Chapter XV.—The false and the true...

Chapter XV.—The false and the true Sabbath.

Further, ¹⁶⁵⁴ also, it is written concerning the Sabbath in the Decalogue which [the Lord] spoke, face to face, to Moses on Mount Sinai, “And sanctify ye the Sabbath of the Lord with clean hands and a pure heart.” ¹⁶⁵⁵ And He says in another place, “If my sons keep the Sabbath, then will I cause my mercy to rest upon them.” ¹⁶⁵⁶ The Sabbath is mentioned at the beginning of the creation [thus]: “And God made in six days the works of His hands, and made an end on the seventh day, and rested on it, and sanctified it.” ¹⁶⁵⁷ Attend, my children, to the meaning of this expression, “He finished in six days.” This implieth that the Lord will finish all things in six thousand years, for a day is ¹⁶⁵⁸ with Him a thousand years. And He Himself testifieth, ¹⁶⁵⁹ saying, “Behold, to-day ¹⁶⁶⁰ will be as a thousand years.” ¹⁶⁶¹ Therefore, my children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, all things will be finished. “And He rested on the seventh day.” This meaneth: when His Son, coming [again], shall destroy the time of the wicked man, ¹⁶⁶² and judge the ungodly, and change the-sun, and the moon, ¹⁶⁶³ and the stars, then shall He truly rest on the seventh day. Moreover, He says, “Thou shalt sanctify it with pure hands and a pure heart.” If, therefore, any one can now sanctify p. 147 the day which God hath sanctified, except he is pure in heart in all things, ¹⁶⁶⁴ we are deceived. ¹⁶⁶⁵ Behold, therefore: ¹⁶⁶⁶ certainly then one properly resting sanctifies it, when we ourselves, having received the promise, wickedness no longer existing, and all things having been made new by the Lord, shall be able to work righteousness. ¹⁶⁶⁷ Then we shall be able to sanctify it, having been first sanctified ourselves. ¹⁶⁶⁸ Further, He says to them, “Your new moons and your Sabbath I cannot endure.” ¹⁶⁶⁹ Ye perceive how He speaks: Your present Sabbaths are not acceptable to Me, but that is which I have made, [namely this,] when, giving rest to all things, I shall make a beginning of the eighth day, that is, a beginning of another world. Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead. ¹⁶⁷⁰ And ¹⁶⁷¹ when He had manifested Himself, He ascended into the heavens.

Footnotes

146:1654

Cod. Sin. reads “because,” but this is corrected to “moreover.”

146:1655

Ex. xx. 8; Deut. v. 12.

146:1656

Jer. 17:24, 25.

146:1657

Gen. ii. 2. The Hebrew text is here followed, the Septuagint reading “sixth” instead of “seventh.”

146:1658

Cod. Sin. reads “signifies.”

146:1659

Cod. Sin. adds, “to me.”

146:1660

Cod. Sin. reads, “The day of the Lord shall be as a thousand years.”

146:1661

Ps. xc. 4; 2 Pet. iii. 8.

146:1662

Cod. Sin. seems properly to omit “of the wicked man.”

146:1663

Cod. Sin. places stars before moon.

147:1664

Cod. Sin. reads “again,” but is corrected as above.

147:1665

The meaning is, “If the Sabbaths of the Jews were the true Sabbath, we should have been deceived by God, who demands pure hands and a pure heart.”—Hefele.

147:1666

Cod. Sin. has, “But if not.” Hilgenfeld’s text of this confused passage reads as follows: “Who then can sanctify the day which God has sanctified, except the man who is of a pure heart? We are deceived (or mistaken) in all things. Behold, therefore,” etc.

147:1667

Cod. Sin. reads, “resting aright, we shall sanctify it, having been justified, and received the promise, iniquity no longer existing, but all things having been made new by the Lord.”

147:1668

Cod. Sin. reads, “Shall we not then?”

147:1669

Isa. i. 13.

147:1670

“Barnabas here bears testimony to the observance of the Lord’s Day in early times.”—Hefele.

147:1671

We here follow the punctuation of Dressel: Hefele places only a comma between the clauses, and inclines to think that the writer implies that the ascension of Christ took place on the first day of the week.