Regarding the Sabbath and the Eighth Day, a Reply to Buff Scott about Worship Days, employing the Epistle of Barnabas. |
|||||||
Snyder's Faith-sharing Evangelism Library - lots of free resources | |||||||
Snyder Bible Home |
|
||||||
|
| |
||||||
Buff Scott (reformation rumblings): And while I’m on the subject of house meetings, I’ll add a few words about “church worship.” Worship is not once used in the new covenant scriptures to refer to what we do when assembled. Take Acts 20:7, as an example. “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to bread bread...” Why didn’t Luke express himself like we do? He would have said, “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to worship...” Let me tell you why. It is because they were not worshipping any more when assembled than before they assembled, and that is because their whole lives were worship. When we set apart (sanctify) a certain place or structure “for worship services,” we tread the same road as did Israel when they set apart certain places and structures “for worship”—places and structures devised by them, not by God. In this grace era, worship is in the heart. We must not set apart any other place for worship other than the heart. I see Jesus saying this in John 4. He said the time would come (grace era) when worship would not take place at certain times and specific places, like under Moses, for then worship would be anytime and the place where we are. We have arrived at that place and time when worship—service to our God—is incessant. Not all truth has been captured. But when we base our current practices and traditions on the notion that “it has always been that way, so it must be right,” we are saying that all truth has been discovered. Nothing could be further from reality.Jack Snyder FYI The earliest pre-Christians / Christians (Nazoreans) worshiped on the seventh day and celebrated on the eight day. There is much evidence of this from the Aramaic writings, including the Epistle of Barnabas, which was in the NT until the church took it out for being too Hebraic. The Sabbath was for worship and teaching - Acts 15:21 (often overlooked). The eighth day – the day after Sabbath – was celebrated as when Yahshua was discovered alive, and as a type of the 8th thousand-year period after Adam, when the perfected world would be handed over to the Father. There are a number of very early works (before believers went to churches and called themselves Christians) that either imply or outrightly state this two-day way. And of course, so does Luke with Acts 15:21 and 20:7 – the first always overlooked and the second always quoted. Look at an unmodified literal translation of the Greek of 20:7!
En de te mia ton sabbaton sunegmenon hemon . . . “The first day of the week” is actually nowhere to be found in the Greek text. “First Day” is “te hemera te protos.” The same structure is used in 1 Corinthians 16:2
Kata mian sabbatou hekastos
humon It was considered unseemly to collect money on the Sabbath in those early days. It is the tradition of the Christian church to translate far too much into the scripture. Mia ton sabbaton (may mean in an idiomatic sense) the first day of the week, but even at that, mia does not mean the number 1 or first at all. It’s more accepted meaning is ‘lone’ or ‘lonely.’ However, the eighth day is mentioned a lot. Here is a couple verses from my new translation of the Sinaiticus Greek, the earliest NT text we have, from Barnabas:
:1 Moreover, it is written in the Ten Words about the Shabbat, that Yahweh spoke to Moshe face to face on Mount Sinai: Sanctify the Shabbat of Yahweh with pure hands and heart![1] 2 And in another place he says, If my sons will keep my Shabbatot, I will place my mercy on them.[2] 3 He also speaks of the Shabbat in the beginning of the creation: And Elohim made the works of his hands in six days and finished them on the seventh day, on which he rested and sanctified.[3] 4 Consider, my children, the significance of the words, He finished them in six days. They mean this: that in six thousand years Yahweh will make an end of all evil, for a day is as a thousand years with him. He witnesses personally to me, saying: Behold this day: a day will be as a thousand years.[4] So, my children, in six days, that is in six thousand years, will all be evil brought to an end.[5] 5 And the words, He rested on the seventh day; they mean that after his Son came, ceasing the time of the lawless one,[6] and when he has judged the unrighteous and changed the sun, moon, and stars, then he will rest well on the seventh day. 8 Further, Yahweh says to them, Your new moons and your Shabbatot I cannot stand.[7] See, now, what he means. The present Shabbatot observed are not acceptable to me. Only that which I have fashioned will be acceptable. On my shabbat, after setting all to rest, I will fashion the beginning of an eighth day – the beginning of another world. 9 Even so, let us celebrate on the eight day,[8] in which Yahshua arose out of death, appeared publicly, and ascended into heaven![9]
The
Teaching of the Eight Days
|
|||||||