For a myriad of reasons, the change of the day of rest/worship from Saturday to Sunday is as much based on intentional misdirection as it is on a series of misconceptions and misunderstandings. Many proponents of the idea were then, as they are today, simply perpetuating what they themselves have been taught. However, this lack of earnest, objective study has caused many a good scholars and students alike to run afoul of the truth. Sadly, in some cases however, the same lackadaisical study habits cannot be ascribed to those who, then AND now, have willfully misused their positions of respect and honor within the hallowed halls of the church. It is these latter ones, who, like the proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing, have the most malicious of intent....the agenda of anti-Torah, and anti-Semitism.
Tragically, one does not have to look too far the see the faint glow of anti-Semitism in our churches today. It does not have to take so blatant a form as Constantine's letter at the close of the 1st Nicene Council, in which he refers to the Jews as "despicable" and urges the followers of Christ "not to keep company with....the killers of our Lord." Quite the opposite, it can be as subtle as a Sunday school teacher who suggests that Torah (the Five Books of Moshe) has been done away with, or that it was 'completed in Jesus the Messiah' (Yeshua HaMashiach). This concept, so widely known and utilized that it actually has a name, 'Replacement Theology' skillfully implies that the 'New Testament Church' has 'replaced' or 'superceeded' the Jews of the 'Old Testament.'
Having trouble believing it's happening? Let's try a little test: take out your Bible and look between the last page of Malachi and the first page of Matthew. What do you see? Most Bibles printed today will have either a completely blank page separating the two Books, or a mostly blank page with the words 'New Testament' written on it. Are you asking yourself 'WHY do the publishers NEED to have a blank page in my Bible?' If so, then you are already beginning to see the results of how 18 centuries of unrestrained anti-Semitism in the church, has cleverly pervaded even the 'look' of the Bible. You see, that blank page, is a psychological barrier between what Tertullian first called Vetus Testamentum and Novum Testamentum - Old Testament and New Testament, in 208 AD. Disasterously, the majority of the church today doesn't even know who Tertullian IS - much less what his beliefs were, yet we have adopted the idea of an 'Old Testament' and 'New Testament' without so much as a whimper of question. Sadly, Tertullian's polemic 'Adversus Judaeos' (Answering the Jews) is only one among many of the early efforts to blend Christian theology with anti-Semitism.
So how does all of this play into the issue of the Sabbath being changed? Good question! You see, one of the primary reasons used to 'validate' the idea of Sunday becoming the Sabbath comes in the form of the Resurrection of Yeshua supposedly being on a Sunday. However, let's not forget we're dealing with a LUNAR calendar here, and since Genesis 1 mentions evening THEN morning, perhaps we should get a better understanding of just what Sunday (the first day of the week) would have meant to the ancient world.
Let's take a closer look at the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection and see if we are missing some important clues? First, the Gospel of Matthew records in *28:1 'Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.' Luke tells us in *24:1 'But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.' And John states in *20:1 'But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.' As you know, only two of the Gospel accounts were written by Yeshua's disciples - Matthew and John. So we should start with them since they were actually the ones who were there. In Matthew, we are told 'after the Sabbath, as it BEGAN to dawn towards the first day.' Recalling the instruction in Genesis 1, we understand that the evening comes BEFORE the morning when reckoning a day, so if the Sabbath has JUST ENDED....it would be Saturday evening. And from John's Gospel, we see the same time frame conveyed. Luke, being true to the analytical nature of a physician, actually gives us MORE indications with the phrase 'early dawn'...this would seem to indicate that the Sabbath had JUST ended when the women arrived at the tomb.
Another indication comes in John *20:11-17, when, after the Talmidim had left the tomb, Yeshua called out to Miryam (Mary) and she tried to touch Him. He rebuked her, and said 'I have not yet ascended to My Father.' Why is this statement by Yeshua important? Let's be good Bereans and check out Leviticus *23:9-14 and perhaps we can find some answers: 'Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. 'He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. 'Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one year old without defect for a burnt offering to the LORD. 'Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the LORD for a soothing aroma, with its drink offering, a fourth of a hin of wine. 'Until this same day, until you have brought in the offering of your God, you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new growth. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.'
Did you notice the phrase THE DAY AFTER THE SABBATH? This would refer to WHAT day of the week? If you said Sunday, you would be correct...sort of. You see, this Day of Early Firstfruits (Heb. 'Yom HaBikkurim') as it is often called, was reckoned differently by the two leading religious groups of the day. The Pharisees taught that is was the first day after Passover AND the Feast of Unleavened Bread, all of which was considered a Sabbath. Using this method, since the Hebrew calendar is based on the lunar cycle, which in a non-leap year would be 11 days shorter than the solar calender of 365 days, the first day of Passover could fall on any weekday, thus Yom HaBikkurim could also change annually. However, the Sadducee's, proposed that the day specified by the passages in Leviticus referred to the LITERAL Sabbath during the 8 days of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. By using this approach, the day of Yom HaBikkurim would ALWAYS fall on a Sunday, as it would be the day AFTER the weekly Sabbath. However, the Pharisees won the debate and their calculation of Yom HaBikkurim falling after Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread was the 'official' means of reckoning the Day of Early Firstfruits.
Interestingly enough, it just may have been the apostle Paul who ultimately discovered that the Sadducee's had it right all along. For in Romans 8:23, 11:16 and 1 Corinthians 15:20, Paul makes reference to 'firstfruits' in all 3 verses. The significance of this cannot be understated since this is the very same Paul who described himself as 'a Pharisee OF the Pharisees', but yet appears to be using the Sadducee's manner of determining Yom HaBikkurim. We also see, if we understand Paul to be making reference to a PARTICULAR Sunday out of the entire year, that he was not advocating a change of the Sabbath day but rather CLARIFYING that the exact day of Yeshua ascending to the Father after the crucifixion....was Yom HaBikkurim, which would begin at sundown Saturday evening. This VERY day, the Day of Early Firstfruits, was written in Leviticus 23 and had been observed in the Tabernacle and BOTH Holy Temples - for some 1,400 YEARS before Messiah was even born! (Paul also writes to the Ephesians in 1:20 that 'WHEN G-d raised Yeshua from the dead, He seated Him at His right hand'....another example of Yeshua being OUR firstfruits, AND he offered us as the sheaf offering to G-d on Yom HaBikkurim)
Another passage often used to validate a change in the Sabbath is found in *Acts 20:7 where we read 'And on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached until midnight.' Now, on the surface, this verse would indicate that SOMETHING was indeed taking place on the 'first day' or Sunday as we now know it. But does it tell us WHY they came together? We shall see! To avoid building a doctrine on just one verse, it would be advisable to continue reading through verse 8 'And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together.' OK, so would 'many lights' mean lots of 100 watt bulbs? I think we can all agree this is NOT the case. It does however, tell us that the event being spoken of took place at night since Paul preached until AFTER midnight. So, was it Sunday night going into Monday since sundown would be began a new day? Or was it Saturday night going into Sunday? Anyone familiar with the observances and customs of Judaism can tell you exactly when it was! Every Saturday evening, just after sunset is a tradition known as Havdalah (Heb. 'separation'), when people get together to bid farewell to the Sabbath, with songs, fragrant spices, a multi-wick candle (which is extinguished at the end of the service in the overflow from a cup of wine), dancing and a d'rash (sermon) - longingly looking forward to the Sabbath of next week. It is said that Havdalah actually goes back to the Men of the Great Assembly during the time of the Babylonian captivity, and since it is recorded in the Mishnah (ca. 2nd century AD) we can be fairly certain that its' customs and traditions would have been well known to both Yeshua and to Paul. And since G-d commands both to 'Remember' and to 'Observe' the Sabbath...it is something best taken seriously. Now we can see Acts 20:7 in its 'proper' context - Havdalah, Saturday evening.
There is one more passage that causes some confusion with regard to a 'changing' of the Sabbath. This can be found in 1 Corinthians 16:2 where Paul is directing that a collection be taken 'on the first day of the week.' The idea of this 'collection' being taken up on the first day of the week, and the leap to changing the Sabbath, is, on a good day - misinformed, and on a bad day...completely disingenuous. In either case, the simple disregard for Jewish law and customs is shocking! You see, there would NEVER have been such a 'collection' taken on the Sabbath, for ANY reason, because to exchange money on the Sabbath was/is a flagrant violation of not only Jewish law, but of sound Biblical teaching. For a better idea of the commandments against exchanging monies on the Sabbath...please read Nehemiah 10 and 13. Here, the gates of the city were ordered to be shut on the Sabbath, not only preventing the merchants from selling their wares, but keeping the Sabbath from being profaned as well. As a point of fact, both in the Temple, and now, there IS no collection or 'passing of the plate' in ANY synagogue before, during and after a Sabbath service. Instead, just as there was in the Temple, there are stationary 'Tzadaka' boxes (Heb. 'charity') placed around the synagogue for members of the assembly to place their tithes and offerings into. They are collected and counted and distributed AFTER the Sabbath. (see Mark 12:41-44 where Yeshua was 'sitting next to the treasury', one of an estimated 13 Tzadaka boxes that were in the Temple. If a 'plate was being passed' as is customary in churches today, how could Yeshua have sat 'next to' something that was moving? The collection in Acts 20:7, now that we understand Jewish law and customs, could have NEVER been taken up on the Sabbath - but in NO MEANS reflects a 'change' in the Sabbath, it reflects a greater reverence FOR IT.
Lastly, if Yeshua would have changed the Sabbath, certainly His own talmidim would have been aware of the change? And yet we read that they waited until AFTER the Sabbath to go to the tomb? Further, it was James, the BROTHER of Yeshua, who admonished new gentile believers to abstain from 'meat sacrificed to idols, immorality, things strangled and things containing blood - and then instructed them to go the synagogue and learn the rest of Torah. (Acts 15:20-21, 29) We also read that Paul was routinely in the synagogue teaching on the Sabbath (Acts 13:14-48, 17:2-4, 18:4) So how did Paul, who had a face to face encounter with Yeshua, not know the the Sabbath had been changed? Surely by the time he (Paul) went to see Peter and the rest of the talmidim at the 'Jerusalem Council', they would have made him aware of the change in days...and yet no one speaks of it? How could this be, with such an important issue? The answer my friends, is simple, as we have effectively demonstrated here...the Sabbath was NEVER changed by G-d, only by man. Now please, do not misunderstand me, I AM NOT criticizing my brothers and sisters (fellow co-laborers in the cause of Yeshua) who choose to worship on the first day of the week or ANY other day for that matter. In fact, quote the opposite - I am thankful, so long as the Word of G-d is rightly and fitly spoken. There are many people, who, with the purest of intentions and the most sincere of hearts, have either chosen to fellowship on another day, or are simply following what has been done for generations by family and friends. But DO NOT be deceived....there is only ONE Sabbath, and it has not changed.
*all quotes from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright (c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif.
No comments:
Post a Comment