Further, 1654
also, it is written concerning the Sabbath in the Decalogue which [the Lord] spoke, face to face, to Moses on Mount Sinai, “And sanctify ye the Sabbath of the Lord with clean hands and a pure heart.” 1655
And He says in another place, “If my sons keep the Sabbath, then will I cause my mercy to rest upon them.” 1656
The Sabbath is mentioned at the beginning of the creation [thus]: “And God made in six days the works of His hands, and made an end on the seventh day, and rested on it, and sanctified it.” 1657
Attend, my children, to the meaning of this expression, “He finished in six days.” This implieth that the Lord will finish all things in six thousand years, for a day is 1658
with Him a thousand years. And He Himself testifieth, 1659
saying, “Behold, to-day 1660
will be as a thousand years.” 1661
Therefore, my children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, all things will be finished. “And He rested on the seventh day.” This meaneth: when His Son, coming [again], shall destroy the time of the wicked man, 1662
and judge the ungodly, and change the-sun, and the moon, 1663
and the stars, then shall He truly rest on the seventh day. Moreover, He says, “Thou shalt sanctify it with pure hands and a pure heart.” If, therefore, any one can now sanctify
Cod. Sin. reads “because,” but this is corrected to “moreover.”
146:1655 146:1656Jer. 17:24, 25.
146:1657Gen. ii. 2. The Hebrew text is here followed, the Septuagint reading “sixth” instead of “seventh.”
146:1658 146:1659 146:1660Cod. Sin. reads, “The day of the Lord shall be as a thousand years.”
146:1661 146:1662Cod. Sin. seems properly to omit “of the wicked man.”
146:1663Cod. Sin. places stars before moon.
147:1664Cod. Sin. reads “again,” but is corrected as above.
147:1665The meaning is, “If the Sabbaths of the Jews were the true Sabbath, we should have been deceived by God, who demands pure hands and a pure heart.”—Hefele.
147:1666Cod. Sin. has, “But if not.” Hilgenfeld’s text of this confused passage reads as follows: “Who then can sanctify the day which God has sanctified, except the man who is of a pure heart? We are deceived (or mistaken) in all things. Behold, therefore,” etc.
147:1667Cod. Sin. reads, “resting aright, we shall sanctify it, having been justified, and received the promise, iniquity no longer existing, but all things having been made new by the Lord.”
147:1668Cod. Sin. reads, “Shall we not then?”
147:1669 147:1670“Barnabas here bears testimony to the observance of the Lord’s Day in early times.”—Hefele.
147:1671We here follow the punctuation of Dressel: Hefele places only a comma between the clauses, and inclines to think that the writer implies that the ascension of Christ took place on the first day of the week.
