Demonstrations 13.1–14.1

Translated by Claude from Jean Parisot's Latin translation (1894) of the Syriac; neither is shown

Concerning the sabbath day the Lord commanded Moses his servant that the children of Israel should keep it. For he said to them thus: "Six days you shall do your work, and the seventh day shall be a sabbath, a holy rest to the Lord your God. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he ceased and rested on the seventh day; therefore God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it he rested from all his works that he had done." Further he warned them thus: "You shall rest, and your servant, and your maidservant, your oxen and your donkey." And he commanded this besides: "The hired servant and the sojourner shall rest, and every beast that toils and works in service." About this sabbath day, then, my beloved, in which the people of the Jews take pride and boast, saying, "We live by it because we keep both the sabbath and the tradition," I will teach you in a few words as I am able, as I instructed you about circumcision and the Passover.

Translated by Claude from Jean Parisot's Latin translation (1894) of the Syriac; neither is shown

The sabbath is certainly not set between death and life, nor between righteousness and sin, but was given for rest, like the other commandments by which people live if they keep them, and die if they do not. For at the time when the sabbath was to be kept, it was given to the people for rest, not to people only but also to beasts, that they might rest. For he says: "Your ox shall rest, and your donkey, and all your beasts." If the sabbath had been set between death and life, or between righteousness and sins, what good would it do a beast to keep it? Or what harm would it have suffered if it had not kept it? Indeed, beasts seem to us to be more justified on the other days, when they labour and do the work of service, than on the sabbath day; for on working days beasts labour, are exercised with packs and burdens, and oxen plough; and because they are so wearied, there is no room for committing offences. But on the sabbath day, when the donkeys and oxen and every beast are idle, each in its kind is not prevented from coupling with its mothers, its sisters, and every kin of its flesh; and it is not sin. Those that commit such sins on the sabbath day are not reproached; this is the law of all beasts. Know, then, that the beast, as in doing these things it has no sin, so it gains no righteousness; for the reward of righteousness will be given in the world to come, at the resurrection of the dead, to the one who has done works of righteousness; but for beasts there will be no resurrection, that they should receive a reward for having kept the sabbath; nor will they come to judgment. And as formerly no obligation of keeping any commandment was laid on the beast, so neither does the sabbath profit it at all. For the Most Holy gave the commandment in his Law not to commit adultery; but beasts commit adultery in the open and fornicate publicly. The Law further prescribed and decreed: "Cursed is everyone who takes his sister, or any other of his kin in the flesh"; but beasts do all these things. It is also written: "You shall not kill"; one beast kills another without knowing it and eats its flesh. Again it is written: "Kill and eat whatever you wish; but do not eat the blood"; but a beast licks up its own blood, and it is a greater pleasure to it to eat unclean flesh. So if the keeping of the sabbath were any profit to a beast, it would first have been forbidden by the Law from all these impurities, and so would have been justified by keeping the sabbath.

Translated by Claude from Jean Parisot's Latin translation (1894) of the Syriac; neither is shown

I have written this to show that the sabbath was given for rest to every creature that bears labour. For if it had not been given for the rest of every labouring body, the creatures that do not labour should also have kept the sabbath from the earliest times, so as to be justified. On the contrary, we see the sun moving on, the moon keeping its course, the stars running, the winds blowing, the clouds borne on high, the birds hurrying, the waters springing from the fountains, the waves tossing, the lightnings falling and lighting up creation, the thunders crashing loudly in their seasons, the trees bearing fruit, and the growth of everything going on. And we see nothing that rests on the sabbath day except people and beasts, who are subject to the servitude of labour.

Translated by Claude from Jean Parisot's Latin translation (1894) of the Syriac; neither is shown

But if the sabbath had been given for righteousness, it should surely have been handed down to Adam before it was commanded to Israel, so that he might be justified by keeping it; and God would not have laid on him the law of not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, lest he die. But because Adam was not given over to labour until he had transgressed the commandment, he did not impose the sabbath on him; but after he transgressed the commandment, then he received the sentence of work and labour, to till the earth as one guilty and condemned; and [God decreed] death upon him …

Translated by Claude from Jean Parisot's Latin translation (1894) of the Syriac; neither is shown

If justification had come through the sabbath, Enoch would have pleased God through it, and all the generations that followed him. But neither was Noah called perfect and pure from wickedness for keeping the sabbath; rather God said this to him: "I have seen you righteous and blameless in this generation." So he was not justified by keeping the sabbath, but because he kept his innocence in a perverse generation, as the matter itself shows; for it is not written that Noah ever mixed with the world. Noah was five hundred years old when the Lord spoke to him and said: "I have seen you righteous and blameless before me in this generation"; and his perfection, as it is shown to us, was of this kind: when he saw that the generation of Seth had mixed with the sons of the house of Cain, who were cursed, he resolved not to take a wife and not to beget sons, lest they mix with the family of Cain, the cursed seed, and be cursed. And God, seeing his heart pure and innocent, wished the world to be renewed from him, when he had resolved to destroy them for their iniquity. And then he spoke with him, when he was already five hundred years old, and said: "I have seen you blameless before me in this generation"; for no offspring had yet been born to him, because, as we are taught by the fact itself, and as I noted above, Noah did not take a wife all that time, until God spoke with him and said to him: "I have seen you blameless before me in this generation. Now therefore make yourself an ark of wood in which you may be protected." When Noah heard God commanding him to build an ark and saying, "I will utterly destroy mankind from the face of the earth, because they have corrupted their way," then, in the five hundredth year, Noah married a wife from the daughters of Seth, from the blessed seed of the righteous, and begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and Noah warned these three sons of his not to take women from the daughters of Cain; and he gave them wives from the seed of the righteous, so that seed might be preserved from them on the face of the earth and the world restored by them. So that you may know this is so, I will teach you by the reckoning of the years.

Translated by Claude from Jean Parisot's Latin translation (1894) of the Syriac; neither is shown

Shem, Noah's firstborn, begot a son, Arpachshad, two years after the flood. Shem was a hundred years old when he begot Arpachshad, two years after the flood. From this it appears to us that Noah was five hundred and two years old when he begot Shem. Learn then from this reckoning that Noah did not take a wife before God spoke with him; nor did he choose wives for his sons before the day he entered the ark. For if he had married in his youth, he would also have begotten sons, like Adam, who begot Seth when he was a hundred and thirty years old; and Seth, who begot Enosh at a hundred and five; Enosh at ninety begot Kenan. And Kenan at seventy begot Mahalalel. Mahalalel at seventy-five begot Jared. And Jared at a hundred and sixty-two begot Enoch. Enoch at sixty-five begot Methuselah. And Methuselah at a hundred and eighty-seven begot Lamech. And Lamech, Noah's father, at a hundred and eighty-two begot him.

Translated by Claude from Jean Parisot's Latin translation (1894) of the Syriac; neither is shown

He too, likewise, if he had married before God spoke with him, would have begotten children as his fathers did; for barrenness had not been laid on him; because at that time the sons of Adam had received the blessing to increase and multiply in their generations, so that the world would be filled by them. For Noah, keeping his innocence, was not afraid for himself that he would ever mix with the cursed seed of the house of Cain, but that if he married and begot children, they would defile the law and take women from that seed. But seeing that God had spoken with him and said to him, "I will destroy mankind from the face of the earth, and I will save you alone," he then took a wife, to receive offspring by which the world would be restored, and to become himself the father of the upright and righteous. And the Holy Spirit chose him so that Christ, the Life-giver of the world, who would take away the curses of Adam, would be born of his seed. So then he quickly took a wife from the blessed seed and begot Shem, the father of the righteous, in the five hundred and second year of his life, two years after God had spoken to him. And when he had begotten three sons, he began to build the ark, and he warned his sons not to marry before they entered the ark, lest they beget children for themselves who would corrupt their way and not be saved from the coming wrath because of their sins. So he guarded his sons ninety-seven years; then he chose wives for them from the blessed seed of his fathers; and in the six hundredth year of Noah's life the Lord spoke to him and said: "Go into the ark, you and your wife, and your sons, and your sons' wives with you." So Noah went into the ark when he was six hundred years old; and Shem his son was ninety-seven years old when he went into the ark. Then the flood came, and the corrupt generation perished. And Noah and his sons stayed in the ark until twelve months and ten days had passed; and in him a second world arose, because he kept his integrity in a perverse generation, not because he kept the sabbath; nor was he justified by circumcision, but for the reason I have set out to you.

Translated by Claude from Jean Parisot's Latin translation (1894) of the Syriac; neither is shown

From Noah afterwards was born the faithful man, the head of the righteous, Abraham, who kept the Law although it had not yet been laid down; and he begot Isaac, the son of the promise, and Jacob, the founder of the people. These patriarchs, righteous [men], did not keep the sabbath, but were justified by faith, as it is written: "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him [for] righteousness." Isaac and Jacob his sons walked in the command and law of their father, and were justified by faith, not by the sabbath. Joseph too, in the land of Egypt, was justified in his uprightness not because of keeping the sabbath, but when his master's wife cast her eyes on him to commit abomination with her, he spoke to his mistress, saying: "How shall I do this great evil and sin against God?" In this Joseph was justified, not by the sabbath.

Translated by Claude from Jean Parisot's Latin translation (1894) of the Syriac; neither is shown

But if the sabbath had been set between death and life, between iniquity and righteousness, it would have been given to those righteous men whose names I mentioned above, so that they might keep it and live. But the keeping of the sabbath was decreed so that servants, maidservants, hired workers, sojourners, and many beasts might rest, so that those who are wearied might be refreshed from labour. For God cares for all his creation, even the wild beasts and cattle, the birds too, and the animals of the field. For Moses says when he repeated the law to the people: "Six years you shall sow your land and gather its fruits; but in the seventh year you shall plough and leave it, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what is left the beasts of the field shall eat." Of birds too the Most Holy commanded this through Moses his servant: "If you find a bird's nest before you in any tree or on the ground, with the mother and eggs or young, and the mother sitting on the eggs or young, you shall not take the mother with the young, but you shall let the mother fly away, and take the eggs, so that the Lord your God may bless you for it." David also said: "He feeds the young ravens that call on him." David says again: "You save man and beast, O Lord." Job also said: "Who has let the wild ass go free and loosed it from the yoke, who has set its house in the wilderness and its dwelling in the salt land?" Again Job says: "He prepares food for the eagle's young." It is also said of sheep and beasts: "All look to you to give them their food in due season. You give it to them and they are fed; you open your hand and they are satisfied; but when you turn away your face they are troubled." And Isaiah too said: "There the kites are gathered, each with its mate; he commanded with his mouth, and his spirit gathered them, and his hand divided to them the portions of their inheritance." From these things, then, see that God cares for all his creation and forgets none of it. Therefore he gave the command and precept that on the sabbath day [they should rest] …

Translated by Claude from Jean Parisot's Latin translation (1894) of the Syriac; neither is shown

Now hear what he says: "In six days God made heaven and earth, and he ceased and rested from all his works; therefore God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it." What shall we say to this, that God rested on the seventh day? Listen, and I will show you that God was in no way wearied by the work of these six days, nor did he rest on the seventh day as one tired. Far be it from us to say that God was wearied! The meaning is that God completed his works in six days, and on the seventh day ceased from all the works he had done. And take proof that God does not grow weary. David says: "See, the keeper of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps." He then who neither slumbers nor sleeps likewise does not grow weary. And Isaiah spoke thus to the children of Israel: "Thus says the Lord", because these thoughts had come into your heart: "God cannot save us at all"; he says to them through Isaiah: "Has my hand been cut short and failed? Or is there no power in me to deliver? See, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, and I make the rivers a desert, and the fish rot for lack of water and die. I clothe the heavens with darkness and make sackcloth their covering"; as I dried up the Red Sea in the days of your fathers, and opened the Jordan and brought them across, so today too I could save you with my hands; "but for your iniquities you were sold, and for your crimes your mother was put away"; and though I cannot be wearied, they have wearied me, according to the word of Malachi the prophet: "They have wearied the Lord with their words."

[11] But listen and be persuaded that God was neither wearied nor laboured when he created all his works. For [Scripture] says: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, and all their hosts by the breath of his mouth." … [man he] formed with his [hands], and it is not written that he laboured when he created him; but when he made all creatures, he spoke with the word of his mouth, and they were made, without labour or weariness; and in this way is to be understood: "God ceased from all his works, and God rested on the seventh day." For if God, who does not labour, ceased and rested from his works, how much more must one subject to labour and service rest! Isaiah also says this of God: "He does not grow weary nor labour, and his wisdom is unsearchable." And in another place he says of the sins of the people: "You have burdened me with your iniquities and wearied me with your sins." See how first it is written that he does not grow weary or labour, and then, because of their sins, he says to Israel: "You have burdened me and wearied me." All these words are written skilfully, and the wise understand them well, as the Apostle says: "The law is good, if one reads it with confidence of mind." The prophet further says: "The ways of the Lord are right, and transgressors will stumble in them; but the righteous will walk and go forward in them on the right path." And that saying, "God rested from his works" (which the foolish understand as if he had been wearied), is like what he said when he wished to destroy mankind for their many sins: "I repent that I made them." But hear the Apostle who says: "Otherwise, how will God judge the world?"

Translated by Claude from Jean Parisot's Latin translation (1894) of the Syriac; neither is shown

Hear then, my beloved, what I want to hand on to you about the sabbath; for as I have shown you that the people of Israel boast vainly about circumcision, so I will show that they glory in vain in keeping the sabbath. For Joshua the son of Nun did not give them rest on the sabbath when he drew up battle against Jericho, as the glorious Apostle says: "If Joshua the son of Nun had given them rest, he would never afterwards have spoken of the sabbath day. So the sabbath of God remains." And the Maccabees too, when their enemies fell on them to fight against them on the sabbath day, at first wished to keep the sabbath according to the law; and while they were keeping it, the enemies attacked them on the sabbath and killed very many of them; but after they realized that those men were acting deceitfully against them and making war on them as they kept the sabbath, they broke the sabbath, joined battle on that day, and defeated their enemies; and they were not at all rebuked as though they had profaned the sabbath. Nor did they alone violate the sabbath; the priests too profaned it in the temple and were free of sin; for on the sabbath day the priests offered sacrifice, slaughtered and flayed victims, cut wood and lit fire, and they were not reproached as violators of the sabbath, since they were commanded to do such things. Yet the priests, whose task was to cleanse the people from sins, if they transgressed the sabbath, would that they had at least done it in secret! On the contrary, they stood in the very place where sins are atoned for, and did not offend in any way or contract sin. Why then do they boast so much of keeping the sabbath, which was given for rest, as I have shown you?

Translated by Claude from Jean Parisot's Latin translation (1894) of the Syriac; neither is shown

But hear what kind of sabbath it is in which God takes pleasure. Isaiah says to them: "This is my rest: give rest to the weary." Again he says: "Those who have kept the sabbath and not profaned it, these are the ones who have held firmly to my covenant and chosen what I wished." To those who have not profaned the sabbath, which is the rest of God, he announces and promises gifts. For he says: "I will give them in my house and within my walls a name better than sons and daughters." For the sabbath profits nothing to the wicked, nor to murderers or thieves; but to those who have chosen what God wished and have kept their hands from iniquity. In them God dwells, in them he lives, as he said: "I will dwell in them and walk among them." For in the days of Isaiah they kept the sabbath indeed, but they walked in the works of the defiled nations and did the same works as Sodom and Gomorrah, yet they said to the nations: "Keep away, for I am sanctified." Therefore Isaiah said: "These are smoke in my anger, and a fire burning all day." And he took them away and drove them from their land and scattered them among all the nations, because they did not keep the rest of God, though they observed the sabbath bodily. But let us keep the sabbath of God, that is, whatever refreshes his will, so that we may enter the sabbath of rest, in which heaven and earth keep sabbath, all creatures rest and are refreshed; and there will be no flight there, as the Savior says: "May your flight not be in winter or on a sabbath." And the Apostle says: "Until now the sabbath of God stands." I have written you this brief demonstration about the sabbath against those who glory in it.

Here ends the Demonstration on the Sabbath.

Translated by Claude from Jean Parisot's Latin translation (1894) of the Syriac; neither is shown

1. We all took counsel, while we were gathered together, to write this letter to all our brothers, the children of the church, living in various regions. [We,] the bishops, presbyters, deacons, and the whole church of God, with all its children in various places, who are with us, to our dearest and most beloved brothers, the bishops, presbyters, and deacons, together with all the children of the church who are with you, and all the people of God, in Seleucia and Ctesiphon and in various places: abundant peace in the Lord God and our Life-giver, who through Christ has given us life and brought us near to himself.