28. Does the Letter of Colossians Refer to the Sabbath? – Proclamation! Online Magazine

A Response to Ron du Preez

By Jerry A. Gladson

Among the bitterest disputes in modern Christianity is that over whether Christians are literally to observe the seventh-day Sabbath (Saturday). Seventh-day Adventists, Seventh-day Baptists, Church of God (Seventh-Day), and a few other groups,¹ are arrayed over against the majority of Christians in this matter. Chief among the biblical passages in this clash of interpretations is Colossians 2:16. This passage reads as follows:

Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

This passage is a conundrum for sabbatarians, for the apostle seems to regard the weekly Sabbath, along with all the other sacred observances of Jewish origin, such as the Passover, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles, and so on, as an indifferent or optional matter. No one, at least in the Colossian Christian community, he urges, is to “condemn”² someone for neglecting to observe such sacred occasions, including the Sabbath. If this passage reflects the attitude of the early Christian church toward the weekly Sabbath, then the degree of importance Seventh-day Adventists and other sabbatarians have attached to the Sabbath is misplaced. The apostle, whom we take to be Paul,³ here seems to regard the Sabbath as of little importance, something whose dim, shadowy form has been transcended by the greater radiance of Christ. “These are only a shadow [skia, “shadow,” “foreshadowing”] of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” Indeed, for Adventist theology in particular, the implications of the apostle’s statement are deeply troubling. The Sabbath can no longer serve as the primary eschatological test of fidelity to God. It can no longer be the antithetical, decisive symbol against the dreadful mark of the beast.⁴ “In this warfare [of the last days],” Ellen White writes, “the Sabbath of the fourth commandment will be the great point at issue.”⁵ For Christians, to the contrary, Colossians seems to say that observance of the seventh-day Sabbath is discretionary, certainly anything but the “great point at issue.” “Of all the statements in the New Testament,” Walter Martin notices, “these verses most strongly refute the Sabbatarian claim for observance of the Jewish Sabbath.”⁶

The passage is only somewhat less troubling, for very different reasons, to non-sabbatarians. While non-sabbatarians have tended to see it as evidence the Sabbath was set aside in the nascent Hellenistic church, there remains the puzzle of the nature of the Colossian “heresy” the apostle addresses. Why does the apostle object to the observance of the Sabbath and the other sacred seasons? Is he opposed to the Sabbath and Jewish sacred observances per se, or only as they were being practiced at Colosse? Is he instead opposed to some type of religious amalgamation that borrows the Sabbath and other festivals from Jews and Christians, in the process perhaps distorting or exaggerating their importance? To put it another way, is this a perversion of the Sabbath? Is it some kind of linking of the Sabbath with the cosmic powers in a pagan synthesis?⁷ Does the apostle condemn outright its observance, or is he opposed to a mixing up of Sabbath observance with some other philosophy? Colossians 2:16 has proven to be a crux interpretum (very difficult text) for all interpreters.

While recognizing the menace of this text, Seventh-day Adventists and other sabbatarians have generally explained the word translated “sabbaths” (sabbaton) in Colossians 2:16 as an allusion to the annual Jewish religious observances such as the Passover/Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles. These observances were the “shadows” symbolizing the “reality that is Christ,” not the seventh-day Sabbath.⁸

Now, in the most definitive study of Colossians 2:16-17 to date, Ron du Preez, Th.D., has reprised this older sabbatarian interpreta- tion in a much more nuanced form in Judging the Sabbath: Discovering What can’t be Found in Colossians 2:16⁹ He focuses almost entirely on the critical phrase, “festivals, new moons, or sabbaths” in Colossians. 2:16. Du Preez states his thesis concisely in these words:

The compelling weight of inter-textual, linguistic, semantic, structural, and contextual evidence demonstrates that the sabbata [sabbaton] of Colossians 2:16 refers to ancient Jewish ceremonial sabbaths, and not the weekly Sabbath. Thus, the seventh-day Sabbath of the Decalogue cannot be regarded as abrogated on the basis of Colossians 2.10

Du Preez has indeed amassed an impressive amount of intertextual, linguistic, and semantic data to demonstrate that the seventh-day Sabbath is not at issue in Colossians. He builds his case upon two key elements, and it is to these I wish to respond:

The word sabbath in both the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures does not consistently refer to the seventh-day Sabbath; specifically, in Colossians 2:16 it refers to the festivals of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and the sabbatical years.
The threefold expression, “festivals, new moons, or sabbaths,” in Colossians 2:16 is not a formulaic or conventional way biblical writers referred to the annual/ monthly/weekly sacred observances, as has been claimed, and therefore cannot be taken as including the seventh-day Sabbath.

In order to assess these conclusions, it is necessary to summar- ize in some detail du Preez’s argument. Following this summary, I will analyze the two major elements of his case, and finally turn to a consideration of the difficult situation at Colosse addressed by the apostle, crucial to understanding Colossians 2:16. From this, we will be able to form some understanding of the relationship of the early church at Colosse, and perhaps other places, to the seventh-day Sabbath.

Argument of du Preez

Du Preez notes that throughout history, most interpreters have found in the term sabba,twn sabbaton in Colossians 2 a reference to the seventh-day Sabbath.¹¹ The word in question in Colossians 2:16, sabbaton, is grammatically a genitive plural, literally, “of sabbaths.” Its nominative form is sa,bbaton sabbaton¹² or, possibly, sabbata, if it is a transliteration from Aramaic. Sabbata can also be taken as a nominative or accusative plural of sabbaton. In Colossians 2:16, however, the word is a genitive plural.

Du Preez challenges the idea that sabbaton refers to the seventh-day Sabbath in Colossians. 2:16 by turning to the Old Testament uses of shabbat [Sabbath] and the corresponding Greek translation of this term as sabbata or sabbaton in the Greek translation, the Septuagint (LXX), widely used among early Christians. In the 111 occurrences of shabbat in the OT, 94 refer to the seventh-day Sabbath; 19 designate something else. Whenever the seventh-day Sabbath is intended in these passages, du Preez identifies certain linguistic “markers,” such as “keep,” “the” [definite article], “holy,” “my” [Yahweh’s], linkage of Sabbath with “day,” or other indications in the immediate context, e.g., “from Sabbath to Sabbath.”¹³ If these particular markers are absent, the term does not refer to the seventh-day Sabbath. He cites the similar earlier conclusion of J. N. Andrews:¹⁴ the seventh-day Sabbath is called “‘my Sabbaths,’ ‘my holy day,’ and the like; while the others are designated as ‘your Sabbaths,’ ‘her Sabbaths,’ and similar expressions.”¹⁵ Appearing without such linguistic markers, sabbaton in Colossians 2:16 “could refer to ceremonial Sabbaths,” since it corresponds to the way shabbat is used within the Old Testament.¹⁶

He tests this conclusion against the way sabbaton/sabbata are used in the New Testament. There, these terms variously depict the multiple seventh-day Sabbaths, a single seventh-day Sabbath, and the common seven-day week. This isn’t too different from the way the Greek Septuagint (LXX) uses sabbata also to refer to the seventh-day Sabbath, seventh-day Sabbaths (plural), and the ceremonial Sabbaths. Again applying linguistic markers, he finds, for example, that whenever sabbata is used to designate the ordinary week, it is always accompanied by the number of the day.¹⁷ Sabbaton in Colossians 2:16 stands without any such linguistic markers.

Furthermore, in the Hebrew of Leviticus 23:32c, the term shabbat [sabbata (plural) in the LXX] refers, not to the seventh-day Sabbath, but to the Day of Atonement, which fell on the 10th day of the 7th month. “It shall be to you a sabbath of complete rest, and you shall deny yourselves; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening you shall keep your sabbath[s].”¹⁸ Shabbat also refers to the Sabbatical years, or the seventh-year rest in which the cultivated land was to lie fallow,¹⁹ and as well to the Day of Trumpets,²⁰ although in the latter case the actual Hebrew term is shabbaton, “sabbatical feast,” a derivation from shabbat.²¹ For this passage, the LXX renders shabbaton with anapausis, “stopping,” or “ceasing” for rest. Despite this LXX departure, du Preez concludes it would be linguistically appropriate “to understand Paul’s use of this term²² as similarly referring to annual ceremonial Sabbaths²³ and/or septennial Sabbaths.”²⁴

Having established the possible understanding of sabbaton as a ceremonial reference, du Preez now turns to problem of the chronological sequencing of terms in Colossians 2:16. The order “festivals, new moons, or sabbaths” has been generally taken as a formulaic or conventional way of encompassing all the annual or yearly, monthly, and weekly observances of the Jewish people, especially those found in the Torah. Thus it would naturally include the seventh-day Sabbath. After analyzing six primary Old Testament passages where this sequence is variously mentioned,²⁵ du Preez claims that either the sequence is different from Colossians 2:16,²⁶ and/or it adds a fourth or other additional component, e.g., the daily. Furthermore, all eight passages are concerned with the sacrifices offered on them, not the observances themselves.

That the ceremonial Sabbaths are at issue in Colossians 2:16, du Preez insists, is further indicated by the Greek term for “festivals”²⁷ used in the same text. In the LXX, this term, which normally translates the Hebrew hag²⁸ refers to the so-called pilgrim festivals: the Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, and Tabernacles,²⁹ occasions in which Jewish males were supposed to go up to the Temple. This Hebrew term is never used for the Day of Atonement or Trumpets, or other ceremonial observances. Thus, in Colossians 2:16, its Greek equivalent³⁰ must refer to these same three festivals, not to others.

A literary analysis of Hosea 2:11,31 one of the passages often cited for the chronological formula and the one from which Colossians likely borrows the phrase, seems to confirm this conclusion. “I will put an end to all her mirth, her festivals, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her appointed festivals.”³² Not only does the word shabbat in this text bear the linguistic marker, “her sabbath,” indicative it is not referring to Yahweh’s seventh- day Sabbath, it is apparently chiastically arranged with the other terms thus:

(A) hag [pilgrimage festivals]

(B) hodesh [new moon]

(A’) shabbat [Trumpets; Atonement; sabbatical years]

Colossians 2:16 seems to make use of this same chiastic or internal inverted parallel. As Adventist scholar Angel Rodriguez puts it, “Du Preez has demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that in Colossians 2:11 (sic?) Paul was not dealing with the seventh-day Sabbath.”

Not all the arguments may appear to be persuasive, but the fact remains that the assumption that the phrase “feasts, new moons or Sabbaths” in Colossians designated all the annual feasts, the monthly celebrations, and the seventh-day Sabbath is in serious need of revision, or even better, dismissal.³³

Du Preez would thus appear to have solved a major problem in the interpretation of Colossians, and to have decided it convincingly in favor of the sabbatarian position.

Space prevents engagement with every detail of his obviously intricate and impressive analysis,³⁴ so we will have to be content with an examination of two key aspects, mentioned above, the use of the Hebrew word shabbat and its Greek translation in the Old and New Testaments, and the chronological arrangement of annual/monthly/weekly. On these two points, du Preez’s argument stands or falls.

Use of Shabbat [Sabbath] in the Hebrew Bible

When the Hebrew shabbat is found in the Hebrew Bible,³⁵ according to du Preez, in 94 instances it designates the seventh-day Sabbath; in 19, the week, the Day of Atonement, or the sabbatical years. Each time it refers to seventh-day Sabbath, it is accompanied by certain, identifying linguistic markers. Whenever shabbat refers to any of the ceremonial observances, it is never accompanied by any of these markers. Frequently, it is referred to as “your” Sabbath or “her” [Israel’s] Sabbath. Since Colossains 2:16 does not use any of these markers, sabbaton could conceivably refer to the ceremonial Sabbaths. Du Preez admits this semantic condition only establishes the possibility sabbaton/sabbata in Colossians 2:16 refers to some ceremonial observance; it does not prove the case.

In the LXX, which normally translates shabbat with sabbaton/ sabbata, this latter plural form is used of the seventh-day Sabbath;³⁶ the Day of Atonement;³⁷ and the sabbatical years.³⁸ Standing alone, shabbat contains an inherent ambiguity, so that context must determine whether it refers to the seventh-day Sabbath or to one or more of the other ceremonial observances. Colossians 2:16 contains two contextual indicators this word denotes the seventh-day Sabbath. As we shall see, these indicators are precisely the words “festival…new moons…sabbaths.” In short, the annual, monthly, and weekly observances (viz., the Sabbath) are thereby indicated. In most cases—if not all—where a biblical or Jewish writer uses this chronological arrangement, the seventh-day Sabbath is included. The seventh-day Sabbath belongs to the semantical field or range of meaning which designates the annual, monthly, or even daily observances. To find these terms side-by-side in a passage such as Colossians 2:16-17 is strong, compelling evidence that sabbaton, also found there, refers to the seventh-day Sabbath.

Several passages³⁹ have similar immediate contextual indicators that point to the presence of a reference to the seventh-day Sabbath. “When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain,” inveighs Amos, citing the grumbling of his audience, “and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale.”⁴⁰ The adjacent expression “new moon” [hodesh] as well as the article before sabbath [hashabbat] here clearly identify this as the seventh-day Sabbath. Isaiah is similar: “Incense is an abomination to me. New moon [hodesh] and sabbath [shabbat (without the article)] and calling of convocation—I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your new moons and your appointed festivals [mo`ed (LXX: heorte)] my soul hates.”⁴¹ Here, although not arranged sequentially, are descriptors of the annual, monthly, weekly, listed in such a way as to make evident that the seventh-day Sabbath is also included. One therefore cannot easily deny that such chronological designations are contextual reminders the seventh-day Sabbath is intended by the single word sabbata/sabbaton without the article, as in Colossians 2:16. This will become even more evident as we now take a look at the full range of the use of the chronological arrangement of Israel’s sacred observances.

Annual/Monthly/Weekly Sequence

In his consideration of eight passages containing the putative chronological formula, annual/monthly/weekly, du Preez fails to take adequate account of the historical usage of this formula. The tradition does not jump immediately from the post-exilic era to the first century and early Judaism and the Christian church, but rather moves through the Hellenistic and early Roman eras before reaching the New Testament. A considerable body of Jewish literature from this period is now known to us, and permits us to trace with much greater clarity the use of this motif before it reaches the form found in Colossians 2. This literature must be taken into account in the interpretation of the motif “festivals, new moons, or sabbaths” in Colossians.

Most of the eight passages du Preez discusses which contain, in one form or another this phrase, are from the late, post-exilic period of Israel’s history.⁴² Only Ezekiel 45:13-17,⁴³ or Hosea 2:11⁴⁴ are earlier. Numbers 28-29, by some reckoning, may also be a post-exilic composition, similar in some respects to Leviticus 23. First Chronicles 23:31; 2 Chronicles 2:4; 8:13; 31:3; and Nahum 10:33 are all post-exilic.

We find in Numbers 28-29 an extended classification of Israel’s observances and the sacrifices to be offered upon them in a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual sequence. The entire sequence is encompassed by the term mo’ed, “appointed times,” in 28:2, a word rendered in the LXX as heorte, “festival,” the same as that in Colossians 2, showing that this terminology is capable of including every single one of Israel’s observances. The passage formally begins with the tamid, or daily offering that is to be made morning and evening.⁴⁵ It next passes on to the Sabbath, or weekly observance,⁴⁶ and the prescribed sacrifices for that day. The monthly, or new moon festival, appears next⁴⁷ and, following this, a complete listing of the annual observances prescribed in the Torah: Passover/Unleavened Bread;⁴⁸ Pentecost;⁴⁹ Trumpets;⁵⁰ Day of Atonement;⁵¹ and Booths.⁵² Missing, of course, are Purim and Hanukkah, which are of later origin, and the sabbatical years, because these are not part of an annual observance. This passage summarizes the entire sequence in these words: “These you shall offer to the Lord at your appointed festivals [mo’ed], in addition to your votive offerings and your freewill offerings, as your burnt offerings, your grain offerings, your drink offerings, and your offerings of well-being.”⁵³ Once again, the term mo’ed [Grk., heorte] is used to encompass all Israel’s prescribed observances. It “bookends” the entire sequence.

Du Preez disqualifies Numbers 28-29 from consideration because it concerns the “various sacrifices to be made daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.”⁵⁴ I fail to see the force of this objection. The passage unmistakably classifies the days upon which these sacrifices are to be offered in a chronological order: daily, weekly, monthly, and annually. While the exact formula is not given in so many words, the shape of it, or the structure of classification, is present. We encounter this same extended manner of classification in later Jewish literature. This sequence definitely includes the seventh-day Sabbath.

With the Chronicler’s use of the chronological sequence, we come across a more technical way of speaking. Chronicles⁵⁵ probably stems from the fourth century B.C.E. First Chronicles 23 contains a listing of the Levites and their various duties with respect to the soon-to-be built Temple. The entire chapter is a priestly classification of sorts: of the Levites in general; the Gershonites, Kohathites, and Merarites; the ancestral houses; the duties of the aforementioned; the various types of offerings; and then a listing of the appointed observances. “Sabbaths, new moons, and appointed festivals.”⁵⁶ The “daily” appears in the form of evening and morning sacrifices.⁵⁷ Here is the sequence: (daily)/weekly/monthly/annual. This is obviously some sort of chronological classification, “according to the number required of them, regularly before the Lord.” Given the normal inflection in ⁵⁸Greek, the terminology in the LXX of this passage is precisely that of Colossians 2:16, only in reverse order: sabbaton [Sabbath], neomenia [new moon], heorte [festivals]. There is no use objecting that heorte includes only the pilgrim festivals here; evidently it refers to the whole range of annual observances. Sabbaton, likewise, is definitely a reference to the seventh-day Sabbath rather than to the Day of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the sabbatical years.

Second Chronicles 8 retells the story of Solomon’s building program after his completion of the Temple. Verses 12-15 discuss his intended ordering of the priesthood and the various sacrifices for the Temple services, “according to the commandment of Moses for the sabbaths, the new moons, and the three annual festivals— the festival of unleavened bread, the festival of weeks, and the festival of booths.”⁵⁹ We find again the weekly, monthly, and annual sequence, only here the annual listing includes only the three pilgrim festivals, evidently because these were the ones with which the entire population would have to observe through pilgrimage to the Temple. These pilgrim festivals and the term for them⁶⁰ is, as du Preez reminds us, the technical expression for these pilgrim festivals. We cannot rule out, however, that here hag is a metonymy for all Israel’s annual observances. Whether this is the case, there can be no question the seventh-day Sabbath is included.

It is quite natural that the Chronicler would extol the cultic reforms instituted by Hezekiah,⁶¹ the great reforming king of Judah, whom he views as a model of royal piety. Second Chronicles 31 lists his accomplishments, including a list of Hezekiah’s sacrificial contribution for the “burnt offerings of morning and evening, and the burnt offerings for the sabbaths, the new moons, and the appointed festivals, as it is written in the law of the Lord.”⁶² This frequent reference to the Sabbath in Chronicles⁶³ reflects the increased importance placed upon the seventh-day Sabbath as a distinct mark of the Hebrew religion in the post-exilic period.⁶⁴

The sequence is daily/weekly/monthly/annual, reminiscent of Numbers 28-29. The terminology is identical to 1 Chronicles 23:31, viz., sabbaton [Sabbath], neomenia [new moon], heorte [festivals]. The seventh-day Sabbath is included as a normal part of the sequence.

With Nehemiah 10:33 [Heb. 10:34], we are within the same general era as the Chronicler, so the wording of the sequence is materially the same. This passage is a record of what the leaders of the post-exilic Judean community intend to provide for the Temple rituals. Following the enumeration of the offerings is a classification of the occasions on which they are to be offered: “regular burnt offerings” (tamid)…sabbaths, the new moons, the appointed festivals,” a chronological sequence of daily/weekly/monthly/annual. Both the immediate context of this statement⁶⁵ and the larger, book context,⁶⁶ which are discussions of the requirements of observance of the Sabbath in post-exilic Jerusalem, should be proof enough that shabbat in Nehemiah 10:33 refers indeed to the seventh-day Sabbath.

Apparently, it did not matter in what sequence one put this convention, whether in the order (daily)/weekly/monthly/annually, or reversed, as in Ezekiel 45:13-17 and Hosea 2:11, two passages earlier than the post-exilic era. The effect is the same: a comprehensive, albeit shorthand way of referring to all Israel’s sacred observances.

Ezekiel, a priest himself, was active among the exiled Judeans in Babylonia in the early part of the sixth century B.C.E. As a priest, he shows intense interest in the Sabbath. “Hallow my Sabbaths,” Ezekiel cites a word from the Lord, “that they may be a sign between me and you, so that you may know that I am the Lord am your God.”⁶⁷ In Ezekiel 45, where the chronological sequence occurs, we are in the most noticeable priestly section of his book, a discussion of the restoration of the Temple and its rituals in the age to come.⁶⁸ Because Ezekiel’s description is unlike anything we know of the actual restored second Temple as initially completed in 516 B.C.E., much about this section is mystifying. Its inconsistency with the cultic prescriptions in the Pentateuch sent the rabbis at the Jamnia conference near the end of the first century C.E. searching for explanation. Then, Hananiah ben Hezekiah sat up nights burning 300 measures of midnight oil until he had fully reconciled Ezekiel and Moses!⁶⁹

A “prince” to come will restore social and ritual order in the Israelite community.⁷⁰ This prince will offer appropriate sacrifices “at the festivals, the new moons, and the sabbaths, all the appointed festivals of the house of Israel.”⁷¹ The sequence appears as annual/monthly/weekly, in reverse order to that seen in the Chronicler and Ezra-Nehemiah. The wording of this passage in the LXX is significant in view of du Preez’s claim that heorte, here translating the Hebrew hag, only refers to the pilgrim festivals. In the first instance of this term at the beginning of the sequence (“festivals … new moons … sabbaths”), this may be the case, but the passage goes on to use heorte as an all-encompassing term, “all the appointed festivals [heorte].” Again, at the risk of seeming overly repetitive, the seventh-day Sabbath is included as a part of this sequence.

Du Preez takes issue with my earlier identification of elements of this chronological sequence in Ezekiel 46.72 He is correct that in Ezekiel 46 there is no formal sequence, yet, even here the same terminology is used in widely separated verses, implying that this passage has in mind the same conventional classification of time-related observances. Here technical, priestly vocabulary is at work: “sabbaths” [shabbat]⁷³ “new moons” [hodesh];74 “festivals and appointed seasons,” or “festivals, and even on your appointed seasons.”75 “Sabbaths” and “new moons” appear together in a compound phrase, “on sabbaths and new moons,” i.e., on weekly and monthly occasions. The text then goes on to expand upon the rituals pertaining to the weekly Sabbaths and monthly new moon celebration, then takes up the annual “festivals and the appointed seasons” [hag and mo`ed, respectively] which are then similarly elaborated.⁷⁶ This passage also discusses the daily sacrifices [tamid].⁷⁷ It seems to me that a pattern of classification extending to the daily, weekly, monthly, and annual observances, is operative in this text. Certainly, the seventh-day Sabbath appears here as a part of this pattern.

Hosea 2:11⁷⁸ assumes major importance for du Preez, because he finds in this text the closest literary form⁷⁹ to that in Colossians 2:16. Says the prophet Hosea: “I will put an end to all her mirth, her festivals, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her appointed festivals.” The reference is to the kingdom of Northern Israel, which faced conquest at the hands of Assyria in 722/21 B.C.E. This is a prediction that the Northern kingdom’s cultic observances would come to an end once they were taken into captivity. Du Preez is quite correct in rejecting Maurice Logan’s⁸⁰ and Dudley Canright’s⁸¹ claim Hosea 2:11 is a prediction that eventually comes true with the setting aside of these observances in the Christian era in Colssians 2:16.⁸² Such an interpretation wrenches Hosea 2:11 out of its historical context.

Du Preez suggests Paul may have borrowed the language of Colossians 2:16 from Hosea 2:11. The Colossian passage, furthermore, may be an actual citation from Hosea 2:11. In the Greek⁸³ they are very similar, at least in chronological sequence, as may be shown by placing them together in the following literal translations:

Her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths⁸⁴

(Of) feast or (of) new moon or (of) sabbaths⁸⁵

Although the chronological sequence⁸⁶ is the same, in contrast to other phrases discussed above, there is not enough indication in Colossians to be certain the apostle is actually quoting Hosea 2 and not merely utilizing a conventional way of speaking about Israel’s observances.

It is interesting to note the way the Jewish scribes have accentuated the Hebrew in Hosea 2:11⁸⁷ so that it should be read: “I will cause all her mirth to cease [slight pause], her festival(s), her new moon(s), and her sabbath(s) [pause], even all her appointed time(s).”⁸⁸ In this reading, the last clause, “even all her appointed time(s),” is an appositional phrase reiterating the three previously mentioned observances that occur annually, monthly, and weekly, and thus stands as a summary expression.

Be that as it may, du Preez goes on to interpret the annual festivals noted here⁸⁹ as the pilgrim feasts,⁹⁰ and the Sabbaths,⁹¹ based on the linguistic markers in Hosea 2, as the Day of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and the septennial sabbaths. If this in the case, he indicates, and if Colossians is citing Hosea 2, then the same definitions would apply to Colossians 2.⁹²

This claim seems a real stretch. Even if we regard Colossians 2 as a direct citation of Hosea 2, this would not necessarily mean the same definitions of words apply. New Testament writers often reinterpret Old Testament passages, giving them new meaning not evident in the original contexts. The overriding metaphor in this prophetic oracle⁹³ is Yahweh’s threat to divorce his people on account of their infidelity with the Baals, the Canaanite deities. As in a divorce, to extend the metaphor, what was once “our” property becomes “her” property. The prophets speaks of “her” children,⁹⁴ “her” silver and gold,⁹⁵ “her” vineyards,⁹⁶ “her” ring and jewelry,⁹⁷ and so on. In the same vein, what were once observances established by Yahweh, now become “her” festivals, new moons, and Sabbaths.⁹⁸ The passage is similar to other prophetic references to these observances when Israel becomes unfaithful.⁹⁹ Yahweh distances himself from their insincere or hollow ritual observances.¹⁰⁰ The addition of a feminine, third person pronoun to these words in Hosea is therefore no indication the word Sabbaths has shifted in meaning to signify the Day of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, or the septennial Sabbaths, and that this same shift is also the case in Colossians 2, because the latter may quote Hosea. While the sequence in Hosea is the same as in Colossians 2— annual/monthly/weekly—the expression in Hosea 2 definitely includes the seventh-day Sabbath.¹⁰¹

In the main body of Judging the Sabbath, du Preez discusses each of the texts mentioned above. In Appendix D,¹⁰² he reviews other references to an alleged chronological sequence involving the Sabbath that appear in the Deuterocanonicals or Apocrypha, and the Pseudepigrapha, both collections of Jewish literature from the period of early Judaism.¹⁰³ I now wish to examine these passages, together with others from an even wider body of Jewish writings, including Philo Judaeus. This wider context will help us put into larger perspective the threefold phrase in Colossians 2.

Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical References to the Sabbath

The book of 1 Maccabees, a second or first-century Jewish account of the Maccabean Revolt,¹⁰⁴ originally composed in Hebrew, includes a letter from Demetrius I Soter,¹⁰⁵ ruler of the Seleucid dynasty in Syria, to Jonathan Maccabeus, the Jewish High Priest, in which we read the following: “All the festivals [heorte] and sabbaths [sabbata] and new moons [noumenia] and appointed days [hemerai apodedeigmenai], and the three days before a festival and the three after a festival—let them all be days of immunity and release for all the Jews who are in my kingdom.”¹⁰⁶

Du Preez objects that this is a four-part, not a three-part sequence, and the chronological sequence is not followed. Instead, the terms are mixed as annual/weekly/monthly, and they are plural in form, not singular, as in Colossians 2:16.¹⁰⁷ I am not sure the chronological sequence ever had a strict, literal formulation, but may have varied in its employment. Its intent seems to have been to classify all the sacred observances within a framework that included the daily, weekly, monthly, and annual observances. Moreover, 1 Maccabees purports to cite a letter from a non-Jewish monarch, so it should not be expected this person would necessarily summarize the Jewish observances, which were strange to him, in their usual order. This letter, or at least the gist of it, is generally considered to be authentic.

In the exquisite story of Judith may be found a description of the pious Judith’s observances that includes the full panoply of times: “She fasted all the days of her widowhood, except the day before the sabbath and the sabbath [sabbaton] itself, the day before the new moon and the day of the new moon [noumenia] and the festivals [heorte] and days of rejoicing of the house of Israel.”¹⁰⁸ Even “days” are mentioned here. The periods of time are classified according to a weekly, monthly, and annual schema. The Sabbath unmistakably appears. Du Preez’s objection that the order of these observances is reversed over Colossians 2, and that therefore there was no customary way of listing them in some fashion as annual, monthly, and weekly,¹⁰⁹ does not negate the fact that, in whatever order these stock phrases occur, they customarily include the seventh-day Sabbath.

This point may be a little more obvious if we turn back briefly to 1 Maccabees. Two other references there, untreated by du Preez, are of interest. They occur in the same context of the account of the occupation of Jerusalem and subsequent pollution of the Temple by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid king who tried to foist Hellenistic religion and culture upon the Jews, provoking the Maccabean Revolt.¹¹⁰ “Her sanctuary became desolate like a desert,” says the writer, “her feasts [heorte] were turned into mourning, her sabbaths [sabbata] into a reproach, her honor into contempt.”¹¹¹ There follows a letter from Antiochus urging that the Jews give up their “particular customs.”¹¹² Several are named, including the “sabbaths and festivals,”¹¹³ sacrificial offerings, sanctuary, priests,¹¹⁴ kosher food laws,¹¹⁵ and even the Torah itself, the source of all the Jewish laws.¹¹⁶ The radical change Antiochus urges in these laws may be indicated in Daniel’s apocalyptic vision of the little horn who would “attempt to change the sacred seasons and the law.”¹¹⁷ In this passage,¹¹⁸ it seems the writer uses the festivals and Sabbaths as parts symbolizing a whole system of religious observances, much in the same way that Colossians 2 seems to refer to “matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths,” to talk about a whole range of ritual observances, including the seventh-day Sabbath. True, these two references in 1 Maccabees¹¹⁹ do not include the full chronological sequence, but the intent is the same.

Elsewhere in the apocryphal literature, we observe the same phenomena: one part of the chronological sequence is left out, but the remaining items imply the whole range of sacred observances. Sirach or Ben Sira refers to the role of the moon in marking the “seasons,” the “festal days [heorte]” and the “new moon.”¹²⁰The Sabbath is probably not implied here by Sirach, who oddly never mentions the Sabbath in his lengthy, second-century B.C.E. wisdom book. More intriguing is Sirach’s note that David “gave beauty to the festivals [heorte], and arranged their times throughout the year, while they praised God’s holy name,”¹²¹ an obvious reference to David’s institution of liturgical practices for the Temple as portrayed in Chronicles.¹²² We cannot assume such a statement includes the Sabbath, but it does contain an indication of a custom of listing such observances according to their times throughout the year. Similar is the second century B.C.E. reference to the “days of the festivals [heorte] and at appointed seasons” in the Baruch 1:14.¹²³

In a passage describing the desecration of the Temple by Antiochus, the writer of 2 Maccabees mentions the Sabbath and the festivals. “People could neither keep the sabbath [sabbatizein, “keep Sabbath”], nor observe the festivals [heorte] of their ancestors, nor so much as confess themselves to be Jews.”¹²⁴ In this case, we find reference to the weekly and annual observances, the latter expression apparently standing for all the other observances, probably including the monthly. The daily sacrifices would have already been excluded by the pollution of the Temple.¹²⁵

Finally, 1 Esdras 5:51-52,126 in a passage not paralleled in the canonical book of Ezra,127 recalls the beginning of cultic observances in the Second Temple in the sixth century B.C.E. in these words: “They kept the festival of booths … and offered the proper sacrifices every day [hemera], and thereafter the regular offerings and sacrifices on sabbaths [sabbaton] and at new moons [noumenia] and at all the consecrated feasts [heorte].” Here is a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual sequence. There is no reason to limit “feasts” [heorte] to the three pilgrim festivals either, since they are described as “all the consecrated feasts.” Du Preez’s objection¹²⁸ these terms appear in the plural, unlike Colossians 2, also misses the mark, since in this passage the writer is referring to a repetition of single observances, i.e., there are more than fifty Sabbath days in the year.

This manner of classifying Jewish sacred observances also appears in many other places in the literature of early Judaism, including the pseudepigrapha and Philo Judaeus.

Pseudepigraphal References to the Sabbath

Du Preez mentions several references to the Sabbath in the book of Jubilees, a second century B.C.E. legendary account of a revelation to Moses during his stay on Mount Sinai.¹²⁹ Jubilees is especially interesting because its author was concerned about the seventh-day Sabbath and the Jewish sacred calendar in general, as is implied by its name, and thus offers a context where matters such as are under discussion here would naturally appear. Du Preez alludes to no fewer than seven passages in Jubilees where the Sabbath is mentioned. All these passages list the sacred observances, but in patterns that differ from Colossians 2, leading du Preez to conclude “there is no yearly-monthly-weekly sequence.”¹³⁰ A glance at these passages leads to a different interpretation.

Referring to the apostasy that gripped Israel after its entry into Canaan, Jubilees 1:10 states that “many will be destroyed and seized and will fall into the hand of the enemy because they have forsaken my ordinances and my commandments and the feasts of my covenant and my sabbaths and my sacred place.” This listing has only an annual and a weekly observance; no monthly appears. Notice, however, that the seventh-day Sabbath is marked by “my sabbaths,” indicating, by du Preez’s criteria, that it is the weekly Sabbath.

While Jubilees 1:10 is missing one of the usual categories, the annual, other references in the book either list more than the weekly, monthly, and annual observances, or mix them up in a non-sequential fashion.

“The Lord set the sun as a great sign upon the earth for days, sabbaths, months, feast (days), years, sabbaths of years, jubilees, and for all the (appointed) times of the years,” reads Jubilees 2:9. This is a six-fold daily, weekly, monthly, annual, septennial, and quinquagenarian listing, the most complete in our extant ancient Jewish literature, to my knowledge. It is summed up by the last phrase, “all the (appointed) times of the years.”

If Israel forgets the sacred calendar, which in this author’s mind is a 364-day calendar, “they will forget the new moons and (appointed) times and sabbaths,” all the “ordinances of the years.”¹³¹ Here is a monthly, annual, weekly listing. A few verses later the writer states, “they will set awry the months and sabbaths and feasts and jubilees,”¹³² i.e., (four-part) monthly, weekly, annual, septennial observances. In the next verse this appears as “the months and the (appointed) times and the sabbaths and the feasts,”¹³³ a four-part monthly, annual, weekly, and annual listing. In a future, evil generation, the author says later, people will forget “the commandments and covenant and festivals and months and sabbaths and jubilees and all of the judgments.”¹³⁴ Again, this four-fold listing has annual, monthly, weekly, and septennial observances.

These Jubilees references vary from that in Colossians 2 in that they tend to list the observances in a different order, or add to them additional festivals, or use plurals instead of singular nouns. So du Preez denies a relationship between them and Colossians 2, where a straightforward annual, monthly, weekly sequence occurs.

Yet it would seem obvious to most that in these passages Jubilees is attempting to list the times of the sacred observances that, from the author’s perspective, will be threatened in future generations. These times include the annual, monthly, weekly, and septennial observances. The order of listing does not matter. In each case, the seventh-day Sabbath appears as the weekly representative of these observances. Du Preez is correct that there appears to be no stereotypical listing that follows strictly an annual, monthly, weekly mention. Some kind of attempt at a comprehensive listing of Israel’s sacred observances that follows the chronological pattern, however, does appear.

The apocalypse of 1 Enoch, a composite work very popular in the early Christian era, is actually cited in the New Testament.¹³⁵ The section of 1 Enoch known as the “Book of Heavenly Luminaries,”¹³⁶ from c. 110 B.C.E., contains several references to the festivals that are of interest. First Enoch 8:2 is a revelation to Methuselah¹³⁷ about the astronomical calculation of the year. As in Jubilees, it is based on the 364-day year, made up of 12 months of 30 days each, with an intercalary day added every 3 months, or “seasons,” as this text has it.¹³⁸ Evidently there is concern over the fact that adoption of a standard lunar year of 354 days, as was the case at Jerusalem, would lead to confusion with regard to the time of the festivals.¹³⁹ God has established the heavens to mark the “months, the festivals, the years, and the days,” the stars in their respective “places, seasons, festivals, and months.”¹⁴⁰ Again, “their (appointed) seasons, which lead them in their (respective) places, orders, times, months, authorities, and locations.”¹⁴¹ The Sabbath is missing from this passage, unless it is included with the “days,” which seems to be instead a reference to the ordinary days of the week. Other parts of the standard formula are present, as indicated. This merely indicates the formula was not rigid and was capable of being expanded, contracted, or re-arranged as needed to make the point the author intended. The purpose of such language is to offer a liturgical order for the various time periods during the year.

The Sabbath in Philo Judaeus

Philo Judaeus,¹⁴² who lived and worked among the Jewish community in Alexandria, Egypt, was a contemporary of Jesus and the apostles. Just how far Philo can be taken to represent Jewish thinking of this period is debated. He probably represents some Jewish thinking then current in Alexandria and perhaps other parts of the Hellenistic world. Although du Preez does not consider Philo in his analysis, the second division of Philo’s De specialibus legibus (Exposition of the Law) contains a section relevant to our discussion.143

This section discusses what Philo calls the “ten festivals” of the law. Although the discussion is extensive, it is ordered under the following classification: those rituals expected daily; then weekly, on the Sabbath; monthly, the New Moon; the annual observances, Passover, First Fruits, Unleavened Bread, Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Booths. Here in extended form is the familiar classification: daily/weekly/monthly/annual, and it definitely includes the seventh-day Sabbath. The order is the reverse of that in Colossians 2:16, but there is no doubt the intent is the same: to list chronologically the observances of Israel. Philo’s discussion may be taken as a representative of the traditional categories in which Israel’s ancient special observances were considered, which practice continues in Colossians 2:16.

The Sabbath and Colossians 2:16

From all these passages, which form the semantical background to Colossians, it is hard to avoid the conclusion the seventh-day Sabbath is definitely included in the phrase “festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths.”¹⁴⁴ The Sabbath is mentioned, and no amount of exegetical legerdemain, however well-intentioned, can expunge it. “The evidence is weighted overwhelmingly,” Ratzlaff puts it, in favor of interpreting sabbaton in Colossians 2 as the seventh-day Sabbath.¹⁴⁵

Du Preez tries to blunt this conclusion by referring to the Greek translation of shabbat in Leviticus 23:32, as noted above. “It shall be to you a sabbath of complete rest, and you shall deny yourselves; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening you shall keep your sabbath.” This is a reference to the observance of the Day of Atonement.¹⁴⁶ Shabbat is rendered here in the Greek LXX by the word sabbata, the same term as in Colossians 2:16. “We have here an example of the simple term ‘sabbath,’ both in the original Hebrew as well as in the Greek Septuagint translation,” du Preez writes, “being used to designate something other than the seventh-day Sabbath.”¹⁴⁷ It follows, then, that sabbata in Colossians 2:16, occurring without any of the specific markers used to designate this term as the weekly Sabbath, may also refer to something other than the seventh-day Sabbath.

We have already seen that sabbata in Colossians 2:16 does appear with two other markers that indicate it is indeed the weekly Sabbath: the “festivals” (annual observances) and “new moons” (monthly observance), the Sabbath making the third part of the familiar chronological trilogy. It stretches linguistic credulity on the basis of Leviticus 23:32 to make sabbata here merely another of the annual observances rather than the seventh-day Sabbath.

The issue that du Preez discusses only briefly in his interpretation of Colossians 2:16¹⁴⁸ could have become his strongest argument, had he made it. It is the one that renders Colossians 2 a crux interpretum for sabbatarians and non-sabbatarians alike. We may put it in the form of a question: In what sense is the seventh-day Sabbath present in Colossians 2? What is the character of the Sabbath in this passage?

Scholars have long puzzled over the exact nature of the ritual observances indicated in Colossians. Who in Colosse insisted on “matters of food and drink and of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths”? How did they propose these be observed?

The letter to the Colossians does seem to reflect a Jewish element in the Colossian Christian community. It mentions human tradition [paradosis],¹⁴⁹ circumcision,¹⁵⁰ dietary drink restrictions,¹⁵¹ “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch,”¹⁵² as well as the festivals, new moons, and Sabbaths.¹⁵³ The Jewish historian Josephus, who wrote a few years after Colossians, reports that a couple of thousand Jewish families had been earlier transplanted from Mesopotamia to the Lycus valley, the location of Colosse, by the Seleucid king Antiochus the Great [b. 242 B.C.E.].¹⁵⁴ A Jewish population thus remained in the area, some of whom no doubt converted to Christianity during and after the apostle’s labors in the region.

What does not fit so easily with this Jewish background are the references to “worship of angels,” “elemental spirits of the universe,” spirit beings who inhabit the world and have power over humanity, and an “appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body.”¹⁵⁵ This emphasis on exclusivism, asceticism, and angelology has led many to claim that what is in view is some form of early Gnosticism, perhaps a Gnostic form of Judaism,¹⁵⁶ or at least a syncretism strongly influenced by Judaism, with links to Christianity.¹⁵⁷Adherents of this philosophy may have imagined that angels and elemental spirits constituted a threat to human beings as well as controlling access to the divine. They may have urged strict asceticism combining dietary practices and observance of Jewish sacred days as a supplement to the gospel. In so doing, their schema eclipsed the sufficiency of what God had done in Christ, and it was against this the apostle warned.¹⁵⁸ It is not clear that it represented a full-blown system of teaching. Rather, it was likely a philosophy that adopted elements from both Judaism and Hellenism common to the religious mix then present in Asia Minor.

We do not know the precise nature of what these Colossian opponents were advocating, however. It is not clear how they integrated into their philosophy the annual, monthly, and weekly Jewish observances, or how they held to the other ritual requirements mentioned in this text. Thus, we cannot be certain precisely what this text is debating. Such uncertainty as to what practice or belief is being discredited would seem to disqualify the use of this passage either for or against sabbatarian practice. It would remain a crux interpretum.

In all likelihood, nevertheless, it does appear to involve in some way the Sabbath and other Jewish festivals. The Sabbath was unique to Judaism in the Roman world, so it would seem strange to find the apostle using this particular term when referring to a non-Jewish practice. This is the simplest deduction.

Two other Pauline passages need to be brought into the discussion alongside Colossians 2. The first contains language similar to Colossians 2:

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods. Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again? You are observing special days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid that my work for you may have been wasted.”¹⁵⁹

The “days,” “months,” “seasons,” and “years” here may be a reference to the weekly, monthly, and annual Jewish observances, as in Colossians 2. Certainly Galatians was written to oppose certain Jewish legal tendencies among the Galatian converts.¹⁶⁰ If the Sabbath is one of these, as seems to be the case, Paul’s objection in Galatians is similar to that in Colossians: he views any attempt to coerce or require converts to keep the Sabbath—or any of the other observances of Judaism—as a “retrograde step.” For the Colossians, it is to fall back to the shadow of things rather than their reality. For the Galatians it is to slip back into enslavement to the “beggarly elemental spirits.”

The other passage is Romans 14. Here Paul is trying to resolve a dispute in the Roman church between those who are vegetarians, and those who eat anything.¹⁶¹ This may refer to the dispute between those who think it permissible to eat food previously offered to the gods in local shrines, and those who object to eating this food because it has been previously dedicated to the pagan gods or is non-kosher, and who are then forced to eat only vegetables.¹⁶² Vegetarianism was a characteristic of many religious movements of the first century.¹⁶³ Paul’s advice is that one should not sit in judgment on anyone who abstains, or those who do not abstain from any particular item of food or drink.¹⁶⁴ In the course of this discussion, he alludes to a similar dispute over special of observance of days: “Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike.”¹⁶⁵ This controversy may have been one previously resolved in the congregation, hence the apostle does not refer to it again in the course of his counsel in Romans 14. He merely says, almost in passing, “let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord.” ¹⁶⁶ It is not certain this earlier dispute had to do with the Sabbath and other such observances, although that is altogether likely. The silence of the text makes any definite conclusion impossible. Yet the advice Paul gives is similar to that in Colossians 2. The special days in question have lost their continuing validity. They should not be urged. No restriction is to be laid upon anyone to follow such observances. “The Christian,” de Lacey notes, “is no longer bound by external stipulations in the matter of festivals.”¹⁶⁷

In view of these three passages, especially Colossians 2, it appears contrary to Paul’s teaching to urge the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath upon Christians. Such observance must be left up to the individual conscience. No one is to judge another in this regard. Certainly, if we follow Paul, no one ought to insist on the Sabbath as the great sign of fidelity. To do so would go far beyond the New Testament evidence. Colossians, Galatians, and Romans would seem to oppose any attempt to make the Sabbath a “touchstone of orthodoxy.”¹⁶⁸ Rather, Colossians claims, the Sabbath and related observances “are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”¹⁶⁹ Christ is the litmus test for Christians, not the Sabbath.

According to the book of Acts, after conversion Paul continued his Sabbath-keeping practice, and even appears to have observed the Passover/Unleavened Bread,¹⁷⁰ Pentecost,¹⁷¹ and other Jewish rituals.¹⁷² In his own explanation of this practice, he says, “Though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law.”¹⁷³ An example of Paul’s accommodation to Jewish law appears in the matter of the circumcision of Timothy.¹⁷⁴ Yet he is accused of teaching Gentile converts to avoid circumcision or to “observe the customs.”¹⁷⁵ In all probability, while Paul may have adhered to many of his former Jewish practices for pragmatic reasons, he seems not to have imposed these on his followers. It may even be debated whether he taught his followers to observe the restrictions for Gentile converts advocated by the Jerusalem Council.¹⁷⁶ In the churches, he seems to have permitted a wide variety of practices, convinced as he was that the Torah had given way to the law of Christ.¹⁷⁷ Among these, the Sabbath held no pre-eminent value, and should not be urged. The history of Christianity shows that the church has largely followed Paul’s lead in the matter of the Sabbath.

As Christianity grew and spread in the Greco-Roman world, the Sabbath and other Jewish observances were gradually laid aside as the church separated itself still further from Judaism.¹⁷⁸ Sabbath-observance and the keeping of other holy days became not obligatory, but optional.¹⁷⁹ This was not an indication of mass apostasy, as Adventism understands it, but the gradual recognition that the older observance of the Sabbath had now been superseded by the new life inaugurated in Christ. All such distinctions that served to divide between Jews and Gentiles were “provisional.”¹⁸⁰ The “shadow” had now been superseded by the Reality. According to the writer of Hebrews, this meant that the Sabbath rest, rather than a literal observance of a day, now signified a spiritual rest of faith.¹⁸¹ Yet, as Bacchiocchi admits, the “process of separating the shadow from the reality, the transitory from the permanent, was gradual and not without difficulty.”¹⁸²In summary, Colossians 2:16 remains a difficult passage. Its difficulty extends to the precise meaning of its content: “Do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths.” Given the frequent occurrence of the chronological classification of these observances in Jewish literature, however, it is almost certain the Sabbath mentioned here is indeed the seventh-day Sabbath, which was being observed in some form and urged upon others by its proponents in this passage. One simply cannot claim, as does du Preez, that the “compelling weight of inter-textual, linguistic, semantic, structural, and contextual evidence demonstrates that the sabbata [sabbaton] of Colossians 2:16 refers to ancient Jewish ceremonial Sabbaths.”¹⁸³ The “compelling weight” of evidence points rather to the seventh-day Sabbath as the referent of sabbaton in this passage. For those who urge the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath as a requirement in Christian life, this passage continues to pose a serious challenge.

References

Andrews, J. N. (1887). History of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week (3rd ed. rev.). Battle Creek, Mich.: Review and Herald.

Arndt, William F., & Gingrich, F. Wilbur. (1979). A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature (2nd ed. rev.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Bacchiocchi, Samuele. (1977). From Sabbath to Sunday: A Historical Investigation of the Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity. Rome: Pontifical Gregorian University Press.

Bruce, F. F. (1988). The Canon of Scripture. Downers Grove: InterVarsity. Canright, Dudley M. (1970). (Seventh-day Adventism Refuted: In a Nutshell. Nashville: Gospel Advocate. (Original work published 1889)

Carson, D. A., Moo, Douglas J. & Morris, Leon. (1992). An Introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

De Lacey, D. R. (1982). The Sabbath/Sunday Question and the Law in the Pauline Corpus. In D. A. Carson (Ed.), From Sabbath to Lord’s Day: A Biblical, Historical and Theological Investigation. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Du Preez, Ron. (2008). Judging the Sabbath: Discovering What can’t be Found in Colossians 2:16. Berrien Springs, Mich.: Andrews University Press.

Gladson, Jerry. (2000). A Theologian’s Journey from Seventh-day Adventism to Mainstream Christianity. Glendale, Ariz.: Life Assurance Ministries.

Knox, John. (1954). Introduction and Exegesis of the Epistle to the Romans. In The Interpreter’s Bible. (Vols. 1-12, G. A. Buttrick, ed.). Nashville: Abingdon.

Koehler, Ludwig, & Baumgartner, Walter. (Eds.). (1958). Lexicon in Veteris Testament Libros. Leiden: E. J. Brill.

Kümmel, Werner G. (1975). Introduction to the New Testament (17th ed. rev., H. C. Kee, Tran.). Nashville: Abingdon.

Lewis, Richard. (1961). The Protestant Dilemma: How to Achieve Unity in a Completed Reformation. Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press.

Lincoln, Andrew T. (2000). The Letter to the Colossians. In The New Interpreter’s Bible (Vols. 1-12, L. E. Keck, ed.). Nashville: Abingdon.

Logan, Maurice. (1913). Sabbath Theology: A Reply to Those Who Insist that Saturday is the Only True Sabbath Day. New York: New York Sabbath Committee.

Maly, E. H., & Horgan, M. P. (2002). Colossians, Epistle to the. In the New Catholic Encyclopedia (2nd ed., vols. 1-20). New York: Thomson Gale.

Martin, Walter. (1997). The Kingdom of the Cults. (Rev. ed., Hank Hanegraaff, ed.). Minneapolis: Bethany House.

Melton, J. Gordon. (1999). Encyclopedia of American Religions. (6th ed.). Detroit: Gale.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved. All scripture quotations in this article are from the NRSV, unless otherwise indicated.

Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1957). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary. (Vols. 1-7). Washington, D. C.: Review & Herald.

Ratzlaff, Dale. (2003). Sabbath in Christ. Glendale, Ariz.: LAM Publications, LLC.

Ridderbos, Herman. (1975). Paul: An Outline of his Theology. (J. R. De Witt, Trans.). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans.

Robinson, Thomas A. (2009). Ignatius of Antioch and the Parting of the Ways: Early Jewish-Christian Relations. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson.

Rodriguez, Angel M. (2009). Judging the Sabbath. [Review of the book Judging the Sabbath: Discovering What can’t be Found in Colossians 2:16]. Ministry, 2009 November, 26-27.

Russell, D. S. (1992). Divine Disclosure: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic. Minneapolis: Fortress.

Swartley, Willard M. (1997). Sabbath. In the Encyclopedia of Early Christianity. (Vols. 1-2, 2nd ed.). New York: Garland.

Wolff, Hans W. (1974). Hosea: A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Hosea. (Gary Stansell, Trans.). Hermeneia. Philadelphia: Fortress.

Wood, Kenneth H. (1982). The “Sabbath days” of Colossians 2:16, 17. In The Sabbath in Scripture and History. (K. A. Strand, ed.). Washington: Review & Herald.

Wright, N. T. (2002). The Letter to the Romans: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections. In The New Interpreter’s Bible. (Vols. 1-12, Leander Keck, ed.). Nashville: Abingdon.

Endnotes

Melton, pp. 531-544.
krino, “find fault with,” “pass judgment on.”
See Col. 1:1; 4:18.
Rev. 13:15–18.
Ellen G. White, Manuscript 24, 1891, cited in the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, 1957, 7:983.
Martin, p. 573.
Col. 2:13-15,18.
Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, 1957, vol. 7, pp. 205-6; Wood, pp. 339–41; Lewis, 1961, p. 28.
Published in 2008.
Du Preez, p. 148.
Du Preez, pp. 9,10
Arndt and Gingrich, p. 739.
e.g., Isa 66:23.
1829–1883.
Andrews, p. 88.
Du Preez, p. 24.
“First day of the week [sabbaton],” 1 Cor. 16:2.
Lev. 23:32.
Lev. 25:1-7.
Lev. 23:24.
Koehler & Baumgartner, p. 948.
Sabbaton.
Such as Atonement and Trumpets.
Du Preez, p. 51.
Num. 28-29; 1 Chron. 23:31; 2 Chron. 2:4; 8:13; 31:3; Neh. 10:33; Ezek. 45:13-17; Hos. 2:11.
E.g., reverse order: weekly, monthly, annual.
Heorte.
“Feast,” “round dance,” “procession.”
Deut. 16:16; 2 Chron. 8:13.
Heorte.
2:13 in Hebrew.
Hos. 2:11.
Rodriguez, p. 27.
182 pages.
111 times.
Ex. 16:29; 31:13-14, 16; Lev. 19:3, 30; 26:2; Hos. 2:11; Am. 8:5; Isa. 1:13; 56:2, 4, 6; 58:13; Ezek. 20:12-13,16,20.
Lev. 23:32.
Lev. 25:6; 26:34,43; 2 Chron. 36:21.
Amos 8:5; Hos. 2:11; Isa 1:13.
Amos 8:5.
Isa. 1:13-14.
Fifth century B.C.E. or later.
Sixth century B.C.E.
Eighth century.
Num. 28:3-8.
Num. 28:9-10.
Num. 28:11-15.
Num. 28:16-25.
Num. 28:26-29.
Num. 29:1-6.
Num. 29:7-11.
Num. 29:12-38.
Num. 29:39.
Du Preez, p. 61.
A single book in the Hebrew Bible.
1 Chron. 23:31.
1 Chron. 23:30.
1 Chron. 23:31.
2 Chron. 8:13.
Heb., hag; Greek, heorte.
715-687 B.C.E.
2 Chron. 31:3.
As contrasted with Kings, where the same account may be found.
See Isa. 56:6-8; Jer. 17:21-27; Ezek. 20:12, 19-21; Neh. 10:31-33; 13:15-21.
Neh. 10:31.
Neh. 13:15-22.
Ezek. 20:20.
Ezek 40-48.
Bruce, p. 35.
Ezek. 45:1-25.
Ezek. 45:17.
Du Preez, p. 64-65; Gladson, p. 332.
Ezek. 46:3.
Ezek. 46:3.
Ezek. 46:11.
Ezek. 46:11-12.
Ezek. 46:13-15.
Hos. 2:13 in the Hebrew Bible.
In the LXX.
Logan p. 269.
Canright, p. 38.
Du Preez, p. 105.
LXX and NT.
Hos. 2:11, LXX.
Col. 2:16.
Annual/monthly/weekly.
2:13 in the Hebrew Bible.
Lit. tran.
Hag.
Passover/ Unleavened Bread; Pentecost; Tabernacles.
Shabbat.
Du Preez, pp. 110􏰀11.
Hos. 2:2-23.
Hos. 2:4.
Hos. 2:8.
Hos. 2:12.
Hos. 2:13.
Hos. 2:11.
See Isa.1:12-14; Jer. 7:21-26.
Isa. 1:15.
Wolff, p. 38.
Du Preez, pp. 179–182.
Third to the first centuries, B.C.E.
167-134 B.C.E.
162-150 B.C.E.
1 Macc. 10:34.
Du Preez, pp. 179-180.
Jud. 8:6.
Du Preez, p. 181.
D. 164 B.C.E.
1 Macc. 1:39.
1 Macc. 1:41-50.
1 Macc. 1:45.
1 Macc. 1:45-46.
1 Macc. 1:47.
1 Macc. 1:48.
Dan. 7:25.
1 Macc. 1:39-50.
1 Macc. 1:39, 45.
Sirach 43:6-8.
Sirach 47:10.
1 Chron. 23-26.
Cf. also 1 Macc. 12:11.
2 Macc. 6:6.
2 Macc. 6:1-5.
5:50-51 LXX.
See Ezra 3:8-13.
Du Preez, p. 180.
Ex. 24:18.
Du Preez, p. 181.
Jub. 6:34.
Jub. 6:37.
Jub. 6:38.
Jub. 23:19.
Jude 14-15.
Chaps. 72-82.
1 Enoch 82:1.
1 Enoch 5-6.
Russell, p. 39–40).
1 Enoch 82: 8-9.
1 Enoch 82:10.
C. 20 B.C.E.- c. 50 C.E.
Philo 2.11-48.
Col. 2:16.
Ratzlaff, p. 194.
Lev. 23:26-31.
Du Preez, pp. 48-49.
Du Preez, pp. 5–7.
Col. 2:8; cf. Mt 15:3.
Col. 2:11, 14; 3:11.
Col. 2:16.
Col. 2:21.
Col. 2:16.
Antiq. 12.3-4.
Col. 2:18-20.
Abbott, xlviii.
Kimmel, pp. 339-40; Carson, Moo, & Morris, pp. 331-38; Maly & Horgan, vol. 3, p. 861.
Lincoln, p. 566.
Gal. 4:8-11.
De Lacey, p. 181.
Rom. 14:1-3.
Wright, vol. 10, p. 735; see 1 Cor. 8.
Knox, vol. 9, p. 613.
Rom. 14:4, 13-18.
Rom. 14:5.
Rom. 14:5-6.
DeLacey, p. 183.
De Lacey, p. 183.
Col. 2:17.
Acts 20:6.
Acts. 20:16.
Acts 21:24-26.
1 Cor. 9:19-20.
Acts 16:3.
Acts 21:21.
Acts 15:13-21.
Gal. 6:2.
Swartley, 1997, vol. 2, p. 1008.
Bruce, p. 64.
Ridderbos, p. 284.
Heb. 4:9-11.
Bacchiocchi, pp. 149–50.
Du Preez, p. 148.

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Dale Ratzlaff

Dale Ratzlaff (1936–2024), is the founder of Life Assurance Ministries and Proclamation! Magazine. He served as a Seventh-day Adventist pastor for 13 years, seven at Monterey Bay Academy where he taught Bible. He and his wife Carolyn left the Adventist church in 1981 when he realized he could no longer teach the investigative judgment with a clear conscience. He has authored several books on Adventism that are available through his website, SabbathInChrist.com.