils in servitude must rest.”² The Jewish people take pride in and boast about this Sabbath day. They say, ‘We live because we keep the Sabbath and [its] tradition[s]!’ As much as I am able, my friend, I will give you an explanation in a few words, just as I explained circumcision and the Passover to you. 

2. The Sabbath was not placed between death and life, nor between righteousness and sin; rather, it was given for rest. [It was not]³ like the other commandments, which existed so that people might live through them, and if they did not obey them, they would die. At the time when the Sabbath was kept, it was given for the people’s rest, and not for humans alone, but also for grazing animals. For He said, “Your ox and your donkey and every grazing animal of yours must rest.” Now if the Sabbath was placed between death and life and between righteousness and sins, what benefit is there for grazing animals who keep the Sabbath, or what harm will come to them when they do not keep [it]? We can see that on other days, when grazing animals labour and the servitude and labour of work is greater, they are more righteous than [they are] on the day of the Sabbath. On the days of labour grazing animals labour and grow tired with loads and burdens. The oxen pull a yoke, and because they are tired, there is no occasion for them to commit sins. On the day of the Sabbath, however, when the donkeys, oxen, and all [other] grazing animals of various kinds are idle, they are not prevented from copulating with their mothers, sister, and close relatives. But this is not a sin, and they are not blamed for doing these ‘sins’ on the day of the Sabbath, since this is [simply] the way that grazing animals behave. Be aware that just as there is no sin when a grazing animal is involved in such things, so too there is no righteousness, for the reward of righteousness in the new world, after the coming to life of the dead, will be for whoever does deeds of righteousness. There will be no resurrection for grazing animals, however, in order for a reward for keeping the Sabbath to be given [to them], nor will they be brought to judgement. Just as the Law does not set up another commandment for grazing animals to keep, so too the Sabbath gives them no benefit. The Holy One commanded in his Law, “Do not commit adultery,”⁴ yet grazing animals commit adultery boldly and fornicate openly. The Law commands and admonishes, “Anyone who takes his sister, or any other of his close relatives, is cursed,”⁵ yet grazing animals do all these things. Again, it is written, “Do not kill,”⁶ yet grazing animals, because of their simplicity, will kill their companions and eat their flesh. It is also written, “You may slaughter and eat anything, but do not eat the blood,”⁷ yet grazing animals certainly lick their own blood, and it is very pleasing to them to eat unclean flesh. If there was any benefit for grazing animals when they kept the Sabbath, the Law [would have] prohibited them these unclean things, and then justified them when they kept the Sabbath. 

3. I have written this argument [to show] that the Sabbath was given so that all creatures who grow weary with toil [might find] rest. If it was not given for the sake of rest to every body that grows weary, it would have been appropriate, from ancient times, for creatures who did not grow weary to also keep the Sabbath, in order to be justified. Yet we see that the sun continues [to move] and the moon travels; stars run and the winds blow; clouds fly and flying creatures continue [to move]; springs luxuriate in their flowing and waves rise up; flashes of lightning run and light up creation; thunder rumbles urgently in its season and trees bring forth fruit; and the growth of everything is strengthened. We see nothing that rests on the Sabbath day, except people and grazing animals, who exist under the servitude of work. 

4. If the Sabbath was given for righteousness, then it would have been appropriate for it to be given to Adam, [long] before Israel, so that he might keep it and be justified through it. Then God would not have imposed on him the commandment to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of evil and good, and he would not have died. But since Adam was not given over to work until he transgressed the commandment, the Sabbath was not given to him. [It was only] after he transgressed the commandment that he received the decree of judgement about work and weariness ([which was] that he would work the land as a condemned man and criminal) and that [God] decreed death on him.⁸

5. If righteousness was in the Sabbath, it would have been through it that Enoch and all the generations after him were pleasing [to God].⁹ It was not by keeping the Sabbath that Noah was called ‘innocent’ [and] ‘free from sins’. God said to Noah, “I have seen that you are righteous and innocent in this generation,”¹⁰ but it was not because he kept the Sabbath that he was justified. Rather, it was because he kept [his] integrity in a corrupt generation, as the meaning of the passage makes known. It is not written that he participated in the world. Noah was five hundred years old when God spoke with him and said, “I have seen that you are righteous and innocent before me in this generation.” It seems to us that his integrity consisted of this: when he saw that the generation of Seth was mixing with the descendants of Cain,¹¹ who were cursed, he established in his mind that he would not take a wife and father children, so that they would not be mixed and cursed with the descendants of Cain, the cursed seed. When God saw that his heart was pure and innocent, he wanted a replacement to come from him for the world that he was planning to obliterate because of its wickedness.¹² Then he spoke with him when he was five hundred years old, and said, “I have seen that you are innocent before me in this generation.” At this point he had no son, for as the meaning [of the passage] makes clear, and as I indicated above, Noah did not take a wife during that whole time up to when God spoke with him and said to him, “I have seen that you are innocent before me in this generation. Now build a wooden ark for yourself, so that you might be protected by it.”¹³ When Noah heard these things (namely, that God had commanded him to build an ark of wood, and said to him, “I am going to completely obliterate human beings from the face of the earth, since they have corrupted their ways”¹⁴), he then, in his five-hundredth year, took a wife from the daughters of Seth, the blessed seed of the righteous. Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japeth, and he warned these three sons of his not to take wives from the daughters of Cain. He gave them wives from the seed of the righteous, so that the seed from them would be preserved on the face of the earth and the world might be established through them. In order for you to know that these things are so, I will give you proof from a calculation of the years. 

6. Shem, the firstborn of Noah, had a son, Arpachshad, two years after the deluge.¹⁵ Shem was one hundred years old when he fathered Arpachshad, two years after the deluge. We know from these facts, therefore, that Noah was five hundred and two years old when he fathered Shem. It is understood from this calculation that Noah had not taken a wife before God spoke with him, nor did he take wives for his sons until the time when he went into the ark. For if he had taken a wife in his youth, he would have also fathered children. [He would have been] like Adam, who fathered Seth when he was one hundred and thirty years old; like Seth, who fathered Enosh when he was one hundred and five years old; like Enosh, who fathered Kenan when he was ninety years old; like Kenan, who fathered Mahalalel when he was seventy years old; like Mahalalel, who fathered Jared when he was sixty-five years old; like Jared, who fathered Enoch when he was one hundred and sixty-two years old; like Enoch, who fathered Methuselah when he was sixty-five years old; like Methuselah, who fathered Lamech when he was one hundred and eighty-seven years old; and like Lamech, the father of Noah, who fathered him when he was one hundred and eighty-two years old. 

7. If [Noah] had taken a wife before God spoke with him, like his fathers he too would have fathered [children], since sterility did not rule over him. For at that time, the descendants of Adam were blessed so that they would increase and multiply in their offspring, [and] so that the world might be filled with them. Noah, who kept [his] integrity, was not afraid for himself, that he would mix with the cursed seed of the house of Cain. Rather, [his fear was] that when he took a wife and fathered children, his children would transgress the Law and take wives from that seed. But when he saw that God was speaking with him and that he said to him, “I am obliterating human beings from the face of the earth, but I am saving you alone,”¹⁶ he then took a wife in order to have seed from which the world might be established [again], and so that he might become the father of the just and the righteous. The Holy Spirit approved him, so that Christ, the Lifegiver of the world, who brings to an end the curses¹⁷ of Adam, might also be born from his seed. He then earnestly took a wife from the blessed seed and fathered Shem, the father of the righteous, in the five hundredth year of his life, and in the second year after God spoke with him. When he had fathered three sons, he began to make the ark, and he admonished his sons not to take wives until the time when they would enter the ark. This was in case children would come to them who would corrupt their ways, and who because of their sins would not be saved from the wrath that was coming. He guarded his sons for ninety-seven years, and took wives for them from the blessed seed of his fathers. Then, in the six hundredth year of the lifetime of Noah, God spoke with him and said, “You and your wife and your sons and the wives of your sons must [now] enter the ark.”¹⁸ Noah entered the ark when he was six hundred years old. Shem, his son, was ninety seven years old when he entered the ark, and then the deluge came and destroyed the corrupt generation. Noah and his sons were in the ark until they came out twelve months and ten days [later]. A second world came into being from Noah because he kept [his] integrity in a corrupt generation. It was not because he kept the Sabbath or even through circumcision that he was justified, but because of what I have explained to you.

8. From Noah was born Abraham, the faithful man, head of the righteous, who kept the Law though the Law had not been imposed on him. He fathered Isaac, the son of the promise, and Jacob, the head of the people.¹⁹ These righteous fathers did not keep the Sabbath, but they were justified through faith, as it is written, “Abraham believed in God and it was credited to him as righteousness.”²⁰ Isaac and Jacob, his sons, also conducted themselves according to the commandment and the law of their father,²¹ and they were justified through faith and not through the Sabbath. In the midst of the land of Egypt, Joseph was not justified for his uprightness because he kept the Sabbath. When the wife of his master set her eyes on him so that he might do an unclean thing with her, he said to his mistress, “How can I do this great evil and sin before God?”²² [It was] through this that Joseph was justified, and not through the Sabbath.

9. If it was between death and life, and between wickedness and righteousness, the Sabbath would have been given to these righteous [men], whose names I mentioned above, so that they might keep [it] and live. It was for this reason, however, that the Sabbath was given to be kept: so that male and female servants, hired hands, foreigners, and grazing animals incapable of speech might rest, so that [all] those who grow tired from work might rest. God cares for all of his creation and for [every] living creature, including grazing animals, flying creatures,²³ and wild animals. When he recited the Law to the people, Moses said, “For six years you will seed your land and gather its harvest, but in the seventh year you must plough it and leave it, so that the poor among your people can eat. The wild animals will eat the rest.”²⁴ Concerning the flying creatures, too, the Holy One commanded through Moses his servant as follows: “When you find the nest of a small bird in any tree or on the ground, and the mother and its children or chicks are in it, and the mother is protecting the children or chicks, do not take the mother together with her children, but let the mother fly away and take the children for yourself. Because of these things, the Lord your God will bless you.”²⁵ David said, “He nourishes the children of the raven who call to Him.”²⁶ And again David said, “You, Lord, save [both] humans and grazing animals.”²⁷ Furthermore, Job said, “Who has released the wild donkey into freedom and rescued it from its yoke, so that it has made its home in the plain and its dwelling in the place of salt?”²⁸ Again, Job said, “He prepares food for the children of the eagle.”²⁹ And [David], while considering the flying creatures and the grazing animals, said, “All of them wait for You to give them food in its season. You give to them and they are nourished; you open your hand, and they are satisfied. But if you turn your face away, they are afraid.”³⁰ Furthermore, Isaiah said, “There the hawks gather, one with another. [The Lord] commanded with his mouth, his Spirit gathered them, and his hand marked out for them the lines of [their] property.”³¹ See from these things that God cares for all of his creation, and nothing is forgotten by him. For this reason, he admonished and commanded that there should be rest [on] the Sabbath day.

10. Listen again to what [scripture] says: “In six days God made heaven and earth, and [then] he stopped and rested from all of his works. For this reason God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.”³² What should we say about this, that God ‘rested’ on the seventh day? Listen and I will explain this matter to you. God certainly did not grow weary from the activity of [those] six days; [it was not] because of weariness that he rested on the seventh day. Far be it from us to say that God grew weary! The meaning of the passage, rather, is this: God finished all of his works in six days, and he stopped on the seventh day from all the works that he had done. Listen to the [following] proof that God did not grow weary. David said, “The Guardian of Israel does not slumber or sleep,”³³ and whoever does not slumber or sleep does not grow weary either. Isaiah said to the Israelites, “Thus says the Lord: Because the thought ‘God is not really able to save us’ has entered your mind… (he spoke to them through Isaiah)… [I ask you:] has my hand reaped the harvest and missed the mark? Do I not have the power to deliver [you]?” By my rebuke I dry up the sea; I make rivers become like wilderness, and their fish rot from lack of water and die. I clothe the heavens with darkness and make sackcloth their covering.³⁴ Just as I dried up the Red Sea in the days of your fathers, and made a passage through the Jordan for them to cross over, so too now my hand is able to save you. But because of your sins, you have been sold, and because of your wickedness, your mother was divorced.³⁵ Though I do not grow weary, you have wearied me.” As the prophet Malachi says, “You have wearied the Lord by your words.”³⁶

11. Listen and be persuaded that God did not grow weary or labour to create all of his works, for it says, “The heavens were made by the word of the Lord, and all their hosts by the breath of his mouth.”³⁷ Adam alone he made with his hands, but it is not written that he grew weary when he made him. When he made all of his creatures by the word of his mouth, he spoke and they came into existence, without labour or weariness [on his part]. This is how to understand [the statement] that God stopped all his activity, and that God rested on the seventh day: if God, who does not grow weary, stopped and rested from his activity, how much more appropriate is it for the one under the [burden] of labour and servitude to rest! Isaiah also spoke about God as follows: “He does not grow weary or sleep, and his understanding cannot be investigated.”³⁸ In another passage, because of the sins of the people, [God] said, “You have subdued me by your wickedness, and wearied me by your sins.”³⁹ See how it is sometimes written that [God] does not grow weary or sleep, yet because of their wickedness he said to them, “You have subdued me and wearied me.” All these words are well-written, and are understood with conviction by the wise. As the apostle said, “The Law is good, if a person reads it with conviction.”⁴⁰ The prophet also said, “The ways of the Lord are straight. The wicked stumble on them, but the righteous travel and walk easily on them.”⁴¹ This [idea] that God rested from his works (which is understood by fools [to mean] that he grew weary) is similar to the [time] when he wanted to obliterate humans because of their sins, which were many, [and] he said, “I regret that I made them.”⁴² Listen to the apostle, however, who said, “If this is so, how will God judge the world?”⁴³ 

12. Listen, my friend, and I will explain the Sabbath to you, just as I have explained circumcision to you, in which the people of Israel⁴⁴ boast in vain. With respect to the Sabbath, too, be persuaded that it is in vain that they take pride in keeping it. Joshua son of Nun did not allow them to rest on the Sabbath when he was making war against Jericho,⁴⁵ as the illustrious apostle said, “If Joshua son of Nun had given them rest, the day of the Sabbath would not have been spoken of again. Now, therefore, the Sabbath of God remains.”⁴⁶ Furthermore, when the enemies of the Maccabees came against them to make war with them on the day of the Sabbath, they wanted to keep the Sabbath in accordance with the Law. But when they kept it, their enemies came against them on the Sabbath and destroyed many of them. When they saw that [their enemies] were plotting against them, so that when they were keeping the Sabbath they would fight with them again, they profaned the Sabbath and made war on it and conquered their enemies.⁴⁷ They were not faulted for breaking the Sabbath, nor were they the only ones who broke the Sabbath. The priests in the temple also profaned the Sabbath without sinning. On the day of the Sabbath they would present offerings, slaughter, skin, chop wood, and kindle fire, but they were not faulted for breaking the Sabbath since it was commanded that they do these things. If the priests, who warned the people [to avoid] sins, were profaning the Sabbath one would expect it to be in an unworthy place, but it was in the place where all the sins were atoned for! Yet they did not act foolishly, nor were [these things] sins for them. Why do [the Jews] take great pride in keeping the Sabbath, when it was given for rest, as I explained to you?

13. Listen concerning the Sabbath in which God takes pleasure. Isaiah said to them, “This is my rest: give rest to those who are troubled.”⁴⁸ He also said, “Those who keep the Sabbath without profaning it are those who are strengthened in my covenant and who choose what I desire.”⁴⁹ He speaks to those who do not profane the Sabbath and promises to give to them. He said, “In my house, and within my [city] wall, I will give to them a name that is better than ‘sons’ or ‘daughters’.”⁵⁰ The Sabbath is no benefit, therefore, to the wicked or murderers or thieves, but [only] to those who choose what God desires and who keep their hands from what is evil. God lives in them and dwells in them, as he said, “I will dwell in them and walk with them.”⁵¹ In the days of Isaiah they kept the Sabbath, but their behaviour was that of the deeds of the unclean peoples. They were performing the deeds of Sodom and Gomorrah, yet they were saying to the peoples, “Stay away! I am holy!”⁵² Because of these things, Isaiah said, “These [people] will become smoke in my wrath, and a fire that burns all day.”⁵³ He took them captive and expelled them from his land and scattered them among all the peoples, since they did not keep the rest of God, but kept the Sabbath in a physical way. We, however, will keep the Sabbath of God (namely, whatever gives rest to his will), so that we might enter into [that] Sabbath of rest in which heaven and earth keep Sabbath and all creatures stop and rest. There will be no fleeing there, as our Saviour said, “May your fleeing not be in winter or on the Sabbath!”⁵⁴ And the apostle said, “The Sabbath of God remains.”⁵⁵ I have written this brief argument for you about the Sabbath, against those who boast because of it. 

The demonstration on the Sabbath is completed.

14. Do not be disturbed,⁷⁷ my friend, at the word that I have written you (that God forgave Jerusalem for half of his day). For it is written by David in Psalm ninety, “In the eyes of the Lord, a thousand years are like a day which has ended and has passed away.”⁷⁸ And our wise teachers say that just as the world was established by God in six days, so too at the completion of six thousand years the world will come to an end. This will be the Sabbath of God, like the Sabbath which comes after six days, just as our Saviour clearly showed concerning the Sabbath. For he spoke as follows: “Pray that your flight will not be in the winter or on the Sabbath.”⁷⁹ And the apostle said, “This Sabbath of God still remains. Let us be diligent, so that we might enter into His rest.” ⁸⁰

6. On this account, brothers, we know and have seen that from the beginning women¹¹⁹ have been a way for the Adversary to gain access to people, and until the end he will [continue to] accomplish this. For [women] are the weapon of Satan, and through them he fights against the [spiritual] athletes. Through them he plays music at all times, for they have been like a harp for him from the first day. It was because of her that the curse of the Law was established, and it was because of her that the promise of death came.

With pain she brings forth children¹²⁰ and delivers [them] to death. Because of her the earth was cursed, so that it would bring forth thorns and thistles.¹²¹ But now, by the coming of the child of the blessed Mary, the thistles are uprooted, the sweat is wiped away, the fig tree is cursed,¹²² the dust is made salty, the curse is nailed to the Cross,¹²³ the point of the sword is removed from before the tree of life¹²⁴ (which is given as food to the faithful), and paradise is promised to the blessed and the virgins and the holy ones.

The fruit of the tree of life is given as food to the faithful, to the virgins¹²⁵ and to those who do the will of God. The gate is opened¹²⁶ and the way prepared. The spring flows and gives water to the thirsty.¹²⁷ The table is laid and the banquet prepared.¹²⁸ The fattened ox is slain and the cup of salvation is mixed. Fragrant foods are prepared and the Bridegroom is about to take his place. The apostles have issued invitations, and those who are called are many.¹²⁹

Prepare yourselves, you chosen ones! The light has shone forth and is glorious and beautiful. Garments not made with hands are prepared, and the trumpet blast is approaching. The tombs are opened¹³⁰ and [their] contents laid bare. The dead arise and the living fly to meet the King.¹³¹ The feast is ready: the horn encourages [us] and the trumpets¹³² hasten [us] on. The watchers of heaven make haste and the throne is set up for the Judge. The one who has worked [hard] rejoices,¹³³ but the one who has grown weary is afraid.¹³⁴ The one who has been wicked¹³⁵ does not approach the Judge.

Those on the right rejoice, but those on the left weep and wail. Those in the light enjoy pleasures, but those in the darkness groan, for their tongues will not be moistened.¹³⁶ Grace has passed by and justice reigns: there is no repentance in that place. Winter has come and the summer has gone.¹³⁷ The Sabbath of rest has come and work has ceased.

Night has ended and the light reigns. The sting of death is broken and it is swallowed up in life.¹³⁸ Those who return to Sheol weep and gnash their teeth, but those who enter the kingdom are glad and rejoice and dance and sing praises. For those who do not take wives are ministered to by the watchers of heaven. Those who have guarded holiness rest in the sanctuary of the Most High. The Only-Begotten who is from the bosom of his Father makes all the single ones rejoice.¹³⁹ In that place there is neither male nor female, neither slave nor free person, but all are children of the Most High.¹⁴⁰ All the pure virgins, those who are betrothed to Christ, light their lamps in that place and go with the Bridegroom into the bridal chamber.¹⁴¹ All those who are betrothed to Christ are far removed from the curse¹⁴² of the Law, and are saved from the penalty imposed on the daughters of Eve, for they do not unite with men, and [therefore do not] receive the curses and do not experience the pains [of childbirth]. They do not consider death, since they do not hand children over to it, and in place of a mortal husband they are betrothed to Christ. “And because they do not bear children a name that is better than ‘sons’ or ‘daughters’ is given to them.”¹⁴³ Instead of the groans of the daughters of Eve they utter the songs of the Bridegroom. The wedding banquet of the daughters of Eve is for seven days, but they have a Bridegroom who never goes away. The adornment of the daughters of Eve is wool which wears out and is destroyed, but they have garments which do not wear out. Old age withers the beauty of the daughters of Eve, but the beauty that they have is renewed at the time of the resurrection.

11. Joshua son of Nun was also persecuted, just as Jesus, our Saviour, was persecuted. Joshua son of Nun was persecuted by the unclean peoples, and Jesus, our Saviour, was persecuted by the foolish people. Joshua son of Nun took the inheritance from his persecutors and gave it to his people. Jesus, our Saviour, took the inheritance from his persecutors and gave it to the foreign peoples. Joshua son of Nun made the sun stand still in the sky and took vengeance on the peoples, his persecutors. Jesus, our Saviour, made the sun set in the middle of the day, so that the persecuting people who had crucified him might be ashamed. Joshua son of Nun divided the inheritance for his people, and Jesus, our Saviour, promised to give the peoples the land of life.

Joshua son of Nun gave life to Rahab, the prostitute,⁶³ and Jesus, our Saviour, gathered together and gave life to the prostituted assembly. On the seventh day, Joshua son of Nun overturned and tore down the walls of Jericho.⁶⁴ On the seventh day which is the Sabbath of the rest of God, Jesus, our Saviour, will [make] this world dissolve and fall [apart]. Joshua son of Nun stoned Achan, who stole from what had been devoted to God.⁶⁵ Jesus, our Saviour, separated Judah from the disciples, his friends, because he had stolen from the money for the poor.⁶⁶ When he was dying, Joshua son of Nun set up a witness for his people.⁶⁷ When he was taken up, Jesus, our Saviour, set up a witness for his apostles.⁶⁸