Remember the Sabbath

Blaine Robison, M.A.

Published 11 October 2007; Revised 26 September 2022

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Scripture: Unless otherwise indicated Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible (Updated Edition 1995). Click here for Abbreviations of Bible Versions. Quotations marked with the initials "BR" indicate the translation of the commentary author.

Sources: Bibliographic data for sources cited may be found at the end of the article.

Syntax: The meaning of Hebrew words is from The New Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (1981), abbreviated as "BDB." The numbering system of the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible is identified with "SH" (Strong's Hebrew number). Strong's Online.

Special Terms: In order to emphasize the Hebraic nature of the entire Bible I use the terms Yeshua (Jesus), Messiah (Christ), Tanakh (Old Testament), and Besekh (New Testament).

The First Sabbath

"2 And on the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." (Genesis 2:2-3 BR)

With the rise of the Christian sabbatarian movement in the mid-nineteenth century in America beginning with the Seventh Day Baptists, followed by the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and then the formation of smaller sabbatarian churches in the twentieth century, there has been considerable interest and not a little debate concerning the biblical teaching on the Sabbath. The emergence of Messianic Judaism in the latter twentieth century has particularly been a magnet for Evangelical Christians, causing a reevaluation of beliefs and attitudes regarding Sabbath-keeping. To gain biblical perspective let's begin at the beginning.

When God finished the six days (not years, millennia, or eons) of creation He rested (Heb. shabath) on the seventh day. The divine rest did not signify fatigue, but simply completion of the great work of bringing the heavens and the earth into existence. See my article The Truth of Creation. The hermeneutic Law of First Mention also has relevance to this subject. In other words, the meaning of God's sabbath-rest has relevance to the use of the term afterwards in Scripture. Sabbath-rest is the cessation of productive or occupational work, not the cessation of all activity.

The simple declaration of Genesis 2:2 establishes the basis for the assertion in Genesis 2:3 that God blessed and sanctified the seventh day. By sanctifying the seventh day God established that the seven-day week, which has no astronomical basis, would govern the human calendar and the seventh day would be a day of rest. Indeed, every human culture since creation has based its calendar on the seven-day week. It should be noted that the Israelites observed the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath before they received the commandment at Sinai (Ex 16:23-29).

The importance of the creation of the seventh day as a day of rest means that observance is above any dispute about the laws God gave to Moses for Israel. The first instruction on the seventh day was given to Adam who represented all mankind. Another important aspect of creation is that the day began and ended at evening at sundown. This daily clock governs all time references in Scripture and Jews still follow this manner of timekeeping. While man may have changed his calendar and his clock, there is no biblical evidence that God changed His.

A Cardinal Commandment

"8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of ADONAI your God; in it you shall not do any work, you nor your son nor your daughter, nor your man-servant nor your maid-servant, nor your livestock, nor your sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days ADONAI made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore ADONAI blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it." (Exodus 20:8-11 BR)

The noun "Sabbath" (Heb. shabbath, SH-7676) from the verb shabath (SH-7673), cease, desist or rest (BDB 991) is the name given to the seventh day of the week, occurring first in Exodus 16:23. The mention of shabbath a week after crossing the Red Sea serves as a reminder that observance of the Sabbath was in place long before the Ten Commandments were given.

The Fourth Commandment as part of the Ten Commandments given at Mt. Sinai to inaugurate God's covenant with Israel directly connects to Genesis 2:2-3. The quotation both confirms the literal meaning of "six days" of creation and provides the basis for observing the seventh day as a day of rest from occupational work. God intended that people follow His example. Work six days and rest on the seventh day. Since "sabbath" is a day of rest, the phrase "Sabbath of ADONAI your God" could be translated the "rest of ADONAI your God." In other words keeping the Sabbath is participating in the Lord's rest (cf. Heb 4:9-10).

God purposed that the observance of the seventh day as a holy day would continue forever (Lev 16:31). The Sabbath is a holy day (Isa 58:13). The Sabbath was so sacred that God decreed dishonoring the Sabbath by working should be punished with death by stoning (Ex 31:14; 35:2; Num 15:32-36). Deliberately disobeying the commandment became a capital crime. The wording of the Fourth Commandment given at Sinai (also in Ex 23:12; 31:15-17; 35:2; Lev 23:3), and then repeated in the covenant renewal in Moab (Deut 5:12-15), provides instruction to rest as contrasted with the work that provides one's livelihood.

In ancient culture cessation of occupational activities one day a week was unheard of. People worked seven days a week to survive. That rest on the seventh day Sabbath was the opposite of paid work is illustrated in God's instruction to Jeremiah's generation who had ceased to honor the Sabbath with commerce on that day:

"Take heed for yourselves, and do not carry any load on the sabbath day or bring anything in through the gates of Jerusalem. You shall not bring a load out of your houses on the sabbath day nor do any work, but keep the sabbath day holy, as I commanded your forefathers." (Jer 17:21-22)

Unfortunately, the same condition repeated itself after Israel returned from exile and Nehemiah had to stop the work of business and commerce on the Sabbath (Neh 13:15-22). This interpretation of prohibited work implies that the man executed for gathering wood on the Sabbath during the wilderness years had a motive other than personal need (Num 15:32-36).

In God's instruction the primary place for Sabbath observance was the home, although the instruction in Leviticus provided for a "holy convocation," a technical term for a religious gathering. In the wilderness those gatherings took place at the Tabernacle. Otherwise people remained in or around their family tents or homes for physical rest (Ex 16:29). Two particular restrictions may be noted for Sabbath observance in the original instruction. First, there was to be no gathering and preparation of food on the Sabbath (Ex 16:23-30).

However, the gathering had to do with manna which disappeared after Israel entered Canaan (Josh 5:12). Second, the people were not to kindle a fire in their dwelling places (Heb. moshab, Ex 35:3). This restriction is set in the context of instructions for furnishing the Tabernacle and may have been intended to prohibit conducting sacrificial offerings in private dwellings. These two restrictions appear only in the book of Exodus while Israel was encamped at Sinai and are not repeated in the covenant renewal in Moab. There are no references to these restrictions anywhere else in the Tanakh. Nevertheless, Judaism adopted these two restrictions as part of its Sabbath observance.

An important part of the commandment, often ignored in modern discussions, is the mandate to work six days. The agricultural nature of ancient economy required daily work, so the requirement for six days of work was no surprise. The commandment derives from the fact that God created the heavens and the earth and all they contain in six days, strong evidence that the days of Genesis 1 should be taken literally as time periods of 24 hours.

In addition, God's purpose for mankind is stated before Adam was even created. He was to "cultivate" (Heb. abad), lit. "to work or serve" (Gen 2:5, 15). Work is not part of God's curse on the world. This fourth commandment reminded Israel of God's expectation of work and in Scripture the lazy and slothful person receives much censure. Implied in God's purpose is that mankind should serve Him in an active sense for the six days, not separate the "secular" from the "sacred" and only serve Him one day a week.

The application of the commandment is universal for all levels of society. The expectation of "rest" was not limited to the rich, the powerful, the property owners or the employers. The Israelites were told to rest their servants (employees) and animals. Like all the other holy days of the Hebrew calendar, God expected that Gentiles dwelling in the land of Israel would keep the Sabbath (Ex 12:49; 23:12). Of particular note is God's declaration, "There shall be one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am the LORD your God" (Lev 24:22). Indeed, God promises particular blessings to the Gentiles that join themselves to the God of Israel and keep the Sabbath (Isa 56:3-8).

Covenantal Sabbaths

"1 And ADONAI spoke to Moses, saying, 2 'Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'The appointed times of ADONAI which you shall proclaim as holy convocations: My appointed times are these.'" (Lev 23:1-2 BR)

In God's covenant with Israel He commanded the nation to observe specific holy days and festivals. These "appointed times," summarized in Leviticus 23, were designed to celebrate God's grace in the past and the present. All the designated days on God's calendar, including the first and last days of week-long festivals, were considered sabbaths, and observance of the sabbaths was to be a sign of God's irrevocable relationship with Israel (Ex 31:13; Ezek 20:12). Occupational work was prohibited on all the sabbath days (Lev 19:30; 23:15; 26:2).

God's calendar should not be dismissed by Christians since all the feasts have a New Covenant meaning and most will be observed in the age to come. Moreover, Yeshua and the apostles, being observant Jews, kept the weekly Sabbath and other designated sabbath days on the divine calendar (Luke 2:42; 4:16; Acts 2:1; 13:14, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4; 20:16; 21:20-24; 1Cor 16:8). For a complete discussion of the holy days decreed by God see my article God's Appointed Times.

Purpose of Sabbath

"The Sabbath was made for man." (Mark 2:27)
"It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." (Matthew 12:12)

God's purpose for establishing the Sabbath was to bring glory to Himself, bless mankind and serve human need. Whenever Sabbath-keeping turns into a legalistic exercise then the blessing is lost, as occurred when rabbinic tradition multiplied rules without end and denied people the true benefits of the Sabbath.

The meaning of Shabbat (rest) explains the major purpose of this special day. God intended the Sabbath for restoration, not simply a "day off" for hedonistic pleasures (Isa 58:13). God knew that His children needed a day to recharge themselves physically, emotionally and spiritually. It was a day for husbands and wives to give attention to each other's needs. (See Ex 23:12; 31:15; Lev 23:3, 32; 25:4; Heb 4:9). The Sabbath is a day to relieve the stresses of life by putting away all thoughts of one's job and focus on the priority of family relationships (cf. Isa 58:6-7, 10).

God intended the Sabbath for remembrance and celebration. Israelites were to remember that they had once been slaves, but God brought deliverance by mighty acts (Deut 5:15). The day of rest is to be a day of recalling what we were before knowing the Lord and praising the Lord for the blessings He was brought to our lives.

God intended the Sabbath to celebrate creation (Gen 2:2f). Since God called His creation "good," and set apart the seventh day, then the Sabbath is an invitation to rejoice in God's creation and recognize God's sovereignty over our time. Yeshua called His disciples to look at the birds and the flowers (Matt 6:26-28). Spending time in gardens and parks can be a restful activity for the Sabbath and provide a renewed appreciation for God's creative work.

God intended the Sabbath to promote just treatment of workers by giving them time off from their labors that they may refresh themselves (Ex 20:10; 23:13; Lev 25:6; Deut 5:14f; Matt 12:10-12; Col 4:1). The Sabbath is not only for the good of one's family, but also one's employees. As Yeshua demonstrated the Sabbath was a day to do good to the bodies and souls of all people as one might have opportunity (Matt 12:11).

God particularly intended the Sabbath to be an eternal covenantal sign between God and Israel (Ex 31:13, 16f; Lev 24:8; Ezek 20:12, 20). Israel would demonstrate their obedience to God's covenant by faithfully observing the Sabbath. As a reward for honoring the Sabbath God promised Israel, "I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken" (Isa 58:14).

Sabbath and Synagogue

"For from early generations Moses has had ones proclaiming him in every city, being read on every Sabbath in the synagogues." (Acts 15:21 BR)

In the Besekh the apostolic narratives depict Jews gathering at synagogues for worship and learning on the Sabbath. The origin of the synagogue is not known for certain, but scholars generally date its beginning during the Babylonian exile (NIBD 1019). Pious Jews, far from their native land no doubt felt the necessity to gather on the Sabbath in order to listen to the Torah and engage in prayer and so fulfill the command to conduct a "holy convocation" (cf. Lev 23:3; Ps 137; Jer 29:7; Ezek 14:1; 20:1). Eventually meetings came also to be held on other days, and at the same hours as the morning and evening services in the temple.

As Jews emigrated west synagogues followed. In any community where at least ten Jewish men lived, the Jews would meet together for study and prayer and eventually build a sanctuary for their meetings. The building would be positioned so that when the congregation stood for prayer they would be facing Jerusalem. By the first century, synagogues, especially in the Diaspora, emerged as the central institution of Jewish life as a place where study, worship, exhortation, celebration, and various other kinds of meetings take place. The reading of the Torah had a prominent place in Sabbath services.

The Sabbath is the most frequently mentioned day of the week in the Besekh, occurring 60 times, only two of which are outside the apostolic narratives. Throughout His life on earth Yeshua faithfully kept the Sabbath (Luke 4:16). Yeshua attended synagogue services on the Sabbath, visited the Temple on the Sabbath, rested on the Sabbath, taught on the Sabbath and healed on the Sabbath. However, this latter ministry resulted in Yeshua being labeled a "sinner" (Matt 12:2; John 9:24), because the strict Pharisee code forbade healing on the Sabbath.

New Covenant Sabbath

"For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." (Matthew 12:8)

Yeshua shocked His adversaries by informing them that the "son of man" is lord of the Sabbath. People generally assume that Yeshua was speaking of himself, but "son of man" was a common idiom for "human being." Thus, Yeshua was not only exercising authority to correct legalistic interpretation of the Fourth Commandment, but also establishing the authority of the individual disciple to determine how to keep the Sabbath (cf. Matt 9:8; Col 2:16). The most striking thing to note is that Yeshua made no pronouncement canceling or changing the day of week for observing the Sabbath.

Therefore, no man has the authority to rescind or change the commandment. Accordingly, the apostles faithfully kept the Sabbath (Acts 13:14, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4). And, when they had the chance to make a change at the meeting of the elders in Jerusalem (Acts 15), the Sabbath was not even under discussion. However, Yeshua flatly rejected legalistic interpretation of Sabbath-keeping and the apostle Paul employed this principle when he exhorted that "no one is to act as your judge" in respect to the Sabbath (or any other God-ordained holy day, Col 2:16).

Paul's instruction assured New Covenant believers that they were free of legalistic rules for the Sabbath as later written down in the Mishnah (Shabbat 7:2). Paul amplifies this theme in Hebrews 4 in which he mentions the word "rest" eight times. He lamented that while Israel entered the promised land, they did not enter the promised "rest" and affirmed most strongly that "there remains a sabbath-rest for the people of God" (Heb 4:9 BR).

In that verse Paul uses the Greek word sabbatismos, which means a resting based on the model of God resting on the Sabbath (Heb 4:4). The suffix "mos" signifies a process or state. The noun occurs only here in the Besekh. In addition, the noun does not occur in the Septuagint at all or any earlier or contemporary Jewish literature. Hyphenating the word is important to stress that the noun is about a relationship of resting. The fact that this "sabbath-rest" remains means it refers to a condition not experienced previously by Israel. The term sabbatismos was likely coined by Paul, or even Luke as Paul's translator, in order to make this special point. Paul employs sabbatismos not to speak of resting on a particular day but to characterize the spiritual life in Messiah.

Christians generally treat the Fourth Commandment as a binding spiritual guideline, and intentionally set aside the first day of each week for rest and worship. One might reasonably argue that the Sabbath commandment does not mention any names for the days of the week and therefore it doesn't matter what day a believer rests. After all, the commandment only says to work six days and then rest the seventh day. Yet, inherent in the Fourth Commandment would be the tacit understanding that the weekly calendar then in use would continue and with only a few exceptions the days of the week have been observed in the same manner ever since. In the end the question still remains – seventh day or first day?

The Lord's Day

"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." (Revelation 1:10 BR)

There is a common Christian belief that Yeshua created the Lord's Day for his Church as a resurrection celebration (Berg 35), but no apostolic writing supports this view and the actual origin of the Lord's Day is uncertain. Christian scholars assume that Paul relegated the seventh-day Sabbath to insignificance in his Colossian letter, rather than realizing that Paul interpreted the spiritual significance of the biblical calendar as a foreshadowing of the age to come (cf. Isa 66:22-23; Ezek 46:1-4; Zeph 3:18; Zech 14:16). Yet, there is no evidence that the apostles moved Sabbath-keeping from the seventh day of the week to the first day.

The designation of "Lord's Day" occurs only in Revelation 1:10. The Greek text has kuriakē hēmerą. Kuriakē is the dative case of kuriakos, which means "belonging to the Lord." In Roman inscriptions and papyri after A.D. 68 the term meant imperial, such as imperial treasury, service, etc (BAG 459). The only other usage of kuriakos occurs in 1Corinthians 11:20, "Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper." Hēmera, "day," in combination with kuriakos, originally referred to Emperor's Day, which was the first day of the month on which official money payments were made from the imperial treasury (Robertson).

The translation of "Day of the Lord" in Messianic Jewish versions (CJB, MJLT, TLV) unfortunately gives the appearance of trying to avoid having the Jewish apostle "in the Spirit" on the first day of the week, as if such an act would deny his Jewishness. Some Messianic Jews believe that the Lord's day was the invention of patristic Christianity, forgetting that all the sacred days on God's calendar were regarded as sabbaths (Ex 31:13; Lev 19:30; 23:38). In addition, the Greek syntax for "Day of the Lord" is tē hēmera tou kuriou (1Cor 5:5; 2Th 2:2), or simply hēmera kuriou (Acts 2:20; 1Th 5:2; 2Pet 3:10), not kuriakē hēmerą.

John's mention of the "Lord's day" has led to considerable difference of opinion regarding his intention. A Seventh Day Adventist scholar believes that "Lord's day" referred to the seventh-day Sabbath, since the only day Yeshua said He was Lord of was the Sabbath (Bacchiocchi). Support for this view might be drawn from Isaiah 58:13 where God refers to the Sabbath as "My holy day." However, the specific label "Lord's day" was never a Jewish euphemism for the Sabbath and nowhere in the apostolic writings is the Sabbath called "the Lord's day." Indeed, there would be no need for John to employ such a circumlocution if he really meant Sabbath.

The Messianic Jewish scholar Yechiel Lichtenstein (1824-1908) suggested that John was referring to Pesach or the first day of the feast of Passover, which occurs on 15 Nisan (Stern 791). As a Messianic Jew John would have maintained the worship and festival calendar prescribed in the Torah. This interpretation would appear to have the benefit of textual support in that the only other usage of kuriakē occurs in 1Corinthians 11:20 as a reference to the Lord's Supper or Seder.

Yeshua had enjoined His disciples to observe the New Covenant Passover "in remembrance of Me" (Luke 22:19; 1Cor 11:24f), thus making Pesach His day. Yeshua could have introduced His revelation to John on any day of the year, but what better day to give the revelation of His future deliverance of the earth than on Passover, the day that commemorates both the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage and deliverance from sin accomplished on Calvary.

The most natural meaning of the expression "Lord's day" is a reference to the first day of the week or Sunday, although names for the days of the week were not assigned until the fourth century A.D. When worshipping on the first day of the week began for early believers is unknown. The first day of the week is noteworthy in the apostolic narratives as the day Yeshua rode into Jerusalem on a donkey as Messianic King (John 12:1, 12) and the day he was resurrected from death (Matt 28:1; Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1). Also, Yeshua's first two appearances to the disciples after his resurrection were on the first day of the week (John 20:19, 26).

Gathering of disciples at the first of the week could have started shortly after the Ascension, not only in celebration of the resurrection but also in memory of Yeshua's post-resurrection appearance to the disciples. The resurrection remembrance service probably followed at the conclusion of Sabbath observance at or after sundown, as in Acts 20:7 where Paul's teaching until midnight is spoken of as taking place on the first day of the week.

Paul also gives instruction to the Corinthian congregation to collect an offering for the Judean disciples on the first day of the week (1Cor 16:2) and only a gathering for worship would explain such specific directions. David Stern points out that Jewish believers would not have called the first day of the week Shabbat, because Judaism forbids handling money on the Sabbath and, therefore, Paul would not have directed the congregation to take up a collection on a day deemed to be the Sabbath (491).

At the beginning of the second century Ignatius (d. 107 A.D.) references the dual observance of the Sabbath and the first day of the week by Christians when he said,

"But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner…. And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord's Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days. Looking forward to this, the prophet declared, 'To the end, for the eighth day,' on which our life both sprang up again, and the victory over death was obtained in Christ" (Epistle to the Magnesians, IX).

Worship on the "Lord's day" as a reference to Sunday also occurs in the early Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, 14:1. In summary, the use of "Lord's Day" for the first day of the week by Ignatius and later patristic writers strongly suggests that John coined the term for a practice that had been in existence for decades. The shift away from observing the seventh-day Sabbath by Christians occurred later in the second century and may have been furthered by Roman edicts against the Jews.

In the aftermath of putting down the Bar Kokhba revolt (A.D. 132-136) Emperor Hadrian outlawed the practice of the Jewish religion, particularly the observance of the Sabbath. The action of the church of Rome to eliminate Sabbath observance and only worship on Sunday may have been an effort to sever all ties to Judaism and avoid the discrimination of the government being meted out to the Jews (Bacchiocchi). The change didn't save the Christians from persecution, but the Lord's Day has been regarded as the Sabbath for Christianity ever since.

Conclusion

It is unfortunate that honoring and keeping the Sabbath has become the victim of legalistic debate down through history. People need to rest from their labors and God provided a simple remedy. Moreover, observing the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant people, and represents belonging to God and living by His guidelines. Whether a person keeps Saturday or Sunday or some other day of the week is not as important a decision as whether to obey God's commandments and to abide by the principle of giving one day a week to God.

Saturday and Sunday are the preferred days for sabbath-keeping because of their biblical basis and they afford the best opportunity for worship and fellowship with God's people. Indeed, I see no reason why Christians cannot follow apostolic example and honor the Sabbath and Lord's Day together. I would recommend that the following options be considered for the great benefit of all believers.

1. Refrain from calling the Lord's Day the Sabbath. We should endeavor to be correct in our terminology of calendar divisions. In this way we also show respect for Judaism and a common terminology aids communication.

2. Pray for Jews on the Sabbath that they will accept their Messiah's atoning sacrifice and turn to him for redemption. Pray that as they attend synagogue service, recite the historic prayers and listen to the Torah their eyes will be opened to the knowledge of God in Yeshua as the fulfillment of Torah promises.

3. Celebrate the Sabbath by shifting the big meal of Sunday to Friday evening. For modern Jews the wife usually decorates the dinner table with an attractive table cloth, brings out the best dinnerware and prepares the best meal of the week for Friday evening to emphasize the special quality of the Sabbath. Dinner may be followed by family fellowship and singing spiritual songs. There are Messianic Jewish rituals that can make this meal very meaningful for the whole family. (See Barney Kasdan, God's Appointed Times, Chap. 1.)

4. Spend time with the Lord on the Sabbath. Read Scripture. Pray. Sing praises. Emulate the example of early disciples by attending Sabbath services at a Messianic Jewish synagogue as you're able and then honoring the Lord's Day at your church. Dual observance would foster greater unity and cooperation between Messianic Jews and Christians.

5. Fellowship with other believers over lunch on Saturday and relax in the afternoon. Take a nap. Enjoy nature. Enjoy your family. Do good to others. Remember God's promise for those that delight to keep the Sabbath.

"If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob. The mouth of the Lord has spoken." (Isaiah 58:13-14 NIV)

Works Cited

Bacchiocchi: Samuele Bacchiocchi, The Sabbath Under Crossfire: A Historical Investigation of the Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity. Biblical Perspectives, 1999. Online.

BAG: Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. trans. W.F. Arndt & F.W. Gingrich. The University of Chicago Press, 1957.

BDB: The New Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon. London: Oxford University Press, 1907. Reprinted by Associated Publishers and Authors, Inc., 1981.

Berg: Daniel N. Berg, "God's Design for His People," Adult Leader, Sept-Nov 2011, Vol. 35, No. 1, WordAction Publishing Co., Kansas City, 2011.

NIBD: Herbert Lockyer, ed., Nelson's Illustrated Dictionary of the Bible. Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986.

Plutarch: Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (c. 46–120 A.D.), Plutarch's Morals, Vol. 1. Trans. William W. Goodwin. Little, Brown and Company, 1878. (ebook) Plutarch's Moralia was published about A.D. 100.

Robertson: Archibald Thomas Robertson, "Romans," Word Pictures in the New Testament, Vol. 4, Broadman Press, 1933. (Parsons CD-ROM Version 2.0, 1997)

Stern: David Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary, Jewish New Testament Publications, 1996.

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