De sabbatis et circumcisione

Concerning the Sabbaths and Circumcision, from the 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. Because in six days the Lord made both 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—that concerning Jerusalem—to keep the sabbaths until then. But when the other generation came, and the people being built according to what is said: Let this be written for another generation. And the people being built will 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. What is it, 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. For this reason also the sabbath was kept on the seventh day by those of that generation. But the second creation has no end. For this reason it did not rest, but is still working until now. Hence we do not sabbatize a day as in the first creation, but we hope for the future sabbaths of sabbaths, which the new creation does not receive an end, but is manifested and celebrates throughout. For this reason the sabbath was given to the former people, so 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, so that it might know the beginning on the Lord’s day, and understand the grace of this as unending.

For this reason also he revealed the beginning, that is, the Lord's day, so that you might know the end of the past week. Indeed, 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 into being, as Jeremiah says: "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord." And 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 paths of the idle are strewn with thorns," and who commands in Numbers: "And on the day of the Sabbaths you shall bring two one-year-old lambs without blemish, and two tenths of fine flour mixed with oil for a sacrifice and a libation, and a Sabbath burnt offering, on the Sabbaths, in addition to the perpetual burnt offering." 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 set before the Lord for remembrance. On the day of the Sabbaths it shall be set before the Lord perpetually, before the sons of Israel as an eternal covenant." For if he had intended it for idleness, would he not have commanded the Levites to set forth, bring, and slaughter?

If idleness sanctifies, then clearly work defiles, but the Levites, though working, are not defiled; therefore idleness does not purify. Or why are the Levites alone deprived of sanctification when they bring, slaughter, and set forth offerings on the Sabbath? For they are so far from transgressing that they even propitiate on behalf of those who offer. Thus the Sabbath does not signify idleness, but rather knowledge of the Creator and cessation of the form of this creation, as God also testifies, saying: "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." Therefore 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 accused the disciples of plucking ears of grain: "If you knew what it is: I desire mercy, not sacrifice." For they accused them of being idle on the Sabbath, saying, "You do not possess the essence of the Sabbath, which is knowledge of the truth.

For this reason, those who received the law of the sabbath are commanded to blow trumpets around Jericho for seven days, during which seven days the sabbath also falls. If, then, the sabbath was given for the sake of idleness, why are they commanded to work by blowing trumpets? But he knew that even while blowing trumpets they were sabbatizing, not being idle, but recognizing the Lord who helps them. Just as also in the case of the one being circumcised on the eighth day, for there is necessity to circumcise even on the sabbath, and yet he sabbatizes, working indeed but recognizing God. Moreover, even on days that are not sabbaths, the law, or rather the Lord of the law, is accustomed to call them sabbaths on account of the remission of sins and the grace of the knowledge of God, as in Leviticus: And 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 after a little: And every soul that does work on this very day, that soul shall be destroyed from its people. You shall do no work. An everlasting ordinance for your generations, a sabbath of sabbaths shall be for you. And you shall humble your souls from the ninth of the month, from evening to evening, and you shall sabbatize 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 speak specifically of the sabbath, but simply of the tenth, which happens to occur not on a sabbath.

And yet, the day that occurs for the sake of expiation he calls not simply sabbath, but sabbath of sabbaths. If he calls this sabbath, but commands to work on the sabbath, then the sabbath is not primarily a law of idleness, but of knowledge, expiation, and idleness from all wickedness. Therefore, he did not give the sabbath for the sake of idleness, but so that they might know the cessation of creation. For God commanded, saying, that you may know that on this day the Lord our God rested from the works which he began to make. And he wanted them, knowing the end of this, to seek the beginning of another. So the end of the former creation 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 commanded to keep the day of the sabbath first, 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 re-creation. For he did not create another, but renewed the old, and completed what he began to make. Therefore, on the sixth day the things that were made were completed, and on the seventh day he rested from all things; but in the Gospel, the Word, having come, says: I have come to complete the work. For he who rests from all things signifies that certain things need an end, which he came and completed. For he says in the Gospel according to John: The works which my father has given me, that I might complete them, these very 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 made alive.

Therefore, having renewed the creation of six days, he appoints a day for the renewal, which he proclaims beforehand through the psalm, the Spirit saying: This is the day that the Lord made. For instead of the sun, God rises, illuminating each soul. For this reason also, during the saving passion itself, the sun did not shine, signifying both the end of the former creation and the beginning of another, the one rising from the Savior. Having seen this, the prophet says: Behold a man, Dawn is his name, and again: For you who fear him, a 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 stripping off of generation. For we strip off the one who died on the sixth and are renewed on the Lord's day, when the old man, having been stripped off, was reborn in the resurrection. For Paul also says this: In which you were circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands, in the stripping off of the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism into Hades, in which you were also raised together. For circumcision was a type of the stripping off through baptism, which he commanded to be performed on those members through which the body is generated, so that those being circumcised might know that it is a sign of the stripping off of oldness. For Abraham, having believed, received circumcision as a sign of regeneration through baptism.

Therefore, when the signified has come, the sign ceases. For circumcision was a sign, but the bath of regeneration is the thing signified. For when the whole old man is put off, the signification through a part is superfluous. And just as the Lord’s day is the beginning of creation and brings the Sabbath to an end, so the same day, having regenerated the human being, brought circumcision to an end. For both are accomplished in the eighth day: the beginning of creation and the regeneration of the human being. For this reason the eighth day dissolved the Sabbath, and not the Sabbath the eighth day. For on the Sabbath the human being 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 consider that circumcision was given also for this reason: For when Adam heard, “You are earth, and to earth you will 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 putting 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 also circumcision in part was a shadow of the whole.

This is also what the word clearly signifies in the case of Jesus the son of Naue. For when Jesus, at the command of God, was circumcising the people in Galgala beyond the Jordan, the Lord said to Jesus the son of Naue: “Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.” And he called, it says, the name of that place Galgala. For if circumcision is a removal of birth in Egypt, evidently the foreskin is a mark of Egyptian condition and birth. This God removed, so that they might no longer be as those born in Egypt, but be accounted children of the promise into which the Lord led them. These things being so, it appears that circumcision was given universally in order that the reproach of earthly birth might be removed from the Abrahamites, and that we might no longer be subject to “You are earth, and to earth you shall 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 birth. We are reborn through the bath, so that we no longer die according to the first birth, but live according to the circumcision of the putting off of the body, which we put off through the bath. And just as the Lord said to Jesus: “Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you,” so much more could it be said to each of those now being baptized: “On this day I have removed from you the reproach of earthly birth and the reproach of the corruption of death, on this day.