quote:
What He condemned was the piling on of irrelevant rules onto the simple Biblical law of the Sabbath.
Yes it was simple.
Exodus 20:8
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
20:9
Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
20:10
but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.
20:11
For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
Lev 23:3
For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to the LORD in all your dwellings.
Deut 5:14
but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.
It also carries a simple death penalty.
Ex 31:14
'Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.
Ex 31:15
'For six days work may be done , but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death.
Ex 35:2
"For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day, a sabbath of complete rest to the LORD; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.
God had them carry out the death penalty in the OT.
Numbers 15:32
Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day.
15:33
Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation;
15:34
and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done to him.
15:35
Then the LORD said to Moses, "The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp."
15:36
So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Some guidelines, besides the wood gathering, of what not to do are given in the OT.
Jer 17:22
"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 17:24
"But it will come about, if you listen attentively to Me," declares the LORD, "to bring no load in through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but to keep the sabbath day holy by doing no work on it,
Since it holds a death penalty, I can understand why people want to know exactly what they can and can't do.
Using only the OT what were the people allowed to do and not do on the Sabbath? What were they supposed to do on the sabbath?
Now you listed a lot of items that are considered extreme rules concerning the Sabbath. What penalties were enforced when these "extreme" rules were broken?
I think you'll find a difference between acts that bring a death penalty and acts that were forgiven with a sin-offering.
If I remember correctly, sin offerings were more beneficial to the temple priests or some religious leaders.
I think you'll find this a trend in many areas of religion. That doesn't falsify the belief or the origin of the religion, IMO.
"Peshat is what I say and derash is what you say." --Nehama Leibowitz
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