Every seventh day, sunset Friday to sunset Saturday · Weekly
The Sabbath
שַׁבָּת
Shabbat
The first appointed time in the list, and the only one that comes every week. Leviticus 23 puts it at the head of the mo'edim before naming a single annual feast.
The text, before anyone interprets it
What was commanded
Rest, and let everyone under your roof rest with you: children, servants, foreigners, and livestock. The commandment is given twice with two different reasons attached, and the difference is worth sitting with. In Exodus the reason is that God rested at creation. In Deuteronomy it is that you were a slave in Egypt and know exactly what it is to have no day off.
Where it turns up
It predates Sinai. Genesis has God resting on the seventh day and setting it apart before any commandment is given, and the manna in the wilderness falls in a six-day rhythm with a double portion on the sixth, which is a lesson in trust before it is ever a law.
What is on the table
Two candles
Lit before sundown, traditionally by the woman of the house, marking the boundary between ordinary time and set-apart time.
Two loaves
For the double portion of manna given on the sixth day, so that none had to be gathered on the seventh.
The cup
Kiddush, the blessing that sanctifies the day, said over wine.
In the New Testament
Jesus keeps it, teaches in synagogue on it as his custom, and argues about it constantly. The arguments are not about whether to keep it but about how, which is an ordinary first-century Jewish debate in which he takes a recognisable side. He heals on it repeatedly and says the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Not in the Bible, and worth knowing anyway
What tradition added
Much of what makes these days beautiful comes from outside Scripture, and some New Testament scenes are far harder to read without it. It is set out here with its source named, which is the only honest way to hold it: interesting, often very old, and not binding on anyone.
Two candles lit before sundown, traditionally by the woman of the house, and the Kiddush blessing over wine.
Where it comes from · Rabbinic custom. The Torah commands rest; it says nothing about candles or a cup.
The idea that a second soul is given for the day and departs at its close, marked by the Havdalah spice box.
Where it comes from · Talmudic and later mystical tradition. Poetry rather than doctrine, and treated that way even by those who keep it.
Was, is, and is to come
The same appointment, three depths
An appointment on a calendar is not crossed off once. It comes round. Christians of every tradition read these events at more than one depth, whether they call it already and not yet, type and antitype, or near and far fulfilment.
It happened
God rested on the seventh day and set it apart before there was any commandment to keep, and Israel was given it at Sinai as a weekly memory of having been slaves who now get a day off.
It is happening
Every seventh day it comes round again, and Hebrews says a sabbath rest remains for the people of God, which is language about now rather than only later.
It is still coming
A rest that is entered rather than scheduled, when the work is finished and does not need resuming on Monday.
How Christians have read it
A reading, not a statement of the text
Hebrews 4 takes the seventh day and reads it forward: there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, and the rest on offer is not a day but a person. The weekly stop becomes a rehearsal for ceasing from your own work and trusting someone else's finished.
How it is kept now
Christians divide here and have since the second century. Most hold that the Sabbath command is fulfilled in Christ and that Sunday, the day of resurrection, became the Christian day of gathering without being a Sabbath in the Mosaic sense. Seventh-day Adventists and Seventh Day Baptists hold that the command was never repealed and keep Saturday. A growing number of Christians of no particular tradition keep a sabbath practice simply because they are exhausted and have discovered that the command is a kindness. Romans 14:5-6 is the text most often reached for by those who treat it as a matter of liberty.
If you want to keep it
Stop before you are finished. Light candles at sundown, eat with people you love, and put the work down for twenty-four hours whether or not it is done. The hardest part is not the resting. It is trusting that the world continues without you.
Should Christians keep the feasts? Every view at its strongest →