From Sabbath to Lord’s Day
I was not planning to write about the Sabbath as my next topic in hermeneutics, but I happened to come across a book in the library called “From Sabbath to Lord’s Day,” edited by D. A. Carson. Although I thought a book like this would be stimulating in many ways, my experience has been that, by the end of a book about the Sabbath, I am still left with this annoying feeling that I should have understood the big picture, but the questions are still there. But, after reading the short introduction by Carson, I thought “I gotta read this book!”
In the introduction, Carson listed some of the arguments and conclusions with which he and the writers disagreed:
“First, we are not persuaded that the New Testament unambiguously develops a “transfer theology,” according to which the Sabbath moves from the seventh day to the first day of the week. We are not persuaded that Sabbath keeping is presented in the Old Testament as the norm from the time of the creation onward. Nor are we persuade that the New Testament develops patterns of continuity and discontinuity on the basis of moral/civil/ceremonial distinctions. However useful and accurate such categories may be, it is anachronistic to think that any New Testament writer adopted them as the basis for his distinctions between the Old Testament and the gospel of Christ. We are also not persuaded that that Sunday observance arose only in the second century A. D. We think, however, that although Sunday worship arose in the New Testament times, it was not perceived as a Christian Sabbath. We disagree profoundly with historical reconstructions of the patristic period that read out from isolated and ambiguous expressions massive theological schemes that in reality developed only much later” (16).
There are a few reasons why this quote made me choose the Sabbath as my next hermeneutical quest. First, I have always found it difficult to believe that the first Christians, who were mostly Jews, would just simply make Sunday their new Sabbath. I am not saying that they continued to view the Sabbath the same way and that there were no theological distinctions, but we need to remember that the Sabbath was not just a religious celebration and observance, it was a way of life. I would think that making Sunday, the Lord’s day, the new Sabbath (however modified) would be a huge theological and social change, and there doesn’t seem to be evidence of that. That Christians started to worship together on Sundays is undisputed, but I still wonder about its meaning and how the people viewed such gatherings. Secondly, although some people do talk about the Sabbath as being irrelevant today for the Christian as far as its role in the Old Testament is concerned, they still refer to Sunday in terms very close to what the Sabbath was designed to be. I think that part of the reason is the distinction that is made in the so-called moral, civil and ceremonial aspects of the law and the Sabbath is somehow found to be fundamentally moral. I think these distinctions are flawed upon closer inspection (Carson is very careful to say that these distinction “may” be useful or accurate). I don’t see how you can separate the moral, civil and ceremonial aspects of the Sabbath and maybe this book will have something to say about that. Thirdly, I know there are passages like Romans 14 and the overall emphases in the New Testament that the observance of certain days and festivals are not longer necessary. But the issue of the Sabbath still seems to be quite confusing to a lot of people and the Sabbath ends up becoming an exception. Also, the principle seems to be that what really matters is to rest (whatever that means) one day of the week regardless of when it is. Here I sense a bit of the individualistic spirit present in our society and the issue of living in a culture where the Sabbath or Sunday is not reason enough for someone not to work. Is the one-day-of-the-week principle really valid? If not, then what? If Sunday is not a replacement for Sabbath, then what are we doing every Sunday as Christians besides gathering for worship? Does Sabbath still hold any significance to the Christian or does it only point to an eschatological Sabbath rest? As you can see, there are many questions. I don’t think this book will have all the answers and neither does Carson. But it may be a good way to start.
There are 11 articles in the book written by D. A Carson, Harold H. P. Dressler, C. Rowland, M. Max B. Turner, D. R. de Lacey, A. T. Lincoln and R. J. Bauckham. I don’t know if I will review each article, it will depend on its content and my interest. It turns out this is a great topic to reflect on. The way you understand the Sabbath will say quite a lot about how you put your whole bible together.
Bibliography
Carson, D. A. From Sabbath to Lord’s Day: A Biblical, Historical and Theological Investigation. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Pub. House, 1982.
