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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
The Sabbath
The seventh day, a commanded rest from sundown to sundown, a badge of Jewish identity, and a law the experts argued over in detail.
The whole town plans its week around the day the stores are shut. The Sabbath was the seventh day, when God's law said to stop work. You did not carry loads or harvest. Because it mattered so much, teachers argued about exactly what counted as work.
The Sabbath was a regular reminder of creation and of the Exodus. In a pagan world it marked Jews out, alongside circumcision and the food laws (Wright). It was a sign that Israel belonged to the creator God, not a rule kept to earn favor. Jewish days ran from sundown to sundown, and one should not carry loads on the Sabbath. The law let hungry travelers pick heads of grain (Deuteronomy 23:25). The problem was doing it on the Sabbath, which the Mishnah later classed as reaping. Even Pharisees did not agree among themselves about which acts broke the Sabbath. The school of Hillel allowed prayer for the sick on the Sabbath, and the school of Shammai did not. Jewish tradition allowed washing and anointing a corpse on the Sabbath. But spices could not be bought until it was over, at sundown on Saturday. The day of Preparation means the day before a Sabbath. Keener warns against picturing the Pharisees as legalists. Jews across the ancient world honored the day and kept it with joy. Teachers agreed that some things came before it, such as temple service, saving a life and defensive war. Judaism also had its calendar of holy days, new moons and sabbatical years. Roman decrees let Jews keep the day without fines. Josephus quotes a decree of Ephesus that "no one of them should be hindered from keeping the sabbath day." Some Jewish writers expected the world to come to be the final Sabbath rest.
An analogy: a union rule about breaks and overtime. Everyone agrees on the rule. The fights are over the edge cases, and a newcomer who seems careless about them gets watched.
Sabbath disputes turn on what counted as work, as in Mark 2:23-24, and the experts themselves disagreed. Healing on the Sabbath, as in Matthew 12:10, drew the sharpest debate. The day also sets the timetable of the burial and the empty tomb. Colossians 2:16 names Sabbaths with festivals and new moons among the things believers are not to be judged by.
Not a work rule negotiated between bosses and workers. The Sabbath was God's command, a sign that Israel belonged to the creator, recalling creation and the Exodus. Jews kept it with joy as a badge of who they were. Nor was it a weekend to fill as you liked; the law said what you could do and carry.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-12-1-14\/","n":"Matthew 12:1-14, Grain on the Sabbath, a withered hand","s":"Pharisees object when the disciples pick grain on the Sabbath. Jesus answers with David, the priests in the temple and mercy, then heals a withered hand in the synagogue.","r":"Matthew 12:1-14"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-24-15-28\/","n":"Matthew 24:15-28, The desolating sacrilege and the flight","s":"When the desolating sacrilege spoken of by Daniel stands in the holy place, those in Judea must flee to the mountains at once. False messiahs will say he is in the wilderness, but his coming will be like lightning.","r":"Matthew 24:15-28"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-27-57-66\/","n":"Matthew 27:57-66, Joseph's tomb and the sealed stone","s":"Joseph of Arimathea, a rich disciple, asks Pilate for the body and lays it in his own new tomb. The next day the chief priests get a guard and a seal on the stone.","r":"Matthew 27:57-66"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-1-21-45\/","n":"Mark 1:21-45, A Sabbath in Capernaum and a leper","s":"Jesus teaches in the synagogue, drives out a spirit, heals Simon's mother-in-law and, after sunset, the whole town. Then he touches and cleanses a leper.","r":"Mark 1:21-45"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-2-23-3-6\/","n":"Mark 2:23-3:6, Grain and a withered hand on the Sabbath","s":"Jesus defends his disciples for picking grain on the Sabbath, heals a man's hand in the synagogue, and the Pharisees start plotting with the Herodians.","r":"Mark 2:23-3:6"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-15-42-16-8\/","n":"Mark 15:42-16:8, The tomb","s":"Joseph of Arimathea buries Jesus before the Sabbath. When it is over, the women come with spices, find the stone rolled away, and hear that he has been raised.","r":"Mark 15:42-16:8"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-13-10-21\/","n":"Luke 13:10-21, A bent woman freed on the Sabbath; mustard and leaven","s":"Teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath, Jesus frees a woman bent double for eighteen years. The synagogue ruler objects, and Jesus answers with an ox untied for water, then compares God's kingdom to a mustard seed and to leaven.","r":"Luke 13:10-21"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-14-1-14\/","n":"Luke 14:1-14, Dropsy at a Pharisee's table, and guests who cannot repay","s":"On a Sabbath at the house of a leading Pharisee, Jesus heals a man with dropsy, tells the guests not to grab the best places, and tells the host to invite people who cannot invite him back.","r":"Luke 14:1-14"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-5-1-18\/","n":"John 5:1-18, The pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath","s":"At a pool with five porches, Jesus heals a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years and tells him to pick up his mat. It is the Sabbath, and the dispute that follows turns on Jesus calling God his own Father.","r":"John 5:1-18"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-7-1-36\/","n":"John 7:1-36, Up to the Festival of Tabernacles","s":"Jesus stays in Galilee while the Judeans look for a chance to kill him, then goes up to Tabernacles privately and teaches in the temple. The crowds argue over whether he is a deceiver or the Messiah, and the chief priests send guards to arrest him.","r":"John 7:1-36"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-9-1-41\/","n":"John 9:1-41, A man born blind is put out","s":"Jesus puts mud on a blind beggar's eyes and sends him to wash in Siloam. Because it is the Sabbath the man is questioned, his parents are afraid, and when he defends Jesus he is thrown out.","r":"John 9:1-41"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-19-31-42\/","n":"John 19:31-42, Legs unbroken and a hundred pounds of spices","s":"Because the coming Sabbath is a high day, the leaders ask for the bodies to be taken down. The soldiers find Jesus already dead and pierce his side; Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus bury him with a lavish weight of spices in a new tomb in a garden.","r":"John 19:31-42"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-1-12-26\/","n":"Acts 1:12-26, The Twelve made whole by lot","s":"Back in Jerusalem the apostles pray in an upstairs room with the women and Jesus' family. Peter says Judas's place must be filled, and the lot falls on Matthias.","r":"Acts 1:12-26"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/romans-14-1-23\/","n":"Romans 14:1-23, Vegetables, holy days and wine","s":"Some believers eat only vegetables and keep certain days; others eat anything and treat every day alike. Paul tells both not to judge one another, since all will stand before God's judgment seat, and not to wreck another's faith over food.","r":"Romans 14:1-23"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/galatians-4-1-11\/","n":"Galatians 4:1-11, Heirs, slaves and the elements of the world","s":"An heir who is still a child is no better off than a slave, Paul says; so we were enslaved under the elements of the world until God sent his Son to redeem us and his Spirit to cry Abba, and he asks why the Galatians want to go back to observing special days, months, seasons and years.","r":"Galatians 4:1-11"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/colossians-2-16-23\/","n":"Colossians 2:16-23, Food, new moons, Sabbaths and the worship of angels","s":"Paul tells the believers not to let anyone judge them over food, drink, festivals, new moons or Sabbaths, or disqualify them with self-denial, the worship of angels and visions, and calls rules about what not to touch or taste human commands with no power over the flesh.","r":"Colossians 2:16-23"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/hebrews-3-1-4-13\/","n":"Hebrews 3:1-4:13, Moses the servant, and the rest still open","s":"Moses was faithful in God's house as a servant; Jesus is faithful over it as the Son. Psalm 95's warning not to harden hearts as in the wilderness still speaks today, because the rest God promised was never reached under Joshua and remains open for God's people.","r":"Hebrews 3:1-4:13"}
- N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, comment on Mark 2:23-28, and Glossary, entry sabbath
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Mark 1:32, 2:23, 2:24, 3:5, 16:1 and 16:2, and note on Matthew 12:14
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Mark 15:42
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 12:2 and 12:5-6
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Galatians 4:10
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Galatians 4:10
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 14.10.25, trans. William Whiston
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Hebrews 4:3-5
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Hebrews 4:4
