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An Answer to the Jews

Chapter IV.--Of the Observance of the Sabbath.

It follows, accordingly, that, in so far as the abolition of carnal circumcision and of the old law is demonstrated as having been consummated at its specific times, so also the observance of the Sabbath is demonstrated to have been temporary.

For the Jews say, that from the beginning God sanctified the seventh day, by resting on it from all His works which He made; and that thence it was, likewise, that Moses said to the People: "Remember the day of the sabbaths, to sanctify it: every servile work ye shall not do therein, except what pertaineth unto life." ¹ Whence we (Christians) understand that we still more ought to observe a sabbath from all "servile work" ² always, and not only every seventh day, but through all time. And through this arises the question for us, what sabbath God willed us to keep? For the Scriptures point to a sabbath eternal and a sabbath temporal. For Isaiah the prophet says, "Your sabbaths my soul hateth;" ³ and in another place he says, "My sabbaths ye have profaned." ⁴ Whence we discern that the temporal sabbath is human, and the eternal sabbath is accounted divine; concerning which He predicts through Isaiah: "And there shall be," He says, "month after month, and day after day, and sabbath after sabbath; and all flesh shall come to adore in Jerusalem, saith the Lord;" ⁵ which we understand to have been fulfilled in the times of Christ, when "all flesh"--that is, every nation--"came to adore in Jerusalem" God the Father, through Jesus Christ His Son, as was predicted through the prophet: "Behold, proselytes through me shall go unto Thee." ⁶ Thus, therefore, before this temporal sabbath, there was withal an eternal sabbath foreshown and foretold; just as before the carnal circumcision there was withal a spiritual circumcision foreshown. In short, let them teach us, as we have already premised, that Adam observed the sabbath; or that Abel, when offering to God a holy victim, pleased Him by a religious reverence for the sabbath; or that Enoch, when translated, had been a keeper of the sabbath; or that Noah the ark-builder observed, on account of the deluge, an immense sabbath; or that Abraham, in observance of the sabbath, offered Isaac his son; or that Melchizedek in his priesthood received the law of the sabbath.

But the Jews are sure to say, that ever since this precept was given through Moses, the observance has been binding. Manifest accordingly it is, that the precept was not eternal nor spiritual, but temporary, ⁷ which would one day cease. In short, so true is it that it is not in the exemption from work of the sabbath--that is, of the seventh day--that the celebration of this solemnity is to consist, that Joshua the son of Nun, at the time that he was reducing the city Jericho by war, stated that he had received from God a precept to order the People that priests should carry the ark of the testament of God seven days, making the circuit of the city; and thus, when the seventh day's circuit had been performed, the walls of the city would spontaneously fall. ⁸ Which was so done; and when the space of the seventh day was finished, just as was predicted, down fell the walls of the city. Whence it is manifestly shown, that in the number of the seven days there intervened a sabbath-day. For seven days, whencesoever they may have commenced, must necessarily include within them a sabbath-day; on which day not only must the priests have worked, but the city must have been made a prey by the edge of the sword by all the people of Israel. Nor is it doubtful that they "wrought servile work," when, in obedience to God's precept, they drave the preys of war. For in the times of the Maccabees, too, they did bravely in fighting on the sabbaths, and routed their foreign foes, and recalled the law of their fathers to the primitive style of life by fighting on the sabbaths. ⁹ Nor should I think it was any other law which they thus vindicated, than the one in which they remembered the existence of the prescript touching "the day of the sabbaths." ¹⁰

Whence it is manifest that the force of such precepts was temporary, and respected the necessity of present circumstances; and that it was not with a view to its observance in perpetuity that God formerly gave them such a law.

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Adversus Iudaeos

IV.

[1] Sequitur itaque ut, quatenus circumcisionis carnalis et legis veteris abolitio expuncta suis temporibus demonstratur, ita[que] sabbati quoque observatio temporaria fuisse demonstretur. Dicunt enim Iudaei, quod a primordio sanctificaverit deus diem septimum requiescendo in eo ab omnibus operibus suis quae fecit, et inde etiam Moysen dixisse ad populum: Mementote diem sabbatorum, sanctificare eum ; omne opus servile non facietis in eo, praeterquam quod ad animam pertinet. [2] Unde nos intellegimus magis sabbatizare nos ab omni opere servili semper debere et non tantrum septimo quoque die sed per omne tempus. Ac per hoc quaerendum nobis, quod sabbatum nos deus velit custodire. Nam sabbatum aeternum et sabbatum temporale scripturae designant. Dicit enim Esaias propheta: Sabbata vestra odit anima mea. Et alio loco dicit: Sabbata mea profanastis. [3] Unde dinoscimus sabbatum temporale esse humanum et sabbatum aeternum censeri divinum, de quo per Esaiam praedicat: Et erit, inquit, mensis ex mense et dies de die et sabbatum de sabbato, et veniet omnis caro adorare in Hierusalem, dicit dominus. [4] Quod intellegimus adimpletum temporibus Christi, quando omnis caro id est omnis gens adorare in Hierusalem venit deum patrem per Iesum Christum filium eius, sicut per prophetas praedicatum est: Ecce proselyti per me ad te ibunt. [5] Sic igitur ante hoc sabbatum temporale erat et sabbatum aeternum praeostensum et praeindictum, quomodo et ante circumcisionem carnalem fuit et spiritalis circumcisio praeostensa. [6] Denique doceant, sicuti iam praelocuti sumus, Adam sabbatizasse aut Abel hostiam deo sanctam offerentem sabbati religione placuisse aut Enoch translatum sabbati cultorem fuisse aut Noe arcae fabricatorem propter diluvium imminens sabbatum observasse aut Abraham in observatione sabbati Isaac filium suum obtulisse aut Melchisedech in suo sacerdotio legem sabbati accepisse. [7] Sed dicturi sunt Iudaei, ex quo hoc praeceptum datum est per Moysen, exinde observandum fuisse. Manifestum est itaque non aeternum sed temporale fuisse praeceptum quod quandoque cessaret. [8] Denique adeo non in vacatione septimi diei haec sollemnitas celebranda est, ut Iesus Naue eo tempore quo Hiericho civitatem debellabat praeceptum sibi a deo diceret, uti populo mandaret, ut sacerdotes arcam testamend dei septem diebus circumferrent in circuitu civitatis, atque ita septimi diei circuitu peracto sponte ruerent muri civitatis. [9] Quod ita factum est, et finito spatio diei septimi, sicut praedictum erat, ruerunt muri civitatis. Ex quo manifeste ostenditur in numero istorum dierum septem incurrisse diem sabbati -- septem enim dies, undecumque initium acceperint, sabbati diem secum concludant necesse est --, quo die non tantum sacerdotes sint operati, sed et in ore gladii praeda facta sit civitatis ab omni populo Israele; [10] nec dubium est opus servile eos operatos, cum praedas belli agerent ex dei praecepto. Nam et temporibus Machabaeorum sabbatis pugnando fortiter fecerunt et hostes allophylos expugnaverunt legemque paternam ad pristinum vitae statum pugnando sabbatis revocaverunt; [11] nec putem aliam legem eos defendisse nisi in qua de die sabbatorum meminerant esse praescriptum. Unde manifestum est ad tempus et praesentis causae necessitatem huiusmodi praecepta convaluisse et non ad perpetui temporis observationem huiusmodi legem eis deum ante dedisse.