The word "Sabbath" in English is a blended transliteration from Hebrew and Greek. Its basic meaning is cessation, rest. Though the 'Sabbath was instituted at creation, the term "Sabbath" does not appear till the falling of the manna, as recorded in Exodus 16:23 and onward. In the record of the instituting of the 'Sabbath on the seventh day of creation, however, there is a complete definition of its meaning: "God ended His work" and "He rested on the seventh day." The verb "rested," occurring twice in Genesis 2:2, 3, is the verbal form of the noun "sabbath" first introduced in Exodus 16. The import of the Sabbath idea is plainly that of ceasing work and resting.
To help us in understanding the term "sabbath" in Colossians 2:16, we should bear in mind that this word is used in the Scriptures in five different senses:
1. To denote the Sabbath as an institution. Luke 6:5; John 5:18, et al.
2. To denote the Sabbath day. Mark 6:2; Acts 13:44; Ex. 16:25, 26; 20:10, 11; and elsewhere.
3. To denote the period between Sabbath days—the week. Mark 16:2; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2 (the word "week" in these scriptures and others being in the original simply sabbaton, the same as elsewhere rendered "Sabbath," but usually distinguished by a numeral preceding).
4. To denote a day other than the weekly Sabbath, set apart for ceremonial worship. Lev. 16:31 (the Day of Atonement); Lev. 23:27, 32; Isa. 1:13.
5. To denote a period of rest for the land (Lev. 25:2, 4, 6); also periods of rest for the land (Lev. 25:8-10), called "the sabbath of the land" and "sabbaths of years."
Usages in Old Testament
With the exception of No. 3 above, which is confined to New Testament usage, the various kinds of sabbaths are spoken of frequently in the Old Testament in a cumulative way, as "sabbaths" or "My sabbaths." (See Ex. 31:13; Lev. 19:3; twice in Leviticus 23; four times in Leviticus 26; also in 1 Chron. 23:31; 2 Chron. 2:4; 8:13; 31:3; 36:21; Neh. 10:33; Isa. 1:13; 56:4; Lam. 2:6; and elsewhere.) In these instances there is usually a command to keep "My sabbaths" or a complaint that "My sabbaths" have been profaned and polluted.
But of most importance in connection with this little study of Colossians 2:16, is the fact that the term "sabbaths" or "My sabbaths" is in many instances closely associated with feasts, new moons, and holy days. For example:
"For the burnt offerings ... on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts of the Lord." 2 Chron. 2:4. (See also 2 Chron. 8:13.)
"The Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion." Lam. 2:6.
"They have defiled My sanctuary . . . and have profaned My sabbaths." Eze. 23:38.
"In the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel." Eze. 45:17.
"In the sabbaths and in the new moons." Eze. 46:3.
"Her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts." Hosea 2 : 11.
One cannot read these numerous phrasings without understanding the term "sabbaths" to be used in its comprehensive sense—ceremonial, land, and weekly sabbaths—for they were all solemnly enjoined upon Israel. Their repeated mention in the category of other ceremonial observances, really enforces this understanding of the term. Perhaps the clearest single evidence of all on this point is found in Isaiah 1:13: "Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with." In the fourteenth verse, it is repeated with a little variation: "Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth." Apparently "sabbaths" and "appointed feasts" are meant to signify the same, being mentioned along with "new moons" in both instances.
Ezekiel adds to the testimony in a marked way in the full statement (45:17): "It shall be the prince's part to give burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and drink offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel." This is a remarkable summary of ceremonial observances, with the term "sabbaths" in the heart of the list.
Hosea also places "sabbaths" in the middle of his list of ceremonies: "I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts." Hosea 2:11.
Passing to the New Testament, we find one sole reflection of the Old Testament phraseology pointed out above: "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days." Col. 2:16. The one structural difference in the group of ceremonial observances mentioned here is that Paul names them in the singular rather than in the plural. Even the phrase "of the sabbath days" should be rendered literally "of a sabbath," as in the Revised Version. There is no more reason for putting "sabbath" in the plural than any other term in the series—with the sole exception that the word itself is plural, but so it is in eighteen other instances in the New Testament where a single day or the Sabbath as an institution is unquestionably meant. (More on this point later.)
To sum up this brief study, we may conclude:
I. That since the word "sabbath" is applied in the Old Testament to at least three other things than the weekly seventh day, namely, to the sabbath as an institution, to rest for the land, and to appointed days for ceremonial observances other than the weekly Sabbath, we may understand its use, when mentioned in a series of such observances, as having primary reference to days set apart for ritnal observance. It is not denied that these days include the weekly Sabbath, but only frOm the standpoint of the ceremonies peculiar to that day, not from the standpoint of the Sabbath as a memorial of creation, which was observed. before the tabernacle was built and its ceremonies instituted. (See Ex. 16:22-30.) We never read of the Lord's saying of the seventh-day Sabbath, "I cannot away with" it, nor of a prophet's saying of the weekly Sabbath, "The Lord hath caused [it) to be forgotten in Zion," nor, "My soul hateth" it. When the Lord or the prophets do mention distinctively the weekly Sabbath, it is usually called "the Sabbath" or "My holy day" or "the seventh day" or "a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable."
2. That when Paul; as a close student of the Old Testament, uses the word "sabbath" in a series of ceremonial observances, as in Colossians 2:16, he has the ceremonial sabbaths and the ceremonies on the weekly sabbath in mind, and not the seventh-day institution as a memorial of creation. If there could be any doubt on this point, it is removed by Paul's defining what he had in mind when in the seventeenth verse he declares them to be "a shadow of things to come"—a characterization practically identical with that used in Hebrews 10:1 concerning the typical sanctuary service.
3. That the term "sabbath" in Colossians 2:16 should be used in the singular the same as are "meat" and "drink" and "holy day" and "new moon" of the same series. This should be done regardless of the fact that the original word is in the plural, the same as it is twice in the fourth commandment in the Septuagint, and in numerous instances in both Old and New Testaments where only the single seventh day can be meant. The reader should know in this connection that the Greek word for "sabbath" in the New Testament is used in the plural twenty-seven times. Seven of these times-it is properly translated "week," as denoting the period between Sabbaths. In one instance, being preceded by the cardinal numeral three, it is rendered three sabbaths. In the remaining nineteen times, the Revised Version uniformly and consistently translates the word in the singular, as the King James Version does in all but four instances. Among these four is Colossians 2:16, which, as shown above, should also be translated in the singular, in a generic sense, as a type of ceremonial observances done away in Christ.
In closing, may not the reader be exhorted, Let no man judge you wrong when you interpret the word "sabbath" in Colossians 2:16 as being used generically in the singular like the other four words in the series; and, like them, denoting a ceremonial observance, which, like them, is a shadow of things to come, and was done away in Christ?
Washington, D. C.
