Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol I:
BARNABAS: Chapter XV.—The false and the true...

Chapter XV.—The false and the true Sabbath.

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 p. 147 the day which God hath sanctified, except he is pure in heart in all things, 1664 we are deceived. 1665 Behold, therefore: 1666 certainly then one properly resting sanctifies it, when we ourselves, having received the promise, wickedness no longer existing, and all things having been made new by the Lord, shall be able to work righteousness. 1667 Then we shall be able to sanctify it, having been first sanctified ourselves. 1668 Further, He says to them, “Your new moons and your Sabbath I cannot endure.” 1669 Ye perceive how He speaks: Your present Sabbaths are not acceptable to Me, but that is which I have made, [namely this,] when, giving rest to all things, I shall make a beginning of the eighth day, that is, a beginning of another world. Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead. 1670 And 1671 when He had manifested Himself, He ascended into the heavens.

Footnotes

Cod. Sin. reads “because,” but this is corrected to “moreover.”

Ex. xx. 8; Deut. v. 12.

Jer. 17:24, 25.

Gen. ii. 2. The Hebrew text is here followed, the Septuagint reading “sixth” instead of “seventh.”

Cod. Sin. reads “signifies.”

Cod. Sin. adds, “to me.”

Cod. Sin. reads, “The day of the Lord shall be as a thousand years.”

Ps. xc. 4; 2 Pet. iii. 8.

Cod. Sin. seems properly to omit “of the wicked man.”

Cod. Sin. places stars before moon.

Cod. Sin. reads “again,” but is corrected as above.

The 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.

Cod. 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.

Cod. 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.”

Cod. Sin. reads, “Shall we not then?”

Isa. i. 13.

“Barnabas here bears testimony to the observance of the Lord’s Day in early times.”—Hefele.

We 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.