De sabbatis et circumcisione

Of our holy father Athanasius, On the Sabbaths and Circumcision, from the book of Exodus. “And the sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbaths, to observe them throughout their generations. An eternal covenant between me and the sons of Israel, it is an eternal sign in me, that in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested.” It is a sign for knowing the day of creation, and its end. It was fitting, as long as the works of creation were being carried out, to keep the Sabbaths in Jerusalem until then. But with the coming of the other generation and the people being created, according to the saying: “Let this be written for another generation, and the people being created shall praise the Lord,” it is necessary that this people no longer observe the end of the former creation, but seek the beginning of the second creation. And what is that, if not the day on which the Lord arose? For from that time the new creation began, concerning which Paul said: “So that if anyone is in Christ, a new creation.” Now God, making the former creation, rested; therefore those of that generation kept the Sabbath on the seventh day. But the second creation has no end; therefore it did not rest, but is still working to this day. Hence we do not keep a Sabbath day as in the first creation, but we hope for the future Sabbaths of Sabbaths, which the new creation does not end, but is manifested and celebrates continually. For this reason the Sabbath was given to the former people, that they might know both the end and the beginning of creation. But to the new creation he did not command to keep the Sabbath.

the beginning in the Lord's Day, and knows that its grace is unending. For this reason he also revealed the beginning, that is, the Lord's Day, so that you may know the end of the past. The Apostle, writing about the former, says: "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son;" and again: "At the consummation of the ages." Therefore the first has been fulfilled and completed, not otherwise than as the prophets said: "In the last days I will pour out from my Spirit." Since the first days have an end, other days come, as Jeremiah says: "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord." Since the first has an end, accordingly a beginning of another has occurred; for this reason the Lord rose after the Sabbath. For God did not give the Sabbath primarily for the sake of men resting, he who says: "The ways of the idle are strewn with thorns," and who commands in Numbers: "And on the day of the Sabbaths you shall bring two yearling lambs without blemish, and two tenths of fine flour mixed with oil for a sacrifice and a libation, and a Sabbath holocaust on the Sabbaths upon the perpetual holocaust." And again a little earlier he says in the preceding: "And you shall place upon the offering pure frankincense and salt, and they shall be for loaves for remembrance, set before the Lord. On the day of the Sabbaths it shall be set before the Lord perpetually in the presence of the sons of Israel, an eternal covenant." For if he intended it for idleness, he would not have commanded the Levites to set forth, to bring, and to slaughter. For if idleness sanctifies, clearly work defiles.

But the Levites are not defiled by working; therefore, idleness does not purify. Or why are the Levites alone deprived of sanctification, when they bring, slaughter, and set forth on the Sabbath? For they are so far from transgressing that they even propitiate on behalf of those who offer. Therefore, the Sabbath does not signify idleness, but rather knowledge of the Creator, and a cessation of the form of this creation, as also in Ezekiel the Lord declares: "And I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them." So the Sabbath was given for the sake of knowledge, not idleness; so that knowledge is more necessary than idleness. For this reason the Lord said to those who blamed the disciples for plucking ears of grain: "If you knew what it is, I desire mercy, not sacrifice." For they blamed them for being idle on the Sabbath, saying that you do not have the proper character of the Sabbath, which is knowledge of the truth. For this reason also, those who received the law of the Sabbath are commanded to sound trumpets around Jericho for seven days, during which the Sabbath also falls. If, then, the Sabbath was given for the sake of idleness, why are they commanded to work by sounding trumpets? But they knew that by sounding trumpets they were keeping the Sabbath, not by being idle, but by knowing the Lord who helped them; just as also in the case of the one circumcised on the eighth day: for he is compelled to circumcise even on the Sabbath, and yet he keeps the Sabbath, working indeed, but knowing God.

Furthermore, the law—or rather the Lord of the law, as in Leviticus—is accustomed to call even days that are not the days of the Sabbaths "Sabbaths" on account of the remission of sins and the grace of the knowledge of God. For the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: "And on the tenth of this seventh month, a day of atonement, a holy convocation shall be for you; and you shall humble your souls and bring whole burnt offerings to the Lord. You shall do no work on this day." And a little later: "And every soul that does work on this day shall be cut off from among its people. You shall do no work; it shall be a perpetual statute for your generations. It shall be a sabbath of sabbaths for you, and you shall humble your souls from the ninth of the month, from evening to evening, and you shall keep your sabbaths." Therefore, the Sabbath is not the seventh day, but the remission of sins, when one ceases from them. Nor is idleness the Sabbath, but confession and humbling the soul. For it did not say specifically "on the Sabbath," but simply "on the tenth," which happens to occur not on a Sabbath. And yet it calls the day that occurs, on account of the atonement, not simply "Sabbath," but "sabbath of sabbaths." If it calls this a Sabbath, but commands work to be done on a Sabbath, then the Sabbath is not primarily a law of idleness, but of knowledge and atonement, and of rest from all evil. Therefore, it did not give the Sabbath for the sake of idleness, but so that they might know the cessation of creation. For God commanded, saying:

so that you may know that on this day the Lord your God rested from the works which he began to make. And he wished them to know the end of this and to seek another beginning. The end of the first creation, then, was the Sabbath, and the beginning of the second was the Lord's day, on which he renewed and restored the old. Just as he earlier commanded to keep the day of the Sabbath, which is a memorial of the end of the former things, so we honor the Lord's day, which is a memorial of the beginning of the second renewal. For he did not create another world, but renewed the old, and completed what he had begun to make. Therefore, on the sixth day the things that were made were completed, and on the seventh he rested from all things. But in the Gospel, the Word came and says, "I came to complete the work." For he who rests from all things indicates that certain things need an end, which he came and completed. For he says in the Gospel according to John, "The works which the Father has given me, that I may complete them; these works which I do bear witness concerning me." For the work was incomplete if, after Adam sinned, man died; but it became complete when he was given life. Therefore, having renewed the creation of six days, he appoints a day for the renewal, which the Spirit proclaims beforehand through the Psalm, saying, "This is the day which the Lord made." For instead of the sun

God rises, illuminating each soul; for this reason also on the very day of the saving passion the sun did not shine, signifying the end of the first creation and the beginning of another, which rises from the Savior. Having seen this, the prophet says: "Behold a man; his name is East;" and again: "For you who fear him, the sun of righteousness will rise." For this day is not for all, but for those who have died to sin and live for the Lord. For this reason also the law commanded circumcision on the eighth day; and the commandment was inviolable, signifying the regeneration of all after the seventh. For circumcision indicated nothing other than the putting off of birth; for we put off the one who died on the sixth day and are renewed on the Lord's day, when the old man, having been stripped off, was regenerated in the resurrection. For Paul also says this in his letter to the Colossians: "In whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism into Hades, in whom you were also raised together." For circumcision was a type of the putting off through baptism; which he commanded to be performed on those members through which the body is also generated, so that those being circumcised might know that it is a sign of the putting off of oldness. For Abraham, having believed, received circumcision, which was a sign of regeneration through baptism. For this reason, when the thing signified came, the sign ceased. For circumcision was the sign, but the bath of regeneration was the thing signified. For when the whole old man is being put off, the signification through the part is superfluous.

And just as the Lord's Day is the beginning of creation and brings the Sabbath to an end, so too, having regenerated man, it brought circumcision to an end. For both the beginning of creation and the regeneration of man are accomplished in the eighth day. For this reason the eighth day dissolved the Sabbath, and not the Sabbath the eighth day. For on the Sabbath man was circumcised, but on the Sabbath circumcision did not cease. For the eighth day, being the beginning of the re-creation, brought the first to an end. I also consider that circumcision was given for this reason. For when Adam heard, "You are earth, and to earth you shall return," he died, and the body was corrupted; hence they were commanded to pay a part of the body, and this the cause of the body's generation, being taught beforehand the stripping off of the whole, so that, as if giving back what was condemned, they might be able to be saved. And just as the sacrifices were shadows of things to come, so too circumcision in part was a shadow of the whole. And this the word clearly signifies in Joshua the son of Nun; for when Joshua, by command of God, was circumcising the people at Gilgal beyond the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun: "Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you. And I called," he says, "the name of that place Gilgal." For if circumcision is a removal of the generation in Egypt, evidently the foreskin is a mark of Egyptian condition and generation. And this God removed, so that they might no longer be as those born in Egypt, but be considered children of the promise into which the Lord led them.

These things being so, it is evident that circumcision was given universally in order that the reproach of earthly generation might be removed from the Abrahamites, and that we might no longer be subject to the saying: "You are earth, and to earth you will return." For the reproach of the transgression was removed. This was done then as a type of baptism through Christ. For then it was done in part, as in a shadow, but now, as the Apostle said, we put off the whole earthly generation, being regenerated through the bath, so that we no longer die according to the first generation, but according to the circumcision of the putting off of the body, which we put off through the bath, we may live. And just as the Lord said to Joshua: "I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you on this day," so much more might it be said to each of those now being baptized: "On this day I have removed from you the reproach of earthly generation and the reproach of the corruption of death, on this day.