For the first three centuries of the Christian era the first day of the week was never confounded with the “sabbath”; the confusion of the Jewish and Christian institutions was due to declension from apostolic teaching.
Have a good Lord’s Day
Sabbath
1. sabbaton (G4521) or sabbata: the latter, the plural form, was transliterated from the Aramaic word, which was mistaken for a plural; hence the singular, sabbaton, was formed from it. The root means “to cease, desist” (Heb., shabath; cf. Arab., sabata, “to intercept, interrupt”); the doubled b has an intensive force, implying a complete cessation or a making to cease, probably the former. The idea is not that of relaxation or refreshment, but cessation from activity.
The observation of the seventh day of the week, enjoined upon Israel, was a sign between God and His earthly people, based upon the fact that after the six days of creative operations He rested, Exo_31:16, Exo_31:17, with Exo_20:8-11. The OT regulations were developed and systematized to such an extent that they became a burden upon the people (who otherwise rejoiced in the rest provided) and a byword for absurd extravagance.
Two treatises of the Mishna (the Shabbath and Erubin) are entirely occupied with regulations for the observance; so with the discussions in the Gemara, on rabbinical opinions. The effect upon current opinion explains the antagonism roused by the Lord’s cures wrought on the “Sabbath,” e.g., Mat_12:9-13; Joh_5:5-16, and explains the fact that on a “Sabbath” the sick were brought to be healed after sunset, e.g., Mar_1:32. According to rabbinical ideas, the disciples, by plucking ears of corn (Mat_12:1; Mar_2:23), and rubbing them (Luk_6:1), broke the “sabbath” in two respects; for to pluck was to reap, and to rub was to thresh. The Lord’s attitude towards the “sabbath” was by way of freeing it from these vexatious traditional accretions by which it was made an end in itself, instead of a means to an end (Mar_2:27).
In the Epistles the only direct mentions are in Col_2:16, “a sabbath day,” RV (which rightly has the singular, see 1st parag., above), where it is listed among things that were “a shadow of the things to come” (i.e., of the age introduced at Pentecost), and in Heb_4:4-11, where the perpetual sabbatismos is appointed for believers (see REST); inferential references are in Rom_14:5 and Gal_4:9-11.
For the first three centuries of the Christian era the first day of the week was never confounded with the “sabbath”; the confusion of the Jewish and Christian institutions was due to declension from apostolic teaching.
Notes: (1) In Mat_12:1 and Mat_12:11, where the plural is used, the KJV (as the RV) rightly has the singular, “the sabbath day”; in Mat_12:5 the KJV has the plural (see above). Where the singular is used the RV omits the word “day,” Mat_12:2; Mat_24:20; Mar_6:2; Luk_6:1 (“on a sabbath”); Luk_14:3; Joh_9:14 (“it was the sabbath on the day when…”). As to the use or omission of the article the omission does not always require the rendering “a sabbath”; it is absent, e.g., in Mat_12:2. (2) In Act_16:13, “on the sabbath day,” is, lit., “on the day of the sabbath” (plural). (3) For Mat_28:1, see LATE. (4) For “the first day of the week” see ONE, A, (5).
2. prosabbaton (G4315) signifies “the day before the sabbath” (pro, “before,” and No. 1), Mar_15:42; some mss. have prin, “before,” with sabbaton separately).
W.E. Vine. Expository Dictionary of Bible Words