Exodus 20:8-11

20:8 “Remember ¹  the Sabbath ²  day to set it apart as holy. ³  20:9 For six days ⁴  you may labor ⁵  and do all your work, ⁶  20:10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on it ⁷  you shall not do any work, you, ⁸  or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, or the resident foreigner who is in your gates. ⁹  20:11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

Exodus 31:15

31:15 Six days ¹⁰  work may be done, ¹¹  but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, ¹²  holy to the Lord; anyone who does work on the Sabbath day must surely be put to death.

Exodus 35:3

35:3 You must not kindle a fire ¹³  in any of your homes ¹⁴  on the Sabbath day.” ¹⁵ 

Genesis 2:2-3

2:2 By ¹⁶  the seventh day God finished the work that he had been doing, ¹⁷  and he ceased ¹⁸  on the seventh day all the work that he had been doing. 2:3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy ¹⁹  because on it he ceased all the work that he ²⁰  had been doing in creation. ²¹ 

Leviticus 23:3

The Weekly Sabbath

23:3 “‘Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, ²²  a holy assembly. You must not do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord in all the places where you live.

Mark 2:27-28

2:27 Then ²³  he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, ²⁴  not people for the Sabbath. 2:28 For this reason the Son of Man is lord ²⁵  even of the Sabbath.”

Luke 23:56

23:56 Then ²⁶  they returned and prepared aromatic spices ²⁷  and perfumes. ²⁸ 

On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. ²⁹ 

Revelation 1:10

1:10 I was in the Spirit ³⁰  on the Lord’s Day ³¹  when ³²  I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,

[20:8]  ¹ tn The text uses the infinitive absolute זָכוֹר (zakhor) for the commandment for the Sabbath day, which is the sign of the Sinaitic Covenant. The infinitive absolute functions in place of the emphatic imperative here (see GKC 346 §113.bb); the absolute stresses the basic verbal idea of the root – remembering. The verb includes the mental activity of recalling and pondering as well as the consequent actions for such remembering.

[20:8]  ² tn The word “Sabbath” is clearly connected to the verb שָׁבַת (shavat, “to cease, desist, rest”). There are all kinds of theories as to the origin of the day, most notably in the Babylonian world, but the differences are striking in so far as the pagan world had these days filled with magic. Nevertheless, the pagan world does bear witness to a tradition of a regular day set aside for special sacrifices. See, for example, H. W. Wolff, “The Day of Rest in the Old Testament,” LTQ 7 (1972): 65-76; H. Routtenberg, “The Laws of Sabbath: Biblical Sources,” Dor le Dor 6 (1977): 41-43, 99-101, 153-55, 204-6; G. Robinson, “The Idea of Rest in the OT and the Search for the Basic Character of Sabbath,” ZAW 92 (1980): 32-42; and M. Tsevat, “The Basic Meaning of the Biblical Sabbath,” ZAW 84 (1972): 447-59.

[20:8]  ³ tn The Piel infinitive construct provides the purpose of remembering the Sabbath day – to set it apart, to make it distinct from the other days. Verses 9 and 10 explain in part how this was to be done. To set this day apart as holy taught Israel the difference between the holy and the profane, that there was something higher than daily life. If an Israelite bent down to the ground laboring all week, the Sabbath called his attention to the heavens, to pattern life after the Creator (B. Jacob, Exodus, 569-70).

[20:9]  ⁴ tn The text has simply “six days,” but this is an adverbial accusative of time, answering how long they were to work (GKC 374 §118.k).

[20:9]  ⁵ tn The imperfect tense has traditionally been rendered as a commandment, “you will labor.” But the point of this commandment is the prohibition of work on the seventh day. The permission nuance of the imperfect works well here.

[20:9]  ⁶ tn This is the occupation, or business of the work week.

[20:10]  ⁷ tn The phrase “on it” has been supplied for clarity.

[20:10]  ⁸ sn The wife is omitted in the list, not that she was considered unimportant, nor that she was excluded from the rest, but rather in reflecting her high status. She was not man’s servant, not lesser than the man, but included with the man as an equal before God. The “you” of the commandments is addressed to the Israelites individually, male and female, just as God in the Garden of Eden held both the man and the woman responsible for their individual sins (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 567-68).

[20:10]  ⁹ sn The Sabbath day was the sign of the Sinaitic Covenant. It required Israel to cease from ordinary labors and devote the day to God. It required Israel to enter into the life of God, to share his Sabbath. It gave them a chance to recall the work of the Creator. But in the NT the apostolic teaching for the Church does not make one day holier than another, but calls for the entire life to be sanctified to God. This teaching is an application of the meaning of entering into the Sabbath of God. The book of Hebrews declares that those who believe in Christ cease from their works and enter into his Sabbath rest. For a Christian keeping Saturday holy is not a requirement from the NT; it may be a good and valuable thing to have a day of rest and refreshment, but it is not a binding law for the Church. The principle of setting aside time to worship and serve the Lord has been carried forward, but the strict regulations have not.

[31:15]  ¹⁰ tn This is an adverbial accusative of time, indicating that work may be done for six days out of the week.

[31:15]  ¹¹ tn The form is a Niphal imperfect; it has the nuance of permission in this sentence, for the sentence is simply saying that the six days are work days – that is when work may be done.

[31:15]  ¹² tn The expression is שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן (shabbat shabbaton), “a Sabbath of entire rest,” or better, “a sabbath of complete desisting” (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 404). The second noun, the modifying genitive, is an abstract noun. The repetition provides the superlative idea that complete rest is the order of the day.

[35:3]  ¹³ sn Kindling a fire receives special attention here because the people thought that kindling a fire was not work, but only a preparation for some kind of work. The Law makes sure that this too was not done. But see also G. Robinson, “The Prohibition of Strange Fire in Ancient Israel: A Look at the Case of Gathering Wood and Kindling Fire on the Sabbath,” VT 28 (1978): 301-17.

[35:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “dwelling places”; KJV, ASV “habitations.”

[35:3]  ¹⁵ sn The presence of these three verses in this place has raised all kinds of questions. It may be that after the renewal of the covenant the people needed a reminder to obey God, and obeying the sign of the covenant was the starting point. But there is more to it than this; it is part of the narrative design of the book. It is the artistic design that puts the filling of the Spirit section (31:1-11) prior to the Sabbath laws (31:12-18) before the idolatry section, and then after the renewal there is the Sabbath reminder (35:1-3) before the filling of the Spirit material (35:4-36:7).

[2:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “on/in the seventh day.”

[2:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “his work which he did [or “made”].”

[2:2]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew term שָׁבַּת (shabbat) can be translated “to rest” (“and he rested”) but it basically means “to cease.” This is not a rest from exhaustion; it is the cessation of the work of creation.

[2:3]  ¹⁹ tn The verb is usually translated “and sanctified it.” The Piel verb קִדֵּשׁ (qiddesh) means “to make something holy; to set something apart; to distinguish it.” On the literal level the phrase means essentially that God made this day different. But within the context of the Law, it means that the day belonged to God; it was for rest from ordinary labor, worship, and spiritual service. The day belonged to God.

[2:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “God.” The pronoun (“he”) has been employed in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[2:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “for on it he ceased from all his work which God created to make.” The last infinitive construct and the verb before it form a verbal hendiadys, the infinitive becoming the modifier – “which God creatively made,” or “which God made in his creating.”

[23:3]  ²² tn This is a superlative expression, emphasizing the full and all inclusive rest of the Sabbath and certain festival times throughout the chapter (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 155). Cf. ASV “a sabbath of solemn rest.”

[2:27]  ²³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[2:27]  ²⁴ tn The Greek term ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpos) is used twice in this verse in a generic sense, referring to both men and women, thus “people.”

[2:28]  ²⁵ tn The term “lord” is in emphatic position in the Greek text.

[23:56]  ²⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[23:56]  ²⁷ tn On this term see BDAG 140-41 s.v. ἄρωμα. The Jews did not practice embalming, so these preparations were used to cover the stench of decay and slow decomposition. The women planned to return and anoint the body. But that would have to wait until after the Sabbath.

[23:56]  ²⁸ tn Or “ointments.” This was another type of perfumed oil.

[23:56]  ²⁹ sn According to the commandment. These women are portrayed as pious, faithful to the law in observing the Sabbath.

[1:10]  ³⁰ tn Or “in the spirit.” “Spirit” could refer either to the Holy Spirit or the human spirit, but in either case John was in “a state of spiritual exaltation best described as a trance” (R. H. Mounce, Revelation [NICNT], 75).

[1:10]  ³¹ tn Concerning the phrase κυριακῇ ἡμέρᾳ (kuriakh Jhmera) BDAG 576 s.v. κυριακός states: “pert. to belonging to the Lord, the Lord’s…κ. ἡμέρᾳ the Lord’s day (Kephal. I 192, 1; 193, 31…) i.e. certainly Sunday (so in Mod. Gk….) Rv 1:10 (WStott, NTS 12, ’65, 70-75).”

[1:10]  ³² tn The conjunction καί (kai) is not introducing a coordinate thought, but one that is logically subordinate to the main verb ἐγενόμην (egenomhn).