Continuing from a previous post: “He Will Give You Rest” —- An Invitation and a Promise, Richard, Neitzel Holzapfel and Gaye Strathearn write:
Strict Jewish observance of the Sabbath was well known, legendary in fact, and during times of persecution many Jews chose to willingly die rather than violate the Sabbath. For example, when Antiochus IV (175-163–B.C.) became the ruler of Seleucid Empire he attempted to consolidate his power against the growing influence of the Romans in the west, the Parthians on the east, and the Ptolemies (Egypt) in the south.2 Eventually he decided that complete Hellenization, making the world Greek in every way—language, religion, and culture—would unify his kingdom against the forces threatening the stability of his regime. However the Jews living within the political boundaries of the Seleucid Empire refused to obey. Eventually, Antiochus outlawed the practice of Judaism killing those who refused to become Greek. Numerous men and women remained faithful to the Lord, the Torah and the Sabbath day (1 and 2 Maccabees in the Apocrypha).
From the end of the Old Testament period until the coming of John the Baptist, the Jews were without a prophetic voice. As a result, various voices claimed authority to interpret the Law.
For example, the Samaritans ultimately rejected the Jerusalem temple and priesthood and therefore the priest’s right to interpret the law. . . . Later, the Essenes also discredited the temple and the priests in Jerusalem and offered alternative interpretations of the Law . . . In addition, the cadre of the scribes that grew up, either because of priests’ disinterest of Law or because the scribes disagreed with the priest’s interpretations, became a formidable force for understanding the Law chiefly in a Pharisaic way.”4 In this historical context Jewish leaders debated the law, including what was appropriate Sabbath day observance.
The Rabbis eventually “went on to clarify 39 kinds of work as forbidden . . . including reaping.” The traditions of the elders were, “according to rabbinic tradition, the oral law. . . given together with the written law [found in the five books of Moses].” Eventually written down sometime in the end of the second century A.D., The Mishnah is the classical repository of all oral law handed down through time. Not all Jews accepted these traditions of the elders. For example, the Sadducees rejected much of the Pharisees’ oral law.7 The Essenes, those people who wrote or collected the Dead Sea Scrolls, had another system of oral law that diverged rather dramatically from the Pharisees’ interpretations of the law. 8
New Testament scholar Z.E. Harvey observed, “With all their efforts to make the Law fully applicable to present-day conditions they had only succeeded in making the yoke more oppressive.”9
Jesus rejected these commandments of men, the traditions of the elders (Matthew 15:1-20). He taught that instead of protecting the Sabbath, these man-made rules often added unnecessary burdens to the common people. Further, Jesus believed that some of the regulations established by the elders actually circumvented the original intent of the commandment, “making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye delivered; and many such like thing do ye” (Mark &:13)~~~ Richard, Neitzel Holzapfel and Gaye Strathearn “He Will Give You Rest” (Deseret Book, Salt Lake City. p.27-29) . . . .Continued. . . .
