So, now you have confused me. Please clarify what you said about that we no longer have to keep the Sabbath?
The Sabbath is Saturday. It means “the seventh” and signifies the completion of creation. You know of God’s command to observe the sabbath and to keep it holy. It developed over time into a day of MANY observances for the Jews. (They weren’t allowed to do ANYTHING) Lev 23:3 states “Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no work therein; it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.” And when it says “do no work” it means NOTHING. No cooking, building, grinding,washing, fishing, lighting a fire… Today the orthodox Jews do not even drive on the sabbath. (Of course there are exceptions for emergencies.)
“Sunday is **expressly distinguished **from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath. In Christ’s Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man’s eternal rest in God. For worship under the Law prepared for the mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured some aspects of Christ.” CCC 2175 (emphasis mine)
Is Paul against circumcision?
…that would be the invisible church theology (as that ole song said: “don’t worry, be appy”); no, Catholics, as well as other Christians, must obey the Ten Commandments, which include keeping the Sabbath; Sabbath means rest… but it is a rest and separation for special worship of Yahweh God… not just a rest from responsibilities and chores… since Christ Resurrected on the First Day of the week, the Church began to keep the First Day as the Lord’s Day or Christian Sabbath.
…I thought that Sabbath meant “rest” not “seventh,” is there a link to the meaning of Sabbath?
Yes. The practice of circumcision as a tenet of the Old Covenant was superfluous in the least and anti-Christian at worst.
I don’t think Paul was against circumcision as such. After all, he, himself was circumcised, as were all men who could call themselves Jews. And he knew that circumcision was a sign of the covenant with God. Only now there is a NEW COVENANT with a NEW SIGN (baptism).
I don’t know how to make a link.
I’m too techno-challenged. ('cause I’m OLD!!) But, my Concise Lexicon to the Biblical Languages says that Sabbath means seventh. It is, however, a slightly different word than the word used for the ordinal number “seventh” used in Gen 2:2. Perhaps it has ancient connotations of “rest”. God could have named His seventh day after His “rest”.
Yes. The Traditional Catechetical Formula states “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.” But the origional “word” (commandment) was:
The council of Trent teaches that the ten commandments are obligatory for Christians and that the justified man is still bound to keep them. CCC2068
- Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day. CCCp.552
I don’t think just “catholic” babies are getting circumcumcised today, I’m sure “protestant” babies are too and some who are “jewish” get circumcised in the hosp. instead of in the traditional Brit or is it Bris ceremony. Anyway, your told that the benefits outweigh the risks to the surgery ie., lower risk for UTI, contraction of STD’s as an adult male and cancer of that area and easier to keep clean.
No, Paul is not against circumcision, but against what they meant by being circumcised. They were doing it as means to enter the Old Covenant, and Paul tells them that you can’t do this. They are Christians, entered into the New Covenant, so if they enter into the Old Covenant, they are rejecting the New Covenant, and bringing all the obligations and laws of the Old upon themselves.
…still, St. Paul explains that in Christ the physical circumcision means nothing… that the true circumcision is that of the heart… so circumcision ceased being an important symbol/act in the New Covenant… we must take into account that when Christ founded the Church Jews and others who practiced Judaism had been obeying at least that part of the Law so it is understandable that at the inception of the Church some of the practices of Judaism would still take effect (as the gathering at the synagogues on the seventh day of the week).
…no problem… I’ve just never researched it and have been going on from what I recall from statements made by others… and yes, it is interesting how descriptive Hebrew (Aramaic) is… but what I find extremely moving is the hidden meanings that are directly aligned with Yahweh God…I don’t know how to make a link.
As an interesting side-note, the phrase “to swear an oath” is “to seven one’s self”. You can see how the Sabbath works into the covenant from the very beginning of time.
