The Sabbath in Colossians 2:16. The sacred times prescribed by the false teachers are referred to as “a festival or a new moon or a sabbath–eortes he neomenia he sabbaton ” (2:16). The unanimous consensus of com-mentators is that these three words represent a logical and progressive sequence (annual, monthly and weekly) as well as an exhaustive enumeration of the sacred times. This view is validated by the occurrence of these terms, in similar or reversesequence, five times in the Septuagint and several times in other literature. 60 There is, however, an exceptional occurrence in Isaiah 1:13-14 where the “new moon” is found at the beginning of the enumeration rather than in the middle, but an exception does not invalidate a common usage. The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary interprets the “sabbaton– sabbath days” as a reference to the annual ceremonial sabbaths PAGE 339 and not to the weekly Sabbath (Lev. 23-6-8, 15, 16, 21, 24, 25, 27, 28, 37, ~38). It is a fact that both the Sabbath and the Day of Atonement in Hebrew are designated by the compound expression shabbath habbath6n, meaning “a sabbath of solemn rest” (Ex. 31:15; 35:2; Lev. 23:3,32; 16:31). But this phrase is rendered in the Septuagint by the compound Greek expression “sabbata sabbaton ” which is different from the simple “sabbaton” found in Colossians 2:16. It is therefore linguistically impossible to interpret the latter as a reference to the Day of Atonement or to any other ceremonial sabbaths, since these are never designated simply as “sabbata.” The cited commentary rests its interpretation, however, not on the grammatical and linguistic use of the word “sabbaton” but rather on a theological interpretation of the Sabbath as related to ‘‘shadow in Colossians 2:17. It is argued that “the weekly Sabbath is a memorial of an event at the beginning of earth’s history... hence the “sabbath days” Paul declares to be shadows pointing to Christ cannot refer to the weekly Sabbath.., but must indicate the ceremonial rest days that reach their realization in Christ and His Kingdom.” 61 To determine the meaning of a word exclusively by theological as- sumptions, rather than by linguistic or contextual evidences, is against the canons of Biblical hermeneutics. Moreover even the theological interpreta- tion which the Adventist commentary gives to the Sabbath is hard to justify, since we have seen that the Sabbath can legitimately be regarded as the “shadow” or fitting symbol of the present and future blessing of salvation. 62 Furthermore we have noticed that the term “shadow” is used not in a pejorative sense, as a label for worthless observances which have ceased their function, but to qualify their role in relationship to the “body of Christ.” Another significant indication pointing against annual ceremonial sabbaths is the fact that these are already included in the word “eortes– festival” and if “sabbaton” meant the same thing there would be a needless repetition. These indications compellingly show that the word “sabbaton” as used in Colossians 2:16 cannot refer to any of the annual ceremonial sabbaths. Does the plural form “ sabbata ” refer exclusively to the seventh-day Sabbath? The fact that the plural has three meanings, namely (1) several Sabbaths (LXX Ez. 46:3; Is. 1:13; Acts 17:2), (2) one Sabbath (in spite of 3:2-4), and (3) the whole week (cf. the titles of Psalms in the LXX, Ps. 23:1; 47;1; 93:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; Acts 20:7), has led some to believe that in Colossians the term refers not exclusively to the seventh-day Sabbath but also to “week-days.” 63 (Sam Bacchiocci, Sabbath to Sunday; Appendix: Paul and the Law)
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 11:39:14 +0000
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