Setting the Record Straight

So I have begun to notice that there is a trend going on where people are beginning to say that Sabbath is NOT on Saturday or Sunday for that matter. I have seen this doctrine come across my FaceBook timeline on more than one occasion. Here recently, I have been engaging in an never ending conversation with a Christian Pastor on this topic. He too, asserts that the Sabbath is not on either of the days. We agree that Scripture puts it on the seventh day, however, according to him, the seventh day does not necessarily mean the end of the week. Honestly, I am not sure where he gets this from, but after hearing his explanation, he made ridiculously confusing. I am a firm believer in backing up what one says with Scripture, so when asked for a reference, he referred me towards the Book of Jubilees chapter 6:32-38. I honestly had never really taken an in depth look at the Book of Jubilees prior to this conversation, so needless to say, before engaging him, I needed to read where he got this from. This blog will outline several statements made by him, and my Scriptural arguments against him. This is not to be taken in away that I am taking shots at him, or blasting him in anyway, but rather that I am taking a close look at what he is saying in contrast with other Scriptures. In our conversations, his entire argument is based on this one book, but my arguments will be based on several biblical references. I am a firm believer that when you are discussing issues like this, that there should be more than just one passage to be cited from. This being said, let’s get into it.

First of all, I would like to point out, that based on his own admission, he has not attended any specialty schools, by this I mean seminary, or even a Biblical Hebrew class. According to him, his theology is comprised of over 25 years of church teaching. I myself am self taught to a degree, but it was not long before I sought out people who were subject matter experts in Biblical Hebrew, the ancient Hebrew culture, and even enrolled in the class of teacher who holds a PhD in this arena. In addition to this, my teacher also happens to be a Jew residing in Israel, born and raised. All that to say, I placed myself in the midst of Scholars and historians so that I might have a better grasp on understanding the Bible, as opposed to just learning from a Pastor. This is not meant to judge pastors, however, speaking from personal experience, I have over thirty years of church learning under my belt, but not one of my former Pastor’s taught or even knew half of what I have learned from Biblical Hebrew. To understand the Bible, we must first understand that the Bible was written by Hebrew writers, about Hebrew people and for Hebrew people. The Hebrew people are from an Eastern culture, and as such, think much more differently than we do, as a Western culture. One of the problems with Christianity today is that we look at this book from a Western perspective, and gauge it as if it was written from our cultural perspective when nothing could be further from the truth. Nonetheless, as this Pastor and I spoke about our backgrounds, he rebuked me for having a a “Orthodox Jew” teach me how to understand the Bible. According to him, the Holy Spirit is all we need. Unbeknownst to him, my teacher is very well versed in the New Testament as well, and can explain it from a Hebrew perspective that would caused the average pastor’s jaw to drop. Don’t get me wrong, the Holy Spirit is VERY necessary, but we are missing something. The gospel was never intended to be a thing that came to the West, having divorced the East. We both need one another. We are complete together, Jew and Gentile. Perhaps I will delve more into that in a future blog.

So, he began with the 7 day cycle. We both agree that the cycle of the 7 day Sabbath began at creation. However, where the disconnect comes from is this, because there has been so much tampering with the calendars, as well as the changing of the New Year from from what God established as the New Year, our months and days are off. He insists that the days of the week were mixed around, in other words, what we know as Saturday, really could have been Thursday, and Wednesday could have Sunday, etc. But looking at it, what reason could there be for changing up the days of weeks? Here is were he really pushes Jubilees 6:32-38.

This is quite an interesting passage. Has a whole lot to say in terms of observing years weeks and months. I can see why this Pastor believes this. Looking at this would give you the idea that our days are off. But, before unpacking these few passages, I decided to took a look at the first verse. When reading a section of Scripture, don’t just read the passage, read the parts before and after. I personally like to read the whole chapter because then it is easier to get the context. I also decided to take a closer look at this Book, that so many people are starting to cite from. This is what I learned. the Book of Jubilees was penned about 130-150 BCE. Prior to this date, there is no evidence that there were any Books of this name in circulation. I found that interesting, especially considering that when reading this particular passage, it reads as if the writer were there with Noah, or maybe even written by Noah himself. I say this because Noah was the elder of the family on the ark. And even after the ark reached land, they were the only ones to get off, so who else could have written it? Not implying that Noah did, but rather pointing out that no one else was there with him that could have gotten the word from God to write. There are also several comments made that confirm this was written much later than the time of Noah. For example, verse 32 refers to the “people as Israel”. Israel wasn’t even in existence at this time. For that matter, Abram wasn’t born either. Abram was the great grandson of Noah, and as such, it would be him that the covenant would be made about him becoming a father of many nations. And even after Abram was called from God, to leave his father’s house, God never addressed his future descendants as Israel, but rather “your seed”. Jubilees gives quite a few instructions concerning the tracking of days and years, seasons and new moons. It even mentions feasts, but again, here’s the problem, we are still dealing with the time of Noah. There were no commandments given. There were no instructions passed down from Noah to Abram, and all the way to Moses.

So why am I pointing the out? The Torah, comprised of only the first five books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, complete the instructions of God given to Moses. I used the word “instruction” rather than “law”, because the Hebrew word translated as law is תורה (Torah), and it would more accurately be translated as “teachings” or “instructions”. Although Torah does contain laws, it is also filled with teachings, instructions, and commands. Anyway, the fact that these five books complete Torah is indisputable. It was further commanded by YHVH that Torah was not to be added to, nor taken away from. With this in mind, we have to ask ourselves, if the Book of Deuteronomy was the last book of the Torah, and Torah was sealed after that, can we really assume that a couple of thousand years later, that YHVH would add a sixth book to Torah”? Highly unlikely! Understand this, there are 79 verses in the New Testament alone that refer to Moses. Out of that 79, approximately 37 are in the Gospels. Whenever the name Moses is mentioned, it is in connection with Torah, or “The Law of Moses”. So what does this mean? This means that Yeshua recognized the validity of Torah, or the “Law of Moses” if you prefer. Of all the passages cited by Yeshua, the Book of Deuteronomy was the one He referenced most. The writing of the Book of Jubilees predates the coming of the Messiah by just under two hundred years. If the things addressed in this book were so binding, then why didn't Yeshua teach on them? The overall theme of the 6th chapter of Jubilee is the observing of time and seasons, none of which Yeshua felt the need to address. From conversations with this Pastor, I gather that he is of the belief that at some point in the ancient world, the Hebrews messed up God’s clock. My question to him was this, if this indeed happened, are you implying that Yeshua came on the scene and allowed them to walk in error? To this, he agrees that Yeshua and those of His day kept time properly, to include the Sabbath. So, perhaps it happened after His day? Well, hers’s another problem. Several Roman historians assert that their “Saturn” day, also known as Saturday to us, was on the same day that the Jews’ observed their Sabbath. Again, this was long “after” the day of the Apostles.

I do agree with Jubilees on that issue of years being lost. The text mentions Sabbaths, but unknown to most, there are more than one type of Sabbath. In Leviticus 23:10, YHVH tells the people to allow the land to rest in the 7th year. They were allowed to farm up until the 6th year, but in the 7th year, the land was to be left alone. After seven Sabbath years (49 years), a Jubilee was declared on the 50th year. This was a time of release for all of Israel. In any case, the people robbed the land of countless Sabbaths, and as a result, YHVH had them expelled from the land, long enough for the land to get those years back that it had been robbed of. After 70 years, Israel was allowed to go home, however, no one knew when the 7th year was for the land, or the 50th year for the Jubilee. To this day, that is still an unknown, but as a result of all of this, the path of the years has been lost. Jubilees also speaks of Israel forgetting the New Moon, allegedly meaning that they no longer pay heed to the lunar calendar any more. Not that they forgot, they just don’t do it anymore. As for his other claims, according to this Pastor, the the Jews 7th day is different from God’s 7th day, in terms of Sabbaths. How he got this, I am still trying to figure that out. What I explained to Him is that God works in perpetuality. What do I mean? According to Genesis 2, God finished His work on the 6th day, and then rested on the 7th. The Bible says that He set that day aside from the others. The week ended with Him resting, an then a new week began. The order of the 7 day week commemorates His acts of creation and resting, forever. Regardless of the calendar date, every 7th day is a Sabbath. The days are counted, NOT the date. With the creation of the sun, moon and stars, the day begins at sunset, starting with darkness, and gradually turning into light, commemorating how He created light out of darkness. Do you see the pattern? Even in His Feasts, we see this cycle. Take Passover for instance. Every year, about the same time, this day is celebrated they way ancient Israel did it before leaving Egypt. The people are commanded to eat what they ate, and to reflect on all that He did. This too, was a memorial for all time. So, the idea that the Jews are observing Sabbath on the wrong day is totally incorrect. Again, all of this stems from Jubilees 6, mind you.

He firther asserts that Jews did not follow Gods ways based on history. My response to this was that there was ALWAYS a remnant who remained true to God, even when others didn’t. There were also prophets that came to the people as a representative of God. Did the always obey? No, but then after God chastised them, they got back on track. Other than this same passage, he had no other verses to support his arguments. He made it clear, “I don’t need another supporting verse. The truth is truth”. He further stated that “it is not expedient to cite every last scripture on a particular subject when one scripture makes the point”. Again, it is really never good practice to base an entire theology on one verse. From my understanding, Hillel altered the calendar around 359 CE. But lets take a close look at this. If we were to change the calendar again, right now, other than the date itself going from todays date, to another date, how can you change the days of the week? Changing the calendar may alter months per se, but the course of day and night will always remain the same. That said, regardless how many time one changes the calendar, you cannot alter days of the week, short of just proclaiming to the world that “today is no longer Friday, but Monday instead”. Problem is, what purpose would that serve? Altering days simply does not impact the days of the week. Regardless of what calendar system we are on, the days are still set. But why did the Jews feel the need to mess with God’s calendar? First we need to understand that the understanding of the calendar is a vey complex thing? There are a lot of moving pieces that come into play when establishing a calendar. Furthermore, these people who did this were not just your average people. They were very learned in the understanding of days. This task took a lot of understanding and a lot of study. I honestly do not believe that the average person today could just read a blog or watch a YouTube video on this and suddenly become a master of this subject. So again, these people that merely read Jubilees 6 and are suddenly masters of understanding what goes into play when creating a new system is just laughable. The ancient Hebrews had an amazing system in place, but the problem was that when looking at the days, after so many years, in order to keep this rotation online with the sun, as it completed it’s annual cycle, extra days would need to be added. This would maintain that the year would would end as the sun ended its annual rotation. For this reason, the Jews created this new calendar. It was not because they wanted to copy the pagans, because clearly the fact that they made their own after the pagans made one, it becomes evident that they did not agree with how it was done. Unknown to many, to this day, even though Israel publicly works on the Gregorian calendar like the rest of the world, they still use the Hillel calendar as it relates to all things Israel. In fact, all legal documents in Israel must be dated in accordance with the Hillel calendar, not the Gregorian calendar. Again, the Hillel calendar was not made to compete with God’s calendar, but simply to ensure that the year ended according to God’s reckoning, otherwise, the years and and months would surely be off track.

Anyway, no matter how much we talked, this Pastor was like a pit bull on a bone. He was deadlocked on Jubilees 6:32-38. As far as he was concerned, this was stone cold truth. Again, my issue with this was that, this book was basically written sort of like an add on to Genesis, in that it relates to the Noahic flood. Scholars unanimously agree that this writing barely hits 200 BCE, meaning its fairly new, when compared to the fact that Moses wrote the Torah well over a thousand years prior. The covenant made on Sinai was tied to everything within Torah, and anything not in Torah was not meant to be in there. The bottom line is this, to the Jews, Torah was a way of life, not just a religion. Although all of the Bible is sacred, the Torah is the pinnacal of it all. As I stated earlier, it was Torah that Yeshua Himself preached from. What we need to understand is that Torah was life to the Jews. There was nothing higher than Torah. What I was trying to get this Pastor to understand is that, his views on the Torah needed to seriously be changed. We need to see Torah in the light of how it was given to the Jews. Every message preached by Yeshua and the Apostles came from Torah. God told Moses to tell the people, to keep His Torah. What I do find interesting is that these same people that have a death grip on Jubilees, and shouting about Sabbath being observed on the wrong day, walk as if they figured this thing out, but yet the other things that can be observed, such as observing the New Moon, and having a feast, or observing the seven Feasts mentioned in Leviticus 23 are totally overlooked. Here’s the thing, even if you are of the belief that we observe the wrong Sabbath, tracking the Feast Days by the new moon and counting days between them in accordance to Scripture can still be done. Why not do those? What about those Feast days that proclaim High Sabbaths on the first and seventh day of the Feast? You don’t need a calendar to observe those, in fact, it isn’t even about a calendar there. I believe some people choose not to look at it this way because when there is no justification in not doing something, you now have to do it.

All in all, Jubilees was a good read, but to view it on the same scope as Torah, I’m not to sure about that. I would definitely never build my theology on it’s writings, especially if it was my only source. Based off of my interactions with this Pastor, it is definitely clear that Torah is not held in high regard in his eyes, especially if he can so easily build a theology on another book and hold it in higher regard. The Torah is clearly an authoritative book, whereas the Book of Jubilees is not. The fact that Yeshua never once cited anything from this book says a lot. I am not saying that the Book of Jubilees is not a good read, but simply that it should never be viewed as an authoritative book. I understand that it was found with the other scrolls in the cave of Qumron, however, the fact that it was there does not elevate it with Torah any more than finding the writings of Josephus next to a Bible in the ruins of a burned down library, would qualify it to be fit to become considered biblical, merely because it elaborates on biblical history. Based on the dating of this book, there is no way that it’s content was ever viewed by Jews’ as something to be taken as “gospel”. One must also consider that this writing was done during a period that God was silent, nor were any prophets being sent out. Unlike any of the prophetic books, Jubilees doesn’t even identify its writer. Regardless who he was, it is certain he was NOT a prophet, and definitely not a known prophet if indeed he were one. I would also like to point out, if indeed this book was to be considered as authoritative, why is there no other book in the canon to support it’s teachings, or to even give it credabilty by endorsing it? Before embracing the teachings found in this book, it is my recommendation that it be read through the lenses of Torah. By this I mean, after having a reasonable understanding of Torah, read this book, embracing what you have learned from Torah, and then gauge it’s teachings from that perspective. If it disagrees with Torah in any way, or teaches contrary to what Torah teaches, or even teaches a thing not touched on in Torah, do not hold it for doctrine. Remember the words of Yeshua, “heaven and earth will pass away, but not one jot or tittle will cease until all things be fulfilled”. If Torah does not teach it, it doesn’t matter.