Fresh meanings of Sabbath in the Bible

koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Department of Liberal Education

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

         We are all familiar with Isaiah 58:13 that Sabbath is a time to “turn your foot from doing your pleasure on My holy day, call the Sabbath a delight, the Holy day of the Lord honorable, honor it, desist from your own ways, from seeking your pleasure, speaking your word”.

         Sabbath means that what I did in the week, I should not do on Sabbath, except eat and drink at the proper times. It is not seeking opportunities for pleasure, definitely not watching movies, or TV, or listening popular ballade, SMS texting to my friends with the Smartphones, absolutely not doing any business or shopping on Saturday. It is Saturday and Saturday only since that is the day Jews are keeping and also the seventh day according to the world calendar for millennia.

          Moses also have something to say about Sabbath. The way Moses did it was to write an epic history of the life of Job in 1460 BCE while hiding in Midian after he had to run out of Egypt in 1490 BCE, much to the horror of his mother and Hatshepsut, who found him as a babe in 1530/29 BCE, herself only 6/7 years old.

Moses built into Job 3 some meanings of Sabbath worth looking at.

         I am going to make it very simple for the sake of non-professionals.

You need to know that the name Noah means “rest”.

You also need to know that in Job 3, the word “rest” appears three times, in Job 3:13; Job 3:17 and Job 3:26.

The word in the original Hebrew of Moses is the word Noah.

There is another fact that you need to know before we start unwinding the meanings of "rest" in Job 3.

          A dictionary was found in the Victorian period at Niniveh and this clay table from the Library of the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal had a synonymous dictionary. A Thesaurus if you please.

           It was K 4397 and at Columns 1 and 2 line 16 the word Noah is used by saying:  “day of the noah of the heart”. The meaning in the dictionary in column 2 is “Sabbath”.

            So what it wants to say is that Sabbath means “day of the rest of the heart”. Thus, according to the Assyrian Dictionary. In cuneiform script without a shadow of doubt.

           If Noah means Sabbath then it means every time you see in Job 3 Noah or rest, you can understand also Sabbath.

So what is the result of looking at the definition of Sabbath or Noah in Job 3?

1.     In Job 3:13 Moses wrote:

“For now I would have laid down

and would have been quiet;

I should have slept then it would be rest to me.”

Notice:

a.     Rest is to sleep.

b.     Rest is to lay down.

c.      Rest is to be quiet.

2.     In Job 3:17 Moses wrote:

“There the wicked cease from agitation,

and there the weary of power are resting”.

Notice:

a.     Rest is for the weary of power to recharge their physical power.

b.     Rest is to cease from stress and agitation.

3.     In Job 3:26 Moses wrote:

“Not was I at ease

and not was I quiet

and not I had rest

and agitation came.”

Notice:

a.     Not to be at ease.

b.     Not to be quiet.

c.      To have agitation.

These are the ways not to keep the Sabbath and not to have rest.