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Andrews University
Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary
THE ROLE OF ONTOLOGY IN THE ABANDONMENT OF THE SABBATH IN THE
WRITINGS OF THE CHURCH FATHERS
A Research Paper
Presented for Consideration by
The Adventist Theological Society
By
Karl Tsatalbasidis
February 1, 2011
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS... ...................................................................................................... ii
Chapter
I. INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1
Background to the Problem... ........................................................................................1
Problem. .........................................................................................................................3
Purpose. ..........................................................................................................................3
Methodology. .................................................................................................................4
II. THE ROLE OF ONTOLOGY .............................................................................................5
The Influence of Hellenism... ........................................................................................5
Parmenides... ............................................................................................................5
Plato. ........................................................................................................................6
III. CHURCH FATHERS, THE SABBATH AND GREEK PHILOSOPHY... ........................9
Introduction. ...................................................................................................................9
Tertullian. .................................................................................................................9Barnabas. ................................................................................................................14
Clement of Alexandria... ........................................................................................16Augustine. ..............................................................................................................19
Summary ......................................................................................................................21
IV. CONCLUSION. .................................................................................................................23
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..........................................................................................................................26
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ANF The Ante-Nicene Fathers
NPNF Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series
SDABC Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
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CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
Background to the Problem
As the memorial of creation, the Sabbath helps us to safeguard the distinction
between God and the creation. Also as the culmination of the week of creation in Gen 1,
the Seventh-day Sabbath is inextricably linked with time.1 A phenomenological reading
of the Hebrew Scriptures, which by definition brackets out the influence of other
philosophical systems in general and of Greek philosophy in particular, indicates that
temporality is the ground from which God and His relationship between the cosmos and
humanity are understood. Yet according to Greek philosophy eternity, which is timeless,
is considered the ground. Unlike the day, the month or the year, which are based on the
observation of the earth, the moon and the sun, the weekly cycle, and by implication the
Sabbath, finds its origin in Scripture.2
On the whole, scholarship does not contest the origin, validity and observance of
the Sabbath throughout the time period when the Hebrew Scriptures were written.
However, when it comes to the New Testament the validity of the Sabbath as a day of
1See SDABC 1:51 A careful study of the Hebrew manuscripts reveals that in everyinstance in whichyom[day] is accompanied by a definite number used as an adjective, a day
of 24 hours is indicated.
2Sigve K. Tonstad, The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day (Berrien Springs, MI:Andrews University Press, 2009), 26-27.
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worship is greatly contested since many scholars believe that the shift from Sabbath to
Sunday occurred on account of the teachings of Christ and His disciples.3
There are several reasons given for the shift from Sabbath to Sunday, embracing
anti-Jewish sentiment, theological, and biblical rationales as causes for the shift. In
addition, there is also debate about when the shift took place. In light of this, church
fathers such as Tertullian, Barnabas, Clement of Alexandria and Augustine all speak of
the Sabbath, yet as a building that is no longer connected to its foundation, their writings
reveal that the Sabbath has been wrenched from its connection with the seventh day.
While previous studies have focused on anti-Jewish sentiment and sun worship as
causes for the shift to Sunday,4comparatively little has been done to explore the impact
of Greek metaphysics on the shift from Sabbath to Sunday.5 In addition, there has not
been a comparative analysis between the Greek metaphysical framework, including its
impact on hermeneutics, and the writings of the aforementioned church fathers so that a
determination can be made as to the influence of Greek metaphysics on their conclusions
3Samuele Bacchiocchi,From Sabbath to Sunday: A Historical Investigation of the
Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity(Rome: Pontifical Gregorian UniversityPress, 1977), 74, 91, 102; F.F. Bruce, Commentary on the Book of Acts (Grand Rapids, MI:Eerdman's, 1954), 407-408; Oscar Cullmann, Early Christian Worship(London: SCM Press,
1953), 10, 88; Jean Danilou, The Bible and Liturgy(South Bend, IN: University of NotreDame Press, 1956), 243; Paul K. Jewett, The Lord's Day; a Theological Guide to the
Christian Day of Worship(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdman's, 1971), 57; Archibald Robertsonand Alfred Plummer,A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the First Epistle of St. Paul
to the Corinthians(Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1911), 384; Anthony C. Thiselton, The First
Epistle to the Corinthians : A Commentary on the Greek Text(Grand Rapids, MI:Eerdman's, 2000), 1321.
4Bacchiocchi, 213-269.
5Fernando Canale,Basic Elements of Christian Theology: Scripture Replacing
Tradition(Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Lithotech, 2005), 50; Tonstad, 315-328. These two authors are an exception, yet neither provides a comparative analysis
between Greek metaphysics and the church fathers .
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about the Sabbath.
Problem
According to some scholars, the change from Sabbath to Sunday came as a result
of i) the teachings of Jesus and the apostles, ii) anti-Jewish sentiment, and iii) sun
worship. Moreover it may be assumed that the church fathers mentioned earlier simply
built their understanding of the Sabbath, how it should be observed and its relationship to
Sunday upon the foundation already laid down by Christ and His apostles and upon anti-
Jewish sentiment.
However the following statements from the church fathers, which will be studied
in greater detail later, seem to point to Greek metaphysics as the motivation for the shift.
For instance, according to Tertullian, the Seventh-day is temporary and human and is
referred to in the Scriptures as your Sabbaths whereas the eternal Sabbath is referred to
as My Sabbaths. Tertullian also stated that Jesus kept the Sabbath on the one hand
while on the other hand he abolished it. Furthermore, Augustine concluded that creation
did not take place in six literal days but rather it took place instantaneously.
Hence, in light of some the church fathers statements, was the theological
motivation for how they viewed the Sabbath and its relationship to Sunday based upon
the teachings of Christ and His apostles, anti-Jewish sentiment and sun worship or upon
Greek metaphysics?
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to analyze how the Greek philosophical view of
ontology affected the early churchs understanding of the Sabbath commandment.
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Methodology
The second chapter will begin by looking at ontology and how Greek
philosophers from Parmenides to Plato have interpreted it. After defining and
interpreting ontology, it will also be important to see how ontology is related to
cosmology since the Sabbath itself is inextricably linked to time.
The third chapter will examine certain statements by Tertullian, Barnabas,
Clement of Alexandria, and Augustine in light of the Greek metaphysical framework in
order to examine the extent to which these church fathers were theologically motivated
by Greek thought.
The fourth and final chapter will provide the conclusion to the study.
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CHAPTER TWO
The Role of Ontology
The Influence of Hellenism
Hellenism had already posed a formidable philosophical challenge around the
time when Christianity came into existence. Greek concepts constituted the air which
people breathed and the ground upon which they walked. They also formed the
conceptual framework in which they did their thinking.6 The most influential
philosopher who made the greatest impact on early Christianity was Plato. John Dillon
outlines how his two-tiered cosmology was not only preserved and modified, but also
how leading Christian theologians appropriated it.7
Parmenides
Notwithstanding, Plato had assumed and built upon a very powerful idea that
began with the Milesian philosopher Parmenides. It was Parmenides who first began to
clearly articulate about ontology, which is concerned with the proper understanding of
reality. Parmenides (540-470 B.C.) seems to be the first philosopher to examine the
6Tonstad, 316.
7John M. Dillon, The Middle Platonists 80 B.C. To A.D. 220, Rev ed. (Ithaca, NY:Cornell University Press, 1996).
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nature of being.8Parmenides begins with what he takes to be a self-evident truth: IT IS.
This is not an empirical claimnot one derived from observationrather it is a truth of
Reason. It cannot be denied without self-contradiction. If you say, IT IS NOT (i.e.,
nothing exists), then youve proved that IT IS; for if nothing exists, its not nothing,
rather it is something.9
Being or reality has been interpreted by Parmenides as timelessness. However,
although the word timelessness does not seem to appear in Parmenides writings, there
is evidence that ultimate being is timeless.10
In philosophical and theological discussion
the idea of timelessness takes on a technical meaning: it is the conception that reality in
general and God in particular are essentially and necessarily voided of, and incompatible
with, time and space. Consequently, a timeless conception of reality necessarily
eliminates from the realm of genuine reality anything that may be considered as historical
or analogical to what we call history.11
Plato
Parmenides idea of being had a profound effect on both Plato and Aristotle who
built their systems on that concept. As a matter of fact, Platos two-world theory is a
development of Parmenides idea of being. Plato decided that reality as a whole is made
up of two tiers or worlds, one heavenly and the other earthly. Realities in the heavenly
8
Norman R. Gulley, Systematic Theology: Prolegomena(Berrien Springs, MI:Andrews University Press, 2003), 4.
9Donald Palmer,Looking at Philosophy, 2nd ed. (Mountain View, CA: MayfieldPublishing Company, 1994), 25.
10Gulley, 4.
11Fernando Canale,Back to Revelation - Inspiration(New York: University Press ofAmerica, 2001), 37.
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world are uncreated, and therefore timeless and eternal, whereas realities in the earthly
world are created, and are therefore temporal and transient. The relationship between the
heavenly and earthly tiers is one of duplication.12
In other words, things in the earthly
tier are merely a duplication of what exists in the heavenly timeless tier. Everything
within the earthly tier is limited, transitory, subject to decay, evil and sinful where as the
heavenly tier is eternal, timeless, pure and good.
Platos influence has been so enormous that the eminent British-American
philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once said that the history of philosophy is merely a
series of footnotes to Plato.
13
As we shall see this influence shaped Judaism as well as
Christianity.
Through a process that took several centuries, Platos two-worlds theory came to
shape how Christian theology understood nature and supernature. The two-worlds
interpretation influenced not only Christianity, but also Judaism. Jewish theologian Philo
of Alexandria adopted this view and used it as a hermeneutical tool to interpret the Old
Testament and to develop his own teachings. By the time of Augustine, Christian
theology had claimed for itself the basic outline of Platos cosmology.14
At this point, it should be noted that the acceptance of these theories formulates
an overall system which then sets the groundwork for reinterpreting everything else
including the Sabbath. Since the Sabbath is associated with time, which is viewed as part
of the earthly tier, it can no longer be the ground upon which worship is based since the
12Fernando Canale, The Cognitive Principle of Christian Theology (Berrien Springs,
MI: Andrews University Lithotech, 2005), 91.
13Palmer, 67.
14Canale, The Cognitive Principle of Christian Theology, 92.
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earthly tier is grounded in, and duplicates the heavenly tier. Also, since time and
timelessness cannot co-exist in the heavenly tier and since the earthly duplicates the
heavenly eternal timeless tier, the end result is that the Sabbath has been replaced as the
ground for worshipby Platos two-worlds theory.
According to Tonstad, this Platonic framework is so far reaching that it becomes
part of the fabric of Christianity to the extent that not until the twentieth century, if then,
would theologians appreciate the Churchs accommodation of Platonism as an
irreconcilable difference.15
Furthermore, with respect to the Sabbath, Hellenism does
not only represent a challenge but also, at least in the non-Jewish context, an
irreconcilable difference.16
This framework forms the basic understanding of some of the statements of the
church fathers regarding the Sabbath, its validity, its observance and the justification for
Sunday. A comprehensive overview of the church fathers would go well beyond the
scope of this paper; hence this study will look at some of their statements with this Greek
philosophical framework in mind.
15Tonstad, 322.
16Ibid., 316.
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CHAPTER THREE
Church Fathers, the Sabbath and Greek Philosophy
Introduction
The Sabbath has always been the ground upon which worship is based because it
helps to keep in mind the great distinction between the Creator and the creation. Within
such a system there is no qualitative difference between eternity and time. However, the
interpretation of ontology as timeless poses a very serious threat to the grounding role of
the Sabbath precisely because of the unbridgeable chasm between eternity and time. In
this Platonic system time is the reduplication of eternity, and the result is that the Sabbath
loses its grounding role.
Before analyzing the specific statements of the church fathers mentioned above,
an examination of their attitude toward philosophy will prove helpful in ascertaining how
far reaching the effects of Greek philosophy proved to be, even to those who rejected it
for use in apologetics.
Tertullian
The church fathers in this study do not always share the same attitude about the
relationship between philosophy and theology. Tertullian (145-220) was a brilliant
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lawyer who along with Augustine had a great influence on the Latin Church.17
Tertullian
was actually appalled at the extent to which some of his contemporaries were using
Greek philosophies such as Platonism and Stoicism to explain Christian ideas to pagan
audiences.18
In hisPrescription Against Heretics, he rhetorically asks, What indeed
has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the
Church?19
Nevertheless, in spite of his negative attitude about the use of Greek concepts in
apologetics, he ends up assuming them in his description of the Trinity against Praxeas,
which proved to be one of his most important theological contributions.
20
In his
discussion about the Sabbath, Tertullian distinguishes between the seventh-day Sabbath,
which he interprets as temporal and the eternal Sabbath, which is interpreted as divine.
The Sabbath issue and its relation to Greek philosophy can easily be seen in Tertullians
distinction between the eternal versus the temporal Sabbath. He states,
We (Christians) understand that westill more ought to observe a Sabbath from all
servile work always, and not only every seventh day, but through all time. Andthrough this arises the question for us, whatSabbath God willed us to keep? For the
Scriptures point to a Sabbath eternal and a Sabbath temporal. For Isaiah the prophet
says, YourSabbaths my soul hateth; andin another place he says, MySabbaths ye
17ANF 3:3
18Roger E. Olson, The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Traditionand Reform(Downer's Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press Academic, 1999), 54.
19
ANF 3:26920ANF 3:633-634; Olson, 95. Olson states, After all his fussing against
philosophical speculation in theology, Tertullian ended up assuming a very Greekphilosophical notion of divine beingvery much like Clement of Alexandrias! In fact,their basic concepts of Gods nature as simple, immutable and impassible are strikingly
similar and derived more from Greek culture and philosophical theology than from Hebrewor apostolic teachings about God. [Thus] some of Tertullians assumptions and argumentsseem to have been based more on Greek philosophy than on divine revelation. P g 97-98
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have profaned.21
Whence we discern that the temporal Sabbath is human, and the
eternal Sabbath is accounted divine. Thus, therefore, before this temporal Sabbath,
there was withal an eternal Sabbath foreshown and foretold; just as before the carnalcircumcision there was withal a spiritual circumcision foreshown. Manifest
accordingly it is, that the precept was not eternal nor spiritual, but temporary,22
which
would one day cease. Whence it is manifest that the force of such precepts wastemporary, 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.23
When viewed under the influence of Platos two-worlds theory there is a
difference between the eternal and the temporal in Tertullians observation about the
Sabbath. Platoused the word aion[eternity] in the technical philosophical sense of
timelessness.24
Thus the divine Sabbath, referred to as my Sabbaths is regarded as
eternal and spiritual which is interpreted in a timeless sense while the seventh-day
Sabbath under the same philosophical system is viewed as i) temporal, because it would
one day cease and was not perpetual and ii) as belonging to the Jews because its your
Sabbaths.
This philosophical system blinded Tertullian from distinguishing between the
perpetuity of the seventh-day Sabbath and the ceremonial Sabbaths in Lev 23:37-38 as
the basis for the Scriptures that spoke of my Sabbaths and your Sabbaths. The same
system also leads Tertullian to justify his division between the human and divine Sabbath
by looking to circumcision which according to even the Old Testament Scriptures pointed
forward to a spiritual circumcision of the heart (Deut 30:6) that would fulfilled by the
death of Christ on the cross (Col 2:11). While this works for circumcision, there is no
21This is not said by Isaiah; it is found in substance in Ezek 22:8
22Or, temporal.
23ANF 3:155, 156
24Canale,Basic Elements of Christian Theology: Scripture Replacing Tradition, 58.
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place that one can point to in the Bible to justify the kind of distinction between the
eternal and temporal Sabbath that Tertullian has referred to under the influence of Greek
philosophy. The Sabbath that God instituted at creation, which is kept today, and the
Sabbaths that will be kept in eternity assume the biblical notion of time and not the Greek
notion of timelessness. The acceptance Platos system always leads to an ontological
separation between the heavenly and the earthly, and between eternity and time. This
presuppositional structure is what is revealed in Tertullians sharp distinction between the
eternal and the temporal Sabbath.
Under this same system, the impact on the ethical aspects of Sabbath keeping is
clear. The human seventh-day Sabbath need not be kept according to a day because its
temporary. Thus, the necessity of present circumstances is a determining factor regarding
how one keeps the human Sabbath.
Perhaps Platos two-worlds theory may also explain why Tertullian on the one
hand states that Jesus did not rescind the Sabbath but rather kept it while on the other
hand he states that God did destroy the very institution He set up. He says, thus Christ
did not at all rescind the Sabbath: He kept the law thereof, and both in the former case did
a work which was beneficial to the life of His disciples, for He indulged them with the
relief of food when they were hungry, and in the present instance cured the withered
hand; in each case intimating by facts, I came not to destroy, the law, but to fulfill it.25
This seems clear, but the same man also said this:
Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years the Sabbaths, I suppose,
and the preparations,and the fasts, and the high days.For the cessation of even these,25ANF 3:363-364
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no less than of circumcision, was appointed by the Creators decrees, who had said by
Isaiah, Your new moons, and your Sabbaths, and your high days I cannot bear; your
fasting, and feasts, and ceremonies my soul hateth; also by Amos, I hate, I despise
your feast-days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies; and again by Hosea, I
will cause to cease all her mirth, and her feast-days, and her Sabbaths, and her new
moons, and all her solemn assemblies.The institutions which He set up Himself, you
ask, did He then destroy? Yes, rather than any other.26
J.N. Andrews may be correct by stating, Tertullian was a double minded man.27
However if one analyzes these statements within the prevailing Platonic system described
earlier, then theres a strange kind of harmony because as was stated before, there is a
heavenly Sabbath understood on timeless principles which would be the one that Jesus
kept, while the earthly temporal Sabbath is the one that He destroyed. Furthermore,
when Tertullian stated that Jesus did not rescind the Sabbath, he did not state that His
reason for doing so was that the Sabbath was grounded in the biblical notion of time but
rather Jesus kept the eternal, heavenly Sabbath by relieving the hungry and curing
those who had diseases. His emphasis seems more on what Jesus did rather than on the
day that He did it, which would make sense if one has adopted Platonic philosophy as the
main hermeneutical system.
In as much as the Sabbath is also inextricably linked with liturgical practices, the
severing of the Sabbath from the seventh-day also led to such liturgical changes as the
celebration of Sunday as a day of festivity. One of those changes was that kneeling was
26ANF 3:436
27J.N. Andrews,History of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week, 3rd, revised ed.(Battle Creek, MI: Review and Herald, 1887), 308-309.
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prohibited on the Lords day. Tertullian states, We count fasting or kneeling in worship
on the Lords day to be unlawful. We rejoice in the same privilege also from Easter to
Whitsunday.28
Peter of Alexandria also says something similar. But the Lords day we
celebrate as a day of joy, because on it He rose again, on which day we have received it
for a custom not even to bow the knee.29
In addition to this, Sunday was also to be regarded as a day of festivity. Tertullian
states, we make Sunday a day of festivity. What then? Do you do less than this?30
Regarding this question, J.N. Andrews states, His language is very extraordinary when it
is considered that he was addressing heathen. It seems that Sunday as a Christian festival
was so similar to the festival which these heathen observed that he challenged them to
show wherein the Christians went further than did these heathen whom he here
addressed.31
Besides Tertullian, Andrews mentions, The Epistle of Barnabas, Justin
Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Origin, Cyprian, Peter of Alexandria, and the writer of
the Syriac Documents concerning Edessa as stating the festive nature of the Lords day.32
Barnabas
In contrast to Tertullians attitude aboutthe use of philosophy in apologetics, the
Epistle of Barnabaswritten in Alexandria around 100 AD33
represents the first document
of the young Alexandrine school of theology which has been characterized by Neo-
28
ANF 3:9429
ANF 6:278
30ANF 3:123
31Andrews, 289.
32Ibid., 284-295.
33ANF 1:133
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Platonism. Furthermore, the epistles allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament is
based upon the Jewish Alexandrine philosopher Philo,34
who stated that a six day
creation, or creation in a space of time at all, is really quite foolish.35
In the following paragraph, when the words pure and sanctify are viewed
from the same Platonic presuppositions, the negative implications for Sabbath observance
become clear. In actuality, the authors main objective in the 15th
chapter of the epistle
was to void the Sabbath.36
Moreover, He says, Thou shalt sanctify it [the Sabbath] with pure hands and a pure
heart. If, therefore, anyone can now sanctify the day which God hath sanctified,
except he is pure in heart in all things, we are deceived. Behold, therefore: certainlythen one properly resting sanctifies it, when we ourselves, having received the
promise, wickedness no longer existing, and all things having been made new by the
Lord, shall be able to work righteousness. Then we shall be able to sanctify it, having
been first sanctified ourselves. Further, He says to them, Your new moons and yourSabbath I cannot endure. Ye perceive how He speaks: Your present Sabbaths are
not acceptable to Me, but that is which I have made, [namely this,] when, giving rest
to all things, I shall make a beginning of the eighth day, that is, a beginning of anotherworld. Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on
which Jesus rose again from the dead. And when He had manifested Himself, He
ascended into the heavens.37
When viewed from Platos two-worlds theory, purity and holiness are
characteristics that are not compatible with the present age in which we live because
purity and holiness exist in the timeless tier while we exist in the temporal tier. Its clear
that it is only at the second coming of Christ that we are going to be made pure and holy
34
Justo Gonzlez,From the Beginnings to the Council of Chalcedon,A History ofChristian Thought, vol. 1 (Nashville, TN: Abindgon Press, 1987), 94.
35H.A. Wolfson,Philo; Foundations of Religious Philosophy in Judaism,Christianity, and Islam, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1948), 1:120.
36William H. Shea, "The Sabbath in the Epistle of Barnabas," Andrews UniversitySeminary Studies4 (1966): 172.
37ANF 1:146-147
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because then we will have entered into the timeless realm. The writer of the epistle
assumes that there is a divine Sabbath and an earthly Sabbath and anyone attempting to
keep the earthly temporal Sabbath is doing something that God will not accept. First, the
seventh-day Sabbath is earthly and temporal, and second we are sinful and unholy and we
must wait until we enter into eternity so that we can become sanctified and thus keep the
divine Sabbath.38
Thus Greek philosophys timeless ontology affects not only the Sabbath in this
epistle but it also has an effect on our interpretations of purity and holiness which are
inextricably linked with the doctrine of man. By this time Clement of Rome had already
declared that Peter and Paul had entered into glory,39
which means that the immortality of
the soul was assumed. This doctrine declares that while the soul is immaterial and
timeless, the body is temporal, sinful and subject to decay. Thus the only way that the
Sabbath can be kept is by the soul being released from the body either at death or at the
Second Coming of Jesus.
Clement of Alexandria
Clement was originally a pagan philosopher. The date of his birth is unknown. It
is also uncertain whether Alexandria or Athens was his birthplace.He is supposed to
have died about A.D. 220.40
If Tertullian represented those who decried the spoiling of
the Egyptians by using Greek philosophy in order to explain the gospel, then Clement
represents those who saw the best of Greek thought, such as the philosophies of Socrates
38S. Lowy, "The Confutation of Judaism in the Epistle of Barnabas," in Early
Christianity and Judaism, ed. Everett Ferguson(New York: Garland Publishing, 1993), 323.
39ANF 1:6
40ANF 2:166-167
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and Plato, as preparation for the gospel and as a useful tool in the hands of skillful
Christian thinkers.41
In the following passage, Clement links the Lords day to Plato.
And the Lords day Plato prophetically speaks of in the tenth book of theRepublic,inthese words: And when seven days have passed to each of them in the meadow, on
the eighth they are to set out and arrive in four days.By the meadow is to be
understood the fixed sphere, as being a mild and genial spot, and the locality of thepious; and by the seven days each motion of the seven planets, and the whole
practical art which speeds to the end of rest. But after the wandering orbs the journey
leads to heaven, that is, to the eighth motion and day. And he says that souls are gone
on the fourth day, pointing out the passage through the four elements. But the seventhday is recognized as sacred, not by the Hebrews only, but also by the Greeks;
according to which the whole world of all animals and plants revolve.42
J.N. Andrews' analysis of this passage demonstrates how Greek philosophical
concepts governed the early church fathersunderstanding of not only the Sabbath but
also of the Lords day by stating that these were not literal days.
Though Clement says that Plato speaks of the Lords day, it is certain that he does not
understand him to speak of literal days nor of a literal meadow. On the contrary, he
interprets the meadow to represent the fixed sphere, as being a mild and genial spot,
and the locality of the pious; which must refer to the future inheritance. The sevendays are not so many literal days, but they represent each motion of the seven
planets, and the whole practical art which speeds to the end of rest. This seems to
represent the present period of labor which is to end in the rest of the saints; for headds: but after the wandering orbs [represented by Platos seven days] the journey
leads to heaven, that is, to the eighthmotion and day. The seven days, therefore, do
here represent the period of the Christians pilgrimage, and the eighth day of which
Clement here speaks is not Sunday, but heaven itself! Here is the first instance ofLords day as a name for the eighth day, but this eighth day is a mystical one and
means, heaven!43
Once the Platonic system is adopted, the interpreter begins with the heavenly tier
because everything is grounded there. With this understanding in mind it becomes easier
41Olson, 84.
42ANF 2:469
43Andrews, 221.
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to grasp how the church fathers like Clement can place a mystical construction upon
passages that should be interpreted in a literal sense because meaning does not arise from
the earthly, the literal or the temporal but rather from the eternal, the mystical and the
spiritual.
Clement also believed that the Lords day should be kept by abstaining from evil
practices rather than meeting on a specific day and at a specific place. He, in fulfillment
of the precept, according to the Gospel, keeps the Lords day,when he abandons an evil
disposition, and assumes that of the Gnostic, glorifying the Lords resurrection in
himself.
44
The acceptance of Platonic presuppositions has replaced the Sabbath as the
ground of worship by switching to the Lords day. However as J.N. Andrews points out,
the Lords day at this time does not point to any one day of the week.
From this statement [referring to Clement] we learn, not merely his idea of fasting,
but also that of celebrating the Lords day, and glorifying the resurrection of Christ.This, according to Clement, does not consist in paying special honors to Sunday, but
in abandoning an evil disposition, and in assuming that of the Gnostic, a Christian
sect to which he belonged. Now it is plain that this kind of Lords day observance
pertains to no one day of the week, but embraces the entire life of the Christian.Clements Lords day was not aliteral, but a mystical day, embracing, according to
this, his second use of the term, the entire regenerate life of the Christian; and
according to his first use of the term, embracing also the future life in heaven.45
Furthermore, worship need not occur at any specific place or time. Regarding
Gnostic worship Clement says that they do not worship on special days, as some others,
but doing this continually in our whole life, and in every way. Certainly the elect race
justified by the precept says, Seventimes a day have I praised Thee.Whence not in a
specified place, or selected temple, or at certain festivals and on appointed days, but
44ANF 2:545
45Andrews, 222.
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during his whole life.46
Later on Sunday was recognized as the Lords day but it was
not kept like the Sabbath.
Augustine
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is without a doubt, one of the greatest Christian
thinkers of all time. According to Justo Gonzlez, Augustine is the end of one era as
well as the beginning of another. He is the last of the ancient Christian writers, and the
forerunner of medieval theology. The main currents of ancient theology converged in
him, and from him flow the rivers, not only of medieval scholasticism, but also of
sixteenth-century Protestant theology.47 His relationship with philosophy is more like
that of Clement rather than Tertullian. He freely drew on Platonic thought in his
argumentation against Manichaeism.48
The quotation below delineates his view of
creation.
And I looked attentively to find whether seven or eight times Thou sawest that Thy
works were good, when they were pleasing unto Thee; but in Thy seeing I found notimes, by which I might understand that thou sawest so often what Thou madest. And
I said, O Lord,! Is not this Thy Scripture true, since Thou art true, and being Truth
hast set it forth? Why, then, dost Thou say unto me that in thy seeing there are notimes, while this Thy Scripture telleth me that what Thou madest each day, Thou
sawest to be good; and when I counted them I found how often? Unto these things
Thou repliest unto me, for Thou art my God, and with strong voice tellest unto Thyservant in his inner ear, bursting through my deafness, and crying, O man, that
which My Scripture saith, I say; and yet doth that speak in time; but time has no
reference to My Word, because My Word existeth in equal eternity with Myself. Thus
those things which ye see through My Spirit, I see, just as those things which ye
46ANF 2:532
47Justo Gonzlez,From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation,A History ofChristian Thought, vol. 2 (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1987), 15.
48Olson, 263.
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speak through My Spirit, I speak. And so when ye see those things in time, I see them
not in time; as when ye speak them in time, I speak them not in time.49
For Augustine its clear that creation did not take place in seven literal days,
where God did something on the first day and then proceeded to go on from there. This
is clear in Canales analysis of Augustines theology: Augustine was convinced that God
cannot act in the future-present-past sequence of time as Scripture presents all divine
activities. Instead he followed Parmenides, Plato, and Aristotles imaginative
construction of a God whose reality is necessarily timeless and spaceless.50
With this in
mind we can look at how Augustine understood the creation Sabbath.
O Lord God, grant Thy peace unto us, for Thou hast supplied us with all things,the
peace of rest, the peace of the Sabbath, which hath no evening. For all this most
beautiful order of things, very good (all their courses being finished), is to passaway, for in them there was morning and evening. But the seventh day is without any
evening, nor hath it any setting, because Thou hast sanctified it to an everlasting
continuance that that which Thou didst after Thy works, which were very good,resting on the seventh day, although in unbroken rest Thou madest them that the
voice of Thy Book may speak beforehand unto us, that we also after our works
(therefore very good, because Thou hast given them unto us) may repose in Thee also
in the Sabbath of eternal life.51
When the Platonic system is in control, it acts as a hermeneutical guide, which
means that according to Augustine the creation Sabbath does not refer to a day, since it
hath no evening. It only has meaning within the context of eternal life, which is
understood to be in harmony with timeless concepts. Furthermore, Augustine states that
the seventh day Sabbath should not be kept by any Christian,52
and elsewhere he states
49NPNF 1:205
50Canale, Basic Elements of Christian Theology: Scripture Replacing Tradition, 49.
51NPNF 1:207
52NPNF 5:136
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that it should be observed spiritually by abstaining from sin.53
This system was also
assumed by Thomas Aquinas, and became the hermeneutical key that led him to make a
distinction between the moral and the ceremonial aspects of the Sabbath.
Aquinas states that the precept of the Sabbath observance is moral in one respect,
in so far as it commands man to give some time to the things of God, according to Ps.
45:11: Be still and see that I am God. In this respect it is placed among the precepts of
the Decalogue: but not as to the fixing of the time, in which respect it is a ceremonial
precept.54
Thus for Augustine and Aquinas, the Sabbath is not grounded in the day but
in the Platonic understanding of reality which then becomes the hermeneutical key for
dividing the moral from the ceremonial aspect of the Sabbath. This division becomes
non-existent when the Sabbath is grounded upon time.
Summary
It should be kept in mind that the purpose of this chapter was to demonstrate the
cause and effect results of Platos two-worlds theory regarding how the early church
fathers viewed the Sabbath, the Lords day, and the changes that occurred in liturgical
practices. Since the heavenly tier of Platos theory is timeless, eternal, good and pure, it
becomes the overarching system which guides the early church fathers to ultimately
abandon the seventh-day Sabbath which according to that system belonged to the earthly,
temporal, sinful tier.
This system also guided them to accept the eighth day which was also known as
53NPNF 7:136
54Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, trans., The Fathers of the English DominicanProvince, 3 vols. (New York: Benziger Brothers, Inc., 1947), 1:1039.
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the Lords day. It should be kept in mind however that this day was originally kept not
by the observance of a specific day, in a specific location but it was to be kept as
abstaining from sin throughout a persons entire life. Furthermore the absence of
kneeling and fasting on the Lords day was also connected to the resurrection and to the
heathen festivals.
In Canales assessment, the introduction of Greek philosophical concepts that
were assumed by the early church fathers had a role to play in the change from Sabbath
to Sunday.
As Christians began to see God and heaven as spiritual, non-temporal realities,historical realities slowly lost their relevance for the community of faith. By the
beginning of the fourth century, Christian theologians viewed divine, human and
heavenly realities not as material or temporal, but as immaterial and spiritual.
Temporal changes did not affect spiritual ones. This view of reality clearly paved theway for changing the day of worship and rejecting Jewish Christians from the
community of faith. Thus when Constantine faced the fact that religion was dividing
his empire, he found no theological barrier preventing him from changing the day of
worship from Saturday to Sunday.55
55Canale, Basic Elements of Christian Theology: Scripture Replacing Tradition, 50.
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CHAPTER FOUR
Conclusion
Regarding the impact of Greek metaphysics on the loss of the Sabbath, Tonstad
states:
It is in the context of the swirling current of Hellenistic influences that the Sabbath islost. The stream of this influence is subterranean in the sense that it is easier to make
the case for the reality of profound change than to describe its nature. We are left to
map out the course of the stream on the basis of where it appears from the surface towhere it emerges again in broad daylight. Looking at the subject from the vantage
point of portfolios of meaning, the seventh day does not fit into the Platonic negative
perception of the material world.56
The primary cause for the loss of the Sabbath is the timeless interpretation of
ontology within Platos two-tiered cosmology which made up the conceptual
framework from which the church fathers constructed their theology. As with other
doctrines, this framework had a profound effect on the conclusions of the church
fathers on the Sabbath.
Tertullian does not state the effect of the Greek philosophical framework on his
clear distinction between the eternal, timeless Sabbath and the human temporal Sabbath
because he is clearly opposed to using that kind of framework in defending the gospel.
Nevertheless, his conclusions can only be explained by assuming the very framework he
is trying to get others to abandon since that kind of distinction between the eternal
Sabbath and the temporal Sabbath is nowhere to be found in the Scriptures. The Greek
56Tonstad, 323-324.
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framework also helps to explain why Tertullian stated that Jesus kept the Sabbath on the
one hand, while on the other hand God destroyed it as an institution. In this context Jesus
kept the Sabbath relieving the hungry and healing the diseased, not necessarily by resting
between sunset Friday to sunset Saturday.
Barnabas concludes that since keeping the Sabbath holy requires us to be holy, no
one in this present age can actually keep the Sabbath holy because purity of heart and
sanctification ultimately occur in the world made new. As a result we can only keep the
Sabbath in eternity but as for now we ought to keep the eighth day. Thus Barnabas
maintains the distinction between the timeless Sabbath and the temporal Sabbath.
According to Clement, neither the Sabbath nor the Lords day should be
understood as literal days. Furthermore when it comes to liturgical practices, the Lords
day should be divorced from worshipping at specified times and places. Rather, it should
be observed throughout a persons whole life. In addition, those who truly observe the
Lords day are those who abandon an evil disposition.
Augustines distinction between eternity and time ultimately leads him to
conclude that the creation week did not occur in six days followed by the seventh day.
Rather creation was a timeless act since Gods word only has reference to eternity and
not to time, thereby nullifying the Sabbath commandment. Furthermore, since time is
considered to be the reduplication of eternity, the Sabbath as a twenty-four hour time
period can no longer be considered as the ultimate ground of reality and worship because
that ground is provided by the timeless interpretation of reality.
Thus, the Sabbath is i) divorced of its link with time, ii) no longer obligatory and
relevant as a day of worship from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, and iii) is merely
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associated with ethical issues and not ontological issues. These underlying philosophical
presuppositions provided the Church Fathers in this study with the theological
justification for the shift from Sabbath to Sunday. Since the issue of Sabbath and Sunday
is inextricably linked with ontology, the shift should not be viewed simply as a change of
days but rather as a major theological change, which affects not only the doctrine of the
Sabbath but also anthropology and cosmology.
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