Sabbath

The Biblical Background of the Lord’s Day (Sunday)

by

From New Testament times, the church met for worship on the first day of the week, the day of Jesus’ resurrection. The Lord’s Day has absorbed some features of the Jewish Sabbath but also differs in important respects. It is a day that incorporates within it all the festivals of the Christian year.

Terminology

The first day of the week quite early became the regular day on which the church assembled for worship in place of the Jewish Sabbath (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2). There is no New Testament injunction to observe this day, but the second-century Didachē, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, directs the church to “assemble and give thanks” on the Lord’s Day (Didachē 14). The title “the Lord’s Day” is found in the New Testament only in Revelation 1:10, where John states that he was in the Spirit “on the Lord’s Day” when he received his commission to write the revelation of Jesus Christ. The expression “Day of the Lord” in the Old Testament generally describes an impending time of judgment, although in some contexts it might refer to a festival known as “Yahweh’s Day,” perhaps a celebration of his enthronement and possibly the new year festival (cf. Amos 5:18). In early Christian writings, “the Lord’s Day” designates Sunday, the first day of the week, observed from apostolic times as a day of Christian worship. The English name Sunday is a holdover from the original pagan dedication of this day to the sun god; in the Romance languages, in contrast, the meaning of “Lord’s Day” is better represented by names such as domingo or dimanche, from the Latin Dominus, “Lord.”

Origin of the Lord’s Day

A popular belief is that the Lord’s Day originated in the Jewish Sabbath, which Jesus himself, or his apostles, changed from the seventh to the first day of the week. This belief has persisted, although there is no scriptural teaching that the Sabbath has been transferred from one day to another. The origin of the Christian Sunday is more complicated, for the transition from the Sabbath to the Lord’s Day was a gradual one. Since the transition took place while Christianity was emerging from its Jewish background, it was inevitable that Judaism should contribute a great deal to a Christian institution such as the weekly day of assembly and worship. At this time, also, the church was entering into conflict with pagan cults, which, especially in later centuries, made their influence felt in the formation of Christian institutions. The Christian day of worship was bound to embrace elements that would distinguish it from both the Jewish day of assembly and the pagan observances.

The Sabbath and the Lord’s Day

The Sabbath held a distinctive place in the life of the Jewish community. During the time of the Exile in Babylon, when the Judeans were cut off from their festival worship in Jerusalem, the Sabbath began to emerge as an institution that held the people together. It has been said that it was not the Jews who kept the Sabbath but the Sabbath that kept the Jews. Even after the restoration of the temple, the Sabbath continued to grow in importance; the local religious rites of the Jews came to center around this day, especially outside Palestine, and all the more so with the destruction of Herod’s temple in a.d. 70.

It was natural that many of the traditions of the Sabbath should be incorporated into the life of the early church; Jews, who had been accustomed to observe the Sabbath by resting from their ordinary labors and by prayer and study in the synagogue, would have found it difficult not to maintain these customs as Christians. At first, Jewish Christians apparently observed both the seventh and the first days of the week. Later, when the Christian movement became more Gentile in its constituency, and when its distinction from Judaism became more apparent, the majority of Christians observed only the first day of the week. However, they transferred to it many of the features of the earlier institution, which had occupied such an important place in the heritage they had received from Judaism. To an extent, therefore, the character of the Jewish Sabbath was imitated in the Christian Sunday. Like the Sabbath, it was regarded as a day of joy and festivity, and fasting on it was forbidden. As the Sabbath opened and closed with appropriate celebrations, the first Christians also met early in the morning on the Lord’s Day and again in the evening to worship and share a meal together.

To the Jew, the Sabbath was a memorial of the Creation of the world and of the preservation of the Lord’s people. It was a weekly reminder of God’s rest after the six days of Creation and also of Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian slavery (Gen. 2:3; Exod. 20:11; Deut. 5:15). The most prominent feature of the Sabbath, even before it became a day of assembly, was the cessation of all kinds of work. Although this feature of the Jewish sacred day was the last to be carried over into the Christian Sunday, there are indications as early as the beginning of the third century that Christians abstained from work on the Lord’s Day. The fact that the Lord’s Day became a weekly day of worship and rest for Christians, as opposed to a monthly or annual observance, can be explained only by analogy with the Jewish Sabbath.

Christian Distinctives of the Lord’s Day

Although it borrowed important features from the Sabbath, the Lord’s Day was from the beginning a distinctively Christian institution. It was observed on the first day of the week because it was on this day that Jesus rose from the dead. All four Gospels indicate that the Resurrection was discovered early in the morning on the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1). Six of the eight appearances of Christ to his followers after the Resurrection took place on the first day: to Mary Magdalene (John 20:1–18), to the women bringing spices to anoint Jesus’ body (Matt. 28:7–10), to two disciples on the Emmaus road (Luke 24:13–33), to Simon Peter (Luke 24:34), to the ten disciples when Thomas was absent (John 20:19–23; cf. Luke 24:36–49), and possibly (although the text uses the phrase “after eight days”) to the eleven disciples when Thomas was present (John 20:24–29). These appearances of Christ on the first day were sufficient to set it apart as a day of particular significance. If the crucifixion of Jesus took place on the sixth day of the week (Friday), as is traditionally held, then the day of Pentecost that year was also on the first day of the week, since it falls fifty days after Passover (which would have coincided with the Sabbath). If so, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the apostles also occurred on the Lord’s Day (Acts 2:1–4).

The resurrection of Jesus, which verified that he was the Christ, the Son of God, was denied by the church’s Jewish opponents. Since the Resurrection was foundational to the Christian movement, it is understandable that Christians—even those who were Jews by descent—would view a separate day of worship as something demanded by the contrast between Christianity and Judaism. In assembling on the first day of the week, the church continuously proclaimed the central fact of the gospel. In his first Apology (I. 67)—a defense of the church addressed to the Roman Emperor—Justin Martyr (c. 100–165) explains that the church chose this day for worship because it was both the first day of Creation and the day of the resurrection of Christ. Thus the Lord’s Day contrasts with the Sabbath in a second respect closely related to the Resurrection. Whereas the Sabbath, or seventh day, marked God’s resting from his creative activity (Gen. 2:1–2), the Lord’s Day is a day of “new creation.” By worshiping on the first day of the week, the Christian church is making a statement about the new beginning God has made in Jesus Christ and the people of the new covenant (2 Cor. 5:17; Rev. 21:1–5).

When questioned about his authority, Jesus quoted a psalm: “The stone the builders rejected has become the Stone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes” (cf. Matt. 21:42; Ps. 118:22–23). Peter, in his address before the Jewish Sanhedrin, quoted part of the same passage and applied it to the resurrection of Christ (Acts 4:11). Athanasius, in the fourth century, added the following verse and applied it to the day of Resurrection: “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Sabbath and Sabbatical Seasons in Ancient Israel

by

The word sabbath means a time of rest. In Israelite and Jewish religion, times of rest are the weekly Sabbath, the monthly new moon, the sabbatical year, the Year of Jubilee, and special festal Sabbaths. Sabbaths were times of release from the economic bondage of heavy work or constant indebtedness; they were declarations that the needs of the people were supplied not by their labor but by the Lord.

Weekly Sabbath

In addition to the annual festivals, the celebration of the weekly Sabbath (shabbat) and the sabbatical feast days are also called “holy convocations” (miqra’ei qodesh) in Leviticus 23:2–4 (nasb). During the wilderness wanderings, a holy convocation was a religious assembly of all males at the tabernacle. After Hebrew settlement in Palestine, however, the universal command to appear at the sanctuary had reference only in regard to the three festival pilgrimages in which all males were to attend the Feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles at Jerusalem (Exod. 23:14–17; Deut. 16:16). The holy convocation commanded for the weekly Sabbath was to be observed where the people lived.

Origin. The Creation narrative in Genesis concludes with an account of the hallowing of the seventh day by God, who rested from all his creative activity on that day. Although the term Sabbath does not occur in this account, its verbal root, shabat, meaning “he rested or ceased,” is used (Gen. 2:3). The Decalogue, in Exodus 20:8–11, ties Sabbath observance to the fact that God rested on this day after six days of creative work. Although there is no distinct mention of the observance in Genesis, some scholars hold that Moses treats it as an institution already familiar to the Hebrews. The words, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy” (Exod. 20:8) point to this conclusion. Furthermore, a seven-day period is referred to in Genesis (cf. Gen 1:1–2:3; 7:4–10; 8:10–12; 29:27–28).

The first definite mention of the Sabbath as a religious institution is found in Exodus 16:21–30 in connection with the giving of manna. God commanded Israel in the wilderness to begin observing the seventh day as a Sabbath of rest from all labor by gathering a double portion of manna on the sixth day. That the day was already known to them is supported by the Lord’s rebuke to those who disobeyed: “How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions?” (Exod. 16:28). A short time later the observance was enjoined as the fourth commandment at Sinai (Exod. 20:8–11).

Modern critical scholars assign the origin of the Sabbath to two different sources, which on the surface appear to disagree. Exodus 20:11, it is argued, makes the Sabbath a memorial of God’s rest upon the completion of Creation, whereas Deuteronomy 5:15 states that the Sabbath is a memorial of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. However, this view ignores the context of Deuteronomy. The Sabbath was to be a perpetual covenant between God and Israel as his gift of refreshing rest; as such it served as a memorial of his rest from creative activity and was not specifically a memorial of the Exodus. The reference to the Exodus event in Deuteronomy expressly reminds Israel that out of gratitude for their freedom and rest after a long period of servile labor, they ought also to allow rest for their servants, who were now slaves as the Israelites had been in Egypt (cf. Exod. 5:14–15). Thus both passages connect the Sabbath with rest.

Some scholars have drawn parallels between the Babylonian shabbatu and the Hebrew Sabbath, but no such relationship can be drawn from the available evidence. Furthermore, Ezekiel 20:12, 20 indicates that the Sabbaths were signs God gave to Israel to distinguish her from other nations.

Character and Observance. The Sabbath was to be observed by abstaining from all physical labor done by man or beast. But the Sabbath was not intended for selfish use in idleness; it was a divinely given opportunity, in freedom from one’s secular labors, to strengthen and refresh the whole person, physically and spiritually. The Sabbath had a benevolent design and was intended as a blessing, not a burden, to humankind (cf. Deut. 5:14–15; Isa. 58:13–14; Mark 2:27). Sabbath legislation is found in several Old Testament passages (Exod. 16:23–30; 20:8–11; 31:12–17; Lev. 19:3, 30; Num. 15:32–36; Deut. 5:12–15).

Monthly New Moon

The first day of each month was designated as ro’sh ḥodesh, “the first or head of the month,” or simply as ḥodesh, “new moon” (Num. 10:10; 1 Sam. 20:5). Unlike the new moon of the seventh month, which was the first day of the civil new year and was celebrated with a great festival, the regular monthly new moons were subordinate feast days celebrated with additional burnt offerings (Num. 28:11–15), the blowing of trumpets (Num. 10:10; Ps. 81:3), family feasts (1 Sam. 20:5), spiritual edification (2 Kings 4:23), and family sacrifices (1 Sam. 20:6). As on all sabbatical feast days, servile work ceased, except the necessary preparation of food (cf. Exod. 12:16). The new moon and Sabbath are closely related in several passages (Isa. 1:13; Ezek. 46:1; Hos. 2:11; Amos 8:5).

The moon occupied an important place in the life of the Hebrews since it was the guide to their calendar, which was based on the lunar month or period of the moon’s circuit. Because of this, and the importance of the uniform celebration of the various periodic religious festivals by Jews everywhere, it was extremely important to determine the exact time of the appearance of the new moon. Thus the appearance of the smallest crescent signified the beginning of a new month and was announced with the blowing of the shofar, or ram’s horn.

Sabbatical Year

The shƒnat shabbaton, “year of rest,” or sabbatical year, like the weekly Sabbath, was designed by God with a benevolent purpose in view. Every seventh-year debts were to be canceled and the land was to lie fallow, the uncultivated increase to be left to the poor Israelites.

Observance. According to 2 Chronicles 36:21, observance of the sabbatical year had been neglected for about five hundred years, the seventy-year captivity allowing the land to enjoy its neglected Sabbaths, “for as long as it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years” (2 Chron. 36:21 ASV). After the captivity, the people under Nehemiah bound themselves to the faithful observance of the seventh year, covenanting that “we would forego the seventh year and the exaction of every debt” (Neh. 10:31 ASV). Its observance continued during the intertestamental period (1 Macc. 6:48–53) and later (Josephus [Antiquities] xiv. 10.6).

Purpose. (1) The sabbatical year was rest for the land (Lev. 25:1–7). After the land had been sown and harvested for six successive years it was “to rest,” or remain fallow, on the seventh year. This included the vineyards and olive yards (Exod. 23:10). This provision ensured greater productivity for the soil by the periodic interruption of the incessant sowing, plowing, and reaping. (2) The sabbatical year was to provide food for the poor. During this year, that which grew of itself in the fields, vineyards, and olive yards was not to be harvested but left so that “the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave” (Exod. 23:10–11). Leviticus 25:6–7 includes the owner, his or her servant, the sojourner, cattle, and beasts, as well as the poor of Exodus 23:11, as those eligible to consume the natural produce of the sabbatical year. (3) Debts were to be canceled in the sabbatical year (Deut. 15:1–6). Each creditor was to cancel the debts of another Israelite at the end of every seven years, for it was called also “the year of release” (Deut. 15:9; 31:10 RSV). This did not apply to a foreigner, from whom the debt could be collected (Deut. 15:3). The release occurred so that absolute poverty and permanent indebtedness would not exist among the Israelites. In addition, they were not to disregard the needs of their poorer brothers and sisters by refusing to lend merely because the year of release was near (Deut. 15:7–11). (4) In the sabbatical year, the Law was to be read for the instruction of the people at the Feast of Tabernacles (Deut. 31:10–13). (5) Not only during the sabbatical year but also at the close of any six-year period, those Israelites who, because of poverty, had made themselves bondservants to their brethren were to be released (Deut. 15:12–18). In this case, the year of release would be ascertained from the first year of indenture. The legislation respecting the sabbatical year was confined to the Israelites in the Holy Land and went into effect upon their arrival there (Lev. 25:2).

Year of Jubilee

Seven sabbatical cycles of years (that is, forty-nine) terminated in the Year of Jubilee (Shƒnat Hayyovel), literally, “the year of the ram’s horn.” Thus, the arrival of the fiftieth year was designated by sounding the ram’s horn (yovel) (Lev. 25:8–17). The fiftieth year is called “the year of liberty” (Shƒnat haddƒror)(Ezek. 46:17; cf. Jer. 34:8, 15, 17) on the basis of Leviticus 25:10: “Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land.… It shall be a jubilee for you” (Lev. 25:10).

Nature of the Celebration. According to Leviticus 25:9, the Year of Jubilee was announced by the sounding of rams’ horns throughout the land on the tenth day of the seventh month, which was also the great Day of Atonement. The Year of Jubilee was not, as some have thought, the forty-ninth year, and thus simply a seventh sabbatical year, but was, as Leviticus 25:10 states, the fiftieth year, thus providing two successive sabbatical years in which the land would have rest. Certain regulations were issued to take effect during the Year of Jubilee. (1) The Year of Jubilee was to be a rest for the land. As in the preceding sabbatical year, the land was to remain uncultivated and the people were to eat of the natural increase (Lev. 25:11–12). To compensate for this, God promised: “I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years” (Lev. 25:21). In addition, other sources of provision were available, such as hunting, fishing, flocks, herds, bees, and the like. (2) Hereditary lands and property were to be restored to the original family, without compensation, in the Year of Jubilee (Lev. 25:23–34). In this manner, all the land and its improvements would eventually be restored to the original holders to whom God had given it, for he said, “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine” (Lev. 25:23). This regulation did not apply to a house within a walled city, which stood in no relation to a family’s land inheritance (Lev. 25:29–30). (3) Freedom of bondservants was to be effected in the Year of Jubilee. Every Israelite who had because of poverty subjected himself or herself to bondage was to be set free (Lev. 25:39–43).

Purpose. These regulations and provisions for the Year of Jubilee had several divine purposes. (1) It was to contribute to the abolishment of poverty by enabling the unfortunate and victims of circumstances to begin anew. (2) It would discourage excessive, permanent accumulations of wealth and property and the consequent deprivation of an Israelite of his or her inheritance in the land. “Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field” (Isa. 5:8; cf. Mic. 2:2). (3) It preserved families and tribes inasmuch as it returned freed bondservants to their own blood relations and families, and thus slavery, in any permanent sense, would not exist in Israel.

Special Festival Sabbaths

In addition to the weekly Sabbath and the monthly new moon, there were seven annual feast days that were also classed as Sabbaths. They were the first and last days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:7–8), the Day of Pentecost (Lev. 23:21), the Feast of Trumpets (Lev. 23:24–25), the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:32), and the first and last days of the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:34–36). There was one major distinction between these festival Sabbaths and the weekly Sabbath and Day of Atonement: all work was strictly forbidden on weekly Sabbaths and the Day of Atonement, whereas rest only from “servile” labor was required on the festival Sabbaths.

Terms from Old Testament Worship Used to Interpret Christ

by

It is significant that the New Testament authors apply words and images from Israelite worship to Jesus Christ. In so doing, they show how the church sought to interpret Jesus, whom it recognized to be the Christ.

Jesus Christ, in his appearance as the incarnate Word of God, displayed a personal presence and power that moved people to an awed and worshipful response. When Jesus directed the Galilean fishermen to a miraculous catch, Peter fell at his feet, crying, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8). As a woman suffering from a hemorrhage touched the hem of his garment and was healed, Jesus sensed that power had gone out from him; in fear and trembling the woman fell down before him (Mark 5:25–34). The soldiers who came to arrest Jesus “drew back and fell to the ground” when he spoke (John 18:6). The resurrection of Christ further verified his identity as the one appointed by God to fulfill his purpose in the redemption of his people. This left the apostles with the task of explaining the crucifixion as a part of the divine plan. To do this, they drew on the work of the prophets of Israel, especially the portrait of the “servant” of the Lord found in the later chapters of Isaiah; they also drew on the imagery and terminology associated with the festal and sacrificial cultus of the Hebrew sanctuary, including the concept of atonement.

Atonement Terminology

The idea of atonement relates to the need to be shielded from the wrath of a holy God, yet not in the moral sense alone (that God is good and man is evil); rather it is because God is God, the Creator, and the worshiper is a finite creature that the gap between them must be bridged by some atoning act. The Creator is of surpassing worth; in contrast, the worshiper is as nothing before him. Atonement is a “covering” (the basic meaning of the Hebrew kafar) that provides a cleansing or consecration for the worshiper, enabling him or her to enter the presence of God and to have fellowship with him. Thus, by sacrifice atonement is made for priests, the people, and even for the sanctuary and the altar (for example, Lev. 16) that the profane might venture to approach the sacred and serve God’s purposes. In another connection, a leper who is cleansed must have atonement made through the slaughter of a male lamb (Lev. 14:1–20). The concept of atonement defies rational explanation but belongs to the realm of the “numinous,” or suprarational, intuitively experienced aspects of the holy.

The word atonement is not found in the New Testament, although a suggestion of its basic meaning is found in Peter’s statement that “love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Pet. 4:8). But the concept of atonement underlies the apostolic proclamation that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3), and the New Testament theologians approach the mystery of the atonement using symbols drawn from Israelite worship. In this respect the apostles were following the example of Jesus himself, who had told them that the Son of Man had come “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). The term lutron, “ransom,” relates to the Israelite concept of the redemption of the firstborn. The firstborn of clean animals were to be offered on the altar (Num. 18:17), but the firstborn of humans and of unclean animals were to be redeemed by a payment (Num. 18:15–16). As understood by the early Christians, however, the concept of ransom goes deeper, as a symbol interpreting the atonement of Christ.

Thus, in the New Testament, Christ’s death is called an offering or sacrifice; Hebrews calls his death “for all time one sacrifice [thusia] for sins” (Heb. 10:12), and Paul says that Christ “gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering [prosphora, something brought forward or presented] and sacrifice [thusia] to God” (Eph. 5:2), introducing also symbolism from the incense offerings of the Hebrew sanctuary. Paul’s declaration that God made Christ “who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21) also relates to the sacrificial rites; as applied to Christ, the word sin (hamartia) should be understood as “sin offering,” equivalent to the Hebrew ḥatta’t, the sacrifice that rehabilitates the worshiper after transgression. Hebrews elaborates on the concept of sacrifice as applied to the obedient death (under the figure of the “blood”) of Christ (Heb. 10:1–22) and also refers to our sanctification “through the offering [prosphora] of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10:10 nasb); Christ is not only the sacrifice, but also the High Priest who offers it (Heb. 7:26–27).

The furnishings of the sanctuary also provide an image used to interpret the atoning death of Christ. In Romans 3:25, Paul refers to the redemption in Christ Jesus, “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith” (nasb). The word translated “propitiation” or “means of expiation” is hilastērion; the Septuagint (the Greek version of the Old Testament) uses this term for the lid of the ark of the covenant (Exod. 25:16–22), on which the blood of the sin offering was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:14). The apostle John employs a related term in declaring that if anyone sins, Jesus Christ, our Advocate with the Father, is himself “the propitiation [hilasmos] for our sins” (1 John 2:2; 4:10 nasb); the Septuagint uses this word in the sense of “sin offering” or “atonement” (Num. 5:8; Ezek. 44:27).

Imagery of the Lamb

The idea of atonement for sin is only part of the Old Testament worship symbolism the early Christians used to interpret the death of Christ. In the context of a discussion of judgment of immorality within the church, Paul compares Christ to the Passover lamb (1 Cor. 5:7–8). The Passover lamb was not a sin offering but the meal signifying the Lord’s covenant with the people he was about to deliver in the Exodus from Egypt; the blood of the Passover lamb marks the household of the people of the Lord for their protection during the time of divine judgment (Exod. 12:1–13). Thus, Paul urges the Christian community to separate itself from the “leaven” of unrighteousness, for “Christ our Passover [pascha] also has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast [heortazō] … with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor. 5:7–8 nasb)” the crucified christ is the Lamb whose blood identifies the true covenant community in the face of the wrath about to fall on the unfaithful.

The writings of the apostle John also use the slain lamb of Israelite worship as a symbol interpreting the crucified Christ; uniquely in the Johannine writings, Jesus is directly called “the Lamb.” In the gospel of John, John the Baptizer testifies to Jesus as “the Lamb of God [ho amnos tou theou], who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). However, the concept underlying this phrase does not seem to be atonement and sacrifice. It is noteworthy that in the Old Testament it was not a male lamb, but typically a bull, a ram, or a goat that was offered for sin (or, in the case of the scapegoat, driven away bearing the residual sin of the people, Lev. 16:20–22), yet the New Testament never likens Christ to any of these animals, but only to the lamb. How, then, does he “take away the sin of the world”? The thought seems to be that he does so through his victory over sin, in the utter obedience of his death on the cross. Christ’s obedience “to the point of death” is an important aspect of Paul’s Christology, but in Philippians 2:8 he relates it to Christ’s exaltation as Lord rather than to atonement for sin, just as the author of Hebrews relates Jesus’ endurance of the cross to his exaltation to the right hand of God (Heb. 12:2). In the same manner, the Revelation exclaims: “Worthy is the Lamb [arnion], who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” (Rev. 5:12). Here Christ appears as the victorious Lamb, reigning with the Father as “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Rev. 19:16). He takes away sin, not only by his offering of himself, but by his victory and dominion over evil as the “great King” who delivers his covenant people from their enemies. He takes away sin through the power of his life, dwelling as God himself in the midst of his people, the new Jerusalem (Rev. 21:1–8). He takes away sin through the radiance of his presence, as the temple of the holy city and its light: “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple [naos]. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp [luchnos]” (Rev. 21:22–23). Here, through the figure of the Lamb, Christ is compared also to the lamp of the sanctuary.

Light and Glory

Imagery of light or radiance, so familiar from Israel’s worship of the Lord, is applied also to Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Jesus is the “light of the world” (to phōs tou kosmou, John 8:12), the “radiance [apaugasma] of God’s glory [doxa]” (Heb. 1:3). The apostles witness Jesus transfigured in brightness like the sun (Matt. 17:2); John beholds his face “like the sun shining in all its brilliance” (Rev. 1:16). New Testament witnesses affirm that in Christ we behold “the light of the knowledge of the glory [doxa] of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6 rsv), that “we have seen his glory [doxa], the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father” (John 1:14). As the glory of God, Christ is also “the image [eikōn] of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15 rsv), the “exact representation [charaktēr] of his being” (Heb. 1:3). This language originates in the festal worship of Israel, which centered in the theophany or manifestation of the Lord, as his glory [kavod] appeared to his people or filled the holy place. In the Sinai covenant, Yahweh descended on the mountain in fire (Exod. 19:18). In Israel’s subsequent worship of the Lord, which was a continual renewal of the covenant, his glory manifested itself, so that “from Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth” (Ps. 50:2). No image could be made of Yahweh, but his “glory,” the radiant envelope of his presence, was understood to be enthroned over the ark of the covenant. This concept further illuminates the application of the term hilastērion, “mercy seat,” to Jesus Christ, for the mercy seat was the place where Yahweh was to meet with his people, speaking to them “from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the testimony” (Exod. 25:22 rsv). As the triumphant Passover Lamb and as the representation of God’s glory, Christ maintains and defends the covenant between the Lord and his faithful people and is the Word (logos) through whom God speaks to his people (John 1:1, 14; 1 John 1:1; Rev. 19:13).

The Curse of the Covenant

Understanding the covenantal foundation of Israelite, and Christian, worship sheds light on another expression used by the apostle Paul, who declares, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse [katara] for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’ ” (Gal. 3:13). The biblical covenant is modeled on the ancient treaty, which included both stipulations and sanctions in the form of blessings if the covenant is maintained and curses that take effect if it is broken. In the Bible, the clearest example is Moses’ farewell sermon in Deuteronomy (Paul was quoting from Deut. 21:23 in the Galatians passage), a description of a covenant liturgy that closes with an extended ceremony of blessing and, especially, cursing (Deut. 27–28; 32–33). The curse element in the covenant liturgy was what generated the pronouncements of the prophets of Israel and Judah; in their declarations of judgment against the nation, they were announcing the outworking of the curse of the covenant as the consequence of its violation by an unfaithful people. Paul sees Christ, who died on the “tree,” as having borne this curse so that the covenant, broken by its original grantees, may now be renewed with the new “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16) made up of both Jew and Gentile. Jesus understood his own death in this way, as is clear from his prayer in Gethsemane, when he asks the Father to “take this cup from me” (Luke 22:42). The cup of poison was one of the curses traditionally administered to covenant breakers; in his death, Jesus is to bear this curse on behalf of the unfaithful, that others might be set free to enter the kingdom of God. In the Revelation, John sees that in the new Jerusalem “no longer will there be any curse” (Rev. 22:3), for the Lamb receives the homage of the community of the new covenant.

Imagery Relating to Gentile Inclusion

The inclusion of Gentiles in the covenant, through the death of Christ, is the great “mystery” or now-revealed truth Paul celebrates (Eph. 3:3–7). In explaining this mystery, Paul uses additional terminology drawn from Old Testament worship.“He [Christ] himself is our peace [eirēnē], who has made the two one” (Eph. 2:14). In the Bible, peace (shalom) is that state of blessing and salvation which is the purpose and effect of the covenant, but one gets the impression here that, in speaking of Christ as our “peace,” Paul is thinking specifically of the peace offering (shelem), which in Israelite worship was a sacrifice that restored and maintained fellowship between the worshiper and the Lord. Both Jew and Gentile were condemned as “objects of wrath” under the old covenant (Eph. 2:3), the Gentiles as “foreigners to the covenants of the promise” (Eph. 2:12) and the Jews as disobedient (Eph. 2:3). But Christ in his death has reconciled both groups to God (Eph. 2:16), building them together into “a holy temple [naos],” “a dwelling of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:21–22 nasb). The image of the Israelite sanctuary as emblematic of the union of Jew and Gentile in Christ also occurs in the statement of James during the apostolic council recorded in Acts 15. Here the inclusion of Gentiles in the people of God is viewed as the fulfillment of Amos’s prophecy concerning the restoration of the booth, or tent (skēnē), of David (Acts 15:16–17; Amos 9:11); the tabernacle was the original tent that housed the ark after David had it brought to Zion and for which he directed continual prophetic, nonsacrificial worship as reflected throughout the book of Psalms (1 Chron. 15–16).

Sabbath Imagery

The epistle to the Hebrews employs the imagery of the Sabbath in interpreting the event of Jesus Christ. Whereas the disobedient and unbelieving are excluded from entering God’s rest (Heb. 3:18–19), “there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God” (Heb. 4:9 rsv). The thought seems to be that by his sacrifice of himself, Jesus the “Great High Priest” has become the Sabbath rest of the believer, who “rests from his own work, just as God did from his” (Heb. 4:10).

Conclusion

The New Testament thus applies much of the worship vocabulary of the Old Testament to its understanding of Jesus Christ and his new covenant community. But there is a new spirituality to the use of these terms; they are employed not to describe external acts or features of worship but as a means of grasping the inward significance of the event of Jesus Christ. As the writer of Hebrews says, “You have not come to a mountain that can be touched … But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God … to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant” (Heb. 12:18, 22, 24). The same spirituality that infuses the Christians’ use of the terminology of Hebrew worship is now to transform their worship as well. In Jesus’ words to the woman of Samaria, the Father is to be worshiped “neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem” (John 4:21) but by genuine worshipers who “will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (John 4:23).