new moons, and feasts in which God at one time took pleasure.” (De Idolatria c. 4 sec. 4; c. 14) It was not until 321 C.E. that Constantine decreed Sunday (Latin: dies Solis, an old title associated with astrology and sun worship, not Sabbatum [sabbath] or dies Domini [Lord’s day]) to be a day of rest for all but the farmers. According to the decree, the choice of the first day of the week by Constantine was, at least in part, prompted by hatred for the Jews and their identity: “Let us have nothing in common with the most hostile rabble of the Jews.”

GOD’S GREAT REST DAY

The apostle Paul shows in Hebrews, chapters 3 and 4, that God’s own rest or sabbath, referred to at Genesis 2:2, 3, and Psalm 95:7-11, is one of unbroken continuity into which the Jews in the wilderness could not enter because of lack of faith and disobedience. (Heb. 3:18, 19; Num. 14:28-35) Those who did enter the Promised Land under Joshua experienced a rest, but not the full rest enjoyed under the Messiah. It was only typical or a shadow of the reality. (Heb. 4:8; 1 Cor. 10:11; Heb. 10:1) Therefore, Paul continues, a sabbath (which in his day had been in existence over 4,000 years and now, at this point in the twentieth century, nearly 6,000 years) remains “for the people of God” (Heb. 4:9) who are obedient and exercise faith in Christ, thereby enjoying the real sabbath—rest from their own selfish works or works of self-justification. (Compare Romans 9:31, 32; 10:3; Hebrews 6:1; 9:14.) Men were entering into God’s sabbath in Paul’s day and the opportunity remains open until now.—Heb. 4:3, 6, 10.

In 1626, Henry Ainsworth in Annotations upon the First Booke of Moses Called Genesis expressed a belief he attributed to rabbinical commentaries, that Genesis 2:2, 3 refers to a 7,000-year sabbath. This great rest day of God ends a creative “week” of “days,” each of which days were thousands of years long. God ‘rested’ or desisted from creative works toward the visible universe, as described in Genesis 1:1 to 2:4. This seventh day is not spoken of as ending, as are the previous six creative “days.” Why, then, did Jesus say, “My Father has kept working until now, and I keep working”? (John 5:17) God has not created any new earthly things, but he has performed his good purposes toward his people and toward the earth. The “new creation,” a spiritual work, has been brought forth by him, and perhaps other things, in a spiritual way, unknown to mankind.—2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15.

THE THOUSAND-YEAR SABBATH

Following the sabbatical pattern of sanctifying the seventh part would make the last 1,000 years of God’s 7,000-year rest a grand sabbath day or a sabbath within the 7,000-year sabbath. Interestingly, Revelation 20:1-6 says that Satan is bound “for a thousand years” so that the nations of the earth will not be misled while Christ Jesus, who was the “Lord of the sabbath” while on earth and is such now in heaven, reigns as the King. What rest! The miraculous works he performed on earth during his first presence, many of them on the sabbath, evidently show what he will do as “Lord of the sabbath” to raise mankind to spiritual and physical perfection. (2 Pet. 3:8; Matt. 12:8; 1 Cor. 15:25-28; Luke 13:10-17; Rev. 21:1-4) Thus the literal sabbath day is “a shadow of the things to come, but the reality belongs to the Christ.”—Col. 2:16, 17.

SABBATH DAY’S JOURNEY

See JOURNEY.

SABBATH YEAR

Counting from 1473 B.C.E., the year that Israel entered the Promised Land, a sabbath year was to be celebrated “at the end of every seven years,” actually on every seventh year. (Deut. 15:1, 2, 12; compare Deuteronomy 14:28.) The sabbath year evidently began with the trumpet blast on Ethanim (Tishri) 10, the Day of Atonement. However, some hold that, while the Jubilee year started with the Day of Atonement, the sabbath year started with Tishri 1.

There was to be no cultivating of the land, sowing or pruning, nor any gathering in of the crops grown, but what grew of itself was left in the field, open to the owner of the field as well as to his slaves, the hired laborers and the alien residents to eat. This was a merciful provision for the poor and, additionally, for the domestic animals and wild beasts, as these would also have access to the produce of the land during the sabbath year.—Lev. 25:1-7.

The sabbath year was called “the year of the release [sh^emit·tahʹ].” (Deut. 15:9; 31:10) During that year the land enjoyed a complete rest or release lying uncultivated. (Ex. 23:11) There was also to be a rest or a release on debts incurred. (Deut. 15:3) It was a “release to Jehovah,” in honor of him. Though others view it differently, some commentators hold that the debts were not actually canceled, but, rather, that a creditor was not to press a fellow Hebrew for payment of a debt, for there would be no income for the farmer during that year; though the lender could press a foreigner for payment. (Deut. 15:1-3) Some rabbins hold the view that debts for loans of charity to help a poor brother were canceled, but that debts incurred in business dealings were in a different category. It is said by them that in the first century of the Common Era Hillel instituted a procedure whereby the lender could go before the court and secure his debt against forfeiture by making a certain declaration.

Incidentally, this year of release or rest from being pressed for payment of debts did not apply to the release of slaves, many of whom would be in slavery because of indebtedness. Rather, the Hebrew slave was released on the seventh year of his servitude or on the Jubilee, whichever came first.—Deut. 15:12; Lev. 25:10, 54.

It required faith to keep the sabbath years as part of Jehovah’s covenant with Israel, but observing the covenant fully would result in great blessings. (Lev. 26:3-13) God promised to provide enough during the sixth year’s harvest to supply food for two years, from the sixth until the harvest in the eighth, because no crops could be sown on the seventh; therefore no harvest could be gathered until the eighth year. (Lev. 25:20-22) When Israel entered the Promised Land under Joshua, six years were occupied in subduing the nations in Canaan and allotting land inheritances. Of course, during that time Israel could sow few, if any, crops, but there was some food from Canaanite crops. (Deut. 6:10, 11) The seventh year was a sabbath, so that they had to demonstrate faith and obedience by waiting until the harvest of the eighth year, and by God’s blessing they survived.

Every year of release, during the Festival of Booths, all the people were to assemble, men and women, little ones and the alien residents, to hear the Law read.—Deut. 31:10-13.

The land would have enjoyed 121 sabbath years besides 17 Jubilee years prior to the captivity if Israel had kept the Law properly. But the sabbath years were only partially kept. When the people went into exile in Babylon, the land remained desolate for seventy years “until the land had paid off its sabbaths.”—2 Chron. 36:20, 21; Lev. 26:34, 35, 43.

SABEANS

(Sa·beʹans).

1. The designation of a band of raiders who attacked the property of Job of the land of Uz. These Sabeans took Job’s cattle and she-asses and slaughtered his attendants. (Job 1:14, 15) Job also mentions “the traveling company of Sabeans,” at Job 6:19.

It is difficult to identify with certainty these Sabeans, since they might have been descendants of a number of different men named Sheba. Abraham’s son Jokshan had a son named Sheba (Gen. 25:1-3), and the possibility of the Sabean raiders being from this line cannot be ruled out. However, scholars more commonly suggest that the Sabeans came through the Sheba who descended from Ham through Cush