The Sabbath

The Sabbath

The word Sabbath comes from the Latin sabbatum, via Greek from Hebrew šabbāṯ. The Sabboth day is the first holiday (Holy Day) mentioned in the Bible:

God created the universe and everything in it in six days and rested on the seventh, declaring it to be holy (Gen. 2:3).

When the Hebrews wandered in the desert, they were to collect manna on six days. On the sixth day they were to collect enough for the seventh day. Each evening the manna that not had been consumed rotted by morning, except the manna collected on the sixth day. It was good on the seventh (Ex. 16:14-31)

When He gave Moses the Law, God made remembering and observing the Sabbath the fourth commandment. (Ex. 20:8).

“Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling -Leviticus 23:3

Throughout the Old Testament God’s people are admonished to do no work and to rest on the Sabbath, to remember all that God has done for them.

Yet, when questioned by the Pharisees why He allowed his men to pick grain enough to eat on the Sabbath, Jesus replied that the Sabbath was made for man, not man made for the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-27)  Although Jesus allowed His men to pick the food they needed on the Sabbath, He did not negate or change the need for or meaning of the Sabbath.

After Jesus was raised from the dead on Sunday, the Christian Church largely changed the Sabbath observance to Sunday. Now each Sabbath is a mini-Easter celebration.