by admin | Aug 7, 2018 | Time talk post
CHRISTIANS AND JEWS
“At first the Roman state did not distinguish between Jews and Christians. In fact, we may be sure that the Romans simply saw Christians as a group of Jews, or a group within the Jewish community. So when the Jews were expelled from Rome in the time of Claudius, we may be sure the expulsion included both Jews as well as Christians.” Shaye D. Cohen, Ph.D., Brown University
According to Suetonius, a Roman historian who wrote during the second century, this expulsion of the Jews from Rome took place in 49 AD. It seems that there was a significant population of Jews in Rome. Unrest and riots within that community prompted the emperor Claudius to banish all Jews from the city.
Christians living within the Jewish community were forced to leave as well. To Claudius and the other Romans, they looked like Jews. In one way, this close identity with the Jews was an advantage for Christians: Judaism was still a legal religion within the empire, while Christianity itself had no legal standing. On the other hand, when the Jews fell out of favor with the Romans, the Christians suffered the same fate.
“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel…then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains” (Matthew 24:16 NIV).
Jesus Himself foresaw that His followers would be in danger when Rome turned its military might against the Jewish homeland. When He prophesied about the destruction of Jerusalem He told them,“Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath” (Matthew 24:20 NIV). Clearly He expected that Sabbath observance would continue long past His own crucifixion, resurrection and ascension to heaven. Jerusalem was not destroyed until 70 AD.
This series of posts is based on research for “The Seventh Day” documentary, a five-hour miniseries hosted by Hal Holbrook. For more information please visit www.theseventhday.tv.
by admin | Aug 6, 2018 | Time talk post
EARLY CHRISTIAN SABBATH
“The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee…went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment” (Luke 23:55-56 NIV).We begin to get an idea about early Christian attitudes toward the Sabbath from the reports given by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. There we learn that after His crucifixion Jesus was laid in a tomb without the customary preparation.
Why?
Because His followers observed the Sabbath, which for them began at sunset Friday. Their plan was to return to the tomb with spices and perfumes after the Sabbath day.
Apparently, Jesus had given no instruction to His followers about canceling the Sabbath or transferring its sacred nature to another day.
Here are some conservative dates for the writing of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
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Matthew: 60-70 AD
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Mark: 55-70 AD
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Luke: 55-61 AD
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John: 90 AD >
Some liberal scholars prefer much later dates.
While there is uncertainty over exactly when these gospel narratives were written, it is clear that at the time of their writing the Sabbath was still part of Christian practice.
None of these New Testament books contains even the slightest suggestion that the first day of the week—the day we call Sunday—had replaced the seventh day as the Christian Sabbath.
For a look at the Sabbath practice of St. Paul see Acts 13:14-16, Acts 13:42-44, and Acts 18:1-4, 11.
There are only eight references to the first day of the week in the New Testament, and none of them contains any evidence that the significance of the Sabbath was ever transferred from one day to another. (See Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2.)
This series of posts is based on research for “The Seventh Day” documentary, a five-hour miniseries hosted by Hal Holbrook. For more information please visit
www.theseventhday.tv.
by admin | Aug 5, 2018 | Time talk post
LORD OF THE SABBATH
“The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” Mark 2:28 (NIV).
When He healed people on the Sabbath, Jesus showed the true spirit of the holy day. He kept the Sabbath according to the ancient Hebrew scriptures—the Old Testament.
By claiming that He was the “Lord of the Sabbath” Jesus challenged the authority of the Jewish priests and rabbis. This challenge eventually led to His infamous trial and death on the cross.
It’s important to notice that the Sabbath controversy in Jesus’ day was not about which day of the week to observe as a day of rest and worship. That issue never came up. The questions that Jesus addressed were NOT about WHEN to keep the Sabbath, but HOW to keep it.
That raises an interesting question: If He intended for His followers to switch from Sabbath observance to the veneration of Sunday, why did Jesus focus so much attention on reforming their understanding of the Sabbath?
This series of posts is based on research for “The Seventh Day” documentary, a five-hour miniseries hosted by Hal Holbrook. For more information please visit www.theseventhday.tv.
by admin | Aug 4, 2018 | Time talk post
THE SABBATH REFORMER
“Then he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath'” (Mark 2:27 NIV).
According to the Old Testament, God originally established the Sabbath as the celebration of His creative work and as a day of freedom from labor. Israel’s miraculous escape from Egypt added another aspect to the Sabbath: the celebration of deliverance from bondage.
Ironically, by the time of Jesus the Sabbath had evolved from a day of freedom to a day of bondage to stringent, exacting rules and regulations. Some of the religious leaders taught that Israel was made for the Sabbath so that the Lord would have someone on earth to keep the Sabbath.
When Jesus declared that the Sabbath was made for man, He was teaching a radical, disturbing concept.
A survey of the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John reveal that Jesus repeatedly challenged those traditional customs by targeting the rabbinical “mortal danger” rule.
This rule provided an exception to the normal Sabbath restrictions in life-or-death cases. You could use extreme measures to save someone whose life was in danger. But in the case of a chronically ill person, efforts to heal him or her must wait for another day.
Jesus defied those traditional Sabbath restrictions by repeatedly healing chronically ill people on the holy day. None of these people qualified for the “mortal danger” exemption:
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The man with a demon (Mark 1:21-26)
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Peter’s mother-in-law (Luke 4:38-39)
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The man with a withered hand (Matthew 12:9-13)
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The bent-over woman (Luke 13:10-16)
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The man with dropsy (Luke 14:1-5)
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The crippled man at the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:5-9)
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The man born blind (John 9:1-14)
“So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him” (John 5:16 NIV).
This series of posts is based on research for “The Seventh Day” documentary, a five-hour miniseries hosted by Hal Holbrook. For more information please visit www.theseventhday.tv.
by admin | Aug 3, 2018 | Time talk post
RELIGION IN ROME
The Christian era began during the reign of the first emperor of Rome, Caesar Augustus. At that time the Roman empire tolerated within its borders scores—if not hundreds—of religions and cults.
On its eastern border there was Persia with its Zoroastrianism; far to the northwest was the Druidism of Celtic Britain. There were popular Greek mystery cults. There were diverse forms of nature worship with secret initiations and fertility rights. Some folks had a superstitious attachment to astrology and others worshipped various sun gods.
The Romans themselves admired the religion and culture of Greece. They adopted Greek gods and blended them into their own religions. The result was a mixture of ancestor worship, emperor worship, and sun worship—a religion that included not one god, but many.
The Jews, on the other hand, worshipped only one God. Though surrounded by the images of Greek and Roman deities, they served a God they couldn’t see. They had no icons or images to represent Him. They had no initiations or fertility rites.
Instead they had a day. A day that set them apart. A day without equal in any other religion. A 24-hour period devoted completely to their God. The Jews had the Sabbath.
This series of posts is based on research for “The Seventh Day” documentary, a five-hour miniseries hosted by Hal Holbrook. For more information please visit www.theseventhday.tv.
