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<\/a><\/p>\nOne of the interesting ideas in this book\u00a0 (Tonstad\u2019s The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day)\u00a0 is that the Sabbath is a sign like a flag is a sign,\u00a0 actually it\u2019s a symbol\u2014 something which participates in the reality to which it points.\u00a0 It points to God\u2019s ceasing from his creative activity, and as such when Israel does the same they participate in such ceasing from creative activity. Just as people react violently in the U.S. to flag burning so Exodus says death is the penalty for violating the Sabbath, as it is sacred.<\/p>\n
Another interesting idea is the relationship of Sabbath observance and creation keeping and care. \u00a0\u00a0One of the more important aspects to Sabbath law is that it has concern for those most vulnerable and heavy laden\u2014 the beast of burden the slave, the resident alien (Exod. 20.10, Deut. 5.12-15) it prioritizes from the bottom up not the top down, with most concern for those who most need rest (pp. 126-27).\u00a0 He calls the Sabbath year and the year of Jubilee, Sabbath satellites which extend the pattern of rest to debt and the need of the land for rest.<\/p>\n
Isaiah 56.4-5 foresees a day when eunuchs and strangers who keep the Sabbath and hold fast the covenant will be given a place within God\u2019s house and an everlasting name, a name better than sons and daughters.\u00a0 Isaiah\u2019s vision is about those who choose to do this, and so it goes beyond the ethnic view of a people.\u00a0 Instead of an ethnic group we have a confessing community.<\/p>\n
Isaiah 66.23 suggests that when new creation roles around it will involve new moons and Sabbaths.\u00a0 But what it actually says is all flesh shall come to worship before me,\u00a0 from new moon to new moon, from Sabbath to Sabbath.\u00a0\u00a0 Isaiah develops a Sabbath ideology that goes beyond Israel into an eschatological situation involving everyone.\u00a0\u00a0 He has the last word about Sabbath in the OT not Nehemiah or later OT developments.\u00a0 And this vision of the end when lion lies down with the lamb involves the demise of the serpent he will bite the dust (Is. 65.25). \u201cThe serpent who at the beginning bit the fruit of the tree of knowledge will, in the end, bite the dust.\u201d\u00a0 p. 157.<\/p>\n
For Tonstad\u2019s case to work, namely that the Sabbath is for all people all the time, and not just specifically for Jews,\u00a0 he must marginalize texts like Neh. 13.3 and maximilize Is. 56 and following, for Nehemiah\u00a0 separates Israel from those of foreign descent and he admits (pp. 167-68) that the subsequent history of the Sabbath observance moves more along Nehemiah\u2019s lines than\u00a0 Isaiah\u2019s vision. Nehemiah suggests to Tonstad an approach involving exclusion and coercion, something he sees continued with the Pharisees and Jewish officials in the Gospels (Mt. 12.2: Mk. 2.24; Lk. 6.2; John 5.16). Attempts to dilute Jewish distinctiveness and distinctive praxis are seen as threats to the national and ethnic identity\u00a0 (cf. 1 Macc.1.1-61; 2.42.\u00a0 Pharisees were believers in coercion. \u00a0A perceived attack on Sabbath observance was seen as an attack on exclusive Jewish existence, excluding Gentiles. Sabbath observance as an essential feature of Jewish identity.<\/p>\n
Rabbi Levi: \u201cIf Israel kept the Sabbath properly even for one day, the son of David would come. Why\/ Because it is equivalent to all the commandments\u00a0 Exodus Rabbah 25.12<\/p>\n
Rabbi Johanan in the name of Simeon be Tochai:\u00a0 \u201cIf Israel were to keep two Sabbaths according the laws thereof, they would be redeemed immediately\u201d\u00a0 B.T. Shabb. 118b.<\/p>\n
When we get to Jesus, why all these healings on the Sabbath, even non-emergency healings on the Sabbath. Are they deliberate provocations?\u00a0 Is Jesus redefining work? Is Jesus redefining Sabbath and what it means to cease from work?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pp. 182ff. \u00a0\u00a0And why the vociferous objections to such healings in all the layers of the Gospel tradition?\u00a0 One of the things which becomes clear in John 5 is that the identity of Jesus is revealed and wrapped up in these Sabbath healings. John 5.17-18\u2014 My Father is working and I am working amounts to a claim to equality with God, even in terms of what should and shouldn\u2019t happen on the Sabbath.\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 opponent is not really, or not in the main \u2018the Jews\u2019 i.e. Jewish officials, it is Satan, the father of lies.<\/p>\n
p. 194\u2014 glory in John means praiseworthy character, so I have seen his glory means I have seen God\u2019s character,\u00a0 his character revealed in Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0 But in John 12.23 it means \u2018the time has come for the Son to be exalted\/vindicated\/ glorified.\u00a0 The glory in 12.24 is a self-emptying, self-denying character, it is not self-serving.\u00a0 (p. 195). \u00a0\u00a0This is grounded in Isaiah 52-53. He lacks the usual meaning of glory\u2014a brighty shiny appearance.\u00a0 The Suffering servant is more like \u2018Ichabod\u2019\u2014 No glory.\u00a0\u00a0 Does Jesus break the Sabbath or repristinize its original meaning and intent?\u00a0\u00a0 Does he break the Pharisaic conception of the Sabbath and what it must entail? \u00a0\u00a0Tonstad p. 200 sees Jesus\u2019 \u2018it is finished\u2019 as an allusion to the Genesis 2.1-2 God finished.\u00a0\u00a0 On the cross and by Jesus\u2019 death the finishing of the correcting what is wrong has happened.\u00a0 Just as at creation the finishing of what was right and good has happened.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The new creation begins with the death of Jesus,\u00a0 when the new covenant is cut, the sacrifice offered, the cutting off of the old self happens.<\/p>\n
Tonstad seems to concede that the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector is a caricature of Pharisees, or else depicts an especially sanctimonious Pharisee (pp.206-07) and likewise with Mt. 23 he sees this as hyperbolic polemic, not fair characterization or at least depict the radical fringe or extreme of the Pharisaic movement.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the interesting ideas in this book\u00a0 (Tonstad\u2019s The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day)\u00a0 is that the Sabbath is a sign like a flag is a sign,\u00a0 actually it\u2019s a symbol\u2014 something which participates in the reality to which it points.\u00a0 It points to God\u2019s ceasing from his creative activity, and as such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
The Case for the Christian Sabbath-- Part Three<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the interesting ideas in this book\u00a0 (Tonstad's The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day)\u00a0 is that the Sabbath is a sign like a flag is a sign,\u00a0 actually\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Case for the Christian Sabbath-- Part Three\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the interesting ideas in this book\u00a0 (Tonstad's The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day)\u00a0 is that the Sabbath is a sign like a flag is a sign,\u00a0 actually\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/01\/28\/the-case-for-the-christian-sabbath-part-three\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta 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