Sabbath Rest Research Articles

‘A Sabbath Rest for the People of God’ (Heb 4.9): Hebrews and Philo on the Seventh Day of Creation

This article examines the background of the concept of Sabbath rest (σαββατισμός) in Heb 4.1–11. Special attention is given to the relation between God's rest and God's activity, which seemingly are in tension with each other: on the one hand, the author's argument is based on the assumption that God entered his rest at the seventh day of creation and stopped working forever (4.10); on the other hand, there is a clear reference to God's worksaftercreation (3.9–10). A comparison with Philo's explanations of the seventh day of creation, however, reveals that for a Jewish Middle Platonist this tension does not appear to be a problem because rest and activity in God are two sides of the same coin. It is argued that this background helps to explain Hebrews’ concept of Sabbath rest. A concluding outlook shows that the suggested Middle Platonic understanding of Hebrews 4 fits well the context of the epistle as a whole, as the same coexistence of rest and activity can also be found in Hebrews 7 in relation to Jesus’ intercession in the heavenly tabernacle.

Między ekonomią a teologią: ekonomiczne archetypy ziemi w Pięcioksięgu

Abstrakt

Faith, Lifestyle, and Health among Korean-American Seventh-Day Adventists

This cross-sectional study investigated the relationship between faith, healthy lifestyle practices, and health status among the Korean-American Seventh-Day Adventist population in Texas. A frequency report showed that participants practiced five healthy lifestyle factors that include: avoidance of substance use, Sabbath rest, exercise, sufficient sleep, and moderate sun exposure. Multivariable regression and correlation analyses were conducted to explore the relationship between faith (representative of four predictors: religious involvement, religious strength, private religious practice and acceptance of SDA principles) and practice of seven lifestyle factors. A strong positive correlation (spearman`s rho) on total lifestyle score was found in religious involvement (r=0.21, p=0.01), religious strength (r=0.27, p=0.005), acceptance of health principles (r=0.26, p=0.008) and private religious practice (r=0.34, p=0.0005). Private religious practice was marginally significantly associated with healthy lifestyle practices. The participants with higher faith showed less percentage of self-reported diagnosis of diabetes, high blood pressure or cardiovascular diseases.

Sabbath in Egypt? An Examination of Exodus 5

This study presents indicators from the narrative of Exodus 5, which in their entirety may suggest the notion of Sabbath rest among the Israelite slaves in Egypt. One such indicator is the verb shabbat, ‘to cease’, a verb that marks the seventh day of the creation week with the quality of divine Sabbath rest. Its particular form and use in Exod. 5.5 entails various semantic notions, such as the indication that the Israelites ceased from their slave labors regularly. In addition, contextual, structural, and discourse elements allow for a reading that is indeed telling with regard to the Israelites’ social status and the impact of a possible Sabbath cessation under an oppressive regime. Finally, certain verbal expressions link with Sabbath texts of the Pentateuch such as Exod. 23.12, a Sabbath text that is embedded in the exodus narratives of slavery and freedom. All these indicators when taken together allow for a Sabbath-motivated reading of Exodus 5. The implications of such a reading tell of a world that longs for freedom, restored identities, and renewed relationships.

The Sabbath Soul: Mystical Reflections on the Transformative Power of the Holy Time by Eitan Fishbane (review)

Reviewed by: The Sabbath Soul: Mystical Reflections on the Transformative Power of the Holy Time by Eitan Fishbane Dan Shevitz (bio) The Sabbath Soul: Mystical Reflections on the Transformative Power of the Holy Time, by Eitan Fishbane. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights; 2012. Spiritual writing is a difficult genre. How do you say simple things in elegant and moving ways, avoiding enigma, tropes, complexities, and bromides? It is the marriage of poetry and prose, with the minefields of each. Do you wish to explain or evoke? To bring it to the reader, or invite the reader to reach it for him or herself? A lapidary style may evoke but not explain well, and prolixity may dull the brilliance of a diamond. Professor Eitan Fishbane has attempted to provide a hybrid in The Sabbath Soul. He gives us eleven selections from classical Hasidic texts on the mystical nature of the Sabbath in its various aspects in English translation, plus some lovely prayers and meditations from the Bratzlav tradition (also in English translation) to introduce each chapter. Each selection is accompanied by the author’s notes on the facing page, and footnoted references (though too few of them) in the back of the volume. The chapters take us through the Sabbath experience. The selections include texts dealing with candle lighting, preparation for Shabbat, the garments (white) of Shabbat, immersion, Kiddush, Sabbath meals, the symbol of ḥallah, Sabbath rest, Sabbath consciousness, and music, inter alia. The book begins and ends with the author’s meditations on the beauty and power of the seventh day. The facing notes, while sometimes merely referential, serve as another vehicle for the author’s excurses. Though they may take us rather far from the text, they sometimes can focus on a particular moment or difficulty and help the reader through it. For example, when one Hasidic master deals with the fact that Sabbath desecration is a capital offense, Fishbane does not retreat from the difficulty this poses for a modern reader but helps place the text in a spiritual and more accessible context. The translations of the Hasidic and other mystical texts are the author’s own, but although they are quite literal and therefore difficult to read, Fishbane uses his notes to aid the reader in interpretation. The selected texts are obscure in their original Hebrew (or Yiddish), and the literal translation preserves their opacity. A looser translation would have allowed the author to focus more on interpretation and less on explanation. Occasionally, some of the Hebrew text is interpolated into the translation; Hebrew speakers might wish for more of this, especially when the original texts rely on punning or homonymous language. When the Hasidic texts rely on talmudic, midrashic, or zoharic antecedents, Fishbane provides the context in his notes. Since the texts rely extensively on quotations from this material, a careful [End Page 123] reader must go back and forth between text and commentary. Fishbane’s notes are more than commentary, though. He regularly departs from explication of text to claim a lectern, and sometimes a pulpit, to present his own meditations and reflections—not always related to the Hasidic text on which it is ostensibly based. We end up learning as much of Fishbane’s spiritual journeys as those of the masters he has brought to us. Fishbane demonstrates both breadth of scholarship and great depth as a spiritual thinker. But in assuming both roles at the same time, he has asked too much of the reader. If the author wished to present a volume of his original thought, then the selections from the Hasidic masters could have been much shorter and easier to read. Had he chosen to teach more of the method and meaning of the rebbes, he could have reserved his personal reflections for the front and end pieces. As it is, the author intersperses scholarly explanation with homiletics and apologia. He often addresses his collective readership with a proleptic “we”; such a cohortative tone would be better suited to an oral presentation. These misgivings notwithstanding, this volume is a welcome contribution to students seeking a window into the arcane Hasidic style. As a rabbi serving a congregation, I am particularly appreciative...

Rest for the Animals? Nonhuman Sabbath Repose in Pentateuchal Law

Abstract Israel's legal material embodies care for nonhuman creatures. In comparison to the Decalogue, the concept of animal Sabbath rest is broadened in motivation, definition, and scope in each of the other sections of law. Exodus 20:8–11 provides the definition of Sabbath rest: animals are to do no work on Sabbath just like humans. Deuteronomy 5:12–15 expands the motivation for the Sabbath: rest for all laborers and domestic animals; deliverance from Egypt and oppression. Leviticus 25:2–7 expands the scope of Sabbath rest: Sabbath food is even for wild animals, and Sabbath rest is also for the land. The paradigm shift of Exod 23:10–12 expands the definition (animal rest is like God's rest), the scope (provision for the disadvantaged/rest for all workers), and motivation (in order that animals and servants may rest) of Sabbath rest. Other biblical passages shed further light on nonhuman Sabbath repose, as well as implying contemporary responsibilities for all humans regarding animal rest and care.

The Image of the Jews in Greek Literature: The Hellenistic Period (review)

Reviewed by: The Image of the Jews in Greek Literature: The Hellenistic Period Maren Niehoff The Image of the Jews in Greek Literature: The Hellenistic Period, by Bezalel Bar-Kochva. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010. 606 pp. $95.00. Recently the image of Jews and Judaism in antiquity has received new scholarly attention. It has usually been discussed in the context of the question of whether antisemitism existed already in antiquity and, if so, under what circumstances it developed and whether Egypt played a special role in this process. Josephus Flavius' treatise Against Apion was always central in these discussions, because it provides the bulk of the highly fragmentary evidence and is the first known attempt at a scholarly interpretation of the evidence. Mentioning both earlier Hellenistic and contemporary writers, Josephus has [End Page 154] moreover encouraged subsequent scholars to consider the sources from the Ptolemaic and the Roman period as belonging to one continuous discourse. The present book is an important contribution to this scholarly discussion. It is extremely rich in detail, impressively balanced in its scholarly judgments and not lacking creative intuition, vital for reconstructing the messages and contexts of the fragmentary evidence. Bar-Kochva offers a close investigation of twelve authors who wrote in Greek in the Hellenistic period, thus felicitously distinguishing between Greek and Roman literature. Five of these authors were outstanding authorities in their fields, constructing the image of the Jews on the basis of a comprehensive world-view and leaving behind influential accounts. Theophrastus was a leading Aristotelian philosopher and father of ancient botany, Hecetaus of Abdera the founder of "scientific" ethnography, Agatharchides of Cnidus a prominent Alexandrian historian, while Posidonius was famous as a Stoic philosopher and Appolonius Molon as a rhetorican. The particular value of the present book lies in its attention to the overall outlook and methods of the respective writers. All too often judgments on the Jews have been analyzed without fully taking into account the intellectual, historical, and cultural context of each writer. Bar Kochva goes a long way to amend this situation, often concluding that the views expressed on the Jews reflect rather more neutral or general assumptions of the author. Several examples may illustrate this point. Mnasius of Patara, a pupil of the famous Alexandrian scientist Eratosthenes and briefly head of the Alexandrian library (third through second century BCE), tells a story about Zabidus stealing the statue of an ass from the Jerusalem Temple (Jos., C. Ap. 2.112-14). Most scholars have interpreted this story as evidence of early antisemitism, taking the ass as sign of ridicule. Bar Kochva, on the other hand, argues that Mnasius did not aim at mocking the Jews, as subsequent writers using his material did, but rather assumed the ass to be an acceptable symbol of deity. This interpretation derives from a study of Greek, rather than Egyptian, sources, which are likely to have influenced the author (pp. 231-37). According to Bar-Kochva, the original point of the story is to show the superb cunning of Zabidus, who achieved a similar military success as Odysseus with the Trojan horse. In the same vein, Agatharchides' judgment of the Sabbath rest as a superstition, which prevented the Jews from defending themselves against invaders (Jos., C. Ap. 1.205-11), is shown to derive from the author's general attitude towards superstition as well as his historical experience of Ptolemy I capturing Jerusalem (pp. 280-305). Bar-Kochva devotes special attention to Posidonius, offering a meticulous study of the man and his writings before approaching his views on the Jews (pp. 338-54). He points to the philosopher's interest in travelling and [End Page 155] ethnography, while stressing that his works qualify as philosophy rather than history. Bar-Kochva moreover takes a position on the fundamental question of how to identify Posidonius' fragmentary work. Whereas previous scholars had tended towards a maximalist approach, discovering ideas of Posidonius also in contexts where his name is not explicitly mentioned, recent research has tended towards a minimalist approach. Bar-Kochva sides on this issue with scholars of the previous century. Posidonius' views on the Jews are then appreciated against the background of his philosophy...

The "Sabbatical" Year in Israeli Politics: An Intra-Religious and Religious-Secular Conflict from the Nineteenth through the Twenty-First Centuries

Leviticus 25:1–5 1 Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai and said: 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the country which I am giving you, the land must keep a Sabbath's rest for Yahweh. 3 For six years you will sow your field, for six years you will prune your vineyard and gather its produce. 4 But in the seventh year the land will have a sabbatical, a Sabbath for Yahweh. You will neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard, 5 nor reap any grain which has grown of its own accord, nor gather the grapes from your untrimmed vine. It will be a year of rest for the land.” The New Jerusalem Bible

A Right to Be Lazy?: Busyness in Retrospective

Gary Cross A Right to Be Lazy? Busyness in Retrospective I RECALL AN OLD MAN SELLING PAUL LAFARGUE’S RIGHT TO BE LAZY ON a busy street in the Latin Quarter in the 1980s. At the time Iwas writing my first book on the history o f work time and leisure and felt by seeing this strange and grumpy man so energetically promoting the nearly forgotten work o f Marx’s son-in-law somehow vindicated in my efforts. Paul Lafargue’s pamphlet (1989 [1883]) makes an interesting assump­ tion: the “natural” state o f human being was relaxation and that only a century or so o f propaganda convinced the naive worker and labor movement to embrace the doctrine ofthe “right”to work. The Industrial Revolution had produced the craziness o f workers’ overproduction and legions of savants and servants for the small utterly unbusy rich. Once freed from the illusion of the right to work, machines, Lafargue insisted, would liberate us all from the drudgery o f labor and let us live as the ancient Greek philosophers had dreamed—but without the dependence upon slaves. Lafargue’s view was hardly unique for its day. Many in the late nineteenth centuiy believed that overwork caused production gluts and the irrational excesses o f the rich. Busyness was a false doctrine of modem capitalism, which was devoted to endlessly extending and intensifying work. Before and after him, many fought to win freedom from busyness with the reduction of work time. But Lafargue’s dream that mechanical progress would liberate humanity from labor did not happen. Instead, the “overproduction” that ceaseless toil created was “absorbed” by mass consumption. Even the “wastefulness” of the rich social research Vol 72 : No 2 : Summer 2005 263 and their minions came to be seen merely as indifferent contributions to the gross domestic product. So what happened? BUSYNESS AND INDUSTRIALIZATION Lafargue’s instincts were right that capitalism was in part built on increasing output by increasing labor time. Repeatedly, governments tried to restrict holidays (for example, reducing them to 27 per year in 1552 in England) or even impose a minimum workday (in 1495, in England to 12 hours per day). During the English Puritan revolu­ tion, authorities attempted to eliminate traditional religious festivals and impose instead a strict observance o f a Sabbath rest. This not only was supposed to increase the number of workdays but to create greater regularity in the habits ofworkers. Similarly, during the French Revolution, employers were given authority to set work time and the state imposed a 10-day week hoping to best the output ofthe traditional Judeo-Christian seven-day week. These efforts had mixed results and the new revolutionary calendar disappeared within a decade. Moreover, when eighteenth-century English and European merchants tried to tap “underutilized” rural labor by putting farmers to work in the winter at spinning yam or weaving cloth, they were often frustrated because the episodic and slow pace of agricultural work made these part-time peas­ ant artisans undisciplined and unreliable producers. When pay rates were increased, merchants complained, they produced less. Apparently, these cottage workers were content with a fixed income and preferred time free from work (at least from weaving) to more money. They also preferred to interrupt work with other activities—tending to family and farm needs or even diversions of conversation, sport, gambling, and daily drams of drink. One solution, advocated by economists of the age, was to lower pay to cottage workers to force them to work harder and longer to earn the money they needed and expected. An obviously more effective means o f quickening the pace and lengthen­ ing the hours of the workday was to mechanize the job and centralize management of the work that came with the new textile mills. One of the main advantages of the factory was that it removed the worker’s 264 social research choice about whether to be busy or not. Only those who accepted the employer’s hours ofwork were able to work, and only those submitting to the employer’s efforts to mechanize tasks and remove play from the workroom kept their jobs. By the 1820s, mechanization, especially...

Reclaimed by Sabbath Rest

The relentless pace of contemporary society overwhelms our sense of time as God's good gift. Allowing ourselves to be reclaimed by the sabbath- and its Lord, Jesus Christ- grants us a redeemed perception of time, freeing us from its tyranny and for our own truest communion with God, one another, and creation.

Christian Formation in and for Sabbath Rest

The Christian practice of keeping sabbath embodies a theology of creation, liberation, and resurrection. Keeping Sabbath forms persons and communities in faith and fosters resistance to distorted ways of living and inadequate views of human identity that implicit in the culturally dominant experience of time.

Sabbath Rest: A Theological Imperative According to Karl Barth

Sabbath Rest: A Theological Imperative According to Karl Barth Get access Frances Rice McCormick Frances Rice McCormick Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume LXII, Issue 2, Summer 1994, Pages 539–552, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/LXII.2.539 Published: 01 July 1994

A well-deserved Sabbath rest: three Freud patriarchs.

A Well-Deserved Sabbath Rest: Three Freud PatriarchsBenjamin GoodnickBenjamin GoodnickPrivate practice; Diplomate, American Board of Professional Psychology.2260 Bryn Mawr Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19131Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:July 2017https://doi.org/10.1521/jaap.1.1993.21.1.107PDFPDF PLUS ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations AboutReferencesTalmud Babylonian, Tractates: Avot, Ketuvim, Shabbat. Bible, Judges. Google ScholarFreud E. L. (1956), “Sigmund Freud's Family Bible,” National Jewish Monthly, 70, 9, 6–7. Google ScholarFreund S. W. (n.d.), Corresponding Date Calendar (Years 1784–2000), Hebrew Publishing Co., New York. Google ScholarGay P. (1988), Freud: A Life For Our Times, W. W. Norton, New York. Google ScholarHeller J. B. (1956), “Freud's Mother and Father,” Commentary, 21 (5), 418–421. Google ScholarJones E. (1953-57), The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, 3 vols., Basic Books, New York. Google ScholarKrüll M. (1986), Freud and His Father, W. W. Norton, New York. Google ScholarMannoni O. (1971), Freud, Pantheon, New York. Google ScholarMasson J. M. (1985), The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud To Wilhelm Fliess 1887–1904, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. Google ScholarMidrash Genesis Rabba. Rice E. (1990), Freud and Moses: The Long Journey Home, State University of New York Press, New York. Google ScholarSchur M. (1972), Freud: Living and Dying, International Universities Press, New York. Google Scholar Previous article Next article FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Cited byCited by1. Freud's atonementOnline publication date: Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar Volume 21Issue 1Mar 1993 Information© 1993 The American Academy of PsychoanalysisPDF download

Genesis 2: 1–3 - Creation and Sabbath

In Gen 2:1-3 the Priestly writer has emphasised the sabbath of God at the end of the creation account. In exile, when Israel had been severed from land and temple, pastoral consideration was needed in the reshaping of the traditions. The temple no longer stood as a symbol of the sovereignty of Israel's God. In the creation account, the construction of the heavenly sanctuary, which usually concludes ancient Near Eastern creation myths, has been replaced by the motif of the divine rest. The Priestly writer connects God's sabbath rest at creation with the institutions of tabernacle and human sabbath observance and gives the people a means whereby the sovereignty of their God can be proclaimed

‘Kafir Time’: Preindustrial Temporal Concepts and Labour Discipline in Nineteenth Century Colonial Natal

This article attempts to understand in substantive terms the nature of black proletarianization in Natal, South Africa. This is undertaken by moving beyond arid explanations of outside agencies to focus on some of the underlying cultural premises that ordered the day-to-day activities of northern Nguni communities. This article examines their temporal perceptions, exploring within the colonial context the shift from peasant to industrial time, and showing the central role mission churches played in the transition process.Two important disclosures emerge as a result of this study. First, it conclusively demonstrates the existence of a rich history of nineteenth century African labour action (where until now the overwhelming assumption among historians has been that no such activity existed), much of which was related to the struggle over the definition of time. Secondly, it presents a more balanced picture of the migrant worker. One finds groups of labourers who continued to adhere to old attachments, while others adapted in a rather remarkable fashion to the conditions of the industrial workplace. Most striking of all, is that both were capable of dictating the terms of labour, whether they involved demands for the lunar month or the halfholiday and Sabbath rest day.

The Rest That Remaineth: A Study of Five Poems by George Herbert

The Rest That Remaineth: A Study of Five Poems by George Herbert by Andrée Luxton In his 1976 explicetion of "The Pulley," Stuert Hunter suggests Psalms 95 and Hebrews 3 and 4 as possible sources for George Herbert's use of the term "rest" in thet poem. In his useful commentery, Hunter notes Poul's reference to "the Sebboth repose of the feithful."1 He continues, "Biblical scholars are generally agreed that the Old Testament understanding of the meaning of the Sabbath encompassed not only the idea of physical repose but also the promise of a future final Sabbath rest for the faithful in the bosom of God." Hunter concludes that at "the bosom of God" Herbert's pulley finally reaches its "point of stasis, or finel rest" where "men's restlessness is satisfied." Hunter's recognition of the relationship between Hebrews 3 and 4 and "The Pulley" is both volid and important. So is his reolizotion of the essentiel connection between "Sebboth rest" and eternal rest in the Epistle to the Hebrews. However, the implications of the Hebrews passage and its relotion to Herbert's The Temple extend much further. The following detailed analysis of Hebrews 3 and 4, paralleled with a close reeding of both "The Pulley" ond an additional four Herbert poems — "Aaron," "Peace," "Sunday," and "Even-song" — will show something of Herbert's broader consideration of the ideals of rest explored by the author of Hebrews.2 Hebrews 3:14 end 4:14 frame the Hebrews passage on rest. Hebrews 3: 14 reeds, "For we ore mode portokers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfest unto the end," and Hebrews 4:1 4, "Seeing then that we have a greet high priest, thot is pessed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession." Here lies the assurance of belief. In Hebrews 3:14 the perfect tense of "gegonamev" ("we have become") suggests both a present and a continuous relationship between the human and the divine. Then in 50Andrea Luxton Hebrews 4:14, the dependent douse that transletes from Greek as "Seeing then ... let us hold fast" relies on the certointy of "we hove e greet high priest." The relationship remains conditional, dependent on humanity's belief; however, the humonity end divinity of Christ thet fits him for the role of high priest ensures humenkind's ecceptonce end its "right" to shore with Christ in the kingdom.3 Between these two verses of assurance, the author of Hebrews uses typology as he looks to the past, present, and future in order to define the "rest" of the kingdom. He first notes the unbelief of the Israelites that prevented their entering into God's rest and the relevence of the promise of rest in the deys of David. Both these situations carry overtones of physical rest and rest from strife, as well as the accompanying spirituel rest. Then the outhor introduces ß second rest, the rest of God connected to creetion and the Sabbeth (verse 4). However, all these preceding rests are types to an ontitype of e much more fulfilling rest (verse 9). This better end final rest Donald Hagner defines as "the rest that is meant to be the portion of Christians (this mey indeed be subdivided into the rest available at present and the future rest of eschatology proper)."4 Some disagreement exists among commentators on Hebrews as to whether this last rest is only in the present, or both present and future. However, most agree with Hagner and see implicit in the final promise a "present rest" to enjoy "in anticipation of the final eschatological rest."5 This, of course, would be the antitype to which all types point. The author of Hebrews helps distinguish between the rests of the present and future by introducing a different Greek word in Hebrews4:9. In his discussion of "The Pulley," Hunter cleims that "Paul" uses the Greek term "katapausis" to suggest "the Sabbeth repose of the feithful"; "ketepausis" does recur eight times throughout Hebrews 3 and 4 and the cognate verb three times.6 However, in Hebrews 4:9 "ketopousis" is replaced by "sabbatismos." It is...

Karl Barth's Doctrine of the Sabbath

‘In general, theological ethics has handled this command of God [the fourth Mosaic commandment] … with a casualness and feebleness which certainly do not match its importance in Holy Scripture or its decisive material significance’ (Church Dogmatics, 111.4, P. 50). Thus Karl Barth in the English translation of his Kirchliche Dogmatik (hereafter referred to as CD.). His own treatment is neither fragmentary nor perfunctory. There are references to ‘Sabbath’ in the indexes of six of twelve volumes of the Dogmatics so far published. The particular discussion of the Fourth Commandment occurs in his treatment of Special Ethics in CD. 111.4, where ‘the one command of God’ the Creator is set forth ‘in this particular application’ of ‘The Holy Day’ (p. 50). But for Barth the scriptural references to Sabbath rest have relevance to the doctrines of God, and Revelation; to the relation of God's Eternity to man's temporal being; to the biblical conception of Creation as the setting for the Covenant history of the Old Testament and the New Testament fulfilment of the divine purpose in redemption in Christ, to be completed and perfected in the ‘rest that remaineth to the people of God’ (Heb. 4.9). The treatment of the topic throughout the Dogmatics constitutes a corpus of exegesis and doctrine of which even a summary statement such as is here attempted might well be a useful contribution towards modern efforts at rethinking the Christian use of the Lord's Day.