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7th day of rest

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
The bible just says rest on the 7th day. Why are days of the week more important than the 7th time the earth rotates around the sun? I assume that was the gist long ago-based on the rise and setting of the sun. Why the problem?

Just because
 

74x12

Well-Known Member
The bible just says rest on the 7th day. Why are days of the week more important than the 7th time the earth rotates around the sun? I assume that was the gist long ago-based on the rise and setting of the sun. Why the problem?

Just because
Actually in the Torah there was a sabbath year of rest every 7 years.
 

Harel13

Am Yisrael Chai
Staff member
Premium Member
What does the former mean?
The sabbatical year, Shmitah (שמיטה) in Hebrew, is the seventh year of the cycle of years in which we (Jews) let the land (the ground itself) of Israel rest and we do not work it. Along with that, there are certain socio-economical laws such as forgoing loans.
 

1213

Well-Known Member
The bible just says rest on the 7th day. Why are days of the week more important than the 7th time the earth rotates around the sun? ...

I don’t see that any days are more important than others. All days are as important, but is also important to rest and I think it would be good to rest every 7 th day.
 

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
The bible just says rest on the 7th day. Why are days of the week more important than the 7th time the earth rotates around the sun? I assume that was the gist long ago-based on the rise and setting of the sun. Why the problem?

Just because
The idea of taking a vacation day or two each week is simply healthy for the mind and body. It is good that the world has taken notice and most of it has put it into action, even if some its citizens have a different day than others.


As for the 7th day, being Friday sundown to Saturday twilight, being a day of rest to observe and keep (the Shabbat), this is given specifically to the Children of Israel as an obligation. It was never intended to be a commandment to all the nations, all of humanity. If a non-Jew wants to mow his lawn on Saturday, more power to him. On the other hand, if he voluntarily wishes to refrain from work on the Shabbat, there is no harm done. But it is not an obligation for him.
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
The idea of taking a vacation day or two each week is simply healthy for the mind and body. It is good that the world has taken notice and most of it has put it into action, even if some its citizens have a different day than others.


As for the 7th day, being Friday sundown to Saturday twilight, being a day of rest to observe and keep (the Shabbat), this is given specifically to the Children of Israel as an obligation. It was never intended to be a commandment to all the nations, all of humanity. If a non-Jew wants to mow his lawn on Saturday, more power to him. On the other hand, if he voluntarily wishes to refrain from work on the Shabbat, there is no harm done. But it is not an obligation for him.

Yes. Why the problem with which day is which, though?
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
I don’t see that any days are more important than others. All days are as important, but is also important to rest and I think it would be good to rest every 7 th day.

Do you have an idea why would one day be more important than the other for some people?
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
The sabbatical year, Shmitah (שמיטה) in Hebrew, is the seventh year of the cycle of years in which we (Jews) let the land (the ground itself) of Israel rest and we do not work it. Along with that, there are certain socio-economical laws such as forgoing loans.

You lost me.
 

Harel13

Am Yisrael Chai
Staff member
Premium Member
You lost me.
Sorry, I'll try again: Jewish years follow a cycle of seven years. There are different laws that pertain to each year. The seventh year of every cycle is the sabbatical year, called Shmitah in Hebrew, which literally means "to let go of (the ground)". In the seventh year, the Jews living in the land of Israel stop working in the fields, letting the ground rest and the plants grow by themselves. Besides for that, there are also certain socio-economic laws that pertain specifically to the seventh year, such as forgoing loans - if you took a loan from someone and haven't managed to pay it back by the seventh year, that person is obligated to forgo the loan.
 

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
Yes. Why the problem with which day is which, though?
Because Christianity's tradition is to worship on Sunday, and yet there are Sabbatarians who believe they are obligated by the Torah to keep a seventh day Shabbat like Jews.

The Christian church moved the solemnity of the Sabbath to the "eighth day" (the day Christ arose) in an effort to distinguish itself from Judaism. This probably happened in the late first century, since the "eight day" was referred to as the "Lord's Day" and John makes reference to the Lord's Day in his book, Revelation, which was written at the end of the first century.
 

It Aint Necessarily So

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Do you have an idea why would one day be more important than the other for some people?

I have a hypothesis regarding the commandment to rest every seven days.

First, though, think of how odd it is to have an omnipotent god that requires six days to create reality, and how odd it is that they would then say that this god needed to rest for a day. There's usually a reason for something like that, just as we need an explanation for the story of a global flood rather than the type of flood humanity had experience with, and making it about a fickle, cruel god that thought that it could fix its engineering mistake using the same breeding stock - a not very flattering depiction of this god.

Here's my guess regarding the advent of the Sabbath.

Once, before the advent of organized, centralized religion, I presume that it was considered sinful for any able-bodied person capable of working to not work simply because he wanted a day off. The flocks needed attention every day. If it was planting or harvesting season, there were no days when planting or harvesting didn't occur until the job was done.

Fast forward to the advent of organized religion with a priesthood and centralized gathering places for religious purposes. The priesthood needs the people to come to it and to the temple, which requires that people put down their plowshares, travel to the synagogue for services, and to bring tithes to support the priests.

This round trip and meeting would likely take most of a day for many of the people served by any given synagogue, and require that the farmer, smith, or shepherd take a day off work to travel to the priests - once considered sinful sloth. A new ethic was born. You will take one day away from your labors each week

In fact, it was commanded under penalty of stoning, which commandment made the top ten list. The sin then was working on this day. And God's day of rest serves as the role model, and why it is sinful to not also take a day off each week.

Notice also the choice of the week, an artificial construct with no astronomical correlate like the day, month, or year, which are inspired by celestial motions and cycles. How often shall these people be instructed to take a day off and bring tithes to the priests? A month was too long, and a day too short, so, the week was invented - the work week to be precise - and the first weekend.

Now the story make sense. Now we have a plausible reason for there being six days of labor for this god followed by one of rest.

Incidentally, to those who say that the days of Genesis are not meant to be literal days, the idea of a seventh day of rest being 24 hours pretty much settles that for me.

Regarding the flood story, my guess is that it exists because people found shells and marine fossils on mountaintops, couldn't conceive of the mountains rising from sea floors and hence postulated a global flood, and then needed to invent a reason why a good god would drown the world and end up with what he intended to remedy - a sinful humanity.

This story depicts the god as intellectually and morally challenged, which we wouldn't expect these people to do without a good reason. They needed to account for ocean life on mountaintops.

Now that story makes sense as well.
 

2ndpillar

Well-Known Member
Because Christianity's tradition is to worship on Sunday, and yet there are Sabbatarians who believe they are obligated by the Torah to keep a seventh day Shabbat like Jews.

The Christian church moved the solemnity of the Sabbath to the "eighth day" (the day Christ arose) in an effort to distinguish itself from Judaism. This probably happened in the late first century, since the "eight day" was referred to as the "Lord's Day" and John makes reference to the Lord's Day in his book, Revelation, which was written at the end of the first century.

New American Standard Bible
"For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."

There is no bible verse referring to the "eighth day" being the "Lord's day". The verse you might have in mind is that Paul panhandled for donations supposedly for the widows of Jerusalem on the 1st day of the week. That apparently has been modified, for now Paul's church panhandles for the support of their church and leadership on the 1st day of the week, the day of the Sun.
 
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