title: The Legitimacy and Suitability of the Sabbath as a Symbol of the Eschatological Age
Creators: name: Hope, Anne-Maree
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2005
Subjects: subject: Sabbath
subject: eschatological age
subject: Jewish and Christian tradition
subject: holy festtivals

description: This thesis demonstrates both the legitimacy and the suitability of the sabbath as a symbol of the eschatological age. Chapter one introduces the topic and hermeneutic of this thesis. In particular, it approaches the text in its final form, and with a background of postmodern influence. An overview of the sabbath in Jewish and Christian tradition in chapter two shows that the history of these traditions contains numerous concepts of the sabbath and how it is to be observed. A similar diversity of opinion is also found among contemporary scholars as to the origin and nature of the sabbath in the Hebrew Scriptures and in ancient Israel. Chapter three compares and contrasts the sabbath with other holy festivals. While the sabbath shares with these festivals the connection with the number seven, the proscription against work and even the title 'sabbath', it is unique in that it is connected with the attributes of blessedness, rest and holiness, and is presented as a memorial of creation and as a sign of the covenant between God and Israel. The connection with the concept of 'remembrance' is also confined to the sabbath and to the passover alone. Chapter four makes a more detailed examination of the sabbath passages in the Hebrew Scriptures, paying special attention to the topics of scholarly debate concerning the sabbath that were identified in chapter two. From these Scriptures, the sabbath may be legitimately interpreted as both a day of rest and a day of worship. The sabbath is also primarily presented as a Mosaic institution rather than a creation institution, and the Hebrew Scriptures contain no reference to its observance by foreigners outside of Yahweh worship in Israel. Nor is there any explicit indication that sabbath was a monthly institution, or that it had relatively little prominence during this time. An examination of the seventh-year festivals and the jubilee supports this understanding of the seventh-day sabbath. The concept of the eschatological age as a state of eternal sabbath also contains within it the implicit concept of holiness as a universal state. Chapter five investigates the legitimacy of viewing holiness in the Hebrew Scriptures as both perpetual and universal. While the Hebrew Scriptures contain mixed attitudes to the foreign nations, it does envision them as sharing in Israelite's salvation; and thus anticipates a state of universal holiness. Using the results of chapters two to five to demonstrate the legitimacy of this thesis' concept of the sabbath, the legitimacy of using this concept of the sabbath as a symbol of the eschatological age is also demonstrated. Drawing heavily on Gowan's work Eschatology in the Old Testament, chapter six identifies the primary themes of the eschatological age to be the end of sin, the presence of God, spiritual transformation, social transformation and the transformation of nature. It then examines how these themes are also found in connection with the sabbath, and shows that the nature of the sabbath is in many respects similar to the nature of the eschatological age. This makes the sabbath an especially suitable symbol of this eschatological age. Chapter seven explores what attributes of the sabbath may have made it an especially suitable symbol of the eschatological age in later Jewish and Christian traditions. In doing so, part one focuses on those unique attributes of the sabbath that were identified in chapter three; holiness, blessedness, rest, remembrance, creation and a covenant symbol. These attributes are then used to develop the sabbath as a symbol of creation and recreation. Part two then examines how Christian tradition developed new layers meaning for this symbol. In conclusion, chapter eight notes that the use of one or more of these attributes has been a frequent aspect of interpretations of the sabbath and eschatology. It is this thesis' presentation of all of these attributes together, however, as well as its identification of the uniqueness of these attributes to the sabbath, which demonstrates so strongly the suitability of the sabbath as a symbol of the eschatological age.