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A Sabbath Day's Journey

By: Rev. Paul Landgraf
What is a Sabbath day's journey? First of all, it is a Jewish expression. We measure distances in meters or yards. The Jews had a certain distance that they could walk on Saturday before it would be considered work. So their synagogues that they went to on Saturday could not be very far away. The word appears only in Acts 1:12 and indicates a distance of about three-quarters of a mile.

With that in mind, I think it is important to remember the origins of Christianity. Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'. Much of the Old Testament has a literary structure that we are not aware of because of our modern emphasis on chapter and verse divisions. Within many of these blogs, I try to get the reader to see a bigger picture, a larger perspective that often includes the Old Testament and the environment that was present when the New Testament was seeing the Light of the day.

Second, a Sabbath day's journey is intentionally short. These 'journeys' with a text, almost always one of the three readings for that Sunday, are deliberately brief discussions. This blog was never designed to be a comprehensive look at any text. Sometimes a specific word is studied in detail. But, as a whole, a blog entry, by itself, is meant to be quite brief.

Finally, since the term 'Sabbath day's journey' appears in Acts, it is meant to appeal to a wide variety of people. This blog is meant for those who cannot come on Sunday mornings. And it is also for those who do come on Sunday mornings but would also like a further study of the text. It is also for those who live somewhere else in the world (besides Drake and Freedom, Missouri, USA) and would simply like a further study of the text. It was meant to get these different groups of people to start thinking about the biblical texts. Part of the reason for this blog is that I am not able to have a bible class on Sunday mornings with either congregation, and so, to have a blog like this seemed like a good idea. I hope it is helpful for you, in whatever situation you may be.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. And thank you for taking the time to read this!

December 26th, 2020

12/26/2020

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The Old Testament reading for the First Sunday after Christmas is from Isaiah AGAIN, but it will not show up too frequently after this Sunday. It is a very special book in the Old Testament, and much could be said about it.
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The variety of the words used within this book is amazing. The text for this Sunday is Isaiah 61:10-62:3, and the last verse of that text is a good example of some of the variety that is within the book. Here is a somewhat-literal translation:

And you will be a crown of splendor in the hand of Yahweh and a diadem of royalty in the hand of your God.

This seems like a straightforward translation that deserves little comment. The description of ‘hand of Yahweh’ is somewhat similar to ‘hand of your God’. But what is the difference between a ‘crown of splendor’ and a ‘diadem of royalty’?

A good starting point may be to point out the difference between a crown and a diadem. Looking at these two words may be helpful, not only because we rarely have kings these days, but also because the kingship of God may be greatly misunderstood.
Although this does not work with many languages, to see what other words are similar to an unknown word may be helpful. And the words for crown and diadem are obviously different, but they do have some similarities.

The word ‘crown’ is similar to the verb ‘to surround’. [See The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon: With an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, USA, 1996; page 742; hereafter BDB.] A crown surrounds the head. And the word ‘diadem’ is similar to the verb ‘to wrap’ or ‘to wind up’. And it is closely related to the word for ‘turban’ [BDB, page 857]. That would also surround the head.

What is interesting is that the word for ‘splendor’ is also connected to the word for ‘headdress’ or ‘turban’. It obviously means something like ‘beauty’ or ‘glory’, but for it to be connected to the same thing gives the idea that a crown or something significant on the head is an important item to be worn [BDB, page 802]. And the idea of surrounding or wrapping something is meant to be a powerful picture (see Isaiah 22:18 for a good example of this).

The king has a very important job. And to see the king’s face, to be in the presence of royalty, that is a very significant thing. God is the ultimate king, and we see the importance of his presence throughout the Old Testament, but also in the New.

It is also interesting that, on the Mount of Transfiguration, the only description of Jesus’ face in all three accounts was that it shown like the sun (Matthew 17:2). THAT would be something that you do not want to look at directly. It is also interesting that the only time Jesus accepts a crown on his head is when the cross will be his throne.
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