Is it possible that Jesus crucified the Sabbath? Many Christians draw that conclusion from the fol lowing passage: "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.... Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ" (Col. 2:14-17).
At first it may seem that the Ten Commandments along with the Sabbath were blotted out when Christ died on the cross. Is such an assumption supported by a thorough examination of the text? Let's begin with an overview of the situation in Colossae that prompted Paul's Epistle.
Who were the Colossian believers?
The city of Colossae, about 120 miles southeast of Ephesus in Asia Minor, shared the Lycus River valley with Laodicea and Hierapolis. Phrygian invaders had originally occupied the area before it became a part of the Roman Empire. Colossae attained prosperity through its location on the main trade route to the Orient, its merchants doing business in wool, fleece, and dyes. 1
With many visitors coming and going, Colossae came under the influence of various religions. Some indulged in the sensuous and debasing rites of the goddess Cybele from neighboring Hierapolis. Others became enchanted by the exorcism and magic of nearby Ephesus (see Acts 19:13, 19) or by a mystical form of Judaism.2
The gospel came to Colossae during Paul's Ephesian ministry (A.D. 52-55). Ripples from Paul's efforts reached both Jews and Greeks in the region (see Acts 19:10). Later, nearly five years after leaving Ephesus, Paul found himself under house arrest in Rome. There he met with Epaphras, the possible founder of the church in Colossae (see Col. 1:7). Much of what Paul heard from Epaphras was good, but some of the Colossian Christians had accepted strange teachings that undermined the gospel.3
Having addressed some of this heresy in his previous epistle to the Galatians, Paul now confronted a further challenge to the gospel. Notice his warning in Colossians 2:8-23: 4
"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.... Ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands.... And you... hath he quickened, . . . blotting out the hand writing of ordinances that was against us. ... Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels. ... If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why ... are ye subject to ordinances? . . . Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body: not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh."
Edwin M. Yamauchi, reflecting on the evidence, states: "Paul, with obvious correctness, sees in the heretical teaching Gnosticism, secret wisdom of a syncretistic sort (2:8,18), [blended with] Jewish ritualism and Jewish speculation about angels." 5
What does Paul's concern about this heresy have to do with his mention of "sabbaths" in Colossians 2? Let's take a closer look at the text.
The passage and its parallels
Blotting out: the Greek word for this phrase is exaleipsas. It is used in classical Greek for the act of "wiping away" or "wiping out" text in a document by plac ing an X over the words removed or by washing off or rubbing away the watersoluble ink.6
The handwriting... that was against us, or to kath' Hemon Cheirographon. The word cheirographon is a common term in extra-biblical papyri, though it occurs only this once in the New Testament. A cheirographon was a handwritten document, often legal in nature, such as a bond signed by a debtor. (A good example comes from the Apocalypse of Elijah. In that work an angel holds a book, explicitly called a cheirographon, which contains the record of the sins of the seer.7 ) The phrase kath' Hemon means "against us" or "upon us" (see Joshua 9:20, Septuagint) and modifies the word cheirographon. The combined phrase can be translated "the against-us bond." It echoes the Hebrew phrase used at the time of the proclamation of the law of Moses: "Take this book of the law,... that it may be there for a witness against thee" (Deut. 31:26). This book of the Law placed "in the side of the ark" witnessed against the children of Israel if they did not fol low it (see also Ex. 25:16). The same phrase is used in 2 Kings 22:13, when Josiah found the book of the Law: "Great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us."
Of ordinances, or tois dogmasin, is rendered "in statutes" or "contained in decrees" in other versions. In verse 20 tois dogmasin clearly refers to the ceremonial ordinances. Therefore, tois dogmasin in verse 14 must also be refer ring to the laws and decrees of the Jewish legal system that met their end at the cross. Notice that the same key word in both English and Greek appears in a parallel passage from Ephesians: 8 "For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances [en dogmasi], that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace" (Eph. 2:14, 15, RSV).
That was against us, or hupenantion, appears just twice in the New Testament, once here and then as a substantive in Hebrews 10:27. The King James Version rendering of the latter is "the adversaries." Other possible meanings are: "over against," "contrary," "adverse," and "inimical." 9
Putting the whole phrase together we arrive at this dynamic translation: "The handwriting that was against us, which, by virtue of the ordinances, testified against us." During the discussion of whether Gentile converts had to keep the ceremonial law, Peter said: "Now there fore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" (Acts 15:10).
The ceremonial law was against Jews and Gentiles. It was against the Jews because they had added a mountain of restrictions to it, making it impossible to keep. Beyond that it pointed out their rebellion against God's instruction, just as traffic laws today testify against those who try to escape them. The ceremonial law was against the Gentiles because it had become a "wall of partition" (Eph. 2:14) separating them from those who could have taught them the truth about God.
In meat, or in drink comes from the Greek en brosikai en posei. More than a reference to specific foods, it describes ritual practices of eating and drinking. 10
Of an holy day (heortes) or of the new moon (e neomenias) or of the sabbath days (e sabbaton) represent several related celebrations. Heortes means "feast" or "festival," " particularly the sacred Jewish festivals (cf. Matt. 26:5; Luke 2:41; 22:1; John 5:1; and Acts 18:21). Neomenias points to the Jewish celebration of each lunar month as a sacred festival in Old Testament times. Sabbaton is the most disputed of the words in the passage. Since the original Greek has no article, it can be translated as either "sabbath days" or as "a sabbath." 12 We often find the terms feasts, new moons, and sabbaths linked together as a phrase descriptive of the Jewish ceremonial year (cf. 2 Chron. 2:4; 31:3; Neh. 10:33; Eze. 45:17; Hosea 2:11; and Isa. 1:13, 14. In these texts the order of the three elements [feasts, new moons, and sabbaths] may vary, but all three are always present). "Sabbaths" were a part of the yearly festivals. Notice the relation of the festivals to the ceremonial sabbaths in the chart that follows:
The yearly festivals
1. The Lord's Passover, Lev. 23:5 (Nisan 14).
2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread, Lev. 23:6 (Nisan 15-22).
3. The Feast of Weeks/Pentecost, Lev. 23:21 (50 days from Nisan 16, i.e., Sivan 6).
4. The Feast of Trumpets, Lev. 23:24 (Tishri 1).
5. The Day of Atonement, Lev. 23:32 (Tishri 10).
6. The Feast of Tabernacles, Lev. 23:34 (Tishri 15-22).
The ceremonial sabbaths
1. The first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Lev. 23:7 (Nisan 15). Called a "holy convocation," a "sabbath."
2. The seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Lev. 23:8 (Nisan 21). Called a "holy convocation."
3. Pentecost, Lev. 23:21 (Sivan 6). Called a "holy convocation."
4. The Feast of Trumpets, Lev. 23:24 (Tishri 1). Called a "holy convocation," "a sabbath."
5. The Day of Atonement, Lev.23:27, 32 (Tishri 10). Called a "holy convocation," a "sabbath of rest."
6. The first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Lev. 23:35 (Tishri 15). Called a "holy convocation," a "sabbath."
7. The eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Lev. 23:36 (Tishri 22). Called a "holy convocation," a day of rest.
There is an obvious difference be tween the ceremonial sabbaths and the weekly "Sabbath of the Lord." The "Sabbath of the Lord" always came on the same day of the weekly cycle. The ceremonial sabbaths came on a different day of the week from one year to the next. God commanded Israel in the law of Moses to keep the ceremonial sabbaths, "besides the sabbaths of the Lord" (Lev. 23:38, RSV). The phrase "the sabbaths of the Lord" refers to the Sabbath of the Ten Commandments, also known as "the holy sabbath unto the Lord," which God Him self calls "my holy day" (see Ex. 20:10; 16;23, 26; Isa. 58:13).
Commenting on this very point, Adam Clarke wrote: "There is no intimation here that the Sabbath was done away, or that its moral use was superseded, by the introduction of Christianity. . . . Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, is a command of perpetual obligation, and can never be superseded but by the final termination of time." 13
Thomas Hamilton in the book Our Rest Day stated: "It is said that Christ, having by His atoning work satisfied the law of God--that law is gone, for us, forever. The text is quoted--'Having blot ted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us.' Now this argument is simply based on a confusion of thought. Suffering the penalty of a law does not abolish that law. Nor does perfect obedience to a law abrogate it. But these two things constitute what Christ did. He rendered a perfect obedience to the law, and He bore for His people its utmost penalty. Neither of these two works of His, nor both of them together, amount to any thing like the abolition of the law. When a criminal suffers on the scaffold, that means something very different from the abolition of the law against which he has offended. It means the exact contrary. It manifests the strength of the law. His death magnifies the law." 14
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown have written that although "the day of atonement and feast of tabernacles have come to an end with the Jewish services to which they belonged (Lev. 23:32, 37- 39), the weekly Sabbath rests on a more permanent foundation, having been instituted in Paradise to commemorate the completion of creation in six days." 15
Again, we read what David Wenham has written on the subject: "We have to distinguish those laws which may be said to point forward to Christ and which are therefore unnecessary after His coming (e.g., the ceremonial laws according to Hebrews) and the 'moral' laws, which do not so clearly point forward to Christ (though they were explained more fully by Him) and which continue to be binding moral truths for the Christian. The moral laws are 'fulfilled' by Christ in a very different sense from the ceremonial laws: They are not superseded, but rather are included in the New Christian frame work of reference." 16
A shadow of things to come, or ski ton mellonton. This phrase identifies the type of "sabbath" meant--one associated with feasts and new moons. The Sabbath of the fourth commandment is not a shadow, but a memorial. The shadow that passed away had to do with ceremonial sacrifices: "The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship" (Heb. 10:1, NIV).
But the body is of Christ is taken from to de soma tou Christou. In the parallel epistle to the Ephesians (Eph. 1:22, 23; 2:16) Paul states that the church, as the reuniting of formerly estranged Jews and Gentiles, is the body of Christ.
Summing up about the Sabbath
What have we seen about the heresy in the church of Colossae and Paul's rebuttal of it? First, that legalism was the fabric of this heresy, tinted a strange color by rudimentary Gnosticism. We have also seen that the "handwriting of ordinances" that was taken out of the way and nailed to the cross meant the ceremonial laws that Jews with Gnostic leanings were trying to employ as a means of salvation. Because these laws had been annulled, the apostle Paul assured the Christians in Colossae that they need not be concerned about being evaluated for their eating and drinking or their observance of feasts, new moons, or sabbaths. After all, these things were but a faint silhouette of the living reality in the crucified, risen, and soon-coming Christ.
Once more we ask the question: "Did Jesus crucify the Sabbath?" Certainly not the weekly Sabbath, which was established by God at Creation and upon which Christ rested at His death. Although humanity may have forgotten the day God said to remember, the words of Jesus remain for us today: "Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath" (Mark 2:28).
1 Charles Rosenbury Erdman, The Epistles of
Paul to the Colossians and to Philemon (Philadelphia:
Westminster Press, 1933), p. 9.
2 The Sibylline Oracles were written from this
region around A.D. 80 and are plainly a product of
Judaism. Yet they are closer in thought to the
religion of the Essenes than to that of the Pharisees,
since they reject sacrifices, regard the shedding
of blood as a pollution, and go to greater
extremes than did the Pharisees in inculcating the
duty of frequent washings.
3 Edmund K. Simpson and Frederick F. Bnice,
Commentary on the Epistles to the Ephesians and
Colossians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Pub. Co.,
1975), pp. 163, 164.
4 Joseph Barber Lightfoot, Saint Paul's
Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon (Lon
don: MacMillian and Co., Ltd., 1927), pp. 71-115.
J. B. Lightfoot provides us with a plausible link
between the Judaizers and Gnosticism in the later
heresy of Cerinthus, who lived and taught in the
last decade of the first century, contemporaneous
with the apostle John. Polycarp records that John
denounced Cerinthus, on one memorable occa
sion, directly to his face, and Irenaeus submits that
John's Gospel was written with the explicit pur
pose of confuting Cerinthus' errors. Cerinthus is
said to have held a conception of Christ that was
akin to that of the Ebionites and "to have enforced
the rite of circumcision and . . . inculcated the
observance of sabbaths." His system of cos
mogony was essentially Gnostic. It included a
plurality of "powers" as the creators of the uni
verse, who were linked with humanity through a
series of angelic intermediaries.
5 Edwin M. Yamauchi, Pre-Christian Gnosticism
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1973), p.
67.
6 James Hope Moulton and George Milligan,
The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1949), p. 687.
7 Samuele Bacchiocchi, From Sabbath to Sun
day: A Historical Investigation (Rome: Pontifical
Gregorian Univ. Press, 1977), p. 349.
8 Henry Clarence Thiessen, Introduction to
the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Pub.
Co., 1943), pp. 229, 230. "Out of 155 verses in
Ephesians, 78 are found in Colossians in varying
degrees of identity."
9 Harold K. Moulton, The Analytical Greek
Lexicon Revised (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Pub.
Co., 1978), p. 414.
10 Bacchiocchi, p. 355. (See also Francis David
Nichol, ed.,The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Com
mentary (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald
Pub. Assn., 1980), vol. 7, p. 205.
11 Moulton and Milligan, p. 226.
12 See The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p.
205. "There are times when a plural form carries
a singular meaning (Luke 4:16 and Matt. 12:1)
and there are times when a singular form carries a
plural meaning (Mark 16:9). Other times the word
may be plural in form and meaning (Matt. 28:1;
Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19; Acts 20:7;
and 1 Cor. 16:2). In the Septuagint, the translators
used the plural form of Sabbaton to translate the
singular Hebrew word in Exodus 16:23, 25, 26,
and 29... .The Septuagint uses the plural sabbata
to translate Exodus 20:8, 10; 31:15; and 35:2,
although the sense is obviously singular." (J. B.
Lightfoot's and A. T. Robertson's explanation for
this phenomenon is that the word sabbata was
derived from the Aramaic form, which is
shabbatha', rather than the Hebrew form, which
is shabath, and would therefore have preserved
the Aramaic ending of sabbaton, etc.) Douay,
King James, Goodspeed, and Moffatt translate it
as a plural, while American Standard, Weymouth,
Revised Standard, Lamsa, Confraternity, and New
World translate it as singular.
13 Quoted in Kenneth H. Wood, "The 'Sabbath
Days' of Colossians 2:16, 17," The Sabbath in
Scripture and History, ed. Kenneth A. Strand
(Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn.,
1982), p. 340.
14 Quoted in M. L. Andreasen, The Sabbath:
Which Day and Why? (Washington, D.C.: Review
and Herald Pub. Assn., 1942), pp. 178, 179.
15 Wood, p. 340.
16 Quoted in Henry A. Vickler, Principles and
Processes of Biblical Interpretation (Grand
Rapids: Baker Book House, 1981), p. 141.
